Intro: welp, would you look at that, we reached 60 chapters! Thank you for your continuous support!
Disclaimer: I do not own Touken Ranbu and Cardfight! Vanguard and other material which came from the said Game/Anime, they are owned by its original creators. The making of this story and this story is made for the fans and the writer XD. Although the plot and some changes in the story are from me ^_^.
Chapter 60: Unexpected turn of events
~-Wednesday- On the way to school ~
It was a hard long battle for Shokudaikiri and this time even with the help of Tsurumaru to get Ookurikara out of the citadel and do their weekly tasks, which is their first task for the day is to accompany Aichi to his school, and it's only the start of the day and they already feel tired, it was grueling and very hard for the two.
"C'mon Karabou, I guarantee that you will like this era!" Tsurumaru outrights drag him as Shokudaikiri pushes him.
"Oi, if you don't get on with it I will ask Aichi-sama to change the roster for today!" Izuminokami said as he grins "I can't wait to go out and see this new era you guys are frequently talking about too!"
"Also if you don't hurry up, Aichi-sama will be late." Horikawa notifies Tsurumaru and Shokudaikiri as they hasten up the pace.
"I actually knew that this would happen so I decided to wake up early…" Aichi smiles as he watches the two struggle which the others understood and nodded in agreement understanding that this scene would happen "We still have some time…"
"It's somehow also surprising about the fact that Aichi-sama woke up early…" Tsurumaru lost focus as Shokudaikiri exerts force the three stumbled and fell onto the ground making the others sweat drop at the scene, including Aichi.
"Even though you aren't a morning person?" Shokudaikiri stares and blinks to him as he slowly helps Ookurikara and Tsurumaru up while Aichi can only nervously laugh at his comment.
Then all of them only stared at Aichi as they once again thought of how thoughtful he is that he would adjust his time even though he isn't the type to wake up so early just because of knowing and understanding that this will take a lot of his time.
After a while they successfully dragged him down, it was because Ookurikara actually stopped from making things harder for them as he noticed the scene of the new view he wasn't familiar with down below, which he is not used to and made him curious about it.
And as they walk through the path to Aichi's school Ookurikara can't help but look around and be amaze at the sight he is seeing. Noticing that his expression isn't that much stiff and is relaxed Tsurumaru and Shokudaikiri looks at each other and then to Aichi who is smiling at the sight that they are seeing.
But then as they are nearing Aichi's school people who notices them especially those who keeps staring at them, Ookurikara's mood slowly turns sour, and the female students that Aichi and the others passed through continuously stares at them seeing the three handsome toudans with him just made things worse as he slowly reverts back to normal.
They were swooning and let their hearts out through their eyes as they fantasize and ogle at the sight in front of them, they murmur about a silent and mysterious looking type, a cool and well-built man, and a stoic and solemn looking one.
By solemn it was because in front of Aichi and Tsurumaru, there is Shokudaikiri walking with Ookurikara trying his best not to let him get away as Tsurumaru keeps a look out beside Aichi.
While hearing those comments from people, somehow Aichi can't agree with the comments regarding Tsurumaru, about being silent, although he is mysterious, in the end he can't help but stare at him.
"Oh, is something the matter?" Tsurumaru smiles to him as the female students swooned and cheered as they saw him smile which made Aichi laugh nervously as he looks away.
"It's nothing…" Aichi answered as it made Tsurumaru curious as to why he stared at him.
Finally when they successfully reached his school "I'll wait for you guys here later." Aichi wave's goodbye but before he leaves "Let's take a short tour around town for Ookurikara later." He smiles to Ookurikara as he leaves the three waving and smiling back at him, as usual making all the female student swoon at them.
"If you want to see more of this era, let's try to come back here early so that Aichi-sama could take us around." Shokudaikiri told Ookurikara.
"You will be surprised at the other places here. There is lot's to go around." Tsurumaru added grinning at him.
But Ookurikara just clicks his tongue "Nonsense, this won't make me stronger." He answers back to the two as he leaves them.
The two puffing out as they know that he is having fun a little but just won't say it, ignoring the cries and calls of the female's they come across to they decide to run away from the crowd and when it was safe Shokudaikiri and Tsurumaru gives a quick info regarding this new era as they went straight back home.
~At Aichi's class~
Aichi prepares his seat and materials unto his desks as Izaki and Morikawa calls out to him "Morning Aichi!" Morikawa greeted.
"Morning Aichi, this time it's Shokudaikiri-san and Tsurumaru-san that is taking you from and to school huh." Izaki greeted as the two walks towards him.
"The grumpy one is a new face." Morikawa nodded aggressively which Aichi can't help but laugh nervously at the word grumpy.
"Hey, you two know who are with Sendou this morning?" A female classmate approached their group.
"Their identity are a secret." Morikawa puffed his nose as he places both his arms to a cross showing up his chest as it weird out the group of girls, thankfully they got to school on time before the bell rang and class is starting saving him from the onslaught of girls.
To be honest it's just the third day and somehow he has to do everything to hide himself from the female students trying to ask him about the boys that he comes with.
~Few minutes before class ends~
Swarming of female students can be seen in front of the school gate "I knew it was a bad idea to come too early." Tsurumaru tries his best to defend from the onslaught of female pursuers.
"We didn't think that we would end up too early…" Shokudaikiri does the same as he tries to defend while also helping defend them from Ookurikara who is making things worse.
"I wonder if the others experienced something like this, or it's just us because we came too early…" Tsurumaru tries to make a conversation as it seems that Ookurikara is almost at his limits.
"I think Kashuu-kun has mentioned something like this so it's better to come on time so they can leave early…" Shokudaikiri jumps a little as a female student almost closes in on him.
Popping a vein at his temple "Where the hell is he!?" Ookurikara cursed as they wait for Aichi to come.
"Language Kara-chan, we came too early so it's kind of our fault." Shokudaikiri got a click of a tongue from Ookurikara.
Aichi who is preparing to get out of class noticed the swarming of girls as it grew larger because of female student coming out of class, noticing the silhouette of color of white, black and brown Aichi panics as he hurries to finish packing.
"Oi, Aichi are you going to Card Ca-" Morikawa asked although sadly Aichi was in a hurry and is worried more about the three toudans than thinking about other things.
As he ran hastily outside he noticed that a little later and they would have been stampeded "Shokudaikiri! Tsurumaru! Ookurikara!" Aichi shouts at the top of his lungs noticing that teachers are also going to them it would be chaos.
The three hearing their names noticing Aichi running towards them "He is injured?!" Shokudaikiri panics as did Tsurumaru and seeing an annoyed Ookurikara noticing Aichi coming towards them running and panting Ookurikara hastily made his way through the crowd without a second's notice and successfully reached Aichi, taking his bag and the arm that has no injury surprising him in the process as he drags Aichi away from the school.
~Farther away from school~
Seeing that they have come a long way Ookurikara finally stops as he noticed that he is not familiar at the surroundings that they ran to, still holding out to Aichi's arm he hears a heavy panting behind him, looking behind he saw a sweating and heavily breathing Aichi, although he too was exhausted Aichi was almost out of breathe and looks like he would collapse at any moment.
Looking all over the places he examines the area where the other two would be coming from but his gaze shifted to an area where he thinks they could take a rest, looking back at Aichi he knew that he was worn out and out of breathe but he needs to lead him to that place to rest "How weak" he thought to himself sighing in the process as he slowly tugs Aichi's arm.
Aichi shifted his head to look at Ookurikara as the latter motions his head to follow him to a nearby bench, Aichi nods in understanding what it mean to it as he follows him there still not letting go of his arms and still carrying his bag.
~A little while later~
"I see them over there!" A panting Tsurumaru shouts as Ookurikara and Aichi looks around the area to look for the owner of the familiar voice, Ookurikara noticing that after that long while he still has Aichi's arms within his grasps, hastily letting go of it while standing up to look for the two it surprised Aichi as he too didn't notice that the latter was still holding on to him.
Finally reuniting with the group Tsurumaru notes "This bell really is useful!" He raises up his hand where he placed the bracelet while his eyes shine at the certain bracelet coiled around his arms.
"I agree if it wasn't for this we wouldn't have found their location!" Shokudaikiri agrees with him while he turns his head to Aichi who is sitting at the bench "Aichi-sama are you hurting somewhere?" Shokudaikiri kneels down as he noticed the ill looking Aichi.
"N-no I'm fine, just exhausted from all running." Aichi faintly laughs as he explains his condition.
"I see, I'll go look for a store that sells water then, in the meanwhile just keep resting." Shokudaikiri stood up as he starts to look for water.
~After a short while~
As he buys him water Tsurumaru occupied the seat that is Ookurikara was previously sitting onto while Ookurikara opt to stand up and wait while crossing his arms.
"Hey if you aren't feeling well we could go back you know…" Tsurumaru glanced at Aichi noticing him jump from his words meant that he is feeling something that he is not saying, hearing that Tsurumaru started a conversation Ookurikara glances at the two to listen.
"No, I'm f-" Aichi swallowed his words before continuing it, he instantly remembers his promise to Horikawa to not push himself too much even if it's regarding with them since they will surely understand why he cannot continue to do it "I'm actually a little tired…"
Surprising the two Ookurikara clicked his tongue as he started to walk away "Oi, Karabou!?" Tsurumaru stands up as he catches up to him successfully getting almost a hold of his arms which Ookurikara flicked away "Where are you going?" Tsurumaru asked when thankfully he stopped from his tracks.
"I'm going back." He sighed not having an eye contact to Tsurumaru as he answered him.
Aichi hurries to stand up to catch up to them "We… We'll do it at a later date, for now I'm sorry I can't keep what I said earlier, and you were even excited to go…"
"Nonsense…" He clicked his tongue and then started walking again, thankfully Shokudaikiri came back with four different kinds of beverages with him and stopped Ookurikara again from walking off.
"Hey, what is going on?" Shokudaikiri hands over the drinks to Tsurumaru and Aichi which they thanked him after on the other hand Ookurikara puffed out and didn't take the drink that Shokudaikiri is offering.
"He said he wants to go back." Tsurumaru answered his question but "Oi!" Ookurikara started walking away again.
Shokudaikiri notices Aichi pained and sad expression as he asks him "Is something the matter Aichi-sama? Does your injury hurts?"
"Oh, uhm… No…" Aichi decided to walk and follow the two as did Shokudaikiri.
Walking side by side Tsurumaru with Ookurikara and a little farther from them is Shokudaikiri and Aichi, "So what did really happen?" Shokudaikiri started up a conversation and asked for the reason why he left.
Aichi hung his head low as he tries to find the words "I… I didn't think that it would be this way if I turned down someone's expectation…"
Shokudaikiri raises his brow as he did not understand what he meant and decided to ask again to clarify it "What do you mean?"
"I, I really wanted to continue on and give Ookurikara a short tour around… but… Tsurumaru suddenly asked if I am feeling unwell and if I am it's okay to go back and when I was about to say I'm fine, I remembered that from all the running I felt a slight discomfort from my shoulder and I said that I was only feeling tired and then Ookurikara started walking off." Aichi bit off his lips.
Shokudaikiri chuckled as Aichi finishes his explanation "Now I get why he looked like that, don't worry Aichi-sama from that look, he was only annoyed that you didn't tell your condition sooner that you were feeling ill and pushing yourself, he wasn't annoyed at the fact that you won't take him for a tour." But then "Wait… you said a slight discomfort?" Aichi nodded to his question.
Shokudaikiri froze for a moment "Tsuru-san! It's an emergency!" Tsurumaru too froze and when he recovered he hastily turned around and ran to them as it took Ookurikara and even Aichi by surprise, and when Tsurumaru came up to them he knelt down facing his back to Aichi as Shokudaikiri helped Aichi climb him to Tsurumaru's back and took the bag Aichi was holding.
Tsurumaru stands up and positions Aichi to a comfortable position as Shokudaikiri and Tsurumaru looked at each other they nodded as Tsurumaru sped up with Shokudaikiri tailing them, noticing this Ookurikara did so too as he was almost left behind.
~At the Infirmary~
"YAGEN!" Shokudaikiri and Tsurumaru shouts at the top of their lungs making Yagen jump in surprise waiting for them to enter the room as he opens the door to the infirmary.
"Aichi-sama said his shoulder were hurting earlier!" Shokudaikiri panicky and explaining to Yagen.
Yagen hastily looked at Aichi but he noticed the weird expression from him, and then he knew that they were just panicking "I see, lay Aichi-sama on the bed, I'll take care of the rest."
~After a while~
"I see, so that's what happened." Aichi informs Yagen of what really happened as to why the two had a panicking moment "Too bad he won't be getting a tour around the shopping district and other areas, but at least he was able to see a bit of this era." Yagen after dressing the wound stands up after.
Heading towards a table with weird looking liquid in flasks and such "Alright, I'm finished, tomorrow I'll be joining you, just to make sure." Yagen prepares a medicine for Aichi to drink.
"Oh yeah…" Aichi rummages to his bag "I got these seeds from class, I don't know what they are but I hope it would be of good use to you especially since I haven't had the chance to also give you a tour around town yet." Aichi pulls out a bag as he showed it to Yagen.
Yagen blinks and a smile forms to his face "Thank you for this, but why didn't you know what they were if they were introduced to your class?" He receives the seeds and placed it on a cabinet.
Aichi jumps then looked away from Yagen which means there was something behind the action that he did not look into his eyes while speaking "Oh, uhm… I wasn't focusing on classes you see so that is why I forgot what it was, I'll try asking someone tomorrow about it." Yagen finally understands while he hands over a medicine to Aichi.
~Thursday –Morning-~
"I'm sorry but the tiger cubs will have to be left behind again." Mina frowns as she explain to Gokotai that it would be trouble if he tries bring it with him again, as it will stir up chaos from people.
Gokotai looks at Aichi asking him for opinion "Sorry Gokotai, we will think of a way for them to come next time." Aichi pats his head to comfort him and as a sorry for it making Gokotai sadly nods.
"Alright! Let's get going!" Izuminokami pumps up his fist in excitement while Horikawa smiles and claps for him.
Yagen notices the expression on Gokotai's face as he tries to talk to him next, while Aichi continues to prepare for his things.
~Near Aichi's school~
As they successfully walked down the hill Izuminokami's eyes where glimmering as he looks at all the buildings, the people walking about, the vehicles that come across, and well everything that they come across to him was very interesting "I didn't think that a lot has changed from this era."
"There are also other stuff such as shop, games and rides that you can experience and a box with people moving inside!" Horikawa informs of Izuminokami of the amazing things this era has to offer.
While letting them talk about it Yagen remembers something worth noting "By the way, the lineup for the seventh team…" Yagen called out Aichi's attention "All of them haven't had the chance to get out." Aichi gulps as he listens to him "Although Hakata and Taroutachi has, but it was only at the beach and we have a form of transportation to ride on." Aichi somehow to starts panic.
Yagen seeing this can't help but puff out "Pfft…" Which surprised Aichi "Don't worry I'll join them at that time so that they won't get lost, lose track of it or something."
"Thank you Yagen." Aichi smiles but then they heard Izuminokami shout.
"WOAH!" Izuminokami ran toward Aichi "Aichi-sama!" surprising him and Gokotai "Can we go somewhere next?!"
Yagen and Aichi looks at each other "K-Kane-san I told you we can't Aichi-sama still has school to attend." Horikawa runs to him.
"The heck with that school let's just go!" Izuminokami was about to hold Aichi's hand when Horikawa and Yagen gets in between the two.
"That's no good Kane-san! This is a school! You know how strict Hijikata-san is about things like this right?" Horikawa smiles at him but somehow it felt uncomfortable for Aichi as Gokotai have noticed.
Making Izuminokami jump from Horikawa's words "Yeah, uhm… sorry, how about after your school?" he rubs his neck as if embarrassed that he got himself that carried away and forgetting something important.
But of course as they are already steps away from his school plenty of female students has already anticipated this as they look at them and started all kinds of conversation making Aichi pause and forgets to answer "Look it's that kid with someone different with him again." "He has that many cute, pretty, and handsome friends with him to accompany him to and from school, wow." "Who is even that kid? A first year?" "I heard he is a third year!" "Should we get this chance to talk to him and ask him?" "Will they agree if we asked them out?"
Although the toudans couldn't careless hearing those out for Aichi somehow he can't help but bit his lips and run in hurry "I'll see you later at school!" he shouted without even looking back at them.
"Is… is it because of what I said?" Izuminokami felt bad as they all watch him run towards inside.
"A-Aichi-sama is…" They all turned to Gokotai "Aichi-sama looked very sad."
"U-uhm…" A female student started walking towards them.
They noticed a female student walking towards them when they heard a voice "For now we should leave this area." Yagen said as they all agreed then…
"I'm sorry but we have elsewhere to go!" Horikawa smiles as they all sprinted away.
~Back at the Citadel~
"Oh, you guys are back early?" Kiyomitsu welcomes them back where he is sweeping at the front.
But then the four could only look at each other making it puzzling for Kiyomitsu for them to not answer.
~After some explaining~
"I see, so we have two theories, first is because of what Izuminokami has said, and because of the attention you guys are getting a lot at school." Mina frowns "I actually didn't think that it would turn out like this." Mina sighs heavily "I know that you guys get a lot of attention, but I forgot something important."
"And what is that?" Yasusada asked which made Mina jump a little in surprise.
"It's because it's a school that it will be really problematic." Mina tries to explain "Well… we'll observe for a while and see things, maybe he is just stressed at school."
~Aichi's after classes~
As the four headed towards Aichi's school so they could accompany him back "Somehow I feel reluctant to even ask for a tour around." Izuminokami slumps down still feeling down about the incident this morning.
"Don't worry Kane-san this is Aichi-sama we are talking about." Horikawa tries to comfort him.
"I don't know about that since we didn't see the expression he has." Yagen said continuing to walk "The only one that saw is Gokotai." After that they all shifted their gaze to Gokotai as they all stopped on their tracks.
Surprising him in the process but he understood the stares from the three which he answered "I can't q-quite explain it but, aside from sadness it seemed like he was somehow in pain."
The three looked at each other as they can't also find the right answer as to why "Maybe we should ask Mikazuki-san?" Horikawa suggested.
"Well he does know Aichi-sama better." Yagen admits while they all continued to walk again.
"But he didn't even say a word when we were at the meeting with Mina-nee this morning." Izuminokami pointed.
"His silence can also means there is something." Yagen thought.
"Or maybe it just also bothers him." Horikawa tries to think of other explanation.
"That could be possible." Yagen agreed as it is too early to say.
"Well either way, we should have just asked him earlier." Horikawa remembered what is most important to the conversation.
"Yeah that would have probably been the best option earlier." Izuminokami said finally reaching their destination and with perfect timing Aichi walks out of the gate of the school they noticed in an instance his troubled look.
"Alright let's try." It was Izuminokami who thinks of a way to prove their theory "Aichi-sama!" Izuminokami ran towards Aichi surprising the three especially Aichi.
Outro: So, somehow we have reached a total of 29k positives for corona and I am getting worried…
I'm very sorry for my lack of vocabulary, wrong grammars and wrong spellings, but I hope you like the story nonetheless, and thank you for everyone's continuous support! Thank you for reading!