Idol Ninja

It’s only after Haise has the both of them in the room does he realize something: he’s in the body of a kid. Judging by his current height and from the way that the other person speaks, he can’t be any older than his mid-teens. Haise’s shoulders slump slightly; this just got a little more complicated, and he was never prepared for a situation like this to arise.

“A-Ah, no, I’m not doing anything like that. I think Eternity has caused us to switch bodies,” he explains with a careful tone. “I’ve noticed that it’s done the same thing to some other people here. I’m sorry for rushing at you out of nowhere, but this is very important and I don’t… know what to do, exactly. My name is Sasaki Haise—you can call me Haise, though. It’s nice to meet you.”

He refrains from grinding his teeth out of nervousness… How is he supposed to tell this person that he’s in the body of a monster?

“Do you… feel weird at all?”

          “ Nice to meet you Sa-- Ah, H-Haise-dono... My name would be Ryusei☆Yellow, Sengoku Shinobu de gozaru na! ”

Stating much more than what was necessary, Shinobu spouted words that no one who was not aware of the idol activities of Yumenosaki Academy would ever understand the meaning of, but he never thought it that far. Although at first he had been hesitant about his new status as an idol, RYUSEITAI and Chiaki especially had granted him salvation from the insufferable solitude he always found himself in, and he was eternally grateful to his Captain. But wait, this was not the time for this!

          “ Uuuuuu, as expected... This might be a bit too complicated for me... Switching bodies and stuff like that, it sounds like something that can only happen in a manga de gozaru... I-I mean, I’m right here, aren’t I? But I’m also over there. Something like that shouldn’t be possible, should it de gozaru ka? ”

Index finger going back and forth between what should have been his body and what was actually his body at the moment only served to underline the confusion the young teen was feeling. No matter how much time he spent in this weird place it never ceased to take him by unpleasant surprise.

          “ Weird? ”

Repeating the single word, Shinobu’s stomach let out a low grumble revealing the emotions he was currently feeling and a slight blush made it to his cheecks as he let out a yelp. This was embarrassing! A stranger showed him concern and he let his stomach get the better of him?

          “ Since before I’ve been really hungry de gozaru. Which is weird because I just ate this morning, did I not? But the grumble grumble of my stomach just won’t stop, uuu~, it’s really embarrassing... But it smells like someone is cooking outside de gozaru! So I was going outside kind of... hoping they would like to share with this lost soul, y’know, de gozaru... N-not that I usually go around leeching off other people, I could never get myself to do that! Doing something like asking a stranger for a favour would be too hard for someone like me in the first place... Uuuuuuuuuuuu~........ ”

Oh no.

Oh no, oh no. This is a nightmare, and Haise is absolutely positive that he’s 100% awake for this. Not a hallucination. Not a delusion. Not anything that his mind has made up to play some awful trick on him—it’s real, and he’s spent the past ten minutes feeling a whirlwind of emotions that blew through him so quickly that he’s sure he’ll have vertigo for the next week straight.

This is not his body. This isn’t even a ghoul’s body; it’s a human’s. Someone he’s never met before in his life.  He feels awkward and far more fragile than ever. His senses are dulled to the point where he’s legitimately surprised that he hadn’t known quite the extent of how weak a human’s are in comparison, and there’s even a notable difference in his energy level.

Eternity, so far, has been mostly kind to him—aside from meeting no one other than himself, this is easily the most concerning thing that has happened… because if he’s heard of other people ‘switching’ bodies somehow, then that means that there is someone out there wearing his skin. It wouldn’t be that big of a problem if he weren’t a ghoul in a land populated mostly by humans. He has to keep himself from panicking and quickly get as much control over the situation as he can before anything might happen, and that means he has to find whoever it is who’s occupying his body first.

It’s likely that they aren’t too far, at least.

Haise barrels down the hallways in Spiral’s End, running as fast as he possibly can. He’s much slower than he could be running, and soon his lungs are burning for air—he has to remind himself that he’s not able to push himself as far has he normally can like this, especially because he doesn’t want to hurt whoever this is… Luck seems to be on his side, however, because he spots a very familiar face and darts over to the other as quickly as his aching legs will allow.

“Hello! I think we have something really important that we need to talk about in private, if that’s possible!” He talks so fast that he’s not even sure if the other person had heard him—before they can answer, he grabs their hands and pulls them down the hallway and into the nearest empty room, slamming the door shut.

@idoldegozaru​

The first thing he had noticed was his field of vision. One eye always covered by strands of dark purple hair was remarkably easy to notice the disappearance of. Second was the fact that the strands of hair he could observe were instead pure white. So now the question was simply... who had put a wig on him? Or only if it had been so simple, but the wig did not come off which meant that somehow someone had managed to give him a hair cut. But even this was not so simple, because he did not even recognise the hands that attempted to pull off the white hair.

          “ Uuuuu... This is making my head explode de gozaru... ”

Whatever was going on it resulted in his face actually being visible and not halfway hidden behind hair, and this fact alone was enough to make him feel incredibly uncomfortable. Despite his profession as an idol he was not a boy who enjoyed being the centre of attention, and thus the realisation that everyone could behold his face in its entirety sent shivers down his spine as he staggered down the stairs of Spiral’s End, half automatically. Where was he even going? Shinobu himself did not know. But something smelt nice and it was drawing him in.

Barely had he made it to the lobby before something small and purple dashed up to him and dragged him along with words that were practically lost on the young idol in his half-present state. How funny, he could have sworn that this person looked just like him. This was very peculiar indeed. Could it be a fan? Something like that maybe? Just the thought alone made Shinobu feel bashful, not even realising that a fan would have no way to recognise him in his current state.

Ragged breath coming from the other figure as they finally stopped up -- or rather, when Shinobu was pushed into a room without his consent, too timid to protest to his sudden abduction -- the idol caught a better glimpse of the figure that was surprisingly out of breath: he himself did not feel affected in the least so why was there such a difference between the two? It wasn’t like he was a particularly fit person. But when the other finally turned to face him, there was no mistaking it. The single golden eye that peeked out from underneath purple bangs, the face, the clothes. It wasn’t just someone who looked like him, it was him in every way.

“I don’t know much about ninjas but I’m pretty sure they would have to scale thinner and dangerous areas than a mere flagpole. You wouldn’t want to be a disappointment to the  history of ninjas, would you?” This was an attempt to egg him on, to give him courage and remind himself that if he’s going to go around calling himself a ninja, then he should take the risks. 

“You should practise in a place that has the proper training equipment, this is how accidents happen because people think it’s cool to try it on the real thing first go.” His tone was apathetic, what else could he do to encourage the other to climb down? 

“Don’t make me start throwing rocks at you.”

          “ R-rocks de gozaru ka?! You wouldn’t possibly do such a thing to a defenseless person, right? Right?!

Incapable of seeing the other’s expression due to the distance between them, Shinobu could only trust in the words shot at him in the most displeased tone he had heard for a long while. For all he knew, the albino may very well pick up the biggest and the best rock and chuck it at his poor self.

“OH, I DON’T LIVE HERE, KID. I’M JUST A V.I.P.! EVER SEE THAT GIANT FLOATING PYRAMID HOVERING OVER ONE OF THE CORE’S CONNECTING ISLANDS?” For a short time, an image of the place flashed across his eye before being blinked away. “IT WAS MADE BY YOURS TRULY! NOT TOO SHABBY, RIGHT?” Explanation complete, Bill gave the human a considering once-over before tossing out an impromptu pitch.

“Y’KNOW, MAYBE YOU CAN HELP ME OUT HERE. THEY SAY ALL THIS STUFF–” He rapped against the trunk, demonstrably knocking loose a few lollipops as he did so. “–IS ACTUALLY EDIBLE! I’D TEST IT OUT MYSELF BUT THE LAST GUY WHO SAW ME REMOVE MY EXOSKELETION IS A FEW STRINGS SHORT OF A BANJO THESE DAYS AND YOU STILL NEED TO HOLD ONTO YOUR SENSE OF HARMONY! UNLESS YOU’RE PLANNING TO BREAK UP THE BAND.”

With ostensible curiosity, the triangle floated closer to the other, the downed candy arranging itself into a neat pile that would deposit itself into awaiting hands if the boy was feeling adventurous enough to accept. “IN OTHER WORDS, HELP YOURSELF!”

          “ Uh... It does indeed leave an impression with a wham de gozaru... ”

Not entirely sure how to respond to such a statement of pride, Shinobu could only decide to step on the safest path and remain neutral on the matter. Many things he had seen here, and he had come to believe said structure to simply belong to the peculiar world rather than having been established by one of its inhabitants. Alas, it appeared the boastful comment was not important in the end because sooner rather than later the strange pyramid like creature continued his words, incomprehensible to the young ninja.

          “ I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying, but basically it would become troublesome if you were to eat these snacks on your own and thus, out of consideration for myself you are granting me permission to taste in your place de gozaru ka? ”

Not sure what an exoskeleton was, and even more confused about where the banjo entered the picture, Shinobu could only reach this conclusion which somehow also appeared to be the right one. He was, however, still hesitant.

   [[ … No, I was planning to let you decide when and what to do for it. But I have no complains if you want that… Though if I’m going to be honest, you remind me more of Hattori-kun than that guy.  ]] 

          “ ...... ”

          “ Uooooooh! ”

Yelp leaving the teenage boy, his voice carrying into the vast area surrounding him, Shinobu couldn’t contain the excitement he felt at this very moment. A ninja he may be, a man who has dedicated himself to the training and teachings of the world in the shadows, so naturally he had been looking for a place where he could undisturbed conduct his endeavours. It definitely wasn’t because of the rumours of a piano amidst the plain had lured him in, his status as an idol direction his actions, no, that certainly wasn’t it. But he was a little bit interested. Just a little bit.