Body of Three || Kasey & Setsuna

you're in the city of light

he woman at the front desk was clearly not expecting another person to come into the hotel so late, as she had been watching something on the screen of her computer that was certainly not related to the hotel--too many half-naked, overly defined men fighting one another with swords and magic.  She shut her computer and stood up, clearly exhausted from working the graveyard shift, and processed Kasey's words after only a second or two of consideration.  "Do you know what room they are staying in?"  Her eyes lowered to the pin on Kasey's coat, swallowing visibly at the insignia.  In a hotel this prestigious, the Ketsujo Corp. name was well known.  Very well known.  Suddenly she looked much more awake.  "I-I can look through the most recent bookings for a person fitting their description, if you wish, ma'am."

Before an answer could be given either way, a man dressed in a white button-down shirt and black slacks came around from the elevator into the lobby.  He was an unassuming sort; the kind whose features were so plain that it was, somehow, impossible to describe him.  His eyes scanned the room before they stopped on Kasey, and, eyebrows climbing, he approached her.

"Y-You're...the one with the mask.  I.  I can take you to her.  J-Just follow me."

The woman behind the counter sighed in relief.

---

Byeol-Su Mae could feel the sweat on the back of her neck, the way her knees couldn't stop wobbling, though none of it was her herself.  The man was surprisingly nervous for a mook hired for the sole purpose of being her ride.  As he rounded the corner her eyes within his saw a woman standing at the front desk speaking with a fearful looking clerk.  She and her host would get along.  However that thought fleeted past at the sight of the woman's face and, more specifically, her mask.  Shaped like bone and spooky to behold--was that why the clerk was spooked?  Hahah!

"That's her!  Come on, bring her onto the street!"

The man didn't hesitate this time.  Instead he rushed to the woman and spoke the line he'd been fed by Byeol-Su before they'd left the hotel room.  She wanted to reach out and speak to her new friend herself, but with a witness--and in the hotel lobby--was not the right place or time.  He would be mad at her if she was seen using her Quirk in public, and annoyed at needing to dispose of a witness or tamper with any security camera that could be around here.  So they needed to be somewhere more secluded for her to show herself.  If only this man would stop stammering.

you're in the city of light

ut the door of the hotel and into the cold, crisp air went the pair--really, the quartet--and Byeol-Su relished in the scent of winter.  Everything was so beautiful this time of year.  It was the best time to travel to new places and see new things; everything covered in shiny white snow, the air cold enough for her to venture out without fear, the way everything was brighter against the black sky.  But he was looking down as he walked.  Annoying.  Next time she had to ask for a man with more spine.  He led Kasey out and to the corner of the building where just a small space was between it and the up-town shop besides it.  It was closed, but the toys in the window were still moving around in their little Christmas display.

He fidgeted with his hands.  He looked at Kasey, then back at his feet.

"......it's not gonna hurt, y-you swear?" he muttered so quiet that even Byeol-Su, in his ears, barely heard him.  From behind his ear, hidden by his hair, her lips whispered out her response.

"Even if it did it doesn't matter, right?  Now let me out!"

The man gulped, reached into the pocket of his slacks, and pulled out something small and sharp.  A tiny blade that could barely be called a knife.  Without another word or even a glance in Kasey's direction, he dragged the knife across the back of his arm.  Little drops of red blood pushed their way through the cut to the open air.  It was thick enough that the whole cut bled, but not in a dangerous way.  The man breathed in, then, let out something between a manic laugh and a sigh.

It didn't hurt.  Not the cut, not the slice.  It didn't feel like anything to him at all.

Byeol-Su hated it.  It felt like a line of fire on her arm.  But there was no other way to do this.

The blood leaking from his arm suddenly stopped, and in its place, thick, wet chunks of gray began to fall from it instead.  It spewed out fast enough and in such large amounts that the man let out a startled, terrified noise and stepped backwards into the wall like he could escape his own arm.  The liquid congealed on the pavement, more and more and more, until it was a sizable pool at his feet, and then it stopped falling.  He gasped and squeezed his wounded arm in his other hand.  The pain had returned to him, as did more blood that leaked through his clenched fingers.

The pool shifted, wriggled, and then as if she had been laying down inside it, Byeol-Su rose up from it, the goop taking the form of a lithe, little girl.  Her skin was grayer than it should have been, her limbs and body thinner than they should be, and her hair wild and tangled and free.  Her eyes, wide and round and too deep a purple, met Kasey's, and a grin split her lips.

Bit of her dripped from her chin, only to be reabsorbed into her neck.

"Bones!  You are Bones?"  She spoke in awkward, broken Japanese, excitement in every word.  She clapped her hands together with a wet sound.   "You are Bones!   Hello!  Am so happy to see you!"

you're in the city of light

eyoul-Su could hardly contain her happiness in this moment.  A new person to talk to, after days and days of waiting in that hotel room with only the chat as her means of peeking into the world outside.  Now she was here and face-to-face with somebody!  Somebody she didn't know, who spoke both her native tongue and the one she was learning.  He told her it was best to speak as much Japanese as possible, though, so she could learn it faster.  "It will be useful" was what he'd said.  Like she was going to be doing much talking.

"I am parasite, yes.  Am okay.  Only cut," she raised her arm, the same one the man, her host, had sliced to give her an exit from his body.  There was a line much like the cut, but it appeared to not be bleeding.  It was dripping more liquid, thinner matter than the rest of her body.  It hurt but it was small, and it would go away.  It wasn't like she was going to bleed out without blood.  She lowered her arm to her side and turned her head to look at the man she'd inhabited.  He still looked terrified, perhaps even more so by Kasey's lack of a reaction to what she'd just seen.  Was he scared that he was surrounded by monster?  He didn't have a Quirk, did he? 

If he did it was not visible, and if he did...then she would maybe feel bad about this.  Maybe.  "You go to room.  Will call when back.  Don't run.  Will be mad and won't get paid if you run."

The man swallowed, his fear still strong in his eyes, but he still pulled his sleeve down over his wound and rushed back to the hotel doors.  He was a simple man.  Money was worth more to him than his body, for whatever reason.  Debt, family, greediness.  Gross.  Byeol-Su looked back up to her new escort with her smile returned to her face.  "Yes!  Yes yes yes!  See lots of lights, please?  See lights from window, like the red pole!"  She paused, the word not feeling right on her tongue.  "Pole?  Long...long, big, building, but no room.  Not building.  T....town...tow...?"

Why was this language so similar, but so different?

"But see that.  That.  Yes?"  She bounced on the soles of her feet, which squelched with her movements because she lacked shoes.  Her first few steps left behind a trace of her that followed along like a trail, only to be reabsorbed back into her with the next step, and the next.

you're in the city of light

ower!  That was the word he had used to describe it before.  Tokyo Tower, the bright red beam in the heart of the city, easily visible from their hotel room window.  It sparkled with so many lights.  It was definitely done up for the holiday season--clearly there was no better time for them to be here than now.  Had he planned that part, too?

Byeol-Su looked at Kasey's outstretched hand for a moment in confusion, not seeing any cut or wound in it like she was used to seeing on limbs being offered to her.  Did she just want her to hold it?  Even with her skin?  Nobody liked doing that.  She was always too soft and strange to touch normally, and to her skin felt so...strange.  Still, if that was what her new friend wanted her to do, then Byeol-Su was happy to try it!  She took Kasey's hand and squeezed it tight.  Her fingers were not wet, oddly, but their texture was distinctly something between liquid and solid.  Like clay, or jello, or even perhaps congealing blood.  It was also very cold to the touch, not unlike the snow.

"I eat!  It goes in mouth," she pointed to her lips just in case she was saying something wrong, "Chew, then dissolve.  No real stomach.  But still need food like normal person.  Yes--"

The next word caught on her tongue.  No, more accurately, it caught in her whole body, from her mind that thought it to her throat that breathed it to her mouth that tried to speak it.  It caught and everything inside her tightened up like she were choking, but she didn't stop walking.  The only sign something was wrong was the hand holding Kasey's own squeezing tighter and tighter.  It wasn't pain.  It was like brain freeze, or a cough, or something else inside of you that felt bad but wasn't really pain.  And instead of the word she tried to speak, something else came out instead. 

Something...not a word.  Not a sound that a voice should make.  Like static.

"☐█Ø▒╪."

And she kept going.

"--feeds me!  We eat in room, not in shop.  Can't be in crowd...will get sick, or seen.  That's why man hosted me to you.  Nobody can see me."  Byeol-Su looked up at Kasey, still grinning bright, like nothing had happened at all.  It wasn't the first time Kasey had seen this happen, so why would she have to explain it to her?  This was normal.  Her next questions were too, and she shook her head in response.  "Too late for people, so not scared.  And cold is good for me!  Keeps me solider.  You won't host unless you bleed.  And only if you ask.  I'm not mean."

Though getting some take-out or something might be nice.  All he ever ordered was western food, like some boring tourist.  They weren't even western!  They were Korean!  But he said Japanese food was too normal for him, and the hotel kitchen was used to his  sort of orders.  He got her fries and burgers and other yummy foods, sure, but she wanted to try something new!

"If see a weird food, though, could buy for me?  Can pay you back, but not have money on me.  Does not go into host.  Would need to wait outside, if too many person.  I don't mind."

you're in the city of light

alking through the snow and cold, empty streets, without another soul in sight or in sound, Byeol-Su could only focus on her companion; like she had anything else she wanted to pay attention to.  It had been so very, very long since she had the chance to make a friend.  A friend who knew she was there, and was real, and what she was like.  It was easy to forget that she, too, was like them.  She looked so normal in comparison, even with her bright and colorful hair and interesting choice in facial accessories.  What was her gift like?  That was what he liked to call them--"gifts", something precious and wonderful and unique--and even if Byeol-Su didn't always agree with that, she couldn't help but use that word.  It was so nice.

Her promise to keep her safe was also nice.  And it reminded her of him.  The same sort of care, same sort of adult response to her...troubles.  He would have already insisted on her being hosted by now, though.  So protective.  Byeol-Su tilted her head, her hair falling over one of her eyes as she did so, a curious, wide-eyed smile on her face.  "Misheard?"  The only one?  Well, no, of course she wouldn't be.  Byeol-Su was always a passenger in her host's body, so it wasn't like Bones wouldn't be within her own head during the process.  It was a funny way to phrase it.

"Isn't rude to not pay?"  She placed a finger to her chin in thought.  He would probably like if she didn't go promising money to another person for weird food.  They had money to spare, though, didn't they?  Enough to have a very fancy hotel room while he looked for a more permanent residence.  But Bones might be like him in that sense, too.  Her pin, which she gestured to, must be from somewhere important.  "Wish I had pin for us.  What pin for?  Club?  Secrets?"

As they approached the restaurant in question, Byeol-Su slowed her step until she came to a stop.

She could see a few windows that were still full of warm, bright light.  Compared to the dark park and empty streets, it was so welcoming and pretty, but it also meant people.  People were bad.

Be safe, he'd said, be safe.

Byeol-Su bit her lip--a strange thing to see, as her teeth appeared to have the same softness as the rest of her, and yet still managed to press into her flesh with the same apparent strength as a normal person's own--and looked at Bones, slipping her hand free.  "Lot of persons?  Is bad.  Any persons is bad.  Can't be seen, or get too close.  Will get sick.  Will get trouble.  █Ø will worried."  The noise again, shorter than the first, implying another word different from the first.  It made her throat itch.  She shook her head twice.  "Hide in back.  But no...no...serve?  Person who...bring food.  Cannot see.  Cannot get close.  Is too much?  Is...bad?"  Byeol-Su looked between Kasey and down the street to the lit windows.  She wanted to see the tree and the lights, and try new things, but she couldn't risk it.  She couldn't.  She didn't want to get sick, or make him sad.

"...is...could host, to get inside.  Then come out at table.  Want to.  But won't make you."

She was honest, she would never force another to host for her, not unless that was their purpose.  Bones was her new friend.  Still, the pleading look in her eyes was unmistakable.  She wanted to beg and fight and whine.  That's what she would do with him.  But not with a new friend.

you're in the city of light

o she really was like him, in the sense that they were both important people.  Maybe she was even more important.  They didn't get things to eat for free or make people behind the desks of hotels scared.  He said fear was a bad motivator.  Whatever that meant.  Byeol-Su didn't think Bones was scary, though, she was nice.  She held her hand and wanted to buy her new foods!  Even if she was an important person, more important than they were, she was still becoming her new friend.  It was so wonderful.  He would be so happy to learn that her new friend was so important, too.  That was something he could make use of.

All Byeol-Su cared about was having fun.  Bones could have been a nobody with no pin and it would still be super fun! Maybe.  Sort of?  She wouldn't be able to buy her new food.  That wouldn't be as fun.  But he wasn't, either, so at least Bones was taking her outside...

Her fears were ebbed away as a clean tear of skin and pale red bubbles caught her eye--a familiar sight, though where the weapon was or how it had created the wound, she hadn't seen.  She was saying yes!  This was even more wonderful!  A new host held with them a whole new world of sensations, of new feelings, of new everything.  Nobody looked at the same world in the same way, and to see through another's eyes was usually a figure of speech.  Only Byeol-Su could truly see what it was like.  What would it be like behind that mask?  Her grin spread so wide it looked like her cheeks were hurting.  "Really??  Thank you!  It may feel weird.  Not bad.  Let--"

A new voice suddenly spoke.  Byeol-Su flinched, her hand already reached out to touch the injury, confused as to where it had come from.  The cut?  The cut was no longer a cut.  Instead it was a mouth, a mouth with teeth and a voice that was not Bones' own.  Byeol-Su gasped and withdrew her hand immediately.  It was the same.  The same as her.  The same but not quite, somehow, it was different.  When she manifested a mouth it simply grew there like it had been there all along.  This one had come from her injury.  Was...this her Quirk?  No?  No, it was a different voice.

Only one.  She wouldn't be the only one.  Oh.

Byeol-Su covered her mouth behind her hands, unsure what the expression on her face was.  Rapture, delight, perhaps she was even teary-eyed.  The feeling she suddenly experienced wasn't once she'd known before.  There were a handful of those with "gifts" in the world, he said.  To find another one inside of a person, another one just like her, must be so incredibly impossible.

Yet here it was.  She lowered her hands and looked between Bones' mask and the mouth on her hand, unable to pick which one she was speaking to--one, the other, or both.  "Another?  Another, there?  Inside, like me?  Bones is host already?  Have...have never met another like me!"  She let out a shrill girlish laugh, clapping her hands in a series of wet sounds.  "I am so happy!!  Thought was alone, was different, was un...une...unique, but is another!  Another parasite, like me!!  I wonder, can share thoughts?  I can't.  Wish I could!  OH!  Has been listening whole time to us?"

With a fair bit more care than she had been ready to exercise earlier, Byeol-Su leaned over the mouth and placed her fingertip on the edge.  She felt a pull.  A pull, like her body could feel the current of Bones' blood through her wound, and wished to flow along through it like foam on water.  Like it was part of her very nature.  It was.  But she didn't rush in right away--rather, she couldn't, she needed a moment longer.  "Sorry to not introduce self before.  Should have said something.  Would not been so shy about hosting," she giggled, "Knowing you are already one!"