Of Dolls and Tempers
by Serpentine.Andromeda
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Sitting in a corner of the Asahi Daycare, a black-haired girl looked at her Rika-chan doll. Her now-bald Rika-chan doll.
This wasn't the first time one of her Rika-chan dolls had become hairless. This was the sixth one! The little girl, Kazeno Kotori, knew who the culprit was. It was a classmate of hers, one by the name of Yamino Tanuki.
Yamino was, in Kotori's opinion, an evil little chipmunk who was greedy for doll hair. She didn't know why he had such an obsession with it, but who knew anything about boys anyway?
Previously mentioned hair-greedy chipmunk was currently across the room, sneaking glances at Kotori. She looked incredibly angry, and he figured that this definitely wasn't the right time to go and ask her to go out to the swingset with him.
Kaino Muzai, another of Kotori and Tanuki's classmates, had been observing the two of them for a few months now. Most five year olds couldn't keep their attention on something for one day, let alone two months, but Muzai was more mature than most five year olds.
So she had been watching as Tanuki would steal one of Kotori's beloved Rika-chan dolls and somehow sneak his way over to the teacher's desk and use the grown-up scissors to cut off all the doll's hair. Tanuki would then return the hairless doll to Kotori's cubby and when Kotori found the toy a few minutes later, she would immediatly go over to Tanuki and hit him on the head.
This normally caused their teacher, Tentoumushi-sensei, to make Kotori sit in the corner and think about what she had done. Muzai knew, though, that Kotori would always feel that she had done right. After all, Tanuki never got in trouble for cutting the hair of the dolls, as there was no evidence that he had done so. So Kotori felt that she was giving him punishment that he deserved.
When Kotori had found another of her Rika-chan dolls today, Muzai expected for everything to go as normal. Hitting, punishing, and finally, the time when Kotori wouldn't even look at Tanuki.
You can imagine Muzai's shock when Kotori angrily took her doll into her arms and went to sit down in the same corner she was sent to everytime she hit Tanuki. The teacher was busy scolding another student for putting glue in their hair, so she didn't notice the odd and very non-Kotori behavior.
Muzai switched her gaze over to Tanuki, catching the boy looking at Kotori. He'd go a little red in the face and quickly turn back to the picture book in front of him.
Deciding that she needed to know what was going on, Muzai walked over to Kotori, hoping she looked confident. Kotori was one of the more frightening children in the class because of her quick temper, and Muzai desperately didn't want to be on the wrong end of that temper.
"Kotori-chan? Why haven't you thwapped Tanuki-kun yet?" Muzai asked, trembling slightly.
Kotori ran a hand over her doll's head, seeming to not hear Muzai's question. Muzai waited a few more seconds, but as five year olds aren't that patient, she started to ask her question again. Before she could get the first word out, she was cut off by Kotori.
"Everytime Yamino-baka does this, I hit him and Tentoumushi-sensei makes me sit in this corner. She tells me to think of what I've done, and I only think that I'm right. I think Sensei is wrong. So I decided to think of what Yamino-baka's done. I don't understand why, Muzai-chan! Rika-chan never did anything to him..." Kotori trailed off, a hint of tears starting to fill her eyes.
Seeing the tough little girl in tears made Muzai's heart cry too, and so the little girl sat beside Kotori and gave her a hug. Muzai looked over at Tanuki to glare at him, but was surprised another time when she saw that the boy looked as depressed as Kotori.
After Muzai was able to calm Kotori down and got her distracted with a colouring book, Muzai walked over to Tanuki, trying to ready herself for more shocking revelations. This day was an odd one in which anything could happen.
"Tanuki-kun, you need to stop cutting doll hair," Muzai told him firmly. The dark-haired boy looked up, startled at the sudden interruption of his block castle.
"Why should I listen to you?" Tanuki replied, trying to sound gruff. He knew very well that he should stop cutting the various Rika-chans' hair; he didn't need someone else telling him not to.
Muzai resisted the urge to slap him, finally understanding how Kotori felt. "Because I'm right! You're making Kotori-chan sad and when that happens you get sad too. It doesn't make sense! Why do you wanna be sad?"
Tanuki stopped placing the different coloured blocks on top of each other. He was looking at the floor and his tanuki ear-like hair seemed to droop, responding to his mood. He mumbled something in a low voice.
"I can't hear you! And I'm not leaving until you tell me why you do what you do," Muzai informed him, crossing her arms across her chest. She intended to be tough and not leave until she got an answer.
"I said...I said that it's because Kotori-chan doesn't play with me. I want her to play with me-oof!" Tanuki grunted, his hands flying up to his head. A recently thwapped head, mind you.
"If you wanted me to play with you, then why didn't you just ask? Boys are weird!" Kotori huffed, looking down on Tanuki. She normally wouldn't be able to do this, as he was a bit taller than her, but as he was sitting on the floor, she was able to glare at him from above like Tentoumushi-sensei would to misbehaving students.
Tanuki blinked. This had of course occured to him before, but as Kotori was well known for her temper, he decided that it'd be safer to take a different course of action. It hadn't gone well, but he did get Kotori's attention. And don't forget the fact that he was able to use the adult scissors.
Kotori grabbed Tanuki's arm and dragged him over to the pile of stuffed animals that had been set-up by a small playhouse. She gave him a black dog plushie as she took one that looked like a phoenix for herself. The two started playing, Tanuki with a huge smile on his face and Kotori trying to look mean, even though a grin was threatening to come onto her face as well.
Muzai watched the two and smiled. She watched as Tanuki scooted closer to Kotori, a faint blush on his face, while Kotori had her stuffed phoenix fly over her head. Muzai thought to herself that Kotori had wanted to play with Tanuki as well, because there was no other explanation for her quick forgiveness of Tanuki's past aggressions.
The quiet little observer knew she was right when, after Tanuki had said something with a bashful smile on his face, Kotori squealed happily and tackled him while pulling him into a hug. A loud cry of "Tanuki-taaaaan!" made her more sure that the two would be friends forever, and if not that, at least a very long time.
***
"Good morning, Starshine!" a now sixteen year old Yamino Tanuki said, walking up behind Kaino Muzai and Kazeno Kotori.
"Tanuki-kun!" Muzai said, smiling, as she turned around to see her old friend.
"Tanuki-tan!" Kotori exclaimed, latching onto him immediatly. She had a special smile on her face that Muzai only saw when the girl was with Tanuki.
As Tanuki complained about not being able to breathe, Muzai thought about the events that had started this wonderful friendship. She felt confident in the belief that nothing could break them apart.
Beliefs are not always true, though, which Muzai would find out later that day. But for now, she was happily walking with her best friends, and that was all that mattered.
End.
