Chapter 6: Akira (The Chronicles of Time)
Natsumi paced up and down the stairs, pausing every few moments, expecting to hear returning footsteps only to be disappointed.
‘Where did Yuu go?’ She pondered, then looked out the window. The wind pounded against the glass and wailed along with its concomitant forces. Heavy rain crashed down, and the streets were vacant besides of the large streams of water tumbling down. With such terrible weather, just where on earth could Yuu have gone? And it wasn’t just him, Koru has suddenly, and magically, gone missing as well!
“Don’t worry, Natsumi.” Sora assured her, sipping on his freshly made hot cocoa from the kitchen. He carried a tray with two other cups with such balance, that he looked like the perfect quintessence of a waiter. Currently, they were supposed to be watching a horror movie (Himari came up with the idea since it was the perfect weather), but Yuu disappeared halfway–leaving Natsumi to fret over his vacancy. The only one that was actually enjoying themselves was nonetheless: Himari.
He handed her a cup, then headed back to the living room where Himari resided with another hot cocoa.
She continued to be restless until she heard a large slam and a muffled quarrel at the entrance.
“Yuu where have you–!” She stopped short and gaped at the sight of an unfamiliar identity.
“Uwah!” The boy with snow-like colored hair jumped in surprise the second his eyes met hers. “I-I….”
“What are you acting so shy about?” Yuu said in a disapproving tone. The other boy glared at him, but his attention returned back to Natsumi’s perceptive stare. Looking at them, there was not a spot of dampness on their body.
“Who is that boy?” She set down her cup on a nearby table.
“Oh, him?” Yuu elbowed him, and pushed him forward. “He’s–”
“Don’t tell me, could that be…your brother?” Natsumi gasped loudly. It didn’t take long for the others to join them after hearing her exclamation without giving Yuu a chance to speak properly.
“Whoa!” Himari said, peering over the new boy. “Who’s this? He’s so pretty! He looks like a doll!”
It also didn’t take long for the girls to start fawning over the new addition, and for the boys to ignore their squeals and head to the living room.
“What have you guys been up to since I was gone for a bit?” Yuu asked, taking over the bowl of popcorn that used to belong to Himari. He completely blocked out the irritating noises the girls made from his ears.
Sora took a seat beside him on the couch. “Nothing really. We’ve just been continuing the movie without Natsumi and you.”
“Without Natsumi?” Yuu tilted his head in confusion. “But I was the only one who left?”
The girls let out another excited squeal as they adorned the new boy’s hair with ribbons conjured out of nowhere.
“Oh yeah, but after you left, she started to worry about where you’ve gone off and loitered around the stairs.” Sora replied casually, pressing the play button.
“What’s with your old fashioned clothes?” Himari lifted up his sleeves. Flustered by the amount of attention he’s receiving, he didn’t answer.
“Hey, what’s your name?” Natsumi asked, filled with curiosity. He flinched at the sudden question and mumbled something underneath his breath. “Hm?”
“I-it’s…” he glanced at Yuu for assistance only to be briefly ignored which hit his sore spot. “Hey! You brought me here in this form, a-and you’re going to neglect me like that?”
The change in attitude made the girls blink and think that they must’ve heard his tone wrong.
“Huh?” Yuu slowly diverted his attention away from the movie and looked back at them from the couch. “Who said that I have to tend to your every need, and lend a hand? If anything, shouldn’t you be talking to your master about that?”
“Master?” That word piqued Himari’s curiosity. “What?”
“It’ll be easier to explain this way,” Yuu snapped his fingers and with a poof!–white fluffy ears sprouted out of the boy’s head and a luxuriously soft tail.
“Wow!” The girls both blurted out simultaneously. Natsumi groped his tail while Himari took over his ears, both of them captured by how insanely silky and satisfying it felt. The boy blushed, and his ears twitched whenever Himari’s fingers got too possessive.
“He’s so sensitive!” Himari teased, looking at his red face.
“S-stop!” He whined. Blinding white light surrounded him, forcing the others to cover their eyes. When they regained their senses after the abrupt dazzle, instead of a boy, they found a white large dog instead.
“Koru? So this is where you’ve been!” Natsumi said, astonished.
“Is that what you really got from all of that?” Yuu said, dumbfounded. “Even an idiot can tell exactly what occurred just now.”
“What are you–?” A belated realization smacked her in the head. “Oh! Koru is that boy!”
“Yay! She got it!” He replied sarcastically. “What a genius idea! Who would’ve thought?”
Natsumi bit her bottom lip. “You can stop now. No need for the unnecessary rude remarks.”
“But who really would’ve thought that Koru was actually a human in disguise?” Himari questioned, glancing at the dog who hid underneath his paws. “If you didn’t come along, just how long would he have hid his true identity from us?”
“Who knows,” Yuu shrugged nonchalantly. “And also, he isn’t a human. He’s known as an ‘Okami’.”
“‘Okami’?” Sora said, puzzled. “Hold on, what's with all this unrealistic stuff happening?”
“Oh right! We haven’t told Sora yet!” Himari smacked her forehead. “So you see, Yuu is actually a magician! Ta-dah! Big surprise there!”
“Are you really?” Sora turned to him skeptically. Yuu snapped his fingers and the empty bowl of popcorn became full within seconds. That flipped his attitude. “Are you kidding me? A real magician? I thought that they only belonged in fictional stories!”
“Yeah, well that’s what Natsumi thought too in the beginning, and now look how wrong she is.” Yuu grinned.
“Oi!” Natsumi snapped. “Well who would even believe you to begin with? If it was anyone else, they would deem you as a lunatic and ship you off to the mental hospital!”
“...anyway, back to the ‘Okami’ thing,” Himari cleared her throat, and the mood became serious, “did he choose to protect Natsumi or destroy her?”
“Protect her, duh!” Yuu said. “Anyway, it seems that it has made a contract with you since you were young, so it's practically bound to you. It also seems that your parents also were conscious of that fact and continued to let the dog stay.”
The room became silent, and Sora shut off the television, intrigued by Yuu’s words. Koru whimpered and looked up at them with a questioning gaze.
“Oh…I see.” Natsumi said quietly. “So the whole time, I really didn’t know anything, huh? It felt as if…my parents were hiding everything from me for some reason; was it because I was too naive back then?”
Koru quickly reverted back to his human form frantically. “N-no! It wasn’t like that, master! Your parents were just worried about your safety, that’s all! It wasn’t like that so don’t cry - “
“Aww!” Natsumi shrieked, filled with adoration. “Do you think I didn’t know that? Were you trying to console me? So cute!”
The shift in her mood left him speechless. “Eh?”
“Well, well! You really could’ve just shown yourself earlier you know?” She put her hands to her hips with a huff. “I would’ve been super surprised as well as grateful! You’re really cute after all! And you’re some sort of deity as well! I couldn’t feel more honored! In fact, I feel super elated!”
They all grinned broadly besides Yuu who had a faint smile on his face.
‘Really, just how foolish can she even be? She hasn’t changed…at all.’
***
“He’ll sleep with me!”
“Huh?” Yuu choked on his spit at her bold declaration. “W-what are you–but Himari is already sleeping with you!”
“Oh, we can squeeze in another person, it’s fine.” She shook him off lightly.
“Yesh’ ples.” Sora said as he brushed his teeth. He spat out the toothpaste then reattempted to repeat what he meant to say. “Yes please. I really don’t want to share a room with someone else.”
“I-I will do my best, master!” Koru said obsequiously. His eagerness made him shine so much that Natsumi just couldn’t help but pet his head.
“So cute! So dedicated!” She purred with satisfaction. For some reason, it made Yuu uncomfortable seeing how much affection she poured to another male.
“But still–!” His mind jumbled up, and he became more perplexed. “Ah, whatever! Do what you want!”
He stormed off to his room in an annoyed manner.
“Geez, why is he so mad?” Natsumi said, racking her brain for a plausible reason. “Oh well, whatever.”
***
“Should we also apply Koru–I mean, Akira to the same school as us?” Natsumi suggested. It was a Saturday morning, and there weren't any classes. Recently, Koru came out of his shell, and started to speak more. But the name ‘Koru’–which he was granted when he was a dog–didn’t suit a human boy. Although it sounded as cute and as lovely as the boy himself, it didn’t match. So the others gathered together and voted on a suitable name for him resulting in ‘Akira’.
Akira sat obediently in front of Natsumi who sat behind him, playing with his silky hair. His ears flickered sensitively, and his tail wagged behind him in pleasure. He had a new outfit and his old one was stored away. But since he didn’t want to part from his bell, it was fashioned into a mini necklace with the bell shrank. It hung around his neck like a collar, and rang softly whenever he moved. “S-school?”
“Yup!” Himari added enthusiastically. “To put it simply, it’s like a building where all sorts of other people go and study and stuff!”
“Yeah, he knows that already,” Yuu scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Considering the amount of time that he spent stalking Natsumi–he’s just pretending to be as blank as a sheet of paper. He’s just acting ignorant!”
“You don’t really have to say it that way,” Natsumi shot back at him. “But having such an adorable stalker–well, how could I get angry?”
Yuu stared at her indignantly and sighed deeply. “There’s something wrong with your head. You call him cute, but when I was in my child form, you called me arrogant. How is that fair?”
“Mind you, you were pretty cocky back then; you still are now though.”
“Hold on, Yuu in child form?” Sora butted in, inquisitively. “I wanna see what he looks like!”
“He had really long hair back then,” Natsumi nodded as she recalled the memory.
“Yeah, I was really handsome and cute.” Yuu added.
“I wanna see!” Sora said, interested.
“I told you before, Sora really favors kids.” Natsumi said, shrugging.
“Then how come he doesn’t fawn over Akira like that?” Himari blurted out.
“That’s because we’ve been hogging Akira, of course!” Natsumi answered. That fact was quite conspicuous. Ever since Akira broke away from his disguise, he’s been the center of attention for the girls. “That, and I bet he’s into how Yuu will look like as a child, aren’t you? After all, Yuu is pretty standoffish, so literally anyone would like to see how he looks when he’s small and innocent–not that he even was innocent in his mini form.”
“Come to think of it, I never saw you in your child form either!” Himari realized, and automatically turned to Yuu sharply. “C’mon! Show us!”
In the end, he escaped from the persistent requests, and teleported out of the house for a breath of fresh air.