Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was kind of pathetic, really. Seeing the four of them sitting around an empty notebook, all stumped. Tsukasa was trying his best to think of anything other than cool poses, but it was failing. Emu… Emu was thinking about god knows what. Nene was trying her best to come up with an original idea that hadn’t already been taken. And Rui was already brainstorming stage effects. KAITO told the Virtual Singers not to interfere, but they had enough. They wanted to say their ideas!

“Ra-ta-taaaaa! We’ve arrived, with ideas! ☆” Miku stormed backstage, with an army of stuffed animals. And Len, he was there too.

“Mikuuu! Konnichiwandahoi!” Emu sprang up and gave Miku a big hug, before bouncing around to Len, and then the stuffed animals. Nene got up next, surprisingly, and greeted Miku. Len ran over to Rui, wrapping his arms around him, finally convincing him to get up. Tsukasa was too lost in thought to notice the sudden invasion on their session. However, Miku quickly reminded him of her presence.

“TSUKAAAASSAAAAA! Hey! We’re here to help!” Miku practically flew over to Tsukasa, grabbing him by his hand and forcing him up. MEIKO came over, giggling, followed by a half-asleep Luka.

“Miku! What a… pleasant surprise! We were just brainstorming ideas for our Halloween show!” Tsukasa said with a smile.

“However, we aren’t exactly at our most creative right now…” Rui chimed in.

“…I tried my best. However, it seemed like every idea I thought of was already done…” Nene said, picking up the empty notebook.

“Don’t think too much about it. We’re WonderlandsxShowtime, we can think of SOMETHING!” Tsukasa proudly exclaimed, despite his empty mind. He really hoped Emu had some kind of extravagant idea to get Rui excited, because he definitely didn’t have anything.

“Awww.. I’m sorry! But I know you can think of something!! I know!” MEIKO said, pumping her arms in confidence. A drowsy Luka joined in behind her.

“Oooh… Miku… what about that thing KAITO mentioned?…” Luka said.

“Hmm? What thingamajig? KAITO didn’t tell me anything!” Miku stomped her foot, as if to protest her lack of knowledge on this so called “thing”.

“I know! It’s that thing that appeared in SEKAI. KAITO seemed awfully mad, though… I don’t think we should use it..” Len said, holding one of the stuffed animals.

“WHAT THING ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?!” Tsukasa yelled, fed up with this talk of a thing.

“The thing! It kinda looks like an orb… but like… weird!” MEIKO said, using her hands to describe the shape. She was failing, quite miserably.

“Where’s KAITO? If he found it, he should know about it.” Rui said, picking up a stuffed animal that was begging to be held.

“He’s busy helping Rin! Besides, I wanna know about it!!” Miku said, running off to get it.

“…Fine. I guess we’re gonna have a look. Rui, go get Emu, please? She’ll wanna see this.” Tsukasa said, sitting on a box of stage props. Rui nodded, and went to get Emu. Nene chuckled, as the stuffed animal moved from his hands onto his head. Rui didn’t care though, his hair was already bad.

—

“…This is it? It’s kinda…” Nene said, carefully observing this strange orb that Miku had brought.

“Not…wonderhoy?” Emu responded, moving her eyes around the bland orb. Tsukasa kept swatting her hand away from touching it.

“How fascinating… how did it get here? Why is it here? What does it do? I’ve got so many questions!” Rui went off on his curiously ramble, but everyone was getting good at ignoring him. Tsukasa stood up and looked closer at it. He hesitated, before resting his hand on the engraved Kanji.

“One’s Desire Can Be His Downfall”

When he touched it, the orb seemed to erupt with light, illuminating the dimly light room they were in. It painted the ceiling with stars, suns, moons… it was fantastical. Everyone was in awe of the sudden display the orb put on.

“Testing… testing… hello? Members of the Wonderland SEKAI, I hope?” A voice said from the orb. Everyone remained silent, before Tsukasa eventually responded with a meek “yes.”

“Wwwwwonderful! Now, I’m SURE you all have questions, and I don’t want to introduce myself, so let’s get right on into the fun stuff! What is it you wish for?” The voice eagerly said. It seemed boyish, but Nene and Rui picked up on voices talking in the background. It seemed to be a communication device, of sorts. Rui was trying his hardest to contain his desire to take it home with him.

“Wish for? What are you talking about?” Tsukasa asked, scratching his head.

“Are you like, one of those wish granting guys in a lamp?” Emu tapped the orb. It didn’t look like a lamp to her.

“No no no! We are…” The voice paused, before replaced by a softer voice with a.. unique accent.

“We’re.. uh.. f-friends! We know KAITO.” Tsukasa could have sworn he heard a “good job!” After the voice spoke, but he brushed it aside.

“Friends of KAITO’s, I see… how come he’s never mentioned you?” Rui lowered his head down to the orb, making sure they heard him.

“He doesn’t like us.” The voice switched again! It was an angrier voice, but it seemed.. kinda girly, in a way. Nene knew she recognized all the voices except for the one with the odd accent.

“Doesn’t like you? Honestly, I don’t blame him, considering we’ve never met before and you’re acting like we’ve been friends for years!” Rui was enjoying messing with the voices, but was quickly punished when Nene slapped the back of his head.

“Hey! You watch your mouth, boy!” The first voice came back, just as sassy as ever, but was quickly replaced by a calmer one.

“Everyone, calm down. We’re simply here to help. We don’t have to be friends, but we know you’re having problems with something. That’s why we’re here.” The calmer voice said.

“And you want to help us?” Tsukasa said, suddenly seeming more interested.

“Yes. We just want to help. Then, we’ll leave.” The calmer voice explained. Everyone seemed to be slowly getting on board.

“…Ok, you’ve got us. How are you gonna help?” Tsukasa looked around, and saw his troupe nodding.

They were in it now.

“Well… we thought you were having issues brainstorming ideas for a show so… so we… uh, wanted to help give you ideas!” The shy voice returned once more. Nene liked this one.

“By granting a wish?” Emu asked, furrowing her brow in confusion.

“Tell us what you want the show to be, and then we’ll grant a wish to give you ideas. It’s not that hard.” The first voice came back, but was quickly replaced with the calm one. “So, just tell us what you want to have for your wish, and we’ll grant it.”

Tsukasa exchanged glances with his friends. Emu, Rui, and Nene nodded. They came to a silent conclusion.

“We want to make our Halloween Show the best it can possibly be…” Tsukasa stopped, took a breath, and finished his wish.

“No. Matter. What.” The four of them said in unison.

The orb glowed red, then purple, then teal, and ended on a soft blue, before igniting the room in a harsh white.

The wish was granted.

The contract was signed.

The spell had been cast.

“Expect results tomorrow, and a pleasure doing business with you.” The calmer voice said.

A shiver went down the spine of the kids, as they all exchanged glances.

It was about to get real.

Chapter Text

Tsukasa was enjoying his bed, his warm bed, his sweet, sweet bed that smelled like his favorite laundry detergent… the feeling of the air conditioning breezing over his face… it was amazing. What wasn’t amazing was the fact he made a deal with what could have possibly been the devil all for the sake of a show. Tsukasa shot upwards after remembering that. God, he wished he could forget that. Having to rely on third parties to get ideas for a show was not what a star like him would do. His floor creaked as he got up, slowly marching over to his window. When he opened the blinds, it was unlike anything else he’d ever felt before.

The sun… why was it so bright?

Tsukasa quickly shut his blinds, and his eyes, as he recoiled from the sudden blast of light. This was when he noticed the sudden burning sensation on his skin. It felt like a sunburn, but worse. He ignored it, and went into his restroom to make sure he looked fabulous for his morning feast (breakfast) with his amazing family. He grabbed his comb and carefully arranged his hair to make it look like he did not just lose a fight to the sun. After striking a few of his favorite poses for confidence, he crept downstairs where his family was waiting for him.

“Aaaah… morning, dear family of mine!” Tsukasa strolled into his kitchen, where Saki was enjoying some fresh fruit, and his mom was making breakfast. His dad was being a dad.

“Morning, Tsukas- TSUKASA! WHY ARE YOU SO PALE!” His mother dropped her cooking materials and ran over to him. She ran her hand over his forehead. He felt ice cold.

“Tsukasa! You look like a dead body!” Saki sprang up, and joined his mother in bombarding Tsukasa with concern. He was trying to fight his way out of their hold, when his father finally chimed in:

“He’s probably fine. He’s been fine before! Besides, do you feel bad, Tsukasa?”

“N-no! I feel great!” Tsukasa held a shy thumbs up from behind his sister and his mom.

“…Fine… but I’ll be keeping a close eye on you, mister!” His mom said, giving him one of those cringe mom smiles.

“Okay… okay… can I eat? A star like me requires food!” Tsukasa had to act like himself if he wanted any chance of getting out of this without his mom losing her mind. Saki too. His family giggled, as Tsukasa sat down. His mom prepared his usual breakfast, as Saki took her usual seat next to him. His mom turned the TV on as they watched the news. Tsukasa took a bite of his cereal, and instead of being met with sugary bliss, he was met with the urge to vomit. He dry heaved, causing his mom to immediately look back at him. He smiled, and ate the rest of his breakfast in silence, suppressing his urge to throw up. He cleaned his bowl out, and ran upstairs. His mom watched him all the way, with a concerned look.

Tsukasa tried to deny himself as much as he could. He never believed in it, but he certainly knew about it. Pale, cold to the touch, incapable of eating normal food… and can’t forget that moment with the sun. Tsukasa stood, hunched over his toilet bowl. He ran through all the signs of vampirism in his head. All that was next for him was wanting blood, and the fangs. He quickly ran his tongue over his teeth. Normal human teeth… for now. He continued to have feelings of nausea, and dry heaving over his toilet, before Saki interrupted him.

“Tsukasa? Are you okay?” Saki knew where he was, but decided it was best to let him come out on his own. Tsukasa’s breath shook as he stood up, and walked out of the restroom. He poked his head around the corner of his doorway, making eye contact with Saki.

“I can run to the store… get you some medicine if you need it..” Saki sat down on his bed, facing away from him. He walked out of the bathroom, and sat down on the opposite side of the bed from Saki.

“I’m fine… thanks for the offer, though! You’re going to meet with the girls today, right?” Tsukasa tried to change the subject to something Saki enjoyed.

“You’re my top priority right now, Tsukasa. I can cancel if you’re not feeling good. Ichi and the others will understand!” Saki spun around to face Tsukasa, as he turned around too.

Tsukasa suddenly lost track of everything she was saying. All he noticed was…

Saki’s neck was exposed. Perfectly open for him. All he had to do was hug her, and then he could…

Tsukasa quickly ran into the restroom and slammed the door behind him. Saki stood up in shock. Was it something she said? She was just talking about how Tsukasa had always helped her, so she wanted to help him.. then again, he did have a problem with facing his emotions. She simply told Tsukasa through the door that she’d be here if he needed her. Their parents had left, so it was just the Tenma siblings. Saki reluctantly left her brother, and went downstairs. Although, she couldn’t shake the way he stared at her… that wasn’t him. It seemed so… so…

Strange.

—

Tsukasa was busy in the bathroom, curled up in his shower. He didn’t want to face the truth.
He was fine.
There was nothing wrong with him.
The orb yesterday was entirely normal.
He was fine.
He was fine.
He was…
He…

Tsukasa’s curiosity got the better of him. He stood in front of his mirror. They weren’t lying when they said he looked like a dead body. His dull eyes, pale skin. He pressed him fingers to his cheek, and felt only the cold of winter. He took a deep breath, and brought his finger up to the corner of his mouth.

He slowly drew back his cheek, to reveal the inside of his mouth.

And he was greeted by two large fangs.

Tsukasa ran his finger over them in denial.
He quickly smacked his face, trying to wake up.
But this was real.
He stood over his mirror, his bangs dripping with sweat. He quickly ran out of the bathroom, lazily put on a hoodie, and ran outside. Saki wanted to speak to him… but decided it was best she didn’t.

Tsukasa wandered around, trying to get through the lunch buzz. He looked down an ally, and saw.. Rui? He looked down on his friend, who was curled up in a little ball. Tsukasa opened his mouth to speak his name, but before anything came out, Rui was looking at him. The two made awkward eye contact, before Rui stood up, and walked away. Tsukasa stood there on his own, before sitting down on a box near where Rui was sitting. He checked his phone, and saw several texts from Emu. He didn’t feel like checking them, and instead looked over at a bird sitting on a dumpster near him.

Dumb little pigeon.

However, the bird seemed used to Tsukasa. They surprisingly made longer eye contact then he did with Rui. Tsukasa closed his eyes, and when they opened, he was standing over the corpse of the bird. It had two wounds on it’s neck, perfectly matching his fangs. The taste of blood ran through his mouth. And he liked it.

Tsukasa sat back down in a corner of the ally, and cupped his head in his hands. He finally realized what was going on.

The Halloween Show was becoming real. They were becoming the stars of their Halloween show.

Tsukasa suddenly checked his texts with Emu.

“Tsukasa! I think our wish worked! I can do super cool magic things now!” Emu texted.

Tsukasa realized what he had done.

He had turned himself and his friends into monsters.

Chapter Text

Emu woke up with her traditional manner, bounding awake and then into the kitchen, greeted by her joyful breakfast of Strawberry Milkshake Poptarts and Fruit Punch. She was happily eating, when her dad walked into the kitchen. He grunted a good morning, while Emu was busy shoving the leftover sprinkles in her mouth. She was her usual pink blur, as she ran back into her room and grabbed her favorite notebook. She had written down all her show ideas, and was trying to think of as many as she could. Maybe Tsukasa and Rui would be impressed… she ran through all the possibilities in her mind. She always remembers what Tsukasa told her:

“Emu, the only restrictions for our shows is your imagination! And we’re also humans… who have a budget… so try not to be overly… crazy and wild, but do be creative!”

Emu kept reciting that mantra in her head as she came up with her ideas.

One hour passed, and she had none. She huffed in writer’s block, as she sat up. She wished her stuffed toys were alive, they’d help her. She reached for one, and to her surprise,

It flew right into her hands.

Emu stood, mouth open, at her sudden discovery. She reached for another toy, and it flew into her hands again.

“That’s so super-duper-mega-WONDERHOI!” Emu said to herself. She continued experimenting with her new abilities. She tried snapping her fingers, but she quickly found out she couldn’t snap. So, she tried a different way. She held out her index finger, focused… focused…

A small flame ignited at the end.

Emu quickly blew it out, but she was spinning around with her toys in joy. She could cast magic! Imagine, all the smiles she could bring with this new ability. Magic shows with ACTUAL magic! Bringing a child’s toy to life so they’re never alone. She can help Rui, so he doesn’t do all the heavy lifting on his own. She can help Tsukasa actually fly! She could help Nene become the best singer in the whole entire world! Emu didn’t stop to consider for a second where these powers came from, instead she immediately grabbed her phone and texted her fellow group members.

“Nene! You’ll never guess what happened to me this morning! ☆ :)” Emu texted Nene first, as Nene usually always responded.

“Glad to see someone’s happy.” Nene texted back almost instantly, in her usual monotone style.

“Are you not happy, Nene? What’s wrong?”

“At least you’re happy with what you got.”

“Got what? What are you talking about?”

“The orb, Emu. The wish. Something is happening to us.”

It hit Emu like a truck. She suddenly realized it all. The Halloween Show wish they made! That must be where it came from!

“But… why are you not happy with yours? Is it not wonderhoytastical?” Emu asked.

“It’s not, Emu. Maybe when I was a kid, I would have liked it… but.. I don’t.” Nene responded.

“Are Tsukasa and Rui having problems too? Have you talked to them?”

“Tsukasa, no. I didn’t ask. And Rui…”

Nene paused.

“I highly recommend not texting him right now.” Nene finished her sentence. She was clearly struggling with what she was trying to say.

Emu was going to text back, but she got the urge… a sudden, uncontrollable urge…

“I wasn’t going to text him anyway. He can suck it up.” Emu responded to Nene.

It took Emu a minute to realize what she sent.

She… she said that! She said that to Nene! About her friend!

“Emu? What’s wrong? Do I need to come over?” Nene asked, in a panic. She only knew how she and Rui were affected, but she could only imagine what this wish was doing to a poor soul like Emu.

Emu was panicking. She wanted Nene to come over, but she also was scared of what she’d do. She could do almost anything to Nene, and she didn’t want to hurt her.

“No… I got this! I’m Emu Otori, after all! :)” Emu texted, pouring all her confidence into one text.
She threw her phone away, and backed into the corner of her room.

She had so many desires to be mean… why? This wasn’t her… this wasn’t Emu!

This isn’t me!

Emu started crying, before wiping her tears off. She stood up, put one of her outfits on, and stood outside her doorway.

She was assigned a role, and she was going to do it to the best of her ability.

No more Nice Emu.

Chapter Text

Nene woke up in her usual manner.

Her alarm going off, her lazily slapping it, and then waking up to play video games. She had Tsukasa and Rui as friends, however she never played with them. She joined a voice chat with a kid who was online, for some reason.

“Hey, kid. How’s your morning so far.” Nene tried to sound friendly, hoping it would boost her chances of winning.

“I’unno, Mom yelled at me.” The kid seemed snotty, bratty, and overall crappy but Nene pushed it aside.

The two fought together in silence, only communicating via grunts to signal when they needed help. It worked, somehow. The two made a pretty good duo, until Nene got knocked out. Then he started failing. He then logged off, and Nene moved to another chat, this time getting paired up with… TOYA?

“T-Toya?” Nene said, flabbergasted. She read his username… yep, that’s Toya alright. AoDogi, probably from his group BAD DOGS. Nene never felt like asking.

“Nene, what a pleasant surprise. You play this game too?” Toya said, calm as ever. Nene always thought that was cool about him.

“Yeah. I usually play it in the mornings. Ready to win?”

“Always.”

Toya and Nene focused, seemingly thinking as one mind. The two were unstoppable, and it got down to the final three, to Nene’s surprise. She started humming a song to herself, from a musical she liked.

To her surprise, Toya started singing it too.

“…Oh, you know “The Ghost of the Theatre” too?” Nene giggled. Toya didn’t seem like that type.

“…”

“Toya? Are you ok?”

“…”

“TOYA! Answer me!”

“I’m fine.”

Nene was panicking. This was not like Toya. Yeah, he was a quiet guy, but he never suddenly went quiet like that.

Toya continued humming the song Nene was singing. She was freaked out, but maybe… this was just a secret side of him, a side she never knew?

“Let’s just… continue playing as normal, okay?” Nene said, trying to hide her concern for her friend.

“Of course.” Toya said robotically.

Nene’s would never let her nerves show, but she was concerned. Did the song trigger some bad memories for Toya? Why was he suddenly so… weird?

They won the match easily. Even after the victory screen played, Toya remained silent.

“…”

“Toya… I’ll be going now..” Nene took her headset off, and disconnected. She couldn’t shake the way Toya seemed so robotic and trance-like. She checked the time on her phone. Almost time for lunch. She ignored the texts from Rui.

But one caught her eye.

“Nene. Are you ok.”

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“Just checking on you.”

“Did something happen?”

“…”

Great. Now Rui went quiet. Nene suddenly got an idea, and quickly ran into the bathroom. If her crazy hunch turned out to be true, thing were about to get crazy.

She turned on the faucet, and watched the water run. She closed her eyes, and ran her hand underneath it. It felt normal. She felt normal. Maybe it was all one big-

Nene regretted opening her eyes.

Her hand was covered in shiny, green scales. Granted, they were scattered around her hand, but they shouldn’t be there. And that’s when Nene put two and two together.

The Halloween Show wish made her a siren.

Nene stood over the sink, a mixture of disbelief and shock, when she heard her phone buzz.

A text from Emu.

At least she seemed happy with whatever she got.

She spoke to Emu for a bit.

However, Emu’s sudden response caught her off guard. Emu never spoke like that. Why now, all of a sudden? Nene decided she needed to get out.

“Mom, I’m gonna head out for lunch. I’m craving some grapefruit soda.” Nene said, putting her shoes on. Before her mom could argue, Nene was out the door.

She needed to check something.

While Nene was walking through the streets, she was humming songs to herself. That being the song she hummed for Toya earlier, and other songs. During this time, an entire group of guys was following behind her. They all seemed exactly like Toya. Robotic, in a trance, and who knows what else. She tried breaking them from the trance, but nothing seemed to work. She also noticed that only guys seemed to be affected.

She suddenly noticed that whenever she seemed to hit a bad note, the guys seemed to become normal.

Only for a second, though.

Nene continued singing horribly. It felt terrible, but it worked. The guys lazily dispersed, and Nene found out how to break the curse she set on them. However, this was a problem.

Whenever she got wet, it could expose her identity.

And whenever she sang, she put all the guys under a spell.

Nene was not enjoying life as a siren, so she set out to fine Tsukasa.

Chapter Text

Rui woke up the next morning feeling like he only got three minutes of sleep.

His alarm was so loud. It almost gave him a headache.

He lazily slapped at it, and rolled out of bed. His morning routine consisted of grabbing a toaster waffle and eating it in his garage, surrounded by his favorite things: his robots, his tools, and his ideas.

Waffle in his mouth, he opened the door to his garage and stepped inside. He usually kept it dimly lit, as it had windows for natural light. He set his waffle on his designated waffle plate on his desk, and sat down, tapping his pen against his blueprints. Yeah, Rui had no idea what the show was going to be, but he knew what stage effects he wanted to do. Eventually, at least. Once he finished his mock-up design, he went to design a small scale model of it. When he reached over for his screwdriver, he suddenly felt a burning sensation on his hand. He immediately brought his hand away from the tip of the tool, but that was strange. Last night was cool, so it shouldn’t be too hot. And it had never given him problems before. It was a special screwdriver Mizuki gave him for his 16th birthday, with a customized purple handle made by them. They bought a generic silver screwdriver, but gave it a little bit of personality. Both theirs, and Rui’s. He cherished it. It was his favorite tool, right next to his nearly unbreakable wrench he bought one day.

Whatever. He’d be fine.

He went to reach for it once more, and was met by the exact same burning sensation. This time, he tried to hold it, but a rash quickly developed on the palm of his hand, from where he gripped it. He went around his workshop, quickly picking up all his tools. His generic ones didn’t hurt him, only the ones made from silver.

“Wha…” Rui sat back down at his desk, staring at the screwdriver. The rash had faded, but.. that was an interesting experience. He grabbed his plate, and went back to his room. He had some parts he needed to pick up, so he figured that’d be a nice distraction. Once he got his usual multicolored hoodie on, he put his plate in the sink, and set out.

It was just like every other Saturday afternoon in Shibuya.

Except, was it always this loud? Rui looked around, as if he could hear everyone. The kid crying across the street, the old lady coming out of the store, and the business men gathered around a table over some coffee. The coffee smelled decent, too.

Except for the fact it was about ten feet away.

Rui brushed it aside and walked into the appliance store. Everyone knows him there.

“Rui! How’s it going?” The manager shouted from across the store. Rui slightly winced at the sudden noise, but didn’t pay attention to it long.

“You know, the usual. My order should be here, yeah?” Rui said, walked up to the counter.

“I’ll go check. Wait here for a second.” The manager responded, walking into the back of the store. Rui hopped on his phone to distract himself from the noises outside. God, why was everyone so loud?

The bustle of people outside, the extremely loud barking of dogs… Rui did not like it when dogs barked. Too loud.

He bit his lip in boredom, but was surprised when he was met with a sudden sharp pain and the taste of blood. He drew his finger to the spot, and saw he had punctured a small hole in his lip. It wasn’t that big, so it stopped bleeding quickly, but goodness, this was a weird morning. He moved his tongue over the surface of his teeth, and his eyes widened when he found they had all grown sharper, especially his canines.

“Here you go, Mr. Kam-“

“I’ll be back tomorrow. I don’t feel well.”

Rui stormed out of the store, cutting of the manager. He put his hood up, and quickly dashed into a quiet ally. It didn’t help, but it was secluded, in a way. Definitely quieter. He put his head down, trying his best to ignore all the noises outside. He knew his situation, and just like Tsukasa, didn’t want to accept it. Enhanced hearing, sense of smell, sharper teeth, and the inability to touch silver. Exactly like a book he read, “The Legend of the Wolfman”.

Rui knew where it came from, too. And he was beating himself up about it. Why did he agree to it? Was everyone else okay?

Rui’s silent brooding was interrupted by a ringing in his ears. He drew his hood back, to see his regular ears had been replaced by two fluffy ones, sitting proudly on top of his head. These were sensitive, too. Picking up every little word anyone said. Rui immediately put his hood back on, and when he looked over to the exit of the ally, was greeted by Tsukasa. Dang, he looked terrible. Pale, sunken eyes, and he was covered in six different hoodies. Tsukasa opened his mouth to say something, but Rui subconsciously ran away. Tsukasa stood and watched as Rui faded away from his sight.

When Rui found a different ally, he immediately took out his phone, and texted Nene.

Good, she seemed ok.

And of course, of all people, Rui gets screwed over the most. Why did it have to be dogs, of all things? Flashing back to Tsukasa, Rui got a sudden jab of jealousy. At least Tsukasa didn’t look like a catboy.

Rui huffed, and slid down the wall of the ally.

This was going to be a long month, for all of them.

Chapter Text

Tsukasa, Nene, and Rui all sat in a circle in an alley. They sat in silence. Awkward glances were exchanged every few moments, before eye contact was immediately broken.

Tsukasa was rocking three hoodies and a mask, Nene looked fairly normal, and Rui just had his hood up.

They all had things to say, but didn’t know how to say it.

Fortunately for them, Nene broke the silence.

“…Can’t you two… take your hoods off, or something?” Nene said, trying her best to get the normally talkative boys to actually converse. Sometimes they even thought Tsukasa was downright dead, considering he never moved nor spoke.

“It’s complicated.” Tsukasa said, looking down.

“I just downright don’t want to.” Rui was always brutally honest.

“Okay, that’s great. Now, I’m sure we’re all awkward because weird shit has happened to us?” Nene said, trying to grab their attention. Rui immediately paid attention, and Tsukasa made eye contact. They both knew that Nene cussing means this was about to get serious.

“Well… that’s kind of an understatement.” Tsukasa shyly chuckled from behind his mask.

“Why don’t you begin, Tsukasa, because this is all your fault anyway.” Rui sat up, moving his eyes over to Tsukasa.

“My fault?! You agreed to it!”

“Yes, but didn’t you touch the orb in the first place? You got us into this ordeal. I simply agreed because you seemed like you wanted it.”

“We both know that’s a lie, Rui.”

“Then prove me wrong, Tsukasa.”

The boys moved closer to each other. The air was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

“GUYS! Stop arguing, and just listen to me! We wanted Halloween show ideas, correct? They gave us ideas, just not in the way we were expecting. Clearly, it had some more… real effects on us.” Nene said, standing up. The boys once again focused on her, and sat down.

“We need to be open about our situations. If we aren’t, we’ll begin to lose trust in each other, and things can get bad. We need to promise to be open about our situations, even if it’s uncomfortable.” Nene sat down. She glared at the boys, before Tsukasa drew his mask down, revealing the role he was assigned.

“Pretty sure I’m a vampire. I’ve got the fangs, the bloodlust, I can’t eat human food, and the sun allergy.” Tsukasa quickly drew his mask back up. He was obviously uncomfortable.

“…I’ll just show you.” Rui drew his hood back, and Nene and Tsukasa tried to hold in their laughter as he revealed his fluffy ears to the others. He also revealed he had a tail to match it. Tsukasa was glad he had a mask on when Rui gave him the death stare.

“Okay… okay… anyway, siren for me. I can enchant boys and basically mind control them. Also, scales come out under water.” Nene said, grabbing a nearby water bottle. She poured it over her hand, to reveal her shiny green scales.

“Okay, vampire, werewolf, mermaid. Any news on Emu?” Tsukasa asked.

“Not sure. I was texting with her, then she… she stopped acting like Emu.” Nene responded, lowering her head.

“How so? I mean, how did Emu stop being… Emu?” Rui questioned.

“She seemed… meaner. Like, she wasn’t as sweet anymore.” Nene said with her head down. Rui patted her on the back, before Tsukasa stood up suddenly.

“Every story has a villain! Emu HAS to be this story’s villain! And we’re the ragtag bunch of heroes who have to stop her! There’s our Halloween show, it’s genius!” Tsukasa returned to striking his usual poses, but immediately toned it down when his hood almost fell off. Rui and Nene giggled, while Tsukasa stomped his feet in anger.

“It’s unique, but I could certainly live without the…” Rui’s ears twitched. “More realistic elements.”

“Agreed. But, do we know of any way to get rid of it? I don’t want to live with a cursed voice forever.” Nene said, drawing her hand to her chest.

“Maybe if we do the show, then we’ll be human again?” Tsukasa said, scratching his head.

“It can’t be that easy. We could just do it back here, if we felt like it. Surely we have to do it in front of an audience.” Rui said.

“Good point. But, how are we going to get Emu involved? She’s a big part of it.” Tsukasa asked, sitting back down.

The three sighed in unison, but their sulking was interrupted when Miku suddenly burst from Tsukasa’s phone, causing him to fall backwards.

“GUYS! GUYS! GUUUUYYYYS!” Miku shouted, obviously in a panic. Rui flinched from the sudden increase in noise.

“M-Miku! What’s wrong?!” Tsukasa got back up, his eyes meeting Miku’s.

“The SEKAI… it’s all spooky now! And not in a wonderhoy way… in a scary way!” Miku threw her arms up in distress, as Rui and Nene got down to speak to her, both of them making sure their strange attributes were hidden.

“What happened in the SEKAI? Is everyone alright?” Nene asked.

“Yeah, everyone’s OK… but KAITO’s really really really really REEEAAALLLY mad at me! He stomped over to me all like, BOOM BOOM! And then yelled at me for showing you the orb…” Miku said, clearly holding back tears. “I’m really sorry… I know something has happened to you all, because Emu seemed… not very Emu. And you three also seem different!”

“Miku, don’t panic. We’re going to fix this. Soon, everything will be alright.” Rui reassured her. Heck, even Tsukasa started feeling better when Rui spoke like that.

“Yeah… (sniff) okay.. just come over quickly! KAITO said he wanted to make sure you all were okay.” Miku said, waving her arms in urgency.

“We’ll be over soon, we promise. Keep everyone calm, and make sure you don’t panic.” Tsukasa’s voice got serious, all of a sudden. Miku made a hugging motion, and vanished from Tsukasa’s phone. The three sighed.

“Let’s not play the blame game. Right now, we’ve got to fix something.” Rui said, holding his hand out for Tsukasa. He pulled him up, and the three all gave each other little pump up glances.

They had all thrown themselves into an elaborate play.

Thankfully, they were good actors.

Chapter Text

When Tsukasa and the others showed up in their SEKAI… a crappy haunted house isn’t what they were expecting.

“Tsukasa! There you are!” Len shouted, running up to Tsukasa. He was followed by several plushies.

“Len, are you okay? Is everyone else okay? Where’s KAITO?” Tsukasa said, trying to calm down a panicked Len.

“I’m fine, everyone’s fine. KAITO’s in the show tent, however…” Len’s voice trailed off, and he and the plushies exchanged concerned looks.

“However… what?” Rui asked.

“He’s really mad. He said he needed to see you all.” Len responded, kicking a rock around with his boot.

Tsukasa sighed, as the four of them walked over to the tent. They found KAITO calming down some plushies, frightened by the sudden change of scenery. When his eyes met Tsukasa’s, Tsukasa wanted to go dig a hole and hide in it. Forever. KAITO stood up, and slowly walked over to the group. Everyone gulped. Their beloved troupe leader had never been so… menacing before.

“…Before we begin, I’m not mad. You all can rest easy now.” KAITO gave Tsukasa a reassuring head pat, while Rui looked jealous. He wanted head pats. “However, you three all have a lot of explaining to do.”

KAITO led the three of them to a room backstage, usually used for costume changes. He locked the door, making sure it was just Tsukasa, Nene, Rui, and KAITO. Tsukasa sat in front of a mirror, Rui sat on the floor, Nene leaned against a wall, and KAITO just stood in front of them all.

“So. Tell me everything that went down after you used that orb.” KAITO said, crossing his arms. He prepared himself for the storyteller that was Tsukasa Tenma.

Nene went first, explaining her bizarre morning, then Rui, then Tsukasa. KAITO nodded along with every story, before closing his eyes and thinking for a minute. Everyone’s eyes were fixated on him.

“Well, I’m sure as you expected, this “wish” you made as affected more than you expected. Not only has the SEKAI been cursed, you three have been as well. But what I’m the most concerned about is Emu. Is she okay? Nobody has been able to reach her.” KAITO sighed.

Rui took the liberty of explaining Emu’s situation. Once again, KAITO simply nodded along.

“That is unfortunate. We must act fast if you have any desire to return to your normal lives. But first, I should explain a little something about that orb you used.” KAITO said, pulling out the orb. “This is a Negai no Namida, also known as a Wishing Tear. These are special devices only useable in SEKAI. I don’t know their origin, they’ve just… always been there.” Kaito sighed. Tsukasa furrowed his brow as he inspected the strange device closer.

“And those voices you heard were exiled Virtual Singers.” KAITO casually said. Everyone immediately looked at him.

“Exiled Virtual Singers?” Nene questioned, her voice clearly confused.

“So, they used to be Virtual Singers. They had access to different SEKAIs and had the ability to look after the inhabitants. However, those four often took advantage of this privilege, and instead of helping the kids, they just wandered about the SEKAI. So, we decided to exile them to a very unique SEKAI, which I will not be explaining.” KAITO uncrossed his arms, laying his eyes on the kids. They all shared the same look of shock and confusion.

“They’ve been using Wishing Tears to access SEKAIs, and ruin them, as well as the lives of the owners.” KAITO explained, his voice heavy. Clearly, this was a topic he didn’t want to bring up. “There’s also the possibility you may be stuck like this.”

“EXCUSE ME?!” Tsukasa yelled, slamming his hands down on the table in front of him. “I did NOT sign up for this for the rest of my life! I still have to go to school, get a job, start a family… I’M ALLERGIC TO THE FLIPPING SUN!”

“I understand it’s a lot to process, but it’s the harsh reality. However, I trust you’ll be working to fix this?” KAITO raised an eyebrow, looking at all the kids. They all shyly nodded. “…I’ll be outside, if you need me.”

KAITO got up, and left the kids alone. Tsukasa sat back down, his face in his hands. Rui tried to seem unaffected, but Nene noticed his ears were droopy. Nene was also disturbed. I mean, who wouldn’t be?

Tsukasa was just looking in the mirror. He hated the way he looked. His pale skin, his dull eyes, and of course, the fangs. Whenever he bared his teeth, they were there, taunting him. Rui was also trying to accept his reality, too. He also didn’t want to look like he just came from a cosplay convention for the rest of his life. But Nene… Nene was not taking this news easily. Never being able to sing… for the rest of her life? And, if she wanted to sing, she’d have to mess up her performance with some sour notes to make sure she broke the spell. Nene started tearing up. Tsukasa was having problems. So, Rui decided it was his turn to break their silence.

“My parents are off on a business trip, so I’ve got the house to myself. Want to.. come over? I can order a pizza..” Rui said, awkwardly.

“Yeah… that’d help. I don’t think my parents would mind.” Tsukasa said, turning to face Rui.

“My Mom adores you, Rui, so I’m sure she’d love to see me going over. Yeah, I’m down.” Nene said, wiping her face. Rui smiled, and Tsukasa also cracked a small smile when he noticed Rui’s tail wagging a little. Tsukasa liked new Rui.

“Ooh, by the way, Tsukasa. I have someone who can help with you being so…” Rui looked Tsukasa up and down, before finishing his sentence. “Dead.” Tsukasa laughed, and the three said goodbye to KAITO, before going to their houses. About an hour later, they met at Rui’s house.

“Ah, there you are. Come on in, I just finished cleaning!” Rui said, stepping out of the doorway. Nene and Tsukasa strolled inside. Tsukasa was surprised by how clean the house was! Nothing was out of it’s place, everything was seemingly spotless, and even Rui seemed like he put effort into his appearance. Granted, it’s not easy to do your hair when you’ve got ears on your head, but he never cared about his hair anyway. Rui shut the door behind them, before calling a their favorite pizza place. Nene led Tsukasa up to Rui’s room, where they waited for him to get off the phone.

“Goodness… his room is so neat.” Tsukasa said, wandering around his room. What caught his eye, was the picture of a young Rui holding up a trophy.

“Heh, I remember this. It’s when he won a competition in elementary school. I forgot what, but he was so excited.” Nene giggled, picking up the photo.

“He looks so young! Hard to believe that’s what he looked like.” Tsukasa said, also giggling.

“Yeah, but looks can be deceiving. He was still really tall, even though he was only 6!” Nene put the photo down, and started laughing. Tsukasa began laughing too. For a second, they forgot all about their problems, before they were interrupted by Rui’s door slamming open, and a blur of pink zooming into the room. They both got their hopes up, but that was immediately replaced by confusion when the blur revealed itself to be none other than Mizuki Akiyama.

“Hey guys! Rui invited me over too! He also said you guys needed help with makeup, for costumes?” Mizuki shouted from across the room. Rui’s room wasn’t that large, but they were just excited. Rui came casually strolling up, clearly upset from how loud Mizuki was, but Tsukasa knew he wasn’t going to say anything. Mizuki sat down on Rui’s bed, before staring into Tsukasa’s eyes, rather menacingly.

“Damn Rui, you weren’t lying when you said he was pale! You sick or something?” Mizuki tilted their head in confusion.

“Well, I, uh…” Tsukasa stumbled over his words, trying to find what to say.

“He hasn’t eaten in a bit, and this is just normal for him.” Rui quickly thought of a lie. Tsukasa was disappointed at the quality, but he just hoped it worked.

“Oh. I see! I don’t mind, I like doing this!” Mizuki said, pulling out their makeup bag. They brought Tsukasa to Rui’s living room, where they sat him on a chair. Mizuki pulled out several beauty products, a mirror, and some brushes, before getting to work on Tsukasa.

—

“Aaaaaaand… DONE! Taaa-daaa! Behold, a Tsukasa that looks like he’s actually alive!” Mizuki proudly said, holding the mirror to Tsukasa’s face. Tsukasa was shocked! Mizuki had done a fantastic job! He actually looked somewhat normal now, too!

“Wow… Mizuki! I don’t know what to say! It’s incredible!” Tsukasa said, looking at Mizuki.

“Hehe! Well, if you ever need some show makeup done, I’ll be happy to do so!” Mizuki mimicked Tsukasa, and flashed their own victory pose, causing everyone to laugh. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Nene went to get it. Rui handed her his wallet. Tsukasa walked off to the bathroom, to better admire his new look. Mizuki quickly took advantage of this opportunity.

Nene was busy bringing the pizza inside, and Tsukasa was still staring at himself in the bathroom, when they heard the cutest little yelp, followed by a proud “AHA!” Nene and Tsukasa quickly rushed upstairs, to find Rui laying on his bed, with Mizuki taunting him.

“Mizuki! What happened?” Nene said, leaning her head inside the door frame.

“Well, I got curious, so I pulled on his tail, and this bitch SCREAMED! HE FUCKING SCREAMED!” Mizuki exclaimed, pointing to a distressed Rui. “HOW THE FUCK CAN HE SCREAM IF IT’S A COSTUME? Not to mention Tsukasa’s pale as living heck, and don’t think I didn’t notice the fangs.” Tsukasa’s face turned red, as Mizuki shot him a glare.

“CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHY MY FRIEND IS A FURRY?!” Mizuki threw their hands up.

Nene sat Mizuki down, and explained their situation. Including the SEKAI. Thankfully, Mizuki knew about it. And, to the group’s surprise, Mizuki mentioned they had a SEKAI too.

“No way… a cursed SEKAI object fucked you all up THIS badly?!” Mizuki said, leaning forward, eyes wide. Rui was still crying on the bed.

“Say a word, and you’re dead.” Tsukasa tried his best to look threatening, but Mizuki just giggled.

“Don’t worry guys, I got this. Besides, I think it’s neat, having monsters for friends.” Mizuki chuckled, and threw one of Rui’s balled up shirts at Rui. “Quit your whining! I didn’t even pull that hard!”

Mizuki and Rui got into an argument like a married couple, while Nene and Tsukasa just rolled their eyes and left.

The four of them ate pizza, watched a movie, and played a game. It ended up in Nene flipping the table and Mizuki storming out.

“Well, thanks for the fun night, Rui.” Nene waved goodbye.

“Yeah! And you too, Mizuki! You certainly helped!” Tsukasa shot a thumbs up.

“Yeah! And goodness, you all made this an interesting night, too! Oh, and Tsukasa, take this.” Mizuki held out their makeup bag and a piece of paper. Instructions on how to do the makeup they did. “I think you need this more than I do, right now..”

Tsukasa smiled, and Mizuki did too. Nene walked off, followed by Tsukasa. Mizuki quickly jumped up, and gave Rui a nice little pat between his ears, before running off. Rui was blushing.

The three of them all went home, happy that they had made a friend who supported them.

Chapter Text

Nene felt amazing. She felt like she just got the power nap of a century.

Rui felt great. In fact, he actually felt like he got a lovely 3 hours in.

Tsukasa did not sleep well. He forgot he can’t eat regular food now, and was busy puking his guts out in the bathroom. He was sitting on his bed, in that terrible half asleep, half awake part, when his phone buzzed with a notification.

“Hey! Rui gave me your number. Meet at his house this morning again, he’s gonna make us breakfast. And I’ve got something important to show you!!” ~ Mizuki.

Tsukasa lazily rolled out of bed, got dressed, had to fight through his family to get out of the house, and made his way towards Rui’s.

—

“Ah! There you are. Thought you didn’t get my text!” Mizuki giggled, turning around to face Tsukasa. Nene was standing next to them.

“I was just half asleep still.” Tsukasa lazily walked over to them. Mizuki happily rang Rui’s doorbell, and they were greeted by a Rui that clearly hadn’t gotten ready for the day yet.

He had sweatpants on that had several holes in the knees, his shirt was too tight, and it looked like he still had toothpaste around the edges of his mouth.

“Uh… can I help you?” He said. Before Rui could protest, Mizuki dashed inside his house.

“Actually, I can help YOU!” They said, motioning the others inside. Rui sighed, and ran up to his room.

“Mizuki… did you tell Rui we were coming over?” Nene asked, giving Mizuki a side eye stare.

“Absolutely not! I knew he’d say no if I did!” Mizuki responded.

“BECAUSE YOU SHOULDN’T COME TO MY HOUSE AT RANDOM TIMES OF THE DAY, MIZUKI! I TOLD YOU TO STOP THREE YEARS AGO!” Rui shouted from halfway across the house. Mizuki stuck their tongue out.

“Well, we’re here now, and I’m not leaving until I get my job done.” They said, eyeing Rui as he came downstairs.

“You can make your own breakfast, leech.” Rui loomed over Mizuki. They both started laughing as they walked into the kitchen.

Tsukasa was confused. Nene was terrified.

Rui grabbed some random things from his freezer to prepare for his unexpected friends, while Mizuki got out their laptop. They motioned for Tsukasa to sit, while Nene helped Rui prepare breakfast.

After a lovely breakfast of microwave pancakes and Tsukasa eyeing them all longingly, Mizuki booted their laptop up and turned it to Tsukasa. He felt his face turn red when he read the title.

“Ok Tsukasa, I noticed yesterday you probably suck at this. So, I read every book last night, so I can now say I’m a self proclaimed Vampire Expert!” Mizuki shouted, once again mimicking Tsukasa’s victory pose. Tsukasa felt flattered, but he was also embarrassed.

“Hey now! There’s no need for this…” Tsukasa said, standing up from the couch.

“Actually, Mizuki has a point. If you can’t eat regularly anymore, there’s a chance you could starve. We all know our lives have been affected, but yours has probably been affected the most. You should listen to them, Tsukasa.” Nene said, putting a hand on his shoulder and sitting him back down. Mizuki shot her a thankful wink.

“OK! Rule #1, and probably the hardest one, DON’T EAT REGULAR FOOD! You clearly know it’ll make you sick.” Mizuki explained, putting their laptop on their lap. Tsukasa was trying to hide his red face from embarrassment.

“Rule #2. You’re not gonna like this one, buddy.” Mizuki gave Tsukasa a worried stare. “You gotta eat blood.”

“NOPE! Nope! Nope! I am not doing this, thanks for the offer, but I’ll be going now!” Tsukasa yelped, standing up from the couch. As he went to walk out the door, he felt Rui grab his shirt collar and pull him back to the couch.

“Stay.” Rui gave Tsukasa a menacing look. After that, Tsukasa didn’t dare move.

“I’d expect that to work better on you than him, Rui.” Mizuki said, giving Rui a smug stare. Rui threw a plastic cup at them.

“Ok, Tsukasa, I know this isn’t what you want. But it’s the harsh reality. Sometimes, you’re gonna have to do that.” Mizuki said, turning to Tsukasa. He had covered himself in the several blankets on Rui’s couch, as if to bury himself. Nene giggled.

“If anything, just use birds for now. I’ve eaten like, 6 birds.” Rui said.

“Excuse me?” Nene said, turning to Rui. He then realized exactly what he said, and then went back to cleaning off dishes.

“Well, okay then… anyway, Rule #3. Don’t bite people. Same for you, Rui.” Mizuki said, pointing at the boys. “Biting people is bad. Don’t do it, even if you wanna.”

Rui rolled his eyes, and Tsukasa’s little embarrassment ball just groaned. Poor guy was clearly not having a good time.

“And last one! Rule #4! Uhh… don’t go out in the sun.” Mizuki said, shutting their laptop.

“Easier said than done.” Tsukasa groaned.

“Listen buddy, I’m sure it’s rough. I can’t even imagine how it feels for you.” Mizuki said, giving him a pat on the back.

“You can find out, if you want.” Tsukasa said, giving Mizuki a smug smirk.

“No thanks, I quite enjoy being a human…” Mizuki backed away. Nene laughed. “However, I do have some tests I want to run.”

“Tests?” Rui said, taking the seat next to Tsukasa.

“Yeah. Let’s see if we can better understand Tsukasa’s situation. For example…” Mizuki pulled a tube of sunscreen from their bag. “Does sunscreen work on vampires? Let’s find out!”

Tsukasa held out his hand, and Mizuki covered it in sunscreen. Rui opened his blinds, as Mizuki held his hand under the sun for a few seconds, before pulling it away.

“How do you feel?” Mizuki said, dropping his hand.

“Still hurts but… slightly less.” Tsukasa said, perking up in excitement.

“Great! Now we know sunscreen worsens the effects of the sun. I’ll go pick up some SPF makeup for you.” Mizuki responded, writing down the results in their notebook. “Next test!”

They led Tsukasa and the others up Rui’s stairs.

“Jump.” Mizuki said.

“What?” Tsukasa whipped his neck around to Mizuki.

“One of the abilities of vampires I read about was the ability to turn into a bat. It differs from author to author, but I’m curious. So, jump.” Mizuki gestured to the stairs.

“…No thanks. I’d rather the only one of us who’s 90% animal to stay Rui.” Tsukasa said, backing away from the stairs.

“Wow, thanks. I feel honored.” Rui growled. Mizuki just laughed.

“Okay, we’ll scrap that for now. Test three!” Mizuki said, leading the group back into the living room. They rolled their sleeves up, until their wrists were decently exposed. They shoved them in Tsukasa’s face.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how badly do you want to bite me right now?” Mizuki asked.

“Ten, but I’m good at self control.” Tsukusa responded, pushing away Mizuki’s wrist. Nene noticed he was sweating.

“Interesting…” Mizuki rolled their sleeves back down, and went back to writing in their notebook. Tsukasa flopped onto Rui’s couch, and once again returned to his embarrassment ball.

“ALRIGHT! I think I got everything!” Mizuki shot up, and showed Tsukasa their notebook. It explained everything he could do, what he couldn’t do, and what they recommended he not do. Tsukasa’s face was still red as a tomato.

“I know it’s embarrassing or cringe, but your life depends on it. Just don’t attack people, and I think we’ll be good. Same for AL OF YOU.” Mizuki eyed everyone in the room.

“Crazy to think all of us are capable of killing you anytime we wish, yet you still waltz into my house, like you don’t care.” Rui mocked, walking up to Mizuki.

“Maybe it’s because I know some of you aren’t as scary as you make yourselves out to be.” Mizuki teased, sticking their tongue out.

“Yeah Rui. You’re literally just like a massive puppy.” Nene giggled. Rui sat down in protest, but that was instantly replaced by confusion, enjoyment, and anger when Mizuki started rubbing behind his ears. Everyone bursted out laughing, even Tsukasa.

“DON’T FUCKING LAUGH! THIS ISN’T FUNNY!” Rui shot up, giving Mizuki his death stare. Mizuki ran off, and he chased after them. Tsukasa was rolling on the couch laughing.

“IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE IT’S YOU!” Nene shouted, also trying not to fall over laughing.

Tsukasa watched an angry Rui chase a smug Mizuki, and he suddenly came to accept that…

Maybe this is something he could live with after all.

Chapter Text

“And that’s why…” Tsukasa strolled around Rui’s garage.

“Tsukasa.” Nene said, trying to grab his attention.

“You simply don’t understand the…”

“Tsukasa.”

“So that’s why I-“

“TSUKASA TENMA! LISTEN TO ME!” Nene shouted, stomping her foot on the ground.

“I’d appreciate some…” Rui’s ear twitched. “Quieter voices, please.”

“Sorry, Rui…” Nene and Tsukasa said in unison. They both were glad Rui’s parents were away most of the time, because they could use Rui’s garage as a base of operations.

“Okay, Nene, I think you had something to tell me, hm?” Tsukasa quipped, putting his hands on his hips, and making his usual sassy pose.

“Yes, I did.” Nene threw a book a Rui, making sure she had his attention. “We all remember Emu Otori, correct?”

Tsukasa and Rui exchanged guilty glances. They’d both been so concerned with everything else they completely forgot Emu was missing, let alone… not very Emu.

“Good point, Nene! How did I not think of that!” Tsukasa exclaimed, striking his “Man Who Knows All” pose.

“We’ve got no time for jokes. We need to find Emu. NOW.” Nene said, approaching Tsukasa.

“Not a problem. Give me a second.” Rui chimed in. He pulled up an app on his PC, showing a map of Shibuya and… little icons for Nene, Tsukasa, Mizuki, and Emu. Rui slid out of the way to show off his lovely… tracking app.

“Rui. You know I think the world of you, but what is this.” Tsukasa said, pointing to the PC.

“Oh, Tsukasa! That hurts! Can’t you see? I can track people!” Rui said, leaning back in his chair dramatically.

“Yeah. He does that.” Nene nonchalantly added.

“Okay, WHAT THE HECK?! You mean to tell me that RUI has TRACKED MY EVERY MOVE?!” Tsukasa shouted, throwing his hands up.

“Exactly. With the help of a friend, I managed to get a virus on all your phones that allows me to track you all. Consider it a little piece of me in your phones. Forever!” Rui giggled.

“I’m… I don’t have time for this. You can see Emu, correct?” Tsukasa asked, leaning over Rui’s shoulder to see the screen.

“If my absolutely fool proof program is correct, then she’s at PXL right now.” Rui answered, confidently. He gave Nene a sly smile, and she only rolled her eyes.

“Great! Off to PXL, then!” Tsukasa said, grabbing his bag and heading out the door. However, Nene stopped him.

“Not so fast, Mr. Smart Guy. We need a plan.” Nene said.

“Plan for what? We get in there, grab Emu, and leave. It’s that easy.” Tsukasa responded.

“Well, first off, that’s kidnapping. Second off, Emu’s got magic, Sherlock.” Rui said, a smug smile on his face.

“Well, Nene’s got magic, too!” Tsukasa proudly presented Nene, who glared at him.

“Sexist magic.” Rui’s smug tone was seriously asking for a smack across the face.

“But it’s magic! And I can… I can do stuff too!” Tsukasa rebutted.

“Like what? Disintegrate in the sun? Puke your guts out whenever you eat anything that isn’t blood?” Rui lowered his face to meet Tsukasa’s.

“Rui Kamishiro, you are asking to be punched.” Tsukasa hissed.

“And that’s animal abuse! Goodness Tsukasa, I’m learning a lot about you today!” Rui retorted.

“Rui, you little piece of-“

“BOYS!”

Tsukasa was lazily swiping at Rui, while the latter was keeping the other at bay via a hand on his forehead. Long arms are a blessing, people. Nene angrily glared at them, and they ended whatever it was they were doing.

“Tsukasa, don’t punch Rui. He’s important. Rui, don’t be mean to Tsukasa. He will cry, and I don’t want to deal with that.” Nene glared at Rui. “Now, back to our more important matter, EMU OTORI.” Nene grabbed Rui and Tsukasa by their ears to make sure she heard them.

“Okay, okay… Emu, I got it. Please let go.” Rui said, trying to pry Nene off. Nene eased her grip, and the boys shot free. Rui went back to his PC, and the other two followed.

“I’ll pull this up on my phone. Then, we can go to PXL and get Emu back.” Rui said.

“Alright, seems like a decent plan. Tsukasa, ready to go?” Nene said, turning to him.

“Yeah. Let’s go get our friend back.” Tsukasa pumped his hand in confidence.

—

“Alright Rui, lead the way!” Tsukasa commanded, striking a pose behind Rui. Nene rolled her eyes.

“Ok, reminder this is only where her phone is, so there’s a chance it may not be her.” Rui said, not bothering to look up from his phone.

“But you said it was fool proof.” Nene rebutted.

“Fool proof to the phone’s location. I’m not so mad that I’d put a tracker on you…” Rui’s eyes lit up with curiosity and he wrote something down in his phone’s notes. Tsukasa couldn’t tell what it was, but it was certainly a lot.

“Okay. The tracker says she’s here, right here, backstage.” Rui pointed to the WonderStage.

“Huh. That was easy.” Nene lifted herself onto the stage, followed by Rui and Tsukasa. The three wandered backstage, calling out Emu’s name. Instead, they were all met with a swift punch and a bag over their head.

—

Nene woke up first. Wherever she was, she didn’t recognize it. She noticed she wasn’t tied up, and she was just… in a room. Still, she’s played enough games that started like this, and they didn’t end well. She noticed Rui and Tsukasa, passed out across the room. She went over to Rui, and threw her shoe at him, quickly waking him up. And last, she went to Tsukasa, and just poked him several times. He woke up groggily, swatting her away.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Nene said, leaning over Tsukasa.

“Now is not the time for jokes, Nene…” Tsukasa said, getting up.

“Yeah. Does anyone know where we are…?” Rui wandered around the room, tapping on the metal bars.

“If I did, I’d have told you by now.” Nene smirked. Rui just growled at her. The three continued wandering around the room. It had zero windows, and a few buzzing lights on the ceiling. Rui could tell from the smell that someone had been in here previously, but he couldn’t exactly recognize who. Nene walked around the walls, grazing her hand along every little nook and cranny, in hopes of finding a possible escape button. Tsukasa just sat in a corner. He was panicking. Tsukasa began to say something, when the door outside their room was opened. Rui took this chance and sprinted toward the door, but was quickly stopped when whoever, or whatever, was outside that door put him in a chokehold. Nene and Tsukasa zipped forward to help Rui, but he had managed to get out on his own.

“You were right. The purple one is a fighter.” The voice said, stepping into the room.

“Who’re you? And who are you talking to?” Nene spat, helping Rui off the ground.

“Not important right now. She told me what to do, so I did it.” The voice responded, the silhouette shrugging.

“Who is she?” Tsukasa asked.

“…You’ll find out.” The voice turned and began walking out of the door. Tsukasa rushed forward, but was met with an metal wall blocking his target. He banged on the door for a second, before Nene told him to stop. The three sat in a circle, trying their best to stay positive. Tsukasa fell down on his back, and Nene fell down next to him, followed by Rui.

They sat in silence, as if to share a mutual feeling of defeat.

Their sulking was interrupted by the door opening once more.

All three sprang up, and eyed the new character entering their room. Tsukasa held his fists in a ball and Nene was holding onto Rui, to make sure he didn’t do anything drastic. Although, all three of them jumped in surprise and confusion when this new person flung themselves onto Tsukasa, embracing him. It took them all a hot minute, but they soon realized what was happening.

“Emu!” All three of them cheered, creating one big hug. Nobody wanted to let go.

“Sorry about that, guys… Mafuyu gets a little… excited.” Emu said, turning towards the first figure. That’s when Rui recognized the elegant, purple hair tied into a ponytail.

“No worries! We found you now!” Tsukasa said, putting his hands on Emu’s shoulders.

“Oh, yeah… about that…” Emu lowered her head. “It’s probably best if I… if I stay away from you all.”

“Emu, no. We won’t let you do that.” Rui said.

“But I’m not the good guy any more! I… I can’t hurt you guys. I won’t!” Emu began to cry. Tsukasa grabbed her, and put her in a hug lock once more. She lazily wrapped her arms around him, still crying.

“Emu. We’re going to fix this, I promise.” Tsukasa whispered in her ear.

“Please… I don’t want to be like this forever…” Emu cried, laying her head on Tsukasa’s chest. Rui and Nene patted Emu on the back.

“Speaking of which, you seem more Emu now. When I was texting you, you seemed… sassy.” Nene hated to change the subject, but she felt she had to address it.

“I can suppress that… But sometimes, I still get a little… mean.” Emu quietly laughed in a desperate attempt to change the mood.

“We understand. It’s got to be hard.” Rui sat his hand on Emu’s shoulder, and she smiled at him.

Everyone sat in silence once more. A mixture of sadness for the truth, and joy to see their friend was okay.

“Emu, do you mind telling us what you can do in full?” Tsukasa looked at Rui. “We’ll show you what we can do, too.”

“Oh yeah, sure!” Emu nodded. She quickly stood up, and put on several displays of magic. Everyone watched in awe as Emu created a pink galaxy, filled with constellations representing all her friends.

“It’s beautiful!” Tsukasa laughed.

“Yeah! Just a little bit of what I can do.” Emu bounced over to Nene. “What about you, Nene?”

Nene shyly smiled.

“Mine’s… unique, that’s for sure. Just picture a mermaid.” Nene said, tapping Emu’s nose.

“MERMAID!!” Emu’s eyes glittered. “What about you, Rui?”

Rui’s face turned red, as Nene repeated the question. Rui took his hood off.

“SOO CUTE!” Emu knocked Rui down, leaning over his head. Rui tried to speak in protest, but he rather enjoyed it. Emu giggled as she found a soft spot behind his ear, causing his tail to wag.

“I’m never going to hear the end of this…” Rui said, a mixture of bliss and regret.

Once she was done torturing Rui, she bounded over to Tsukasa. Tsukasa pulled his mask down, and showed Emu his fangs. Once again, Emu’s eyes glittered.

“SOOO COOOL! My friends are so cool!” Emu sang, bouncing around the room.

“Alright, cute moment, but can we please leave?” Rui said.

“Oh yeah! But, before that, I need to tell you all this.” Emu made sure everyone was paying attention. “After I got my abilities, I had a dream. It was that orb, they told me that we had a month to put on the show, or this will all be permanent. I’ll be mean forever, and you’ll all be stuck like that.” Emu sighed. She was holding back tears.

“It’s alright… we’re going to do the show!” Tsukasa exclaimed, striking a pose. Emu giggled.

“Yes. We will fix this, Emu. Don’t worry.” Rui said, calmly.

“Just… never stop being yourself, Emu.” Nene grabbed Emu’s hands. The two had a quick hug, before Emu broke away.

“It’s best I go now… I’ve been trying to suppress evil me all day, so I don’t want to hurt you guys.” Emu awkwardly laughed. “Oh, also… from what my dream said…”

Everyone looked up. She had something else to say?

“I think there might be two villains.” Emu said.

“Who? Who’s the other villain?” Tsukasa asked.

“I don’t know. All I know is that there’s two…” Emu sighed.

“And I think there’s only a matter of time until they reveal themselves.”

Chapter Text

Their reunion with Emu, coated in bittersweet joy, unfortunately came to an end.

Mafuyu escorted them to the exit, where Emu gave them all an individual hug.

“I’ll always be rooting for you guys!” Emu cheered, waving goodbye.

Everyone simply smiled as they walked out.

—

It took a while for Emu’s information to sink in. Tsukasa was notorious for denying his problems, so there was still a part of him that refused to accept the situation. And the fact that now they’d have to deal with Emu and someone else? And you can’t forget the part that the other villain… it could be Tsukasa. It could be any of them. Tsukasa flopped back onto his bed, tossing his phone besides him. He buried his head into his pillow. Not to scream or anything, the pillow just smelled good. He missed the days when he wasn’t worrying about every little thing. He missed when he wasn’t suddenly allergic to every little thing humans needed to survive. His little brooding session was interrupted by Saki creeping up the stairs, and into his room.

“Hey, Tsukasa…” She said gently, sitting on the edge of his bed.

“Hey Saki, what’s wrong? You look distressed.” Tsukasa yawned, making it look like he had just woken up from a nap.

“No, it’s nothing… Mom and Dad are downstairs if you need anything. I was going to head out with Honami… she was bringing a friend, and invited me. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. This Halloween show is taking a lot out of me!”

“Oh, that! I completely forgot! How’s the planning going?”

“Well… we’ve certainly got… something, that’s for sure…”

Tsukasa and Saki laughed. Saki picked up her bag, and headed downstairs. Only when she closed the door, could Tsukasa finally rest easy. The problem about Saki is she always knew when something was up. The good thing about Tsukasa is he’s a good actor. He picked up his phone, and headed into his music section. Untitled glared into his eyes, just like how Saki knows when something’s up with him.

Wonderland SEKAI was always a place where WXS felt at home. No limits, not even their imagination can hold them back. Tsukasa could write scripts for ages, Rui could probably build a rocket powered on sparkles, Emu always found a way to get every single plushie involved in their shows, and Nene didn’t even have a shell to break out of. The bright colors and cotton candy clouds always smiled down on them.

So when Tsukasa arrived to apocalypse chic, he almost jumped out of his skin. The SEKAI looked the same, except it resembled a haunted house. It had definitely progressed from when they had last visited. It was strange, in a way. The SEKAI still had the same feeling of a Wonderland, like it always had. Tsukasa… kind of liked it. The lack of a sun made him feel right at home. He took in a deep breath of the air, and it still smelled the same. Except, this time, the smell of expired Halloween candy was on the air. That took away the magic of the situation. A spooky wonderland, perfectly designed for a Halloween show. Tsukasa felt a small tug on his pants, and saw some plushies. They looked mostly the same, except they were in some cheap Halloween costumes. They didn’t seem to mind, though.

“It’s him! It’s him! He’s here!” The plushies sang, as they danced around Tsukasa.

“Yes, yes, I have arrived!” Tsukasa let the attention get to him, as he smirked confidently.

“She wants to see you!” One plushie said.

“Yes! She requested that we take you to her!” The other one added.

“Yeah! She said that we can’t let your friends get lonely!” The third one said, grabbing Tsukasa’s hand. He followed them to the tent, where he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Miku sat on a throne, with plushies dancing around her. Tsukasa didn’t dare take a guess of what the throne was made from… oh, it was just candy wrappers. Pretty innocent. Miku herself seemed the same, except she had a long, white dress on. A seemingly emotionless KAITO stood behind her, not moving, not reacting. He simply stood there. Tsukasa looked around to see if he could spot Rui or Nene, but he saw nothing.

“We found him! Here he is!” Two of the plushies cheered.

“Wonderful! Bring him here!” Miku said, tossing some candies down to the plushies. They threw him on the ground in front of Miku, before fighting over the candies she threw down.

“So, you’re the one who’s been terrorizing my dear plushies.” She said, leaning down to make eye contact with Tsukasa.

“Excuse me? Miku, what are you talking about? I’m Tsukasa Tenma, world future star!” Tsukasa exclaimed, making his iconic STAR pose.

“My plushies have been complaining about vampire attacks. And you’re a vampire, are you not?” Miku spat, gripping the armrests of her throne.

“M-Miku, stop! I’m not the one doing this, don’t you remember?” Tsukasa pleaded with her.

“You’re the only vampire around, just like how your siren friend was the only one around. It HAS to be you!” Miku shouted, pointing at Tsukasa. His heart dropped. This wasn’t Wonderland SEKAI anymore.

This was hell.

“LEN! RIN! Come here!” Miku yelled.

“Yes ma’am!” The twins appeared out of nowhere, cloaked in dark robs.

“Get this man out of my sight. Throw him with his friends.” Miku leaned back in her chair. Len and Rin gripped Tsukasa, as Miku eyed him as they escorted him backstage, and down a row of stairs. Tsukasa was trying his best to hold back his tears. Why? Just when he thought things couldn’t get worse, they did. Len and Rin tossed him into a room. He was too busy falling down the stairs to notice if anyone else was in there with him. They quickly shut the door, as Tsukasa banged on it. He kept banging, and banging… and banging… and banging…

And nobody answered.

Tsukasa slid down the door. Wiping off his tears. He could leave any time, he still had his phone, but he probably couldn’t come back.

“Pull yourself together, Tsukasa. Now is not the time for sulking.”

Tsukasa looked around. That cynical voice seemed so familiar, where was it coming from?

“Nene?” Tsukasa stood up, trying to find the source of the voice.

“I’m here too, thanks for asking.”

“Rui! I’m so glad you two are okay!” Tsukasa began wandering around his containment room, looking for any way out.

“Depends on your definition of okay, Tsukasa.” Nene mocked.

“…What do you mean by that?” Tsukasa asked, still looking for ways out.

“I’m currently stuck… in an oversized fish tank.” Nene sighed.

“And I’m chained up by my neck.” Rui chimed in.

“God, that must suck for you two! I’m…” Tsukasa took a minute to actually look in his surroundings. “Trapped in a dark room. So dark, I can’t even tell where I came in…”

“Any windows?” Rui asked.

“If there were windows, he could see something.” Nene quipped.

“I’M NOT IN THE SAME ROOM AS HIM, SMARTASS!” Rui shouted.

“LANGUAGE!” Tsukasa and Nene yelled at the same time.

“Well, any bright ideas, anyone?” Nene sighed.

“I still have my…” Tsukasa reached into his pocket, and found it was empty. “…crap.”

“No phone? Yeah, Tsukasa, I’m currently underwater, I sure hope you realized that.” Nene said, in a teasing manner.

“Rui? Do you still have your phone?” Tsukasa said, dropping to the floor to find his phone.

“Nope. They took mine.” Rui sighed.

“Well, this is great.” Tsukasa threw himself against a wall.

The three sat in silence. Tsukasa was practically being tortured. He could hear chains shifting whenever Rui moved, and he could hear water moving whenever Nene did something. He knew his friends were close, but he couldn’t reach them.

—

Tsukasa would love to say it had been days, but it had only been about three minutes before the door to his cell opened. Tsukasa stood up, ready to go on the offensive. Whatever opened his door didn’t seem armed, but it could be an interrogation. Once his eyes adjusted to the sudden light overflow, he could see the outline of unruly blue hair.

“KAITO?” Tsukasa blindly said.

“KAITO?!” Nene repeated.

“EXCUSE ME?” Rui shouted.

The figure stepped into Tsukasa’s room, their steps slow and sloppy. Tsukasa wasn’t sure if he should be afraid or confused. When the figure held out Tsukasa’s phone, he immediately took it. When he turned it on, the light illuminated the face of his sudden savior.

“KAITO!” Tsukasa threw his arms around KAITO, hugging him. KAITO squeezed back.

“It took me forever to find you. There’s practically a maze down here!” KAITO said, releasing Tsukasa.

“You seem… normal. Why?” Tsukasa tilted his head.

“I was able to resist the changes to the SEKAI, making me immune. Thankfully, I’m also a really good actor, so I hang around Miku.” KAITO gave a reassuring thumbs up, and Tsukasa sighed in cringe.

“KAITO, thanks for saving Tsukasa, BUT SOME OF US NEED HELP TOO!” Nene exclaimed from her cell.

“Oh, yeah, sorry, sorry…” KAITO shrugged, as he went to everyone else’s cell. They found Rui first, chained up to a wall. KAITO thankfully had a skeleton key, so they were able to unlock it. Rui shuddered in disgust, shaking all the dust off of him.

“Pure torture, Tsukasa. The amount of bugs I saw in there…” Rui stared off into the distance, as if he was having flashbacks. “And the fact I ate one…” Both the boys shuddered, and a wave of relief blew over Tsukasa. At least he didn’t see the bugs in his cell.

It was a lot harder to find Nene. They were able to convince Rui to try and sniff her out, but they forgot water masks scent, so it took a wild goose chase to find her. And when they did, Tsukasa and Rui were met with quite the beautiful sight.

Nene’s hair was flowing in the water, like what you’d see in a model commercial. Her skin was perfect. A perfect shine, not a single imperfection in sight. And her beautiful tail, the emerald green scales captivating all of them.

“Are you just gonna stand there, or…?” Nene said impatiently. The boys snapped out of their daze, and immediately rushed over to Nene. Thankfully Rui was tall enough to get his hand in there so Nene could take it. It took a little bit to get her legs back. Rui practically fought off Tsukasa to get to hold Nene on their escape. KAITO gave them all their phones back, and showed them the exit.

“Before you go, there’s a rather important thing you should know. I’m sure as you found out, SEKAI has also been affected. And Miku is the villain of our story. Simply putting on the show in the real world won’t be enough.” KAITO sighed, before resuming his sentence. “We will have to do our shows simultaneously if we wish to lift this curse.”

“You mean, you all have to do the show, and we have to do our show?” Rui asked while making sure Nene could stand.

“Yes, and most likely at the same time.” KAITO responded. He hated to be the bearer of bad news.

“Well, we are WonderlandsxShowtime, and you are the inhabitants of the Wonderland SEKAI. If anyone can put on the show of all shows, it’s us!” Tsukasa rallied his friends. Rui and Nene nodded in agreement, and KAITO chuckled.

“It’s good to see that you all have retained your original personalities. But I can guarantee you, it’ll only get harder from now on. Tsukasa, as time progresses, your bloodlust will only get worse. Rui, you’ll have to worry about full moons, and Nene… sometimes hiding won’t help. Sometimes, you’ll have to sing.” KAITO said, turning his back to return to his place beside Miku. “But I have hope you can do it. I just hope that you all have that hope.”

Chapter Text

Hi! So, it’s me, the lovely yet slightly deranged author, Fizz. I’m here to explain how the story would have gone if I went with the other villain.

I said this in a comment, but the other villain was more of an anti hero. They were mostly out for themselves, hurting and helping both our hero group and our villain group. They do, however, become a villain as time goes on.

So, here’s the story:

Nene was meant to be the other villain. I based this fanfic off of a random daydream I had where the WXS Halloween show got real, and they all became their roles. In the original daydream/dream, Nene actually kinda betrays Tsukasa and Rui, and goes off on her own. She’s disappointed that they aren’t doing anything about their situations, so she takes matters into her own hands.

I did contemplate Tsukasa at one point, but I decided against it. I actually considered it from the comments! So many people were talking about the possibility of him becoming a villain, I actually considered doing that. Rui was never meant to be the villain, because he was always my comic relief character. He’s written the way he is to make people laugh, so I never wanted him to be the bad guy. Don’t fret, fellow Rui fans, because you’ll get something similar enough soon.

But, I did decide to keep Nene as one of the good guys, because she is kind of the mediator between Rui and Tsukasa. Fun fact, if I went with Nene, Tsukasa actually dies. He fucking dies. He ends up losing his mind because of this and just starves himself. The end. Tsukasa is dead. And in my original google doc, the only plans I had labeled for the characters goes as follows:

Tsukasa: I’m emo. Fuck my life. (Proceeds to die)
Emu: MY ARCH NEMESIS! MWAHAHAHAA! (Emu and Nene make out)
Nene: Fuck this shit I’m doing this myself (Nene girl bosses her way to victory)
Rui: Furcon 2022

Legit, I had no plans for Rui. My original storyboard went that Nene does this herself, because she can’t stand her reality, and seeing her friends suffering. She ends up getting blinded by her ideals, that she accidentally becomes the villain too. Tsukasa cannot handle everything, so he begins to starve himself, and eventually die. Rui’s left by himself, and he gets PTSD from his childhood. Nene and Emu trick him into joining their side, so Rui goes all woof woof bark bark woof woof woof bark and nobody is happy. Emu and Nene rule over the real world like the queens they are and Miku rules over SEKAI. Tsukasa is crying in heaven. The end.

So yeah, I do prefer using Miku, since my daydreams get a little… (flashback to my traumatizing daydreams I had as a kid) unpredictable. Besides, after I considered derailing from the original idea, I knew I was gonna use a vocaloid. The original plan was Luka! But I thought Miku would be much more fun, because she’s Hatsune Fucking Miku after all.

Anyway, sure hope you enjoyed this. Sometimes during the story, I may do this, sometimes to kinda recap everything, considering my writing gets rather repetitive, or sometimes to do this, and go into the multiverse that is this fanfic.

Happy Holidays, and please continue reading my fanfic! I seriously cannot thank y’all enough for reading this. The joy I experience whenever I see someone left a comment or bookmarked this, legit makes me so happy.

Ok! Finally goodbye! Mwah!

Chapter Text

The silence was unbearable. Everyone was tired. They had been on a call for hours, trying to debate how their Halloween show was going to go. They already had their idea: Three villagers, all from different species, live peacefully. They are then hunted down by a witch who desires to destroy their peaceful wonderland. In order to bring the witch back to her former, happy self, they must learn to trust each other if they have any hopes of saving their village.

“Sounds great. Now, how’re we going to execute this?” Tsukasa sighed, his voice sounding tired as he was.

“We plan it with KAITO. If we can trick Miku and Emu into participating, then we can do it.” Nene said.

“Sure hope you have a plan for this… I’m too tired to think.” Tsukasa yawned.

“Well, I’m sure hope you two have a plan for tomorrow.” Rui chimed in.

“What happens tomorrow?” Tsukasa said. The noise coming from his phone clearly means he fell out of his chair.

“School.” Rui stated. Neither of them could see him, but they knew he had some smug smile on his face. And that’s when Nene and Tsukasa began panicking.

“Rui, you say that like you aren’t coming.” Nene snapped.

“Because I’m not.” Rui purred.

“Why not? We need you!” Tsukasa said, trying to sound desperate.

“Well, Tsukasa, you know… it’s really unfortunate how sick I’ve become! Why, I can barely stand!” Rui said in his usual drama Queen tone. They’d all become too used to it.

“Coward.” Nene and Tsukasa said simultaneously.

“I’m not a coward, I’m a genius. You’re an idiot for actually going, Tsukasa.” Rui rebutted.

“I’m not an idiot! I’m brave! I don’t hide!” Tsukasa exclaimed.

“Debatable. Anyway, do tell me how tomorrow goes!~” Before anyone could argue, Rui hung up. Nene certainly had some words for him tomorrow.

“Oh Nene… what’re we gonna do?” Tsukasa whined, pacing around his room.

“More like, what are YOU going to do.” Nene corrected him.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I look normal. You look like you just crawled out of a grave.”

Tsukasa flinched. Nene was right. He’d been using the makeup Mizuki gave him, but suspicion still hung over him. Saki was onto him, that’s for sure.

“I’ll use makeup! Nobody will notice!” Tsukasa said, trying to pump himself up.

“Yeah, hate to break it to you, but Rui wears subtle eyeliner every day, and people have even noticed that. I’m sure they’ll notice your seven layers of makeup.” Nene quipped, tapping her desk in boredom.

“Rui wears eyeliner? I never noticed that.”

“He never told you. Besides, he’s always done it. But, that’s not important. What is important is your plan for tomorrow. Enjoy!” Nene quickly hung up, avoiding hearing Tsukasa whine even more. Tsukasa sighed in frustration. Why did all his friends suck? He flopped onto his bed, and sure hoped that his dreams would give him the slightest idea of what he was going to do.

—

“Nene, I’m in a crap ton of pain right now, so you better move faster.” Tsukasa whispered behind Nene.

“That seems like a you problem. Just go under that tree.” Nene pointed to a tree in the courtyard, followed by Tsukasa immediately dashing under it.

“Oh good lord… I can see why all those vampires in the books stayed inside.” Tsukasa huffed, sliding down the trunk of the tree.

“You can’t stay here forever. You’ve gotta go to class, you know.” Nene said, showing the slightest bit of concern for Tsukasa.

“Yeah yeah, I know… just don’t be late for your classes.” Tsukasa shot Nene an encouraging thumbs up, and she walked off. Tsukasa continued to melt alive underneath the tree.

“Tsukasa?”

He’d been spotted. Tsukasa jumped up, cleaned off his sweater, and fixed his hair. Toya stood to face him, and beautiful awkward eye contact was made.

“Toya! What’s up…!” Tsukasa awkwardly said, trying to lighten the mood.

“You looked like you were hurt. Are you alright? Should I show you to the nurse?” Toya said, examining Tsukasa.

“Nope! I’m feeling great!” Tsukasa said, flashing a goofy smile and a thumbs up.

“Toya, come on. We’re gonna be late.” Akito shouted, leaving Toya behind.

Toya eyed Tsukasa suspiciously, before running after Toya. Tsukasa sighed, picked up his school bag, and walked inside the school. Thankfully, it was decently shaded, so he wasn’t constantly being lit on fire.

—

Nene’s concentration was fading. She always bummed songs to herself while writing her notes. It helped her remember and it was a nice way to pass the time. Unfortunately, some random guy sat next to her, so she didn’t dare sing anything.

However, once a theater kid, always a theater kid.

Nene subconsciously began humming a song to herself. She figured if it was quiet enough that only she could hear, nobody would be affected.

A huge mistake on her part.

Every guy in the classroom suddenly froze on the spot. They all began staring off, humming the same song Nene was singing in unison. All the girls in the class began whispering, some even pointing at Nene. Nene quickly tried singing some sour notes, to try and break the curse, but nothing worked. The boys continued to seem just as robotic as ever. Nene continued to him sour notes louder and louder. It was practically torture. So many people had told her she had a great voice, and having to sing so bad in front of her classmates… it was enough to make her want to cry. Nothing she did, however, broke the curse on the boys.

Nene continued her class in silence. Not even a word left her mouth.

—

Tsukasa’s class was also torture. The topic was lame, he was bored, he was burning up, but most of all…
He was hungry.
He hadn’t eaten anything since that bird in the alley, and he was starving. He had managed to resist before, but seeing everyone in the classroom, weak and exposed, it was taking all of his willpower to not attack someone on the spot. He promptly raised his hand and asked to use the restroom.

“Be quick.” The teacher said, monotone.

Tsukasa immediately stood up, and rushed to the hallway. He carefully dashed through the corridors, taking time to look through every window as he went.

But that’s when he saw it.

A lovely bird, practically waiting for a predator.

Tsukasa carefully approached the bird. He carefully grabbed it, and rushed into the mens bathroom. Thankfully, unspeakable things go on in there, so no one would really question him if they found him.

He made sure he left no mess. He licked his lips, trying to clean off excess blood, and dabbed some paper towels on his cheeks were his tongue could not reach. He reached into his pocket, and reapplied some makeup, carefully remembering Mizuki’s instructions. Just when he was grabbing the husk of what was a bird, he was locked eyes with none other than Akito Shinonome.

“Is that… is that a fucking bird?” Akito said, mouth agape.

“Yes… it’s a bird..” Tsukasa chuckled, hiding it behind his back.

“Not surprised, considering it’s you. Just another reason why I should avoid you. I’ll use the other bathroom.” Akito sighed, stepping out of the doorway. Tsukasa also sighed, and quickly chucked the bird out of an open window.

And he ran even faster when he heard the horrified screams of two girls.

—

The school day seemed to last forever. When Nene and Tsukasa finally got home, it felt like they had just been through hell. Nene felt guilty about not being able to break whatever she did to the boys, and Tsukasa couldn’t shake the fact that Akito Shinonome saw him with the bird.

Nene was panicking, because she could reset the curse last time. But this time, there was no going back. And Tsukasa was panicking because last time, he left a little bit inside the last bird he killed. This time, the bird would have been lucky to have a single drop left.

The two screamed into their pillows. This was a rough day.

Chapter Text

Tsukasa threw his school bag into a corner of his room. He rushed into his bathroom, where he proceeded to play mental gymnastics, everyone’s favorite game.

How could he let Akito see him?

That’s just a minor inconvenience. Akito won’t say anything.

Oooh, but what if he does?

Everyone views him as a weirdo anyway.

Why did he even eat the bird?

Why am I stuck with this?

If Rui bites me, do I get his power?

What if I starv-

“Tsukasa Tenma, we need to talk. I’m going to ask questions, and you’re going to answer them. No dodging them!” Saki stormed into Tsukasa’s room, slamming the door to his bathroom open. Thankfully, he was only yelling at himself.

“Okay, we’ll, you’ve got my attention. What’s wrong?” Tsukasa said, trying to plead guilty with his voice.

“You’ve been acting weird ever since Saturday. You were so pale, you never speak to me anymore…” Saki’s voice trailed off. She remembered the way he looked at her, in that longing way… but she should probably leave that out. “And today, Toya texted me.” Saki shoved her phone in Tsukasa’s face.

“Mind explaining the BIRD CORPSE?!” Saki demanded.

“Shhh, keep your voice down, and I’ll explain everything…” Tsukasa whispered, leaning over his balcony to notice his parents looking at him and Saki in confusion.

“Well, you better sit down, because you’ve got a LOT of it do to.” Saki sat down on Tsukasa’s bed in a huff.

Tsukasa ran through this conversation in his head. He had to find a way to get Saki to properly believe the fallacy he was coming up with. Or, he could tell her the truth. But how could he explain the SEKAI? Tsukasa was simply pacing around his room in silence, before Saki made a noise, reminding him of her presence.

“Okay, Saki…” Tsukasa took a breath. “Do you know what a SEKAI is?”

Lies would get him nowhere. Besides, if he explained it properly, he could even gain an ally, like with Mizuki.

“A SEKAI… like, those worlds in your phone…?” Saki questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes… my story begins there…” Tsukasa said, donning a storyteller pose.

“Okay, stop there. Why do you know what a SEKAI is?” Saki asked, her tone clearly indicated confusion.

“Why do you know what a SEKAI is?” Tsukasa responded, pointing at her. The siblings simply looked at each other, before realizing what the other meant.

“You have one?” Tsukasa excitedly exclaimed.

“Yeah… but that’s not important right now. How does your SEKAI play into you being weird?”

Okay, well, has your Miku warned you about… an orb?” Tsukasa said, shrugging.

“Our Luka has… she said to never touch it. Although, it’d probably be more like Rin and MEIKO find it, so they force KAITO into doing something with it…” Saki sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Wow, our KAITOs are… different. Anyway, so…” Tsukasa twirled with his bangs.

“Holy crap, are you saying you actually saw one? What did it do?” Saki curiously demanded, stomping her foot in excitement.

“I’m getting there, chill…” Tsukasa motioned her to sit down with his hands. Tsukasa took a breath, and explained how he used the orb for the Halloween show, but left out a minor detail: the fact he’s a real vampire.

“Oh wow, did it work? What’s the show gonna be!” Saki excitedly shouted, once again, stomping her feet in joy.

“Well, uh, yeah… it worked…” Tsukasa quietly said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“What did it do?” Saki asked, tilting her head.

“Well, uh… do you… wanna see?” Tsukasa said, facing Saki. She furrowed her brow, as Tsukasa knelt down in front of her, and he opened his mouth. Saki curiously inspected it, poking and prodding around inside.

“No…” Saki said on a single breath.

“Saki, don’t worry, it’s nothing. I’m gonna fix it.” Tsukasa said, grabbing his sister’s hands in comfort.

“You…” Saki looked Tsukasa up and down. “All this time… and you never told me?”

“Saki, I’m sorry, you’d never believe me. Use me as an example. Never, and I mean never, use that orb.” Tsukasa strictly said.

“Tsukasa… are you dangerous?”

This question caught Tsukasa off guard. Was he? Yeah, he certainly had thoughts about it, but he never drank from anyone…

“I haven’t done anything yet to earn that. Please Saki, trust me.” Tsukasa pleaded, on the verge of tears. He could tell Saki was on edge.

“Emu wasn’t at school today. Is she okay?” Saki cried, her head low. She tucked her head into a plushie in Tsukasa’s room.

“We’re all okay, for now…” Tsukasa sighed. “Some of us doing better than others.”

“So you’re all affected?”

“Yeah… it’s complicated.”

Neither sibling spoke. Tsukasa was drowning in concerns. Why did he tell Saki? Did she hate him now? What if she told all her friends? Well, if she did, Tsukasa could just-

Tsukasa grabbed his head and shook it, trying to get the inhuman thoughts out of his head. Saki put a hand on his shoulder, and Tsukasa simply looked at her.

“Y-you know, Tsukasa… whenever I read supernatural books in the hospital… vampires were always my favorite.” Saki gently whispered.

“Heh, they used to be mine.” Tsukasa jested.

“We can get through this, together. I’m still a little mad at you… but this is our burden, Tsukasa.” Saki said, trying to cheer him up.

“Saki.” Tsukasa went to go lean over his balcony.

“Are you scared of me?”

Saki didn’t know how to respond. Short answer, yes. Long answer, it was complicated. He figured Tsukasa was just like a domesticated dog. Still sweet, but if properly provoked, they can be dangerous.

Saki sighed.

“No. Because you’re my brother.” Saki put her hands on his shoulder, and brought him into a hug. Tsukasa hugged back.

“Tsukasa, I’ll always be here if you need me. And…” Saki patted him on the back.

“I’ll also be here for whatever you may need me for.”

Chapter Text

Tsukasa and Nene wanted to quit school.

Everyone was once again meeting at Rui’s garage. His parents were supposed to be away for a while, so they’d use it as their base of operations. However, they regretted it this time, because Rui just kept acting all smug whenever any of them complained about school.

“So… what happened to me being a coward, huh?” Rui purred, his smug tone was triggering.

“You are a coward. At least we face our problems!” Tsukasa snapped.

“By causing more problems.”

“There are no new problems!”

“Akito saw you with a bird corpse.”

“He already thinks I’m a weirdo!”

“Nene has quite possibly committed mass murder.”

“Don’t rope her into this!”

Nene was zoning out while Rui kept teasing Tsukasa. Her sour notes always managed to fix things last time, why didn’t it work this time? What if she couldn’t save those boys? Where were they? Are they okay? Nene’s thoughts continued to trail off.

“Nene? You… good?” Tsukasa asked, waving his hand in front of Nene’s face.

“Oh… yeah, I’m fine. Today was just.. weird.” Nene said, still partially zoned out.

Tsukasa and Rui both exchanged glances at each other. What should they do? They needed to find a way to cheer Nene up, but not even Rui had an idea.

“You said you couldn’t fix the guys, right?” Rui wandered over to Nene, taking a seat on a tool box beside her.

“Yeah, I just… hummed quietly, and suddenly, they all started humming it in unison.” Nene’s voice shook with fear.

“Tsukasa, third row down on the bookshelf, two books to the right. Fetch that for me.” Rui demanded, pointing to his bookshelf. Tsukasa quickly rushed to the bookshelf. He found the book Rui asked for, a leather bound book in English.

“Here… I can’t read it, so I sure hope you can.” Tsukasa handed Rui the book, then proceeded to sit down on a pile of tools and appliances Rui had pushed into a corner.

“Yes… thank you…” Rui opened the book and quickly scanned the pages. He then dropped it on the floor in front of Nene and Tsukasa, translating for them.

“The legend of the siren.” Rui proudly read.

“Well done, Sherlock. What else is there, sirens are basically mean mermaids?” Nene teased, giving Rui a mean stare.

“Well, maybe if you took the chance to read it, you’d find interesting information!” Rui used his foot to edge the book closer to Nene, which ended up in her throwing it at him.

“I can’t read that, genius! Translate it for us!” Nene shouted, crossing her arms.

“Well, sirens are usually beautiful maidens sailors will see out at sea. They use their beautiful voice and enticing looks to lure sailors to their doom.” Rui turned the page, showing Nene and Tsukasa an old illustration of a siren leading sailors and their ship to a whirlpool. “Good news is, the spell isn’t permanent. It wears off after about an hour. Bad news is, the guys are basically mind controlled during that period.”

“That’s uplifting.” Nene said sarcastically. Rui got up, and rummaged around in his desk. He pulled out some headphones and his notebook.

“I took a page out of Mizuki’s book. Let’s run some tests, shall we?” Rui’s eyes sparked with that insane curiosity. Tsukasa looked at Nene, as if to say “Run while you still can.”

“When are we gonna run tests on YOU? This seems awfully unfair.” Nene said. Tsukasa was happy to know Rui was going to get into an argument with someone other than him for once.

“Because I’m not that interesting. You are.” Rui sat down on his chair, taking out his favorite pen.

“Not that interesting? Say what you will, but I’d say you’re a decent lab rat. Or should I say, lab dog.” Nene said, flicking his ear.

“It’s best if we know our strengths and weaknesses! So come on Nene, let’s find out yours!” Rui stood up, trying to get Nene to drop the subject.

“When are we gonna find our yours, huh?” Nene sat him back down.

“When we’re done with you.” Rui fought his way out of Nene’s grip, forcing her hands beside her. Everyone knew what this meant: Rui didn’t want to know what he could do.

“Why do you get a pass and we don’t? Why do you automatically not get to participate in this, and we have to?” Nene snapped, breaking out of Rui’s hold. Rui and Nene stood in silence. Tsukasa was watching on in excitement, taking notes. To him, this was like a free broadway show! Of course, he was also concerned. He wasn’t a bad friend.

“You haven’t been taking this seriously. You’ve always pushed the focus onto one of us. And, I know that’s your whole thing, but when are we gonna talk about you?” Rui began to say something, but Nene still had a point to make. “And don’t you DARE say it’s embarrassing or awkward, because you remember Tsukasa, right? Imagine how I feel, Rui.”

Rui hated to admit it, but he’d been bested. Nene had him right where she wanted him.

“Listen, do what you want, I don’t care. Just stop trying to brush this off. You’re affected too, you know.” Nene’s voice shook.

“Sooo… you’re saying I can run the tests?” Rui smiled. Nene couldn’t help but laugh, but she wished she just reached him.

“Yes… you can run the tests…” Nene reluctantly agreed, and Rui bounded off in excitement.

“You’re playing with the devil, Nene. Be careful.” Tsukasa said, putting a hand on Nene’s shoulder.

“Listen, I’ve dealt with this idiot for almost all my life. If anyone can survive his crap, it’s me.” Nene put a thumbs up, and Rui came back with a notebook, some speakers, headphones, and several water bottles.

“I’m scared.” Tsukasa gulped, helping Rui carry some of the equipment.

“Don’t be! Like I said, this’ll help us in the future.” Rui stated, rather proud of himself.

“Test #1! Let’s see if your singing bothers us. And by us, I mean Tsukasa. If it does, it’s best if only one of us is under the control of the Great and Powerful Nene at once.” Rui smirked, motioning for Tsukasa to sit down.

“I NEVER AGREED TO THIS!” Tsukasa shouted in protest.

“Yes, but I did~“ Rui went to put on the headphones, and forgot the important detail of his regular ears were gone. He tried repositioning them to match the other ears, but nothing worked. Tsukasa strolled up to him, and proudly demanded the headphones. A defeated Rui handed them over, and sat down.

“Tsukasa, if this does work, write down everything she says. I’ll be charging her for that later.” Rui teased, motioning to Tsukasa. Tsukasa didn’t hear a thing Rui said.

“This is awkward…” Nene stared Rui down, who was also clearly uncomfortable. What made them feel worse, was the fact Tsukasa was watching them like a hawk.

“Just, sing. If it makes you feel any better, I can work on my prototypes… I’ll probably hear it…” Rui chuckled, getting up from the seat. Nene took a deep breath, and casually began singing. Nene closed her eyes, to avoid the reactions, but was pleasantly surprised when she opened them. Both Rui and Tsukasa seemed fine, and Tsukasa even took off the headphones.

“Alright, so it seems we’re unaffected!” Rui cheered, writing something in his notebook.

“Mostly… unaffected…” Nene said, giggling. Tsukasa was blushing and Rui’s tail was going a mile a minute.

“Y-you sound good! I mean it!” Tsukasa turned around, embarrassed. Nene was just laughing.

“Yeah, what Tsukasa said. Anyway, test #2.” Rui turned around and plugged a speaker in.

“What’s that for?” Tsukasa asked, curiously tapping on it.

“I have a recording of Nene singing before this whole debacle. Let’s see if that does anything.” Rui continued doing some technical expert things nobody understood.

“And how are you going to do that?” Nene asked, sitting down in Rui’s chair.

“My other neighbor. He’s 12. I don’t like him. He often comes knocking at my door, asking for robots and stuff. This is my revenge.” Rui sneered, opening his window and putting the speaker up to it. He turned it on, and immediately ran away.

“What’s wrong? Can’t stand 13 year old me singing?” Nene teased.

“Oh no, I just want to blame the noise complaints on you two.” Rui flatted his ears to his head. “And it’s also really loud.”

Tsukasa laughed. And it was only a matter of time until Rui heard someone humming the song Nene was singing in the recording. Rui immediately unplugged the speaker, and closed the window.

“That was… goodness.” Tsukasa joked, helping Rui carry the speaker back to it’s designated corner.

“I heard the kid humming it. And besides, I can’t get arrested yet.” Rui scoffed, but Nene and Tsukasa gave him concerned looks. They both knew not to ask questions about that entire sentence.

“So, it seems that even before Nene became a siren, her voice can affect people.” Rui muttered to himself, writing in a notebook.

“What now?” Nene said, kicking around a stray bolt on Rui’s floor.

“That’s all I had. Although, if I’ve got any more ideas, I’ll let you know.” Rui shut his notebook, and put it in his desk drawer.

“That’s all?” Tsukasa asked. That was tame, compared to what he had to do.

“Yeah. Nene’s pretty straightforward. Don’t get wet, and don’t sing. Easy as that.” Rui leaned back in his chair.

“Easier said than done, Mr. Genius.” Nene quipped.

“Yeah, but you’ll be fine.” Rui mocked. Nene glared at him.

“I let you do this, which means tomorrow, we’re doing you!” Nene pointed at Rui.

“Alright… I mean, have at it, I guess..” Rui shyly chuckled. Tsukasa was silently rejoicing at the fact that it was Rui’s turn to be humiliated. Nene and Tsukasa grabbed their bags, and left Rui’s place.

And Nene was embarrassed for the rest of the night.

Chapter Text

Tsukasa had forgotten why he woke up.

All he remembered was suddenly waking up in the middle of the night.

1:00

He wasn’t sick. He felt tired. So why wasn’t he sleeping?

He groaned as he checked his clock once more.

1:01

He flopped back onto his pillow. Fall asleep, he chanted to himself.

It didn’t work.

And before his brain could even think of his other options, Tsukasa had snuck out of the house. A terrible idea, a teenager like him, aimlessly wandering around city streets at night… not to mention he was defenseless.

He didn’t even know why he left the house. He just felt compelled to do so. As if his whole life depended on it.

He walked around the streets as normal, peering into the windows of closed shops and eyeing underpaid late shift cashiers. He sat on a bench under a tree. Street lights lit the eerie street. Perfect scene for a murder, Tsukasa thought to himself.

He simply looked into the night sky as he heard the crickets chirping and the lights buzzing. The stars always reminded him of Saki and her friends, so he smiled. He leaned his head back, trying to fall asleep again, but something caught his eye.

A little rabbit, dashing between the trees.

Tsukasa got up and followed the rabbit into the woods. It cautiously looked at him, before running off. Tsukasa instinctively ran after it, going full sprint. And if you ask him why he chased the rabbit, he’d simply respond with “It felt right.”

He and the rabbit chased each other. Occasionally, Tsukasa would think he’s chasing down prey and then think he’s playing tag with his sister. The rabbit quickly rounded the corner, and it took Tsukasa a minute to catch up to it.

The rabbit ran next to a bush, trembling as Tsukasa approached. It slowly backed away as Tsukasa slowly inched closer.

And then, the rabbit was taken by the bush.

It took Tsukasa a few minutes to take it in, but something had taken the rabbit before he could. He felt as if he blinked and then the rabbit was gone. He heard some rustling leaves and footsteps, but didn’t see anything around him. He didn’t bother going after it, anyway. He didn’t even have a good reason to chase it.

But then, just as he was walking away, he was greeted by an even better catch.

A lost man in the woods.

The man seemed to be late thirties, by a quick glance. He seemed to be either a hunter, hiker, or a camper. Tsukasa stalked him from behind a tree. Why was he out this late?

The man continued along his path, flashlight leading the way. Tsukasa stealthily followed the man, making sure to keep his distance but close the gap occasionally. His heart began pounding whenever the man turned around, checking to see if he could catch whatever was behind him. It was exhilarating. Tsukasa enjoyed it.

The man never seemed to stop, despite him being aware of Tsukasa’s presence.

“Who’s there? I’m armed!” The man exclaimed, turning around with a pocket knife in his hand. Tsukasa kept quiet, trying not to give himself away.

At least, not yet. He needed to find out what the man was doing.

“Ugh… whatever.” The man sighed, turning around to continue on his path. His backpack full of equipment rattled as he stepped. No wonder he was paranoid, he was making so much noise. The man took a seat on a log, and brought his water bottle to his mouth, but almost choked when he saw Tsukasa’s shadow dashing from tree to tree.

“H-hey! You! I see you, get back here!” The man dashed after Tsukasa, leaving his backpack behind. Tsukasa used the shadows of the trees to his advantage, and kept hidden.

“Bitch. I’m not scared of you. I’ve been everywhere, dealt with bears, cougars, lions, so much. A crazy axe stalker won’t do much to me!” The man laughed, drawing his pocket knife once more. Tsukasa went to circle around the man, when all of a sudden, the man launched himself towards Tsukasa.

“GOTCHA, MOTHERFUCKER!” The man swung at Tsukasa, knocking him to the ground. Just when he was about to stab, he took a minute to look at his “stalker.”

“You-you’re just a kid!” The man said, letting Tsukasa get up. “What’re you doing out here so late?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” Tsukasa said, brushing the leaves off his jacket.

“I see. Well, you ought to be careful around here, heard there’s some rabid dog on the loose.” The man looked Tsukasa in the eyes, before cracking a sly smile. “And that’s why I’m here. To kill it!”

“Has it attacked anyone?” Tsukasa asked, following the man back to his backpack.

“No, but it sure has considered it. Many people have seen it around these woods, picking up birds and other shit.”

“Why go after it when it’s just eating birds?”

“Because it can get worse. It starts of easy, before going for the big ones. People.”

Tsukasa paused, and the man just shot him a confused look.

“Tell me what the dog looks like. Maybe I can help.” Tsukasa held his hand out.

“Listen kid, I don’t need your help. I can do this on my own.” The man laughed, and simply strolled off.

“Maybe you didn’t hear me. Tell me what the dog looks like.”

“Oh, I heard you. I just don’t know.”

“Then how do you know what you’re looking for?”

The man paused, before turning around to face Tsukasa.

“You’re testing my patience, boy. I could use you as nice bait for that dog.”

“I would be nice bait, but I don’t think it would attack me…” Tsukasa began pacing circles around the man.

“Why? You a bear fighter or something?”

“No. The dog and I… we’re close.”

“It’s your dog?”

“Nope. He’s a stray, but we’re friends.”

“Friends?”

Tsukasa stopped, and bore his eyes into the man, before approaching him, and putting his hand on his shoulder, and leaning into his ear.

“Maybe take a minute to analyze your catch before you let it go.”

The man looked at Tsukasa in a weird way.

Tsukasa looked at the man longingly.

And then, the man was gone.

The husk of what was his body fell to the forest floor, leaves crunching beneath him. Tsukasa licked his lips and wiped his mouth, and then reminded himself of what he needed to do.

“Don’t think you can get away that easily. I just saved your life.” Tsukasa said, turning to face the thing that stole the rabbit.

“I could have handled him.” Rui took a step out from behind a tree.

“He was hunting you.” Tsukasa said sternly.

“And now, they’re gonna be onto you. A mysterious body, drained of all blood in the woods? Doesn’t look good for you, buddy.” Rui scoffed.

“So, you come to the woods every night, and have a snack or two?” Tsukasa shouted, causing Rui to pause.

“Mine are just little. At least I don’t go for people.” Rui sneered, looking at the man that lay before Tsukasa. Tsukasa hissed, before walking off. Rui went in a different direction.

Surely, nobody would find out it was Tsukasa.

Surely, nobody would find out about Rui.

The boys both walked away, their heads heavy with guilt and hopes.

Chapter Text

“Mr. Suzuki.”

A medium height girl with short blonde hair strolled into the office labeled “Detective.” The man inside the office had his shoes propped up on his desk, twiddling with a pen.

“Sir.”

The woman stood in the doorway, watching her “boss” like a hawk. He may be oblivious, but… that’s about it.

“MAKOTO!” The woman stomped her foot, causing the man to jump. He quickly put on a professional persona.

“Chiyoko! What brings you here!” The man, coughed, repositioning himself in his chair.

“Well, I just got a report that a dead body has been found in the woods. I’m sure people would love it if Makoto Suzuki, the local detective, want to investigate it.” Chiyoko demanded, throwing her clipboard down on his desk.

“Alright… this is clearly important, so let’s go.” Makoto said, getting up from his chair. He made sure to carefully reposition his hair to make it look like he wasn’t just bored in his office.

—

It took the two a little bit to get to the woods, but Makoto immediately knew where he was meant to be looking. The caution tape and flashlights have become something he’s used to. Chiyoko lead him to the scene, and Makoto surely hadn’t expected…that.

The body was simply a husk of what was a man. It was pale as can be. The body was so thin you could see the bones. Makoto was slightly unnerved by the whole scene. The position of the body, the way it looked… his friend, Jiro, was a nutcase but always tried to relate everything to the supernatural. Maybe he should get him on this case.

“Sir, please come check this out.” An officer led Makoto to where they found several footprints.

“Ah. Footprints. Thank you.” Makoto nodded, and the officer walked away. He knelt down to inspect them. At first glance, you’d only expect one pair, but he saw two. Both were about the same size, but one was slightly bigger than the other. Makoto grabbed a shoe from the man. His shoe was too big.

“Well folks, I think we’ve got a nice discovery here.” All focus was on Makoto.

“We may have two culprits.”

Everyone whispered amongst themselves. Two culprits wasn’t a new thing to them, but for a murder like this? It was strange. Makoto continued investigating the footprints. It didn’t look like there was a struggle. There was a clean line between them all. Two culprits was his best guess. If someone walked in on the scene, there’d have been two victims. Makoto’s head began to hurt with all the possibilities. He went back to the body.

“Sorry you had to go out this way.” Makoto whispered, kneeling down to the body. He inspected the body, looking for any evidence, any at all, that could point them towards a suspect.

Only when he inspected the neck did he get his answer.

Two evenly sized holes, right on the jugular. The holes were perfectly cleaned, not a single drop of blood remained.

“Holy shit… that’s creepy.” An officer said from behind Makoto.

“What’re telling the press?” A second officer piped in.

“Just say it’s that dog. Animal attacks happen every day.” The first officer responded.

“No.” Makoto stood up. “If we say it’s the dog, people will be scared to go out now that it attacks people. Let’s just say we’re investigating it.”

“Alright. I think the dog woulda worked though.” The second officer said, following Makoto out of the crime scene. Everyone was on edge from it. It was gruesome and unheard of, such a murder. Makoto fiddled with a vial in his pocket, full of something he secretly got from the crime scene. What was in the vial, it could give them whatever psycho did that.

That vial of saliva.

—

Tsukasa and Nene slammed into Rui’s garage, like usual. He’d gotten used to them invading his privacy like that. They seemed even more panicked than the other days.

“People onto you, or is it just overdue assignments?” Rui got up to take a seat with Tsukasa and Nene.

“Worse. Apparently, this idiot KILLED SOMEONE last night.” Nene shot Tsukasa a stare that said “I’ll kill you next.”

“Oh, yeah. I was there.” Rui said, fiddling with his pen.

“YOU WERE THERE? YOU WATCHED IT. AND YOU DIDN’T STOP IT.” Nene shouted, gripping her chair. Someone was going to get punched. Or worse, stabbed.

“It was Rui’s fault! The guy was trying to kill him!” Tsukasa argued, pointing at Rui.

“Why was he trying to kill Rui?” Nene asked, her eyes widened. She was on the brink of having a heart attack.

“He said there was a rabid dog on the loose, killing animals.” Tsukasa said, stealing Rui’s smug look. Rui was shaking with anger.

“Both of you, WHAT THE FUCK?” Nene stood up, and began pacing around the room.

“I got hungry!” The boys said at the same time. Nene made a strangling motion with her hands.

“You two are going to be the death of me. DO NOT KILL THINGS. PERIOD.” Nene shouted, causing both the boys to jump.

“Sorry, Nene.” The boys bowed their heads in both fear and respect. Nene sighed, and sat back down with the boys.

Everyone was quiet. Nene was still mad. Rui and Tsukasa were terrified.

“Do we need to go over what Mizuki said what to do and what not to do?” Nene eyed Tsukasa, who immediately looked away.

“You told me that I gotta eat blood to survive! So I did! Why are you mad at me?” Tsukasa’s arms flailed around desperately

“YOU KILLED SOMEBODY, TSUKASA!” Rui yelled, also getting mad at Tsukasa.

“Why is everyone getting mad at me? Rui’s been killing things, too!” Tsukasa said, trying his best to prove his innocence.

“Animals, Tsukasa! You killed a person! WHAT DO YOU NOT GET ABOUT THIS?!” Nene grabbed Tsukasa’s shoulders and shook him, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Nene went to get it, and Rui and Tsukasa immediately hid when they didn’t recognize the voice.

“Are Mr. Tenma and Mr. Kamishiro here?” A rather spiffy looking man stepped into the room.

“We need to speak with them.”

Chapter Text

Nene tried to shut the door on the man, but he put this foot in the frame, edging it open. Rui and Tsukasa held their breath in a corner, one of the many hiding spaces in Rui’s garage.

“Rui and Tsukasa are at school still, they do the drama clu-“ Nene said, trying to shoo the man away

“Ah, Rui Kamishiro and Tsukasa Tenma are at school? How strange, as Rui wasn’t at school today.” The man said, holding the school’s attendance records for today, showing Rui was one of the many absences.

“Well… he’s…” Nene was struggling to come up with a lie. She began sweating, and Rui had to hold Tsukasa down.

“They’re both here, I assume? Yes, Tsukasa’s sister said he was here. Now, where are you, Mr. Tenma?” The man walked past Nene, fully in Rui’s garage now. Tsukasa’s heart began beating faster and Rui’s breathing sped up. They were both sharing the same feeling-fear and panic. If they were discovered, it’s game over. Just when Tsukasa was about to make a run for it, the man stopped in his tracks. He just… stood there. Rui’s ear twitched, as he picked up on the sound of… Nene singing. Rui laughed, and came out from his hiding spot.

“Well done, Nene. I’m quite impressed. Now, do get this man out of my house, he’s…” Rui walked around the man, taunting him. “Making me mad.”

“None of this would be a problem if you two had a brain!” Nene stomped her foot, guiding the man outside and to his car. She whispered some things into his ear, and he promptly drove off. Nene gave the boys a demanding look, and they both began clapping for her.

“Everyone needs a Nene, right Rui?” Tsukasa said, nudging Rui in his side.

“Of course! Maybe I could mass produce Robo-Nene-“ Rui was cut off when Tsukasa stepped on his toe. Not the reaction he was expecting, nor the reaction he wanted. Nene stepped back inside the garage, and Rui and Tsukasa were seated on the floor, waiting for further instructions.

“Okay, you two. I was able to get that officer off your case… he was a crime scene investigator, and he had DNA evidence of Tsukasa committing the murder. Luckily…” Nene held up a vial in her hands. “It’s mine now.” Nene tossed it in one of Rui’s numerous trash cans, burying it under some crumpled up papers.

“Sweet. Thanks Nene! What would we do without you!” Tsukasa cheered, getting up to give Nene a high five. She simply shot him the murder stare, and he sat down. Rui snickered.

“We aren’t playing the blame game. Rui, this is not Tsukasa’s fault, and Tsukasa, this isn’t Rui’s fault. You’re both in trouble here.” Nene stated, pacing in front of the boys.

“Sorry, Nene.” Tsukasa said, followed by a pathetic whimper from Rui.

“Don’t apologize to me. I don’t have anything to do with this. But, we do have a serious problem here. The rabid dog?” Nene scoffed, looking at Rui.

“Don’t look at me!” Rui’s hands flew up in helplessness. Nene sighed, and shook her head.

“Tsukasa, rumors have gotten out online about the “Shibuya Vampire.”” Nene purred, propping her head on her hands.

“Okay, why is it always us? Where’s your drama? Huh?” Tsukasa hissed.

“My drama? Oh, I’ve had a ton of drama. I’m just good at hiding it.” Nene winked. Suddenly, the boys felt very unsafe.

“By good at hiding it, you mean brainwashing.” Rui said.

“It’s not brainwashing when I have a good voice.” Nene’s smug tone clashed with his.

Tsukasa’s phone buzzed in his pocket while Nene and Rui went off in their own little argument. He expected a message from Saki, reminding him that he needed to be home for dinner or Mom would yell at him, but he was instead met by something worse.

Much worse.

“Hope that midnight snack was worth Shibuya finding out.”

A text from Emu.

Tsukasa looked up, and saw Nene pulling on Rui’s ears and Rui lazily swiping at her to get her off, but when his concerned look met theirs, they immediately stopped their quarrel and listened.

“Tsukasa, what’s wrong?” Nene said, taking a seat besides Tsukasa. Rui tried to peek over his phone.

“Emu… she’s got a plan…” Tsukasa mumbled, breath shaking.

“And it can’t be good.”

—

Wonderland SEKAI was turned upside down when Emu entered.

She was met with cheers of joy and groans of agony.

The infamous partner in crime to Miku.

“Emu! Welcome back!” Miku clapped her hands in delight when Emu stormed into the show tent. KAITO, Len, and Rin tensed up. KAITO was able to get Rin and Len back to their senses, but that unfortunately meant that if Miku found out, they’d be in that labyrinth of cells.

“Miku! I’ve got some wonderful news for you~“ Emu sang, meeting Miku in a hug.

Miku led Emu to her room, where Luka finished making the bed.

“Oooh… Miku… welcome…” Luka said, drowsily. One thing that will remain throughout all time is Luka’s sleepiness.

“Luka, do prepare our extra bed. We’ll be having a visitor today.” Miku snapped her fingers, and Luka walked off. Miku sat Emu down in a chair across from her bed.

“You said you had news for me?” Miku’s cat ears perked up in excitement.

“Yes… you complained to me about a certain vampire attacking your villages?” Emu asked, pursing her lips in excitement.

“Oh, girl, tell me about him. He’s been doing nothing but terrorizing my poor, poor plushies…” Miku picked up a cat plushie and sat in on her lap. “And his little friends, too…”

“What if I said we could ruin his world, just like how he ruined yours?”

Miku and Emu’s sly smile meant one thing-

They had a plan.

A plan to ruin both worlds.

Chapter Text

Tsukasa decided to stay home from school today, so Saki’s car ride to school was less entertaining. All she did was sit out the window, lazily watching the other cars pass by. She usually had Tsukasa to keep her entertained, but today he said he felt bad. Saki had her parents, but they weren’t the same. It was just… a dreary morning. Saki stepped out of the car, waved her parents goodbye, and was immediately swarmed by her friends and band mates.

“Saki, did you see the posts online?” Ichika asked, holding out her phone.

“Truly unnerving…” Honami said, holding her hand on her cheek.

“You two do realize it’s all a hoax, right? Just to get us scared?” Shiho remarked, crossing her arms.

“I haven’t even seen it yet! Give me a second!” Saki giggled.

She read the web article that Ichika pulled up-The Shibuya Vampire murder. It talks about the murder that recently took place, of that poor man who was drained of everything. The writer seemed to be quite interested in the supernatural, because Saki remembered this isn’t the first time he’s written something like this. Saki was able to stay calm on the outside, but on the inside, she was furious.

“TSUKASA TENMA. WHAT. DID. YOU DO.” Saki said to herself.

“Come on you guys, this guy’s crazy. Just ignore it.” Saki said, giving Ichika’s phone back.

“Yes, but what if he isn’t? His last post made points.” Ichika sat down on a rock, putting a finger on her temple.

“It’s just some weird thing that happened. It’s not that big of a deal.” Saki was trying to drop the topic. This was breaking news, and news that like spreads like wildfire. News that her brother caused.

“Fine, fine, but it’s that park you and your family like to go to. Be careful there.” Honami stated, pulling Saki into a sappy hug. Saki giggled and tried to fight her way out of Honami’s grasp.

The girls went on about their day as normal. Boring classes, making jokes in the halls, and encountering friends. During lunch, however, Saki was able to sneak into her SEKAI. She needed to speak with Miku.

—

Her SEKAI was something she always found beautiful. The sky was always painted in a twilight hue, the stars always welcomed her, and the halls seemed so familiar to her. This was certainly one of Saki’s happy places.

“SAKKI! Welcome!” Rin shouted, bursting from a classroom, followed by a wide-eyed KAITO and a satisfied MEIKO.

“KAITO, were they being mean to you again?” Saki joked, making everyone laugh.

“Ooh, no. They were just showing me some songs.” KAITO shyly chuckled.

“What brings you here, Saki?” MEIKO asked, pushing KAITO and Rin out of the way.

“Ah, well, I wanted to speak with Miku and Luka, if they’re not busy…” Saki responded, walking past the others. Rin pointed to the roof, so Saki headed off.

—

The roof of the school was no doubt the prettiest. A perfect view of the sky and a gentle, cooling breeze. Saki took a deep breath of the air, and walked over towards Miku and Luka. They seemed to be having a rooftop lesson. Saki felt bad for interrupting, but this was important.

“Hey, Luka, Miku? I’ve got some questions…” Saki asked, waving her hand to get their attention. Luka slightly jumped, but brushed it off with a laugh.

“Well, hello Saki! To what do we owe the pleasure?” Luka turned around to face Saki, pulling her down on their picnic blanket.

“Well… this isn’t exactly the happiest of trips… but I’ve got a question…” Saki’s serious expression made both the ladies drop the jokes and focus on her.

“Question on what?” Miku gulped, setting her guitar aside.

“W-wishing tears…” Saki fiddled with her thumbs in her lap.

“Where did you hear about those?” Luka crawled over to Saki, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“An… unfortunate friend.” Saki replied, avoiding eye contact.

Miku and Luka looked at each other. They decided they ought to tell her.

“They were named Wishing Tears by the victims. Yes, it gets the job done, but often comes with several strings attached.” Luka stated.

“Many a SEKAI has been destroyed from them. They’re definitely possible to recover from, but it’s best to never get involved with them in the first place. They can be hard to clean up.” Miku added, scooting over to Saki.

“Your friend, are they okay?” Luka asked, putting her hand on Saki’s chin.

“Yes… but how do you fix it?” Saki responded, sinking her head farther into Luka’s hand, eventually leading to a comforting hug. Both Luka and Miku could tell Saki was upset.

“Your friend will be fine. Don’t worry. Like Miku said, there’s a high chance you can recover from them. It’s the aftermath you have to worry about.” Luka said.

“The aftermath?” Saki sniffled, wiping her eyes.

“Everyone affected will remember everything that happened. Sometimes, people say and do things they don’t mean, and this can cause rifts in friendships.” Luka continued to comfort Saki. Saki imagined how devastated Tsukasa would be if his troupe was ruined from this whole thing.

“Saki, your friend will be fine. We promise.” Miku said, gently patting Saki on the back.

“Yeah… I know it…” Saki smiled, trying not to think of the worst case scenario. Everything would be okay.

Everything was fine.

—

“You have our own house!” Rui yelled, pointing to the door.

“Yeah, but yours is like… our base!” Tsukasa argued.

“THIS IS MY HOUSE, TSUKASA!” Rui just wanted people to ask before showing up to his house.

“I’M NOT LEAVING!” Tsukasa grabbed a wrench from Rui’s pile of silver tools.

“TSUKASA! WE DO NOT NEED TO RESORT TO VIOLENCE!” Rui pleaded, backing away.

“GOTCHA, BIT-“ Tsukasa was interrupted by Mizuki bursting into Rui’s garage.

“TSUKASA, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!” Mizuki shouted, storming inside.

“I’M DONE! I’M FUCKING DONE! BREAK INTO MY HOUSE, I DON’T CARE.” Rui threw his hands up in defeat, walking out of the garage and into his house.

“What’s up with him?” Mizuki asked.

“He’s in a mood.” Tsukasa sneered, dropping the wrench.

“Eh, what’s new. Anyway buddy, you fucked up royally this time!” Mizuki laughed, showing the article to Tsukasa.

“IT WASN’T MY FAULT!” Tsukasa shoved Mizuki’s phone back at them, and tried to open the door to Rui’s house, but all Mizuki heard was a mix of a growl and a yell and Tsukasa getting thrown against a wall.

“God, he really is mad..” Mizuki chuckled, helping Tsukasa up.

“Ugh… just drop the topic, okay? Tell people it’s a hoax.” Tsukasa brushed the dirt off his shirt.

“Oh, people think that, but you’ve still gotta deal with… those people.” Mizuki said, acting like they were crazy.

“Well, crap.” Tsukasa sat down on Rui’s chair, and put his head on his desk.

Mizuki fiddled with some of Rui’s tools, before walking over to Tsukasa.

“Wanna… come over to my house? Maybe a change of scenery will help…” Mizuki shyly giggled.

“Yeah, sure…” Tsukasa stood up, and Mizuki led him outside.

—

About an hour later, Rui got a knock at his door.

“I swear to FUCKING GOD, MIZUKI-“ Rui opened the door.

But didn’t remember anything after that.

—

Miku shivered with excitement.

“Emu, you’re a genius! This will surely turn their world upside down!”

Emu was ready to have some fun.

Chapter Text

Tsukasa was finally sleeping peacefully for once.

He blocked Rui’s number, so he didn’t have to deal with the middle finger emoji every 2 minutes.

He blocked Nene’s number, so he didn’t have to deal with her reminding him he’s a murderer.

However, he did forget he has a sister.

A very, very mad sister.

He only remembered when he felt a pillow smack the back of his head.

“TSUKASA TENMA, WAKE UP!!” Saki demanded, banging a pillow against his head.

“No.”

“WAKE. UP. NOW.”

“I don’t want to. Ask me later.”

“Fine. Be that way. I’ll be right back.”

Saki threw the pillow at him and Tsukasa went deeper into his little hole. He enjoyed the hole, he didn’t want to come out. Besides, a star needs their beauty sleep.

However, Tsukasa does not like a certain star.

That star being the sun.

So when Saki opened his blinds to let sunlight fill up the room, Tsukasa immediately shot up. Saki tried to hold in her laughter as Tsukasa crawled out of bed and shut the blinds. His head whipped around to face a giggling Saki.

“What happened to being sleepy?” Saki joked.

“I am not against adding another to my body count.” Tsukasa pointed at Saki, and flopped back on his bed.

“Ah, glad we’re on that topic. About that…” Saki pulled up the article on her phone. “Shibuya Vampire? A murder that seems almost exactly like the legend of the vampire? Yeah, Tsukasa, something doesn’t sit right with me. And you did just admit it… so…” Saki rolled her eyes and shrugged. Tsukasa wanted to strangle her.

“HE WAS TRYING TO KILL RUI! I WAS JUST DOING HIM A FAVOR!” Tsukasa yelled, throwing his pillow.

“Hey! The neighbors might hear!” Saki whispered, looking out the window. Tsukasa made his body go limp as he fell back down on his bed.

“Now, why was this guy trying to kill Rui? Is he a murderer too?” Saki asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“If animals were people, he’d be a serial killer.” Tsukasa chuckled, not bothering to sit up.

“Goodness… is everyone in your troupe a murderer?” Saki joked, laying down beside Tsukasa.

“Possibly. I wouldn’t put it past Nene and who knows what Emu’s been doing.” Tsukasa said. He only realized what he said when Saki confronted him.

“Emu? What’s wrong with Emu? Come to think of it, you don’t seem to hang out anymore.” Saki asked, concerned.

“O-oh! No, no, no! She’s fine! She just stays home a lot now!” Tsukasa responded, his voice shaking. He didn’t know what Emu was up to, but he knew it couldn’t be good.

But Nene knew what Emu was planning.

—

“God, why won’t he answer…” Nene sighed, pouting. She had pulled a Rui, and skipped school. She decided to stay at Mizuki’s house.

“Tsukasa’s probably brooding. Or maybe murdering someone else, who knows with him!” Mizuki laughed as they continued putting on their makeup. Nene was fascinated at how they did it. It was incredible.

“Not helping! Rui’s unreachable, and Tsukasa. KAITO said that something bad is going to happen, and I need the most unpredictable ones monitored at all times!” Nene said, pacing around Mizuki’s room.

“Whoa, you’ve got a KAITO. Ours hasn’t shown up yet…” Mizuki hung their head low, but their demeanor seemed to change instantly. “I’ll text Tsukasa. Maybe I can reach him!” They reached for their phone, rapidly typing in their password.

Nene walked off, and tried to reach KAITO.

“…KAITO? Are you there?” Nene asked, trying to hold back how panicked she was.

“Nene! You’re okay!” KAITO’s hologram appeared on her phone, and a wave of relief flooded over Nene.

“Yes! Yes! I’m fine! But where’s everyone else? Is Emu okay? What about Rui?” Nene’s voice sped up as she continued asking questions.

“Whoa, slow down… and uh… I don’t know about Tsukasa. I know about the other two, though…” KAITO mumbled, trying to avoid eye contact with Nene. He clearly seemed nervous.

“KAITO, where are they?” Nene sternly asked.

“Just… come to SEKAI. It’s better if I show you…” KAITO said as his hologram disappeared. Nene grunted, and slammed her phone on the ground.

“Hey, uh… I got Tsukasa. He said he’s fine…” Mizuki handed their phone to Nene, showing the texts from Tsukasa.

“Mind if I text him?” Nene asked.

“Not at all.” Mizuki responded, walking off.

“Tsukasa, go to SEKAI. Now.”

“What’s wrong?”

“You’ll see.”

“OK… meet you there, I guess.”

Nene closed Mizuki’s phone, and handed it back to them.

“Mizuki, what do you know about Halloween?” Nene asked, grabbing Mizuki by the hand.

“I mean, a decent amount… why?”

“You’re about to see it.”

Nene grabbed her phone, and in a flash, she and Mizuki were gone.

To the Wonderland SEKAI they go.

—

“Hooollyyy… this is your SEKAI?!” Mizuki gawked, looking at all the scenery.

“Well… in a way. This isn’t what it normally looks like. Usually it’s brighter than this.” Nene said, guiding Mizuki around. The sooner they could find Tsukasa, the better.

“Well, I like it! Better than mine, that’s for sure…” Mizuki’s voice trailed off as they continued to admire the spooky decor. “What’s that big place ov-“

Nene pulled Mizuki to the ground behind a bush. Nene shushed them, before peeking out from behind it, and then making a “Let’s go” motion with her hands. The two continued on Nene’s path. Mizuki didn’t dare argue. They didn’t know anything about what was going on. Nene stopped them when they arrived at a giant crimson tent.

“Everything here seems so… hostile…” Mizuki ran their hands along the silk lining of the tent.

“Our SEKAI has been ruined, just like our lives…” Nene’s voice shook as she gripped the handles. Mizuki could feel her pain. All of them being considered outcasts… something they were too familiar with.

“KAITO should be right here.” Nene said, leading Mizuki backstage. Props and candy wrappers littered the floor. They had to step carefully, as one wrong move would alert Miku of their presence. Nene found the stage that led to the maze of jail cells, and led Mizuki down. KAITO said for them to meet him there. Nene just hoped it wasn’t a trap.

“Nene!” KAITO said, running over to her. She quickly met him in a hug, and Mizuki felt slightly jealous.

“You must be Mizuki Akiyama. It’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is KAITO.” He bowed down to Mizuki. “Rui has told me so much about you. It’s shame we met in these conditions, though…”

“Hey, no worries! I’m all for supernatural stuff!” Mizuki said, laughing. Nene giggled too.

“Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Tsukasa and Rui… well, let’s say they aren’t exactly…” KAITO hesitated, trying to find his words. If they got the wrong idea for anything, Nene would panic. “They’re… fine! They’re fine! But… also… not?”

“You’re doing great, KAITO, just tell me where they are.” Nene asked, grabbing KAITO’s shoulders.

“I don’t know where Tsukasa is… Emu found him before I did… but I do know where Rui is.” KAITO responded, leading the Nene and Mizuki down a hallway. Mizuki was fascinated at how such a dark dungeon could be in Rui’s SEKAI.

When the group reached the end of the hallway, they were met by a door that had seen better days. It was damaged, dented, had several chunks missing, and seemed barely on it’s hinges.

“Holy shit… what did this?” Mizuki asked, running their hands along the dents.

“A very, very, very, very, unhappy Rui.” KAITO said. His expression reminded Nene of those PTSD memes.

“Oh god… is he okay?” Nene chimed, trying to see through the cracks in the door.

“Don’t know. Emu had to drag him kicking and screaming down here. She did some… witchy stuff, and then he went silent. We haven’t heard from him since. I sent Len in there, to check on him, but he hasn’t come back out…” KAITO said, creaking the door open a little bit. Everyone gulped, and Mizuki stepped inside.

“Mizuki! What are you doing?” Nene said in a whisper shout

“If anyone can handle Rui in a fisticuff, it’s me.” Mizuki responded with a proud expression. Nene sighed and shut the door. The room was pitch black. All Mizuki could hear was some low pitched huffing. It took a minute for their eyes to adjust, but when they finally saw the scene before them, they were shocked.

There was Len, laying in a pile of… blueish gray fur? Mizuki slowly walked up to Len. He was dead. Len was fucking dead. Mizuki’s heart began to pound, and what didn’t help was the fact Len began talking a mile a minute.

“Oh! Hi! You must be Akiyama! I’m Len, Kagamine Len!” Len held his hand out for Mizuki to shake it. They hesitated, before grabbing it in a quick handshake.

“Len, buddy, I thought you were dead!” Mizuki yelled, grabbing Len and shaking him.

“Ooh, yeah, everyone does. Rui’s harmless though! We’ve just been sitting here!” Len said in a cheery tone. Mizuki looked at the furball in the corner and could roughly make out a canine shape.

“Len… that’s Rui?!” Mizuki said in shock.

“I hope so. Emu did something, and he’s just been pouting in here ever since. He won’t hurt anybody, though!” Len sang, bouncing over to Rui and then laying down against him. Mizuki walked over to Rui and saw him laying on his side with Len against his back. His eyes looked pitiful.

“Oh, come on, stop whining! You’re fine!” Mizuki laughed, pulling on one of his ears. Rui just huffed and turned the other direction.

“Just ignore him. He’s been like this. Even me painting his nails didn’t help!” Len said, lifting a massive dog paw above his head to reveal the neon yellow claws. Mizuki held back their laughter.

“Well… good to know Rui’s okay. Len, do you know about Tsukasa?” Mizuki asked, leaning against Rui’s back, sitting next to Len.

“I-I don’t know… Emu’s probably doing the same thing to him that she did to Rui.” Len responded.

“That can’t be good…” Mizuki said, giving Rui some small pats on the back. They got up, told Len goodbye, and told Rui to behave. Not like he could do much, though.

“Mizuki! You’re… perfectly fine? Is Rui okay?” Nene asked, swarming Mizuki with questions.

“Oh yeah, Rui’s fine. He should be alright.” Mizuki said, and Nene and KAITO shared a sigh of relief.

“What about Len? Is he okay?” KAITO asked.

“You should be more worried about Len than Rui.” Mizuki jested. KAITO immediately understood what they were saying.

“But we should really find Tsukasa…” Mizuki said, leaning against a wall

“Is he okay?” Nene asked.

“I can’t promise anything, but from the way this is going, I can almost certainly say no.”

Chapter Text

Tsukasa was currently in the woods.

Police flashlights were blinding his eyes.

Can’t forget the fact he’s standing in a crime scene, with a bloodstained face.

In order to properly understand how he got there, let’s first talk about what happened before all shit hit the fan.

—

When Tsukasa arrived in the Wonderland SEKAI, he wasn’t met with the best reception. An army of plushies, led by Emu, swarmed him. At first, Tsukasa was excited to see his friend. But then he saw that look in her eyes. Yeah, that probably wasn’t Emu.

“E-Emu?” Tsukasa stuttered, trying to pull the plushies off of him.

“They won’t let go that easily… after all, you’re rather important to my plan!~” Emu sang, snapping her fingers. Tsukasa suddenly stood upwards, and realized he was in some kind of floating cage… he was both fascinated and pissed.

“Emu! Let me out!” Tsukasa demanded, banging against the walls. Emu only laughed, as she continued walking. Tsukasa slumped down against the cage, defeated.

When they arrived at the show tent, Tsukasa only felt worse. There sat Miku, her cat-like eyes following him… taunting him.

“Here you go, Miku! That little pest you asked for!” Emu exclaimed, shouting loud enough so Tsukasa could hear her. He tried his best to avoid eye contact with Miku.

“Thanks Emu!~” Miku said, in her usual cheerful tone. Emu smiled, and then bounced off somewhere. When Miku’s eyes met Tsukasa’s, he felt like a bug in a spider’s web.

“You’ve RUINED my perfect world. Everything was great… until you and your little friends came along! So now, we’re going to ruin your world… and you’re going to help us!” Miku said, getting her face up close to Tsukasa’s. She pressed her forehead against the walls, and Tsukasa backed away.

“I don’t want anything to do with this! I won’t do crap!” Tsukasa protested, leaning forward to meet Tsukasa in a competitive staring contest.

“Your other friend wasn’t that easy to break. It only took a little bit of work from Emu. Surely you won’t be that hard.” Miku sneered, leaning back in her chair. She made a hand motion, and MEIKO appeared from behind Miku. She guided the floating cage that Tsukasa was in backstage, but not to the dungeon… instead, it was just a room Emu was waiting in. Emu smiled, MEIKO nodded, and then walked out. Emu clapped, and the cage vanished. Tsukasa fell flat on his back, groaning as he stood up. Emu stood at the other side of the room, menacingly.

“Emu, this isn’t you. You can stop this.” Tsukasa shouted, trying to not rush over there and pull her into a hug. He just wished he could fix this, fix her, fix everything…

“I can stop this, but what makes you think I want to? That little wish is progressing rapidly. Which helped for me, Rui broke easily~” Emu joked, approaching Tsukasa. He backed away, until he realized he was trapped in a corner.

“What… what did you do to Rui?” Tsukasa gulped.

“You’ll see, once I’m done with you.” Emu snapped. The lights went dark.

When they came back on, Tsukasa was back in the woods. Emu was gone.

“Hey! Emu! Where…” Tsukasa yelled, running around. He figured this was some kind of illusion.

But he smelled something that caught his attention.

He looked off into the distance, and saw a boy, about his age, laying on the leaves. He seemed to be grabbing his leg in pain. Tsukasa slowly walked up to the boy.

“H-hello?” The boy shouted, his eyes dashing from side to side. Tsukasa quickly ran behind a tree.

This felt all too familiar to him.

But he was too distracted to realize this was a trap.

The boy sighed, and leaned back against the tree. He went back to inspecting his leg. When Tsukasa saw it, he saw massive claw marks all up his leg.

Tsukasa continued to quietly creep closer to the boy. Soon, they were both on opposite ends of the tree. Tsukasa could smell the boy’s blood, and it was driving him mad. Should he rush in there, and storm the boy, or take it easy? Tsukasa was thinking about his options, before his brain decided for him. He found himself reaching around the tree, putting his hand over the boy’s mouth.

“I would say don’t panic, but that won’t be a problem soon.”

Tsukasa closed his eyes. The smell flooded his nose, and sent him mad. It was the equivalent of a starving man smelling his favorite food. His mind went empty, the smell dominating his mind. Tsukasa didn’t pay attention to where the smell was coming from, but when he opened his eyes, he found himself laying on the floor of the room he was in with Emu. He shot up onto his knees. He ran his hands around the cobblestone, he could have sworn the smell was coming from there. He licked his lips, but they were barren. He was so sure of himself… what happened? Tsukasa continued to try to find the smell, before letting out a crazed yell. He needed that smell. It’s all he could think about.

“Goodness… that was effective…” Emu gasped, peeking into the room.

KAITO stood behind Emu. He could hear Tsukasa banging on the walls, screaming out. It was just like with Rui. Both of them were shown something they felt they needed that Emu could provide, but this was the first time he saw how it went. KAITO sighed. Slowly, his hope that they could save themselves was fading.

“Well… that didn’t take long. You only lasted 10 minutes!” Emu said, stepping into the room. It didn’t take long until Tsukasa was on her, grabbing her by the shirt.

“Where is it… where can I find it?” Tsukasa snapped.

“That was the smell of blood… you like it?” Emu spoke. KAITO tried to spy on Emu, seeing what she did. If he could find out what she did to Tsukasa, maybe he could at least get them out of their trances.

“Yes!” Tsukasa exclaimed, mindlessly. Emu managed to loosen Tsukasa’s grip enough to get out of that situation.

“I’ll tell you what… you want that smell… and I want to cause trouble… I’ll give you an endless supply of that smell if you do this one thing for me…” Emu whispered. She was aware of KAITO watching, and she held out her hand for Tsukasa.

“What do I have to do?” Tsukasa asked.

“Shake my hand, and then we’ll talk.” Emu looked at her hand, and Tsukasa took it without hesitation. All of a sudden, Tsukasa passed out. His body went limp, and Emu dropped his hand, and then wiped her hand on her dress.

“KAITO, do throw him down in that cell room… and also, I hope you were paying attention. That was called a frenzy. It’s when a vampire gets so worked up over the smell of blood they go practically insane.” Emu said, brushing past KAITO. He bowed as she walked past. KAITO thought the world of Emu, but not this Emu. Once she was gone, he bolted over to Tsukasa like a concerned dad.

“Tsukasa! Tsukasa… oh, please wake up…” KAITO said, shaking Tsukasa. Nene and Mizuki had already left, so this was his job now.

Tsukasa groaned as he woke back up, and KAITO quickly pulled him into a hug. Tsukasa eyed KAITO, confused.

“Tsukasa? Hey, talk to me!” KAITO shook Tsukasa, and he continued to look confused, but never spoke a word.

Something was wrong.

This wasn’t Tsukasa.

KAITO began to panic, when Len suddenly came running up behind him, also in a panic.

“KAITO! We’ve got a problem!” Len huffed.

“WHAT NOW?” KAITO yelled. He wanted a break.

“I… I lost Rui…” Len trembled, fiddling with his clothes.

“Kagamine Len. How do you lose Rui. HE’S A MASSIVE DOG FOR FUCK’S SAKE!” KAITO shouted, stomping up to Len.

“Whoa, language! And, uh, well… I closed my eyes for a nap, and when I woke up, he was gone! I couldn’t find him anywhere!” Len whined, trying to calm himself down.

“I don’t have time for this… get Rin, and monitor Tsukasa. If you lose him, you’re losing your head. I’ll go find Rui.” KAITO ordered, rushing past Len. Len tried to say something, but decided not to. He turned around, and decided that if he couldn’t have Rui, Tsukasa would have to do. He reached into his pocket, and grabbed his signature yellow nail polish.

—

Nene and Mizuki were back at Mizuki’s house. They were both laying on the floor, face down. There was so much to be said, but none of them wanted to say it.

Their relaxation time was interrupted by KAITO, however.

“Nene… I know this isn’t the best time right now but…” KAITO said, his sudden appearance scaring both of them.

“KAITO! Goodness, tell me when you’re gonna do that…” Nene hissed, rubbing her eyes. Mizuki just made an acknowledging “mm” sound, not even bothering to get up.

“Well, uh… you are allowed to be mad at me… because I lost Rui. And Tsukasa. Well, technically Len did, but that-“

“YOU DID WHAT.” Nene cut off KAITO. She was so mad, she could skin someone alive.

“We… lost… the boys?” KAITO laughed nervously.

“No you did not! How can you lose the noisiest ones!” Mizuki laughed, turning over on their side.

“Well, we haven’t found them in SEKAI, which means they’re probably in the real world… and let’s not forgot about Rui, and Emu did something weird to Tsukasa and now he’s like, mega stabby.” KAITO said, pursing his lips.

“KAITO… I CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS RIGHT NOW!” Nene shouted. KAITO took the hint, and disappeared.

“Uh, Nene, you better come check this out…” Mizuki said, pointing to the TV.

“Tsukasa’s on the news.”

Chapter Text

Meanwhile, at Honami’s house, band practice was going smoothly.

The girls had taken a break to watch a movie with snacks… which was more like Saki actually watching, Ichika and Honami talking the whole time, and Shiho on her phone.

“Oh! I remember that! Last ti-“

“HONAMI! IT’S THE BEST PART!” Saki yelled, pointing a half-bitten pretzel at Honami’s neck. Shiho snorted as Ichika held her hands up in a weak surrender.

“Sorry, Saki! I’m watching, I promise!” Honami pleaded.

“You’ve said that six times! This is your last chance!” Saki snorted, turning around to face the TV.

“Uh, hey Saki, what does your brother look like?” Shiho asked, finally looking up from her phone.

“Uh… blonde, his hair does this weird fade to pink thing at the end… a little taller than me, yellowish orange eyes… oh, he’s also REALLY loud, and can’t forget stubborn!”

“That last part seemed awfully aggressive.” Ichika said.

“Well, I’m right!” Saki defended herself.

“Well, does this look like him?” Shiho held her phone out, to reveal a blurry picture of what indeed seemed to be Tsukasa Tenma.

“Uh… yeah, actually, it does… where did you find this?” Saki asked, trying to take Shiho’s phone.

“The police are looking for him. Something about murder.” Shiho nonchalantly replied.

Everyone froze.

“E-excuse me?!” Honami blurted, trying not to spit out her drink.

“I’ll read more about it later. All I know is the police are looking for him, near that one park.” Shiho shrugged.

“Saki, did you know about this?” Ichika asked.

“N-no! We need to find him!” Saki slammed her hands on the table.

“Are you crazy? This can get us arrested.” Shiho shut her down.

“Well, it’d be a cool musician backstory… but I’m with Shiho on this one… besides, it may not be him. The amount of lookalikes here are crazy.” Ichika said.

“I’d recognize that hair anywhere! That’s Tsukasa, and he’s innocent! He’ll get arrested!” Saki argued.

“Where are his friends? Can’t they help him?” Honami asked, trying to calm Saki down.

“Oh right… his friends…” Saki thought. “I don’t know what’s going on with them, but they probably can’t help either. It’s up to me!” Saki pumped herself up in her mind.

“Come on guys! Please!” Saki fell to her knees, and began begging.

“Ugh… fine! Just… get up, this is weird.” Shiho laughed, helping Saki up.

“THANK YOU SHIHOOOOO!” Saki sobbed. Honami just laughed as she cleaned up the mess.

“Well… let’s go, I guess. Saki, if we get arrested, you explain this to your mother.” Ichika pointed at Saki, who just nodded. The girls quickly stormed out of the house, armed with flashlights and butter knives.

—

“Sa…ki… we’ve… been searching… for… hours…” Shiho huffed, trailing behind a fully energized Saki.

“He’s here! He’s gotta be!” Saki said, shining her flashlight everywhere.

“Saki, we need to get home! This is dangerous!” Honami demanded, grabbing Saki by her shoulder.

“No! He’s here! I swear!” Saki yelled.

“G-guys…” Ichika stammered.

“And if he isn’t? We shouldn’t be here!” Honami rebutted.

“Guys…” Ichika tried to grab their attention again.

“HE’S HERE!” Saki shouted, which Ichika quickly shut her up.

“Ichi? Let me go!” A muffled Saki shouted. Ichika pointed, which quickly shut them all up.

“That’s… that’s a big dog…” Shiho gasped, ducking behind a bush.

“What the CRAP is that?!” Saki screamed, yet still in a whisper.

“Why we should leave, Saki! That thing can probably mess us up! S-Saki?! Hey!” Honami waved her hand in front of an unresponding Saki’s face.

Saki was too busy paying attention to the dog. And then it hit her. She recognized those yellow eyes.

“I’ll be right back! Don’t follow me!” Saki shouted, running off after the animal.

“SAKI?! ARE YOU CRAZY?!” Ichika yelled, grabbing her leg, which Saki quickly shook off.

“There’s a chance! But if this works, then you all owe me!” Saki’s voice faded away. The other girls watched in horror as Saki slowly approached the large canine-like creature. Too big to be a wolf, and it didn’t look like a bear. Honami watched in shock as the dog seemed more afraid of Saki then Saki was afraid of it. Ichika didn’t know if she should be concerned or heartwarmed when Saki held her hand out, and the creature nuzzled it. And Shiho was sure as hell pissed when it followed her back to their little hiding spot.

“It’s okay guys! Now, let’s go!” Saki ordered, trying to get everyone to stand up again.

“Whoa, whoa whoa! First, you tell us what the HELL that thing is, and why it’s following you!” Shiho shouted, pointing at the oversized chihuahua behind Saki.

“Uh… I probably shouldn’t get too specific… but he’s a friend!” Saki pleaded.

“HE?!” The girls said simultaneously.

“Don’t question it! Just… let’s go find Tsukasa!” Saki said, this time with some urgency in her voice. She pushed the other girls along, while the large wolf just followed behind them. Saki made sure the others couldn’t hear her, before sneaking back to check on the dog.

“Hey… Rui, you good?” Saki said, snapping to get his attention. Rui nodded, and Saki smiled.

“Great, well, can you find Tsukasa? Because… it’s gonna be a huge help!” Saki asked, trying out Tsukasa’s guilt trip tactics. Rui reluctantly nodded, before scooping Saki up on his back.

“Wh-whoa! This… this works!” Saki giggled, not sure where to grab on. She instead just wrapped her arms around his neck scruff, unknowingly laying her head on the soft bunch of fur. She immediately snapped out of it, though, when her friends hopped onto Rui right behind her.

“Saki… I don’t know what the heck is going on, but we have to write a song about this.” Ichika joked.

“For sure! Well, hold on then!” Saki laughed.

It definitely felt like a fairy tale. Saving the damsel in distress while atop a valiant steed. Except, in this fairy tale, the damsel was Saki’s vampire brother, and the valiant steed was her vampire brother’s werewolf best friend. It was a unique experience, for lack of better words. Saki sure owed Rui after this one.

But, suddenly, Rui came to a stop, and began walking slower. Saki and her friends took a few looks around the trees, before Shiho stepped off. She began running… south, if Honami was correct.

“Hey! Shiho! Wait!” Ichika shouted, jumping down to follow after her friend. Saki soon joined her, leaving the oblivious Honami alone with Rui.

“Oh, uh… hope you don’t mind me staying here! Someone… someone should probably watch you! Make sure police don’t get you!” Honami tried to joke, but Rui knew it was because she was scared. He huffed, and Honami wasn’t sure how to translate that, despite being a dog owner herself. And luckily, she wasn’t alone for long, because Ichika came bursting through the bushes, followed by Saki, Shiho… and Mafuyu? And someone else, too!

“Honami! We found Mafuyu, and this is Mafuyu’s friend, Mizuki.” Ichika said, pointing to Mizuki.

“Oh! Well, what brings you here?” Honami asked, jumping down from Rui’s back.

“Well… I was here for this little piece of shit, but looks like you beat me!” Mizuki ran over to Rui, and immediately began scolding him.

“Is… is that your dog?” Shiho asked, debating whether or not she should apologize.

“Yes!” Mizuki said. Rui immediately pushed them to the ground, putting his paw on their face. Mizuki flailed around for a little bit, before pushing him off.

“O-oh! Are you alright?!” Saki rushed over to Mizuki, who flipped Rui off. Rui just growled in return.

“I’m fine, and you! You’re gonna fucking get it later!” Mizuki yelled.

“Mizuki. Stop arguing with Mr. Kamishiro and let’s go find Tsukasa.” Mafuyu boomed, stopping the argument.

“W-wait! The dog has a name?” Ichika was shocked.

“And Kamishiro, as in Rui Kamishiro?” Shiho was also shocked.

Mafuyu, Mizuki, Rui, and Saki exchanged glances.

“It’s a very long story, but we’ll explain later!” Saki tried to laugh it off.

“Oh, there’s also the very high possibility Tsukasa’s a vampire and we’re all being hunted by an evil witch, and where the fuck is Nene?” Mizuki blurted out.

Ichika, Honami, and Shiho simply stood, mouths agape.

“You know what… explain that all later… I don’t want to know right now.” Honami slowly said, trying not to have a heart attack from the sudden information overload.

“Alright. Well, we have good news, and bad news.” Mafuyu whispered, pushing Mizuki behind a bush.

“Uh, good news?” Ichika asked, confused.

“We found Tsukasa!” Saki cheered.

“And the bad news..?” Honami reluctantly asked.

“The evil witch we told you about? Yeah, she’s here too.” Mizuki stated, coming out from behind the bush.

“Well… who’s this evil witch?” Honami wondered.

“Emu Otori.” Mafuyu replied, still on the lookout for officers.

“What.” The girls said simultaneously.

“We said it’s a long story, didn’t we?” Saki followed Mafuyu as she ordered everyone to continue walking.

“Saki, you just told us that your brother is a vampire, this dog we found in the woods is Rui, Emu’s an evil witch, and you expect us not to have questions?” Shiho furrowed her brow as Saki just continued walking.

“Oh, girl, you’re in for a heck of a night! Cuz we’ve got a whole ass murder mystery on our hands!” Mizuki cheered, then immediately got shut up by Mafuyu.

Honami, Shiho, and Ichika sighed. They were involved in this, and they couldn’t back out now.

Chapter Text

Mafuyu led the group in silence around the officers patrolling the forests. Everyone could hear people running all around them. They knew Tsukasa was close. They were in the middle of a police search, so backing out wasn’t a good option. The only choice they had was to face this whole thing head on.

“Mafuyu, wait. We need to find Nene.” Mizuki whispered, grabbing Mafuyu’s arm.

“Tsukasa’s right there. If Emu gets him before we do, you know things won’t be good.” Mafuyu replied, annoyed.

“I’ll watch Rui. We need to get Nene just as much as him.”

“You do realize if you encounter Emu, you’re good as dead?”

“It takes a lot to kill me!”

Mafuyu hesitated for a bit, being pressured on by stares from an eager Mizuki.

“Fine. But make sure you bring Rui.” Mafuyu sighed.

“Alright! Thanks Mafuyu!” Mizuki clapped their hands in joy. “You! You’re coming with me. Argue and I’ll rat you out to Nene.” Mizuki smirked, followed by a terrified Rui. Being paired up with Mizuki wasn’t terrible, but considering his options, it was bad.

“Where are they going?” Ichika asked, taking a few glances behind her, then catching up to the rest of the group.

“Tsukasa and Rui aren’t the only ones here, you know.” Mafuyu whispered, pressing her face towards the ground. Shiho was amazed at how skilled she seemed at… running from the police.

“Incredible. Now we’ve got to find them, too. Who else is here?” Shiho asked, annoyed.

“Who knows. They’ve been pretty vocal about this search.” Mafuyu huffed.

Shiho and Ichika sighed, trailing behind the rest of the group. Mafuyu froze immediately when she heard rustling in a bush, motioning for everyone to hide. Once she got a good look at who it was, she gave an annoyed sigh, and sent Saki to do her dirty work.

“T-Toya? Why… why are you here?!” Saki asked, trying to hide her frustration behind a smile.

“Well… I assume the same reason I’m here? Tsukasa…” Toya replied.

“Well, you can leave now, because I’ve got this, but thanks for worrying!” Saki turned Toya around and began pushing him away.

“Whoa! Hey! Saki! Wait!” Toya broke from Saki’s hold, and turned to face her. “I’m staying here! I need to make sure Tsukasa’s alright!”

“Great…” Saki said, pretty sure she was about to burst a vein in her forehead. She secretly wished Toya didn’t care about his friends so much.

“Well, gang… looks like we’ve got ourselves a new member…” Saki waved for everyone to come out from the bush.

“Saki… you’re explaining this to him.” Mafuyu grunted.

“I tried my best. He’s a persistent one.” Saki joked.

“Okay… well… let’s go find Tsukasa…?” Toya asked, trying to motion the group along.

“Yeah, sure… I guess.” Mafuyu sighed, continuing on her trail.

“Well, Mafuyu… worse comes to worse, let’s use him as a sacrifice.” Saki whispered in Mafuyu’s ear. Mafuyu cracked a sly smile.

—

Meanwhile, in wherever the fuck they were, Rui and Mizuki weren’t having much success. Both of them were ready to rip the other limb from limb.

“I told you she’d be over here! Can’t you like… sniff her out, or something?” Mizuki yelled. Rui squinted in disapproval.

“I swear to god… I’m gonna kill you when this is over with.” Mizuki sighed. Rui huffed, as if to say “Not if I do it first.”

The two continued on their path, neither of which wanted to go on the other’s path. Of course, none of them knew where Nene was, they both just hoped she was in that general direction.

Mizuki suddenly forced Rui to come to a halt when they heard someone walking on leaves close to them. Mizuki quickly ran behind a tree, leaving Rui out in the open. He panicked for a second, before jumping up the tree that Mizuki was behind.

“Smooth. If you fall, I’m not helping you. In fact, I’m just gonna leave you.” Mizuki whispered.

They both kept an eye out, but quickly began panicking when the person revealed themselves to be Emu.

“…Of course I know what I’m doing. This is my plan, after all!” Emu yelled to someone else.

Mizuki motioned for them to leave, so Mizuki quickly bolted off in the other direction, followed by Rui jumping down from the tree in a loud thud. They paused for a second.

“Run.” Mizuki said, before taking off running.

Rui and Mizuki ran around the Forest in a panic. They didn’t even know if Emu was chasing them, but they didn’t want to take any chances. Mizuki knew they’d probably be skinned or something if they were caught.

It took about 5 minutes of running for Mizuki to bump into someone, causing them both to fall on the ground.

“Oh fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK! I’m gonna get killed!” Mizuki quivered, holding their hands over their head, resembling the pose you do during a tornado drill.

“A-as much as I want to right now, you won’t die by my hands…” The voice said, tapping Mizuki on their shoulder. Mizuki slowly rolled over, then stood up in excitement when they say who they ran into.

“TSUKASA!” Mizuki shouted, proudly. Tsukasa immediately put his hands over their mouth, looking around.

“If you get me arrested, then yeah, I’m gonna kill you.” Tsukasa angrily replied.

“Sheesh, alright… anyway, glad we found you. We’ve got a whole squad looking for you…” Mizuki explained, leading their awfully Twilight-esque squad to freedom.

“As honored as I feel by that, I’m not busting you guys out of jail.”

“That’s totally fair. I wasn’t gonna bust you out, either.”

“Glad we’re on the same level, then.”

Tsukasa and Mizuki laughed, forgetting for a second they were running from the fucking police. Rui pushed them along.

“Oh, hey Rui. You’re here too?” Tsukasa said.

“He’s been here! Looking for YOU!” Mizuki answered.

“Geez dude… let’s hope they never hire you as a search and rescue dog.” Tsukasa laughed. Rui was not having a good time.

“Heeeeeey Tsukasa, You wouldn’t just happen to know where Nene is?” Mizuki asked, pursing their lips.

“Mizuki, I have been in these woods for hours, being chased by Emu, the police, Toya, and now you two. You really think I’ve been looking for Nene?” Tsukasa wanted to strangle Mizuki.

“You noticed Toya! So clearly, you can notice Nene!”

“I HAVE NOT SEEN NENE ALL NIGHT.” Tsukasa yelled. All three of them suddenly got blank expressions when flashlights began shining in their direction. Tsukasa and Mizuki jumped onto Rui, who sprinted off in a panic.

“Way to go, Tsukasa! Now you’re gonna get both of us arrested, and this bitch put down!” Mizuki laughed.

“Now is NOT THE TIME, MIZUKI!” Tsukasa yelled, and Rui nodded in agreement.

“Sheesh, ganging up on me, in a time like this. And I’m even trying to help you!” Mizuki pleaded, also holding back a laugh.

“I don’t care, Mizuki! Just get me the FUCK out of here!”

“Technically, being the getaway car is his job. I’m just here for the show!”

Mizuki better be glad they were sitting behind Tsukasa, because he was sure as fuck about to strangle them.

They kept running for a solid… 30 seconds, before running back into Mafuyu and Leo/need.

“Tsukasa! You’re okay!” Saki cheered.

“Yeah, I’m fine, but they’re about to not be fine if they don’t shut up.” Tsukasa glared at Mizuki.

“Oh yeah, they both want to kill me. Although Rui has at least… five justified reasons to murder me.” Mizuki laughed. Rui kicked them all off.

“Okay. We’ve got Tsukasa, all we need now is to locate Nene.” Mafuyu directed. “Tsukasa, you didn’t see her, did you?”

“Nope. The only person I saw was Toya.” Tsukasa answered.

“Uh, speaking of Toya…” Shiho turned to face him. “You’re not going to question literally… any of this?”

“Um… let’s see… my senior in school is on the run from the police, there’s a massive dog here, which I’m assuming is my other senior, my classmate is missing yet somehow is all connected to this, and then my senior’s friend is hunting them all. I mean… yeah, I’m questioning it, but we are dealing with theatre kids…” Toya replied in a laugh.

“You missed the part where Tsukasa’s a vampi-“ Mizuki was immediately cut off by Saki.

“You’re about to have three people wanting to kill you if you tell someone else.” Saki whispered as she gripped Mizuki’s shoulder.

“Mafuyu, given there’s a high chance I’ll die tonight… avenge me.” Mizuki said.

“Bold of you to assume I don’t want to kill you too.” Mafuyu tried her best to joke, and Mizuki ran with it.

“Fabulous! Anybody else want to murder me? Now’s the perfect time, because Tsukasa will get arrested instead of you!” Mizuki laughed.

“I DON’T WANT TO GET ARRESTED!” Tsukasa exclaimed.

“Tsukasa, keep your voice down. We need to find Nene.” Mafuyu demanded.

“Yeah, well, problem. Tsukasa doesn’t know where she is, Rui’s planning a coup d’etat, and can’t forget the fact that Rui and I saw Emu!” Mizuki explained.

Shiho sat on a rock and sighed.

“This was supposed to be band practice!” She whined.

“Yeah, Shiho, we didn’t exactly know what we were doing either.” Tsukasa looked at Rui to agree with him.

“So, are we going to find Nene or not?” Mafuyu asked, about to shoot someone with her bow she packed.

Everyone suddenly stopped arguing. There was a mix of “yeah” and “ok” from the group.

—

“Okay, here’s the plan. We are going to send Mizuki out to monitor where Emu is, while Tsukasa, Rui, Toya and Saki search for Nene. Honami, Ichika, Shiho and I will monitor the officers and keep our eyes on them. Once we find Nene, we leave.” Mafuyu finished up her explanation. Honami gave a quiet round of applause.

“Slight issue. We don’t even know if Nene’s here.” Tsukasa said.

“No, she’s here. She left my house a little bit before I did, to find Tsukasa.” Mizuki answered.

“Great. There’s our answer. Now, let’s go find Nene and get the heck out of here.” Ichika nodded, holding her hand out. Leo/need all put their hands in, followed by Toya and Tsukasa. Mizuki and Mafuyu joined in soon after that. Rui just put his head on Tsukasa’s head, since he didn’t know what to do.

“Alright, let’s go!” Mizuki cheered, and everyone broke away.

They were going to end this.

Chapter Text

Mizuki sighed from their perch in a tree. They had the lame job of keeping an eye on Emu, instead of being out in the field, searching for Nene. They wanted to make sure that she was okay. But, they could do their part by making sure Emu didn’t hurt anyone, so they made sure not to slack off.

Mafuyu, Honami, Ichika, and Shiho were in charge of police duty. Mafuyu was regretting putting Rui and Tsukasa together, sending them to find Nene, because she knew that would be the jackpot for the officers.

“Um, Mafuyu… did you know about… all of this?” Honami asked, tapping on Mafuyu’s shoulder.

“I helped Emu when she was herself. Or, as much as herself as she could be. At first, I thought she was joking… but turns out, she was being honest.” Mafuyu whispered.

“Do you know how all of this happened?” Shiho felt bad asking so many questions, but some needed to be said.

“You’d have to ask one of them. Well, one of the ones that will/can talk. Emu didn’t tell me much.” Mafuyu replied.

Ichika huffed, leaning against a tree.

“I know I’ve said it before… but this is crazy.”

“Yeah, tell me abo-“ Mafuyu’s phone rang.

“Mizuki? This better be important…”

“Yeah, well, I sure hope Emu heading in your direction is important.”

“Oh crap…! Thanks Mizuki.”

“You owe me! Anyway, get out of there!”

Mafuyu hung up, and silently motioned for her squad to move. The girls followed without question as Mafuyu followed along the path the officers were taking, while also escaping Emu.

And Mafuyu could feel her heart drop when a flashlight blinded her eyes.

“Ma’am? Why are you here? You need to leave!” An officer yelled at her. Mafuyu’s eyes were still adjusting.

“I’m… sorry, sir. I left my quiver here this afternoon, so I came to grab it.” She answered.

“At 11:00 at night? We are looking for a murderer and a rabid dog. I highly recommend you leave.”

“I apologize, officer. I’ll be on my way. If you do find my quiver, just bring to the station. I’ll check it tomorrow.”

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye out. Be careful on your way back, miss. If you want, I can-“

“No. I’m quite alright, thank you.”

Mafuyu smiled and bowed, as she walked away. The officer shrugged and went back to his group of officers. Mafuyu quickly ducked behind a tree.

“That was close! Thank goodness we’ve got Mafuyu.” Honami said, sighing in relief.

“We still have to be close. If I’m spotted again, they’ll be mad at me.” Mafuyu brushed past the other girls.

“Right, let’s go.” Shiho mumbled, looking down to her feet.

—

Toya, Saki, Tsukasa, and Rui weren’t having much luck. Saki said they’d only been searching for 15 minutes, but it felt like hours to the boys.

“Let’s take a break. Everybody off.” Toya ordered, jumping down from Rui. Once everyone was safely on the ground, Tsukasa began having what Toya thought was an asthma attack.

“Tsukasa! Are you alright?!” Toya asked, concerned.

“Yeah… I’m… fine… just a little… tired… is all!” He huffed. Tsukasa leaned against a tree, and gave a weak thumbs up.

“Tsukasa, you look like death. More than usual.” Saki frowned.

“Yeah, you look like you died 60 years ago. Maybe… take it easy? We can take a break.” Toya sat Tsukasa down on a tree root.

“Yeah… I can take… a break…” Tsukasa said, trying his hardest to stay awake.

“Yeah. You do that… we’ll go find Nene. Rui, you watch him.” Saki ordered. Saki and Toya quickly took off, leaving the two alone. Rui, acting on impulse, sat down behind Tsukasa. Tsukasa laid his head down, sinking his head into Rui’s fluff.

“This is probably a really bad time… but I’ve got a ton of script ideas from this.” Tsukasa laughed. “You better get some ideas in that thick skull of yours, or this will have all been for nothing!” Tsukasa lazily swiped at Rui’s ear, who playfully nipped back at him. The two laughed, before going silent. By now, Tsukasa was fully laying on Rui’s back, his head on the back of Rui’s head.

“You know, Saki loves stars. I never really got into them, but I think they’re pretty…” Tsukasa held his hand up to the sky. Rui was also admiring the stars.

“And I always found it funny. Saki loves space stars, and I love theatre stars! Isn’t that hilarious?” Tsukasa joked. He couldn’t help but smile when remembering all his fun times with Saki. Tonight was certainly one for the books.

“Let’s just hope they find Nene, soon.” Tsukasa said, trying not to think of everything that can go wrong. They lose Emu, they never find Nene, they get found by the police-and speak of the devil. Right when Tsukasa was thinking about it, a flashlight blinded them both.

“Well boys… look what we’ve got here!” An officer said, the bright lights only growing closer. Tsukasa stood up, followed by Rui.

“I bet you thought you were funny, doing all these weirdo murders.” A different officer grabbed Tsukasa by his shirt collar, bringing them face to face.

“W-what murders?” Tsukasa gasped, trying not to show his mouth too much.

“SEVEN FOUND DEAD! All of them relate back to you, The Shibuya Vampire Killer.”

“S-seven? I-I didn’t know about any of these! Honest!” Tsukasa pleaded.

“Wait a second… kid, open your mouth.” Another officer commanded, who Tsukasa assumed was the head officer. Despite the order, he still kept his mouth shut tightly.

“I won’t ask again. Open your damn mouth!” The officer’s hand rushed towards Tsukasa’s face. He flinched… yet never felt anything touch. When he opened his eyes, he found three officers pinned down by Rui. The officer who was holding Tsukasa quickly let go, now moving his attention to the new suspect on their scene.

“WH-WHY ARE YOU ALL STANDING THERE?! SHOOT IT!” An officer ordered, pointing a shaky gun towards Rui.

“NO!” Tsukasa rushed towards the officer, pinning him against a tree by the neck.

Everyone was silent. The officers were terrified. Rui and Tsukasa felt powerful. Tsukasa gave Rui the “We’re about to fuck shit up” stare, and the other immediately agreed. Tsukasa loosed his grip on the other officer, who fell to the ground. He looked like he had just seen a ghost.

“Uh… g-get them both!” The head officer commanded, his voice shaking. Tsukasa quickly rushed forward to the head officer, Rui taking out anybody else who dares get into Tsukasa’s way. One by one, officers were either running away or passing out. Once it came down to one last officer, Tsukasa felt a sudden wave over him.

So many people around him… helpless. Free food, in his eyes. He knew Rui felt it too. Just when he was kneeling down to… check on another body (that was a lie), he felt a smack on the back of his head.

“ARE YOU FUCKING SUICIDAL? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU TWO CAN GET IN FOR THIS ALONE?!” A voice scolded them. Tsukasa didn’t even have to look behind him to know the one and only Nene Kusanagi was pissed.

“Nene! You’re okay!” Tsukasa cheered.

“Oh, don’t you FUCKING DARE change the subject! You just assaulted TWENTY FOUR OFFICERS.” Nene grabbed Tsukasa by his shirt collar, giving him a huge feeling of deja vu.

“It was self defense!” Tsukasa held his breath. Luckily, Rui nodded behind him. Man, he was glad he had another idiot for a friend.

“Oh, you were in on it too? I swear to god… you’re both gonna get killed one day!” Nene threw her hands up, and walked off. Tsukasa sighed in relief.

“We still need to find Mafuyu and her gang, and Mizuki. We can’t rest easy yet.” Toya said.

“Come to think of it, this can be considered Mafuyu’s fault! She was in charge of making sure officer’s didn’t find us!” Tsukasa snapped his fingers, hoping this can clear his innocence.

“Oh no, this is still your fault. It’s really not that hard to not beat someone up.” Saki stated.

“Oh come on, even you, Saki?” Tsukasa sighed, following the rest of his crew.

“So, Tsukasa…” Toya whispered. “Did it feel badass? Beating up all those officers?”

“Oh, so badass.” Tsukasa smirked.

“NOBODY IS BADASS FOR COMMITTING A CRIME!” Nene yelled, turning to face Toya.

“Aw, come on Nene! Let us have some fun!” Tsukasa begged.

“You can have fun in jail. Come on, let’s go find the others.” She replied, grabbing Tsukasa’s wrist.

“Fine…” Tsukasa was being forced into following along.

At least they didn’t have to deal with officers anymore!