(no subject)
Rating: G
Date: Backdated to Sept. 27th (Before Roll updated the Schedule list and Shishi's B-Day)
Summary: Atsushi runs into Shishido after Sen's A&C class and they talk...
Walking out of the classroom Atsushi officially decided that his redheaded professor was either crazy, missing something very important in his head, or a genius. He hadn’t decided which one he was though. Arts and Crafts couldn’t be anymore…interesting for lack of better words. Class was over and Atsushi had left the room soon before his brother, of which he didn’t see in sight.
‘Where is that woman wannabe?’ he muttered to himself as he looked around for his twin. His black tail was swishing back and forth in both agitated and slightly desperate. The twin wanted to spend some quality time with him, since they never really got to be with one another any time else. ‘Don’t tell me that he’s still inside…’
Oh god I'm going to kill something. Shishido ran his hands through his hair, flattening his ears with a hiss as he stalked out of the classroom, shoulders tense. He hated Arts and Crafts. Yes, Hated. And of course, Sengoku-sensei knew it and continued to poke and prod at him. Was it his fault he couldn’t get the damned clay to look like what he wanted it to look like? Or that, for the life of him, he couldn’t make a sun look like a sun with the damned sticky oil paints? Why on earth were they learning Arts and Crafts, anyways?
Snarling to himself, he turned a corner, ready to head to his dorm room and fret over things like grades and a certain silver haired junior, but he ran right into a person and nearly tumbled back into a wall "Whoa!"
Still brooding over the location of his brother as well as the quality of his teacher, he barely noticed the figure that came crashing into him. A simple, ‘Ow’ left Atsushi’s lips as he fell to the ground. Quickly he shoved all of his thoughts of his twin and erased it from his facial emotions before he looked up to see who had run into him.
It was obliviously someone he had never seen before, which meant that he was either a senior or a freshman. Giving the figure another through examination, he concluded that he was indeed a senior. Atsushi really wasn’t comfortable with people that he didn’t know too well, especially if they were older than him. Then again, he wasn’t really comfortable around anyone unless he was with Ryou, even if it was his Sacrifice. Though that didn’t say much since he went through a minimum of 3 Sacrifices a month.
Shishido rubbed his shoulder a bit, staring down at the seemingly-younger boy he had ran into. He blinked, scowling for a moment before holding out a hand. But he wasn’t about to apologize. "Didn’t see you there."
Taking the hand that was offered, Atsushi pulled himself up off the ground. Burying his eyes behind his long bangs he uttered a small, “I’m sorry.” Dark ears were lowered almost flatten against his lowered head and his tail just hung there limp. What a fine mess he had gotten himself into. It was an upperclassman, an annoyed one from the looks of it too, and he was alone. This didn’t look very promising.
‘I am so getting that woman wannabe for this…’ Atsushi cursed to himself.
"...? What’s the deal, kid? Girlfriend dump you or something?" Shishido shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning his shoulders back a bit. It wouldn’t do for Seven Moon's students to run around with their tails between their legs. He didn’t know what was getting into everyone. Sure, he was a senpai, but that didn’t mean you had to act like a pussycat.
"Woman what?" Shishido tipped his head to the side, ears perking. Who was this guy, anyways?
“No…nothing of that sort. Though I do feel like I’ve been ditched.” He answered a hitch bit louder; eyes still hidden by his bangs. This senior didn’t seem all too bad, but he knew that judgment alone on appearance didn’t amount for much.
Ears perking up when the words, ‘woman’ left the other’s mouth. Then something just snapped inside of him. Unsure of exactly why that word got him so fired up. “Yes, that stupid woman wannabe. My older brother, or should I say twin…. I’m getting fed up waiting for his girly butt to arrive here and waiting for him like I’m his date or something. Just because I’m the younger one by a few seconds he thinks he’s better than me or something. The nerve! One day… I’m going to cut off all of his precious hair. He’ll see…”
Just after the words finished leaving his mouth, Atsushi clamped his mouth shut with both of his hands and began to scoot back slowly. He had done it now.
"Huh, you're twin..." Shishido blinked for a few seconds, scratching an ear. He wouldn’t really know about family relations, especially between brothers, but from what he got from people around, brothers were trouble. "What's wrong with long hair, by the way?" Shishido wasn’t really angry--he knew his hair looked damned good. But the kid was acting like a pansy again and he sighed. "Chill out, will you?"
Atsushi nodded. “I am…and there’s nothing wrong with long hair. It’s just that my brother is quite… obsessed…with it par say.” Feeling a bit more comfortable around the upperclassman, Atsushi raised his head and his ears with it so that his eyes were visible for the other to see.
“I’m sorry… I’m not really used to being around…people…” Atsushi apologized again. He really didn’t like apologizing so much in such a limited time span, but then again he wasn’t certain of this person’s temperament.
"Well... long hair takes a long time so I can understand..." Shishido trailed off, flattening his ears in annoyance before shrugging his shoulders. "Not used to being around people? What, you live in a hole?" He didn’t really know how people could get by without knowing other people--granted, Shishido avoided them for the most part, but he had classes with the same people every day. How could you not get used to it?
“It’s not that I live in a hole… It’s just that other than class, I don’t normally leave the dorm rooms. Unless I have to for some reason...” He answered ever getting more comfortable with this person in front of him. It was true. Atsushi rarely left his room for anything besides class and the other necessities. It limited the amount of conflict he would have with others which translated over into not having to worry about getting involved with a battle, even though there were times that he purposely went out and looked for one.
“By the way… what is your name? I’m Kisarazu Atsushi.”
"Man, you gotta get out more..." Shishido shook his head. Sure, people could be annoying as hell, especially over pumped Fighters, but staying in the dorm room all the time would have driven him crazy. Sometimes it was good just to go out and look at normal people and think 'you have no idea what I can do.'
"I'm Shishido. Kisarazu?" He blinked once before laughing, smoothing back his hair. "I talked to your brother over the journal-thing a little while ago."
“I don’t see a reason to.” the twin replied not seeing Shishido’s point. Why would he want to go outside? Meeting people meant getting involved with conflict and becoming a tie with someone that he might not want to be become close to. And a bad tie was the last thing he wanted. “It’s nice to meet you Shishido….” Atsushi looked for the suffix to tact onto it and settled with a “…san.”
“Journal-thing?” Atsushi thought for a moment or two. His brother had ditched him. Atsushi was defiantly going to stick his good for nothing girly butt in a perfume bottle and cut off his hair and put it in a pickle jar right next to an empty jar for someone’s or something’s kidney. “……I think I might have to invest in garden sheers soon.”
"Garden sheers?" Shishido decided not to ask. Twirling his hair a bit, he looked around, rubbing his stomach. "Wanna get a snack or something?" Somehow, he was becoming a wee bit more social towards his underclassmen and he didn’t know if he should blame Ohtori or blame himself. Although, thinking about Ohtori just brought up a whole bunch of thoughts that he really didn’t want to deal with at the moment. "You know anything about the Shinjuku School?"
“A snack would be nice.” He answered before even stopping to think about what he was agreeing to. Normally he wouldn’t be so willing to go out and socialize with anyone even if they offered him free food or something alone those lines, and even if he did, he wouldn’t be alone. “The Shinjuku School? I’m not sure what I know will help, but I do know a bit…”
"Tell me what you know." Shishido started for the little snack store, something that was definitely not worry towards Ohtori making his head pound. He blinked a bit, realizing he must have sounded a little harsh and, for some reason, it bothered him a little bit. "I've heard about a bounded pair causing trouble over there... Gotta know what we're up against and all that."
“Let’s see…. If you want to know about the pairs and their students… then I’m not sure how much I can help there. But I’ve heard a few things about them...” Atsushi trailed off before added on, “The freshman twins in particular right?” He had heard something going around about a bunch of freshmen causing trouble and picking fights with students in Seven Moons.
"Yeah..." Shishido gritted his teeth, glaring down the road as they walked. Those stupid punks, endangering a civilian with their games. There was no way he was going to let them do anything stupid--wasn’t that one of the first rules? You don’t go wandering around, showing off your powers. It just didn’t work that way. And if anything happened to Ohtori.... "I've only heard that they've been causing trouble."
Noticing the anger the Shishido was emitting made the Kisarazu twin a little nervous and worried. Was there someone important to him that was being endangered by the other twins? If he had a partner he wouldn’t mind helping out…wait. What was he thinking? Helping out? Atsushi barely knew this person and he was willing to endanger himself and his next Sacrifice? Shishido was certainly influential.
“Mmm… besides that they are causing trouble, it seems that they’ve picked fights with some other seniors… Gakuto Mukahi and Oshitari Yuushi or otherwise known as the Merciless. They’re really good. I don’t think the freshman will stand a chance against them…” Atsushi paused for a moment to recall some more information that he had heard.
"Merciless, huh." Shishido's lips twitched and he relaxed. If the brat and the pervert were the seniors being challenged, then the kids from Shinjuku wouldn’t stand a chance. And that pair wasn’t reckless enough to endanger anyone around them with wasted energy. That made him feel a little better. "Yeah, those two are pretty good. Annoying as hell, but good." Shishido'd show them once he found his bloody sacrifice, but that was beside the point.
"This might be, uh, personal? But what's it like being a zero?" Shishido blinked at all the stuff on sale, rubbing his ears.
“What’s it like being a zero?” Atsushi repeated his ears automatically lowering themselves. The question sounded odd to him. What was it like being normal? This was the life that he had always known. A life filled with replacements and switches. One where he hoped day in and day out that he will be paired up with his brother, but also knowing that he would be replaced with someone else as soon as he became unsuitable. And how he wanted to know that there was someone out there just for him with the same name as him, but that was why he was a zero.
“…I suppose you can say it’s very lonely. As you know, zeros don’t have names, so we’re always changing fighters and sacrifices…even though it’s not because I want to have my sacrifice changed, but it’s because someone else doesn’t like their fighter. So we change…” Atsushi’s emotions were slowly getting the best of him. “Bonds are nothing but a sick joke. Why bond with someone just knowing that the next day they might be replaced with someone else? It’s all pointless.” By the end of his tangent, his voice had gone from audible to barely above a bitter whisper.
Shishido frowned, shoving his hands in his pockets and glancing at the other with almost sympathy. It sounded tough. "Yeah... I guess it’s kind of weird... I mean. I don’t know who my sacrifice will be, but they're supposed to be the person I'm... like…forever attached to. What if you don’t like the person you bond with? What if you don’t like the idea of not choosing who you wanna be with? It’s kind of... scary. But..." Shishido paused, ears swiveling as he spotted something he liked. "I guess... I hope to find someone that I... uh. you know, like. And… uhm can work with..."
The conversation was getting a little embarrassing and he dropped a hand on the other boy's head, ruffling his hair and ears. "Why don’t you pair up with your brother?"
A small smile crept up across Atsushi’s face as he listened to what worries Shishido had. It was very nice in comparison to his worries. Worries about what your Sacrifice will be and what kind of person they might be, but knowing that that person will be their one for life is something that Atsushi somewhat envied. “I want to.” He stated flatly and quickly.
“I want to be paired up with my brother. But it’s not like I can walk up to them and ask to be paired up with him. They decide who’s going to be paired in hopes of finding the perfect pair. You’d think that twins would be the best match for one another wouldn’t you?” Atsushi paused for a moment to think. Since was he this open with someone he just met a few moments ago? Shishido was really something.
“Though… I’m kinda happy that I haven’t been paired up with Ryou yet because if I was paired up with him right now, I don’t think I’d be a strong enough fighter for him. I don’t think I’d be able to keep him safe and unharmed from my opponent. And what happens if the one chance I get to actually paired up with my brother and I fail him. I lose the battle and he’s hurt. How would I cope with knowing that I let him down?” Despite all of what just had come out of the twin’s mouth, Atsushi bared a smile. It was a faint and sad one, but a smile none other the less.
"Shit, man." Shishido ran a hand through his hair, ears flattening again. "We've got it the worse. I don’t care if sacrifice’s have to take the pain. We have to watch. We screw up and they take our mistakes. I don't know if I could stand it." And maybe that’s why he hadn’t found his Sacrifice yet--he wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to have someone's well being placed on his shoulders. He wasn’t ready to watch someone he cared for getting hurt for his mistakes. He wasn’t ready to handle all that, especially if the battle was more than a simple duel to test powers. It made him want a sacrifice that was stronger than himself. Because Shishido was strong--and he would be strong for his sacrifice, but could he be strong enough?
"I know what you mean..." Sighing, he tossed Atsushi a chocolate-bread-thing with a little grin. "Just dont dwell on it, you know? 'Cause thinking about it isn’t going to do anything except freak us out."
Atsushi eyed the chocolate-bread with a bit of suspicion. Chocolate in the form of bread had to be somewhat unhealthy for him especially since he was not really all that active. But it was better than eating nothing at all, and actually looked quite appealing. “Yeah… you have a point. Though, I can’t help it.”
“Hey… Shishido-san, I don’t mean to be rude… but you have a name right? What is it? And what’s it like to have a name? Are you born with it? Or is it something that one day randomly shows up?” Atsushi was curious. Since he had asked what it was like to be a zero, wasn’t it fair for him to ask what it was like to be a ‘named’ person?
"A name? Yeah, I got one, but I don’t know it yet." Shishido munched on his melon bread, frowning. "I think you usually end up knowing when you meet your name partner. Some people know before-- I think there's a way, like if it runs in the family or…uh... something?" He scratched his ears, shrugging. He had never paid that much attention to any of the classes that would have explained the whole bounding procedure. "I think if you find your partner, it shows up when you two like... connect or something. Sometimes they can be pretty accurate, like the damned Merciless pair, but sometimes, I dunno. I bet they get silly or something..."
“I see… though aren’t you marked with your name? Like somewhere on your body, there will be a marking of what it is? I mean… if there wasn’t, people could call themselves whatever right?” Atsushi kept asking even though Shishido might not have known the answers. His ears twitching and perky and listening to anything that came out of Shishido’s mouth. Having a name was something Atsushi and his brother often thought about. They even named themselves just for kicks and giggles; ‘Nameless’ was what he had came up with. And even though Ryou thought that it was mocking them, he agreed to it.
But that was what the Kisarazu twins had come up with themselves. They were still zeros. They still lacked a person whom they would permanently bond with. “Or does it appear after you meet your partner? …I wonder what your name will be Shishido-san.”
"Yeah, it shows up when you meet your partner, I think. I don’t know where mine is. Probably some where lame." Shishido didn’t like to think about what his name was, just since he knew it'd be nothing like what he'd imagine it as. And until he met his partner, he wouldn’t know what they shared. It was a little intimidating. What if he got some really strange name? Was it always with him, or was it created with his partner? There were too many things that he couldn’t understand and couldn’t answer, so he thought it'd be better not to think about it.
"I bet I'll be... 'Superiorless'" He smirked, tossing back his hair before laughing.
“I think ‘Superiorless’ is a bit on the harsh side…” Atsushi replied before taking a bite of his chocolate bun. The idea of a name randomly showing up on one’s body one day after meeting someone made the Kisarazu rather…mystified. The way Shishido described it, it sounded like names were like a bad case of acne that never went away. Just showing up when you meet someone. And the fact that it could show up anywhere made Atsushi even more interested in it all. Was there a place that the name wouldn’t show up?
“…sorry to ask more questions… but what would you do if you’ve already met your partner but just haven’t found out that whoever it is shares your name?”.
Shishido shrugged at Atsushi's apology, leaning back to think. He didn’t mind answering questions--he didn’t actually know that much, so it was an excuse for him to really think about it. "I don’t know, really. Maybe if you bond--have a fight with someone and do... I don’t know, something that connects you two, you find out. I think you just... know. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I can’t really explain it." Talking about it made Shishido feel some how a little uncomfortable, and he could somehow really feel the missing piece inside of him. It really was almost unfair, that he was incomplete somehow before he found this other person.
"I think I envy you Zeros in some way. You can change partners without the really... well, painful consequences and you're already complete. One whole unit on your own. At least you don’t... uhm, feel empty all the time." Shishido glanced away, feeling much too sappy for his own good. He decided it was because of hunger and hurried to eat more.
Atsushi cracked a small smile behind the remains of his chocolate bun. Dark eyes glanced up from his half bun to look at Shishido. "I envy you because you have a name and a person that's special to you. Another half. And yet you envy me because for the very reasons I envy you..." There was a pause.
Eyes lowering back onto his chocolate bun Atsushi began again. "Though just because I'm a Zero doesn't mean I am a complete. They say that Zeros are complete, but it doesn't mean that they will feel like they are. As for feelings… Zeros can't feel pain. Hot. Cold. A gash on the wrist. It's all the same…a numbness that's all so familiar."
Staring deeply into the dark creamy filling of his bun, Atsushi seemed lost in its color. As if snapped out of a trance, Atsushi looked back up at Shishido. He hoped that his words hadn't made the older classman sullen. It really wasn't his fault that the way he spoke about being a Zero was so very melancholic. It's just... that's how everything was to him. Atsushi began to wonder if there was a Zero out there in this world that didn't think the same. If there was, he would like to meet him or her.
"Well, it's like they say. We all want what we don't have." The words just seemed to fall off of his lips.
"Yeah, that sounds about right..." Shishido frowned a little, not liking the mood to be so melancholy. He had never enjoyed things he couldn’t change, and often fought them even when he knew it was futile. But it's not like they could change how they were born, or fight against their bodies very well. Shit, it was more depressing than he had thought.
Shoving another piece of bread in his mouth, Shishido rolled his shoulders to shake off the mood and flopped his hand down on Atsushi's head with a stern look. "Well, whatever. You're name is Atsushi, you've got a twin brother who's gonna care about you even if he doesn’t want to, and well, now you've got me. So. We'll work things out, right?"
His ears twitched at the presents of Shishido’s hand. “Right…though I’m not sure how good it is to have a wannabe woman caring for my well being.” The Kisarazu twin joked. It was nice to remember that he had his brother to count on being there for him and now along with Shishido it was even better. He had gone from being completely withdrawn and pretty much shy when he first met Shishido to where he enjoyed his company. “Maybe…my next partner won’t be like the ones in the past… maybe they will be someone I can like even if it isn’t my brother.”
"That's the spirit." Shishido grinned brightly, feeling a little of his own kind of hope from Atsushi's words. It wasn’t the end of the world if he didn’t have his partner at the moment, and he'd find his Sacrifice in time. And Atsushi'd find a good partner too, or just end up bossing his brother around. Something like that.
Date: Backdated to Sept. 27th (Before Roll updated the Schedule list and Shishi's B-Day)
Summary: Atsushi runs into Shishido after Sen's A&C class and they talk...
Walking out of the classroom Atsushi officially decided that his redheaded professor was either crazy, missing something very important in his head, or a genius. He hadn’t decided which one he was though. Arts and Crafts couldn’t be anymore…interesting for lack of better words. Class was over and Atsushi had left the room soon before his brother, of which he didn’t see in sight.
‘Where is that woman wannabe?’ he muttered to himself as he looked around for his twin. His black tail was swishing back and forth in both agitated and slightly desperate. The twin wanted to spend some quality time with him, since they never really got to be with one another any time else. ‘Don’t tell me that he’s still inside…’
Oh god I'm going to kill something. Shishido ran his hands through his hair, flattening his ears with a hiss as he stalked out of the classroom, shoulders tense. He hated Arts and Crafts. Yes, Hated. And of course, Sengoku-sensei knew it and continued to poke and prod at him. Was it his fault he couldn’t get the damned clay to look like what he wanted it to look like? Or that, for the life of him, he couldn’t make a sun look like a sun with the damned sticky oil paints? Why on earth were they learning Arts and Crafts, anyways?
Snarling to himself, he turned a corner, ready to head to his dorm room and fret over things like grades and a certain silver haired junior, but he ran right into a person and nearly tumbled back into a wall "Whoa!"
Still brooding over the location of his brother as well as the quality of his teacher, he barely noticed the figure that came crashing into him. A simple, ‘Ow’ left Atsushi’s lips as he fell to the ground. Quickly he shoved all of his thoughts of his twin and erased it from his facial emotions before he looked up to see who had run into him.
It was obliviously someone he had never seen before, which meant that he was either a senior or a freshman. Giving the figure another through examination, he concluded that he was indeed a senior. Atsushi really wasn’t comfortable with people that he didn’t know too well, especially if they were older than him. Then again, he wasn’t really comfortable around anyone unless he was with Ryou, even if it was his Sacrifice. Though that didn’t say much since he went through a minimum of 3 Sacrifices a month.
Shishido rubbed his shoulder a bit, staring down at the seemingly-younger boy he had ran into. He blinked, scowling for a moment before holding out a hand. But he wasn’t about to apologize. "Didn’t see you there."
Taking the hand that was offered, Atsushi pulled himself up off the ground. Burying his eyes behind his long bangs he uttered a small, “I’m sorry.” Dark ears were lowered almost flatten against his lowered head and his tail just hung there limp. What a fine mess he had gotten himself into. It was an upperclassman, an annoyed one from the looks of it too, and he was alone. This didn’t look very promising.
‘I am so getting that woman wannabe for this…’ Atsushi cursed to himself.
"...? What’s the deal, kid? Girlfriend dump you or something?" Shishido shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning his shoulders back a bit. It wouldn’t do for Seven Moon's students to run around with their tails between their legs. He didn’t know what was getting into everyone. Sure, he was a senpai, but that didn’t mean you had to act like a pussycat.
"Woman what?" Shishido tipped his head to the side, ears perking. Who was this guy, anyways?
“No…nothing of that sort. Though I do feel like I’ve been ditched.” He answered a hitch bit louder; eyes still hidden by his bangs. This senior didn’t seem all too bad, but he knew that judgment alone on appearance didn’t amount for much.
Ears perking up when the words, ‘woman’ left the other’s mouth. Then something just snapped inside of him. Unsure of exactly why that word got him so fired up. “Yes, that stupid woman wannabe. My older brother, or should I say twin…. I’m getting fed up waiting for his girly butt to arrive here and waiting for him like I’m his date or something. Just because I’m the younger one by a few seconds he thinks he’s better than me or something. The nerve! One day… I’m going to cut off all of his precious hair. He’ll see…”
Just after the words finished leaving his mouth, Atsushi clamped his mouth shut with both of his hands and began to scoot back slowly. He had done it now.
"Huh, you're twin..." Shishido blinked for a few seconds, scratching an ear. He wouldn’t really know about family relations, especially between brothers, but from what he got from people around, brothers were trouble. "What's wrong with long hair, by the way?" Shishido wasn’t really angry--he knew his hair looked damned good. But the kid was acting like a pansy again and he sighed. "Chill out, will you?"
Atsushi nodded. “I am…and there’s nothing wrong with long hair. It’s just that my brother is quite… obsessed…with it par say.” Feeling a bit more comfortable around the upperclassman, Atsushi raised his head and his ears with it so that his eyes were visible for the other to see.
“I’m sorry… I’m not really used to being around…people…” Atsushi apologized again. He really didn’t like apologizing so much in such a limited time span, but then again he wasn’t certain of this person’s temperament.
"Well... long hair takes a long time so I can understand..." Shishido trailed off, flattening his ears in annoyance before shrugging his shoulders. "Not used to being around people? What, you live in a hole?" He didn’t really know how people could get by without knowing other people--granted, Shishido avoided them for the most part, but he had classes with the same people every day. How could you not get used to it?
“It’s not that I live in a hole… It’s just that other than class, I don’t normally leave the dorm rooms. Unless I have to for some reason...” He answered ever getting more comfortable with this person in front of him. It was true. Atsushi rarely left his room for anything besides class and the other necessities. It limited the amount of conflict he would have with others which translated over into not having to worry about getting involved with a battle, even though there were times that he purposely went out and looked for one.
“By the way… what is your name? I’m Kisarazu Atsushi.”
"Man, you gotta get out more..." Shishido shook his head. Sure, people could be annoying as hell, especially over pumped Fighters, but staying in the dorm room all the time would have driven him crazy. Sometimes it was good just to go out and look at normal people and think 'you have no idea what I can do.'
"I'm Shishido. Kisarazu?" He blinked once before laughing, smoothing back his hair. "I talked to your brother over the journal-thing a little while ago."
“I don’t see a reason to.” the twin replied not seeing Shishido’s point. Why would he want to go outside? Meeting people meant getting involved with conflict and becoming a tie with someone that he might not want to be become close to. And a bad tie was the last thing he wanted. “It’s nice to meet you Shishido….” Atsushi looked for the suffix to tact onto it and settled with a “…san.”
“Journal-thing?” Atsushi thought for a moment or two. His brother had ditched him. Atsushi was defiantly going to stick his good for nothing girly butt in a perfume bottle and cut off his hair and put it in a pickle jar right next to an empty jar for someone’s or something’s kidney. “……I think I might have to invest in garden sheers soon.”
"Garden sheers?" Shishido decided not to ask. Twirling his hair a bit, he looked around, rubbing his stomach. "Wanna get a snack or something?" Somehow, he was becoming a wee bit more social towards his underclassmen and he didn’t know if he should blame Ohtori or blame himself. Although, thinking about Ohtori just brought up a whole bunch of thoughts that he really didn’t want to deal with at the moment. "You know anything about the Shinjuku School?"
“A snack would be nice.” He answered before even stopping to think about what he was agreeing to. Normally he wouldn’t be so willing to go out and socialize with anyone even if they offered him free food or something alone those lines, and even if he did, he wouldn’t be alone. “The Shinjuku School? I’m not sure what I know will help, but I do know a bit…”
"Tell me what you know." Shishido started for the little snack store, something that was definitely not worry towards Ohtori making his head pound. He blinked a bit, realizing he must have sounded a little harsh and, for some reason, it bothered him a little bit. "I've heard about a bounded pair causing trouble over there... Gotta know what we're up against and all that."
“Let’s see…. If you want to know about the pairs and their students… then I’m not sure how much I can help there. But I’ve heard a few things about them...” Atsushi trailed off before added on, “The freshman twins in particular right?” He had heard something going around about a bunch of freshmen causing trouble and picking fights with students in Seven Moons.
"Yeah..." Shishido gritted his teeth, glaring down the road as they walked. Those stupid punks, endangering a civilian with their games. There was no way he was going to let them do anything stupid--wasn’t that one of the first rules? You don’t go wandering around, showing off your powers. It just didn’t work that way. And if anything happened to Ohtori.... "I've only heard that they've been causing trouble."
Noticing the anger the Shishido was emitting made the Kisarazu twin a little nervous and worried. Was there someone important to him that was being endangered by the other twins? If he had a partner he wouldn’t mind helping out…wait. What was he thinking? Helping out? Atsushi barely knew this person and he was willing to endanger himself and his next Sacrifice? Shishido was certainly influential.
“Mmm… besides that they are causing trouble, it seems that they’ve picked fights with some other seniors… Gakuto Mukahi and Oshitari Yuushi or otherwise known as the Merciless. They’re really good. I don’t think the freshman will stand a chance against them…” Atsushi paused for a moment to recall some more information that he had heard.
"Merciless, huh." Shishido's lips twitched and he relaxed. If the brat and the pervert were the seniors being challenged, then the kids from Shinjuku wouldn’t stand a chance. And that pair wasn’t reckless enough to endanger anyone around them with wasted energy. That made him feel a little better. "Yeah, those two are pretty good. Annoying as hell, but good." Shishido'd show them once he found his bloody sacrifice, but that was beside the point.
"This might be, uh, personal? But what's it like being a zero?" Shishido blinked at all the stuff on sale, rubbing his ears.
“What’s it like being a zero?” Atsushi repeated his ears automatically lowering themselves. The question sounded odd to him. What was it like being normal? This was the life that he had always known. A life filled with replacements and switches. One where he hoped day in and day out that he will be paired up with his brother, but also knowing that he would be replaced with someone else as soon as he became unsuitable. And how he wanted to know that there was someone out there just for him with the same name as him, but that was why he was a zero.
“…I suppose you can say it’s very lonely. As you know, zeros don’t have names, so we’re always changing fighters and sacrifices…even though it’s not because I want to have my sacrifice changed, but it’s because someone else doesn’t like their fighter. So we change…” Atsushi’s emotions were slowly getting the best of him. “Bonds are nothing but a sick joke. Why bond with someone just knowing that the next day they might be replaced with someone else? It’s all pointless.” By the end of his tangent, his voice had gone from audible to barely above a bitter whisper.
Shishido frowned, shoving his hands in his pockets and glancing at the other with almost sympathy. It sounded tough. "Yeah... I guess it’s kind of weird... I mean. I don’t know who my sacrifice will be, but they're supposed to be the person I'm... like…forever attached to. What if you don’t like the person you bond with? What if you don’t like the idea of not choosing who you wanna be with? It’s kind of... scary. But..." Shishido paused, ears swiveling as he spotted something he liked. "I guess... I hope to find someone that I... uh. you know, like. And… uhm can work with..."
The conversation was getting a little embarrassing and he dropped a hand on the other boy's head, ruffling his hair and ears. "Why don’t you pair up with your brother?"
A small smile crept up across Atsushi’s face as he listened to what worries Shishido had. It was very nice in comparison to his worries. Worries about what your Sacrifice will be and what kind of person they might be, but knowing that that person will be their one for life is something that Atsushi somewhat envied. “I want to.” He stated flatly and quickly.
“I want to be paired up with my brother. But it’s not like I can walk up to them and ask to be paired up with him. They decide who’s going to be paired in hopes of finding the perfect pair. You’d think that twins would be the best match for one another wouldn’t you?” Atsushi paused for a moment to think. Since was he this open with someone he just met a few moments ago? Shishido was really something.
“Though… I’m kinda happy that I haven’t been paired up with Ryou yet because if I was paired up with him right now, I don’t think I’d be a strong enough fighter for him. I don’t think I’d be able to keep him safe and unharmed from my opponent. And what happens if the one chance I get to actually paired up with my brother and I fail him. I lose the battle and he’s hurt. How would I cope with knowing that I let him down?” Despite all of what just had come out of the twin’s mouth, Atsushi bared a smile. It was a faint and sad one, but a smile none other the less.
"Shit, man." Shishido ran a hand through his hair, ears flattening again. "We've got it the worse. I don’t care if sacrifice’s have to take the pain. We have to watch. We screw up and they take our mistakes. I don't know if I could stand it." And maybe that’s why he hadn’t found his Sacrifice yet--he wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to have someone's well being placed on his shoulders. He wasn’t ready to watch someone he cared for getting hurt for his mistakes. He wasn’t ready to handle all that, especially if the battle was more than a simple duel to test powers. It made him want a sacrifice that was stronger than himself. Because Shishido was strong--and he would be strong for his sacrifice, but could he be strong enough?
"I know what you mean..." Sighing, he tossed Atsushi a chocolate-bread-thing with a little grin. "Just dont dwell on it, you know? 'Cause thinking about it isn’t going to do anything except freak us out."
Atsushi eyed the chocolate-bread with a bit of suspicion. Chocolate in the form of bread had to be somewhat unhealthy for him especially since he was not really all that active. But it was better than eating nothing at all, and actually looked quite appealing. “Yeah… you have a point. Though, I can’t help it.”
“Hey… Shishido-san, I don’t mean to be rude… but you have a name right? What is it? And what’s it like to have a name? Are you born with it? Or is it something that one day randomly shows up?” Atsushi was curious. Since he had asked what it was like to be a zero, wasn’t it fair for him to ask what it was like to be a ‘named’ person?
"A name? Yeah, I got one, but I don’t know it yet." Shishido munched on his melon bread, frowning. "I think you usually end up knowing when you meet your name partner. Some people know before-- I think there's a way, like if it runs in the family or…uh... something?" He scratched his ears, shrugging. He had never paid that much attention to any of the classes that would have explained the whole bounding procedure. "I think if you find your partner, it shows up when you two like... connect or something. Sometimes they can be pretty accurate, like the damned Merciless pair, but sometimes, I dunno. I bet they get silly or something..."
“I see… though aren’t you marked with your name? Like somewhere on your body, there will be a marking of what it is? I mean… if there wasn’t, people could call themselves whatever right?” Atsushi kept asking even though Shishido might not have known the answers. His ears twitching and perky and listening to anything that came out of Shishido’s mouth. Having a name was something Atsushi and his brother often thought about. They even named themselves just for kicks and giggles; ‘Nameless’ was what he had came up with. And even though Ryou thought that it was mocking them, he agreed to it.
But that was what the Kisarazu twins had come up with themselves. They were still zeros. They still lacked a person whom they would permanently bond with. “Or does it appear after you meet your partner? …I wonder what your name will be Shishido-san.”
"Yeah, it shows up when you meet your partner, I think. I don’t know where mine is. Probably some where lame." Shishido didn’t like to think about what his name was, just since he knew it'd be nothing like what he'd imagine it as. And until he met his partner, he wouldn’t know what they shared. It was a little intimidating. What if he got some really strange name? Was it always with him, or was it created with his partner? There were too many things that he couldn’t understand and couldn’t answer, so he thought it'd be better not to think about it.
"I bet I'll be... 'Superiorless'" He smirked, tossing back his hair before laughing.
“I think ‘Superiorless’ is a bit on the harsh side…” Atsushi replied before taking a bite of his chocolate bun. The idea of a name randomly showing up on one’s body one day after meeting someone made the Kisarazu rather…mystified. The way Shishido described it, it sounded like names were like a bad case of acne that never went away. Just showing up when you meet someone. And the fact that it could show up anywhere made Atsushi even more interested in it all. Was there a place that the name wouldn’t show up?
“…sorry to ask more questions… but what would you do if you’ve already met your partner but just haven’t found out that whoever it is shares your name?”.
Shishido shrugged at Atsushi's apology, leaning back to think. He didn’t mind answering questions--he didn’t actually know that much, so it was an excuse for him to really think about it. "I don’t know, really. Maybe if you bond--have a fight with someone and do... I don’t know, something that connects you two, you find out. I think you just... know. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I can’t really explain it." Talking about it made Shishido feel some how a little uncomfortable, and he could somehow really feel the missing piece inside of him. It really was almost unfair, that he was incomplete somehow before he found this other person.
"I think I envy you Zeros in some way. You can change partners without the really... well, painful consequences and you're already complete. One whole unit on your own. At least you don’t... uhm, feel empty all the time." Shishido glanced away, feeling much too sappy for his own good. He decided it was because of hunger and hurried to eat more.
Atsushi cracked a small smile behind the remains of his chocolate bun. Dark eyes glanced up from his half bun to look at Shishido. "I envy you because you have a name and a person that's special to you. Another half. And yet you envy me because for the very reasons I envy you..." There was a pause.
Eyes lowering back onto his chocolate bun Atsushi began again. "Though just because I'm a Zero doesn't mean I am a complete. They say that Zeros are complete, but it doesn't mean that they will feel like they are. As for feelings… Zeros can't feel pain. Hot. Cold. A gash on the wrist. It's all the same…a numbness that's all so familiar."
Staring deeply into the dark creamy filling of his bun, Atsushi seemed lost in its color. As if snapped out of a trance, Atsushi looked back up at Shishido. He hoped that his words hadn't made the older classman sullen. It really wasn't his fault that the way he spoke about being a Zero was so very melancholic. It's just... that's how everything was to him. Atsushi began to wonder if there was a Zero out there in this world that didn't think the same. If there was, he would like to meet him or her.
"Well, it's like they say. We all want what we don't have." The words just seemed to fall off of his lips.
"Yeah, that sounds about right..." Shishido frowned a little, not liking the mood to be so melancholy. He had never enjoyed things he couldn’t change, and often fought them even when he knew it was futile. But it's not like they could change how they were born, or fight against their bodies very well. Shit, it was more depressing than he had thought.
Shoving another piece of bread in his mouth, Shishido rolled his shoulders to shake off the mood and flopped his hand down on Atsushi's head with a stern look. "Well, whatever. You're name is Atsushi, you've got a twin brother who's gonna care about you even if he doesn’t want to, and well, now you've got me. So. We'll work things out, right?"
His ears twitched at the presents of Shishido’s hand. “Right…though I’m not sure how good it is to have a wannabe woman caring for my well being.” The Kisarazu twin joked. It was nice to remember that he had his brother to count on being there for him and now along with Shishido it was even better. He had gone from being completely withdrawn and pretty much shy when he first met Shishido to where he enjoyed his company. “Maybe…my next partner won’t be like the ones in the past… maybe they will be someone I can like even if it isn’t my brother.”
"That's the spirit." Shishido grinned brightly, feeling a little of his own kind of hope from Atsushi's words. It wasn’t the end of the world if he didn’t have his partner at the moment, and he'd find his Sacrifice in time. And Atsushi'd find a good partner too, or just end up bossing his brother around. Something like that.