My blooming future

One thing had happened after another so suddenly. Not a light sleeper at all, the evening was hard to sleep in on to the end of the festival. That feeling of blankness after a high settling in and leaving Gao restless for most of the evening. 

He did end up falling asleep at one point, only to awaken shorten after to screams outside. That was enough to place him on alert and hastily head outside. It was chaos. Not new but still difficult to work through every time. That difficulty only persisted, escalating when, the moment he had moved instinctively to protect another, Gao hit the ground and felt an innate fear chilling his body before things went dark.

An awareness of a voice, so familiar, echoed in his head. There’s a moment of relief but confusion when his eyes weren’t opening, at least, not by his will.

“You… Wait— Let go of—!!!”

Instead, his gripped tighten on the person and— Oh. It’s Tokoha-san… but why does she look scared? He feels his mouth widen; a sharp shrill that mixed with his voice came out and it used force to shove the older to the ground. 

Trap her. Then— 

Gao felt physically sick at the next thought but whatever was controlling him wasn’t letting him through. Face contorting, settling to one of fury and hostility, it raised Gao’s arm, forming a first and taking aim.

“W-what are you doing?”

No matter how much she shook herself his grip on her wasn’t breaking. She didn’t have a full understanding of what was happening but one thing was certain, this wasn’t Gao in control. Struggling harder then ever, she was nervous about harming Gao, however it was clear she would have to rough him up at his next action that had his Buddy rushing towards them.

Eyes widening as his fist raised up to strike her, the struggles ceased as shock overcame her, her friend was going to hurt her. Drum wasn’t going to make it in time, this was it, there wasn’t anything she could do if her arms were still pinned to her sides- ah but wait.

Her legs were still free.

“I’m so sorry about this!”

Her brown boot shot out to attack the only area she could, a most, unfortunate area but the only one she could hit. It was enough for him to release his grip and stumble back, falling to the ground to recover for a moment.

It was all the time Drum needed to reach them.

With a puff of smoke, he was larger, (more 3d?) as he scooped her up and started leaping away from their friend. 

A bit startled at first she adjusted quickly before turning her attention to the dragon. “Is that actually Gao? Just what happened to him?”

Maybe now wasn’t the best time, she could get a full explanation once they were safe.

He just wasn’t giving up. Her zombie lookalike brother still dragged itself after her no matter how much distance she put between them. And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, Tokoha was beginning to tire out from running away from all of them. 

While she had managed to defeat a few with some improvised weapons, such as a shard of glass she recovered from what looked like the scene of a fight, it was still too much to handle. 

Just when you think things couldn’t get worse, good old Murphy’s law came into effect.

Something slammed into her, throwing her off her feet and onto the ground, and then a rotten pair of hands pinned down her hands, trapping her.

Letting out an ear piercing scream, she could do nothing but thrash her already exhausted body around as a head came down to clamp it’s mouth on her neck-

But in one fluid motion, its head came detached from the body, flying far as the body crashed down next to her. Another pair of arms scooped her up, clutching her protectively against his chest as he readied his sword again.

She was too stunned to move until one of them, a corpse, that looked one her own brother started trudging towards her.

What was happening?

Fleeing from the lethal lookalike by whipping around a corner, she continued her escape as fast as her legs could carry her.

How did this even happen?! Everything was so calm and peaceful not too long ago and now it seemed like they were thrust into the plot of a horror film. 

Panting, she took a risk looking back for a second to see the distance put between them, collapsing to her knees to absorb everything that was happening. Zombies, ghostly figures haunting the skies which occasionally swooped down to the ground, the last thing she needed was to see what one of those ghosts would do if it came near her so she forced herself to stand back up and keep moving.

That is until, she caught sight of a familiar figure on the ground nearby.

“Gao?!”

Kneeling beside him and wrapping her arms around him to help him up, she breathed a sigh of relief to see he was alright. And his Buddy, she believed he was called, wasn’t too far away either.

“I’m glad you two are alright, we should leave before anything happens-” She stopped herself when the grip Gao had on her arms tightened and he looked at her face. 

“Come on, why do you have to single me out!” he said with a look of shock and exasperation, rubbing the back of his head with his hand

“Honestly how did I get roped into this…”

He had no desire to be here. He had no desire to play at all. When he was begged to help he assumed it would only be one quick game, and accepting was the easiest way to get it over with. Between the heat and the loudness of the beach, it was really just too annoying for him. If there was going to be any kind of sabotage it would probably be to his own teammate rather than to his opponents, but that would just lead to more trouble than if he’d persisted in turning it all down.

“Well, if you’re that eager, I guess I’ll have to get pumped up enough to match it.” he said, mostly a feign, but a bit of the competitiveness was real. “I really should warn you though,”

“Sorry, but I don’t play nice.”

@bloomingqueen → @grandsheltknight → genesismaiden

Trying very hard to ignore what appeared to be smoke still rising from the crater, Tokoha spun the ball in her hands as she stared at her opponents. A middle aged man who looked ready to leave any second and that cosplayer from before. 

When Misaki had come to her with an idea to team up for a volleyball tournament, she couldn’t resist agreeing to spend time together. Although uh, she was secretly thankful their opponents were people who seemed normal compared to some of the other participants. 

Raising an eyebrow at the older man, she opened her mouth to retort, "Then feel free to cheat all you like, you’re still going to eat sand at the end of this.”

Exactly what kind of team is this even supposed to be. Certainly not your typical group. Who thought this was a good idea in the first place? Whether they’d work together well or not remains to be seen, but there’s always the chance everything turns out okay. The task they had been set sounded simple enough. So long as they could all agree, even if their name didn’t particularly inspire intelligence.

“There’s no way to tell unless we try it out. It’s risky though. Might be better to wait until we’re ready.”

A brief look given to his newfound allies before staring at the so-called gun. If you could even call it that considering it isn’t a weapon. Gods knows how they’d pull this off.

“Shall we start looking around then, if everyone is alright with moving along?”

bloomingqueen → belssiah → taiyoubanchou

Tensing up as the item zoomed straight at her, she soon relaxed again as her blue haired companion caught it before it could clash with her face.

“T-thank you.”

Although she wasn’t expecting that for a name, it was better then standing around debating for who knows how long.

"We won’t find out anything by standing around, let’s start moving and get this done.”

Turning around on her heels, she started forward while motioning the others to follow.

Brushing a lock of hair behind her ear she continued her trek through rubble until her foot caught on a piece, sending her plummeting to the ground. Thankfully there was no rubble on the area she landed on, didn’t make it hurt any less. 

Groaning, Tokoha started to push herself up until an outstretched hand entered her vision. Tilting her head up, two silhouettes were in front of her, and a gasp escaped once she looked at their faces, what were the odds she’d run into them?

Her momentary shock gave way to a smile as she grasped the hand that was offered to her, as the boy helped her to her feet, his partner watching.

Wobbling a little bit, she steadied herself while finally letting go of his hand. “There you two are, I’ve been looking for you.”

Getting roped into a team with two strangers and a familiar face was not how Tokoha had imaged spending her day. It’s not like there was anyone else her and Gao knew around at the moment.

“So,” She began while observing her three companions, “Can we make this work? This isn’t my idea of an ideal team but we should try.”

One appeared to look like a cosplayer, Gao looked just as confused as she did, and the other stranger was wearing interesting headphones while fiddling with some kind of device in his hands. Both were strange, but they didn’t seem to be bad company to be around.

Sharing a glance with Gao she turned her attention back to their teammates.

“I suppose we’ll have to decide on a name before we get started, any ideas?”

Tasuku was finally using the magical bow as intended, mostly because the magical warrior who was already fighting seemed to be handling herself just fine. And of course she would be–she was none other than Anjou Tokoha! But even Tokoha was likely unused to fighting while airborne (any normal human would be), so Tasuku gave her a bit of a hand.

Though he did catch her first impression of his magical appearance on the wind.

“Again with the idol thing? I’m nowhere near as cool as an idol!”

He flew up to meet her, and noticed some changes. For one, she was taller than he remembered; like Shion and Chrono, she must’ve undergone a growth spurt. For another, she was donning a familiar outfit: Ahsha’s clothes. 

“Yes, it’s me! Long time no see, Anjou-san. Are you alright? Those monsters didn’t hurt you, did they?”

She nodded to answer his question while twirling around in the air for Tasuku to see that she was fine. 

“It’s good to see you again as well Tasuku-kun, I wish we could have meet under better circumstances, but better now than never right?”

He didn’t seem much different from what she remembered, still a kind boy looking out for others. 

Taking to the skies was truly a beautiful experience, the wind in your hair, the view, the feeling that you can do anything, and all these flying monsters trying to attack you.

Deciding that Kai and Ai-chan needed some time alone due to Ai’s situation, Ahsha took advantage of her new found ability to fly to see if any other areas needed help. And they certainly did if the condition of the skies were anything to go by.

Thankfully backup arrived in the form of arrows that flew past her and struck several of the flying creatures. Shooting one more beam at a monster before turning around to thank them, her assistance came in the form of...

“An idol?!”

From a distance that outfit gave of the impression of an idol, but after flying a little bit closer to get a better look his familiar blue hair and ruby eyes could only belong to one person she knew.

Not expecting to be called out while shopping, Sougo turned to the speaker. Potatoes? That was a mildly odd request, though, as he glanced into his basket, he thought briefly if it was possible for the meal he was creating. 

Well, it was only him he was cooking for. It wouldn’t hurt to give them to her.

“Hmmm, I can make do without some.” Reaching in, he took out a few to hand to her. “Do you need more or is that enough for what you’re cooking?”

She looked youthful, but had an air that belied her age. A kind of confidence and weariness. Similar to the set of young boys from Yuki’s dinner. He wondered if it was from being here long or something from her own world that caused it.

Grasping the potatoes within her hands she took a moment to evaluate the details of it. The red skin, just the perfect shade with no blemishes. Running her figures over them Tokoha could tell the texture was nice and smooth. One was small while the rest were medium in size, but they had an oval shape to them. Giving them a slight squeeze, she could tell they had the firm feel she was looking for. Clearly this man had an eye for choosing the right potatoes.

“Ah, thank you! This means a lot, I’ve been looking forward to cooking for my friends for a while now!”

Before she knew it her eyes were trailing down towards his basket just to make sure she wasn’t taking too many.

And wow. He certainly had quite a few in there, with some variety of other vegetables as well. And those chili and peppers had her wondering if he was planning to send some poor soul to a spicy grave.

Tokoha blinked.

She had agreed to cook dinner in the house tonight, a stew for everyone to enjoy, unfortunately she ran into a problem while shopping for ingredients. They were out of potatoes. And no stew was complete without one of the main ingredients.

Looking around, she decided to see if there was anything she could use for a substitution until something, or rather someone, caught her eye. And that white haired man just so happened to have a shopping basket with some potatoes.

She didn’t that many for her stew, surely it would be alright if she could ask for a few of them? Taking a breath she approached him.

“I don’t suppose I could have a few of your potatoes? This is the only place I know that is near where I live.”

Once they’ll pulled back from the embrace, it dawned on Aichi how Tokoha was almost no different in height to himself. How she’d grown.

First order of business apparently was to affirm his statement; return to the space which was her’s alone. Aichi followed behind, not to enter into the room once she’d passed through the threshold, and instead lingered in the doorway.

She commented so calmly about the layer of dust which had taken residence on quite a number of possessions; the folded clothes which Misaki had left on the bed toppled over and sprawled across the sheet beside Tokoha. He answered it with a sheepish laugh - he’d not seen the harm in popping in to keep the room from falling into its current state. But without Tokoha’s consent, it felt… invasive.

Arms folded loosely against his stomach, his body tilted towards and propped itself against the door-frame, with features as soft as ever.

“I had faith that you would come back. We might need to establish some house rules about bedrooms for when someone’s out”.

She couldn’t resist laughing at the line that sounded like something out a cheesy romance novel, which was entirely possible knowing the books Tokoha caught him reading sometimes. 

“Maybe the first rule should be to avoid going into Nee-san’s room unless you knock first!”

Not even Aichi or Kai could save a poor soul who would foolishly walk into a sleeping lion’s den.

Setting joking matters aside, there was already a list of rules going through Tokoha’s head regarding the bedrooms, but there were other matters to talk about first.

“Say, how have you and the others been doing? Surely something big must have happened when I wasn’t around to keep everything in check.”

Stories about her time in Paris were dying to escape from Tokoha’s mouth, she held back of course. First she wanted to know how the family she made here was doing.