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otterlyfoolish · 11 months ago

Text

Diverging Tracks

(Chihiro Rokuhira x GN!Reader)

Warning: Probably OOC

Tags: Childhood friends, Oneshot, Fluff

Word Count: 4k

Summary:

He didn't expect to find an old friend on the train. At first, he was afraid of being pulling into a barrage of questions regarding the scar on his face, but something makes him realises that probably won't be happening.

…When on Earth did they go blind?

If you prefer reading on Ao3, here's a link!

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A/N: …I want this fandom to grow bigger, so I'm throwing this "x reader" out as a contribution (It is the only type of fanfiction I write currently) Uh, Tenoi.

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The train station moved with the kind of hustle and bustle you'd get for a train going to a smaller sized city nearby Tokyo. Enough to make you more cautious than usual, but not enough to actually cause any problems. It was mostly just families on day trips travelling in the afternoon - no businessmen or students milling about the place.

Not that it would be too much of an issue for Chihiro anyways, he weaves through the crowd without much hesitation, smoothly making it past the little groups that's formed near the entrance of the train, the passengers languidly making it on and off the platforms. He swiftly found a seat in a empty carriage next to a window.

He leans his head back on the plush seat, turning his red eyes to face the window, staring past his reflection and onto the people milling about the station. With his right arm draped across his sword, pressing it firmly against his chest, he felt relaxed enough to not bother looking over to see the newcomer onto the train carriage.

"Sir? Ma'am?" The sound of shoes clacking against the wooden floorboards stopped right next to him. The person next to him took a small pause, as if trying to locate where he was before speaking again. "…Excuse me, Ma'am? Or sir?"

Chihiro looked up from his seat. Then he froze on the spot - his red eyes fixated on the person standing next to his seat with a polite smile.

Why were you here?

His mouth gaped for a moment, trying to think of what to say to you.

What were the chances of this happening naturally? Should he be suspicious? This wasn't a set up, was it?

…Though, looking up at you, his worries was somewhat laid to rest. Your face had the same polite smile he remembers so fondly. Lips ever so slightly curled at the edges, enough to make it seem like you were happy to see the other person, but not enough to seem overbearing in any way. You were a terrible liar - it always showed on your face - you were so bad, in fact when his father wanted to throw him a surprise birthday party, you practically gave it away with how weirdly you acted the whole day, trying to keep him from going back home. So if there was a issue, he'd probably be able to tell.

"If you don't mind, could you do me a favour?" You asked contuining your line of thought, now sensing that he was paying attention to you, your eyes still kept closed. Weird. Maybe you were up to something. Also you called out for "ma'am". There wasn't much about him that he would say earned him that title instead of "sir".

…Are they really up to something?

"…Sure." He responded. Well. You could also be trying to play a stupid joke on him again. The scar on his face was on the side opposite you - meaning that there was a chance that you haven't seen it. In fact, maybe you just haven't recognised him altogether. It has been a few years. Besides, he doubts he was your best friend at the time. At best he was… probably number three or something.

"Great! Thank you so much." You smiled at him, the curve of your lips becoming a little bit more noticeable. "Could you tell me if this is a 1000 yen note, or a 2000 one?" You ask, showing him the bill. "Usually, I can tell, but this bill is a little old and crumpled. It's a bit harder…"

He glances between you and the currency in your hands before asking the first question that came to mind when you asked for that favour. "…Can't you just look at it?"

There was another moment of silence as you seemed to let the question sink in the air. Something you did when you were trying not to offend the other by thinking of an appropriate response, but also wanted to subtly show disapproval for whatever reason. (It actually took him a while to figure this out until you just told him outright why you took your time answering sometimes.)

"…Sir, I'm blind." You reply back, your happy smile returning back to the polite one before.

His eyes widen, pupils almost frantic looking on any indication on your face that you were perhaps lying or maybe even something to tell him that you were blind. At the sound of his silence, you shifted your feet back and forth a little, waiting for any kind of response from him. Shit. You really weren't lying.

"Sorry." He clears his throat. His mind still running a mile a minute. When did they go blind? Is it sickness? Were they ill? "It's a 1000 yen note."

"…Ah. Okay." You nod back at him in response, almost a little disappointed at his answer, but it still doesn't faze your smile. "Well, thank you…!" You say, forcing your polite tone to come back, but when you turn away from him and go to sit probably a couple seats in front of him, you sigh to yourself, shoulders slumping as you clutched the bill in your hands.

…Chihiro knows that he should leave you alone. It's been too long since the two of you last met, making it awkward to strike up a conversation, not that he's ever really the type to do that to begin with, but still. He also doesn't want to answer any questions you might have regarding what happened. Dead dad. Essentially homeless. How do you say you've turned to a life of vengeance against one of the strongest group of sorcerers to your childhood friend while also on a quest retrieving the enchanted blades that ended the war? Oh yeah, you don't.

So the words that come out of him next isn't really words that came from his mind, and more so from instinct. "…What's wrong?" You weren't the type to talk about your problems unless prompted, so he was used to having to watch you carefully if you wanted to talk about anything in the past. Which was difficult, since he didn't get many chances to hang out with kids his age (basically none), so he wasn't exactly trained for those situations. Thankfully, it wasn't often, but he just made it a habit to ask you that every few weeks when it seemed like you were being too quiet.

"…Uhm… Well. I think…" You trailed off, turning your head back to face him. He wonders if you did this more for his comfort rather than yours - you didn't need to bother to turn around to see him anymore since you, y'know, can't see. "I think… the person that sold me my lunch didn't give me the correct change…? I gave them ¥5000, and the lunch was ¥3000, so I should get ¥2000 back, right? Not ¥1000?" You ask, as if there was actually any doubt in the amount of money you should have gotten.

…Of course, they got ripped off so easily. Actually, this might have worked on them even if they could still see.

A very short mental battle took place in his mind before he continues speaking. "…Was it the vendor right outside the train?" He asks, seeing you still depressed over the missing money.

"Yeah, you should avoid going there if you're getting lunch I guess…" You say, folding the bills and turning them back into your wallet with a sigh. "M'sure it's just a mistake, but…"

This was his second failure - when he couldn't just pull himself out of the conversation and leave. Just shut up. Or sit even further away from you. Or go to another carriage - fucking rebook his train if he had to and phone Mr. Shiba that he was getting a later train. But no.

"…Give me your receipt." He says, getting up and outreaching his arm to you. "I'll talk to them."

Strangely enough, you seemed to expect it from him. You didn't even question him, rummaging into your wallet to find it, until you pulled out the little slip of paper. "…Remember, it's just 1000 yen. It's probably a mistake."

"Hm." He hums back, taking the little slip of paper from you. When you offered it over to him, you raised your hand way too low down for him to naturally take - what, did you think he was that short? If he was still a teenager, maybe it would be acceptable, but since he's grown, he had a stretch his hand down to take it from you. "Okay. I'll be back."

You gave him a nod in response, not quite facing the correct height of where his face was, but he accepted it all the same.

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When he comes back with the money, his feet barely need an instruction to go and find you, his boots purposely making more noise than usual as if to purposely alert you to his presence. It'd be somewhat scary for someone's voice to just suddenly appear right next to you, if you couldn't see, right? He's just being polite.

It seems like it worked, considering you tilted your head over to the direction he was coming from, only now you had sat in the spot opposite where he was sitting. Before you did, you weren't looking at the window like other passengers would while waiting, instead, you had just angled your head to face downwards at a slight decline, as if you were faking sleeping.

As he walks over, he realised that he could have just run off with the money and left you waiting on the train for nothing. His ticket could be used anytime, just as long as it was for this train.

…They haven't changed very much, huh?

"Here." He says, offering out the money to you, but realised that you couldn't pinpoint where exactly he was holding it out. "…Put your hand out."

"Oh!" You replied, lifting your head up in a excited manner and putting your palms upside out for him to place the bills on. "Did you get any money back?" You ask, the question basically redundant considering he said to put your hands out - clearly he had something to give you.

"Yeah." He says, tucking it into the crook of where your thumb met your palm. "2000 yen." He firmly presses his thumb into the flesh of your palm as he tucks it in, as if making a point somehow. Perhaps the point he wanted to non-verbally convey was "don't let this happen again."

But all you got out of it was a ticklish feeling apparently because you let out a small chuckle at the sensation before you gave him a hum of approval, your fingers finding their way over to the braille marks on the bill only to realise what it was. "…I only needed ¥1000 to make it the correct amount."

It wasn't exactly a mistake - he just asked the person running the counter about the receipt, and they handed over the money without much else prompting. It seemed that they realised what he was even going to ask before he finished his sentence. Even so, he can't exactly find it within him to be apologetic for his actions (or inaction?), they played ignorant first to a blind person first - and so he lets out all that he could be bothered to in response. "…Hm."

And like perfect timing, the train doors shut and the click and clack of the wheels could be heard moving the vehicle along the tracks. Even though Chihiro was standing upright, he was barely fazed by the sudden acceleration of the vehicle, still standing there waiting for your reaction.

"…Well, nothing can be done about it now." You say, laughing it off as you slip the bill into your wallet, the slip of paper making it just marginally thicker than before. "Thank you, I really appreciate it."

…Carefree as always.

Since the conversation seemed to reached it's natural end, he flicked his eyes from you to the train carriage's reflection, looking at the other available seats around you.

He debated sitting in another section, he doesn't want to get found out who he is by talking to you any longer. Sure, his voice has gotten deeper since last time he spoke to you, but who knows if you could pick on on the subtle lifts and falls unique to his voice. His father said he spoke completely monotone, but you said that he always betrayed what he was thinking with the tone of his voice. Maybe you were lying to him back then.

He can't be sure, he took everything at face value when it was from you. There was no reason to doubt you, ever.

…And just like that, he realised that was all the more reason he needed to separate himself from you.

Just as his boot takes a step away from you, you let out a quiet 'oh!'

The sound makes him stop in his tracks turning back to look at you once more, his red eyes scanning you to see what was the problem now. "I'm sorry, you were sitting here before, weren't you? I can find another seat," you say, getting to your feet and taking a step away from the little section of seats before you were stopped.

"…You can sit there." He says, his voice quieter than before. you could probably tell that he was still standing by following the direction of your voice.

"What about you? I don't want to intrude." You responded politely as ever with the same disarming smile. It was the same way you treated him the first few times the two of you met. While he could appreciate the nostalgia, he doesn't want it.

"You're not intruding," he says, and he walked over to the same spot by the window he was in earlier and placed himself down, this time though, he placed Enten leaning against his chest as if he needed something to weigh himself down in the moment and not just leave.

There was a moment of silence - he could only imagine what you were thinking. Did you figure out who he was? Were you about to leave yourself and ignore him? Maybe you didn't want to sit near him at all. "…Okay." You responded, and sat in the seat opposite him, hands in your lap.

For a second he was almost startled that you chose to stay. He didn't want you to be near him, yet he didn't like the idea that you could sense something undesirable about him to not sit near him. There's a part of him that wants that image of his younger to maintain it's current status in your eyes even if he wouldn't benefit.

He nodded back, and turned his face to look out the window, gazing out at the view in front of him, watching the trees turn into rows and rows of houses. It didn't take him long for him to be bored of the sight and turned to you, glancing over for just a split moment. And in that tiny segment of time, he realised that you were also leaning your head towards the window, seemingly peering out the same view he was. "…I thought you were blind."

You laughed at him before you spoke, a short but real laugh, making him think that what he said was utterly ridiculous for a second. "That doesn't mean I can't enjoy the feeling of the sun on me. It's a nice day, today." You say, your soft laugh under your breath sounded like a wind chime to him. "It's rare for it to be this warm in this season. Besides, I'm not completely blind. I can somewhat see some coloured shapes and blurs. Though, even that is a little difficult sometimes."

He stares at you - perhaps you could feel the intensity of his stare as he did so, because you turned back to face him as you waited for what he wanted to say. He isn't quite sure how to phrase it for a moment, only examining your face carefully. He changes the question in his head a little to avoid suspicion."…Were you born blind?"

"Born? No, no." You shake your head as if it was obvious. He couldn't help but notice that you were slipping off that distant, but kind stranger act with him. "I've been like this for maybe two years? I turned blind after some sort of run in with a group of sorcerers."

"What."

"Ah, yeah! I know, right?" You say, nodding along to the sound of him gritting his teeth now - he was doing it quietly, but due to the fact you relied on your hearing more, you could pick up on his anger. "They were asking me for my money, and I told them I didn't have any change, so they blinded me with magic and then mugged me! Can you believe that? How rude! Just take one thing from me!"

Brushing away the fact you only considered them 'rude' and nothing else, he asked you another question. It seemed pretty typical of you to say, to be honest. "Do you have names?"

"I don't know," you shrugged. "Apparently a little gang of amateurs, since they couldn't even blind me fully." And with a huff from that final sentence, you slumped back into your seat.

"…I see." He said, my eyebrows still crossed, and the frown still evident on his face, but there was no point trying to hide that from you. His fingers tightened around Enten, clicking it against his other sword as he thought about what he could have-

"…I'm not even that upset about losing my money or even being blinded. You know what's the worst part?" You say, snapping him out of his thoughts, and he turns his eyes back over to you instead of the sheath of his blade.

He honestly doesn't know what more could be worse for the average person than losing one of your senses even if it's not fully. "Go on."

"I lost this… Thing, I don't actually know what it is, but it's like… This metal thing." You sigh slightly, turning your face away from him as if in embarrassment. "Keycharm? I don't know, but I always kept it in my wallet, in the little bit where you keep your coins."

"…You kept a bit of scrap metal in your wallet." He states, trying to confirm what you were trying to tell him. Did you pick up your old habit of collecting shiny-looking objects again? How many times does he need to tell you that if they're outside, it's filthy.

"It's not scrap." You huffed out almost immediately, but took your time getting to the next part. "It's… a gift." You say, then finally take your hands out of your lap, and start trying to motion out some shape out with them. "It's supposed to be spherical I think. It's hollow and there was something inside of it, like a little metal ball, and there's a slit in it. It's really quite small, so it's actually quite impressive. It's important, you know? It was given to me by my best friend."

Oh.

"A bell." He states, the words coming out of his mouth. As if he has to defend the dignity of his younger self and his skill level at the time. Though, looking back, there was a lot of things wrong with the design of his creation. Not that it matters, since he wasn't at the skill level to produce the things that he wanted anyways.

"…A bell?" You echoed, your voice light as you repeated his words. Even if you couldn't see right now, he could feel your gaze on him. Even if you couldn't see him, he felt the urge to turn his eyes away from you, avoiding eye contact.

"A… faulty bell." He says, again, realising that he couldn't turn back now. Besides you described what he gave you, he could theoretically, be bright enough to have pieced together what you couldn't from your description. "No?" He adds, trying to pretend that he was still a stranger even though he almost (or maybe he already has) exposed his identity to you.

He had given it to you after you said you wanted to be alerted to his presence whenever he got close to you. You were always lost in your own thoughts, and he wasn't a particularly loud child, so he would often startle you when he got close and started speaking to you. Really, it was barely a problem. You weren't scared to death, and you always just jolted then returned to normal after milliseconds of realising who he was. Even so, he didn't like that you reacted so strongly even if it was for less than a second to him. The solution he came to as a child - you'd put a bell on him and so you'd be alerted to every step he makes. Looking back, he wonders why he even came to that conclusion. Oh right.

It's because you said that the neighbourhood cat had a bell on its collar, and now it couldn't catch any birds to eat.

Possibly funny looking back. Before he's even made a sword, he made a bell. A bell to alert his only friend of his age range. And they didn't even know what it was, even so, they kept it for so long.

"…I see." You say, and you put your hand on the side of your face, a fond smile coming onto your lips as you thought about his answer. He hopes that you don't remember it all that well, but it seems that his wish is a fruitless one judging by your expression and your words. "How sweet."

Good. It seems like they haven't realised that it's me.

…Have I really changed that much?

Not thinking much on his thoughts anymore, he replies back. "…Sure." He simply puts, wanting to press for more details, but at the same time not wanting to give himself away. He doesn't like sweets, but he'll tolerate being compared to it if it's from you.

You let out a low chuckle at his response, smile growing wider.

Then, the train slowed down to a halt, a recorded voice coming out of the speakers as it pulled into the station and opened it's doors for the passengers to get off, to which a couple of people stepped off and a couple more got on, filling up the seats on the train.

The smile on your face returned to your neutral response, as you listened again to the recording as it repeated once more.

"…This is me." You say, motioning to the train station. His eyes only flicker over to the building before landing back on you. "This has been good."

…We only together sat for one stop.

"…Mhm." He hums, but he hopes that you can hear the acknowledgment in his tone. Knowing you, you probably did pick up on it, and probably more he wasn't aware of. You said you did - he'll just have to trust that. He can relearn to.

"I hope we'll cross paths again sometime in the future," You say your voice having a happy lilt to it as you waved goodbye to him. (To which he gave you a nod. It's only later he remembers that you couldn't even see his non-verbal farewell.) "Chihiro."

After he nods, not thinking a thing of it since the words sounded so natural to him, only looking at your figure as you navigated the station you got at hazily before you seemed to find your way. He blinks once. Then again. Finally processing what you said as you were out of sight now, and the train started moving again.

…Wait.

#Kagurabachi #chihiro rokuhira #chihiro rokuhira x reader #OtterlyFoolishWritings #hahaha yet again i write fic of a guy with red eyes & dark hair with a long trench coat & a thirst for revenge #x reader

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