Chapter Text
Kotetsu eyes the building from a distance for a moment. It is dark, he thinks the night cleaners have already finished. Main doors are too visible, but there should be a back door, probably several. He also thinks there might be an access on the roof. That could be the easiest one to open, but of course getting there is a little of a hassle. Fortunately, there is a fire escape.
Kotetsu approaches the metal stairs nonchalantly. When he has determined there is no one in sight, he leaps and grabs the lowest bar of the ladder. A Hundred Power would be super useful now, he thinks as he grunts and pulls himself up. The metal staircase rattles slightly around him, and Kotetsu tries to move as quietly as possible as he climbs up the stairs.
The rooftop is windy and offers a great view on the Bronze Stage. Kotetsu thinks he may have been on this rooftop before, chasing some pickpockets when he was in the Second League. That time seems to be so long ago, he thinks, shaking his head as he approaches the door, probably leading to a side stairwell of some kind within the building.
He fishes out a little piece of metal wire from his cap. Hey, you never know when you need one.
“And remember kids,” he mutters to himself as he crouches in front of the door and jams the metal wire into the lock, “breaking and entering is a crime, unless it is for the greater good.”
“That is terrible advice.”
Kotetsu yelps and drops his makeshift lockpick. His eyes snap to the direction he heard the low, electronic voice come from, and sees a dark figure looming above him on top of the rooftop access.
“Jeez! Don’t scare people like that!”
The figure does not offer any apology for nearly giving Kotetsu a heart attack.
“You do realize there is an alarm system active in the library?” comes a question instead.
“There is? Why do they have that? Who on Earth would break into a library?!”
He cannot see the face of the Dark Knight of Stern Bild, but he can feel the pointed stare.
“I could ask you that.”
“Well, this is different,” Kotetsu says, hands on his hips. “I’m not gonna steal anything. Just… pop in for a while. Do some research, read some books. ‘N stuff.”
“And this cannot wait until morning?”
“Nope. Super important reading.”
He sees the figure tilt his head.
“He’s fine by the way,” Kotetsu says.
“‘He’?”
“The other guy you saved last night. He had to undergo a surgery, but he pulled through. That’s all they could tell me. Just.” He shrugs. “If you want to know.”
“It is good to hear,” the vigilante says.
“I also don’t think I got to thank you last night. You were so quick to dash off. So thanks.”
“You do not need to thank me.”
“Well, I did it anyway,” Kotetsu grins. “Are you coming down from there? I’m getting a crick in my neck.”
There is a weird noise, and Kotetsu realizes it is a snort.
“Unless you prefer to be all high and mighty and stare down at people,” he continues.
“I admit that is what I prefer. Why were you breaking into a library?”
“Well…” Kotetsu rubs the back of his neck, feeling a little heat crawl on his face. “It is a little embarrassing.”
The dark figure - Kotetsu still can’t see much in the shadows, only a black body armor, the cowl and the impressive-looking cape - remains silent, staring down at him expectantly. Kotetsu squints his eyes, and sees that the cowl has earl-like designs. It reminds him of Bunny’s helmet.
“Fine! I was thinking of sleeping there.” He stuffs his hands in his pockets.
“You do not have another place to go?”
“That is what sleeping in a library implies, yes.”
“Why?”
“It is a very strange and enrapturing tale, I admit,” Kotetsu says, “has all the twists and turns, the whole dramatic arc, and ends up with me having to sleep in a library.”
Another snort.
“That sounds like quite a story.”
“It is. And I’d rather not tell it in the midst of breaking into my makeshift lodging.”
“What if you had another place to go?”
“Then I would not currently be on the rooftop of a library, planning to sleep on one of those cramped couches.”
A sigh this time, rattling through whatever voice modulator the Knight uses. “I meant that if I told you about somewhere you could go?”
Kotetsu looks up to him in surprise. “Where?”
“A place.”
“That does not tell a lot.”
“You will just have to go and see.”
“You must know how creepy that sounds, right? You could lead me to a serial killer somewhere, and no one would miss me.”
“Do you find that likely?”
Kotetsu considers it. “Not really. You don’t seem like a guy who’d do that, not based on what I read about you.”
“Is that another reason why you were breaking into a library in the middle of the night?” Knight asks, sounding amused now and maybe a tad smug.
“Shut up! I was planning to get some shut-eye, not stroke your ego!”
The vigilante chuckles. “If you say so. Here on the Bronze Stage, go to this address,” he throws something at Kotetsu, and he scrambles to catch a simple business card, blank save for the hand-written address. “Tell them that the favor they owe me can be paid off with this.”
“This is still sounding super shady,” Kotetsu tells him.
“Would you rather sleep in the library?”
“You know, saying things like that make me reconsider the theory in which this leads me to becoming the next victim of a serial killer.”
“I can assure you that will not happen.”
“That is exactly what a serial killer’s enabler would say.”
Kotetsu does not see the eyeroll, but he can feel it. “You don’t have to go there if you don’t want to. I just thought you might want an alternative for breaking and entering to sleep. You can give the card back if you want.”
Woah, the heroic vigilante of Stern Bild has a pissy side. “Fine, fine! I’ll go.” He stuffs the business card into his pocket, so the guy in black cannot demand it back. “Just, you can’t blame a guy for being cautious.”
“I guess you are correct.” The figure moves, the cape fluttering in a slight night breeze blowing over the rooftops. “I must be going. Do not fall this time.”
“Hey, wait!” The Knight is already turning to leave. “I need to talk to you!”
“We will talk. Later.” He aims something up and towards the neighboring building, towering over the library. There is a shuck, and a grappling hook attaches itself to the up and to the shadows.
“When?” Kotetsu shouts after him, but the vigilante is already gone. “Damnit!”
How was Kotetsu gonna find him now? This had already been a chance meeting, how could he be expected to catch a vigilante in Stern Bild?
Or had it been a chance meeting? Kotetsu frowns and thinks about the business card. He fishes it from his pocket to take another look at the carefully written-down address. It has been a rather crazy coincidence if the vigilante who saved his life yesterday just happened to be around at the exact time when Kotetsu was planning to let himself into the library.
The vigilante keeping an eye on him is a good thing, right? Kotetsu wants to speak with him anyway, and it will be much easier to accomplish if the Knight has already taken an interest.
But why? And how did he find me?
But now, he thought, twirling the card in his fingers before slipping it back to his pocket, he will take a look at this place and see if a serial killer will try to wear his skin or not.
The old lady behind the counter of Bronze's Bed and Breakfast Motel does not look like a serial killer, but of course you never know.
The place is a little run-down, but mostly tidy and clean. The woman - perhaps the owner, or just the night-shift - stares at the business card for a short while before nodding and pocketing the card.
“Of course I have a room for you, dear,” she says, grabs her cane and starts to waddle towards a small corridor. She takes a simple key from a locked cupboard on the way. “It is not anything special, I must warn you, quite small with only a tiny window.”
“If there is a bed and a roof over my head,” Kotetsu assures as he follows her, “then it sounds wonderful.”
The old lady nods and smiles. “There is indeed a roof. And it does not leak! So it is better than what most motels in this area offer.” She leads him to the very last door of the narrow hallway, to a door that does not even have a number on it. She twists the key in the lock, and the door opens to show an indeed tiny room, with only a bed and a small table with a lamp at its side. There is a very small window above the bed, the glass so cloudy you can barely see out.
“It’s so small we have not given it to guests for a long time,” the woman admits. “But even if I’m happy to help out the Knight in return,” her voice turns into a whisper when she says that, “you must understand I cannot give you one of the rooms that a paying customer might want. Or maybe I could, for a night. But here, you can stay as long as you’d like.” She smiles at him like she was looking at her if not favorite, then at least second-favorite grandson.
Kotetsu looks at her in surprise. “Really? Are you sure that’s okay? I would hate to be a bother -”
“Nonsense my dear, otherwise this room will just go on unused. Now, if you are cold, I have more blankets in the back, so just pop by the reception if you need anything.” She pats his arm, gives him the key, and starts waddling back towards the counter.
Kotetsu steps into the room and closes the door. There is barely enough room to turn, but the place still feels like the best hotel room he has ever stayed in. He kicks off his shoes, removes his vest and cap, and falls down on the bed feeling so tired and heavy suddenly that he feels he could just sink through the mattress. His eyes close as though on their own volition, and it takes barely any time at all for him to fall asleep.
There is a tiny cafeteria next to the reception. Not anything that could even remotely be called a hotel breakfast, but there is coffee and tea and white toast and a bowl of apples. Kotetsu’s hands nearly shake as he forces himself to take only two pieces of toast. He isn’t about to steal bread from the nice old lady. Things are not that bad yet.
However, by the time he has set his plate and coffee cup on a table in the corner of the breakfast room, the old lady comes waddling towards him with a secretive look on her face. She is carrying something, a plate covered with tinfoil.
“Do not tell the other guests,” she whispers to him, like to a co-conspirator, “but I got you something more to eat.” Before he can protest, she sets the plate in front of him and removes the tinfoil. It is a proper breakfast, with eggs and sausages and mushrooms and baked tomato. The sight alone makes his mouth water, and the smell is the best he’s ever encountered.
“You are an angel,” he says to her.
“Nonsense, my dear.” She pats his shoulder almost as a warning for his silly words. “I simply believe if you help someone down on their luck, they will do the same to someone else in turn.” She sets a fork and a knife, wrapped in an orange napkin, by the plate.
“That is an excellent philosophy in life,” Kotetsu admits, grabbing the fork and forcing himself not to immediately stab the sausage and chomp down half of it in one go.
“I try my best. Now dig in, young man.” Then she simply turns and returns towards the reception desk. Kotetsu doesn’t know how he is going to repay her, but he’ll try his damndest to do so.
He only half succeeds in not wolfing down the whole meal as fast as he can, but at least there are only a couple of other guests for him to scare with his terrible manners. When he is done he spends a moment just enjoying the feeling of having a full belly. And he’s only been here a day.
He grabs a second cup of coffee, and does some thinking.
So, Maverick was alive.
He feels a fiery stab of anger at that. How come Tomoe was still dead, but the likes of Maverick are still around? That of course is not really fair, but it still feels - well, unfair. That his beautiful wife was still taken by an illness, but Maverick has been able to carry on his shady business.
Kotetsu frowns down at his coffee. Or has he? Maybe Maverick here is not a bad guy. Maybe he didn’t do all those things he did back home.
But… Bunny’s parents are still dead. Back home, it was Maverick who killed them.
Yesterday, Kotetsu had found a big headline from a year ago while looking into Bunny: The mystery of the Brooks’ tragedy finally solved, as the police had managed to arrest the criminal Jake Martinez, who had been found guilty of the murders due to evidence, property stolen from the Brooks, found in his home linking him to the case.
He never plead guilty and insisted on his innocence to the end. He died in prison a little after, in a fight between inmates. How convenient.
Back home, Maverick had also changed Bunny’s memories about the murder. Here, such a thing would not be possible. Could Maverick really have succeeded in killing Bunny’s parents if he couldn’t wipe young Barnaby’s memories of it?
The only way to find out would be to investigate. To find out what happened, if Maverick could have done it, and how. Even without NEXT powers, there are many ways, he imagines, to mess with someone’s head and memory, especially a young boy’s.
And then, when he had the answers, he would - he would just - well, that part was still under process. It wasn’t like he could just go to Bunny again and go “Hey! It’s me, the weirdo, here to tell you your father figure murdered your parents!”
Yeah, that would go super well.
But he had to help Bunny. If Maverick was still there, pulling the strings, Bunny was in danger. Bunny was smart. He had figured out the truth in Kotetsu’s world, he could figure it out here, at any moment. And then Maverick would become truly dangerous. Kotetsu has to expect that this Maverick too would be ready to get rid of his protegé if it meant saving his own skin.
Kotetsu moves the plate aside and fishes the slightly crumpled page of the tabloid paper from yesterday, the one with his very important notes on the Situation, with a capital S.
And, yeah, he did have his other goals too - the whos, whys and hows of the aforementioned Situation - but he couldn’t just leave Bunny to face a threat he didn’t even know existed. Even if this Bunny had never met Kotetsu before, save for yesterday.
Save Bunny from the evil Maverick joins the scribbles on the page, next to a laundry detergent ad.
He needed better notes. But a notebook was a luxury he couldn't currently afford.
He folds the page back into a small square and stuffs it back to his pocket. Then he takes the plate back to the receptionist and insists on washing the dishes himself. It’s the least he can do.
Back to the library it is.
Kotetsu finds an information leaflet on the Bronze Stages bus routes, which has some empty space in it. He adds it to his note-taking supplies. He manages to grab the same computer as yesterday, and the small piece of familiarity feels comforting.
He looks into Maverick.
Back Home (Kotetsu has decided on the capital letter on that designation as well, for the sake of clarity), Albert Maverick had been the father of HeroTV. Here, of course there is no HeroTV at all, as there are no NEXTs, but Albert Maverick has still been able to make a successful life for himself as a head of a media empire. It would be wrong to say he’s “made a name for himself”, because there really isn’t that many mentions of him in the public, Kotetsu notices. Only mostly in relation to Bunny: in the old news articles about the deaths of Barnaby and Emily Brooks, Maverick had been painted as a quiet hero saving the future of the poor orphan. But generally, Maverick does not make public appearances. But he is still a part of more than one board of directors, and he seems to have gathered several media companies under his name.
He reads everything there is to read about the double murder that stole Bunny’s parents from him. There is a lot of news about it, but not much real information: the couple was shot, the mansion burnt down. The only witness was the poor son of the philanthropists, and even the child didn’t seem to see anything of help. A blessing, some tabloids declared, that the poor thing didn’t have to witness something so terrible, it was already bad enough he was the one to find the bodies.
Kotetsu taps a pen against his temple in thought. If it was indeed Maverick who murdered the Brooks’, how did he do it? How could he have an alibi for the time of the murder? Back Home, he had manipulated Bunny’s memories so that Bunny thought he’d been with Maverick the whole day, so Maverick simply couldn’t have been the murderer. But here, how did he do it? Without any NEXT powers, is it possible to cause false memories so precise?
Bunny had been small. Maybe it was possible, maybe Maverick had brainwashed him, made Bunny believe he had spent the day with him even if it really had been Samantha Taylor.
Kotetsu’s eyes widen. Samantha! NEXT-Maverick had also messed with her memories with his powers. Here it wasn’t so easy. She was an adult woman and would probably absolutely remember that it was her that had spent that fateful day with Little Bunny, not Albert Maverick.
His excitement is quickly coming down in a rush as he finds another article.
Samantha Taylor is dead.
Kotetsu slumps at the desk. How is this possible? He just figured out a lead and it ends up leading nowhere!
Or maybe it does…
He goes through the article. It is an old one. Samantha Taylor had died more than 17 years ago after a long, steadily worsening illness. That could be a coincidence. It doesn’t feel like one.
Kotetsu runs his hands through his hair, tugging at the strands. Maybe Maverick saw it better to silence a woman who could poke holes in his cover story. Although, Taylor had died of an illness, not of a suspicious failed robbery attempt or a freak accident. But weren’t there some poisons you could use to commit the “perfect murder”?
Okay, maybe he was getting ahead of things. It was probably not good to try to draw too many conclusions when he actually didn’t know what had happened.
So the idea of interviewing Samantha Taylor went out the window. Kotetsu leaned back in the chair, letting out a massive sigh.
The logical next step he had in mind would be to look for police reports on the Brooks’ murder, but it wasn’t like he could just waltz to the closest station and ask for them.
And he couldn’t tell Bunny. He had no allies here. He didn’t even have acquaintances. The only one who knew him was currently recovering from a massive surgery.
Maybe he could just sneak into Maverick’s place and find evidence! He knows where the Maverick he knew lived, maybe it was the same place here.
He frowns to himself. Does he really think Maverick would just conveniently have evidence in his home? Alphabetized list of each and every crime he had committed? Maybe a diary, titled All the Evil Things I’ve Done? Okay, maybe not that. But don’t people make mistakes when they become too confident with their crimes? However, surely Maverick hasn’t made it this far with being careless.
Tricky.
Also, a voice in his head piped in, as important as this was, it wouldn’t get him any closer to getting home. And even if he currently had a place to stay, the list of problems was endless, and he couldn’t go on like this forever, hell, not even a whole week probably.
He rubbed his face with both hands before letting out another sigh. A teenage girl - the very same from yesterday, probably studying for exams - cleared her throat meaningfully and gave him a stink-eye, clearly not happy to be disturbed by his huffing. Kotetsu sent her an apologetic smile.
He spent the first half of the day doing more research, mostly on Maverick, trying to find an angle that would work here. He did some more reading about the Knight, attempting to establish a pattern where he appeared. It seems like that was all over the place. The Knight was on Bronze Stage, and on Silver and Gold. He caught armed robbers and violent criminals and stopped grand theft autos. He rescued people from being assaulted or mugged, and one small boy claimed the Dark Knight of Stern Bild had helped him home when he had got lost.
He also tried to find anything at all on NEXT powers and came up with nothing. Either there just weren’t any NEXTs here, or they hid themselves well. Or just hadn’t been discovered yet.
In the end he is exhausted and a little demoralized. He has done more reading than ever since school, but it still feels like he’s getting nowhere.
His stomach is grumbling again, and he decides to go do something about that before the girl at the neighboring desk can silently scold him again.
At the same corner shop he visited yesterday, he checks the tabloid headlines while queuing to buy another cheap sandwich. He grabs another tabloid, winces at the cost and at his diminishing wealth, and heads out. He sits at the stairs of a closed down hairdresser’s and reads the article while munching on his meal.
DARK KNIGHT EXPOSES SMUGGLING RING
The article is accompanied by a rather neat photograph of the very moment the police found several men locked into a cargo container with the very goods they were smuggling. An eyewitness’ account reiterates how they had been leaving their night shift when they heard noise, and caught a glimpse of the Knight fighting “at least five big guys at once, he was”.
Kotetsu would let out an impressed whistle if his mouth wasn’t full of bread and tuna. Although maybe the witness was exaggerating things, just a little.
He pockets the article and throws the rest of the paper to recycling. It was unfair he couldn’t just buy the one article he wanted to read…
He then gets up and starts heading towards the hospital.
Kotetsu is not surprised that the hospital staff refuse to tell him anything about Yuri. He understands where they’re coming from, he could be anyone after all, someone Yuri would not want to visit him. Well, that might be true, in another situation at least, but here it’s different. And important, but he can’t really tell the receptionist why it’s so important for him to see Yuri, for several reasons. Hey, the guy you’re treating is a murdering vigilante with superpowers - just a heads up! would not be a good idea, and neither would But we’re both from an alternate dimension and he’s sure to appreciate a support group.
“Do you think I could leave him a note? For when he wakes up?”
The receptionist looks hesitant, and Kotetsu feels a little bad for pestering her, but he quickly continues before she can outright refuse. “You can ask him, when he wakes up, say that it’s from me and if he wants to read it or not!”
The Receptionist does not look entirely convinced, but she is not outright refusing either - not yet, at least. Kotetsu can see the gears turning in her brain as she tries to find a scheme in his words, to see if they only sound reasonable but are in fact covering a loophole that could endanger their patient. Her brow is furrowed as she looks at the envelope Kotetsu is handing her, the one Kotetsu found available near the reception.
“Alright,” she finally says, taking the letter. Kotetsu beams at her and thanks her profusely. He hopes they won’t just throw it away. It’s not that bad if they read it - there is nothing too odd there, or shouldn’t be. Well, save for the fact that it’s written on a flyer about bus routes in Stern Bild. He doesn’t think the hospital would just read private correspondence of its patients, unless they had a good reason to do so. He’s not an expert on hospital policies.
It is already getting late. The time spent at the library and later in getting to the hospital have stolen precious time from him, and it’s not yet getting dark, but there aren’t too many hours of daylight left either.
Kotetsu is just pondering his next step when he realizes there is a black car idling beside him on the street.
Great. He’s about to get murdered. On the very second day without his Hundred Power. He held out for so long.
He is heavily considering bolting towards the nearest alleyway, which would maybe be just a little too narrow for the sedan to follow him, when the front left window rolls down.
“Need a ride?”
Kotetsu stares at Bunny, flabbergasted.
He is about to get murdered.
“Ah, ha, no thank you!” he replies, maybe a tad too loudly, like Bunny wasn’t only a couple meters away. “I’m enjoying the late afternoon stroll. But thanks! For offering.”
One of Bunny’s eyebrows is arching elegantly, the small change in expression clearly conveying his immense doubt about everything that comes out of Kotetsu’s mouth. “Is that so?”
Bunny says that a lot. It probably tells more about Kotetsu’s ability to tell a convincing lie than of Bunny’s vocabulary. “Yup! This is a wonderful part of town. Great for walks.”
Bunny sighs, exasperated. “You do not have to pretend you weren’t visiting the hospital right there”, he nods towards the large building still behind Kotetsu. “Just hop in.”
And then what, get smoked unconscious in the back seat? No thanks.
Then again… His legs were aching from all the walking. And he was, maybe, just maybe, a tad tired as well. The last few days have been rough.
“Okay, fine.” He huffs, rolling his eyes as he walks around the car to climb on the passenger seat in front. “If you insist.”
“I do,” Bunny says easily, taking the car back to the street properly and accelerating towards the next traffic light. “Where to?”
Kotetsu rattles off an address near to his current lodgings. Bunny simply nods, clearly familiar if not with the precise address, then of its approximate location. Kotetsu is a little impressed.
He looks around in the car. It’s a super nice car. The seat under him, the most comfortable seat he has ever had the opportunity to sit on, is probably real leather, and the vehicle has that new car smell. The volume of the radio is turned down, so Kotetsu can’t make out the music.
“You don’t have a driver,” he points out.
“I don’t. Should I?” Bunny’s eyebrow is once more arched, though he’s not looking at Kotetsu but at the road ahead. Good driving Bunny, very responsible.
“Dunno. Isn’t that something rich people like to do? Have someone drive them around.”
“Oh, that happens quite often.” Bunny snorts. “But I like driving, so I’m quite capable of doing it on my own as well.”
“Well, you probably are the type,” Kotetsu muses and after a beat realizes Bunny is looking at him from the corner of his eye. “What? You are, aren’t you?”
“I guess I am,” Bunny replies slowly, taking a left turn.
There is an awkward silence in the car. It reminds Kotetsu of the early days of their partnership, when they didn’t see eye to eye and barely got along. When he didn’t know Bunny yet, and Bunny didn’t know him. Well, in a sense it’s a very similar situation, Kotetsu thinks, leaning his forehead against the cool glass of the window. Bunny doesn’t know him at all. Kotetsu wonders if this Bunny is finding him as annoying as his Bunny had done back in the day. But then again, Kotetsu has changed as well, so maybe it’s not the case. Still, this trail of thought seems rather unnecessary, he thinks glumly.
Bunny must notice the change in the car’s atmosphere, or at least Kotetsu thinks he’s sensing some sideways glances coming his way.
“Everything okay?” Bunny asks, surprising Kotetsu.
“Uh, yeah, of course. Sorry, it’s been a long day.” Great, Bunny had offered him a ride, and now he’s just moping in the car. Then again, maybe he shouldn’t feel bad about that, because of course Bunny has some reason for doing this, a scheme clearly, why else would he offer Kotetsu a ride? Kotetsu has been acting very suspiciously. There’s no way Bunny is offering him a ride just for the goodness of his heart, right?
“Why were you at the hospital?” Kotetsu asks, because it feels safer to be the one asking questions, maybe Bunny won’t have time to ask his own.
“Why do you assume I was at the hospital?”
“You weren’t?”
“Well,” Bunny frowns as in front of them, a car is taking its time to get going after the light turns green. “I was. But I might not have been.”
Kotetsu grins. “But you were! So that’s all that matters.”
Bunny sighs. “I was.”
Silence.
“Why were you there?” Jeez, he clearly needs to coax every tidbit of information out of Bunny.
“I just wanted to talk to the doctor I spoke with earlier.”
“Really?” Kotetsu glances at him and frowns. Why is Bunny so invested in Yuri?
“He knew my parents,” Bunny explains. “It has been a while since we talked.” It does not sound like a lie.
“Okay,” Kotetsu allows. It would be weird to dig.
“Could they tell you anything?” Bunny asks in turn.
“Nah.” Kotetsu sighs. “I’m not family, and they can’t ask him if they can tell me stuff. So the most they can say is pretty much if he’s alive or not. I’m surprised they can even say that.”
“I’m sorry,” Bunny says, and it does sound sincere. Kotetsu offers him a tired smile.
“Yeah. He was in bad shape. Probably still is, even if he manages to recover.”
Bunny does not look at him, instead keeping his eyes on the road. But Kotetsu can feel his attention heavily on him.
“He, um,” Kotetsu is not sure why he is saying any of this, but somehow it is still happening. “He tried to kill himself. That’s why he fell.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. And, well, I didn’t want him to. To die. Maybe I should’ve, dunno, respected his choice. But I think he made it out of desperation, and well,” he shrugs. “That’s a pretty irreversible decision to make, so I thought he’d like to reconsider later. I think he thought he was gonna die anyway, he was already in a bad state. He just didn’t count on me being stupid and trying to save him.”
Bunny is silent for a long moment. “It must be rough. To not know what’s happening with him.”
Kotetsu leans his forehead against the car window again. “Not nice, yeah. Keep thinking he might die anyway and then I’ll be - “
Pause.
“You’ll what?”
He’d been about to say alone, but he can’t really explain to Bunny what that’d mean. That if Yuri dies, Kotetsu is the only one from home here. He’d only have his memories to prove he was not insane.
“Nothing,” he says and lets out a short, unhappy laugh. “Sorry to dump this all on you.”
“It’s okay.” Bunny taps his fingers against the steering wheel. “Let’s hope he makes it.”
“Yeah.”
They stay in silence for a while again. But this time it’s not that awkward really, more… pensive.
It’s not that bad.
Bunny drops him a couple of blocks from the hostel Kotetsu’s staying at. Kotetsu thanks him for the ride. Bunny says it’s no bother and drives off, leaving Kotetsu to wonder what the hell happened there.