hippocarnival | Daybreak Academy

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YUYA SAKAKI UN: FUNDIRECTION

STATUS: Student Grade 9

ACCOLADES: (Here is a list of leading roles Yuya's has in school theater performances over the past two years, plus a glowing review of his familiar Odd-Eyes)

BIO: Hello! You can call me Yuya. I'm from Sendai, Japan. This is my second year in Daybreak Academy. I'm a Tamer, and Odd-Eyes is my familiar. He's the big red dragon that hangs out in the courtyards. He's friendly but he tries to steal food sometimes. I speak Japanese and English but not very good French. I'm also in the theater club. I'm in Lumiere 203. Let's be friends!

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[ It's hard when your older self tried to kill you and you really don't want to believe you grow up to be a murderer.

There's a complicated feeling of what it must mean for somebody's mother to be in a different country— to Shuuya, if he couldn't live with his mother, it would be the same as if she weren't even alive, that same degree of longing. He's sure Yuya must miss his mother a lot too, and the guilt of bringing it up digs at him. ]

Sorry... But yeah, I meant the other kids. I see them around a lot, like siblings. But you're an only child, like me. Is it lonely? I guess you have Toki, though, and Kuroko.

[There's a pause before Yuya turns to pull his desk chair out and offers it to Kano. He sits on the desk itself, nearly banging his head in the process.]

I don't think it's lonely. I mean... when you don't fit in, it's kind of lonely, but even though I don't have siblings I've had friends who are just as important. Like Gongenzaka, and Nana, and Toki's here, and...

[... And Kano. Yuya's gaze drifts down before he jerks his attention up and looks out the window.] Yeah. I'm really lucky, having some amazing friends.

[ When you don't fit in, yeah. That should be the crux of it, but it's not like Shuuya ever really tied talking to the other kids around in the neighborhood either, so rather than being rejected and being lonely in that sense, he just never really tried making friends. He didn't need them, like he didn't need siblings, because he always had his mother. And now she's gone, and he chews at his bottom lip listening to Yuya's sentence taper off, following his gaze towards the window and trying to find whatever Yuya's seeing out there. ]

Must be nice...

[ He has no idea what that's like, to have amazing friends. Friends in general. Can't relate. ]

But it's not surprising, either. 'cause you're nice, and you help people. So there's no way you don't fit in.

You think so? [Yuya smiles a little as he turns back to Shuuya.]

Actually, I didn't fit in at all back home. I didn't have any close friends until I met Gongenzaka. And then it was just him. But when I came to the Academy I met Nana and other people that are becoming amazing friends, too.

[He tilts his head a little, looking fond.] There's nicer people, and people who can do more than I can. But being here, I'm glad I found people who still like me.

[ It's kind of hard for him to imagine Yuya not fitting in anywhere, but maybe Yuya came from a really small town or a town without a lot of other children his age. Even then it's still hard, because Yuya must have gone to school and there's so many other kids in school and surely then people would gravitate towards him. It makes Shuuya think about how nervous he is about the concept of school, of having so many people around, and if he were forced to go, he hopes people would just leave him alone. ]

Are you happy here...? Don't you wish you could go home and be with your mother?

Hm? [Yuya pauses, tilting his head.]

I do miss my mom sometimes, but I talk with her a lot over the phone. [He pulls it out of his pocket and wiggles it for emphasis.] And I like it here, too, because here is where I have so many friends, and I can learn about magic and get stronger with Odd-Eyes. And if I didn't come here, then I never would have met Nana, or Naoki, or...

[Yuya's gaze drifts down then back up.] Or you.

[ Oh... All they had was a landline back home, but Shuuya never had his own cell phone, and he wouldn't have been able to afford a fancy smart phone either, so... he's jealous... what a cool phone. It's not like he has anybody he could call anyways, though.

Also, magic is fake, he keeps telling himself, and he's not so sure about Odd-Eyes and doesn't know who Naoki is, but he's met Nana and thinks it would be worth coming here to meet her, and the same thing about meeting Yuya, but definitely not him. ]

Eh... haha... [ Ugh, that's embarrassing. He hates that he feels happy, hearing that last bit. ] No, I just made a lot of trouble for you, so...! Um.

And I make trouble for everyone else. [His expression twists wryly, his sense of humor getting a lite weighed down by how true he believes it.] Besides, it's not a big deal. If I could do anything to make you less hurt, that makes me happy.

[He points at Kano's face.] So I can see that smile.

[ That's so embarrassing... He's incredibly embarrassed, and can feel the heat in his ears, because he hates his stupid awkward smile and doesn't ever really want anybody to see it. He's self-conscious... Don't look at him. ]

Nn, you did a lot to make me less hurt, so let's just leave it at that!!

[Yuya laughs, even as his heart twists with the ever present reminder Kano's gone, missing, and it's impossible to stop worrying about it.

He waves his hand.] Okay, if that's what you want. So, did you want to do anything? Besides return the towel.

[ Thank heavens they're moving on. He did actually have something he wanted to ask Yuya, apart from returning the towel and never properly saying "thank you" but he's having trouble finding a good time for that and it feels like the opportunity's passed. ]

Actually, I wanted to ask you something.

Sure. [Yuya raises a brow and tilts his head curiously, leaning against the rail of his bed casually.] What's up?

Do you... believe in doppelgängers? The story where, if you see somebody who looks like yourself, it means one of you is going to die.

[ Because. He thinks he saw something like that. But instead of being the one to die, the other person had disappeared instead, and that's not how it should have been. Shuuya is the one who isn't supposed to be here, and at this point in his life, if he were to die, he really doesn't think he would mind. ]

Doppelgangers? [Yuya pauses, then rubs the back of his neck.] Well, it's not like just seeing the doppelganger kills you. It's just, they're pretty dangerous creatures and if they're taking your face then they'll probably kill you so they can trick the people who know you into getting eaten by them.

[He's dealt with one recently enough that the lecture is fresh in his head. But then he realizes it's terrifying and quickly startles, waving his hands.] But you don't have to worry about that! It's really rare to see them, even in the Outlands!

[ Haha, yikes, alright!!! He was definitely this close to getting his face ripped off and murdered in cold blood and he was just barely saved from that fate, dying in his kitchen back home would have been vastly preferable to that.

Really rare is still possible. Ahh, geez, that was a doppelgänger and he's going to die, he never should have left the closet. ]

I'm going to go back inside the clo— uh. To the room. Bye.

Hey, the school is safe! [Mostly.] No doppelgangers or any monsters are going to come here and hurt you, okay?

[Is this reassuring? Yuya's pretty sure this isn't reassuring.] What's got you thinking about them, anyway?

[ There's a dragon living outside the dorm. Yuya's not fooling anybody. ]

Mm... Well... I think I saw one! So if you see somebody who looks like me, run the other way! I don't want you to get eaten.

[ Or shoved into a closet! It looks like his doppelgänger has the habit of trapping his meals in small spaces to feast on later. ]

[It's different when it's his monster.

Yuya's expression slips a little at the explanation. He had been dodging around the topic, because he wasn't sure if Shuuya had seen any evidence of the truth.]

He's... he's not a doppelganger. But he is Kano, too. [Yuya looks sideways, then back at Kano. He can't tell if pretending or the truth or better at all, but if Shuuya's already seen hints.]

It's the same thing for everyone else you've seen too, the kids with really similar older siblings.

[ He's seen the truth and he wants to deny it, because the truth is ugly and hateful and he doesn't want it to be that he grows up, and hates himself to the point of wanting to get rid of him. It hurts because he understands why, and he can so clearly imagine himself doing exactly what Kano did, but at the same time, it's hateful. ]

That's what a doppelgänger is. A monster with the same face.

[ And Kano is a monster. ]

How come you don't have one?

[Yuya shrugs.] I haven't heard anything about what's going on. Maybe I'm too childish by myself.

[He grins, briefly, before his expression shifts to concern.] Shuuya, did something happen?

[ He'd like to believe that, but the change in tone has Shuuya glancing down, self-conscious and a bit embarrassed— shame, he thinks, is what's making his stomach knot up and feel like rocks, because admitting there's something he doesn't understand and needs help with is about the last thing he wants to do. The denial is right on the tip of his tongue, the urge to shake his head and smile and say "no, nothing!"

But at the same time, for the first time in his life, he has somebody to talk to. ]

The monster with my face... he said, "If you leave this building, I will kill you." I'm scared. I want to go home to my mother.

[He said what.]

He definitely won't because I'll kick his ass. [And because he's missing, wished himself away but Yuya can't cry about that in front of Shuuya so he's just! Going to make jokes instead!!

His heart hurts.]

[ Kano said exactly that, but whether or not he meant it as a joke doesn't matter, because he knew Shuuya would take it seriously and it's an easy way of keeping the boy contained inside the dorms without getting into any trouble outside.

But even when Yuya jokes about it, Shuuya flinches internally at the image of Yuya hurting somebody else- even somebody like Kano who more than deserves it- because the pain of being hit and kicked is something still very real and raw to him, and he reaches to tug at Yuya's sleeve and shake his head. ]

You don't have to do that! I think- if you just yell at him, that'll be enough! Sometimes, being yelled at hurts more, knowing the other person is really really mad.

[Yuya's expression eases, and he belatedly remembers not to swear in front of the kid. It's impossible for him to cling to his fake anger when Shuuya immediately talks him down from it, dip instead of running with the facade he starts to crumple with misery.]

Sorry. [A smile twitches, briefly, and then he slowly lowers to his knees.] I
You don't deserve being told something like that, but... I don't think Kano really meant to do it. He's hurt the same way you are. He's my friend, though, and Kano and Shuuya however they are are important to me.

[ If Kano had been hurt the same way he had been, he must have lived through all the same things too- watching his mother die in front of him, feeling weak and powerless and... somehow, he had grown up to become callous and hateful. It's that thought that scares him, of becoming somebody mean, hateful, and hated. What happened... How could somebody like that still make a friend like Yuya? He doesn't get it. ]

If it was a joke, it was a bad one. [ he mumbles, because it really really wasn't funny. He had really believed it. All his life, he was given a "rule" and he lived by it, without question. How could he not believe this one?

...

He looks up at Yuya and gives him a strange look. ]

You're friends, but you call him "Kano"?

[ isn't that backwards ]

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