ᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ່࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊ࠢ࠘𐡏 ♡
"See anything, Toge?"
"Not yet."
Kaori flicked her scope on and scanned the area. The tombstones sometimes seemed to be in the shape of a curse, but it never was the real thing. Toge hovered on the ground next to her, squinting his eyes from lack of sleep and lighting to the area. The mausoleum next to them sat quietly as they looked for their target.
Kaori turned on the safety and lowered her sniper with a sigh. She turned to her classmate, "we should think of a plan, this isn't working."
He responded with a nod.
They sat quietly behind the tomb mumbling some ideas until they formed a semi-plan.
"How about... I'm the bait," Toge started. "You can stay here and once it comes into the open I can shout "don't move" and then you finish it off." He ended his idea with a questioning hum.
The brunette in front of him smiled at how clever he was, offering her knuckles to him for her praise. He smiled back and knocked his fist with hers, standing up after and sauntering into the field. Kaori propped her weapon onto the rock, turned off the safety, and readied her energy.
Soon enough, a limber looking curse creeped out behind a second gravestone, eyeing the boy in front of it. The curse stalked its prey like a cat, and it's reflexes when it leaped reflected that. It sprang quickly into the air, but Toge had already unzipped his uniform collar to shout "don't move!"
The curse squirmed uselessly as Kaori readied her technique. Her scope locked onto the curse, and her finger found the trigger.
Innate technique,
Mirror.
The cursed bullet shot forward and pierced the curse, it screeched as pieces of a mirror sliced through its body and consumed it from the outside. After just a second, the curse's own skill had backfired, leaving only a pile of shattered glass and purple blood on the grass.
Kaori sighed as their mission came to an end. She stood from the dirt and tugged at her summer uniform, which was a shorter skirt, before bending over to store her weapon. She quickly tossed the heavy guitar case over her back before joining her classmate in the center of the graveyard.
"I like that technique, what do you call it?" Toge asked, offering his knuckles this time.
Kaori returned the gesture, walking forward to the gate with him at her side.
"Mirroring."
ʚ♡⃛ɞ
The walk back to campus was just a short stroll through town. As the sun had finally rose, students from many grades made their way to school as well. Kaori and Toge's first midnight mission had left them both drained, but the bright morning light kept their eyes open.
That light let Toge feel just the slightest bit uncomfortable at the looks the pair were being given, one person more than the other.
Toge would be a liar if he said Kaori wasn't pretty. Her hair fell around her face neatly, and her eyes a complementing color to it. Even the way she wore her uniform, very clean and... short. Summer in Tokyo was no doubt, hot. So as the summer months came around, her uniform was adjusted to help her stay comfortable like the others had done.
Toge looked around nervously and even a bit angrily as high school students from other schools admired the girl he walked beside. A small group of juniors whistled as she passed, and Toge looked over her shoulder to glare at them.
Kaori had never been looked at in such a way as these guys were thinking, so as she minded her business looking at the stores they passed, a few boys pointing in her direction didn't faze her as anything abnormal. That was until someone grabbed her hand from beside her. She looked to her left to see an angry Toge clutching her hand securely.
He wasn't looking at her, but rather at those of the high schoolers that whistled, pointed, and stared. His eyes showed unfamiliar darkness Kaori had never witnessed from him. But those same eyes became soft as she wrapped her second hand around his bicep, quietly and worriedly asking him, "hey, is everything okay?"
He turned his softening gaze to the hand on his arm, the boys on the sidewalk, and then back to her. He shook his head as his eyes darkened again.
Kaori wasn't as observant as the one holding her hand, so she honestly had no idea why Toge was acting the way he was.
She pulled lightly on his arm, "tell me what's wrong."
The blonde followed her quietly to a bench near the street as her second hand returned to her side. He respectfully watched her hand pull him along until it detached when they both had sat down. She had tossed the guitar case off of her back and secretly opened it to find a pen and paper.
She held the items in front of her, "what's bothering you?"
Toge took a moment to pause and think about her actions. She already had such items in her case which is already packed with heavy equipment, but for what purpose other than a written conversation? He didn't even have to remind her. But of course, it wasn't their first written conversation.
He took the items slowly and pressed the paper to the wood panels on the bench, writing the situation with the ink of the pen. As he finished writing, the boys behind them never quit their actions.
Toge handed her the paper quietly as he clicked the pen shut.
The girl took the note and read each word,
Those boys were staring at you in a horrible way . . . and I thought they would stop if I did something, but they don't seem to care.
She took a moment to understand what he meant by horrible, and was answered as she looked up. Toge was slightly tilting his head behind them, motioning her to look for herself. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the boys he talked about, laughing, waving, and pointing. She glanced away with a bored look to see Toge sulking quietly.
"Is it my summer uniform?"
He nodded, not glancing up from the pen he nervously began to click.
Kaori smiled at his concern, and moved closer on the bench to him. He looked up in time to see just her hair in his vision. Her hands were already around his shoulders as she hugged him with appreciation.
"Thanks for protecting me," she whispered.
To shoo the boys away even just slightly more, and for his own happiness, Toge dropped the pen and gently laid his hands on her back. He shook slightly from his embarrassment, but still tried his best to have piercing eyes laid on the other teens. A few got bored and moved on, others laughed and decided she wasn't worth their trouble.
The two pulled back in sync and Toge buried his cheeks into his collar to hide the pinkish tint of his skin. Kaori had already turned her back to him, stood up, and swung her case over her back as she looked down at Toge. One of her hands pulled her skirt further down her thighs for his concern, and her second reached down to him.
"If it makes you more comfortable Toge, I'll hold your hand on the way back," she said happily.
His eyes flicked up to her face as his head stayed down. She hadn't shown any embarrassment on her face, and he wasn't sure how that was possible after what they said and did on the bench. Maybe she didn't feel the same way, or maybe she's a good liar. No matter why her face was still her natural pale tone, he wrapped his fingers around the side of her palm as he stood up.
They returned to the left side of the sidewalk
as they were minutes before, but not even a few blocks away from that bench, Kaori tangled her fingers with his. She squeezed his hand tightly for a moment, never making eye contact with Toge as she did so.
The boy beside her felt his face flush hotter at her action, and he was relieved she never looked to her side to see his pupils dilated as he gazed at her, blushing.