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01.
Joshua clutched his empty Chitose Ame bag in one hand and looked about, his other hand held by Mother's. To be honest, he wasn't interested in the clothing he wore -- Mother called it a hakama -- or the prayer Mother offered to the shrine. The world outside his home was so different, and had so many other people, and they were far more interesting. He tried to take in as much of his surroundings as he could, the other chlidren his age -- some crying, others running around laughing -- the other adults, the greenery around him, the torii as he exited the Meiji Jingu Shrine with Mother. She smiled and praised him for being so well behaved while they had been out here in Shibuya, and he accepted the praise with a small bob of his head and a smile.
It hadn't been like that earlier, though. His curiosity now that he was outside had made him openly look about, tugging at Mother's hand so he could see more. But the thin line of her mouth and the shake of her head made him realise this excitement was wrong, and he reined it in. Still, while he walked beside Mother, he looked about and absorbed as much as he could while remaining as discreet as possible.
And that was when he saw the animals.
They looked like the ones he had seen in his picture books. Frogs and bears and crabs and some other ones he didn't quite recognise. But these ones were coloured different, and some of their arms and legs -- limbs -- were multicoloured, flat, spindly and like metal, only Joshua had never seen metal curve and extend like that before. He just knows these animals aren't normal, and yet there are people, in pairs, yelling and attacking those animals. Joshua had no idea what was going on, but it seemed like no one really cared.
"Come, Joshua," he heard Mother say, a hint of sterness in her voice, and realised he had paused in his walking. He reluctantly pulled his eyes away from the people and strange animals to give Mother a silent nod, and slid his small hand in hers. Mother was always the one who knew where they were going, leading Joshua as he followed obediently. But as they walked, Joshua turned his eyes back to the people and animals, feet automatically falling into step with Mother. [blah describe what's happening blah] His eyes widened as Mother's route took him closer to the battle, and he didn't want to blink in case he missed something.
In hindsight, maybe he should have blinked. Or looked away.
One of the people turned on her heels, attempting to run, one of the creatures kicked its legs out, clawed feet bursting through her abdomen. Her face twisted into a scream, and Joshua screamed too, when she disappeared in a burst of static that flooded his ears.
Everything was dark, and Mother's voice was muffled, far away, drowning in static.
He tried not to hear it, the static, and the screams, and tried not to remember the expression on that girl's face, and after an age of trying not to hear anything, the static faded. Shortly after, he heard an impatient sound before he felt someone roughly grab his arm and pull it away from his ears -- he didn't realise he'd been covering them.
"Look at me, Joshua," he heard her sternly say, and he realised he had closed his eyes when he covered his ears. Obediently opening his eyes, Joshua dared not look anywhere other than Mother's face as she [condescended? stooped?] so she was eye-level to him.
"Joshua. What was that noise for?" Her face was completely neutral, voice neither warm nor cold.
Joshua bit his lip, lowering his head. Mother and Father had always disliked loud noises. But he couldn't give an explanation for his scream when he didn't even know why he did it. So he lifted his head, turning it in search of the people and animals again, silently pointing at them when he found a group, keeping his finger trained on them as they ran across the Scramble.
"Joshua." Mother's tone had an edge now, and Joshua's face fell when he saw the stern expression on her face. "You're wasting my time."
He bowed his head and tried not to scuff his [shoes]. "... Sorry."
She moved to take the Chitose Ame bag from where Joshua had dropped it on the floor. Joshua held out his hands, expectant, but Mother turned and ignored him. He reluctantly watched Mother throw the bag into a bin, the black and white tips of the printed cranes' wings disappearing into the void, but didn't protest her move.
Joshua quickly learnt he was the only one who could see the people and creatures running all over Shibuya. Mother and Father couldn't see them, and neither could his teachers and classmates when he started school.
But he just couldn't keep his eyes off the invisible people and the strange creatures they sometimes fought. Sometimes the people would just... disappear when the creatures touched them. Sometimes the creatures would disappear when the people sent flames at them. He observed as much as he could of these unseen events, determinedly not looking away when the people disappeared, some of them quietly, some of them not so. After the first shocking scream, Joshua had learnt what to expect, and turned his attention into fascination with the expressions on their faces, observing without affection. Why were they so expressive, when Mother and Father weren't? Joshua learned to ignore the static until it simply became background noise.
As did the conversations of the children around him. They avoided him because of his answers to their question, "What're you looking at?" to which he pointed to people and kangaroos and frogs and penguins they couldn't see. They tried, at first. Tried seeing what he saw, but they couldn't, and soon left him alone in his observations.
Afterwards, Joshua stopped trying to show other people what they couldn't see, but by then, it was too late.
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