( August 2017 )
"The person you have called cannot be—"
"I can feel it spreading. Stop playing with that goddamn phone and do something about it!"
Sometimes the woman thought something had to be terribly wrong with her; a faulty connection in her neural circuits or damage from all those times her master hit her in the head with training weapons. Because if not, why did she desire so much to release the spider from its cage and let her rip out the head of the spreading problem in her hand? Perhaps the longer she lived, the more she was becoming like the savage beast she shared a subconscious with. Was that how the shikigami completed her reincarnation cycles; by feeding on the humanity of her master?
Jorogumo was pacing inside her enclosure, stabbing all eight of her sharp legs to the folds of her brain, as the mystery object in the little wooden box itched just the right spot on the woman's cerebral cortex. But Arisu wasn't the spider. She couldn't go back to resting in her nest until another helpless animal was caught in her web. It was going to be another ghost for her if she was to give into the beast's urges. She had collected enough of them.
"Stop whining. You're a big guy." What an unpleasant view it was; four fat tumors burgeoned on mottled skin, feeding from each other through a web of pulsating blood vessels. A fifth one was heading under a damp patch of poorly bleached hair. It was spreading faster than anything she had seen before. "It's not spreading. A little reverse cursed technique, and you'll be as good as new."
The number in the parenthesis next to the contact name had already reached double digits. She pressed on it one more time knowing it was going to voicemail again. "Then fix it! Or... or... or I'll shoot you!"
Arisu looked up from the phone, then bursted out laughing; loud and degrading, shaking her entire body as she clutched her stomach and leaned against the hood of her convertible. A kind of laugh that would have made all the heads turn if there had been anyone other than birds and insects to witness their transaction. Even they were mocking his pathetic threat from somewhere far away.
"You're an amateur, aren't you? Do you even have an innate technique? A simple shikigami? Did no one teach you what would happen if you kill a sorcerer without jujutsu? It's Jujutsu 101." A shiny pistol was tucked into the waistband of his washed jeans. A kid who could see curses he had to be, recruited by the wrong people. He couldn't be a day older than twenty despite his appearance desperately trying to prove otherwise. "I can kill you before you even get a chance to reach for your gun. Or I can just wait until the curse kills you and take the box. Oh, by the way, I can't even use the reverse cursed technique for myself."
"What?"
"Do you really think I'd be here alone with you in the middle of nowhere if my life held that much value? Those are pretty rare to find."
"Then what's going to happen to me?"
"You really don't want to know. Trust me." The young man parted his lips, but Arisu raised her hand to silence him. "Lucky for you, I have a friend who can heal others, and she would gladly help a friend of mine if I asked her to. No questions asked. The problem is... Are we friends, Ando-kun?"
The skin around a larger tumor was cracking, revealing more blood vessels underneath. His face had to be itching painfully, just as the inside of her skull. Both of their bodies were waiting for the trigger to be pulled as they neared the limit of their resistance. A little white lie Arisu had told the poor young man, with all good faith and nothing else. Her friend was going to ask a lot of questions. But that wasn't what she was afraid of. Not who she was afraid of.
Arisu wanted to help him, though more for her own selfish reasons. All she did over the years was to collect bad karma. She wanted to do something good, so that she could be less ashamed of herself when she looked her friends in the eye on Monday and lied about how she spent her weekend. It was going to cost her greatly, but she desperately needed it.
You better be lying dead somewhere to be ignoring my calls, you prick.
He frantically nodded, stopping when he made himself dizzy. "I— I can be your friend."
"I'm so happy to hear that!" Arisu jumped away from the car and clapped with a pretend cheer. The poor guy was startled by her fluctuating mood. His irises were shaky, the gray band shirt he wore was soaked in sweat and stuck to his torso. "You see, Ando-kun, many friends wanted to take advantage of my kindness before. So now I can't help but be—"
"Get to the point."
She clicked her tongue. "Not the chatty type, are you? Or just impatient? But I understand. After all, you don't have too much time on your hands to waste with chitchat. I'm not an expert at this, but with the pace the curse is spreading, I'd say you have less than two hours before I'll need to exorcise you."
His left eye widened. The other one was already blocked. "Wha— What? You said it wasn't spreading!"
"Didn't I just tell you I'm not an expert? I'm more of a cleaner: the person they send after the situation is at the point of no return. Do you really want to waste your time with trivial matters?" The sweetest smile played on the corners of her lips, faking the affection of a big sister. "I'll be direct with you, Ando-kun. I'm going to get into a shit ton of trouble for helping you. I want to see what caused this mess so I can have leverage on my... ugh, I hate saying this... boss. He's a real pain in the ass."
"Fine. As long as it shuts you up," Ando groaned.
"And he says talking doesn't get the job done," she proudly muttered.
The young man knew that his own curiosity had robbed him of any cards to negotiate. He was at the mercy of the woman if he wanted to end the day in the uncomfortable bed in the cheap motel room he rented. A hand around the grip of the pistol (Arisu didn't understand how it was safe), he grabbed the box on the hood of his car and approached her with cautious steps, like a wounded, frightened antelope. If she was to make a move, he was going to run the other way.
A plain, old box he handed her; a bright colored wood she couldn't identify, shaped similar to a coffin and covered in dents and scratches of different ages. The lid was pried open with a hunting knife — the crime weapon was tossed on the trodden grass. The young smuggler too had given in to its eerie song. The same way the sorcerer was drawn to it with a blank mind. It was a familiar tune, one that Jorogumo had encountered in one of her previous life cycles. What a shame it was at that moment that memories weren't one of the things they shared.
There was more to the mystery object than triggering her fight reflex. No questions asked was the standard procedure in most of the confidential missions the woman was sent out to, whether it was something to fetch or someone to take care of. Yet, she was always given enough information on her target to satisfy her curiosity. This time she was completely blind. All she received from him was an address and an order: Do not open the box.
But what harm was there in an innocent peek if she wasn't the one to break the seal?
She carefully lifted the lid.
The box slipped out of her hands. Or was she the one to drop it as if it suddenly burst into flames? The object, either way, rolled out of its confinement and disappeared in the tall blades of grass. "Why would you..."
"What's wrong?" Arisu looked up at Ando. His hand rested on the pistol. He didn't pay attention to what I told him.
"I can't take you to my friend." Her honesty was the only thing she could offer to a dead man. "If it was something else, anything else... but I can't explain why I have this. And if this gets out, he'll kill me. I have to put myself first."
"You lied to me!" Ando choked out. The barrel was positioned between her eyes and the disfigured visage. "You said you were going to help me."
"I wanted to, but you would've done the same if the roles were reversed."
The gun was shown, the trigger was bound to be pulled. The first bullet bounced off the barrier emerged out of thin air between them, leaving not a scratch on the surface that shone like gemstones under the sun above their heads. Then another one, and another. As the woman patiently waited, they all bounced off like rubber until the empty click cut the howling wind.
"I'm truly sorry, Ando-kun," she said as she kneeled to pick up the box and its continent. "It'll be quick and painless."
Her words were both reassurance and a command. The young man screamed as the beast revealed its sharp fangs, and cried for his mother as she dug her extra set of teeth into his flesh.
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Her hand found the cold marble after a few tries. Holding onto the edge of the sink, her vision was clouded with dark flashes as she pulled her weight away from the toilet. The cold water droplets slid on her burning skin while the flush carried away the bile. There was nothing left in her stomach to let out. She had long lost count of how many hours she spent kneeling by the toilet.
Her phone was stubbornly buzzing on the side. She waited until the bathroom went silent to answer. "Rise and shine, Ari-chan! Today's the big day."
"Satoru, what time is it?" Arisu groaned. The woman in the mirror was in a pitiful state. All color but the dark circles under her violet eyes were drained from her face. She squeezed her eyes shut.
"It's almost seven in the morning. Did someone have a long night?"
"Almost seven," she repeated. "Why do you have so much energy at almost seven?"
"Because it's Okkotsu Yuta's first day!" Satoru announced, loud and proud.
It took Arisu a moment to remember who he was talking about: The sixteen-year-old boy cursed by his childhood sweetheart. Her cousin had shared the details of what was supposed to be a secret execution with her over a cup of tasteless automat coffee. She remembered thinking it was such a tragic story, but at that moment she couldn't bring herself to care. "So they decided to allow him to attend classes just like that? Don't you think it sounds a little too good to be true? They never back down from their decisions."
"They didn't have any other choice." She could hear him grinning at the other end of the line. He had reminded the higher-ups of their place as there were no men in the world to dare remind Gojo Satoru of his.
But not even the Gojo Satoru could always have his way. "You're pushing your luck. One day you'll find yourself in a situation you can't Gojo Satoru your way out, and I'll be the only one trying to save you."
"Shoko would probably also come to my help for the old times' sake. And I'm sure Nanami wouldn't need too much convincing if you're the one asking."
"It's too early for this." She took a deep breath. "For how long do you think you can hold off the execution?"
"For as long as I'm alive."
She opened her eyes. The woman in the mirror was worried, but for whom? "There's a reason they waited this long to turn to you. If Ryosuke hadn't refused to go after a child—"
"Then I would've owed Okkotsu Yuta-kun my thanks," he joked. "You're overestimating Ryo."
"You're underestimating him."
Gojo Ryosuke was supposed to be jujutsu society's secret weapon before it had to once again kneel before the Six-Eyes; their most loyal soldier, the sword to serve their corrupt justice. But the second-in-line to the Gojo Clan knew that there was no justice in taking a teenager's life nor any glory to come with it.
"I want to introduce you to Okkotsu after he settles in."
"Why?" She knew exactly why.
"We need to find a way to keep Rika under control for the worst-case scenario, but he needs a little more motivation. It'll be good for him to talk to someone who can understand what he's been going through. And you're that someone."
"Jorogumo is a shikigami, not a vengeful spirit," the woman reminded him. The confusion had cost at least one of the previous masters of the spider her life. "How do you expect me to help him? The most I can do is to give him a pep talk and share a couple of stories. But they're not really pleasant."
"I think it'd be a great start." Satoru never tiptoed around the words. "Rika-chan shares a few characteristics with our lovely Jorogumo: Aggression, overprotectiveness, and a set of shiny, scary, sharp teeth. Of course they have different autonomy levels with Rika-chan being a vengeful spirit and all, but meeting someone who can keep all these traits under control might give him the confidence he needs to try to cooperate with Rika. You don't realize how inspirational you are, Ari-chan."
Me? Inspirational? She stifled her laugh with the back of her hand. You have six eyes, yet you're as blind as a bat. "I'll try my best."
"There's one other thing." Arisu knew that tone very well; sickeningly sweet, often bringing along trouble — his go-to angelic voice before he dragged her down with him into whatever bothersome task he was caught into. It was the worst of all, the one that was approaching. "You're coming to the family dinner, right? Mom misses you."
She moved the phone away from her ear, as far as her arm could reach. "Huh? You're breaking up. Satoru? Hello?"
"Arisu, please, you can't send me there alone! You have to come with me."
"As you wish, my lord," Arisu sighed, rolling her eyes at how dramatic he was being about it. She sure wasn't being any less dramatic, but there was a big difference between them: Satoru was the golden child of the clan since his birth and she was but a retainer who long lost her usefulness. "Your humble servant will be there to keep you entertained during this bothersome duty,"
"Really?"
"No." She ended the call.
Some time later, she returned to her bedroom, her skin warm under the bathrobe but body still sore. She had stood under the water, resting her forehead against the rosemary tiles and trying to figure out what she was supposed to do, until her lungs were filled with the mix of steam and the grim aura that had closed down on her apartment when she brought the box to her home. She was feeling lightheaded.
The spider was perched on the queen-sized bed. She looked visibly frightened for the first time in the 27 years of her last rebirth cycle while watching the box resting on the vanity desk.
"What do you think? Am I finally losing it?" Jorogumo's golden eyes mirrored her fears. She never trusted him, never warmed up to him. "But why now of all times?"
─────────────
"Another slow day?" Her eyes scanned the lounge. Only three out of five other regulars of the resting spot were present, sitting on their designated leather chairs, doing their usual morning activities. One empty chair stood out to her more than the other, as well as its matching parking spot. Satoru would've mentioned it if he was really dead, right? "We're all going to be out of work soon at this rate."
"I wouldn't mind an early retirement," Nanami responded, looking up from his newspaper — economy section, she assumed.
"It must be nice not to be an adrenaline junkie." Arisu had thought about handing the Calamity back to the clan and living the rest of her life as a civilian. She could afford it; Kousuke-sama had made sure of that when he had left all of his personal fortune to her in his will. But before she could start considering any changes in her life, there was a deal she had to fulfill her part in.
She covered her mouth as she yawned. The restless night she had was finally catching up with her.
"Long night?"
Kusakabe Atsuya was sitting across from the blond man, a sandwich in one hand and coffee in the other. The logo on the paper cup was the same as the one she had dumped into recycling on her way: A white crane with a flower crown flying in the sky. There was only one coffee shop in the entire country that used that logo. Two blocks from hers and five from his — Arisu was the one to introduce the older man to the best coffee in the country after finding him an apartment when he moved from Kyoto to take on a teaching position. The cups and the orders were matching but his had to be ice cold by now.
"Why is everyone asking me that today?" She took off her rose-tinted glasses and settled in her spot beside the blond. During another slow season a couple of years back, she had walked in late to find Satoru in her original seat with the only other empty one being the one beside him. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"
"It's canceled due to the lack of students," Shoko replied in Kusakabe's place while he shrugged and took a sip from his coffee. He was an easy man to read; it was half of the reason why she had dated him. His love for cooled-down coffee was the only thing about him she could never understand.
"Again? Are you sure they didn't drop out and forget to tell you?"
"I'm not sure, but the answer can wait until I'm done with my breakfast."
"Damn, Kusakabe, you're really burning with desire to raise a strong generation of sorcerers. Isn't it tiring to be so idealistic?" Arisu deadpanned.
"Look, I love my job." She cocked a brow, Shoko looked up from her phone, and Nanami glanced at him over his newspaper. "It's better than fieldwork. But they're doing everything to make my job harder. If you think I'm exaggerating, you're all free to substitute for a class. Kanzaki, what do you say?"
She laughed. "Yeah, sure... Wait, are you serious?"
He sighed at her reaction. "Nanami? We still need a teacher for the third years next year."
Nanami closed and folded the newspaper. "Thanks for the offer, Kusakabe-san, but I don't think I'm fitting for the job."
"Are you kidding?" Arisu leaned on the armrest on his side. "You have everything it takes for the job. You're responsible, patient, caring. Enthusiasm, not so much, but they'll have spent a year with Kusakabe already. No offense."
"None taken," the older man responded.
"And you already have mentorship experience with Ino," she continued. "Satoru didn't even have that when he started. And they put him in charge of the first years."
Kusakabe was trying to recruit Nanami to not have to deal with his troublemaker duo for another year. Why was she trying to convince him?
The idea of her former classmate being a teacher sounded nice. It meant fewer missions, less danger. She never had to worry about Shoko's safety or where Kusakabe was when he came home late because she always knew he was going to return to her in one piece. But she and Nanami were barely anything more than colleagues now. It was hypocritical of her to want him to switch to a safer position after all the things she had told him on their graduation day.
"It's not that I'm worried about whether I have enough experience," Nanami clarified. "I don't agree with the way some things are done here."
Back when they were young and dumb students, when Haibara viewed everything about this new world as an adventure and Arisu didn't have enough real-life experience to realize how messed up her upbringing was, Nanami was always the voice of reason in their little group. He kept reminding them how often they were almost dropped off to their deaths by adults and were picked up as if it was a museum trip. Until one day one of them couldn't return.
Perhaps that was why he was one of the rare ones to escape, even if it was only for a couple of years. However, they were in dire need of more, stronger sorcerers, and soldiers didn't harden behind desks.
She backed away from him in shame. "Looks like you'll be stuck with them next year too, Kusakabe."
Kusakabe groaned in defeat. He was a simple man, a classic, reeked of everything cliché from the cologne he wore to the brand of the beer he drank in front of his television after work. He was one of the smartest and most talented sorcerers she had ever encountered despite lacking an innate technique. Yet he didn't have any ideals or any ambitions. The only thing he cared about was to survive. His students didn't respect him for the very same reasons Arisu admired him. Growing up in a shark tank, her entire childhood was spent among people stomping on each other for the sake of their ambitions and ideals. She was always the small fish trying to not get eaten.
"Maybe Ryo can discipline them. He's scary enough," Arisu suggested. Him entering her radius was like a wave in the dead water. Sinister, his cursed energy always felt like, but it could be the clan's prejudice against the Dark Matter engraved in her brain. "Why don't you ask him? He'll be here in three... two... one..."
The man in question walked in at the perfect time. "Good morning," he greeted them. "Don't you have a class right now, Kusakabe-san?"
"I'll never get used to this," Arisu heard Kusakabe mutter. She chuckled as he looked at the entrance over his shoulder. "It's canceled— What happened to you?"
Everyone had their bad days. Sometimes they came in sick, sometimes restless after a bad mission. She and Shoko had come in hungover more times than it would have been acceptable in a different work field after they passed the legal age of drinking.
Ryosuke always looked like he wasn't allowed to be anything less than perfect — and he wasn't; Arisu was the only one to understand that. He always looked put together: Not a single wrinkle on his shirt, not a single strand of hair in the wrong place.
The man that just walked in uncharacteristically late with a small pharmacy bag in his hand appeared a little too human to be the man she was raised in the same house. His white shirt was ironed in haste, his black hair wasn't in the usual combed-back style he wore to work. His eyes were red and watery.
She frowned. He's not coming from his house.
"I thought the dinner was next week," Shoko said. All three of them had dropped by the morgue to complain about the upcoming event on their calendars.
"It is," Ryosuke answered while disposing of his mask. The path from the trash can to the chair by the window, the furthest from the rest, passed before Arisu. Like a conditioned German Shepherd, he stopped in front of her with his reddish nose. "Say what you want to say and be done with it."
"I have a few jokes, but you're not cool enough for half of them. Besides, you look like you're already having a pretty shitty morning without me pushing your buttons. Where's the fun in that?"
Ryosuke's disinterested expression morphed into a confused one as he frowned. "What's wrong with you?"
"I had a very long day yesterday. I can tell you all about it."
"Another time."
Her eyes followed him to his seat. She watched him pull out a box from the pharmacy bag and a bottle of eye drops from the box. As he threw his head back and pushed the dark strands of hair out of his face, her doctor friend reached over the gap to grab the box he placed on the armrest with a professional curiosity. "What are you having an allergic reaction to?"
"He's allergic to cat hair," Arisu answered before her cousin, she then squinted at him. "You don't have a cat. You've been avoiding them your entire life."
"You weren't around for my entire life," he corrected. His entire life minus one and a half years, but what difference did it make? "I was visiting a friend who has a cat."
"A friend?" Shoko mused as she shot her a look. She also knew Ryosuke for long enough to notice that he had spent the night somewhere else. 'Did you think he...?' her look meant.
'Oh, please, Ryo with a woman?' Arisu rolled her eyes as a response. His excuse had to be better than that after what he made her go through. He had better spent the previous day at the jaws of death, not with some cat lady — not that she believed it was a possibility. There were too many things wrong with him: After all, he was a Gojo.
"I thought you had connections, not friends."
Ryosuke paused with the drop over his left eye. "I see you changed your mind about pushing my buttons. Took you longer than I expected."
She shrugged. "I'm just curious. You never talk about your personal life. This is a first; you mentioning a friend. What's next? A girlfriend? A secret family?"
The last question had to hit a little too close to home, the woman realized only after the words left her lips. She wasn't the most considerate person, there was no use in denying that little flaw of hers, but her intentions weren't ill. It was swept under the carpet for such a long time that she had completely forgotten about it.
Ryosuke pretended not to hear her. The others were used to him ignoring her nonsense. "I'm heading out to the vending machines. Does anyone want anything?"
Arisu silently waited for him to collect no's and thank you's. When he left, she jumped to her feet. "Actually, I need another coffee."
By the time she could catch up with him, he was already by the vending machine that sold drinks, inserting coins into the slot. Standing at 186 centimeters tall, his legs were longer than hers, though she too wasn't short herself. With how good he was at leaving people behind, a teleportation technique would have been a better fit for her beloved third cousin.
"What the fuck?" she asked, straight to the topic. "Where were you all day? Do you have any idea how many times I called you yesterday? Couldn't you be bothered to return any of them?"
"I had more important matters than you to deal with," her boss replied in a calm manner contrasting hers. "You shouldn't need me to hold your hand every time something goes wrong."
She balled up her fist. "That dumbass was cursed when I arrived at the address you sent me."
He pressed the buttons under the screen. "And what did you do?"
"He was already far gone. He tried to attack me, so I had no choice but to kill him." The fear in his eyes when he realized what was going to happen played in her mind as she explained, his trembling voice as he called for his mother echoed in her ear. "I called you, but the stupid call kept going to voicemail. He couldn't be older than twenty."
"You did what you had to do. You're a sorcerer, that's part of the job. Think of it as a mercy kill if it's going to make you feel better about it." Ryosuke kneeled to pick up his water bottle. "You've done this many times before. Not once I saw you beating yourself over it." He finally looked at her. "Is there something else you're not telling me?"
Nausea hit her like a whip, the coffee she drank on an empty stomach climbed up her stomach. "Do you really think I enjoy killing?"
He was tall, not as tall as his younger cousin, but enough to look down on her, though he could make her feel small and disposable even while sitting. Sometimes Arisu found herself searching for a glimpse of empathy or guilt in his eyes for the sins they were committing. "You don't have to enjoy it as long as you get the job done. Shouldn't you have learned it by now?"
"You're a piece of shit," she muttered under her breath.
"What about the box?" Ryosuke ignored the insult. "Where are you keeping it?"
"I handed it to the administration when I couldn't reach you." His face turned pale before her eyes. This one was personal, she realized. All of them were in a way; all for his personal gain and a little for hers in exchange for her service. That one was different. He had to be up to something big. To what was he making her an accomplice? "Relax, I'm just kidding. But don't relax too much because there wasn't anything on him. Or in his car. And I didn't have a chance to ask him about it before I had to put him out of his misery."
"I'm not in the mood for your jokes, Arisu," he warned her. "I had a very long weekend."
"Oh, I can see," she retorted. "I'm telling the truth. It wasn't there. Why would I lie to you about it? Why did you think I kept calling you?"
Words were leaving her lips faster than her brain could stop her. She was going to regret it.
"You couldn't find it so you just left and went home?" Ryosuke asked slowly, emphasizing each word as if he was trying to understand her possible thought process — they both were. Or perhaps he was trying to catch a lie. "You thought leaving it was the right move instead of looking for it? You're not an amateur, Arisu. You know better than to leave cursed objects behind in who knows where."
Arisu took a step closer and poked her finger into his chest. His muscles stiffened. "I'm not your fucking curse-sniffing dog, Ryosuke. You didn't even tell me what it was. You owe me an explanation. Why did you send me to fetch it if you don't trust me enough to tell me what you were sending me after? Actually, no, let's start from where you were when I was trying to take care of your business."
She could feel his discomfort under her touch, but the man was too proud to back away. "Do you think spilling that kid's secret execution to Satoru didn't have any consequences for me?"
"Don't expect me to believe you did it without calculating your pros and cons first." She huffed out a laugh. "You never do anything against your benefit."
"You're free to believe what you want about me. But I'm not untouchable like Satoru. Neither are you. So yes, you're my dog until I no longer need you to be. And I don't owe you anything. This isn't a partnership."
"It's a deal," she reminded him.
"One where the power dynamics were clear from the start. I was honest with you from the beginning. I told you how it was going to work, and you accepted it." He glared at the finger creasing his shirt. "Get your hand off me."
"You—" Something caught her eye mid-insult; sticking out from his collar, too long and light-colored to belong to the black-haired man. She pulled out the long, shiny strand of blonde hair. "So that's what kept you too busy to answer my calls? You decided to overcome your intimacy issues yesterday of all days? Seriously?"
"It's not—"
She put on a teasing tone. "No need to be shy, Ryo. I'm proud of you. Really. It must be a big step for you. Let's talk about this instead. So, tell me, who's the unlucky lady?"
"My personal life is none of your business."
Arisu laughed again as he looked at him like he wanted her to disappear from the face of the earth. Ryosuke with visible discomfort was a rare sight.
"We're family. Why would you hide your obviously very special friend from your family? Unless it's someone your aunt wouldn't approve of?" She gasped. "Is it? Oh, Ryo... Don't tell me... Is she a civilian? Or worse, a divorcee? Does she have kids? That'd definitely give your aunt a stroke."
"I'm not going to entertain you." He looked over her shoulder, relieved by the sight of a young man approaching them. "We'll talk about the box later. Someone is coming."
"I know. Did you forget? I can sniff it!" she yelled after him as Ryosuke walked away. Turning her head, the woman came face to face with Ino Takuma smelling his black sweatshirt with a red face.
AUTHOR'S NOTE,,
I swore to utilize Kusakabe in this book more than Gege does in the manga. (Edit after catching up with the manga: Gege finally took him out of the freezer and I'm getting worried.)
In this episode of "Emily Makes an OC", here's a cover art I made for Ryo. It looked horrible when I colored it as his hair and his CT are both supposed to be black. One time I saw a post shitting on people drawing their OCs, but what's the point of living if I don't make low quality JJk covers of my OCs?