The pink-haired, tall and intimidating girl was known by all in the school. After the girl effectively changed everything about her appearance, many had suggested something had happened. Crimes committed, gangs led, fights started: everything under the sun you would associate with a delinquent. Calliope Mori. A girl who allegedly has fought a million people, has cheated on all of her tests and has played around other people's boyfriends. And being a reaper, it's not too far off to say that she's killed someone.
In reality, that could not be any further from the truth. The so-called 'delinquent' had never fought once. The most she's done however, was defend herself during times when conflict arose and not even throw a single punch. She was a hard worker and spent much of her free time studying and so naturally got better with recall of information during her tests. She had never experienced love. At least one that had mutual romantic interests. She left any feeling she had for anyone until the feelings broke down. Lastly, Mori had never killed anyone yet. In fact, she can't until she gets out of high school to reap souls.
Yet, the idea of her is still such a bad one. Which, y'know, isn't so bad. Calliope Mori didn't need anyone and rather, it was easier. She didn't have any distractions or any drama amongst herself. She just needs herself. That's it.
However, it would've been nice to have at least one friend.
"Ugh, I really hate this. Another surprise test?! What bullsh-", quickly, the odd orange-haired girl was shut up with a clap over her lips to muffle the last part of her sentence. She glared, offended at the person across.
With a shushing noise, opposite her was a smaller, much timid girl who seemed to speak in hushed tones. "Language, Kiara. The teacher's still leaving." Kiara groaned against her palm, sticking her tongue out to retaliate. In response, the shy girl retracted her hand back away from her mouth in disgust. "Uegh... Gross."
The phoenix laughed cheekily at her, "Don't cover my mouth then, Inaaaa." Kiara held out the last note in a sing song tone. Leaning back, she held her body from the table behind which then knocked down a notepad decorated with stickers of birds, eggs and cats. The girl scrambled to catch it, only to knock the notebook further, sliding towards a tall, intimidating figure.
Calliope Mori.
With a confused glance, Mori saw the book slide towards her and flicked her eyes back up to meet with the phoenix, awkwardly posing and the eldritch priestess hiding behind Kiara. Mori sighed. She knew their expressions all too familiarly. Slowly, as if coaxing a scared puppy, Mori picked up the notepad and reached it out to Kiara. The stickers definitely amused the reaper, especially the cat stickers, but tried her best not to let it show.
As the book was offered to Kiara, both persons made no move to take it and still were as silent and as terrified as before. Mori groaned at herself; maybe Mori was wrong? "This is your's, right?" She nearly takes the notebook back to read if the owner wrote down their name only for Kiara to snatch the book hastily.
"Right! That's mine- My book, yes!" Kiara awkwardly claimed, stiffly holding the book to her chest as she avoided eye contact with the taller girl. She felt Ina hurriedly pulling on her sweater back but waved her off discreetly. "Th-thank you!"
The tall girl nodded, turning to move away only to be called back.
"W-wait!"
"Hm?"
Kiara looked wildly at Mori, not expecting how calm she actually was, "what lesson do you have next?"
She looked up then down, thinking on her schedule,"Science? No, we don't usually have sciences on a Wednesday... Uhhh, I got Music next actually." Mori blinked, then nodded to affirm that, "Yeah, I think you're in my class too."
"Ah- right! I... I didn't notice!" Kiara chuckled, scratching her neck awkwardly. As the silence thickened between them, both made no motions to leave.
Ina, however, stared at Mori long and hard. Her eyes fixated on Mori's bright hair in contrast to her dark jacket adorned with skulls. The inside of the baggy and loose jacket being a vivid magenta which really brought out the shape of her torso. This fixation on Mori's looks then broke when she realised Kiara was actually speaking.
"... Th-thank you again! Uhm, bye!"
Mori made no movement to stop or wave goodbye. She instead just left the two of them in their stunned silence.
As Kiara and Ina hurried themselves to their usual spot, Ina couldn't help but steal a glance or two at Mori's figure. Something about the sight of Mori's hair swaying in the wind. 'It looks like one of those anime scenes.' The timid girl thought. She pulled Kiara away, excitedly looking forward to their meeting.
...
"Y'know, Mori's kind of a nice gal."
"What?"
"Are you serious?!" Amelia and Gura both retorted, slamming their hands on the bench's table. Their mouth hung ajar in surprise of Kiara's statement. Amelia continued, "have you ever heard about what people say about that girl?!"
Kiara pouts, leaning back in offense. She scoffs, "you want to be a detective right? Aren't you always about evidence? Tell me one thing: when did there ever come up something that proved the rumours about Mori?" While her speech was awkward, they all understood clearly what Kiara was talking about: Mori's rumours were all a case of 'he-said/she-said' and everyone just blindly believed in it.
"She's a good girl!"
The young detective sighed, knocking her monocle against the table rhythmically. "If a lot of people are saying it with strong conviction, then there's probably something there." At this point, Gura was conflicted between the two of them. The two had very good points but it was difficult to prove anything without evidence to prove both their cases.
Quietly, the artistic girl got into the conversation. "I think Mori's a nice person," sketching lightly, she made a rough drawing of the frame of Mori's back. A nice fluid and dynamic line outlining her spine, curling into her strong shoulders. As the initial sketch was done, Ina drew long flowing lines from the head to show Mori's beautiful wind swept hair. What followed that was her jacket, just as intimidating as her stature but all the more beautiful.
Gura followed Ina's movement, recognising the long beautiful hair of Mori and finally confirming who it was as the jacket's design was added. "You saw her, Ina?" Gura daintily asked, not wanting to disturb the timid girl's concentration. She kept her eyes on Ina's movements though, hypnotised by her fluid motions.
Ina took a momentary glance from her drawing to Kiara and Amelia, both quite surprised by Ina's input. Despite Kiara being with her at the time, she was surprised that the girl was impressed enough to talk about Mori. Continuing, Ina added parts of the background, establishing where the light was pouring in from the window on her notebook. "Mori gave Kiara her notebook. Seemed like she didn't want to disturb us too much since she was patient enough to stay there until we took the book back."
Proudly, Kiara nodded and looked smugly at Amelia. She made the similar 'humuhumu' noise that Ina would so usually say to affirm her sentences.
In contrast, Amelia pouted. "One example doesn't slam a school's worth of information..."
"Give it a chance, Watson!" Gura heartily spoke, not actually sure that she herself would welcome Mori with open arms. She leaned back, playing Arknights on her phone now pretending to be part of the conversation.
Ina glanced towards Amelia with a small smile, "You took a chance on us."
"But you're human, somewhat and-and Kiara and Gura are different to Mori ..." she groaned, trying to gesture to compare them. "She's-! She's- You know?"
The three of them looked at Amelia with a smirk, wanting her to sweat a little more for this. "I don't know, Watson. What's different?"
"She's- You guys!" Amelia groaned, pulling down Gura's hood to hide her own embarrassment. She play-fought with Gura for a while until lunch resided and their last class came.
~~{A/N}~~
I'll be updating everyday until I have to write again. I've been writing up the drafts for this for a while until I realised that AO3 takes a while until you're able to actually register an account. Which, y'know, fair enough.
I am, admittedly, a big fan of Hololive. Especially HoloEN and HoloJP Gen 4. I thought if I wrote up a TakaMori story, I'd eventually get sick of it. Not that I hate the ship. What else could I really write about the ship anyway? Many people have written/drawn/depicted beautiful masterpieces about the two in a way I could not write/draw. If I wrote a TakaMori fanfiction, it'll be just the same formula as the other fanfictions/fanart. So I opted for another ship that I have just as much interest in.
Do mind that while I do ship the characters, I do not ship the people themselves. Obviously, I feel as if it is overbearing if I just went on stream and told the streamers "NOW KISS."
That's the cover. It didn't take too long since I quickly opened up my old application for this.
Thanks for reading! Kudos!
- P A S T E L