Shatter Me

It’s a strange sight; the crystal shimmers, splits, and finally shatters, and at the same time Senpai shimmers, splits, and shatters in three different people, falling on the floor.

“Senpai!!” Mash rushes to their sides, kneeling.

The closest Senpai- a small red-headed girl- blinks up at her. Slowly, she raises a hand to pat her own face- and then violently turn around to look at her doppelgangers.

The second Senpai, a tall black-haired man, sits up. “Man. Fucking wild.”

The first Senpai laughs as she props herself up. “Well that’s a new one!” She gets up, extending a hand to help Second Senpai up. “So that’s what I look like in guy mode, huh?”

“And we’re pretty hot in girl mode, if I do say so myself.” Second Senpai responds. Bit of an odd thing to say- it’s not like the Shadow Border is lacking in mirror- but hey, they’re right.

The two Senpais grin at each other, then turn around to the third one. “What about you, buddy?” First Senpai extends a hand. “Get up-”

The third Senpai looks up, widen its eyes, and screams: “GET AWAY FROM ME!”

Second jerks his hand again, obviously confused. Third doesn’t seem to care. It flips on all four and crawls away from them both, baring its teeth like an animal.

“You-”

“FUCK OFF! DON’T TOUCH ME!”

“Senpai?” Mash calls for it, taking a step forward. It turns to look at her, but does not yell. If anything, it looks like it’s dying to come to her- but judging by the side glances it keeps giving First and Second, it’s-

-afraid. Deeply, profoundly afraid.

“Hey. Hey, buddy.” First speaks softly, drawing Third’s attention again. “We’re not gonna hurt you, alright? I know things are confusing and scary right now, but we won’t hurt you.”

Second nods, extending a hand down. “We won’t hurt you. Us Ritsuka Fujimarus have to stick together, right?”

“Come closer and I’ll bite. I swear I will, I swear I will!”

“There’s no need to be so hostile.” Despite Third’s bared teeth, Second still speaks quietly and calmly. That’s something Mash has always admired in Senpai. The ability to offer kindness to anyone, be they raging berserker or dying girl. “Come on. Take a deep breath. Then we can work together to fix this, right?”

“Hold on.” First interjects, frowning. “Look at it. It’s scared shitless. Wouldn’t it be better to let it tap out of this? The two of us can handle it just fine.”

Second turns toward her, quirking up an eyebrow. “It’s a part of us. It’s Ritsuka Fujimaru’s responsibility to handle singularities. We can hardly let it goof off.”

“But it wants nothing to do with any of this. It’s not right to force people to shoulder this sort of weight.” First argues back. “What’s the harm in letting it chill in a corner? We can pick it up when we fuse again.”

“Oh, sure. And who will petsit it?” Second rolls his eyes. “Once again, this isn’t someone. This is us. It’s already shameful enough that this part of us is in broad daylight. The least we can do is babysit it.”

“… I’m fucking sorry?” First clicks her tongue. “That’s not some wild beast. That’s a person. Or a piece of one, at least. We need to treat it as such.”

“If it’s a person, then it should do its job.”

“Who the fuck would ask a single person to do this kind of job?!” First throws her hands in the air. “It’s not right. It’s not fair. A world that runs on human sacrifice is not one that deserves to be saved.”

“Oh yeah? Well tough luck, bitch, because that’s the one we’re living in-”

“Enough!” Mash hurriedly steps between First and Second, planting her shield into the ground. Jeez, what’s up with them?? They were getting along so well just a moment ago! “There’s no reason to be so heated. Senpai… aren’t the two of you essentially the same person? How can a single person be at odd with themselves?”

First and Second glare at each other- but at least, they’re no longer trading insults. A few seconds later, First turns to Mash. “You’re wise. You’ve always been the wisest of us, my dear kouhai.” She flashes her a smile, setting a hand on top of Mash’s, where she’s holding her shield. First looks just like Senpai does, just as bright, just as friendly, just as full of love for Mash,

and that’s why she does not see their next action coming.

“But, between the two of us, I think this heartless idiot is not needed.”

First suddenly kicks Mash’s shield, smashing it right into Second. The angle is awkward, and Senpai has only ever been human- but the impact is still enough to take Second’s breath away.

“What are you-” Mash tries to grab First. She dodges her hand and pounces, colliding with Second’s chest. He snarls, staggers backward, and responds by kneeing First in the stomach.

“Stop! Stop, you two-”

“No, she stops!” He spits. “We don’t need all this rage, all this grief, all we need is to not break and get shit done!”

Second- no; Anger spits back, baring all her teeth. She’s human, unmistakably human, unlike servants and unlike Third, but that does not make her any less violent. “What we need is to get rid of all the monsters like you who hide behind rules to live off the suffering of others!”

Mash manages to block First’s- Responsability’s first punch, but he follows up with a kick that catches Anger right in the ribs. She falls on her knees, struggling to catch her breath. “I said, stop! ”

“She needs to stop! It’s all her fault! Her fault if we’re so incompetent, her fault if we keep getting distracted by pain, her fault if everyone keeps dying-”

His sentence ends brutally. For a second, Mash can’t believe what she’s seeing. Anger just- she just-

Anger raises the heavy rock again, high above her head. It’s covered in blood. Responsibility’s nose is has caved in. The skin has been scraped off his mouth. This could have killed him. She tried to kill him. Senpai, her kind Senpai, they who hates killing so much, they who would offer a hand to even the worst of criminals, the most insane of berserkers-

“It’s your fault if we fail! Your fault if they all die! You’re too weak, too stupid, you can’t understand others, you can’t rally them to your cause, you’re-”

There is a light, almost imperceptible sound, as Mash feels her sword gets drawn out of its scabbard- and driven straight into Anger’s guts. There is a soft, squishy noise as it pierces through the skin, muscle, intestine, all the way through the back. “Cry me a fucking river.”

There is blood on these weapons and blood on these hands and neither seem to care- about their own wounds, or the other’s. Both are ready to kill. Never has Mash known Senpai capable of such violence.

Vaguely, Mash hears Third, Senpai’s most base fears, whimper.

Oh.

For all his kindness, all her tolerance- the one person they’re incapable of offering kindness to is Ritsuka Fujimaru. The one person they want to kill with their own hands is Ritsuka Fujimaru.

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