Black Swan Wonderland

Osamu

Halo Seven: Osamu:

-Osamu-

I never really had a future. I thought I would be doomed to end up in prison like aniki. The old man bailed on the family. The old lady didn't give a shit. So, yeah. I thought that it was what it was. Care to guess what changed that? You guessed it. Kitano-sensei.

Why am I following him? Why am I going along with this crazy game? I don't really believe any of this. So why do I stay?

He doesn't see me as trash. Kitano-sensei doesn't baby me either. He actually treats me like a person. He's the one who stopped me in a way. I owe him nothing but I have to see who this man is.

I looked over at Daichi. He looked over the new batch of flowers. This guy creeps me out at times. He may look pretty and all. But this guy is twisted in his own way. Who knew that he could be sadistic when he can be?

Daichi looked up at me.

"Something wrong?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Nothing," I said. "Nothing at all."

"Hm," was all Daichi said. He went back to work. I did the same. I could never understand what he was thinking.

-Yukari-

Sota and Anzu stared at him.

"What kind of monster?" Anzu asked. Yukari had a serious look on his face.

"It's kind of hard to explain," he said.

"Try us," Sota said. Yukari shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I smelt something strange in the air from the past few days," he said. "Not like an odor. More like... More like..."

"Rubber and something sickening sweet?" Sota asked.

"Yeah!" Yukari said.

"You know, I've smelt it too," Anzu said. The girly tadpole narrowed his eyes.

"Were you following the monster too?" he asked.

"Sort of," Sota said. "I was trying to track the smell when I ran into her." Anzu gave him the side-eye.

"What do you plan to do with this monster?" she asked. Yukari kind of shrugged.

"I haven't figured that part out yet," he said. But then he paused.

"It's so strange," the tadpole said. "It feels like I've done this before. All of it. The chase, meeting you, the monster itself. Am I sounding crazy?"

"No," Anzu said. "I'm starting to remember it too."

"Hm," Sota said. The other two turned to him. He kind of shrugged.

"I just don't remember this," he said. Yukari was about to ask why when he turned around.

"Oh," he said. Anzu and Sota looked up. They spotted a man dressed like a waiter dragging his feet on the other side of the street. A rash of red bumps covered his skin. Small drops of red followed behind. The man groaned as he moved.

"Is that...?" Sota began to ask.

"Yes," Yukari said, nodding. Suddenly, the rash-covered man stopped in his tracks. The three tadpoles froze and waited. Their target slowly turned his head. Anzu reached for her bamboo sword.

"Hold it," Sota held out his arm. The man turned away and started walking again. Yukari felt a chill ran up his spine. He took off running after the dragging man.

"Yukari!" Anzu yelled. She took off after the girlish boy.

"Hey! Wait up!" Sota shouted. He started up his scooter and ripped after the other two tadpoles.