out on a stroll

“You don’t know what that is…? It’s magic… With the color blue.”

“Well yeah it seems obvious when you say it like that!” She still wasn’t entirely sure what he could mean. Shooting a huge beam that turned everyone blue was all that was coming to her. Though that could be a little funny… 

He seemed a little hesitant to do anything at first, he just kind of stood there. She was just expecting him to decline, we he spoke once again.

“Show you… Celestial!”

Huh, so was he one of them? He certainly didn’t look, or smell like the one she’d seen…

But before she had a chance to ponder it further, a flash above the boy grabbed her attention. Some conspicuously familiar looking blue shot type things appeared overhead. They descended and surrounded the boy for a few moments, before erupting in a cerulean shimmer. 

Utsuho smiled, ever one to be impressed with a light show. But… It had been a little short.

“Awesome! A little small scale though. Scientist get your powers too, huh? So basically, you use the colour blue to hurt people, right? I generally prefer yellows and reds.” 

"It's... Less for hurting people than it is for a... a game, uh.  It still hurts, but not from the magic itself..."

"Yellows and reds... I can use one red magic spell, with this hand..."  He raised his clawed hand.  "... But not here."  Raising his eyebrows slightly, he glanced upward in thought before turning his drowsy gaze back to the other.

“Little sir, where I come from, there is no magic. However, there is something that we have in common!”

“Indeed, the art of impeccable wood-cutting has been passed down my prestigious family line for generations!”

Armstrong observed that the chatter between him and the boy would not last long, seeing that the boy seemed to be neutral to almost everything that came in his way. The Major rose from his seat.

"... I can help."

His hand moved to scratch at his head lightly out of habit.  He couldn't really remember what he was trying to do on the train before he fell asleep -- maybe he had wanted to get to the apartment he was staying at?  Yeah, that was probably it.

She waited eagerly for the recognition and amazement to kick in, leaning forward ever so slightly.

 ”… what’s a Hell Raven?”

God damn it! 

“What’s a Raven?” She repeated incredulously “Well, they’re…” Huh. She’d never really had to explain it to anyone before. It had always been a given. 

“…We’re ravens that live in the Hells, I guess. And we only live there. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any of the mountain crows, but they’re like smaller versions of us. And not nearly as badass.” a grin crept across her face.

 ”Blue magic, huh?” The Power to Manipulate Blue..? She fell silent for more than a few moments, pondering the possibilities. Until:

"You don't know what that is...?"  Almost in disbelief, Sig stared at her.  "It's magic... With the color blue."  He didn't necessarily want to show her, since his magic wasn't very good here.  As in, he couldn't actually hurt anyone with it unless they were too close to him, which was slightly disappointing.

"Show you..."  Silence fell as he thought, a few seconds later he raised a hand and yelled, "Celestial!"

“I’m Rin. Tezuka.”

Before he completely lost interest in the conversation and left (or fell asleep) Sig took a look around, realizing that they were surrounded by stores.  Maybe they could take a look around and see if there was anything worth buying, if either of them could get any money.  At least it would pass the time.

"Were you shopping before...?"

For that he jumped on the boy’s shoulder and sat down there to have some better contact.

Witches?  He'd met a witch before -- but he assumed that these witches weren't the same, since the witch he had met wasn't against humans in any way.  Actually, she was human, which wouldn't make any sense for her to also be hunting them...

Anyways.

“Yeah! It basically means I’m the best Hell Raven. I manage one of the Hells too.”

He appeared to take what she said into consideration before he continued. Or he was just kind of zoning out, he seemed to be doing that  more than a little. She couldn’t be boring him.

It would take a little more talking before he would get bored of this conversation.  And if he did, he thought, he could just stare at her arm.  That should keep him from falling asleep mid-conversation.

"... Blue magic."  He nodded slowly, blinking once.  "Classes are boring, but magic isn't."  Or rather, playing Puyo to harness magic wasn't boring as long as there was a challenge.

“It looks like your eye. The color, anyway.” This boy was interesting. Definitely interesting. Rin was fairly happy to meet him, actually. She wasn’t much of a social person at all - not part of the flock of butterflies making up society - but it was always a delight to meet somebody who wasn’t boring.

Something told Rin this place would be full of people that would intrigue her, and it was such an exciting thought.

"It does..." he trailed off, blinking once.  Though he also wasn't very social, keeping his interest was a key part in keeping him talking.  If anything, he wouldn't fall asleep of boredom talking to this girl if he kept staring at her arms, or lack of.  Actually, she reminded him of himself in the way she spoke...

“Normal? So it doesn’t normally feel normal? I don’t think that makes any sense… I mean, surely whatever’s normally there, is normal… I think…” 

He lowered his arm and offered her his hand, she looked at it for a moment, wondering how much sharper it was exactly, before gingerly taking it in her own. It was a little coarse, she thought, as she rubbed her thumb against his hand, but it was interesting. There was nothing unexpected about her own hand, except a slightly raised temperature.

“Me? I’m Utsuho Reiuji! Hell Raven Extraordinaire!” She beamed, always relishing an opportunity to say her own name.

"Hell Raven Extraordinaire...?" he repeated in confusion, tilting his head slightly.  After thinking about the words for a few seconds, he gave up on trying to figure out what it meant, instead moving on to her question.

What did he do...?  Well, currently he didn't do anything, but he assumed she meant before, at his world.  He wasn't exactly sure of what to call himself, though; he was a student at a school that basically taught how to harness magic.  Maybe he could just call himself a magician...

"I'm a student," he answered slowly, before continuing, "Learning... magic."

“I don’t have any.” She lifted one of her ‘arms’ as if to illustrate her point. “Are you blind?”

It wasn’t meant to be rude. It was a genuine inquiry; the blind boy in the art club hadn’t known, though he was completely blind. Maybe he was like Hisao’s interesting friend with the thick glasses.

“Or maybe just not as good at seeing as everyone else. I know quite a few people like that. My school was full of them.”

"I'm not blind..."

The armless girl's next few statements were of slight interest to him; he himself knew one boy who was probably nearly blind without his glasses, but a school full of people like him?  That didn't seem like a very nice place to be...

What about him?  Was she talking about his weird arm?  He assumed so, raising his red hand and staring at it for quite a while.

He wasn't exactly sure how to answer -- quite frankly, his arm confused him slightly, and he didn't have the attention span to actually figure out what the arm was and why he had it.  Or his eye, which matched the color of his arm.

“… Oi, pay attention when you start a conversation with someone. … Tch, whatever.”

Mahiro didn’t care much for this from the beginning, but the kid (who wasn’t even much younger than him) was off staring at something else. The housing board, something on the ground behind him… wait, no, his hand? There wasn’t even time for Mahiro to react before he was being lunged at, the stranger’s claw-like hand grabbing his coat. A low, guttural sound was made in the back of his throat - a threatening warning of sorts, as alert eyes stared at their point of contact; his sleeve and a portion of his hand.

… Who gave this kid permission to touch him? The fingers of his free hand grazed across the metal ring he wore, his mind thinking of the one spell he had been given. If he could get a blast of speed and throw this guy off of him…!

… oh, the other male released it already.

” … “

… the dragonfly flew past Mahiro’s face before disappearing to continue it’s ordinary bug life.

“… you looking to pick a fight already?” The sentence was spoken very flatly.

/Never mind that you’d crush the damn thing with that hand of yours…/

However, at that moment, the other spoke of his residence - an obvious topic, as both of them stood in front of the housing board, and as they both seemed to be rather new, neither likely knew where their new home was actually located - Mahiro visibly jolted.

“… Are you screwing with me?!” No, the stranger couldn’t have been ‘screwing with him’. They didn’t know each other’s names, and before now residence hadn’t been discussed. That could only mean one thing… this kid was actually one of his roommates. “… What rotten luck. I guess we’re both stuck in the same place.”

Mahiro angrily scowled towards him. … Not that it would have much of an effect. The boy already proved that he was too spacey to be affected by such things.

"... No fights," he responded first, shaking his head slowly before he actually paid attention to what the other had to say, even if he looked more like he was zoning out while staring at the male instead of listening.

For once Sig caught the slight anger in the slightly older male's voice (although he didn't catch the scowl later), but didn't react to it besides blinking once.  He waited until the stranger had finished talking completely before he actually processed anything that had been said.

While he had managed to find the train station, the spacey boy hadn't managed to find much else.  Hopefully, the apartment building wouldn't be too hard to find... unless the scientists had purposefully made it so that the inhabitants of the city couldn't find their homes, it would be logical for an apartment building to at least have a sign.

"I dunno," he answered finally, adding on a second later, "We can go look for it."

If it was true that they were going to share an apartment (which, in all honesty, Sig didn't really mind -- he could fit most of the stuff he needed in his bag, so sleeping and laundry would be the only thing he would need to worry about) then they might as well get to know each other's names.

However, there were a few things about this boy that Armstrong found disconcerting. Normally, boys of his age would have reacted far more dramatically to being crushed by a stranger on a train. A certain short, blonde boy that he knew would be pointing fingers and yelling at the top of his lungs by now. Do children from other universes differ that much in behavior?

“Little sir, you have a rather interesting hand.”

Armstrong had noticed a slight movement in the boy’s peculiar hand.

"Ah," he started as soon as his hand was mentioned, pausing for a while to think.  What kind of function it served...?  Well, as far as he knew, it was useful for powerful magic, and for cutting things.  Though it was probably meant for other uses, Sig hadn't quite figured it out yet, nor did he have the attention span to listen to an explanation.  His interest never really lied within the functions of the hand and more focused on why his hand was red and claw-like.

Lifting the hand, he stared at it for another second before turning his gaze back to the man.

It also seemed to be the first thing that people here noticed about him.

Rin Tezuka’s unfamiliar new surroundings did not faze her in the slightest. Why should they? She was used to being lost, used to being confused. It was the norm for her.

It was, admittedly, a little unnerving to have been whisked away from Yamaku Academy to Hive City without even a five-minute warning. But Rin could adjust, and if she couldn’t…she could simply paint and pretend she was back home.

Speaking of painting, it would likely be a good idea to go shopping. She doubted her apartment would be filled to the brim with art supplies. Rin was almost a bit excited to meet her new roommates, actually. She’d never really lived with anyone back at school - Emi coming in every morning to help her get dressed didn’t count - and she couldn’t wait to see what sort of oddities awaited her.

Assuming there were any.

Even if he had no specific goal in mind (which was normal for spacey Sig) he wandered about, half people watching, half trying to figure out what he could buy, if he still had any money in his bag...

Eventually, he caught sight of a girl with... no arms?  He stopped in his rather slow walking and cast her an almost confused look, his interest piqued.

He'd never seen someone without arms before; he'd certainly seen odd arms, as his own left one was red and his hand was claw-like, but this was different.  Sig took some time to merely stare at her blankly, as he normally did with things that interested him, before eventually starting to walk again in her direction.

When he reached her, he pointed with a clawed hand to her half non-existant arms.

He raised his own symmetry breaker, and she got a better look at it this time. Perhaps it was because she spent all her time with Rin, Miss Satori and Miss Koishi, with spider ladies and drunkard unicorn Onis on the outskirts, but it looked pretty normal to her.

She still came in quite close to get a better look at it though.

He didn't seem to care that she had gotten close in order to take a good look at his hand; in fact he didn't even seem to be paying attention to his surroundings at all, instead zoning out in thought.

"It is sharper," he stated at first, pausing for a few seconds before he simply added, "Yeah."  Another pause, and then he added more, "But it feels normal here."  Which, apparently, wasn't normal.

It was then that he remembered that he should probably introduce himself.  Since his hand was already raised, he lowered it for her to shake.  It had a rough texture, not at all like regular skin.

“I—” Her voice wavered as she was about to just redirect him to some other passer by but decided against it. One hand dropped down to the top of his head as she ruffled his hair. “Hey kid, just remember if you ever need any help, just give me a shout ‘kay?”

As his hair was ruffled, Sig blinked, looking a bit surprised.

"... Yeah," he replied to her offer, nodding slowly.  It wasn't like he had anyone else that would help him so far, anyways -- he didn't think he'd ever need it, but he never knew.  And it was nice to have someone to trust other than the ladybug usually atop his head.

The young man observed the large board before him with dull interest. Did these scientists really expect him to obey their rules? He had absolutely no interest in lodging with someone else, especially not a stranger. Even worse, why did this sound like an apartment set-up? Mahiro’s natural home was a gated-entry mansion. His parents had a summer ‘cottage’ that any average person would have thought a dream to simply live in; he only visited there a few weeks out of the year. And they expected to contain him in an apartment? The sharp, unimpressed and quizzical expression on his face was enough to state his opinion on that matter. He was an entitled and spoiled kid. This wasn’t going to do. It was almost hilarious, he thought, as the bare edges of a cracked grin snuck up on his expression.

… So what was he going to do about it?

That thought was cut short, as he was suddenly approached by a somewhat dazed-looking stranger.

“…. What?”

At first, he was silent. Used to being a rather intimidating and opposing figure, he was hardly ever approached by others. Certainly never this casually, either. … What was with that topic, though? Insects? He had some strange experiences with butterflies, but that was about it.

“… Tch, don’t ask me. Do I look like a guy who would observe nature?” He shrugged, his tone sarcastic. It was rude - even somewhat mocking. “Why not check where these kidnappers stuck you? Mass apartments like that have to be full of all sorts of vermin, if that’s your kind of thing. I’m sure your roommates would love that.”

Though he didn't seem to pay attention while the young man in front of him continued speaking, he was.  However, his gaze was locked on the board that listed where people would be listed -- he had already forgotten which room would be his, but maybe he could read it from where he was standing...?

Right, R-1.  He needed to make a mental note of that...

... but before he could, his attention was broken by the sight of a dragonfly.

Almost immediately, the bug-obsessed teenager lurched forward, attempting to catch the small insect in the palm of his large clawed hand.

Fortunately for him, he managed to grab it (while also gripping the cuff of the other's jacket and part of his hand), unfortunately, he had to eventually (meaning after at least a few seconds of contemplating) open his hand to release the other male's and ended up also letting the dragonfly get away.

"... Aw." He looked disappointed, though he didn't sound much so.

Oh!  And before he completely forgot, even if it was a bit random at the time --