Fantasy Eye of the Beholder [Nano x Yoki]

[Nano]

.

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what if no one else can even see what you see?

What the ordinary person knows is a world sworn to normalcy. To them, any fantastic legends or creatures are all just stories made up by the people of the old in order to explain things that couldn't be explained by the science of their time. In truth, some of these supposed "stories" are very much real. Perhaps these legends were even birthed due to a lot more people having this ability to "see" in the past. No one knows why the number of these people diminished, or why this ability even ever existed, but now, the yokai prowl the streets of modern day society, treated like air by the humans who can no longer see them.

However, this isn't the story of the yokai who have been long forgotten by society. This is the tale of the children who retained the ability no longer present in the majority of the human race. This is the tale of those children who were left grasping for answers as to what these creatures were and why they were able to see them.

---​

For as long as you could remember, you were able to see things that no one else could see. Others simply said that you had an overactive imagination, but the creatures and things that you saw always seemed so vivid and so real. In fact, they appeared to be so real that you couldn't tell the difference between what others deemed as reality and those things that only you could see. As you grew up, this supposed imagination of yours changed from you being "imaginative" or "creative" to you being a "liar" who sought attention. As a result, you were forced to learn what was considered "real" and react to only those. You had to learn the difference between what was "normal" and what was "strange" according to the standards of society.

However, everything changes one day. Just as you began to believe that perhaps you really were crazy, someone else reacted to "what should not be seen." At first, you brushed it off as a simple coincidence, but you began seeing more people who saw the world the same way that you did. For the first time in your life, you finally felt at ease, even if it was just a little bit. The things you saw weren't just a figment of your imagination. They were very much real. It was just that most people couldn't see them. Of course, this didn't solve your problem of being able to see them in the first place, but it gave you hope: If you could talk to these people who had "the sight," then maybe, just maybe, you might be able to find some answers on why these creatures and things appear before the eyes of only a select group of people.

However, finding and tracking down one of these people proved to be much harder than you had originally thought. It was almost as if seeking them out purposefully only made it harder for you to find them, as if some higher power above enjoyed watching your despair.

Just as your patience was wearing thin and your hope was dwindling to nothingness, a transfer student enters your school...and this one seems more than just a little suspicious.

Character Roster​

Kashima
Soumei

.

Ueda
Jun

.

code by Nano ​

 

[Yoki]

Status: Healthy
Inv: Headphones | Skateboard | Phone | Wallet​

"Jun! Jun, don't you dare walk out of that do-"

Slam.

The large, solid black walnut door to the front of the family's multistory, modern home silenced the shrieking of Jun's mother as he slammed it closed behind himself with an all too aggravated sigh. There was no need for her to yell at every little thing he did, it wasn't like he was murdering someone or something, he'd just told Mamoru to step off.

He refused to call that man his father, or step father, or relative at all. As far as he was concerned, Mamoru was a control freak with an ego larger than his IQ, and he needed to be stomped out. If no one else would do it, then Jun would.

"Asshole." After grabbing his skateboard from the front porch and dragging it down the steps to the street with him, Jun proceeded to mutter unintelligible things under his breath, mostly about his inadequate excuse of a step father. Okay, completely about that. If there was anything that could piss him off more than that man he was yet to find it. His bratty children weren't much better. They were spoilt, not that that was their fault, but it didn't change the facts.

Dropping his board to the ground as he hit concrete, Jun stepped on and pushed off, planning to get as far away from that household as possible for a few hours. They'd calm down eventually, but right now he just wasn't in the mood for dealing with some self-proclaimed king and his devoted subjects.

It was morning still, maybe ten at the latest, the sky was managing to retain a sort of clear, pale blue colour, although it was still early into the year, hopefully it'd get brighter. The dark silhouettes of looming buildings broke up the horizon in front of him, along with small, moving specs of whites and browns as flocks of birds zipped through the skies. Compared to your average day, it was oddly silent that morning. Instead of the footsteps of busy people rushing the their destinations and the growling of car engines, Jun could hear the rolling of his own wheels as he advanced towards the centre of Kaisei. How nice.

But, maybe it wasn't that much quieter than usual, they did live a little further out after all, and maybe he was just more zoned out that morning.

A sudden jerk under his feet brought the teenager back down to earth, his amber eyes darting down in a panic as he tripped off of his board and stumbled forwards, trying to stay on two feet. The board flipped itself over the obstacle that he'd caught, clattering to a stop around a meter away. What the hell?

"Goddammit." He hadn't been paying attention to where he was going, and due to that he'd managed to manoeuvre himself right into the curb. When did he even cross the road? He didn't remember that at all. Whatever.

Jun turned himself around and went to grab the board that had been flipped onto its back, but the minute he picked it up he knew something was wrong. One of the wheels fell to the ground next to his feet the second he lifted the body off of the ground... Great. "Well, crap." He muttered, sighing again and leaning down to pick up his broken board pieces, "You gotta be kidding." This was the worst time for his wheel to come off, but of course everything unfortunate had to happen at once, that was always how it worked.

When all he wanted to do was skate, this was possibly the worst thing that could have happened that day, but now that it had happened he had to deal with it.

Sitting himself down by the side of a nearby building, Jun turned over his board and rolled the wheel in his hand, looking for where it had come off. It should have been a simple job, wheels weren't that hard to reattach, but...it was a lot less simple when one of the major pieces he needed was missing. Where the hell did his bearing go?! He ran his eyes over the board and then the area he'd picked it up from, but from that angle he couldn't see it anywhere. It better not have rolled away.

A groan escaped Jun as his placed his hands behind his neck and hung his head. Really? Now? He didn't have any spares on him. If the goddamn thing was lost... With yet another sigh, he stood back up, leaving his board where it was, he'd have to look for it then. It had to be around there somewhere... It couldn't just disappear. Like he wasn't annoyed enough, now this? What a day this was turning out to be.

 

[Nano]

.

Kashima Soumei

Thump.

After the final cardboard box was lugged into the room, a certain redhead collapsed onto the wooden floors which were luckily still comfortably cool as the morning sun had yet to begin blazing in its full glory. The long drive aside, moving all of that luggage into their new house had driven him to complete exhaustion. By the time they had finished moving, his arms were left feeling like wet noodles, and his body felt like a hunk of lead. It seemed that (much to his regret) his lanky figure wasn’t just for show.

You would have thought I’d have built up more stamina after running away from those yokai all the time. Soumei thought to himself with a dry laugh that eerily resounded throughout the empty room.

Sitting back up to study his new room, Soumei’s determination to finish unpacking at least half of his things by the end of the day vanished without a trace at the sight of the tower of cardboard boxes looming over him. Suddenly, going sightseeing seemed all the more appealing, even though he usually viewed walking around outside with distaste due to the chance that he’d run into some yokai. Almost as if trying to convince himself, Soumei’s thoughts of unpacking were quickly replaced with scouting out the local shrines until he finally picked himself off of the floor and headed down the stairs to the main floor.

“Don’t get lost!” The voice of his mother quickly called out from around the bend of the narrow corridor upon noticing Soumei creaking the door open. A brief “ok” and the sound of a door softly clicking closed later, the redhead was out to wander the streets of Kaisei.

A saline breeze stung Soumei’s nose briefly. From the moment that he had stepped foot outside of the car when they had first arrived, he had promptly taken note of the fact that the air smelled and felt much different from back in his hometown. As Kaisei was situated nearby an open sea, the constant smell of the beach seemed to envelop the town like a veil. However, he didn’t dislike it. It was comforting in a way, and perhaps even reminded him of his memories of his trips to the beach back before he discovered that there were certain things that he shouldn’t be seeing.

Broken out of his reverie only by a strange noise muddled by his transition back to reality, Soumei woke up just in time to feel a light tap against the sole of his sneaker. Half expecting it to be a yokai who had somehow rolled his way, the boy jerked his foot to the side only to realize upon looking down that it was a...what was it?

Curiosity defeated caution and Soumei found himself reaching down towards the object in question. Tentatively wrapping his fingers around the circular object and bringing it up to his face for further inspection, Soumei saw that it was just a bearing for some kind of a wheel. But what was it doing here? It looked fairly well maintained and based on the fact that it rolled into his foot, it was probably freshly lost unless someone happened to kick it his way.

Deciding that either way, it was probably best to just check, Soumei turned to his left, to his right, and finally behind him before his eyes landed on a boy who appeared to be around his age. Oh.

OH.

The metal bearing nearly fell from his grasp in his surprise, not at the realization that he had probably just found the person who owned the runaway part based on the skateboard just a few ways away from the chestnut-haired boy, but at the sight of one of the things he wished to see last behind him. Luckily, the yokai wasn’t very close to where the boy was standing, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to finish his business and go on his way without catching the attention of the black mass or arousing the suspicions of anyone in the area that he was some schizophrenic off his meds.

Pulling the straightest expression that he could, Soumei stepped forward and tapped the brunette on the shoulder. His eyes flicked from the boy to the yokai a good few feet away for only a brief millisecond before focusing back at the task at hand. With a tone and expression betraying no emotion, Soumei lifted up the metal bearing before him and asked curtly, “This yours?”

status: somewhat tensexxxxx||xxxobjective: find a nearby temple or shrine --> hand the metal bearing overxxx||xxxinventory: ???

 

[Yoki]

Status: Healthy
Inv: Headphones | Skateboard | Phone | Wallet​

"Where are you you little shit..." Jun muttered to himself as he walked around, amber eyes plastered to the ground below. This was more than irritating, how the hell was he supposed to find such a small piece in such a large area? He already knew it was going to be more than lost, blending in with the surroundings, stuck in some crevice, rolled off into the road somewhere. There was no hope of him finding the bearing any time soon, and he knew that, yet he still attempted to look for it. Going home to grab his other set was much less favourable than spending hours looking for the one he'd lost. He didn't want to step inside that house again that day to be honest.

Maybe he'd go stay at Kenji's, he wouldn't mind that much, and maybe he had a bearing on one of his old skateboards Jun could use. Might be his best option. Not that his friend would be in right at that moment, the basketball addict was probably out at training again...

At that point Jun wasn't even really looking anymore, he was just walking in circles grumbling to himself and blocking out the rest of the world. At least the day couldn't get worse from this point, although....simply thinking that had probably cause him to jinx himself or something. Somehow it always managed to get worse when he said it couldn't. Seemed the universe liked a challenge as much as he did.

The mumbling of someone in front of him didn't really click straight away for the teen, he was too wrapped up in his own little bubble of annoyance and fury that he hadn't realised he was being addressed. It was only when he stepped forwards and noticed the other person's shoes directly opposite that he finally looked up. Amber eyes met green as he looked on at someone...he'd never seen before? The boy in front of him looked to be around the same age, bright red hair, scrawny frame, holding something in his hands...

Having noticed the small, circular part the boy was holding up, the focus was suddenly off of the other's appearance and on to the item that he was offering. Was that his bearing? "Wh-" At first Jun couldn't even get a word out, relief washed over him upon seeing the little metal bearing, things were apparently looking up. Thank god for this stranger. "Yeah." Nodding, he leaned backwards slightly and rolled up his sleeves, "It i-" Although before he could finish his sentence, he caught movement from something else out of the corner of his eye.

This was one of those all too familiar situations, Jun kept looking forwards, at the red head in front of him, but he could clearly make out the shape of something he saw too often. One of those things again, great timing. He couldn't deal with this right now. Ignore it.

Bringing his hand to his mouth and coughing like he had something stuck in his throat, Jun resumed his sentence where he'd left off. "Is." He stepped forwards, reaching out to take the bearing from the stranger, "Thanks." Always curt, that's just how he was, it wasn't that he was necessarily trying to be rude to this individual, he just didn't make small talk. Plus he was pissed off enough as it was, and he didn't know this guy.

Jun turned his back on the male and moved over to the wall that his skateboard sat in front of, attempting to ignore their ethereal spectator. Immediately he knelt down and started messing around with the bearing and his wheel to fix the skateboard and get off, but the longer he spent doing that, the more awkward this situation felt. There was something watching over the two, and he had his back to both it and the person who had helped him. He didn't really want to get harassed by one of those things right now, he'd look insane. Maybe he should say something to fill the silence, after all this guy did just save him a trip home.

"You go to school round here?" The question was quick, and not once did Jun look up from his work. He hated pointless conversations and he hadn't seen this individual before, might as well get something out of this one. "I just don't think I've seen you around before."

 

[Nano]

.

Kashima Soumei

When his initial approach had gone either ignored or unnoticed, Soumei awkwardly stared at the metal cylinder glinting in the sunlight. Had he guessed wrong after all? He had never really been stellar at connecting with others or even initiating a conversation, and with the yokai in the back—who luckily had yet to do much more than minding its own business of hanging on a street sign for whatever odd reason—the current situation was stifling enough to have him sweating bullets on the inside.

“Wh-”

At the sound of a voice cutting itself off, Soumei’s attention was quickly snapped back from staring idly at the metal bearing to the boy before him. Ah, so he hadn’t gotten the wrong person after all. Relaxing a bit at the brunette’s confirmation that the runaway bearing was his, the red head reached his hand out to offer the metallic disc back only to freeze and raise an eyebrow as the brunette cut himself off once again. However, he questioned the action no further when the boy coughed as if to clear his throat. It wasn’t like pausing mid-sentence was something strange anyway.

The moment the brunette collected the metal bearing from his hand, the taller boy’s attention quickly flicked back towards the black mass that was seemingly observing them. Eyes of a brilliant shade of green studied the restless spirit furtively before shifting back to stare at the trees lining the streets. It didn’t seem like the yokai had smelled or taken notice of the fact that he could, in fact, see it, so why was it staring them down so intently? Was it just because they happened to be the only two on the street? Regardless of whatever its motives were, Soumei figured that it was best to continue on his shrine searching journey and flipped around to get on his way.

At least, until the boy he had returned the bearing to suddenly piped up with a question.

“The streets here…” he trailed off.The redhead immediately regretted his decision to speak before allowing for the sudden question to roll through his mind for a bit and process properly. What do the streets have to do with whether or not he went to the local school? In fact, what had he even been planning on saying? Was this what his one friend back at his hometown meant by “smart but stupid”?

Soumei coughed awkwardly before assuming a straight face once more. The best way to deal with a screw up with words was to pretend that it didn’t happen. “Soon. I just moved here today.” With that said, Soumei curiously gazed down at the brunette who had begun to tinker with his broken skateboard. Based on the question, the brunette seemed to know the area and people of Kaisei well. Would it be a good idea to ask for directions to the nearest shrine or temple?

His answer came in the form of the yokai (that had been hanging around for quite some time by now) climbing higher up the street sign. If the yokai moved even an inch further, he was going to hightail right out of there with, naturally with some sort of excuse. If he was going to do so, it was probably best to find out the quickest route to the safety of the nearest temple.

“Do you know where the nearest shrine or temple is?”

A teen asking for something like this wasn't too strange, right?

status: waryxxxxx||xxxobjective: find a nearby temple or shrinexxx||xxxinventory: ???

 

[Yoki]

Status: Healthy
Inv: Headphones | Skateboard | Phone | Wallet​

"Huh?" Having heard the other male mention something about 'the streets' there, Jun looked up from his work on his board. What was he on about? The street what now? This guy seemed a bit awkward to say the least, but it was probably better not to question it too much. After getting no answer to the subject, Jun decided not to push anymore. Instead he twirled his board on it's edge, weaving the body in between his fingers as it span between his hand and the floor.

Soon enough the silence was filled with an answer to his question. So this individual had just arrived in town, interesting. He'd definitely seem him at school at some point then, not that that really mattered in any sense, Jun saw a lot of people at school. "Cool." He replied, "It's not too bad...I suppose." Honestly, he didn't really know how to keep this conversation going, or if there was a point in doing so. He'd got his bearing back and he could continue on his way, plus...that yokai on the corner of the street was starting to become quite unsettling. He usually wasn't bothered by the things.

Placing his skateboard back on the ground, Jun was about to say his goodbyes and get on his way when the red head in front of him asked a question himself. The...nearest temple? Huh. You didn't get many of the youths visiting the temples these days, but...he supposed if that was what this kid liked to do then who had a right to stop him? "Uh..." Looking up, the teen tried to remember exactly where the nearest shrine or temple in Kaisei was. It shouldn't be that far away, there were quite a few around after all.

After a few seconds of deliberation, the male thrust his arm out to the left, "Down that street, first right, second left. I...think that's right anyway." He placed a foot on his skateboard and pushed a little so that he slid up just along the street past the other teenager, "Don't quote me on it though, I don't really go to those things." With a sigh, he gave the boy a mini salute and turned around, "Thanks for the bearing. Uh, good luck on...whatever you need the shrine for I guess."

 

[Nano]

.

Kashima Soumei

Breaking into a light jog in the direction opposite to the one that the brunette had taken, Soumei let out a sigh of relief. The mere presence of a yokai was always enough to make him skittish. It was a conditioned response in a way, especially when said yokai looked as sinister as the one he had just seen. Luckily, it seemed that the shrine was rather close to his new home.

Soumei’s gaze locked on the pearly white steps leading up to the shrine’s gates. Part of him wished to go and see what kind of deity was enshrined within the confines of the temple. In the end, the redhead decided that it was high time he returned home. He had to prepare for school in two days, after all.

---​

Verdant eyes flicked about, a hard light concealing the nerves that were hidden inside. No yokai. No tripping. No people giving him strange looks. The day was looking fortunate so far. All he had to do was open that door, step inside, and introduce himself calmly. There was no way that he could mess this up.

“Today we have a ne-”

Or not, as the redhead soon found out when he spectacularly interrupted the homeroom teacher by opening the classroom door before being called in. Right. New students were supposed to wait outside until given the signal, weren’t they?

Though dread began to permeate through his body, Soumei forced himself to look unfazed. The homeroom teacher soon continued his little “pre-introduction” before ushering Soumei to the front to officially introduce him to the class. One sweep of the classroom and a stiff “nice to meet you” later, the redhead was seated and class began as usual.

Hopefully, the rest of the school day would be rather uneventful.

status: nervousxxxxx||xxxobjective: get through classxxx||xxxinventory: bento

 

[Yoki]

Status: Bored
Inv: Headphones | Onigiri | Phone | Wallet​

Class was boring as always, well...it was boring until Jun heard someone open the door to the room.

He'd been zoned out as usual, daydreaming and trying to ignore all of the information that was being thrown at him, but then that boy from the other day walked into class. Of course it had half been expected that he would, he did say he was starting that day after all, but Jun hadn't really seen it as something important to remember, so he hadn't. Maybe he should go talk to him after class or something? Thank him for the bearing.

Nah. He'd already done that, plus Takeo was the welcoming committee in this school. That guy didn't need anyone else's help, and frankly Jun wasn't too bothered about giving it.

As class finished he got up as normal and started to put his unused books away. As expected, his twin brother had practically jumped from his seat to introduce himself to the new kid...and he was related to that guy. If they weren't identical twins then no one would have ever guessed.

Ueda Takeo​

"Hi there!" As class ended and everyone got up to leave someone whom looked oddly similar to the brunet boy Soumei had met a few days before on the streets came up to the male's desk and slammed a hand down on top of it with a large smile. He was smartly dressed, uniform completely in order with a blue backpack hanging over one shoulder.

"Hey!" Someone called to the brown eyed boy from across the room, "You coming?"

"Uh, yeah, gimme a second!"

"Dude, we're going."

"Okay, I'll...meet you out there?"

"Cool."

Having dealt with the situation behind them, the boy turned back to Soumei, standing up straight. "So, where was I?" He looked up for a moment, nodding to himself, "Oh yeah, that's right. I was introducing myself," He held a hand out in greeting, "It's Takeo, Ueda Takeo. It's very nice to meet you Soumei. If you need any help or a guide to show you around the school, I'm more than happy to help, I have a bunch of free time anyway... It's not like much goes on here."

 

[Nano]

.

Kashima Soumei

Neatly marking down the points in his notes that he’d need to revise later in the day, Soumei only closed his notebook right as the bell rang to signal the end of the school day. The redhead prepared to leave only for a hand to slam down on his desk accompanied by a loud greeting. What? Bullying already?

Soumei lifted his head to give the offender a hard stare. His gaze fell short, however, when his eyes met those of the boy from yesterday. Oh right. The brunette was a resident of the town, so of course he’d be at this school. He still felt that something was slightly off. The brunette of today seemed much more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Perhaps he had just been in a particularly bad mood that day?

Waving the strange feeling off, Soumei lifted a pale hand to grasp the brunette’s--now formally introduced as “Takeo”--and gave it a brief but firm shake.

“Kashima Soumei,” Soumei followed up just for the sake of manners. Thinking about it, it was true that the redhead didn’t know much about the school. Taking up the brunette’s offer seemed ideal, but the issue of yokai potentially lurking around took precedence. He didn’t want to risk raising flags on the first day. Besides, the boy had already pointed him towards the shrine. He couldn’t impose on him further. With this in mind, Soumei responded with a light shake of his head. “Your friend is waiting, and just pointing me to the shrine the other day was enough.”

status: slightly puzzledxxxxx||xxxobjective: --xxx||xxxinventory: bento

 

[Yoki]

Status: Irritated
Inv: Headphones | Onigiri | Phone | Wallet​

"Huh?" The confused look on Takeo's face should have been enough to inform Soumei that he had no idea what the red head was on about, "Um...sorry, I guided you to a shrine the other day?" He furrowed his brow, "Are you sure? I've...been out of town for about four days. Was it before that?" Obviously trying to make sense of the situation, Takeo scratched his head. "Did I forget about this?" He mumbled to himself, looking down for a moment.

Whilst the two talked Jun had picked up his bag and started towards the door of the room, he didn't plan on going home. It had only been two days and he'd already moved into another one of his friend's to get away from the devil himself. Though he'd have to be switching houses soon... Maybe to to Yuu's.

Of course, he couldn't get out of the door without catching his confused brother's eye.

"Jun!" The call came from across the room, making Jun halt and sigh. He paused for a second before turning around slowly and walking towards the male with an obviously sarcastic smile.

"Oh hey Takeo..." He slurred, too obviously not interesting in conversing with his brother, he knew what he was going to ask already.

"Mom's been trying to call you. Did you get her texts?" The two really were identical, if it weren't for the slightly scruffy uniform and beanie that Jun wore it would be like someone was talking to themselves in the mirror.

"Yeah. I got them." Jun muttered, turning his gaze to the side.

"Are you going to get back to her?" His twin talked fast, not letting up, "Or come home? She's kinda worried, and she needs the help. You know how it is, with all the kids and stuff it's kind o-"

"Can we...talk about this later?" Raising an eyebrow and landing his hands on his brother's shoulder, Jun's gaze flickered back to the new boy standing behind them, "Somewhere else."

"Oh." Takeo turned back to Soumei and smile, "Oh yeah, sorry, how rude of me!" Straightening himself up, he turned back to Soumei, "Sorry about that. Uh, this is my brother, Jun. He's a little hard headed, but I'm sure you'd get along!"

"It's fine. We already met." Jun replied, crossing his arms.

After a second of silence and looking between the two in confusion, something in Takeo's head seemed to click. He looked up to Jun, blinking a few times, "Oh! You didn't happen to give him directions to a shrine recently, did you?"

"How'd you know?"

"He thought it was me."

"Go figure." Jun snorted, looking to the side, "We are identical."

 

[Nano]

.

Kashima Soumei

“Huh?”

A confused sputter and a series of equally bewildered mumbling notified Soumei that Takeo had no recollection whatsoever of the incident. Had he gotten the wrong person? No, the brunette seemed a bit different from when he had seen him two days ago, but it was without a doubt the same person. At least, unless he had met a mirage or some doppleganger that day.

Distracted by his own musings, Soumei failed to take note of the new boy who had been called over by the befuddled brunette. However, his eyes continued to stare off to the side when he came to. He didn’t know why, but the air felt tense, perhaps due to the “mom” that the two spoke of. It wasn’t his hobby to pry or “eavesdrop” on such topics, so the boy chose to “politely” ignore the two who had somehow forgotten his presence.

When the focus of the conversation was brought back on Soumei, the redhead finally lifted his head to face the two once again. He froze. In front of him were the brunette and a near carbon copy of said brunette.

Though his expression remained as unreadable as ever, Soumei felt his eye twitch slightly. A steady realization began to settle itself in his stomach. With the words “we already met” and “we are identical”, the fact that he had missed was put in plain sight. It wasn’t one person who was showing two different sides of himself; it was two different people altogether.

“So that’s why…” Soumei breathed out, his volume like that of a whisper. ...that’s why he seemed so different then and now. He’d make sure to take note of that from now on.

Soumei slowly rose from his seat before pushing his chair back in. He lowered his head in a slight yet still apologetic bow. “Sorry for misunderstanding, and thanks for the other day.” Relieved that he had finally expressed his gratitude to the right person this time, the redhead lifted his head up, grabbed his bag, and prepared to leave.

“And thank you for the kind offer, but I’ll have to get going now.” Soumei said solemnly to Takeo before heading towards the door.

A quick scan of the hallway showed no underlying yokai in the midst of the sea of legs. Satisfied with this observation, the redhead went off on his way.

status: "phew"xxxxx||xxxobjective: get home safelyxxx||xxxinventory: bento

 

[Yoki]

Status: Irritated
Inv: Headphones | Onigiri | Phone | Wallet​

"Uh." Jun furrowed his brow as Soumei bowed in appreciation, "It's...okay?" He replied, there really was no need for that. Sure, he wanted to thank him, but he really was being all too polite and formal about it. It was...a little strange considering the brunet wasn't much for formalities himself.

"Well look at that." Takeo chuckled, earning a quick warning glance from his brother, "You should take a leaf out of his book Jun, maybe then you wouldn't get into so many fights."

"Shut up Takeo." The boy sighed, rolling his eyes and readjusting the bag strap slung over his shoulder.

Just as the more friendly of the two twins was about to open his mouth again both boys were interrupted by Soumei suddenly taking his leave. "Uh." For a moment they stood there in confusion, wondering how to react, but Takeo had never been one to wait very long. He'd just met a new student and that boy was relentless, he just had to make friends with everyone.

"Hey! Wait up!" Calling after the red head, Takeo pivoted on one foot and rushed out of the classroom to try and join Soumei in the hallway, obviously still feeling as if they weren't finished.

Jun sighed, rolling his eyes again at his brother's over-enthusiasm. He never gave up did he? Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised his Soumei became fed up with him after a moment or two, that boy seemed...quiet to say the least. Did he just not like interacting with other people? Or...was it something more? Who knew. Either way it was none of his business.

Well, he had enough problems on his hands to last him a lifetime, he didn't need to start thinking about whether some new kid was socially awkward or not. Whatever. He had to go figure out whether he was really going to message his mother back or not, Soumei had at least bought him some time by taking Takeo's attention away. Maybe he could escape the guy, find somewhere quiet in town, somewhere he wouldn't be bothered and could think things through for awhile.

Thinking of the different places he could hide from his brother, Jun headed out of the classroom and towards the from of school. Hopefully nothing got in his way this time.

 

[Nano]

code by Nano

Kashima Soumei

Being all too used to weaving through the hustle and bustle of a crowd, Soumei managed to give Takeo the slip. Not that he had taken note of the older twin’s futile attempts at catching up to him anyway. There was something about the atmosphere that made it feel charged. It was the same foreboding feeling that he got every time something bad was about to happen, and he wasn’t about to sit around helplessly waiting for it to happen. However, the moment the redhead arrived at the school’s front gates, his blood froze.

It was the same yokai he had seen twice before: once during his initial encounter with Jun and again during an errand at the grocery store. Soumei had indeed made the mistake of making brief eye-contact during his second run-in with the black mass, but there was no way that would have triggered it to haunt him...right?

Verdant eyes opening only a fraction in muted surprise, Soumei forged on without even a pause in his step. Doing so would only have aroused the suspicions of the yokai, though he wasn’t sure whether or not the yokai already realized that he possessed “the sight”. He took one step, then two, then three, and so on until he was at the gate. Each step closer to the yokai caused an electric current to seemingly run up his legs. Being right next to it made it feel as if ice were clawing at his heart in his anxiousness. Yet he somehow managed to keep up his stoic mask.

A moment of peace washed over Soumei as he finally dragged himself a good few feet away from the front gate. That relief was rather short-lived, however, once he took note that the yokai had moved from its original perch on the gateway. A few more steps forward confirmed his fears. The yokai was following him.

Walking yet another block down with bated breath, the redhead waited until he was a good ways from the school and away from the presence of people to address the dark menace. Soumei came to an abrupt halt. Without even turning his head, he waited until he felt that the yokai had creeped close enough to hear his low murmur. “State your business.”

Without a doubt, the yokai would recognize that Soumei’s demand was aimed towards it. Any other passerby would likely just figure that he was musing to himself. The only thing he had left was figuring out the yokai’s intentions. If it was malicious, then he’d make a mad dash for the local temple or shrine.

status: tensexxx||xxxobjective: figure out the yokai's intentionsxxx||xxxinventory: empty bento

 

[Yoki]

Status: Suspicious
Inv: Headphones | Onigiri | Phone | Wallet | Skateboard​

Jun couldn't help but be thankful for Soumei's sudden dash out of the classroom, and taking Takeo with him. By the sounds of things Takeo had lost the boy, considering Jun could feel his phone buzzing in his pocket every two seconds and there was only one person that could be. Thank god his twin had been relentless enough to try and follow the new student. Now he could keep running from his problems, as usual.

Having grabbed his skateboard and headed out of the front of the school, the brunet was travelling down the pavement as usual, almost crashing into civilians here and there. He was tempted to head for a skate park, or go back to his friend's. There was no way he was going home, no matter what Takeo said about their mother. It wasn't that many children, she had her stupid new husband, she had Takeo, and if she needed anyone else why not just call up any of her other two children? Geez, she didn't need him there all the time. Not like he ever did much that she thanked him for anyway.

Lost in thought, Jun carried on down street after street, ignoring most of his surroundings. He just wanted to get back. However, there was one thing he couldn't ignore.

As he casually rolled on down the pavement a few block away from the school something caught his attention. Out of the corner of his eye he saw an all too familiar sight. Was that...one of those things again? Okay. So seeing yokai, or whatever they were called, really wasn't a big deal to Jun anymore, but this time it was different. It wasn't just the yokai that caught his attention, it was the person with it.

The new kid, Soumei, stood with his back to the thing. What was he doing? Just standing in the middle of the street like that. And what was it doing? Just staying there with him?

Turning his attention back to the street in front of him, Jun carried on a little further down the road before jumping off of his board and flipping it up it his hand. Something about this situation didn't seem quite right. Sure, he'd seen yokai hang around people before, but this one...it just felt off. He still didn't know how or why, it just did.

After propping his board up against a nearby wall, the male took his position leaning again a lamppost. He wanted to watch these two. Who knew that yokai's intentions? Those things weren't always exactly the friendliest. For now he'd just watch over, see what was going on for a moment. So, that's exactly what he did. He reached in his pocket, pulled out his phone, and pretended to text whilst occasionally glancing over at the strange boy standing with his back to a peculiar mass that most couldn't see.

 

[Nano]

code by Nano

Kashima Soumei

A bead of sweat trickled down his cheek with a nervous swallow following soon after. Instinct told the redhead to make a break for it right then and there. However, the tension in the air rooted his feet to the floor, almost as if he had gotten them stuck in a tarpit. The yokai wasn’t speaking, and its silence made it hard to breathe. He was sure that it had heard him despite his mumbling. Why wasn’t it reacting? What was it planning?

Soumei could have sworn he had heard the sound of something roll to a stop, but that idea was quickly forgotten when the black mass shifted to leer down at him. A hollow laugh reverberated through the air, and that was enough of an answer he needed. There was no need to stick around even a fraction of a second longer. Besides, his body had already moved before his mind.

A sharp twist of his body and a flick of his wrist sent the empty bento box in his left hand spiraling towards the black mass. It didn’t do much to ward of the yokai, but having hit it square in the face, it was enough to stun it long enough for Soumei to make a start dash in the direction of the nearby shrine. By the time the yokai had recovered, the redhead was already well off on his way, not that he bothered to look back to check on its status.

A right, another right, straight, then a left before another right. The shrine was well out of the way of the hustle and bustle of town, thus by the time Soumei had made a good three-quarters of the way there, his lungs were burning. Tripping over a set of bushes tempted to take a breather within their cushioning, but he knew better. The last time he had allowed for a brief respite, the yokai had managed to tail him by his “scent.” Every muscle in his body screamed in protest, but he managed to pick himself back up. It sure was surprising that he didn’t have better stamina considering how often he was forced to run around town like a headless chicken.

Unlike the temple back at his old hometown, this shrine spared him from a climb up a seemingly endless flight of stairs, a feature which Soumei appreciated greatly. First catching his breath within the safety of the shrine’s enclosure, the redhead later dug his phone out of his bag to send a quick text to his mother. “I’ll be exploring Kaisei a bit more, so I’ll be home late today.” With the deed done, Soumei leaned his back against the nearby tree and closed his eyes for a brief moment.

Less than a week in and he’d already managed to get himself in trouble.

status: tiredxxx||xxxobjective: rest up before heading homexxx||xxxinventory: cellphone