Chapter Text
Atsushi didn't know where they were, but they had been there for hours, and they couldn't find the way out.
The walls, where there were walls, were swirled with stark, abstract patterns of black and white. They hurried over black and white striped floors, and something almost like tile, speckled white against black like a starry sky. But there were only so many ways you could combine black and white before it all started to look the same.
"Atchan," Kin-chan said, his voice hushed, although they had seen no sign of anyone else. "I think we're back where we were before."
"No." Atsushi pointed to a circle, spinning in midair along the side of the corridor. "That's new." It looked grey, but they hadn't seen anything grey in this maze so far, so he had a feeling that it was black and white too, and just spinning too quickly for its pattern to be seen.
Kin-chan looked like he had a retort, but he just nodded instead, trying not to gasp for air. Atsushi didn't bother to stop himself. They had been running for a long time, and that one staircase had gone on forever.
"We have to keep moving," he said after a moment, when he had more or less caught his breath. Kin-chan nodded again. When Atsushi began to run, he followed.
Atsushi led Kin-chan through corridors that could almost have been modeled on their school. They ran along checkered bridges spanning bottomless black depths, passed through scenery that, despite Atsushi's optimism, looked dishearteningly familiar. But Kin-chan didn't waste breath pointing it out anymore. He just ran.
At last, the corridor opened into a wide, empty space with multiple paths leading away from it. Some were staircases, some were archways, some simply extensions of the corridor that faded into darkness, but they all looked equally unwelcoming. Atsushi froze, uncertain.
"Atchan. Look."
He turned and saw that Kin-chan was pointing at a green exit sign above one of the staircases. It was a relief to see it, for no other reason than because it was the first color they had encountered in the entire maze besides themselves. Still, it was almost too easy, after all the running, after trying for so long to find the way out and failing. But he looked at Kin-chan and saw his own relief and urgency mirrored in Kin-chan's face. They started up the stairs almost in unison.
The door looked almost like everything else they'd passed, an unfriendly pattern of white bars against black, only its outline and the exit sign overhead suggesting that it was a door at all. But when Atsushi touched it, it felt like any metal door he'd ever touched, cool and solid. The sheer, prosaic familiarity of the texture under his fingers should have been reassuring, a reminder of normalcy. If not that, it should at least have compounded his relief to be so close to the exit. Instead, the door made him nervous.
"Atchan." Kin-chan put his hand on Atsushi's shoulder.
"Sorry. Sorry." He touched Kin-chan's hand and looked over his shoulder at Kin-chan, attempting a smile. He probably didn't do a very good job, but Kin-chan swallowed and offered one of his own in exchange. He looked pale and scared and tremulous, more or less the way Atsushi felt, though what it was about a door that was so terrifying, Atsushi couldn't say. Nonetheless, he squeezed Kin-chan's hand, swallowed, and set his shoulder to the door.
After all that, it was kind of anticlimactic. Despite his best efforts, the door moved an inch or two at most. Not enough to even clear the doorframe and let them catch a glimpse of what was outside, although, he realized with a frisson of nerves, he could now hear strange metallic crunches on the other side. He winced, shifting his weight and trying again. "Kin-chan, help me."
He heard quick, purposeful footsteps behind him and felt Kin-chan's presence at his back. They pushed at the door together, two skinny boys against a heavy block of metal. But this time, the door eased open with a low groan. Atsushi stared out, frozen, into a disaster zone.
"Atchan? What's wrong?"
It was Kin-chan's voice that snapped him out of his horror. The door opened onto the top of a tree. If he had been there alone, he would have run forward, out onto the torn-apart section of a building's skeleton that was lodged in its side—and somehow it didn't seem strange that the door had led them here, although it should have. In any case, the building skeleton offered a precarious walkway, from which Atsushi might be able to get a better view of the wreckage of the city of Binan.
Because it was Binan, unmistakably, even if he had never seen it from this angle before. Pieces of buildings that he recognized floated in the air, weightless and drifting like clouds, except when they crashed into each other, or into buildings that were still standing. That was the noise he had heard through the door: the sound of skyscrapers falling to pieces. Now that the door was open, he could hear as well the fainter sound of a siren in the distance, forlorn and futile.
And floating in the sky above it all was something enormous, something that made Atsushi shudder. It looked like an upside-down person, almost, dressed in billowing robes, or a formal dress, or something. But the proportions were exaggerated and the person, or whatever it was, had no feet. Instead, emerging out of its robes or its skirts was a huge gear, spinning pointlessly around and around.
Atsushi thought he could hear it giggling. The sound was more disturbing than the buildings torn in half, or even the sight of the thing itself. His mouth was dry with fear.
But still, if it had just been him, he would have gone outside anyway, to see if there was something he could do to help. He couldn't imagine what he, Atsushi, could do in the face of all of this, but... Anyway, it wasn't important, because he wasn't there alone. If he ran out into this, Kin-chan would follow him. He wanted Kin-chan to be safe, and that meant he wanted Kin-chan to be far, far away from here. "Let's... let's stay inside."
But instead of agreeing, Kin-chan shouldered him out of the way, pushing him out onto the tree with a glare Atsushi could feel, even if he couldn't see it. "What are you so..." His voice trailed off and he paled as he saw the city. For a moment he stood there, frozen like Atsushi had been. Then he swallowed hard and stepped out onto the tree as well, letting the door slam shut behind him. It occurred to Atsushi then that Kin-chan had been holding the heavy door open alone since he had pushed Atsushi out of the way. It was his own fault, but still... But when he turned to apologize, he saw only a solid metal wall behind them. No door, and no way back. He stared at it, wide-eyed.
"Let's go," said Kin-chan.
Atsushi felt the same need to do something, anything that would be useful, or at least make him feel less sick and frightened and helpless. Even so, he turned to face Kin-chan. "Go and do what?" he demanded, but his final words were drowned out by an enormous crash and an explosion from somewhere behind him. He flinched. Kin-chan didn't bother to answer, probably because he didn't have an answer to provide and he knew that they both knew it. He just walked past Atsushi, down the limb of the tree and out onto the conveniently-placed building skeleton. Atsushi glanced at the thing in the sky, shuddered, and ran after him.
He caught up with Kin-chan before the far edge because Kin-chan had stopped to frown at something in the distance. As Atsushi approached, he turned slightly, but didn't take his eyes off whatever he was looking at.
"Kin-chan?"
"Look." Kin-chan pointed out across the ruins of their city, to a part of the financial district that still had more buildings intact than otherwise.
Atsushi looked, squinting and adjusting his glasses, and saw with some shock that there was a person out there, standing on the flat roof of a skyscraper, facing the thing in the sky. Atsushi could barely tell from this distance, but something about them... the hair, maybe, or the determined set of their shoulders, which Atsushi remembered because it had been so strange to see... "Is that... Is that Yufuin?"
"I believe so."
"But Yufuin's missing."
"He was missing." They watched, huddled close as though it would keep them safe, while Yufuin, wearing strange clothes, wearing a cape, of all things, lifted what looked like a small shield and leaped. It should have surprised Atsushi when the leap carried him fifty feet or more into the sky, but at this point he was probably beyond surprise.
He still flinched when a building slammed into Yufuin, carrying him back into the skyscraper he had been standing on. Yufuin would be caught in the middle, Atsushi realized, sickened. He had known Yufuin for years. He didn't want him to die, especially not like this. He definitely didn't want to witness it. But more than that, Yufuin was the only other person they had seen, and whatever was going on, he was clearly in a better position to help than Atsushi or Kin-chan. Neither of them could look away, but Kin-chan's hand found Atsushi's and clung.
Atsushi exhaled, relieved, when Yufuin appeared from between the crumbling buildings in a flash of blue light. With the same impossible agility, he leapt onto floating debris or simply onto thin air, dodging fire that the being in the sky shot at him, or deflecting it with his shield when he couldn't. He hadn't yet been hurt, or at least not since Atsushi and Kin-chan had arrived, but if he was trying to fight the thing, Atsushi didn't know how he was going to do it. He was barely managing to protect himself.
"This is..." Atsushi's voice was small and frightened. Awful, he didn't say. This is horrible.
"This is wrong," Kin-chan said tightly. "Unacceptable." It was such a Kin-chan thing to say that despite everything, Atsushi felt comforted.
"There's nothing to be done."
Atsushi and Kin-chan both jumped and looked down. At some point, while they had been watching, a small, white creature had appeared in front of them, sitting calmly and looking up at them.
"What do you mean, there's nothing to be done?" Kin-chan demanded, even though Atsushi knew that Kin-chan knew they couldn't help. "That sort of defeatism—"
"It's too much for even him to handle alone. See?" The creature turned to watch Yufuin, and the two humans followed his gaze. As Yufuin ran across the top of a floating building, the being in the sky emerged from under it. Yufuin's surprise was obvious, even from this distance, and Atsushi flinched again as he was hit by another stream of fire and knocked backwards off the building, tumbling through the air until he slammed into a branch of the tree Kin-chan and Atsushi were in. The tree was big enough that even then, it was hard to make out his features. But he just lay there, unmoving, and that was all Atsushi really needed to know. For a moment, his fear grew big enough to swallow him whole. He took a step in Yufuin's direction.
"If you leave him to fight it alone," the creature said, "it's over."
Yufuin lifted his head at last, slowly enough that he was probably still groggy. But Atsushi could tell when Yufuin spotted him and Kin-chan, because he pushed himself upright and leaned urgently toward them. But whatever he was trying to do or convey was lost to the distance between them. Atsushi felt more helpless than he had known it was possible to feel.
Kin-chan, in the meantime, was still arguing with the creature beside them. "You were the one who said—"
"Kin-chan." Atsushi turned to face the creature again. At some point, the creature had turned to stare up at them again with its unblinking red eyes. "What do you mean? Is there something we can do?"
"Of course." The creature's tail twirled behind him in slow, calm motions, completely at odds with the situation. It reminded Atsushi of the fragments of stone and metal around them, drifting serenely through the sky. "Both of you have the power to change fate and undo this destruction."
Atsushi blinked, but at this point, even that idea didn't seem too strange. If buildings could float at the whim of a floating giant with a gear instead of feet, and his own classmate could use what was clearly magic, why not?
"How?" Kin-chan asked curtly, his lips thinning as, from the sound of it, another building was ripped apart and most of it torn from the ground. Despite himself, Atsushi turned to look. He hoped, desperately, that the city had been evacuated before... all this. Kin-chan seemed composed, though quite pale, but his hand had clenched convulsively around Atsushi's at the sound. Atsushi squeezed back, his heart pounding.
Yufuin was leaning even further towards them. It definitely looked like he was trying to communicate something, but if he was speaking, Atsushi still couldn't hear. And he must still have been dazed from his collision, because as Atsushi frowned, trying to listen, Yufuin leaned too far forward, lost his balance, and tumbled off the branch, down into darkness.
Atsushi gasped, but even as Yufuin fell, the creature spoke. "You can save him too. You can save everyone if you make contracts with me." Atsushi turned to him, needing to believe in his air of unconcerned knowledge, his claim that, if Kin-chan and Atsushi just listened to him, everything would be okay.
"Contracts," Atsushi repeated.
"Yes. Each of you has to make a contract with me and become a magical boy. With that power, you'll be able to defeat the witch and save En Yufuin, and everyone else in the city."
Atsushi looked at Kin-chan. Kin-chan looked back at him, his jaw set in the way it was when he had made up his mind. That was a relief, because Atsushi was determined too. He wasn't excited to make a contract with a weird white creature he'd just met, but the situation was desperate. If they said no, they'd probably both die anyway, and the entire population of Binan with them. What did they have to lose?
As one, they turned to face the white creature. "We will," Kin-chan said for them both.
* * *
Atsushi woke with a gasp to the sound of his alarm. It took him a moment to realize where he was.
"What a weird dream," he muttered, and rolled over to hit snooze.
* * *
And yet, as intense as the dream had been, Atsushi would probably have forgotten the details if he and Kin-chan, who were usually the first to get to their classroom, hadn't arrived that morning to find Yufuin already there. His shirt was tucked in, and his uniform was so neat that even Kin-chan could have no room for complaint. His messy hair was pulled back in a ponytail. He stared out the window, chin in his hand, looking not so much sleepy as bored and a little condescending, as if he had better places to be and was only at school to humor everyone else.
Atsushi knew it was impolite, but he stopped in the doorway and stared. Kin-chan shouldered him gently to one side so that they could stand next to each other, bringing back vague memories of the dream Atsushi had already mostly forgotten. But when Kin-chan saw Yufuin, he stopped too. "Well," he murmured after a moment's surprise, so quietly Atsushi could barely make out his words. "I suppose it's possible for anyone to improve, after all."
"Kin-chan," Atsushi sighed, but the moment was broken. Anyway, Yufuin was ignoring them, so he made his way to his desk and sat down.
Kin-chan followed and set his bag by his desk in front of Atsushi's, but instead of sitting, he made his way to the back corner of the room. Yufuin's corner. Atsushi winced and got up to follow him in case he was going to be needed for damage control.
"I'm glad you've decided to honor the dress code," Kin-chan said, looking down at Yufuin. "Your absence yesterday was clearly good for you." Yufuin looked up at him in silence, cool and unwelcoming and not at all like the drowsy, relaxed boy Atsushi knew. A shiver of unease ran down his spine, but Kin-chan, who himself wasn't known for his warmth of personality, was unfazed. "However," he continued, "I can't condone the nail art." It was then that Atsushi noticed a blue triangle on the nail of Yufuin's left middle finger, and a silver ring on that same finger. It reminded him of something he had half-glimpsed in the past, a spot of green quickly hidden, but he couldn't place the memory.
"Nail art," said Yufuin, his tone as chilly as his expression, "isn't against the dress code."
Kin-chan blinked. Then, offended, he drew himself up. "Sorry," Atsushi said quickly, stepping in before Kin-chan could open his mouth. "It's Kin-chan's job to worry about that kind of thing. I'm glad you're back today. Were you sick? Do you feel better now?"
Yufuin transferred his gaze to Atsushi. Normally he seemed happy enough to see Atsushi and chat a little, but today, his lips thinned a bit and he said nothing. After a few seconds, Atsushi decided it was best to leave before things got too unsettling or Kin-chan exploded from repressed indignation. "Right," he said, speaking more quickly than he might have liked. "Well, sorry to bother you. Come on, Kin-chan." And he grabbed Kin-chan's sleeve and dragged him away.
"You know," he said in an undertone, when more students had arrived and they could speak without being overheard. "I think I dreamed about Yufuin last night." He expected Kin-chan to look politely interested, or, at best, curious, but instead Kin-chan gave him a startled, disquieted look. "What?" Atsushi said, surprised and a bit anxious now himself.
"I did as well." Kin-chan hesitated. "I don't remember many details, but he was there. Him and you both."
Atsushi was briefly silent. "That's all I remember about mine, too," he said at last. "Except it was you and him both there, not... yeah."
Kin-chan shot a glance toward the back of the room. Atsushi was facing the wrong direction and couldn't follow suit with any subtlety at all, but it was hard to stop himself from turning and looking anyway. "Probably a coincidence," Kin-chan said, attempting to be firm. He didn't sound convinced.
"Yeah." And although he tried, Atsushi couldn't manage to sound like he believed it, either.
* * *
"Yufuin! I hope you spent your day off studying."
As Atsushi glanced back, Yufuin managed to peel his eyes away from the window long enough to say, "Yeah."
Their calculus teacher's eyes narrowed. He wasn't buying it, and, to be honest, neither was Atsushi. "Good," the teacher said crisply. "Then please come to the board and solve the following problem." Atsushi suppressed a wince. In front of him, Kin-chan gave a tiny, approving nod. But Yufuin waited for the teacher to finish writing the problem and then headed for the board, to all appearances as bored as he had been earlier that morning.
The problem the teacher had provided was a complicated one, involved enough to make even Kin-chan hesitate. The teacher must have been annoyed with Yufuin for lying. And then Atsushi's thoughts trailed off into wordless surprise as Yufuin picked up the chalk and began to write line after line without pause.
When he finished, he circled his answer, set down the chalk, and went back to his seat, with no hint of smugness or triumph in his expression. The room was silent for a long moment; everyone in the class had known Yufuin for months, if not longer. They had all expected the same thing Atsushi had. "That's correct," the teacher said at last. He shot Yufuin a puzzled, slightly suspicious look, but—Atsushi couldn't help but turn to look again—Yufuin was once more staring out the window.
* * *
"This is getting really weird," Atsushi murmured to Kin-chan during P.E., watching from the field as Yufuin won a footrace by a large margin. "There's no way he could get in shape like that in just one day off."
Kin-chan didn't respond, but as he watched Yufuin ignore his classmates and the P.E. teacher, his expression was almost apprehensive.
* * *
By the end of the day, Yufuin's bizarre behavior was a topic of discussion throughout the school, which made Atsushi wonder whether Yufuin was more infamous than he had realized or whether the student body just didn't have enough to talk about. He overheard several gossipy conversations as he and Kin-chan made their way down the hall, on their way to the student council office and from there, in Atsushi's case, to the room jokingly called the defense club's clubroom. They were silent, each of them lost in their thoughts and so familiar with their route that they didn't have to think about it. Which is why it took Atsushi a second to realize that they'd reached the less populated upper corridor on the way to the office and that Yufuin was standing in front of them, blocking the way.
As he blinked, startled, Kin-chan said, "Can we help you?"
For a second, as Yufuin looked at Kin-chan, the cold in his eyes almost burned. But only for a second, and then it was gone and Atsushi wasn't even sure he hadn't imagined it.
"No," Yufuin said. "I want to talk. It won't take long."
This was too much for Atsushi. Before he could stop himself, he opened his mouth. "Yufuin, what's going on? Are you—"
"En."
Atsushi stopped. "What?"
"Call me En." Yufuin was looking straight at him. No question, then, who he was talking to.
He hesitated. He and Yufuin talked sometimes, but he wouldn't have called them close. Not even friends at all, really. Still, if Yufuin asked... "...All right. En. What's—"
"You're happy, right?" This, on the other hand, was addressed to Atsushi and Kin-chan both. "You're satisfied with your lives?"
This day was getting almost too weird. "I guess so," said Atsushi slowly.
Unfortunately, it wasn't Kin-chan's style to answer a question like that from a stranger. "Is there a reason you're prying?" he asked instead. Atsushi wasn't looking at him, but he could picture the haughty disdain he would summon to meet Yufuin's—En's—cool expression.
En's lips thinned as he gazed at Kin-chan; his eyes narrowed, almost like he was angry. It was the same look he had worn earlier when Atsushi had tried to talk to him. Now that Atsushi had seen it twice, he thought he could see, in a vague sense, what it signified: Something had slipped past the walls of En's chilly indifference, and he didn't appreciate it.
And maybe that would have helped clarify things, if Atsushi only knew what that something was. But as to that, he was clueless.
"Remember that," En said to them both, instead of answering Kin-chan's question. "Don't try to fix what isn't broken. If you get a chance to change your lives, don't take it. And if you're offered a deal that seems too good to be true, it is."
"Um," said Atsushi.
The line of Kin-chan's posture became even more rigidly correct than before, and his voice grew even colder. "Is that all?"
"Yeah, that's all." And without another word, En started toward them. Atsushi stepped quickly away to the side, not wanting to get too close, and felt bad at once. But En ignored it, passing them by and disappearing around a corner.
"That was..." Atsushi searched for words.
"Yes." Kin-chan exhaled slowly. "But we've seen the last of him for today, hopefully. Come on, Atchan."
* * *
"Ibushi, come with us."
Ibushi looked up from his bag and gave Atsushi a small, regretful smile. "I'd like to, but I have things I need to do."
"You always have things you need to do." Kin-chan, already on his way to the door to Atsushi's clubroom, stopped to frown at Ibushi. "Surely you can take time off just once."
"That's not like you, Kinshirou." As Kin-chan pursed his lips, his cheeks going pink, Ibushi straightened up and slung his bag over his shoulder. "Really, it's not that I don't want to. If I get a free day, I'll let you know, I promise."
Atsushi sighed. "All right. Take care not to overwork yourself, though."
Ibushi nodded in an absentminded way that didn't reassure Atsushi at all, and with a final exchange of parting words, he left the council office.
"He still hasn't told you what he has to do all the time?" Atsushi asked Kin-chan, not for the first time, as he reentered the defense club room with Kin-chan in tow.
"No, Atchan," Kin-chan said, also not for the first time. Io and Ryuu looked up from their electronics.
"President Kusatsu, good afternoon."
"Hey, how's it going?"
"Good afternoon," Kin-chan told them both.
Atsushi glanced at his phone. "If we want to get to the mall before the evening crowd, we'd better hurry."
"Yeah, that's true." Ryuu put his phone away as Io started shutting down his laptop.
"Atchan, do you really need me for this?" Kin-chan attempted again.
"No," Atsushi said cheerfully, taking Kin-chan's hand. "But it'll be more fun with you there. And it won't be so bad, you'll see."
"It'll be good for you," Ryuu assured Kin-chan. Somehow, this didn't seem to fill Kin-chan with confidence.
Io closed his laptop and put it carefully in his bag. "Even people with your resources should take advantage of sales. It's important to preserve your wealth."
"All right," Atsushi said quickly, before Kin-chan could say what he thought of that. "Let's go, shall we?"
It was a pleasant walk to the mall, just barely warm enough in the late September sun that Atsushi was glad for the summer uniforms. As they passed the Kurotama Bathhouse, Atsushi sent a longing glance in its direction, but the sign in front of its entrance—Closed for Renovations—had been there for several weeks. It wouldn't be much longer, surely, until they could go back, and from what little he could see of the inside, it looked nicer already.
In front of him, Ryuu chattered to Io about the clothes he wanted to get, speaking so quickly Io didn't even have to make polite noises. But Kin-chan walked beside Atsushi, and he was silent and pensive.
"Don't worry about it too much." When he glanced up, Atsushi gave him the most reassuring smile he could. "Either some life-changing opportunity will show up and we'll know what he meant, or it won't, and it won't matter."
"That's not what I'm worried about, exactly." Kin-chan looked away again, out over the valley and the city. "What happened to him? Why did he find us and speak to us specifically, and why did it coincide with a dream we both had about him? It's too strange, Atchan. It can't all be a coincidence."
Atsushi's first impulse was to dismiss Kin-chan's concerns and try to make him feel better. But he couldn't, not without being dishonest, because in truth, he was worried too. He reached over and linked their pinkies together; it was the closest Kin-chan would come to holding hands in public. "I don't know," he admitted. "But, Kin-chan, we don't know enough to figure anything out right now, besides what we have already."
"We've concluded almost nothing."
"Yeah, but we still can't do more until something else happens. If it happens. Maybe this was just... a really weird day."
Kin-chan glanced sidelong at him. "You don't believe that."
"No." Atsushi sighed. "But I'd like to."
Kin-chan's hand, beside his, closed in a loose fist, squeezing Atsushi's pinkie. It was reassuring, so Atsushi did the same.
"You're right," Kin-chan murmured. "I'll try to worry less."
"Good." Atsushi smiled at him. "Tell me what you want to get instead. This kind of sale is rare, you know."
"I don't want to get anything," Kin-chan huffed. "I don't shop at department stores."
"You're shopping at one today. If you don't decide on something, I'll do it for you. You need a new coat, right?"
Kin-chan sighed loudly, and Atsushi relaxed as the tension eased, dispersing into the autumn air.
As they reached the valley and entered the city itself, Atsushi's eyes lingered regretfully on the CoCoKaRa Curry storefront. He had intended to go the day before, to take advantage of the 20% off coupon he had been saving, but at some point between putting it in his bag that morning and making sure it was still there after school, he had lost it. He couldn't imagine where it had gone—it had been in a secure pocket on the inside of his bag, not really a place where it could easily fall out—but now, as he walked past the restaurant with Kin-chan at his side, it occurred to him that maybe it was a lucky thing, after all. Kin-chan hated curry restaurants and wouldn't have wanted to go, so, with some guilt, Atsushi had decided to make a vague excuse to keep him from feeling left out. But then Kin-chan would have been hurt by the vagueness of the excuse, which was no better, really.
So yeah. In retrospect, it had been a thoughtless plan. It was definitely for the best that he had lost the coupon.
* * *
Loaded down with their schoolbooks and their purchases from the department store, tired but satisfied with their finds, they should have called it a day and gone home. Instead, they were at an arcade.
Ryuu had lured Io in with tales of prize machines and high resale value. Atsushi had said, "You'll have fun, Kin-chan." And that, at least, was true so far. Despite Kin-chan's initial doubt, he had chosen a racing game, of all things, and although he had needed some help at first, he was learning.
Help me.
Atsushi jerked at the steering wheel, startled. His car flew off the side of the track. Kin-chan passed him immediately, but didn't take advantage of it; he was tense and still.
Kinshirou. Atsushi. Help me!
They glanced at each other. It was Kin-chan who spoke first. "Atchan, no." He leaned in, his voice low and urgent, the game forgotten. "A voice talking in our heads, after everything else today? It's too strange. It's dangerous."
"They need help." Already, Atsushi was getting out of his seat. "We can't just leave them."
"How do you know? It could be some sort of trap."
"What sort of trap? They sounded scared. If you're staying here, watch my stuff, okay?"
Kin-chan sighed in frustration. "I won't let you walk into danger alone," he snapped as he stood and followed Atsushi out the door. "But you don't even know where this person is."
That was true. Hello? Atsushi thought, trying to project the word, send it toward whoever had called him, as if he had any idea how to do that. He was met with silence. Hello?
"Let's start in the places without many people," he suggested. "It would be easiest to get into trouble there, right?" Kin-chan paused for a split second, then nodded curtly.
But it was easier said than done. They wandered for a few minutes, looking into corners and peering through the windows of the occasional closed shop, before finally spotting a door with a sign on it: Do Not Enter: Closed For Repairs. "Huh," said Atsushi. "I wonder what happened. Isn't that just an employee area?"
"I expect we'll see for ourselves soon enough." Again, they exchanged a glance. Atsushi nodded, squared his shoulders, and headed for the door, pushing it open.
It was heavy and opened slowly, not into darkness, as Atsushi had been afraid of, but into dimness. Atsushi was reminded of... of something, enough to give him a foreboding chill but not enough to pinpoint the memory. That was happening a lot today, and he was getting kind of tired of it. Kin-chan came through the door after him, and Atsushi, fearing a loud slam if he just let go, eased it carefully shut. "Hello?" he called aloud.
No answer, but the sound of running footsteps somewhere in the distance, briefly audible and then gone again.
Kin-chan was standing very close. "Atchan, we should go."
Now that they were here, in the dim light and the oppressive silence, Atsushi was beginning to think he might be right. He even opened his mouth to say so, but before he could, the voice returned. Please, help!
He swallowed. "We can't. Whoever it is, we can't leave them. And... if it was a trap, they'd be quieter, right? We wouldn't have heard those footsteps."
"If they're clever, they'll make the situation appear realistic."
"All right, fine." Atsushi turned on Kin-chan. "Then why would anyone be trying to trap us?"
Kin-chan gazed back at him. In the low light, his face was strangely shadowed, but still not unfamiliar. Not to Atsushi. "Why would anyone need our help, specifically?" he countered.
Atsushi had no idea, but he wasn't going to say so. "Kin-chan, maybe you should go back."
Kin-chan's eyes widened in outrage. "And leave you here alone? Absolutely not."
"You'll know where I've gone, in case something happens."
"That's not what you're concerned about," Kin-chan snapped. "You don't want to put me in danger. I don't want you to be in danger, Atchan, so why don't you go back?"
"No," said Atsushi at once, his eyes narrowing.
Instead of continuing the argument, Kin-chan nodded. Atsushi blinked at him. "So. Neither of us knows why we've been chosen, and neither will let the other go alone. And you're determined to go."
"I guess that sums it up," Atsushi said cautiously.
"Well, then." Kin-chan closed his eyes and exhaled. Gathering fortitude, Atsushi thought. Or maybe just patience. "Shall we?"
* * *
They walked aimlessly through the back of the mall for a minute or two, almost in silence. Every now and then, they heard the sound of running footsteps again. The lights were dim enough that they stayed to the middle of the wide corridor, nervous of corners and doorways.
And then, out of nowhere, a small, white animal careened around a corner and ran toward them. "Help me!" came the cry again, still in their minds but this time unmistakably coming from the animal, though it was nothing like any animal Atsushi had ever seen. Then again, he'd never heard any believable stories of animals talking to people, either.
It didn't matter. The animal, whatever it was, was staggering, covered in wounds. Atsushi dropped to one knee and reached for it. "Can I touch you?" he said at the last second, pulling his hand away. "Will it hurt you?"
"No."
Atsushi scooped it up, heedless of the blood staining his shirt. It curled up in his arms. Kin-chan stepped forward and peered down at it. "What are—" he began, but he cut himself off abruptly. He could hear—they all could hear—the footsteps, louder than ever, echoing down the corridor the animal had come from.
It probably wasn't really an animal, but right now it didn't seem to Atsushi that it mattered what he called it. There was no time to run, but he took a step back the way they had come and hugged the creature closer. Kin-chan stepped in front of them both, lifting his chin. No one but Atsushi, probably, would have seen that he was scared. The footsteps came closer and closer, as Atsushi tried not to turn and run. Running seemed like a great idea, but he wanted to see what was going on, and he didn't want to expose his back. He'd never been in a situation at all like this, but he read a lot. He could at least guess what to do, even if he felt kind of stupid taking his cues from fiction. Anyway, there was nowhere to go, not in the few seconds he had. All the doors nearby were closed.
And then, from around the corner, En Yufuin appeared.
Upon seeing them, he stopped in his tracks. For a moment they all stared at each other, frozen. During that time, Atsushi took in the bizarre outfit Yufuin—En—was wearing. It looked almost archaic—or maybe that was the wrong word. Forbidding. It was entirely black and white and blue, with the edges of the cloth often tapering to sharp, severe angles; the effect was softened only by a pair of narrow, flowing ribbons, one tied incongruously in a bow under his wide collar and the other at the small of his back. He wore, as well, a short blue cape. The outfit should have looked ridiculous, or at least very weird, but En wore it with such familiarity and such a complete lack of self-consciousness that it looked natural.
But Atsushi's gaze wasn't drawn to any of these things, nor to the small shield on En's arm, although he did spare a startled glance for it. There was a blue triangle on En's hand, very reminiscent of the shape on his fingernail earlier that day and glowing faintly in the dimness. That was the thing that caught Atsushi's attention and held it. He couldn't have said why.
Kin-chan recovered first, shaking off his surprise and burying his fear. "Explain yourself, Yufuin."
The demand broke whatever spell held En in place. He lifted his chin a fraction, but even as Atsushi was processing that, wondering how such a haughty gesture could imply vulnerability, En started walking again, straight towards them. Kin-chan shifted, placing himself more squarely in front of Atsushi. Atsushi frowned at the back of his head, then looked back up at En.
"En," he began, hesitant. "What—"
"Get away from that thing," En interrupted flatly.
"Why?" Kin-chan's voice was cold. "So you can kill it?"
"Not at all."
"Don't listen to him," the creature told them. "He's been trying since I first called out to you." Atsushi glanced up at En, but he didn't seem to have heard the creature.
Kin-chan, however, definitely had. "I'm inclined to take the word of the wounded creature you were chasing over your own, Yufuin."
En looked at him in silence for a long moment. Kin-chan stood his ground, but said nothing. Maybe En would have, in the end, but then from behind them they heard footsteps again, and Ryuu's voice, shouting. "Senpai! President!"
En looked, for an instant, like he was going to push Kin-chan aside and grab the creature from Atsushi's arms. But the next second, he turned on his heel and vanished around the corner with startling speed. Atsushi stared at the spot where he had been standing.
Then Io and Ryuu were there, gasping for breath. "What the hell?" said Ryuu when he could talk. "Why did you wander off? Was that Yufuin? I heard he was acting weird."
"What's that?" Io asked, looking at the creature in Atsushi's arms.
"I don't know," Atsushi admitted. "And yes, that was... that was En."
" 'En'?" Ryuu glanced up at Atsushi. "You're on first-name terms with him?"
"I... I guess so."
"What do you mean, you... You know what, never mind. Do you know why he was dressed up so weird, then?"
"No," Atsushi said quietly. "Except that I think it's related to how weird he's been today."
"I agree," Kin-chan said, touching Atsushi's shoulder. Atsushi didn't realize how much he needed the comfort until he found himself leaning into the touch. Kin-chan squeezed his shoulder, then let his hand fall away. Atsushi wished he could reciprocate, because Kin-chan had been braver than him, really, but his hands were full and neither of them would want something like a kiss in front of the others. "But regardless," Kin-chan continued, "we need to leave."
"And go where?" Atsushi nodded down at the thing in his arms. It had fallen silent now, perhaps unconscious. Its eyes were closed, at any rate.
"No one will question us at my house."
Atsushi hesitated for only another second. "All right." As they started to walk, not the way they had come but towards what Atsushi hoped was a back exit, he asked Io and Ryuu, "How did you find us, anyway?"
"We ran around the whole mall," Ryuu said cheerfully. "Got a lot of weird looks. This was one of the last places we checked."
Kin-chan glanced at them, frowning. "You didn't simply assume we'd left?"
"It wouldn't be like you to leave without saying anything. Though it wasn't like you to disappear at all." Io's voice held a definite overtone of disapproval. "We left our things in the arcade, you know. The two of us will go back for them once you're out of here."
"You really don't have to—" Atsushi began.
"Hush, Kinugawa-senpai." Ryuu patted him on the shoulder in a mildly annoying way. "You just... rescue your cat thing."
"How did you even know?" Io asked them. "That Yufuin was attacking this creature?"
"We... we didn't," Atsushi stammered. It wasn't a lie, technically. They'd had no idea Yufuin was involved. But it was close enough to one that he couldn't make it sound true.
"It was just a feeling," Kin-chan added, less convincingly even than Atsushi.
"That's some bullshit—"
"Ryuu." Something in Io's voice made them all stop. "Be quiet. Something's wrong."
"What is it now?" Kin-chan muttered, but he looked where Io was looking and stiffened.
"What the hell..." Ryuu said again, but his voice was quieter, uncertain. He shuffled sideways, closer to the middle of the group, as the walls of the corridor expanded around them and patterns bloomed in dark, clashing colors, sliding along the walls in a way that made Atsushi nauseated if he watched them. They shimmered, undulating behind layers of random objects that suddenly seemed much more threatening: heavy rattling chains, CDs with razor edges that flew through the air above them, a tangle of incomprehensible signs and fences... if there was a pattern, Atsushi couldn't spot it. He looked down; the floor was rusted, corrugated metal, unpleasantly industrial and, more to the point, not at all the way it had been a moment ago.
He looked back up. The walls had encircled them. There was no way out.
To make matters worse, things started emerging from the walls, surrounding the four of them in a messy formation. They were small, the size of children, but they wore armor that clattered and creaked, and underneath the visors of their helmets Atsushi could see only darkness. The armor was strange, the kind of exaggerated idealization found in cover art and video games. Unrealistic. But even if armor had never actually looked like that in real life—and whatever this was, Atsushi couldn't bring himself to think of it as real life—these things weren't struggling with it at all.
The four of them had all had drawn close together, but honestly, Atsushi wasn't sure how this would help. The suits of armor trembled and murmured to each other in an incomprehensible language, but even as Atsushi tried to listen more closely, they began to advance. He stopped listening in favor of trying not to panic. They were all armed with jagged swords larger than them, and no matter how unrealistic they were, Atsushi didn't doubt that they were deadly.
"Hey," he said to the creature in his arms. "Wake up. Come on, wake up." Atsushi didn't know whether it could help them—actually, given that it had needed Atsushi and Kin-chan's help against En, it probably couldn't—but he was desperate.
But then a familiar voice came from behind them, calm, amused, and completely unexpected. "Well, this is a surprise."
He spun around, seeing Kin-chan follow suit beside him. "Ibushi?" he blurted out. Kin-chan echoed him, incredulous. Ryuu and Io turned as well, staring in disbelief and sudden hope.
It was Ibushi, still in his school uniform but holding something in his hand that glowed a calm, pale green. As he approached, Atsushi saw that it was shaped more or less like an egg, with a gold base and gold ornamentation to match.
"What are you doing here?" Kin-chan's tone of voice was almost accusatory, but Ibushi knew Kin-chan as well as Atsushi did, and merely raised an eyebrow.
"I thought I'd come help out. You're welcome."
"Help out," Atsushi said uncertainly, as Kin-chan glanced down, embarrassed. The suits of armor were drawing closer still, and a few of them were starting to come apart, arms lengthening or breastplates falling away to reveal nothing at all underneath.
Ibushi nodded, as serene as ever, but all he said was, "I'll explain when we're out of danger, hm?" The next instant, the glowing thing in his hand was gone, but his outfit...
It was like En's, Atsushi realized. Like the outfit En had been wearing a moment ago. In terms of details, they didn't have much in common; where En's outfit had featured blue, Ibushi's was white and green with brown accents. Forest colors, almost. And where En's outfit had been a bit intimidating, if you didn't get distracted wondering why on earth anyone would walk around in it, Ibushi's was gentler, less dramatic, with a waistcoat and relatively normal-looking pants. The only touch of surrealism was the beret, worn at a slight angle with a large green gem on the side. It was shaped something like a leaf and something like the head of a spear, and it glowed the same way En's triangle had.
"What on earth—" Kin-chan began, but Ibushi had already leapt up onto a pile of industrial debris several times taller than him and swept his arm in a careless horizontal gesture. A circle of silver rifles appeared in the air, pointing down at the ground around the four people still standing there but missing the actual spot where they stood. Before Atsushi had time to be grateful for that, all the rifles fired at once. Fire rained down on the suits of armor, and Atsushi winced at the inevitable deafening noise—or he started to, but although the sound was definitely loud, it was bearable.
The suits of armor died and vanished without a sound. Ibushi jumped down from his perch, landing in front of them without any sign of pain despite the height he'd jumped from. By now, Atsushi shouldn't have been surprised, and in truth, he was too distracted to be more than briefly startled. Ibushi's presence, his outfit, was the piece of a puzzle, and he was trying to figure out what it was.
After a few seconds of staring at the gem on Ibushi's head, it became clear. He blinked. The hint of green he had remembered earlier that day, that the mark on En's fingernail had reminded him of, that he'd never seen for long enough to even be sure it was there... Of course. Ibushi's hand. His left hand. It was embarrassing that he hadn't realized earlier, but now that he looked back, Ibushi must have tried to keep it hidden.
As Ibushi glanced around, their strange surroundings vanished and the back corridors of the mall shimmered back into existence around them. Ibushi looked unsurprised. "That was lucky," he said, with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "You could have been in real trouble."
Ryuu sputtered. "Could have been?"
Kin-chan ignored him. "Ibushi, what's going on?"
But Ibushi didn't answer. He was heading towards them, his eyes on the creature in Atsushi's arms. "You've found Kyubey, I see."
"Is that his name?" Atsushi shifted the motionless creature in his arms. "He called for help."
Io glanced at Atsushi in surprise. "He did?"
"I see." Ibushi's eyes flickered over Kyubey's body, taking in his wounds. "You heard him," he said to Atsushi. "Naruko-kun didn't. Was it just you?"
"No, Kin-chan did too."
"I see," Ibushi said again. And then, without warning, he turned. "Do you need something?"
Atsushi, following his gaze, saw En watching them from a short distance away. He gave no answer. There wasn't so much as a flicker of expression on his face. Kin-chan tensed.
Ibushi smiled, and this time it was clear that it wasn't meant to be genuine. "If you're looking for the witch, it's run away again. I've been trying to catch it too, but you can take it, if you like."
There was a short, tense silence. "No," En said curtly. "I'm here for my own reasons."
Ibushi's smile didn't falter. "Perhaps I was unclear. Leave now and stay away, and I'll forget that you've been harassing my friends."
That got a reaction out of En at last, but it was gone again before Atsushi could determine what it was. Without another word, En turned on his heel and walked away.
Ryuu was staring at En's retreating back. "You know, he's kind of annoying."
"How did you know?" Atsushi asked Ibushi. "That he's talked to us, I mean."
"I passed him in the hall earlier on my way to the office. At the time, I didn't quite realize why he was there, but you gave it away with your reactions just now. Anyway, Atsushi," Ibushi continued before anyone else could comment. "If you could give Kyubey to me, I can do something for him."
With relief, Atsushi held out the wounded white creature, and Ibushi took him gently from his arms. "There's blood all over your shirt now," Kin-chan pointed out, eyeing Atsushi's chest with disapproval, as if Atsushi could somehow not have noticed.
"I know, Kin-chan. Thanks."
* * *
"I have a request for you all," Kyubey had said, almost as soon as he'd woken up, not to Ibushi but to the other four. Atsushi knew he spoke to all four of them because Ryuu jumped and Io turned to stare. But Ibushi had said firmly, "Absolutely not. I'm taking them to my house so they can relax a little. Then you can ask." And Kyubey had sighed, but he had agreed. While Ibushi went into the public part of the mall to buy Atsushi a jacket, and Io and Ryuu returned to the arcade for everyone's things, he had hopped up onto Kin-chan's shoulder and settled himself there, wrapping himself around the back of Kin-chan's neck. Kin-chan had petted him, cautiously at first but more confidently when Kyubey didn't protest. It was clear that he was charmed.
And why not? Kyubey was cute, even if he had weird ears and was obviously sentient. By the time Ibushi returned, Atsushi and Kin-chan were talking quietly about their homework. It was almost normal, except for Kyubey's presence. And the blood on Atsushi's shirt. And the way Kin-chan's eyes were still a little too wide.
So actually, maybe it wasn't normal. But at least with the coat on, Atsushi could go out without looking like he'd been stabbed. They followed Ibushi to his house—all of them, even Kyubey, who remained draped around Kin-chan's shoulders. Since no one gave Kin-chan any strange glances, it must have been true what he said. Most people couldn't see him. But they were all quiet. Even Ryuu was subdued, although he tried to keep up his normal chatter until Io lost patience and said, "Stop talking unless you have something to say."
"I'll get you another shirt," Ibushi said to Atsushi when they finally reached his house. "Something to wear while we get the stains out of yours."
Atsushi looked doubtfully down at himself. "Can we?"
"Of course. It's not hard, if you know how." And, as if he fetched replacement shirts for bloodstained friends every day, he told them all to make themselves at home and disappeared cheerfully up the stairs.
"This house is extraordinary," Io murmured, looking around avidly. Ryuu flopped down onto a couch with a sigh, and Kin-chan, who, like Atsushi, had been here before, primly took a seat. Atsushi remained where he was until Ibushi came back with a shirt. But when his own was finally off and in the washing machine, he sat down next to Kin-chan, who reached over without looking and took his hand. Atsushi clung to it.
"Now." Ibushi reappeared in the living room with a tray of tea and snacks and sat down across from the other four. "While we eat, Kyubey can give his talk."
As if on cue, Kyubey reappeared, hopping up onto the arm of Ibushi's chair and sitting there like a cat, his fluffy tail waving slowly behind him. "As I said," he said again, "I have a request for you four." Io and Ryuu tensed at the sound of his voice in their heads. Atsushi didn't blame them. It unnerved him a little, too, and he'd had a little more time to get used to it.
Kyubey stared at them, his eyes perfectly round and his expression unchanging, for all that his voice was cheerful. "I'd like you to make a contract with me," Kyubey said, "and become magical boys."