fatealteration | (no subject)

"Hey, looks like there's a town up ahead."

Reigen obviously saw it --- he was the one driving, so he saw just about everything. But Max wasn't sure that the others in the back had. She looked over the shoulder of her seat as she said it, making sure that her voice wasn't drowned out by the sound of the 80s citypop CD they acquired at the last town they ran into.

Max turned back around and squinted her eyes, trying her best to filter out the rays of blinding light that seemed to reflect off of everything.

"I think it might be near a beach, too," she said. "That looks like a seagull, right?" Max pointed at the figure of a bird flying overhead.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

aoihitomi

"What's that?"

From:

espresso_doppio

"Most people can't easily say what their first memory is. But I can." Doppio pulled back and gave Hitomi a sheepish grin. "It was you. You with your pendant."

From:

aoihitomi

"Was it?" It felt like so long ago... but Hitomi supposed it felt so long ago because it was. She had been with them for longer than she had been with even Van and the others.

"If you do decide to stay here... I can always find you with my pendant." Hitomi had her hesitations before, but now her thought were more steady. Maybe it was because Doppio was shaken up. She had to pull herself together.

From:

espresso_doppio

"You could." Doppio didn't say it in conciliatory manner - he said it with full confidence.

Doppio wiped at his eyes and let a few long moments pass before he spoke again. Reigen always told him to do a four-count when he was getting too worked up.

"Um...do you want to walk with me a little more? I'm not ready to go to bed yet."

From:

aoihitomi

"Let's. Maybe you'll remember something and you can give me a tour."

From:

espresso_doppio

Feeling steadier on his feet now, Doppio lead her on the walkway back to the main road with the rest of town not far off. Even in the darkness of night, the lamp lighting was warm and familiar.

“…Oh! Look.” Doppio gestured down at the path underfoot. There were white stones inlaid at the junctures of the pavement. Somehow they seemed to glow all their own. “These are called cat’s eyes. They reflect moonlight, you see? One time I wandered really far off where even the lamps stopped. I, um, got lost while trying to run wood for some repairs. But my father taught me about these. I was able to find my way back home.”

From:

aoihitomi

"Lead you home..." Hitomi repeated quietly. She reached up to grasp her pendant. "I guess that it's a little like my pendant. Leading you wherever you need to go."

From:

espresso_doppio

That was probably why he found watching her swing it back and forth so calming. "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyuu, juu...I thought you were casting a spell or something at first. I was afraid of crossing you for awhile."

From:

aoihitomi

"Really?" Hitomi was surprised to even think that Doppio might think that way. But... the girls at school were superstitious when it came to her readings. She probably shouldn't be surprised that something like dowsing might throw someone off.

"Well... I can't really hurt anyone with my powers. At least... not intentionally." A bad, but honest reading might upset someone, but she was just reading the cards.

From:

espresso_doppio

Doppio tried to imagine Hitomi hurting anyone now. It was impossible. He couldn't picture it at all.

"Yeah...at first, I really didn't know what you were doing. I didn't know if it was...like...something people just knew how to do, either, because of my missing memories. But then Reigen explained you were just speaking Japanese. ...Oh! I think I remember this street."

When they turned, it was into the village center. The street they walked followed a gentle ascent, and Doppio could the moon as it climbed over a tall rocky hill in the distance just beyond the bounds of the town. It was a pretty view during the day, but the moon above and the glimmering street below was even prettier to him. He ran his fingers idly over the textured limestone that comprised the buildings as he thought about what to point out.

"Yeah! Do you see that hill? When the sun rises, it rises that way, and if you follow the arc you can find some ru--" Doppio began to point but he was cut off by a door slamming open right into his face.

From:

aoihitomi

"Doppio!" Hitomi immediately pulled him back by the shoulders, then turned him around to get a good look at his injured face.

From:

espresso_doppio

Doppio stumbled as she tugged him away, dazed from the impact. His face stung, but it didn't really start hurting until he tried to breath and blood poured out of his nose instead. He covered his face immediately to wipe it away. "'M okay."

Even through his blood-filled nose, Doppio could smell booze wafting out from the building.

"Damn, is another donkey wanderin' around crashing into things again? I told that idiot Piras to round them up--oh." A gruff voice sounded from the other side of the open door, and a young man with a stained shirt took a moment to assess what had happened--scowling when he realized it was a person.

Another young man with a mop of dark hair and a staggering gait peered from around him. "What are ya doing hovering outside of people's doors this time of night, huh?"

From:

aoihitomi

Hitomi swallowed. Even though she didn't have a any powers that allowed her to assess the character of another person, she got a bad feeling about this guy.

"We're taking a walk," she said, a little too defensively, as if trying to overcompensate for her unease.

From:

espresso_doppio

Doppio squinted against the light pouring out of the building as he turned. He was put on alert just from one rude stranger, but he could see that there were two of them now. He shuffled to keep himself between them and Hitomi, his bearings quick to return.

“Oh, it’s…doesn’t he look familiar, Mura?” The one with the dark hair smirked in recognition.

“…Oh! Oh, yeah.” The drunken one’s lips curled in scorn. “It’s you. The Father’s kid.” He reached out to plant his hand on Doppio’s head to jostle it roughly. “So you managed to crawl back onto land, huh? Good for you. Everyone wrote you off as good as shark food.”

“Stop,” Doppio winced, pulling his head free. His nose throbbed even more now from the rough treatment but that didn’t matter to him as much as getting Hitomi away from these jerks did.

Edited Date: 2025-02-24 05:44 pm (UTC)

From:

aoihitomi

This wasn't good. They needed to get out of this situation right away.

"We're leaving now." Hitomi hooked her arm around Doppio's and attempted to lead him away.

From:

espresso_doppio

“Hey, hey, where are you going?” Doppio was yanked back forward by his shirt by the one who slammed his face. “C’mon, I’m sorry. Let me make it up to you and your girlfriend.” The tight hand on his shoulder was anything but friendly. His own hands reflexively went to smoothing out his shirt, but when he looked down—

Drip.

Blood. Staining the white fabric of Max’s shirt.

“What’s your name, bambola?” When Doppio looked up the one with dark hair was behind Hitomi, boxing her in. His blood began pounding in his ears. When had he gotten that close?

“Don’t touch her.” Doppio jerked but he was being held in place by the one that reeked of musty wine.

“Oh shut up.” The faux-friendly tone collapsed almost immediately into a frustrated growl. You of all people…you made it out of this dump to live it up with some girl like a morto di figa and for what? Do you even know what life has been like for the rest of us here, huh?? If Father ever had the sense to put you in your place you wouldn’t be looking so damn carefree.”

Doppio opened his mouth to snap back but the man’s thick arm closed around his wind pipe.

From:

aoihitomi

"Let go of him!" Hitomi's hands tightened around his arm, trying to yank it away from Doppio's throbbing neck.

From:

espresso_doppio

Doppio gasped and kicked like a fish caught on a hook.

‘Who are you!?’

‘What did I do to you…!?’

The answers wouldn’t come. His head was pounding and his field of vision was narrowing to pin pricks. The urge to vomit rose in his throat but it wouldn’t make it pass the crushing force around his esophagus. The last thing he could make out was the man taking hold of Hitomi then—

██████

Doppio blinked. He was suddenly on his hands and knees several feet away. He gasped in a harsh lungful of air - there was nothing around his throat now to stop him. His vision slowly returned and the first thing he could see was a small pool of blood beneath his nose on the ground. He whipped his head up, and Hitomi was somehow the only one left standing among them. The two men were laid out and groaning on the ground. They sounded as flummoxed as they did pained. Still, Doppio barely spared them a thought.

“Hitomi!” Doppio shakily pushed to his feet. “Are you okay?”

From:

aoihitomi

"Yeah," Hitomi said with a nod. She had no idea what had happened and her legs were on the verge of trembling, but she knew from the grunts and groans behind her that she couldn't let them fail now.

"Come on!" Hitomi ran towards Doppio, clapping her hand around his wrist as she passed.

From:

espresso_doppio

Doppio breathed a sigh of relief, but he didn’t have long to catch his breath before Hitomi was flying on her feet and it was all he could do to trip and drag her down with him as they descended.

“H-H-Hiiii—!” Doppio panted as they reached the cliffside, his legs ready to disintegrate.

From:

aoihitomi

Hitomi didn't stop until they were what she felt was a safe distance away. While Doppio might have been winded, she wasn't. Hitomi was thankful she was part of track club; she'd gotten more use of running in her time on Gaea -- and then here -- than she had in all of her 16 years on Earth.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

From:

espresso_doppio

Doppio collapsed against a fence that cut off the road from the brush leading to the cliffs, gagging from how hard he was gasping. The blood in his nose had started to congeal.

“…Huh?” It took him too long to process Hitomi’s question.

From:

aoihitomi

"All of those guys went down and suddenly you moved away really fast." So fast, in fact, that Hitomi had not made out what had actually happened; she had to fill in the blanks herself.