[Authors Note] Hello everyone! Jozei here with a Kagerou Days Oneshot! Like always, I apologise if there are any discrepancies with this story to the original canon content, as I'm writing this on eight episodes of exposure to Kagerou Days. In any case, I thought I'd upload something a bit different, and since I've gotten into MekakuCity Actors over the past two weeks, I really, really wanted to submit something for Kano Shuuya :) I searched for KanoXoc stuff, and on FFnet there's barely anything. Most of the stuff I find is on Quotev and not much else, so I thought it might be nice to add something for Kano onto FFnet for everyone to enjoy. I will be submitting another Down Into My Shadow chapter at the end of next week for those who are reading that story, and I will have something special for those who like Gray Fullbuster stories come Christmas. So stay tuned for that one :). As always, please let me know what you think of the story, either in a message or a review. Reviews are always excellent, as they kind of push me forward to writing more stuff quicker, since you take the time to post a review for me, y'know? Also, if you have a request for a Mekakushi Dan x OC Oneshot, then please let me know – I wouldn't mind writing more :) Also, I hope people don't mind that I don't do Character x Reader stories – It actually frustrates me when I'm reading (y/n) (e/c) or "_" in a story. One of those inconsequential pet peeves, I think it might be, lol.
In any case, Jozei / MuffinxXxSyndrome / Sanguinistic Nightmares out!
Kagerou Days – Play (Oneshot)
[Kano Shuuya x OC Shirosaki Asuka]
Summer has it's downs and ups.
On one side of the coin, it was horribly hot throughout the day, and it's nights weren't much better.
On the other side, you could go swimming comfortably, and you appreciated icy treats more on these days.
Shirosaki Asuka could attest to this as being true.
It was just going on seven in the morning as she sat silently beneath the roof of a bus-stop as she waited for the bus to come in. The sun was already quite high in the sky despite the early hour, and it was already beginning to become uncomfortably warm.
Asuka brushed a lock of her deep crimson hair out of her face as she stared down at the pages of a book in her lap, her blue eyes scanning the words efficiently and precisely from behind her simple, rectangular spectacles perched on her small nose. Her alabaster skin stood out with bright contrast with her dominating hair and dark clothes. Her cargo short-shorts clung to her pale legs tightly while her sleeveless back hoodie hung from her body with a lot of excess material. Her black high-top sneakers were coated in a layer of dust as she swung her legs lightly with next to no concern.
She was alone here at the bus stop, after all.
The headphones she wore like a uniform rung an upbeat tone through her ears, glowing a deep red, with the band shapped with cat ears. GARNiDELiA played, the beats matching the pace her legs swung as she turned the page of her thick novel. She was leaning back on her bag, and occasionally her eyes would flick up form her book to her surroundings as she kept an eye out for the bus.
Asuka lived alone for the most part, as her parents worked away on weekdays, and she only saw them on weekends. Namely Saturday evenings up until Sunday nights. On the days around her parents return home, she spent her time doing anything she felt like at the time.
Today, it was Tuesday, and Asuka had no interest in staying home. As such she was on her way to pick up groceries, and then she was off to spend her time in another place she had come to treat like home, too.
It was almost like she was a cat; Having more than one place to call home was after all a thing that one associated with the whims of a feline. And then there was her eared headphones, too.
Her second home was much unlike her first home. Or was it her third home was much unlike her second, disregarding the disappearance of her first home? Either which, her additional home was never empty unless something interesting was going on; There was always someone there for her to talk with, and she never felt lonely. Everyone there was about Asuka's own age, too; The youngest being fourteen, the eldest being around twenty. Most of the people there were all Asuka's age of sixteen years, and so unlike the stuffy girls and boys that she went to school with.
Somedays Asuka spent the night at her second home, others she returned to her first home in case her parents called to check on her. It was rare, but it happens sometimes. There was the odd occasion where they would call and she wouldn't be there to answer the phone, but it wasn't too hard for her to smooth it over with them; She'd tell them she disappeared to get takeout for dinner, and that was all she needed to say - Her parents weren't fond of her using the kitchen while they were away, after all.
Asuka glanced up from her book as she noticed movement in her peripheral vision, realising that her bus was approaching. She tucked a slip of paper into the novel to form a bookmark as she rose to her feet, lifting her bag onto her shoulder as she held out an arm to hail the bus to stop.
Quickly boarding the bus and paying her fare, Asuka took her spot in the closest seat to the front as she slipped the book into her bag, and she then began to search for her phone. It would be about five minutes until she could disembark at the shopping district she liked to go to, so there wasn't much point in becoming engrossed in her book.
As the bus kicked into gear and began to continue down the road, Asuka's thin fingers closed around her phone.
There were three emails on the screen of her red and black device. She tapped the 'Message' icon so she could read her emails. They were from her friends at her second home; Two were from Kido Tsubomi, and the other was from Kano Shuuya. She didn't know them well enough to refer to them by their actual names, but having said that, it looked like they preferred to be called by their family names anyway – She'd heard that Kido, Kano and another called Seto Kousuke all practically grew up together, however they still called each other by their family names, anyway.
Asuka let out a small breath as she opened up the messages from Kido, finding that they were lists of groceries she'd like picked up if Asuka was already shopping. It looked like Kido wanted some soybeans, tofu, some more bonito and some Mirin.
She hesitated as she looked at the message from Kano; She never knew what to expect from him, after all. He wasn't even supposed to have her contact address, but obviously he'd stolen it from Kido's phone, cause she'd been receiving messages from him for the past three days.
Asuka let out another breath as she decided she should probably read the message at the very least. Who knows? The one day she didn't open a message from him could very well be the one day that he's actually in desperate need for help.
Not likely, but you never know.
So she tapped the message icon, and inwardly braced herself for whatever it was she would read inside.
'Asuka-chan!' Was all the message read, and it brought an exasperated sigh to escape her.
Really? That's all? Asuka found herself begrudgingly sending him a reply. A wonderful reply that summarised her entire mindset.
'Yes? What do you want?'
She hit send, and then put her phone in the right pocket of her shorts, placing her attention to the world outside.
Inwardly she wondered if he was just being a pain like he always was – He would say things to stir everyone up, twist words just for the hell of it, and ever since Asuka had started visiting on a daily basis, he had started to pick on her every chance he could get. Both metaphorically and physically.
If she was reading a book, he'd yank the cord of her headphones or poke her face until she responded, and if she was conversing with people, he'd try and spin her a yarn to tease her. He did this with everyone, but Kido had remarked that since Asuka was the 'new girl', Kano was probably going to do nothing but pick on her until he got a solid grasp of what kind of person she was.
As it stood, Asuka didn't like to show people what kind of a person she was right away, so she realised that she was going to be stuck with the pest for many weeks. After all, it had been a month, and Kano was still constantly annoying her. Asuka did wonder if it was worth retaliating in kind. On one hand it would help relieve her frustration, and on another he might end up taking it as a challenge, and his constant pestering would get so much worse!
A sudden vibrating from her pocket startled Asuka out of her thoughts, and she realised she had gotten a message. She wondered who it was from, but she inwardly guessed it was a reply from Kano. She felt a frown touch her face as she tapped the 'Message' icon again.
'Are you coming to the Base today?'
Asuka frowned momentarily, wondering what was with the oddly straight-forward question. Knowing her luck, he was probably up to something she'd dislike, so she tried to decide whether to lie or not.
'Maybe. I don't have plans to.' Asuka took to answering.
The longer she sat there, the more she began to suspect that she should ask Kido to come outside to collect the groceries. There was a little voice in the back of her head telling her that she didn't want to go to the base now.
It was never a good thing if Kano Shuuya was up to something, especially if he was bored out of his mind.
All of a sudden Asuka's phone started to ring, and she blinked down at the display with short-lived surprise. The display showed 'Kano' as the caller, and she resisted the urge to smack her hand to her face. She instead sighed, pulling her headphones from her ears as she pressed 'answer'.
"What do you mean you don't have plans to come to the base?!" Kano's voice echoed before she could even answer, and it caused a sigh to escape Asuka. He actually sounded rather surprised.
"Hello to you too, Kano-kun." Asuka spoke into the mic of her phone, her gaze going to the window as she realised the bus was pulling into the station she needed to get off at.
"Asuka-chan! What do you mean?!" Kano questioned her again, bringing a frown to her face once again.
"Stop calling me that!" Asuka demanded, a glare creeping in place as the bus came to a stop, allowing her to rise to her feet.
"Oho, how about Asuka-sama?" Kano's jesting tone brought another sigh to escape Asuka.
"Don't you dare start calling me that, either!"
"I dare, Asuka-sama!"
"Fine! I'm not coming for a whole month!"
"Whaaat?!" Kano exclaimed, shock echoing in his voice. "Noooo! Not a whole month! What am I going to do until you come back?"
Asuka gave off a wry smile as she disembarked the bus and began to make her way through the streets.
"You'll be fine. You've got plenty of other victims to torment over there." Asuka responded simply, smiling as she spotted the supermarket she frequented down the street. "Or if all else fails, you could try finding a hobby – That helps, too."
"But I already have a hobby!" Kano whined.
"Being a bully doesn't count." Asuka deadpanned, and all of a sudden she heard Kano burst into laughter on his end of the line.
"Alright, how about Asuka-kun?"
Asuka was silent for a few seconds, feigning an attempt at thinking on his question. In actuality she was getting a little annoyed.
"Why don't you just call me Shirosaki instead? Since that's what everyone else calls me?"
"Nope!" Kano responded immediately, a broad grin echoing in the tone of his voice.
Asuka glared down at the ground as she stepped through the front door of the supermarket.
"Fine, I guess I can live with Asuka-kun..." She responded slowly, lifting her gaze as she picked up one of the store baskets. "If I hear one mention of chan or sama, I'm going to make your life miserable – You hear me?"
"That's actually very tempting."
"And you'll regret it." Asuka added as she tucked her phone between her ear and her shoulder as she reached up to start loading up her shopping basket.
"Okay! I promise I'll only call you Asuka-kun – At least until you forget about that threat."
Asuka was silent at first, a pout creeping in place as she realised he'd been teasing her for the whole fricking phonecall.
"I'm still not coming to base."
Kano chuckled on his end of the line, and he spoke up as Asuka's hand closed around her Melon-Soda.
"Yes you are – You're picking up groceries for Kido." He spoke, causing a frown to touch Asuka's face.
"If you knew that, then why the hell'd you even ask if I was coming?!" Asuka ground out, her gaze narrowing as she stared at the bottle of soda as she waited for his answer.
"Cause it's fun to pick on you." He responded, much like it was obvious.
Asuka's frown soon turned into a glare.
"Is that all?" She seethed, earning another chuckle.
"Yep."
Silence – Asuka resisted the urge to voice how pissed off she was right at that second, and instead refocused her thoughts.
"That's fine, then." Asuka said, a bit too calmly as she lifted the bottle of soda and placed it in her basket. "You can do Kido-san's grocery shopping instead."
"Wait – What?" Kano responded, confusion echoing in the tone of his voice.
"Goodbye, Kano-kun." Asuka spoke, and without a second's pause, she tapped the 'disconnect' button on the screen of her phone. She flicked back to one of Kido's messages from before, and hit 'reply'.
'Sorry Kido-san. I'm not coming to the Base today. You might want to get someone else to grab those things for you.'
Asuka hit send, beginning to gather her own groceries as she pulled her headphones back over her ears.
It was a few seconds later when her phone vibrated in her hand.
'What happened?' Was Kido's response, and Asuka thought on her words as she dropped another bottle of soda into her basket.
'Kano-kun.' Asuka responded, and she didn't feel there was much else that needed to be said.
There was no reply as Asuka went through the checkout with her basket a few minutes later. Even when Asuka decided to waste an hour in the arcade, there was no reply. She did inwardly wonder what had happened when Kido got the message.
But then again, it wasn't really any of her business.
So with nothing else to do for the day, Asuka decided to go to her parent's home.
The rest of the day went by in a dull drawl that she found herself disliking, yet due to her temperment she didn't feel it was in her best interest to go to the base. It was probably childish, but she wanted to make it very clear that she wasn't happy. What better way to prove that then to stick to her threat and not turn up at all?
So Asuka locked herself in her room, with the air-con turned up to maximum as she just read for the whole day. Somewhere in the vicinity of one in the afternoon, the neighbours black cat was perched on the roof outside her window, mewling to be let inside like normal. The cat was a common visitor, and took to curling up on the bed with Asuka while she read every day. Often there wasn't very much else that Asuka wasn't doing if she was here.
She guessed the cat was lonely – It's owners worked all the time and didn't have much time to spend with it. So just sleeping next to Asuka was an improvement for it, by the looks of things.
It was about nine that evening when Asuka awoke to the sounds of her phone ringing and vibrating on the bedside table. She blinked blurily against the black surroundings that were her bedroom, turning her head to the ringing phone on the table with a marginal frown. She gingerly turned onto her side while being mindful of the cat sleeping next to her, reaching out to grab ahold of the intrusive device.
She didn't even read the screen as she pressed the 'answer' icon on her phone, and pressed the speaker to her ear.
"Hello?" She mumbled sleepily into the microphone, blinking slowly at the darkness in front of her.
"Asuka-chan!" Echoed Kano's voice through the speaker, causing a faint frown to cross her face.
"Go away, Kano-kun." She responded, and without waiting for a response she hit 'disconnect', and placed her phone back onto the bedside table.
It was less than a minute later when it started ringing again.
The cat stirred as Asuka reached over to grab the phone again, picking itself up from the end of the bed to come and investigate the ringing sound.
"Hello." Asuka spoke into the phone, perhaps a little more exasperated than she needed to be.
"Sorry for waking you, Shirosaki-san." Came Kido's voice through the speaker, causing momentary confusion to overcome Asuka.
"Right." She sighed as she lifted a hand to place it to her face, her brow creasing at a sudden suspicion that occurred to her. "What's the pass-phrase, Kido-san?"
"P-Pass-phrase?" Kido responded, however instead of sounding simply confused at Asuka's question, she sounded suddenly nervous.
Of course that was all the confirmation that Asuka needed.
"Nice try, Kano-kun." Asuka spoke, and once again she hung up before a response could be voiced.
Oddly enough there was a sudden shout of frustration from outside.
It caught Asuka's curiosity enough where she lifted herself from the bed to walk over to her window to take a quick look outside.
She looked out into the darkness peppered by other lights shining in other houses, her gaze sweeping across until she found a familiar form standing on the path a few meters from her front door. His black hoodie with three white spots on either side of the opening was enough for Asuka to recognise him, let alone the mess of blonde hair and cat-like eyes. Of course it was rather weird for her to see the look of frustration across his face as he seemed to think, a hand ruffling his hair roughly.
Kano Shuuya was standing outside her house.
At first Asuka was surprised that he even knew where she lived, but then she realised that he had probably sourced the information from Kido.
Or maybe the blue-haired digi-girl called Ene.
Either which way it didn't matter; She saw Kano lift his phone to his ear once again, and in immediate reaction Asuka's phone began to ring again. Asuka pulled away from the window as she tossed her phone to the bed gently, scooping up the cat in one arm as she began to head downstairs.
While she was upset at him, that didn't mean she was going to ignore him when he was standing outside her house.
Asuka could hear her phone continue to ring as she reached the first floor, though she didn't let out any sound; She scooped up the house-keys from the counter and began to make her way to the front door.
However out of petulence, Asuka stopped at the front door and took a deep breath. Her eyes lit up from their natural blue colour to a glowing red in the dark, and she looked down at the cat as it gave a startled mewl, though it didn't try to escape her grip.
The ticking of the clock had vanished, as did the sounds of her phone ringing. She tucked her keys in the pocket of her shorts and opened the front door to the world outside.
Kano was standing ahead of her, however he wasn't moving; He appeared frozen, as did the rest of the world outside. It was like she had pressed pause on the dvd remote and everything else stopped with it. Asuka shut the door behind her wordlessly, setting the cat down on the front porch as she began to make her way towards the frozen boy standing in her front yard.
He was wearing an obviously frustrated look, a hand on his hip as he held his phone to his right ear. He was staring at the loungeroom window, as if that was Asuka's actual bedroom. She could see a lovely bruise forming on his right arm, much like Kido had kicked him into a wall again.
It was enough to have Asuka decide she probably should just start letting this go.
A matter of ten seconds had passed since Asuka had frozen the world around her, and ten seconds was enough. She crossed her arms with a straight face as she planted her feet firmly on the ground, and with the motions of a slow exhale, her eyes shifted back to their natural blue state.
In immediate reaction the world suddenly unfroze, just like how it would if you hit play on the dvd remote.
The breeze went back to swaying the leaves of the trees again, and Asuka was met with the immediate reaction of fright from Kano – His eyes flicked to her as he noticed she was there, and a startled yelp escaped him as he leapt away from her.
"A-Asuka-chan! Where the hell did you come from!?" Kano demanded, his shock quite evident in the tone of his voice.
"What do you want?" Asuka asked, deciding it best to forgo pointless questions at this moment.
Kano blinked in small surprise before he seemed to follow what was going on; His stance relaxed, and he slipped his phone into his pocket with a sheepish grin.
"Aww, are you still mad at me?"
"Does it look like it?" Asuka deadpanned, earning one of his sheepish chuckles.
"Yeah, it does."
"That might be because you're still calling me Asuka-'chan'." Asuka responded.
"I am?"
"Yes, on the phone, and just now." Asuka pointed out, keeping her arms crossed as she stared him down. "I do believe I promised to make your life miserable if you used that honorific."
"You wouldn't do that to me, would you?" He asked as he attempted to be as cute as possible, but unfortunately for him all it earned was a raised eyebrow from Asuka.
"There's not much stopping me right now." Asuka responded honestly.
"Aww, I'm sorry Asuka-chan, I just can't help it!" He remarked, a grin creeping across his face as Asuka continued to stare him down, her frown growing more and more into a glare as he laughed. "You're just really cute when you're mad."
"Okay seriously, why the hell are you out here bugging me? Don't you have better things to do with your time?" Asuka questioned as her patience grew thin, and she shifted her weight more onto her left leg as Kano continued to grin at her. He didn't appear the least bit bothered with her bitter mood.
"Oh, just to tell you that you'd better come to Base tomorrow." Kano remarked, tucking his hands in the pockets of his pants as he cast a smirk at Asuka. "You're a member – The base is your home, now."
Asuka just stared him down for a few seconds, her frown still in place.
"And what if I don't?" She asked.
"Then I will start calling you Asuka-sama in front of everyone." Kano responded.
A small smirk touched Asuka's face after a few seconds.
"A lot of good that'll do if I'm not coming to the Base anymore."
"I know where your old home is." Kano remarked with a grin.
Asuka resisted the urge to facepalm at that second.
"I noticed." Asuka deadpanned, a frustrated huff escaping her. "Look, if I just go tomorrow, will you just stop being a pain in the ass?"
"No way!" Kano responded, casting her an adorable grin that probably would have winded Asuka if she wasn't so pissed off with him at that moment. "I'll only keep calling you Asuka-chan instead of Asuka-sama!"
Asuka felt the thread that was her patience snap with a resounding thwang in her head, and it was all she could do to suck in a deep breath.
"Kano-kun. How many electronics do you have on you right now?" Asuka asked with a sugar-sweet smile, earning a rather surprised look from the mischievous blonde.
"Huh? Just my phone – Why?" He asked.
"No reason." Asuka responded, and she felt time around her suddenly stop as she tapped into her red-eyes ability.
Kano in front of her was stuck with a startled look across his face as he stared at Asuka, causing a faint chuckle to escape her as she stepped over to him to retrieve his phone from his pocket. Out of good measure, she also checked his other pockets and retrieved his wallet; It would be unfortunate if she got that damaged as well. She pocketed the items as she began to make her way inside, maintaining her hold on the time-freeze as she searched for a bucket. She filled it with uncomfortably warm water, and out of a rather evil streak in her, she disolved a good cup of sugar into the water.
Everything was still frozen as Asuka walked outside with the bucket of sugar-water and a small towel, and for some reason she couldn't walk fast enough.
She walked around to stand behind Kano, holding the bucket at the ready for attack as she released her hold of the time freeze.
"Wait – What?" Kano seemed to be at a loss of what was going on as he was unfrozen, his head shifting slightly as he tried to locate where she disappeared to. "Asuka-chan, where'd you go?"
"Right behind you." Asuka responded with an evil grin, watching closely as Kano began to turn to face her.
It happened faster than she could follow; As she noticed a rather alarmed look shoot across his face at the sight of the bucket, she swung the bucket forward to throw the water straight into his face. Kano was left coughing and spluttering as the water soaked him from head to toe, wiping frantically at the water that was still pouring down his face.
"What the hell was that for?!" Kano demanded, his expression rather bewildered as he looked at Asuka's grinning face.
"You had fair warning." Asuka responded as she tossed him the towel she had brought out.
He took it cautiously, as if he was waiting for another part of the attack. However when it was apparent that was all Asuka was going to do, he gingerly began to dry his face.
"I'm not sure how a bucket of warm water's going to make my life miserable" Kano stated slowly.
"You'll see." Asuka responded, and she pulled his belongings from the pocket of her shorts after a second. "And here. Thought you'd appreciate it if they didn't get all wet." She remarked as she tossed him his phone and wallet.
"Huh?!" Kano was caught by surprise as he caught his belongings, confusion beginning to spread across his face as he stared down at the phone. "How the hell...?" He tapped his pockets with one hand, alarm beginning to take ahold of his features instead as he found that there was nothing there. "When the hell did you steal my stuff?!"
"Right after you told me you had your phone on you." Asuka responded with a grin, struggling to stop the giggle from escaping her.
Kano stared at her in silence for a few seconds, sugar water dripping from his clothes and his hair.
"What the hell is your ability, anyway? It doesn't look like Teleporting at all!"
"Not telling." Asuka responded with a grin as she stepped around Kano to head back inside.
She didn't miss the suspicious look he was giving her as she practically skipped, her bad mood now turned right around.
"What'd you do?" He asked suspiciously, earning a giggle from Asuka as she continued on her way.
"Not telling!" Asuka responded once again, turning on her heel to cast a grin over at Kano's confused face as she stepped up onto the front porch. "Enjoy your walk back to the Base, Kano-kun!"
With that, Asuka stepped inside and shut the door behind her, locking it as she began to make her way back upstairs. She set the bucket down on the counter as she walked past, making her quiet jog up the stairs to spy from her window. She wondered how long it would take for him to realise that it wasn't just plain old water she drenched him in – She hoped it would be half-way to the base before he realised, but considering how hot it was for a summer night, it wouldn't take long for his clothes to dry out.
Asuka carefully shifted the lilac curtains just a little so she could peak through them. She could see that Kano was beginning to head back to the base, the orange towel she had passed him hanging from his neck as he fiddled with his phone. Feeling quite pleased with herself, she let the curtains fall back in place and crawled back into bed.
She decided that she would go to the base in the morning, if for no other reason than to hear what he would have to say to her about the 'harmless' bucket of water.
The familiar sounds of her phone ringing echoed through the still air just before Asuka had managed to nod off to sleep, causing her to frown ever so slightly. She picked up her phone from her bedside table, squinting at the bright display through the dark to find that it was an incoming call.
"Hello?" Asuka mumbled into the microphone, rubbing her tired eyes as she listened to the sounds emitting from the speaker.
"Oi, what the hell did you put in that water?!" A demanding voice echoed much like the person was shouting.
"Oh, Kano-kun." Asuka stifled a yawn as she rolled onto her back slowly. "Did you enjoy your walk?"
"How can I when everything's sticky?! It's hard to walk, damnit!" Kano retorted petulantly.
"I know. That's the awesome thing about Sugared-Water." Asuka responded, a sleepy smile touching her face as she heard a frustrated growl from Kano's end of the line. "Are you feeling miserable, yet?"
There was silence in response, and it echoed for a few long seconds. And then when Asuka wondered if he'd hung up on her, he actually began to laugh.
"Not yet!" Kano responded with a grin in his voice. "This is nothing!"
"Aww, shucks." Asuka gave a sleepy sigh as she grinned. "Guess I'll have to try harder next time."
"Don't think you're safe – This means war, Asuka-chan!"
A sleepy chuckle escaped Asuka as she rubbed her eyes.
"Goodnight, Kano-kun." Asuka bid him farewell, and hung up on him before he could draw the call out any longer.
As Asuka drifted back to sleep for the third time that night, she found herself feeling like being called Asuka-chan by the mischievous blonde wasn't such a bad thing.
It was actually kind of fun.
[Fin]