Chapter Text
It was truly one of the busiest days in town Tsukasa had ever seen, which normally would be a sight to behold- but as he was in a great rush, it was only to his detriment. Pushing through the chattering crowds filling the paved street, he attempted to navigate the sea of people walking in the opposite direction of him.
This would ordinarily seem like mere bad luck, but the clever knight had managed to piece together why this was happening. He knew there was a display of talents happening in the main square, a place where performers and musicians could entertain the masses. A show must have just finished, explaining the flood of people exiting, ready to continue their day.
Eventually, he burst out of the crowd, leaning over to catch a breath while panting dramatically. A few passing strangers went to give him a look but quickly revoked it as they noticed his uniform of an esteemed knight. He smirked at them, before straightening himself and continuing into the plaza.
A few stragglers remained, quite the opposite sight from what he had just been stuck in. On the stage, however, there seemed to be one last show going on. Two people, a boy and a girl, were setting up some very interesting props. The amount of props on the small stage greatly confused Tsukasa- were there more people hiding to move them around? How on earth were these two performers to do it by themselves?
Completely forgetting about his original goal, he watched, entranced, as the boy fiddled with the props and the girl warmed up her vocal cords. Her voice, even from the distance he was at, seemed magical to him.
Eventually, the props were in place and the two were finished. Taking opposite positions on the stage, they began telling a story in the form of a play. Tsukasa would have liked to hear what they were saying, but it seemed as if the world darkened and a natural spotlight was directed once that girl opened her mouth. Any other voices speaking were quieted as the clear and melodious voice of the girl flowed and ebbed over the heads of the audience. She spoke of some magical tale, a fantasy story, but he wasn’t really paying attention to that. All he could see and hear was the absolute majesty of this strange performer.
Of course, this wasn’t the extent of it. As he listened, he became faintly aware that some kind of musical number was coming up.
The girl walked to center stage, twirling her umbrella around her, and Tsukasa watched with amazement as the props from earlier, shaped like bird and deer and an assortment of little animals, propelled themselves around her naturally. Robots! Amazing!
And then she opened her mouth to sing.
Now, Tsukasa wasn’t stunned by the automatic nature of the props around her, but rather the song that she was performing. Her voice was practically a feat of nature, a wonder of its own. Her sheer talent nearly knocked Tsukasa off his feet. He stared, slack-jawed, at what must have been a goddess standing upon the stage.
Quietly, he poked the shoulder of the nearest person watching the show, a hunched over old woman.
“Excuse me, miss!” he quietly whispered- or at least, he tried to be quiet. “Do you know who that girl performing is?”
The woman didn’t respond, but a voice from behind him did.
“Oho, you’d like to know about Miss Kusanagi?”
Tsukasa whirled around, his cape whacking the poor old lady on her face.
“My goodness!” Tsukasa exclaimed in a panic, hurriedly collecting himself. “I- I’m so sorry, madam!!! Please forgive me!!!!”
She still didn’t respond. Creepy...
“Fufu, how dramatic of you,” the person said behind him with a catlike grin.
Tsukasa turned again to take a look at this stranger. With a gasp, he realized- it was the boy who had been performing alongside “Miss Kusanagi” on the stage!
“What are you doing here?!” Tsukasa exclaimed.
The boy giggled. “Ah, well, I had a break during Nene’s solo and decided to come down and take a look at the esteemed knight ogling her.”
Tsukasa, in his outrage, made a rather embarrassing high pitched noise as he immediately tried to defend himself. “I- I was not OGLING!! I would never do such a thing!!!”
The boy giggled again, a calm expression remaining on his face. “Fufu, whatever you say... anyways, Sir Knight, my name is Rui Kamishiro. What might your name be?”
“MY name is TSUKASA TENMA!” Tsukasa exclaimed. “Nice to meet you, Rui!”
Rui smiled at him before glancing at the stage, where Ms. Nene Kusanagi was still performing her beautiful song. “If you’d like, after the show, I can introduce you to her?”
Tsukasa smiled at the thought. “That would be LOVELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Rui smiled back at him. “Alright then, I can go talk to her~”
Cliffhanger. Because this is way longer than it was supposed to beeee and they haven’t even met yet bruh