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Nakamura Okuto was shy, gay, hopelessly in love with Hirose Aiki, and currently wishing those three things had remained his only major problems in life.
The ravenette grunted as he held his staff out to block a lashing approximation of a limb. He felt his boots scrape against concrete as the force of the blow forced him back a few inches, but his arms and weapon held strong. The corrupt abomination of a spirit the limb belonged to roared in frustration, sending another limb in at a lower angle. Nakamura flinched, quickly redirecting the first limb away with the staff and narrowly avoided being struck by the second thanks to his body reflexively twisting out of the way after a strong jump. The movement itself made the boy shudder internally-he wasn’t used to the new ways he could contort himself without consequence.
Nakamura zeroed back in as his boots safely hit the pavement, the spirit he’d been tasked with capturing burbling something unintelligible as it warped around to attack him again with a new limb it conjured. This time, the ravenette met the incoming attack with the end of his staff and redirected it to smash into the wall behind him, then freed one of his own hands up to parry the next hostile limb with an attack of his own. Magic crackled and blasted outwards as he slashed his new claws through the air, the spell propelling forward and tearing through the oncoming “arm” like a cluster of heated knives through butter, only stopping when it collided with the opposite wall and left deep gouges in the stone.
The spirit reared back with a distorted screech as the detached segments of its former appendage splattered onto the ground in goopy black puddles. Nakamura shuddered at the sight, swallowed down his disgust and launched another magic claw attack at the corrupted being, the crackling slash marks tearing into the main body this time, ripping its “flesh” apart where they connected. Another screech rang out, and Nakamura took it as an opening to rush in.
Despite its apparent agony, the being was still cognizant enough to use its remaining limb as a counter against the boy running towards it. Nakamura easily avoiding the attack this time, the spirit slowed by its “wounds”, before jumping up, far higher than any human should be able to, and slamming the top of his staff down against the spirits main body so hard the ground underneath it cracked a bit.
There was a beat of tense stillness, before a powerful light erupted from the staff. The creature screeched one final time, before the light forcefully pulled its body into the orb, and Nakamura was left to free fall back to the ground. His body quickly corrected itself midair and he landed gracefully on his feet, letting out a sigh of relief as he slumped forward, using the weapon as a support.
“Two hours-congratulations on the new record, kid” a sassy voice purred from a few feet to his left, its owner slinking through the air until she was at eye level with the boy. The owner was a dark, slender feline spirit who went by Marinette, with twin tails and twin markings around her eyes with one on her forehead, waving horns of mist rising from between her ears. Nakamura glared at her, but didn’t have the energy to give her a snippy retort, as he’d been slammed into several different walls and the pain was starting to catch up. “You were lucky-that one was weak enough that it had to leave itself vulnerable for full force attacks. I commend you on the quick thinking in the end there”
“I was just trying to keep my head-I hadn’t noticed anything” Nakamura admitted bitterly, wincing as he recalled the embarrassing moment where the spirit had caught him by the ankle mid-jump earlier and shaken him around like a ragdoll. “These things throw me around like I’m a toy-how am I supposed to be a match for that?”
“You could attack them more, for one. Your spells do damage even when it isn’t noticeable, but you seem to just toss aside your magic when it doesn’t work the first time” she hummed, sitting down on the air like it was solid as Nakamura felt something snap in his brain. “It’s way more draining to run them ragged like you’ve been doing, especially the stronger ones”
“WHY didn’t you tell me that earlier!?” Okuto shouted, louder than he meant to, and he quickly slapped a hand to his mouth with a blush as Marinette chuckled. The cat pushed off from her invisible perch and moved to Nakamura’s shoulders instead, pressing her face against the boys cheek.
“An oversight on my part-I didn’t consider how overly cautious you could be in combat” she purred, tails curling around his neck from the other shoulder. “If you have any opening for an attack, take it from now on, even if you think it’s futile in the moment. You’ll be pleased with how much quicker your battles will conclude”
“… I hate you” the battered teen growled, stumbling from pain as he got in his own two feet again, dispelling the staff. Marinette giggled at his declaration, as if he’d told a joke. “You seriously just let me get beat up for two weeks and didn’t once think tell me such important information!?”
“I was asleep for a thousand years kid, things tend to slip through the cracks” the feline lightly retorted, flicking one of her tails up to smack the new Lucky Cat in the face. “It’s better I remember now than not at all”
“That was two extra hours of sleep I could have gotten, wasted, because you have bad memory” the teenager grumbled, dispelling his combat form and reaching for his phone. He winced at the late hour the screen, then pulled up his GPS to check how long it’d take him to get home. “And six blocks worth of getting my shit rocked”
“At least you have a better strategy for next time?” the cat spirit consoled with a terribly inappropriate chipperness, her tails swishing across the side of the boys chest as she got comfortable and laid across his shoulders. Nakamura didn’t have the heart to force her off, but that didn’t mean he was happy with her hitching a ride. His right shoulder was already singing about its newly forming bruise… ugh, he just needed to get going now and walk off what he could. “Perhaps you can use your injuries as an excuse to talk to that cute little nurses aid you fancy tomor-oh, wait, today, it’s past midnight”
Okuto felt his face flush hot-a response he was trying to curb lately because seriously, who gets all flustered at the mere mention of their crushes name- and violently shook his head to dispel it, giving Mari a warning glare as she chuckled mischievously into her paw. She knew what she was doing, and it was annoying. Zoning out about how nice it would be to lean on his cute best friend while he fretted over Nakamura’s injuries was a super unsafe thing to do in the middle of the night, the occasional disturbance of long dormant evils non withstanding. He didn’t want to get mugged, thanks. That and… well, his daydreams had been a tad bittersweet lately. Most of them were the typical affair, doing couple-y things with Hirose like it was the most natural thing in the world, but if left uninterrupted they tended to… end badly.
The weather wasn’t particularly cold yet, but Nakamura found himself shivering anyway, tightly wrapping his arms around himself. The sidewalk had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the world. He could watch how his shadow stretched and shrank as he passed under the streetlights, devoid of Marinette despite her subtly shifting presence over his shoulders. Still, there was something else in his silhouette that deviated from what he’d spent the first fifteen (almost sixteen) years of his life getting acquainted with. Things that just… shouldn’t be on a person.
‘So what does that make me?’
Nakamura lurched out of the line of street lamps, toeing the edge of the sidewalk closest to the buildings it passed, so his shadow was no longer creeping directly in and out of his line of sight. Nobody was out this late, not unless they were behind the register of a convenience store or high out of their mind. Nobody could see him…
He felt the walls come up anyway.
“Oi! None of that, if I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times, that spell will get weaker if you keep using it outside of necessity” the feline around his neck was quick in her response, biting at his ear. Not strong enough to draw blood, but enough to pinch, enough to shatter the illusion spell Nakamura desperately wanted to sink back into, consequences be damned. “You do it again without cause before we get to your house and I’ll give you a piercing, kit. Don’t test me”
“Who are you, my mom?” Okuto snapped back, though it lacked any real bite. Probably because he knew the long dead cat was right on some level. He couldn’t exactly deny her experience with magic either-she’d been the one who gave him his new powers in the first place, even though he wished she hadn’t.
Marinette didn’t dignify his backtalk with a response, instead choosing to make herself comfortable once more across Nakamura’s shoulders with a purr. The rumbling was oddly soothing for the boy, the steady vibration and noise suppressing some of the discomfort he was feeling. He didn’t relax his posture, but his arms had loosened a little.
‘It’ll be… fine, as long as nobody sees me’ Nakamura tried to console himself, but even with the odd purring thing, he couldn’t bring himself to truly believe that thought. His fingers on his left hand started fiddling with the fabric on the side of his shirt, trying to distract him from the shadow that still held presence in the corner of his eye. ‘If I could manage to becoming friends with Hirose, I can handle a walk home looking like this’
…. Okuto was still holding out hope that Marinette would grow bored before he got to his front door and leave. She was a decent mentor figure outside of her apparently faulty memory and occasional unavailability, but if Nakamura could submit one formal complaint it would be her stringent enforcement of the “no using the disguise spell outside of necessity” rule. It had only been two weeks of this craziness, yet he’d already been nipped at several times for breaking the policy. It was annoying! Nakamura hadn’t asked to be turned into-
The teen winced with a sharp inhale as his own claws sunk into skin. Right, home-just get home. Don’t think about anything else.
Okuto, by some miracle, actually zoned out after that, the business district bleeding into residential areas. He barely registered Marinette’s casual goodbye as his house came into view, easily leapt up to his windowsill on the second floor, and flopped into his bed with the grace of a drunken seal, closing the window and the curtain behind him with his foot. Only when the noise outside became muted did he finally relax, letting out a deep sigh into the mattress he’d chosen to fall onto face first.
‘Why did I not wait to change out of my combat form until I got home? My feet are going to be killing me tomorrow…’ the shy boy idly thought as his leg dropped down awkwardly against the wall. After a few more minutes of just… existing, Nakamura pulled his face out of the mattress to smile at his precious little Icchan. The light from the octopus’s tank was faint, but nowadays it was more than enough for his owner to see his entire room with clarity in even the darkest nights. This also meant that Nakamura could appreciate every detail of his brilliant little buddy, who’d pressed one of his tentacles against the glass wall of his tank to greet his owner when he’d seen the boy lift his head. ‘So cute… that’s never gonna get old for me’
“Sorry about disappearing again, Icchan. Papa had an urgent errand” Okuto finally whispered, twisting around with almost disturbing ease until he was in a more comfortable looking position, back pressed against the wall with legs crossed in front, elbows resting on his thighs so his hands dangled idly in the middle. “I was hoping I’d gotten out without waking you up this time”
His beloved pet withdrew his greeting tentacle, before propelling himself forward slightly so his face was nearly pressed up against the wall of the tank facing his boy. Two different tentacles then raised at the creatures sides, something his owner recognized as frustration. Icchan clearly didn’t like that Nakamura was leaving in the middle of the night.
“I know, I know. I’m not a fan of the new routine either” the anxious teenager admitted, fiddling with his fringe and averting his eyes. “Like it or not, I’m the only person who can do something about those… things, the Occult Club unleashed. If I ignore when one pops up, people could get really hurt or killed. Eaten, even”
Nakamura shuddered at that last thought, having narrowly avoided such a fate a couple days ago. The hand dropped back into his lap as he faced his pet again, the little cephalopod staring back attentively. A smile tugged at the boys lips-Icchan was the best listener he could ask for. Sure, he probably didn’t understand most of what Nakamura told him, but the little octopus was smart enough to make him truly feel heard.
“… I don’t think I could forgive myself if one of those nightmares got to Hirose, as small of a chance that is” the boy sighed, his arms finding purchase around his torso again, head falling back against the wall. “He’s too much of a scaredy cat to follow creepy sounds-though I think it’s more accurate to say he just has a good sense of self preservation”
Things went quiet between them after that for a bit. Okuto watched the light ripple and warp across his ceiling, the water it passed through creating the fascinating refractory effect. He’d never been able to appreciate the nightly spectacle with such clarity before, serene and haunting all at once. It felt like his room had been submerged, dark waters encasing the four walls just out of sight behind closed curtains.
Some part of him wished the sight was more than illusion. That he was somewhere beneath the waves of the ocean, alone with Icchan, far away from his problems. Somewhere those nightmare creatures could not follow, where Marinette couldn’t think to look, cut off from all reminders of what had been done to him.
As if mocking that train of thought, Nakamura registered something warm and furry curl around his ankles. His breathing hitched at the touch, but he knew.
He knew he’d hit is breaking point.
Tears welled up as Okuto lifted a foot and stomped his tail, ignoring the jolt of pain it sent up his spine as his extra limb automatically whipped back to a more acceptable resting spot next to him. The boy curled in on himself, burying his face in his knees as his hands found purchase squeezing the triangular ears on the sides of his head. It hurt, really bad, but not enough to rival the visceral disgust the teen they were attached to was feeling at the moment.
Was it not enough that he never fit in? That nearly everyone he’d tried forming connections with had rejected him until he thought his only option to avoid the constant inevitable hurt was to isolate himself? Why, when he finally fell in love and made a real friend through it, had the universe decided to punish him like this? Stripping him of the only reliably normal thing he had and corrupting it with the inhuman features of the common house cat? Was he just a sick fucking joke to the cosmos-a gay little punchline for higher beings to torment for their own amusement?
He wasn’t laughing. At all.
He was trapped in a body he hated, cleaning up a mess the Occult Club recklessly unleashed, getting his ass kicked by corrupt monstrosities on the border of human comprehension, all for the sake of doing the right thing. It HAD to be him, he was the only one imbued with the power needed to even put up a fight. All because he’d just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time for some sacred cat to deem him a perfect candidate for her “gift”.
The ravenette dropped his knees and hugged his arms to his chest, fingers curling into the fabric of his short sleeves as he stared forward at Icchan, tears dripping from the faintly glowing bluish green eyes reflected in the glass. He scooted closer to his pet, draping his legs over the side of the bed and leaning forward a bit. Even with how blurry and translucent his silhouette was behind his eyes, it was still clear something wasn’t right about it.
“….Maybe it was inevitable that my appearance would match what I am inside one day, right Icchan?” Okuto choked, suppressing a sob that desperately wanted out. But he couldn’t do that-someone would hear, and he was sure that any family member who found him looking like this would gleefully take the opportunity to kick the neurotic oddball out of the house for good. “A total freak who can’t fit in anywhere-I guess I’ve always been like this on some level”
Icchan made no move to correct him as his owner choked back another sob, the tears now falling in a steady trickle down his cheeks. Unbidden, Nakamura’s eyes trailed over to the photo of himself and Hirose, from the school trip where they’d officially become friends. The little glimmer of fondness he felt gazing upon his crushes happy expression was washed away by the cold truth of his new reality.
“Icchan-how could I hope for him to love me if I’m like this?” Okuto forced out, eyes trailing back to his pet, the cephalopod acting as the final thread holding his aching heart together. “How could anyone love something like me?”
The octopus held no answer for him. It could only wiggle its tentacles around in a silly manner in an effort to soothe his ailing boys distress. Unlike usual, this behavior helped nothing, and Nakamura quietly slid off the bed and onto the floor, pressing his hands into his face to muffle the sobs he couldn’t keep back anymore. He could never tell anyone the truth, there was nobody he could reach out to for help.
He was completely on his own.
For the second time in his life, Okuto Nakamura’s heart shattered into a million pieces, the boy sobbing until the empty light of dawn had long crested the horizon.