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HEARTSTRINGS

Rated T

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CH.1

Heartstrings

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This is... this is the story I can't ever tell anyone... It's a story about my Family. To tell you about them, I have to start with my Father, and to tell you about him... I have to tell you about my Mother. She is a scientist, she is beautiful, and she loves her children more than anything else in the world. All twenty-nine of us... As for the man she fell in love with... he was an octopus. He is taller than the average male human, and he is bright yellow and had tentacles... But is

he really an Octopus? My siblings thought so. Manami especially...

"My Daddy is an Octopus!"

Five minutes prior to that rather strange outburst she had been sitting at the front of her first grade classroom with the biggest smile on her face. She was so excited to be going to school, and she was so happy when she received her first assignment.

"Draw your hero and then come up to the front of the class and tell us about them," the teacher instructed.

She worked so hard on her drawing. Almost wearing down the yellow crayon in her crayon box to color it in, and then it was time to show them.

"This is my Dad," said one of her classmates. "He works for the embassy. He's my hero because he keeps peace between our country and others."

"This is my Mommy," said another girl. "She's a lawyer, and she's my hero because she makes bad guys go to jail so I can sleep at night without worrying about them."

On and on it went, but none of them had a hero quite as good as hers…

Finally the teacher called her name and she got up holding her picture close to her chest because she didn't want anyone to see until she turned it around.

She faced her classmates smiling. "My hero is my Dad," she said and she turned the picture around to face them. "And... My Daddy is an Octopus!"

The whole class was silent for a moment, but then they erupted in a fit of laughter. The smile slowly fell off Manami's face…

"What…" she said softly…

"Your Dad can't be an octopus."

"That's stupid."

"She's lying…"

"I am not!" Manami said frowning holding the picture. "He is an octopus! And he's my hero because he takes care of me, and my siblings. One time I had a really bad fever and he took me up into the sky so it would help my temperature. Another time, I fell out of a tree and he caught me even though he was really far away. And I really wanted a toy rocking horse when I was little, and he carved one from wood in seconds! I—"

"Sweetie," The teacher said putting a hand on her head to try and get her to stop talking. "The assignment was to tell the class about a real life hero…"

"But my Daddy is real!" she explained holding the picture up as though it were the only evidence she needed.

"Um… maybe you should take your seat…" her teacher said giving her a tiny nudge towards her desk.

She walked back hearing her fellow students hissing snide comments at her, and by the time she had returned to her seat her glasses were fogging up from her tears… Karma was right… School IS stupid. She didn't want to go back. Though she supposed, it really was her fault she was even here in the first place…

(A Week Prior)

Everyone thought that place was haunted. They said it was because they could hear the sounds of playing children when you got close enough, but the locals knew better than to investigate. People would say, it was the sound of murdered children who ventured too close to the monster that dwelled inside. Sometimes elementary school children would dare each other to get close, but few people were ever brave enough to go too near the abandoned temple. No one ever made it far enough to see the building before something would scare them and they'd run away.

Overlooking the rumors, the place was actually an old shrine located a good thirty minute walk straight back from a highway and into the woods. It was run down, and had its own well which (last time realtors had gone there) still functioned. But no one had gone there in a good number of years, and it was precisely a four years ago that the rumors began...

However, no one knew what was really going on there...

"Whaaaa!" Nagisa cried tears in his eyes, one of his shoes had already slipped off. He could see it lying in the bottom of the river. "Put me down…" he pleaded.

"You want me to put you down over the water? Really?" Karma teased. He was holding Nagisa over the river near their home by his torso, using the limbs coming out of his neck.

For being as little as he was, he was surprisingly cruel and Nagisa, being the smallest boy at home, was his favorite person to pick on. He lowered Nagisa slightly towards the water and his cries got louder. It wasn't deep... Honestly, even for as short as he was, he could probably have stood up in it and it would only have come to his waist. Though he a rather irrational fear of water and so that small little stream he was held over top of might as well have been an ocean for as much as it terrified him...

A gust of wind blew by, and Nagisa was out of his grasp. Karma blinked turning towards the yellow tentacled alien in a black robe who had appeared. He was holding Nagisa close and looking slightly stern. "Karma, I believe I told you a hundred times to stop picking on Nagisa…" the creature scolded.

A slight frown formed on the red head's face, his limbs (which matched his hair color) retracted back into his neck.

"I wasn't either," he answered.

Nagisa was clinging to the creature's robe, "He was so…"

"Tattle tale…" Karma exhaled looking away stuffing his hands in his pockets as he did so.

"And what have I told you about using your limbs to hurt or scare others."

"Uh… don't…" he answered.

"That's right…" the creature set a sniffling Nagisa on the ground. "Now why don't you find someone else to play with, and be nice to them…"

Groaning as he did so he turned heading back towards the house and the creature placed a limb on Nagisa's head to get him to look up. "Nagisa, you need to learn to stand up for yourself, if Karma picks on you, fight back."

The very idea of fighting back against Karma seemed to terrify the poor boy, and his eyes started brimming with tears again. "I can't fight Karma…" he exclaimed pitifully as he clutched the bottom of the creature's robe with one hand.

"You know, I would never promote violence," the being said using one of his limbs to wipe the tears from Nagisa's eyes. "But it's also not okay to let someone keep picking on you either. If you stand up for yourself, you might just find that the bully will leave you alone…"

"But I can't," he tried to explain once again. "What if I accidentally hurt him…"

Nagisa's own limbs grew from his neck and one of them wiped a tear from his cheek. He reached up running his hands over one of the blue strands nervously, looking a little like a small girl playing anxiously with a braid by her head. "What if my heartstrings accidentally hurt him…"

"Your heartstrings act on the will of your heart," the creatures said kneeling down to be closer to his height, though he was so tall he still towered over him even while crouched. "If your heart does not wish to hurt him, they will not..."

They weren't actually heartstrings, but that is what the creature had taught his kids to call them. Being children, they weren't in as much control of their limbs as the creature was, so they moved and acted out on their own (often in accordance with the children's mood, or as he just said, in accordance with their hearts), they didn't always have a say in what they did.

"I would never let any of you get seriously injured so don't worry about that," the creature explained, "but I would turn a blind eye if you wanted to give him a good smack the next time he picks on you. Not with our heartstrings though, but with your fist okay…"

"…"

"Come, on… I'm going to be going to pick up dinner soon, how about I let you pick tonight…"

"Um… Sushi!"

"Alright," he grinned. "Sushi it is."

In a flash he was gone, and smiling Nagisa headed back towards the house where he found Rinka standing under the tree house the creature had made for them to play in. Some of the boys had commandeered it today and were proceeding to tell her and a few of the other girls they couldn't come up because only boys were allowed.

One of her limbs slithered from her neck taking the form of a sling shot, and the other picked a stone up from the ground and pulled back flinging it against the side of the building where it left a rather noticeable dent in the wood there.

"Great shot Rinka!" Manami exclaimed happily.

"Uh… guys… " Nagisa said timidly, "You shouldn't do that… you… you could hurt someone…"

"They won't let us play in the tree house!" Kaede snapped.

"Yeah!" Toka frowned. "That tree house is for everyone!"

"That's not what I mean… you're not supposed to use your heartstrings to hurt. Remember, it's dangerous…"

"Ryoma used his to throw Rinka out of the tree house!" Yuzuki pouted, "So he did it first..."

"Yeah!" the other girls exclaimed.

"He is keeping the whole house to himself, and that was made for everyone..." Sumire yelled the last part up to Terasaka and his gang who were sticking their tongues out at them and laughing.

"What's going on?" Itona had just walked out of the house holding a cookie he had stole from the kitchen.

"We're not supposed to have sweets before dinner…" Nagisa tried to explain, but his tone was so quiet Itona couldn't hear him over the girl's explaining what the boys were up to.

Looking up with his large eyes he approached, Ryoma and his friends looked nervous as Itona got closer. His platinum limbs came into view and he jumped up using a few swipes to destroy the parts of the tree house that secured it firmly (and safely) to the tree. It began to tip and Ryoma and the others jumped out just in time before it fell. It broke the house a little, but the fall hadn't been that far so it was mostly still intact even after hitting the ground.

"Hey!" Ryoma snapped. "You could have hurt us!"

One of Itona's heart strings turned as though it were looking back at him, and Itona held up his hand and high fived it. As though this action were a personal insult Ryoma and his friends began to chase him down.

"Guys," Nagisa couldn't believe them… They were going to get time outs if they kept misbehaving, and using your limbs for fighting was the number one household rule they were told not to break…

Itona while slightly bigger than Nagisa, was not so by much. So in his haste his short legs tripped over a tree root into the dirt, the cookie he had taken rolled across the dirty ground, and he turned over just as Ryoma started hitting him with the cords from his own neck. Itona brought his arms up to shield his face.

"Stop it," Nagisa wrapped his arms around Ryoma in an attempt to pull him away, but for all the good it did he might as well have been standing still.

"Knock it off," Karma snapped. He had been siting not too far away watching the scene.

Both Karma and Ryoma were bullies, but the biggest difference was Ryoma picked on and teased everyone, while Karma teased everyone but only picked on Nagisa.

"Go away Karma!" Terasaka snapped, one of his limbs (getting annoyed with Nagisa) who was still holding on to him, he smacked him in the cheek with his elbow and he fell back on the ground holding it., "This isn't any of your business…"

"It is now," he answered walking towards him looking slightly crazy. Even though Ryoma was bigger than him he took a step back in obvious fear.

"Hey, Dad is gonna be mad at you if you go picking fights…" he explained nervously.

"Weren't you just picking a fight with Itona?" Karma asked. His heartstrings came out each one picking up a decent sized rock before he smashed it with just his limb crushing it to dust.

"Uh…"

"All of you stop now," the creature's voice was heard and they all looked up to see their father landing softly by their home. He spoke sternly, but without anger. In his limbs he had bags upon bags of their dinner.

They all cheered rushing over to him leaving Nagisa, Ryoma, Karma and Itona the only ones still staring each other down.

"Yuma, Megu, the rest of you. Take these inside please, and set the tables."

They all started talking excitedly, and did as he asked. The creature headed over to them. "What is the first rule of this house?"

"Don't use your heartstrings for fighting," they all repeated.

"If I have to start being harsher with you kids when you break this rule, I will. It's for your own good…"

He picked Itona up out of the dirt and brushed the dust off his clothes. Itona didn't seem to care about the dirt but he was looking kinda sad at the cookie that was sitting in the dirt pile.

"This is the last time I'm going to warn you about them," he explained to Karma and Terasaka. "Next time you use your heartstrings to hurt one another you will be in trouble. Do you understand?"

"Yes," the two of them said together.

He turned towards Ryoma only and added, "And I do not condone physical violence in this house, so you WILL get a time out…"

One of his limbs reached out pinching Terasaka's ear and he was taken inside. Smiling the other three followed.

His time out lasted ten minutes, so he had to wait and watch everyone else dig into their dinner before he could join. They were all sitting on the floor with individual kid sized tables before each of them in two rows that faced each other. The creature sat at the front facing them all.

When his time out was up, he got to eat with the rest of them.

"I don't like Sushi," Rio snapped pouting slightly as the wiggly piece of fish pinched between her child approved chopsticks unappetizingly.

"Now now, it was Nagisa's day to pick the meal…"

She instantly glared at him. "You know I don't like Sushi," she snapped.

"I'm sorry," Nagisa answered shyly.

"Next time you pick pizza!" she demanded.

"Okay…"

"Now Rio," the creature said in a slightly scolding tone. "It was Nagisa's day to pick and that means he is not obligated to pick something you enjoy…"

"What do you not like?" she asked glaring at him.

"Meatloaf," he answered softly without looking up from his plate.

"When it's my day I want meatloaf!" Rio exclaimed.

The creature sighed, "If that's what you want…"

She grinned at Nagisa who looked rather sad. Nagisa always tried really hard to keep the peace. Sometimes he would fail though...

When dinner was finished, the creature went off to clean up the dishes, and the children stayed in the large living room/bedroom (which had been the temple entrance back when it was still a temple). But the creature had put up sliding doors so the steps didn't lead right into the main living area. It didn't take him long to clean, and when he was done he sat with them helping and playing with whichever kids weren't preoccupied with the TV, which was very tiny, and there was only one so they had to sit really close to see it, and of course. Someone was always complaining that they didn't get to watch what they wanted to watch.

The show on currently was a school drama, and Manami loved it, but this brought up a good question for her.

"Daddy, can we go to school?" she asked.

"What?" the creature turned to her hoping he hadn't heard her right.

"I want to go to school, like they do on TV…"

"We have school," he told her. "Two pm to 6pm everyday I teach all of you… If you want to go to school you'll have to wait until tomorrow."

He wasn't dumb, he knew that wasn't what she was asking about.

"No, I want to go to an actual school. One with teachers, and books, and uniforms."

"I… I am a teacher!" he exclaimed nervously. "And we have books."

In a flash he had scooped a limb full of the books he had gathered for them off the bookshelf and set them in the middle of the room.

"And if you want uniforms."

In a flash he had made a small elementary school uniform that would fit each of them and put them in it. They all looked down at their new clothes smiling.

"But I want other students too…" she said frowning. "Not just everyone here. I wanna meet other kids, and go to a school building…"

"…" he sighed looking down at her. "Would going to school, make you happy?"

Her face lit up. "It would!" She exclaimed. "It would make me very happy!"

"… Alright then… It just so happens, the new school year begins in a week. I will let you go, on one condition…"

They were all looking at him excitedly now. They weren't allowed to leave their forest home, let alone talk to real people… Now, it seemed like their Dad was finally gonna let them go.

"You must not tell anyone about me, or your heartstrings. Are we clear?"

"Why?" Nagisa asked frowning slightly.

"Real people… they just… They don't like or understand people who are different…"

As young as Nagisa was, he could read their Father pretty well, and he was quite sure that wasn't the actual reason…

"But why?" Rio asked.

"When humans see that people are different than them, they often try to hurt them..." he explained softly. "And my only goal in life is to make you kids happy for whatever time we have left together…"

He turned slightly towards the crescent moon outside, he looked sad…

Shaking it off he turned back to them, "But if you kids really want to go, then you must be on your best behavior until the start of term."

"We will be!" they all cheered.

"Well then, it's a promise. So, you kids need to go to bed early then. Practice getting a good nights sleep for the night before school. One week of going to bed early and waking up early should help prepare you for the first day."

In a flash the creature took out a mat for each of them laying them out across the floor with a pillow and blanket for each. Once again, in two neat little rows.

"Alright children," he said. "Go to sleep and remember no talking, get under the covers and dream your happiest dreams…"

They did so, and he said goodnight to them all before turning off the light (which he had installed himself since the temple hadn't come with them).

It was still fairly well lit, the crescent moon hitting the sliding doors illuminated the room with its glow, and it was bright enough so that Nagisa could see Karma's pouting face staring at him clearly annoyed. Nagisa already knew why, but he didn't want to go over there after how mean Karma was toward him today.

"Why are you way over there?" Karma asked glowering. Way over there was just a foot away, but to Karma that was too far. Sighing he scooted his pillow and sleeping mat right next to him, and he frowned avoiding his eyes, he was still mad at him…

"Wha," Karma's limbs had shot out wrapping around him. And dragged him over so he could rest his chin on Nagisa's head, and wrap his arms around his shoulders. His limbs kept Nagisa in place.

"Karmaaaa," Nagisa whined feeling annoyed and trying to pull away.

"Shhhh," Karma whispered, "I'm trying to sleep…"

"I am too, but I can't when we're—"

Karma pulled him even closer to quiet him, and he took Nagisa's hand in his and fell asleep with his cheek pressed against Nagisa's forehead. It took a bit longer for Nagisa to fall asleep as laying like this was uncomfortable. He couldn't even sneak away when he was sure Karma was asleep, because his heartstrings never slept and they held him close the whole night, but eventually he gave up trying to get away and fell asleep too feeling... slightly sick to his stomach.

Nagisa was Karma's teddy bear, and he just couldn't sleep without holding him close.

Normally, the creature never left his children's side at night. On this particular night though... He did. Zooming to a house miles and miles away he crept into the window and waited in the shadows.

It wasn't too long before the door opened and a tall and shirtless man walked in. He had black hair was and was quite fit. The moment he spotted the creature he reached into the drawer beside him pulling out his gun. He shot twice, hitting him both times, but the creature only laughed.

"You forgot, real bullets don't work on me…"

The man sighed, lowering his gun. "What do you want?"

"Is that anyway to treat an old target?" He asked frowning.

"Out with it…"

"I…" he touched the tips of his tentacles together as though acting shy. "I sort of… have a favor to ask…"

When Nagisa opened his eyes he could see Karma was still fast asleep. His limbs were relaxed, and he noticed that his own were wrapped around Karma's hand as though hugging it. He frowned and made them retract, then he tried to get up without waking him, but the heartstrings knew better and pulled him back close. He frowned deeper. Their Dad told them that their limbs acted on the will of their heart and that was why he sometimes called them heartstrings, so he supposed he should be happy that Karma's heart wanted him close.

Smiling at that idea he put his hand on top of Karma's. "It's okay," he whispered to Karma's heart strings. "I want to stay close to Karma too…"

A few of the other kids had woken up, and were starting to look for their Dad, who usually would sleep nearby. Rio found him having tea with a man in the other room and let out an excited scream before running back to tell everyone that a guest was here. Guests never came over. Karma woke up at that point, his limbs going back into him as he yawned.

Soon even the groggiest of them all was awake enough to go to the other room to see the guy.

"Well, introduce yourself," the creatures said before taking another sip of tea.

The man turned, "I am Karasuma Tadaomi," he explained. "I'm a friend of your… Dad's… Because of his unconventional appearance, I will be playing the role of your father for any school functions that calls for it."

And that was how they all ended up being registered at school with Karasuma's last name.

And that was how she ended up here…

"My hero is my Dad," she said and she turned the picture around to face them. "And... My Daddy is an Octopus!"

She sat outside the principal's office recalling the whole thing over and over in her head, and Karasuma showed up because her Father had been called, and her real Dad couldn't come…

He seemed mad he had to play this role the very first day the children were out in public. She looked up at him looking rather sad and he stopped beside her straightening his tie, "Well c'mon, let's get this over with."

They went inside together. "Thank you for coming Mr. Karasuma. We called you in today because your daughter was given the assignment of telling the class about her hero. She choose you, but… the problem is what she drew, and the things she's saying you did are… well…"

They slid the octopus drawing over to him and he frowned taking it in his hand.

"She says you flew her up into the atmosphere, and various other ridiculous stories… We understand wanting to promote imagination, but it's going a little too far when she makes her very first assignment out to be a joke. I suggest you make sure she takes schooling more seriously in the future…"

"I will have a talk with her, don't worry. My apologies for her disrupting class..."

"The other kids have gotten quite rowdy since she said all those lies, it might be better to take her home for the rest of the day. We'll try again tomorrow," she turned looking down at Manami, "And what will you come to school with tomorrow?"

"A positive and truthful attitude," she answered monotonously.

A few minutes later they were walking to the parking lot, and they got in Mr. Karasuma's car. She felt a tap on her shoulder and saw her father crouched down in the back seat.

Smiling she spun around, "Daddy will you come to school with me tomorrow? I want to show everyone I'm not lying."

"Manami," he said softly. "What did I say was the one condition you had to meet to be allowed to attend school?"

She frowned. "We couldn't tell anyone about you or our heartstrings," she plopped back down in her seat pouting.

Karasuma handed the creature the picture the Principal had given him, and he stared at it before tapping her on the shoulder again.

She looked back at him tearfully as though she had been yelled at rather than spoken to seriously.

"This is really good Manami, so good in fact I think it deserves a spot on the fridge…"

She giggled, "We better buy a new fridge then…"

She was referring to the fact that their current fridge was already covered almost head to toe in various drawings and works that their father had deemed fridge worthy.

"Nonsense, we'll start posting things on the wall if we have to."

Sighing Karasuma put the key in and started the car. How he had roped himself into this crazy family, he didn't know.

So I rewrote some of this first chapter, because I wanted this to be partially inspired by Wold Children. Because, they're adorable!

****SPOILER from the show BELOW! SPOILER from the show BELOW!****

*the summary came from an online pick that someone had posted, and they put those words over a scene of Kayano's death from the manga. I liked the wording so I used it here*

Also part of the plot of this show is based off a movie I recently watched. I can't say what it is now because it will spoil the plot, but I'll try very hard to remember for the last chapter to let you all know.