Childhood Part IV – Healed Wings– Start
"Is something wrong Makoto-kun?" Chiaki asks taking her eyes off her dual screen handheld. "You've been quiet for a while now… I think."
The brunette looks at her and smiles softly. "It's nothing Chiaki-chan."
The mauve-haired girl narrows her eyes. "Makoto-kun." She says firmly and he laughs while rubbing the back of his head, embarrassed.
"Okay, okay you don't need to look at me like that." He sighs loudly and looks towards the sky. "Today I found a crane on the school's pool." The brunette explains. "It was wounded pretty badly." He sighs again as a carrot-shaped cloud flies above the two. "Hanaoka-sensei says that it's going to die pretty soon." Looking back towards the school, the brunette closes his eyes. "But-"
"-You want to try and save it." Makoto snaps his head back and sees Chiaki's soft smile. "That's just like you… I think!" She laughs, soon enough the boy follows too.
"I guess." He says looking back towards the school. "I just think that it can survive." The brunette looks down at his own hand. "If only we help it out!"
Chiaki's smile only grows as she sees his determined face. "If there is someone that can save it," Makoto blushes as the girl kisses him in the cheek. "It's you Makoto-kun."
He rubs the back of his head embarrassed. 'I don't know about that.' Smiling he nods to the girl. ' But I sure can try!'
After Chiaki got home, Makoto decided to go back to school in order to see if everything was alright with the crane.
The boy opened the chicken coop and carefully picked the bird up, bringing it outside. It was breathing quite heavily.
Makoto gently put the bird on the ground and turned around to grab some bandages on his school bag and got to work.
As the boy was occupied changing the bandages on the crane, he didn't notice as a blue-haired girl stood behind a tree watching him.
' He still is taking care of that crane.' Sayaka thinks as she watches the boy try his best to not hurt the bird even more.
"Sayaka-chan!" Ayaka's voice calls from the distance. "Otou-san is here!"
The blue-haired girl looks towards the boy once again. ' Do your best crane-san!' She smiles. "I'm coming!" With that, she runs away.
"There! Hope I didn't hurt you too much." Makoto says while gently putting the crane back inside the coop. "I'll be back tomorrow, so don't give up okay?" The brunette says as he smiles towards the animal.
After washing his hands and walking out of school, the brunette looks back and thinks. ' There might be something more that I could do…' He then looks at the sunset sky and pumps his fist into the air. "I know what do to!" He exclaims before running to his house.
Just as classes ended and Chiaki had gone home, Makoto ran towards the city, only one thing passing on his mind.
I need to find a veterinarian!
And so he tried, but pretty much all of the places the young boy visited were closed, after all it was almost night.
Feeling deflated, the brunette started walking back to school, the least that he could do was take care of the poor bird a little more.
Just as Makoto was about to start running a voice loudly proclaims. "You right there!"
The brunette turns to see a young boy, close to his age with a long purple scarf and ice-cream shaped black hair yell from the top of a trashcan. "Me?" Makoto points to himself.
"Indeed! You!" He jumps off dramatically. "You lowly mortal seem troubled!"
Makoto blinks before replying. "Y-Yeah." He arches a eyebrow. "But how did you know?"
Pushing his scarf to the side, the other boy smirks while pointing to himself. "It is quite easy to read the minds of lowly mortals such as yourself, especially to a high level demon such as myself!"
"L-Lowly mortal?" Makoto asks, still not really getting the situation.
"Normally the troubles of mortals such as yourself wouldn't bother me." He keeps going, posing at pretty much every word he says. "But I couldn't help but notice that you mentioned a bird?"
Now Makoto is really surprised. ' Can he really read minds?' The brunette shakes his head. ' N-No I probably just mumbled to myself… right?' Now looking back at the other boy, Makoto nods. "Yes, a hurt crane fell down by the pool at my school." The boy's eyes then turn sad. "I tried my best to help it, but I don't know if it will survive."
The black-haired boy doesn't say anything, he only looks at Makoto's face and analyzes it for a second. "A crane." He whispers, although Makoto could clearly hear him. "A soldier of light, it may try to strike me down if I help it." The boy makes a pensive look before turning back to Makoto. "Even if I'm a high level demon, I shall help this creature of light in it's time of need." The boy points at Makoto. "Show me the way mortal!"
Still not sure of what was happening, Makoto nodded and started running back towards his school, now with the other boy accompanying him.
The black-haired boy let's out a heavy sigh as he examines the crane. "Well… damn." His eyes fall over a particularly nasty cut on the wings. "This is way more worse than I thought."
"Really?" Makoto's eyes sadden as the other boy gently puts the crane back onto the coop. "There's really nothing we can do?"
The scarf wearing boy turns back to Makoto. "That it not what I said." Looking back towards the wounded crane, the boy continues. "One of the most beautiful things about animals is their will to survive." Smiling to himself, he pushes his scarf dramatically to the side and points towards Makoto. "It may be a hard path, but I believe this soldier of light has a chance!"
Hearing the other boy's words, Makoto's eyes shine with newfound determination. "What can we do to help it?"
Seeing his determined smile, the black-haired boy smirks to himself. "For now, keep taking care of it, you may not notice this, but your company is one of the things that is keeping this crane alive." He then walks past Makoto. "I shall consult my demonic compatriots to see if they know of any medicine that'll be useful here." He turns to the brunette again and crosses his arms. "I shall meet you in here as soon as they answer my pledges!"
Makoto didn't understand a lot of what the other boy said, but he seemed passionate about helping the crane, so he nodded. "Okay!" The other boy turned to walk away, but Makoto yelled something. "Wait!" He says before running in front of the other boy. "We never properly introduced ourselves." He bows slightly and smiles. "I'm Naegi Makoto!"
The brunette extends his hand, to which the other boy just looks at it. "Under normal circumstances my name should not be said out loud." He then points to himself and maniacally laughs. "Mwahaha! But I shall make a exception this time!" Smiling confidently, he introduces himself. "I'm Tanaka Gundham! The future overlord of ice! Mwahahaha!"
'Future overlord of ice?' Makoto thinks as the other boy walks off the school. ' Well, he seems wiling to help.'
Two days later, Gundham returned with a strange medicine that Makoto never heard off, according to the black-haired boy it was, quote: " A powerful demonic medicine capable of healing even the worst of the diseases! Mwahahaha!"
The craziest part was that it actually worked, while the process was slow, the crane was starting to heal up.
So Makoto kept taking care of it, hopeful that it would be flying again soon.
What the boy didn't know was that someone else was watching him everyday.
Every day before getting going home, Sayaka would drop by the chicken coop and watch Makoto try his hardest to help that poor crane.
Her friends didn't understand why she would do this.
And truth be told, neither did Sayaka, but for some reason it inspired the girl to keep going, to keep practicing for her audition.
Still, she wanted to help him, but her schedule was getting pretty busy as she had to practice for her idol audition together with her friends.
So, in a Wednesday, just a day before her audition, the girl once again stood there, watching as Makoto and Gundham applied the medicine to the bird.
Putting a hand over her chest, the girl smiles to herself. ' Please, wish me luck crane-san!' She turns away and runs towards her friend's car so they can go home for today.
Ayaka sighed. After three times, she was getting accustomed to the procedures by this point.
They would come in, sit in the waiting room for a hour or so, then perform in front of the judges, then they would go home and wait for a week to hear about the results.
Still, she always felt butterflies on her stomach whatever she performing.
Looking around, she saw some of the other girls.
Almost all of them being from the rich school just close to theirs.
Ayaka gritted her teeth, she hated those stupid, over their own heads, girls, she knew that those girls just wanted to be idols for the popularity.
To calm herself, the pigtailed girl looked to her friends.
She saw Haruka pressing random buttons on her flip phone, that was the way she showed her anxiousness.
But the stranger one was Sayaka, normally she would be tapping her feet at the rhythm that they practiced or she would hum to herself, but not today.
Today Sayaka was silent, she had her eyes closed.
She was focused, she was confident that this time they would finally get it.
The black-haired girl taps her feet on the floor and crosses her arms. "You're really quiet today Sayaka-chan." As Ayaka says this, the blue-haired girl opens her eyes. "What's up?"
She shakes her head. "It's nothing."
Before Ayaka can say anything more, a voice announces.
Next we have:
Number 33 – Maizono Sayaka
Number 34 – Haneyama Ayaka
And Number 35 – Aichi Haruka!
Sayaka grabs onto the other two hands and smiles confidently. "Let's go girls! We've been practicing for weeks now, there's no way we won't get it this time!"
Ayaka smirks. "Yeah!" She always admired how well the blue-haired girl could rile up her friends.
"Yeah!" Haruka also says, pumping her fist up.
With newfound confidence, the three girls walk onto the auditorium.
It's been a week after Makoto and Gundham started giving medicine to the crane, the bird was healing up pretty greatly, according to the black-haired boy, in two more weeks it would be fully healed.
Yet, on that Monday, Makoto woke up with a bad feeling.
The sky was dark and the air was chilly. Undoubtedly it would be raining later today.
After dressing himself and eating breakfast, the brunette said his goodbyes to the his parents and walked off together with his sister.
As he was getting closer to the school, the sky darkened more and more.
The brunette hurried up and was able to get in, just in the nick of time.
Just as he stepped into his class, it started raining.
"Yo Naegi-kun!" Eiji greets as the other boy hops onto his seat.
"Morning." The brunette replies looking out the window.
Eiji also looks outside. "It's raining pretty badly isn't it?" Makoto nods, not taking his eyes off the window. "Heh, you're worried about that crane aren't you?" The brunette looks surprised at his friend that laughs. "Honestly Naegi-kun. You've been only thinking of that for the past week."
"Hehe. I guess." Makoto replies scratching the back of his head. "The rain is strong." He comments looking back to the window just as a thunder roared. "I'm getting worried."
"Let's hope nothing bad happens to it while we are in class." The other boy says and Makoto nods.
Please be well, crane-san!
Sayaka forced herself out of the bed and into her bathroom. Looking at herself in the mirror, the girl laughs sadly as she sees her reddened eyes and puffy face.
They didn't make it.
For the third time in a row, they didn't make it.
When she received that email, all life faded from her face in a instant.
Even her father noticed, which was strange considering that he normally comes home so tired that he forgets to take off his shoes.
He even asked if everything was alright, the blue-haired girl said yes then locked herself in her room, she watched some of her favorite idol's performances on loop and cried herself to sleep.
Everything that she and her friends did, all of the nights she didn't sleep just to practice her dance moves and her singing, all that-
For absolutely nothing.
She felt the tears start to form in her dark blue eyes.
After crying some more, Sayaka took a bath and prepared for school, she might be feeling terrible, but she couldn't bring herself to skip school, her father worked really hard to afford it, even if it wasn't them most impressive one.
Just as she got into school, it started raining. The girl could help but laugh to herself.
Of course it started raining, her day wasn't sad enough already.
Her friends noticed the girl's bad mood, but decided not to say anything.
It was Sayaka's dream to be a idol, so she must be devastated by not making it… again.
Throughout the rest of the day, Sayaka barely talked, whenever a teacher asked her anything, she just halfheartedly replied, sitting down before even knowing if what she answered was correct.
Soon enough, classes had ended for the day.
The three girls stood at the back entrance of the school watching the rain fall.
"Otou-san will be here soon." Ayaka said, flipping her flip phone and turning to the blue-haired girl.
Sayaka nodded weakly.
The black-haired girl sighed as she crossed her arms.
Haruka, who was being strangely silent during this entire time, sniffs. "I'm sorry!" She suddenly yells.
The other two girls look at her confused. "For what?" Ayaka asks.
"It's probably my fault we failed!" The redhead cried. "I-I got distracted and didn't practice as much!" She sniffs while turning towards the blue-haired girl. "I'm sure if I hadn't being lazy we could hav-" She is interrupted by Sayaka.
"It-" The blue-haired girl laughs sadly to herself. "I-It's okay." Sayaka looks at her friends and smiles forcefully. "Maybe we aren't cut out to be idols anyways."
The black-haired girl greets her teeth. "I bet it's because those other girls are rich!" She stomps her foot on the ground. "It's the only way they chose them over us!"
Sayaka weakly says. "I doubt it." She looks down. "We just aren't good enough."
Ayaka was about to protest, but she is interrupted by the sound of loud footsteps running down the hall and towards them.
"-Are you really sure about this Naegi-kun?" A black-haired boy asks as he and a brunette boy stop to catch their breath.
"Yeah!" The brunette replies before tossing his backpack onto the other boy's arms. "Hold this for me!" The black-haired boy nods and the brunette pulls his hoodie up and runs out of the school.
Ayaka widens her eyes. "What is he doing?" She asks.
"He is going to catch a cold!" Haruka says after her.
Sayaka looks to the school's backyard and blinks. ' Is he?' She thinks before the boy burst back in, completely soaked and with something under his hoodie.
Pulling the crane out of his soaked hoodie, everybody except for Eiji widened their eyes.
"Why did you brought it here?" The black-haired girl yelled.
"I couldn't let it be alone in the rain!" Makoto yells back, before turning to face the creature. "It's getting worse!" He then points to his beg. "Hino-kun! Give me the bandages in my backpack!"
The other boy nods and starts unzipping Makoto's bag.
Sayaka's eyes falls on the crane.
It looked terrible. The bandages on its wings are bloodied and it was breathing quite heavily.
In a strange and kind of disturbing way, she could relate.
She had just being negated her dream once again, reminded that maybe she wasn't even cut out to it.
You could say she had her wings cut off.
She saw herself on that crane and because of that, she unconsciously asked.
"Why?"
Everyone turns their faces towards the blue-haired girl.
"Why are you trying to help this crane?" She asked, not taking her eyes off of it.
"…" Makoto keeps on bandaging the crane's wings. "It may still have a chanc-" He is interrupted by the blue-haired girl yelling.
"DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAP!" Her yell scares the others. Tears start forming on her eyes. "It's suffering and it can't go on." She brings hand over her mouth and sniffs. "Should you just free it from its suffering and let it die?"
To Eiji and Makoto, that sounded like someone just being cruel, but to Ayaka and Haruka, it meant something completely different.
She wasn't talking about the bird.
"It can't go on anymore!" Sayaka says, holding tight onto her blouse. "Can't you see that it wants to die?"
Silence fills the corridor, the only sound echoing is the rain droplets failing down outside.
"Does it?" Makoto breaks the silence, finally looking at Sayaka. "Does it looks like it wants to die?" The blue-haired girl looks at the crane again and nods. "I'm sorry, but I don't see that." The brunette goes back to changing the bandages. "The guy that is helping me take care of this crane said that-"
Animals are amazing because they don't give up, even if their chance of survival is minimal, they will persevere.
Of course, the brunette simplified what the older boy said, taking out the whole 'demonic analogies', but the idea was still the same.
Sayaka looked to the ground, before asking. "But what if its chance is only 1%?"
Makoto smiles. "It will still try." He then looks at the crane on his arms. "And so will I." With that said, he turns towards Eiji. "Hino-kun! Give me that bottle with the green lid!"
The other boy nods and handles said bottle to Makoto.
Sayaka looks at the crane again. ' It's still trying…' She thinks to herself. ' Even though it's struggling, it will try anything to survive...' She closes her eyes. ' It will try anything to succeed.' Stepping forward, the girl says. "Let me help!"
Before Makoto can say anything, she gently holds onto the crane, which seems to calm the bird down a little bit.
Ayaka and Haruka both look surprised. The black-haired girl gulps before walking closer to the two. "I-I'll help too!"
Haruka smiles. "Me too!" She then joins her friends in calming the crane down. "Let's heal Crane-san!"
Ayaka rolls her eyes. "Shut up you idiot!"
The redhead pouts. "I'm not a idiot!"
As the two start bickering, Sayaka giggles to herself. 'Yes, I'll be like crane-san.' She smiles determined. ' I won't give up!'
None of them noticed, but the rain stopped pouring outside.
During the coming two weeks, Sayaka and her friends decided to help out Makoto in taking care of the crane.
Whenever he was hanging out with Chiaki, they would watch over the healing bird, all while practicing for their next audition.
It was a audition for a agency on another prefecture, so if-
No.
when they passed, they would have to move.
Still, thanks to Makoto and his determination to save that crane, Sayaka and her friends are prepared to give their all and win that audition.
Just like that crane, the blue-haired girl was wiling to do anything to achieve her dream.
Her audition was happening the coming Friday, so sadly she wouldn't be present when Makoto released the bird back onto nature, still she was glad to have saw that crane.
Standing at the backyard of his school, Makoto looks at the chicken coop where the, now fully healed, crane stands, he then turns to Gundham and asks. "Are you sure it's safe to let it free?"
The scarf wearing older boy nods. "Yes. It has been completely healed." Makoto smiles then turns to open the coop. "Wait!" Gundham says stopping the younger boy. "Before you release it." He smirks. "It needs a name!"
Makoto blinks. "A name?" The brunette looks at the cage. "But why?"
Pointing dramatically at the other boy, Gundham explains. "Your determination to save this crane has touched it deeply, so it has decided to become your familiar!"
"Familiar?" Makoto scratches his cheek.
"Indeed! You two have been bind by the light!" He then closes his eyes and pushes his scarf to the side. "So when you're in need of help, it will come back to you!"
The brunette didn't really get it, but might as well humor the older boy. "Let's see…"Makoto turns to the crane and makes a thinking pose. "… How about I call you Hikari-chan?"
"Hikari-chan?" Gundham arches a eyebrow.
"Yes." Makoto says before imitating the other boy's tone. "So it will be the our guiding light towards the future!" The brunette says dramatically pointing to the sky.
There's a second of silence before Gundham claps. "Even thought I'm a being of darkness, I shall applaud your familiar's strong name!" He then smiles and turns to the crane. "Now, it's time for you to go, Hikari-chan!"
The two boys open the coop and after some seconds of tension, the bird opens it's wings and flies high in the sky, leaving the two behind.
Makoto sighs happily. "I hope we see each other again, Hikari-chan!" He waves towards the bird as it disappears in the sunset sky.
"Now that the light familiar is healed, we shall go our separate ways." Gundham turns around and before Makoto can say anything, the boy exclaims. "The demonic overlords already told me the future Naegi." He looks dramatically towards the sunset. "This will not be the last time we meet, o one chosen by the light!"
"T-The what?"
"We shall meet again in the future." The black-haired older boy tilts his head slightly back, giving Makoto a smirk. "And when we do, we shall see what is stronger. My darkness or your light!" He then starts walking away and waving. "Until we meet again, Naegi Makoto!"
Still not understanding anything, Makoto waves away at the other boy. "I hope we see each other again, Tanaka-san!"
With a flick of his scarf, Gundham walks dramatically into the sunset while yelling. "Be aware of the forbidden one: Tanaka Gundham! Mwahahaha!"
"He is one weird guy." The brunette thinks before cracking a smile. "But I really do hope we meet again" He then looks at the sky. "And that goes for you too, Hikari-chan."
After the crane incident, life has gone back to normal. Makoto kept hanging out with Chiaki after school and Komaru was still bothering their parents to visit the beach again this summer break.
Makoto never talked to those girls again, mostly because they are in another class.
Although he heard rumors that they would be changing schools for some reason.
Still, he wished he at least knew their names.
One day after saying his goodbyes to Chiaki and preparing to walk back home, the blue-haired girl from before approached him. "Hey!" She says happily.
"Oh, hi!" Makoto replies, noticing that she is holding a large bag. "Are you going somewhere?"
The girl nods. "Yeah, me and my friends are going to another prefecture."
"A-Another prefecture?" The brunette barely knew them and now they are going away?
"Yeah." She says smiling sadly. "I'm on the way to the airport right now." Getting closer to him, the girl holds his hand. "I just wanted to say thanks." She smiles brightly, making Makoto blush. "You may not know it, but you helped me out a lot."
Makoto was about to reply when the girl gets close and kisses him in the cheek, making his blush get even redder.
"Y-You're w-welcome I guess." He says while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
Giggling the girl gives him a quick hug. "I hope we meet again, Naegi Makoto-kun!" With that said, she runs off towards a black car, where her two friends and a older lady are waiting.
"W-Wait!" Makoto finally comes back to himself as she boards the car. "I never learned your name!" He yells and she pops her head outside the car window.
"It's Maizono Sayaka!" She yells back, before pulling her head inside and closing the window.
Makoto watches as the car drives away, he puts a hand on his cheek. "Maizono Sayaka." He smiled. "I see."
Ayaka rolls her eyes. "Did you really needed to do that?"
Sayaka giggles as she looks outside the window. "I was just showing my gratitude."
Haruka smiles. "With a kiss on the cheek?" She asks as the blue-haired girl blushes. "Oh I think someone has a crush!" She squeals in her seat, before clasping her hands together. "Though, he is kinda cute."
Ayaka groans. "Yeah, yeah whatever." She looked outside the window.
She would never admit that, she thought his ahoge was adorable. Never.
Sayaka smiled. ' This is our beginning!' Looking at the road in front of her, she remembered that wounded crane. ' I won't give up! No matter what!'
Childhood Part IV – Healed Wings - End
And that's Sayaka's part of this arc.
Bet y'all weren't expecting my boy Gundham to show up? He is one of my favorite characters so I had to give him this early cameo, plus the situation just seemed right to do.
I'm so glad people actually got my Kamen Rider OOO Reference, to you all that got it, I'll just say to that there is a lot more references to come.
Also, for those that noticed, last chapter, Byakuya was referred as a 'daughter' instead of a 'son'.
No it was not a mistake. Byakuya is just one of multiple characters that will be genderbent.
Why? 'Cause I felt like it.
Will it fuck me up later because I'll have to alter Touko's arc? Yes it will.
Also, I will not be changing any of the genderbent characters names, mainly because I'm lazy and don't want to search for suitable names for them.
Anyways, hope y'all like the chapter.
See you all around!