Two nights ago I had this weird dream about a futuristic dystopian YA-ish plot, but with ARR cast. Evil king, rebellion, yadda yadda yadda and then for some reason at the end Aizen becomes the new king.
Since the king outfit was more or less just a super fancy military uniform I thought I’d try to make an edit.
The weird dream has some neat ideas that can be fleshed out into a real story, it’s kind of interesting. What caused the dystopia was some disease that caused a zombie apocalypse. Society turns into some deserted wasteland and the small country operates in a tight walled enclosure. But there’s no more zombies left so it’s not like Attack on Titan. It’s just that there’s literally nothing outside besides dry grass and rocks, so nobody’s interested in leaving. Also there’s weird timetravel happening, because reasons.
Man, if I could write out all my oddly specific dream plots I’ll probably be a novelist with some decent body of work to my name. Not big bestseller or anything, maybe more like “airport book” type of work that people can read when there’s nothing better to do.
Fariy tale AU derived from the story of Hansel and Gretel.
Contains SPOILERS about the twins’ curse.
Originally wanted one of the ARR boys to narrate it but decided against it since I’m not sure how this would have turned out using the voice of Kuro (≧ ∀≦)
The ending might sound abrupt but I think I ended it the right way ( °꒳° )
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Deep in the mountains, in the Shrine of the Hidden God, there lived tsukumo-gami twins named Yura and Gaku.
One day, as Yura was playing with his animal friends, he smelled a sweet fragrance. It smelled like the sweets that he adores so much. He called Gaku to come outside.
"Gaku, dost thou smell the sweets?"
"You're right, Brother. Maybe the others are coming with sweets to share with us"
They waited for a while - especially Yura who cannot wait to get his hands on the sweets. But alas! There are no approaching footsteps to be heard.
"Gaku, let us go and find where the smell is coming from"
Gaku obliged and they followed the sweet scent. Soon, they found a house made of candy. There are even candies that Yura has never sampled before.
He looked at Gaku with shining eyes and said, "Gaku, I shall partake some of these sweets."
"Why is there such a thing in the middle of the woods anyway?" Gaku was looking at the house skeptically.
"Maybe this was prepared by our ayakashi friends for my birthday," Yura grinned.
"Huh? But it’s our birthday, not just yours."
As skeptical as he is about the whole thing, Gaku let Yura eat his fill while he went back to the shrine and grabbed a book to pass the time as he waited for Yura to finish.
A few hours pass when a pale man with long violet hair appeared.
"Well, well, well, it seems I caught something interesting."
Yura stopped eating and Gaku looked up from his book.
"Dear Sir, perchance is this thy house?" Yura inquired as his hands froze in midair with sweets.
"Yes, it is," the man answered with a mysterious smile.
"It’s very delicious!"
"Oho, it seems that you enjoyed it."
Yura beamed at the man innocently.
"How about your brother? Why did he not eat if it is that good?" the man asked as he casted a glance in Gaku's direction.
"Forgive him, Sir. He is not fond of sweets," Yura replied as he shoved another candy in his mouth.
Gaku stood up and said, "Brother, that should be enough sweets, let us go home."
“Wait,” the pale man stopped them as he languidly walked over to Yura.
“What do you say to an afternoon tea? Something to wash down the sweets you just ate. Plus, I planned on eating the cake I baked this morning. I could use some company,” he offered.
“Gaku, what say thou? A cake sounds nice. Like a birthday cake,” Yura looked at Gaku with pleading eyes.
Gaku sighed and replied, “If you really insist Brother.”
“Prithee good Sir, we shall accompany you to an afternoon tea. I am Yura and this is my brother Gaku. What is thy name?”
“I’m Douman. My dear Yura, you mentioned a birthday cake. Does today happen to be your birthday?” Douman asked as he opened the door to his candy house.
“Why, yes indeed. Not only mine but also Gaku’s for we are twins,” Yura replied as they entered the house after Douman.
“Have a seat over there. I’ll go get the cake and make us some tea,” Douman gestured to the table as he went to the kitchen.
He carefully took out teacups from the cupboard and with a glint in his eye, procured a small vial with violet liquid. The vial contains the blood of the insect that harbors the hex he created – a Kodoku hex, where he placed insects inside a jar and they kill each other until only one survived. He had been holding on to it waiting for the right test subjects to use it. The presence of the twins at his doorstep was like a blessing in disguise.
It was the right decision to make this candy house, he thought.
Now, who should I curse? He contemplated as he prepared the tea. Maybe I should place the curse on Gaku, after all, he didn’t even appreciate the sweets I prepared for my house.
“Sir Douman,” Yura said suddenly that Douman was pulled from his thoughts.
“Yes, my dear?” he looked up from what he was doing.
“How long hast thou been living hither? Long have we lived in these woods and thy house was never seen,” Yura asked curiously.
“I’ve only been here recently. It took some time to build this house. I was plenty curious what this house might attract,” Douman said mysteriously.
“Oh, doth the creatures of the forest ever snacked on thy house?”
“Yes, they do sometimes but it’s not a big issue for someone like me,” Douman replied as he dumped the contents of the vial in one of the teacups.
“And what are you?” Gaku finally spoke raising one eyebrow.
“Oh, just a man who loves to bake peacefully. It’s why I built this house in the woods. There all done.” Douman proceeded to bring the tea over first and then brought out the cake next.
He sliced the cake and said happy birthday to each twin as he handed them their slice. Yura responded as cheerfully as ever at the sight of the cake while Gaku just looked indifferent.
“Brother, you can have this,” Gaku said as he handed the cake to Yura after receiving it.
“I don’t suppose you’ll also decline tea, Gaku?” Douman asked while thinking to himself it was the right decision to put the potion on Gaku’s teacup.
“I’ll have some since Brother’s having some. But I’m not interested in the cake.”
“Lovely,” Douman said with a thin smile that crept on his face.
Gaku noticed the weird smile on Douman’s face as he took a sip of his tea. Meanwhile, Yura is happily stuffing his face with cake. He was really skeptic about all this but decided to go along with Yura’s wishes. After that little tea he had, he felt sick. He set his teacup down with a thud that Yura stopped eating.
“Gaku, is something wrong?” Yura asked as he examined his brother.
Gaku went pale and started to fall forward. Yura caught him just in time.
“What hast thou done to Gaku?” Yura looked at Douman with eyes filled with rage as he scooped Gaku in his arms.
Douman smirked as he looked at the sight of the twins.
“My dear Yura. I merely gave you food to which you happily agreed. And a happy birthday to both of you” Douman said in a sing-song voice clearly mocking the twins for letting their guard down. “I hope you enjoy my present”
“What hast thou done?” Yura repeated the question with urgency. He can hear Gaku’s shallow breathing beneath him.
“Well, I was playing with a hex when the two of you came around. I thought it would be the perfect experiment to use it on tsukumo-gami twins,” Douman explained as he looked at them triumphantly.
“Oh, I see. An onmyoji with a hex,” Yura replied, picking up on the fact that Douman is an onmyoji and continued to stare daggers at him. “How can I cure Gaku?”
“Cure? There is no cure my dear Yura.”
Yura was getting desperate. He needed to cure Gaku fast. He can feel his brother getting weaker by the minute. He looked at the table and saw the knife used to slice the cake. He took it and threw the knife at Douman who was struck.
Then, he quickly hoisted Gaku on his back and moved out of the house.
Douman’s mad laughter echoed in the empty house and can be heard as he walked out. He called out to Yura as he exited, “Mark my words, Yura. You will come back to find me. I’m sure of it. And when the time came that you wished to see me, I’ll be here, waiting.”
Yura swiftly walked away. All he cared about was tending to his brother. After some time, he noticed that the sweet fragrance was gone. He looked back and found that the space where the candy house had been, was now empty.
He thought that it might have all been an illusion. But the weight of Gaku on his back is proof that everything was real and his brother had been hexed.
The end.
Some notes: I wrote the draft for this long before I actually made an effort to search about the Kodoku hex (since it was not explicitly mentioned in the twins’ routes how the curse was casted to them). Then, I found out from searching that my draft is going in the right direction about using the blood of the insect because from my search the “fluids” of the final insect standing is used as a poison of sorts.
Inspired by Laby (from discord) who was looking for Aki angst. This is for you 🖤
Light angst only. Aki’s POV. This is over 2000 words and the longest that I’ve written for ARR so far. [edit: 2356 words to be exact]
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It was almost the finals period of my second year in high school. We were about to move again soon. Every year, we move to different locations for my parents' work. We do it based on the school calendar. And unless it's really urgent, we only ever move at the end of the school year.
I was at the public library studying Math. I love the peace and quiet of the library. Plus, I can read other things after I finished studying.
That was when she came into my life. She sat on the opposite side of the table where I was at. Then, she opened her bag and took out her books to study.
I was not really interested with other people so I kept on reading the novel in my hand.
After a while she spoke to me, "Umm..."
I accidentally looked her way. I should ignore her. I swiftly returned my eyes to the book that I was holding.
"Sorry to disturb your reading."
Oh, so you do know you're distracting me.
"But I can't help seeing that the book you have for Math is the same as mine," she continued what she was trying to say and this made me look at her book and to mine.
She's right.
I finally looked at her way. It would have been impolite to ignore her.
"Umm, you’re a second year high school student also, right?"
She was staring at me with curiosity. I just nodded. No reason to deny it now that she had seen my book.
"I'm Saotome Futaba. I'm also a 2nd year high school student. Umm, since you're reading now does that mean you're done with your homework?"
"That's right."
"Can you please help me out here? I'm really stuck with this problem and there isn't anyone I could ask. Gin-san isn't here today. I'll treat you to some snack afterwards. Please?"
Her eyes turned from that of curiosity to pleading. As much as I don't like talking to people, it wouldn't do to cause a scene here if she gets angry at me so I replied, "Sure."
"Thank you! You're a lifesaver!" She beamed brightly at me.
Saotome Futaba, huh. Well, this is a neighboring town so I guess there's not much harm in helping her.
She reached out to show her assignment to me and pointed the problem she was stuck on.
"This one. I just can't seem to get how to do it. Math has always been my weak subject."
"Oh, that," I replied as I glanced at her book and proceeded to put by novel down and picked up my pen. I showed her how to do it for that question.
"Oh, I see. So that's how it goes. I'll try the next ones myself."
While she was busy working at the other problem. I quietly slid my books inside my bag. I can see that's she's going in the right direction with the way she was solving it. It was time for me to go or else she would have kept talking to me. She is quite a hard worker. I slipped out of my seat without a sound. Her head was still lowered and focused on her book. I dropped off my book by the counter to return it.
I can't help watching her. I still saw her when she finally raised her head and said, "Nice. I got it done. Thank yo- uh? Where did he go?"
I hurried to go outside before she took notice of me.
---
Meanwhile inside the library, Futaba spoke softly to herself, "That's weird he was just here a moment ago. The trick he showed me helped me solve the other problems as well I didn't even notice him leave. I haven't thanked him yet. I didn't even get to ask his name."
She shoved her book inside her bag. She got up and went to the counter and asked, "Excuse me, have you noticed a boy about my age with glasses?"
"Yes, he dropped off the book he was reading and then left."
"Then, I might still catch him. Thank you!"
Unfortunately, he was already long gone and there was no longer any trace of him when Futaba got out of the library.
---
A few days later.
I decided to come back to the library. It was only a week before we officially move out. I wanted to at least finish that novel I was reading. I was hunting the shelves for that book but it didn't seem to be where it was. It would be too bad if it was checked out but I should the staff first just in case.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for a novel-" I didn't finish my sentence because I saw that it was on the counter.
The staff's eyes widen for a moment. He picked up the novel I was eyeing and asked, "Is this what you were looking for?"
"Ah, yes. Thank you." I was about to reach for the book but he kept on staring at me.
"Um, can I help you?"
"Sorry, it was rude of me to stare," he bowed apologetically and continued, "But you look like the boy Futaba-chan described to me. She also mentioned that that boy was reading this book when she met him. Would you happen to be the one who helped her with her Math? She's the same age as you and she's got long hair."
I knew what he was talking about. It's that girl I helped. I saw his ID and it reads as 'Ginnojo' and I vaguely remember her saying that 'Gin-san' was not around. Well, he's here now so I guess she can get help from him.
I gave him a confused look and replied, "I'm sorry but I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, I got a message. Excuse me." I ended the conversation and I pulled out my phone as an excuse.
"Oh, wait, your book," he tried to offer the book to me but I ignored him and went out of the library.
This place is a bust. I would have liked to finish it. Maybe they have it in the city we will be moving to.
I didn't expect for her to ask her friend to keep a lookout for me. I mean, I only helped her so she won't cause a fuss.
Our family keeps on moving from one place to another so I never bothered to make friends or even talk to people. I only ever spoke the bare minimum to my classmates and teachers. It is a blessing that I'm good with my academics so they didn't mind me being quiet at all. I knew that we'll eventually leave anyway so why bother.
They would just forget about me. I suddenly remembered that time in first grade when my close friends cried when I told them I'm moving. I saw one of them in sixth grade and it was an unpleasant memory.
"Wait! Ren-kun!" I shouted at the boy I saw. I'm sure it was him because he's got the same pin on his bag years ago.
"Huh, who are you?" he looked at me suspiciously.
"Kurahashi Akiyasu. We were friends in first grade. Don't you remember me?"
"Sorry, I don't know anyone with that name," he replied curtly and walked away.
He didn't even give me a second glance. He forgot about me. That's why it was weird for me that that girl was looking for me. I was expecting that she already forgot some stranger who helped her.
"Wait!"
Someone shouted behind me. I turned around without thinking. It was that girl.
I kept my cool, pretended not to know her and kept walking. I didn't expect her to show up. I was lost in my thoughts thinking about why the hell did she even bother to find me, a total stranger.
"Hey, look out!" she shouted urgently.
I still kept on walking and I suddenly found myself tripping on something. I fell on the ground. How pathetic. She caught up to me.
She held out her hand to me and said, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." I stood up and then I felt some pain on my knee. I scraped it. I realized that I tripped on a ball. A little boy picked it up. He bowed and mumbled an apology and left.
I walked slowly this time.
"Hey, you're bleeding," she said as she walked beside me.
I forgot about her for a moment.
"That's fine."
"Why are you hurrying away anyway? It was a good thing I was at the library when you came."
She was there?
"I was browsing the shelves looking for reference materials for my assignment. Gin-san immediately told me about you but he said he wasn't sure since he never saw you before. Plus you denied knowing me. I guess that's not surprising since we only ever met once anyway. Do you remember me? I'm the girl you helped last time. Saotome Futaba. I didn't get to thank you or ask your name last time."
I had no intention of being buddies with you.
"Why don't we sit on that bench and let me at least put some bandages on your scrape? You did help me once."
"Sure," I was starting to get tired of walking and I can feel people around staring at us. I was about to pretend that it was not me but thought better of it. I felt that I won't be able to fool her since she did know my face unlike that library staff.
She took out some bandages and offered to put it on me. "I'll do it myself. Thanks," I got them from her and put it on my knee.
"Here," she handed me a bottled drink. "It was nice that a vending machine is right next to this bench. I finally managed to treat you to something just like I said I would." She smiled at me and asked, "Why were you trying to run away anyway? I'm not going to do anything to you. I just wanted to properly thank you for last time."
"I thought you already forgot about me," the truth slipped from me. I was supposed to act nonchalant about this but curiosity about this girl got the better of me.
"Eh? But that happened just a few days ago! It doesn't sit right with me that I didn't even thank you. I did say that I'll treat you to something. That's why I asked Gin-san to keep his eye out for you."
"Well, you already said your thanks. I'm heading home now," I replied trying to cut off our conversation.
"Wait! Why are you in a hurry? You won't make friends that way."
"I don't need them."
"Ehh? You don't have friends? Then, I'll be your friend. What's your name?"
I was surprised by what she said that I stopped.
"Why?"
"Hm?"
I was at a loss. I didn't understand why she's like this so I decided to ask her, "Why are you being like this to a total stranger?"
"Well, you helped me once and I really appreciate that you helped a total stranger. I'm a stranger to you as well, right?"
Well, she has a point.
"Still, you don't have to offer to be friends with me. Why go that far?" I couldn't understand that. People come and go. And especially for someone like me who's always moving places, people don't really remember someone like that much.
"You just said you don't have friends. There's no limit to making friends anyway. The fact that you helped me out even if you didn't know me means you're not a bad person."
"How can you be so sure about that?"
"Well, for one, we won't be having this conversation if you're a bad person. So, going back to what I said, what do you say to being friends?"
"No, thanks. I'm sure you'll forget me soon enough."
"No, I won't. Why are you so sure about that anyway?"
I didn't speak. I just sat silently. The atmosphere became awkward.
"I guess it's not my place to ask if it's personal. Will you at least tell me your name?"
"Kurahashi. Kurahashi Akiyasu," I gave in and told her my name. Somehow, I am hoping she might actually remember me.
"Kurahashi Akiyasu," she repeated. "There! I wrote your name on the bottle cap. Give me yours."
She snatched the bottled drink from my hands and wrote something.
"Here," she said as she offered me again the bottle for the second time. "I wrote my name as well on the bottle cap. I'll keep this bottle cap so I won't forget your name. You can keep yours as well so you don't forget me."
"This is stupid," I looked at her incredulously.
"Well, you said I might forget you and you're right. I just might. So to mark this day thay I treated you to a bottled drink, I'll keep this cap with your name on it to help me remember," she smiled at me.
"Whatever. I'm going home."
I stood up but she held my arm to stop me.
"Wait, Kurahashi-kun. Will you come to the library again?"
"No. We'll be moving soon. You won't see me anymore."
"You can't say that for sure. Who knows, we might meet again in the future," she stopped talking and appeared to think for a moment. She continued, "What do you say to being friends if we meet again? Maybe by then, if we became friends, you'll be able to tell me your story."
"Well, maybe," I replied vaguely and felt a small smile tug at my lips. I felt her sincerity and can’t help but hope that we might indeed meet again. I pocketed the bottle cap after I threw away the bottle.
"I hope we meet again. I'll remember your name, Kurahashi-kun," she called again after me as I make my way home.
Maybe, I can actually trust her to remember me. She did go out of her way to find me.
ARR Role quests aka your wol chasing 8 primalish Original CharactersTM accidentally summoned cause heck being forced to fight primals repeatedly is a horrible experience!
