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Soon after Mizuki moves in, she breaks something.
Date is on his computer when it happens, doing some work while away from ABIS headquarters. Even though he’s received Aiba from Pewter well over a year ago, he still has to send in monthly reports on any type of abnormalities he may notice in her output, like a fuzzy view or a delayed response time. It’s an extremely important task, because some unchecked glitches could actually affect his brain… Or so Date’s been told. But, to be honest, he doesn’t care much, and the only reason he manages to send anything in every month is because Aiba ends up nagging him enough.
Make sure you explain that you haven’t been charging me much, so I’ve been operating in low power mode for longer than intended on most days, Aiba tells him as he types. Date grumbles and does as she says. Ever since Mizuki moved in, he’s done his best to cover up Aiba’s existence, meaning leaving her in his eye socket as long as she’s around the house. It’s one thing to not have an eye, but a whole other matter when that eye needs to be taken care of and can also transform into a little blob monster. Date prefers to try and appear as normal as possible so as not to intimidate Mizuki any more than she already may be.
Mizuki’s a nice girl. She doesn’t speak that much to him even though they’ve been living together for almost two months now, but he doesn’t try to pressure her into conversation. He could definitely imagine that she’s a bit unnerved by her situation, separated from her parents and all that (no matter how shitty they may be), so he makes sure not to be too pushy. And that relationship seems to work just fine for them. Right now, Mizuki’s supposed to be doing homework, but Date can hear her walking around the apartment behind him.
You should also mention that on last Tuesday at 5:17 PM you experienced a headache that stemmed from the left side of your face which lasted several hours, Aiba says as Date types away. He’s half trying to pay attention to Aiba, half to Mizuki in the background. There’s some footsteps, the sound of the fridge opening and closing, and then more footsteps. This could be either a sign of strain from work, or something to do with how I connect to your frontal lobe… Either way, it is worth mentioning.
Yeah, yeah, Date nods. He hears something open, like a cabinet, and then clinking, like glass, and the sound of the same cabinet closing. Anything else?
You should ask about how long it will take until we—
There’s a small gasp, and then immediately after, the sound of glass shattering.
Date whips his head around, thinking something fell— he’s not sure why, considering he doesn’t have a lot that would be able to fall over so dramatically— but when he looks over, it’s a much more realistic setup.
Mizuki is standing in the middle of their kitchen space, water pitcher in her hands and glass shards littering the ground around her. The pieces are big enough to infer that they used to be part of one of the two glasses Date owned (he wouldn’t have more, how many people are coming over his house anyways?). It’s easy to draw some connecting lines and realize that Mizuki must have accidentally fumbled it while trying to pour herself some water.
He gets up from his desk and closes the browser on his computer, but he doesn’t move toward the scene of the incident since there isn’t much space over there to begin with. The entire time, Mizuki has been staring down at the ground, unmoving. She hasn’t even put the pitcher down— if anything, he can see she’s squeezing the handle pretty hard. In the back of his mind, Date chalks up her freezing to the fact that she’s only wearing socks, so she doesn’t really have anywhere to move to.
“Ah, man,” Date breathes, putting a hand to his head. It’s time for him to clean everything up, he knows— it only makes sense, as the adult in the situation— but he can’t remember if he has a broom or not. A vacuum, sure, but… “You’re not supposed to vacuum broken glass, right? What to do…”
As far as I can remember, you do not own a hand broom. You can purchase one at the Don Quijote down the street, Aiba tells him.
Date exhaled slightly. Yeah, I guess I can go and buy one, then…
Just as he’s mulling over the situation with Aiba, Mizuki puts the pitcher on the counter.
Then, she drops down into a squat and begins gathering shards of glass in her hands.
Now, Date isn’t a perfect guardian. Arguably, he’s a decent one, considering he’s been caring properly for Mizuki every day now for a little while now, but he‘s a bit more laid back than he probably should be. If Mizuki decides to do something that he might think is a little questionable, like stay up late on a school night, he lets her deal with the consequences— said consequences in this example being having to still wake up early the next day and be a groggy mess. It’s a learning experience for her, so she knows that unless she wants to feel like garbage, she shouldn’t repeat what she did.
But now, that whole “learning experience” mindset is null and void when he sees an 8 year old pick up glass as if her life depends on it.
Date runs over so fast that even Aiba doesn’t have time to make a comment. “Woah, woah, hey!” He butts in and grabs her wrist so she’ll stop. “Let’s not do that, okay?”
That seems to work, because Mizuki does indeed stop, and in that moment, Date uses both hands to lift her by her waist as gently as he can, just a few inches above the floor. Carefully, he sidesteps around the scene of the crime and sets her down in front of the garbage can, and starts to pick the pieces off of her palm in a hurry.
She has not suffered any wounds, so you have no need to worry, Aiba tells him as he does so, and in this moment he’s the most grateful he’s ever been to Pewter for being able to develop such an advanced AI that it can see injury from just a glance. Sure, it was helpful during investigations, but this was especially appreciated. You should be careful, however, or you may hurt yourself. The speed you are operating at may result in gashes depending on the angle that you—
Just as Aiba says that, Date slices the pad of his index finger.
That you grab a piece with. Nice work, Date.
Thanks, I try my best, he quips. He gets the last bits off of Mizuki’s hand before he stands to try and remember where he had kept the bandages in the house. Were they in the bathroom or in the kitchen drawer…?
He’ll remember later— he sucks his finger in the meantime just to get the blood off of him. “You can’t just pick this stuff up. You’ll cut yourself,” Date reprimands Mizuki lightly. “You’ve gotta be more careful…”
There’s no response.
It’s then that Date notices how quiet Mizuki’s being. Yeah, she’s a quiet kid, but she has quips and reactions to things, too. Yet this whole time, she’s just been a stiff, frozen block, keeping her head down toward the ground and not even looking in Date’s direction. It’s a bit concerning. Aiba said she wasn’t hurt, so he doesn’t understand why she’s acting this way now...
Date reaches over to her, like he’s about to ruffle her hair. “Mizuki? You okay?” He says in a low voice, concerned.
Mizuki looks up at that instant, sees his head right above her, and then, something odd happens.
Terror fills her eyes.
In a hurry, Mizuki stumbles backward, nearly knocking herself into the fridge next to them. Then, just as Date gets rightfully confused, she puts her hands above her head and squeezes her eyelids shut. “I… I’m sorry…! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to break it…!” Her voice is choked up and wavering, like she’s on the verge of tears— her entire body is shaking along with the sound of it. “I’m sorry!”
Date pulls himself back, hands up in defense. “W-Woah, woah. Calm down for a sec, okay?”
“I’m sorry! I-I’m sorry!”
He tries to say something else, but Mizuki starts to cry. Not full-blown sobbing, but the arguably worse way to cry— that is, trying to keep yourself together only to slowly fall apart. Her clenched teeth and furrowed eyebrows are trembling as if any second now, she’ll just burst into full blown waterworks.
Needless to say, Date is absolutely confused and completely clueless. Did he do something wrong? Was there something else wrong? He had thought he was pretty good with kids after losing his memories, but making Mizuki cry really turned that on its head.
What the hell? He directs the outburst to Aiba, who he’s not sure if she’s listening, so he calls out, Aiba, you said she didn’t get hurt! Why‘s she like this now?!
There’s a pause. It’s the sort of pause that tells him he should know the answer, and she’s giving him a moment to think about it himself. But when Date doesn’t say anything more, Aiba resigns.
Date… She eventually replies, the tone like a parent to a child trying to remind them of something they’ve forgotten. You remember that Shoko did have a history of being very… hands-on with Mizuki when she did something that was not to her liking, correct?
Date stops.
Then he processes what she’s said.
He stares down at Mizuki, who hasn’t moved from the spot in front of him.
...She thinks that I’m…?
Going to hit her, yes.
Oh. Fuck.
That’s all Date can think to say, really.
In the first place, he wouldn’t even normally imagine himself hitting a kid, especially one that wasn’t his, and especially one that hadn’t done anything wrong. But Mizuki probably— definitely, judging by how she’s preparing herself for a strike, he realizes— doesn't know that.
I feel like a dick. How could I forget that...? He grumbles.
That self loathing can come later. The first step to amend this would probably be to calm her down, Aiba instructs.
Date can agree with that, so he decides to attempt it.
Slowly, he crouches down to Mizuki’s level— he had heard in some book he had read to prepare for taking care of Mizuki that accommodating kids in small ways like this makes them feel more comfortable. “It’s okay,” he says, a bit nervous, himself. “You don’t need to cry. This stuff just happens.”
Mizuki doesn’t respond and doesn’t put down her arms, either. Instead, she more directs them in the angle she can hear his voice coming from, which makes his stomach sink.
“I’m not mad at you,” Date says, his second attempt more confident. “You didn’t break that glass on purpose, right? We can just go buy a new one.”
Still no response.
“I’m not gonna hurt you, Mizuki. But if you want me to go away for a couple minutes to make you feel better, I can do that. Okay?”
Silence still, but now, Mizuki’s crying has slowed to a crawl. Her arms gradually fall from the top of her head to just in front of her face, and they wipe at her cheeks and eyes like they’re trying to erase something.
“...Y-You don’t have to go,” her voice is small.
“Okay. I won’t, then. Are you feeling a little better?”
It takes a good moment for her to respond, with how much she's rubbing at her face. First, though, she shrugs, which he takes as an answer to his question. “I…” she mumbles. “I broke your stuff…”
Date nods. “Yeah, you did. But I’m not gonna hold it against you when you’re clearly upset about it.”
“And I… tried to clean up the glass, and you got mad…”
“That wasn’t me being angry so much as… being worried that you were gonna get yourself hurt. I didn’t mean to come across that way, though.” Date says.
“I… I guess...” By now, Mizuki’s hands are back at her sides, balled in fists, but she’s still looking at the floor. It’s probably her pride coming back to her— not wanting to let him see her blotchy face after she’s done crying— and he’s fine with that if it means she’s feeling a little bit better. Though, that might mean she might be feeling embarrassed about what just occurred…
“...Sorry about crying.” And there it is.
Date shakes his head. “You don’t have to apologize for that.”
“Well, I did. So there,” she snaps, a bit more in character.
“I know, but…”
If you proceed down this exchange, you may get into an argument with Mizuki, which I guarantee you will lose, Aiba chimes in suddenly, and her tone is cheery, like she’s eager to see the altercation go down. For an AI designed to assist him, Aiba is frequently rooting for other people to do harm to Date.
The detective grits his teeth in annoyance. “Shut up, Aiba.”
Mizuki actually looks up at him now— her face is pink and her eyes are red, but other than that, she looks how she always does— an eyebrow raised in confusion. “What’d you say?” She asks, and he curses himself for not being able to break his habit of talking aloud to Aiba properly.
“Nothing,” he shakes his head, trying to change the subject. “You all okay now?”
“...Yeah, I’m fine,” she nods.
“You sure?”
“ Yeah , I’m fine,” Mizuki stresses. She holds her breath for a second, then mumbles, “...Thanks.”
Date pretends not to hear it, because he knows if he acknowledges it, she’ll probably retract it or get more embarrassed, so he just takes it in stride and smiles at her.
Then, Mizuki looks back at the mess that the two of them abandoned— granted, it’s not much, considering they technically cleaned some of it up already, but there were a lot of smaller shards that couldn’t be picked up without some cleaning equipment. “...Where do you keep the broom?” She asks, seeming ready to clean up.
Date puts his hands on his hips triumphantly. “Nowhere! I don’t have one.”
Mizuki stares up at him.
There’s a bit of a silence.
Then, she lets out a sigh.
“I can’t believe I let my guard down around someone who’s barely an adult,” she mumbles. “That was so stupid.”
Then, she turns to the front doorway to grab her shoes and leaves the apartment. “I don’t ever wanna waste tears on you ever again,” she huffs. A quick flick of the wrist, and she’s slammed the apartment door behind her.
Date, not one to be outwittted, scrambles to find his own shoes and wallet and, once he does, runs out of the house to catch up with her, not needing to turn around and lock the front door thanks to a security system Pewter had installed for him. “Wait, if you’re gonna go to Don Quijote, I’m coming with you!” He calls after her as he bursts into the hallway.
He earnestly expects her to already be in the elevator downstairs, but is relieved to see that she’s decided to wait for him a few feet away, arms crossed on the wall opposite of their entryway. The two of them walk to the elevator side by side.
“I have my own money that Daddy gave me. I don’t need yours.”
“Yeah, well, tough. We’ll need to pick up another cup, too. It can be your own personal one.”
“...I want one with flames painted on it.”
“That’s not a thing. Just get a nice plain plastic cup so we don’t need to clean anything if you drop it.”
“Stupid, I don’t drop everything! It was just today! Just now!”
Once they buy the replacement and time goes by, the two of them never discuss the incident again, but it lingers in Date’s mind every day. He decides that as Mizuki’s guardian, he doesn’t want her to ever cry like that ever again because of something he’s done.
So, when he wakes up four years later in the PSYNC room find Mizuki crying as she hugs, he does admittedly feel a little bad that he broke that promise to himself.
But even though she broke her own wish of not wanting to waste tears on him again, Mizuki is okay with doing it this time.