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sportsanime2016-06-09 08:58 pm
referees) wrote in sportsanime2016-06-09 08:58 pm
Entry tags:
Bonus Round 2: Images
Please read the rules carefully before posting!
This round is CLOSED as of 7PM on June 23 EDT. Late fills may be posted, but they will not receive points.
RULES
- Submit prompts in the form of a canon screencap from one of our nominated fandoms along with a ship. Screencaps can be from the anime or manga, as well as any other kind of offshoot media, e.g. official art, drama CD covers, light novel illustrations, magazine covers, photos from stage plays, and/or caps from games.
- Doujinshi, fan-made games or any other fan-created work should not be prompted, even if you receive permission. Only prompt official, canon artwork.
- Keep your prompt concise. Don't prompt a whole manga chapter, for example.
- Your prompt MUST include some kind of relationship. Platonic relationships are indicated by an "&" between the names (e.g., Abe & Tajima). Non-platonic relationships use "/" (e.g., Abe/Tajima). Please don't say "Any pairing," either!
- Upload the cap somewhere (imgur works well) and post here with the images themselves or a link to them. Including a text-only summary of the image is encouraged.
- Fill prompts by leaving a responding comment to the prompt with your newly-created work inspired by the cap.
- Fills can be directly connected to the cap, e.g. panel redraws or writing fic that fleshes out the moment that was capped or that fleshes out what happened directly before/after, but fills can also be more indirectly linked. As long as the work is somehow inspired by the cap, it counts.
- Fills that are too long to fit in a single comment should have the rest of the fill placed as replies to the original fill comment. The subjects of these extra comments should be something like "part 2 of X" or "continued."
- Remember to follow the general bonus round rules, outlined here.
FORMAT
Bonus round shenanigans all happen in the comments below. Brand-new works only, please.Required Work Minimums:
- 400 words (prose)
- 400px by 400px (art)
- 14 lines (poetry)
Format your comment in one of the following ways:
| If PROMPTING: | If FILLING: | If FILLING as a TEAM GRANDSTAND participant: |
PROMPT: TEAM [YOUR SHIP]
| FILL: TEAM [YOUR SHIP], [RATING]
| FILL: TEAM GRANDSTAND, [RATING]
|
Posts not using this format will be understood to be unofficial discussion posts, regardless of what they contain. They, like all comments in this community, are subject to the code of conduct.
SCORING
These numbers apply to your team as a whole, not each individual teammate. Make as many prompts/fills as you want!For prompts: 5 points each (maximum of 50 prompt points per team per round)
First 3 fills by any member of your team: 20 points each
Fills 4-10: 10 points each
Fills 11-20: 5 points each
Fills 21+: 2 points each
All scored content must be created new for this round.
Etc.
If you're hunting through the prompts looking for what to fill, a good trick is to view top-level comments only.Have a question? Check The FAQ first. If you still need help, feel free to contact the mods. Happy fanworking!
Prompt: Team Grandstand
Tags: Injury, possibly
FILL: TEAM CHIHAYAFURU, G
The only things Miyahara knew about the boy that lived next door was that he existed and the two of them were the same age. When she asked her parents why she never saw him in his yard or at the local playground, they shut her question down only saying that he was both a very special yet very sick boy and that was required by his doctors to stay indoors at all times. Hearing this made Miyahara feel upset. There was nothing she loved more than being outside. With her bike she was able to go the playground and then stop by the local store to grab ice pops on the hot summer days.
One night Miyahara awoke from a nightmare sweat dripping down her face. She clutched at her chest and tried to remember what had scared her so much. All she could remember was blood. Wiping the sweat off of her forehead she opened the door to here outside porch to get some fresh air and was met with a beautiful site.
Right across from her window sitting on the opposite railing was an angel.
Miyahara was a smart girl and understood that this must be her next door neighbor that she had never seen before, but it didn’t add up. Little boys didn’t have wings coming out of their backs. For a moment she just stood there in stunned silence until the other boy noticed her and gave her a soft smile.
“I’m sorry if I woke you. I try to be extra careful when I come out her at night. Looks like I messed up though since you’re outside now,” he said calmly the smile not vanishing from his face.
Miyahara’s eyes remained glued to his figure. “Wings. You have wings,” she stated still stunned.
He laughed at her comment and gently touched the wings that protruded from his back. “Yes, that’s true. I do have these wings. I know it’s not normal for other kids our age.” He gave a short bow. “I apologize for being a freak,” he added.
Miyahara snapped out of her shock and quickly shook her head. “No, not at all. I think your wings are really pretty! I’ve never seen anything like them before!” She stepped forward to rest her hands on the railing.
The smile fell from his face. “That’s odd.” He looked down at the ground and spoke his thoughts aloud. “My parents and the doctors told me that other people would hate my wings and bully me, but you don’t seem to do that at all.” The smile reappeared on his face again and he looked at to Miyahara. “My name is Sangaku and I’m going to show you something, but you need to promise not to yell. Ok?”
Miyahara nodded her head in approval. Sangaku then climbed on top of the edge of the railing and jumped off of the side. Miyahara almost shouted, but then clamped her hands over her mouth remembering what she had just promised. Not even half a second later Sangaku slowly rose up and floated next to Miyahara’s porch.
She saw something shiny falling from the sky. She reach out to catch it with her hands but then reeled back in pain. Blood slowly pooled on her finger and then she realized what it was that she had caught.
It was glass.
Glass that was falling from the sky. Glass that was coming from Sangaku’s wings. She looked up at his with a shocked expression on her face, but Sangaku only smiled as he slowly flew back to the porch on his house.
After landing he looked up at the sky with a sad smile on his face. “It’s sad. I have these wings, but I’m not allowed to go outside, and when I do fly, the wings slowly fade away.”
Miyahara opened her mouth to comment, but Sangaku continued on. “I don’t care either way though. I feel alive when I fly in secret like this. It’s worth having that thrill for as long as my wings last. Even if they get worn down to bloody stumps, I’ll continue to fly until I can’t fly anymore.”
Re: FILL: TEAM CHIHAYAFURU, G
no subject
in particular i really enjoy the quiet sort of - awareness, despite lacking the full of what the situation is, on manami's part - i love children witnessing these strange impossible things, and the want to do something and speak in those situations. and this invokes the tone of that. i really enjoy that and i just in general love anything with miyahara and manami so thank you for filling this!!!
Re: Prompt: Team Grandstand
no subject
FILL: Team Grandstand
Tags: major character death, blood, violence, horror, ghosts
Words: 6763
For the second time, there was a body laying in Miyahara’s yard.
She dropped her bag and dashed across the grass with a shout of, “Sangaku!” She knelt beside him, almost afraid to touch him.
He was covered in blood and broken glass. He groaned softly and shifted and her chest constricted too tight to breathe because he was alive. He was breathing and moving and he was hurt but he was alive.
She brushed some of the broken glass from his back with shaking hands. There was a massive shard standing straight up from his back just below his shoulder, and she grabbed it to pull it free.
There was a whine of pain from Manami and she froze. When if she pulled the glass out and he bled to death? The best thing to do would be to call for an ambulance.
“Iinchou,” Manami said, “Please don’t pull my wings.”
He got his arms under himself and pushed himself up enough that she could see his face. His forehead was lined and his eyebrows pinched together in pain, but he was smiling that same guileless smile he often had when she scolded him.
“Wings?”
“Mm-hm.”
Miyahara slowly took her hand away. Thin lines of blood crossed her palm. Now that she looked she noticed that while there were holes ripped in Manami’s shirt to accommodate the two pieces of glass jutting from his back, he wasn’t bleeding from there.
She could see how they might be shattered wings, with ragged shards of feathers still clinging to them.
“What happened to you?!” She demanded.
Logic was slowly catching up to the shock of seeing him laying there in a bloody heap. Manami gingerly pushed himself into a sitting position. Glass shards fell away from him. They sounded like out-of-tune chimes when they hit the ground, too loud and ringing to be real. None of this could be real.
Manami was already dead. She’d found him lying in the yard under her window a few days ago. They said his heart must have failed. They said he had been hours dead when she found him, nothing she could do.
He had been cremated that morning. There was nothing left of his body but ash and bone, and yet here he was sitting in front of her, seemingly unconcerned with the gravity of his situation.
“You’re dead,” she told him. He didn’t seem to know.
“Oh, yeah. Should I have said something?”
Miyahara had an urge to scold him for being so casual about something like that but he was dead and more importantly he was hurt.
“Are you alright?”
Miyahara looked up to find Manami’s mother with one hand on the gate, her lips pinched with concern.
“Mom!” Manami tried to push himself to his feet.
Miyahara almost said something obvious like, ‘I found your son again.’ At least he was in better condition this time. She halfway wanted to cry.
“You’re bleeding. Do you need help?” When Miyahara still couldn’t say anything, Manami’s mother pushed the gate open and crossed the yard. She walked right by Manami and knelt to take Miyahara’s hand, the one that she had cut by grabbing Manami’s wing.
“Mom?”
Miyahara almost wished she hadn’t met Manami’s eyes. He looked so confused and hurt as his mother helped her up, saying something about how it would be difficult to tend to the cuts by herself.
There was no way she could have ignored her son, who had been dead but was now standing right in front of her. Miyahara must be the only one seeing him. He must be some sort of hallucination.
What horrible part of her mind would bring Manami back all broken and bloody like that? It made her feel sick to think about.
She gave Manami’s mother some excuse about cleaning up broken glass–she didn’t know how she might have hurt her hand now–and let her fuss. She thought that Manami’s mother had gotten so used to worrying about him while he was young it had become a habit. As Manami grew more healthy and independent that worry had more than once overflowed onto Miyahara.
When Manami’s mother finally left Miyahara noticed that someone had leaned her bag on the glass door between the kitchen and the yard.
Manami was waiting beside the door. He had made it to his feet, although he was still a mess.
“Can I come in?”
All Miyahara could think was that he couldn’t be real.
She let him in anyway. She found gloves so she could pick out the shards of glass feathers that he couldn’t reach. His skin healed in seconds once the glass was out. That much was a blessing.
“Are you supposed to be some kind of angel?”
“I don’t think so. Well, I didn’t try to get to heaven or anything. I had to try flying first. I wanted to come check on you, but my wings kept breaking apart as I flew until I fell.”
“Only you could get lost flying around and be late to your own afterlife!” Miyahara scolded.
Manami only laughed. It was too much like him.
“So you wanted to come back and see everyone,” Miyahara said, not looking directly at him. That was probably what he meant.
“It would be nice, but I came to see you. I had to see if you were okay.”
Miyahara felt her cheeks burn and now she really couldn’t look at Manami. She told herself this wasn’t what he would say. It was what she would have wanted him to say. That was proof this was all something she had made up out of grief and stress.
There was still a bandage wrapped around her hand as proof that there was something real here.
“Um, so can I stay for a little while? Just until I can fly again.”
Miyahara wondered if he would vanish if she said no.
She let him stay.
The first night with Manami there was surreal. He soon learned his father couldn’t see him. Of course her family couldn’t see him, either.
She wasn’t sure if her cat could see him. Tora stared at Manami for a few minutes and then pointedly ignored him, which was more or less how she had treated him while he was alive. She also had a habit of staring at nothing sometimes. Miyahara’s younger sister had claimed Tora was seeing ghosts, just to scare her. Maybe she had been right about that.
He disappeared for an hour after dinner. She thought she saw him standing by the glass door in the kitchen, but then she blinked and he was gone. It made her feel again that she must be dreaming the whole thing.
Just when she was thinking he must be gone he suddenly launched himself from the yard up to her balcony and she scolded him for abusing his poor wings and scattering broken glass everywhere. For a moment the entire thing felt too natural.
Miyahara felt that she should be doing something or directing the situation, but she had no idea what the right path was. Manami didn’t seem to have any plans beyond sitting on her floor by the balcony and bothering her while she tried to do homework.
Nothing she read seemed to fully explain Manami. She might be sick, but whatever he was he wasn’t doing anything harmful or upsetting.
She had seen a ghost once when she was about six and visiting her aunt: a recently-dead neighbor standing by the window. Miyahara had spent years convincing herself she imagined it but she still remembered the instinctive shock of fear that it might be real enough to touch her. If that was how ghosts were than Manami wasn’t one.
It wasn’t until she was getting ready for bed that it occurred to her Manami had every intention of sleeping in her room.
She tried to politely shoo him out by saying, “I’ll get you a blanket so you can sleep on the couch.” She couldn’t send Manami home when his family couldn’t even see him. If she set out the spare futon for him her parents would want to know why and then they would worry and she didn’t want that.
“That’s fine. I can’t lay down right now, anyway. I’ll stay here.”
“You can’t seep in my room.”
“Actually, I don’t think I need to sleep at all anymore.”
“Well, I need to sleep. I have school tomorrow.”
“Okay. I won’t bother you,” Manami promised.
Miyahara didn’t turn out the light. She sat on the edge of her bed, hands braced on her knees, willing Manami to realize how uncomfortable this was. She didn’t think she could sleep with him sitting there watching her all night.
“I can’t sleep with you there,” she finally said.
“Really?”
“Yes!”
“Oh. What if I sit on the balcony, then? That’ll probably be better anyway.” Manami got up as soon as he said it and moved to open the glass door, letting in cool night air.
“That’s fine. Do you want a book or something? Or a flashlight?”
“I’m okay. Sleep well, Iinchou.”
“Goodnight!” Miyahara said quickly, before he closed the door behind him.
He leaned on the railing and looked down into the yard. She watched him for a minute, half expecting him to fly away. When he didn’t move she turned off the light and climbed into bed.
There was no way he would stay there all night. Even if he was still there when she fells asleep he would probably go find where his parents had locked up his bike and go for a ride. Hopefully he wouldn’t spawn some kind of urban legend of a phantom bike that rides itself around Hakone.
That was what he had been doing the night he had died. His bike had been leaning against the fence, so she was sure he had been out riding. His parents always hated it when he slipped out and did that.
In the last few days thoughts like that would make hard to breathe. She didn’t cry this time. Maybe because Manami was so close.
That was a good thing. She could stop crying herself to sleep before it became a habit.
Part of her was convinced he would be gone in the morning. He would be nothing more than a confusing and slightly comforting dream.
In the morning there was a fractured rainbow on her floor. Manami was sitting on the balcony with the morning sun slanting through his broken wings.
When she let him back in he handed her a package wrapped in cloud printed paper.
“I wanted to grab this before my parents cleaned out my room. It’s next year’s birthday present.”
From the size and shape Miyahara guessed it was a notebook or a stationary set. Manami was surprisingly conservative, never deviating far in the type of presents he gave her. This year it had been a roll-up pencil case with a picture of nesting birds on the outside and chicks on the inside.
The strange thing was her birthday had been less than a month ago. She had always pictured him finding something at the last minute.
“Is this why you came back?”
“No. I just remembered I had it.”
“I’ll treasure it.”
“You don’t know what it is yet.”
“That’s fine.” The hard part would be bringing herself to use it instead of saving it forever, whatever it was.
Manami continued to stay by her side.
“Isn’t this awfully early to be going to school?”
“This is normal if you want to be on time.”
“Really?”
To be fair, Manami could leave later thanks to his bike, but that still would require him to actually go right to school with no detours.
Miyahara liked getting an early start anyway. She didn’t like feeling rushed.
A bird flew out of their neighbor’s rosebush to scold Manami, hopping along the fence after them until he was a safe distance away. At least, Miyahara told herself it was him, the same way she chose to think the cat that sat up and stared was looking at him as well. It would be comforting to not be the only one who saw him.
“Are you hoping someone else will see you?” She couldn’t think of another reason he would follow her to school.
“That would be nice.”
It didn’t sound like the thought had occurred to him at all.
He didn’t follow her to class, but she didn’t think he left school grounds, either. She caught sight of him a few times through the window.
Re: FILL: Team Grandstand 2 of 3
“Couldn’t you have gotten it during class?”
“Please?” he said, which wasn’t an answer.
“Can you not walk around by yourself?” The cycling club room was on the far side of the campus from their classroom. Could he not get that far away from her? Even as she asked she started towards it.
“It’s not quite like that.” Manami didn’t choose to elaborate beyond that.
The first person she met at the club room was the captain, Izumida. She had only met him at Manami’s funeral, but at least he was one of the handful of people she’d actually met.
At least his expression remained polite while she explained she was there to pick up Manami’s jersey.
Izumida started to say something about sending it to Manami’s family when a boy with silver hair exited the club room behind him.
“Gah! Manami! What the hell?!”
Miyahara started to apologize for Manami startling him before it hit her that he could see Manami. In fact, he was staring. Someone else could see him.
“This is Manami’s friend,” Izumida said, gesturing to her with a look that said he thought the other boy had suddenly lost his mind.
“Not her!”
Pointing frantically at Manami did not make him any more visible to Izumida.
“Sorry, Kuroda. Most people can’t see me right now.”
Kuroda stared at Manami, then at Izumida, then at her.
“Sorry for startling you.” Miyahara glanced down and clutched her bag. She wanted to say something to let Kuroda know he wasn’t seeing things, but she didn’t want to sound crazy either.
Izumida gave them a minute, waiting for them to explain themselves, before getting back to the original subject. “I was saying: we were holding his things for his family.”
“They already said they don’t want that stuff. Just give her whatever.” Kuroda was still staring Manami down. He must have guessed where the request had come from.
She expected Izumida to be stubborn, but he let her into the club room and showed her the slim contents of Manami’s locker, including his jersey. She put down her bag so she could pick it up with both hands, as if it was something precious. It was a piece of something precious to him. Manami had been so excited to join the cycling club he had almost forgotten to turn in his sign up form.
“Did you want it for a memento?”
“It meant a lot to him. It would be sad to have it go unclaimed.” If Manami hadn’t said anything she would have assumed his parents took it. It probably should have been cremated with him.
“I guess it’s better it goes to someone who was close to him, rather than being put away until people forget him,” Izumida said.
“Thank you. Thank you for looking after him. He said you always had such high expectations. He was happy to have you as a captain.” That was something she should have said at the funeral, but she hadn’t had the chance. It felt more natural now. Maybe because they were standing in a place where Manami had lived instead of surrounded be somber grief.
As she folded the jersey neatly, Kuroda came inside to check on them. She hoped he’d had the chance to talk to Manami.
“He said the same thing about you, that you had high expectations for him,” Izumida returned.
Miyahara looked up, startled. She had never expected Manami to go above and beyond, only to do what he could. He was smart and capable when he wanted something. It was just so rare he found motivation to do anything at all.
“That’s right. He said you were always pushing him,” Kuroda added, ignoring both Izumida and Manami making motions for him to shut up. “He was always saying, ‘Iinchou will scold me if I do this’ and then he’d do it anyway.”
For an instant Miyahara couldn’t breathe, and then laughter tumbled out for the first time since Manami had died. She could almost hear him saying that, and then he would be swept up so thoroughly no threat could stop him.
Izumida relaxed, though as she thanked them again and left, she heard him asking to his friend what was going on with him today.
Manami followed her as she left, still looking faintly sheepish.
“Don’t you want to stay for a while? He can see you too.” Kuroda was Manami’s teammate. They must be close, right?
“He’ll understand. I’m happy I got to race against him at least once.” Manami tucked his wings in as they went through the school gates, avoiding touching the other students. He followed her away from the crowd before adding, “I guess I won’t be going to the Inter High this year. It’s a waste. There are a lot of strong guys I wish I had a chance to race again.”
“Isn’t it better to wish you could do it again than that you could do it at all?” She wondered if that kind of regret was what was keeping Manami here. “If that’s what you came back to do, you could find out if they can see you too, right?”
She honestly expected that to be enough to make him run off.
“No, Chiba or Kyoto are too far from here. I came back to check on you, after all.”
He was strangely insistent on that.
“I’m fine. I’m doing better than I was,” which was more than she might have admitted in the past. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“I’m glad you think I’m being nice.”
Miyahara gave him a suspicious look. He gave her the same sweet smile he used trying to get out of trouble.
“I thought you would be tired of me by now,” he added.
It wasn’t new that he didn’t understand how she felt, but he had been dead and she had been grieving. Couldn’t he understand what it felt like to have him here? And if he didn’t understand, why was he hanging around?
“What happened to you?” she asked. It was the first thing she should have asked, but she had been afraid to hear the answer. Why had he been under her window? Had he been confused, or looking for help?
“Sorry, Iinchou, I don’t want to talk about that right now.”
“Sure.” Miyahara looked away, feeling flustered. It was probably rude to ask about someone’s death.
Manami didn’t seem to hold it against her. He walked her home without complaint.
He needed help changing into his jersey. His current shirt was ruined, marred with dark patches from the blood stains. She had to cut it off of him, then cut out part of the back of his jersey so he could put it on. He looked so pleased with himself when he finally zipped it up, she caught herself thinking again it should have gone with him in the first place.
“Is that why you came back?” It was important to him, after all.
“I already said I came back for you, Iinchou.”
Selfishly, it was nice to hear him say it. Knowing he wasn’t only in her head made it all the more precious.
He was still restless (granted, he had never been a good sport about sitting still) enough that she suspected he didn’t have a choice but to stay with her for some reason. She didn’t know why he wouldn’t say it.
He wandered off during dinner again. While she was cleaning up she saw him standing at the glass door. At least this time he decided to come back in on the ground floor instead of trying to fly on his poor abused wings.
Miyahara wiped her hands on the dish towel and went to let him in. Her steps slowed before she got to the door. There was something off about Manami. His posture was neutral, his face slack and his expression blank. She couldn’t recall ever seeing him looking like that before.
He had changed back into the neat dress shirt he had worn in his casket.
There was just enough time for unease to prick the back of her neck. Then Manami grabbed her shoulder, yanked her back from the door, and shoved her behind him all in one motion.
Miyahara shrieked and put her arms up to shield herself. Directly behind Manami was not a safe place to be.
He took two steps forward, wings flared. There was no one standing outside the door, only the shadow of his reflection on the glass.
Miyahara had time to ask, “What was that?” before her mother came into the kitchen.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?”
Miyahara had to claim she’d nicked herself with a knife and let her mother patch the gash on her hand from Manami’s wings. She endured some worrying at the fact that she seemed to be hurting her hands so much lately.
All while Manami stood alert at the glass door, which was more frightening than his expressionless doppelganger had been.
“What was that?” Miyahara asked again once they were alone in her room.“What’s happening? What are you not telling me?”
Manami took a seat in the same spot by the balcony and glanced away to look outside before answering. “You asked what happened before. I went out for a night ride, and when I got home I saw someone open the gate and go into your yard. I went to see what was happening, and I ran into that. I hoped it would go away so I wouldn’t have to explain.” He ran a hand through his hair and smiled brightly. “That was easier than I thought it would be.”
Miyahara covered her mouth in horror.
“I think it’s scared of me now, so I’ll keep it away from you.”
“It killed you?” Miyahara didn’t know why this was so much more horrifying than Manami’s health unexpectedly failing him, but something had killed him. Some thing had murdered her friend.
“Well it can’t do it twice! Wait, Iinchou, don’t. Don’t cry.”
Miyahara hid her face. Her eyes burned and she couldn’t breathe.
“I won’t let it touch you. I came back for you, remember?” Manami reassured her frantically.
“It’s not that.” She had told herself maybe he hadn’t felt anything and tried to excuse how close he had been when he died and all along he had been there because of her. “I’m so sorry.”
“I wasn’t protecting you,” Manami told her suddenly. “It just happened. I won’t let it happen to you too, that’s all.”
It was the first time she could think of that he had known what she was thinking without her struggling to explain. Miyahara wiped her eyes so she could look at him.
This time she didn’t shriek, although it was a near thing. Manami caught the look on her face and turned immediately to the balcony.
The thing that looked like Manami was back, perched on the railing.
Manami started for it and it was abruptly gone before he could open the door. It must have dropped into the yard, but she hadn’t seen it move.
“What is it?” Miyahara asked again. At least the jolt of fear had cleared her throat of tears, even if it made her legs tremble. She slowly sat down on the end of the bed.
Manami gave the yard one last look before coming back in and closing the door. “She said it’s some kind of shadow.”
“She?”
“I can’t say her name. I mean, I can’t really make that noise,” Manami said sheepishly. “She’ll probably come looking for me eventually.”
“Are you on the run from the grim reaper?”
Manami laughed and she sighed at him. She figured she was off the hook this time as far as fussing at him. Whatever rules he was breaking weren’t the rules of her world anymore. She couldn’t scold him for breaking rules to save her life, anyway.
“So what do we do? Is there a way to stop it?”
“I was kind of hoping it would go away after I scared it off a few times.”
“But you talked to someone about this, right?”
“Well, I didn’t have much time.”
“How can you run off and not even ask how to deal with something like that?”
“I wasn’t really thinking about what I would do. I just had to get here. I envy you, Iinchou. You would have known what to ask at a time like that.”
“No, I. . .” she just knew she would have had to ask something. It didn’t feel like he was teasing her, at least. That was good, since he was the only person she had to ask questions now. “Why does it look like you?”
“Well, it’s a shadow. Maybe because I’m standing between it and the light.”
“The light?”
Manami pointed at her.
“Stop that!” She threw her pillow at him, trying to distract from her blush.
Re: FILL: Team Grandstand 3 of 3
If this was supposed to trick her into doubting which was the real Manami it didn’t work for a second. Everything about the boy she knew was there in Manami’s words and actions, while the ghost still lurking outside was blank. She tried to explain this observation.
“I don’t think it’s smart enough to trick you.”
Maybe not smart enough to trick her, but apparently smart enough to sneak up on them. Miyahara didn’t see or hear anything, but it was suddenly back on the balcony, one hand on the door as if asking to be let in.
Manami shot to his feet and it retreated again. It moved like something under a strobe light, back from the door in one blink, then to the railing, then gone.
“What does it even want?” Miyahara demanded, to cover her nerves.
Manami was still staring out into the night, wings bristled as if waiting for a threat to launch himself at. His feathers were already growing back and the jagged mess looked particularly dangerous when he did that.
“Sangaku,” she pushed. “You can at least tell me what it does, right?”
When Manami looked back he was angry in a way she had never seen him before. She didn’t doubt if he was able to get his hands on the shadow he would do something violent, even though it had never occurred to her that Manami would do anything violent to anyone outside of a video game.
“Iinchou, if you’re lucky you’d just be dead,” he said, voice too flat and too hard.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Why?” Manami’s face opened up with concern, returning him to the mellow, slightly clueless boy she knew.
“I shouldn’t have asked about your death.”
“I was lucky,”Manami explained. Whatever counted for unlucky, he wasn’t telling. He only gave her a warning: “Don’t let it touch you.”
A shiver went through her. She picked her feet up and tucked them under her, even knowing it was irrational.
“Couldn’t it come through the house?” She asked, struck by a sudden, horrible, thought. “Will it hurt my family if it gets in?”
“It doesn’t look like it’s figured that out.”
“Even if you could chase it off, wouldn’t it just go after someone else?”
This didn’t seem to have occurred to Manami yet, and he didn’t have an answer for her. No matter who it went after they still didn’t have a way to stop it.
There was no way she could sleep knowing something skulking around outside (she hoped) wanted to kill her (or worse) or her family or the neighbors. When she tried to talk to Manami about anything but the shadow their conversation lagged in awkward stops and starts, both of them keeping a paranoid eye on the window. His company was a comfort.
Shortly after midnight they heard a bloodcurdling yowl from the hall. She moved before she could think, throwing open the door.
Tora had every hair on end, growling up and down a vocal register Miyahara hadn’t known she had. The thing that looked like Manami had stopped at the top of the stairs, turned towards the angry cat.
She must have blinked because it wasn’t looking at Tora, it was looking at her with that unnaturally expressionless face.
Manami’s voice was in her ear and she wanted to run and hide behind him, but she couldn’t move. She had tried not to really think about what could happen but her little sister was in the next room and there was nothing she could do if it decided to go five steps down the hall in search of a victim.
It came for her instead, moving so abruptly it was disorienting. Manami managed to jump in front of her just as abruptly, pushing her back against her desk. It touched his arm before they both jerked back from each other, Manami with a sound of pain.
Miyahara expected it would run from Manami the way it had before. She was only worried about where. Instead it seemed to consider Manami for several long seconds.
It sunk one hand into Manami’s chest, and he doubled over and struggled for breath as if he’d had the wind knocked out of him. The fight was shockingly one-sided, and Manami was not doing well. It flinched and flickered out of the way when he nearly smacked it with one wing, but he couldn’t force it away from him.
Miyahara hit a breaking point seeing Manami in pain. She grabbed her school bag from her desk and swung as hard as she could, hitting the shadow hard enough to knock it away from Manami.
It was like hitting something made of paper, so light she nearly overbalanced.
“Leave him alone! You’re not welcome here!”
Manami was on his hands and knees gasping in pain, and she crouched next to him, still holding her bag. She had never hit anyone in her life, but she was pretty sure she could do that again if she had to. She had a somewhat irrational urge to cry.
She kept an eye on the shadow, but the way it moved was too difficult to track. One moment it was what she thought was a safe distance away and then with no warning there was a hand sinking into her arm.
It was agonizingly cold. The feeling went deep into her arm, until it seemed to wrap icy fingers around the bone. When she tried to jerk away it simply moved with her.
Something sharp was digging into her side. She remembered it flinching away from Manami’s wing and had a thought that even this thing was wary of broken glass.
Later she would feel very guilty about pulling out one of Manami’s feathers. She swiped at her attacker with it without thinking. She didn’t think she even connected but the hand left her arm.
“Go away!”
She knew on some level it wasn’t listening to her. She thought it was assessing how much of a threat she was. It darted to one side, away from whatever threat Manami or his feathers posed, and reached for her again.
Miyahara wasn’t consciously aware of stabbing it. He mind skipped over that part. There was simply a jagged feather sticking out of its middle and a distant thought that she had probably put it there and a more pressing thought that she just wanted this thing away from her and Manami and her family.
Its expression never changed. It never so much as twitched to indicate that it had been stabbed. It only flickered around the edges, like a candle burned down to the last scrap, and shrunk in on itself. Miyahara watched until there was nothing left but a faint shadow on the floor, cast by nothing.
She scooted back, dragging Manami with her until there was a safe band of light on the floor, and their shadows were no longer touching it. That was all the energy she had left.
Manami was still breathing. His breath rattled strangely, but he was breathing. She hoped that was a good sign. He couldn’t die again.
It seemed like hours later that he whispered her name. He gingerly made his way upright.
“Still alive?”
“I think so. Are you okay?”
He laughed, then started to cough up smoke and couldn’t stop for a few minutes.
“Did it touch you?”
She pulled up her sleeve to show him her arm, which looked perfectly fine. It seemed like there should have a visible bruise at the very least. Pain throbbed deep inside when he touched it. That couldn’t be a good sign.
“What do we do now?”
He didn’t know. She hadn’t really expected him to, but thought she needed to ask. They sat together on the edge of her bed, deliberately avoiding the shadow and both insisting to the other they were more or less okay.
They had one more visitor before the night was over.
Miyahara flinched in fear when the dark shape landed on her balcony, but Manami was quick to reassure her. This was the person who had told him about the shadow.
She was half bird. Her wings were made up of shards glossy obsidian, and the same sharp feathers covered her body. They rang together as she moved in faint, sweet tones. Her eyes were set too far apart on her face and her lips had hardened into something like a beak.
When Miyahara politely introduced herself the bird woman returned the favor, only with a bird’s squawk as a name. Miyahara hadn’t taken Manami seriously when he said he couldn’t make that noise, but he was right.
“It touched her,” Manami was saying. “What do we do?”
She gestured for Miyahara to hold out her arm, then cocked her head to inspect the place where the shadow had touched with one eye.
“This will hurt,” she said, very slowly and deliberately.
It didn’t. She plucked one of her own feathers and dug it into Miyahara’s arm and it stung, but that was nothing compared to what she was currently feeling. The feeling of cold unwinding from around the bone and being fished out of her arm like scraps of smoke was sickening, but she felt better when it was over.
The wound was very small. Manami found her handkerchief to staunch the blood, and it closed in the time the bird woman spent massaging warmth back into her arm.
“What about Sangaku?” Miyahara wanted to know. “It hurt him a lot more than me.” And how dare he be putting on a brave face and not saying anything? He must be in agony.
“Hollow bones,” she said. “Yours are heavy.” The language difficulties went both ways. Even when she made a point to enunciate, the consonants came out garbled by her beak. Still, she took the time to pat Miyahara’s arm comfortingly and say, “That is not a bad thing.”
She yanked Manami away by his jersey and showed him how to remove what was left of the shadow. They left scars in the wood floor, but when they were done there was no shadow in the room that didn’t belong there.
There was an instant where Miyahara felt it was easier to breathe and then Manami said, “I have to go.”
He was smiling. That impish, are-you-really-mad-at-me smile that came out when she had to resort to physically cornering him about his homework. It made her wish she could summon the energy to be mad.
She instinctively grabbed his sleeve, making him pause.
“You’re safe now. I can’t do anything else, so. . .”
Miyahara nodded because she understood that was what he had come back for and she understood the bird woman had to come just to pick him up and he had to go.
And then she threw her arms around his neck, because it still hurt.
“Iinchou!” Manami yelped in surprise.
“I miss you already.” She hadn’t realized until he was about to leave that she had been taking him for granted all over again. She had thought he would be there for as long as she needed him. And he had been, but it wasn’t enough.
Manami hesitantly reached up to pat her back. “I’ll see you again in eighty years or so, okay?”
She almost snapped that she would be dead of old age by then before realizing that was what he meant.
He wouldn’t be coming back again.
She nodded against his shoulder. “You have to promise you won’t forget.”
“I promise I won’t forget.” For a moment it felt like they were eight and he was promising not to forget her birthday again, not vowing to find her in the afterlife. Then he hugged her awkwardly and added, “It’s okay if you’re late. You can make me wait a hundred years. It’s only fair.”
Miyahara nodded again and let go. Manami stepped back, eyes silently searching her face for a moment, and then stepped out onto the balcony.
The bird woman was perched on the railing, waiting for him.
“What about your wings? You said you would stay until they healed,” Miyahara suddenly remembered. They were in better shape than when she had found him crashed in the yard, but not by much. They were still jagged with broken feathers, and she was afraid the minute he tried to fly they would shatter once again.
Manami hopped up to balance on the railing as if he hadn’t heard.
“You’ll fall again.”
“That’s fine. Flying is worth falling.” When Manami smiled at her it didn’t look so much like saying goodbye as pure excitement for what lay ahead. “You’ll see.”
When they launched themselves upward Miyahara instinctively threw up one arm because of Manami’s dangerous wings. When she could look up again they were already gone.
Miyahara stared up into the sky until she stared to shiver, and then stepped back inside and closed the door behind her.
She cleaned her arms and hands, grateful to have no more than a few scratches to show for everything that had happened that night. She shook out the sheets and re-made her bed just to be safe. There didn’t seem to be anything else left to do. She didn’t expect to sleep that night, right up until exhaustion took over.
The next morning was hazy sunlight through the clouds and he was still gone.
There were still too many things she wanted to know and nowhere to go for answers. She thought of the woman who was halfway to being a bird, who might have explained some things if Miyahara had known what to ask. Maybe Manami would become more like her. Maybe his wings would harden into obsidian and become strong enough to carry him without breaking. Maybe his new name would be some bird’s cry she could never say to call him back.
He would probably be happy as a bird, maybe happier than he had been when he was alive.
Miyahara leaned into her pillow and waited for tears, and when they didn’t come she pulled herself out of bed.
She gathered the bits of glass Manami had left in the corners of her room and put them in a jar. When she tilted it they scattered the light into sharp fragments of rainbows.
It would have to be enough that he had come back at all. If nothing else she knew he was happy with his brittle, impossible wings.