"Mn..." Catheris rubbed his droopy eyelids, sitting himself up from the couch of Ms. Shishiro's basement.
Actually, running in and out of Virosiad's heart wasn't that bad. More like a reward, actually. Getting out of the house was a little treat. (¬^ ¬)
Due to the building's nature, he could afford little cat naps. Three hours spent here was equal to one passed when he got out. Catheris even picked up the habit of carrying a neck pillow in a spacial pocket. No matter how much sleep he got it was never enough. It was like this every time following those dreams with the demon. Every time he slept it was like sand in a sieve, water into an infinite jug, a fish that doesn't feel hunger and continues to gorge. Maybe like the fish, it'd come to a point where his tiredness would consume him.
Catheris wanted to see how far it could go, 16 hours later and he was still catching his head from dropping. Crazy. One of these days he'd be investigated for substance abuse from the way he was constantly sleep deprived. zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
"Did you bring the bells?" Mrs. Shishiro sat herself onto the couch's arm, handing him a mug of black tea.
How could he forget? She stressed it in her subject line.
"Hold on, they should be in my pocket somewhere..." Catheris fumbled around. It didn't take long since he didn't have much there in the first place. He felt a smooth, round metallic object in his fingertips, and pulled out the descending bells like a root.
He let out a tired huff, already exhausted. "What about them?"
"I think you could wear them. If my hunch is right, that'd at least take care of daytime possession." She gestured for him to give them to her.
Raising the bells to her eyes, Ms. Shishiro inspected them with a calculated look before her eyes fixated on her wrist.
She pressed her palm "My my, this is pretty nice. It even processes blot. Seems it locked onto you though. Maybe I'll buy one. You said they had a business card right? I might give one to Z."
Recalling what Mr. Beo said when they were wrapping up contract talks, Catheris couldn't help but ask, "Is the work culture worth it to be doing a job like this? You seem close to her."
Z.
Though he hadn't had the chance to meet her in person yet, he'd already known a fair bit from Ms. Shishiro recalling their rookie days. She'd always spur on about how Z usually overshot how much ink she needed and ended up getting roughed up because of it.
Of course, they joined around the same time around over a decade ago, so she herself was a rookie then. Yet she didn't tell Catheris of her own mishaps. Perhaps her embarrassing stories were for another time when the famed Z of the 'shit rookie chronicles' would come over for his ink manipulation classes and tell of her partner's early jobs.
She paused, before a mischievous sharp smile formed on her lips "Z is fun to tease. Usually you'd find a clique and stay with them to stay sane, right? Maybe you and Mr. Beo can make your own clique? He's alone. Stray dog. Emo, even."
"Not interested?" Ms. Shishiro picked up his blank face to be somewhat of a pout. "Ahahaha."
...
"He's an interesting individual."
"Isn't he?"
Catheris could barely hold a conversation with the man outside of professional matters. Please don't put this on him this early.
"Hm... If i'm right, couldn't those bells help with your recovery too?" Ms. Shishiro said. Your hypersomnia.
"I'll make a bow for them at work later and wear them. I'll tell you how it goes tomorrow morning."
"Let's go with 3 days. I think that's enough to observe your daytime possessions."
"Mn."
...
"Anyways, feel free to nap again."
Ms. Shishiro: ^^;
Catheris blinked slowly at her, feeling his eyelids involuntary shut. Trying to flutter his eyes to stay awake translated to him slowly closing his eyes. His head hit the cushion.
Conked. Out. Cold.
The door to the nurse's sanctuary creaked.
"Aina," A drained, husky female voice called out.
"Z." The silver-haired woman tucked Catheris into his neck pillow, not even sparing the woman a glance.
"I'll be in the infirmary." Z's heels clacked away before hesitating and stealing a glance of the long haired man. "Is that him?"
"Your future student, yes."
Z replied in an unamused – extra – blank tone, "You know what I meant."
Who didn't know about Catheris? His situation already made an astounding boom. Someone that survived possession... could survive it... was currently going through the rounds prepping to be a test subject so he could someday be at peace. Though not a focus, his name definitely helped to snatch the title of this year's biggest gossip right at the end.
Ms. Shishiro ignored her, a hint of bitterness at Z's sheer presence in her voice, "I can't say much about him right now. But I want to see how he and my protege develop. Doesn't that mean we're mentors-in-law now?"
"Doesn't sound good. Also implies that this Bureau has pseudo coworker incest."
After all, they'd been partners for 14 years.
"And I don't want to mentor-in-law a dog." Z spoke with no emotion, though to the other woman, her smugness shown through.
"What was the mission this time?"
"It wasn't too bad. I got a few scrapes and gashes: I'd appreciate Ms. Shishiro having a sense of priority."
"So why don't you go to the infirmary right now."
"Melting humans, gashes, scrapes. I am going to get an infection."
"Don't you think it's about time to bring a healer with you?" Ms. Shishiro snapped. The dryness in her throat rose.
"I don't exactly like the spontaneity they bring. We've always had a healer shortage. They should be doing rank appropriate cases."
Ms. Shishiro paused, noticing it was silent for a long time – a bit too long. She turned her head back only to realize the other woman had been staring at her leg.
"You're still not over it." Ms. Shishiro muttered.