[--OPEN!] welcome back to childhood~
Characters: Anathema Device [ thebooksaysso ] & YOU~
Setting/Location: various places in Lere'unfru
Date & Time: Day 22, morningish?
Warnings: Suddenly. Children. Everywhere.
Summary: A very tiny and homesick Anathema decides this trip is taking too long and tries to find her own way home. And is immediately distracted.
( She doesn't even like candy, what kind of child is she. )
Setting/Location: various places in Lere'unfru
Date & Time: Day 22, morningish?
Warnings: Suddenly. Children. Everywhere.
Summary: A very tiny and homesick Anathema decides this trip is taking too long and tries to find her own way home. And is immediately distracted.
( She doesn't even like candy, what kind of child is she. )
A boy, about ten years of age, stood a little ways from the girl. His hands were at his sides and he'd been wandering around the nearly empty town. He left Matron Grau's establishment just a while ago, after learning about the place and getting a change of clothing (oh, he was so disappointed to discover that his original hair color had returned!). What else would one do upon waking up in your ten-year old body in an unfamiliar place, after all?
The Matron had told him most things he ought to know, and took the information with a grain of salt; after all, he could just be having a rather strange dream. But walking around Lere'unfru in the scorching heat... well, maybe Raikou was still just a bit unconvinced.
Outside, though, there was a rather amazing sight. A giant pulling a building along. This still probably was a dream. Still, he was curious, and let his little feet take him nearer it. That was when he saw the girl come out of the building. She looked just as bewildered as he was. Maybe she also had answers?
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But still, she remembered her manners and straightened up as he walked over, a bit of relief crossing her face as well. So there actually were people around. Good. She wasn't sure she could handle another ghost town after the last time.
"Oh. Where are they at? Are there a lot of them?" It seemed like they picked up more people at every stop, so....
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He points at the large building that the giant was pulling. "Do you live there?"
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He'd filled Raikou's half-empty left-behind water bottle, carried along for so long like a sort of luck charm, along with the discarded, forgotten ribbons, and the single protection sign left behind... Practicality had won out over the impending sense of depression. He didn't want to think about that water being gone after this.
In the distance, he could see two children talking, and his heart lifted a little.
Natives!
The first he'd meet! Well...aside from mermaids, or shifty caravan staff.
"Excuse me! Please wait!" He shouted as he ran towards them.
No sooner did he get close enough to make out features than he stopped dead in his tracks, frowning.
Something was wrong.
These children...there was something too familiar about them....
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But she smiled anyway. "'M Anathema. Anathema Device." And after a moment of thought she quickly added, "My mum thought it was pretty, it doesn't mean nothing--"
She cut herself off before she could finish, yet another sudden appearance distracting her from her thoughts. If anything, her grin only widened at the newcomer, and seemingly without a second thought to the pink-haired boy she turned and ran over to him.
"Gau! Gau, this boy said everybody is staying in that place over there! We need to go look."
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He returned her smile. "It's a nice name," he said. He was about to introduce himself when she'd turned around, distracted, and ran off to meet the second person to come out of the building pulled by the giant.
Raikou blinked and rubbed at his eyes. Was the sun playing tricks on his eyes? And his ears? What was Gau doing in his not-dream? (And now that he thought about it, Matron Grau's name was like his, except with an extra character!)
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(She'd shrunk!, He'd been right! What if she kept shrinking?!)
But he could barely focus on even those panicked thoughts, because something was tight in his chest, the knot of scar tissue twisting...
That face...
That hair.
His voice cracked. "Y-Yes...we can...look." he managed to Anathema. His throat twisted, drowning out other words, except the little strangled whisper, daring, against all odds, "Raikou...san?"
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Maybe even a bit worrisome. For some reason, he suddenly looked awful shocked about something....
With some hesitance, after looking between him and the other boy, she reached up and tugged lightly on his sleeve. "Gau....?"
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...and kicked him hard in the shins (right now, he was regrettably too short to reach Gau's head). He had to make sure it was the real Gau, after all.
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"R-Raikou-san! That hurt! What are you thinking?!" He exclaimed, rubbing his shin and hopping up and down, Anathema momentarily forgotten. He'd rather thought he would be the one to get to do that, or at least...he'd toyed with the idea in the little simluations in his mind...going up to Raikou after all the searching he'd been doing, punching him in the face and saying something suitably cool and scathing, like You're late. And then Raikou would be so surprised he'd hug him, and all would be well.
Or something.
This was far off his plans.
This was Raikou, only...Raikou was shorter than him (SHORTER! Definitely shorter!) with the pink fading out of his hair leaving coral that seemed to shine blonder and blonder in the sun by the minute. This was Raikou afflicted with that same dreadful magic or something. The thing afflicting the members of the caravan, making them children.
Raikou, his idol and the first person ever to actually really notice he existed and step in unhesitating to help him, even if it meant cutting down someone to save him and redeem him. Raikou who he'd had...confusing feelings for virtually since they'd met.
His personality was the same, it seemed, if he'd kick him, grinning all the while. (The smile was still so familiar...)
Whatever had brought Gau here, had brought Raikou. After weeks of jumping at every head of pink hair he saw with that sick flash of hope...
He didn't know what to do.
Anathema's tug at his sleeve drew him out. He blinked. confused. "A-Anathema-san?!" He remembered his train of thought, his hand snapped out to grab her arm as though she'd run away. (Which she might, considering the stream of interrogation that spewed out next) "Where did you find him?! What happened?! You're both children! WHY?!"
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And it seemed he and Anathema were acquainted. He was curious as to how it happened. And how Gau was not, or has not, de-aged like he has. Judging from the question, Anathema wasn't always this size (and age) usually. Things made a little more sense now. Just a little. There were still questions that remained to be answered.
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"I've been looking for you for two weeks, Raikou-san! And now that I find you, you look like this?!" He yanked the tie out of Raikou's hair, rummaging in his bag for the ribbons left behind there... (Having Raikou shorter than him made this feel so much easier, actually.)
"Certainly it's occurred to Raikou-san in his estimable cleverness that if he continues to age backwards, he might never get home?! Or that if he's stuck like this forever-!" His voice broke there, and his face twisted. he bit his lip, grateful Raikou couldn't see his face while he was fixing the boy's hair.
Habit, all habit. It seemed more appropriate maybe, with Raikou younger and smaller. But it was "wrong" nonetheless. Wrong for Raikou to be smaller and younger when he'd idolized him for so long.
Gau's throat tightened up.
He remembered he was in front of Anathema, suddenly embarrassed.
Here he was, tying up Raikou's hair with long practice, replacing the protection charm in its rightful place in his hair...with an extra ribbon in his hand.
His fingers curled around themselves, and he forced himself away from Raikou, still keeping his face turned from him. "Hold still, Anathema-san. It's so warm here...you'll need this, and Raikou-san can't wear both." He muttered, trying to be apologetic even as he briskly worked at tying up the now-little-girl's hair.
He swallowed hard, staring intently at the top of Anathema's head even as he directed his question to Raikou in a tight voice, "Where did you...appear, Raikou-san? What's the last thing you remember before...this?"
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And all the while she listened intently as the older boy complained, still glancing up in concern ever so often when his voice started to shake and stumble over his words. This was apparently the friend he had been so worried about, wasn't it? Wasn't he happy to see him? Why did he sound so....
"So you're that Raikou person, then," she finally said, studying the boy while Gau tied up her hair. "Gau really has been looking for you, you know. He's talked about you a lot."
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One hand instinctively reached up to touch the protective charm neatly tied in his hair. Satisfied with how secure it was, he pushed his bangs away from his eyes and his forehead (they'd been sticking to his forehead; he was sweaty now). "I can't be stuck like this forever," he said, the urge to kick Gau in the shins rising again. The younger--no, older now--boy moved to Anathema and started fixing her hair as well. Raikou smiled at her. "Shimizu Raikou," he introduced, bowing just slightly. "What sort of stories did Gau make up, this time?" His smile was teasing and he looked up at Gau...
...who wasn't even looking at him! And in his current youthful state, that was highly unacceptable! His hands were at his hips now, and he stood as tall as he could. "I'm not going to answer Gau's questions unless you look at me," he declared, puffing his chest out and looking as authoritative as he could.
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"Anathema-san has been helping me on the caravan-and he's not 'that Raikou person,' Anathema-san!" He directed heatedly at Anathema as an afterthought. He straightened, trying to look dignified. (Which largely failed, because Gau's intended expression of dignity bordered somewhere between black scowling and pouting.)
"I just told people I was looking for you! And it doesn't help that there were girls on the caravan with pink hair to start with! It made it really confusing. There's even a not-robot guy like a sentei warrior who has pink armor. And...well...I'm not sure if it's actually Wondaru Womanu or not, but I think she's here too. And I woke up in a forest where there was a girl who did a shoujo transformation sequence of some kind..."
He blinked. Aah. He was rambling. And Raikou had that sort of fierce grin that meant some sort of affectionate, aggression was forthcoming. Gau slumped a little.
Honestly, he was tempted to let him, even if a kick in the shins wasn't anything close to the customary sleeper hold, triangle arm lock, or blow to the head. It was...unexpectedly depressing.
He felt too tall for the first time in his life.
It occurred to him that he could probably pick Raikou up and carry him.
The thought was disorienting. And his chest hurt like it was being stung by a swarm of bees again. He rubbed the scar without thinking, wincing a little. He was already starting to sweat and sweat hard.
"Raikou-san...even if it's the morning...we should get inside." He said a little wearily. "Then I can give you my attention and have you answer my questions?" He looked at Anathema a little sadly. "Maybe...if you come, too, Anathema-san some commonality will become apparent that binds the instances of age regression together. Before...anyone goes too far and...disappears."
And even if they didn't, he thought to himself, he wasn't very good with children.
They were...messy.
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But she refrained from pointing that out, too. Right, so her friend was stressed out. That was probably understandable, even though she still couldn't put her finger on just why he was. But she was going to find out, and then she was going to fix it. Because that was what she did.
"Okay....um, can we go to the kitchen? I can make something for you both, if you want. While you talk."
One more glance in Raikou's direction and she tilted her head curiously. "....d'you like tea?"
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