Sickening (Kirishima Ayato)

Chapter 3: Thank You for your Kindness

            The sun only begins to rise over the city when Furukawa Shoko opens her bookstore for the day. Her routine was the same every morning, the attack three weeks ago didn't even cause a fault in it. She wouldn't allow it. Luckily, any sign of Skull didn't make its way to her attention between the attack and now. She felt safe. If anything more were to happen, only then, she swore, would she call her Uncle in Okinawa.

The new shippings of books came in on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Today was a Thursday; therefore, didn't involve any socializing between her and the delivery man. This made it so that the first person that would step into the store would be her first interaction of the day. Furukawa was friendly, but the anticipation of being social always made her heart shake, so she practiced her smile and greeting in the mirror as her morning coffee brewed. The bitterly satisfying scent filled the store as she fixed her bangs to cover her forehead properly. Once she was assured in her appearance, she did a quick round to the many shelves to insure that everything looked proper. She typically reorganized the books alphabetically when she closed the store for the night (and periodically throughout the day), so she knew that she didn't need to look too closely at every title. This was only to straighten displays and make it visually pleasing. By the time she finished, the coffee pot was filled and she poured her share into a mug before she sat herself behind the front counter.

Lost in her thoughts, her mind drifted to where it had gone for the last three weeks: Rabbit. She remembered the sight of his shoulder blades and his back was to her, fiercely warding off Skull with animalistic breathing and possessive words... It would be a lie to say that she didn't have nightmares about the night. Some of them even focused around Rabbit himself attacking her. She'd be a fool not to be a little bit afraid of him, but she'd also be ungrateful to not want to thank him for saving her. Her senses were heightened for the first two weeks following the incident, eye always wandering to distant rooftops and large crowds in the flooded streets... for both Rabbit and Skull. Neither were ever present, and she came to the conclusions that Skull had given up and Rabbit was lying about wanting to eat her. She thought that, surely, a ghoul never had the amount of self-control to hold off on a designated victim for three weeks...

The bell of the shop tinged, but it didn't seem to reach Furukawa's ears. She was always a spacey girl, thoughts and elaborate daydreams always taking priority over reality. When the customer shadowed over her coffee mug, she finally looked up. "Oh," Her eyes widened and she was momentarily bashful of her obliviousness once she noticed who was before her. The indigo hair was unmistakable and that book clutched in his right hand also being familiar. She gave the smile that she practiced and hoped that she didn't appear too frazzled by his being there. She stood in a haste and began to make her way around the counter to greet him properly. "I'm sorry for my rudeness! I usually don't get many people in here—" She tripped. Her habit of clumsiness finally showed itself to the boy that she's now had three encounters with and she cursed the unsettlement that he must be feeling but was also surprised that it took this long to reveal. When Furukawa controlled herself enough to stand and give him apologetic eyes, she saw that he was staring at her with the same look that he'd given her when she lent him the book. He looked as her as if she was something unearthly and odd.

Choosing to push her mortification to the back of her mind, she leaned her hip against the counter and sighed. It was strange to get anyone in here before 9:00am and it just barely turned 7:00am. This visit was not in her normal routine. "I don't get many people in here in the morning. Would... you like a cup of coffee?"

While he was tempted by that smell, he went against his wants. "No..." Ayato couldn't believe her friendliness. He wondered if she remembered him exactly, but he guessed that she interacted with too many people a day to recall his face and purpose exactly. "It's the only time I could come." He confessed the truth, though covered it up with a lie. "I have school." Under no circumstances was he going to reveal that Eto and the other Aogiri executives would grow suspicious if he would good midday. Ayato usually wandered during the night and into the early morning and slept during the day unless assigned otherwise... and he was not assigned otherwise today.