kaito is so fine, especially when he played that person (forgot name) had to include him. idk who drew it so I don't have the @ sorry </3
Notes:
Please recommend book names I have 0 clue.
Enjoy.
Tsukasa heaved a sigh of relief as the last school bell rang. After having almost flunked his history exam, he was looking forward to the break that came after midterms. Squeaks of chairs and excited chatter filled the classroom immediately as everyone began to rush towards their two weeks of freedom.
Eventually, the commotion stilled and silence settled comfortably into the school. Having been assigned to cleaning duty, Tsukasa naturally stood behind to sweep, wipe down desks, and stack chairs thoroughly. As he scrubbed a particularly difficult stain, his mind wandered to his past performance as Torpe, from their first indoor performance.
He sighed.
Why had he struggled so horribly with connecting to the personality of Torpe?
Had he not sat with Toya or Saki that day, how would he have come up with a way to put himself in a place similar to his role?
Deep down, Tsukasa knew the reason why, though whether he would admit it is an entirely different story.
"-kasa-kun? Hello?"
Tsukasa blinked back into reality at the sound of his name. He turned to meet the smooth voice of his troupe-mate.
"Ah, Rui,, Sorry I was thinking of something.." Tsukasa trailed off, having no other excuse to give to the other boy.
Rui seemed to think nothing of it, instead giving a short chuckle and smiling at him, "Fufu~ That's alright Tsukasa-kun. I was just wondering if you were done with that last desk yet? It seems clean.."
Tsukasa glanced down at the spot that was previously darkened with pencil lead.
Where did the stain go? Had he been spaced out for that long..?
"Tsukasa-kun is something on your mind?"
Ah good ole' Rui. Observant as ever. Tsukasa sighed mentally.
"No, I'm just thinking of our next show and how to make it as amazing as possible!" Tsukasa struck the most dramatic pose in his arsenal to prove his point to Rui, who in turn simply smiled at his antics. After making his point, Tsukasa moved the last desk and exited the classroom with Rui by his side. They discussed their hopes and concerns for their test scores and what they were doing during break.
~~~~~~
All too soon, their stage was in view and their conversation came to a close.
"WONDER-HELLO-HOY!!!" Was all Tsukasa heard before being tackled to the ground.
"ARRHGH EMU I'VE TOLD YOU TO STOP DOING THAT!" He scolded, shooting a half-hearted glare towards Rui for laughing at his position on the ground.
"But how else do I give you thump-thump excitement in your heart!? Phoenix Wonderland is superrrrr wonderhoy so I have to spread the joy through boowaaa!!" Emu gushed, stars in her eyes.
"What the hell does thump-thump and boowaaa mean.." Nene muttered, appearing from the backstage area after hearing the commotion. "How do we even pull off any shows with you two.."
"What!? Are you implying I don't help with our shows?! How cold of you Nene!" Tsukasa yelled, causing said girl to let out a groan and cover her ears.
"Now, now, what should we do for our next upcoming show? I don't believe we need to worry about it until we get back from break as we're on vacation, but I don't think it would hurt to throw out some ideas since we're all here." Rui, ever the responsible director, brought their attention back to what they agreed to meet up on.
"I say we do a superrr cool show about robots taking over the world and then trying to capture a pretty pink princess that makes your heart go BUM BUM! And then a cool airplane pilot that makes people go UWAAAA–" Nene slapped a hand over Emu's mouth, "She wants a romance show."
Tsuksas nodded, "That could be beneficial! We have only ever done shows that revolve around subjects of overcoming something, or just bringing joy. A romantic show would help me further improve my skills of becoming the number 1 star in the world! HA! HA! HA!" Again, another pose.
If I keep expanding my skills and perfecting them, I'll never face obstacles such as Torpe again.
"Fufu~ I like your idea, Emu. I also believe this could benefit our skills. I have a robot in mind that could help us with this show in fact."
"If this includes launching me across the stage in order for me to 'be flying for real' I don't want any part of it." Tsukasa said darkly, chills crawling up his spine from past experiences.
Rui let out a laugh, "Nothing of that sort, rather, it would help with our scene changes so we could have more to work with."
He pulled out a device from his bag. It looked like the hilt of a sword ("LIGHT SABER!!" -Emu) and had a couple of buttons on it. Rui pointed it at the stage as it was, clean, and organized. He pressed a button.
"Well that was underwhelming." Nene deadpanned.
Ignoring her, Rui turned to Emu. "Put as much confetti on the stage as you want!" And handed her a dangerous mini confetti cannon– dangerous because Emu and confetti in the same room only spelled disaster and mess.
"RUI WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? I'M NOT CLEANING ANY OF THAT UP." Tsukasa all but screamed at Rui as Emu went ham on the glitter and smiley face papers.
Nene looked like she was about to pass out from the sheer amount of confetti that was now spread all over the stage.
"Fufu~ You're both quite funny. No one is cleaning!"
Nene shot him a dirty look as she firmly believed that this was not a time to be funny.
"RUI-KUNN~~!! IS IT BLING BLING ENOUGH?" Emu called from the stage, throwing the last handful of glitter in a bag from their storage room. ("Why do we have so much glitter.." - Nene "Beats me.." -Tsukasa)
"Yes Emu, you did a wonderful job! Could you move off the stage please so I can truly demonstrate this wonderful creation of mine?"
Emu nodded and hopped off, running to stand beside Tsukasa and Nene who looked at her glitter covered self in distaste.
Rui looked at his device, seeming to read the numbers and then pointed the end of it towards the stage. A yellow light flashed from the end of it.
Tsukaka's jaw dropped.
The stage, previously covered in a thick layer of confetti and glitter, was now as clean as it was before.
"Is that even legal.." Nene muttered, eyes stuck on the device that managed to turn back time?
Rui chuckled again, opening his mouth, only to be interrupted.
"RUI DON'T YOU DARE 'FUFU' RIGHT NOW. YOU COULD GET US INTO LEGAL TROUBLE WITH THIS. IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?"
"With how loud you're screaming I'd be more surprised if they didn't know already," Nene sighed.
"Fufu, it's perfectly fine Tsukasa-kun! It's like finding a rich person's debit card on the ground and buying a car! They're so rich they wouldn't notice, in the same way– this is so minimal that the government wouldn't care at all!"
Tsukasa grimaced, "Somehow I don't believe that's that same thing.."
"Whatever the case, this will help our shows, won't it not?" Rui concluded not expecting Tsukasa to answer as everyone knew it.
Tsukasa simply shook his head, "Alright then, let's do this!"
~~~~~
"Well, I think that's a wrap!" Rui said, patting Tsukasa on the back as he hopped off the stage.
Nene mumbled something along the lines of: "Can't believe we actually made progress with how you three idiots get off topic so fast." As she walked down the stairs like a sensible person.
Tsukasa took a swig of water from his bag as he conversed with Rui and Nene about the day's activities.
"RUI!!! What happens when you use your Zoomie Boomie laser (Trademark pending.) on a human?!"
.
.
.
What??
To everyone's horror, Emu was pointing the device towards the three of them.
"Hey Emu. I would love it if you didn't point what is a potentially life-ending device that is not legally allowed in a teenager's possession, in our direction." Nene said, slowly inching out of the range of the device.
Rui let out a nervous laugh, "Emu I would love to try a genius idea like yours but I'm not sure you should be the one to operate it. The numbers are misplaced so you can't correctly dial it unless you know the order.." He too, inched away from his previous position.
Emu pouted, not changing the direction of the device, but lowering it a fair amount. She walked towards Tsukasa as he was next to her bag.
"No fair! Well that's okay at least you know how to use it so we can make our shows WONDERH—"
And then she tripped.
The light flashed.
Rui, Nene, and Emu rubbed their eyes after being blinded by the flash, (which Rui hadn't seen before. He supposed it's because the laser went into contact with a human?) and blinked at the spot where Tsukasa was supposed to be.
And he was. Mostly. Just smaller..
~~
Tsukasa looked around for an exit, bewildered. Last thing he knew he was playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the piano, and now he's somehow in Phoenix Wonderland with 3 overly colorful people surrounding him.
"Tsukasa-kun?"
First name basis?! I don't even know you!
"WOOWW Tsukasa-kun is little!! Can we play with him?"
Why is the pink one so energetic?? And no! Why would I play with someone who I've known for 2 seconds!
"You guys are going to make him die from a heart attack. Look at him."
This one has common sense at least..
They all began talking at once and Tsukasa was sure his ears were about to fall off of his head.
"Can you guys shut up?? I need to go home! Not hang out with some randos that I've never seen in my life."
The 3 people blinked at him, before the purple one let out a short chuckle. "Fufufu~ I didn't know he had a sense of humor as a child."
Humor? Does he think this is funny?
"Fufu~ Yes I do."
Good lord, why does he think out loud?
"Ahem. But regarding your current situation, I can't actually allow you to go home right now.." The purple man trailed off, looking conflicted.
"So you are a kidnapper!" Tsukasa said, pointing an accusing finger at the man. (More like a boy. He seemed too young to be a full grown man.)
Purple man (Rui) let out a mock gasp. "How could you think of me like that! I'm hurt!"
Tsukasa could feel his eye twitch.
Thankfully the silver-haired girl elbowed the purple man (Rui) in the side ("Ow! Nene you're so mean..")
"He doesn't know who we are, Rui. Imagine you suddenly appeared and there were 2 idiots saying that they wanted to play with you and that you couldn't go home. He's a child."
I like this girl.
Purple man, who he now knew as Rui, sighed, "You're right. I'm sorry.. uh..Tenma-kun, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Kamishiro Rui. This girl is Kusanagi Nene, and the pink one is Otori Emu," He paused, seeming to think of what to say next, "this might sound really far fetched but you are actually our age and we reversed time on you and you are now a child. So we all know you, but if you want to be called Tenma that's fine.."
Does he think I'm that gullible? First he wants to kidnap me and now he's trying to make me believe his crazy story! With no conclusive evidence! The audacity!
"I could show you what exactly happened to you as proof!"
Great! He's a kidnapper, a liar, and he can apparently read minds!
"Go on.." Tsukasa said, watching Rui's movements in case he really did try to kidnap him.
Rui picked up a strange device, and pointed it towards the stage which seemed to have gone through multiple wars that involved confetti and streamers.
A flash of light.
Tsukasa blinked his eyes to help them readjust, only to see the stage sparkly clean.
His jaw dropped.
"Fufu~ It seems that I've amazed Tenma-kun!"
Little Tsukasa couldn't help but sigh, "For now..I don't understand how it's possible but I've seen your weird device with my own eyes.." Tsukasa paused, gears turning in his head. "Hey hold on, if you can make things 'go back in time' then you obviously have a fast forward or reverse version of that right? Just turn me back!"
Nene sighed.
"Rui-kun just made this! There is no reverse of it quite yet! And I was the only one who accidentally turned you into a child." Emu answered for Rui, who looked very conflicted at Tsukasa's words.
Tsukasa surely was dreaming. There was no way you could make an object-altering cat-laser like thing that can reverse an object and/or person, but not make the reverse effect of it. Rui could literally cause a black hole if he messed around too much and yet here he was.
Tsukasa officially wanted to slam his head into a wall repeatedly.
"I really hate to say this but I have to go home soon, it's already 5 and the sun is going down." Nene said, packing her extra stuff into her bag.
Emu nodded, "I do too..I could take Tsukasa to stay with me! We have a guest room.."
Tsukasa rapidly shook his head. He totally forgot about going home!
"I have to go home and keep practicing the piano! I have to perfect it to teach Saki someday!"
Rui laughed softly, "Ever the loving brother aren't you. Hmm... Well, I think I'll call Toya and ask him, to be honest. He knew Tsukasa as a child and I don't have Saki's number. You guys get home safely."
Nene and Emu nodded their thanks and took off.
A few seconds passed and Tsukasa sat idly on one of the seats for the audience as Rui went off to call Toya for advice.
"Mmh, Hello Aoyagi-kun. [Kamishiro-senpai?I never expected you of all people to call me..] Ahh, yes I had a question for you. [Ask away.] I was wondering if you could come to Phoenix Wonderland. [Right now?] Yes sorry for the inconvenience. [I can, but may I ask why? It's a little late and I thought you guys weren't doing shows..] Ah, it's a little too hard to explain on the phone, I think you'll understand if you just see for yourself. [Well, all right, but can Akito come as well?] Of course. [Okay, thank you. I'll be there soon, Bye-bye.]" Rui hung up and shoved his phone into his pocket.
As he walked back, Tsukasa could see that Rui looked kind of guilty. Obviously trying to hide it, but Tsukasa could easily tell from the furrowed brows and frown.
"You don't need to feel bad. I'm sure Toya-kun doesn't mind."
Rui looked startled, "Ah, did I give it away?"
Tsukasa nodded, "Yes you looked like you had to sneeze mixed with like..a face you make when thinking really deeply."
Rui laughed again.
He 'fufu's' a lot..
"You're very observant for someone your age Tenma-kun..how old are you?"
Tsukasa proudly held up 7 fingers.
"Huu~ 7 years old? I guess Tenma-kun has just always been the responsible type."
Tsukasa stared at his feet, kicking the dirt.
"You...you can call me Tsukasa..I give you permission."
He couldn't see Rui's expression but he could almost feel the cheshire smile that was directed towards him.
"Fufu~ Alright then Tsukasa-kun. Let's get to know each other while we wait for Aoyagi-kun."
"Maybe some other time." Tsukasa bluntly replied.
Rui blinked at him but before he could say anything–
"Kamishiro-senpai? Are you here?"
"Ah, Aoyagi-kun is here..well, let's go ask for advice hmm?"
Tsukasa nodded in agreement taking the lead as he briskly avoided the hand that Rui had held out.
End Notes:
This went a lot differently than what I was going for when I made an outline for this fic. Whatever the case, I hope it was enjoyable. The story may be uneven and lacking in organization so I deeply apologize for any parts that become confusing. I appreciate constructive criticism to further my writing skills.
Please do enjoy the next chapter.
-kakanelle