Lord-Campione
patreon
New Dawn Chapter: 08
🕑 Added 2024-08-30 03:00:49 +0000 UTC“I don’t know… maybe I’m just being a brat about it…” Mai trailed off, smothering the rest of her speech by chomping on her sandwich. Her cheeks puffed up.
Tysone grinned slightly. Mai could already feel the sassiness about to roll off his lips.
“At least you acknowledge it.”
She rolled eyes, elegantly wiping at her mouth with a napkin. “Of course, I can. I’m not completely unreasonable or dumb, unlike someone sitting in front of me."
It was very well a bad day in her life. Then she met someone willing to waste time trying to understand what had been going on with her and her uncanny curse to disappear like thin air. But despite the stranger's harsh yet reasonable words, she began to find him slowly becoming company, to keep around. Someone to talk to about issues. Maybe to call him up for small talk. Or maybe she was simply going crazy and in desperate need for understanding, even if Tysone couldn't offer any help.
Tysone laughed softly, his eyes closed for a moment before he cracked them open, eyeing her up and down with a casual glance. Mai had changed clothes. Availing herself of the library’s toilet, she got out of that revealing piece and was now wearing thigh highs, a brown skirt, and a simple, white blouse.
“Hm, I kind of miss your bunny costume.” He said, nonchalantly, but with a humorous undertone.
Her eyes narrowed into sharp, blue daggers. She huffed, not deigning him with a comeback. Instead, she focused her repressed ire on destroying that sandwich. Not that he blamed her, honestly—it was actually fucking delicious.
A silence dawned upon the couple; one was brooding in her thoughts and the other was eyeing around—it would've been cute how his expression looked like the picture of curiosity if he hadn't the same countenance most of the time.
To be honest, he was as contemplative as Mai.
Mai Sakurajima. Main female lead of a well-known anime called 'Rascal Does Not Dream of... something'. Probably a bunny girl, though Tysone didn't really care about that. What he was hung up on was that someone from a completely different verse was in HOTD.
No, was HOTD even in the main world? What if it was actually Dragon Ball, and he merely found Saya first. Though from the architecture, he could cross out it being Dragon—fucking—Ball. And thank God for that. He could somehow deal with zombies, but Sayans? He'd be dying and reviving every few months or so if his luck held up, probably with no knowledge of his passing and resurrection came to pass.
The buildings didn’t have that distinct globe-shaped architecture. Cars didn't glide or hover either.
"Hey, Mai. Do you perhaps know of Capsule Corporation?"
She threw him a confused look. "What is that?"
"Nothing."
Good. It wasn't Dragon Ball.
"Do you know of cities like Kuoh, Karakura Town, or Fuyuki City?"
Mai, at this point, seemed exasperated, throwing the usual glares that people always throw at those that did not make much sense. "What the hell are you talking about? Where did you hear that?"
So, neither High School DxD, Bleach, and Fate/Stay.
Maybe it was an anime he hadn't watched? Or maybe it was only the characters themselves that, for one reason or other, appeared in HOTD. Then again, Mai could have been an isolated case, and he won't meet anyone else that wasn't supposed to be here.
Tysone's head began to throb.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Mai's stern face conveyed genuine concern.
He raised a hand, closing his eyes. "Yeah, fine. Just got carried away. Nothing's wrong."
For now, jumping to conclusions without actual conclusive evidence was foolish. Whether HOTD was the main world, and whether the apocalypse was scheduled to happen or not, he'd still prepare himself.
As he ruminated over Mai and whether his theory held any merit, something softly bumped his head. Tysone snapped his eyes open, mildly surprised over seeing Mai holding a carrot plushie. She snorted before bursting out in quiet giggling—cute giggles. Tysone chuckled, rubbing his abused head. "Now, that's a way to treat your helper, Mai."
"Ha... you... you got a staring problem, pervert."
So that was the most playful insult he was ever gonna get.
Mai smiled; it was a lovely, cute smile.
And like that, Tysone and Mai began talking more and more.
It was surprisingly pleasant and distracting talking to Mai—maybe because Tysone knew she wasn’t meant to be real, but the craziness of it made his gloomier thoughts stay calm. He’d still space out, though, which would earn him a well-deserved bump on the head with that damn carrot.
Mai harrumphed with a smug smile. “Do Americans not listen when pretty girls talk?”
"Mai, Americans like myself happen to fall heads over heels for pretty and haughty girls." He returned a lazy smile. "You wouldn’t stand a chance."
She froze, suddenly hyper aware.
Was she about to go on a stuttering spree? Tysone waved his hand right before a crimson blush rose up Mai’s face like a thermometer. “Relax, it was just a joke. We Americans tend to compliment foreign beauties a lot, which often gets mistaken for something else entirely."
Mai glanced up at his face, looking for a telltale hint that he was, indeed, flirting with her, like a normal pervert—yet found not even a microscopic shred of evidence. His stoic expression didn’t let out even the slightest sign that he was lying.
Then, Mai narrowed her eyes, suspicious. "You Americans love complimenting? Flattering the ego of females in general?"
Tysone leaned back, humming. Mai wanted to see his poker face crumble and become the blushing, perverted fool she took him as; she hoped he wasn’t this thickheaded, actually, but Tysone seemed to have other plans and actually remained deadpan.
"Yes to that as well. Don’t girls love a guy with confidence? Foreigners are not strangers to the whole cat-calling thing, and praising a pretty lady until she grows red. It's probably because we're not too shy with how we show ourselves to females. Sometimes it can come off as aggressive, but we’re pretty straightforward.” He chuckled. “Too much sometimes.”
“Hmm…”
Mai tilted her head, staring at him with those baby blues of hers. A Japanese girl with blue eyes? If something like that was rare in his world, in this one it might as well have been a common one. Saya had orange eyes, for fuck’s sake.
…
In a surprising show of kindness, Mai treated him to lunch as well.
Good ol’ Ramen.
It was cooked right in front of him in a cinematic way. But oh God, was it damn delicious. It might have been the augmented beauty of the ingredients and the final result, after all shit was not supposed to look this godly in real life.
He was genuinely grateful to Mai. He lacked proper food in his previous life, so anyone spending their own money to feed him made it right into his list of people worth being friends with. He valued that, even though he unabashedly took advantage of the situation and Mai’s weakness.
But he promised himself that he’d pay her back.
Mai was walking ahead of him, her hands holding a bag that no doubt contained her bunny costume.
The streets were emptier than it had been during the morning rush hours, and it didn't help that a slight drizzle began sprinkling over the streets. Tysone paid attention to the foot traffic as the crowd steadily thinned out.
Tysone looked up, feeling the water drip and wet his face. He liked the rain.
He had many fond memories of playing out with his brother under pouring rain.
That scent of rain that met the asphalt. The pitter patter of feet on the wet pavement.
Tysone's lips curled into a small smile as Mai cursed under her breath and walked briskly. “Hey… what are you doing? Come here!” She beckoned him over under a convenience store awning.
"Are Japanese girls so afraid of water?" Tysone ran a hand through his wet hair. Mai stared at the strands clinging against the curve of his head—the length had come together nicely without him even trying. "Huh, guess so." He wiped the droplets of rain falling down on his face.
"Are all foreigners so eccentric?" Mai crossed her arms. He shrugged—if there was someone he would describe as eccentric in his world, that would've been his brother, followed right by Saya. Then again, perhaps he was in that category as well, somewhere in the bottom, he reckoned.
Mai peeked at the pouring rain. Not exactly a downpour, but enough to annoy people into hurrying for their umbrellas or whatever they have to escape nature and their discomfort.
“Eccentricity is the mask of all geniuses.”
“No, you’re just an idiot.”
She deadpanned.
He chuckled. "Maybe."
What began as a tame drizzle turned into a full rain shower without them realizing it.
"Do you see this?" Tysone poked Mai's wet cheek, much to her surprise. "This is all your fault, you damn bunny girl. You invoked the Gods' wrath by taking off that outfit. Now look where you got us."
"The hell are you talking about?" Mai threw a glare that he was already getting used to, before bumping his shoulder. “What do you even want me to do?”
“I don’t know, maybe go under there and offer a tribute to appease their anger.” Tysone pointed at the wall of water that crashed down on the asphalt with indignant fury.
Mai merely narrowed her eyes.
