Seated on a balcony and looking over a list long enough to fill a car if it was on paper. Makoto not only double-checked but also triple-checked, scrolling feverishly through their tablet; Makoto stared for a moment longer.
‘... Three…. Four…. Five.’
Nothing.
No change in color, no check marks erased. Everything was… done.
As it should. Or rather, as it could.
He sighed in defeat, finally put the device down, and looked out to light pink clouds below on a balcony with a cup of coffee to their side when a door inside slide apart.
“You doing alright?” Their alluded partner, a dark-skinned leaner build and arms fully tatted with clouds swirling up both as he dry his hair. He could keep up with the best of them.
“I-I don’t know… I wasn’t expecting it.” (Makoto)
“That’s… sorta the point, Mako.”
“Oh yeah? What about you then?” He watches all sorts of winged creatures dancing and soaring through the cotton candy-esk clouds.
“I’m here with you, aren’t I?”
“...That’s unfair. You were with me too.” Makoto’s shoulders drooped.
“Not close enough to just do this.” Their partner wraps their arms around Makoto as they share… Well, I guess that’d be better from them.
***
-Makoto’s POV-
A sweet smile, short white dreadlocks, shaved sides met my lips before I could get a word in. The menagerie of fruits and honey on the tip of my tongue wasn’t something I wasn’t ready to let go of.
Like a waltz through a private garden as our tongues danced; slow and mesmerizing that we didn’t catch our breath.
“I love you.” (Makoto)
“Love you too.”
A whiff of Jasmine and lemon tickled my nose as we parted, I couldn’t help pulling himin for one more.
***
-?????’s Narration-
They sigh,“It’s a great place, Mo…” (Makoto)
“But…” (Mo)
“But I can’t get this feeling off my chest, there’s more to this. Why now of all times? How’d he even know I was back?”
“Ugh, Mako…” (Mo)
“I know, I know.” The two embraced.
“Do you?” (Mo)
“... What is it…?” (Makoto)
“I get it, wishing that you could help. Who’s to say you aren’t?” (Mo)
“It’s just too much.” (Makoto)
“Fine. Let’s say it is. After everything and separating ways, this vacation is too much. Food, Board, Excursions, Loved Ones, Truly exploring freely. What for?” (Mo)
“Is this place ever inactive?” (Makoto)
“...Not that I’ve seen. Lights can go off but this place is always running.” (Mo)
“So, everyone is always busy?” (Makoto)
“I’d say now more than ever.” (Mo)
The next day, Makoto wandered down the living room decorated with various paintings as a large red couch faced an even larger screen on the way to the conference room that caught his eye.
They shivered looking back at the scene of two friends. One more battered and bloodied than the other but with a cheshire grin on their face.
A pile of notes laid out across the table in front of the sofa. Flipping through the stack detailing the environment and life of the area.
‘Someone is doing his homework.’
Skipping over the animals and flowers, Makoto’s eyes lingered for longer before a piece of paper slipped out and fell onto the floor.
A smile spread across their face as they looked over the sketch detailing a bird’s eye view of a heron and common garter snake over a fragmented orb while small stick figures could be spotted upon further inspection.
He looked around before placing it back in the pile and kept on his way after rummaging through the kitchen and taking a box of blueberry muffins hidden behind the vegetables.
‘This should be fine.’
His stride into the room abruptly came to a halt, sweating at the glowing pairs of eyes bearing down on him. More specifically the box he’s holding.
Without a moment's hesitation, the light yellow room and a colorful myriad of orbs all froze in shades of gray with his exhale.
‘A zeptosecond and here we are…’
This sliver of a sliver was enough time for the box to be an inch off Hotaru’s hand which would’ve been intercepted by Kohaku who saw this coming from a mile away. A dreadful stare came across Makoto’s face seeing the two already had their grubby mitts near the box.
He reaches for the box and the color returns to the batch before he looks at the all-too-familiar shit-eating grin watching the chaos unfold.
“I win this one.”
To no reply.
“...”
He coughed awkwardly and tapped a finger against the table, returning color to the room and letting the orbs swirl by.
The rest of our colorful cast remains monochrome, while the rich dark oak and blue of the recorder return as the raven-haired beauty sighs.
He smiles and taps a finger against the table, returning color to the room and letting the orbs swirl by before turning his eyes to the figure in the air.
“I don’t know how long I can keep this up, hopefully long enough to get this done.”
“I’m curious too.” (???)
*Click*
“…” (Makoto)
*Click*
*Click* *Click* A calm wave washes over the room almost causing a ripple around out frozen friends.
*Bzzt* A small bolt discharged from the table into the recorder.
“Thank goodness, Makoto-sama.” (???)
A chill ran down Makoto’s spine when a jolly voice rang through as the sixth of the button slowly clicked in.
“No…” (Makoto)
“Yes~! It’s-” (???)
*Cli- BZZT*
A spark ran furiously across his hand, forcing him to drop it onto the table. They correlesce and when a tiny holographic hand slowly pushes out to his horror. The smol fella’s emoticon stared into their soul with no remorse. Dragging out a shotgun that fitted like a glove in their chibi hands.
“Rawr!!!” (OwO)
A mini masked figure flailed the loaded gun around without concern but, Makoto was too familiar with that look. One reminiscent of when they last met before all this.
“Ya know, there’s a lot you can get away with you, beautiful bastard. But, one-upping me?! HA!”
The laugh reverberated when all he could look at was down the barrels of the gun.
“If you’re hearing this message, you know what you did and I owe the dumb bitch money. You just couldn’t help yourself. Tch!
If I’m not hearing the end of it, neither are you. I dare you to king speech my ass! I’ll bury you 6 feet under!”
“R-r-restrictions are lifted?!” (Makoto)
“Do whatever you want, but if you don’t make at least two about yourself you’ll feel my wrath! NYEHEHEHEHEH!!” The small gremlin’s laugh trailed on as they faded into nothingness.
“If that’s the case. Let’s try this.” (Makoto)
*Click*
-Shion’s POV: Chapter 43-
My mom is amazing. She’s bold, patient, loving, and one thing she likes to refuse to admit.
***
-A week ago-
In the middle of the night, I walked the long halls to get mom to read me a story when I spotted three long shadows that painted the wall, illuminated by the candle light behind the throne room.
“I will not teach this child any jutsu. That is my order!”
She’s very stubborn.
Silence heavily befell the room before the atmosphere sets in with a muffled laughter. “My, my… What a claim. No-, what a statement!”
***
-Today-
“That’s right! So we’ll be having younger guest than usual. They’ll hopefully be around more often so, be on your best behavior.”
“Yes, Mom…”
‘Ugh, This again…’
Mom was weird about it but, I didn’t think she’d be super weird. Going to the lengths of inviting Taruho from his archery training to stay over. I felt a chill down my spine having him just stick with me in silence.
We all went to bed and began the count.
‘5…
Our bodies lulled into slumber. The softness against my back was replaced with the calm cold water slowly submerging me deeper and deeper until I was weightless. Yet, I had to delve deeper. I just knew there would be a light at the end.
4…, 3…
Whatever I would’ve seen above was long gone, little specks above us like a stars off in the distance couldn’t brighted the pitch black depths. It was consuming, no where to go, no where to run but I couldn’t fear it. If there’s anything I learned, its that you can’t fear the unknown. So I pushed again, deeper and deeper.
2…, 1!’
*WOOSH*
Even deeper I could see it. A small ball of light growing bigger. Big enough to flood the entire sea. I had to shut my eyes to not be blinded. The frigid feeling on my fingertips vanished in the warmth that settled and I opened my eyes to a familiar cross-hatched wood roof.
“How was that, Shion?” A curtain of hair fell over my face as my mom spoke.
“... Really…” I moved the hair out of my face for them both to be right over me.
“Hm?” Mom stared at me, guaging my reaction.
I smiled, “Really exciting!”
“Hohoho! Then I can’t wait for you both to see something even better!”
My mom is a super beautiful, powerful, and awesome Miko who fights evil spirits and demons to protect our village! She’s a leading figure in the land of demons.
She also can’t always be right…
‘All of these people are adults?!’
Everyone was at least as tall as mom! Watching everyone make their way here was funny, the beast and insects chasing him kept the pink haired boy oblivious of the number of safepoints he passed through.
It’d be easier if those two traveled like the other pair, we watched them ride a turtle?! Mom was laughing at just how different the two scenes were. Then there was the last guy.
‘Boooring!’
He’d look at trees and write something down before he kept moving. The longer you watched it was just that over and over. No slip ups or animal attacks. Taruho kept watching that nonsense so, I left him to it and trudged myself to the room across the hall.
“Mom, who’s gonna get here first?” (Shion)
Both of these rooms had big black boxes with screens arranged a stand on wheels that were a gift mom got called a “Televison” or TV for short.
“That’s what we’re watching to find out. How is the other group doing? That should be fun to see.” She was watching at the darker screen closely and scribbling away in a scroll.
“Yeah, one of them at least.”, I crossed my arms.
That made her pause and stand up, taking off a pair of glasses.
“Oh? Why’s that?” (Minoru)
“I dunno. He’s just taking his time and keeps looking at trees.” (Shion)
“Hm… Okay then. Let’s find out together.” Mom pushed the TV right along with us.
‘Great. My walk away from boredom came right back to it.’
I wasn’t going to complain with mom with me. I could’ve sworn she stifled a laugh.
As we headed back over to our side, Taruho was laying on his stomach in front of the TV scrawling out something on paper before looking back up at the screen just like how mom.
“What’s happening here, Taruho?” Mom spoke with a light tone.
“KYAAA!” Taruho shriek could’ve broke glass.
‘Eh?’
?: (Eh?)
Nobody moved. We stood at the doorway stunned into a still silence. I didn’t even look at mom cause I was trying to comprehend what just happened while regaining my hearing.
“...” (Shion)
“...” (Miroku)
‘W-What just happened?’
“..!” (Taruho)
His face got red in a poof of smoke and he scrambled for his stuff before running to his seat like nothing happened.
Mom’s voice got a jump out of puppet
“It’s replaying.” The tomato said while mom moved the second TV in.
““Huh?”” (Miroku+Shion)
“Hopfromonetree,lookatthemossandfungus,writesomethingdown,hopto‘anothertree’,andreplay.” Taruho pushed his glasses up and talked so fast that I could barely make it out.
‘He’s really trying to act like nothing happened.’ If it wasn’t for his hair being as frazzled as he was I might’ve believed him.
I just indulged the puppet and turned back to the screens.
“What are you on abou-”
?: (Stop.)
I halted my steps, before taking a closer look at the screen.
‘There’s no way.’
?: (Is too.
Just relax. They’re looking a little too hard.)
Desire. It’s a weird thing.
Knowing what you want. So, what happens if you don’t?
I glance over the screen, turned away and sat right back down.
‘Mom and this place, doll boy showing some emotion, this liar, it’s a lot!’
?: (And that’s alright. They know what they want out of this. You? You’re just discovering.)
‘Yeah, I’m discovering.’
I shut my eyes, letting a determination take over when a rush of wind blew me out.
[W - - - D React: Discover]
[Rewriting…]
[W - - - D React: Divulge (Temporary)]
I could see it. This moment fading from my memory was good enough to see the trick. The small space we could view would’ve fitted in perfectly. Subtly setting up his trap through the notebook in the ‘darkness’ but right at edges, it was there. Thin but, there.
After I saw it, it was like I was shoved back into my body.
“Mom…, The sky hasn’t changed.”
“Sorry?” (Miroku)
“Can we see around them, mom?” (Shion)
“Why, yes we can!” (Miroku)
For such an old timey tv, mom had her hands in the air as if she was typing.
“Just give me one…sec. There we go!” (Miroku)
Mom’s happy voice trailed off as each camera slowly panned around and showed us the real difference between the screens. I could hear the pencil that clattered to the floor and rolled to me while we all just stared.
“There’s no way…” (Shion)
I caught a glance at both of their expressions. One wide-eyed in shock.“...Is it broken?” Taruho must’ve recollected himself this time.
Pink boy: Night.
The only functioning team: Night.
‘This is mad!’
Then the devious bastard: Afternoon.
The other with stars in her eyes. “Ah…, I got caught.” (Miroku)
I whipped my head in mom’s direction to make sure I heard that right, “Caught?!”
She nodded, “Could I see the sheet, Taruho?”
He already had the paper out to her before she started asking.
“Is that even possible?!” The screen was just as bright as when they started.
“Entirely so. It’s what we’re dealing with right now, dear.” She just keep chuckling to herself looking at that damn piece of paper so I grabbed the one person I could by the shoulders, pointed to the tv and asked with doughy eyes, “What’s happening?”
I’ve never regretted something faster.
Have you ever felt like someone was looking at you like you were some fly? That’s VERY MUCH THE FEELING!!! My body guard in training looked at me with DISGUST!
?: (Murder him.)
‘I’m starting to like you.’
He didn’t even look me in the eyes while he explained, “Every time he writes something down so I took a closer look and it’s different until he does it a fifth time before the writing repeats.”
?: (Murder him harder.)
‘I’m really starting to like you.’
Just as I was about to make my bodyguard wish he had a bodyguard, Mom finally said something.
“I have to admit, that is quite the handiwork.”
“So what? We can’t see him anymore?!” (Shion)
“Don’t worry, it’s an easy fix. We’ll just watch though his camera instead.” Mom swiped her finger across the screen.
“*BLEEEP BLEEP BLEEEEEEEEEP!!!*” We watched that miscreant burst through the treeline, holding onto a long stick like with his eye popping out of his sockets as he screamed, hanging onto dear life before the stick would shorten and the two fall into another grove.
“Censorship did come in handy…ehehehe…” (Miroku)
I could only shiver imaging the lengths she needed to go through to set this up in the first place.
“Is he alive?” (Taruho)
“There he goes again.” (Shion)
Gradually, the bunny hops became a unsteady floating or a glide, however you want to see it. I don’t know but blowing gusts of wind out of his mouth made it less… painful to watch when he landed on the stone structure.
Mom continued her notetaking, “Pristine if not for the leaves and branches he’s brushing off, not a scratch but worse for wear. It’s… workable.”
“We missed everything!” (Shion)
“We have some time. Let’s work our way back after checking on the others, okay?” I thought I was the only one with some sense in the room, the vein bulging out of the side of her head told me otherwise.
“M-Mhm…” (Shion)
‘Look away, just look away!’
-BZZT-
*Click*
Makoto hitched his breath to find out what happened next when the device shuddered to a halt.
“... Is this a hate crime?”
“Yeah, King Ellipsis. Glad you’re finally getting with the program.” The green chibi shined their shotgun.
“...”, Makoto’s mouth dropped.
“You gonna talk about yourself now or what?” These piercing cat eyes peered into the unfathomable depths of Makoto's soul.
(OwO)
“...” (Makoto)
***
"Good luck, Makoto. You’ll need it…" (Sirus)
