How odd it was already, seeing this miniature reflection stand before him. But the way he spoke made it all the more unsettling. This boy was him, yet… not. Something was different.
Ah, what was he even thinking? How could any of this be real at all? Surely this was just a demon’s idea of entertainment…
“You shouldn’t be out at this hour. It’s dangerous,” he said simply, trying to maintain some semblance of composure as he knelt down before the boy. “No… everything is fine. Just… what’s your name?”
☆彡 The boy glanced up as though just noticing that evening had approached, but lowered his eyes to meet the stranger’s as he knelt down. Though the resemblance was uncanny, yes, he didn’t think it anything out of the ordinary.
“Mikaela Shindou,” he introduced with a tilt of his head. The danger comment was taken into consideration, albeit he abandoned it in lieu of ‘everything is fine’. Those words left a bad taste in his mouth, and the other definitely didn’t seem to believe them. Almost on instinct, the boy reached forward and rested his hand on top of the elder’s head.
He wasn’t sure what he expected to accomplish, and he didn’t know what to say; he intended it to be some form of reassurance, but for what?
It was almost cute, seeing the little boy dressed up in his uniform. The sleeves dragging on the ground as he practically drowned in it. He really had grown a lot, hadn’t he?
Yes, it would be very cute, if it wasn’t so uncanny to see his own younger self standing before him.
“… are you pretending to be me…?” Not that he needed to pretend.
Just a standard patrol. That’s all it was meant to be. Nothing particularly unusual to report, either.
Except for the strange flash of light he’d seen in the distance.
And so, knowing it was his responsibility to find the cause, Mika headed in the direction of the light. Only a little curious about it, assuming it would end up being something quite boring. It usually was.
When the child ran into him, he was mostly surprised by how it didn’t seem afraid of his uniform at all. Until the boy finally looked up, and Mika saw his eyes. He knew that face… It was his own. Was this some kind of trick? A demon playing games, perhaps?
“… where did you come from?”
☆彡 What an odd question. Where had he come from? The boy glanced behind him, confused; after all, he’d only rounded a corner. Was there anything strange about that? He hadn’t thought so, but apparently that opinion wasn’t shared by both parties.
“From just around the corner, sir,” he told the elder as politely as he could, although he doubted that it would be a satisfactory answer. He couldn’t hold back his own question. “Why do you ask?”
The other’s clothing looked like a uniform of some type, but Mika couldn’t place what it may have been for. The man also seemed suspicious of something. Did he think the boy had done something wrong? Was he in trouble? Well, the younger sure hoped not; granted, he was more afraid of what his parents might do to him if he wasn’t home on time than what this stranger could accuse him of.
☆彡 Some flashes of lightening had been the only thing odd about that day. No rain preceded them, nor did Mika hear any distinct thunder afterwards. Odd, he decided, but didn’t pay too much mind to the strangeness of it, continuing on his walk as though the ordeal hadn’t happened. Perhaps subconsciously, though, he turned his course in the direction of where they’d been.
The boy failed to pay enough attention as he rounded an alley corner. By the time he noticed the other person, it was too late to avoid walking directly into them. Almost stumbling backwards in an attempt to get out of their way, he spewed out a string of apologies, only to trail off when he looked up.
If the person hadn’t been so distinctly older than him, then Mika would have thought he’d bumped into a mirror. Maybe he was hallucinating. At the thought, one of his hands twitched with the temptation to reach out and touch the other once more, just to see if he’d vanish.
But the boy was staring, and if the stranger wasn’t a hallucination, then he was being rude, so he averted his gaze. “Ah… h-hello….?”
