crowspace | call me out v. 14.0

I'll get him.

[He's got a good sense for these things.]

Just tell me how to get there.

"Ehhh, and risk sensei being mad at me if something happened to his precious human? Sensei can be scaaarryyy when he's mad..."

[Hanako says in a childish manner, but then one of the ghostly orbs that follows him around bounces up and down a bit near his ear, as if telling him something only he can hear. He glances at it with a frown, then at Suga for a moment, and mutters something under his breath to it. The orb bounces away from him and takes to floating by Suga instead.]

"But I suppose I could make an exception just this once, just on the off chance that sensei is in trouble... and then that means he'll owe me a favor to cash in on later for having to send further help his way. If you find him, Hakujoudai there will be able to ping me and I can pull both of you back out at once.

However, listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you, because once you go in, communication between us both will be severed. When you get there, you're going to see many, many doors. Do not open any doors that do not look familiar to you, as they are doors that lead to other pasts, futures, universes, and boundaries. You need to look for a door that you have seen before, whether it be a door in this school, where you live, or even a door to a place from a past memory. In the case of the latter... I will warn that it may drop you directly into the past itself of that memory the door leads to, so I would suggest not doing anything that may upset fate from what is already planned in that moment of the past playing out. But it will make it easy to find you if it's a memory both of us share, or you and Tsuchigomori both share in some manner, so don't disregard the option entirely if you think you're running out of choices to make. Understand so far?"

[Suga nods, expression serious. He's also jotting down notes on his memo pad. Open only doors that look familiar, doors from past memories may drop you into the past, don't change fate, got it.]

"Okay, good."

[There's a pause, and then--]

"There is a possibility you'll run into a past version of him, or even myself, or even you, and it's possible that could be a factor in what's keeping him, if it's a memory being tampered with by another supernatural that is trying to keep him from leaving to go back to the present. If that does seem to be the case, I would suggest trusting in his past version to be the one to accurately pass along the following message to his present self to get him to go back: Honorable Number Seven says that the moon is nice tonight. His past self should be smart enough to understand what that means and the memory will allow his present self to get back on track again, where as... admittedly, my past self or even your past self may not think anything of it. And any other supernaturals in that realm would definitely not tell him that."

Edited 2021-08-23 18:46 (UTC)

[Nod nod, writes down "Honorable Number Seven says that the moon is nice tonight."]

I'm ready.

"Good. Well then... you might want to close your eyes and mouth for this--"

[And that's all the warning Suga gets as the ground underneath him suddenly begins sinking, turning black and sludgy like ink that begins sucking and pulling Suga down into it...

... Once the moment passes, however, Suga will open his eyes to find that he's in a pitch black void of nothingness. No sound, no other living beings aside from himself... and nothing except hundreds of doors propped up or floating around in this space.

The little orb by his head bounces a bit, waiting to follow to see where Suga decides to go from here or if there are any doors that Suga may try to pick checking first.]

[Oh, eww. Suga definitely shuts his mouth as fast as he can, but he still has to spit some of it out once he arrives.

Now let's see. If he was Tsuchigomori, where would he have gotten lost at... He's not one to take risks by going into doors he doesn't recognize or to delay going back home, but Suga imagines it's difficult to tell "a door in the school from the present day" from "a door in the school in the past years I've been there" in some cases. So he should focus on school doors first.

Here's one. Suga takes a breath before pulling it open.]

[Seems normal! Or at least you start to get a glimpse of a normal looking room...

... except that before Suga can even take a step inside... well, this thing suddenly pokes it's head out into the void from within the space of the open door to say in a loud, booming voice:]

O C C U P I E D!!

[... Maybe just close the door on this one and move on?]

[Definitely not Tsuchi. Suga closes the door with a mumbled 'sorry'.

The next familiar door he finds... oh, that's his bedroom, isn't it? He doesn't think there's likely going to be anything interesting in there, but it doesn't hurt to check.]

[You're right, there isn't really anything interesting in there that connects to either Tsuchigomori or Suga... mainly because the door opens onto an empty field.

Whoops, this must be a past memory where this room and house the room connected to it hasn't even been built yet in this point in time! How silly.

Maybe this next door that appears to lead into a hallway of the school will help? Third time's the charm, as they say.]

[It is at least a pretty field, all things considered.

Alright, third door. Let's see what particular hallway this leads into.]

[Sure enough, a school hallway. Kids run past, oblivious to Suga being there as they cheer and shout about getting to go home, while others walk a little more somberly, rolling their eyes in distaste and can be heard saying "Those jerks, they don't even seem to care about what the teachers said happened to that kid..."

And then, a teacher's voice floats down the hall halfway through a conversation with someone else; "--your fault, Sensei, you know that right? I could tell he was one of the students you were secretly the most worried about given the amount of times you made him stay after class, but I don't think anyone could have seen this coming regardless. I mean, killing his brother and then himself--"

And then, a voice that definitely sounds familiar to Suga, though perhaps a little younger, "No, I should have been able to see this coming--I mean, you saw the bruises too, didn't you? I should have done more than just keeping him after class to try talking to him, I should have gone to visit the house and--"

[And then there's a very loud thump like a fist hitting the wall, and then a sigh.]

"No, nevermind. That probably wouldn't have changed his fate either."

"... Where are you going?"

"Back to work. I've got papers to grade in the library."

And now, footsteps coming in Suga's direction, and should Suga decide to properly look around this corner to see, sure enough, it's Tsuchigomori walking this way... except that he appears to have a different human guise going on, or is simply younger in this memory due to not wearing glasses and no white in his hair.

Will Suga try to step out to intervene in this memory to say something to him before he disappears into the library around the corner here, or choose a different door with a different memory than this one to interfere with?]

[Ah. Of course it's a painful memory like this - Suga instantly knows who they're speaking of.

Suga takes a step into the hallway, raising his voice a little bit.]

Tsuchigomori-sensei.

[He stops walking when Suga suddenly steps out in front of him. The man's eyebrows raises momentarily, and then his eyes narrow in suspicion--clearly, he holds no recognition for Suga at all, confirming that this is indeed a Tsuchigomori from the past.]

We're closing down early today--I'm sure you've heard the news by now or have seen the news cameras outside. If you're here to ask about your younger sibling's grades or something, you'll need to come back another day. Go home.

[It's curt, clearly not in the mood to talk, as he makes to try to walk right past Suga and continue on his way...]

Honorable Number Seven says that the moon is nice tonight.

[...is there even an honorable number seven at this point in time...?]

[Tsuchigomori stops walking away. If Suga turns around to look, he'll see that he has frozen in place, not having turned around to face Suga upon having heard those words. It's hard to tell if he had heard those words or not given how little of a reaction he's showing...

... but before he can do anything (which, from the look of it, appears to be Tsuchigomori opening his mouth to say something), there's a sudden, grainy quality to the air around them, as if the memory is about to dissolve on a bad tv screen... or rather, as if someone had hit the pause button on said bad tv screen and the paused image is losing focus until someone can hit the play button again.

The reason why this becomes apparent is answered very quickly in the form of Hakujoudai, the orb that's been floating around Suga, suddenly coming in to slip up under Suga's shirt as if to hide out of sight of something. The something in question becomes obvious in the form of a chirpy young boy's voice that suddenly breaks the silence.]

"Foooound youuuuu!"

[The owner of the voice suddenly pops into existence in-between Suga and Tsuchigomori, grinning proudly at Suga.]

"I had a hunch that if it was his favorite human, you'd be sentimental enough to try to talk to Spider-Sensei here, and it looks like I was right! I'm so smart! Hee Hee~!"

[Oh. It's Suga's second-least favorite ghost. Suga's hand automatically goes to the hilt of his sheathed sword.]

Do you need something?

[Tsukasa quickly shakes his hands back and forth in front of him, putting on an act of fear at the idea of the sword being drawn. Tsuchigomori doesn't react to any of what's happening here--it seems that the past version of him is indeed paused in time and therefore oblivious to what's happening right now with Suga and Tsukasa.]

"Whoa, whoa, you don't need to get so violent here, Mister! I just wanna talk!! You wouldn't really attack a little boy just for wanting to do that, would you?"

[...He doesn't let go of the sword, but he doesn't draw it either.]

Talk, then.

[Tsukasa grins wider at that, which is usually never a good sign.]

"Great! So..."

[And then, Tsukasa takes on a pose of lying on his stomach while floating, kicking his feet in the air behind him. He rests his chin on his hands, looking down at Suga here as if they are gossiping at a sleepover...]

"I don't really get why you're so attached to Spider-sensei--is it just because you're "dating", or whatever that entails? I wouldn't know, my brother killed me before I got to experience that kind of thing, you see, so I can't help but be curious about you guys. I mean, I can guess already what love is from watching Amane dance around his feelings for his human assistant and all, but dating, that's a mystery! And I don't know anyone else who is actually dating anyone around here to ask this of. In fact it seems like Spider-sensei is practically the only person in this entire school who actually has someone like that right now, isn't that interesting?"

You've got the cause reversed - we're dating because we're attached.

[Sigh. He really doesn't have time for this...]

Couldn't you ask Yako about this kind of thing?

"I would, but she's been avoiding me! So does Sensei for that matter... I guess my brother might have told them not to talk to me even once they stopped being the School Wonders to mess around with, which is pretty mean of him, but... it's okay, I can forgive him for that.

So, that just leaves you as the only person I can ask about it. And you still haven't told me why you like him!"

[...That's probably a harmless question, if any question from Tsukasa can be considered harmless.]

He cares about people. He tries to hide it with his grumpy exterior, but he does everything he can to look after the people in his charge. That's my favorite part of him.

"Hmm, hmm! I see..."

[Tsukasa nods along with this, before he speaks.]

"Is that also part of why you're here? To return the favor from all the things he does to look after you and my brother and everyone else around him?"

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