Chapter Text
Tsukasa has never really had friends of his own before. Sure, him and Nene were childhood friends who knew almost everything about each other but she was Amane's friend first, and she stuck to him like glue, only ever around him when Amane started to get too busy for her. When Nene wasn't around, Tsukasa would try and befriend the other people in his class, opposite of Amane's because they were identical twins. The problem with that, however, was that they were identical twins. Sometimes, Amane's classmates mistook him for his brother, spilling mean words and joking around that Amane was stupid for extending an olive branch towards them.
In response, Tsukasa raged war. He tore up their homework, wrote on their desk, punched them until they were black and blue, and sometimes, if he was feeling really angry, he pretended to befriend them, learning whatever he could so he could make their life hell for ever daring to mess with his older brother. It got people off of Amane's back as they moved up in grades but the older they got, the more that Tsukasa's reputation preceded him. People knew him as the evil twin, the monster that couldn't be trusted. His fists hurt and his words were like poison. He could find out your weaknesses, using them against you, smiling as he does so because you dared to say his brother was stupid within his earshot.
At the time, Tsukasa didn't really care if he had friends or not. Sure, Amane was busy, and Nene was only with him because of Amane, but Tsukasa thought himself content, an easy life with no problems and nothing unnecessary to make things complicated even if things weren't always perfectly okay, he didn't care, didn't have the knowledge that his life, filled with setback after setback, would soon crumble from underneath him, unable to handle the pressure on his shoulders.
It happens when he turns thirteen.
Tsukasa doesn't like to think of that night. He tries his best not to fall down rabbit hole scenarios of what ifs and maybes and definitely. All he's willing to acknowledge is that Amane's drifted away more after, that what had once become simple distance because of differing jobs soon became a chasm neither could cross and that Amane didn't care to try and do so. Tsukasa doesn't blame him, he can't blame him, a festering pit of self loathing bubbles in him from that night onward, being fed with every negative emotion he doesn't dare let out in front of his family and childhood friend. Anger. Resentment. Sadness. He keeps them locked away, controlling when and how to release them, carrying the house on his shoulders, the drama and music club, a photo of a once happy family, and, most recently, Mitsuba, who declared them to be friends on a sunny Saturday afternoon while he took pictures of everything and Tsukasa trailed after him.
He had gotten a new phone, stealing Tsukasa's own to input his number, and right above Nene's name, Mitsuba's shines clear and his messages go on for paragraphs of text that Tsukasa reads every day and night. Tsukasa's never had a friend of his own before, has never really thought about the implication of friendship for more than just his brother, him, and his brother's crush slash childhood friend, but with Mitsuba just a click away, Tsukasa punishes the thought of greediness that surfaces, the idea of texting him every morning and every night, in between the hours of the day when he isn't in class which, usually , he is, courtesy of Mitsuba threatening to block him if he didn't start attending them normally again.
Mitsuba has no problem being selfish.
Every morning, he tells Tsukasa the horrid outfit his mother is wearing. In between the hours of homeroom and the first real class, he laments about whatever is on his mind from the price of the bus to Kunishige's stupid training regime. When they have free time, they search around for the absent Kamado, to which Mitsuba often complains about, insisting that they just forget about it. Tsukasa would have gladly done so in the beginnings of their whatever this was, he's certain, but two months later, after everything he's found out so far, Kamado's absence is unusual amongst the hustle and bustle of gaining a friend for himself.
He isn't in his kitchen, that looks dirtier than the last time Tsukasa has stepped in foot inside which was also the only time he had done so. He wasn't in the music room, waiting for Tsukasa to play the piano and then interrupt him for no reason other than to be annoying. He wasn't in the infirmary, being a stalker to Tsukasa for god knows whatever reason. Asking the mokke yielded no results, as they had only jumped at the opportunity to take his place and Mitsuba had wisely referred to them as maniacs.
When they can't find him, and their free time ends, Tsukasa spends the time walking back to homeroom with Mitsuba, chatting aimlessly. He can never find himself broaching the topic of what happened with Nene and his family, stomach twisting whenever he so much as thought about it. The good thing was that Mitsuba was still here, still talking to him, their arms brushing against each other as Mitsuba lamented about something having to do with photos and Tsukasa's mind hopped around between thoughts of what his family might do to Mitsuba and if he should left well enough alone.
"So, who do you have in your dictionary so far?"
Today, they are looking for Kamado again during their lunch. One whole hour to search, about twenty or so minutes spent talking and eating. Mitsuba has a bento with tako sausage and onigiri shaped like cameras. There's celery sticks cut into the shape of film and a broccoli that's been safely dyed pink at the top. Mitsuba rips the head clean off, tossing the stalk into the trash bin in the corner in a clean throw.
Opening his can of soda, Tsukasa takes a gulp, feeling it burn his throat as it sizzles, and moves his bento away a bit to place the black book down, flipping it open. "I finished the mokke during the weekend after we hung out," he points to the page of colorful pink bunny creatures, where alongside it, facts and details are presented. Mitsuba studies it, drinking from his straw, and nods his head. The next page is in full line art, but zero coloring. "Done with Yako's sketch but not her details, not much about her yet. I know I should ask but I never have the time…" he trails off, taking a sausage from his bento to eat.
Mitsuba hums, destroying his onigiri camera. "We could go and ask right now," he says, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "We have loads of time before lunch is over. You have Yako and who else?"
Blinking, Tsukasa flips the page. "Tsuchigomori-sensei," he says, pointing to the full drawing of their spider teacher, "and Kodama, but I don’t know much about him either since my book didn’t say anything. Just gave me a general description…” Another flip shows the tree they had defeated, alongside its miniature self, and Mitsuba slams his hand down on it.
"I could tell you about that one," he says with a grin. "Get your pencil ready. There's not much to know but you don't wanna miss anything. Its name is Kodama, a tree spirit. The reason we saw all those couples is cause they kept confessing under it and it just forcibly made them fall in love like a pervert, bleh. It was a fairly new one, if you remember, since we only recently saw it." He scrunches up his face with a gag. "Since we defeated it, everyone went back to normal—though I'm sure Crazy Knife was given the silent treatment from Daikon-senpai for a while." He snickers, taking another sip of his juice. "That's about it, though. Do you change rumors for them too? Like you did with the mokke?"
Finishing the last few details Mitsuba had given, Tsukasa caps his pen, placing it behind his ear. "Hm? Oh yeah, Yako's rumor is that—"
"Ow!" Mitsuba hisses when something lands on his head, pushing it forward, and Tsukasa covers his mouth to keep from laughing when the mokke hops off, a familiar red clip between its ears. "That little—! It stole my hair clip!" He whines, already scrambling out from his seat. "Sorry, Tsukasa-kun! I need to get that back but you can go ahead and fill your dictionary up later, I'll see you soon!" He whirls around, snatching up his bag, and sprints off in the direction of where the mokke had gone, already unhooking the scythes around his belt loop.
He watches him go, glancing between his food and his dictionary before packing up both bentos and standing up, brushing dust away from his uniform. Digging his hand into his pocket, he takes out a small packet, sprinkling the contents over the fish pond. Koi come swimming over, the water rippling from their movements, and after a quick look over, Tsukasa snatches up his book and starts walking back down the path towards the courtyard.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Mitsuba chasing after a horde of mokke, disappearing into the old school building, and glancing at his watch, he picks up the pace, now lightly jogging back into the new building. No one is at the entrance, aside from a few of the mokke that is, and ignoring them, Tsukasa keeps his gait steady as he climbs up the stairs to the second floor, and then the third, making a beeline towards the staircase leading to the art room. "One," he starts as he steps forward, counting the rest in his head as his foot lands on the fourth step and water splashes against his socks. He shivers at the feeling, glancing up to see a long, winding staircase with waterfalls on either side, red spider lilies growing all across the ground, floating near his feet, and falling from the waterfalls.
"Woah," he mutters, whirling around to examine everything. "It looks so different. Is this what happens when you destroy a mystery's Yorishiro?" Part of him wonders if Tsuchigomori's library has changed just as much as he starts to sketch the flowers in front of him onto Yako's page, getting up and personal with them.
A chill going down his spine, goosebumps rising on his arms, makes him pause, turning around with a grin. "Yako!" He chirps, rocking back and forth on the heels of his feet. "Your boundary looks pretty but completely different. Is it cause your yorishiro is gone? Do you still govern it? Can you change how it looks? Where do those stairs lead? What—" a puff of smoke cuts him off, the fox that had been making its way down the long, winding staircases being replaced by a tall woman with blonde hair and bright green eyes holding a lantern that hung loosely from a stick.
She sniffs at the sight of him. "And what are you doing here?"
Still grinning, Tsukasa holds out his dictionary. "This is my supernatural dictionary," he explains, "I write about all the supernaturals I meet in here but I haven't gotten much details on you so I came to ask." He taps his foot, water splashing and rippling from the action, and chews on his bottom lip as Yako looks him over, her gaze piercing as she scrutinizes him.
"You want to know about me?" Her brow raises as he nods, rocking back and forth. She narrows her eyes for a moment, lips curled. "What for? I know you're part of that exorcist family. If this is a way to get weaknesses on me—"
"Huh? No way! I swear!" Tsukasa waves his dictionary around as he flails. "I wouldn't give this to Aoi or Amane. They don't even know I'm doing this. Scout's honor!" He puts his hand across his forehead, standing ramrod straight, and Yako sighs, rolling his eyes at the sight as she waves a hand, her body going up in smoke for a moment, dissipating to reveal a small white fox with bells jingling from her ears and small balls of fire around her, glowing softly.
She hops onto his shoulder, tail swaying behind her as she perches like a some sort of parrot, a grunt leaving her as she shifts and clambers atop his head, stretching with a yawn.
"So…" Tsukasa flips his book open to her page, tapping the details section with a grin. "Did you have any parents when you were alive? Were you ever alive?"
Yako kneads at his scalp, tail lashing at the air as she sniffs. "Inari statues aren't creatures.." she smacks his forehead with her paw and he yells, rubbing it as he mutters an apology. "But…" Yako trails off, burying her nose into her paws.
He almost doesn't hear her when she whispers 'Misaki treated me just like any other human.'
Tsukasa learns about Inari fox statues, vessels for the foxes of Inari who are brought down to earth to watch over the humans. He learns that they have no parents, but often a sibling, the other statue from across them, how Yako didn't have a sibling because the statue across from her had been broken for quite some time—shattered into pieces with just the legs left behind. Tsukasa asked if she ever felt upset at the sight, knowing what could have been. Yako shrugged, and continued her tale, whispering of how inari foxes were kitsune, able to create illusions, use powers beyond comprehension, that they are prayed to often and, looked at for good luck. Yako tells him of her shrine, the Misaki shrine, which had been used as a schoolhouse for Misaki and his kids back in the day. She explains how they first met, how she was young, just a kid herself, playing pranks on the other children. At the time, she had no idea what seeing her meant as a human with no sixth sense, hadn't thought it to be important in the grand scheme of things.
Now she knows. Now her heart aches a little, even if it's been years, because now she understands the limited time they had—the closest thing she had to someone was now gone.
Something like a pit had formed in Tsukasa's stomach at her words, growing larger as she launched into her tale of becoming a school mystery from his incessant pestering. The shrine had been somewhere here, apparently, because when she woke up next from her slumber, she wasn't in front of the Torii gates any longer and for a while, she wondered, she roamed, until word of mouth began to spread. Humans were crafty things, able to get word around fast. She doesn't remember how she was given the position (just that she was, that a girl with green hair and eyes, with an expression that held nothing in its gaze took her by the hands and said 'do you want a purpose?' And lost, heart aching, she desperately agreed.) but it happened, and her boundary remains on the stairs to the art room, a rumor of entering another world once stepping on the fourth step loud enough to go on for years.
Tsukasa writes it all down whilst making his way to Mitsuba's homeroom. Her mouth shuts when she gets to present day, because he's 'seen it all' and when he slides the door open, Yako jumps off, scurrying into the room where Tsuchigomori is eating lunch, brow raising at the sight of him. "Sensei!" Tsukasa flips the page as he hops forward, holding out his book. "Tell me everything about you! I won't tell my family, scout's honor!" Again, he salutes, standing straight, and Tsuchigomori slurps a few noodles.
"No."
"Huh?? Why?!"
Taking a drink from his thermos, Tsuchigomori points a finger to the clock. "Because I want to enjoy my lunch," he deadpans, "because this is invasive because you're trying to push your way into me saying yes and, lastly, because your brother is standing behind you and will tell your family about me." At this, twin gasps echo and Tsukasa stumbles as Amane pushes past him, smiling with wide eyes—the epitome of innocence.
"Who me? You're my old homeroom teacher, Sensei. I'd never rat you out." His eyes flicker to Tsukasa, and his smile drops, making him hunch his shoulders up. "Even if my brother means well, don't fill his head with nonsensical crap. I thought you were done with this?" His gaze drops to the black book, lips curling into a frown. "Come on, Tsukasa," Amane sighs, walking over and pulling on his cheeks despite Tsukasa trying to pry his hands off. "You and I both know that you aren't good enough to go chasing after supernaturals to fill that little journal thing—"
"It's a dictionary—"
"—and you're going to hurt if you keep trying. I thought you promised you'd stop six months ago but according to what Yashiro said…" Amane pinches him a bit harder, digging his nail in with a frown, and something sour curdles in Tsukasa's stomach as he finally rips Amane's hands off his face and takes a step back, letting out a stuttering laugh.
"Lunch is almost over," he says, continuing to step back towards the door. "So uh, we'll talk later, bye Sensei and Yako, bye Amane!" He whirls around then, slamming the door behind him and rubbing at his face as he speed walks down the hall, feeling his eyes burn and blinking rapidly. Of course Amane would say those things. Of course Amane, tasked with looking after him, would disapprove of him not following the rules.
("Don't look at supernaturals. Don't talk to them. Don't acknowledge them. Don't ask about them. Don't even think about them. You're a normal kid. You go to school and make friends and hangout at karaoke arcades and sleep in late. Act like it.")
He had to blend into the background. Be seen but not heard. No fighting. No supernatural hunting. No asking ridiculous questions. Be a normal kid. Act like the typical student. His mouth feels dry, breaths coming out shakily as he storms down the hallway, head down and book held close to his chest. How did he think Amane wouldn't find out? Why hadn't he thought about it? Prepared for the outcome where he'd have to stop indefinitely? He should have never given into Kamado's request, should have never offered up something so integral to him that he knows will be his undoing. Now Amane is mad, and Nene probably hates him and—
"Oof!"
His body goes crashing to the floor with a thud that reverberates up his arms and spine but, before he can scramble for an apology, a familiar voice groans and, somehow, Tsukasa's stomach twists further as he looks over.
Mitsuba hasn't gotten his hair clip back, bangs covering one of his eyes, and rather than spit vitriol for sending him crashing to the floor, he blinks, head tilting. "Did you finish the pages you wanted?" He pushes himself to his feet, holding his hand out, a beaded bracelet hanging from his wrist and hands that are covered in lichtenberg figures from his fingers down to his wrists, half covered by the bracelet.
Despite himself, Tsukasa sniffs a bit, swallowing. "Did you miss the mokke again?" He doesn't take Mitsuba's offered hand (doesn't deserve to take it), pushing himself to his feet and tucking his dictionary back into his bag. Later, with his lighter, he could set things right, go back to normal—act like this never happened.
Mitsuba groans, shaking his head. "No," he says with a vehement scowl. "They vanished when I had to use the bathroom and now I can't find them—"
"I could help." It's the least he can do for ruining Mitsuba's life. It's the most he can do for being who he is, for existing when the world has told him not to. "My sixth sense is pretty good, and besides. They like my music so they'll definitely crowd around me once I start playing." Tsukasa doesn't wait for an answer, already turning towards the direction of the stairs. "We'll do it at the old school building," he says, holding up his ocarina. "I'll play this, since the instruments there are probably all rusty, I think? I haven't actually gone into the old music room." Maybe he should use that as his place of thinking more instead. No one would hear him, except for the supernaturals, and he'd be blissfully alone.
Right. That sounded alright. It did.
"Huh? You'd—well, okay, I guess, but if you're late for class, I'll make you regret it." Mitsuba threatens as Tsukasa starts to head down, humming an affirmative as he whirls the corner.
"Yup! Got it!"
His hand reaches out, grasping Mitsuba by the wrist and tugging as he makes a beeline towards the middle school entrance.
Their sneakers thud heavily on the dirt as they scramble over the old school garden's fence as if they've done this a million times before. Mitsuba groans, brushing dust off his pants, camera swinging from his neck. Peering through the chain link fence, Tsukasa's eyes flicker about as Mitsuba huffs. "Why couldn't we go through the path in the courtyard again?" He sighs, as if this entire thing is bothering him. "It'd have been faster."
"And risky." Tsukasa turns, gazing around at the old garden. Everything is gone—the rotted plants and vegetables having been thrown away. There is a certain chill in the air that shouldn't be there in the beginning of summer and the sky's started to turn the slightest hints of gray. "Let's split up. I'll do here and you check around the school entrance." He flickers his eyes about, walking over old planting rows and crushing seed packets under his feet.
Mitsuba splutters. "Split up?" He huffs. "That's how you get snatched, Tsukasa-kun."
Blinking, Tsukasa tilts his head. "Do I look like someone who can't protect himself?" His voice holds an undercurrent of bitterness despite himself and he frowns as Mitsuba recoils a little, shaking his head.
"Just promise me you'll answer my texts," he says, pulling out his phone and waving it about. "I'll do it periodically, so you don't forget, and don't think I died falling down a hole or something." When he nods, Mitsuba gives him one last glance before turning away, walking off towards the school front doors. Tsukasa watches him go for a moment before sighing and rubbing a hand over his face. The chill he feels only gets worse as he walks deeper into the small garden, goosebumps rising on his arms when he turns towards the small shed like greenhouse.
Something was there.
A horde of mokke, perhaps, hiding away so Mitsuba didn't take their stolen treasure from them. Tsukasa pats his pockets to make sure he has candy in them before he steps forward, grass and seed packets crunching under his sneakers. The greenhouse door is creaky as Tsukasa swings it open, glad that the grayness of the sky hadn't gotten so bad that he couldn't see inside yet. Just like the new one, there were shelves with pots and plants hanging from the ceiling. Unlike the new one, however, the tables were directly in the middle instead of attached to the walls.
His eyes flicker around, the chill that he feels burrowing deep into his bones as he clears his throat. "Mokke! Hey! I know you guys are in here! Can you give back Mitsuba's hair clip? It's important to him. I even have candy for you guys—!" He steps further into the greenhouse, eyes flickering around, and stiffens when his foot falls onto something that makes a resounding click echo throughout the small shed.
The sound of whistling wind rings in his ears as he turns his head and a metal bucket comes flying forward.