scent.
takes place during that little end scene of "episode 30", where you see kiba, hige, toboe and tsume all doing their thing on the city streets. i like to interpret it as them being reborn into another world/time/city without much or any awareness of their past lives, since they were all separated from one another. thus, this fic.
k+ for swearing. it is tsume, after all.
he dreams of a smaller wolf running behind him, struggling to keep up with him and the rest of their small pack. sometimes the wolf turns into a boy, red hair blowing in the wind behind him as they continue to run.
he dreams of that same pack following the scent of the lunar flower. the lunar flower - a wolf's raison d'etre. it was supposed to have led them to paradise.
/the lunar flower... i can still smell it./
his dream returns to that of the red-haired boy, begging tsume to come with him. annoying. as he sleeps, tsume shuts his eyes tight as though to block out the image, of the boy that had prior been such an annoyance to him.
/but the stench of that runt... is even stronger./
the paradise promised to him is not what he awakens to, but a city, familiar to him in its characteristics: cold rain falls on cold pavement. chatty people walk alongside moving cars that blare their horns so that they may go their way. tall buildings litter a grey skyline.
the smell of the lunar flower is now faint. tsume knows that the flower does not hold the same importance as it once had, as his dream had seemed to imply.
only minutes into this new city, he becomes angry, unable to fathom why the scent of the nameless runt has overpowered all others, even that of the lunar flower.
/i can't be bothered./
a brown wolf.
a white wolf, another brown wolf, and a black wolf. various humans are scattered throughout his memories, as well as a flower that seems to take the form of a human. tsume does not know why he remembers them. he cannot remember their names, nor can he remember the name of the runt that plagues his senses.
/damn it./
tsume cares little to look where he is going or what is nearby, taking no interest in the motorists or the people that share the same road. he is driven only by his sense of smell and the fragments of memory that remain, present to suggest that there is something he should be looking for.
he does not see the motorcyclists drive through the puddles on the road, carelessly soaking those who stood in the way of the displaced water. to this, tsume becomes victim, but he is quick to round on the motorcycle's user.
it is without apology that tsume lunges forward at the man at a speed inhuman, knocking him off of the bike in retaliation. instincts of past criminal life entice him also to take the bike for his own, as though it were a reward for having been bothered by the man.
the man finds himself, disheveled, in the same puddle that had soaked tsume moments ago. he is only able to watch as tsume slides onto the leather seat, guiding his hand to grip the handle of the bike.
"h... hey, that's mine!"
tsume takes the helmet - prior unused by the man -from the handle of the bike. he knows that it will block both the voice of the man, and the rev of the engine when he presses against the gas pedal to go.
the wind and rain are less relenting as he drives faster. tsume only finds it suitable to be just as resilient, driving faster as if to spite it. he thinks only of the scent, still thick in the air of the city.
/i'll call it quits when i find him. i've got better things to do than follow a runt./
he stops only when the scent fades. he does not enjoy giving way to idle time, but without the scent, he has nothing to pursue.
he pulls up to the sidewalk, removing the key from the ignition as he pushes the kickstand down to the ground. he tries desparately to regain the smell that had lingered with him for so long, struggling to make a case for it's importance.
/why the hell should i care? i'm wasting my time./
a cat, orange haired and small, passes by the wheel of the motorcycle. tsume eyes it intently. he is reminded now of both his hunger and lack of other things to follow.
the cat purrs. it is an invitation for tsume to chase him, a challenge at which tsume refuses to be anything except the victor. he charges seconds too late to catch the cat before it darts into the alleyway.
tsume chases it. he does not feel inclined to rest until his prey is captured.
but when the cat slows to mid trot, tsume is not quick to pounce. he watches, instead. it as though the cat is now completely disinterested in tsume's nearby presence, now enraptured by a small human boy that crouches at the corner of an alleyway and a storefront.
tsume is again inudated by the scent of the runt. he cannot tell who this boy is - he is covered up by a hood, and faces opposite of tsume. still, tsume knows he has reached the source of the smell, the destination he had sought all this time.
/this is him./
tsume moves forward. he stands silently, waiting for the younger boy to notice.
the boy turns.
the boy's hair is red.
for a moment, the boy cannot help but appreciate the scent that has rushed over him. it reminds him of a memory lost: a grey wolf, watching over him the last time he slept. he had slept for a very long time, that time.
he cannot place that wolf's identity, nor the name of this man, but he smiles anyway. his eyes light up, bright as a lunar flower.
"my name is toboe. it's nice to meet you."