Chapter Text
Tokyo Japan/ Natsuki's Subaru's POV
A light crutch is what greeted Natsuki Subaru as his mind slowly faded back to his attention. Then a chopping sound, then more chopping and more chopping, the humm of the TV and the sound of something was also evident. He poked his head up and watched as some saliva from his mouth dripped down onto his knees, he'd fallen asleep while writing, about something. He looks back at the papers in front of him. Ahh right, homework, he'd much rather be trying out video games.
The young boy mustered up all the cheeriness a child who was just reminded that he had work from school to do, could muster before awkwardly waddling his way to the kitchen from his bedroom. From the kitchen, the sound of running water continued for a moment before a voice responded. It belonged to a woman named Natsuki Naoko —his mother. She was a woman of quiet strength and sharp, observant eyes, eyes which Subaru had inherited. He was rather proud of his inherited looks, or he liked to tell himself that when some of the kids at school occasional made fun of him for how he looked.
He didn't consider himself ugly by any means but he had soon learned all is fair in schooling. His fellow classmates would tease each other, him included on the slightest imperfections, it wasn't cruel teasing mind you it was the playful boyish one. He broke off from his minor internal thoughts his smile beaming as bright as the sun as his attention turned fully towards his mother. His mom currently stood at the chopping board chopping up some vegetables for dinner.
At his entrance which despite his lack of noise managed to grab her attention, was met by her soft smile.
"Did you finish your homework?" Her smile turned into an amused one knowing exactly how he was going to answer.
Natsuki dramatically ran over to the nearby couch were his dad was currently sat at and flopped over. The young boys limbs spread out and sprawled like he had just return from some sort of battle or eternal struggle. He looks back at his mom with a sheepish and guiltly look.
"I fell asleep halfway through my homework mom...."
His mom raised her eyebrows as he sheepishly stared at her. She approached silently, her steps almost too light to notice, and gently placed a hand on Subaru’s shoulder. The boy, already knowing he was going to get the talk looked back at her with a whiny look. Their eyes met, his wide and innocent filled with a childish annoyance at the incoming insistence that he must do his homework, hers calm, amused, and patient. She gave him a smile. It was sweet, almost unnervingly so, meant to make it seem secure. A mother’s smile, yet far too innocent to mean no trouble. They were doing this dance again while his dad who was next to them could only look on amused.
"Natsuki, you know what not doing your homework means..." His mother said knowing.
"No desert." He said as he could feel her gaze going through him.
"And most importantly......." She said smirking.
He looked over to his dad for some form of Salvation but the man shrugged giving a silent "Its your grave kiddo". Natsuki gave his dad a glare of pure betrayal, had his dad really left him to be strung up like this by his mom. No fair!
"No Video games for a day....." He grumbled to his mom before switching to attitude to a more pleading one as he gave her puppy eyes as she looked back down at him amused as she gently brough her hand to his hair and ruffled it.
"I'll do my homework next time I promise mom!" He begged but his mother was having none of it much to his pure horror
"That's weird. Isn't that exactly what you said the last......Hmmmmm..... 5 times, am I correct?" His mom said grinning.
"It was actually 4 times." Natsuki grumbled
But it was too late. His fate was sealed. Those were Subaru’s last words before what he grimly referred to as an “unskippable cutscene”. Not the cool ones that add lore or show some sort of cool final move by the character. No those incredibly annoying ones that invovled dialog that should really be shorter than it actually is. Or those really annoying unskippable adds telling you to be healthy that pop up on the TV. He already knew how to maintain proper health thank you.
In that moment, he knew: no cheat code or save file would get him out of this one. He was, mind his words, screwed in every possible way, like their was no way of getting out of this, like, it was over. He was dead meat, like dead, dead meat, he wasn't seeing his controllers or desert for probably a week, he wasn't seeing his games also for that amount of time. He internally lamented at how it came to this.
After that entire ordeal had taken place, an ordeal similar that one might compare to those scenes in those drama shows his mom liked to watch to much for her own and his dads own good, he slunk back to his room. The ordeal was one filled with pleading, exaggerated apologies, and the kind of theatrical punishment only a mother could deliver. What was the punishment. 1 week without dessert and video for running circles around his mom on the topic of homework for nearly a week.
Now back in his small work desk, that was a small wooden brown one he moved his arms around in the air awkwardly as he stared down at his math problem. Math was like a foreign language, like English for example. He didn't know heads or tails what to make of it....Did he even know what that phrase meant....Yah he did, definitely.
Despite his current conundrum he knew he was a very lucky child. He was not that much of a spoil prick as his mom teasing referred to him on occasion. His room was packed. He had all he could ever dream off, well except his favorite MMO RPG and the other games in his room recently confiscated by his mom. Inside his room, the space that served as both his sanctuary, resting place, play place, and his dreamscape, there were shelves brimmed with colorful anime figurines, lovingly arranged and dusted with care. He made sure to dust ever single one of his figures once per week.
His mom had praised him especially for his knack for detail, the few times he had been asked to dust the house he had left it in an impeccable shape. No crack or crevice's would be left unturned and with dust and the occasional bug to be found. His head looked over to his posters of action-packed shows and cosmic landscapes plastered nearly every inch of the wall. He forgot about his home work briefly as he walk over and got on his bead, in the nearby wall one of the thumbtacks holding a poster on the wall was coming loose and it needed to rearrangement. He carefully pressed the thumbtack back into the wall making sure to not rip any portion of one of his precious posters.
He soon hopped off the bed, his eyes settled back to his math homework as he let out an internal groan before he grabbed from a shelve a novel to kill time off while doing his homework. He liked to read and also do his homework at the same time. Piles of novels and manga were stacked on the spaces on his shelves not adore with figurines. In the draws under his bed there were cluttered but clearly loved, was covered in books about the stars his favorite subject. He wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up, he wanted to touch the stars, explore the moon, and maybe even mars.
The room shimmered with his personality, a reflection of a young Natsuki Subaru whose imagination stretched far beyond the sky and the stars. Yet despite all this he was plagued by the ghost of...Homework. All of the gifts in the world could currently do anything to please the boy who had to deal with such a trivial yet cursed matter. Homework.
He let out a childish groan before he stumbled forward, grabbing blindly a random manga from his shelves before he sat at his desk. He brought his hand to one the notebooks piled upon his desk. He had picked out an empty one, it was black, the color of his hair and the currently shirt he wore. He gently stuffed a pencil sharper in his pocket for keeping if he ever needed to pull it out to sharpen his pencil. For his pencil he picked out the newest one, its tip deadly sharp, as the boy curiously placed his hand on the pencils tip absentmindedly it pricked him causing him to yelp in annoyance.
Stupid pencil Natsuki could only grumble and mumble.
He held his notebook in one hand as he slowly opened it while on the other hand he brought his pencil down to it. His shoulder absentmindedly on his manga as his head gazed down at his math text book as he began to write out the problem and solve it it.
"Question 9: 507+68." His math text book read.
He wrote out the equation down on his text book. He let out a long winded sigh, this was one out of 20 questions he had to answer and turn in tomorrow. He'd only gotten half of them done before he had fallen asleep out of pure boredom. He began to solve the problem as it took him 5 or less minutes to sort out the question and finish it. He then wrote down the answer from his notebook down on his text book. He let out another sigh as he closed his eyes, he felt something bright, something that felt like a series of blindingly lights.
His eyes opened, and then he was gone.
The sounds of birds chirping filled the air, layered with the subtle rustling of tree leaves swaying in the breeze is what greeted Natsuki Subaru when his eyes opened. Gentle beams of sunlight filtered through the canopy, warming his face. Natsuki Subaru let out a groan as his eyes adjusted to the new brightness. His eyes slowly fully opened as he absorbed the area around him.
His hands now on the cold grass of the empty plain surrounded by nothing but forests on all sides clutched his pencil, his note book, and his manga issue 68 of Fire punching was now on his lap. His sweater which had been draped behind the chair he was previously sitting on was now on his shoulders.
"H-how....Mom,.....Dad....." He gaped out trying to process what just happened
Towering trees stretched endlessly in every direction around the plain, their thick trunks wrapped in vines. In the plains their was nothing short of a vast green stretching out for what seemed like kilometers on end and in the distance, more forest. He heard bird calls, chittering of squirrels, and the buzzing of bees as they smelled the daffodils around him. One bee landed on his shoulder before it flew off. Butterflies flew about in droves, it was a beautiful sight, it would have been had he been not alone.
He tried to scream for his mom and dad, but the words couldn't come out from his mouth, the realization that he was alone washed over him leading to nothing but thick sobs coming out as he processed what had just happened. He really didn't he was left in a state of sobbing, bewilderment, and shock as he stared out at the vast green expanse before him.
He wasn’t in his room anymore. And he didn’t know how he got here.
Worst of all Mommy or Daddy were no where in sight.