Kat jogged forward with Shizuka in her arms hardly noticing the increased weight when after about 30 minutes of running a coppery red started to bleed into Shizuka's fur. *Um, is this a good thing? Shizuka seemed to think she had red hair, but she was also concerned she looked nothing like her mother… Is this an improvement or not?* Kat sighed as she jogged.
*Honestly when I promised to protect Shizuka I didn't think I'd need to protect her from herself. Or maybe I'm the one going crazy… I wonder how the contract factors into that, like if someone tries to compel me to hurt her. No matter just keep running Kat, you can get your answers once she wakes up.*
And so Kat continued her jogging unaware of the passage of time until her passenger stirred in her hands. Carefully placing her off to the side Kat watched as Shizuka slowly woke herself up when suddenly Shizuka's eyes snapped open and she stood up.
"Finally, I'm no longer trapped in her head" shouted Shizuka? with her hands on her hips staring at the ceiling.
"Um, what are you talking about?" asked Kat. Shizuka?'s eyes flashed to Kat before she let out a long sigh.
"It's complicated Kat, really complicated" said Shizuka?
"Soo, are you the same person or not? And am I supposed to be protecting you or is this a problem" said Kat somewhat confused
"Well, it's a bit of a long story, I am Shizuka and she is Shizuka but we are not the same person, or maybe we are? I'm not sure anymore, this wasn't supposed to happen, and it really screwed with her head. Hmmm, ok for simplicity let's call the other one Major and myself Minor, that sounds fun and will help you understand things as I explain them" said Minor
Kat simply watched Minor expectantly.
"Right, right, further explanation. Ok so I died, or maybe she did? Hmm let's start from the beginning. Originally there were two of us, twins, mum had two daughters Shizuru and Haruka. I was one of the two, um I think I was Haruka, I'm not quite sure it's hard to explain.
"Anyway that's not the point. There were two of us until we were attacked, assassins were sent to the palace with orders to kill my sister and me. At the time we shared a room, so they only had one place to sneak into. I'm not quite sure how the snuck in even to this day but clearly something went wrong and my grandmother burst into the room before they could finish us off, so they just used their mana to combust themselves on the spot. The explosion nocked me, or Haruka out and pretty much killed Shizuru" said Minor
"Right, but that doesn't explain" Kat gestured vaguely in Minor's direction "this whole thing"
Laughing Minor continued "Right, so well, sorry I get a bit scatterbrained, it's really hard to hold my thoughts together now that they are so much more free. Sidetracking right never mind. So my Grandmother was already there and she quickly picked us both up and rushed us somewhere deep in the castle and began to set up a strange formation. I woke up, or Haruka did, still complicated, and I mean I am getting there, it's just… right so Haruka woke up and Grandmother explained that she could save us, one of us, and I, I think, decided to save my sister. It was explained that everything that I was would be used in the formula to heal Shizuru's body and soul and that I'd die, but the choice had to be made willing or we'd both die instead"
"Anyway something went wrong, Major, or Shizuru, maybe I think… woke up but she knew something was wrong, she could feel Haruka dying and decided to try and keep me around. Well…. That didn't work quite as well as one might hope, when Shizuru decided to hang on to both of us, we sort of combined a bit but we also split? It's really hard to understand Kat. Anyway, Major seemed to get the biggest parts of both our personalities, sadly I was a bundle of worry and insecurities so Major got most of those, and I seemed to be scraped together from what's left" said Minor. Kat stared at Minor unsure of what to say, mind reeling with the implications of the story.
*What am I even supposed to think about that. What the hell am I supposed to do? Anything? Nothing?*
"What happens now?" said Kat
"Well I didn't quite finish my story Kat, see Major had a few problems, well more than a few problems. Because she took so much of myself with her I was very tiny at the start, hardly a fragment of what once was, and so I couldn't do much at the time, that came later. Major on the other hand was freaking out because she felt like she was responsible for her sisters death, but also that she was dead, and then she had all of Haruka's petty childhood insecurities suddenly thrust upon her and she snapped a little. Just a wee bit.
"Anyway one of the major sticking points causing these issues was my insecurity regarding the fact that I didn't think mum was my mum you know? I looked so different and she always seemed so much cooler than me. Silly in hindsight but it was my deepest rooted fear that all others stemmed from but obviously Shizuru actually looked exactly like her, so one of the major things that was breaking her mind was that inconsistency, so Grandma placed a really powerful illusion on her to make her appear to be me. Plus somehow, we decided to take both names, because using one or the other felt so fundamentally wrong because neither of them were her names" said Minor.
"Right, but your hair appears to be red again now? I thought you said that was an illusion" said Kat
"Well, my hair, Minor's and Haruka's is red, when Major is in control it will go back to being blue. I guess you have true sight or something because nobody else noticed" said Minor
Kat felt a powerful headache coming on pressing against her skull. "So what am I supposed to do in this situation?" said Kat
"Well good question dear, Major's not dead, you've just taking a sledge hammer to the little box she keeps all the nasty memories in when you told her that she looks like her mother. Honestly, I'm just as stumped as you are in regard to what we should do. Honestly, I don't really want to be in charge. It's weird. I mean sure being in control is kinda nice but I really hope this means she will talk to me and besides, Kitsune have a pretty simple cloning technique we can learn off Grandmother and that should let us have a proper conversation, until then I'm really not sure…
I also don't know how long I'll be in control for. See I call her Major for a reason, this is still her body not mine, just at the moment she's in a few too many pieces so I'm the more put together one at the moment, I expect that to end somewhat eventually… hopefully" said Minor
"Right… soo should I tell Major about what's going on when she wakes up? Will you still be around?" asked Kat
"Um, hmm, well depends? I mean, in the ideal scenario when she wakes up Major will be in control, but she can still hear me. If that isn't the case then I don't know if it's best to tell her or not, our minds are already really fragile as they are and I'm not sure if taking another hammer to Major's would be ideal, especially considering the stress she's been under" said Minor
"Ok. What do we do now?" asked Kat
"Well, in the long term we continue on to meet Grandmother, we need her for a few things now, sanctuary from the Beast King, the cloning technique and maybe a little bit to stop our combined minds falling apart rendering us comatose and unable to think. But I mean no rush" said Minor