Blackened moonflower and flourishing sunflower

Fifty-three. Atsushi

"Atsu, where is my sketch book!?" Kyouka began to cry at seven in the morning, I had been up all night doing a mission the prior night so being screamed at this early in the morning was not appreciated.

"On the kitchen counter!" I shouted back rolling over on the bed and trying to bury my head under the covers once more.

"Oh! I found it! Thank you!" I could hear her running around the house still gathering all her stuff. To say she was in her final year at senior high she really was disorganised.

Knowing I wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon I dragged myself out from beneath the covers of my bed and made my way into the living room seeing a frazzled Kyouka run from her bedroom back to the living room with books in hand. She hadn't even sorted her uniform properly yet. Her tie was loosely hanging on for it's life, her cardigan undone and loosely on her shoulders, shirt unbuttoned partway at the top, one sock had fallen down to her ankle, her shoes were nowhere in sight and her hair hadn't even been brushed by the looks of it.

"Kyo, come here." I collapsed onto the sofa as I grabbed her hairbrush off the side. I didn't have to worry about styling her hair as she had been adamant at having it fall loose for the past few weeks. Although she usually came home with her hair put up into a messy bun with paint brushes that she'd forgotten about stuck through the bun.

As I began to brush through her hair I realised how much Kyouka had actually shot up in height in the last three years. She was taller than Chuuya now to his disappointment, although she was still slightly smaller than me. Although it wasn't by much.

"Done, but let me fix your uniform." She groaned in annoyance but let me button up her shirt and fix her tie, she always struggled to tie it anyway. Once Kyouka's uniform had been fixed I heard a phone begin to ring as she ran off into her room once more for her usual hairpins that Chuuya had given her for her seventeenth birthday.

"It's Kenji!" She hollered from her room as I heard things being thrown onto her floor in the search for the pins, I'd probably end up cleaning that later. "Can you answer it for me!" I slowly dragged my body over to the kitchen counter where Kyouka's phone lay on the side.

"Hello Kenji. Kyouka's almost ready, she's just disorganised as always." I laughed to myself as I informed the boy, I heard a laugh on the other end.

"I'm not disorganised!?" Kyouka cried from her room, there was a brief 'ah ha!' that soon followed, she must have found the pins. I'd put them in her jewellery box where I always left them for her when she left them lying about the apartment.

"Please tell her to hurry, it's half past seven is all." It's that late already? Her and Kenji were gonna end up needing a lift at this rate and I really didn't want to drive this morning.

"Kyo, it's half seven!" I hollered into her room, there was the sound of her footsteps as she slammed her door shut, she'd finally put her blazer on at this point. She'd got her shoes on and her uniform finally looked proper, she snatched up her keys from the side and threw them into her school bag along with her lunch from the fridge. I'm glad she'd remembered to make it last night while I'd been at work.

"I'll be down in a second Ken!" She hollered as I still held the phone to my ear, he must have heard her as he ended the phone call not much later. Kyouka then snatched the phone from my hands and hid it away in her pockets. We always had to be careful with Kyouka and her phone, although I'd taken precautions with her special ability.

"Are you sure you have everything?" I questioned as she began to throw her bag over her shoulder after she'd thrown a scarf around her messily.

"Sketch book, study books, lunch, pencils, keys. That's everything right?" I do worry she won't be able to cope on her own when she moves out, she always has to check things with me.

"Yes, that's everything." I'd turned to go and make myself a cup of coffee at this point when I was tackled by a hug from Kyouka. I gave her a hug in return until she began to walk away. Although she wasn't heading towards the door, she was heading towards the window.

"Kyo, the door is the other way." She smiled in reassurance and nodded.

"I know, but the stairs take too long." With that she pushed the window open and before I could stop her she jumped out the window.

"Kyouka!?" I screamed in concern and raced over to the window to see Kenji easily catching her at the bottom, Demon Snow wasn't far behind. She must have lowered her down so far before dropping and allowing Kenji to catch her.

"This isn't the reason I've trained you to use your ability!?" I hollered out the window, Kyouka gave me that sweet smile she always gave as Kenji lowered her to the ground with ease. She waved me goodbye just before Kenji began to drag her away otherwise they'd be late for their train.

I now had an empty apartment to myself, I was tempted to just go back to bed but I then recalled I had a meeting later today. If I skipped it, Chuuya would never let me forget it. So after fixing myself some breakfast alongside some strong coffee I made my way to the headquarters.