Chapter Text
4/9, Midday.
Kurusu Akira snaps awake on the train. He was spacing out away from all the noise. He checked his phone if he missed any notifications. Absolutely nothing came up. Not even a text from his parents. ‘They’re probably just busy.’ He thought and put his phone away.
“I’m scared! I don’t want a mental shutdown!” A girl sitting near him said to presumably her friend who responded “Hey, I doubt it’ll happen to you. Even if it did, at least it’s a cool way to die.” She was promptly, playfully smacked in the thigh by the original girl. Akira hid a smile at the two’s antics as he sat in the uncomfortable seat of the train.
He twisted his head back to look out the window behind him. Seeing the cities flash by at high speeds was off putting but oddly calming. Just imagine what the landscape looked like before mass human habitation was something always interesting to Akira. The train screeched to a halt at the Shibuya station. From there he would have to find a smaller service line to Yongen-Jaya, the residence of his guardian for the year. He grabbed a free map of the trains for the area and sat down at a bench to find out how in god's name to get to that station. Clearly, he must’ve been visibly panicking, as a brunette sat next to him.
“Do you require any assistance?” He said, his voice smooth and on the higher register compared to Akira’s. He jumped at the sudden voice next to him and looked up to make eye contact. “Uh… Yeah, if you have the time.” He bit the inside of his cheek and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. In his hometown of Inaba, most everything was walkable and there were more scooters than cars. “I’m trying to get to Yongen-Jaya.” He pointed to it on the map. “And we’re here.. I think.” The boy next to him nodded and pointed to the Green line. “You are going to want to take the Red Line South-West as far as Sangen-Jaya and cross the street to the Yellow Line West. From there, you will be able to navigate to your destination.” The boy pointed and dragged his fingers across the lines to show it visibly as he said it verbally.
“Thank you so much! I was hopelessly lost haha.” Akira chuckled. “Well, I hope to see you again someday!” He offered his hand out to shake and the taller boy stood up and grabbed his hand. “Until we meet again.” They shook hands and parted ways. Akira headed to the Red Line as fast as he could without running. He managed to get on the South-West bound train with enough time to not be squished into someone, though it was still fairly busy.
He checked his phone again and saw something different. There was an app with a red eye and black outline. He deleted it off his phone and manually shut it off. In the case it was a virus he didn’t want it to get any more of his Data. He attempted to remove the SIM card but failed. He didn’t have a paper clip to open the tray so he just held it for the time being.
In his distraction he almost missed the stop nearest to Sojiros residence. He quickly ran out of the train and tripped on the gap between the platform. He fell face first into the concrete floor and his phone went flying from his hands, and it bounced straight on to the tracks. “Fuck!” He shouted before cringing at his outburst and running away. Leaving his phone to eventually get run over on the tracks.
He ran directly through the station and to a secluded alleyway to catch his breath. “Hey kid, are you alright?” A voice next to him said. He jumped at the sudden intrusion into his mind. He was an older man with a medium length goatee which curled up and off his face. His glasses looked to be Bifocals, and he was holding a cigarette by his side.
“Yes, sir. Just catching my breath.” He gasped for air between words. Making him realize how out of shape he was. The man next to him gave him an odd look and slightly frowned. “Sure… Well,, I need to be off.” The man flicked down his cigarette and ground it into the pavement with the toe of his expensive looking, white loafers. “Before you leave, do you by any chance know a Sakura? Sakura Sojiro.” Akira said as the older man was walking away.
“Who’s asking?” He turned his head to look at the boy from the corner of his eye. The feeling of the man going from friendly to cautious, almost dangerous in a way. “Kurusu, Akira.” He bowed at the curious man. “He is my guardian for the year.” He kept looking down when he heard footsteps shuffling towards him and a sigh. “They did say that was today.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Come with me.” Akira stood up from his bow and hesitantly followed the man through the alley and towards a small coffee shop with a red and white awning as well as a small chalkboard with different types of coffee and curries. “Café LeBlanc? The novelist?” Akira lifted an eyebrow at the name. He wasn’t too famous of an author. He only had one actually famous series and that was over a hundred years ago. “Yes.” His answer was very sudden and harsh, Akira knew not to prod any further and once Sojiro was done fiddling with his keys, they entered in silence.
Sojiro walked to the back of the store and Akira followed. He went up a set of creaky wooden steps. The boy could only imagine how old the building could’ve been. At the top, there was a room full of old junk like newspapers and a well loved ladder. “This’ll be your room for the year. Don’t blow anything up.” And with that, Sojiro walked back downstairs with a sigh.
Akira stayed still and stared at the mess for a while before resigning to his fate and cleaning.
He first started with the back corner where he thought the bed was. He started picking up each book and putting them in a neat stack by genre for when he clears off a shelf. After the 5th or so book, he started to see a pattern. ‘What the hell is Cognitive Psience? Is it like therapy?’ He held that thought as he went through some more books. Some of them looked to be hand written in journals while most were regular textbooks. He came across some Featherman manga, which he thumbed through. One had a letter in it, addressed to a “Futaba”. He put the book and the letter on his bed, to give to Sojiro.
Once he finished cleaning that sector he went downstairs to Sojiro who was standing at the counter, cleaning a mug. “What’s with the ruckus upstairs?” He looked at Akira with an accusatory stare and he shrunk into himself. “I-I was cleaning and found a book with a letter in it. I-It’s addressed to a ‘F-Futaba’?” He held out the book and suddenly, Sojiro’s glare went from angry to shocked and he grabbed the book. “Thank you for telling me, kid.” And he smiled at the boy and looked at his watch. “I guess I’ll close early today, tomorrow I’m taking you to school to meet the principal. Be ready by 9.”
“Yes, Sir.” He gave a mock salute. Sojiro shot Akira a glare and walked off with a faint smirk on his face. He walked back upstairs to clean off a shelf to put the books on. There was one right at the front of the staircase covered in old coffee bean branded burlap sacks which should work. He removed some and used them as garbage bags. The others he put under his bed for safekeeping, you never know when you need one.
He yawned and rubbed his eyes. It was beginning to get pretty late in the night. He shook off the dust from the blanket on his sorry excuse of a mattress and sneezed from the dust cloud. It’d work for now but he would absolutely need to clean it as soon as possible the next day.