What creates the conditions for summoning a new shikigami... the old books were no help. Maybe I should try and see if the school would take me —

OI !!!

Junpei started slightly, big green eyes widening to dinner plates like a cat that just got caught somewhere it wasn’t supposed to be. well, it wasn’t that he was somewhere he wasn’t allowed to be per se, he wasn’t snooping in documents he wasn’t privy to or spying on anyone — he was floating on the bell of a jellyfish about 50 feet in the air, though, long, cascading peach coloured tentacles floating in the air beneath him. he smiled a little bit to himself when his eyes were able to focus on exactly who had yelled at him, giving the jellyfish a gentle pat to make it leisurely float back down to eye level with his only friend.

“Genji, look, I summoned a new shikigami!” I can fucking see that! Junpei giggled, earning a low and cavernous b l o o p from the curse. “I’ve named him Leo, at least for now, since I think he’s a lion’s mane jellyfish — wait, Genji!” excitedly, he slid off the shikigami so he could clumsily stumblr over to the taller boy, taking both his hands in his own. “... do you want to float around the city? There’s that festival in the next city over, and we might be able to see the fireworks if we get up high enough, or if we float up to the hills, if you don’t wanna be up too high.”

          a person like that might make a lot of others recoil in fear or disgust. the mean-looking posture , the irrefutable evidence of wounds brought on by too much fighting , the slicked back hair that stands out too much ... shimizu still knows a lot of adults who scorn this type of subculture and complain that delinquents are a blight on society. fighting never solved anything , after all. it always just seems to make more problems.

          for her own part , she thinks , there’s nothing inherently bad about a person who looks bad. but shimizu still passes judgment. it’s only natural that people— herself included— do that. however , considering that this person has not said anything to her , all she can surmise at first glance is how nasty his bruises and bandages look. they probably hurt. maybe he’d lost whatever fight he’d found himself in.

         and even when she hears a little mew come from the bush he’s peering into , that opinion doesn’t suddenly soften. if anyone is quite stubborn in their initial impressions of people , then shimizu is one of them. his wounds don’t suddenly disappear , and he doesn’t look any less yankii to her. shimizu blinks , sliding her eyes from the bush ( and its hidden animal that gives off the mew ) to him , and back again. she remembers that she has a store-bought salmon onigiri for her afternoon snack , and rather than form that fact into reasonable words , she keeps it clipped short—  “  salmon ?  ”