Chapter Text
Things were going bad.
Oh, things were diabolic! Atrocious, horrific, heinous! The moon may as well crash down now, turning the world to debris upon impact! Even that may be easier to fix than this !
“EMU! LEFT!”
“RIGHT?”
“NO! NO, EMU, LEFT!” Losing his footing with the ferocity that he threw his arms with, Tsukasa stumbled over. Throat hoarse - as if he had carelessly dragged a cacti through his pharynx three times over - and arms sore. All while Emu seemed to follow her own personal compass, going the complete wrong direction. Tsukasa was sure he could hear buzzing of some form. Perhaps it was his heart, preparing itself to explode and rid him of this distress. Or maybe it was Nenerobo malfunctioning in the background, seemingly morphing into a microwave rather than an intelligent robot. “EMU!”
“YEAH?” Looking down from the stage, she plopped a stereo down as if it weighed nothing. Flooding the floor with a rumble equivalent to an earthquake. A strangled scream left Tsukasa’s mouth as he threw himself to his knees.
In truth, from an outsider's perspective, all that was wrong was the placement of a speaker. Emu had attempted to fix it, but alas, Tsukasa’s perfectionism led him to a point where he nearly lost his voice trying to get it in the right place. Glancing eyes from Nene burnt into his back, as he could sense her asking herself why doesn’t the idiot just move it himself ?
Oh, how he loved that girl, but oh, what a fool she was.
Being a star requires training of the mind, soul, heart and voice! To meticulously perfect your ability through your providal of varying emotions, all at the drop of a hat if the script so desires it! Performing with a trembling voice as you gasp for air, throughout a monologue that metaphorically depicts the protagonist descending into madness!
…it, unfortunately, did not require arm strength training. Just looking at the speaker made his arms want to snap in two.
“How long does it take to move a speaker…?” Approaching Nene with a bag of cookies in her hand, Saki gestured to Tsukasa and Emu with her cane. Shoulders that quickly shot up and down answered the question for her; the reason failed to reach Nene, the initial spectator, just as much as it did Saki. “Want one?” She shook the cookies in Nene’s face.
“Aren’t those for Aoyagi-kun when he arrives…?” Nene shrugged her arms and leaned against the wall.
“Well, yeah, but… I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you had just one~” Stretching out her last word in a hopeful attempt to entice Nene, Saki watched with glee as the other girl took a cookie and raised it to her lips.
“Thanks… Where did you get these?” A small bite. Gingerbread, huh? She had no idea Touya liked gingerbread.
“I have my contacts…” In other words, they had been pre-prepared by Emu for today after receiving Kohane’s plea for aid, and Saki had been the first to find the stash. “Anyways, aren’t they so yummy?”
“Have you already had one?” As she spoke, she broke off a crumb of the cookie and fed it to a stirring Nenerobo - Rui had warned Nene not to touch her while he was gone, for he intended to perform special effects during the show. While Nene had her concerns about the effectiveness of the show, for Tsukasa had spent the vast majority of his time decorating rather than telling everyone to rehearse, she trusted the two boys' judgment. Though she’d rather die than say it to their faces.
“Correction, three.” Spluttering from Nene voiced her shock before her side eye did so, “I had to make sure they were safe for my baby bro, okay?”
“Aren’t you like, a week older than him?”
“He’s still my baby brother! And yes, he is amazing and independent and I trust him with whatever he does! But like… taste testing is a lifelong sibling thing, you know? You can’t grow out of the ‘taste tests’!” Listening to that excuse just reminded Nene of Rui. Growing up an only child alongside somebody that feels like family is bound to have a few annoying sibling-esque memories attached. Unfortunately for Nene, the annoying memories seemed to outweigh the endearing ones. Oh well… she deemed them endearing in their own way.
“Does he like gingerbread, then?”
“He and onii-chan baked some for me when I was in the hospital.” Another side eye from Nene, though it was one with curious rather than judgemental intention, led Saki to elaborating, “He used to come over our house a lot for ‘piano lessons’, but our house was the only one he could really be a kid in. It got to the point onii-chan would ask to visit me or to bake or even go to the park when he knew Touya was visiting, just so he got some time to be a kid.” After that, Saki’s lip quivered a little as she mumbled to herself, “I really thought onii-chan had forgotten this. His memory does have its bad moments.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing! Just thinking out loud!” Swiftly shoving a cookie in her mouth so she no longer had to think, Saki stared over at her older brother for a moment. While his memory was gradually improving and his ability to recall parts of his childhood had rapidly increased with Touya’s presence, Saki couldn’t shake the fear that he’d someday forget all the memories that kept her going.
Oh well.
At the very least, he had remembered their old childhood traditions.
That had to count for something good.
“Yay! We did it!” Thud! The speaker hit the floor once more.
“EMU! IT’S WONKY!” Thud! Again! Tsukasa took a large step onto the stage and pulled himself onto it, after momentarily flailing due to overestimating the distance.
“Huuuh? But it’s in the right place, see? Does it matter if it's facing the left a little?” To taunt Tsukasa, she moved it a little further left. What she ended up prompting was an eldritch screech bursting through Tsukasa’s open mouth, as her eyes instantly flickered to the windows; the pitch alone could probably make them burst into a million itty bitty pieces.
“PUT. IT. BACK.”
“Aww…” Despite a pout, she moved it to sit the way he wanted and walked over to him. “But it’s fun when you go all like waaargh aggaaaghgh !”
“Please, repeat that?”
“Waaargh aggaaaghgh?”
“Nevermind.” He folded his arms and turned to Nene and Saki, who wiped the crumbs from their lips as if they had been caught doing something felonious. “YOU TWO! ARE YOU READY?”
“WHAT?” Shouting back, Saki giggled.
“Don’t egg him on or anything. I think he’s the source of my chronic migraines.” Plopping the last of her cookie in her mouth, Nene walked towards the stage’s steps.
“Oh, but he’s so fun!” That statement nearly made Nene stop in her tracks to dramatically turn and face him, only for her to realise she would be just as bad as the man she had just blamed for her migraines. Besides, she believed he could be fun. On a good day. If he wasn’t in earshot to hear her say that. He could never hear her say that. Any time it had happened before, she simply chose to ignore.
“Saki-chan, quickly, quickly! We need to get on stage before Aoyagi-kun and Rui-kun arrive!” Frantically waving her arms towards Saki, Emu jumped up and down a few times in her designated spot.
“I’m coming as quickly as I can, Emu!” The moment her legs reached the top of the stage steps, Tsukasa ran past her to pull the curtain. He could only pray Rui remembered his cue to open it.
“Here we are, Aoyagi-kun.” With an outstretched hand, Rui gestured to the very stage that Touya looked upon with glee. The Wonder Stage. A colourful manifestation of whatever wonder bled into the script’s pages, leaking into the souls of the performers as they brought it to life. Oh, how he loved watching performances.
Especially when the performance was for him. For him . Tsukasa was too good to him.
“Hehe, I feel as if I am stargazing when I look in your eyes right now, Aoyagi-kun.” A swift turn towards the voice speaking led him to watching Rui’s trail as he approached Nenerobo. “Now, why don’t you take one of the front seats? Since this is a free performance, people have begun to pile in.” As his eyes flickered to the growing crowd, Touya felt a pwang of satisfaction that even a selfish show such as this had caught the attention of those visiting Phoenix Wonderland. His brother had such charisma to draw in a crowd no matter the intention of the play, after all. A smile crept along his lips as he made his way to the front of the crowd, fiddling with the collar of his shirt as he did so - the fizzing within his chest emerged as electricity in his fingertips, zapping everything as he stimmed. This was too exciting.
After watching Rui bring Nenerobo behind the curtain, indicating a near start, Touya found himself eavesdropping on a family that sat near him.
“They didn’t have a show planned today, as far as I’m aware…” A gruff older voice attempted to hush his screaming child, who made Touya’s ears burn in agony. While the excitement was endearing, and it wasn’t like loud noises always brought Touya to distress (hell, depending on the setting, it could actually be his definition of comfort), but the pitch that this child screamed at made his ears ring.
“But daaaaad , it’s WONDERLANDS X SHOWTIME! You saw Kamishiro-san! I wanna watch! I wanna watch!” He wasn’t sure whether the ringing was the continuous screaming or just his ears at this point, although the enthusiasm the kid held when it came to supporting his older brother’s group did bring his heart some comfort.
“Alright, I suppose we can sit and watch a little, can’t we, honey?” A softer voice, almost like honey, brought comfort to both the child and the father as they both settled down. Shivers flooded down Touya’s spine.
She sounded so similar to his mother.
“Alright, alright, everyone, if you could settle down for me, please?” Shattering the thoughts that attempted to flood Touya’s brain, he turned around to face Rui as he spoke into a microphone. Oh, it was like he could sense when distress wanted to consume him. Hell, Touya hadn’t even seen the curtains move. Similarly, the crowd quieted down, and Rui tapped his heel. “Thank you all for coming today, despite this likely being sudden. Your continued support of our theatre troupe means an immense amount to us, and before we begin, I have a message from our troupe’s leader as to the intention of the show.” The crowd buzzed with murmurs, and Touya leaned forward a little. “Ahem.” As Rui spoke, Touya could just hear Tsukasa in the words.
Thank you everyone, for attending today! We as Wonderlands x Showtime are dedicating to helping the world smile, and it just so happens that half of my world is sat in this very crowd today.
The murmurs increased, and Touya threw himself back into his chair as he covered his mouth. ‘Half of his world’... Tsukasa viewed him as part of his own personal world. Blinking away a flurry of tears didn’t stop them from flooding as his chest fluttered with the strength of a kaleidoscope of butterflies. What an honour it was, to have Tsukasa as his brother.
After a lot within our childhoods, I finally had the honour to officially welcome my younger brother into my family. Therefore, I thought a way to honour his arrival into our family name would be to reminisce on our dear childhood…
He remembered. Even if he didn’t hear what was coming next, he just knew what Tsukasa (well, Rui) was going to say.
Me and my lovely little sister had a play we would perform for him whenever he visited. Now, years after our first rehearsal, we would like to recreate that. I hope this play can resonate with all the families in the crowd, and please know to keep your family close to your heart. And, to my little brother Touya? Thank you for being my Number Two fan. Enjoy the show!
Applause erupted through the crowd, making the floor shake from the sheer ferocity of their clapping. Just before he took his place as the narrator, Rui shot a smile over to Touya, recognising the beam on his red face as a sign they had already succeeded in their mission.
“Once upon a time, there was a grand prince.” Props of horses and castles floating upon the stage, presumably moving along a conveyor belt, all while Tsukasa stepped upon stage. Since he had last seen Touya, he had changed his attire to that of a more professionally made version of his old costume. The tunic made of a cerulean fabric, hugged to his body by a leather belt brandished with a crown, had been fitted with a royal crest to symbolise his fictional family. A crown of dazzling jewels lay upon his head, suiting his shining personality well as it enabled him to reflect every shade and morph into a polychromatic dream only seen within a nebula. Similar to the sun, this star could create its own glow and challenge those that dominate the sky. Flowing behind him was a cape of a deep vermillion, though with notable yellow lining along the sides. The knot to keep it together rested upon his chest, and if Touya squinted, he swore he could still see the blanket that Tsukasa had used in his youth. “This prince had one mission to fulfill in order to become king.”
“I must slay the dragon!” Tsukasa proudly exclaimed. Classic children’s story plot, and as it had always done for him, Touya noticed the little child near him clapping in glee.
“His journey started off quietly. Unlike what the stories had told him, there were no witches, there were no riddles, nor were there ancient artifacts for him to accidentally unlock.” Hm? This plotline significantly differed from their childhood story, and Touya crossed his arms as he tilted his head. Meanwhile, Tsukasa marched along the stage, theatrically looking around with his hand upon his brow as he hmm -ed and erm -ed along the way. “However, when all seemed peaceful, he then encountered a young girl.”
“Please… somebody, help me…” A small whimper left Saki’s lips as she sat upon the stage, wiping her puffy eyes with the sleeve of a long torn dress. Though it was brandished with numerous pockets and stains, her flowing hair shielded the top half of her dress to a point Touya had to squint to try and see the rest of the costume. In all his focus on the costume, he failed to notice Nene’s attempt at eye make-up to resemble crying.
“Oh no, Daddy, what’s wrong with the girl?” Looking to the source of the noise, Touya watched the child shake their father in genuine dismay as to Saki’s state. Numerous other children in the crowd had a similar reaction, fit with gasps and alarm. In truth, Touya was equally intrigued as to what had happened to her character, and how Tsukasa had written it.
“AH! What has happened to you, young maiden?” In an instant, Tsukasa rushed over to Saki and raised her chin with his hand, wiping her face with her cape in a way that made her face scrunch up in disgust. “Was it a witch? A monster? A dragon ?” To each inquiry, Saki shook her head, sniveling as she shuffled in her sitting position slightly to face him better.
“No, it’s…” With a slow head turn behind her, she stage-whispered to her older brother, “it’s my family. They’ve never really let me outside before, they force me to practice fancy things all day every day.” Realising how the story shifted, Touya raised a hand to his chin and thought to himself; how, oh how, would the prince amend this fictional variation of his lived dilemma? He took no offense to the inclusion of his experience - he could only hope it would offer reassurance to the children in the crowd if the story ended well. “I just want to go out and explore! I don’t want to be trapped!”
“You see, this young girl had been trapped her entire life. Forced to be somebody she wasn’t, to play a role rather than to be a person. ‘Trapped’ was used both metaphorically and literally, for she had never stepped outside prior to today.” Once again, Rui spoke his lines, though Touya had reason to believe he was going off of his head rather than a written speech. Nonetheless, his eyes remained on Tsukasa, who comically stroked his chin to demonstrate his thoughts.
“Ah… I want to help, but…”
“Crowd, may I ask for your opinion to sway our prince? Do you want this girl to be happy and free?” Both Tsukasa and Saki momentarily glanced at Rui, further demonstrating how he was entirely running on his own mental script rather than pursuing the spoken agreement. In an instant, the crowd erupted into a chant, once Touya quickly took to joining in on.
Let her go! Let her be free! Let her go!
“What prince would I be if I were not to help somebody in distress?” Smiling at the crowd’s enthusiasm, Tsukasa threw himself to stand and outstretched a hand to Saki. “Come, dear maiden! I shall offer you a residence that you can stay in, to be free!”
“Ah-!” One hand covered Saki’s mouth as she took Tsukasa’s with her other, and prior to speaking once more, she smoothed over her skirt. “Thank you for your kindness, good sir.”
“Stop right there!” Another cut in of dialogue made the crowd jump, as their heads whipped around to watch Emu and Nene step onto the stage in black clothing. Nene had tied her hair in a low ponytail, and Emu had sported glasses, while their clothes seemed to weigh over their figures as if they wished to eat the wearer. With a pointed finger, Emu continued in a deepened voice, “You do not have our permission to leave! You are our child, and we love you!”
“No! No, you do not!” Saki’s voice shot through the alarm of the crowd, and a few people began to prematurely cheer.
“You shall not stop this girl from living her own life, foul beasts!” In a booming voice, Tsukasa unsheathed his sword and poised it above his shoulders. His legs took off without him, rushing towards Emu and Nene as they both stepped back. Just as he twirled on his feet and prepared himself to lower the blade, a shotfire of a beanbag from Nenerobo plummeted into his stomach and sent him back a few steps. “Ack! I have been… mortally wounded…” Knees knocked into the floor, and desperate coughs rattled against his throat. Falling on his side, the sword fell from his hand; which most of the crowd were gasping in distress for his state, Touya momentarily included, he couldn’t help but be eased as Tsukasa shot him a quick wink before ‘dying’. He definitely got a few looks for chuckling.
“Come hither, child! Do you not love us?” As Emu and Nene took steps towards Saki, she took equal steps back.
“I…” Saki’s eyes flickered to Touya, and as she seemed to ponder her choices for a moment, she held out her palm firmly to her ‘parents’ in an attempt to freeze them. They quickly caught on, stopping mid-step, and Saki rushed to the front of the stage. What on earth was she-? “Okay, before I go back to that scene, I need you guys in the crowd to help me, okay?” Everyone nodded as Saki spoke with her hands. “When they walk past the prince, I need you guys to shout encouragement for me. I think it will give me the strength to scare them away, because I’ve always struggled with this alone.” Her eyes lingered upon Touya as she added, “But now I have people around me to help me, and I know I’m not alone anymore.” The two siblings shared a smile, which a lot of the crowd caught onto, prompting her to turn back to them and finish her statement before the gossiping started. “So will you help me?”
It only took a second for the crowd to cheer in reassurance. Thumbs up from both her and Rui, and she rushed back to her position. Her palm faced Emu and Nene once more, clicking to bring them back to life. In truth, the moment Emu started moving again, it made Touya jump a little; how the hell did she do it like that? Once Nene’s foot grazed Tsukasa’s leg, the cheering started.
You can do this!
You are not alone!
Tell them to go away!
You are brave!
You are not alone!
Despite his efforts to join in, Touya heard the encouragement of the crowd and a choked sob left his lips instead of words. She had done that on purpose, hadn’t she…? Make a large group of people say the nice things you want to hear after a series of terrible days… he wiped his face a few times and grinned up at the stage, just in time to watch Saki defy her ‘parents’ through tears.
“I am not your child anymore!” She roared, the crowd roaring with her. “I am my own person, and I decide what I do! You cannot control me, and you cannot trick me with love!” Storming over to Tsukasa, she lifted the sword from his hand, stared down at it for a second, only to snap it over her knee. “I need no physical weapon to tear you down! All I need is to say one thing - you are nothing to me .” Spitting those words that Touya had so desperately wanted to say to his mother only a few minutes before, Saki grinned dramatically as her ‘parents’ fell to their knees, writhing in pain as they eventually hissed a goodbye to the crowd. Despite her death, however, Emu behaved in a similar way to Tsukasa as she waved to Touya. Wiping his teary eyes once more, Touya gave her a smile and a wave back.
“So, like that, the girl destroyed the very thing hurting her - her own family. She helped wake the prince up from his injured state,” realising that Rui was concluding, Saki’s eyes widened and she fulfilled his proposal, shaking her brother and pulling him to stand, “and together, they lived as family, doing whatever made them happiest in the moment. The end.” There came the flood of cheering and clapping.
However, all Touya could see and hear was Tsukasa, right in front of him.
“Come up here, Touya. Join us on the stage so we can bow together.” Unlike his performer voice, his tone had significantly softened to gain his brother’s attention, who could only stare at him with streaks of tears down your face.
“No, no, I shouldn’t-”
“Don’t be so silly!” This time, Saki spoke up, who had also outstretched her hand to her little brother. “This show was for you. Sorry if it was a little on-the-nose, though, we wanted to change it a little and-”
“Thank you, guys.” With one hand in Saki’s and one in Tsukasa’s, Touya pulled himself up onto the stage and wrapped his arms around their shoulders in a hug. Due to his height advantage, it was easy to do so, and they quickly melted into his embrace. “I love you guys so much…”
“We love you too. You’re our perfect little brother.”