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Yako released her collection of trinkets onto the flat of the desk where Akane worked from. They clattered and clinked over the laminate wood before scattering in entropy.
“Here you go,” Yako said, “I got you every hair accessory I could find that was red.”
Akane flailed happily. Yako sat down and joined her on the other side of the desk. She placed her elbow atop of it and cradled her face on her chin. She watched as Akane inspected the various clips and bows that Yako had procured for her.
Yako had found all sorts of shapes and shades of red for Akane. She got her a claw clip which was inspired by a pair of cherries attached at the stem and a tartan scrunchie. She got her cute little clips which were painted to look like strawberries and anime inspired merchandise, too, though Yako didn’t recognise the specific franchise. It was quite the variety for Akane and Akane couldn’t have been happier.
“Kanae and I went to an artist’s market and there were so many cute hand made hair accessories.” Yako reminisced. “I was blown away by the variety and ended up shopping up a storm for you.”
Akane made her way through the various objects. Yako occasionally picked one up when Akane was done with it. She inspected the misshapen eyes of a Hello Kitty knock off and the texture of smooth acrylic. It was fun.
“Slow day at the office, eh?” Yako asked.
Akane bent the tuft at the end of her plait to indicate yes: as close to a nod as she could muster.
“Feels that way ever since Neuro left…” Yako mumbled. “Though, we’re doing well to pick up the slack, I say. In fact, I like being able to choose what life and death situations we get ourselves into.”
Akane vibrated. Yako assumed that was a laugh.
She also appeared to have sifted through the hair accessories but she hadn’t actually tried any on. Yako found that strange.
“Do you have a favourite?” she asked. “This one’s pretty cute.”
She picked up the cherry shaped claw clip. She pinched its handle and made it snap like an alligator’s jaws once or twice. Akane deflated and leaned to the left. Her demeanour was unenthusiastic.
“Really? None of them?” Yako made sure.
Akane nodded via the tuft of her plait again.
Yako sighed.
She’d known Akane long enough to predict her answers and her behaviour, to decode her movements for their meanings. Some of it was obvious. Up and down for yes and no. Side to side again to make her opinions positive or negative clear. It got even easier when she used props to make herself known and easier again when she clearly wrote down her feelings.
Over all, Akane had a colourful personality despite being limited in her expression due to being a plait of hair. She was smart as a whip and twice as fast. She was hard working and organised, earnest to a fault. Sweet and caring, too. She was a dear companion to Yako and an important member of the team as their secretary.
The least Yako could do was to help her world remain a little bigger than these four walls. So, she brought trinkets and conversation and did her best to be there for Akane in her presumed loneliness when the office was closed.
Still, it was apparent to Yako that something about the haul that she had brought for Akane hadn’t quite satisfied her.
“So what do you like then?” Yako asked.
Akane needn’t say it twice. She curled half of the tuft inwards, like fingers against a palm and what remained was sharp and outspoken. She pointed towards Yako and Yako nodded.
“Mm, I’m not surprised, actually.” Yako relented. “Fine, just for today.”
If Yako had to guess, Akane’s favourite hair accessories were Neuro’s batteries and her toothy smile shaped clips. Yako reached up and she undid the clip, she shook out the crimped hair below and she surrendered to Akane.
“Here you go.” Yako said softly.
Akane eagerly accepted the gift.
She split the tuft into two so that the clumps resembled hands. She held the clip in between and admired it. She shifted it left then right to better admire the shiny, red plastic of the lips and the hard, white plastic of the teeth. Yako smiled.
“If I’d known then what I know now,” Yako mused, “when I first bought those sets of clips in red and blue… I don’t think I would have bought them. I would’ve run away terrified. Assuming I even believed any of it.” She laughed cynically. “I thought they were quirky but now they seem… Too apt.”
Akane paused. She angled herself towards Yako as though to look at her.
“Ah, it’s nothing. Don’t worry.” Yako added apologetically. “I’m really happy I met Neuro, and Godai, and… you.”
Yako felt a tingle go down her spine as her voice turned ever so fond as she addressed Akane.
Akane vibrated and then hurried herself up. She adorned the hair band at the base of her plait with the hair clip. She was very bendy and flexible like that but Yako couldn’t help herself.
“May I…?” she asked.
Akane nodded. She may.
Yako reached across and she helped Akane affix the clip to her plait. Not that she needed help but Yako simply felt affectionate. This office was all there was to Akane’s world.
It expanded, yes, with the advent of the internet in combination with the enterprise of the detective agency but still. For years upon years, this building had been her tomb. She had been ignored and forgotten, an unknown voyeur as the yakuza did their dirty dealings right in front of her until Yako and Neuro had arrived.
So, it figured to Yako, that the least she could do was extend companionship to Akane, to make large moments out of small ones. Like this one. She worked deftly and admired the sheen of Akane’s hair, its scent of pomegranates and strawberries, the inky black of it. She was beautiful.
Yako’s heart trembled.
She was suddenly struck by something that she wouldn’t go as far as to call an observation but Yako definitely observed it. But the way Akane softened in her hands, as she was lathed and massaged, adorned with accessories and showed what kindness that Yako could in her capacity – it made Yako wonder something absurd.
Was it possible that Akane was in love with her…?
Yako wouldn’t claim to know how Akane felt. She knew how she felt and it was pure friendship. Akane was dead. She didn’t even know what Akane looked like beyond this black plait of hair but still. Yako had a hunch and the way Akane acted with her, it seemed to confirm it in her mind anyway.
“Seems all this haircare is paying off,” Yako idly mused, “you are very silky and shiny these days.”
When Akane was first unearthed by them, she had been rotting in the walls for goodness knows how many years and it reflected in the quality of her hair. It was all they could extract from her without damaging the integrity of the wall and unsealing a mystery which at the time was premature and Yako could only assume still was.
Her hair had been coarse and itchy, full of bugs and mites, it had been incredibly unpleasant and without lustre, more a charcoal grey than the deep black it was today. With time, she had absorbed Neuro’s power and it had revived her spirit just enough to embody her hair which made sense. Hair was close to God after all. Then, with proper care and tenderness, Yako had helped restore Akane and possibly improve her, too.
Maybe Yako shouldn’t make assumptions, she wasn’t a genius, teenage detective after all, just a puppet, but she always thought that Akane was a nerdy high schooler or naive office lady. Either way with freckles on her face and square glasses, a blunt fringe and a skirt to her knees and a collar which was buttoned all the way up. She didn’t seem like a supermodel. No, someone who could disappear easily and with little impact.
Regardless, it just seemed so unfair that in life, Akane had ended up in a wall and in death, she had to stay in that wall. Her time to shine had never come. Of course, she was a stellar employee to her and Neuro but still. The unfairness of it all pervaded and if Akane had to quench herself on what she could of these four walls and the people who passed through… So be it.
That was assuming that Yako was right and wasn’t misreading Akane’s signals but look at her. She curled into Yako’s hand. She was relaxed and comfortable. It made Yako smile a small smile. She didn’t feel that way towards Akane but she could have empathy for the situations that had entwined them.
Not just the closeness of working together, sisters in suffering as they endured the testosterone and whims of Godai and Neuro respectively but beyond that. In the few adventures that they had together…
It had been intimate.
Two souls in one body.
Akane claimed that she was joking when she coiled around a pole to keep Yako put so they could swap bodies but still. Yako could understand if there hadn’t been legitimate temptation in Akane’s behaviour that day. It would have been a good opportunity as they explored each other down to the roots. Literally.
Maybe they should go on a trip soon. Like Yako had previously with Kanae. Yako smiled blithely as she ran her fingers over the edge of her plastic clip and the strands of Akane’s hair.
“It suits you.” Yako finally said. Her reverie gave way to more concrete thoughts.
Akane tilted herself to the right, her hair scrunched up. She picked up a pen and then wrote to Yako on her whiteboard, “It suits you better.”
“Thanks.” Yako laughed. “But you can keep it. I have plenty more at home. We can share.”
That wasn’t even acknowledging the collection that Yako had in front of her but come to think of it… She only ever wore her toothy, red smiles. She wore the blue pairs a couple of times but red turned into her favourite colour along the way. Despite the blood and gore.
And that probably meant that deep down… She didn’t really like any of the hair accessories she had ended up buying with Kanae at the markets. Holy buyer’s remorse, Batman. Yako withheld a sigh as she realised that was money wasted. Oh well.
“Anyways, I best be going.” Yako said. “I’m having dinner with my Mom at a restaurant later. Hopefully neither of us get into any kind of trouble.”
Though, it seemed likelier that between the two, it’d be Yako. Even without her so-called assistant around, she was still a magnet for all things strange, morbid, or bizarre.
Akane shifted. Individual strands of her hair ballooned as she cuddled against Yako’s hand then withdrew. She pulled herself back up and returned to her perch on the wall.
“I’ll see you later.” Yako said.
Akane replied with a wave goodbye.
“I’ll leave this to you to clean up.” Yako giggled.
Akane stiffened with shock and faux offence. That only made Yako laugh harder. Deep down, she probably didn’t mind. Hopefully. Yako still felt confident in her assessments of Akane’s body language even if she was still on the fence about the depth of Akane’s feelings towards her.
Familial. Platonic. Strictly employer and employee. Who knows. But it was dear and important regardless of direction.
With a grin, Yako got up and she stepped back. She walked a couple of paces to exit Akane’s desk but she lingered. She scanned along the wall of the office and it was so normal for a moment. The colour of the wall, in its clerical, office blue paint, the popcorn ceiling and the white trim. Until it wasn’t.
It was Akane’s final resting place.
Her body was there.
The shape of her was there. The unnatural bulges due to her hips and breasts, her shoulders, the thinness of certain lines to imply her forearms or her calves, and more widths again for her thighs. It was bittersweet to see the shadows and stains that her corpse had accumulated over time to make it apparent.
She was there. She wasn’t going to be forgotten. She was still important.
Yako aligned her hands to where Akane’s were in the wall. She leaned in. Her forehead touched the back of Akane’s body through the drywall.
“I’ll see you later, okay?” Yako assured her.
Akane reached up. She nodded, she brushed against Yako’s cheek. Her skin was ticklish there, she prickled with a slight touch of mirth. Akane tapped her shoulder next and relinquished Yako into the big, wide world again that she wouldn’t get to experience on her own again.
Yako stepped back. She waved goodbye and carried on. Her heart felt oddly full as she left behind her favourite hairclip and a stack of others she couldn’t really care less about.
It was okay if Akane was in love with her. It was okay if Yako was mistaken and thinking too highly of herself but still. She hoped that Akane knew that Yako thought of her very dearly even if it was all one-sided.
She closed the door to the office behind her politely and sealed Akane away in her tomb once more.