Chapter 1
And with one final click, Jessica Ushiromiya's small all-too-feminine fingers twisted the last of the letters in front of her, the "u" specifically. She wasn't too certain about this, but it seemed to make sense so f-
That thought was smashed to pieces by the horrid sound of scraping stone. The sound itself wasn't too loud, but it must have been the exact frequency to resonate with the Ushiromiya heir's teeth or spine or something, because it felt awful. Jessica's eyes swept about...
Oh. The lion statue is different now. And indeed right over that way after skipping over was a vast passage, now looming open. Moving down it the stone gave way to metal... doesn't seem like Grandfather's style at all. And then opening a steely door Jessica finds-
"Huh? Shannon?" Wait. That's not Shannon? Her silhouette is different, and not just because of-
Her chest? There's nothing there. She's wearing a decently tight buttons-down-the-front shirt and there's nothing...
Jessica tilted her head, about a half second after she spoke. It was at around this moment that Sayo Ushiromiya, known to the Ushiromiya household as their maid Shannon, fully became aware of her presence. Chalk it up to both women thinking somewhat slowly in such an unexpected situation.
Her left hand shoved the typewriter she was working on backward while her right shoved herself—or more accurately the chair she was seated on—about too. Now somewhat clear of the desk she could reach one of its drawers, pulling it open to reveal the coldest steel she knows-
Just before Sayo could grip the gun she then crashed to the ground, her head thwacking against the classy carpeted floor of the secret study. Jessica pinned down the hand that was earlier reaching into the drawer, not even yet aware if Shannon, because indeed to her this was Shannon, not yet aware of if Shannon had managed to pull out what she was grabbing.
Jessica was reasonably fit, despite her (exaggerated) respiratory issues, but she was panting all the same. The look on Shannon's face when she pushed her chair back, when she scrambled to grab at whatever she was grabbing, it was purest despair. That was the reason Jessica was panting. Anyone would, after seeing that look on the face of a dear friend. So she'd tackled her. It couldn't be anything good, and she was plenty rough with the girls in the band too.
Sayo looked up at Jessica. The same look, no, deeper.
"Shannon, what the hell's-" Jessica caught herself. Stabilized her breathing. She knows that tone's no good.
...
"What's going on?" Better question than what Shannon was reaching for, probably.
Silence. That raw despair had apparently hit boiling and was simmering down now, the kettle switched itself off. Her eyes were now empty.
"..." Jessica lips and teeth made a noise as she looked about. Still atop silent Shannon. The room was in a total contrast to the ominous corridor before it. There was a typewriter on a desk, a double bed, a few bottles of wine, a bookshelf... Not helping. Back to Shannon. Nothing in the chest area—that's weird. No makeup on but who would while writing? No... without that, and looking at the wrist she's pinning down...? No time for surprise, she needs to help:
"You're Kanon, I guess." What next what next what next... "That's fine." Sure. That. Jessica loosened her grip on Shannon's wrist, and got off her. Standing between her and the desk though now, shutting the open drawer with a bash of her butt.
Sayo slowly rose to her feet and continued to look at Jessica. Eyes still dead. She then walked backward, backward, backward, deliberately falling over onto the bed.
No more eye contact this way. "...you know, huh?"
Jessica didn't know how to respond to that. She spun the chair the apparent author was sitting on earlier on one corner until it was upright again, and then dropped down on it. "...I guess?"
Sayo's next response was quick. "How disgusting I am."
"Huh?"
"The kind of creature I am, this body I possess, furniture," louder: "furniture" louder: "furniture," screaming: "furniture," horrific: "furniture, FURNITURE!"
Jessica was stunned. She thought that the furniture thing that Kano- that Shannon and Shannon both went on about was... some weird Fukuin House thing? But...
"No. I don't."
A vague grunt.
"I don't know what... kind of creature you are, or any of that. You're scaring me but... not because I'm scared of you. It's scary to see a frie-" Jessica then froze again, but this time from her own words. That and that and that would mean... Alright: square one. "I'm scared to see the boy(?) I like saying that sort of thing. Tormenting himself."
Sayo snorted. "The boy you like?" She reached down, matter of perspective, perhaps over, to her skirt and underwear and quickly disrobed, tossing them to a far corner of the bed. She didn't even sit up though, just let Jessica see. "Not much of a man at all, am I?"
The less said the better. Not only was the person on the bed lacking entirely in the kind of genitalia she was hinting toward, the alternative there was just a makeshift exit point, with the wrong colouration, limited fullness of skin,¹ and a substantial amount of what was obviously scar tissue spidering out from around it. The scar likely reached up to her stomach, might even touch her belly button, but there was no checking for that right this moment.
Sayo starting talking at some point: "Plus it doesn't have any feeling. No knocking on the devil's door I guess..." she said with a light sigh.
"Whatever." For once Jessica hadn't frozen. She was just waiting for... whoever this was to get it out, all out, could tell she was going to talk more after pulling off her clothes. "That doesn't matter."
A risky response, potentially minimizing Sayo's suffering, though it's not as if Jessica Ushiromiya had even considered that. She just said what came naturally, spoke her mind, the truest things in her heart. The hardest step had been the first, admitting she liked Kanon so long ago (or well, only half admitting it, but Kanon certainly got the message). Now was the time for...
"What? Is that it? You're not a boy or a girl and so you're a monster?" Jessica was smirking, but her smirk became a goofy grin. "If that's the worst you're hiding, then we're set, right?"
Sayo had craned her head up at some point and saw that... expression. "But... I was writing about..."
"C'mon! Writing Shannon? I bet nothing you've written is as messed up as half the stuff that Midori," (one of her bandmates?) "yaps about."
Then it hit. Sayo sits up. "Huh? Shannon?"
"Why not? It was a skirt you threw away, right?" No further elaboration. No further elaboration. No further elabora-
"But I... but I..." She crawled forward. "But I..." Jessica was beside the bed. "But I..."
And then Sayo collapsed against her chest and sobbed.
Jessica was bringing over teabags from the mansion. The only ones here were way too posh for an honest talk, too witch-like, so a bit of a walk was the only option.
Sayo stared at the gun. She was behind the door at the back of the secret study, another cold metal passage: the way to the once-WWII base itself. This was probably the best opportunity for this. She'd even suggested Jessica get the tea.
It's loaded. All the rest of the ammo that she keeps in the study, about its capacity twice more, is in the pockets of this shirt.
Alright.
Jessica got back with the tea and finds Shannon sitting cross legged on the bed. It's a nice bed huh...
There's a kettle here, but it was already set going earlier, so it's just a matter of pouring it all out into cups and stuff.
"Role-reversal?" Shannon offers.
"Huh?"
"I mean..." A sigh. "This is the other way around from usual, isn't it? You pouring tea for me."
"Oh! Right, I guess it is, huh?"
BANG. BANG. BANG BANG BANG.
Reloading one by one by one...
BANG. BANG BANG BANG BANG.
Sayo was firing into the wall. Every bullet she had in the secret study. Over and over and over. The noise would worry Jessica, so this was the best time. Disposing of the opportunity.
This wasn't going to be that kind of evening. She'd make it so.
Teacups in hand. "Alright... so where should I start?"
"You solved the epitaph first I guess? What does that mean?"
Sayo smiled warmly, and then began to explain...