Chapter Text
Akito Shinonome was parkour. He rose from nothing, from being a parkour noob to parkour himself. The only regret he had was his lover from the parkour pro level, Toya Aoyagi. All Akito could do now that he had reformed the parkour world for good, and the parkour villain, Mizuki Akiyama, was defeated, was sit on his command block throne and reminisce of the days in Parkour Pro where Toya would care for him and they’d do jobs together.
Akito sighed and pulled out the only thing he had to remind himself of Toya, a single piano key. Their time together was short lived, Akito had only been on the parkour pro level to begin with to get to the bottom of their strange Parkour centric life but Toya’s kindness was everlasting. After rising from the previous level, Toya was the first to greet him. He showed him the ropes of being a parkour pro including how to get food. He remembered the first time he was ever able to have cooked beef with Toya.
Even after failing multiple parkour obstacle courses, Toya comforted him. He said “Don’t worry Akito, I don’t want you to starve! You can have some of my beef.” As he said this, Akito's eyes widened. Toya’s beautifully shaped head, his split dark and light blue hair, everything about Toya seemed to glisten. Akito thanked him, he didn’t know what it was about this interaction. All it was was Toya giving him some food but it was the first time in his life where Akito had received any kindness.
Back on the parkour noob level, all Akito had was a shabby house and had to jump for food. Every day it was the same deal, one block jump for the raw chicken, or a one block vertical jump for the beef. There, no one jumped for the beef. It was like a false choice, the chicken only kept them fed enough to not die but never enough to allow them to sprint. During that time, he resented the guards, the guards that forced them to make a fool of themselves for the sake of life, the guards that caused the deaths of many of his neighbors and friends. This changed later however when Akito became a pro and realized pros were forced to do these things otherwise they would die. He ate the beef happily and spent a while chatting with Toya. Usually, he’d only speak to the people of each level to get information but with Toya it was different.
He just wanted to talk to him for the sake of talking to him. They talked about all sorts of things, how Akito intended to parkour through the ranks of parkour civilization, how they’d rise to the next level together, how they’d make a parkour civilization that would be fair for all people. They spent around a year together in total, getting to know each other inside and out. Akito and Toya were going to rise the parkour tower and become parkour masters, together.
Unfortunately, that all changed when Toya was suddenly challenged to a Parkour battle. Akito knew that wasn’t Toya’s forte. Toya had been born into the Pro level but wasn’t very good at parkour himself. He specialized in building, in being creative, not ruthless parkour. The opponent was a notorious killer, someone who supposedly challenged others just for the sake of fun. Her name was Kohane Azusawa. Kohane placed her blocks. Three 360 degree neos followed by a 5 block diagonal jump. It was impossible for Toya to win. All Akito could do was watch. At the time, he wasn’t sure if he was able to interfere. If he got in trouble and got on the bad side of Kohane, he would’ve been screwed for sure. He later regretted this, as he realized he could’ve taken over in the middle and taken Toya’s place in the battle.
At first there was hope, he could counter by building something more difficult but the trouble was if he’d be able to perform it or not. He attempted Kohane’s attack but fell on the second neo. Bystanders murmured, “Kohane takes another victim..” Akito rushed into the arena to Toya’s slowly disappearing body. Akito clutched Toya’s head. “No! Toya, stay with me!” Toya looked up at Akito’s face twisted with distress and with the last of his strength pushed out his final words.
“Akito, thanks for being a great partner. I wish we had more time. Go on, become the parkour champion for us all.” With that, the rest of his body evaporated, leaving a lone piano key. Gritting his teeth, he clutched the key and put it in his pocket. From the ground he looked up to Kohane, the cold blooded killer that had just taken his one light and smothered it.
She stared at him blankly and turned to leave. Akito considered fighting her right there and then but decided that he would follow through on Toya’s wish for him before taking revenge. He eventually accomplished that goal but after becoming blessed with the power that comes with becoming parkour, he felt Kohane was just a victim of the system that the previous parkour champion put in place.
Akito was suddenly snapped out of his daze when he heard a voice “Akito, good to see you’re doing well.” He looked up to see Ena, the old woman he found sleeping in his old house a while back. “Ena, what’s up” “Have you found a successor yet?” She asked. Akito stiffened, that’s right— a successor. He had forgotten all about that in his time reminiscing about the past. “No I haven’t yet” he answered as he got up “I have one in mind though I’m gonna go find her.” Ena smiled “Sure, see you later”.
He hopped off the platform that held his throne and waterbucket clutched his landing and ended up back at the master level. The large glass towers brought back many memories, both good and bad. He remembered the acquaintance, Toomo Arata, he made on this level and the secrets of parkour civilization he discovered
“It should be around here…” He murmured. He started to look around for a building in particular that had caught his eye the last time he was here but his diamond boots stood out too much. Masters started whispering amongst themselves and people started to come up to him and ask if he needed help with anything. The parkour champion let alone the parkour god himself actually coming down from his throne was a once in a lifetime occurrence.
As he tried to make his way out from the crowd of excited masters, a familiar face caught his eye. “Ah! Kohane!” He exclaimed. She turned around surprised, “Huh? No way- Y-You’re not actually back for revenge are you?” She started to run away. Akito broke free from the gang of fans and started chasing her yelling “No! That’s not it!” She looked back at him, still running. “I don’t believe you… no way”. He chased her all the way to the edge of the map and eventually caught her. He brought her back up to his command block throne and presented her to Ena.
“And this is?-“ asked Ena. Akito stood beside Kohane and proudly declared: “My successor.” Kohane frantically looked at him and then to Ena, visibly confused. “Successor? Of.. the parkour god??” She shook her head “No way no way no way in ever.” Akito patted her on the back, attempting to be comforting. “Don’t worry,” he explained “you don’t get a decision in this anyway. We begin training now.”
This would be a good distraction from thinking about Toya for a while. They began training but frankly there wasn’t much to teach. Kohane was the number one parkour master, becoming one of the only people pre-Akito to have actually gone up a rank, from pro to master. So she was second in skill only to Akito himself. In the middle of the training session she asked nervously, “Why did you choose me?”. Akito answered frankly, “Isn’t it obvious, it’s because of your skills.”
She looked down at her feet “Yeah but—“ she started before going quiet. Akito could guess what she was probably thinking about. “Here- let me ask you a question too” he offered, “Why did you go on killing so many people in parkour battles when you were a pro?” She stiffened, “Well, when I was a pro, people always thought I was on the weaker side so I would get bullied a lot-”
“One day, some parkour masters came along and forced me and my only friend, An, to face off in a parkour battle.” Akito's eyes widened, he knew parkour masters tended to be cruel. However, it was traumatizing enough for him to see his only friend die in front of him- but to be forced to kill him himself was unimaginable.
Kohane sighed before continuing again “An was way better at parkour than me but even doing a single three block jump, she failed on purpose to save me. After that, I was distraught, I knew another duel would be coming up soon and I didn’t want An’s sacrifice to be in vain. A week before another scheduled duel, a mysterious man showed up in my home. He told me that if I wanted to avenge An I needed to get to the parkour master level to kill parkour masters more easily. He said he was someone in charge of the parkour masters and that he could make me one so long as I killed 100 parkour pros.”
Akito was shocked, “What?! Who was it?” He didn’t know anyone that powerful as to be able to designate parkour masters. Kohane shook her head “I still don’t know who that man was or why he chose me. Of course, killing one hundred people seemed unimaginable to me, especially after having to kill my best and only friend. However, he told me about a place- parkour prison. He said that even if I defeat people in a parkour battle they won’t actually die, they’ll just go to parkour prison and have a chance to come back as a noob.” This shocked Akito even more.
Parkour prison, it was a place he knew well. He had ended up in parkour prison after losing a parkour battle unexpectedly to a parkour master which set him back significantly. Parkour prison was no haven though, you had to complete near impossible parkour challenges for 50 years before you could be released back into the world. Luckily, he had escaped with the help of Ena. After becoming parkour, he went back to parkour prison in hopes of finding Toya, but couldn’t. Toya was really gone. After that, Akito closed off parkour prison for good and made the noob level a permanent respawn point. However, no one else should’ve known about parkour prison.
Kohane explained herself frantically, “I really didn’t want to do it! Seeing one hundred people beg for their lives.. it took something away from me. That friend of yours- Toya, he was my very last. After that, I became a parkour master and hunted down the masters who had taken An away from me. I owe a lot to that man, my parkour skills, my status, without him I’d probably be dead.” Akito sighed, it seemed that his business in this world wasn’t completely over yet. He had to find this mysterious man. “Kohane, starting right now, you are parkour. Take my boots.”
She jumped back surprised and waved her hands frantically “Right now?! I can’t!” “Please, Kohane. I beg of you.” Akito pleaded. He took his boots off and gave them to her. “I have somewhere I need to go and after that I will leave this world permanently. From here on out, I’m going to need you to take care of parkour civilization for me.” She was hesitant but looked up. Akito’s eyes were more full of determination than ever before. She nodded, “Got it, from now on, I am parkour.”.
Akito began his journey to find this mysterious man. In past adventures, he had found the mysterious other level of parkour civilization that had been closed off by Ena. He had originally gone there to find one of his only remaining acquaintances, Toono Arata. This level was home to some of the most dangerous parkour masters. He had spent a lengthy amount of time there collecting disks with the help of a man named Tsukasa Tenma. He had met Tsukasa a while before, when they had spent some time together as enemies. Unfortunately, Tsukasa betrayed him in the end to help the parkour villain.
He spent hours parkouring through the broken landscape that was on the edge of the map and finally found the place where he had closed off that level. He thought to himself the chances of this man actually being there. Akito hesitated but remembered he didn’t intend to return to parkour civilization after this anyway. He looked up at the bright blue sky that never seemed to change, the rows of disjointed dirt blocks, the place he’d spent his entire life. With his now bootless legs, he squeezed his eyes shut and jumped into the void.
When he opened them, a disturbing sight emerged. It was certainly the level of parkour civilization that he had closed off— the same sandstone blocks, the same oddly arranged rows of towers, but in it were countless parkour training sites that looked almost brand new. The place was also sparkling clean. He began to parkour around and discovered the same location where he had previously handed the many disks into the hands of Tsukasa. He knelt down and checked the chest the disks had previously been stored in. The chest strangely had another piano key. He picked it up and brushed the dust off before putting it in his pocket.
“Akito.” A familiar voice said behind him. Akito whipped his head around. It was unmistakably— “Toya!?” Akito gasped. It was Toya, from head to toe, his eyes, his voice, his face, his hair. Akito could only look at Toya with shock. He stammered “I-I thought you died? What are you doing here?”
Toya only sighed “I’m sorry, it’s a long story but it’s not safe here. Come with me.” Akito was unsure but if this was really his partner from all that time ago, he wasn’t going to let this chance pass. They walked for a long time, neither of them breaking the awkward silence, parkouring through the fractured ground of this level of parkour civilization. As the landscape changed, Akito recognized where they were going. It was one corner of the map that had housed the ice disk. Eventually, they ended up at an igloo.
“Come in,” Toya said warmly “I’ll explain everything now.” They both sat down at the shabby table inside the igloo. “To begin— you probably have a ton of questions on how I’m still alive.” Akito nodded. “Well,” he continued “I really did lose that parkour battle, but then I ended up in a place called parkour prison. I certainly would’ve died doing the 50 years of parkour challenges but luckily a mysterious man saved me.”
Akito’s eyes widened, could this mysterious man that saved Toya be the same person as the one that forced Kohane to kill a hundred pros!? “Do you know who this mysterious man was?” Akito asked frantically. Toya sighed, “Yes, I do.” He took a pause. “It’s… the parkour villain. He took me here as well as countless other pros and masters that had ended up in parkour prison, many of which had been defeated by that ruthless monster Kohane.”
Akito shook his head, distraught. The pieces began to come together but a lot of things still didn’t add up. For one, he had killed the parkour villain Mizuki by defeating them in a parkour race. For another, the timeline. He had visited this parkour level no longer than two years ago but Toya had supposedly died over seven. There was a chance he had stuck it out in parkour prison for seven years, but it was unlikely. The parkour challenges tended to be ruthless, not even he, the parkour champion, would be able to last there that long.
He clenched his fists “I understand, for the most part, but what do we do now? Do you know where this new parkour villain is?” Toya nodded, “Yes, come with me.” They began walking but this time was different. Akito decided to start making conversation. “So, how have you been?” He started. Toya chuckled, “Good, I’ve mostly been training. I can actually do 360 neos now.” Akito smiled, “That’s good, I still have that piano key by the way.” Toya looked a bit confused but smiled, “Piano key? I guess that's what I ended up dropping when I ‘died’.”
“I wonder what I’d drop haha”
They chatted for a while while walking together. In those moments, Akito remembered why he always considered Toya his loved one. Toya was the only person in this damned parkour world who still saw him as just himself, as Akito. Deep in conversation, Akito tripped and missed a jump. “Ah, shoot!” He exclaimed, dangling above the void with just a hand to clutch onto the single grass block. Toya worriedly knelt over and tugged on Akito’s arm in an attempt to pull him back up.
“Ugh! Crap you’re too heavy!” Toya grunted. “Hey, rude!” Akito shouted. Their arms were completely crossed together but Toya’s efforts weren’t enough. The dirt block Toya was on started crumbling and they both began to fall into the void. They fell far, far down but suddenly hit something. Akito opened his eyes to find Toya sprawled out on top of him. He was slightly flustered but more surprised by where they had ended up, it was a street, a street with no gaps, no parkour necessary to walk around. Toya got up too and looked around.
Akito looked at him and asked “Where are we? How do we get out?” Toya brushed his pants off and smiled at Akito, “Don’t worry, this is where the parkour villain is.” Akito was certainly surprised. The street had a stone tile and colorful paintings and graffiti on the buildings all around. He expected a parkour villain to choose somewhere slightly more discreet. Toya offered a hand out “Come on, he’s in that building right over there. Don’t be nervous, he’ll be nothing compared to parkour himself.”
Akito took his hand and got up. They began walking towards a big building at the end of the street. However, the whole situation was kind of strange. How did Toya know Akito was parkour? He never mentioned it in all this time. Additionally, how did Toya know where the parkour villain was but never bothered doing anything with him? Toya was just acting a bit strange overall.
As they opened the door to the building, Akito noticed something off about Toya. He had a scar, one at the nape of his neck. He could only see the top bit because Toya's hair and collar obscured it. It looked completely healed, like a scar one would’ve had for years. Toya didn’t have this scar back when they were pros. If he did, Akito certainly would’ve noticed.
Akito froze at the entrance. He looked at Toya, then at the building’s insides. There were two stairwells on the sides of the hall, a massive door in the middle, and a large circular tile pattern in the center of the floor. It was strange, there was a faint humming of a fan somewhere.
Toya turned around “Come on, we’ve made it so far. Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet?” Akito tightened his fists and looked Toya right in the eyes. “You’re not Toya. Who or what are you?”. “Toya” looked at him blankly. “That’s right” he said “I can’t believe it took you this long to figure it out.” With that, “Toya” slumped over on the floor and a loud whirring sound started to emerge.
Akito looked around, massive incubators started to come down from the ceiling. In it, were identical copies of Toya. Akito’s pupils contracted. He whispered to himself “What the hell is this..”. His legs were shaking and a cold drop of sweat came down his forehead. Why.. Why was his love from the past being cloned.. and by who?
Why did this Toya bring him here? Was this the doing of another parkour villain? What the fuck did this have to do with parkour?? Suddenly, he heard a voice announce something. “Akito Shimonome, come to the door between the stairwells. Meet me there and I will explain everything to you.”
Akito was hesitant but slowly crept towards the door. He pushed it open and saw another Toya, this time wearing a suit and tie, standing next to a piano. On closer inspection, the piano was missing several keys. “You… are you actually Toya, or someone using his form?” Akito demanded. The Toya standing next to the piano answered “I am the original Toya but I don’t expect you to believe that. Instead, I have something to ask of you.”
Akito said “No way, whatever you ask of me I’m going to say no. And if you want to ask me to do something related to my status as parkour champion I’ll have you know I’ve already relinquished that title.” The “original” Toya smirked, “No, that’s not what I was going to ask you. I’d like to ask you to be my partner.” Akito tightened his expression, “Partner..?”
Toya began to move towards the piano, he placed his hands on a few of the keys. “I never like Piano y’know,” he started but was interrupted by Akito “I don’t care. I don’t care about you and your stupid piano. Was the Toya I met on the Pro level even real? Was anything of anything real?”. Toya sighed “So impatient, fine. I’ll explain everything. The Toya you met on the Pro level was one of my clones. The clones by themselves can’t do much themselves but by inserting a piano key in some part of their body, they are able to mimic a part of me.” Akito’s expression got even more dramatic.
“Why… why the hell would you do something like that.” he said angrily. Toya, not looking away from his piano said calmly “Let me finish, this was all to build a parkour army, a parkour army that would be able to overthrow any parkour Champion if they stepped out of line. I placed clones on every floor of parkour civilization. The Toya you met while you were a pro was another one of my clones. He had free will and did genuinely like you. That’s probably a part of me there since I like you too. When he ‘died’ his vessel disappeared but that piano key you have is just a piece of myself that I put in him. The clone you met today has been wandering this level for centuries, I made sure to hide him when you came along a few years ago. When I realized you’d actually come here to find me I took control of that Toya and came up with that little story of me being a parkour villain, which I’m not by the way.” He continued,
“Mizuki, the parkour villain, was an interesting one. I’m sure you noticed but they developed parkour racing which led to a conflict between that Ena girl and them. Ena was a good parkour champion but got dangerously close to needing to eradicate her. You see, I was placed here over a thousand years ago. I was created by the parkour god of ancient times to make sure no parkour champion ever became too corrupt. I wasn’t given any specific instructions but I spent a lot of time researching cloning as well as the multiverse.” Akito’s head was starting to hurt.
This was too much damn information, and he wasn’t sure what parts of it were even true. “The multiverse… Why?” He asked. Toya looked at him, “Akito, did you know? We’re partners in every single universe. In life and death, we are eternally bound.” Akito’s expression became less tense. “Partners.. in every universe?” He was distraught. “That’s right,” Toya answered “In every lifetime we’re supposed to be together. Come on Akito, stay with me, here. Unless you want to go against the truth that is in every other universe.” Akito looked down at his feet, the feet that carried him through so many parkour challenges.
He considered all the possibilities, he was here to find the mysterious man and the mysterious man ended up being his first and last love. He hadn’t intended to return to being parkour champion in the first place and Toya was really only doing his job. “Fine, I’ll be your partner.” He declared. Toya was a bit surprised at first but then smiled softly. “That’s good.” Toya stepped towards Akito and gave him a fucking kiss or something idk I dont write romance and then BAM
Akito woke up in a cafe somewhere, he rubbed his head and said under his breath “The fuck…?” A voice suddenly sounded in his ear “Akito! You’re up!”Akito looked to his side, it was Kohane, but she looked different. The Kohane he knew had longer hair and was a bit more muscular due to being a parkour master. Another girl next to her said “You were out for a whole 30 minutes, we were super worried!” Akito looked at her confused, “Sorry, who are you again?” He looked around, there were five people around him. Kohane, a pair of yellow haired siblings, a girl with teal pigtails, a girl with dark blue hair with stars, and unmistakably, Toya.
“Shoot, he’s lost his memory! I told you guys we should’ve taken him to a hospital!” Said the blue haired girl. “An, this is all your fault! You hit him too hard!” Kohane replied. An, that was the name of Kohane’s friend. As they were bickering, Akito looked at Toya. He was skeptical but all Toya did was smile and say “I’m glad you’re up Akito.” They eventually left him to rest up in the cafe, apparently to ‘practice’ for something. He headed into the bathroom and washed his face. He was wearing some weird street clothes, everything was just too confusing.
Suddenly he heard a voice in his head, “Akito, can you hear me?” He jumped back, “Oh! Original Toya, is that you?”
“Yes it’s me, I’ve transported you to another universe, I want you to collect information on each universe for me.”
“Huh? What kind of information?
“I trust that Kohane girl, with the assistance of Ena, to take care of parkour civilization for now so in that time, I’d like you to help me with my research.”
“Fine, is there a particular goal in mind?”
“Yes. In this universe there’s been a series of anomalies where teenagers have been going into strange worlds, apparently born of feelings. I want you to figure out the reason why this is and how to replicate it.”
“Got it, bye.”
“Bye”
Akito stepped out of the bathroom and saw the yellow twins standing outside waiting for him. “Hi Akito!” said the girl “Dude I hope you’re okay, An hit you pretty hard” said the boy. Their voices were weirdly robotic which threw Akito in for a loop. “O-oh yeah I’m doing great..” he forced a happy tone. The girl stared at him skeptically “You haven’t forgotten us too?” She asked. The boy chimed in “Yeah yeah what’s our names.”
Akito was drawing a blank. He obviously couldn’t answer the question, there were no yellow siblings back in parkour civilization that he knew of. “Uh sorry, it seems I’ve forgotten you guys too.” The girl sighed and said “I’m Rin, and this is Len. Don’t you forget!” The boy chimed in “He definitely won’t forget my name heh” Rin smacked him over the head “And why would he forget mine?!” As they began bickering, Akito slipped away and outside the cafe.
Oddly enough, there were no other people around and the streets looked exactly how the place where the Toya clone had led him had looked. That place must’ve had some link to the multiverse. He suddenly heard some loud sounds around the street corner, he began to move towards the sound but realized he had insitinctivly started parkouring around the cracks in the sidewalk.
He took a pause, looked at his feet, then the ground, then his feet, then the ground. It was all too weird, this world wasn’t built around parkour and so by nature he wouldn’t have to parkour to get around. He took a step, and then another one, each on the cracks between the stone. There was no void to fall into, no need to parkour. Walking normally was a bit uncomfortable but he had done it before.
He walked towards the noise and saw a strange sight. Kohane, An and Toya were singing and dancing along with a dark blue haired man. The girl with the twintails was coaching them and two women with respectively pink and brown hair were on the side, watching. “Oh, Akito. Good to see your up, care to join them?” Offered the brown haired one.
Her voice was robotic too. Akito just stood there kind of confused. “Join them..? Dancing and singing?” An piped up, “Oh right you probably don’t remember.” She sighed “We’re going to surpass Rad weekend. It’s shame you don’t remember.” Everyone went melancholy. It seemed Rad Weekend was a big deal in this universe.
She point over at the Pink haired woman, “This is Luka,” then to the brown haired woman, “This is Meiko,” then to the blue haired man, “This is Kaito,” and finally to the girl with the twintails. “and this is Miku.” “Akito has amnesia?” Meiko said worriedly. Everyone looked at him. “Well, I’m sure he can sing just fine!” Kaito exclaimed. Akito began to step back little by little.
“S-sing? No way! I can’t sing!” He stammered. The Toya of this universe came up to him and patted him on the back. “Of course you can, partner!” He pulled out a mysterious black rectangle and turned something on. Lights and music began to play. “Look, it's a video of you from last week.”
Akito was a bit taken aback by the strange technology but squinted closer. It was definitely him, only a version of him that had belonged to this universe. This version of him was a singer, it was certainly interesting to think about. It made him wonder however, where was this world’s Akito since he had come here?
Akito looked at the odd device Toya was holding again. He pointed at it, “What is this?” “It’s a phone.” Akito jumped back, Kohane was right behind him. “Jeez you really forgot a ton didn’t you? You have one too, I think it’s usually in your pocket.” She said. Akito checked his pocket, surely enough there was a mysterious black rectangle there.
He pressed the same strange button Toya had pressed on his device and it lit up. On it was a large stack of pancakes and some other words that were definitely not parkour. The whole time here, he’d seen signs and posters all in some strange language that he couldn’t read. This was definitely going to be a big problem.