Well this is the longest one-off story I've ever written and I can't even remember where the heck the idea for this came from. Honestly didn't think I would get this finished because I hit a bit of a block for this and the only reason it got done was because my internet cut out for an hour so it prevented me from being distracted.

Oh yeah, the cover art was done by yours truly. Tried to do something a little different with the style and work with a duller colour palette.

Moving is always a daunting experience, especially for someone as young as Koujaku, but he never complained; he trusts his mother and knew that she was only doing what was best for them. Sure, he already missed his old friends on the mainland, but he seemed to hit it off quite well with the local children of the old residents district of Midorijima. Within a month, it had already became routine for him to hang out at the park after school with a group of his new friends, and spend their time sharing stories and mucking about on the playground until their parents would come to pick them up.

It was on one particular Tuesday when Koujaku noticed them.

Two younger kids, which he presumed to be girls, were sitting alone together on a bench. The dark haired one absorbed into the large book they were reading, while the smaller one with blue hair (which surprised Koujaku that a kid that age would have their hair be such an unnatural colour) was playing around and talking with a plush dog.

Of course Koujaku didn't think much of it, but the following day he saw that the pair were in the same spot as they were Tuesday, the taller one still reading his book, while the blue haired girl with the same toy was looking towards the playground with a sad longing expression. Thursday was no different; same kids, same spot, same activities. At one point he caught the both of them looking towards the playground, both with a lonely look on their faces before quietly chatting to each other and returning to their usual activity.

Finally turning his attention back to his friends, Koujaku couldn't help but ask the question that had been buzzing around his head for the last 2 days. "Hey Ryuto, can I ask you something?"

The boy who Koujaku was directing to was hanging upside down on the jungle gym. He swung his upper body up to grab onto one of the bars to flip himself over and land on the ground. "Yeah, what is it?"

"I've noticed those two girls over their on their own for the last few days. Think it would be cool to let them hang around with us?" The dark haired boy pointed in the direction of the occupied bench.

Ryuto's eyes followed his friends finger, only for his face to quickly grow pale, eyes wide in what the other suspected was fear. "I...S-sorry Koujaku, but that's a really bad idea and only asking for trouble."

"Huh?"

"You're new here, so I guess you haven't heard anything, but it's best to avoid the Seragaki twins. They live with this scary witch doctor lady, and there's a lot of rumours about them having creepy powers like being able to move things with their minds, or see dead people. I wouldn't be surprised if that doll the younger one always has with them is possessed, they're always talking to it and act like it's a real person. They usually keep to themselves thankfully, but it's still best to keep your distance."

Koujaku's eyebrows pinched together at the answer, not overly convinced.

"Oh, those two?" One of the younger girls was overhearing their conversation and decided to butt in. "They're in my class. The older one's ALWAYS reading fairytale books, and the younger one is practically attached to that mangy doll for some reason. They're really weird."

The discussion seemed to spark the attention of other kids who'd pitch in how uncomfortable the two kids made them. Giving the lonely twins one last look, he decided to drop the idea seeing how strongly everyone felt about it.

–-

It was the end of the school week and Koujaku was heading down to the park on his own instead of with his group of friends who had gone on ahead. It was quite peaceful as he walked down the footpath with the gentle breeze, the chirping of birds, the faint sound of cars driving by in the distance; it was absolutely pleasant until he heard a loud scream erupt out of nowhere and disturbed the peace.

The boy snapped his head in the direction of where the noise came from, another upset cry was heard and Koujaku bolted through the bushes and trees to find the source of the distressed shouting. Coming into a clearing, he found a small group of older boys who seemed to be harassing the blue haired girl; one of them had the smaller child's toy while the others were pushing the poor kid around and tugging on their hair while throwing mean words at the crying bluenette.

"STOP IT! GIVE REN BACK!" The little one wailed as one of the bullies pushed them to the ground where they just curled up into a ball and cried harder. The bullies just seemed to laugh harder and taunt the kid.

"OI! GIVE THAT GIRL HER DOLL BACK!" Koujaku snapped, absolutely disgusted at the older kids behaviour. If there's one thing he couldn't stand it was bullying, especially when girls were involved.

The group turned their attention to him, looking rather amused more than anything. The ratty looking boy who was possessing the dog snorted, "Oh what're you gonna do kid? Dob us in to your mummy? Better back off before we-"

Koujaku didn't bother to let the boy finish his sentence as he ran up and slugged the kid in the face, his punch had enough force to knock the ratty kid on his arse and drop the toy.

The other two boys seemed absolutely stunned at the sudden act of violence; neither of them game enough to pick a fight with the kid who just knocked down their friend with a single punch. They backed away slowly before running off, the ratty kid followed as soon as he recovered enough to push himself back up, holding onto his now sore jaw.

Exhaling deeply to calm himself down, Koujaku picked up the plush, patting it to try and brush off as much dirt off it's fur before moving over and squatted down next to the kid who was still sobbing into the ground.

"It's alright Miss, I scared off those bullies and got you're dog back for you." Koujaku said as he gave the other a soft pat on the back in an attempt to calm them down.

The bluenette was slowly settling down till the sobbing became hiccups and pushed themselves up, hazel eyes still teary as they looked up at the dark haired boy who was giving a warm smile and held the doll in front of them. The younger timidly reached out and grabbed the plushie in their tiny hands before cuddling it tightly to their chest, diverting their gaze as they mumbled quietly.

"Huh? What was that Miss?" Koujaku laughed lightly, hoping that his tone would encourage the cute little girl in front of him to speak louder.

The smaller looked slightly annoyed as they puffed out their cheeks. "I said I'm not a girl!" The now identified boy shouted before running off, leaving poor Koujaku feeling conflicted and embarrassed that he'd mistaken a cute looking boy with long, pretty blue hair as a girl.

–-

There was no real reason for Koujaku to come down during the weekend, everyone was busy with sports, homework, and all other kinds of activities. For him, it just meant quality time with his dear mother. Monday afternoon rocked around and as usual he was goofing around at the park; the only difference was that while the black haired kid (which Koujaku is now suspecting to possibly be male after his little gender muck up on Friday), but the blue haired kid was nowhere to be found. Maybe the little skirmish from the other day scared him off. That little realisation was a little disappointing but he couldn't blame the kid, he would be pretty reluctant to go back to a place where he was getting bullied himself.

He turned his attention back to his friends who were starting up a game of 'Gang'. Not being the kind of kid to pass up playing these type of games, Koujaku climbed down from the playground to join the others at the swings, all of them repetitively shouting out 'last one!' to encourage all the other kids to hoard around so they wouldn't be the slowpoke that would have to be it. Thankfully, Koujaku made it in time and as soon as the game started, he bolted through the trees and bushes to find a place to hide and sneak around.

Taking refuge behind a tree, he peered from the side to try and spot the kid that was out to tag everyone but was nowhere in site. Grinning to himself, he turned around and was about to slink away to another place to hide but managed to walk right into someone who let out an 'Oof!' as they hit the ground, taking Koujaku by surprise.

"Oh man, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there an-hey, it's you!" The black haired youth's eyes widened as he realised he'd knocked over the blue haired boy, who was looking back at him, his dog in one hand and a paper bag in the other. Being the proper gentleman his mother raised him to be, Koujaku crouched down to help assist the smaller child up onto his feet and helped dust off any dirt on his coat.

The blue haired boy's cheeks were slowly turning a slight shade of pink as he mumbled something under his breath, both hands fidgeted with the bag and large hazel eyes constantly darting at the older boy and the ground.

"Hmn? Is something wrong." Koujaku asked, keeping his voice as gentle as possible so he wouldn't scare the other off.

"I...T-Thank you for sav-saving me and Ren the other day...um...M-my granny made these for you." The little one stuttered as he timidly held the bag out.

With a nervous laugh, Koujaku thanked the boy and took the bag, curious as to what was inside. From inspection, they seemed to be decently sized balls of deep fried dough.

The younger seemed to notice the confused expression the other pulled. "They're doughnuts. G-granny is really good at making them."

Noting the others tension, Koujaku decided to grab one of the doughnuts and took a bite out of it and-

"Oh my god...THESE ARE DELICIOUS!" He squawked a little too loudly, as he managed to make the smaller boy flinch. He couldn't help it though, he couldn't believe the amazing taste of the sweet treat that was in his mouth. Finishing his mouthful, he shoved the rest of the doughnut in his mouth before digging into his bag and held it out as an offering to the other. The younger reached out to take it.

"Woah! Koujaku what the hell are you doing?!" Ryuto cried out as he appeared from the bushes, startling the bluenette who dropped the ball of dough onto the ground.

"Mnpth?" Koujaku snapped his head towards his friend, who looked utterly horrified at the site of the pair standing in front of him.

"Get away from that kid and spit that thing out right now, it's probably cursed!"

Furrowing his eyebrows, Koujaku swallowed the rest of the doughnut, which only made his friend flip out even more.

"Oh my god, you ate it! Who knows what's going to happen to you now!"

"Calm down Ryuto, it was just a doughnut." He wasn't really understanding why Ryuto was overreacting.

"C-calm down?! That doughnut was probably poisoned or got some crazy voodoo curse on it!"

Still utterly confused, Koujaku took a couple steps towards his spooked classmate, "C'mon Ryuto, you're overreact-"

"Stay the hell away from me!" Ryuto screeched, taking a few steps back before sprinting off, most likely to warn the other kids.

Feeling even more confused and a little hurt, Koujaku just couldn't wrap his head around what just happened. He just stared blankly into space until a tug on his red kimono sleeve snapped him out of his stupor.

"I-I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have bothered talking to you, now they'll treat you like Sei and me..." The bluenette mumbled, looking rather dejected as he brought his doll to his chest.

Koujaku sighed through his nose, "Hey, it's fine. I have no idea what he was banging on about but if they can't deal with some silly little 'curse', then it just helps weed out the friends that aren't worth having."

Hazel eyes seemed to widen at the response.

The elder grinned, and held out his hand "I'm Koujaku by the way."

"A-aoba." The smaller one stated as he extended his own and shook hands.

"Well Aoba, looks like I'll just have to hang around with you and your, err-"

"Brother."

"Right brother. As long as you're fine with that of course."

For the first time since he saw him, Aoba gave him a small smile and nodded his head before leading him towards the bench to introduce Koujaku to his twin who was, no surprise, completely engrossed with his book that seemed like it would be too heavy for his delicate frame.

"Sei!" Aoba called out with a surprising amount of enthusiasm.

The black haired boy looked up from his book and smiled at his brother. "Aoba, there you are...Oh, who's this?"

"This is Koujaku, the guy I told you about who saved Ren from those bullies."

"Ah, thank you very much for protecting my little brother and Ren."

Koujaku couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, his cheeks beginning to glow pink, "Ahahah, it was nothing...Mind if I ask you something, Sei was it?"

The older twin nodded.

"Are all the kids here superstitious?"

"They're just scared of those different from themselves." Sei answered calmly.

"I still don't see why they'd be afraid of you, you both seem pretty normal."

"Well the older kids think it's weird that Sei's really quiet and reads so much, but it's kinda mostly my fault because they see me talking to Ren." Aoba said as he played around with the plush in his hands; the bluish-black dog flopping backwards and forwards with every movement.

"How is it your fault? Lot's of kids like to talk to their toys."

"Yeah, but Ren's different." Aoba muttered, seeming a little offended by the statement.

Koujaku chuckled, "How so?"

"Well Ren is actually a really strong and powerful warrior from hundreds of years ago who's soul somehow got stuck in this dog. He's really nice though and taught me all kinds of neat things!"

"It's true, he talks to me as well, but not nearly as much as Aoba. Ren's always has such interesting stories about the Tokugawa period to share with us." Sei added in.

"Oh, that's really neat!...Wait, what?!"