Chapter Text
Jesse sighs.
Becoming a debuted band was harder than he had previously thought. Their seniors had always made it look deceptively easy when it was, with no exaggeration, the hardest thing he'd ever had to do in his life so far.
Hokuto slumps on the couch next to him, curled up into his side. Yugo and Juri sit on two chairs a few feet away from them, lazily playing cards. Taiga is asleep on Shintaro's shoulder as the youngest rests his head on the wall behind him.
At that moment, the door bursts open with all the urgency of a stampeding army, startling the six to attention. In walks six other people they didn't think they'd see all in the same room again.
Kamenashi Kazuya, Nakamaru Yuichi, and Ueda Tatsuya, together again with Taguchi Junnosuke, Akanishi Jin, and Tanaka Koki. Current and former members of the legendary Johnny's group KAT-TUN, now on an indefinite hiatus.
Or supposed indefinite hiatus.
Juri stands up first. "Aniki!" Koki smiles at his younger brother, ruffling the boy's hair. "'Sup."
"We don't have much time." Kazuya gets straight to the point, albeit with an apologetic tone.
"We need you to take our places."
As the younger group looks on in bewilderment, their seniors pull out six thin bands of varying colors.
Kazuya places in Jesse's hand a band of metallic white-gold, the half-Japanese male taking it, excitement bubbling under the surface even if he's unsure of what exactly is going on.
Tatsuya's, he hands to Hokuto, a beautiful deep amethyst color, which transitions to an almost-black under the cover of shadow.
Junnosuke is grinning as he passes a watch glowing red to Yugo. When the oldest SixTONES member tilts it curiously, the scarlet blends into more citrine tones.
Yuichi's is a true blue, like pure sapphire. He gives this to Shintaro who marvels in the way the color pulsates different shades of blue as he moves it.
From Koki to Juri is a band of dark green, fantastically melding with brown and tan. Koki grabs his younger brother close after the exchange, kissing the top of his head. "Good luck."
Jin transfers a gleaming band of silver iridescence to Taiga. He claps a hand on the youngster's shoulder and gives him a nod, once.
The older group step back toward the door. "We'll leave it to you," Tatsuya says, saluting their juniors with two fingers. And with that, the members of the band formerly known as KAT-TUN are gone nearly as fast as they came, leaving behind six confused young adults and an indecipherable whirlwind of emotions.
As weird as the entrance and exit of their seniors was, their focus instantly turns to the more glaring mystery: the bands in their palms and the vague entreaty given to them.
"How does it-" Jesse starts to ask, as he slips the band on, "-work." He trails off, watching in awe as the band instantaneously accommodates to the size of his wrist. Once the rest of the members have followed his lead, the group blink, and find themselves… where?
The white walls and racks of costumes that line their break room have disappeared, and what surrounds them now is the background of space: a satin black lit up with clusters of flaming hot gas disguised from afar as diamonds of the macrocosm. Before they can even marvel at the fact that they're breathing with their own lungs in space, holograms of light appear directly in front of them, encircling the group.
Soundless scenes from across the ages flash before them, somehow slow enough for them to perceive it. There are countless groups of life forms, all different in every way, save for the differently colored bands on each of their wrists.
They see the six members of KAT-TUN, standing alongside who they can only describe as extra-terrestrial beings, interacting like old, familiar friends.
The scenes fade after that, but they're still in the puzzling situation of standing, unmoved, in deep space; no platforms underneath them, no tethers attached to them. Interrupting the different versions of what the hell prevalent in their minds, is a melody, haunting and initially, wordless. When the words surface, it seems to resound within them as opposed to around them.
Mages of the universe,
angels of hue,
the cosmos supplicates defense,
and leaves the Earth to you.
They understand the message but can't comprehend what it means, nor do they get an explanation because as abruptly as they were whisked away, so they are also returned.
Silence befalls them for an eternal second as they attempt to make sense of what had just happened. The laws of physics and logic that they had thought they knew, are suddenly overturned in the face of a fantasy they can't explain, nor dismiss.
"So... is it safe to assume this whole 'angels of hue' thing is related to these bands?" Shintaro waves his wrist around in the air.
"Pretty much," is Yugo's answer, the oldest squinting suspiciously at his own.
"It also mentioned 'mages of the universe'. Aren't "mages" magicians, of some sort?" Taiga queries slowly.
"I can't think of any other thing it could mean," confirms Hokuto as he runs the pads of his fingers lightly across the smooth surface of the bangle. Abruptly, a purple wash of light bathes Hokuto, and the other five are left in veneration as multiple events unfold at once.
Hokuto's eyes close as the band's light sweeps him up into the air, his body hovering a few inches above the floor, encased in the violet illumination. The rest can only look on in wonder when large feathery wings emerge and envelop their friend, concealing him for a brief moment.
When the light disappears, Hokuto is placed upright at the same time the wings unfold from around him. The wings extending from his back are violet, dark, and royal, yet oddly enough, they aren't even the weirdest things about him.
Hokuto's eyes open to reveal irises of amethyst akin to the color of his band and wings. The same melody from before resonates in their cores, the words that follow echo in their souls. Amethyst, Mage of Density.
Hokuto then snaps out of it, blinking in confusion as he surveys first, the dropped jaws of his team members, then his new appearance, eyes widening ever so slightly in the way they did when he was speechless.
"What in the fuck…" he breathes, gingerly caressing a wing-feather between two fingers. Someone whistles long and low. "How'd you do that, Hokku?"
The male in question looks at them, a look of utter mystification painted all over his face. "Beats the fuck out of me. I-I just… rubbed the bracelet. I guess."
"I wanna try!" Before anyone can bring up a protest, Shintaro has already skimmed across his bracelet and a glow similar to earlier illuminates his figure, though this time it's a dark azure. When the light once again disappears and the wings once again unfold, the youngest member's irises are a blue that matches his wings perfectly. Sapphire, Mage of Liquid.
When he comes to, Shintaro looks down excitedly at his new appearance. "Holy shit. Niiiiiice."
Jesse, unwilling to let Shintaro have all the fun, goes right after him. With a brilliant gold light, and wings and irises of shimmering gold, the second youngest is set back down on the ground and the words Gold, Mage of Light can be heard.
He resurfaces back to his body and upon seeing himself, shares a high-five with Shintaro. "Okay, this is actually pretty fucking cool!"
Juri goes next, stating with a shrug, "We started it already, might as well finish it." The light that wraps around him is a deep veridian, his wings and irises an equally deep forest hue, and the voice fills the spaces in and around them. Emerald, Mage of Earth.
Taiga tries it after, beating Yugo to the punch. A metallic light crackles over him, interspersed with heavy gray clouds, and his wings and irises glint like steel. Silver, Mage of the Weather.
Yugo hesitates for hardly a second before he decides, "Ah, fuck it" and slides a finger over his band. A bright red light encases him; his irises are ruby, his wings scarlet. Garnet, Mage of Adaptation.
With the exception of the wings and eyes, all six are dressed in matching poet shirts and ankle banded pants in a clean ivory; the colors stand out starkly against the gentle off-white.
"So…. now what?" Yugo is half mesmerized, half perplexed, at the situation they find themselves in. "I don't imagine we'd be able to just… walk outside like this."
"Maybe we wouldn't have to," Shintaro muses. "We've got wings, don't we? Couldn't we just fly?"
"Well but how do you propose we get out?" Taiga retorts, arms crossed.
"Uhhh… does anyone remember what the voice said about them? Maybe there's a clue there," Jesse suggests.
"It's worth a shot." Yugo agrees, curling and uncurling a fist. "Adaptation. Probably the ability to adapt to any circumstance, I'd imagine. Which also probably means I can't really figure out what I can do until I'm in a situation that calls for it."
"The voice said Liquid." Shintaro starts. "Does that mean just water? Or all liquid?" He falls silent, thinking, and then he just… melts. Literally. Where Shintaro's body used to be, is a puddle of cerulean liquid more viscous than water.
Jesse crouches down. "Shin- chan ?" He moves a finger closer, but right before he touches it, the liquid jumps onto his finger, twisting itself around his wrist. Yo!
All five look around at the voice, each of them denying being the one who had said it. It's me, Shintaro. On Jesse's arm. They then peer curiously at the glob of liquid on Jesse, who is running his fingers through it, mouth open in awe.
This might work
, is the next thing they hear before the liquid ㅡ Shin ㅡ jumps off of Jesse and the second it touches the floor, transforms back into the youngest SixTONES member. “That was awesome! I could talk to you guys without speaking, like my brain was connected to yours.”
The successful demonstration of Shin’s new abilities imbues the group with more confidence and they begin to relax, each eager to show what they’re capable of. “Light.” Jesse muses. “I wonder what that means exactly.” Fortunately, from a small window near the ceiling, a beam of sunlight streams in, irradiating over the floor. Jesse notices it and walks over, sticking a hand in the stream of golden light. A similar glow begins to outline him, and he closes his eyes. When he opens them, the outline of sunlight has moved to form a solid hammer of light in his left hand.
He then turns to the group, grinning ecstatically. “I think I can take light and form it into anything I think about. Here, feel.” He hands the hammer to his friends, who hold it with reverence, marveling at the fact that they can touch it. The second it’s handed back to him, he closes his hand into a fist and the object disappears with a splash of light.
“Mine’s supposed to be Earth, so I don’t think I’ll be able to try it here.” Juri says, to which Taiga agrees. “Yeah, the voice said I’m a “mage of Weather” so it’d be no use here, either. How about you, Hokku?”
“Density. I wonder if that means that I…” Hokuto’s voice fades as his concentration increases, and he begins to walk toward the wall in front of him. He places his hand on the wall and pushes on it tentatively. A gasp arises from him and his friends when the appendage goes through with ease. He then walks his right leg in before pulling both out instantly, gaping at his arm and leg. “So… I’m assuming I can change the density of my body at will.”
Yugo claps his hands together once. “Okay then. Out of the six of us, only Shin and Hokku can get out through this without being seen. Not to mention, we should all probably try to go up to the roof, so the ceiling will be our best bet.”
“Hold on Kou-chan, let me try something.” Hokuto grabs the oldest boy’s hand. “On the count of three, we’ll both fly up and stop right before the ceiling. Don’t let go of me.” Yugo nods. “Okay.”
“One… two… three.” After a few experimental flaps, both boys lift themselves up to just underneath the ceiling.
Hokuto is frozen in concentration for a brief second before he pushes his head through the ceiling. Slowly, he pulls Yugo through with him, and it works; both boys fly through the ceiling and disappear. A few seconds later, Hokuto comes through again and lands back down onto the floor with a big smile on his face. “I believe my power works on others as long as I’m holding them, so I can bring us each through one by one. I could probably do pairs, but I don't know if doing that will exhaust me too much.”
Once everyone is standing on the roof, another silence settles between them as the six stare out at the scenery that lies beneath. “What next?” Shintaro finally breaks the silence.
“Next, we try and find aniki and the rest of them and ask them exactly what we’re supposed to do,” Juri replies.
“And how do we do that?” Hokuto queries.
“Maybe we just start flying, split up, and see if we can find them somewhere?”
“What do we do if one of us does find them?” Taiga asks, fiddling with a wing-feather.
“Let’s figure that out when it happens. For now, let’s just go find them. It seems like we can talk to each other in our heads, or something anyway.”
The other five have no rebuke to Juri’s logic, so all six ready themselves to take off. Hokuto grabs Shintaro’s hand and Shintaro grabs Jesse’s until they go down the line and all of their hands are linked. “Ready? Let’s go.”
And so in unison, the members of the SixTONES take to the sky.
Their co-joined hands allow them to steady anyone who starts off a little wobbly at first, but once they’re all steady, they relinquish hold of each other.
Shintaro and Jesse whoop excitedly as they weave through the clouds, racing each other. Though the older members are slightly more subdued, they can't keep their excitement much under wraps either. Taiga is zig-zagging erratically, making it a point to touch as many clouds as he can, shivering each time at the delightful chill that seeps into his bones. Juri dips low and soars high, attempting a few spins in the air as he flies. Hokuto and Yugo fly steadily, each lost in their own perspective wonder and amazement.
The feeling of their wings catching on the wind, the cool breeze blowing in their hair, the vast landscape of the city below them, the beautiful baby blue expanse above them; the view from the air is more amazing than they ever could have imagined.
There's a few more moments of bliss, their hearts soaring even higher than their wings. The next moment is when everything changes.
An ear-splitting screech punctures the calm, and all six come to a halt, drawing closer together. "What the hell was that?" Hokuto's got a vice grip on Juri's arm as he asks this. "I don't fucking know," is the reply.
"Ow, fuck." Five of them turn to who had uttered the expletive, finding Taiga clutching his head. "What's wrong, Kyomo?" Yugo draws near to him, laying a hand gently on his back. "Um… there's- it's- the sky… it's… in pain? Something's disrupting its balance."
"Uhhh," the fear in Shintaro's voice is evident by its shaky quality. "would that disruption maybe be… that?"
Everyone draws their heads up to look at what Shintaro is talking about and are instantaneously shot with dread.
There's a giant gaping tear in the atmosphere, through which they can see a glimpse of the inky space. But they can't even focus on that, because hovering just below it are creatures the likes none of them have ever seen.
Monsters with their face and body combined into the same sphere, four tentacle-like appendages sticking out near their opaque blue orbs for eyes, pink-grayish skin stretched unnervingly, and a terrifying opening they presumed was its mouth, that spanned half of its face. Another screech blows past the group standing agape, more direct than the last one, and it provides a feeling that would probably be what it felt like to have your eardrums torn apart.
Worse than that, their screech seems to affect the fabric of reality itself, ripping more holes in the sky. Taiga is hunched over, hands over his ears, wrapping his wings around himself in an attempt to block out the sound that feels like it’s shredding his soul. “ Kyomo! Kyomo, are you okay?” This time it’s Juri at his side, holding onto him to make sure he doesn’t just start to fall out of the sky.
The other four are standing protectively around the pair, though they don’t look any more confident about the predicament they’re in. Unfortunately, they aren’t given much more time to be horrified, because it is at that moment that the creatures spot them. Their creepy, lifeless eyes train on the group of six, their maws open menacingly. They don’t take long to process seeing SixTONES and within a few seconds of them being spotted, the monstrosities advance towards them. They're not that fast, but their ghastly countenances don't alleviate that fact in the slightest.
(Besides, who knew how fast they could get?)
“What the fuck do we do?” Shintaro cries in a panic. Jesse reaches a hand into a stream of light near him, reifying a flaming sword of light in his other hand. “No time, just fight!” Without any more warning, he jumps forward to meet the creatures head on, sword poised to strike. This seems to displease them and they open the orifices on the front of their faces once more, emitting another shriek, this time in unison.
Jesse is blown back by the wind pressure the volume causes, and would have careened into his friends if Shintaro and Hokuto had not caught him. “Don’t, Jesse!” Taiga straightens up, though it takes considerable effort for him to do so. “Assuming your weapon works, you still have to get near them. I’ll- I’ll try.”
There’s an inevitable protest on his friends’ lips but Taiga is already flying out in front of them, hands outstretched, palms facing up. Hail, lend me your strength.
The once clear blue sky turns cloudy, the temperature dropping much lower than it was just a few seconds ago. The dark clouds right above the monsters open up and unleash a hailstorm, pelting the creatures with hailstones the size of an average fist.
That awful screeching sound permeates the air once more, but it’s not as destructive considering it’s made from pain. Jesse takes the distraction Taiga provided as his cue to dash forward, faster than even he thought possible, skewering one of the creatures with the lance he’d created. Unfortunately, he doesn't move out of the way fast enough, so when he pulls the weapon out of the monster, it splatters its innards all over him in the form of green goop.
The "shit!" coming from the second youngest resonates loudly, and he flies clumsily back to his friends. "Fuuuck, this is gross," Jesse whines, shaking off as much of the guts as he can.
He's hit with a splash of cold water that shocks him out of his disgust. Even in this dire moment, Shintaro wears a shit-eating grin at Jesse's perplexed look. "Cleaned the guts off of ya," is the youngest's explanation, a ball of water he had extracted from the nearest cloud hovering in his palm.
Jesse glares at the other boy, but neither of them can get into any sort of argument because the other monsters are braving the hailstorm to turn on them for the murder of their friend.
Taiga turns even paler than he already is when he realizes the monsters are no longer fazed by his hail. He can feel his exhaustion already at having to control quite a barrage when he's barely trying to learn his powers, but he's not about to let his friends get killed on his account.
Lightning, heed me. Please. A fusillade of jagged lightning bolts strike the monsters, instantly killing two of them. That left four to go; four who were even angrier now that they'd been electrocuted.
Thanks to Taiga's efforts, however, they are also weaker.
Jesse's got two katana in hand this time and Shintaro's made two razor-sharp icicles reinforced with his magic, which the pair instantly use to launch their attacks, flying nimbly out of the way of the creature's face tentacles and devastating shrieks.
Yugo's been observing the creatures this whole time, and as he concentrates, he can feel his arms changing, can feel the growth of two new appendages on his sides until he's got four tentacles similar to the monsters'. As he watches the two youngest members doing their best to hold the creatures off, as he sees Juri holding an exhausted Taiga, spots Hokuto standing in front of the pair with a worried look, he can feel rage flow through him. Rage converts to power, and the tentacles on his body lengthen and indurate.
He jumps into the fray to help Shintaro and Jesse, doing his utmost to drill into the monsters, making sure he doesn't get hit by their own appendages. In the trio's preoccupation with the four remaining creatures, one of them slips past their attacks, making a beeline for Hokuto, Juri, and Taiga.
"Kyomo, I have an idea, but I need your help." Hokuto says frantically. He touches two clouds near him, feeling them grow denser and denser until they're basically rock solid. "I'm going to throw these and I need you to blast them forward with a gust of wind as strong as you can manage."
Taiga nods, straightening up once more. "I'll do my best." Juri lays a hand on his friends, his magic not necessarily useful here in the sky. "I don't know if it'll work, but I'll try and give you guys my energy, and at the very least, my encouragement."
Despite the situation, the pair crack a smile at Juri's light-hearted comment. "Thanks Juri," Hokuto then flings the cloud-rocks and Taiga propels them directly into the middle of the thing's face, cutting off its final screech as it blasts two holes through. The trio exhale in relief as their adversary falls out of the sky, able to turn their attention to the other three.
Seeing Jesse, Shintaro, and Yugo hugging as what remains of the monsters hurtles down fills them with a relief so overwhelming, they fly forward to hug their friends, not caring about the space creature innards bespattered all over them.
When the adrenaline has somewhat faded away, or at least their hearts stop pounding so hard, Taiga speaks up from where he leans heavily on Hokuto. "Now who's bright idea was it to fight those things? You realize we could have just… oh, I don't know, run away?"
Jesse's grin is sheepish, and though he doesn't say anything, is a dead giveaway.
"Well in Jesse's defense, it might have been good that we fought those things. I'm pretty sure this is the reason that we've been given these abilities for," Yugo pipes up sensibly, to which Taiga groans. "I know. It doesn't mean I have to like it."
The oldest member wraps an arm around Taiga, and by extension Hokuto, and gives them the famous Yugo Kouchi smile. "You did well, Kyomo. Thank you."
Taiga's response is a quiet "Oh, shut up", but though he turns away, his fair complexion doesn't do much to hide the soft blush blooming.
“Well,” Juri begins, clapping his hands together. “we should keep looking for my brother and the others. I’ve still got lots to ask them.”
“That’s fine, but first, we need to get the alien guts off of us. Again.” Jesse mutters with a grimace.
“Oh, Jesse-kun, I can help you with tha~t.”
"Not with that freezing ass water you don't!"
"