Chapter Text
Light footsteps carry across a drab and slum-looking alleyway, there would be a moment of pause for whatever was walking to catch its breath, panting lightly, laughing a little too before picking itself up and resuming to run. A shadowy figure emitting a swift gust of air follows the figure below it. The shadowy figure would look down while gliding to see its acquaintance with a big goofy smile smeared across its blotchy furry face, giving the shadowy fellow quite a hearty laugh, it seems like the two of them are at least friends. Faint ambient sounds clashing with the bright lights of the New Yo-kai City bustling in the background give company to two cats Yo-kais; Buchinyan, fur mostly white with red blotches covering some areas of their body, on top of their head is a moveable wisp that swirls and curls around. They have two twin tails with bright indigo flames attached to the tips of them. And there’s Darknyan, whose fur color is the polar opposite, being pitch black alongside having a coat of gray added in there. A fading blue stripe is laid across the bridge of his face, his paws, muzzle, chest, and paw tips are also gray. He has a bobtail compared to Buchinyan’s twin tails. Both cats are seen wearing accessories, Darknyan’s more akin to a superhero, Buchinyan’s however more like a housecat’s.
Buchinyan stops right in the middle of a clearing of the trashy lane, never seen this many lights in their life before caused them to be overwhelmed with so much excitement running up and down in their short little body of theirs yet they stood still like a statue, as if they were frozen in ice. The hovering black cat who was about to walk away looked over to see his buddy was taken aback by the very busy city’s lights distracting them, luring and calling them in like those sirens you’d read in those sea captains' fairytales. Darknyan groans a little, annoyed but he can’t really blame Buchinyan that the city tries its best to be so enchanting and breathtaking for anyone to live and walk around in… It’s somewhat disgusting when you think about what it’s really like once you’re really in there…
“Come on, we’re almost there. We can get a better look at the city from up there.” Darknyan points to the random silhouette of a pretty lengthy building that was just a few feet away from him, he doesn’t know for sure if it’ll actually give the both of them a better view of the city but he sure does hope for Buchinyan’s sake. “Alright-whis!” Buchinyan cheerfully replied, following after Darknyan hastily soaring through the small path and up the wall of the building. Buchinyan claws their way up onto a garbage can, steadying themselves, breathing in… And out… Before taking the plunge off of the can, the white and red cat suddenly floats in the air, they couldn’t believe it! This often never works for them! Buchinyan happily clapped their paws together as they hovered in place, it took them a moment to realize that Darknyan was waiting on them, looking from the peak of the building’s rooftop. Buchinyan scurries around, flipping themselves over and making themselves dizzy for a few seconds before eventually maintaining their balance back and gliding up against the strangely colored brick building before parting ways with the building. Buchinyan floats on down, meeting back with Darknyan on the asphalt rooftop of the strange building, smiling at their mentor.
“What was taking you so long? Saw someone committing a crime and had to stop them yourself?” The jet-black cat jokingly asked before he guffawed, elbowing his red and white pupil’s arm lightly, Buchinyan was caught off guard by Darknyan elbowing them, letting out a little ‘eep!’ as they gained a small bruise on their arm.
“I’m joking, I’m joking… You know… I saw you preparing yourself to fly, flying’s an extremely hard thing to do, trust me, it took me a couple of months to do and a lot of moxie too…” Darknyan’s tone shifted within his voice, sounding impressed, and his body language too, standing straight, looking back at Buchinyan with a smile on his face. Buchinyan was listening in to Darknyan a little, they were mostly preoccupied with rubbing the bruise on their arm, wondering if it would go away soon. Darknyan took a second look at his pupil, finally noticing what they were doing before groaning a little, however, this wouldn’t bring him down. He swiftly puts one of his paws on Buchinyan’s shoulders, redirecting their attention back onto their mentor.
“Buchinyan. I, am, proud, of, you. I am proud of you for flying, I am proud of your training recently, I am proud of your moxie as of recently, and as a reward, I have brought you up here to look–” “To look at the city lights?!” Buchinyan excitedly cuts him off, they barely couldn’t contain themselves, grabbing onto the bright sapphire cape that their mentor wore. Buchinyan’s little feet were floating off of the ground. Darknyan was surprised, no one ever cuts him off while talking, but that wasn’t the only thing that surprised him as he looked at Buchinyan floating so aimlessly from excitement… Looks like that’s going to be something that both of them will have to work on… Regaining his focus, Darknyan cleared his throat. “Yes. To look at the city lights!” He happily confirmed to his pupil before hearing them eagerly exclaim out loud, Buchinyan flew off over to a good spot on the rooftop where they could see the city and its lights from a good point of view, Darknyan strangely…
Didn’t follow.
Buchinyan sat there, immersed by everything that the lights had to offer, so many different types of colors, so many different ways that the lights would turn off and on, the pictures that the lights would create, it was so strange yet so magical to Buchinyan. They didn’t understand it but they didn’t want to, that’s what makes the city’s lights so magical, without the mystery of how the magic works then there would be no need for these emotions… Aside from the lights, Buchinyan could see something coming out of the city, fireworks, the city is having fireworks coming out of it, there must be a special event going on… Buchinyan thought to themselves, enjoying some of the small sparks of lights coming out of the very busy city and into the night sky with the stars that lived there…
It felt all so…
Wonderful.
Buchinyan laid back, their fur against the weirdly cold cobblestone floor of the rooftop, their breath taken back by the stars that spread across the deep dark sky like the ocean. They were even more amazed. They never really got to look up at the night sky and take it all in, they only glanced at it and looked away, but this?
This was a whole new experience…
How come…
How come no one ever showed them this before..?
Darknyan told them about it but nobody else in their life really showed them this…
At all…
As Buchinyan has a puzzled, troubled look smeared on their face, trying to remember something, they heard something… Strange…
Buchinyan lifts their head up a little, looking to the left, seeing Darknyan looking… Oddly lifeless… Maybe he’s just sitting down? It’s hard to tell when he’s lurking in the shadows… “Darknyan?... Are you alright?” Between the words they said they silently gulped, nervously too, their mentor is usually not this quiet unless he’s fixated on something. The black-colored cat jolts up from his spot, thank goodness, had them worried for a moment. Darknyan hovers over to Buchinyan, sighing as he sits down near his trainee lying down on the ground, there was some… Stillness between the two of them except for whenever Darknyan would twitch a little uncontrollably, having some sort of small blue flames burst out of his skin, seemingly not harming him although it looked very very painful… This all caught Buchinyan’s attention because of course it did, they were still worried about him, especially how he was not making any conversations with them compared to how he usually does…
Minutes passed, and the twitching and the out-of-nowhere bursting of fire got worse over time, Buchinyan couldn’t rest. In their mind and physically, they were pacing around, panicked about all of this. What should they do? Shouldn’t they go see someone about this? Who should they go see? Is there at least anyone that knows what to do with this sort of thing? Would anyone know what they’re talking about? Buchinyan felt hopeless and confused, it felt like their whole world was falling apart on them. This was supposed to be the best night of their life but instead, they got probably a life-threatening situation! Ughhh, what else could happen to make this night even worse?
“R… R… RUN!” Darknyan shouted loudly to the distressed white and red blotched ghost cat who was clawing at their own face. Buchinyan looked directly back at him with a puzzled expression on their face, however, it didn’t put an end to their ‘end of the world’ like feelings that they originally had. They cautiously shuffled backward, taking a few steps back, away from Darknyan… Why would he tell them to run?... What’s going on with him?
Silence fills the air and the area between the two of them, Darknyan looking out of place as his body even more ferociously now, his mouth opens but nothing seems to come out of it… His eyes look unfocused, his head slants onto his right shoulder. It makes Buchinyan feel uneasy… Despite all of the voices in their head telling them to run away and flee, they want to get closer to him, maybe… Maybe there’s some way to break him out of this state… And so, they make their way towards him, getting closer to him, slowly… Slowly… Slower…. Even slower…. And……
“PERSONA!!”