Patchwork

After the peanut gallery was cleared out, much to Akiko's chagrin, Benjiro reminded her that it was probably time that they switched gears. He took out his kit from the other day. Getting a look inside Akiko observed that, compared to it's owner, the makeup was kept tidy and in order. Everything was in its place, no mess or residue and although the casing looked as if it had seen a lot of action and traveled many miles, it was still in decent condition.

"Hey", Benjiro's voice cut through her observations, "I'm g-going to start-t now."

She turned towards the lanky boy and straightened up, implying that she was ready, "So, what are we doing today?"

He bent over, looking like he would fall out from the bed as he stretched out to grab his notebook, looking like a human sized slinky. But he was clearly practiced in reaching for things without leaving his seat. After he grabbed the notebook, he pushed himself back into the bed and thumbed through the pages until he found the right page. Turning it towards her, Akiko had to stifle a snort as she saw the crude drawings. The outline only vaguely resembled a human face, eyes, nose and mouth and the design was so poorly drawn, that it took her a moment to realize she wasn't looking at stripes, but still was in the dark.

"You want to put lightning bolts on my face", she asked confused.

Benjiro gave her a grumpy frown, since he didn't think his drawings were that bad. Acting more offended than he really was, "No", he denied with his lips puffed out, "I w-want to m-make you look like y-your face is a bunch of p-patches."

Looking back at the page, after getting a better look at what could better be described as a doodle, she could kind of see that the lines were meant to look like stitches. Before he started, Benjiro pulled out his phone again to put on more of what Akiko thought to be ugly songs. She still wasn't sure why but listening to the songs and the boy's singing made that uncomfortable feeling she felt back at his house resurface. Considering that he was trying to depict a tortured soul, it seemed only fitting to listen to "Sanitarium." As the the low reverberations of the bass entered his ears, Benjiro could picture the scene right in front of him. Halls with broken tiles, ceiling panels dangling, empty wheelchairs, broken rusty needles, the pervasive smell of bleach, bad hospital food and piss. But in what used to be an observation room where surgeries were performed for an audience, was the sound of crashing thunder, a low moan and the ecstatic celebration of an insane laugh.

After he indulged a quick tour of the cuckoo nest, he brought himself back to look at would become the telltale face of the patchwork creation. He brought out various shades of foundation, dabbing the different colors on certain sections of Akiko's face. The picture of what was hopefully to come, helped to pave the way forward as he carefully spread the various shades of white and beige across the girl's face. Even though he was looking right at it, Akiko couldn't help but notice that he seemed to not notice how much she was being freaked out. She watched him go into his imagination, which she could only assume was something nightmarish and returned looking too absorbed in what he was doing.

With the skin colors spread out into varying sizes of squares, he took out his brush and added some eyeshadow, giving her eyes the look of both malice and exhaustion. For the final touch, Benjiro took out a special pencil and made a series of small stitches around each of the "patches." A few touches here and there to give the impression that not all of the patches were from a fresh body and he had a veritable monster on his hands. He put a hand on his chin as he considered giving stitch marks on her arms, like a certain androgynous ghoul hunter, but waved the idea away. Before she had a chance to ask, he quickly told her to smile, snapped the picture and considered them mostly finished on his end. Akiko traveled over to her mirror to get a look at what the boy had created with his surprisingly effeminate skill. When she saw the freak staring back at her, Akiko took a step backwards with just how real it looked. Benjiro being the recluse that he was, usually wasn't the type of person to bring things up, so Akiko was surprised when she heard him ask:

"Do y-you find the Frankens-stein story s-scary?"

She turned away from the mirror, "What was that?"

After he repeated himself, she thought for a moment, "Hm, honestly I'm at a bit of a loss. I don't really know how I see it. I guess a story about a giant monster made from dead bodies is a little scary. Why do you ask?"

"J-Just wondering", Benjiro mumbled

"Well what about you, do you think the story is scary?

"N-No, I mostly just f-find it s-sad."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, think about it", Benjiro began to explain how the monster was born ugly but had a good heart and good brain. Benjiro went on to point out how the monster just wanted for his master to teach him how to be human, to have a few friends and to find someone to fall in love with. Yet at every turn he constantly has people telling him "No" even though he wants to just have what everyone else does. And eventually since everyone treats him like a monster because of the way he looks, they take someone who has a genuinely kind heart and he kills people from how afraid he is to be hurt."

Hearing that explanation made Akiko pause for a few moments to reflect. Mostly, she was shocked about the way that the normally tight-lipped boy not only talked for so long, but so passionately. And after giving his explanation, she found herself questioning what she thought of the story she was trying to give life to. Up until that point, Akiko was only trying to memorize the lines and figure out a way to properly bring out the nuances of the character, but in the process, she felt like she had missed the main point. The theme of the story wasn't unknown to her but after having Benjiro lay out the facts, she felt like she could give the role a more empathetic touch. While she thought, she also remembered there was something she wanted to ask, "Speaking of being hurt, what was up with you yesterday? You folded in half like a lawn chair."

A look of disgust passed over the normally stony face, 'OK, it has to be something bad if this guy, of all people can't hide how much he hates it', Akiko thought.

After having the situation explained to her, the look on Akiko's face was that of someone who saw a bone shattering injury at a boxing match.

"Jeez, you really got stuck tutoring Daitan Haruoka?"

Benjiro nodded tiredly.

"Even though, I'm not a guy, I can't say I envy you. That girl is pretty rough around the edges with girls, but she outright despises guys. If one so much as looks at her funny, she'll give them hell."

Benjiro looked at her with a confused look, "She's n-not f-friendly w-with the girls?"

'That doesn't make any sense?' he puzzled.

Akiko shook her head, "Not really. She's doesn't really go looking for trouble, but she always has this aura around her like an ice storm. If there are girls out there who can tolerate her coldness, they form more of a master-servant relationship than being friends."

'That explains why those two girls I saw her with, that day, were acting like that', he concluded.

"But she's not completely unreasonable", Akiko continued, "There's a few women that didn't put up with her attitude and Daitan actually came to respect them for it."

Benjiro cocked his head in confusion, "S-Someone actually g-got through to h-her? Who?"

"The captain of the soccer team. When Daitan tried starting something with her, the captain laid into her like a psychotic drill sergeant."

'And that's why after she bossed me around, she went to talk with her captain before doing anything else. Yikes, this captain must be one scary lady to get Haruoka to step in line' he thought shivering.

"W-Wait, she wasn't alw-ways a s-soccer player", Benjiro pointed out, "S-So, what w-was she doing before then?"

Akiko shrugged, "I don't know, I came from a different middle school, so I couldn't tell you anything about what she used to be like.

"Anyway", she interjected, bonking Benjiro on the head, "Enough about Haruoka. We have work to do and we don't have time to be talking about other girls."

Benjiro grunted both in pain and amusement at Akiko's sentiment, 'Am I going to be able to last another three weeks', he wondered.