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Moon Posh
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>First things first look at Emiko and try to see how okay she is. Maybe go for a totally platonic hand squeeze, you know, as a friend.
Oh, she's super not okay, like, sometimes Emiko isn't the easiest to read, but on the Emiko Apparent Okayness Scale this is pretty fuckin' low. How often have you even seen her look this upset? A handful?
... How many of those times had something to do with Takahashi?
>You care more about Emiko, so you pay too much attention to what you're doing, and stress about the result not being as good as what's in your head.
Yeah... that must be it. That's gotta be it. Haha, jeez, what a weirdo you are, getting freaked out over something that simple. Dumb as hell, that's you. You have enough stress in your life without worry about shit like this.
>How do we know she didn't take it?
Fuck - there's a paranoid thought outta nowhere. Or is it? Takahashi fucks with you pretty regularly, and she seems to have a weird, intrinsically damaging effect on Emiko, but... ugh, she's so straight-laced other than that. You can't rule it out, but it would be a big step up for her in terms of bullshit.
>This is probably a dream/hallucination.
That's a nice thought - kinda, in certain ways, and in others it isn't - but you're pretty fuckin' sure this is reality! Nothing is out of the ordinary other than people behaving weirdly, and that seems like a thing that happens in life.
Not to mention you banged your ass on the ground outside school and that really stung. You don't think you've ever felt pain in a dream before. And you've gotten weird about "what if my whole life is a dreaaaam" shit a few times, you know how to test whether you're dreaming, as stupid as that is. If this was a dream, words and numbers and stuff would be changing when you looked away - that's almost always how it works. But the writing on the whiteboard, the drawing that says "lying cunt" on it? Those never changed at all.
>You love Emiko more than you hate your enemy, tend to your friend.
It's... stupid to let Takahashi get to you so much. Or at least it's stupid to let that distract you from what's important. As much as it's frustrating... you can't make this all about you and your own crap. You're having a pretty fucking awful day, but what does that matter if Emiko is unhappy? You have to keep your priorities in mind.
>((A really genuinely surprising number of suggestions to work with Takahashi, or at least to be open to trying.))
>"WHY do you risk your reputation and future just to destroy what little I have left?! Seriously, I don't understand at all."
"Okay, hold the fuck up," you say, raising your hand because... hmm, why are you raising your hand? You guess just because it seems to fit the moment. "Look, I don't give a fuck what you do. Whatever Emiko wants is up to her. I'm gonna help her find the thing, and if you want to tag along for some reason and she okays it, I'm not gonna be a bitch about it. But... what is your problem with me? What did I ever, literally ever, do to you? Ever since you came to this school you've been picking on me. What is your deal?"
Phew, that was a hell of a speech. You think you handled that... relatively well? Maybe not perfectly but... you're being pretty goddamn magnanimous. Emiko is just shooting nervous glances between you and Takahashi. As for your nemesis...
Takahashi glares at you like you ate her parents in front of her or something. If looks could kill you'd be a smear on the far wall of the cafeteria.
"Because you're a freak," she says, "The sick, poisonous kind of freak who ought to be quarantined somehow. I don't care what you want and I don't care how you feel about what she wants. I refuse to cooperate with you. If you really wanted to help her you'd - you'd..."
Takahashi bites off the end of her sentence before finishing, grits her teeth, turns back to Emiko while you kind of stare at her in shock. Emiko, for her part, looks... not really nervous now, more tired, wounded, like she's been stabbed and is already halfway bled out.
"Well, there you have it," Takahashi says to Emiko. "It's her or me, so choose already. You've never had any trouble doing that before, have you?"
... This is some bullshit. This is all kinds of fucked up. She's an asshole and a bully and watching her look at Emiko is making you physically ill. Hearing her talk to Emiko is making you ill. Knowing she exists near Emiko is making you sick to your FUCKING stomach.
But what now? You meant what you said about letting Emiko decide, so... should you just... swallow your pride and shut up, let her handle this? Or is enough e-fucking-nough already?
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