Play of Spirits
Chapter 3 – Three's a Crowd (Junpei)

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At first, there's just two of them and Junpei doesn't understand why because, really, they're the closest train to the elevator and shouldn't kids be flocking to them?

Unless they're the curious type who just have to look at every train and then wind up on the farthest one of them all after walking all that way and not being bothered to walk back.

There was a movie like that, wasn't there? Guy swam all the way out and didn't leave any energy for the swim back or so he claimed. Which never made much sense in Junpei's eyes because… what? Did that mean he was happy to die out at sea because he hadn't planned his return trip? He was happy to die drowning because he'd ignored his own limitations? It was all well and good to push one's own limitations but there was a limit to that as well. One didn't throw themselves off a cliff and flap their hands because humans couldn't fly and they wanted to overcome that. They hopped on an aeroplane instead – or flew a kite or a helicopter or a one-seater plane or something of the sort. There were other ways to cross one's limits without almost killing oneself – or actually doing it.

But whatever. In any case, the message had said they could pick the train, which meant they were all the same when one really got down into the nitty gritty details of it all. Even if they looked so different. It only took a passing glance to take that in.

The one he was red. Across from them had been one which was blue with a touch of white on the outside, but that was a little far away. And a splash of pink further back, and another splash that was yellow… He didn't care to process the individualities of his own and if he had to come back on the same one, well, he knew his was the only lumpy-looking red one of the bunch.

And he sat there and waited and munched on a chocolate bar in his pocket because he really wasn't a patient waiter and had to be doing something with his hands and he hadn't thought to bring one of those little travel games and he had no audience for a magic trick and hardly anything to practice with.

And then she got on the train.

It was just her head at first: a head of long straight blond hair and a purple hat on top and the hat was the first thing he noticed. A hat poking through the door. And then the hair as it fell over her shoulder. And then the green eyes scanning the compartment and giving him a grin as she spotted him. Sharp green eyes that also held a bit of warning.

And fair enough, he supposed. They were a guy and a girl alone on a carriage and she had no way of knowing what sort of guy he was. And he didn't make much of an impression, sitting there and eating chocolate.

Or actually… 'Here.' He took another bar out and offered it to her.

She stared at it.

'It'd be rude for me to stuff my face and not offer you any,' he pointed out.

She blinked. Then smiled – though it seemed a little tight, he thought, and accepted the bar. The smile loosened up once he wasn't holding it anymore and… what? She'd thought he was playing a prank on her? Offering the bar only to snatch it away again? 'Gracias,' she said in reply and took a bite, then hummed in approval. 'Bellisimo!'

He stared at her, pretty sure that wasn't Japanese or English and those were the only two languages he knew (even if his English wasn't great by any means). He wondered what language it was, though. It sounded more musical than English, at least – or maybe that was because he knew enough English to be looking beyond the sounds.

Then he wondered if the girl spoke Japanese or English, because she hadn't actually spoken yet.

Except she'd picked up his staring, and why, and now she was pulling back, slightly stiff. 'I'm sorry,' she apologised – and yep, she definitely knew Japanese, even if it was faintly accented. 'That was rude of me.'

'It was beautiful,' he blurted out without really thinking. 'And honest.'

She stared at him again.

'Umm…' He mentally back-pedalled. 'I mean, you said the first thing you thought of, right? That's honest. Unless you're a fast thinker – I mean –'

She laughed. 'I say what I think,' she admitted. 'Made my fair share of enemies like that. Or something.' She shrugged like she wasn't too concerned but Junpei had a clear view of her eyes even if she cast them down, since she was still standing and he was seated. 'You don't, do you?'

Her tone is still light, but Junpei couldn't tell what she meant by her observation. But he wasn't. Not really. And he said so.

'Thought so,' she said. She was still standing and now he was feeling a little inadequate with the height difference. But either she didn't notice or it didn't bother her. Instead, she swallowed another bite of chocolate (and that earned her more points in his book and maybe he should stop keeping score now…) and explained: 'You wouldn't have stuttered so much if it was second nature for you.'

'Probably not,' he agreed, though that wasn't true. He might've if he were star-struck by her – and he was, a little. It was hard enough to keep anyone's attention aside from his parents' and now he had a pretty girl with personality all to himself –

Nope, he did not just think that.

'Is something wrong?' The girl was looking curiously at her.

'Nope.' Probably too hasty an answer and not entirely true, either, but that really wasn't the place, time or circumstances. He wasn't going to be one of those guys who wrote their number on the back of a napkin and slipped it into a girl's pocket – or, it's the other way around, wasn't it? He supposed it didn't really matter which way around it was. He wasn't going to play either role.

He gulped down the rest of his chocolate bar a little faster than he should have, probably, and a little faster than he enjoyed as well. That was more or less a nervous reflex, and it brought him time as well. Classic strategy to think before he spoke this time. 'You pick this train?'

'Yep.' She looked around the carriage as though she was expecting something else – and she couldn't blame him. He'd expected something else when he'd seen the outside, but the inside was just a regular train carriage no matter how one looked at it. 'It was closest to the elevator.'

He grinned at that. 'Ditto,' he said, before hastily adding: 'Not that I was being lazy or anything. There just didn't seem any point –'

The girl suddenly had her hands on her hips. 'Are you calling me lazy?' she demanded.

Did he? He ran over what he said and… oops. 'No!' He waved his hands hastily. 'I didn't mean that. It's just that my classmates always say things like walking home instead of getting driven builds character when they're really trying to say I'm spoilt and lazy.' Morosely and pocking the bulge of his stomach as he scrunched his rapper, he added: 'and fat.'

'I see,' said the girl, and now she looked sympathetic. 'Or maybe they're just jealous because they don't get driven and have to walk?'

He shrugged. It didn't really matter which way around it was, because the majority always one and he'd been the odd one, like that. But it was just a little bit too far to walk. 'I ride a bike, now,' he offered. 'A sort of compromise.'

'Compromise,' the girl echoed, turning away – and her tone was suddenly flat and cold.

Junpei decided to cash his lot and get out of that conversation before it went downhill. 'I'm Shibayama Junpei,' he said instead. 'Here for this game-thing apparently… Though when are we going to start?' They'd been talking for a while.

The girl sat down on the seats across from him. 'Orimoto Izumi,' she replied, and her voice was only a little sharper than when she'd first spoken – and she'd been in chocolate bliss then. She played with the empty wrapper now, and he couldn't guess what was going through her head anymore. Was she feeling awkward? Sheepish? Apologetic? Uncomfortable? Annoyed she was stuck in the same vicinity as him but not wanting to seem rude and going onto a different carriage or different altogether train –

But then the doors slammed shut and that wasn't a possibility anymore.

He looked towards them, startled. Izumi did the same.

Then he registered the sound of someone bawling and put that together with the picture of a kid with a large orange hat crying in front of the closed door. The two already there just stared at him blankly, and the boy cringed back and when he realised he had an audience.

Then his back hit the closed doors and he cried even harder. Something about wanting to get off the train – but the train wheels were screeching now and the platform creeping out of view.

Too late to get off this ride, wherever it was going.

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Those three were united by something they didn't realise quite yet, but she could see it because she could see them all: their minds, and their hearts as well. It had been rather endearing too, for a moment. Endearing in the way the sight of a childhood crush was before it crumbled and it would have crumbled, or else it would have never even taken root, because the world of those children was sometimes too small but at other times too large and that girl and that boy might never have met each other again.

But she could see something resonating between the pair as well and that could mean nothing and everything. Earth and water resonated. Wind and thunder. Water and ice, or water and fire. Light and darkness. There was an infinite number of ways to couple of them, and even more to expand the group – or less, because the more that came in, the more clashes that arose as well and hadn't ten turned out to be far too many?

But she would see soon, and perhaps those children would as well. There was a third on their carriage now and something unseen by all of them sung a song that dragged them all together –

And… they would see what came out of that, because it could be nothing and everything and things became much harder to predict when it wasn't just one of them on their own.

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The boy stopped crying eventually. It took the girl – Izumi – getting up and being unexpectedly big-sister like and Junpei offering his third and penultimate chocolate bar (though really, they were leftovers because everyone had vanished during lunchtime that day and he couldn't share them like he'd planned) and the boy calling them both "nice, compared to those big bullies".

Which might've been more of a compliment without the suffix, but he hadn't exactly been looking for a kid two thirds his height so Junpei didn't put too much stock to it. Especially when the term "big bullies" seem to be specific.

And he discovered exactly how specific when he asked: 'So, excited about this game?'

'No.' The boy was still sniffing. Probably needed a tissue of handkerchief but the only handkerchief Junpei had on him was the magic tricks one and that was definitely not for blowing noses. It'd be a pain to get the snot out afterwards. And he'd already given the kid a chocolate bar. That was good enough… right? 'I didn't want to come.'

He raised an eyebrow at that, and across from him, Izumi raised both of hers. 'It's a far way to come if you're not interested,' she commented. 'Unless you were at the station for other reasons?'

'No,' the boy sniffed. 'I was at the park. With them. Then we all got the message and they thought it'd be fun to check it out and dragged me along. Then they shoved me here and they're back there and we could be going somewhere like the witch in the forest's house and the witch will cook us in her oven and gobble us up –'

His voice was rising in pitch and Junpei's mind was latching onto that train of thought and wondering how he hadn't thought of any of that himself. Maybe not the fairy-tale or witches that cooked people in ovens and ate them… But how had he not found the messages the least bit suspicious? He went through them all again. The first mentioned his name. The rest were just instructions. Not one of them gave any information about the game it offered and yet it had gathered hundreds of children into the basement of Shibuya Station anyway.

'Hypnosis!' he declared, and then shivered. That could very well be true, because hypnosis wasn't just a parlour magic trick but a psychological tool.

'Or the mass crowd effect.' Izumi, in contrast, didn't seem too worried. 'Majority rules so everybody needs to be like the majority, right? And those who aren't don't fit in but they're also the ones you can say aren't mindlessly following the crowd, the ones who are thinking for themselves…' And Junpei wondered if she was going back to their earlier conversation now, with that spiel. Or if she was talking about something else entirely. She almost sounded like she was talking out loud, now.

'It takes strong people to not follow the majority,' the boy mumbled.

And Junpei had to give points to that as well. It did take strong people. People who knew who they were and what they wanted and were willing to sacrifice fitting in in order to get those things and be that person. But it wasn't like each person came attached with a "how to" manual. People didn't tend to know themselves a whole lot better than others knew them.

Which reminded him… 'What's your name, kid?'

'Oh.' The boy flushed. 'Himi Tomoki.'

They introduced themselves again and got dubbed Junpei-ni and Izumi-nee for their troubles. And Junpei wasn't sure how he should feel about that. Two was a couple and three was a crowd but was three really enough for the mass crowd effect?

Then again, if it hadn't mattered what train they got on, they'd probably bump into each other when they got off. Or there might even be people in the other carriages.

But when he looked that way, there was no other carriage. 'Guys, we got on the first carriage, right?'

'Yep,' said Izumi. Tomoki looked unsure.

'Then where's the second carriage?'

He pointed. They looked. There was no second carriage. Just the blackness of the tunnel that had been going on for… how long now? But the lights were on inside their carriage. Enough that they should've been able to see at least the front of the second carriage.

They got up to check. But opening the door between carriages only sent Tomoki's hat flying off and he quickly snatched it back. Junpei, feeling rather spooked now, braced himself with one hand and reached out blindly with the other. The carriages couldn't be too far apart and even if he couldn't see it, he should be able to feel it with his armspan.

He couldn't. Instead, the carriage he was gripping slipped away from him. Izumi shouted in alarm (or he thought it was Izumi, though he supposed a boy before puberty could get their voice fairly high and Himi Tomoki couldn't be any older than ten) and then instead of the cool door there was a warm hand gripping his and keeping him grounded –

And then that was gone as well and all he could hear was screaming and the wind rushing into his ears –

And a ping that told him he had a new message, and that really was horrible timing because how was he supposed to see when he was being blown off to who knew where?

Actually, he recalled, his phone screen would be a source of light in this darkness. He felt around for it, the other still waving for any sort of hold and finding nothing, and flicked it open.

There was a message flashing on the screen.

This is your first test.

And beyond that, he could see flickers of orange and mauve. Tomoki and Izumi. Hopefully.