Momiji & Ichiko by VHsgin

Momiji collapsed at the river's bank looking up at the starry night. "You can say whatever you like about the human world, but it really is beautiful." Kumagai cocked his head and scribbled into his note book, "It's almost time, shouldn't you do it tonight?" he turned the page, "the mission's basically complete". Momiji grabbed his little stuffed head and threw him into the river without a second thought, turning her head to face the sky again.

There really isn't a reason to stay. The charm necklace I gave her stopped her stupid fortune sucking, and I've drained most of the excess out by now… I should have seen this coming, it's already been a year.

She brought her hand to her forehead, covering her eyes from the street light on the upper bank. Remembering what had happened a few days ago;

"Listen here you glorified tit bag, two more shots from my needle here and I'll be over with your stupid whining for good!" she said lunging the giant barrel at Ichiko's chest plate.

Ichiko wasn't exactly in a position to protest, with Momiji having swung through her window, landing on her stomach and pushing her through the coffee table and all. Conveniently, a new slingshot God Device was binding both her arms behind her back, it seemed her fortune was actually running low.

But of course as the syringe neared her chest it hit the pendant of her charmed necklace deflecting the impact, sending it straight through the wooden floor.

This time was different though. Ichiko brought up her hands and undid the first few buttons of her shirt (her hands where freed by a wooden splinter from the table, just big enough to cut the rope), and looked Momiji in her eyes. "Just do it already" she said, with the same expression she had that time she refused to help Ranmaru, just before they became friends.

Momiji gripped the grass with her other hand, "What's her problem?" she said through gritted teeth. All of a sudden she couldn't handle it anymore, she sat up and abruptly punched a soggy Kumagai square in the face "I'm done with this dam Human world!". Had she been more violent lately? In any case the sun was rising, once she was at school she could get all this over with.

The teacher walked in promptly snapping her out of her daydreaming "So tit for brains has the gall to miss school on a dam Monday morning!" Momiji said, jumping on her desk.

"Take it easy there Momiji, what if she's sick?" Ranmaru yelled from the other end of the row.

"Would you shut your dam mouths, it's eight am for god's sake!" Keita called out from the seat next to her.

"Who said you can swear on me?"

"You know coming to think of it, she's been depressed lately" he yawned, ignoring her.

"Don't say that shit for brains!" Momiji said running out of class, through the widow of course, "Hopefully she's sick in bed right now" she mumbled breaking the glass.

"Your priorities may be off, man" Ranmaru shouted as Momiji landed and sprinted down the road.

Ok, whatever we have… whatever this was… it's over from today, I'm over it.

Momiji kicked in the front door and barged in, "I'm over this! Come out already!" the room was empty though. "Ugh, why don't you just give up" she shouted, walking down the hall to Ichiko's bedroom. She stopped a few steps from the doorway, every step brought her closer to leaving this stupid world, this stupid girl,… her eyes dropped for a moment, but only a moment. She was a God. This was her duty.

Ichiko sat on the floor, her back against the bed. The lights were off but you could tell she was wearing her pajamas…and her head was resting on her knees. Momiji stepped in and turned on the lights, "don't be selfish, you know what happens if you keep all your fortune. You don't have that much extra remaining anyway." That is what's bothering her, isn't it?

Ichiko snapped her head up, something in those words seemed to break her. "I'm the selfish one?! You're one to talk, I was right from the beginning. Everyone's the same,… You only ever wanted my fortune, and now that you have it you're just going to go-"

"What did you expect me to do" Momiji picked up Kumagai, who was apparently tailing her. "It's my job" she said, pulling out the syringe from his stomach stuffing.

"Then why did you have to go and pretend you care?! All those times we talked, I thought maybe you got me… like no one else did" somewhere along those words she lost her confidence and buried her head into her knees again, except this time she was sobbing.

Momiji let the syringe fall from her hands and swallowed hard.

I love her. How can I watch someone I love cry like this. I can't remember how it got to this. She put her hand to her forehead and looked down. I can't even look at her. I got too close, I couldn't help myself. I had to… for the 'mission'. I saw all of it… all her fears, her insecurities, everything that was wrong with her, the obnoxious person she was inside…. But she was just scared, the entire time she was just scared. How can I do anything but want to protect her when she's like this?

Momiji dropped to sit beside her. "Don't cry over me"

Ichiko slammed the palm of her hand against Momiji's face "How could you even think that?! It's not because of you, I'm not crying!"

Momiji rubbed her cheek against the palm Ichiko was holding her face with. "I love you."Momiji whispered, as Ichiko withdrew her hand as fast as she had slammed it, "I don't think I've ever seen you this surprised" Momiji just had to laugh, unlike Ichiko she wasn't as embarrassed at all, but she was surprised she was able to tell her. "If you're going to reject me just do it, it's not like it changes the fact that I'm a god an you're a human and this situation is shameful enough for me, really"

Ichiko starred at her still stunned but slowly turning red. "I'm just surprised-"

"Not as much as I was when I first realized it, which was around the time my mirror-self jumped off a friggin' bridge just so you would be happy. Did you honestly not see this coming?" Momiji interrupted.

"-that you felt the same way." Ichiko finished. Now it was Momiji's turn to stare, embarrassed as hell. "If you don't remember, I'm the one that saved you that day" she said leaning in. Momiji laughed nervously, "Well I guess we wasted a lot of time-" Ichiko leaned over the other girl's lap, placing both her hands at each side of Momiji to support her as she closed the gap between their lips.

She's so warm, and soft.

Ichiko pulled back blushing a little, even though she was wearing a faux annoyed expression. "Do you want to or not?"

Momiji looked slightly confused for a moment "Um could we not do this?" she stuttered out, turning even redder. Ichiko froze, what's worse, she was stuck with her face inches away from Momiji in such an embarrassing position. "It's just that I'm not into the whole 'tell me you want it, baby' thing. At least not right now, I mean I still have PTSD after you said you lo–"

Ichiko probably pulled of a head-but that would turn any skull of normal density into dust, "Fucking hell man!" Momiji yelled, holding her bruised forehead, "if you're looking for a masochist I can refer you to– "

"I meant if you want to kiss me you have to at least close your eyes too, it's friggin weird when you don't" Ichiko said as she turned Momiji by the shoulders and pushed her back onto the floor. She leaned in again for another kiss, this time pressing her body against Momiji, who shut her eyes as if on instruction. She was tense, and it didn't help that five seconds into the embrace Ichiko traced her bottom lip with her tongue in a way that made Momiji's crotch burn. She didn't even know where to put her hands, not that she had any cognition left to control them beyond tightening into a nervous fist.

Ichiko picked up on her lack of response or rather her odd response. Putting her weight on one forearm she pulled back and cupped Momiji's face with her other hand. "What's wrong?" She looked concerned and the flush was fading off her, meanwhile Momiji was burning up. "Is it that Kumagai is watching?"

"Wait what?!" Momiji turned to see Kumagai sitting a few feet from her head. He scribbled into his note book, "She doesn't know what to do, she's a virgin".

After Momiji punched him through the back wall he got the hint and ran off, but the damage was done.

She turned back to see Ichiko smiling down at her. "Virg–", Momiji put a finger to her lips, "Please don't say it" but Ichiko was getting ready again, she opened her mouth and toke in the finger with her tongue. She started gently sucking on it with that faint smile on her lips.

Momiji lost her shit. She was already clueless, now she just started to get scared on top of being nervous. Ichiko felt her trembling and smiled even wider, but she let go of her finger. "I'm only teasing" she said as she got up. Momiji sat up too "Wait, no, I can do this, I swear, I really want to" she felt like she was begging which made her feel even more embarrassed.

"Hey don't get so worked up. If you're sure you're ok with this… why don't you come up on the bed, it'd be uncomfortable on the floor." Ichiko smiled gently and pulled her up by the hand. Momiji sat at the edge of the bed and looked to the floor, "have you done this type of thing before?"

"Well, yeah"

I've got the sudden urge to go out and find each and every one of those lucky bastards and bash their heads in till their memories are wiped.

"But never with a girl,… so in a way, this is a first for me too" Ichiko finished, gently clutching Momiji's hand with an anxious half smile on her face. "I thought with you being a god, over a hundred right? maybe you'd have more experience. Not that it's a bad thing! Not at all, I think you're perfect the way you are" Ichiko said, pulling Momiji's hand to her mouth to kiss her knuckles.

Momiji wasn't hurt by her statement, but it did draw up some unpleasant memories itself. "There are a lot of things you won't find attractive in a Poverty God." she said, holding up her bandaged hand she began to unravel it. "Your beauty is a mark of your fortune, and my fucked up hand is a mark of mine" she showed Ichiko her hand. This was the first time anyone other than herself was allowed to look at it. At a glance all you saw was a vague dark hue, but when you looked at it carefully you could see the lines of the curse constricting her and the purple aura it emitted. Ichiko carefully brought up her hand to touch the markings. "I thought the bandages prevented the misfortune from spreading"

"It did, but I noticed this a few months ago. When I'm with you the curse doesn't spread, I guess your fortune cancels the effect or something" Momiji said, now realizing this is probably a huge buzz kill.

Momiji began to bandage her hand again, "I'm sorry, this's a turnoff"

Ichiko stopped her, pulling the bandages from her hand and dropping it on the floor "So all you want to do is have sex?"

"No, well yeah, but… you understand what I mean. Is looking at this" she said holding up her arm, "really what you want to be doing right now?"

"You just told me you loved me, and I love you too. All I want is to be close to you right now" Ichiko said interlocking her fingers with Momiji.

"Doesn't it bother you that you're holding onto the literal embodiment of all the misery in the world?" Momiji said laughing to herself.

"I'm not holding any of that. This is your hand, it's just a part of you. The curse is a separate entity, it had to go to someone and it just happened to be you. You're really strong, for going through this" Ichiko responded. "Now stop trying to sabotage the mood already, can we at least make out?" she said with her best 'begging for it' face.

Do you even expect a rejection at this point?

This time it was Momiji who pushed Ichiko back, gently positioning herself over her. She leaned down and kissed her softly, allowing time for both of them to accustom themselves to the feel of each other.

The day passed in a mix of their intimate actions, they kissed and held each other, the occasional moments of pillow talk, everything just came together. They laughed and had their usual jokes, but there was such a difference in the way they found themselves touching, sometimes boldly, each other's bodies. They spent the day in bed, and by the night Momiji found herself starring up at the ceiling, Ichiko's head resting on her bare chest. She lay there trying to imprint the memory of her smell, the feel of her body against her own. Feeling the strands of her silver hair parting through her fingers as she combed them, it felt so calming…

She shifted, slowly removing Ichiko's hands from around her waist, such a cute sleeping face. There was no need for the delicacy though, Ichiko was deep in sleep. Although she did reach out her hands, unconsciously trying to prevent her from leaving… then accustoming herself to the new position she pulled Momiji's pillow into a hug and stilled, burying her face into it. Momiji smiled to herself.

You'll adapt, eventually something will come along to fill my place.

She got dressed in the darkness, she couldn't find her other hair band and ended up in a single ponytail. Found her black school skirt and underwear, after re-bandaging her hand she was about to put on the rest of her uniform when she glanced back at Ichiko,

I'm going to miss her. After squatting in her place for months on end and multiple attempted homicides, what's a little theft?

She picked up Ichiko's blue school shirt and smelt it… it just felt like her, she put it on and buttoned it up. Her mind had changed since she came, why not her appearance too.

Hefting up the giant syringe she stood over Ichiko, looking so vulnerable in her sleep. Momiji gently plunged the needle through her heart and started to drain out her fortune yet again… but she stopped halfway through, leaving her with at least double the natural fortune. Enough for a good, lucky life.

Momiji drew out the needle and leaned down to kiss her one more time, on the temple.

Pushing the syringe back into Kumagai, who had cautiously approached the doorway a few minutes ago, she walked out of the room, the apartment, the building, the city, the human world. Trying desperately not to look back.