𝄆Leap the Moon𝄇

by Darkblaw, oddvector

Summary:

"There's a rabbit who looks at the moon every night. Gotta be in love with the moon, right? And everyone thinks it's a real tragic story, 'cause the rabbit can't jump that high, no matter how hard it tries. And the rabbit isn't interested in any of the other rabbits around it, just keeps staring at the moon. So everyone thinks it's a tragic love story. Then one day they find out why the rabbit's always gawkin' at the moon. It sees another rabbit on the moon. It thinks that it's gonna be that rabbit someday if it can just jump high enough to get there. It wasn't a love story. Just a cotton-tale about a basketcase, seein' itself in the stars."

Notes:

• For Variabeauties.

Original prompt: "Choose whichever duo you prefer to create for: 1. Shoka and Kaie, 2. Shiki and Nagi, or 3. Uzuki and Kanon."

This lovely work was written for Variabeauties as part of the Halloween exchange. Thank you so much for the opportunity to write for you. It makes me smile so very much that you have had a chance to participate!

Not all parts of this work are written in chronological order.

Please note Yashiro Uzuki is biologically canonically seventeen, as an immortal Reaper, but is chronologically canonically 21+ at the beginning of this story. Tachibana Kanon is, likewise, biologically and chronologically 21+, as Players do age. This work briefly touches on this fact from Yashiro's perspective and therefore arguably—depending on one's interpretation of Reaper ages—contains instances of an adult and an underage adolescent engaging in romance. Additionally, this follows the NEO, so Tachibana ends up erased during W3 of the Wicked Twisters' Game, and Yashiro does not end up in a happy relationship by the end. If one does not wish to read tragedy, reader discretion is advised.

Darkblaw is listed as a co-author for his boundless hours upon hours upon hours of effort as my beta reader, writing partner, and the one who formatted and drafted this work for ao3, but I, ζ, wrote all the material herein. Therefore, I take responsibility for any problems, concerns, queries, and so on. You may always reach at [email protected].

[159°: 𝄆Leap the Moon𝄇 | Tachibana Kanon/Yashiro Uzuki | pre-NEO]

Chapter 1: 🌒

Summary:

Moon; anything one could desire.

Notes:

Summaries have been written by Marco without any input from yours truly.

This work was written as a single long narrative and was intended to be read that way. I have split it into chapters for convenient reading so that the reader can read it in chunks and take breaks as they prefer, but please note that the chapter splits are artificial. Thank you kindly for understanding. Note that the chapters are not written/titled as '159.00°:' and so forth because the moon symbols are not the chapters titles. They are the breaks between sections, like one has seen in other works of mine.

159°: 𝄆Leap the Moon𝄇

"You know about the rabbit who pounds mochi on the moon?"

"Oh, so you've gone from 'stargazing' to real stargazing? Look, does this have something to do with the mi-ssion? Nooo? Then can it."

"Hey, I'm takin' my brass-given fifteen-minute break."

"Ugh. Fine. Yes I've heard of the stupid story. Who hasn't? You think I didn't have parents to read me storybooks or something?"

"Well, I heard a pretty interesting story recently. You know the early morning rollerblade club? One of 'em read a book lately and was tellin' stories to the other rollers."

"I don't need to hear about your stalking fetish. Cut to the chase."

"There's a rabbit who looks at the moon every night. Gotta be in love with the moon, right? And everyone thinks it's a real tragic story, 'cause the rabbit can't jump that high, no matter how hard it tries. And the rabbit isn't interested in any of the other rabbits around it, just keeps staring at the moon. So everyone thinks it's a tragic love story. Then one day they find out why the rabbit's always gawkin' at the moon. It sees another rabbit on the moon. It thinks that it's gonna be that rabbit someday if it can just jump high enough to get there. It wasn't a love story. Just a cottontail about a basketcase, seein' itself in the stars."

"What, you're so bored of stargazing you've started navelgazing? Break's over. Let's get back to work."

"No rest for the wicked? Guess you've got mochi to pound."

"I'm about to pound your ugly mug if we don't rack up a promotion."

🌒

Notes:

Please see the endnotes of the work for acknowledgments to my dear writing partner Marco and for notes on the work. Marco has also written the summaries for all the chapters.