Challenge fic for my good buddy Hidro the Lost one. Hopefully this story will serve as a spark to get that imagination of his up and running!
Disclaimer - I own nothing.
-o-
Rise Kujikawa sat at the counter of her Grandmother's Tofu shop, Marukyu. It was sunny and moderately warm outside; perfect weather for spending time with friends, especially now since Mitsuo was caught and peace hopefully restored. Rise of course would rather spend time with her new friends. She particularly wanted to better acquaint herself with a certain gray haired senpai. Alas, Rise had promised her dear grandmother, that she would tend the shop whilst she traveled to her doctor for a yearly physical.
She breathed a heavy sigh, pouting her lip as she took out her cell phone. How badly she wanted to call someone, anyone, but her responsibilities came first. Then again, maybe she could ask her friends to help her run the shop. That would be fun, if they didn't mind… "Genius," she exclaimed excitedly hopping from her stool.
Just as she opened her phone, a loud crash reverberated from the back room. Startled, Rise slowly walked towards the source of the noise and peered through the walkway. There wasn't anything noticeably out of place except for the broom now collapsed on the floor. She released a shaky breath, "calm down Rise, it was just the broom." The idol entered the area and bent down to restore the cleaning utensil back to its former spot, the utility closet.
"How'd you fall out anyway?" She asked the inanimate object. The door wasn't in bad shape, but she simply concluded that it must've been left open. What other reason could there be? Just as she was about to close the closet door, Rise noticed something move from the corner of her eye. She whipped around, frantically searching for whatever that black shadow was. Another loud crash, and this time she screamed.
-o-
Souji Seta sat in front of the TV with Nanako. The two were engrossed in a quiz show, and despite his current knowledge level, Souji had trouble answering most of the questions. Notably, Nanako seemed to have more success answering the questions correctly. He of course didn't let that bother him, just spending time with his cousin was fun enough. That is, until his cell phone rang. He sighed annoyed with the accursed device. Someone was always calling him, at all times. He never seemed to catch a break and truly enjoy some down time during the day with his cousin.
"Hello?" he answered entering the kitchen section of the house.
"Senpai!" A shrill female voice resonated loudly. Souji winced holding the phone away from his ear.
"Rise?" He safely concluded recognizing the high pitch of her voice. "What's wrong?"
"Senpai," she beseeched desperately, "I need your help, please come quickly!"
Souji frowned, his motherly instincts instantly pinpointing the urgency in her voice. "Rise, what's happening?"
"Oh my God! There it is again!"
"Rise, hello," he began trying his best not to panic. "What's going on, where are you?"
"No! Get away from me!" she cried into the receiver. "Help me, Souji-senpai!"
The last thing he heard was chaos. He heard scream's as well as several loud crashes and thumps. Souji tried calling her name repeatedly but soon the phone went dead. He moved the cell phone away from his ear and stared at it in a mild state of stupor.
"Big bro?" Nanako mumbled worriedly. "Is something wrong with Rise-chan?"
"Don't worry," he tried to give his cousin a reassuring smile. "I'm just going to her place to make sure nothing's wrong."
She bit her lip and hesitated. "…should I call Dad?"
Souji placed his phone down, and grabbed her shoulder's. "Thanks for being concerned Nanako, but I'm sure its nothing serious." She nodded and watched her big bro rush out the door.
-o-
The gray haired teen hurriedly traveled towards the shopping district. The young man was locked in some sort of trance, for he moved quickly and stopped for no one. On his way, he made several realizations, draining him from his adrenaline pumped state of mind. "Good going Souji Seta!" The usually calm leader chastised himself. In only a few seconds of stupidity, he not only left his phone at home, he turned down help from the police. So many thoughts raced through his skull. What if it was a rabid crazy fan or a stalker? It could've been a thief, or even worse, a, a… He didn't even want to consider the last possibility. He only knew that he had to get to the Marukyu Tofu Shop ASAP. It was the likeliest of places where Rise would be… He hoped.
Souji finally arrived at the southern shopping district. It took him a short ten minute's to arrive, record time, but he feared that he might be too late to save Rise. Without wasting anymore-precious time, he rushed towards the Tofu shop, tearing his way trough the entrance. "Rise?" He practically yelled scanning the area.
"Senpai," came a meek reply. The door to the bathroom creaked slightly and then literally exploded open. "Souji-senpai!" Rise flew from her hiding spot and tackled her knight in shining armor.
"Rise, I'm glad you're safe." He smiled stroking the back of her head as she blubbered into his chest. "What happened?"
She reluctantly lifted her head and backed away from his comforting warmth. She mumbled something, but soon found herself staring at her senpai's facial features. His dazzling smile was gone now and replaced with worry. She couldn't believe that she cried all over his shirt. He didn't seem to mind too much, but she also hugged him, quite forcefully too. How daringly forward of her. Now that she was so close to her senpai, she couldn't help but notice his eyes, his beautiful eyes. Rise could get lost staring into his hazel orbs of beauteous perfection. No! She tore her gaze away. Biting her lip, Rise accidentally glanced at his lips, his slim voluptuous lips. More perfection sculpted to his face, Souji-senpai was akin to a God of beauty. Oh how she yearned to kiss him. Why, just a slight adjustment of her position and it could happen by accident. Sitting here in her beloved senpai's presence was unbearable, she already hugged him; why not steal a kiss?
Souji was baffled by Rise's odd behavior. She spoke incoherently, and stared at him for extended and very uncomfortable periods of time. He was very worried; maybe she was sick? To further his concern, Souji stood to his feet and noticed that she looked extremely disappointed. "Uh, Rise, you okay?"
"Yeah," she sighed standing next to him. "I'll be alright, thanks senpai."
"What attacked you?" He said not even sure, if it was an attack.
"I, I don't know," she shook her head. "It was dark and blackish, kinda like a shadow."
"Shadow?" He spoke regaining his cool calm and collected exterior. "Rise, did you hit your head?"
"Please senpai!" She pleaded. "Whatever that thing is, its still there!"
Souji steeled any and all remaining nerves. As ridiculous as her shadow claim was, it was an undeniable truth that something was in the back room of the tofu shop. "Let's go." He took command leading the frightened girl to the back room. The area was messy; the contents of a utility closet were deposited across the floor. Tofu was strung everywhere, and in the mitts of the chaos, Souji noticed a cell phone minus its battery pack on the floor. Now everything made sense, Rise had overreacted.
"Rise, did you see a mouse or a rat?"
"No!" She cried.
"Well, was it a person?" He further inquired lifting the cell phone off the floor.
"No, senpai!"
Souji spared a concerned glance at Rise. If it wasn't a person or a rat, what on earth could it be? He began asking another question but a rustle between the boxes caught his attention. Souji saw it and holy mother of harlot was it huge! Rise wasn't lying, he noted it was blackish, and it was snarling directly at both of them. Souji hesitantly approached the beast, but he was far too slow.
The creature jumped right in front of them, brazenly. It seemed to have no fear against the two teenagers for it stood its ground, almost as if daring them to do something to it. Rise recoiled back in renewed fear and disgust as she screamed dramatically her eyes shut tightly as she reached out to grab her senpai's arm. Although contact with Souji's arm never came and instead she impacted on the floor. Confused Rise eyes tore open looking for her so call 'knight in shinning armor.' She watched in horror as he was quickly exiting the room, leaving her with the black beast. She screamed, and flew out of the area like a bat out of hell.
"Senpai, why'd you leave me by myself?" Rise screamed wildly. Her heart rate elevated to a completely new extreme. How could he just abandon her? What surprised her even more was the horrified look that donned his features. Souji Seta was afraid.
-o-
"Uh, hello?" Nanako held the phone closely to her ear. "I'm Nanako Dojima… I'd like to speak to my dad please."
"Ah, Nanako-chan!" A familiar chipper voice answered. "You wanna talk with your daddy?"
"Please, tell him it's an emergency."
"All right, hold on for a sec."
Nanako breathed a sigh of relief. At least her father was at the station, she was unsure he would even be available since her he's been busy with a very important case. "Nanako?"
"Dad!" She cried.
"Nanako, is something wrong?"
"Big bro got a call from Rise-chan." She hesitated tightening her grip on the phone. "I, I think she's in trouble!"
"Wait, what kind of trouble?"
"I don't know!" She shook her head frantically. "Big bro left right away after she called. It must be bad daddy; big bro even left his cell phone here."
"Hrm," Ryoutaro mumbled to himself. He didn't quite understand what was so awful about leaving one's cell phone at home. Regardless, he knew Nanako wouldn't call him at work unless it was an absolute emergency. "All right Nanako, I'll check it out. Where are they?"
"I don't know…" She whispered.
"Its okay Nanako," He calmly reassured his daughter. "I think I might know where they are. I'll go check it out as soon as I can, all right?"
"Uh-huh, okay, bye dad." She hung up the phone and sat down. She knew that Souji told her not to worry, but she had a bad feeling about this.
-o-
"What's wrong with you, senpai?" Rise soothingly rubbed his back. For some odd reason his current deposition reminded her of the status aliment fear that was afflicted by the shadows. Which was absurd, she thought those things were only possible inside the TV world. Therefore, she did the only thing she could think of, try her best to comfort him. "Don't be scared senpai, I'm here with you."
With every right, Souji should've been afraid. He didn't get a chance to fully examine the black beast. It was huge, moved quickly, and had the familiar feel of a shadow. He didn't know why, but when he stared at its face and saw its evil smile, the only thing he was aware of was that he felt deathly afraid and had to get away quickly. What a horrible feeling, his fear paralyzed his good sense causing him to forgot Rise. He lowered his head in shame and mumbled a silent apology.
Her heart melted and she instantly forgave him and apologized for overreacting. "What do we do now, senpai?"
He didn't answer right away while regaining his composure. Whatever that beast was, it wasn't normal. It was shrouded in darkness and smiled evilly. The idea still remained absurd but this…, this thing was like the shadows. Souji was weaponless, and no way in hell was he going to tussle with it. "I…" he began clearly unsure how to handle the situation. "I think we should ask someone for help."
"Like Kanji?" Rise offered trying her best to be useful.
"Uh…" was his reply as he considered this for a moment.
"Hey Rise!" A deep gruff voice suddenly called, startling the already on edge teens.
"Kanji!" Rise whined. "Don't sneak up behind people."
"Sorry, geez," He grumbled entering the shop. "What's got you in a bad mood?"
"Something in the back room has Rise scared." Souji answered.
"Hey!" The idol pouted. "You ran away from the thing too, senpai!"
Kanji looked at the pair, eying them suspiciously. "Is something going down?"
"Not really," Rise hesitated slightly. "Look, Kanji… Could you help us?"
"Why, what's going on?" He questioned folding his arms.
"Some type of creature thing is hiding in the back. It attacked me, so I called Senpai for help but…!" Rise then stepped forward folding her hands together pleadingly. No man could ever resist the face; she then pouted out her lips and mustered up her best puppy dog face. "Please help me Kanji-kun."
"Alright, alright!" He quickly moved away from the female. "You don't have to give me that look, sheesh!"
"Oh thank you so much!" She gave him a wink while patting his back. "I'm counting on you Kanji-kun!"
"Whatever." He mumbled walking towards his newly received objective point.
"Kanji," Souji halted his delinquent companion's forward motion, a hardened serious look on his face. "Be careful."
"Yeah, don't worry senpai. I'll beat the hell outta whatever's got you two so scared." Kanji grabbed the nearest stool and dragged it towards the back room. Souji felt more comfortable with this decision, since Kanji had a sort of expertise in beating things with chairs and the likes.
Rise on the other hand felt slightly uncomfortable with letting Kanji confront the beast alone and only equipped with a wooden stool. "Don't you think you should help him, senpai?"
Souji frowned. Truth be told, he was still frightened. Just thinking about the beast made him inwardly shudder. "I-"
"ARGH!" Kanji's voice resonated loudly followed by several other noises.
"Senpai!" Rise urged.
"Alright, I'm going!" Souji raced towards the room. He frantically looked around searching for his distressed companion. "Kanji?" He spotted him lying on the floor with a very dizzied look on his face. He bent down trying to assist his fallen friend, but soon he felt a malevolent presence from behind. "Ha…" Souji turned slowly and met a pair of fiery red eyes and a familiar evil grin. "WAUGH!"
-o-
"Hello?" Rise entered Daidara Metal Works shop. "Someone, anyone? I need help!"
"Quiet down girl." The owner grumbled. "Whaddya need?"
"My friends need help next door!" Rise ran up to the old man grabbing his wrist. "Come on, hurry!"
"Wha, wait-a-minute-" With amazing strength, Rise tugged the man all the way back to the tofu shop. She gave him her irresistible pout face and pointed towards the back room. "Gah," The blacksmith sighed. "What are you, five? If your friends are in so much trouble then why didn't you call the cops?" Without waiting for her to answer, he traveled into the back room, frowning all the while. The first thing noticed was all the tofu strung over the floor. As in response, his stomach growled and he remembered that he hadn't had lunch yet.
In the corner, the blacksmith noticed two males lying completely incapacitated on the ground. "Oi, you guys okay?"
"Freeze asshole!" A new deep male voice commanded. The blacksmith turned and saw two men who looked like cops pointing guns at him. "Don't even think of trying anything funny or I'll blast a hole through your skull!"
"Oh crap…" The blacksmith gulped. He looked at the fallen teen's right next to him and realized how bad his situation was. The first cop looked like serious business while the second one looked more… unintelligent to say the least.
"You're under arrest scumbag!" The second cop smirked. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law!" The younger man paused for a brief moment, as he seemed to be experiencing some sort of euphoric state. He even giggled slightly.
"Shut up, Adachi." The older cop snapped, glaring daggers at the man next to Souji and his friend. "How dare you hurt my nephew!"
"Whoa, whoa!" The blacksmith panicked. The whole situation was going south and quickly too. "Where's that little idol girl? She asked me to help these fellows!"
"No, that's what she asked Adachi and me to do!"
Daidara felt nervous as he stared down the barrel of two guns. "Now hold on a second, I-" The blacksmith stopped mid sentence when something fuzzy jumped on the first cops face. He yelped in surprise, flailing his arm upwards, accidentally firing the gun. The bullet hit the overhead panel of lights, darkening the room greatly.
"Ah, Dojima-san!" Adachi attempted to help grabbing a hold of the furry creature. It growled and snarled like a rabid crazy beast as Dojima thrashed about trying to expel the thing off his face. Daiara jumped up to help as well. By this time, Rise quickly wandered her way back into the area. The sound of the gunshot startled her, but what caught attention was not the three grown men fighting to get a giant creature off Dojima's face. No, it was the sight of her beloved senpai lying on the ground unmoving. She stared in disbelief, the sound of a gunshot and someone lying on the floor could only mean…
"NO!" She wailed throwing herself on top of Souji. "Senpai, no! How could they?"
"Dojima-san!" Adachi struggled against the furry creature. "Don't worry! I'll, urgh… get this thing off of you!" Ryotaro responded with several muffled yells.
"We won't be getting anything off if he doesn't hold still!" Daidara grunted.
Adachi frowned at the unwanted assistance. "Hah, don't think this will get you off the hook!" The blacksmith only rolled his eyes.
The beast hissed and jumped off Ryotaro's face. Dojima fell to the floor looking extremely dazed as he held his head in pain. Adachi leaped to grab the beast but instead he crashed into a box filled with Tofu. The creature made a motion and bit the younger cop's leg. He howled in pain.
"Damn critter!" Daidara grumbled. He grabbed one of the empty boxes and attempted to cover the beast with it. "Hold still!"
Several crashes and loud noises later, the blacksmith successfully covered the creature and sat on the box to prevent it from leaving. "Whew!" he sighed.
"Good job," Dojima spoke. "Now do you mind explaining what happened?" Daiadara gave him an annoyed looked as he explained why he was here and the likes. Once Dojima had a full understanding, he sighed exasperatedly, and walked towards the two fallen teens and the weeping idol. "Hey, uh miss Kujikawa?"
"How could you?" She snapped suddenly. "Give senpai back!"
Ryotaro took a step backwards, "Ah…, huh?"
"What on earth is going on?" A female voice demanded. Everyone who was still conscience spared a glance at the door. It was Rise's grandmother, and she was quite displeased. She entered the room and walked up to her grandchild. "Rise, what has happened?"
"Grandma," she sniffled and hiccupped. "They shot senpai!"
Electricity shot through the room as everyone gasped exaggeratedly.
"Oh, ugh," Souji groaned in pain slowly regaining conscience, Kanji following suit. "Rise?"
"Senpai!" She cried. "You're okay!"
"Oof! Rise, you're hurting me!"
"Young lady, I would like an explanation as to why this place is covered in tofu and why is one of the lights out. I just replaced them." Her grandmother said.
Rise looked directly at Daidara and noticed the fidgeting box he was parked on top of. She finally calmed herself down and considered each and every event that took place. Rise realized with great clarity that the situation was not as dire as she initially thought. Therefore, with a heavy sigh and a slight prickle of embarrassment, Rise tried her best to explain the situation to her grandmother. Who still was displeased with her.
-o-
"So, senpai…" Kanji began breaking the awkward silence between them. "How about we keep this just between us?"
Souji nodded his head. He really didn't want to discuss the past events in the Marukyu Tofu shop, he'd rather forget. Especially after the animal control officer brought the creature out from the back room. He explained to everyone that it was a raccoon and it was most likely imported from America as an exotic pet. The officer showed everyone the animal and as a last act, it smiled evilly scaring the ever-living crap out of both Souji and Kanji. His uncle was greatly annoyed now that he and Adachi has to be tested for rabies. Although that didn't stop him from lecturing his nephew.
"Ehehe," Rise nervously walked up to the two males. "Sorry, senpai and Kanji. I guess I just should've called the animal control center from the start."
"Ah, its okay!" Kanji smirked patting her shoulder. "You can make it up to us by hooking us up with some free tofu."
Rise spared a glance at Souji who only smiled nodding his head. "Alright!" She instantly perked up. "You want free tofu? Can do."
"I'll help you clean the place up." Souji offered.
"Oh no," She waved her hands. "I couldn't trouble you anymore then I already have."
"It's no trouble at all," His smile grew warmer with each passing second. "I'd be glad to help."
"Thank you senpai," she lowered her head trying to hide her rosy cheeks. Maybe Souji was unaware of it but he had an incredible smile that made her heart melt into jelly. It also didn't help that he always looked directly into her eyes while speaking. Ah, how he made her so unnerved.
"Come on, senpai." Kanji started for the tofu shop. "I'll help as well."
Rise smiled lightly. At least the day wasn't a total failure. Sure, her grandmother would think twice about leaving her alone with the shop, but she did get to spend an incredible time with her senpai. Overall, Rise felt accomplished, she was sure that her friendship with Souji would deepen and soon.
Fin
Strange story based on a series of true events told by my parents. Thanks to my loving parents with funny stories. I don't really know how to classify it. Well I hope everyone got some enjoyment out of it. Thank you for reading. Special thanks to Hidro!