From Aoyagi to Tenma

Chapter Four (Tsukasa): A True Friend's Helping Hand.

Tsukasa was glad that Toya showed up a few minutes after he had to throw the entire first pancake mix. He accidentally added a cup of olive extract into the pancakes, and Tsukasa blames it on how late he fell asleep that night. The second attempt was very clean and not messed up, besides knocking over the fresh blueberries his mom bought yesterday onto the pancakes. Tsukasa blamed himself for trying to grab the bowl and knocking them into the pancake already on the griddle, he was distraught. Tsukasa went and bought cookies early in the morning to add to Toya's pancakes, but now there they are. Left in the box, as his mom's blueberries fall onto Toya's pancakes. Toya seemed happy, however.
"Did you make those for me?" Toya said as he looked over at Tsukasa, who was still trying to decide whether to scream of dramatically fall to the floor in shock.
"Y-yeah! Just for you, my childhood friend and per... temporary roommate." Tsukasa put up a shaky smile and a shakier thumbs up before realizing he was burning Toya's pancakes!
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THE PANCAKESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!" Tsukasa quickly flipped over the sizzling pancakes only to realize they're not burning. Tsukasa turned to tell Toya his pancakes were ok, but the headphones Toya just put on told Tsukasa he was being a little too loud this morning. Tsukasa wondered what exactly did Toya like listening to, and just decided that it was probably the same type of music he played with his he liked.
More pancakes were added to the griddle and different types of toppings were added, Tsukasa saw Toya sneak a peek in the cookie box before grabbing plates and other utensils and putting them onto the table. Tsukasa wonders if he should make a bit more than what he made, but Tsukasa realized that he made 30 pancakes and used the rest of the eggs and bacon in the house, so it should be fine.
The family felt much more happy and conversational when Toya was around. Sure they talked when Toya wasn't here, but Toya felt like the missing puzzle piece for them. This was the first time they've had back to back family breakfast, and Tsukasa never felt happier.
After the five of them finished breakfast, Tsukasa cleaned up the plates, and noticed Toya and Saki talking about SEKAI stuff, and Tsukasa wanted to join, but he needed to do something more important than that.
"Hey, could you two stay there for a second? I need to ask you something." Tsukasa's parents were reluctant, but Tsukasa knew that they were suckers for the bakery he bought those cookies from. Who knew that they would be useful for more than putting into Toya's pancakes. Tsukasa ran up to his room after sliding them the cookies, and grabbed what he needed. He ran back downstairs and to the table, and presented what he brought.
"Adoption papers? Why do you have those?"
"HAHA, isn't it obvious?! It's for Toya of course!"
"No," they both sighed almost exactly, "we're not adopting Toya, he already has one."
"But his dad sucks, you've met him, right?"
"He's seemed perfectly fine as a parent." Tsukasa's dad was the one to speak up, and Tsukasa promptly destroyed his argument.
"You know he makes Toya spend eight hours practicing the piano immediately after school, right?"
"W-well it's just practice right? Toya's doing it if his own vol-"
"No he isn't. If he was, why did he run away to our house?"
"We can't just adopt Toya! He has a dad!"
"A really bad one! Just sign it!"
"No!"
"I'll do everyone's chores for a year!"
"We're not changing our position here!"
"I'll get you front row seats in all of Saki's concerts!" Tsukasa was really stretching, but his parents took it.
"Fine. We'll sign them, as long as you do every chore for a year, and give us front row seats for Saki's concerts."
"Deal!" Tsukasa slid the papers to his parents, and they both signed it. Tsukasa already filled out the rest of the information on there, so now all he needs to do is to present it to... someone. Tsukasa didn't think he'd get this far, he probably should've looked this up.
"Ok, now what?" Both of their parents looked at Tsukasa and he knew what they were going to say. They were going to say "you should've studied this beforehand" but they just laughed at him. Tsukasa felt appalled that they didn't try to just explain it to him, they flat out laughed at him.
"Ok, ok." the parents stopped laughing and looked at Tsukasa sympathetically, empathizing on the pathetic part of the word, and explained what he needed to do. "What you need to do, is to now file a report and win a trial against the father of Toya to prove that he is abusive to him and show that we are a better family than his father."
"That sounds easy."
"No, it doesn't. Stop lying." Tsukasa knew what he had to do next, but how to get from point A to B felt less like a map with multiple easily shown pathways that all lead to the right place, and more like a maze that decided by the person to design it to make anyone who wants to go through it to cry until they have nothing left.
Tsukasa thanked his very useful parents, and walked out the door, with the papers in hand. He walked from his house to where Rui's house was, but there was nobody home. Tsukasa sighed and turned around, opening his phone and clicking the map app. He walked across many streets and pathways, feeling both dirt and pavement on his shoes.
He stopped in front of Phoenix Wonderland, showed the guard at the front area his badge, and walked on through. Tsukasa always gets a feeling of joy whenever he steps into the Wonderland, and all the happy faces that walk and smile as they pass fills Tsukasa's heart with joy and happiness. Tsukasa walks past to the Wonder Stage, moving some vines and broken tiling near the entrance, and walked up to the stage to find a small not taped to the stage.
"☆ - need your help, you'll know where I am. - :3"  Tsukasa sighed and pulled out his phone, and hit the song. Rui always puts up one of these notes when he personally needs someone at some given point. He'll eventually text them on the phone, but Rui usual leave these things everywhere.
He always starts with the person's "sign" as Rui calls it. Tsukasa's is a star, Emu's is a price of candy, and Nene's is a poorly drawn game controller. She told Tsukasa that she suspects that Rui does it on purpose to annoy her, and Rui always ends with a cat face, signifying his "sign" to show who it was from. The rest of the group use it only to tell the other to go into the SEKAI, but Rui uses it for everything. Tsukasa needs his help anyways, so the least he can do is to see what brand new idea Rui made that needs a guinea pig for.