This is the one-shot I said I'd post. It doesn't take place in the universes of either of my stories. This is something else entirely. It was originally a gift-fic for a friend, but I decided to share it with you guys. I don't own any of the characters in this story, but I do own the plot.
Chapter Start!
Kimihiro stared up at the ceiling of his room. He'd woken up quite a while ago, but he couldn't bring himself to get up. His mind just kept drifting to his parents and how he was now all alone. Yeah, he had family, but they weren't his parents, and he honestly wasn't sure if they wanted him. Kimihiro was a depressed kid. If he kept thinking like that, he was probably going to end up needing therapy in the long run. Fortunately, he'd be spared this. Since he had not gotten up, he had not yet noticed the visitor in his apartment. The visitor had noticed him though. It snuck over to the bed and after deciding that Kimihiro was not aware of it, it pounced on him.
"Aaah!" Kimihiro shot up as soon as something hit him. He threw himself back and tried to cover himself with his arms. He fully expected that whatever had jumped on him would attack him. Instead he felt something rubbing up against him and heard an odd sort of rumbling sound. He cracked his eye open and saw something black. He opened his eyes some more and realized a very odd black creature was nuzzling against him. Kimihiro blinked. That wasn't what he'd been expecting. After a few moments of being nuzzled, Kimihiro lifted a hand and scratched it behind a couple of odd antennae. It seemed to like it. Kimihiro tried to move to the side so he could get a better look at the odd creature. It blended in with the shadows quite well so he was having trouble telling its body shape.
"Stay here for a moment." He ran over to the light switch and flipped it on. Now he could get a better look at it. It was a little shorter than him, with an entirely black body, legs, feet with no toes, arms, clawed fingers (or at least something that looked like fingers), a head that was a bit big for its body, twitchy antennae coming out of its head, and glowing yellow eyes. Kimihiro had no idea what it was.
"What are you?" It just tilted its head and scurried over to him. It had an odd way of moving. It leaned its whole body over running towards him, but straightened up somewhat when it reached him. Kimihiro wondered how it kept from falling over. "What are you?" It just tilted its head in a sort of curious way. Kimihiro was slightly weirded out and decided to start getting ready for the day. He was going to have to meet with his relatives today and needed to look his best. That made him start feeling depressed again. The odd creature kept following him around as he got ready. Since he didn't really want it following him to his relatives he slipped through the door and closed it before the creature could slip through.
Later, Kimihiro headed home from his relatives. They'd decided that since he could take care of himself and didn't seem to want to move out of the apartment that they would support him but let him stay in his apartment. Kimihiro was fine with this. He didn't want to leave the home he'd shared with his parents. His thoughts were cut off when something crashed into him and knocked him down. After his vision cleared up, he realized the odd creature from before was on top of him. How had it gotten out? Kimihiro quickly pushed it off and got up. "How'd you get out? And how'd you find me?" It just tilted its head again. Kimihiro sighed. He'd always been able to see strange things, but this one was…different. It seemed to be actively following him around for some reason.
Kimihiro continued on his apartment. At first, nothing seemed odd besides the creature following him around. Then he realized people were staring at him. No, not him. At the creature. Kimihiro's eyes widened as he realized that the creature was visible to everyone. He froze up. There was a strange creature following him, and everyone could see it. He promptly broke into a run. He didn't stop until he reached his apartment and slammed the door shut behind him. He slid down, panting and let his head drop down for a second. He picked his head up just in time to see the creature pop out of the shadow under the table.
Kimihiro just stared at this as the creature ran over to him. It started nuzzling him again. Now, Kimihiro felt like crying. If it could travel through shadows, how was he supposed to get away from it? He sighed and started getting out food for dinner. While he was chopping vegetables, he had an epiphany. The creature was acting like an over affectionate pet. Maybe it could be trained! That in mind, Kimihiro finished cooking, gave the creature some of the food, ate his own dinner, and tried to think of how to train an animal.
"Okay, sit!" It looked at him blankly. "Sit." It stared some more. "Sit." It nuzzled him. Kimihiro twitched and made a note to find a book on how to do this. That night, the creature snuck into bed with him and wouldn't leave. Kimihiro didn't get much sleep.
The next day, Kimihiro went to the nearest library, checked out a book on how to train animals, and hurried back home. The creature was still following him so he didn't want to stay out too long. The book said that you should give the command while gently making the animal do the action. Food rewards helped. Kimihiro looked over at the odd creature. What were you supposed to feed it? It seemed okay with human food. Kimihiro got some of the leftovers from last night and pushed the creature so that it was sitting on the ground. "Sit." He gave it a small piece of yakitori. It still stood up as soon as Kimihiro removed his hand though. Kimihiro repeated this process over and over until the creature finally was willing to sit without being pushed down or given food.
"Sit!" The creature obeyed and sat. Kimihiro smiled and started eating a late lunch. After a few minutes, the creature got back up and came over to Kimihiro. He absentmindedly scratched it behind its antennae. He was slightly less annoyed with it now. It helped that it was taking his mind off his parents.
"Stay." Kimihiro walked away from the creature as soon as he gave it a bit of food. It quickly scurried after him. Kimihiro would have to go back to school soon, and he couldn't really bring it to school with him. Too many awkward questions. Not to mention he had to go outside sometime. He needed food and stuff after all. There was no reason he couldn't bring it with him, but it would be best if he didn't show off his 'pet' to the world. After a day, it didn't seem to get it still, but it was waiting a couple of seconds longer before running over to him. It looked like this was going to take a lot longer to teach than 'sit.'
It sneaked into bed again. Kimihiro sighed. He still wasn't used to it. Whatever it was made of, it didn't feel like anything he'd felt before. Since it was so unfamiliar, it made him quite uncomfortable. He absentmindedly scratched it behind the ears. It made a happy sound. "You know, you need a name. I can't keep calling you 'you.'" He thought for a moment. You look like a shadow, and you can travel through shadows, so how 'bout I call you Kage?" It didn't respond negatively, so Kimihiro decided to keep the name.
The next few weeks were spent trying to teach Kage how to 'stay.' He couldn't get Kage to stay in a place without him for very long, an hour at the most. After that, it'd usually pop up wherever Kimihiro was. Fortunately, Kage was actually quite flexible. It was easy to stick him somewhere if he needed to be hidden. It could also sort of sink into a black puddle on the ground if needed. Since he wasn't making any progress with teaching Kage to 'stay,' Kimihiro had decided to try and teach Kage to turn into a puddle and stay like that on command. It would make it much easier to go around with Kage.
"I'm going out to get some food. C'mon Kage." The little black creature immediately obeyed. Kimihiro started motioning with his hand. "Melt." Nothing. "C'mon melt. I can't go until you do." Kage melted into the ground. "Great. C'mon." Kimihiro started walking towards the store with Kage following still in puddle form. "Good boy. Just stay like that." Kimihiro may have become fond of Kage, but he still didn't want to be seen with it. Who knows what people would think about it?
"I was thinking about making some yakitori. What do you think?" Kage made a happy noise. He seemed to prefer meat to fruits and vegetables. "I need some more rice too. Maybe some pickles…" Deciding he had everything he needed for their simple meal, Kimihiro took the food to the cashier to buy it.
The bag was a bit awkward to carry. Kimihiro had to wrap both arms around it, and he could barely see over it. Still, it wasn't that much of a problem. The pedestrians were willing to get out of the way of the boy so that he didn't run into them. Japan is friendly like that. Kimihiro was humming a bit of a tune while he made his way back to his apartment.
Then the hairs on the back of Kimihiro's neck stood up as he suddenly felt like something was watching. He quickly glanced behind him and saw a monster watching him. It looked a bit like a giant centipede. No one noticed it so it must be invisible to them. Kimihiro gulped and quickly started walking again, hoping the monster would leave him alone. It didn't. It followed him, weaving around the pedestrians. Kimihiro sped up as much as he could with his bag of groceries. The monster had no trouble matching his pace.
An interesting fact about Kimihiro's apartment building is that there is very little traffic. This is both good and bad. It's good because it gives you more privacy than you usually get in Japan. It's bad because if you get attacked by a monster no one will be around to save you. Kimihiro didn't want to go back because that was when he would probably be attacked, but he didn't have much of a choice. He had to go home eventually. Besides, the chicken would go bad if he didn't go put it in the fridge or cook it. He took a deep breath and started walking towards his apartment building. He heard a hiss behind him. He gulped and tried to pick up the pace. Then he heard a roar and was knocked forward, spilling his groceries. He risked a glance behind him and his breath caught in his throat. The centipede had Kage in his mandibles. He must have popped out sometime after he left the main road. Before Kimihiro could do anything, Kage was crushed in the mandibles and disappeared in a burst of smoke.
Kimihiro's eyes teared up as his survival instincts kicked in and he made a run for it, leaving behind the spilled groceries. He was so upset by what had just happened that he didn't notice running past a person in a black hooded coat. Said person was calmly watching the centipede creature with their hands in their coat pockets. The centipede noticed the person and hissed before lunging at the person.
Then the centipede was suddenly falling in pieces, quite dead. The person twirled a silvery quill for a second before said quill disappeared into a burst of odd symbols. The person walked over and examined the head curiously. Then a little black creature popped up next to the person. The two stared at each other for a moment before the creature ran off for the apartment building Kimihiro had run to.
Kimihiro slammed the door and locked it as soon as he ran into his apartment. He leaned against the door and slid down it as he processed what had just happened. Kage was gone. He'd disappeared in a burst of smoke. His eyes teared up again. Then he just outright started bawling. He'd lost his parents and now he'd lost his friend. Now he was all alone again!
Then something started nudging him. Kimihiro's eyes shot open. A very familiar pair of yellow eyes set in a black head were staring at him curiously. Kimihiro stared in shock for a moment before throwing his arms around it and hugging it tightly. "Don't ever do that again! I thought you were dead!" Then Kimihiro started crying again, except he didn't know why he was crying this time. Kage just started licking at Kimihiro in an attempt to comfort him.
Outside, a quill scratched at a tree trunk that was outside Kimihiro's apartment. It said 'Esex' and 'Croxerd' in black ink. Then the ink glowed and disappeared. The cloaked figure glanced in the window for a moment before disappearing in a swirl of darkness.
The next day, Kimihiro didn't bother trying to get Kage to stay home when he went to school. "C'mon Kage! I don't wanna be late!" Kage melted into the floor and went over to the young boy. Kimihiro started sprinting for his school. "What do you want for dinner tonight? I was thinking about maybe making soba." He got some odd looks, but he ignored them. "Kage, don't ever leave me again, okay?" He heard a sort of rumbling sound. Kimihiro grinned. He didn't really care if he was being stared at. All that mattered was that he still had Kage. As long as he had that, he could handle whatever the world threw at him.