haunting.

        There’s nearly no-one who would call him in that same tone.

        Surrounded by the rubble, the city gasps with him, breath short and weak from panic. He’s alone—or he was alone—or he was alone too suddenly when he shouldn’t have been—or maybe all three. The staff weighs his hands down as his heart does. His expression, for once, does not reflect that: it locks with urgency, frozen with a clench of teeth and furrowed eyebrows and a focus on the boy who’s cornered him.

        “You—damn it, what the hell is wrong with you?!” Of course—of course he’d sign up for some shady organization like that—it doesn’t take much for Kou to realize how predictable that should’ve been. Even as he focuses on Tsukasa, it doesn’t stop him from yelling to him, anger trapped well in his throat. “Even if you’re sided with them, you’re not going to stop me,” he yells, taking a defensive stance as Kokujoudai falls into Tsukasa’s palm, “and you’re not going to get to mess up anyone else!”

        ( If he’s scared, then he pushes every fear and worry he can away. He isn’t scared; no matter what happens, he’ll be able to handle it.

                And everything—everything—will be fine. )

        But he’s too rusty; even with all his training with a staff that doesn’t match his spirit, it’s not enough. The orb hits and he skids back, pain taking his breath and leaving the city shuddering with him. One hand remains on the staff as the other brushes on the asphalt, fumbling for a space to stop. He stands back up, dust untouched on clothing as he assumes a stance—and with a run towards him, he swings the staff down with both hands, aiming for his shoulder.

  when his attack hits the mark, tsukasa’s smile widens enough to show off his fangs. there’s a specific kind of joy to being in control of a situation again. while he isn’t entire a fan of having to follow some strange organization’s orders to keep his power, tsukasa is more than willing to give the results in order to keep them. 

  kou’s words fall on deaf ears or, bare minimum, ears that don’t care enough to heed any of them. a righteous fool, that’s all the blond is. he wants to be a hero, save the day, keep these people safe when they can’t defend themselves at the cost of his own health or, if tsukasa gets the chance... his life.

  ( what a pointless endeavor. heroes don’t exist. )

  “ you’re awfully self-sacrificial, boy, ” he taunts, watching kou swing before sidestepping out of the way. tsukasa grabs the back of kou’s collar as he moves past, lifting him with ease before slamming him back first straight onto the concrete.

  “ booooo~ooy! ”

  now, like before, tsukasa could have easily taken kou by surprise and thrown him into the nearest pile of rubble that was willing to house a body. where’s the fun in that, though? tsukasa knows without a shadow of a doubt that he has more power in this situation; there’s no reason to hide his identity.

  he doubts the kid would’ve made enemies anyhow.

  tsukasa drops in front of a nearby hole, craning his neck to gaze down and stare at the uncut wires before his attention goes back to kou. the edges of his eyes crinkle with the wide smile on his lips as he steps forward.

  “ i can’t let you cut these wires, you know? ” he starts, reaching out his arm as kokujoudai wraps around it and rests gently in his palm. “ if you want to do anything... you’ll have to get past me somehow. ”

  a beat of silence before his arm draws back and launches forward, sending the orb flying directly at kou’s stomach.

to no one’s surprise probably, tsukasa is siding with null! it sounds like lots more fun to be on the side that lets him do whatever he wants than to sit around and chop at wires all day and help people.

with this, tsukasa is mostly wreaking havoc as opposed to actively attacking people, but he isn’t above doing that either! if he catches you trying to play the big hero, he will float over and start swinging at you incredibly fast and without a lick of mercy, doubly so if he has no attachment to you.

“how about you don’t instead? as fun as you think it is, people don’t enjoy being pranked you know.”

  “ april fool’s day is tomorrow! i wanna do something to celebrate it... ”

Oh – oh no. ‘You’re the only one I have here.’ That’s what he’d said, right? He’d –

– it’s probably on purpose. The wording, that is. Mitsuba knows that Tsukasa’s using him, so there’s… he had to have known the effect it would have on him when he’d said that, right? His mind drifts to the reflections of the sad, friendless child that he’d seen in the mirrors. The real Mitsuba. The Mitsuba that thought he had a whole life ahead of him; the Mitsuba that had hidden how he really was just for a chance of being liked and ended up becoming invisible instead. He’d so badly wanted friends. He’d so badly wanted to be important to someone.

“…”

It isn’t like – that's gone anywhere. The memories had, because he isn’t that Mitsuba, and he was incomplete, but the rest of it –

“… yeah… okay.”

“Well… I don’t know. I’ve only been here a few days myself, but… I know this isn’t anything to do with supernaturals. Not like we know, anyway. There are people here from all sorts of places – like, not countries, but worlds.” That sounded stupid. Mitsuba makes a face. “And people can see us. I don’t know what really’s going on, but it’s… we’re really far from home, Tsukasa-kun.”

(Mitsuba goes to tug his hand away and quickly changes his mind.)

  tsukasa’s lonely, that much is true. so what if he’s using those around him? they’re still company in the end.

  he lets mitsuba explain, humming softly as he scans the surrounding area. tsukasa doesn’t seem willing to let up on his contact with the other, keeping to leaning against him and even shutting his eyes briefly at one point. if only the boy would return the hand hold, this would almost be fun. unfortunately, unless tsukasa threatens him somehow, he doubts it’ll happen.

  ... which is why he resorts to a harder squeeze of mitsuba’s hand. hopefully he wasn’t thinking too much about shifting away.

  “ you sound like you’ve watched too many science-fiction films, you know? ” tsukasa comments. “ buuuuuuuut! it kinda makes sense, doesn’t it? this place is super weird and doesn’t feel like a boundary or anywhere close to home. ”

  not that tsukasa knows what home would feel like after 50 years of non-existence, but who’s counting?

What a terrible mistake she had made. She wasn’t one to interact with others willingly, a reserved and short-tempered fox didn’t have a place among people. Actually, not every supernatural tolerated her either and she didn’t tolerate them in return. 

Such was the life of an antisocial creature that preferred sleeping at the infirmary room to waste time away. Now she must deal with a boy that terribly resembled the most terrible number 7. 

“I do not see a reason to behave accordingly, specially if you are not him. If you are dying to know, I’m Yako. Yako of the Misaki stairs.” She definitively had bad manners and was proud of it, anyone pointing out met with the crude reality of how little she cared. A polite Yako was reserved for a man long gone. 

“You look a lot like him, though… I wonder if this was something I wasn’t supposed to find out?”

  “ i’m already dead! ” he chimes in, nodding and taking note of her name. this was the wonder that they messed with first, huh? tsukasa gives her a solid once over, eyes unblinking as if he’s trying to take in any part of her that he can remember. dragged to her boundary and torn to shreds...

  sounds like fun!

  “ probably! he’s my twin brother and he doesn’t like to talk about me... that’s okay, though! i can talk about myself enough for the both of us, ” tsukasa answers. “ i want to know more about you though, number two! how’d it feel to have your rumor forcibly changed? ”

Eh…? That was a lie, it couldn’t be…

After his pleasant encounter with Yashiro he found out he was not the only one from his world who was summoned in this place, but seeing more acquaintances, ( specially this one ) could be troublesome.

Before he could think more about it his body got captured by his twin, a boy who mirrored his own person with both, appearance and strength, making it hard for him to let himself free.

It didn’t take him long to get the instant agitation and feeling of nervousness just by the sight of his brother. Surrendering to him completely, he allowed Tsukasa to greet him with a warm hug, just like family…because that’s what they are, right?

❝ Y-Yeah…you…should let go of me already…❞ 

  ... oh.

  there’s a pang of something, tsukasa’s brows furrowing as he only latches a bit harder onto hanako. the strange warmth is nice and like hell is he going to free his brother simply because he asked after all this time apart. 

  “ i haven’t gotten to talk to you in a while, amane! ” he reminds, burying his face into his brother’s shoulder. amane’s like a beacon in this strange new world, but the light is wavering already and tsukasa isn’t sure what to think. 

  it’s not like tsukasa’s mad at him for all that’s happened between them!

Rui doesn’t know if it’s better or worse that the boy’s reacting this way. He’s hurt him, but – not – not any more than just on his face, right? He’s just… interested in what Rui had done. As if it was a trick instead of an attack.

He takes another step back to keep the distance between them the same.

“–it’s–”

Rui doesn’t want to look at the boy’s face. He doesn’t want to see that face, scarred up, looking at him with the expression he knows he has to be wearing based on how interested he is in what had just happened to him.

“–why aren’t you mad? You should be. You should hate me.”

Maybe part of him wants to hear it because he thinks he deserves it (and he does) and maybe part of him wants to hear it because –

“I don’t want to tell you. I don’t want to talk to you. Why aren’t you angry, boy?”

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, anyway. His hands ball into too-tight fists and his teeth sink down into his lower lip. Be angry with him. Go away. Go away.

  “ try harder, then. ”

  does that sound like a challenge? it certainly should because that’s exactly how tsukasa intends for it to come off. hands are neatly tucked behind his back, a wry smile plastered onto his face. he closes the distance a step more, still keeping cautious of the strings.  

  “ hate you? over a few scratches? shouldn’t your resolve be better? ” tsukasa interrogates with a tilt of his head. he hums, swiping one hand across his face and flinging some of the remaining blood towards rui’s feet.

  it’s not like he expected amane to do a tell-all about their history to some stranger. it didn’t even seem like his little assistant knew before his appearance! what a shame; how does someone stay quiet about their own twin?

  ( how does he linger in his own guilt without spilling his guts? )

       At first Tsuchigomori feels anger and shock. The next second it’s like someone doused him in cold water. There’s a living being annoyingly to his back alright, he can feel that much, and the owner of that voice is supposed to be dead. He stiffens. Tsukasa Yugi. Is his brother around? Is he alright?

       Then all at once he relaxes, one of his human arms reaching back to try and peel the boy off by his collar.

      “Energetic as always huh, Yugi-kun. It’s not polite to jump on your senseis you know.” It’s not an answer yet. There’s too many unknowns about this situation. Like why his dead student is walking and talking in this place when it certainly isn’t a boundary or the school. Then again he’s here too.

      “But yeah I’m still alive.” It’s clear Tsukasa doesn’t think of himself as alive from his words, regardless of his current physical status. He turns his head. “These people gave you a body again, huh? Good for you.”

  tsukasa makes a sound when tsuchigomori’s hand lands on him, though he doesn’t do much to stop the process of being pulled off. in fact, he assists a bit by floating and taking the weight off of the older man. 

  “ you’re not my teacher anymore, so it doesn’t matter! ” he declares in spite of how he referred to tsuchigomori moments ago. he squirms a bit in his grasp, raising his hands to try and pull his clothing into a more comfortable position. tsukasa stares directly at tsuchigomori, unblinking before pursing his lips.

Tsukasa doesn’t seem to want to make any comment about how absolutely stupid he looked with his hair like that, so, you know what, Rui would humour him. He won’t say anything, either. He won’t say anything about how ridiculous that had looked and how much it made Tsukasa look like an absolute imbecile.

“The – oh, right.” Hanako had said something like that, too, and about – supernaturals, was it? Hanako was a strange identity for a boy to take up, but what does it matter, he supposes.

“I do not,” Rui corrects, still as deadpan as ever. There is an annoyance creeping into his chest, though, and while it’s a small blessing that he can recognize it he doesn’t want to deal with how he knows he’ll react if he gets tipped over. Something about these twins, he assumes, must be wrong in their blood. He can’t stand either of them. No wonder they died.

–and then Tsukasa kisses his fingertip.

“Don’t!”

It’s loud, and it’s angry, and – well. Rui doesn’t mean to react the way he does, not entirely. Not as much as he used to, maybe. But the irritation coupled with how the gesture catches him off-guard (he still doesn’t like it; he doesn’t like kisses, he doesn’t like them) causes his threads to burst from his fingertips, sharp and ready, and they slash across Tsukasa’s face as Rui draws his hand back.

The realization of what he’s done hits instantly and the shock and anger in his expression shifts somewhat, no longer aimed at the boy in front of him but rather – at himself. Rui takes a step back and forces his hand down to his side.

“… I–I told you.”

  the outburst startles tsukasa, but by the time he gathers himself enough to try and move, he’s struck. his head dips down and his arms come up, blocking sight of whatever mild mess has been made of his face as he watches some blood drop onto the ground. it’s... a bit unsettling since the only cut he’s received since re-appearing was from the exorcist kid. 

  ( not that it did much damage, not this much at least-- )

  tsukasa feels something boil in his stomach and he raises his head, wiping as much of the blood off onto his sleeve has possible. well, it’s not like someone could accidentally recreate the worst injury he’s gotten anyhow! he smiles, amusement clearly in the slight narrowing of his eyes and the quirk of his lips.

  he doesn’t mean to look so visibly surprised by tsuchigomori’s presence here, but it’s a bit hard to hide how awestruck he is! now they have mysteries two, three, five, and seven here! it’s almost fun, though he’s starting to wish sakura is here so they can make a statement.

  oh well. despite all that, tsukasa goes bounding off after the man.

  if anyone’s paying attention to him, he’s 100% using his ability to float in-between to cross the distance a bit faster. finally, when he’s about to crash into tsuchigomori’s back, tsukasa leaps and latches onto his back.

  “ tsuchigomori-sensei, i didn’t know you were still alive! unless you aren’t, because i’ve got blood and everything here but i know i’m dead!  ”

this is less than ideal.

on instinct, oscar starts to pull away, but stops as he realizes that the other is a child. would he break their finger if he suddenly jolted away? ( would he have to pay for that? ) the metal clinks against the ground and lies helplessly as oscar manages to give it a glance before looking back at the offender in question. 

( he holds back from mentioning that he already has a belt for his waist, since that would probably just be room for more teasing. )

“ … my arms are fine, i think. “ oh, if only the other knew about weiss, or ruby, even. to say that oscar’s fashion sense was bad wasn’t wrong, per se– but in that same vein, maybe he’d take down the rest of remnant with him in that respect. leaning down, he picks up the lost articles and pockets them away, before looking back at the boy. “ it was… “ to look cool. “ to hold the jacket in place. they get ripped a lot where i’m from. “ 

“ … aren’t you cold? “

  “ do you get into fights? you don’t look like you could hurt anyone! ”

  not that tsukasa has much room to talk. he’s flexed his own strength several times in the past between destroying what should’ve been indestructible in its own domain among other actions. he curls and uncurls his fingers a few times before folding his hands behind his back, rocking back on his heels and listening to oscar.

  “ cold...? ”

  what a strange question. who asks the dead if they’re cold? perhaps there’s a beating heart in his chest and blood in his veins once more, but tsukasa isn’t alive by any means. even with the slight shiver that runs through him at the mention, he only sinks his nails into his skin and smiles.

        Kou’s shock grows and cedes like the tides as Tsukasa holds onto the staff. He’ll admit using it for defense may not have been his brightest idea, but it never meant it wasn’t worth a try—at least not until now, when their surroundings and situation has grown far clearer. The barrier between life and death has shattered; a staff of spirit has been lost to the seas, the passerby and foe all planted firmly on the Near Shore, and Kou—Kou’s honestly finding it harder and harder to tell what to do. Being trapped in a situation like this is nothing but a conduit for worry, even if it slips out as anger.

        “I—” he’s right, he’s right: he only ever mentioned Hanako and Nene, and Kou just dragged him into this! “—that’s because you’re working with him! And I do like him! But you—”

        “How can you call him your friend? You’ve never even tried to know him—since the moment you met, all you’ve done is use him! So…” He holds tight to the staff with both hands and tries to yank it from Tsukasa’s grip. “Quit calling him that already!”

  tsukasa jerks forward with the tug, tightening his grip and following the movement. he narrows his eyes towards kou, though the grin on his face betrays any malice in the way he looks over the young exorcist. it’s pure amusement as opposed to returning the animosity kou has towards him. a hum, tilting his head.

  “ you’re right, i am working with him! i’m the reason some variation of mitsuba exists anymore in the world, you know? you could be a little more grateful. ”

  “ ... so what? aren’t you doing the same thing? using this new mitsuba to get over your guilt that you couldn’t help the original? besides, i know plenty about mitsuba! i got to understand his vague wish and learned even more because of you. ”

  tsukasa smiles, and pulls the pole back towards himself, swinging his foot to try and land another hit on kou. 

“Oh.”

Tsukasa’s… Tsukasa’s surprises aren’t always bad. In fact, there have been some – he’s definitely tried to help Mitsuba out, right? Maybe not… maybe not always for Mitsuba’s best interest, but it isn’t like he can hold him at fault, right? That’d be – really inconsiderate, after everything Tsukasa’s done for him.

“Um…”

The fact that Tsukasa’s grabbed onto his hand doesn’t bode well for Mitsuba but he swallows past the nervous lump that’s formed in his throat. He doesn’t want to do anything out of line, just in case.

“… okay.”

It’s not comfortable for him, but he’s managing. He can’t help but hope that if Tsukasa’s here that it means Sakura might be here, too; that might make things a little more manageable.

Still, Mitsuba doesn’t return the grip. His hand hangs limply.

“Y-yeah. We can… keep helping each other. When did – when did you get here? Maybe I can tell you a little about what I’ve learned…?”

  mitsuba’s different around him.

  it’s not like it takes an excessively observant person to notice a contrast in personalities. he’s more rude and a loudmouth with other people, calling the minamoto boy and amane names without a shred of shame for how rude he sounds. tsukasa’s mouth draws into a thin line, eyes partly narrowed despite not facing mitsuba the entire time he thinks about this.

  ... whatever, it doesn’t matter! they’re not friends, so why should he expect reciprocation? 

  ( still, such thoughts don’t deter him from tightening his grip. show some spirit, mitsuba! )

  “ i only got here today! i’ve been walking around the city trying to find people i know, but... ” tsukasa trails off, pouting and finally turning his attention to the other. “ i didn’t see anyone! not sakura, not her lapdog... none of them. you’re the only one i have here, mitsuba! ”

  ( it’s half the truth! amane isn’t on his side, after all. )

  “ ... ”