Familiar Stranger: CH 9

Chapter 9: Parallel / Cross-over

 

The days pass by as it always does, barely much have happened beyond the normal stuffs. Unknowingly, they had fallen into a pattern of routine. Now, he's sitting nearby, silently observing Toma as he trains together with Ryuga.

It is a great relief to him to see that they have bonded well together. And Ryuga no longer seems to harbour his initial animosity towards him too.

 

At least.

 

However, he still couldn't get over how utterly confused the other man looks like whenever he's being regarded nicely. It’s almost like he's expecting the opposite.

Why - he couldn't think of a reason.

(To think that Ryuga might have been treated otherwise for whatever reason pains him.)

 

 

And then, there's that other thing..

 

It was late one night. It was one of those rare times where there's not much happening; it was relatively calm throughout the day. Since there were no reports of Horror so he went off around the city on his own, looking for objects to be sealed. He had just returned to the base when he heard voices talking.

He immediately recognised the first voice. It was Fusa.

 

"..-you came from a different world or timeline? How is that even possible?"

 

Who is she talking about? She sounds quite shocked; disbelief clear from her voice.

 

"That's the problem. I don't know how I got here in the first place and I don't know how to go back, or if I can go back. Not even Zaruba knows what had happened."

 

Ryuga?

 

What does he mean by that? 'Cannot go back', to where?

 

It was by pure accident that he overheard their hushed conversations. Silently, he escapes the area, unwilling to breach their privacy any more than he already did even if he didn't mean to. But now he couldn't stop thinking about it.

Ryuga is not from here, not of this world.

Whatever that was supposed to mean. Impossible by human technology - could it be caused by a Horror instead? Not that he has ever heard of one capable of such thing.

No wonder the other Knight had looked so anxious when they first met.

But there was certainly recognition in those eyes.

Ryuga knows him, in a different form.

That was hostile to him.

A H-

 

(He abruptly cut that line of thought before it spirals out of his control. He remembers running back outside then, letting the cold night air bites at his skin, distracting him from his rumination.)

 

 

"-Mikage?"

Ryuga's voice had him promptly looking upward, into Ryuga's worried face.

"..Yes?"

"Is..everything okay?" He follows Ryuga’s line of sight down to his hand.

Apparently, he had unknowingly reached out to catch the other man's hand while he was deep in his thoughts. He quickly released it.

"-Yeah, I am. Don't worry."

(Yeah, keep on lying to yourself.)