Chapter Text
Dearest big brother,
I can’t believe so much has gone on recently! And I’ve missed all of it! I’ll be back in Kamiyama before you know it, okay!?
Hmm…as for Miyamasuzaka? Nothing’s happened!! It’s so boring!!!! They have me stuck in a room all day saying stuff about how I “shouldn’t go outside” and “the Otoris will make sure your stay is ever so pleasant” and all that stuff! Ugh, how will it be pleasant if I can’t even breathe fresh air!?
Please visit soon!! I miss you lots!!!
Regards,
your beautifully talented and wonderful sister, Saki
✩
Ever since Tsukasa was young, he knew only one thing. Grand adventures. Largely ones that the knights would tell him after he bothered them enough! Ever since he was little, he had a fascination with their legends and tales…
Especially the slaying of a dragon.
Time after time, every story was connected by the singular plot of killing a dragon. As soon as he entered training, he knew that was what he needed to do.
Through the years, he never let go of his one true goal. He was the number one knight-in-training and soon to be local legend! Every patrol he inched further and further away from the kingdom, trying to track down his very own dragon…
But of course, calamity struck. Even through his extreme strengths and very advanced exploration skills, Tsukasa was still yet to find even ONE dragon.
But today was different.
Years of failure had taught him perseverence, and now! Now he HAD IT.
In hand, a flyer – a bounty even. Whoever were to slay the dragon in the darkest parts of the Kamiyama borders would receive incredible wealth and…fame. Beautiful, beautiful fame, where all of Kamiyama would stare at him in awe…
Well, of course, he would be getting that fame if his horse would MOVE.
An argumentative neigh exited his steed, his front hooves lifting off the ground in protest.
“The forest isn’t even that scary!” Tsukasa huffed. “You’re a horse! You’re meant to do horse things! We haven’t even left the kingdom yet!”
Silverwing the completely normal and incredibly annoying horse whinnied.
“AGH! You WILL be riding into the forest, and you WILL be accompanying me in my journey to defeat a horrible and dangerous dragon that is tormenting the people of a small village!” Tsukasa waved around the flyer. “Now, let me back on your back and we will continue our valiant journey!”
His journey. It was INCREDIBLY important!!
He could taste the crowds of people cheering his name…Tenma Tsukasa, local legend! Slayer of dragons! Knight of star-like valor!
Tsukasa! Tsukasa! Tsukasa! (That’s what they would sound like, if they were real of course.)
He shut his eyes, ignoring the horrible snorting and disagreements Silverwing continuously pumped out in favor of his fanfare.
Tsukasa! Tsukasa! Ah, he could really hear it! They were all shouting his name! At least, vaguely! It was as if the Holy Miku above was bestowing a prophetic vision…
Tsukasa! Tsuka…tsssRRNNN RNNNN RNRRRRNNNNN…
Okay, that wasn’t his name.
SSSKKSSSHHHHHHHHHKKKKK…
That definitely wasn’t his name.
His eyes blinked open.
Silverwing was nowhere in sight.
No, actually, the stallion was very much in sight. He was just galloping away frantically in the exact direction they had just come from.
“SILVERWING! YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME!” Tsukasa shouted, his hand outreached. “YOU COWARD, COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT! YOUR INCREDIBLY HANDSOME, AND TALENTED CAVALIER DEMANDS IT!!!”
Actually, what had even made Silverwing run away? The thought entered Tsukasa’s mind far too late as he heard the loud crunching-chugging-whatever sounds from his delusions right behind him.
He turned his head over his shoulder.
Towering above was…oh Miku, Tsukasa didn’t even know! Some sort of??? Strange transportation device filled with pipes and gears and horribly loud sounds–oh my Miku it was coming straight for him.
“AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Tsukasa’s scream erupted from the bottom of his throat as he ran the opposite direction.
Now he understood why all knights rode horses. It was to escape from whatever mechanical beast was chasing him right now.
KSKSSHHHHHHHHHH….SSSSKSKKHHHHHHHH…FFWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Tsukasa didn’t take any time to look back but he swore he heard some sort of loud whistle. From the sounds of the ever-slow (yet still faster than Tsukasa’s running speed) oversized carriage straight out of a mechanic’s nightmares (or dreams, depending on the mechanic), it felt like it was…TEASING him! As though he wasn’t running like his life depended on it! AND IT DID!
“HAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He could only do so much, screaming and running seemed like the best options. He couldn’t outrun this thing. Not without Silverwing! But he couldn’t accept his fate here! He still had so many things he needed to do! Like attend a royal ball in his name! Accept gifts from those across nations! By Miku, he still needed to visit Saki-
“AGH!” Tsukasa felt something sharp tug on his flowing cape, nearly throwing him backwards. “WHAT IN MIKU’S NAME!?” His head swung around to see what had caught him.
A rock?
A ROCK?
A FREAKING ROCK WAS WHAT STOPPED HIM FROM ESCAPING??????
His eyes darted up to the approaching beast, then back down to the rock, then back to the beast. The mechanical monster was making no effort to stop nor steer away. He was doomed. Doomed to be killed there and now – crushed under a bronze wheel that didn’t even have a face to its name.
This was it.
It was over…
.
.
.
“HELLOOO!”
Eh?
“Welcome to a place full of smiles, Wonder Circus!”
Tsukasa opened his eyes, peeking around. There! A figure at the top of the balcony (of which Tsukasa hadn’t even spotted before, seeing as he was running for his life), making various gestures as if to really amplify their point.
“Now say it with me everyone! Ready set…” Now Tsukasa could see a bob of pink hair and a horribly bright outfit – not unlike a jester. “WONDERHOY!”
“Eh…?” Tsukasa, stunned, had completely forgotten about the adrenaline that was previously pumping his legs.
“...WONDERHOY!” The pink jester repeated.
“Er…oi.” Tsukasa tugged on his cape, flipping the rock off the edge of it. He brushed dust off his uniform before turning his whole body to face the…well, he only had to assume this was the ‘Wonder Circus’ mentioned previously.
“WONDERH-”
“Agh! Yes, yes, wonderhoy, wonderhoy, yahohoy!” Tsukasa stamped his foot on the ground, at this point fed up with whatever little jester was speaking to him. “Who are you!? What is this monstrosity!? Why in Sekai were you chasing me around!?”
“Ehhh? Looks like we have a new spectator in the crowd!” The jester put a hand over her eyes, as if scoping out a crowd that didn’t exist.
“Spectator!?”
“Hup! Wup!” She prepped herself before doing something Tsukasa could hardly even fathom: jumping the whole two stories down to Tsukasa’s level. Not only that, but she had decided to throw in not one, not two, but THREE frontflips on her way down! Oh god, Tsukasa had definitely run into some type of freak of nature.
She landed with a puff of dust, leaving a coughing Tsukasa in front of her.
“Welcome to the Wonder Circus!”
“W-wonder circus?” Tsukasa batted away the cloud.
“Mhm! You’re here for our show, right!? I’m Emu!” Emu held out a hand for Tsukasa to shake.
“...Show? Show!? The LAST thing I’m here for is a show! I, the valiant Tenma Tsukasa, am here to defeat a mighty dragon, as it says HERE, on this FLYER!” He revealed the paper. Emu examined it carefully before gasping.
“So you are here for our show!”
“WH- did you not hear anything I just said!?” He shouted.
“Well, if you’re here to fight a dragon…then…” Emu seemed to fiddle with her hands behind her back. Tsukasa placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. Was she…about to duel him!?
“Tada~! Here he is!” Out came her left hand. Except, instead of a hand now stood a…
“A SOCK PUPPET!?” Tsukasa yelled. “I don’t want a sock puppet, I want a REAL dragon! I don’t have time for this!”
“Ehh? But that flyer is for our show! And this is the dragon in the flyer!”
“Wh-excuse me!? What are you talking about!?”
“Look! I wrote this flyer as advertisements for the performance I was gonna put on! But I guess you’re the only one who came, eheh.” She itched the back of her head with the dragon.
“Wh-bwh-WHAT!?” He looked at the flyer. N…now that he was looking at it, he did suppose the art was fairly juvenile for a real bounty. A-and at the bottom, was that fine text!? “Come see our once in a lifetime show at the traveling Wonder Circus hosted by Emu at the edge of – WHY DIDN’T YOU MAKE THAT PART BIGGER!?”
“Eeehhhh?” Emu blinked. “I wanted to make it feel immersive!”
Great. Now there was no dragon AND an absolute idiot in front of him! Tsukasa bit his thumb, gritting his teeth before he called Emu some nasty names. What was he supposed to do?? Return home empty-handed and without his steed!? That would take days of walking! It was over…his legendary battle…the crowd cheering his name…it was all over….
“What are you doing on the ground, silly?” Emu giggled. Tsukasa hadn’t even realized he crumbled to the ground, but at this point, he deserved to be buried in the dirt road.
“Just run me over with your strange mobile circus…” He mumbled.
“Ah! I know what will cheer you up!” Emu clapped. Tsukasa slowly lifted his head to look at her in the blazing sun.
“Please don’t say…”
“A SHOW!”
“Aughh…”
✩
Tsukasa wasn’t sure what led him to this point. Which one of the gods he had pissed off so bad that he had to watch some random person’s one-person puppet show for two hours straight. He wished he knew so he could apologize. Perhaps repent enough to reincarnate into a lovely, flying bird or something.
“And then the dragon goes whooosh! And papapapa!” Emu made the dragon puppet smack against the knight puppet. Tsukasa had nearly fallen asleep five times.
It must be boring…having all this space all to yourself, though. It took him a while, but he only realized that she was all alone when he got inside. It sure was spacious – just…empty. For some reason, it reminded him of something from long ago. He groaned, unable to place a finger on it.
He stood up. “I-I think I need to go now. My knightly duties call for me!”
“Wh-no, don’t go yet!” Emu stood up from her makeshift stage on the stage. “You haven’t even seen the ending!”
“I just have more important things–DON’T CLING ONTO MY CAPE!” Tsukasa attempted kicking her off as she made the most pathetic, sopping wet expression at him.
“Pleaaaasee! I haven’t had anyone watch my shows for so long!”
“GET! OFF! ME!” With every syllable, he shook his leg. Emu finally let go, falling back onto the ground.
“Please! You have to stay!” Emu began pleading with the two sock puppets in hand.
“Ghhg…” Tsukasa stared at her. Her situation was…incredibly pitiful…However, she did have a giant moving circus…If he could manage to get her to drop him off back at Kamiyama, he could ditch her and continue his adventures to kill a dragon! “Fine! But you, err, need troupemates if you want to be a real circus!”
“Eh?”
“A circus needs more than just one! I’m sure if we go into the kingdom you could find more people who are…ehh…just as eccentric as you!”
“REALLY!?” Emu beamed, sparkles practically shimmering out of her eyes.
“Yes, yes! Now, can you make this thing move?”
“Yes, sir!” Emu cheered. “Onwards, to Kamiyama Kingdom!” She spun around, the two sock puppets flying off as she acrobatically rushed to a steering wheel.
Thank Miku… Tsukasa thought. I’ll be back home before I know it.