She Who Wears The Crown Of Hell

Yomi was her best friend. Well, maybe that was Yuu, but Mato didn't feel like splitting hairs; they could both be her best friends, really. Yomi and her hung out together, they talked about boys and girls and school and family and life and... well, basically everything. And Yomi was pretty—that was the first thing she'd noticed about her, the first time they'd met. She was beautiful, and smart, and had an interesting name, and... well, she was just kind of perfect.

Yuu was her best friend in a different sense. They'd met in kindergarten, where they'd both been placed in the same class. Mato had been the new kid, and Yuu was the first one who'd spoken to her. It didn't take much for kids to hit it off at that age, but Yuu and her had meshed in a way that was a little bit like they'd been sisters who'd never met each other before. Of course, none of that had ever happened. Yuu had been a ghost who'd snuck into her life when she started high school, and...

And none of it mattered. Yuu was Yuu.

And now Rock was doing the same thing, except with Mato still here. That felt like it was breaking all the rules, but whose rules were they supposed to be following? Where were they written? Since when had Rock and her been told, and what would it matter if she broke them? She could feel Rock's presence at her side, like a shadow, like a second heart beating inside her own chest. It was comforting, in a way. It felt like home. She'd pushed their desks together just so she'd feel Rock close to her.

It felt like safety.

***

Yomi was nice. She was friendly and funny and cute, and she was always willing to listen to Mato's problems. But she'd also spent the entire class glancing at Rock, too distracted by the fact that Rock was here to pay attention to anything else. She'd even tried to talk to them a couple of times, but Rock had looked so nervous that she'd given up and gone back to her seat. Well, Rock and Yomi both.

Mato sighed.

By the time lunch arrived they were all frazzled, tired, thirsty, and in Rock's case thoroughly confused. The teacher had called on her a couple times, and it had been blatantly obvious that Rock didn't know what she was doing—but also, once she'd started talking, that she knew every bit as much about the warring states period as Mato did. It was one of her favourite subjects. She hadn't known that it was Rock's, and Rock hadn't known that it was Rock's, and... yeah. 'Confused' was a good place to start. Also, hungry.

Mato let the susurrus of the classroom wash over her, preferring instead to focus on her 'sister'.

"Do you know how to eat these things?" she asked, leaning towards Rock's side of the desk.

Rock stared at the lunchbox. She seemed a little lost, but nodded. "Yeah. Somehow. Is that weird?"

"Not really." Mato reached across and took it out of her hand. "This stuff is easy." The latch was easily opened, and the lid lifted. Mom had made riceballs with salmon and sweet and sour pork in it. She grinned, leaving it for Rock to figure out while she opened up her own. She wasn't used to eating with anyone but Yomi, but there was something very comfortable about Rock's presence, sitting at her side.

Rock quirked a smile. "The sort of lunch you get when Mom is short on time?" she asked.

Mato shrugged, took a bite from her own, and chewed it thoughtfully. "Yeah. Making lunch for three kids instead of two. 's not a big deal."

"You think?"

Rock awkwardly played with her chopsticks, the movements halting and a bit too quick. It reminded Mato just a little too strongly of the way she'd acted that one time she tried to hold out a hand instead of immediately shooting whatever moved; unsure of how to move, if it wasn't at maximum speed. The girl she'd been reaching out to had been…

She wondered why it came to mind right now. Maybe just because that was the only time Rock had tried to reach out, on her own, and there had been something very melancholy about the scene. Even though Rock had tried, she hadn't succeeded. She hoped things would go better this time.

She picked up a rice ball, spearing it with her chopsticks, and popped it into her mouth. Rock followed suit.

"Good?"

Rock nodded.

"Yeah," she said, savouring the flavours. "Very."

It was. Hastily made or not, Mom always kept good food in the house. She wasn't rich, like Yomi and Kagari were—in Mato's opinion, that had had downsides—but Mato wouldn't have traded her for anyone. Mom always tried her hardest, and Mato only wished she'd had a little more time to spend at home. A chance to sit down and talk together, other than breakfasts.

But Yomi...

Yomi wasn't eating. Yomi was still staring at them. Rock looked from her to Mato, and her mouth opened a tiny bit before closing with the tiniest of audible pops. She reached out and took hold of another rice ball.

They ate their lunch while Yomi looked on from two rows ahead, her expression unreadable. It was strange, but not as uncomfortable and confusing as Mato would have thought it would be; Yomi didn't look scared, as such, just curious. And maybe... a little bit concerned? On Rock's behalf? She might be reading too much into Yomi's expression.

She wondered if Strength had felt like this when she first swapped places with... Yuu. Had Strength freaked at being here, too, when she saw the world outside Yuu's subconscious for the very first time? She'd gotten used to it in the end, settling into the role as Mato's friend as though they genuinely had known each other their entire lives, but what had it been like for those first couple of days?

She snuck a glance at Rock, then turned her eyes down. Rock was still chewing her food, her hands trembling a little bit. That was natural enough; it couldn't be easy to swallow what was happening to her.

Without thinking, she–

No. Mato reached out, refusing to think about what she was doing, and put a hand on her arm. She didn't expect Rock to welcome the contact. She expected resistance. Instead, Rock looked over and smiled. It was a tiny, tentative thing. Just barely perceptible. She'd been a nervous mess for most of the day, clearly overwhelmed by existence as a whole, her surroundings a complete surprise to her—but the gesture was sweet. Sweet and wonderful. Her common sense warred with her instincts, telling her that Rock was more likely to gun down the entire room than she was to hug Mato right there, right then, but Mato couldn't help but imagine the scene.

So Mato didn't take her own hand off of Rock. She just kept it where it was, watching her face closely as she continued eating. Rock's gaze drifted up, then away again, her expression inscrutable. But after a few moments, her shoulders seemed to relax. She swallowed her next bite and sat back.

Mato smiled.

"Call her over," Rock said, looking over.

Mato blinked. "What?"

"Yomi," she said, turning halfway towards Mato. "You're avoiding it, aren't you? She knows I shouldn't be here, doesn't she? Tell her, Mato."

The urge to run away was almost too much to fight. "Maybe?" She shook her head. Yomi obviously recognised Rock, but Mato had no idea what she might or might not be guessing.

"There's only one way to find out. Hey!" Rock waved to Yomi, then froze, hand half-raised, as though she'd only just realised what she was doing. She dropped her arm. The faintest trace of shock flickered across her features. She shrank in on herself.

"Er... Yomi?" Mato called tentatively. "Over here. Come talk to us?"

Well, if Yomi hadn't been freaked out before, that was surely the last nail hammered home. Yomi hesitated, but then walked towards them, and Rock squeezed Mato's hand with her own, fidgeting a little bit as she waited. She was still tense and on edge. That wasn't going to change.

When Yomi got closer she gave Mato a tight smile. A few of their classmates looked over, wondering what they were up to, but none lingered long; the rest were all still chowing on lunch, chatting with their friends. Outside, Yuu was probably recruiting freshmen to the basketball team, alongside Kohachi; inside, the whole room buzzed and hummed with noise. And Yomi, for whatever strange reason, had a look of relief about her. It was an oddly beautiful expression, Mato decided. The sort of expression you didn't see every day on her, but somehow it suited Yomi just fine.

"I haven't seen you for a week," Yomi said, as Rock finally managed to relax and stop squeezing the life out of Mato's fingers. Yomi glanced at their joined hands briefly.

"Yeah," Mato said, fighting a blush. "How have you been?"

"Busy." She paused, frowning a little bit, like it took some effort for her to remember. She glanced between them. "I wasn't expecting Rock here." There wasn't much emotion in the sentence, but Mato had no trouble spotting a great many feelings swimming behind her eyes. Fear, maybe. Shock. Surprise. Disbelief. Relief? She didn't say it. Her wording was too polite. Too proper.

It was funny how Yomi could do that. She kept touching the friendship bracelet on her left wrist, however.

"Yeah." Mato scratched the back of her neck with her free hand, and tried not to squirm at Yomi's intense, uncomfortable stare. "She showed up. She's, um... my sister, I guess. Or..."

The disbelief in Yomi's eyes grew deeper. Mato capitulated.

"...Can we go somewhere else?"

Yomi glanced at Rock, then shrugged.

"Sure."

***

They made their way towards the roof.

It was funny, how the sky felt so different when you could look down at everything from high up. Mato liked it. She'd always enjoyed climbing around things. Even if she didn't get a lot to climb, just being outside had helped her feel more at ease. This time however, feeling Yomi's gaze boring holes in her back as she made her ascent made the climb a little harder than it usually was.

The rooftop was theoretically off-limits to students. It was one of those odd traditions; the door was unlocked, and the teachers had to know it was being used for unauthorised purposes—but the only thing actually prohibited was getting caught there by any teachers. Which meant you weren't breaking a rule, since they never came up here.

"Do... you want to sit?" Mato asked.

Yomi looked a little nervous. She nodded her head.

"Okay," Mato said, sitting on the ledge surrounding the rooftop and patting it gently, trying to reassure her.

Rock, by contrast, had gone to ground and was peeking through the crack of a ventilation shaft. She was peeking at the fan blades, which, Mato noted, was pretty cute in a way. Not as cute as Yomi though, of course, because that would be weird, and that wouldn't make any sense, either. But still.

"What do these do?" Rock asked, then blinked. "They keep the school cool? Weird."

She'd never stopped hiding, Mato realised. She was just hiding by talking to Mato, now, entirely ignoring Yomi.

That hadn't been the only oddity in that conversation, but she decided against mentioning it to Rock right now.

Yomi sat down at the indicated space on the ledge, still glancing nervously between them.

"I thought we might talk," Mato said.

She glanced at Rock again. The girl was still poking around the ventilation shafts, apparently fascinated by them, and had moved far away enough that she wouldn't overhear Mato and Yomi. There seemed little risk of her wanting to try; she was acting like a child exploring a playground. Mato wondered why.

"I don't really want to," Yomi said quietly. "But you're right. I remember your 'sister'—" Here she used her hands to indicate Rock "—from my dreams, as well as our talks. I knew they weren't dreams, I guess, but..." She trailed off, staring into space.

"So," Mato prompted, her voice softer than usual. "Did we scare you?"

"She's like a kid in a teenage body, isn't she? An ignorant child playing dress-up." Yomi frowned a little bit. "Maybe that's not quite it, though." Her frown deepened, and her eyes narrowed a little. She took a hurried glance at Rock, but Rock wasn't looking; she had made her way to the edge of the roof and was looking out over it, hands pressed flat on the metal railing to either side of her, arms spread, and feet apart, legs kicking. If she wasn't careful, she'd fall off.

Rock turned around suddenly and scowled. Mato had no idea how to read it, but it only lasted for a moment. Then she went back to studying the teenagers below.

"I mean," Yomi began again. She looked down at the rooftop, then back at Mato and Rock, and sighed. "We should talk about this, yes. Because I walked into class today and saw two of you, and everyone but me seems to think that's normal. I have some trouble reconciling reality right now."

Mato shoved Yomi, trying and failing to suppress a grin. It didn't seem to go down well. Yomi's expression hardened. She wasn't laughing. Mato had to bite her lip to stop herself from giggling, just to be able to keep talking.

"I know, it's weird," Mato said quickly. "I woke up today with mom telling me that Rock was eating breakfast! And not to fight with her. That I should get along with my twin sister at least for one meal of the day." She pouted. "I don't have a twin sister. And besides, Rock and me, not fighting?" She shook her head and looked to Yomi, a little helplessly. She gestured towards Rock.

"It doesn't work," Mato finished weakly.

"Mm-hmm."

"Then we got to school, and Rock's acting completely lost. Sure, I'm glad she isn't shooting up the place, but... She knows the layout of the school, but doesn't know how to talk to people. And then she told me she doesn't have a name..." She bit her lower lip. "Rock's afraid, I think. It's not the way I'm used to seeing her."

Yomi's eyes tracked Rock as she wandered around, and her voice was a whisper, almost like she was afraid Rock would hear her.

"She's... dangerous." Yomi swallowed. "Right?" She glanced back up at Mato and smiled slightly, but there was a strange note of uncertainty in the way she did it, like her lips wanted her to be saying one thing, while her brain knew better.

Much the same way Mato had felt earlier that day. So didn't she feel that way now? Logic wanted her to agree, so why would her gut try to convince her that Rock was harmless? The way she was poking at the fan shaft now. The look in her eyes, the pure joy of learning something new and amazing. It wasn't the look of someone she should be scared of.

"Maybe. We fought a lot in the dream, but that…"

Rock was fiddling with the fan shaft.

Mato stood up as fast as humanly possible, before Rock accidentally broke a few dozen air conditioners. She couldn't see what Rock was doing until after she'd already leaped to her feet, but that somehow hadn't stopped her knowing.

Rock had frozen like a statue and was staring right at Mato with a blank expression. She might just have been startled. Then Mato grabbed Rock, dragged her away from the shafts—one second she was peering in and admiring the way the fan blades spun around in the casing; next she was yanked backward by Mato. The moment of confusion lasted all of half a second. In the end, Mato found herself on the ground, Rock sitting across her legs, arms still locked in a hug that Mato was struggling to break, both their cheeks wet.

The silence between the girls was awkward, broken by Rock mumbling into Mato's shoulder.

"Sorry," she whispered, sounding embarrassed. "Just, it looked cool. I'll let go if you tell me to."

Mato was breathing heavily, her heart racing. Was she crying? She wiped at the moisture on her face, smearing it, and glared at Rock.

"You idiot," she muttered. On the ground behind them there was the grating from the air conditioner, sliced in half right down its middle. Not a neat cut, but it looked like a knife had done it; Mato's eyes traced the outline and could imagine it happening, all too easily, because Rock was still fiddling with the knife in question.

Yomi walked up to inspect the grating.

"We'll have to hide that somehow," she said, giving them a meaningful look. "If a teacher notices it's missing—"

"It won't grow back?" Rock interrupted.

"No, Rock," Mato sighed, but then paused, thinking. "...anything you break in the real world doesn't grow back. So please, no more breaking stuff."

"Okay," Rock said seriously. "That makes sense." She looked so earnest that Mato couldn't resist the urge to giggle, and that made Yomi also crack up, laughing helplessly as she covered her mouth. It was a bit of relief.

"Why do I have a twin sister like this?" Mato muttered, burying her face against Rock's shoulder and letting the giggles overwhelm everything else. Rock shrugged a little, but held onto Mato.

***

It's hard to talk to someone when your mind is spinning, but that rarely stopped Yomi trying. They sat back on the ledge, all three of them this time, and Mato spared no effort explaining precisely how bizarre her day had been. Exhausting, truly. Yomi listened intently, asking thoughtful questions, sometimes looking at Rock to gauge how she took it.

She really cared. Yomi was important to her, in ways that Mato had yet to fully understand. It had been a year, and Mato didn't know how she'd ever lived without the other girl; she just knew there were a lot of reasons why she couldn't. Maybe that wasn't quite a friendship. Maybe what she had, with Yomi, was a little more than she had bargained for...

But that was something Mato was happy to keep ignoring for now. There would be plenty of time for self-analysis later.

"We should get going," Mato decided. "And I guess we need to fix this."

"How?" Yomi asked. She gestured down towards the vent. "I think we should just leave. Maybe tell the teachers someone vandalised it."

"Someone did!"

Rock shrank a little. Mato, who had been the one to stop her vandalism, felt an odd urge to protect her—as though she wasn't the basic cause of all of this. At least the fans had looked okay to her.

Yomi shook her head. "You'll get detention for a year if you admit to that. We'll have to make something up." She looked at Rock, catching her eye. "I assume you can't put the pieces back together, right?" Rock looked away uncomfortably. "Thought as much. We should get out of here."

Rock hesitated. Mato didn't; she started scrambling to her feet. Yomi followed suit a few moments later, then turned to Rock. "Well?" she said.

"I wanted to see what's deeper in the shaft," Rock admitted sheepishly, standing up. "This is a school. I'm supposed to learn."

Mato stared at Rock in disbelief, and her right hand twitched. That was like something her little brother might have said. Just before she thwapped him.

"...Okay!" Yomi said, a laugh in her words. "We're going. Let's get back to class."

She started towards the door. Yomi was about to pull it open when it smashed open on its own, to reveal Kohachi—the captain of the basketball club, third-grader, one of Mato's best friends—heaving for breath with hands on her knees and her hair stuck in the air like the strands were alive. Yomi froze, eyes wide.

" 'Scuse me. Mato. Glasses. Caught 'cha!" Kohachi's words were heavy, strained despite her superficial cheer, and she only glanced at Mato for a second before staring at Rock. "I saw–" Her eyes were wild. "I saw you leanin' over the fence, an'–"

Her eyes flicked from Rock, to Mato, and back again in rapid succession. Mato opened her mouth a few times, but Kohata wasn't finished. She half-sprawled onto the floor, dragging a knee to her chest as she panted, catching her wind. A strange feeling of tension, like the whole world had stopped for the briefest moment, was still hanging between them all. The sound from her breathing seemed deafening, drowning everything else out—and that's when it hit Mato that Kohachi was scared. She was hyperventilating, not just breathing.

"Who–" Kohachi's voice wavered. "...who are you? I asked Yukiko but–" she said, looking straight at Rock. Then, slowly, she raised a trembling hand to her eyes and wiped at them. "I rem'mber. I saw you kill me. Thought it was just a nightmare–" She swallowed, and her throat worked, forcing out the words. "–Mato, be careful! You don't have a sister!"

Yeah...

She knew that.

ooOOoo

Sorry for the delay; christmas planning and all that. Hopefully this chapter isn't quite as overwhelming as the last one; as usual, I'm happy to field questions if you ask them. Note that there is a six hour moratorium on votes.

The next part with present-time Mato is ready, but I intend to post it when the voting closes on this one. With a bit of luck the pipelining will speed things up.

What do you say to Kohata?

Bear in mind there's no guarantee as to her reactions. Votes are for Mato's actions, not Kohachi's.

[ ] Kohachi is one of your best friends. Not in the same league as Yomi or Yuu, but you care about her and don't want her to worry. Tell her that Rock genuinely is your sister, and the bad dream must have been a coincidence.

[ ] It's too hard to talk about, and Kohachi has never been affected by any of this. You want to keep it that way, so you'll fob her off and refuse to explain, no matter how badly that hurts her. She'll be safe, which is all you really want.

[ ] Candor has served you well before. Explain the situation to Kohata, no matter how odd it is and how uncomfortable that idea makes you feel. This is no longer the sort of thing you can keep secret without feeling like a poor friend.

[ ] Kohachi was just the captain of the basketball club, but she's always been eager to reach out to you. It's time you accept that, and make her part of the group, even if she doesn't have an otherself. You have no doubt she'll try to be helpful.

[ ] Write-in

I write this with the help of a relatively advanced AI. Normally that goes well, and it often invents phrasings I'd never have thought of myself; it's quite helpful in that regard. It's superb at inventing monsters, for that matter.

But then, sometimes it just goes completely off script. Here are two of the more amusing examples:

ooOOoo

"You idiot," she muttered quietly. On the ground behind them there was the grating from the air conditioner, neatly sliced in half. A neat cut, right down its middle. Not so neat, actually, but it looked like a knife had done it; Mato's eyes traced the outline; she could imagine it happening.

Yomi walked up to inspect it.

"We'll have to hide that somehow," she said, giving them a meaningful look. "If a teacher notices it's missing—"

"Don't worry, Yomi," Mato said cheerfully. "No teachers will notice. It's a school."

I think many of us can confirm. Meanwhile, previously:

ooOOoo

Mato scowled at the author. Why would he make such an obvious mistake? He was supposed to be writing a fantasy novel, not a horror story! Did he actually expect anyone to believe this stuff?

"Oh god..."

She blinked rapidly, then shook her head. Blaming him wouldn't change anything. She was in a desert world, and she needed to get out of here.

...after I explicitly told the AI this was a horror story, to slant the phrasings a little, it did this. Fine, fine. It's right, after all — it isn't supposed to be a horror story. Just please leave the fourth wall alone.

Kohachi is a secondary character in Black Rock Shooter. Not one of the main group, per se, but by far the one who gets the most screen time outside that group.

She's Mato's upperclassman, and the captain of Mato's basketball club; a second-year student when the anime starts. The two largely hit it off. Unlike the rest of the cast, Mato and Kohachi have similar-ish personalities—they're both unrepentant tomboys, for one.

Mato is, um... "unrepentantly eager to admire the female form" would be an appropriate description, although I've never quite decided if she's aware of that or not. It drives her actions throughout most of the first episode, as Mato's reason for approaching Yomi in the first place is best described as 'love at first sight'—and she doesn't go out of her way to befriend people otherwise. The rest of her classmates are friends, but never close.

Kohachi, however, was the one to reach out to Mato. She always believed in her, and does her best to ensure that Mato will be as good of a basketball player as she always knew she could be. They're friends; just friends, with nothing ulterior and nothing pushing them together besides their common hobby, but Mato and Kohachi's friendship is the sort that, in any other story, could have been the focus of the story. It's in no way different from, say, that of Chino and Cocoa.

Mato has trouble reaching out to others. She tries, but she's always been too... shattered... to do it well. Kohachi is the only one who got through to her despite that, entirely on her own merits.