Chapter Text
The night was cold. Even with his thick, red jacket, he could feel the bitter chill of the wind sneaking its way through his garments. He exhaled sharply, a cloud of delicate, white vapour dancing itself to dissipation in front of him, yet his mind was too preoccupied with whom “the monarch” could be to even notice the beauty of it. Investigating such a person would normally feel rather pointless to say the least, but the location of the meetup couldn’t be a coincidence, Koko refused to believe such things.
Loyalty and Hajime Kokonoi didn’t go together, that was a fact, plain and simple. Everyone who had even just heard his name knew that with the right sum, he’d give any information away. Well almost any information, that is. The point was, he was not doing this for Toman, he doubted he’d ever voluntarily do anything for Toman. Koko was a man of self intrest, as long as he profited from a situation, he didn’t care for another’s motivations. He could recall a conversation he had once had with his friend; Inui was once again criticising his lack of attention to whom he was making agreements with.
“You do realise how quickly you’d be fucked if the person you sell information to turns out to be a hardened criminal?” the blond had warned him, “like imagine you give info to a terrorist or a spy that cause the next massacre? How would you explain yourself then?”
Koko had scoffed and shrugged his shoulders in a quick, unaffected motion, “they’d better have paid enough for my bail then.”
He remembered the look of exasperation that had graced his best friend’s almost ethereal features at those words. He never really understood why scarred one fussed so much about him, that question was forever bouncing around in his mind, resurfacing every once in a while.
Yoyogi Park was fast approaching and Koko could feel his steps quicken their pace. He felt almost excited, the same giddy feeling he got every time he got down to the bottom of a problem. Whether it’d be that he had figured out a new way to increase his capital or even when he solved an equation, always the same feeling of unadulterated euphoria that branched through each fibre of his being, making him jumpy and fidgety as though he was still a child, discovering the world.
As he rounded the corner of the street and into the park, he felt a chill run down his back. Shrugging it off as it just being the cool night air, he carried on the path, step after step the air seemed to grow colder, and colder. He could swear he could see, from the corner of his eyes, ice form on the trees. The atmosphere was a peculiar one to say the least, he felt almost out of place; a ridiculous feeling to have in a public place such as this one.
The ravenette turned yet another corner and was met with a view he was never bound to forget.
There, right before his eyes stood the figure of a man that he had never gotten to meet eye to eye but was practically a legend in Toman. Despite having only seen the man before him in pictures, it was hard to mistake those long dark locks paired with equally as dark eyes as belonging to any other than Keisuke Baji, the original leader of Toman’s first division. Koko took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes before placing them back on his nose, not believing what he was seeing. Baji was dead, everyone knew that. Everyone also knew how touchy of a subject his death still was so whoever the fuck thought was funny to pretend to be someone of his calibre better have a fortune on them if they didn’t want to be destroyed by Toman’s elite forces.
“Who are you?” the shorter haired one called out to the man in front of him.
“It’s gonna be Baji motherfucking sama to you,” the other grinned, his dog-like canines shining in the pale moonlight.
Koko was taken aback; he had heard tales of the other’s unpredictability but this was a lack of respect he wasn’t going to put up with. He balled up his fist, getting to fight the other man before remembering this wasn’t the most strategic course of action. Not only did he have no way evaluating his opponent’s strength in real time, he wasn’t even sure his opponent was tangible.
Reluctantly, he relaxed his fist, opting to chat with the man.
“Aren’t you dead?”
“I was, but I came back Yusuke Urameshi style baby,” the slightly taller one wiggled his eyebrows at his elder.
“If I recall, he had to be kissed to be brought back. Who the hell would kiss a crazy bastard like you?”
“You’d be surprised how easy it was to convince Chifuyu to kiss a corpse.”
That was a mental image Koko was not okay with having.
“Why on earth did you decide to come back? Why on earth were you allowed to come back?”
“Because not being on earth is boring? Looking at your glasses, you’re probably not dumb. Okay, now, think about it. If you had to choose between hovering above the planet, not doing shit and being bored for eternity or being able to be resurrected and getting kissed by a fine piece of ass in the process, which would you pick?”
The long haired one’s reasoning surprisingly made more sense than what Koko had expected.
“I guess I’ll give you some credit, you’re not as dumb as you look.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I’m guessing you do that often?”
The other just grinned, nodding at the older one’s assumption, confirming it.
“Hey, Koko, is it?”
The shorter one nodded.
“How bout we go find a karaoke place? I don’t feel like beating your ass anymore.”
“Why the change of heart?”
“I don’t know, you just look like someone that’d enjoy a good sing along to The Cell Block Tango.”
“How on earth did you come to that conclusion?”
Baji sniffed the air, pointing at his nose, “I got a flair for it. Anyway, let’s go, I know a place in Shibuya that’s got all the classics.”
Needless to say, following an undead to a karaoke booth was not listed anywhere in Koko’s plans for the future.