Bite490

1.

The bite mark is an angry red on Mizuki’s skin. A faint amount of blood leaks from the punctures. The wound isn’t deep, but it’s still liable to be get infected.

“Jeez, Mizuki, what did you do? Tried to fistfight a stray dog?”

“A fox, not a dog. Not that I would expect someone who gets no bitches to know the difference.”

“Language.” He replies by reflex, though he knows she picked that up from him. His gaze is still focused on her wrist, dabbing disinfectant ton the wound. Whatever smart answer she had gets loss in a wince.

[The imprint does match that of a fox.] Aiba comments idly. [There are a few near Ikume Shrine. That must be where she got bitten.]

“You shouldn’t fight wild animals either way.” He adds, wrapping gauze around her arm. “I know you’re small, but they’re still a tad too low for you to fight effectively.”

“I can take a fox. I could even take a bear. Don’t test me. And I’m not that small! When my growth spurt hits, you’ll see!” She huffs, looking away. There’s a faint flush to her cheeks. She’s embarrassed to show weakness to him. (He hopes that one day he’ll prove himself safe enough for her to let her guard down.) “I didn’t want to hurt it. It got stuck in a fence. It bit me when I helped it.”

… Ah, Mizuki. She’s a good kid. Date wishes that fact would stop getting her hurt.

 

2.

Date is quite attached to his shitty apartment, mostly because it’s the very first thing he got to himself back when he was amnesiac and oxytocin-deficient. Getting this place had been a small step towards reclaiming his agency and sense of self. Though he’s now the bearer of Hayato’s memories and the legal guardian of a literal CEO, he’s still reluctant to part with it.

It does have some drawbacks, though. Namely: it’s stupidly hard to sneak in at night without waking Mizuki up. This has led to many unfortunate incidents as he stumbled home drunk at two in the morning with all the grace of a bull in a china shop.

The other way around is true as well; there’s no way for Mizuki to move at night without waking him. He’s gotten used to that, mind you; when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he takes a few seconds to listen for any sobs or whines in case she had a nightmare, and if that’s not the case he lets himself fall back sleep.

Tonight is one of these nights. He’s awoken by quiet feet on the floor and shuffling blankets. Eyes still closed, he strains his ears. He hears a door open. Ah, she must be going to the bathroom. Nothing to worry about.

But then, he hears a crinkle noise, like opening a bag of chips. That has him frowning. Did she start getting her period? He bought her pads back when he gave her The Talk a couple years back, but they’re in the bathroom, not the kitchen.

He decides to sit up when he starts hearing chewing noises. “Mizuki, what are you doing-”

He freezes. She freezes.

Bathed in the light of the open fridge, her mouth is covered in blood.

“Mizuki?!” He jumps out of the couch, suddenly wide awake. [Aiba, Aiba, wake up! Something’s wrong with Mizuki!] He feels the familiar ping of the AI booting up from the other side of the room. He has never been so glad that he refused the update restricting Aiba’s access to his mind.

He rushes to Mizuki’s side. The girl quickly turns the other way, though, trying to hide her face from him. He reaches out to grab her shoulder-

[Wait.] Aiba’s hamster form jumps onto the counter. [Mizuki is acting strangely. Her shoulders are tense. I advise caution, else you might upset her further.]

She is right; now that Aiba mentions it, Mizuki’s body language is odd. She’s holding something close to her chest. She keeps her face turned away from him. She’s not yelling, growling, or any of her usual responses to him. If anything, she reminds him of a kid caught doing something she shouldn’t have, now desperately afraid of incoming punishment. It’s a look he hasn’t seen in her in years, and frankly had hoped never to see again.

Date lowers his hand and calls to her instead. “Mizuki. It’s okay. I’m not mad. You’re safe.” He speaks as quietly as he can, the way one would speak to not startle a wild animal. “I just want to know what you’re doing. I’m a little worried, but that’s it. It’s okay. I’m not mad.”

Slowly, really slowly, Mizuki turns towards. Gripped tight in her hands, she’s holding…

[A slab of meat. Judging from the packaging on the floor, this is pork.]

“I’m sorry.” She mumbles, looking down. A drop of blood drips down her chin. “I just got… really hungry.”

[That is odd. The food you cook should include enough nutrients for a girl her age.]

[We don’t always eat together, though. Could she have been skipping meals outside of the house?]

[Unknown] And then, out loud: “Mizuki, you need to go purge your body. Raw meat may contain harmful bacteria such as Salmonella or Listeria. It is not safe for you to eat it.”

“Purge…?”

“She means throw up.” Date supplies helpfully. With a sigh, he grabs a frying pan. Can he call in sick tomorrow? It looks like he won’t be getting much sleep tonight. “I’ll cook you something more substantial in the meantime.”

 

3.

He’s halfway through typing in his report when Mizuki comes home from school.

“Welcome back.” He greets her as she puts her bag down. He intends to turn back to his computer immediately, but without his input, Aiba suddenly turns to thermo mode. “… Are you alright?”

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?”

Well. For a start, her body is way too warm.

[She seems short on breath. I believe she is running a fever.]

[Could her wound have gotten infected?]

[Doubtful. Injuries usually show signs of infections within two or three days. It’s more than a week already. Perhaps she caught the flu at school?]

“You’re flushed.” He says out loud. “Let me take your temperature.”

She quirks up an eyebrow. “We live on the second floor, of course I’m a little flushed. Just because you’re an old man doesn’t mean the rest of us are bothered by it.”

Date opens his mouth to tell her that he may be old but he still has enough vigor to take on some stairs, thank you very much, but he feels the familiar tinge of his eye rolling out of his socket, prompting him to quickly rise his hands to catch Aiba before she drops on the floor.

Mizuki makes a disturbed face. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing you do that. No offense, Aiba.”

“None taken.” She sits on Date’s palm, ears wiggling. “Date is right, though. Your temperature is abnormally high for such a light strain. It would be prudent of you to take it easy today.”

“I told you, it’s nothing, I’m fine. I feel great, even! I’m buzzing all over. I could fight a horse. I want to eat a horse.”

“That is not any less worrying.”

Date sighs. “I’ll cook an extra serving tonight. But,” he points his index finger towards Mizuki, “no bench pressing today, no running lap, nothing otherwise strenuous. Got it?” It’s probably nothing major, but…

It can’t help to be careful, can it?

 

4.

Normally, when Mizuki causes Date to wake up, it’s through little things; footsteps, closing doors, that kind of things. Shoko has hammered independence into her, and that is a lesson she has yet to unlearn. She probably never will, though Date will also keep trying to prove himself worthy of trust.

That is not the case tonight. He’s woken up by a loud sound, like faraway thunder.

“Mizuki?” He sits up, rubbing his eyes- ah, he’d forgotten to take off Aiba last night. Night mode flickers into his vision. Ah, it seems that the girl has simply rolled out of bed. “You good?”

Mizuki

Growls.

It’s not a sound a little girl can make. It’s not a sound a person can make. It’s too low, too deep to come from a human throat. Yet there’s no doubting it comes from the lump kneeling next to Mizuki’s bed.

“Mizuki?!” Date slides off the couch to rush to her side. She’s hunched over, trying to push herself up on her hands. She’s trembling all over. “Aiba, what’s wrong with her?”

[Unknown. Her vitals are not in danger, but her heart is beating fast. She’s showing signs of distress.]

Mizuki makes a low, drawn-out noise.

“Hang in there, Mizuki. We’re gonna call for help, and-”

Faster than Date can see, Mizuki raises her hand, and shoves it inside her mouth.

“Mizuki?!” Her teeth are firmly clamped around the fat of her thumb. His vision flickers to thermo (holy shit she is burning) then x-ray-

[She’s going to break her bones!]

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!!

He grabs her wrist with one hand and her face with the other, pulling to separate them. Mizuki’s monstrous strength is actively working against him. On the third try he manages to pry her hand away from her own jaws, at the cost of digging bloody trenches in her thumb. How did she even manage to pierce the skin?! She was biting with incisors, not canines!

“Mizuki, Mizuki, listens to me. I’m here. I’m here. Focus on my voice.”

Mizuki does not respond. She reminds him of Ryuki during an episode. But worse, because unlike Ryuki, she doesn’t just stay idle; she brings her other hand up and latches against her own throat, clawing at her skin from jaw to collarbone.

“Snap out of it!” He grabs her other wrist, wrestles to push it away from her. “Is she hallucinating?! I don’t-”

Mizuki’s body suddenly snaps forward. There is a terrible, ripping noise, followed by the strong smell of blood. Date’s gaze darts down, following the noise.

For a second, he forgets to breathe.

Her legs- her legs-

Something is protruding from her left ankle. From her toes, too. In fact, every bone of foot seems to be growing, stretching the muscles and the skin into something unnatural until they finally break under the pressure. Growing, present tense, because they’re shifting before his eyes, elongating and fattening and rearranging themselves into something alien to him.

Mizuki screams. Her arms spasm underneath Date’s fingers. One of them slips free of his grasp and she latches onto him, wrapping too short fingers around his forearm. Bones and nails alike dig into him, threatening to draw his blood.

“Da- Da- Da-” At last, Mizuki seems to register his presence. She turns to him, tears in her eyes. She tries to speak, but her mouth opens too wide. Her tongue stumbles past her lips, too long, too thin. She blinks, and through his regular eye Date can see that the light reflects in them like they would on a lake.

“I’m here. I’m here. I’m here.” He pulls her into a hug. He has no idea what is happening. He cannot help her in any way. But she’s cared, she’s terrified, and the least he can do is hold her through this. “I’m here. I’m not leaving, Mizuki.”

“Hurts,” She grumbles against his shoulder, “hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts!”

He feels her entire body ripples. Her spine swells up, threatening to burst her back open. Her skin is- shifting, changing, flowing, like a river, like a it’s become dissociated from the rest of her body.

Mizuki howls, a terrified, pained sound, and she bites him.

These are not human teeth. This is not a human maw. There are too many canines and the mouth is too long and grabs too much of his flesh. He can’t turn to look at her face though, so all he can do is grit his teeth and endure, endure, endure, endure.

Her shoulders broaden. The fabric of her pajama strains under the change. Her flesh moves to catch up with her uncovered bones like clay under an invisible hand. Warmth leaks over him until the blood vessels get properly rewired. It’s an indescribable horror that stretches on for an eternal agony, until, finally, Mizuki’s breathing calms down.

“… Mizuki?”

Slowly, the jaws peel themselves away from his shoulder. The hand lets go of his arm as well- though the word hand may be inaccurate to something that only has a residual opposing thumb.

“Can you… hear me?”

There is no response.

Softly, Date pushes the body away from him. It steps back hesitantly, staggering from the novelty of its limbs. He peers down at it.

The creature does not look like any animal he knows. She’s quadrupedal, though the structure of her legs suggest she could stand on two legs just as well. She’s surprisingly wide, more reminiscent of a bear than of a feline. The snout is long, like a dog, crowned by two triangular ears pointed in his direction. It’s not quite an animal, and it’s clearly not a human either.

But it’s Mizuki. He’s sure of it. Even if she doesn’t look like it, even if she might not fully understand him like this- this is Mizuki.

[Date. You need medical attention. Now.] Aiba jolts him out of his thoughts. [She bit you deeply. You need to clean the wound.]

“But… Mizuki…”

[Is not going anywhere. Her heartbeat has calmed down. She lashed out earlier because she was scared and in pain. Now that it is no longer the case, your situation takes priority over anything else.]

“Did you call an ambulance?”

[I was about to when she started shifting. I decided against it.]

Ah. Yes. Good call. Date drags himself up, and winces. Ah, fuck. Now that he’s not flooded with worry over Mizuki, this bitch hurts. “Any idea what happened? … Any at all?”

[…] Date limps his way to the bathroom. The creature that used to be and may still be Mizuki follows, keeping a couple feet between the two of them. [It’s a ridiculous idea. But…]

“I just saw my roommate shapeshift in front of me. I’ll take ridiculous.”

[Very well.] Aiba shifts in his socket, showing him the night sky through the window. [Tonight is a full Moon.]