#hatsuna

Wayward Sheep

After giving Yuuya and the other students a weak smile as his lips trembled, Hatsuna simply closed his eyes and held himself. A part of him still didn’t want to die, even though he felt truly alone beyond any point of salvation. And on top of all that, knowing what would soon await him filled the young shepherd with a deep sense of dread. How desperately he wished things could've been different. But before he could spend more time thinking about it, the floor beneath him opened up. Hatsuna fell with a shocked yelp, his hand outstretched at the others in one final attempt at holding on. It was only moments after, that the LED monitors around the students sprung to life once more. As the screens showed only darkness, a silent dread filled the room. What horrible images awaited them this time?

Predictably, Yuu was among the students who were thoroughly traumatized by the outcome of the trial. A large piece of him was thankful that the culprit was properly punished, but the sheer weight of the situation they were in stifled any kind of relief. Calling that 'justice' would be far too generous. 

Even with a new area to explore, it was difficult to feel excitement- especially considering it was a water park of all things. Still, it was something to do at least. He seriously doubted it would be close to anything resembling fun, but it had to beat sitting around in the entrance and forcing himself to down another bento. 

At first, Yuu was satisfied keeping a comfortable distance from the water. Of course he had no intention of hopping in, but the ambiance of the waterpark attracted him closer and closer to the pool's edge. Carefully crouching down, he held back the sleeve of his haori with one hand and absentmindedly dipped the other into the water. 

Peering into the water, Yuu couldn't help but picture the underwater castles from his childhood storybooks. The poolwater was clear and laden with chemicals, but the kingdoms in his imagination were lined with seashells and all manner of colorful coral. For the first time in quite a while, Yuu smiled again. A set of footprints behind him prematurely snapped him out of this little dream sequence, however. 

"Mom-- ? wasn't- !" Yuu squealed and ripped his hand from the pool, splashing his assailant in the face as he whipped around all too quickly. Yuu was shocked at what he had said on instinct, but embarrassment was quickly replaced by a more familiar rage. 

Going to any of the rides here seemed contraproductive at this point. None of them were comfortable enough to take a nap on and she seemed to always meet someone in a matter of minutes or even seconds. Her journey to find the perfect nap spot turned out to be more difficult than anticipated.

Nonetheless, she was near the carousel now. Ugh, if they wanted to give them rides, why were all of them so boring? Couldn’t they get to a rollercoaster right off the bat? Or anything that was speedy and high up? Honestly, these were the only rides worth riding in her eyes - if she had to be dragged to such a place, then she wants to actually enjoy herself.

As she let her drowsy eyes linger on the ride itself, she spotted that one of her classmates was already enjoying himself on it. That was already a feeling she couldn’t quite share, but truth be told, the boy looked like as if anything could amaze him. Hell, she only saw little kids get this excited about carousels, so that was sure something, alright.

Well, if she was already here, might as well hop on this ride. Maybe, the music and monotony will be enough to put her to sleep even on something as uncomfortable as a fake horse.

Her movements were surprisingly smooth as she swung herself to a horse near the tall boy, prefering to ride it sideways. One leg was put on the ride, so she could support her ellbow against the knee and thus, let her head rest in her hand. Her look was absolutely nonchalant, as well as her voice when she decided to initiate a conversation out of nowhere.

God, she hated carnivals... The only good thing to come out of them was all of the teeth rotting carnival food, but she wasn't quite sure she should be eating any of that considering she still had absolutely no idea what was going on. Oh well, if she was going to be here, anyway, she might as well attempt to amuse herself, even if all that she can amuse herself with is baser, childish things.  This particular base, childish thing seemed appealing at the moment. "Swings Ride... Please remove your..." She stood back and shot the sign a glare that could have killed it if looks could kill and if, well, the sign were an animate object. Thankfully neither of those things were true. "There is no way I'm removing my shoes to get onto a ride I don't even wish to be on." She deadpanned to herself, scoffed, and crossed her arms. She did, however, look around to make sure that no one else could watch as she got onto a ride with her shoes very much on.

Not two seconds after the ride started, she was filled with deep seated regret and dread. She's never been this far from the earth... She's never more than 5 feet above it at any given time. She was so horrified that she didn't notice as one of her shoes slipped off of her feet and went flying down below to hit some poor schmuck on the head. In fact, the oceanographer didn't even even notice until, upon placing both feet on the ground, she felt a distinctly concrete feeling under her socks... Oh no. Her sock. She frantically looked around for her shoe before noticing it near a boy... A very... very tall boy... Fuck... She maintained her composure and walked up to him, hands clasped at her waist and a wide smile gracing her features.