Windborne wanderers / kazuscara

5

for the remainder of the day, even as kazuha went wandering anywhere he stumbled upon, the thought of that strange name did not let go of him.

who in the right mind would even want to name someone that?

the current reigning empress of inazuma, raiden ei, was rumoured to have had a child that was given up for adoption, that gossip everyone knows. but kazuha fails to see how people get amused from political gossip. the current prime minister of narukami, yae miko, went out of her way to deny these allegations quite some time ago. but that got kazuha thinking.

those allegations surfaced when his generation was about 2 to 3 years old. that child of hers was also 2 to 3 years old. what's more, the more he thought about it the more alike raiden and kunikuzushi looked. and it was also the fact that that child was born that brought her empire to a huge political divide.

but why would she name him that 2 years before it all had happened? nobody had the power to look into the future. was it some other incident masked so well by yae miko that made the faulty go unnoticed?

he knew it was all speculation, thus didn't try to build on this absurd theory any further. he knew that there was a huge chance that it could all be a coincidence, and that kunikuzushi was nothing of what he thought he'd be, so he dropped the thoughts to not form a false image on his newfound friend. the thought that kunikuzushi and raiden looked similar could be his brain playing tricks on him.

well whatever, he thought.

the truth will come up in one way or another in the end.

all he has to focus on now is building relationship with this new friend of his.

——

despite their vast difference in personality, they still got along amazingly. they share similar hobbies and intellect, though one is more impulsive and violent than the other. kazuha is the more rational one, which helps in balancing their dynamic.

their friendship soon became the talk of the school, since kazuha was quite popular, and they were such a weird and unexpected combo. some still can't believe that people of such personalities could even be civil with each other. but, you know, highschoolers got nothing better to do other than gossiping in and out, and because of that, rumours started spreading around.

"did kunikuzushi bribe kazuha?"

no, the guy's too broke for that shit.

"is it the other way around?"

no, kazuha doesn't promote such acts.

"did they meet in a house party?"

absolutely not, neither of them enjoy attending such noisy events.

"are they family friends?"

no, kunikuzushi doesn't have any immediate family. he lives alone in the school dorms.

"are they dating?"

"what the FUCK brought that assumption up?!" kunikuzushi yelled upon first hearing of the rumour.

"no, we're not, but may i ask how that even came to mind?" kazuha asked, genuinely curious.

"it's just... i dunno. kunikuzushi never acts this 'joyful' around anyone else other than you, yeah? he has other friends, but he doesn't really talk to them unless they initiate conversation, and he doesn't really show much emotion either."

"that's just cause i found someone that i can genuinely trust and someone that shows that he genuinely cares, alright?? i've been jumping schools my whole life that i can't even trust anyone fully because i can't get close to any of them."

"...then why kazuha?"

"beca— no, i'm not about to spill my entire life's story to some random girl. i'm not gonna answer that."

"so there WAS an ulterior motive!"

"NO, there WASN'T."

kazuha just pulled kunikuzushi aside to calm him down.

"hey, about your life story... thing, can you continue?"

"...well, i've decided to settle in inazuma here for at least until i graduate, so i figured that i could start making some real friends. all of my old ones just tossed me around like waste anyway, after finding about my attachment issues and family situation and shit.  i didn't think i'd actually succeed in making real friends in my 4 years here, but here you are..."

"...what's your criteria for real friends?"

"don't have one; i can just feel something different about you. you always make the first move and never gave up on me, even though i was an ass to you at the start. you continued to adventure with me and stuff, so..." kunikuzushi felt his voice trailing away as he caught onto just how embarrassing his spouting was.

"you're red," kazuha laughed.

"zip it, red streak..."