Chapter Text
"Yumeno, I'd hate to interrupt you, but what are you doing?"
Kaede's curious voice rang out, startling the tiny magician. Himiko was seemingly preparing for something, having most of her "magic" tools out and placed around her carefully. She jolted up from sitting to standing real fast.
"Nyeh! Akamatsu!" The small girl quickly turned around, putting her comically big magician hat on. "You're just in time! I need a person for my magic trick!"
"Oh! No, no, no... Wait a little! What's the magic trick about?" Kaede immediately waved her hands in the air, avoiding Himiko's impatient hand (that would've grabbed her by the wrist) and taking a step back.
"Nyeeeeh... It's simple, really," Himiko shook her head gently and peeked at the pianist through the hat. "Just your average magic trick. I just need a volunteer."
"And it has to be me, huh?" Kaede smiled awkwardly and glanced around. "No one else that could suit the role?"
"I mean, who else?" Himiko shrugged. "I doubt there's other people willing enough."
"Really?" Kaede tilted her head to the side slightly. "You really went and asked some people?"
"Nyeh... no."
"Then you can't say that no one else is willing!" Kaede laughed and shook her head with a sigh.
"I still doubt people would. This is a brand new magic trick that no one has seen before!" Himiko stated with a hint of pride in her voice. "I came up with it by myself. Nyeh."
"Oh, right! You haven't told me about it yet! What's it about?" The pianist asked and took a step closer, curiously inspecting the tools scattered across the floor.
"Well, nyeh... Basically, it's about turning someone... into something tiny........... temporarily." Himiko said calmly and crossed her arms over her chest. She gestured to the tools. "I actually don't need those. I only need my magic wand. I placed them on the floor while I was rummaging through my bag, looking for it."
"I see... well, maybe I won't volunteer as part of the... experiment...—"
"—Magic trick...—"
"—right... but I can volunteer to help in cleaning up." Kaede said and kneeled in front of the tools, carefully picking them up.
Himiko sighed in defeat and didn't wait to join the pianist. The two quickly gathered the equipment into Himiko's bag and stood up.
"Nyeeehhh... who could volunteer?" Himiko muttered and looked around.
Keadr glanced around and saw various students passing by. Some she recognized as part of reserve course students and others as ultimates that walked by and decided to ask a few.
"Hey!" Keade jumped in, startling the girl before her. "Hi! Would you like to volunteer in part of this... hm... magic experiment?"
"Uhh..." The student paused and cautiously peeked at the two girls. "I mean... sure..?"
"There we go. See? There are people willing." Keade said and turned on her heel to face the girl. "What's your name again?"
"... Akane Owari."
"Nice name. Nyeh, are you ready for some magic?" Himiko took a step towards her, clutching her magic wand tightly.
"Does the trick involve food?" Akane asked as she glanced down to the wand in the magician's hands curiously.
"Nyeh? No... not really." Himiko, a little confused by the sudden query, paused in her step and looked up at the other girl with a questioning stare.
"Food?" Kaede chirped in away from a small distance, a little stumped as well.
"Oh, it's whatever. I'm just hungry," Akane shrugged and then glanced down at the tiny magician. "So what's the spell?"
"You'll see..." Himiko murmured ominously and took a calculated step away from Akane, gracefully lifting her hand and wand up. "Prepared to be amazed and fall to your knees with the sight of this magic trick I'll show!"
With such a confidently preposterous exclaim, Himiko quickly drew in an audience. Feeling a little smug, she let her eyes wander around the circle, forming her, Kaede, and her victim Akane. She took a deep breath in and focused her firm gaze on Akane, who was curiously peeking around.
"With a strong flick of my wrist and the power sealed within my weapon," She said and tapped her wand with her index finger carefully. "I shall shrink you! Nyeh, nyeh, nyeh!"
"Shrink?!" Akane's eyes widened in alert, and as a strike magic left Himiko's wand, the gymnast immediately dodged it, falling to the floor. Instead, the beam hit someone else who was behind Akane.
That being Junko Enoshima herself.
"Ow! What the fuck?!" Junko hissed as the magic hit her, striking her like a lightning bolt.
Everyone watching gasped, including Junko's twin sister, Mukuro Ikusaba, who rushed to Junko's side. Himiko's face fell alongside Kaede's. The two glanced at each other briefly and after giving each other a subtle nod, used the fact that everyone's eyes were on Junko to silently remove themselves from the situation.
As the "magic" evaporated from Junko's body, her hair was standing up in a silly way as if she was struck by actual electricity. Her face had a furious expression on it, manicured hands balled into tight fists.
"Junko! Are you okay?" Mukuro worriedly glanced over her sister's state and let out a heavy sigh as she saw that Junko didn't have any wounds or anything of the sorts. Still, she couldn't say that sigh was out of relief from the expression on the other girl's face. Junko might not have been hurt, but her ego seemed to have taken on quite a hit. The soldier quickly whipped her head around in hopes to find the girl responsible, but she had already snuck away.
Mukuro gritted her teeth in irritation.
Prior to that, she and Junko were wandering the hallway of the academy, with Junko complaining about how bored out of her mind she was. Then, after Himiko spoke loud enough for them to hear, Junko quickly got interested and dragged Mukuro with her. She seemed to have hoped to get some kind of amusement from that encounter, but it appears that it had backfired horribly.
Junko stared ahead in pure rage, avoiding the sounds of other students giggling or whispering and simply flocking her bangs back quickly before turning on her heel and walking away. Mukuro, obviously, followed after with a sense of urgency.
"I can look for the girl if you want to," The older twin suggested but got immediately turned down.
Junko entered the nearest and, fortunely, empty school bathroom and eerily calmly started to fix her appearance. Mukuro didn't speak much up, knowing better than that. Junko quietly brushed her hair the whole time and reapplied some makeup. After the eternity that the silence stretched for between them, she spoke up.
"To think that it didn't even do anything. "Shrink" my ass." Junko took a step back and admired herself in the mirror.
Mukuro hummed in agreement.
"That chick, I recognize her, ya know? Pft. A walking joke if you ask me," Junko grumbled and placed her hands on her hips, giving herself one final one-over. "M'kay. Whatever. Disappointment aside, I'm still fuckin' bored... and now I'm so fucking pissed on top of that."
Mukuro sighed. "I'm aware."
Junko tilted her head to the side, peering at her older sister behind her shoulder quietly for a moment as if pondering something before walking out of the girls' restroom without a word. She huffed in annoyance and pulled out her phone, beginning to scroll mindlessly.
Mukuro, noticing that, quickly scooped right in and began moving slightly more in front to block any possible obstacles in her sister's path. Still, the two of them kept oddly silent for a good while.
Eventually, Mukuro spoke up, her voice curious, yet careful.
"So, how's everything going with Tsumiki?" She peeked at Junko's side that seemed oddly empty right now. "You two were... quite attached to the hip for a while. What happened?"
"Oh? I dumped her." Junko said flatly, using her thumb to wipe across her phone screen.
Mukuro's eyes widened. "What? Weren't you two..? Huh?"
"Nah, it's just, like, I realized that the kind of lifestyle I have doesn't exactly work with her, ya know?" Junko rolled her eyes and shoved her phone in her pocket. "She's... fragile. Like a delicate flower... build for tenderness. I lack it."
Mukuro's eyebrows furrowed. "Since when do you care about such things?"
"I dunno. From now on. I had a change of heart, or whatever," Junko dismissively waved her manicured hand. "She doesn't understand it now, but I'm confident that she'll eventually. Its for her own good."
Mukuro went quiet for a moment before crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes at Junko. She didn't understand Junko's motives here at all, but decided to keep silent.
From the way she remembered, Junko and Mikan were constantly by each other's side especially when they started dating. The nurse was constantly on cloud nine whenever she and the fashionista would spend time together and even Junko seemed pretty entertained (as much as she could be amused without bringing despair). This had went on for a few months and, while Mukuro initially expected Junko to drop Mikan, when she saw how close the two became, overtime her skepticism faded. Yet it seemed she should've stuck with it?
Junko spoke up after a bit, snapping Mukuro out of her thoughts.
"Ugh. I think the soup I ate for breakfast had something in it... awh, fuck..."
"Huh? What makes you say that?" Mukuro's eyebrows furrowed and she quickly glanced at Junko, who seemed to only grow more agitated.
"I feel sick. Bleh." She stuck out her phone and blew a raspberry.
"Should I call over Tsumiki?" Mukuro asked without thinking much and soon had to dodge an attempt at a back-smack.
"Pft! Are you dense or what? Of course not!" Junko, without a warning, hissed and stopped in her tracks, letting out a small giggle. "Ugh... mhmh... I'll just... head back to the dorms."
"I'll go with you." Mukuro immediately stepped in but got turned down just as fast.
"No, the fuck you won't. How about you do me a favor and get me something to eat? Maybe I just need something on top? I didn't eat for a while..." Junko slightly stumbled over to the wall and leaned against it, rubbing her temples. "Aah... shit... Yeah, do that."
"Eat... while you feel sick?... Junko that's not very–!"
"You're talkin' back?"
"... fine, I'll get it."
Junko quietly watched Mukuro skeptically and worriedly leave, and once she was out of sight, she started to drag herself over towards the dorms. To say the feeling was getting worse was an understatement. She had a feeling it wasn't the soup, far from it, yet with the nausea growing stronger, a sense of dullness washed over her mind. She shook her head to herself and decided to think about it once she'll be behind closed doors.
Grabbing hastily her keys, she approached hers and Mukuro's dorm that they (unfortunately) had to share. Junko shakily pushed the key into the lock. Once the it let out a rusty click upon a weak turn of the key, Junko wordlessly stepped inside. She closed the door firmly and locked it once she was inside. The nausea mixed with the dullness in her head started to affect her surroundings in terms of her eyesight, giving a false effect of everything spinning.
Urgently, she dropped everything she carried onto the floor without a word and weakly fell on top of the bed. She let out a low "ugh" sound as her body flatly landed on the soft cushion of the bed. Junko feebly buried her face in the softness of the furniture and closed her eyes, letting herself doze off instead.
Once her eyes closed, a temporary sense of ease and peace washed over her body and mind. She didn't knew where she was or who she was at that moment, only the blissful moment of silence.
She didn't know how much time went by since she fell asleep in such a pathetic state like this. However, she faintly remembered sickly opening her eyelids and watching her older sister enter the dorm, Junko sleepily telling her to politely fuck off and go do her things without bothering her, Mukuro insisting that Junko calls her if things get worse... blah blah blah. The kind of things she'd rather wouldn't have been woken up for.
Shifting in bed, Junko grumbled, no longer being troubled by the heightening feeling of headache and nausea to her delight. Deciding to get out of bed, Junko inched towards the edge of the bed and pushed herself off it.
Just to find herself falling in the air for a moment. Her icy blue eyes shot open before she... gently thumped against the ground. Her eyes wide, Junko slowly moved her irises from one side to the other, frozen with shock. The fashionista stayed on the ground for God knows how long till she carefully sat up.
Only now she catched on that everything in her dorm seemed a little... bigger than she recalled. Cautiously, Junko stood up and took a few glances at herself.
She... looked like a plushie.
Junko stared at her soft and fluffy body for a good minute before bursting into a fit of yells and shouts.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
She jumped in place and stumbled around before falling on her butt, yet thanks to her intense emotions, she jolted right back up to her feet as if whipped.
"WHAT?! UGH?! HUH?! WHAT?!"
She reached up and touched her face.
"Oh my god."
Her face felt... like it was made out of material instead of skin. This...
Junko slowly walked up to the mirror in their room, that was leaning against the wall of the dorm walls and took a good look at herself.
She really had turned into a plushie. This... this was a whole new level of despair that she hadn't ever experienced before. It was... so confusing, yet... thrilling in a way. She stuck out her soft hand, and placed it against the mirror's reflective surface, watching herself slowly spread her soft fingers apart.
A crazed grin spread out on her face and she wordlessly placed another palm of hers against the reflective surface, watching how it slid across the superficies with unusual ease. She glanced up and stared at her own face. God, this felt wrong on so many levels.
She loved it.
She inched her face closer towards the mirror and slowly blinked one eye and then the other. It felt weird, but with the sight provided that feeling only heightened. When she closed her eyes, they essentially did shut, but from the other person's perspective, it was more so that the fabric changed when she blinked.
"Holy shit..." She whispered and touched her eye after closing it again carefully.
After carefully and throughly analyzing herself, she came to one more extremely despairing realization. One so much more horrifying than the rest. One that made the fluffy hairs on her neck stand up straight and her pupils shrink in pure shock once she noticed it.
"I'm flat!?"
Ouch. Her body was straight, sewn like most dolls, thus her curves were nowhere to be seen. She stared ahead in disbelief and, honestly, clear disappointment.
Rising her hands up, she felt herself just in case her eyes were playing tricks on her, but they weren't. She gritted her teeth. This was... pretty inconvenient. Thinking like this quietly to herself, she turned away from the mirror and began to paddle across the floor with her little fluffy feet.
While the despair within her grew, she couldn't ignore a very obvious question looming over her that she would have to face at some point.
"So, what now?"
She voiced it out loud. Sure, she got turned into a plushie. Hurray! This sucks! What now?
Her immediate thought was just to roll up in a ball somewhere under her bed and just rot in place and let the despair swallow her whole. But that would be both too long and not worth it, requiring too much patience from her and also completely boring. Nah, something else like letting Mukuro find her. While the idea of Mukuro's face twisting in horror and despair was tempting, one more person came to mind...
"No. I dumped her."
Junko shook her head vigorously at the mere thought.
"Not Tsumiki. No."
But... she'd be lying if she said she didn't miss her... her little squeaks... her big mauve eyes... her slim and surprisingly firm hands... that sexy body...
"No." Junko shook her head again. "I'm not doing it."
Still, something had to be made out of this. If she was stuck as a plushie... she might as well have fun with it...
Junko's face slowly grew smug.
Oh, yeah. She had a plan alright. She won't show herself to Mukuro at all, no. In fact... she'll act like she went missing. Uh huh, exactly that. Better, she'll make Mukuro ask for help from Kyoko. Why not bring more people into this mess? Chaos (and the despair that it births in the process) is most tasty with more things added to it, no?
With such thoughts twirling in her twisted mind, she grinned to herself and ran up to her bag that she threw in the middle of the floor before the transformation and rummaged through it till she found a pen and a notebook. Hastily, she ripped a piece of paper off one of the notebook pages and grasped the pen. It was pretty hard to write considering that its weight seemed to be biggest than before and the torn piece of paper kept swiping across the floor with the tip of the pen. Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Junko quickly stuck out her foot and placed it on the paper, keeping it in place while she carefully wrote with both hands:
"Pls find me... if you can, turn towards others to help me (Kyoko Kirigiri if you're that dumb)...
P.S. that food you brought me sucks."
Did she even glance at the food Mukuro brought her? Obviously no. She knew it sucked without looking at it.
Suddenly, the doorknob to the dorm quivered as a hand from the outside grasped it, making Junko jolt in place. She quickly grabbed the pen in her hands and ran under the bed, throwing the pen under the table next to the bed. Once the door creaked open, Junko found the nearest corner under the bed and snuck completely out of sight, making sure that even if Mukuro glanced under the bed, she wouldn't see her.
Mukuro, at the other hand, came back after her lessons and sports club, sweaty and tired just to find the bed completely empty.
"Junko? Are you feeling better?" Mukuro called out carefully and closed the door, walking over to the bathroom. She peeked her head in quickly and stuck it out with a confused expression.
"Junko?" Mukuro worriedly marched towards the kitchen only to find the same results. "Did she leave?"
Her words stuck in her throat as she noticed the bag carelessly thrown on the ground and the piece of paper next to it. She crouched down and picked up the torn piece of paper and inspected it. Once she saw the text, she quickly stood up.
"Junko, what is it now?" A hint of annoyance flashed in Mukuro's voice as she walked around the apartment more carefully as if Junko would suddenly jump out and scare the absolute shit out of her. "Junkoo?"
Silence.
Mukuro's eyebrows furrowed in displeasure.
"Junko."
She started to walk around the dorm quietly, her feet making no sound as she inspected the tiny area.
Mukuro suddenly approached and opened the bathroom, stepping inside. The sound of shuffling followed.
Junko listened closely without a single word.
"Junko?"
Mukuro called out suspiciously and placed her feet outside the previous room, throwing a skeptical look across the room.
With utter caution she darted across the room, from one spot to the other... just to stop.
"Ah, I see. Thats what you're doing... psh... You though I was dumb... Ah," Mukuro wiggled her finger in the air before going deadpan again and heading towards the door.
"You are dumb."
Junko silently whispered to herself.
Mukuro poked her head out of the dorm and after being greeted with a hallway empty this much that it just lacked a cricket awkwardly chirping in the background.
Mukuro narrowed her eyes and took a slow step out of the dorm, her light eyes ran across the area.
Nothing.
Junko snickered under the bed. Did she see what was going on? No, but her analyzing brain knew exactly what her sister was up to currently. Plus, she was provided with constant audio that confirmed her hypothesis.
Mukuro marched a few stairs up then ran down, hopped a few stairs lower than her dorm before running back to the open dorm.
"Junko, you jackass."
"Is that how you talk about me?" Junko whispered in a very displeased manner.
Mukuro began storming around the dorm, looking in every spot Junko could be in. And even couldn't. Physically. Unless that is, she decided to break the laws of physics.
Mukuro opened the window and stared up, down, left and right.
Junko rolled her eyes.
"Seriously where..."
Her sister glanced down at the note on the floor again and read it properly, this time.
Finally.
After a gazillion of years, she finally took a genuine interest to what laid on the floor.
"There's no way..." Mukuro leaned down and picked up the piece of paper.
Once Mukuro duck into an other room, Junko poked her head out and glanced around. Should she just duck? No... the door was firmly shut.
Mukuro ran back and Junko urgently hid back into her little spot. The soldier fell to her knees and glanced under the bed quietly, with a fast pace before jumping to her feet and heading out of the dorm immediately. She soon ran back, took her phone and while grumbling, began to dial up her contacts.
"She must be playing a prank... Junko, I swear to fucking God... Oh, c'mon." She watched with irritation all over her face as her call went to voicemail.
Meanwhile, Junko had to raise a fluffy hand to her mouth to keep herself from laughing.
"C'mon!" Mukuro wrote a message to, presumably, one of Junko's friends before a look of realization hit her. "Oh, you got to be kidding me..." She murmured as she instead dialed Junko's number and gently hit herself in the forehead.
Just to hear Junko's phone begin to ring on the bed. Mukuro went quiet and walked up to the bed, carefully picking it up. "If she left her phone... then..."
Junko listened curiously and even tilted her head.
"..." Mukuro went quiet and without a word ran out of the dorm, leaving the door ajar.
That was her chance. Junko wordlessly poked her head out from under the bed and then made a run for it. With her feet being made out of soft materials they made pretty much no sound as she rushed out of the door into the hallway.
It was night time. The window next to their dorm in the hallway gave away this much. Mukuro was nowhere to be seen, yet Junko knew that she was close. Taking that in mind, she immediately ran towards the stairs, just to realize one problem.
They were much taller than before. How tiny was she? She never really given it that much thought until now, staring at the large and wide set of stairs leading upward. Carefully, she placed both of her hands on top of one of the stairs and tried to push herself up. Thankfully, her body was so light that she did it with great ease. Aware that the problem of her height wasn't that intense as she initially had assumed, she wasted no time in moving up the stairs.
It took a while but with her strong determination she had moved up the stairs in around five minutes. Before that would've taken her ten seconds.
"Shit..." Junko looked down at her soft and fluffy body and realized that thanks to pushing and dragging her body against the ground, she had some dirt on herself. "Awh, for fuck sakes..."
Using her little hands she quickly began to dust herself off. Unfortunately, since her hands were made from similar fabric, instead of cleaning herself, she ended up smearing the filth over her hands, too.
"..." She quietly and angrily stared at the rubbish now all around her and stomped her foot out of frustration. "Dam' it!"
"... Junko?"
Junko froze as she heard someone call out to her and spun her head around. Someone, had just quietly opened their door and seemed to be in the process of getting out. She wasn't spotted.. yet. Thus, Junko wasted no time in ducking between the nearest object possible within her reach... which was a simple plant vase. Once she hid, she came to a quick realization that her hiding spot wasn't the best.
What else was to do here, though? She couldn't exactly show herself like this... to anyone, really. Nor did she want to. She liked being in this despairing state and she wanted to cause chaos. Hence, she choose the next best opinion... pretend to be an average plushie. If she had nowhere to go, she could give this chance a go. If they decide to pick her up, she'll just find a way to escape without alerting them. Maybe mess up their apartment a bit...
Footsteps started approaching the vase. They were slow, careful and quiet. Once they reached the stairs they came to a halt.
"... Junko?" A weak and pathetic voice called out, carrying a hint of fragile hope.
It was a familiar kind of hope. Only one person always had this false sense of hope always carried with them, hoping while also simultaneously expecting despair in return. Junko's eyes slowly narrowed.
Of course. How she forget? Mikan always lived nearby the stairs.
"..." A sniffle echoed in the air from the nurse as she slowly sat down on the edge of the stairs. Her mauve eyes were red and puffy, clearly a result from crying not so long ago. She leaned her head against her knuckles and stared ahead, down the stairs where she knew was Junko's dorm.
"Is-s she playing... a... a c-cruel prank on... me..?" Mikan whispered and let her hands loosely droop by her sides while her head lowered quietly. "She left me and n-now she's messing with m-my head..."
Junko watched Mikan with a sense of urgency. She needed to get out. Mikan was clearly not in a good state and seeing Junko, especially like this (even if she wouldn't be aware of the fact that it is, in fact, her ex girlfriend), would only make things worse. So, while Mikan quietly whimpered to herself, Junko began to slowly slide her way out of the back of the vase. She began to quietly make her way towards the other set of stairs. It was late and the chances of Junko encountering somebody else was low, thus she decided it would be best if she made her way up another set of stairs...
Mikan stood up.
Junko immediately fell flat face in place, laying limp like a plushie. Where was she? Well, unluckily, right in front Mikan's dorm door! Not to mention, the floor reeked of smelly dirt, now that her face was forcefully against it.
"H-huh!?" Mikan, on the other hand, froze as she noticed a fluffy doll laying on the floor.
Junko definitely must be playing a cruel prank on her... but damn was she moving fast...
Mikan matched up to the doll and picked it up, only to squeak after seeing how eerily well it represented Junko. Mikan blinked and inspected the plushie's face, noticing the hints of smudged grime over it. She extended a hand and placed it against the plushie's hand, cautiously brushing off tiny pieces of dirt with ease. After looking around closely and fully making sure that no one was watching, Mikan dashed back into her dorm and closed the door firmly. Once inside, she gripped the plushie tighter with an irked expression on her face and for a mere second, it looked like she wanted to rip it apart. However, she didn't, and instead hot tears began to cascade down her rosy cheeks. She bit down on her bottom lip as it quivered while making her way to the bed without a word. Once she reached it, she flopped herself to the mattress and broke down, hugging the plush tight to her chest.
Junko stayed limp, but her eyes did sneakily made their way up to Mikan's upset face. It seemed that escaping will be much harder than she had first suspected.
"And you're sure that its not just one of her usual antics?"
Kyoko asked skeptically, scratching her chin in thought. She peeked her head slightly up as Celestia approached their table and elegantly handed the cups with the tea herbs already thrown in. Mukuro waited impatiently for the gambler to sit down before responding.
"Yes! I checked everywhere! I've walked around the whole school at, what?... pretty much three in the morning, checked on all her friends... nowhere! No one had heard from her... and she specifically told me to reach out to you."
"... fascinating..." Celestia murmured to herself and peeked behind her shoulder at the kettle that was still warming up.
"Hm... what about Tsumiki?" Kyoko calmly suggested and leaned her elbows on the table while resting her chin on her hands. "The two were quite attached at the hip until... well, suddenly."
"Oh no. She's the last person she'd turn to. Junko's been avoiding her like the plague recently," Mukuro shook her head firmly.
"... and why's that, again?" Celestia slowly turned her crimson eyes towards Mukuro's light purple ones.
"I don't know... but even if I did, I don't think I owe you to share. Its a personal matter," Mukuro shrug her shoulders and huffed.
"Feisty like always it seems..." Celestia hummed and gracefully stood up, making her way towards the kettle once it boiled.
Mukuro watched her walk off with a frown before Kyoko's words snapped her back.
"Still, I think its important to contact Tsumiki. While their latest drama definitely lowers the chance of Enoshima simply hiding at her place, it's still a possibility. One that shouldn't be pushed under the rug. Who knows? Especially since the person we're worried about is... well, Enoshima Junko." Kyoko added the last bit with a smudge of caution.
Mukuro, however, simply sighed. "You're right. Maybe she's over it... would be good, too. She's been more agitated than usual since they separated."
"... hm."
Kyoko looked up as she saw Celestia rejoin the table curiously before glancing back at Mukuro.
"Say, do you perhaps know Tsumiki's routine?"
Mikan quietly moved the tools in the nurse's office from one place to another, rearranging them to her liking. The plushie she found was here, too, simply sitting on the nearest shelf while she worked. The day outside seemed beautiful with the sun shining bright, the sky laking clouds and being colored in sweet shades of blue. Mikan could see students gathered outside during the break, having fun and whimsy. She sighed to herself and leaned against the windowsill as she decided to stare outside and watch other people minding their business with a sense of longing.
"Do... do you know why she... left me?" Mikan asked jokingly, yet solemnly the plushie, leaning her head to the side.
Junko didn't answer, but she allowed herself to move her eyes towards Mikan. Last night, she spend the whole night in Mikan's embrace. Felt weird being the little spoon for the first time, but she didn't really have much choice. Mikan had cried herself to sleep yesterday's night and her hold stayed just as tight as before. Junko couldn't get out no matter how much she tried.
And as a result she was now stuck here. She wanted to peek her head down and see how far off the ground she was, but the sound of urgent footsteps made her jerk back into the limp position she was in before.
The door opened, causing Mikan to spin around hastily and yelp in surprise.
"Tsumiki? May we trouble you for a moment?" Kyoko spoke up carefully and stepped inside, followed by an urgent Mukuro.
"Ikusaba..?" Mikan immediately recognized Junko's twin sister and she felt a glimmer of surprise yet warmth. During these months of dating Junko, she had gotten quiet close with Mukuro as well, thus it was delightful to greet her again.
"A-ah... o-of course, c-come in..." The nurse shyly gestured for the other girl's to come inside.
Once the door shut close, the soldier spoke up. "Tsumiki, was Junko with you yesterday?"
Junko's eyes narrowed. Mukuro listened to the note, yes, very good...
"Ah..." Mikan's eyebrows knitted in confusion at the sudden and odd question. "Well... that depends..."
"Hmm?" Kyoko quickly gave a silent "told you so" look to Mukuro and glanced back at the anxious girl in front. "Could you elaborate? Its very important for us to know."
"... well, as I headed out of my dorm last night, I heard her speak. I recognize that voice anywhere... so I walked out immediately... unfortunately, she was nowhere to be seen. When I thought that that was it... I stumbled upon..." Mikan slowly pointed her finger to the doll on the shelf.
Mukuro's eyes immediately widened and she walked up, picking it up without hesitation. Mikan wanted to protest, but covered her mouth before she could, instead letting out a weird whimper sound. The soldier froze after hearing it and glanced at her in a questioning manner.
"Uh... may I?" She held up the doll that was a near identical and cuter version of Junko.
"S-sure..." Mikan mumbled under her nose, blushing while cringing at her own actions.
Kyoko slowly inched towards the Junko plushie and once it was in her grasp, she inspected it with a sense of cold calculation. As her eyes went up and down each part of the plushie, she paused for a moment, as only for a few seconds, she felt like she had seen its icy blue eyes move.
"..." Mukuro lifted an eyebrow in a quizzical way as she noticed the detective freeze in her actions for a split moment.
"... Interesting..." Kyoko eventually spoke up and shook her head. "Tsumiki, may we borrow this for a moment?"
Mikan bit back a frown. "Sureee..." She hesitantly said with a soft drag to her speech.
"Thank you," Kyoko nodded and did a little thankful nod of her head.
"B-but, huh? What happened?" Mikan meekly asked.
"Junko... looks like she went missing," Mukuro answered, glancing to the side. "But we're a little skeptical that it isn't one of her usual antics."
"Missing!?" Mikan's jaw dropped.
Kyoko nodded, but then shrugged. "I mean, no one has seen her for these past few hours and she was absent in her lessons, too. She also left a note."
"A note?" Mikan's eyes widened in curiosity.
"Yes, a note." Mukuro responded softly and pulled out a sheet of paper that she found laying in their dorm at night.
Mikan took it and carefully read it then looked up with a confused expression. "What food?"
"Ah, Junko said that she felt sick so she asked me to get her something to eat. I did, but the food was untouched and she just... mentioned it to be petty, I suppose." Mukuro rolled her eyes to the side and crossed her arms a tad bit defensively.
"She felt sick? What kind of sick?" Mikan pressed, beginning to fiddle with the sheet of paper.
"Well... I don't t know. She clutched her stomach at one point and whined... she looked like she was at the verge of throwing up one moment for sure..."
".... and you brought her food.....?" Mikan asked in a displeased manner.
Seeing that the topic seemed to get off hand, Kyoko waved her gloved hand before Mukuro could respond. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. What I am interested on hearing about is exactly where and how everything happened. I don't think I catched where your dorm is, Tsumiki."
"Its actually not that far away from Junko's." Mikan mumbled shyly.
"Can you both then lead me to where you have last seen her?... and take that plushie with us. Its a very odd coincidence for Enoshima to go missing like this... and that thing to make an appearance."
"You're right." Mukuro nodded and watched the detective snatch the fluffy toy.
The three turned on their heel and walking out, Mukuro wordlessly trailing after Kyoko and Mikan.
Anyway, back to the main attraction. Currently, she was being grabbed all over and inspected by Kyoko. She felt her gloved thumb carefully slide across her soft face and god was it difficult to keep a straight face. She wanted to swat those nasty fingers off her beautiful face.
"So, what did you exactly gather about Junko from yesterday's experience and her friends'?" Kyoko asked while intensely eyeing the plush in her grasp trying to figure out if it could have some kind of hint or connection to Junko's sudden disappearance.
"As I mentioned before, she felt sick randomly during one of the breaks," Mukuro started, scratching her chin in thought. "Due to that she wobbled to our dorm. I wanted to help, but she told me to get her something to eat. So, I did."
"Was she there when you delivered the food?" Kyoko glanced at Mukuro in a quizzical manner.
"Yes, passed out on her bed. So, I left her there. I had some things to finish of my own and didn't think much. I've done this countless times before, never had she just... disappeared like that."
"Hmm..." Kyoko returned her sharp gaze to the plush and squeezed it.
Junko almost squeaked. It felt like the air was knocked out of her lungs. Or... something. Did she still need to breathe?
"But with what I got from her friends... well, she hadn't been in contact with them that day at all... coincidentally." Mukuro added after a bit.
Kyoko nodded in thought before softly muttering. "How about we check out your dorm first, Ikusaba?"
"Fine with me," Mukuro shrugged.
"So, she was here last time I saw her," Mukuro explained while walking around their messy dorm after last night. She pointed to one of the beds. "She was all sprawled out. Didn't even bother getting out of uniform."
"I see," Kyoko glanced at the bed and carefully began to inspect the things scattered around. She leaned down and took a peek at Junko's bag on the floor.
We said we're focusing back on the main attraction and we are, thus she was currently staring daggers at the detective rummaging through her stuff. She was placed on the table near the door. Big mistake.
She glanced back at Mikan who seemed to watch Mukuro and Kyoko wordlessly. The other girls were thinking about other things, so... she wasn't the center of attention.
Junko slowly slid down the table and fell to the ground with a soft thud.
No one heard... and the door was cracked open. Staring directly at them she was about to leave, but the set her eyes back on Kyoko who was going through her stuff, analyzing everything.
She stared at her... then stared at her again... then again... and then stared at her again... and then guess what? She grabbed a nearest object that was laying on the ground and threw it at Kyoko.
Thump!
"Ah!" The detective jumped to her feet and spun her head in the direction the object flew at her head. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Mukuro perked up while picking up some things off the ground (that were laying around thanks to her somewhat trashing the place around while looking for Junko yesterday).
"I..." Kyoko glanced at the hard thing that hit her head.
It was an eraser.
"It just hit me..." Kyoko murmured.
"How..?"
"N-no, I-I think I saw it, too..." Mikan spoke up meekly. "I was watching you two work and something suddenly flew from..." She pointed at the empty doorway. "... from there."
Mukuro furrowed her eyebrows and suspiciously glanced at the nurse and the detective. "Uh huh...."
"..." Kyoko suddenly stood up straight. "Where's the plushie?"
Junko ran down the stairs. Kind of.
Since her body was way smaller, she tried to sprint down the stairs, but the gap between each one was too big. So, she jumped. And at first, she landed on the surface well with no trouble. Then, her body lost balance.
And she fell down.
"Agh!" Bam. "Ouch!" Thud. "Oof!" Thump. "Fu—ugh!" Boom. "Ahh!" Thud.
And did a spin in the air and then fell flat to the ground.
If her ego wasn't damaged before, now it was. Standing up and grumbling, Junko made her way over to the next row of stairs. She stared at it for a bit, took a deep breath and accepted her fate.
After that humiliating encounter of trying to go down the stairs, her fluffy face was all dirty and the chunks of fabric that were supposed to be her hair now, all messed up. She dotted over herself trying to clean the dirt out, but it didn't exactly work either.
With her ego hurt and damaged, Junko was very, very pissed by the time she had went down to the first floor. She sputtered angry comments to herself before coming before a new obstacle.
The door.
Junko's eyes narrowed further.
Great. Perfect, actually. Just what she needed. The doorknob was so far away, she would need a few other plush versions of herself to get on top of each other to even grasp it.
Stupid ass door.
Junko walked up and kicked the door. She stared blankly as her plush leg bended in ways that a human leg shouldn't once it collided with the wooden surface.
"Wow."
She took a step back.
"Alright. I see. Whatever. I dont care."
She held up her head in disdain and glared at the wooden object before her.
"I really don't. This... who cares. Not me."
Junko turned on her heel and faced her back towards the door.
"Fuck this door."
...
Junko turned around, and with a scream threw herself at the door.
"I SWEAR TO GOD I'M GONNA RIP THIS FUCKASS DOOR APART!–"
Her plush body gently bounced back.
"FUCK THIS DOOR."
Junko screamed in frustration and angrily threw her fists at the ground. They also bounced back with a cute squeak.
"..." Junko slowly closed her eyes and giggled softly (menacingly).
"Mhm. Yeah... hahah... yeah," Junko nodded to herself. "Mhm... MHM."
She glanced at the door and her eyes darkened.
This marks the day Junko developed hatred for a door.
The poor fashionista after throwing her little tantrum found a spot to hide in and waited for someone to approach the door or open it. Which took a long while.
Eventually, Junko's plush ears picked on the sound of footsteps from outside. With a sense of delight, Junko jumped up in her place and ran up to the wall that was right next to the door and waited. As she thought, the door opened and a familiar pale face showed.
Junko wasted no time in ducking outside, throwing on last glance at the student that went inside.
Celestia Ludenberg?
Junko might have inspected the situation more, but she cared more about causing a ruckus in this damned form than her classmates business.
"I mean, it couldn't have stood up and walked away on its own," Mukuro muttered while staring in a displeased manner at the empty spot where the plushie was... emphasis on was.
"... w-well... at this point... w-with all this... this weird stuff going on..." Mikan mumbled under her nose quietly.
"Okay, but definitely not walking on its own." Mukuro threw a skeptical glare at the nurse and did a little shake of her head. "Maybe someone stole it?"
"And threw an eraser at Kirigiri?"
Mukuro went quiet for a moment. "... uhm... but are you sure she got hit?"
"I-I saw it fly a-at her!" Mikan protested defiantly.
"... I felt it." Kyoko murmured.
Mukuro sighed. "Alright. So we got walking plushies, flying erasers... and my sister is yet to be seen."
"Well, I think I gathered what I could from your apartment. We could go investigate the spot where Tsumiki had heard Enoshima and found... that plushie," Kyoko stood up and dusted off her knees gently. "Maybe that'd provide more information where she could be... maybe she felt more clues aside from the note."
"Yeah, lets do that." Mukuro nodded and glanced at Mikan.
Mikan sighed and stepped outside of Mukuro's and Junko's dorm. She carefully made her away up the stairs with Kyoko trailing behind, hearing the sound of a lock clicking before Mukuro's figure appeared at the bottom of the staircase.
"H-here." She pointed to the empty hallway. "I... I heard her here. C-close."
Mukuro crept up to the duo and glanced around quietly. "Hmm..."
"Here, huh... and once you opened your door, she was nowhere to be seen, is that correct?" Kyoko asked in thought as she slowly circled the area.
"Yes... then... I-I... I turned around and... and there it was... the plushie," Mikan whispered ominously.
"... can you two stop implying that the plushie walked on its own?" Mukuro interrupted Mikan with a twinge of annoyance in her voice.
"I-I didn't imply that..! I... I'm just recalling... yesterday's events..." Mikan squeaked out before finishing her words with an ashamed whisper.
"Sounds like you're the one who keeps bringing up the idea of it wandering on its own," Kyoko sharply interjected.
Mukuro glared at the detective with a frown.
"A-anyway... um, then I-I stepped towards it, picked it up and went to sleep." Mikan quickly added before the conversation could spiral into an argument.
"Where did you place the plushie once you took it to your place?" Kyoko asked curiously while walking up to a vase in the hallway and peering over it.
"..." Mikan's face grew beet red. "Uh... eheheh... I... umm..."
The soldier lifted an eyebrow in a questioning manner.
Mikan overly obviously ignored her.
Kyoko tilted her head as she noticed the odd patch of dirt on the ground.
Silence stretched between the three for a bit till the sound of footsteps caught up with them. Mikan with Mukuro threw a curious glance at the sound of footsteps (even if Mukuro's was way more stoic).
"Ludenberg?" Mukuro asked skeptically as she saw her apprach and stare at the scene somewhat intrigued.
"How's the search going?" Celestia asked and glanced up. "Oh and don't mind me. I accidentally just so happened to be here."
"... "accidentally" my ass..." Mukuro muttered under her breath.
"T-terrible... the search i-is terrible... o-only nonsense happened s-so far..." Mikan whined out pitifully.
"How so?" Celestia raised her eyebrows and glanced between the soldier and the nurse, for now, not really paying attention to the detective that was inspecting the area.
"W-well, J-Junko is yet to be seen... we... we have no idea where she i-is..! A-and the only thing we found i-is a plushie that looks like her—"
"... a plushie?"
"—and it disappeared, too..! Not to mention... someone threw an eraser at Kirigiri..." Mikan mumbled.
"... and how exactly are any of those two last things correlated with each other?"
"Supposedly the toy went missing around the exact same time." Mukuro answered instead and shrugged dismissively.
Celestia slowly blinked and before bringing a hand to play with her black hair while thinking out loud. "So... that happened... and you're sure that it wasn't Enoshima?"
"T-there's no way... the area where it flew from was from the ground, seemingly... a-and that space wasn't covered, too much... i-if she were there... we would've seen her... plus, the door was barely ajar... just slightly... not enough for a person to fit... through..." Mikan meekly mumbled out, letting out a shy giggle. "Its just not... possible... ehehe..."
"... and how do you know this exactly?" Celestia narrowed her eyes in slight confusion and skepticism.
"I-I saw it!" Mikan squeaked out.
"... I felt it..." Kyoko whispered quietly.
Celestia carefully glanced between the three girls. "I think you're all messing with me."
"We're not..!" The nurse protested, but Mukuro spoke on top of her.
"I mean, I can see why... yet that doesn't change that... it did apparently happen." The soldier quickly glared to the side with a careless shrug.
"... alright, so there doesn't really seem like a lot is here. In fact, I'd say pretty much nothing. The only odd thing here is the dirt behind the vase, but other than that..." Kyoko spoke up, cutting the conversation to a silence and shifting the topic back on lack of traces or possible evidence.
"A-ah... that reminds me..." Mikan's eyes lit up and she quickly spoke up again. "... the plushie was oddly dirty when I-I first found it."
"Ah... I suppose thats worth noting down..." Kyoko murmured, but then her face grew stern. "But... its... odd."
"You don't say..." Mukuro murmured to herself.
"I'm serious. Her belongings such as phone, bag and other things she often carried, being in your dorm is definitely a sign that she really is gone... but she seemed to vanish without a trace... overnight... and not even full hours, just randomly. Thats..." She shook her head.
Mikan lowered her head and beginnibg to feel a heavy weight set on her chest. "Oh, Junko... please be okay..."
"AHHH!"
A sound of delight. People's screams of terror and despair.
A poor student was too focused on other things to notice what was on the floor for him to step on that now, he slipped horribly and fell on his butt. Some other students, did, too.
Someone had poured a slippery substance onto the cold, harsh ground that was cleaning chemicals, mixed with many other things. While others stopped in their tracks before they could fall as well, the one responsible was laughing her ass off in a shadowy corner.
The look of shock or annoyance, displeasure on people's faces was a delight as they stared at their ruined uniforms.
Of course, this was not the only place that had the misfortune of feeling the creativity of the Ultimate Analysis. So, the sounds of dislike and unluck from further away were another musical melody to Junko.
She waited patiently for a lesson to start and then she struck. Once she was finished with her nasty deeds, she found coverage and here she was, laughing at her product of mischief ws the bell run freedom and people left their classrooms oblivious to the traps set out to them. Its been a few good hours since she was able to escape from the trios grasp and she didn't waste a second. Not that she was planning to. Upon turning into the fluffy mess, her first mission that she set herself out to do was to bring a ruckus to wherever she goes. And she never lacked determination.
Plus, if she did get spotted by someone, she always had to options:
1. Pretend to be a casual plushie;
2. Scare the living shit out of them by moving.
The second one was obviously way more appealing as there were so many different ways she could go on about it. Make them think they went insane, try to prove to them that she is, in fact, Junko fucking Enoshima herself in the flesh (in the fluff)... or messing with their head by acting alive then like a toy based on her mood was also a funny and quite tempting idea.
The sound of people gasping as some others fell on their butts due to slipping brought her back to reality... and made her softly smirk. She poked her head out sneakily and took in the sight.
Despite the twinge of glee she felt seeing people like this... a part of her felt like this wasn't enough. No... she needed to do something crazier...
She nodded to herself as the evil idea started to brew in her head. Oh yes... yes... she'll do just that.
She'll wait till it gets dark and everyone leaves... then...
... she'll set traps across the academy overnight.