Kazuo awkwardly stands in a crowd with a candy apple in his hand. He awkwardly stares at the two couples in front of him. A sigh escapes his lips, 'Why did I go again?' he then took a bite on his candy apple. He looks around him. Everyone looked so lively and happy that it kinda overwhelms him, "Still not used to this kind of liveliness here in the TR universe.."
"Whatya saying there, Kazuo?" Draken asks as he took a glance at Kazuo. Kazuo turns his head to him and smiles, "Nothin~" he says as he does small little hops as he walks closer behind the two couples,
Two days ago, his father was to be expected to come home. He even had to go home early and not play catch or- whatever they were playing since he doesn't want to...let any fight happen again. But to his surprise, the old man didn't come home at all.
Kazuo's gut feeling was telling him that something was up, but he initially just brushes it off.
"You were thinking so deeply there, Kazuo kun," Hina says to him, "Hmm, I guess I was,"
"I still can't get over how..you look, Kazuo kun" Emma adds to the convos. Kazuo just chuckles at her. Yes, Kazuo decides to not wear a mask today and it greatly shocked Emma and even Hina, "I thought Mikey came until I saw your beauty mark," Emma says as she points at Kazuo's beauty mark. Kazuo just smiles at her, "I guess this is the only thing that differentiates us, huh" He mutters to himself,
Earlier.
Kazuo lays down on his bed, feeling bored, "Should I go or should I not go?" He says to himself as he stares at the ceiling. He was starting to feel bored and contemplates going to the festival to at least, have some fun.
He grabs his phone and starts to chat Chifuyu if he wants to come to the festival. After waiting a couple of minutes, chifuyu replies him with a 'no I don't feel like going, still need to finish this manga series,' and Kazuo just sighs,
Suddenly, the door of his room opened revealing his mom, "Kazuo, are you gonna attend the festival?" She asks him, "Augh, I don't know," he says as he brings himself to sit down on his bed, "You should go out and have fun! It's the festival today. Go ask your friends," She says as she steps inside his room.
Kazuo groans as he lays down again, "Go out and have fun! What are you gonna do sitting around your room like this?" She says as she lightly taps on Kazuo's shoulder, "Aaaah, okayyy" Kazuo says as he lazily sat up on his bed and starts staring at the wall. He looks to his right and saw his mom digging something from his closet, "What're you doing?" He asks as he tilts his head, "I'm looking for that Yukata I bought you 2 years ago,"
"What!?" Kazuo says as he jumps out of his bed, "I don't wanna wear a Yukata!" He protests, "You haven't worn this at all! You should wear it now and see if it still fits you," she says as she grabs the Yukata from the closet and hands it over to Kazuo, "I'll be downstairs! Come down if you're done," She says as she leaves his room.
Kazuo stared at the door then at the yukata he's holding. A sigh escaped his lips as he starts to change into the yukata his mom gave him.
-
"Ooh, it looks good on you!!" His mom says as she adjusts some fabric on his outfit, "My son sure is handsome," She says proudly as she fixes his hair, "Are you just gonna meet your friends at the festival?" She asks as Kazuo wears his sandals, "Yep, I already texted them," he says as he prepares to exit the house, "Oh shoot, my mask," He says to himself as he enters the living room again,
"Don't bring your mask today!" His mom starts, "what!? But-"
"It's a hassle and there's a lot of people! You'll have a hard time breathing. Just don't bring it," She says and Kazuo hesitantly looks upstairs to where his room is, "..fine," he says. It won't hurt to not walk around a crowded place with no mask, will it?
He bid his mom farewell and walked his way to the festival.
♡♡♡
He texted Takemitchy about him attending the festival and Takemitchy was very delighted to know that he would come. He arrived at the festival and the sudden liveliness made him feel overwhelmed.
He looks around the place for a bit until he spotted the two pairs of couple in a distance, "Heeyy!" He calls out and the four of them turned around.
Emma and Hina looked at him surprised while Draken just greeted him coolly, "Kazuo, didn't expect you to come," Draken starts and Emma and Hina was shocked
"Kazuo kun!?" Emma says as she takes a good look at him, "You mean the guy that's always wearing a mask!?" Emma asks Draken, "Uh yeah, that's him," Draken says casually.
Emma and Hina blinked, "WHAT!?"
-
"Don't look so down Kazuo kun!" Hina said as she tries to cheer him up, "You're still a very unique individual despite the uncanny resemblance!" She says to him. Kazuo's eyes widened, not getting used to it. Suddenly, he (pretends) to sniffle, "AWW Hina chan you're making me cry!" He jokingly(?) Says as he wipes his 'tears'.
"Well then, we'll get going now!" Emma bids them goodbye as she and Draken walk away from them, "You can do it, Emma chan!" Hina says rooting for her friend, "Will you be okay, Kazuo?" Takemichi asks him, "Yeah, you two lovebirds go now~," Kazuo says in a teasing tone which made the two blush a bit, "Alright, we'll be going. Have fun, Kazuo!" The two bid him goodbye as they both blend in with the crowd.
Kazuo watches them as they go far away from him. A sigh escapes his lips as he takes one look at the candy apple in his hand, "Now I don't feel like eating," he says to himself as he starts to wander off the festival.
He gotta say, it was pretty boring and not exciting looking around the festival.. alone. He sighs as he finishes the last bit of candy he bought. He's just going around trying different foods. He's starting to feel concerned about his health with the amount of sugar he consumed today.
He looked to his right and saw a shooting game. He was about to walk past it when he saw that one of the prizes was a pack of marshmallows. Kazuo's eyes sparkled as he walked over to the shooting booth to try and get the prize.
...
"Augh come on!" Kazuo says frustrated as he can't seem to knock it over. The dude taking care of the booth just looks at him, pitifully, "I can do this! For the marshmallows-"
"You suck at this," a voice suddenly says which made Kazuo jump out of surprise. He looked to his right and saw a white-haired girl, who's almost the same height as him wearing a yukata, "You have really bad aim it's starting to give me a headache,"
She stared at him as if she's judging every bit of him. Even his soul, "No need to slap it on my face," Kazuo frowns as he focuses on the target again. He shoots and the target doesn't seem to move. Frustrated, Kazuo almost almost threw the gun at the caretaker of the shooting game,
"Pfft," the girl looked at him funnily as Kazuo glared at her, "I'm glad you find my struggles entertaining," Kazuo sarcastically says to the girl beside him. She picks up the toy gun Kazuo used and aims at the target.
She successfully takes it down and wins the prize that Kazuo's been trying to get for the past few minutes, "Wha-"
"Here," She says as she hands him the marshmallows, "But you won it?"
"I've been staring at you for the past couple of minutes and got frustrated with how you played. You should thank me," She says as she pushes the marshmallow into Kazuo's hands. Kazuo stares at the marshmallows and then at her, "Creep"
She looks at him, wide-eyed, "Wha-!?" Kazuo chuckles at her reaction, "Hey I'm not a creep!?"
"Well...thanks for winning this for me," He says as he opens the package and hands her a handful of marshmallows, "as thanks I'm gonna give you half of my marshmallows!"
The girl stared at the marshmallow, and then at him with a questioning look on her face, "...how about we just share it?" She suggested, "I can't walk around holding a fistful of marshmallows in my hand,"
The two stood there in silence
"....right, Let's go find a place to sit then,"
♡♡♡
"So like.." Kazuo starts as he chews on the marshmallows, "Why are you alone?" He asks and the girl grabs a handful of marshmallows and eats it, "why are you?" She asks back, "My friends were going on a date, " He explains, "Damn, must suck being the third wheel," she says with a not do caring tone, "I'm getting used to it, what about you?" He asks her again.
She stayed silent for a couple of seconds, "...I got lost" she says and Kazuo snorts which earned him a glare, "Ehem..who were you with?" He asks
"I was with my brother. I don't know where he is right now," the two of them sat there in comfortable silence. Just staring at a distance while chewing on the marshmallows.
"I didn't catch on your name by the way," he asks breaking the silence. The two were engulfed in another silence. The girl then opens her mouth, "..Akashi" she says to him hesitantly, "Ohh, well Akashi san, my name's Kazuo," he says which made her turn her head to him with a surprised look on her face, "Kazuo?..but-"
"Yeah? What's wrong?" He questioned. Akashi abruptly stops what she was about to say, "Ah..it's nothing.." suddenly, a drop of rain fell on the ground and it starts to rain heavily. Kazuo stands up and grabs Akashi's arms to run to the nearest shelter they could find.
He takes a look at the marshmallows and sighs, "it's all soggy now.." the two stood there awkwardly as they wait for the rain to stop, "So umm" Kazuo starts breaking the silence (again), he turns to look at her, "Wanna play rock paper scissor?"
♡♡♡
"Rock..paper...SCISSORS!" Kazuo then reveals a rock while Akashi reveals paper. Suddenly, Kazuo gets bonked in the head by Akashi's hands, "Ow! That hurts more than the last time!" He says as she just sticks her tongue out, "not my fault you keep on losing!"
The rain starts pouring harder, "Do you think the rain will stop?" She asks, "Hm..I don't.." suddenly, something clicked right on him.
Rain...rain...Draken...Moebius...
Kazuo gasped as he abruptly stood up, "Hey! Where are you going? It's still raining, " Kazuo turns to look at her, "I'm sorry Akashi, I got to go! Emergencies!" He says as he bows down to apologize. He then starts to run away from her leaving her.
He runs to the spot where Takemichi was tied up and just found pieces of wet tape on the floor. He looks around to find if Hina was still standing around under a tree.
When he saw no one, Kazuo cursed himself, "Fuck! I got to go" he says as he runs to where the fight was happening. Yes, runs. He doesn't stop until he reached the fighting place.
It was a mess. Everyone was fighting and Kazuo was trying to look if Takemichi was still there or not.
He looks around for a bit and finds Chifuyu in the crowd fighting off, "Chifuyu!" He shouted and Chifuyu looks towards him, "Kazuo!?" He says surprised, "Have you seen Takemitchy anywhere?"
"Huh-!?" Suddenly, a random guy stopped in front of him and was about to punch him when Kazuo kicked his balls. The guy rolled on the floor in pain. Kazuo gave him the nastiest glare, "I don't have time for this." He says in a low voice. The atmosphere around him dropped and the guys around him felt shivers down their spines, even Chifuyu felt it.
"... never mind, I-ll go find him myself," He gave them one last look as he starts walking away from the fight, "What!? Kazuo!"
He runs to a corner and saw- "TAKEMICHI!" He shouts instinctively as he saw Takemichi get stabbed in his hand by Kiyomasa. Kazuo saw red and started running to Kiyomasa.
"Kiyomasa you fucking bastard!" He says as he throws a heavy punch on his face, "K-Kazuo?" Takemichi says in pain as he looks up to see Kazuo's back facing him.
"Mikey-" Kazuo swiftly kicks the dude in his neck which instantly knocked him off. Takemichi blinked and stunned despised being in absolute pain right now. He hasn't properly seen Kazuo fight and it impressed him seeing him fight for the first time.
Kazuo stood there as he tries to loosen his yukata a bit. He suddenly felt a sudden rush in his body as he looked at his hands in surprise, 'Did I just..?'
Takemichi decided to pull the knife out of his hands and starts to scream in pain because of it which made Kazuo snap out of his thoughts. He shouts as he tries to throw another guy a punch but failed. Kazuo turns around, "Takemichi!" Suddenly, Kazuo gets punched in his face which made him abruptly fall to the floor.
He grits his teeth as he stands up, glaring at the man "It's you again.." Kiyomasa says as he glares at Kazuo, "You like to interfere with fights that are not yours huh!?" Kazuo clenches his fist as he wasted no time and started aiming at Kiyomasa's face. Kiyomasa smirked as he saw this coming and was ready to block Kazu's attacks when Kazuo abruptly stops and suddenly kicks him in the nuts. Their eyes widened as Kiyoasa rolls on the floor due to pain, even Draken felt pity for Kiyomasa's future kids(if he ever gets one that is)
Kazuo wastes no time and starts aiming for the others. Takemichi starts to feel numb. He watches as Kazuo beats up the guys and starts to forget about his injured hands.
'Kazuo is so cool,' He thought watching Kazuo kick one of the guys down. He then slowly brings up his injured hand, 'While I'm just...'
"Hey!" Takemitchy snaps out of his thoughts and looked up only to see Kazuo grinning at him. Kazuo notices something and immediately bonks Takemitchy in the head with his hand,
"Wh-what?" Takemitchy asks and Kazuo looks at him seriously, "Stop thinking negative thoughts about yourself," He starts and Takemitchy gulps, "You're a strong guy okay? Stronger than anyone I've known so far" Kazuo says to him and Takemitchy starts to get confused,
"But we've only known each other for a couple of..days?" Kazuo just grins, "I can already tell you're strong," He says as he smiles gently at him, "You know the people I considered the strongest aren't those who are strong physically. It's those people who are strong mentally. And you," he says as he points directly at Takemitchy's forehead, "You have that, Takemitchy"
Draken weakly smiles upon hearing what Kazuo just said to Takemitchy. He was also starting to feel like Takemitchy was having self-doubts when he was watching Kazuo beat the shit up those guys. Takemitchy, despite feeling confused, felt a sudden warm fuzzy feeling in his chest, "Kazuo.."
Suddenly, Draken's eyes widened, he gathered every courage in his body and started shouting, "KAZUO!" He shouted and Kazuo felt alarmed by that. He was about to turn around when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. He looked down only to find a knife stabbed onto him.
His ears start to ring as he slowly touches the area he was stabbed in. He shakily looks at his bloody hands and at the person who just stabbed him, "Ki..yomasa.." he utters.
"You think you're all that huh!?" Kiyomasa starts as he points the knife in Kazuo's face, "You're nothing but a copycat!" He says and Kazuo's vision starts to shake.
He should have not interfered at all.