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teclajellymon · 26 days ago

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[ Looooooooong time ago, in March ,I reckon, I posted a The Rescuers Junzumi AU sketchdump I’m very affectionate to and it wasn’t really something that unpredictable I would eventually write something for it soon. In truth, I initially wrote this very small oneshot just for myself in my free time (I stupidly feel cringe while writing about AUs and that’s a very stupid part of me I’m trying defeating just like the fankids one), but then a friend convinced me I could share it with the world as a prompt for Flufftober. I mean, why not, I told myself. Am I commiting some crime throwing stories I put 0 efforts in into the net🤣🤣🤣? Mind you, I did polish this ,tho. It used to be terrible ahahah. ]

{ Intermezzo you wouldn’t expect } aka a short one-shot for Fluffoctober about a The Rescuers AU -> •Stormy night

XXX

“Signorina Izumi, keine Sorge! No need to worry! I’m an expert in reading maps and orientating myself even in the thickest mist, ah!” The stocky man opened a piece of wrinkled and yellowish paper. His brown eyes, darkened by the blackness of a rainy night, were apparently scanning the drawings before them as he frantically searched for something he would never find. Of course.

Actually, Izumi had noticed it from the start: how he hadn’t paid a crumb of attention to what he was doing, attracted and distracted by who knew what else he might think it was more interesting than their invaluable mission. For example, if he had been focused on the map he was holding for real, he would have noticed it was upside down from the unnatural shape the venetian calle and the lagoon had, making it seem a whole sea was going to overflow and swallow the entire city.

Due to her usual courtesy and politeness, she had been wondering how he should tell him about that, if she also should at that point since, after all, she could rely on herself and let him play those detective games in his silly world.

Who had ever needed a companion in a first place? She had been travelling around the world for ages knowing she could only trust her own strength, her determination no one else, -modestly speaking-, owned with such an intensity, her spirit. The only mate she had ever needed was the voice of the wind, as kind and reassuring as always, immutable, no matter where she was sent to.

Did those people from up there really believe she couldn’t deal with that situation on her own, she couldn’t take care of herself, she needed someone by her side, a man, nonetheless. From her perspective, from what she had been able to grasp so far, he was the one clearly needing help the most between them, not even being able to speak italian properly and messing it with japanese and german words.

And yet, she had chosen him when they had allowed her to do that, -at least!-. She had, though she had just assisted to a scene in which he was about to get electrocuted after he had voluntereed for the job. She didn’t even know who he truly was, now that she thought about that…Not that she had ever felt that need, either: to socialize with others from the society.

It was enough to be aware they all were adults wanting to help unlucky kids in the best way they could, through money or other types of support, -even, yes, those kinds consisting in sticking your nose in issues that were much bigger than you actually are-. What their life was like out there, who they actually were had never been important. Nobody cared, -and should know, in her opinion-, about the fact she was a flight attendant who would often find herself on modelling magazines or cat walks. And ,in return, she would survive in the obscurity, not ever finding out who he was, where he came from, how old he was, if he was married or not, - without doubts, the latter option held the predictable truth in itself-.

She had always been la Signorina Orimoto, but he had been quick at cutting to the chase and calling her la Signorina Izumi, showing no decency but not surprising her with that in the least.

And he was…Junpei-San…? He had introduced himself like that and she had also heard others addressing him in that way or with a simple Junpei. Against all the odds, he seemed to be known by many members and some seemed to appreciate him a ton, despite the clumsiness he had never managed to hide.

”Junpei-San,” A gloved hand on her chest, she finally interrupted his mumbling, which was the reason why she had eventually decided she couldn’t just let him be like that. The incoherent noises coming from his mouth were so annoying they were interfering with her own stream of consciousness. “Junpei-San!”

”Yes, Signorina Izumi!” Like a soldier, he abruptly straightened his back, but managed to strike a clumsy yet sweet smile at the same time. Slightly puzzled, she blinked for an instant, taking a step backwards without wanting to.

”The map is upside down,” She said, as dryly as you would expect from such an expert at keeping her temper under control. That was one of her good qualities she exploited to promptly make that sudden emotion making her heart beat at a weird pace, even if, again, for just a second, slip in the background of the most trivial of her thoughts,ready to be forgotten and, consequently, soon fade.

In response to her comment, Junpei didn’t immediately react. He stood still, lowered his gaze to the panorama of streets and squeezed his orbs to find that detail, that very little detail, -of course, she is attempting to be sarcastic, santo cielo!-, he had been missing. And then…

“Ja, du hast Recht. Ehm, you’re right, Signorina Izumi, it’s…Upside down.”

”Yeah. It is.” Feeling the time they had at disposal slithering away from her grip, she struggled not to add a pinch of rudeness to her tone, so rare when it came to her, a blonde woman in her fourties enwrapped in a long purple dufflecoat; the symbol of elegance and refinement; a complete oxymoron next to the man in a baggy raincoat.

But Junpei-San‘s fashion tastes were not the main problem concerning him.

”Then…Let’s fix it,” He had begun stuttering and shaking, hiccuping too, but not because they had been wandering in the chilly rain for a while. Her remark had provoked a row of side effects on his body that might have been funny to observe, -she admitted it-, could have made her even giggle in amusement, if she hadn’t been counting each second flying away from them just like that kid, that poor kid.

They couldn’t allow themselves to indulge in more foolery. No.

Her eyebrows twitched and she pulled the paper away from him, accidentally dropping the umbrella he had asked her to hold in his stead go, -it had incredibly dawned on him he couldn’t read his map, if he continued on keeping the umbrella above her head like a true knight would, and per Dio!-.

The umbrella fell on the slippery ground and let heavy drops pour their cascade on their hoods all at once, on the locks of their hair escaping from their shelters. Her legs shaking due to crawling waves of cold, her fists clenching more and more in growing irritation, Izumi couldn’t help gasping: that was it! That was the end! That was the straw breaking the camel‘s back: he was blatantly influencing her with his manners! She would absolutely have to call the SOS society and come up with a valid justification to explain her decision to give up.

”Signorina Izumi…”

“I…I…I just…”

Her exasperated yell cut through the curtain of humidity and ,maybe, -she sensed without being able to explain-, a veil made of something else as well.

She didn’t look at Junpei, whether he had been startled or had grown disgusted by that display of utter embarassment. Indeed, she didn’t even want to. May he believe she had gone nuts and wasn’t the admirable Signorina Izumi he had been staring at with dreamy eyes for the whole day: she wouldn’t be touched by a change of heart happening inside him at all. If he left her in the freezing atmosphere of the incoming night, it wouldn’t make any difference.

But maybe she had always known he wouldn’t, as it suddenly dawned on her the one who would have run away from him, the person who had found himself in front of that side of hers, would have been her herself in other circumstances.

Instead, she had remained there and had silently, unconsciously waited. She waited for that sweaty yet warm hand to defeat the low temperatures of both outside and inside, at a first and single touch of her shoulder. It sent all those nagging shivers and tremors away with who knew what kind of magical trick, and, most of all, succeeded in reminding her Izumi Orimoto, la Signorina Orimoto never threw in the towel, never let stress dominate her clear logic, no matter how hard it was to find a lead, to operate as quickly as possible to rescue an innocent soul.

”Here,” There was another kind of rain that was falling that night. Quieter, more reserved, shyer, it let itself be seen and felt only by Junpei‘s hesitant thumb. She couldn’t help sighing in relief, leaning her cheeks towards that pleasant sensation. “Let’s go home. We will be luckier tomorrow when the Sun comes out again and…The lightnings go away. They are approaching…And very fast.”

”Home?” She echoed, covering his gulps with her suspended reticence.

”Yes,” As if not wanting to let her be carried by the mistral, he grabbed her hand before bending to pick the umbrella up. “I will prepare a good hot chocolate for you. To be honest, I can’t read maps that well, but I‘m not lying I’m good at preparing those. Someday I want to bring a whole tray for the society ah ah.”

…

Chi mi salverà ?

Who will rescue me?

…

I will, no, we will. Wait for us, endure, wherever you are. Give me a little time to…To…

…

Through storms, rain and black nights, never fail to do what’s right.

But ,why not, let yourself sip a good mug of hot chocolate while looking at that mess from the window, as well.

#adoro sbatto la testa contro il pavimento ve lo di o #dio mio #ha detto bene

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teclajellymon · 26 days ago

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I don't know to whom praying to get something about Chiaki written by you. If you accept commissions in writing I'd run

I don’t accept commissions but you could still give me inspos! It would be a pleasure to me. Still, the good news is that I have already written about Chiaki once, though it’s just a bad introduction of her in MTTCI told by Junpei’s point of view. I don’t know when I will take MTTCI in my hands again, but I think it should happen before Christmas because you all always asking about Chiaki makes it hard to resist to such a temptation.

[ Context of the chapter is Junpei, for some specific reason explained later, has accepted to sing for a spectacle in a ballet academy. Since the dancers are practicing, he has been left outside, on a bench, and he has incredibly (LOL ahahah) been chatting with a rather lively Izumi. This is the end of the chapter and it contains fatphobiac insults, as the random OC I added in here is just an a$$ (like Junpei eh, ahahah. I have no mercy in anyone’s regards in the lame world of MTTCI. ]

[ …]

Despite the utter mess he was making while chatting with Izumi, he couldn’t deny she was still making him feel like he had been taken up to the sky she adored so much, had been walking on dreamy clouds for who knew how long. Now, though, some aggressive noise had accidentally made him let go of Izumi’s grip making sure he wouldn’t fall from such a height.

But he had. He had down into a place as immense as the expanse where he came from yet colder, much colder than that one.

“Nakamura-San!”

She marched out of the frozen room without looking back, decelerating only to bring her fingers behind her head. With a single gesture, an undulating motion of her wrist, she unraveled her low chignon in a cascade of dark chocolate, her long pail neck leaning forward in a liberating reflex.

She totally ignored his presence, just like the one of a skinny young man trotting after her.

“Nakamura-San, wait! We have been fantastic! Today I told myself we could really be the best duo out there. Imagine…Us starring in the most famous theatres in Europe, at New York’s Metropolitan too.”

Oh no, dude, you’re so pathetic, please, In the background of that mushy romantic film he didn’t absolutely want to be an extra of, Junpei found it impossible to grimace. And it’s not only because of those ridiculous tights I thank Heavens I could never wear in my life. She’s not interested, indeed, she detests you. She is repulsed by you. She isn’t even looking at you in the face, man!

Not even impulsively grabbing the girl’s hand to force her to turn helped him in his intent, until…

“Chiaki, listen…!”

At his touch her shoulders had already tensed, but that physical response affected her whole body once she heard what Junpei soon discovered it was her first name.

Dumb move. How can you be so stupid?, Junpei asked himself, slowly opening his bag to find a book into which plunging his disinterest. That was such an ashaming spectacle: he wasn’t going to give his eyes that unfair treatment. They didn’t deserve it. Still, surely, it would be so nice if they acknowledged he was there and they were showing a stranger their mutual lack of respect and tact. If he had worn one of his coveralls, they would have undoubtedly seen him. It would have been flashier than the lame blue salopettes he was wearing on a simple orange sweatshirt.

“It’s Nakamura. Nakamura-San for you, to be precise,” She stared into her interlocutor’s restless orbs, her face stuck in a stern arrangement, a detail Junpei casually grasped while searching for a specific page of his music sheet.

“Su-Sur-“

“And, sorry to tell you,” She insisted, cutting him short, impassive. Junpei’s focus would usually take a while to get used to reading and studying, so it was normal he was keeping on getting distracted, wondering how her eyebrows weren’t minimally curving because of her distress. “We haven’t been fantastic. You were out of step, your arms were feeling like noodles on my hips and you would have also stepped on my foot, if I hadn’t made my leg slip backwards on purpose.“

“T-Then…You have been fantastic…Nakamura-San?”’

Junpei’s thinned irises travelled through the lines of the same stave back and forth, hopping on the scribbles occasionally warping the notes’ circular shapes, dwelling on those more than on what he was supposed to be working on. The environment had grown too taciturn for him to animate that mute paper in his mind, so he got unavoidably led to diverting his intellectual efforts on some other topic, on the trembling muscles of the black-haired lad and the statue in front of him.

A statue ready to flee from her despised pedestal.

“I’m sorry, Kobayashi-San,” She sighed, closing her spheres whose shade was still unknown to Junpei. Incredibly, he perceived a minimal turmoil in those features, maybe just a fruit of his fervid imagination.

He also sensed a pang in his stomach at the sight of the young woman, of that Chiaki, leaving her dance partner there , without adding a clarification to that apologize holding so much else in itself. Junpei couldn’t understand why he had got that hunch, -and he wasn’t interested in finding out the reason behind it, no!-, but he could confess to himself it was hurting, somehow. Cautiously observing the profile of the dejected ballet dancer, the tremors of his lips, the abandoned dangling of his limbs next to his hips was having a certain effect on him.

But ,again, he didn’t know why.

He didn’t…

The young man stood in that same spot for a whole minute, losing his dismay in the undefined shadows projected in the near corridor. Then, he found the strength to forge steel fists of frustration and viciously send a glare to the uninvited spectator. That was a decision Junpei should have expected at some point, but he had foolishly grown convinced he had become invisible. Thus, he had lowered his guard and consequently had- he had to admit it, regrettably-, minded about someone else’s business, someone else’s disgrace.

“What are you looking at, eh? Tell me. Don’t you have anything else to do, fatso?”

“Hey,” So, they were starting like that, weren’t they? It was typical. “Since I’m a fatso, you should have noticed I was here. Don’t I occupy this entire bench?” In spite of the heat the young man’s comment had generated in his throat, he wasn’t going to yell in a refined ballet academy, but that didn’t mean he would allow him to disrespect him. “Joke’s on you, man, if you have decided to talk about private matters here.”

“Whatever you say,” The young man replied, displaying his interior weakness once more. Judging from that little he had managed to analyze in the previous confrontation with the girl, he could state he was a spineless and submissive kind of dude. The only thing he could do was to look down on others, as if he had the right to do so. Probably, in his life he had met people giving him the freedom to act in such a superb way, but in that case he could do that just because Junpei was sitting and he was standing. “Looking at you, I wonder how much you have eaten to become so fat.“

“Excuse me…?” Even if he had muttered that question while concealing his shame under his bangs, those words stained with poison had still been spat on Junpei’s appalled face.

“Yes, in the photos on Facebook you look so different. And thinner. What has happened to you?”

It happened that I’m not the same person, easy, He reminded himself, painfully clenching his jaw as a photo of a slightly older opera student materialized in his memories: sliced back hair just like his yet much darker, cocky grin challenging the camera and flash, a stately poise, a handsome, an exceptionally handsome raising star of the lyrical singing panorama.

“Uhm…It’s a bit hard to explain,” The commotion in his tone had faded, his fiery spirit had been tamed by an imposing energy. And he hated that.

“I don’t care ,don’t worry. I’m just laughing at the fact the girls were so excited about this beautiful tenor who was supposed to come. Oh well, better for me. Now that Chiaki is mad at me, I still can try with Kikuchi-San. She is the third girl in the second row, can you see her? She is not as curvy as Chiaki, but-“

“Kobayashi dude, whatever you’re called, now I’m the one telling you I don’t care, man,” He snapped at him, but still turned. He did not because he was curious about who this girl was, what he looked like: when he said he didn’t care, he was serious about it since there only was a girl on Earth mattering to him. He did because Fate had decided that morning would be troublesome to him and had to keep on being such until the end, until he would escape from that chicken coop.

If he had to be honest with himself, however, that definition didn’t really feel that fitting once he found himself surrounded by minuscule shimmers directly pointed at him, on his lumbering silhouette. He was feeling more like if he had become the visitor of an aquarium being contemplated by a shoal of fish that had gathered and attached their mouths to the glass, their thoughts incomprehensible to the human on the opposite side.

Yet, Junpei had experienced the same emotion even without a glass in the middle of his life, even a second after he had put foot in there, had bowed before a displeased audience, had continued smiling despite anything.

Despite being aware he wasn’t the one everyone had been waiting for.

I’m so sick of this place, Izumi-Chan. For real.

#quindi ora é tempo per Bianca e Bernie cazzoooook #non me l'aspettavo ragazz

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teclajellymon · 27 days ago

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No malicious pun but let me say I really really love your big J.P. And reading your fan fictions make the feelings around him alive. I love you gave him bodyhair. Digumon boys need bodyhair. That's how us men work

I hhhhhhh💕💕💕💕. Thank you for liking my grown-up son, Anon. I had given up drawing bodyhair on men long time ago, but now I’m back on that track again because I feel like Junpei should be Izumi’s singing teddybear in any possible sense.

(Discarded sketch from a drafted Junzumizine)

#ma che carino sì #me lo ricordo #LUI

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teclajellymon · 1 month ago

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Does your comic hint your Izumi is a PDA, Junpei is more reserved? CUTE. I would scratch and rub his belly too.

Fun fact is that I had no idea what PDA meant before this ask agahgagag.

Izumi is bubbly canonically and ,HONESTLY, tell me if TOH hasn’t made it clear how these two clash now???? Junpei is shyer than he used to be and Izumi is much bubblier, but both are a living chaos and get embarrassed of each other ahahahhahah. SO CUTE. Yet, I like headcanoning Izumi is much more opened about affection display because of her connection with Italy. She would be the one telling Junpei it’s okay to hold hands in Italy and he would just turn into a roasted potato ahahahhah.

And then she gets addicted to how soft and malleable his face is.

#io quando #iO QUANDO #quando a me questa fortuna

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teclajellymon · 1 month ago

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So much bare chested Junpei on beach content reminded me of the Takumi, Chiapei, Junzumi merman AU 😭😭😭😭😭. MERMAID CHIAKI. (I'm sorry i love Chiaki)

I still need to finish this mermaid Chiaki. I’m so sad my mood swings from this year due to uni robbed me of Mermay fun…I love mermaids (and mermen lmao) so much and I was so excited for Mermay, sigh. All gone. Still this doesn’t mean I won’t be able to talk about the LM Au in other occasions. I mean, we don’t talk about mermaids only on Mermay ,OKKKK?

Anyway, there I was just playing with her palette as I’m not sure Junpei and her should be GREEN (ofc Ranamon green🤣🤣). GUYS, I’M NOT READY TO TAKE THAT JUMP. SINCERELY. Picturesque🤣. Like you can see, I’ve given her a new lovely tail. I do wonder…What if I just leave her like this and I’ll just go on lol.

Anyway, capricious, lunatic princess of the sea not being noticed by her lonely prince because he’s more into recording human songs❤️‍🩹.

He wants to get eaten by her tail probably .

#così fuga ma lui la lascia per un paio di gambe:

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teclajellymon · 1 month ago

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*turns Junpei into a Pokemon*

Gamefreak: ✨PUFF✨

Gamefreak: AH BUT HIS ATTRIBUTE IS WRONG. SOWWWWY.

#porcod lo scoiattolo nella sfera #Pokemon che puzza massí #é Junpei

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teclajellymon · 1 month ago

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When I think about my Junzumi Pokemon AU and I think about how I wanted to give Junpei a bond with Meleoetta (Izumi with Shaymin). AND NOW I’VE DISCOVERED HER BETA WAS AN ADORABLE BBY CRICKET, NOT SOME RANDOM DOLL WITH HAIR. PLEASE WHY HAVE I BEEN ROBBED.

#triste da dire #guardatela

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teclajellymon · 2 months ago

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It’s embarrassing to say I’ve taken a whole summer to project this Junzumizine, but you know what, I’ve had fun and I’ve enjoyed the whole journey without intrusive thoughts ad stress, except the hypochondria stress as, well~~, I’ve had one of my hypochondriac periods due to my damaging over thinking. Junzumi makes me feel good💕, and that’s why this comic is incredibly stupid (and messy, I mean, I would have finished this in December and further if I had polished it. And whatever, who cares about polishing🤣).

#buon van gogh a tutti #mo mi metto sul cesso come joey e mi bagno

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teclajellymon · 2 months ago

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It’s an endless summer if you have got a lazy ass.

#bagnata dritta nelle mutande #arrapata

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teclajellymon · 2 months ago

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[ Like always, @teclajellymon made me notice I hadn’t cross-posted my monthly (laughing) Junzumi one-shot here, so ,thank you, Tecla. Again.This time I offer you a different Junzumi, not really the one you’re used to because Izumi isn’t really that present in this, except in an indirect way. Actually I think it’s high time I started dealing with creating a family background for Izumi , and soon for Junpei as well. So, something different for September. But hello, it’s already October✨ .]

{La gente che incontri nella pioggia } | {Those you meet under the rain}

If Blitzmon hated him so much, because there was no way he could bring himself to believe he was detested by Nature itself, he should tell him that right away, so they could find a good compromise allowing him to live a normal life.

He wasn’t asking for that much. He just wanted to be safely allowed to jump on a train taking him far from home, get off at a random stop, take a stroll through the narrow streets of a park and their shadows, wandering in a maze made of hundred alleys.

Until it dawned on him the building complex he had been led to looked way too familiar along with that little square before it, the benches, the trees scattering leaves on their white marble, the residents hurrying to the glass door, eager to go back home after a long work day and just giving a glance to that young bizarre stranger they had never seen before.

Probably.

And his ravings, with which he had been repeating the same two or three sentences, suddenly quieted down, getting stuck in his throat as if to warn him there was someone else who wanted to talk as much as he wanted to, though with much more resolution.

…

“If you…I just…I mean, nothin-“ He knew it was just a mischievous illusion that had just made him believe the scenario in front of him had shaken like if devastated by an earthquake.

Still, what came afterwards, the chilly feeling of drops falling on the tip of his fingers, the sensation of wiping them as they slipped down his skin was real, just like the expletive he soon muttered with all the irritation building up in his bosom.

At that point, after having done, indeed, not done that so many times, it would have been better if he just gave up getting angry at himself and that matching part of his spirit he had left who knew where.

He was a peculiar gone case, constantly perservering in forgetting his umbrella at home. Buttoning his shirt up downstairs while keeping the TV turned on in the background, a woman blabbing and pointing at a map dotted with glowing clouds dominating the screen, hadn’t helped, either, apparently.

Blitzmon had nothing to do with his tendency to make the same mistakes all over again, no matter Izumi herself had scolded him over that once, back when he had showed up at a meeting of their group soaking wet from head to toe…Grinning like an idiot because he believed that would magically calm her down. He hated being treated like Takuya and that afternoon she unfortunately had, which was the reason why he hadn’t been able to enjoy the rare shower of attention he had been receiving by no one else but her.

Much stronger than before, no longer sounding like someone shifting furniture by making wood legs slid and screech against the floor, the second thunder of that tempest ensured Junpei heard its roar loud and clear at that round.

Ok, ok, I get it. it’s high time I went back home.

After all he had nothing to do there.

Needless to underline how he didn’t dare to speak after that rumble, but even if he had had, his usual blabbing would have come out in the form of incoherent stutters, even worse than the ones he had been fighting against for hours. To the boy who’s still deathly afraid of the voice of the skies, those shouts would almost sound deafening, like the steps of giant dinosaurs created by special effects in those documentaries he often enjoyed watching; like the prelude to an imminent end of the world.

Thus, petrified yet trembling at the same time, - out of both terror and cold-, unable to go further or back, he stood still in the heart of that cascade seeming to have gained tonnes in weight. Water was getting heavier, thicker, freezing, infiltrating not only in his shoes and socks, but also in the opening spaces of his gakuran.

If he was restored to his mobility, he was sure he would stay where he was, maybe exploiting that silent bless just to crouch down and sigh, because the subsequent, abrupt drop of temperature was brought by a mist of condensation quickly swallowing his surroundings in a humid blur. He had paradoxically got lost in a place he knew pretty well. Though he was aware in what exact spot he was, he found himself getting progressively confused about which direction would have led him to the station in brighter, -literally and figuratively-, circumstances. Whether he headed for right or left, or took the path behind him ,whose contours were fading in the spectral greyness in leaps and bounds, it wasn’t granted he wouldn’t disappear as well, swift hypothesis that made him resign to the fact he had exchanged his rationality for a mush of nonsense.

Like usual, nothing new there. No matter how often he would keep on getting caught in the storm, he would always go through all the stages of that descent into the most recondite parts of his brain: it was precisely in those moments when he tossed the crumbs of his common sense away like bread thrown at pidgeons, he would understand why they had been secluded in such depths.

In most cases he would manage to snap out of it by himself. The puzzle his present had transformed into would tidy its tiles; the shivers running up and down his body would start making him feel more alive than ever; his orbs, which had been wide open for the whole time being, would feel like having just come out from the darkness to make him realize there was another kind of fog that should concern him more than the one hovering over Shinjuku, and he would need to dissipate it as soon as possible before he developed a cold or worse.

He would with his willpower, his hands, or…An umbrella.

An umbrella that wasn’t his, of course. Although he was in that emaciated state, he could have never had doubts about that.

The metallic tip pointed at his chest, piercing through the pall of moisture like a sword, didn’t obviously belong to him.

He blinked at the item suspended in the air, exclusively focusing on its cylindrical shape as if it was being held by an invisible ghost and not by a tall man in the flesh. It could be stated he was ignoring that silhouette on purpose, not finding it reassuring to acknowledge the only elements of the enviroment that were clearly visible were that stranger and his two umbrellas, -the one he had unsheathed against him and another perched on his shoulder to protect his well-combed strands from the rain. His blonde strands.

“Prendi,” To him, it was much easier to convince himself an umbrella had just spoken with a tenebrous tone, -in italian, nonetheless!-, than accepting that man, an ordinary human, had. “Oh! I’m talking to you,” Still, Junpei’s foolish intent became increasingly harder due to those tugs given to the item to highlight the peremptory message. “Will you grab this umbrella, per l’amor del cielo…? Oh mio Dio, possibile che siate tutti degli idioti?”

Now there were so many other things making him shudder: the tangible exasperation expressed in an advanced italian, almost dialectal, which he would have never been able to translate without a vocabulary, the boiling impatience clashing with the azure of peaceful mornings, wrinkles creating furrows on the surface of a wide forehead, -the type itself you would associate with men endowed with remarkable intelligence-.

No…It wasn’t weird. He might not be a great observant, -or so he was bound to believe for reasons-, but back when Izumi had decided to organize her twelfth birthday party at her place, oh if he hadn’t stared.

It wasn’t a miracle if he could still recall some specific details after years from that day, still vividly blushing at the memory of her endeared mother giggling at that Junpei-Kun being such a shy child, unlike the other boys, even someone as reserved as Kouji who had been amiably chatting with the welcoming couple, quenching their lovely curiosity’s thirst by replying to any question of theirs.

In his defence, he couldn’t help it: in spite of how different she looked from Izumi, with those soft auburn curls framing her angular features, the woman was so beautiful he hadn’t been able to keep himself from wondering Izumi would grow up in such a gorgeous adult someday. Whenever she asked him about his hobbies, he would avert his gaze and stammer on his own answer, which would make the woman gently laugh and occasionally coo.

He absolutely wasn’t like that, but he had let Izumi’s parents temporarily consider him as a polite, timid, bashful friend of their daughter. He had told himself he would introduce himself properly next time they would cross paths, but it seemed it wasn’t an urgent necessity for now, -or, perhaps, it was never going to be-, judging from his behaviour in the man’s regards.

In Signor Orimoto’s.

“Ehm…No,” He mumbled, internally screaming since he had no idea about what he was exactly doing. He chose to pick a courteous expression he had learnt to heart from a list of useful phrases any tourist going to Italy should keep in mind. The magic formula that would rescue him from his embarrassing trouble in the blink of an eye. For Heaven’s sake, what had he done? “No, grazie, S-Signor Orimoto.”

“N-no grazie?” The man predictably repeated and the echo of his own idiocies made him wish his briefcase, brimming with the most desparate, useless bits and pieces, could make him sink underground. Nevertheless, what happened was that he got dragged to the entrance of the building, under a roof which made the rain tapping turn muffled and even relaxing at some extent, -if he could just calm down!- “No grazie?! What does that even mean? Vedi se prendi questo ombrello! And hurry, please! I have to pick Izumi up.”

So, she isn’t at home. I see. This whole mess for nothing, He found himself cracking a smile of incomprehensible relief, making the adult fairly perplexed.

“No!” Waving his hands in front of his visual field, now shadowed by the tangle of his longish bangs, he attempted to recompose himself without success. He would have bowed repeatedly, if it wouldn’t have spoiled his hairstyle even more. “Signor Orimoto, I thank you again, but I don’t really need your umbrella. It only takes two minutes to get to the station. I-I will be fine, no need to worry about me, eh eh.”

“I know where the station is and I still insist you do,” If he could forget that tragicomedy he was living in and mute that sort of scold, he would take his time to appreciate that unique dance of fingers of his. As collected as she wanted to be, Izumi would try avoiding being so colourful in her silver tongue as much as she could, keeping her hands on her thighs and making them hang onto them when the urge became too unbearable to control. “You can keep it until you see Izumi again. It’s just a spare umbrella. We are the ones not needing it.”

His irises , now filled not only with honey but also with uninvited melancholy, jumped back into the insubstantiality of a non-existent horizon. Though that was what he initially wanted, he didn’t get the so-longed result of succeeding at kicking some certain thoughts away.

You see, the fact is that I never get to see Izumi-Chan. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been here in the hope of talking to her after so long. But now…I’m kinda glad my plan has failed so miserably. What would have I told her if she had found me here, seriously?! How could she have believed I was just taking a stroll?! Couldn’t you have just called her, idiot?!

It came a spontaneous consequence for him to ask himself if that hadn’t been some kind of punishment for his incorrigible immaturity, his indelibile cowardice. Actually , if he could be honest with himself, in that pattern of concatenated events he could definitely identify something similar to a law of retaliation. He had been dreaming about meeting Izumi in a sunny afternoon for days, picturing her surprised response, her shining, alluring jades conveying the same happiness he was feeling, whereas in his reality he had run into her father in the middle of a pouring disaster and had also annoyed him with that attitude of his.

Again, what was he thinking he was doing?

“So you won’t accept to borrow my umbrella.”

Overwhelmed by the speed of that unappreciated stream of consciousness, he limited himself to hang his head in a willing mutism.

“You have deliberately chosen to go back to the station without my umbrella.”

Then, he raised his chin, and ,somehow, the man found that funny enough to burst into a series of entertained chuckles.

“You have retreated into the shell again, haven’t you? I guess I have insisted too much. It’s just that you boys are so reckless nowadays. You are all the same, cookie-cutter.”

“I’m n-not reckless,” At those insinuations, he couldn’t continue escaping from the direct contact with him any more. “I just…I just…” But it dawned on him it wasn’t like he had a lot of arguments to cling to, especially in front of a skilled, respected diplomat. He couldn’t really complain about how he didn’t want to be compared with people like Takuya, the only impulsive one of their group, in his opinion. On the contrary, he was just…Stupid. And now he was left questioning if there was an actual difference between their flawed personalities. Simultaneously, he couldn’t really explain him why he had been rejecting his offer with so much determination, either.

“Yeah, it feels strange to label someone like you reckless,” After a second of startled hesitation, the man pretended to be clearing his throat with a fake cough. “But today I felt like I’ve got to get a glimpse of a side of yourself I would have never imagined it even existed.”

“You mean…The side of myself that can speak?”

He regretted having been so blunt, externalizing a wave of ashamed disgust towards those recollections they shared.

“More or less, yeah. I like finding out what you boys hide under your surface. At first I told myself Takuya acted without thinking, would hurt himself by putting his hand in fire, but then I have realized he does that because he puts his safety behind the one of those he cares about,” Like that, he went on scrolling through a past spent with Izumi’s friends, an amount of time he seemed to have greatly benefited from. At a certain point Junpei got the impression Izumi was by his side, as he was convinced there was no one else who knew them so well. Yet, he might have been wrong for all those years or, probably, it was merely one of the special gifts the family had been given. As far as concerned himself, he could only blather in that way when it came to Izumi’s endless list of good points and talents. “Kouji often gives you the impression you are bothering him, but the truth is that there are just days he doesn’t feel like being in the company of other people. Kouichi is placid, it’s soothing to chat with him, but sometimes I get the feeling he has gone through a lot and I will start pondering my words, -you know, I tend to talk a lot and my wife says I should shut up because I sound like a parrot, ah ah-. Tomoki is one of those lads you should never understeem. Of course, he’s the youngest of you all, so I used to treat him differently, if you get what I mean. I’m glad he made me notice I should have given him more credit. He’s so clever and he can also handle debates brilliantly. And finally-“

“And finally there’s me…Who can speak,” He didn’t know if he was feeling a pang of envy at those compliments addressed to the others, but he recognized he was at fault there since he had been running away from an enormous amount of chances. During his middle school years his crush on Izumi had…Changed, and a hunch would always suggest he should decline each of Izumi’s invitation at her place, bizarre as it sounded, -and bitter as it would taste later-.

“I admit I couldn’t believe to Izumi’s words when she told me you are not like that. Junpei non è cosi’, Papà. Non è cosí. Then, I asked her what you were like.”

“A-And what did she tell you?” The desire to vanish in a hole, which was supposed to take shape in the ground beneath his feet out of blue, became even more annoying after that display of excited interest. He thanked the rain for having sewn a curtain of hair on his face, as he was feeling tremendously self-conscious about the scarlet blood animating his cheeks and the lucid enthusiasm reflecting in his orbs. And could he be blamed about that? He absolutely wanted to listen to what Izumi thought about him. He was eager to find out if she had some peculiar opinion about him!

“She told me…” Since he was wavering, he didn’t intend to suspect he was manufacturing some lie not to make him curl up in his taciturnity again. “Papà, Junpei is Junpei.”

“J-Junpei is Junpei…” Well, that…Wasn’t what he was expecting. He wasn’t going to deny it, though he wasn’t sure whether he was disappointed or jealous because, like usual, the others seemed to blow her mind, her senses , and her sweet descriptions held such a grace they were structured as impalpable poetry carried by the wind. He could invent time machine, travel back in centuries and millennia to pick the first flower ever that had been bathed by dew, hurry back to give it to her and everything would be the same.

Of course, it would, because I don’t want to make Izumi-Chan fall for me by impressing her. Still…Still…Junpei is Junpei. What does that even mean…?

“I wonder if you know what it means,” As if he had read his mind, the man’s pensive comment overlapped with his internal struggles.

“No, I don’t.” But I wish I did.

“But how is it possible you don’t know who Junpei is?” Both flinched at one of those sporadic lightnings dashing down the wall of the waterfall, unannounced. “This damned thunderstorm is getting worse, isn’t it?”

“You should call Izumi to ensure she has been waiting for you outside instead of being here, wasting time chatting with me,” Almost comforted by that break fracturing that dialogue of theirs, Junpei promptly seized the moment to sneak out of that inconvenience.

“Hey, calma. Izumi hasn’t finished her photoshot yet. She will call me when she does. And talking to you boys is never a waste of time. I want to know my daughter’s friends because I want her to be surrounded with wonderful people deserving to be part of her life. My wife wasn’t that pleased when she heard Izumi had a group of friends made up of boys. I was so happy, instead. The more people in my little pupa’s life, the better. That’s why it’s important for me to know you better day after day.”

It made sense, Junpei nodded to himself. He might not be the protective kind of father he imagined he would be, but he was legitimately worried about who Izumi hanged out with.

“I-I see,” He nodded for a second time just to fill the the void the man had left behind his speech, now caring about playing a more active role as an interlocutor.

”So…who is Junpei? May I know who he is?”

“Junpei is…” And that could be said about that awkward demand as well. “Someone who’s trying to figure out who he is. I’ve… I’ve recently decided I want to study opera singing.”

He didn’t find the courage to look up at the adult, but he could grasp the swinging of mood latched with his exclamation.

”Wow, sembra tosto!”

“What?”

“Opera singing is hard. You must be really passionate to want to take such a path. What pushed you to make such a decision?”

”I-I,” His neck was going to sustain a big tomato instead of his head very soon. “I-l like i-italian. And I like entertaining people, seeing smiles or tears on their face.”

”Junpei, ma è meraviglioso!” The bento he had frantically prepared in the morning took the way upwards from his stomach, once a powerful pat landed on his back. That lean man astoundingly concealed such a power in his muscles it made him trip in his own fears about him again. He kept on torturing his poor shoulder blades like that, chirping with renewed spirit. At that point the real question was who Signor Orimoto really was. “Then, it’s mandatory: you have to come home like the others do and tell me everything about opera. Would you look at how life mocks you? Years ago I would refuse to go to opera with colleagues, now my daughter has got a future opera singer as friend.”

Speaking of Izumi, an old-fashioned ring started vibrating in the pocket of the man’s elegant coat, right when he needed for providential help the most.

“Oh, it’s my little pupa!” As soon as he let Junpei go, the boy risked to fall on his knees, panting, with his tongue out. The only force preventing him from indulging in that state was his panic, immediately catching some words he would need to repress as soon as he could.

“No, please! Perfavore!” He cried, but in vain. When a father received a call from his daughter after a tough day of work, he would isolate himself from the whole universe to savour every single second spent with her.

“Izumi, you don’t know who-“

So, he resorted to other methods, simple yet, -he hoped-, effective. Italians spoke through gestures, so it would be hilarious if the man couldn’t get the meaning of his clasped hands, his frame oscillating back and forth, his gritted teeth, his,- detail he preferred omitting-, puppy eyes he didn’t even want to know what they looked like on him.

Please, I beg you, don’t tell her I came here to visit.

And Signor Orimoto back-pedalled at once, not resisting to give him a playful wink, though. “You don’t know who is probably coming to Japan…!”

He wasn’t certain if he was just imagining Izumi’s squeals guessing the mysterious guest without a shred of hint, but what mattered the most was that she would never know about what had happened that afternoon.

Still… Still, both she and her mother failed to understand why ,all of a sudden, the man started becoming a fan of opera, eventually also buying CDs to put in the background of the house’s library.

Years ago it was the turn of football, sport he had always detested, and videogames, -yes, videogames-, after a while he had begun watching documentaries about far and dangerous zones of the world and tv series about doctors, -the only one of those unexplainable interests he had ended up dropping very quickly-.

Signora Orimoto wasn’t that content about that new passion of her husband’s. At all. If she wanted to take an afternoon nap, she would have to plug her ears due to that music making the walls of their house quake.

…

”So, will you take this umbrella for once and for all?”

He scratched his chin, mulling over the persistent request with more affection now.

“I suppose, I will. Va bene.”

So he would find a more solid excuse to meet Izumi without making a fool of himself.

After all, Junpei was Junpei.

XXX

Italian notes (surprise, surprise~~~)

• Prendi: “Take it”

• Per l’amor del cielo: For Heaven’s sake.

• Oh mio Dio, possibile che siete tutti degli idioti?: “Oh my God, is it possible you all are a bunch of idiots?” Signor Orimoto was trying being *polite* and having tact in the regards of poor Junpei, eh XD?

Vedi se prendi questo ombrello: it’s a colloquial way to urge someone to, -in this case-, grab an offered umbrella as soon as they can.

• Junpei non è cosi’, Papà. Non è cosí: Junpei is not like that, Papà. He is not like that.

• Pupa is girl in sicilian. I like thinking Signor Orimoto enjoyed Sicily a lot, but that will be another story XD. However, it might also be connected with pupi siciliani, dolls used in the traditional theatre from there. By the way, I don’t think it’s that common as an affectionate nickname for your child, but my sicilian grandmother calls me that.

• Ma è meraviglioso! - But it’s wonderful !

#sfregandomi le mani e il culo #voi dovete ringraziare che questa donna esiste

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