Social Link Fusion: Emperor X Fortune
It was another rainy day at Inaba. Narukami Yu stared the pouring water out of his class window. It's been a while since they saved the last victim of the Midnight Channel, simply named Shirogane Naoto. Unlike the rest of the group, he wasn't really surprised that Naoto's actually a female. It was easy for him to recognize the difference. The most obvious part he noticed was her voice. It did sound masculine, but when he listened carefully and compared it to Yosuke's chirping voice and Kanji's gruffly one, it seemed forced. Her stance also bugged him, it's rare to see a guy standing with his waist slightly bended to the side and placed one hand to supported it. That stance was like a mistress demanding something from her servant. Well, enough about her gender problem. He had no place to complain.
The bell rang, signed the class was over. Yu put all his books inside his bag before stroll out of the class. Hanamura Yosuke, his headphone-clad best friend approached him while he was walking along the hallway. "Yo!" He greeted. Yu only looked at him with an understanding expression. "It's rainy today. Why don't we go to the TV world? It's been a while, you know. And I think we need to practice more often. I noticed the shadows grew stronger every time we went at rain."
Since he had nothing to do, it seemed like a good idea. However, he saw a certain raven-haired girl hurriedly greeted them while running past him. He immediately changed his mind. "Amagi, doesn't seem to agree." he said while waving his hand to her as a reply.
Yosuke sighed. "I just remembered Chie also has her own plans today."
"What is it?" Yu asked curiously.
The headphone-clad guy stopped and began to mimic Chie's typical stance and said, "A kung-fu dvd I ordered has finally arrived Yosuke! Don't you dare bug me with you text while I'm watching it later after school!"
Yu didn't know if it's just him, but it seemed like Yosuke did too well mimicking her pose. Although the voice was a little exaggerated… Honestly it's disturbing. "I guess, another time?"
"Yeah, seems like it." admitted Yosuke sadly. "Well, I'm going first then. See ya!"
Yu nodded and put only a gentle smile as his friend dashed off. When Yosuke's out of sight, he continued his walk and ended up at the lobby. After switched his shoes, he stood at the entrance and gazed at the crowd who casually walked home with their umbrellas above their head. He sadly sighed and leaned his back against the wall. The umbrella Nanako prepared for him was left at home. Next time, he'd better remember to grab it before hurriedly running to catch a bus.
"'Sup, Narukami-Senpai!" a relatively tall teen with bleached hair patted Yu's shoulder. It's Tatsumi Kanji, a somewhat twisted teen regarding one's gender. Alright, that was a cruel description. Let's just say, he's a confused teen with manly appearance that enjoyed girls activity. That didn't sound nice either. "I-Is there something on my face?"
Yu chuckled heartily. "No, not at all. Just dazed off." Upon closer observation, he noticed an adorable small velvet blue penguin handbag hanged beside his. His bag also seemed buffer than he usually sees. He couldn't help but asked what inside it.
"Oh, th-this?" His junior opened his bag and shown some books he tidily placed inside. "W-Well, you see. Naoto has been at home for a week now. S-So I'll just trying to help by bring her my notes. I-I thought she will need it before she goes to school again. S-So I… uh..."
Deep in his heart, Yu mused at how this guy stammered and babbling something else he didn't mean to say. But he looked troubled enough for him to step in. "So you want to go visit her?"
"Ye-Yeah…" He shyly admitted while looking away.
"Well, good luck."
"Se-Senpai?" Yu silently turned to face the nervous teen again. "Mind to… tag along? Um... It's kinda awkward for me to come alone."
Good point. Even the guy himself realized that. Yu and Yosuke always knew his junior here had a little crush to a certain pint sized 'Detective Prince'. Yosuke often teased him with that while he just listening to his junior's rambling as he denied the obvious. The bleach-haired teen was always trailed off while conversing with her, except when he and the rest of the Investigation Team faced Naoto's shadow. He got to admit, he was really cool that time.
"Uh, Senpai? You're dazing off again."
"Huh? Oh, right. Let's go then."
"You'll come! Thanks dude, I owe ya!"
The sun was almost set. When Yu thought about it, neither of them knew where she lives. So, it's no surprise when they arrived this late in the afternoon. As they arrived, the two of them stood in front of the door and stared at it. The senior purposely waited for the junior to ring the bell to test his courage and determination. He immediately tagged it as a bad idea as the junior just stood by, watching the oak door. As if it's gonna open on its own if he kept doing that.
"Change your mind?" Yu started. The nervous junior somehow got freaked out at start mumbling something he didn't understand. Yu let out a tired sighed. He reached out a hand to press the door bell, but wildly stopped by the juniors grip. The senior looked up to his, forcefully, determined face before let go of his hand. "Go on, then." Yu said in understanding.
The determined junior took a deep breath before unintentionally slamming his palm to the door bell. It made Yu realized just how nervous this guy was. Still nervous or some sort, the junior didn't stop after that, he kept banging the door bell like it was his arch enemy. When Yu glanced at his face, it's all full of sweats. The senior decided to let him be.
"Yes, yes. I'm coming. Please stop pressing the bell!" a particularly weak voice shouted from inside the minimalist house and they began to hear footsteps coming. Kanji abruptly stop banging the door bell and return to his nervous, idly stance again. Yu glanced up at his junior again, only to find sweats began running down from his temple. As the oak door let out creak sound, Kanji looked away from the door and stared at the rainy sky. By the way, neither of them brought an umbrella. So the rain soaked their uniform. Yu waved a hand a smiled wryly when a slender blue-haired girl with her navy blue pajamas emerged from the darkness of her home. Her expression was like seeing a ghost as he saw them.
"Narukami-senpai?! And…"
Yu mentally said, "Turn around Kanji! She doesn't know you long enough to recognize you by your back only!"
"...Tatsumi-kun?"
Yu mentally laughed, she did recognize him. Either by her logic or random guess he didn't really care. The least was she recognized him, that's a good sign for them.
"H-Hey!" That's it? He really could do better than just say 'hey'.
"What are you doing all soaked? Come inside. I'll get some blankets."
Without more waiting, Yu stepped inside. However his junior was still as stiff as a pole outside. Tired of sighing, Yu just grabbed his junior's collar and dragged him inside. The junior was like, "Se-Senpai wait! I need more time dammit! Oi, listen to me!"
Yu's first impression of Naoto's house for the first time was, 'Did a ship just wrecked in here?' Seriously, there were papers everywhere, some books were also just lying on the floor as if there's no bookshelf. There were three bookshelves… Yu finally understood why the she let the books lying on the floor. It was ridiculously overfilled with other books. Yu couldn't help but notice the sofa she was seating on was her bed as her big pillow placed on the edge and her blanket messily placed above it. Also, when Naoto opened the door he couldn't peek anything but pitch black. She didn't seem to like lights.
It's true, Yu's worried about her… lifestyle. However he also worried with the tension around this too silent room. Naoto was understandable if she didn't want to talk. She's not on her prime state, but the guy beside him? He glanced at his junior again who still staring at the ceiling since he came in. This awkwardness couldn't get any worse.
"How are you, Shirogane-san?" Yu felt obliged to start a conversation before Kanji ran out of confidence and abruptly leave.
"…I'm fine. Thank you." she replied softly with her husky voice. "I'm really sorry about my house conditions. Your arrival was a surprise to me."
Yu chuckled. "That's okay. It's us who should apologize for coming so suddenly." Naoto let out a weak smile. She didn't want to bother to impersonate as a male at this circumstance, it seemed. As the situation began to turn awkward, Yu reached out his left hand to grab Kanji's collar and pulled it so his flushed face could see Naoto's puzzled one.
Kanji put up some resistance to remove his senior's grip, but despite the difference of their physical appearance, the senior proved his superiority. "L-Let go, senpai! You're embarrassing me!" He yelled. Naoto could only watch in bewilderment.
"Be a man, Kanji. Tell her why you're here." Yu said firmly while still holding his collar.
Kanji sighed in defeat. "N-Naoto-uh, Shirogane…" Finally hearing his junior spoke up, Yu let go of his collar and rested his back on the sofa. Kanji continued. "I thought you'll need this." he pulled out some books from his bag and put it on the table. "It's Rise's note. Mine doesn't write so well."
Naoto was silent for a moment as she observed one of the books. "…Thank you." she finally said. Yu bet Kanji's feeling was blooming that time. "I really appreciate it. Give Kujikawa-san my regards."
"Y-Yeah, sure." Kanji said while scratching his hair. "Oh, yeah. H-Here." He separated the penguin shaped handbag from his back and handed it to her. "Ma said I should bring it, so I did…" He looked away again.
"This is adorable…" And incredibly detailed doll with some rare materials he got from the TV world and it had four different cloth used for its fur. You think Narukami Yu didn't know that, Tatsumi Kanji? "Your mother must be a very skilled."
Kanji laughed nervously, "Ye-Yeah. Haha, she's a legend!"
"He lied." "Oi, Senpai!?"
Yu immediately chuckled after hearing his fast response. Naoto, once again, could only watch in bewilderment.
"You… made this?" Naoto seemed to get the idea. Kanji only muttered something and looked away. "You're more skilled than I expected. I thought you were just a brainless violent man." Her straightforwardness kills sometimes. "…Thanks."
"N-No problem."
Yu smiled gently. The two of them seemed to open their hearts to one another as they managed to converse lively without his sparks. He felt he had given Kanji enough push to stand up for himself. Meaning his job was done. When did he consider himself as a matchmaker anyway? He was just here to help Kanji and his nervous problem. Well, that's that.
He put his right hand to his pocket and carefully reached for his cell phone. The cell he used was like a family that he knew its entire menu without bothering to look at the display. In split second he opened the music player and played one he used for his ring tone. The two junior stared at him as a cheery music of Junes jingle played from his pants. Yu could only smile wryly, he played the wrong tune.
"I… got a call. Excuse me." He said while walking away to the kitchen. "Who put this jingle in my cell?!" he asked himself, in whisper of course. Yu was always quick to think for a solution. Two people's face already popped in his mind shortly after he threw the question at himself. One's a cute face of a smiling Dojima Nanako, his cousin, and another one's a grinning face of Yosuke. Well, that's not really matter at the moment.
As he returned to the living room Kanji greeted him with a question, "You set 'that' as your ring tone?"
"Yeah… it was… soothing." It's annoying, really.
"Uh… if you say so. Anyway who's called?"
"Oh, it's… Nanako, she was worried about me. Well, seems like I must head home."
"Home? W-Wait a-"
"Oh, yeah. You said you wanted to teach Shirogane the new chemistry formulas, Kanji? Why haven't you started?"
"Chemistry?" "New formulas?"
"Well, hope you recover soon, Shirogane. Goodbye." Yu smiled wryly at them before dashing off through the rain.
Naoto watched Yu dashed off without closing the door. She was sure she heard him swearing at the rain as it violently pour at his lean and probable still soaked body. That's so unlike him. "Narukami-senpai, acts out of his behavior today. Did he catch a cold?"
"Chemistry...?"
"...Tatsumi-kun?"
"I'm home." said Yu gloomily as he arrived at Dojima Residence. He's all soaked again. If only he brought the umbrella he would have a fine 'dry' day without getting soaked twice before returned home.
"Welcome home, big bro!" Oh, it's Nanako. The one of two possible culprits who put that Junes jingle in his cell. "Huh? You're all wet. Where's you umbrella?"
"I left it he-" That's odd. He was sure the umbrella always prepared near the shoe shelf.
Meanwhile, at Hanamura Residence. Yosuke seriously played an arcade fighting game in his room. He wonder why his character 'Captain Ressentiment' always lose against this certain character called 'Carnivore who's Discarded Womanhood'.
"Yosuke-kun! Did you buy a new umbrella?!" Her mom shouted from downstairs. Yosuke himself a little confused at her question. He didn't buy any umbrella, he never had. Come to think of it, he didn't have one since it broke in late spring. So whose umbrella he used-
While getting distracted by the mysterious umbrella, Captain Ressentiment got kicked out of the screen. "Hey, that's cheating! My health bar was still full! Curse you Carnivore who's-something!" Why everyone's name were so long and complicated?!
"Yosuke! I told you to use Junes brand only! Why did you buy this crappy umbrella?!"
Say what?