Chapter Text
Saturday
April 9, 202X
Evening
The sound of the train’s trundling wheels filled Yuki’s ears as he stared distantly out the window, his head slumped against the glass. His eyes, up to now unfocused and looking at nothing in particular, suddenly snapped to attention as he saw a luminescent blue butterfly floating just outside the window. He was entranced, eyes dashing around to follow the butterfly’s erratic flight path, and for a moment he thought he heard piano music and a woman singing…
The moment was interrupted by a large hand clapping down on his shoulder, making Yuki turn around and stare dully at the burly, middle-aged man who the hand belonged to. He registered some details about the man; he was wearing rumpled dirty clothes, his hair was a salt-and-pepper bird’s nest, and, the most distinctive feature, the eyepatch over his right eye.
“We’re at the station, kid. You must have missed the announcement. By the way, shouldn’t your parents be with you?” His voice was deep and gravelly.
Yuki grit his teeth and bristled. “Shouldn’t you have a caretaker with you, old man?”
“Bahaha!” The man laughed uproariously. “Good one, kid. I’ll let you be.”
With that, he grabbed his bag - a single suitcase, whose utter cleanliness sharply contrasted with the man’s general dishevelment - and strode down the train’s aisle and out the doors. Yuki shook his head, before grabbing his own luggage, which was significantly more than the old man’s. It was two full bags, and he had more being mailed straight to his destination. He made his way off the train, and into the station. Before making it too far, he pulled out his phone.
17:49 Yuki Kanai: i’m at the station; where should i meet you?
17:49 Aunty: I’m at Gate B. Good to know you got here safely!
17:49 Yuki Kanai: good to know you’re waiting for me. see you soon, aunty.
With this new knowledge, Yuki began to walk through Mokushi Station, occasionally consulting maps to find the route to Gate B. When he arrived, he saw a young woman, wearing jeans, a graphic tee, and glasses, who he recognized as his Aunty Chihiro by both the computer science joke on the shirt and the dark red hair they both shared. Her eyes snapped to him as she heard his footsteps on the linoleum floor of the station, and her face broke out into a grin.
“Hey Yuki! It’s good to see you!” She closed the gap and hugged him close.
Yuki laughed and returned the hug, releasing his luggage as he did so. “It’s good to see you too, Aunty.”
“Don’t call me that! You’ll make me feel old.”
Yuki felt a shit-eating grin come across his face. “Sure thing, Aunty.”
She snorted. “Troublemaker. Anyways, we should get going - we’re gonna go out for dinner. My treat.”
They released each other from the hug. “Really?”
“Yup! I know a place, and you deserve a warm welcome to your new home. Besides, after what happened…”
He sighed. “You don’t have to worry about that, Aunty. I’m fine.”
“If you say so. We’re still getting dinner.”
He rolled his eyes. “Alright. Let’s go.”
By the time they arrived, the sun was setting, casting the restaurant in which they were eating in golden light. It was called Ashima Sushi, and apparently Chihiro was a regular. In fact, she was enough of a regular for the folks behind the counter to recognize her instantly and ask how she was doing. She responded genially, and found them a seat by the windows.
“I’ll have my regular, Aya-chan! The same for my nephew here.”
“We’re on it, Chihiro-chan!”
With that, the aunt and nephew were left alone, sitting across from each other in a booth and waiting for sushi. Yuki decided to catalogue any changes in how his aunt looked since the last time they’d seen each other; they’d talked a lot over the phone setting up his move, but he hadn’t seen her face nearly as much as he’d heard her voice.
The first thing he noticed was the haircut. Her hair had once gone down to her mid-back, it was now trimmed and put up into two buns on top of her head, at forty-five degree angles. The next thing he noticed was the bags under her black eyes. They were dark and heavier than he expected; he knew the situation was stressful, but he didn’t expect her to be losing that much sleep. Looking at her eyes, he realized that she was looking at the TV nearest to their booth, which was playing the news. Frowning, he decided to listen in and see what was so interesting.
“...another post alleging the Dosei Group is hiding information about the recent spate of disappearances in Mokushi, from the hacker AURORA. It remains unknown if this hacker is a lone wolf or in fact a group, and if it has any connection to Medjed or other historical hacker groups. The Dosei Group released a statement denying the claims, and calling them…”
“You work at Dosei, don’t you?”
Chihiro jumped, seemingly focused entirely on the news. She scratched the back of her neck. “Yup, I’m in their cybersecurity department. It’s why I’m so focused on the news; I’m probably gonna have to deal with this AURORA eventually.”
Yuki furrowed his brow. “What’s up with the disappearances?”
Chihiro grimaced. Right as she was going to speak, the waitress came back with their food, laying it on the table. “Nevermind. Let’s not ruin our meal, okay, Yuki?”
Frowning, he yielded. “Alright.”
The sushi was good, and the service even better. Tragically, it had to come to a close, and Yuki and Chihiro left to drive home. The ride was spent in a companionable silence, as Chihiro focused on driving and Yuki took the chance to observe the city he would be living in for the foreseeable future. Mokushi was different from his hometown of Sapporo. For one thing, it was hotter, though, thankfully, it wasn’t that much more humid. There were differences beyond climate, too. It seemed chock-full of advertisements, and a lot of them were for Dosei products.
His eyes were currently trained on a great big video screen on a building wall in the intersection of roads they were sitting at. It had a winking woman in a stylized, skintight spacesuit, reclining on the exterior of a space station, and holding up a cube, matte black but for the glowing green lines criss-crossing it’s faces in a manner resembling a star-chart, whose light pulsed in a smooth, regular rhythm. Lines connected the stars in the background of space, forming them into slick, modern text which read “Dosei Astraea: she’ll take you out of this world.”
They left the intersection, but he kept seeing Dosei ads. There were more for Astraea, which appeared to be a smart speaker device, some for other Dosei Electronics products, a few for medicines from Dosei Pharmaceutical, and even a couple for a Dosei-brand car . Yuki was honestly baffled by the sheer number of them. Not just the number of advertisements in general - though there were quite a bit - but also the number that were specifically Dosei ads. They constituted a good half of the ads he saw, which was wild to Yuki, who was used to variety among advertisements.
His musings were interrupted by his aunt’s gentle voice informing him of their arrival. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and got to grabbing his luggage and entering the apartment building. Chihiro swiped a plastic card at the keypad, which beeped permission to enter at them. While his aunt waved and greeted the man at the desk, Yuki simply hummed an acknowledgement of his existence.
The lobby was, in a word, plain. It was full of simple, rectangular shapes and the walls were all myriad shades of beige. The only things that stood out at all were the brick patterning on the floor and the large potted plants whose vivid foliage occupied an entire corner of the room. He noticed a few, hard-to-see stains, but they were small and frankly, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It wasn’t an exceptional building, but it could very easily be much worse. It was much the same with the elevator and hallway leading to the apartment.
“Alright, this is our place. Remember, we’re in 704.”
Yuki hummed in the affirmative as they entered the apartment. It was a simple home, but it was a home. It had a TV, sofa and dining table, as well as a kitchen, not separated from the living room except by the island. The walls had color, being painted in shades of green and black, and were covered in decorations, like Christmas lights, Featherman posters, and some framed pictures of people he didn’t quite recognize, though many of them looked vaguely familiar.
“Welcome to my humble abode!” Chihiro turned to face him and spread her arms wide, gesturing all around the apartment. She grinned. “How do you like it?”
“Featherman V, huh? I knew you had good taste, Aunty.”
“Of course I do, where do you think you got yours from? Sure as hell wasn’t from your mom.” She froze.
Yuki did too, for a second. Then he snorted. “Yeah, she always preferred Zephyrman. Don’t know what that was about.”
Chihiro relaxed. “Neither do I. Anyways, you’re probably pretty conked out from all that traveling. Why don’t you put your bags down and go to sleep? We can finish unpacking all your stuff tomorrow after registration.”
“Alright. Where’s my room?”
“The door’s back in the entryway, right across from the bathroom door. If you need anything, feel free to wake me up, okay?”
He rolled his eyes. “If there’s a monster under the bed, go to you. Cool.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Still, she smiled at him. “Sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite!”
With that, Yuki was left alone in the living room, and with nothing else to do, he went to his room. Contrary to the living room, there was little in the way of decorations. It had all the necessities: a twin-sized bed, a closet, and a desk, which already had the computer he’d mailed from Sapporo set up. He let down the bag which held his clothes, before opening it up to grab some pajamas. After changing into them, he settled into bed, and soon he was off to sleep.
???
There was the sound of shattering glass, and Yuki was lying on his back on a hard surface, staring up into an endless white void, punctuated with little black specks like shadowy stars and one great big, pitch-black circle like the sun’s evil clone. He pushed himself up a bit and looked around, finding that the surface he was on was a hexagon, covered in tiling hexagons, alternating between red and black. At each vertex of the hexagon, there was a tall Doric pillar, also alternating between red and black.
“Hello there.” A deep, rasping voice came from a man wearing a full suit of rust-covered armor, with one gauntlet having long, sharp-looking claws at the end of the fingers. These claws were the only parts of the armor that were not rusty, and were, in fact, polished to a silver shine.
"...Hello?"
The man growled.
“Do not speak unless I tell you to. Now, I have one simple question for you: What is your name?”
Through the visor, Yuki could see two glowing points where eyes should be. One of them was gold, and the other was crimson.
“Why should I tell you?”
He flicked his claws at Yuki. Electricity sparked off them, and then he was crying out in agony from the point-blank lightning bolt that had struck his chest.
“That’s why. Now answer me.”
Hissing and gritting his teeth in pain, Yuki spoke.
“Y-Yuki Kanai.”
“A fine name. Impressive that you remember it, here in this place, between dream and reality.”
The man in armor moved over Yuki, placing his still-sparking claws on Yuki’s throat.
“Now, one more thing, and I’ll let you go, at least for now. Will you take responsibility for all your actions?”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It should be self-explanatory. Answer the question.”
“Alright, yes, I’ll do it!”
“Say the whole thing.”
“I will take responsibility for all my actions.”
He pulled back his claws.
“Good! That wasn’t so hard, now was it? I think it’s time for you to go back from whence you came. I’ll be seeing you!”
There was the sound of shattering glass, and darkness.
Sunday
April 10th, 202X
Early Morning
Yuki woke up with a gasp, tangled in his sheets and covered in sweat. He panted as he looked around the room and tried to piece together what was going on. A hand came up to rub the sleep from his eyes, and he dimly remembered the nightmare. The hand went down and he sat up. Yuki shook his head as though to shake the nightmare out of it, and got up to get ready for the day.
He rifled through the yet-to-be-unpacked bag of clothes on the floor, and retrieved a very important outfit: his school uniform. It was composed of a pastel cyan blazer, with the tie matching the color, while the button-up shirt that went underneath the blazer was a plain white and the slacks were a slate grey. He laid it out, and then went across the hall and into the bathroom. Fairly quickly, Yuki stripped, and submitted himself to the scalding hot water of the shower. As he began his daily ablutions, the heat helped him to push out the remaining anxiety from the dream. By the time he was out, he was calm and ready to start his day.
Dressed in his school uniform, and having both tied up his dark red hair in his customary top-knot and donned his thin-rimmed, rectangular glasses, Yuki went to the kitchen to see if anything was being made for breakfast. He found it completely empty, surprising him. Regardless, he began to search through the cabinets and fridge for something to eat, but nothing looked particularly appetizing.
Sighing, he resigned himself to sitting down on the living room sofa and scrolling on his phone until it was time to go. There were a few good memes which warranted a pronounced breath through the nose, and some even got a sensible chuckle. These were interspersed with theories about Featherman V, callout posts, and the lurid details of ongoing crises which Yuki could do nothing about, but he read anyway.
A yawn took his attention away from the phone, and towards his aunt, who was sleepily exiting her bedroom. Her hair was frizzled and sticking up everywhere, and she was wearing a t-shirt that was much too big for her. She looked at Yuki, and blinked a few times before her eyes focused and she processed what she was seeing.
“What are you doing up and dressed so early?”
He shrugged.
“Nevermind, I’m gonna-” She interrupted herself with another large yawn. “I’m gonna shower and then I’ll make breakfast.”
Yuki returned to his scrolling, but in a few minutes Chihiro was back, dressed and cleaned.
“Alright, kiddo, whaddaya want to eat?”
Yuki shrugged. “Meh.”
“Sadly, we are fresh out of meh .”
“I’m not craving anything in particular, Aunty. Make what you want.”
“If you say so.”
Chihiro got to work, while Yuki kept on scrolling and scrolling. The apartment was filled with the sounds of her cooking and him scrolling. Rice was washed and put into the rice cooker; he snorted at some memes. Salmon sizzled on the stovetop; a bad pun made him groan loudly. Water was heated and powder was added to make instant miso soup; a particularly good joke made him wheeze.
“Alright, phones away. It’s eating time.”
The two dug into the meal of rice, salmon, and miso soup. It wasn’t a five-star meal, but Chihiro was a competent cook, so Yuki ate the whole thing. They made small talk over the meal, a good bit of it taken up by their shared nerdy interests, such as Featherman. Eventually, however, the meal was done and it was time for them to go, so as to finish up registration.
“Hey, Yuki, you’ve got your form all filled out, right? We’ll need it when we get to Souzou.”
Yuki did not have the form all filled out. It was, in fact, completely blank, as he had procrastinated filling it out up until now. He knew everything to put on it, and knew exactly where in his bag it was, but he just hadn’t gotten around to it. He decided not to inform his aunt of the details of this story, and so simply said:
“Shit, I completely forgot about that! I’ll fill it out on the way, don’t worry.”
With that, he rushed to grab it, and then to get into the car, completely ignoring Chihiro’s squawked surprise and dismay.
Sunday
April 10th, 202X
Morning
“You’re lucky you knew everything for the form off the top of your head.”
“I know.”
“You’re gonna have to stop it with the last-minute rushes to finish things, Yuki. I know you’ve been doing it for a while, but it really isn’t-”
“We’re here.”
They had, in fact, arrived at the principal’s office of Souzou Academy, and so they entered. They were greeted with three people. One was sat at the desk, and the other two were on either side of it. At the desk was a middle-aged woman whose long grey hair was tied up into a bun, and who was wearing a yellow-green coat over a white blouse.
To the right of the desk was a short man, with a square jaw and curly, brownish-orange hair kept in an undercut, wearing a slate grey waistcoat over an off-white dress shirt as well as dress pants which matched the waistcoat. To the left was what was obviously a student of the school, given her youth and her uniform. She was of average height and willowy build, with pale skin and long, straight black hair, with bangs coming to right above the eyes and sidelocks going to her cheeks. Her eyes were keen and the color of steel.
The woman at the desk was the first to speak. “Ah, welcome, Kanai-san, Kanai-kun. I am Saeko Takami, and I am the principal of Souzou Academy. It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Kanai-kun.”
Yuki hummed noncommittally. Seemingly unfazed, the Principal brought out the last of the paperwork. Yuki handed over his part, and Chihiro signed off on what she needed to.
“Well then, I suppose it’s time for the rest of the introductions.” She gestured to the man. “This is Tadashi-sensei. He will be your homeroom teacher, in Class 3-C.”
“I hope we will have a productive year together, Kanai-kun.”
The Principal gestured to the girl. “And this is our Student Council President, Tomoyo Yamazaki. She will be giving you a tour of the school.”
“It’s a pleasure, Kanai-kun. Please, feel free to come to me with any complaints, questions, or requests you may have throughout the school year.”
“One last thing before you leave on your tour, Kanai-kun. Though we are happy to have you here at Souzou, we are also sorry to hear of the circumstances that led to your transfer. As a reminder, we do have a counselor on staff. If I were you, I would take advantage of Matsumoto-sensei's services.”
He hummed again.
The Principal raised an eyebrow, but anything she would have said was interrupted by a beeping from Chihiro’s phone. Everyone in the room turned to look at her as she examined the notification.
“Ah, dammit. There’s an emergency at work and I’ve been called in. Here, Yuki.”
She handed him two cards, one white and the other black.
“The white one’s your key to the apartment and the black one’s a card for the Metro; you can take it home once you’re done here, alright?”
He pocketed them.
“Sure thing, Aunty. Good luck at work.”
With that, Chihiro left. Tadashi-sensei left too, saying something about seeing him in class tomorrow, and only him, Yamazaki, and the Principal remained in the room. The Principal shooed them out, telling them to start the tour and reminding Yuki that her office was always open to students.
“So, where we going first, Ms. Prez?”
“So you do speak after all.”
“Eh, gotta save a tongue this good for special occasions.”
“Is this a special occasion, then?”
He waggled his eyebrows. “It could be, if you wanted.”
She scowled. “No.”
He raised his hands in surrender. “Alright. No more flirting. I ain’t gonna stop with the nickname, though.”
“It’s far from the worst thing I’ve been called. I think I’ll live. Now, let’s actually do what we’re supposed to be doing.”
The duo walked through the halls of Souzou Academy, with Yamazaki showing him what the various rooms were for. The layout was fairly similar to his old school, but one thing stood out: it was all a lot more fancy than that one. There was a computer lab, fully stocked with the latest tech. Throughout the halls, there were LCD screens which had announcements and upcoming events listed on them. All the rooms had fancy decor which seemed to have been maintained and repaired within the year.
“So, how rich is this school? And how much is Aunty paying for me to go here, anyway?”
She glanced coolly at him. “We have a sizable endowment, enabled by the various donors. The biggest is the Dosei Group, who also funds full-ride scholarships for students of employees. Your aunt isn’t paying a single yen for you to be here.”
Yuki let out a breath in relief. “Good. I’d hate to be even more of a burden on her than I already am.”
“Quite.” There was a pause. “By the way, would you mind if I asked about what the circumstances Takami-sensei mentioned are?”
He shrugged. “Sure. I’m an orphan.”
Yamazaki tripped and almost fell, but managed to catch herself against the wall. “P-pardon?”
“My parents are dead. Deceased. They kicked the bucket. They bought the farm. They are ex-parents.”
She rolled her eyes. “I gathered that much. You just...shocked me with your bluntness. May I ask for more details?”
“You may, Ms. Prez. Dad died when I was seven. He got sick with something, I don’t remember the details. But my mom died just last month. One night she went to bed and...didn’t wake up. Nobody knows quite what happened, but I had to live with someone. So I came out here from Sapporo, and boom! Here we are.”
“How can you just...talk about it? I know if I were in that situation, I wouldn’t be able to discuss it so frankly with someone I just met.”
He shrugged, looking away. “I mean, I gotta move forward eventually right? I’m just getting a head start.”
“I suppose. Now, here’s the club rooms. You did kendo at your last school, right?”
“Yup.”
“Do you intend on doing it this year?”
“We’ll see.”
“Well, if you’re interested, they have try-outs on the 15th. Oh, Doi-kun!”
There was an athletic girl exiting the kendo room. She was wearing the pastel cyan tracksuit that was Souzou’s athletic uniform, and carried a black duffel bag over her shoulder. Her black hair was tied back, revealing an angular face and bright green eyes.
“Hello, Yamazaki-senpai. Is this a transfer student?”
Yuki waved. “Yup, the name’s Yuki Kanai. What about you, Sword?”
She blinked. “Sword?”
He inclined his head towards the door she came from. “You do kendo, right? So you’re Sword.”
“Well, my real name is Saori Doi. Which class will you be in?”
“3-C, with Tadashi-sensei.”
“Oh! You’ll be my senpai, then. It’s good to meet you.”
She bowed at him, which he looked at with no small amusement.
“Likewise, Sword.”
“Does he stop with the nicknames?” This was directed towards Yamazaki.
“Sadly, no.”
“Nicknames are non-negotiable.”
Monday
April 10th, 202X
Afternoon
Doi stayed with them throughout the rest of the tour, adding her own commentary. It turned out she was a first year, but had already been recruited for the kendo team, and had been getting in some early practice. Eventually, the tour was over, and the trio split up. Doi went home, Yamazaki went to do some student council work, and Yuki decided to do some exploring of Mokushi. Hey, he had a subway card, why not use it?
The first destination he decided to explore was Kimu Ward, on the other side of the river. It seemed like a decent way to spend an afternoon - it had Amokan Shopping Center, the largest shopping district in the city. Unfortunately, it did take a rather long time to get there. So, Yuki resigned himself to a long subway ride spent staring at his phone.
The positively thrilling experience of doomscrolling with the occasional nose-laugh mixed in was interrupted by the view of a luminescent blue butterfly fluttering just outside the window. Entranced, he tore his eyes away from the horrible state of the world which he could do nothing about to instead stare at this butterfly, which at least had the benefits of not filling him with despair at the state of the world.
Yuki managed to spend the entire train ride to Kimu watching the beautiful butterfly as it danced around in the tunnel’s air. As the train came to a smooth stop in the station, the butterfly landed on the window, and stood there, perfectly still, for several seconds. Then, the moment the train finally stopped, it dissolved into glowing dust of the same brilliant blue color, which floated away as though on a strong wind. Blinking his eyes and shaking his head at the weirdness of it all, Yuki exited the subway and began to navigate his way out of the station.
It took a few stops at a map and questions to stationmasters, but he did eventually get out and into Kimu Ward proper. Looking up directions, he found Amokan, which seemed like it would be a good idea to familiarize himself with. Yuki plugged the address into his phone’s map app and followed the robotic voice’s directions as he walked towards his destination.
It didn’t take too long to reach the shopping center; however, this only presented a new problem: Amokan was very large. It was, in fact, a whole street unto itself, with a glass roof overhead and with entrances that prevented any cars from driving onto it. This meant that Yuki was spoiled for options with where to go.
However, one thing quickly took priority: his stomach’s rumbling and grumbling. Chastised by the whale-like sounds emanating from his abdomen, Yuki began a hunt for good, cheap food. Fortunately for him, he found a ramen shop and was soon setting into his meal. His slurping-up of noodles was interrupted by a hand patting his shoulder to get his attention. Yuki grunted as he turned his eyes to the interloper, a man with a square face and cleft chin, wearing a clean black suit whose color matched his smoothed back hair.
“Hey, kid. Why are you wearing your uniform? School hasn’t started yet.” The man laughed at his own joke.
Yuki finished slurping some noodles before answering. “Transfer student. Finished registration and got a tour today.”
“Oh, so you’re new in town! Souzou, right? My boss’s kid goes there, maybe I could introduce you. No such thing as too many friends, is what I always say. What’s your name?”
“...Yuki Kanai.”
The man paused for a bit and then grinned. “That’s a good name! I’ll tell the kid about you. Well, have a good life, Kanai-kun.”
With that farewell, the man got up and left without paying for his own meal. Apparently, this was typical, as the staff of the shop simply bid him goodbye as he left. Unsettled, Yuki returned to his meal. When he finished, he got up, paid for his bowl of ramen, and returned to the street outside, stretching his arms out and popping his back. Before he began his wanderings, Yuki took off his cyan blazer and stuffed it into his bag. He didn’t want any trouble he got up to reflecting poorly upon his new school, after all.
Newly-freed from both the physical restraints of the blazer and the societal restraints of such obvious association with a prestigious school, he stepped forth to explore Amokan. As he wandered, he saw an array of stores and such: hardware stores, movie theaters, bookshops, diners, beef bowl shops, arcades, and some music stores. Scattered throughout were advertisements, a good few of which were for Dosei products. There were also several ads for a presentation by Akemi Kugane, who was apparently a local actress, on how to get into acting. Not really Yuki’s thing, but it could be an interesting way to spend some time. He made a note of the date - April 29th, Showa Day.
One thing drew his eyes away from the Kugane ads and towards an alleyway leading off from the main Amokan street: the hints of graffiti covering it’s walls. Intrigued, he walked into the alley, and examined the art. Yuki spent a fair bit of time appreciating the bold colors and strokes of the art, but was rudely interrupted by a barking shout from the end of the alley.
“What are you doing here?”
For a moment, Yuki simply stared at the group of delinquents gathered in the alley, mixed between squatting and standing, whose pompadour-haired leader had called him out. Then, an idea came to mind about how he could relieve some of the stress from...well, his entire life lately. The thought brought a sharp grin across his face.
“I’m appreciating the artwork. Would you happen to know the artist?”
“Know the artist? I am the artist.”
Yuki made a show of looking him up and down and sneering. “Somehow I doubt you have the capabilities for that.”
The rather buff leader (he nicknamed him Pompadour in his head) and his two underlings (one tall and lean, the other short and squat, mentally nicknamed Biggie and Smalls) ruffled at that.
“What?! You don’t think I could do this, you piece of shit?”
“That is what I just said, yes.”
“Well, I guess I’ll just have to show you my capabilities myself,” Pompadour growled, and then pounced at Yuki.
Yuki dropped his bag off his shoulder and onto the ground as he dodged the initial strike. Gleeful at his gambit’s success, he struck back, his fist finding home in Pompadour’s stomach. He slammed his other fist into the foe’s chin, and then kicked him in the knee. While he stumbled, Biggie lashed out at Yuki.
His blow hit Yuki’s shoulder, sending him into a spin which he quickly brought to a halt. His counterattack is interrupted by Smalls’ leg catching his calf and tripping him. Even as he was forced to catch himself, stinging his palms in the process, Yuki’s grin only grew. Pushing himself back up, he used the momentum to throat-punch Biggie, before slamming his head into the wall, knocking him unconscious.
Smalls came at him from behind, wrapping an arm around his throat and squeezing tight. Pompadour leered as he pulled back for a punch. However, Yuki jumped up and slammed both of his feet into Pompadour’s chest, before headbutting Smalls in the nose. Released from the grapple, he grabbed Smalls and returned the favor. Instead of just choking him, he hoisted him off the ground and threw him at Pompadour. The two wound up in a groaning pile on the ground, unable to move.
“Well then! Thanks, guys, that was a pretty good fight. I gotta get going though, so have a good rest of your day! And by the way, that is actually some damn good art. Good job on that, Pompadour.”
Tucking his hands, now with a little blood on them, into his pockets, Yuki left the alleyway and found a public restroom with a sink so he could wash the blood off. After this, he decided that he’d had enough fun in Amokan, and began heading to the station to return home.
As he rode the subway through the tunnels, he saw the same butterfly he’d seen before, once again just outside the window. This time however, it seemed more frantic - instead of flying in lazy curves, it was darting about in jagged lines forming no apparent pattern. Intrigued, Yuki stared at the panicking butterfly for a good few minutes, until it landed on… nothing?
But after a second look, he saw it wasn’t nothing. It was a thin, barely-visible white line, looking like a glowing hairline fracture in the tunnel wall. But it was growing, and growing, and growing. Then it all happened at once.
There was a loud sound, as though an entire hall of mirrors had shattered in unison. The white crack was suddenly not white at all, but instead every color Yuki could name and some more he couldn’t. Through the crack, which was now two meters wide, he could peer into what looked like a whole other world, and in that world he saw a slender man wearing golden armor, a blood red skirt, and a golden hoplite's helmet with a red plume, who was wielding a spear with a blade as long as the man was tall.
That same blade struck out from the crack, and slammed into the subway car. It retreated, and as suddenly as it had come, the crack was gone. Yet still, the subway had been struck hard, and it went speeding off the rails, just as it came into a station.
Within his head, Yuki heard a low, hollow voice whisper something he couldn’t make out, and then he was thrown hard from his seat as the train slammed into the station. He heard the metal screech in protest, and then shear itself apart under the strain. He blacked out for a few seconds, but when he came to, the roof was gone, and he could see the sky through it.
He was surrounded by the dead, broken bodies laying motionless throughout the car. Swallowing bile, Yuki began to move, striding past them and trying to ignore all the corpses he was having to push and pull around so as to get out of there. After several minutes of this unpleasant (to say the least) experience, he managed to get to a door, which was fortunately already torn open by the forces acting on the metal. Unfortunately, it was not ground-level; the same forces that had opened it had tilted the train so the door was facing upwards. Still, it was Yuki’s only way out of here, and so he began climbing up and out. He hissed as he cut his hand on some of the shorn metal, but he was able to make it outside of the train car, and onto it’s walls.
Yuki stood, uncertain and unsteady, atop the derailed train car, and gazed out into the rest of Domaku Station, which had been subject to chaos similar to the interior of the train. Pillars were broken, as was much of the flooring and other such things. However, there were emergency responders there; EMTs and paramedics from the fire department, as well as officers and detectives from the police department.
One of the detectives turned around, and saw Yuki standing there. Immediately, he began shouting and gesturing for the other responders to go and help him. A mixed crew of EMTs and paramedics jogged over to the edge, and began coordinating together to get into a position and formation where they could safely catch him if he jumped down.
A paramedic with short black hair buzzed short shouted up to him.
“Hey! Sit down on the ledge, and on the count of three, slide off, okay? We’ll catch you!”
Silently, Yuki nodded and obliged.
“Three! Two! One! There you go. Alright, let’s get you checked out, okay? Where does it hurt?”
Yuki stared and blinked, as he realized that he was in no pain whatsoever.
“Nowhere.”
“Don’t play tough with me, you were just in a train crash. I’ll ask again, where does it hurt?”
He shook his head.
“It doesn’t! I’m as surprised as you, I should be in so much pain right now but I’m not . And no, I have no idea why, either.”
“That’s...weird. I’m still giving you an examination though.”
“Yeah, sure, go ahead, do your job.”
And so Yuki spent the next few minutes sitting in a ruined subway station, getting examined by a paramedic for injuries that he should, by all rights, have, but very distinctly didn’t . He knew what the paramedic was checking for - his dad had been a paramedic, and had taught Yuki about first aid and other medical stuff when he was a kid - and he knew that she wouldn’t find anything wrong with him.
“Huh. You really do seem entirely uninjured. Well, let’s get your guardian over here so you can go home, okay? What’s your name, and who should we call?”
“Yuki Kanai, call my Aunt Chihiro.” He proceeded to give her Chihiro’s number.
While the paramedic called Chihiro, one of the detectives wearing a fedora and a long coat walked over. He was a tall young man, with curly black hair that went down to the nape of his neck. In his hands, there was a paper notepad and a ballpoint pen, ready to take notes.
“Hello. I’m Inspector Kouichi Okita, with the Mokushi PD. I’m just gonna ask you a few questions, and then you can head on your way, okay? Hikeshi-san already checked you out for any injuries, correct?”
“Yup. I am, somehow, completely unscathed. And no, I have no idea how.”
“That’s impressive. But I’d like to start at the beginning. Where and when did you get on the subway, and where were you headed?”
“I got on at Kimu Station, right around 12:30. I was actually on my way here to Domaku, it's where I live.”
“Well, you’ve certainly had an interesting ride home. Do you know what happened?”
Yuki furrowed his brow.
“I know it was a pretty normal ride up until I saw the butterfly.”
“Butterfly?”
“It was bright blue and glowing, I saw it out the window of the train. Then there was a glowing...crack, I guess? It was bright white, and spanned across the entire wall of the tunnel.”
“Did this crack do anything?”
“Yeah, one second it was pretty thin, like a hairline fracture. Then it grew, and it was about as wide as you are tall. I honestly can’t describe what color it was, I just know it kept changing. In the crack, I saw a burly man with a scythe, who swung it at the train. Then the crack was gone, and the train was going off rails.”
“Huh. That’s quite the tale. Unfortunately, I don’t think my superiors are gonna take it as fact.”
“I can’t really blame them.”
Okita laughed. “You can’t, can you? I don’t think I have any more questions for you, unless you’ve got any more details to give.”
“Not right now, no.”
“Well, if you remember anything else, then feel free to call or text me. Here’s my number.”
He dashed off the digits on a sheet of notepad paper, tore it off, and handed it to Yuki, who took it, folded it carefully, and put it in his pocket. Anything else the two wanted to say were interrupted by a female voice.
“Yuki! Are you okay?”
It was Chihiro, running past the paramedics to get to where Yuki was. When she got there, she seized Yuki and pulled him into a very, very strong hug. He wrapped his own arms around her.
“I am, but I might not be if you keep squeezing, Aunty.”
She pulled back, but looked at him skeptically.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, and you can ask the paramedic who checked me. I’m perfectly fine. Can we go home now?”
Chihiro kept fussing over him, but eventually she relented and piled him into her car. When they got home, she made sure he got comfortable on the couch while she called Ashima Sushi for some takeout as comfort food. All the while, he insisted that he wasn’t hurt whatsoever and there was exactly zero reason to do all this, but she was obstinate.
And so they spent the rest of the night on the couch, watching anime together. Eventually, he got up and went to his room. After stripping off his uniform, he crawled into bed, and for a good few minutes, he lay there staring up at the roof, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with his life lately. Then, he mentally shrugged and gave up on what was clearly a fruitless endeavor, and finally went to sleep.