Chapter Text
A car drives up the forest-covered mountain. Its trees slowly sway in the wind, as does Tomokazi’s blonde hair. Tomokazi presses harder on the accelerator. His smile widens with every mile. Jōi, on the other hand, looks down below outside the car window, and between the trees. He watches the town get smaller as the car goes higher. The fast fleeting smell of a slightly sweet aroma from the trees blowing through the car window hits both boys’ noses.
Jōi looks back up to the road and then to Tomokazi. “You should probably slow down, Tommy.” Tomokazi smiles at the nickname. He even presses a little harder down onto the accelerator as his eyes show a daring glint.
“I’m not going too fast! I don’t even see any speed limit signs!” Tomokazi waves a dismissive hand to Jōi, taking his eyes off the road for a moment to look at him. Jōi rolls his eyes but smiles anyway. Tomokazi looks back to the road and spots a white light speed across the road. Tomokazi’s eyes widened, and he quickly hit the brakes.
“Oh, what!” Tomokazi yells while Jōi just yells a high-pitched “AH!” Both of the young adults breathe quickly to try to catch their breath. Tomokazi leans his head back and closes his eyes to calm his racing thoughts. Jōi instead looks at Tomokazi, with his face showing confusion and annoyance.
“What was that?!” Jōi yells as soon as he processes what happened. Tomokazi doesn’t answer right away and instead goes to get out of the car. “Where are you going?” Jōi says with a bit of irritation from being ignored. Jōi follows Tomokazi and also steps out of their vehicle. “Did you hit something?”
“Not by the looks of it.” Tomokazi crouches to check under the car and shakes his head. “Something bright just ran across the street.” Tomokazi stands back up and turns to look at where the light went.
Jōi walks closer and tries to see if he can spot anything. “Whatever it was, it probably ran away.” Jōi shrugs and goes back into the car. Tomokazi stares a little longer, not fully convinced. “Come on, Tommy! I want to get there before the movers!” Tomokazi snaps out of his dozing off and runs back into the car.
Tomokazi starts driving again, but this time a bit slower. Jōi turns to the window again to watch nature go by as they continue up the hill. Jōi bends down to grab his camera from his little brown bag with an excited smile. He tries to take some pictures, but they just turn out blurry. Jōi’s smile fades, and he puts his camera back down with a sigh.
The two boys finally make it halfway up the mountain, where their new home is located. The house is in an open area surrounded by mostly trees. An opening between some trees on the left side of the house leads to more spread-out houses. Some houses have fields of farmland, and others have small gardens.
Jōi walks over to the opening, and Tomokazi follows closely behind as soon as he steps out of the car. “We’re gonna need a garden if we want to fit in around here.” Tomokazi laughs at his joke and looks to Jōi to see if he finds it funny too. Jōi laughs a bit and nods.
“As long as we plant some lavender.” Jōi takes out his camera and points it through the opening. He looks at the picture and smiles. It’s beautiful; he’s so proud of his new house and the views that come with it. While Jōi looks at the view, Tomokazi walks back to their car.
As Tomokazi grabs some of his things from the trunk, he looks to the other side of the house. Unlike the left side, the right side has an opening that leads to a dirt path that goes deeper into the forest. “Hey Jōi!” Tomokazi yells out to Jōi, who’s still looking at the view, but he turns to face his best friend at the sound of his name. “Was there a path into the forest when we checked out the house?”
Jōi walks over a bit to look at what Tomokazi is talking about. “No, I don’t think so.” They both look at the path, trying to remember if they recognized it. “We probably didn’t notice it. Too busy looking at the house.” Jōi shrugs and grabs some of his things from the trunk. Tomokazi has no choice but to agree and grab more of his stuff.
Jōi and Tomokazi walk into the house, both excited to finally live together in their own home. Every best friend's dream is to live together, and they made it happen!
Walking inside through the front door, they take off their shoes before looking back up. They see a living room and behind it a small kitchen. To their left there’s a hall with multiple fusuma doors, and openings. One door stands out since it’s just a swing door rather than a sliding door. Once the door is opened, it shows stairs leading up to the next floor.
They go up the stairs, bags and suitcases in hand. Once up they see to their right the laundry room and to the left two doors across from each other. They recognize the doors as the bedrooms they’ve seen before when getting a tour of the house.
“I want this one!” Tomokazi rushes into one of the rooms, leaving the door open. He sits his stuff down and starts to take some stuff out of his bags. Jōi walks closer to look at Tomokazi through the door frame. Jōi rolls his eyes and turns to his door on the left.
“You do realize the rooms are equal in size, right?” Jōi steps into his room and sets his things down by the door. He keeps his little brown bag on his shoulder and walks back out of his room.
“So? I still want this one!” Tomokazi smirked as if he had just won a prize. Jōi sighs but doesn’t say anything else as he waits in the hall for Tomokazi to be done. Jōi takes this moment to feel cold wood under his feet. Taking a deep breath he smells the earthy scent, similar to freshly cut lawn around him.
His peaceful moment is cut short when Tomokazi walks through the door frame of his room. “We gonna look around or what?”
“Why? We’ve already seen everything.” Jōi shrugs his shoulders. “We might want to see where we want to put stuff before the movers come though.” Jōi answers his own question before Tomokazi has a chance to make a snarky comment.
“Let’s go!” Tomokazi nods, and runs down the hall and back down the stairs with Jōi right behind him at a slower pace. Jōi laughs when he catches a glimpse of Tomokazi tripping a bit down the steps.
Both boys make it down the steps completely and walk into the living room. Right now it’s empty with a bit of dust covering almost every surface. “Should we clean it before the movers arrive?” Tomokazi asks while wiping his finger to only see dust. Jōi nods though his face doesn’t show that he’s happy about it.
Tomokazi groans even though he was the one who brought it up. Jōi stretches and points in the direction where the car is. “Go get the rags in the trunk.” Jōi then walks into the small kitchen and around the island counter to the sink. He turns one of the nobs and water starts to come out of the faucet.
Tomokazi quickly moves outside to the car. When he comes back he sees Jōi with a bucket of water. Tomokazi points down at it, obviously confused. “Where’d that come from?”
“Under the sink.” Jōi simply shrugs his shoulders. “The last owner didn’t take everything.” Jōi sets the bucket down. “I think that’s a common thing with new houses.”
Tomokazi nods as his face shows contempt. “I guess so..” He gives a few rags to Jōi and sets some on the sides of the bucket. The boys get to work by only wiping things down with water. From the living room to the kitchen they go. Jōi leaves the higher places for Tomokazi and Tomokazi makes sure to not leave any places with dust.
They work all throughout the house, the dining room, to the halls, bathroom, and extra office room. The two soon make it up the steps, wiping down the laundry room and then leaving each other's rooms to the other.
With both boys now done in their rooms the tiredness starts to hit as both of them sit down onto the floor. Jōi goes down on the ground completely when he hears a horn from outside.
Tomokazi groans but walks over to the window opposite of the stairs to see what made the horn sound. “The movers are here.” Tomokazi lets out a sigh and stretches to prepare for more work. Jōi just reaches his hand up for Tomokazi to grab. Tomokazi grabs his hand and helps him up. “Let’s go!” Tomokazi tries to sound ready but the tiredness sneaks through his voice.
Moving into a new home was more tiring than Tomokazi had thought. Tomokazi and Jōi had been bringing their furniture inside for the past few hours. Even though they had help from the movers, it was still tiring for them when they had already been working around the house.
The movers leave, and Tomokazi and Jōi immediately sit on their new furniture. Even though most of their furniture was hand-me-downs from different family members, it was still new to them. The furniture was comfortable and clean. What more could they ask for?
Tomokazi sighed, and a slight grumble could be heard as soon as the air left his mouth. Jōi looks over to Tomokazi as he groans in annoyance. “I’m hungry!” Tomokazi flails around, trying to be overdramatic, hoping Jōi will offer to make something for him.
“I just sat down, Tommy!” Jōi also groans, annoyed. Tomokazi moves around on his wooden rocking chair and manages to sit upside down. Jōi looks at Tomokazi confused but looks away when he hears a knock at the door. Jōi and Tomokazi look at each other to see who would get the door. When neither of them goes to get up, another knock can be heard.
Tomokazi groans as he stands up. He walks towards the door as Jōi pretends to get all comfy in his chair mockily at Tomokazi. Tomokazi sticks his tongue out at Jōi, and Jōi starts to laugh. Tomokazi looks away from Jōi and finally opens the door to see an older man with salt and pepper hair before him.
“Hello, young man! I’m one of your many neighbors down the hill!” The man bows lightly. Tomokazi’s eyes widened, and he bowed back. They both get back up after a few seconds, and the old man goes to talk again. “My name’s David.” David nods his head and lifts his hand, which is holding a small basket filled with food. “My wife said it’d be neighborly to give you some of our fruits!”
Tomokazi glances at the basket, snapping out of his daze. “Oh, thank you!” Tomokazi bows his head before snapping it up just as fast. He grabs the basket and opens the door a bit wider. “Would you like to come in?” The old man, David, thinks for a moment while making faces to himself but finally nods.
“I’d like that.” David smiles as Tomokazi moves to the side to let him in. David walks in and looks around. Tomokazi follows closely behind him as he walks further into the house. David stops when he sees Jōi. “Hello! I’m David, one of your neighbors.” David bows his head with a smile.
Jōi bows his head as well but with a neutral expression. “My name’s Jōi.” Jōi stays seated, not knowing what to do. Tomokazi smiles as he looks at all the fruit. He shows the basket to Jōi.
“Mr. David brought these over for us!” Tomokazi hands the basket to Jōi. Jōi looks through it and smiles warmly at David.
“Thank you! Tomokazi was just complaining about how hungry he was.” Jōi stands up and walks to the kitchen. “Were these fruits washed yet?” Jōi looks back into the living area.
David nods and holds his hands together. “Yes, Of course!” David chuckles a bit. “My wife would kill me if I gave you unwashed fruit as a gift!” Jōi laughs a bit as well. David’s laugh seems to be contagious.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have anything to give back.” Tomokazi looks down, feeling a bit guilty. Jōi nods, feeling the same as he puts the fruit away. David immediately waves his hand at them dismissively.
“Don’t be! It’s not like you knew I’d be stopping by!” David puts his hands back down and smiles at them reassuringly. “Don’t feel guilty!” David pats Tomokazi on the shoulder. Tomokazi smiles back, not feeling as guilty anymore.
“Still, I want to give a gift back,” Jōi says, walking back into the living area. David nods and laughs a bit.
“If that’s what you want!” David walks towards the window, showing the beautiful forest outside. “I won’t stop you.” David nods and sighs at the pretty sight in front of him. “What beautiful leaves.”
Tomokazi walks over and looks at the sight, but he sees something shocking instead. “Hey Jōi!” Tomokazi calls over while lifting his hand to point outside the window. “The dirt path is gone!”
“Are you sure that’s where it was?” Jōi walks over, also not seeing the path. Tomokazi nods but then rushes outside the door. Jōi follows along with David. When they get out there, they see no path in sight. Tomokazi looks around, completely shocked.
“No way!” Tomokazi looks around frantically to try and spot the dirt path. David looks at both of them, confused. Tomokazi looks back at Jōi, a bit nervous and confused. The path couldn’t just disappear like that.
“What dirt path?” David asks Tomokazi while also trying to spot a dirt path. David walks ahead of where they’re standing and smirks to himself before turning back around. “I see no path!” David shrugs, still smiling.
“There was a huge dirt path there this morning!” Tomokazi swears while pointing to the trees. David turns his attention to Jōi. David’s face shows that he’s calm.
“Tommy isn’t lying; there was a path there.” Jōi looks around a bit as well. “Maybe-” Jōi cuts himself off, not knowing what to say since there’s no explanation he could come up with. “Where did it go?” Jōi walks around the house a bit before returning to Tomokazi, who’s sulking because of how dumb he feels.
“I’m sorry about your path, but I must return home!” David smiles and pats Tomokazi’s shoulder once again to try and make him feel better. It made Tomokazi feel childish, which made him sulk more. Jōi laughs slightly at the poor attempt to cheer up his best friend.
“He’ll be fine.” Jōi brushes Tomokazi off and walks with the old man towards the opening of the other houses. “It was great meeting you!” Jōi bows his head, and David does it back.
“And you as well, Jōi!” David turns away from Jōi and starts to walk the path down the hill. David waves goodbye as he walks away, and Jōi waves back. “Don’t eat all that fruit at once!” David yells a bit far away.
“I won’t! Can’t promise Tommy won’t, though!” Both Jōi and David laugh as they walk away from each other. Jōi walks back into the house, assuming Tomokazi has already gone inside. Walking into the house, Jōi’s assumption is proven correct as he sees Tomokazi already eating some of the fruit David gave them.
“We saw that path!” Tomokazi immediately starts ranting as soon as he sees Jōi. “Now he’s gonna think we’re crazy.” Tomokazi aggressively takes a bite out of an apple.
Jōi rolls his eyes. “No, he’s not.” Jōi walks a bit closer into the kitchen and yawns. “It’s getting dark, I haven’t slept for two whole days, and my back still hurts from moving furniture.” Jōi stretches, and a satisfying crack can be heard. “I’m going to bed.” Jōi walks away from Tomokazi and goes up the stairs.
Tomokazi yawns after watching Jōi yawn and follows him up the stairs. “I might as well go to bed, too, then.” Tomokazi shrugs and heads to his door. “Goodnight Jōi!”
“Goodnight, Tommy!” Jōi yells back, then closes his door. He lays down on his mattress and closes his eyes, listening to the night take over the day by listening to the night bugs get louder.
Tomokazi lays down and listens to the flowing leaves brushing against each other. Tomokazi finally realizes he’s lying in his bed in his house, which he shares with his best friend. Something they’ve wanted since they were kids. Tomokazi smiles to himself and closes his eyes. His once annoyed feelings turned to calm ones. What a beautiful feeling as sleep takes over.
Tomokazi wakes up with a loud thud. He must have fallen off his bed in his sleep. Tomokazi rubs his now-pounding head and stands up to get back into bed. As soon as he tries to sit on his mattress, a loud boom can be heard as he and his things get thrown into the air for a few seconds before falling back down.
“Woah!” Tomokazi stands back up and holds his arms out to try and balance himself. He tries to sit back down when nothing happens but immediately gets lifted again. “What the?!” Tomokazi stands up again. He looks down at his bed suspiciously. “What’s wrong with this bed?”
Suddenly, the window slams open, and a strong wind blows Tomokazi onto his bed. Immediately, Tomokazi shuts his eyes and gets ready to be lifted again, but nothing happens. He opens his eyes, and his eyes land on the now-open window. Tomokazi stands up and walks cautiously closer to his window. He looks out, and before he can comprehend what he’s even looking for, he gets blown back a few feet by another gust of wind.
Tomokazi yells as he lands with a thud on the wooden floor beneath him. Looking out the window, he no longer sees the forest outside. He sees an eye. A giant eye that's just as big as the window itself. Tomokazi stares in fear when the eye starts to move. Instead, it’s replaced by a dog's nose as big as the eye.
Tomokazi shakes his head and stands up to run to Jōi’s room. He doesn’t bother knocking and immediately bursts into the room. “Jōi, there’s a massive bear outside on the roof!” Tomokazi stands there for a moment. “How did you not wake up from all that stomping?” Tomokazi looks at Jōi dumbfounded before he remembers why he’s in there.
“Jōi get up!” Tomokazi runs over and shakes Jōi back and forth aggressively. Jōi groans but doesn’t open his eyes. “Jōi! Get up!” Jōi finally opens his eyes, which shows how annoyed he is.
“What is it, Tommy!?” Jōi stays lying down as he rubs his tired eyes. Tomokazi doesn’t even get the words out before the two men can hear a loud yawn. “What was that?” Jōi wakes up more because of the deafening noise and finally sits up.
“I don’t know! A giant eye was outside my window, but I couldn’t see anything else!” Tomokazi pulls Jōi out of his bed and tries to run downstairs. Jōi, being too tired to move on his own, lets it happen. When they finally make it outside, the wind hits Jōi in the face, waking him up more.
“Why would we come outside if there's a big eye thing out here!” Jōi points out Tomokazi’s terrible plan. Tomokazi lets go of Jōi and realizes his mistake. Instead of admitting that he was acting on impulse, Tomokazi speaks in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Well, since the eye was right outside my window, it must be on the top roof!” Tomokazi points up to the roof before running to the right side of the house, where his window should be. “Come on, Jōi!” Tomokazi waves Jōi over, not wanting to go alone. Jōi sighs and runs over.
The air leaves both of their mouths. When they reach the side of the house, and in front of them is a ginormous dog. An english mastiff with black and tan fur stands in front of them. It stands almost as tall as the trees around it. Its paws could easily knock down two trees with no effort.
“That’s a big dog.” Tomokazi points out the obvious. Jōi looks at Tomokazi, glad he wasn’t the only one seeing this while also trying to figure out what to do. Before either can do anything, the dog brings his head down to their level. Tomokazi backs up a bit, but Jōi stays put.
“It’s smarter to not move,” Jōi says, trying to sound more calm than he was. Tomokazi nods to himself and stands straight, trying not to move a muscle. The dog moves his head slightly to the side. Jōi does the same, automatically mocking the dogs' movement impulsively.
The dog jumps back excitedly, making the two men stumble. A loud but soft ruff leaves the dog's slightly open mouth. His tail swayed the trees behind him. Jōi laughs at the dogs' actions. “It acts just like a normal dog.”
“Obviously, it’s not a normal dog.” Tomokazi slowly walks closer to Jōi. “How is it that big?” Tomokazi reaches his arms out to try and show with his hands how big it is. The dog notices this and quickly moves his nose in front of the two men. Before either of them could back up, the dog lifted them using his nose. The two fly up and scream. The wind pushes their bangs up as they fall back down in the air.
Instead of a hard ground, the two feel the softness of the dog's fur. Opening their eyes, they can see above the trees. The dog caught them both on the top of his head. Tomokazi and Jōi look at each other and quickly hold onto the dog's fur, scared they will fall off.
“How did it do that!?” Tomokazi keeps his head down, scared of the height below him. Jōi, on the other hand, looks down at the ground below.
“That’s your question? Really?” Jōi looks at Tomokazi with a deadpan expression. Tomokazi looked up from the fur and over to his best friend.
“I already asked my other questions, Jōi!” Tomokazi yells over, annoyed. The dog starts to move. He turns his body to face the forest, where both boys can see the dirt path is back. “We really are crazy!” As soon as Tomokazi finishes his sentence, the dog starts to run through the path.
Tomokazi and Jōi keep their heads down but have some trouble because of the wind wanting to push their heads back. Tomokazi tries his best to look over at Jōi. To ensure his best friend was okay and to reassure himself that he wasn’t alone.
Jōi and Tomokazi feel the wind get less aggressive, and both try to look up. The dog slows down and eventually stops. When the dog sits down the ground shakes. Both of the men try to sit up and catch their breath.
Around them were only trees so close together a person couldn’t walk through it. It was bright as if the sun was peeking through the thick leaves, but it was dark when they left. How could it be so bright?
“Where are we?!” Tomokazi crawls further up the dog's head to better view the ground. The dog instead moves his head down to the ground. Jōi slides down the dog's ear and stumbles onto the ground.
“I think I figured it out!” Jōi looks over to Tomokazi, who's now trying to go down the dog's ear. Looking around him, Jōi looks at all the trees when he spots a door. “We’re in the spirit world!” At the mention of the spirit world, the dog wags his tail.
“Wouldn’t that mean we’re dead?” Tomokazi finally gets off the dog, brushing some dog hair off himself. Tomokazi looks up and also sees the door in front of them.
Jōi nods and looks over to Tomokazi with a concerned face at the realization. “Yeah,” Jōi looks back to the door and walks closer. It was a pink wooden door that had beautiful carvings of different animals and flowers all over it; it had a golden outline and a golden door knob to match. “Well, if we died, at least we died together.” Jōi smiles, but that just makes Tomokazi look horrified.
The dog stands up and barks at the two men. Tomokazi and Jōi look up at the dog, who looks away from them and instead walks to the door. Jōi backs up from the door to make room for the dog, but instead, the dog jumps and phases through the trees.
“Woah! Come on, let's go with him!” Tomokazi runs to the door but waits for Jōi to follow. Jōi waits a moment. This is going all so fast. He could be wrong about this. Jōi looks over to Tomokazi and nods. Jōi walks closer and Tomokazi opens the door for them both.
A bright white light engulfs them both. So bright they have to look away just so their eyes won’t possibly be blind. Both boys yell out a scream, not from pain but mostly from shock because of the light. It takes a moment for their eyes to adjust, and they don’t even try to open their eyes until they hear the dogs bark.
Opening their eyes, they’re met with a beautiful sight in front of them. It’s a bright world filled with green, blue, pink, and more light vibrant colors to please the eyes of whoever looks upon it. The sky looked as if the ocean was right above them. Because it was! Fish swim above like birds normally would in their world. Below the hill they stood on was a massive Kingdom, surrounded by walls. Outside of the walls were valleys and far-off trees in the distance.
“Woah..” Jōi was the first to speak up. “This is beautiful! There are Orcas in the clouds!” Jōi lifts his arms to gesture to where the Orcas are swimming in the sky. Tomokazi looks up as well.
“What is this place?” Before Jōi could try to answer Tomokazi’s question, they heard the dog bark again. The dog stands up and tits his head to his lowered tail. “Maybe he wants us to ride on his head again?” Tomokazi walks over and goes to climb on the dog's tail.
“And you’re just going to go with it?” Jōi points out. “We don’t know where we even are!” Jōi was hesitant, to say the least. Though this place looks amazing, it’s also unknown, along with this dog.
“Come on Jōi! You said we might already be dead right? So why not give it a shot?” Tomokazi made it to the top of the dog's back once again. “Dead together right?” Tomokazi smiles down at Jōi hoping it’ll help convince him to come with.
Jōi sighs, “And if I was wrong?” Tomokazi shrugs his shoulders.
“Then let’s find out.” Tomokazi holds out his hand. Jōi finally gives in and nods. He makes his way up the dog's tail with the help of Tomokazi at the top. As soon as the two boys get seated the dog barks and begins to walk down the hill.
There was a bit of silence until they got closer to the kingdom where they started to hear the sounds of talking. The dog didn’t take them into the Kingdom but simply walked around the walls. The walls were surprisingly a bit taller than the dog, so much so that the boys had to look up to see the top of it.
“What are you doing with two humans Reese?” Immediately both boys looked up to where that male voice came from. There stood a tabby cat sitting on top of the wall. The dog barked up to the cat as if answering.
“Did that cat just talk?” Tomokazi points up to where the cat is. The cat didn’t say anything though as it looked down at them.
“Well, we are sitting on top of a massive dog with fish in the sky. It seems possible.” Jōi shrugs as the cat begins to stand up. Just then Jōi felt something soft touch his back, making him jolt forward a bit.
“It is possible!” This time a female voice responded, making the boys turn their heads fast to look behind them. This time there stood a full black cat. “Hiya!” This time they saw the cat speak.
The two boys were so distracted by the second cat that they didn’t notice the first one jump down in front of them. “My name is Kakashi. The black one is Megumi, and the one you’re currently sitting on is Reese!” The boys once again turn their heads.
Jōi sits sideways so he no longer has to twist his head as much, Tomokazi copies and does the same. “Nice to meet you, My name is Jōi, and here is Tommy.” Tomokazi bows his head down to the cats.
“Call me Tomokazi!” Tomokazi throws up a thumbs-up. Reese barks back at them and keeps walking. Kakashi shakes his head though and walks up to Reese's ear.
“You didn’t answer the question, you big slug!” Kakashi pats on Reese's head with his paw as if hitting him would stop him. Reese barks back though. “And what are you gonna do with them there?” Reese groans through his teeth. “You didn’t think that far did you?” Reese huffs and quickly lays down, making everyone fly up a bit.
“Woah!” Tomokazi and Jōi yell a bit as they land back on Reese. “You can understand him?” Jōi asks Kakashi. Kakashi turns his head back to Jōi and nods as he makes his way back over to them. “Well, what did he say?”
“He said he was gonna take you guys back to his cave, but when I asked what else he got upset and now he’s thinking about it.” Kakashi lays down and Megumi moves between the two friends to sit down beside Kakashi.
“He was probably just gonna have you guys play fetch with him over and over until you pass out!” Megumi jokes around making Kakashi sigh quietly.
“Wait! Can you two tell us where we are?” Jōi quickly asks as the question pops up into his head. Finally they might get some answers.