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The sound of beeping and 8-bit chirping filled the darkened room. One persistent ray of sunlight managed to sneak through the blackout curtains, but otherwise the only light came from Izuru's PSP.
They'd moved in a few weeks ago, so if he'd had the urge to personalize his room he would have had plenty of time. However, so far the only thing he'd picked for himself were the curtains.
He liked being able to sleep whenever without the sunlight waking him up.
There was a knock at his door, so he mumbled a "come in."
Chisa entered, looking the mix of concerned and frustrated that only a teacher or parent could manage.
"It's four pm," she said in an upbeat voice, hoping he picked up the meaning in her reminder.
"Mhmm." Izuru kept playing his game.
"And I haven't seen you leave your room once," Chisa continued. "Not even to eat something."
Izuru pointed to a plate of pizza bagels sitting on his nightstand without breaking his focus. They were clearly untouched and cold.
Chisa looked annoyed, frowning, and walked to the window to throw open the curtains.
Izuru winced a little at the sudden light, and pulled up the hood on his oversized sweatshirt. "Hh."
"Nope! You look like a ghost! You'll scare the neighbors!" Chisa said, pulling his hood back down. "Get some sun!"
"I already scare the neighbors, being pale is only a small factor, and changing it will not change their feelings." Izuru scowled.
"You're scaring me !" Chisa said. "Sitting in here all day isn't healthy! Don't you want to go out? Do something?"
"It's b-"
" Boring , I know…" Chisa sighed. "I can hardly fault you for being bored, but I can fault you for not trying! And for wasting pizza bagels!"
Before Izuru could present his argument the doorbell rang, granting him a reprieve. Chisa made a 'I have my eyes on you' gesture which Izuru repeated back to her, before she went to answer the door.
"Just a sec!" She opened the door and was surprised to see two of her students standing there.
"Ma'am," Fuyuhiko greeted her with the usual yakuza respect.
"Hey, teach," Kazuichi said, apparently trying to organize a stack of papers. "I wanted to turn in that late work and we were headed this way so-"
Chisa's eyes gleamed with a plan. "This is perfect! Wait right there!" She grabbed Kazuichi's assignment, leaving two surprised students in her wake. She returned shortly, pushing an uncooperative Izuru towards the door.
"Take him with you and make sure he does an activity or gets some exercise and sun, okay?" She said with a cheery grin, giving Izuru one last push out the door. "Thanks guys! Have him home by eleven! Have fun!"
She quickly shut the door, leaving Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko stunned on either side of a guy they hadn't seen since the school turned into a war zone.
"..." Izuru glowered down at them.
"... you're uh… Chisa's little brother, right?" Kazuichi asked nervously.
"You idiot, he's her ward," Fuyuhiko corrected him.
"What, like Robin?"
"Who the fuck are you talking about?"
"Jeez, nevermind!"
Izuru followed the conversation as far as that before turning and starting to walk away.
"Whoa, whoa, hey!" Fuyuhiko called after him, both of them following. "Yukizome told us to stay with you."
"Yeah, it's the least we could do for her after…" Kazuichi thought back on the past. "... everything."
"... I could just wait two hours and then come back and tell her we socialized," Izuru offered with a shrug.
"Yeah, guess he coul-"
Fuyuhiko elbowed Kazuichi in the side, making him grunt in pain.
"Just come with us," Fuyuhiko said. "We're meeting some of our other friends and heading downtown to the shops. You can buy Yukizome a decorative plate or something."
"... she does not like decorative plates."
"I said or something, didn't I?" Fuyuhiko huffed. "Let's go!"
Izuru had only been to this part of town once, when Chisa was attempting to find him an interest. It seemed he was fated to return here whenever she found fault in his apathy.
The others: Ibuki, Mahiru, and Sonia, were waiting at a bench when they arrived.
"You're so late!" Ibuki shouted impatiently, kicking her legs wildly. "Now I get to bite Kaz!"
"No you don't!" Kazuichi shrieked, jumping away from her.
"He had to drop off all his late shit at Ms. Yukizome's place," Fuyuhiko explained. "Which uh… is how we ended up with him."
Fuyuhiko jerked a thumb back at Izuru, who the others seemed to notice for the first time.
"Ms. Yukizome's spooky secret son!" Ibuki gasped, pointing dramatically.
"Wow, you look like death," Mahiru scolded him. "Don't you take proper care of yourself? And all this loose hair is a tripping hazard! Jeez!"
"She is correct," Sonia said solemnly. "You look quite ill… though I do have a remedy for your hair."
Sonia pulled a spare scrunchie off her wrist and offered it to Izuru, who emotionlessly tied up his hair.
"Well, we should get going anyway," Mahiru said. "Ibuki's already getting hungry so we might get food in between stores instead of after."
"Need… noms…!" Ibuki fidgeted, looking distressed.
"I'm not noms," Kazuichi said, still nervously preparing for a bite.
They started with a clothing store, where Fuyuhiko and Sonia both tried to impart some fashion wisdom unto Kazuichi, which fell on death ears as he picked out a ripped crop top bright enough to blind.
"Check it out! This one has your name written all over it, spooky!" Ibuki jumped in front of Izuru brandishing a pair of black skinny jeans decorated with the odd safety pin.
Izuru looked at them blankly, but otherwise didn't respond.
"Wow, cold shoulder," Ibuki laughed nervously.
“You could at least pretend like you’re having fun,” Fuyuhiko pointed out. “Ultimate actor or whatever. Or just be nice.”
“Yeah, like you know anything about being nice!” Kazuichi threw an arm around his shoulder, and Fuyuhiko only proved his point by punching at him.
“I accept the challenge!” Sonia said defiantly with a dramatic pose. “In fact, I have already secured an item that Izuru will surely like!”
“... what is it?” Izuru asked, only a little curious.
“Behold!” Sonia proudly opened her hand to reveal a pair of hair ties, each one with a plastic bat decorating it. “Because, you so strongly resemble the winged demon of the night that Gundham has been nursing back to health!” she explained with a smile.
“Oh, dude, that’s totally what Chisa does for him,” Kazuichi laughed, getting an elbow from Fuyuhiko for not the first time that day.
Izuru walked over and stared at the hair ties in Sonia’s hands. Then he slowly removed the scrunchie she had loaned him and traded it for the hair ties. He headed straight for the register, while everyone else watched in shock.
“Sonia, you’re totally a witch!” Ibuki cheered.
“She just knows people really well,” Mahiru said. “At least he can keep his hair neat without borrowing her stuff anymore.”
“Well, Miss Sonia said this was a challenge, right?” Kazuichi asked with a grin. “Well then, I say whoever can get him to buy some real clothes wins!”
“This is so childish,” Mahiru sighed.
“Ibuki first!” Ibuki shouted, running off into the store in search of the winning item.
“You guys are out of your depth,” Fuyuhiko huffed, walking off to do some searching of his own.
Kazuichi raised his eyebrow at Mahiru, who groaned and walked off as well.
When Izuru returned with his hair pulled into a neat braid with both hairties, only Sonia was left.
“...” Izuru looked at her. “... Gundham has a bat?”
“Yes!” she said excitedly. “His name is Polaris Star of Night!”
“That’s… cool.” Izuru shrugged.
That’s when the other four came back, each with something for Izuru to try on.
“Alright, you get to choose the champion,” Kazuichi told him. “But you gotta try them all on, fair's fair.”
Izuru sighed and gathered up the clothes before entering the dressing room.
First was Kazuichi’s pick: blue jeans and a dark t-shirt with a punk looking logo, complete with a red beanie.
“Super cool, right?” Kazuichi asked with a thumbs up.
Izuru removed the beanie, and then dropped it directly on the ground.
“Rejected!” Ibuki howled with laughter.
Then Fuyuhiko’s outfit, a sharp navy suit.
“He’s got class, I can tell,” Fuyuhiko said. “He’s gotta dress to intimidate.”
Izuru looked into the mirror, gazing at the all too familiar reflection of his earlier self. Izuru Kamukura, in a suit, waiting alone in a dark room to be deployed at his keeper’s beck and call. He kept staring.
“Uh…” Mahiru winced. “I think you broke him.”
“No suits,” Kazuichi agreed, mirroring Mahiru’s wince.
“Yeesh, calm down big guy,” Fuyuhiko guiltily led Izuru away from the mirror, wondering what the hell that was all about.
“We teamed up on ours!” Ibuki said, putting her hands on Mahiru’s shoulders and jumping up and down.
“What? That’s cheating!” Kazuichi huffed.
“A clever gambit!” Sonia praised them.
“Uh, yeah, real smart!” Kazuichi said.
Izuru pulled back the curtain of the dressing room and stepped out in a long black skirt, a white tank top, and a pair of dark round sunglasses.
Izuru looked at his reflection. Then he did a spin. Then he nodded.
“Hell yeah!” Ibuki and Mahiru high fived.
The celebrating and arguing over who had the better outfit continued as Izuru completed his second purchase. Making him the object of a competition was… interesting. The clothes were also… adequate. Well, to be honest he loved them. He was even amused by the energy of Chisa’s students.
“Hey, dude, you wanna pick where we go next?” Kazuichi asked, keeping pace with him.
“No, I don’t…” Izuru frowned. “I don’t know what’s fun.”
“Hey, you can’t have worse taste than Mahiru,” Kazuichi laughed.
“Shut up, Souda!”
Izuru shook his head, refusing still with his frown deepening.
“Well… think about it, we’ll come back to you,” Kazuichi said, patting him on the shoulder.
“Music!” Ibuki shouted, practically pushing Kazuichi down with an excited tackle. She pointed to the music store nearby. “Let’s go!”
“Vetoed,” Fuyuhiko said. “Last time you blew our eardrums clear out of our heads.”
“Awww…” Ibuki pouted.
“How about video games?” Kazuichi suggested, jerking his thumb towards another store.
“Alright, close enough,” Ibuki sighed.
They all spread out once inside, looking at different games and merch. Izuru linged by the door a moment until he heard a familiar sound.
Set up at one of the display TVs was GalaOmega II: Death Odyssey . The first game he’d ever played, and had played almost every day ever since.
His eyes narrowed.
“Alright, I got what I came for, I’m ready to bounce,” Kazuichi said after a few minutes.
“Wait, where’s tall dark and gloomy?” Mahiru asked.
“Uh… right there.” Fuyuhiko pointed.
There was a small crowd of people gathered around, watching in awe as Izuru destroyed every high score currently logged on the store’s console. His eyes were glued to the screen with laser focus, and his thumbs were moving almost too fast to see.
“Yo, holy shit!” Kazuichi shouted, pushing through the crowd and grabbing Izuru by the shoulder. “You’re a legend!”
Izuru barely spared a glance at Kazuichi’s interruption.
“He’s gonna make it!” one of the audience shouted. “He’s actually going to beat it! No one’s beaten this one!”
Just like they said, Izuru ended the game with a few rapid button presses, and reached the fabled winner’s screen only the few elites had ever reached.
Izuru’s audience erupted into applause and excited yelling, and his entourage was the most excited of the bunch. Ibuki actually jumped onto his back, which Izuru took in stride, accepting it as his fate to give her a piggyback ride.
“Damn, you really are the ultimate everything,” Fuyuhiko said.
“You kidding?” Kazuichi dramatically fell to his knees and started bowing. “He’s a fucking god!”
Izuru found his lips twitching into a smile of their own accord, even a slight blush coming to his cheeks. Sure, he knew he would beat the game, but the excitement and praise he’d garnered poked at his slowly growing emotional side.
“Aw, that’s kinda cute,” Mahiru said, noticing his blush.
Izuru quickly looked away.
They decided to head to a restaurant next to accommodate Ibuki’s dropping blood sugar. As they walked, Izuru paused in front of a store window to stare inside. Sonia noticed, and hung back with him.
“Oh, you’ve taken an interest in one of Gundham’s favorite demonic entities,” she said, watching as the rabbit in the pet shop window wrinkled its nose.
“No,” Izuru said quickly. “Just looking.”
“Well, I would like to look closer,” Sonia said knowingly, taking his hand and leading him into the store.
“Here you go.” the pet store employee placed the rabbit in Izuru’s hands.
“She approves of you!” Sonia said, watching as the rabbit relaxed in Izuru’s gentle grasp.
“... no, I just know how to handle animals,” Izuru said. “It’s only reacting to my talent.”
“That is untrue!” Sonia said. “Animals are incredibly intelligent and empathetic creatures, it takes more than talent alone to tame them! Look how safe it feels in your presence!”
Izuru looked down at the rabbit, and started slowly stroking its fur.
Sonia watched with delight as a slow small smile appeared on Izuru’s face. “Come! You should see others!”
Izuru ended up doing a meet and greet with a snake, a cat, a ferret, two hamsters, and a leopard gecko.
“You know, if you find someone you’d like to bring home, you could always reserve them and come back when you’re done shopping,” the employee told him.
“Yes! You should pick a familiar!” Sonia said, stars in her eyes. “Which do you feel most drawn to?”
Izuru, feeling bolstered by her enthusiasm, made his choice.
“Ibuki is hungry!”
“Uh…” the waiter looked nervously at the other people at the table. “... so would you like… to order?”
“Sorry about her,” Fuyuhiko sighed. “She’s excited. We’ll need another minute to look at the menu.”
The others all chatted idly about what they might get and where they might head after this, meanwhile Izuru just sat stockstill looking bored and a little lost.
“Hey, gonna get anything?” Fuyuhiko asked him. .
“No.”
“You’re not hungry?” Mahiru asked. “I already told you! You look pale and sickly! Get something to eat even if you just take it home with you!”
“I can pick for you!” Ibuki said with a sly smile.
“Fine,” Izuru said.
“Don’t let her do that, she’s gonna get you something gross as a joke,” Kazuichi warned him.
“Food is food.” Izuru shrugged.
“You’ll change your mind after this,” Kazuichi said.
The waiter came back with their food, and as everyone started eating Ibuki looked at Izuru with a wide grin, clearly waiting for a hilarious reaction.
Izuru, lacking passion for many things especially something as small as nourishing his body, just took a bite anyway without inspecting the meal.
Two things happened at once: firstly, Izuru realized that not eating all day had left him incredibly hungry, and secondly his eyes lit up.
“Whoa, okay, she clearly didn’t get you anything gross,” Kazuichi said, noticing Izuru shoveling food into his mouth.
“What?” Ibuki groaned, disappointed. “But Ibuki got the super super spicy one!”
“C’mon, of course he’d like that,” Fuyuhiko said. “Bored by everything, spicy stuff is probably pretty fun.”
Izuru nodded emphatically, before continuing to eat.
“I’m glad you’re eating something,” Mahiru said. “Now that you know you like spicy things, you can take care of yourself better.”
“You’re such a mom sometimes,” Kazuichi teased her.
“And you’re such an idiot!”
“Alright, I’m beat.” Kazuichi stretched. “Call it a day?”
“Not just yet,” Sonia said. “Izuru must collect his familiar before we leave.”
“What?” Mahiru asked.
“We went to the pet store,” Izuru said, as if that explained things.
“Oh, that’s where you guys disappeared to?” Kazuichi asked. “Hey, Izuru! Wait for us!” he added as Izuru walked away from the group.
They all followed him back to the pet shop, where the employee handed him some pet food and a cage containing a black and brown rabbit.
“Aw, it’s so cute!” Mahiru leaned down to wiggle her finger at the rabbit.
“Picked out a name?” Fuyuhiko asked,
“Uh… no…” Izuru said.
“That’s alright, we’ll help you think of one.” Kazuichi smiled. “Hey, we’ll ask the whole class and next time we hang out we’ll have a whole bunch of names for you to pick from.”
Izuru’s eyes widened slightly, then he looked at his feet. “... fine.”
His newfound friends smiled, recognizing his stoic brand of happiness.
“So, we will… hang out again?” Izuru asked, pushing his braid over his shoulder.
“Course, dude!” Kazuichi said. “I wanna see you beat that high score again!”
“Ibuki has even spicer things for you to try!”
“We really should get you a whole new wardrobe, you can’t just keep wearing hand-me-downs.”
“You must come see Polaris!”
“I wouldn’t want Yukizome to worry about you anymore, besides, you’re alright.”
Izuru smiled.
Chisa was surprised when he didn’t come back after an hour, but after two and a half hours she was downright stunned.
When the door finally opened, she jumped up from the couch excited to see how things had gone.
“Is that a bunny?” she asked, pointing to the carrier Izuru held.
“Yes,” he replied.
“... and you’re going to take care of it?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s really cute!” Chisa beamed. “So you had fun then?”
“Yes,” Izuru repeated once more, heading for his room. He paused halfway there, and reached into his pocket.
“There was a photo booth,” he said, handing her the strip of pictures without further explanation. He then returned to his room to put away his purchases and begin caring for his new pet.
Chisa stared after him, and then looked at the pictures. Her smile grew at the sight of her students posing in various silly and fun ways, Izuru looking deadpan at the camera in all but one picture. In the final picture he was smiling, one eye closed, looking a bit surprised as Ibuki leapt onto his back, Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi posing on either side of him, and Mahiru laughing at the antics.
There was one other picture he’d handed her, a polaroid she knew could only have come from one of Mahiru’s cameras. It was a picture of him holding his new pet, clearly unaware his picture was being taken, judging by the warm look in his eyes.
“Huh, I should send him out with the others more often,” she mused.