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Okarun loves Momo.
That was a for-sure fact that Okarun had realized a while ago.
It was something that he wasn’t even sure about at first. He had first chalked it up to him finally having a friend and not understanding what was the difference between friendship and love. No one had been as interested in his alien theories as her – albeit, she only became invested after being almost abducted by them – and she was so genuinely fascinated that she would listen to him prattle on for hours.
It had finally hit him when he listened to Taro profess his love for Hana. It had really resonated for him and it felt like everything had clicked into place for him. Feelings that he didn’t know what they meant suddenly had a name and he stopped trying to avoid them.
It was love.
Okarun loves Momo.
It was over.
It was finally over.
Okarun exhaled a deep sigh as he released his possessed Turbo Granny form and let himself fall back enough so that he would fall onto his butt. His entire body was exhausted and he wanted nothing more than to curl up next to Momo on her bed while watching an old movie on her equally old laptop she swore worked fine – Okarun would usually argue against that but he would be silenced by Momo through a handful of popcorn at him. A lot of the times, their movie nights would end with both asleep facing each other with Seiko coming by later to throw a blanket over them and shut the laptop closed.
Aira hissed as she gingerly tried to put weight on her broken leg, hobbling on one leg when the other buckled underneath of her, and failed at hiding her sigh of relief when Jiji swooped in to help take the weight. He hooked one of Aira’s arms over his bare shoulders after his clothes were shredded when Evil Eye was fighting and wrapped his other arm around her waist. Usually, Aira pitch a fit about Jiji touching her without permission but she was just as tired from the fight that she was willing to let it slide.
Okarun was battered and tired, his clothes torn and dirtied with grime and blood in parts. His shoes were long gone and Okarun knew better than trying to find them. He just hoped that he could beg someone’s shoes off of them if they were comfortable enough walking home in socks and if not, then to get their socks. He had plenty of back-up shoes at Momo’s house for times like this but it was matter of getting there first.
Jiji would have been the one Okarun would ask but Jiji was also missing his socks. Evil Eye had really gotten into fighting Count Saint-Germain after the yokai saw how strong he was. Jiji only had retained his pants but with it missing from the knees down. His shirt hung in strings over his chest that did nothing to cover him. Jiji’s left eye was swollen shut with dried blood coating his chin and his front.
Aira had done her best to help with providing offensive and defensive support. She was honestly such a grand support that Okarun didn’t think he could have won without her by his side. Unfortunately, that support ended pretty quickly when Count Saint-Germain had grabbed Aira’s leg mid-kick and snapped it clean in two, causing the girl to have to take a backseat for the rest of the fight.
It had come down to a one-on-one fight between Count Saint-Germain and Okarun in the end with his friends helping out. Rin’s singing that gave her control over gravity was the turning point as it allowed Zuma – who appeared from out of nowhere but Okarun wasn’t going to argue about having another ally – to fly at breakneck speeds to steal Count Saint-Germain’s power stealing knives from him at just the right moment. Kouki used her piano playing on a portable electric keyboard to get all the local bugs to blind Count Saint-Germain in a cloud of insects. Jiji and Aira had used a combo attack with each other that had Evil Eye sling-shotting at Count Saint-Germain to knock him off-kilter. It was followed by what he thought was Momo’s psychic hands to hold Count Saint-Germain in place as Okarun went all out on Count Saint-Germain – knocking out his alien core that he kept powered with essence stolen from yokai.
The ancient alien in question was breaking apart a few feet away from Okarun and looked up at the blazing sky from the setting sun with a blank look on his face. “You may have won today but the war for Earth is far from over,” Count Saint-Germain commented.
Okarun, his interest piqued, sat forward towards the dying alien. “What are you talking about?”
Count Saint-Germain’s eyes dragged over to the speeder yokai possessed boy. “You’ll find out soon enough. Don’t say I never warned you.”
Okarun looked around at all of his friends as they picked each other up and high-fived after a battle well deserved. Kinta was carrying a passed out Bamora on his back after Count Saint-Germain knocked her out in her attempts of buying time for everyone else to arrive. For once, Kinta was not being his overdone and cringy self as he focused on carrying the sleeping but welcomed-to-Earth alien on his back.
Zuma was offering a hand to Kouki with the girl blushing in embarrassment but taking the hand at his insistence when she stumbled trying to get back up to her feet. Aira was scolding Jiji about something that had the boy laughing but Okarun could see the smile hidden behind the scowl on her face. Mai zipped in the air around Turbo Granny, the two yokais in their usual argument with Rin trying to break it up in the background.
They may all be battered and exhausted but they were alive and still kicking – literally in Aira’s case.
Okarun snorted and looked back at Count Saint-Germain who was only a pair of shoulders and a head by this point. “Let them come. We can take them on.”
Count Saint-Germain just closed his eyes with a shake of his head, not saying anything else as he completely disappeared from the universe for good.
Okarun leaned back on his hands, letting the afternoon breeze brush over his sweaty hair. Turbo Granny screeched loudly at Mai about something trivial again. Rin was fussing over her friend to stop picking fights with other yokai, her voice hoarse from how much she had to sing. There was a dark looking bruise in the shape of a hand around her throat from when Count Saint-Germain choked her to stop her singing and thus her powers.
Jiji had finally brought Aira over to a fallen tree to let her take a seat on the log. Aira hissed again to herself as she stretched her leg out in front of her. Zuma and Kouki had come over by this point and the umbrella boy possessed delinquent gang leader had stripped off his shirt. Despite Aira’s protest, Jiji and Zuma had found a large but thick length of wood and used it with the shirt to create a makeshift split for her leg to stabilize it until they could get her real help.
Kinta arrived at the growing group right as Aira spit out a vile curse so loud after Jiji tightened the split that it woke up Bamora. The alien was placed on the log next to Aira, leaning tiredly against the arco silky possessed girl. Aira grumbled about her leg but leaned back against Bamora and asked her how she was doing while Kouki fretted around them with blotting away bubbling beads of blood along their various scratches with her handkerchief. The boys conversed quietly to themselves as they tried to figure out how to get in contact with someone who had a car to drive Aira to a hospital to get her leg properly looked at.
Okarun couldn’t help the smile on his face as he looked at all of his friends. The air of domestic friendship that permeated everything around them despite fighting aliens for the sake of Earth again was something he would never get used to. It was moments like this that he was so happy that he chased after Momo that day when she stood up to the bullies for him.
Speaking of, the one thing that make Okarun feel so much better was if Momo was with them right here and now.
“O-ka-run~!”
Okarun looked up at the call of his name to see Momo looking down at him. Her hands were braced on the guardrails of the higher road she was on. Okarun found himself wondering just how long she had been up there. Perhaps he had been right about her psychic hands being the force that kept Count Saint-Germain in place for Okarun to defeat him.
Honestly, Okarun hadn’t been sure he had even truly seen the girl earlier. He knew that she had to be around after seeing Zuma join the fight. There was a moment where he thought he caught a glimpse of her but that was in-between one fight and another that needed his full attention or else surrender his powers to Count Saint-Germain – and Turbo Granny would have his ass if he lost her powers after just getting them back. From what he had seen, it had looked like Momo had been tearing it up in her own respect with yokai-possessed villains that Count Saint-Germain had recruited to his side.
“Okarun!” Momo repeated his name again, waving a battered arm wildly in the air.
Momo’s hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail that looked barely held up. The hoodie that he definitely didn’t remember her having before hung loosely on her body and almost covered up the shorts she was sporting. Of course, she had on a pair of clunky of sneakers that she loved to wear and her green earrings shone in the light. There was a large scratch mark on her cheek and her right eyebrow looked to be split with how a thin trail of blood ran over her eye lid before she wiped it away to leave a streak on the side of her face.
Momo looked like she had gotten into another fight and walked away the winner.
Which wasn’t far off from the truth at all.
Okarun smiled and waved back at Momo. With the movement, his friends looked up and smiled when they saw the missing member of their group back with them. Jiji looked particularly chipper and jumped around in excitement.
“Miss Ayase! Hold on!” Okarun called to her as he gathered the strength to somehow make up to the road above him. “I’ll be there in a moment!”
That didn’t seem to be an adequate answer for the girl as she puffed out her cheeks in a pout. Okarun felt his heart melt all over again at how cute Momo looked. Momo grabbed the edge of the guard rail in a strong hold as it looked like she was calculating something in her head before she nodded to herself.
And to Okarun’s surprise – though, he very much should not have been surprised considering how much he knew Momo by this point – the girl jumped over the edge of the guard rail to free fall through the air.
“Wha—Miss Ayase!” Okarun screeched as he jumped up to his feet with his arms held out. In a flash of an unconscious decision, his possessed Turbo Granny form had taken him over again. His hair stood up on its ends in a wispy white and red at the ends. His entire form grew taller with pale skin and his back hunched over. The mask didn’t form this time on his face but the red lines over his eyes did so as they always did.
Momo fell down like a stone towards Okarun, her arms held out wide with a bright smile on her face. Okarun held his arms out and was like that for a moment before Momo dropped into them. Her hair tie seemed to reach the end of its life as it snapped to let her hair cascade freely. The force knocked him backwards a step and he spun around to dissipate some of it. One arm was hooked under Momo’s legs and the other crossed over her back with his hand holding the back of her head.
Okarun’s foot tripped over the other and the two went falling towards the ground. Shifting so that he would cushion Momo’s fall, Okarun fell right onto his back. Momo kept her face pressed against his dirtied shirt with her hands gripping it. Okarun’s grip on her legs had slipped when they fell and her legs fell between his own while his now free hand rested on her back.
If it had been any other moment, Okarun would have been delighted to have Momo so close to him and perhaps embarrassed by it.
But he was far past that right now.
Okarun groaned softly in pain as his possessed Turbo Granny form faded away again. His entire body ached and the last-minute shift to his possessed yokai form didn’t help. His hair fell back down over his glasses in its jet-black coloring and he returned to his original height. Momo shifted on his chest, clutching the front of his shirt just a tad more. They stayed like that for a moment as the dust settled around them again, both feeling the breathing and heart beat through the other’s chest.
“You okay, Miss Ayase?” Okarun asked, the hand at the back of her head playing with some loose strands of her hair. There was leaves and sticks stuck in a few strands that he brushed off.
“Who cares about that?” Momo huffed with a small smile and propped her chin on Okarun’s sternum to look at him. “Are you okay?”
“I care,” Okarun chuckled as craned his neck to look Momo in the eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked again.
Momo stared at Okarun with eyes full of warmth before she stiffened and quicker than he could react at the moment after that fight, Momo was pushing herself off of Okarun. He was about to mourn how close she was when she stopped just above Okarun. Momo was straddling Okarun on all fours as she looked down at him, Okarun dropping his head back down to the ground to look at Momo’s face.
“I’m big again!” Momo exclaimed; her gaze determined.
Okarun was confused for a moment why she was announcing that when he remembered a small detail from before the big fight.
And that small detail being that Momo used to be as small as a doll.
“You’re big again!” Okarun echoed in excitement.
The last time he had truly seen her, Momo had been able to fit in his palm with plenty of room to roll around. Small enough to fit in the Aira’s old doll’s clothes. He had sadly been separated from her when Seiko announced they had a very short window to turn her back to normal in another city and he had to stay behind to take care of things with Count Saint-Germain on the move.
Momo took in a deep breath, looking like she was hyping herself up for something. Okarun let her take her time as he honestly was just so happy to have her back with him in one human-sized piece. It was taking everything in him to not reach up and tuck a chunk of Momo’s messy hair behind her ear just so that he could see her face that much clearer.
“I love you too!” Momo confessed boldly and loudly.
Immediately, Okarun’s cheeks exploded in red, his hands stiffening at his sides. He knew why Momo was blurting out her feelings but he didn’t think she would do it right then and there. Honestly, he thought that he would broach the subject of his confession and Momo’s promise to answer it when she turned big again after they had gone home and recovered a bit.
Then again, this was Momo and Okarun could never truly predict what she was going to do next.
But that was one of the many things that he loved about her.
Okarun sat up gingerly, his body still aching from the previous fight and going all-out three times. It had been much less taxing on his body than the last time he went all-out three times but his body still felt like a lump of cement. Perhaps if he experimented then it was something he could use for the future……never mind, that wasn’t important at the moment.
Momo sat back on the ground between Okarun’s leg as she let Okarun sit up. Both of his legs bent when he sat up, effectively caging her in with only her escape being to scurry backwards…but that was the exact opposite of what she wanted to. “I love you,” Momo repeated, much quieter than before as she shared her confession for him and him alone.
Looking her right in the eye, Okarun repeated his confession that he yelled out to her as he was being pulled from the cursed trunk that Momo would be stuck in until the fairy tale card would be defeated. “I love you.”
“Yeah?” Momo smiled shyly, her mischievous side coming out. “You love me?”
“I love you,” Okarun repeated with a steely look of determination.
“Not as much as I love you,” Momo teased, scooting closer to Okarun. She reached up to cup both of Okarun’s cheeks in her hands. Distantly in the back of his mind, Okarun noted how covered in scratches Momo’s hands were and how much they shook from either pain or exhaustion – but most likely both.
“Not possible,” Okarun breathed, inching closer to Momo. “I love you more.”
“Here, I’ll prove it,” Momo whispered.
Momo closed her eyes and erased the remaining distance between the two of them, pressing her lips against Okarun’s. It would be a lie to say Okarun wasn’t surprised but with Momo, one could never be sure. She was always keeping things new and exciting for him making Okarun look forward to every new day with his first friend and love.
Okarun closed his eyes and pressed his lips into the kiss once he got over his initial shock. One of his hands came up to cup the back of Momo’s head again while the other supported his weight. Momo hummed into the kiss, tilting her head just so.
The kiss wasn’t anything like the movies where it is gasping breathes and a flurry of movements like Okarun had seen on the chick flicks Momo made him watch on some of their movie nights. It was tender and soft as they each expressed how much they loved each other. Lips moving to mold against the other. It was love in its purest form being expressed from one to another.
Alas, as for two teenagers that never had their first kisses before, they hadn’t learned about breathing through their noses for it. When the need for air came, they both held out for as long as they could before they had to break apart. When they did, the hand – or hands – on the other prevented the other from moving too far.
Momo and Okarun opened their eyes in unison and stared at each other for a long moment. After a second, both of them broke out into small and shy smiles. Momo used her hands on Okarun’s cheek to tilt his head down and Okarun did the same with his hand on the back of Momo’s head. Both of their foreheads pressed against the other as they softly laughed in joy.
For a moment, it was just the two of them in the world as they relished the new step in their relationship.
But then that moment was shattered by one scratchy and usually grouchy voice.
“Took ya brats long enough!” the scratchy voice screech across the clearing.
Momo and Okarun broke apart to see a crowd had formed around them. Both of their faces grew a bright red at the varying reactions of everyone watching them. Despite being battered and bruised, all of their friends looked excided for them.
Aira, now sitting in a wheelchair that was formed by Kinta’s nanoskin he used for his small part of the fight in a mecha suit, rolled her eyes at the interruption of their moment. While she tried to look as disgruntled as possible, the girl had known where Okarun’s feelings had laid with Momo and she clapped along for the new couple. Though, it did nothing to stop her huff and the upwards turn of her nose at Momo.
Momo did see the way Aira opened one eye to look at them with the small upwards turn of her lips.
Despite having lost in the race to claim Momo’s love, Jiji was hooting and clapping for his friends. He flinched as he pulled on a particularly strained muscle in his leg that had him plopping down on the ground next to Aira’s wheelchair. “I expect to be the baby’s favorite uncle!” he laughed loudly.
“Ain’t no one having kids any time soon!” Momo screeched in embarrassment, her cheeks going an even brighter red. Okarun’s entire face became as red as a tomato. Jiji just laughed louder.
Bamora didn’t exactly know what was going on so she just clapped along with a smile on her face. Kinta was striking a dramatic pose like usual, asking Bamora if she would like to partake in the same activity as the new couple. Aira heard this and did a partial transformation to wrap Kinta’s mouth up with her hair.
“What a nuisance,” Aira huffed at Kinta, her acro silky mask covering half of her face.
Zuma looked happy for the two of them and nodded a head in congratulations. Kouki herself looked embarrassed for watching their first kiss – or first real kiss if the accidental clanking of their teeth together counted as a kiss. Kouki had her face buried in her hands with her fingers spread apart just enough to let one eye peek out. Rin was torn between sending congratulations wishes to the new couple and trying to break up a fight between the two small yokais. Mai looked disgruntled while Turbo Granny looked all too smug.
“I thought you two were never goin’ seal the deal at the rate you were goin’,” Turbo Granny drawled with her little arms crossed over her lucky cat body. She looked over at Mai with a shit-eating grin. “Pay up. I won our bet.”
“You are a dirty cheater,” Mai said in a chipper voice. “I don’t pay cheaters!”
“You shitty trash excuse of a yokai youngster!” Turbo Granny raged and started chasing after Mai. Mai started to fly around Rin to avoid Turbo Granny. Rin could only sigh in defeat as the two yokai raced around her.
“Alright!” Seiko’s voice yelled from up top and everyone looked to see the grandmother leaning on the guard rail from where Momo had jumped from. Her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail after it had fallen from its updo during a fight with a strong alien. One half of her glasses had broken to leave a large crack going down the middle of it. With a long inhale of her cigarette, Seiko breathed out a cloud of smoke. “Let’s wrap it up! Everyone meet up my house and I’ll patch ya brats up!”
“We love you, hot auntie!” Jiji cheered, a fist in the air in excitement.
Seiko stayed there for a moment before pointing at the red-headed boy. “You get extra helpings of the nigiri.”
“Yippee!” Jiji cheered.
It was like the spell had broken as everyone started to help each other get up. A van approached them and stopped just at the edge of the group. Seiko’s pupil, Manjiro, climbed out of the van and rushed over to help Jiji and Zuma with getting Aira to the van. Kinta got Bamora on his back again and he carried the girl over to the van.
Kouki helped by holding the door open for them and then went to grab her keyboard off the ground. Rin, having enough of the yokai running around her, grabbed Mai in one hand and Turbo Granny in the other. The two of them continued to fight as Rin held them as far apart as her arms would allow.
Okarun watched how Seiko jumped off the road above like Momo did – like grandmother, like granddaughter – and land deftly on the ground. She stood up in straight with a hand in her jacket pocket, taking another drag of her cigarette. She looked at him with a flat look that made Okarun’s skin crawl.
Taking another drag, Seiko pointed her cigarette at Okarun. “You break her heart, you can say goodbye to your balls again,” she said.
Okarun gulped and sat up a bit straighter, moving his hand to hold Momo’s. “I will gladly offer you to them if that were to happen.”
Seiko nodded in Okarun’s promise to never hurt Momo. Turning around, she put the cigarette back to her mouth. “C’mon. You all deserve a good meal after all that.” With that, Seiko sauntered away to the van as it was starting to get filled up.
Okarun felt Momo’s hand shift under his and he looked back at her. Her face was angled down but her eyes were looking right at him. “You never answered my question earlier,” she grumbled. “Are you okay? You’re covered in blood.”
Okarun melted under her gaze and intertwined their fingers together. It felt so natural that he wondered how he lived without her hand in his all the time before. “I’ll be fine. What about you? Your hands are shaking.”
“Just beat,” Momo laughed and dropped her head to Okarun’s shoulder. He let her and leaned the side of his head against her temple. Okarun could feel the stickiness of sweat on her hairline. “I think I’m going to sleep for a week straight after this. Will you let me copy off your class note?”
“You say that as if I’m not going to be sleeping for a week right next to you,” Okarun chuckled. “Man, going all-out three times is exhausting.”
Momo leaned back again to look Okarun over with an appraising eye. “I better get a lot of movies prepared then.”
“I’ll only agree if you let me bring my laptop over,” Okarun said with mirth in his eyes.
“There is nothing wrong with my laptop,” Momo frowned playfully.
“Every time we try to watch something, there is a twenty-minute loading buffer with your fan going to loud that I swear it is about to explode,” Okarun deadpanned.
“It still works,” Momo huffed.
“Barely,” Okarun countered.
“But it still does,” Momo giggled.
Okarun rolled his eyes playfully and pressed their foreheads against each other again. “What am I going to do with you?”
“More kisses is a good starting point,” Momo offered with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Well, I can’t deny my girlfriend kisses now, can I?” Okarun smirked.
“Then you better get on with your boyfriend duty,” Momo smirked right back.
Okarun laughed softly and watched how Momo closed her eyes, her mouth parting in anticipation. Closing his own eyes, Okarun leaned forward to erase the distance between their mouths. They had only just brushed their lips together when a loud noise had them jolting backwards from each other.
Seiko honked the van’s horn again with a scowl on her face. “Hurry up, lovebirds! I’m going to miss my show!”
“It’s all re-runs tonight!” Momo argued back.
“I’ll make you both walk home! Don’t test me!” Seiko yelled back but they both know she didn’t mean it…probably.
Standing up, Momo brushed off her legs before holding a hand out towards Okarun. “We can continue this later. You’re in no shape to walk home.”
Momo was right. Okarun barely had the energy to hold himself up and the distance back to the Ayase’s household seemed daunting. Dropping his hand into Momo’s, he let himself get hefted up. Momo wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders and shuffled the two of them towards the van, Jiji jogging over to help with his limitless energy.
The two of them were loaded into the very back of the van with a snoozing Bamora sitting to Momo’s right with Okarun to the left. Aira, Kouki, and Rin were in the middle three-seater with the first sitting in the middle to let her broken leg rest on the center console. Jiji, Zuma, and Kinta were loaded into the open back of the van with their legs hanging over the edge. Since they were on such a rural part of the city, they figured it would be fine to have the boys like this.
Immediately upon settling in the van, Okarun felt a weariness settle deep in his body. He wasn’t the only one with how everyone seemed to sink into their seats and lean against each other for support. Momo dropped her head on Okarun’s shoulder, their hands intertwined together.
When he had started this day, Okarun had no idea how it would end. He had no complants about it in the slightest despite the toll it had on his body. It would just take some time to get back to one-hundred percent but that was a small toll.
Count Saint-Germain was defeated.
Momo was back to her normal size.
And his confession had been answered enthusiastically.
So, Okarun dropped his head onto Momo’s as she started to doze and let himself just enjoy the moment. It was the perfect ending to the day and Okarun wouldn’t trade it for anything. Turning his head, Okarun pressed a quick but purposeful kiss on Momo’s hairline.
Yeah, Okarun wouldn’t have this moment any other way.