legendary brave

Closing his eyes, he breathes an airy sigh. But, after all, he supposes these kinds of doubts are only possible because he’s woken up. It’d be too pointless to linger on them for too long now. Sharp, succinct rapping on his door successfully halts his train of thought anyways, signalling what he assumes to be the arrival of a nurse.

"Haruka, you have visitors," a voice calls out through the door. Blinking, the dark haired boy briefly wonders who might be coming to see him. Hm… he only remembers collapsing, but nothing at all about how he’d even gotten here. It must be whoever brought him to the infirmary, ah he’ll have to thank them for sure.

"They can come in," he replies after his moment of reflection. When the door opens to reveal his guests however, Haruka can’t help gaping.

Until one of the nurses comes over to take both of the boys over to the patient. 

It doesn’t take long for Tenma to react quickly to run into the infirmary given his athletic background, and rushes into the room despite Haruka’s gaping expression. The boy runs by to Haruka’s side and nearly has tears forming in his eyes, sniffing as words choke up in his throat, “I…. I was worried!—- I saw you on the ground and you weren’t breathing right and and and—-“ 

It’s obvious his mind is in a frenzy, almost frustrated at the situation until the boy finds the words spilling out of his lips. “Tasuku helped me carried you here… I’m so glad.. that you’re okay..” Tenma rubs away the tears in his eyes from the panicked crying he’s been doing and gives Haruka a weak smile,

"I’m so glad…."

Tenma wasn't as composed as he was though, it seemed. As soon as the nurse had left them, the boy frantically ran over to Haruka's side, the force of his emotion showing in the tears that welled in his eyes. Tasuku couldn't help but smile -- he really must have stressed himself out thinking about Haruka's health. It came as a relief to the both of them.

The blue haired boy walked over to the other side of Haruka's bed, pulling over a nearby chair he promptly sat down on. "You gave us quite a scare, but that's all in the past now."

Sapphire was excited; she has been ever since she saw the new dorm listings. While she hadn’t even gotten to meet her previous roommate, that wasn’t the case with the person she was now to share the room with. Fellow former captain of the Blue team in the Kerria paintball war, the brave soul who wrestled the knife from Mary after she had stabbed the brunette.

He was none other than Tasuku Ryuenji!

Eager to make a good first impression, Sapphire had even gone as far as to make sure the entire room was spotless; from beds made so neatly you could bounce a dime off of the sheets to books arranged by subject and volume. It was bound to fall in to disarray eventually - at least on her part - but for now it looked wonderful!

All of that work was about to pay off. Sapphire sat on the edge of her bed, tapping her foot to an unknown rhythm when her sharp ears picked up on the sound of footsteps approaching on the other side of the door. That must be him!

As he walked down the hallway in search of his room, Tasuku wondered if Sapphire was fine after getting stabbed like she did -- hopefully the wound was healing nicely. At least thanks to Josuke's strange magic (he didn't know what else to call it) his managed to completely disappear. From where he had witnessed the deed before, the knife appeared to have struck her pretty deeply...

Well, he'll find out soon enough, seeing as he'd just reached the door to their room. Did she get here first? Turning the doorknob and peering inside gave him an affirmative answer, and he soon opened it completely to step inside. She seemed to be in pretty high spirits, which was a good thing.

"Hello again, Sapphire."

 ”What the fuck?” were the only words he could yell as he bit his lip and groaned in pain. Letting Cerberus’s card fall next to him, he furiously glared at the other with tears in his eyes, whimpering just the slightest. Unable to get up, he grabbed his crotch and waved his card-spear thing like an old man telling a child to get off his lawn.

“Tasuku Ryuuenji…." He growled with gritted teeth, pointing the spear towards him. "I will destroy you……… Buddyfight, you versus me….. As soon as I can get up again……”

Looking down at the other's almost pitifully curled up form, Tasuku mused to himself for a second. He certainly didn't expect Aragami to come to the school he'd transferred to just recently -- if anything though, he'd call it a streak of luck. Wolf's crimes still weighted heavily on his mind, and now he had the opportunity to apprehend this fiend like he swore to himself he would a while ago. He didn't even need to pull out his deck or use the Future Force for this either. Good job, Tasuku Ryuuenji, you did it again.

Ignoring Rouga's words, Tasuku moved behind him and took the spear away from him while he was still weak at his knees, putting it away from him. He crouched down and roughly grabbed both of Rouga's wrists, twisting them behind his back and holding him down with one hand while he went to grab some handcuffs he had on him, just in case.

     ”Well.. I came here to say thank you to a teacher.. I know it could have waited but..” Well, it could have waited but he wanted to show how thankful he was for being invited in a group about ninjas! Truthfully, he didn’t think something like that would happen so he was ecstatic. Now, walking up to Tasuku before he stopped, the lights flickering on and the room becoming bright, Akatsuki having already adjusted to the lack of light raised an arm to cover his eyes. The weird sound echoing through the room through him off as well. Did they really hear that, in which Tasuku’s curiosity.

     ”No no no no no no no no no no no..” The word murmured under the child’s breath as he was hoping they hadn’t heard anything, moving out the way so that the other could investigate. If Tasuku heard it it had to be something going on in this room. It was already stressing him so maybe if he hoped hard enough, things would stop. Taking a step back, wanting and hoping he could just lean against a wall did he trip over his own footing, falling back and hitting another desk accidentally. From this, another loud sound was prompted and another shifting of somewhere was done. “Did you.. you hear that?” He wasn’t made for horror, so this was steadily increasing the male’s features as he peeked under the desk to see some sort of symbol drawn under it.

Tasuku turned his head towards Akatsuki as the younger one asked him whether there was something on the underside of the desk near him. His curiosity piqued, the blue haired boy did just that, bending over slightly to be able to peer underneath. And sure enough, just like Akatsuki said there was some sort of symbol inscribed there. "Did the two previous desks have these as well?" He asked, half to himself and half to the other. Straightening himself up again, he put a hand to his chin and mused for a second or two before deciding to push the desk a bit.

Just as expected, soon enough a third loud click was heard at the same time as the last light switched on. This time however, one other notable thing happened: the cupboard that Tasuku's been inspecting swung open with an ominous creak, revealing its fake back and how it lead to a hidden room. Eyes wide, he approached the entrance and peered inside -- it was rather dingy and dimly-lit, and he'd need to actually step inside to start seeing what was in there. Suddenly getting a very bad feeling about this, the boy turned towards Akatsuki again.

"Akatsuki..."

Placing his hands on his hips, the silver-haired boy casually walked across the campus. Rouga had finished packing, and now he was going to scout the area - and what better place to begin than the so-called forbidden forest? Absentmindedly fingering the dark core case in his pocket, he looked around with an air of regality - almost passing off as a new student simply trying to find someone. If only.

Pulling out Cerberus’s card, he looked over it for a moment. It wasn’t as if anyone here would know that he was Wolf; He could walk around with the hound all he wanted, and the only really strange thing would be that he was so huge. It wasn’t as if he was even really that worried about being identified, either; he was miles away from the buddy police.

Or so he thought.

Finally deciding to summon the dog - it had been getting restless, after all - he held up the card and brought the words into his throat to bellow the dog’s name. Or he would have, if he hadn’t immediately noticed a certain buddy policeman near him just as he was about to yell it. 

Oh shit.

Yeah, well. Something in his life must've gone 'fuck that' in response.

Just as he turned around a corner, his red eyes fell on a very familiar, very alarming figure right in front of him. But he wasn't going to say it yet -- maybe if he closed his eyes for one second, and opened them back up, no one would be there anymore and he could continue on his merry way. But sadly, things didn't work this way in the real world. You'd think years as a policeman would have hardened him enough to know.

So Tasuku did the one thing that immediately sprang to mind.

He took one step back,

ran towards the other,

and KICKED HIM IN THE DICK. ~ ✩

✚ M U N  |  I N F O R M A T I O N ✚

Name: maria Nicknames: SHRUGGING? i used to go by kitty sometimes Wishlist Nickname: ??? eh i guess sometimes i think about being called st else but maria is fine with me Birthday: may 17th Height: 5’5" Eye Color: brown Hair Color: black Ethnicity: asian/vietnamese Lives in: hanoi Relationship Status: taken Character(s) Most Identifies with: inigo (fire emblem: awakening), ishimaru kiyotaka (dangan ronpa), fudou akio & fubuki shirou (inazuma eleven), miki sayaka (madoka magica), thomas arclight (ygo zexal) Hobbies: writing, drawing, playing video games, eating, buddyfighting Special talent(s): being a gay nerd Warning/disclaimer: i'm a gay nerd. also i get easily excitable so omg i'm sorry Struggling with: education and living conditions among other things, stress

✚ M U S E  |  I N F O R M A T I O N ✚

Name: tasuku ryuuenji Nicknames: boy wonder, child prodigy?? Wishlist Nickname: ???? sHRUGGING? Birthday: n/a Height: 5'3" Eye Color: red Hair Color: blue Ethnicity: japanese Lives in: momo dorm, 001 Relationship Status: lel Classification: human Special talent(s): BUDDYFIGHTING? prodigious policeman. also probably super smart and athletic Warning/disclaimer: CAN BE RECKLESS and rebel when he has his mind set on st even if it breaks rules Struggling With: police responsibilities

Tie fixed, shirt straightened, gloves on, smile wide.

This is what Usagi told herself as she fixed up her appearance in front of the mirror for what seemed to be the umpteenth time today. “Aah! I’m going to mess this up, I know it, I know it, I know it!” she screams, pulling on her pigtails in nervousness.

Like usual, she was late with sending in her application and as such— all the cute maid positions were taken. Though, she knew that she would look totally cute wearing a butler’s outfit too, so here she was. She was nervous about spilling food on others either way, whether she was wearing a skirt or a pair of pants.

Do it for the sweets, Usagi. All those free sweets she would somehow coax her bosses into giving her. “Let’s do this!”

The blonde steps out, chin up and smile wide as she stepped out into the shop—

— and tripped, landing right on her face. She pulls herself up, now sitting, and brushes off the dust. She wouldn’t cry, she wouldn’t cry, she wo—

Honestly, it wasn't even his idea to apply for a job here in the first place. But Haruka was one of the head maids, and Tenma applied as one shortly after, so they urged him to follow them. And seeing no reason to downright refuse the offer he just...went with it. It might be fun in its own way? This was definitely a new experience to him.

Tasuku looked up when he heard the door to the shop open, expecting a customer. To his surprise though, it was one of his fellow coworkers who crashed in -- a bit literally, as she had tripped the moment she crossed the door. Wincing as she fell to the ground, Tasuku immediately walked up to her and crouched down in front of her, slightly alarmed. "Are you okay?"

     A deep breath as he tried to understand what was going on, the male looked both left and right and still saw nothing. His eyes directed towards the rain hitting on the windows which was a nice sound and also made him a little sleepy but he needed to stay up, was someone trapped in here or something? That was.. really scary to think about. Hugging himself so that he could calm down, and taking a step back until he heard a voice from behind him. The younger just went down to the ground, throwing himself under a table to hide before he noticed who it was, a light shining in his eyes.

     Seeing who it was, Akatsuki was ecstatic to see that the officer was walking around at night but maybe he gained a position to do that since everyone was to be asleep. “W.. Hey..! Didn’t see you coming, you scared me..” As he was trying to get up, the young one had bumped his head under the desk that he was hiding over, shifting back down and a hand raised to rub his blue locks of hair and head. “Well.. I didn’t see that but felt it..” Crawling from under finally, the corner of his eyes filled with pre-tears.

The kid looked pretty shaken up from the thunder...Tasuku was surprised he even had the guts to go out like this in the dark; apprentice ninja or not, he was still a little boy. As he listened to the other explain himself, Tasuku pondered to himself for a moment. A crew? Was there some sort of nocturnal club that opened and he never heard about before? In any case... "Suspended? No, don't worry, I'll probably just let you off with a warning more than anything. Unless you really have a valid reason to be here at past midnight." 

He heard someone in here? Cocking an eyebrow at that, Tasuku would have urged Akatsuki to clarify what he meant if it wasn't for the sudden loud clicking that sounded before he could -- seemingly from the desk Akatsuki had just emerged from. Shortly after, one of the bulbs in the classroom flickered to life, making Tasuku's flashlight rather unneeded in this situation. Furrowing his eyebrows even further, the cop turned the device off and got on his feet again. Did the lights just turn on by themselves?

     One of his teacher’s had recently asked the male to join a club, it was for ninjas and it was a place where he belonged. They were called the Akatsuki, his name was Akatsuki and they were ninjas just like him. How perfect was it? He was enthused and wanted to go and meet with the teacher that invited him but being placed on the art corridor, he didn’t know which room he was to go to but he heard a sound coming from a room, concerned, an attempt in pushing the door forward, he noticed that the door was locked? It was past midnight so everyone would be asleep around this time, so who was inside? Digging into the inside of his clothes, the male pulled out a screwdriver, trying to undo the lock on the door until he heard a clicking sound.

     Well, breaking into a class was one way to get inside.  As he pushed the door forward, there was a loud creaking sound which brought the male to jump back and pull up a sheet over his body as he pressed his back on the wall behind him. He was frightened that someone might have been inside since he heard noises as he was unlocking the door, but peeking behind the material he saw that it was an ordinary room. In his silence, he heard some light tapping behind him, eyes gazing up to see that it was starting to rain. Well, at least they were inside.

     ”Well.. It’s not that bad..” In which he remembered that wasn’t this area haunted? A shiver went down his spine at the same time thunder was heard behind him which made the male yelp in fright and run forward into the room, looking out the corner of his eye hoping that no one hard heard. There was no one here— wait, the noises he believed he heard before, where had they came from?

Patrolling at night was one thing he could do, so he still found himself awake even past midnight rounding the hallways, eyes open for any students who were still out and about past their curfew. The corridors were dark, save for the moonlight that shone down onto the ground through the windows, and the yellow of the flashlight Tasuku was carrying with him. As he walked, he noted the light tapping sound of summer rain outside -- it didn't look like it was raining too hard, he thought. And just as if on cue, a thunder roared down, loud enough to startle even him. It was probably a good idea to keep his patrolling inside for tonight.

When the thunder had hit, Tasuku could swear he heard someone's startled yelp come from somewhere nearby. Walking a bit further down the hallway, Tasuku blinked as he noticed a door to one of the classrooms was wide open. Did the teachers forget to lock it in the day? In any case, he was sure the sound came from here and that there was someone inside. Stepping inside the classroom and illuminating it with his flashlight, Tasuku searched for signs of any living soul within it.

There’s a very small part of his brain that tells him from the start that this is a bad idea. He’s never done an event like this before, with good reason. Even when he’d thought, “Just this once, maybe…”, a doctor or a teacher has always told him it’d be “best if he sat this one out”. He can’t place any blame on them though; in fact the logical side of him has always agreed. His condition is fragile enough, it’s unwise to put himself under unneeded stress. He’s worried people enough, the least he can do is ease their fears by putting his health above all else.

He shouldn’t make more trouble than he already has.

But Kerria Academy is like a gulp of fresh air. People aren’t breathing down his neck, not now at the start of the school year, and Haruka loses himself in the feeling of utter normalcy. He knows he should have spoken with Jeff-sensei, should have requested an alternative assignment, but… just one time, he wants to do what everyone else is. Just a bit, he promises himself, he won’t push his body too hard. Only a little. He’ll be okay as long as he’s careful.

But then their captain, Tenma, gets out, and suddenly Haruka makes his first successful paintball shots. Tasuku is taken down, then Haruka is captain. It’s short-lived, he only feels the responsibility and importance for a mere few minutes, but then faced with the uselessness of being out, all he wants to do is continue supporting his team. Running around and recruiting students, cheering for his teammates still in the war and attacking bravely, Haruka forgets all about his body. For a few precious hours, he’s exactly like everyone else with one unanimous thought in mind: victory. 

It’s the final stretch to get people out. Paintball participants are scattered all around campus, and Haruka is dashing left and right to find fellow blues to cheer on. Eyes darting from person to person, keen on catching faces he recognizes, it’s as if a switch is hit when a wave of dizziness practically barrels over him.

He staggers, a hand clutching the fabric of his shirt in more conditioned response more than anything, and the ground starts spinning. Shortage of breath from running progresses into erratic, stuttered pants, but for a fleeting moment he tries to convince himself, "I’m… fine… I just need to sit down—"

Except a familiar numbness begins to settle, and his movements become jerky and uncoordinated. His control is quickly slipping, and the deprivation of oxygen to his brain is making it hard to do anything. Sounds choke out of his throat, but if they were intended as calls for help, no one could possibly differentiate between the strangled cries that escaped.

"Why now? When we’re so close…?" He can barely register the dull thud of his own body hitting the ground. For all of the failing systems in his body, his thoughts stream clearly in his head even as he’s blinking in and out of consciousness. 

"I just wanted to have fun."

"It was nice… feeling normal."

And one last, nagging guilt:

"I must be ruining everything."

Haruka’s tall figure that he finds familiar, but the fact Haruka’s on the ground out cold is a sight that makes Tenma’s blood run cold. No words escape his lips but instead he runs over and kneels by the others’ side to lightly shake the other awake,

"H-Haruka-san!?— HARUKA-SAN!”

He’s used to sight a sight of friends passing out given he’s a good friend of Taiyou but it still scares him because Tenma’s too aware of how things could take a turn for the worse.

The most Tenma can do is sling Haruka over his shoulders, attempting to carry the taller boy out of the narrow hallway and out towards to a more open field where he could find help. Any help. It’s quite hard, given the older boy’s height but Tenma doesn’t care as he manages to drag the other out to the doors of the main entrance of the school building. “Haruka-san, you’re going  to be okay…. stay strong!…”

What catches his attention though is the sight of Tasuku and suddenly Tenma finds his voice chocked up by panic. This wasn’t good. But then one look at Haruka’s pale face is enough for Tenma to shout at Tasuku with panic, “Tasuku!!” In a rush, he attempted to pull the uncocnious boy over to were Tasuku with panicked eyes.

But in the middle of his roaming about, the boy suddenly heard someone call out to him in an almost panicked way. Looking around, he spotted Tenma dashing towards him with what seemed to be...Haruka draped over his shoulder? Immediately alarmed, Tasuku approached his two friends, holding onto Haruka's shoulders to lessen the load the taller boy put on Tenma and looking over at him. The brunet was frantically explaining the situation to him, and Tasuku nodded firmly once he was done.

"Got it."

Tasuku pulled Jack's card out and summoned him in a flurry of light, then promptly looked over to Tenma. "Just let Jack carry him; it'll be faster and a load off for you." With that said, the dragon carefully took Haruka off of Tenma's shoulder and spread his wings, ready to fly off towards the infirmary with the unconscious boy in his arms. When he eventually took off in the direction of the huge school building, the buddy cop turned towards the other and urged him to follow.

--

Once they had finally arrived at the doors of the infirmary and explained the situation to the available nurses there, they took Haruka under their healing wing and told the two to stand outside and wait for now. Tasuku nodded, aware that Haruka probably needed the space after getting checked up on, and went to take a nearby seat in the hallway with Tenma.

Now that things have calmed down slightly, the anxiety was slowly beginning to set in. Tasuku was worried -- of course he would be, that was his teammate and friend in there, and he didn't have an inkling as to why Haruka had just collapsed out of the blue like that. He was glad Tenma had found him, he wouldn't have wanted the older boy to stay knocked out God knows where for longer than necessary. He just hoped that things were going fine in there. Maybe it wasn't anything extremely serious or life endangering and Haruka had just overexerted himself a bit during paintball.

"Don’t worry yourself, I’ve dealt with worse." he responded, dismissing the dragon’s comment with a wave of a hand. The blue-haired boy referred to the monster as ‘Jack’..? Somehow that didn’t sound like a very Stand-like name. And Tasuku called him a ‘buddy’, too. It was a little hard to believe that this kid wasn’t a Stand user. I mean, who else can do this kind of stuff?

"Higashikata Josuke. Nice to meet you, although it would’ve been better to meet under different circumstances." Josuke sighed. Yeah, making friends over stabbings wasn’t quite ideal.

He had to note that Tasuku seemed seriously mature for his age; he had to be at least a couple years younger than him, yet he was calm and polite even after getting stabbed halfway through a paintball war. Speaking of which, was the paintball war even continuing after this? Josuke had heard it was started for law students to pass their class (damn his team had better win), but after this maybe the staff would call it off or something.

"Seems like it got more than a little out of hand, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve been caught up in far more bizarre stuff before, so don’t feel like y’need to apologise." Josuke replied. "Anyway, I’ll go ahead and help you out. No point in making you wait any more."

And with that, Crazy Diamond was called out, and the Stand itself appeared alongside Josuke; soon after, Tasuku’s wounds began to heal up; Crazy Diamond had essentially ‘restored’ Tasuku’s body to its original state. The process would only take a few seconds, but within those seconds Josuke realised how impossible it would seem to the younger boy, especially if he wasn’t a Stand user and couldn’t actually see Crazy Diamond.

The other student visibly flinched when Jack spoke up, despite being rather calm about just seeing him earlier. Were some people simply unused to hearing dragons talk? He never had this problem before, but then maybe this was unusual to some people...Buddies were so prevalent back home, he'd forgotten there were still outsiders who didn't know of them.

Jack just gave a 'hmph' of near resignation at the other's words and set his head down on the ground, staying firmly curled up around the boy. Tasuku looked from his dragon upwards and gave his companion a smile. "Pleased to meet you, Josuke. At least more formally this time, since I never asked your name when I recruited you..." He let out a sheepish laugh. "Yeah, these circumstances aren't exactly...ideal for introductions and small talk. At least we'll have plenty of time for that later."

Tasuku wasn't exactly sure if the paintball war would be continuing after these stabbings either -- it'd probably make sense for it to stop, but at the same time this would need to be brought up with the headmaster or professor Jeff first, and he didn't know how many of the witnesses were free enough to do that now. They're probably too caught up in the war as it is and well, to be fair Tasuku did successfully retrieve this knife, so hopefully the girl wouldn't go rampant any more.

"Is that so...I do think it's still best to not get caught up in anything like this, still." Tasuku said. "But thank you for offering to help me, this is a bit quicker than trying to find the infirmary."

Tasuku waited for Josuke to work his healing magic on him -- although he didn't mean that quite so literally. Josuke didn't even seem to do anything much, but Tasuku noticed his wound slowly deteriorate into nothing in just a matter of seconds. Eyes widening slightly, the cop ran his fingers through his previously damaged skin, but he didn't feel anything; it didn't even scar.