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All my life I’ve been used to fulfil other’s necessities and demands. I’ve been their toy ever since I’ve known myself. The mafia is no exception. There is a saying in the Port Mafia nowadays: ‘If you have time left, she owns you.’. They may bathe in blood, violence and lies, but even the mighty mafia will have mercy for you and will tell you the truth about me.
Slice. Stab. Run. Repeat.
This is what the world taught me. The Silent Rabid Dog is a mere puppy compared to what they’ve pushed me into doing. My divergent eyes have grown to love the colour red but… even the biggest habits can eventually die out.
My name is (Y/N)(L/N). And I’m probably the Port Mafia’s most valuable possession. Their own bishop piece on the chessboard called Yokohama.
“(L/N)-san. You’ve been summoned by the boss. Sounded important, I’d hurry if I were you. Don’t wanna anger him.”
“Understood.”
These little ants are so submissive… so easily manipulated, through a few words. It’s scary, what man can do when under absolute authority. I’d know. I’ve been there and I’m still sane somehow. I think.
“(Y/N)-chan! Don’t scare me like that again! Please use the door like everyone does. Ah, Elise-chan, she’s here!”
“Why would I fall in line with everyone else? Besides, it is fun to watch you scream, Mori-san. If my enemies are so weak, I can’t practice my ability, therefore I’ll use it on you.” I chuckled.
“That’s mean, (Y/N)-chan!”
“Rintarou, let me see (Y/N)-nee already!”
*sigh* I will never understand how Mori-san can be so naive whenever he’s next to Elise-chan, yet so cold and sadistic when representing the mafia.
“Why did you really call me here, boss? I’m sure by now it wasn’t Elise-chan who requested my presence.”
“Oh, so you’re aware. Very well. Simply put, I’m pairing you up with somebody for your next mission.”
Ugh, every time I hear this, I know it won’t end well. I hear a few knocks on the door behind me and the smooth movement of the door opening. Mori-san points to the door suggestively regarding my earlier entrance. Geez, I knew this would end badly…I don’t need to turn around to know who ‘graced’ us with their presence. The sudden dark aura always gives him away…
“Akutagawa-kun, I’m surprised you came for the briefing personally.” Mori says.
With a nod, Akutagawa steps forward past my bored self, snatches the file and speaks:
“I don’t trust someone else with missions, therefore I came to retrieve it myself.” He glances at me. “Well, if I knew this one was who you paired me up with, I may have saved myself a trip…”
Was that supposed to be a compliment? If so, he is completely parallel to this. Smiling to myself, I move out of the room with a discrete click of my fingers, but not without slipping Elise-chan a small candy in her dress pocket. Walking past Akutagawa’s momentarily frozen body, I rotate his cravat to the nape of his neck and tighten it slightly. Smirking to myself, his body gains motion again and turns towards the place he last saw me, except I wasn’t there. Seeing me standing in the doorway smirking, he checks himself, finding today’s ‘victim’. With a shrill call he strides towards and past me, fixing his cravat.
“Dammit, (Y/N), stop using your ability for trivial pranks!”
“Haha, how can I not? You’re so ‘tease-ful', and everything is so boring right now... *sigh* Hurry up and let’s get this job done. I’m in a very sadistic mood right now.” I muttered that last part to myself.
Unknown to me at that time, Akutagawa heard every word I spoke, sending shivers up his spine. I told you before. Nobody dares tell lies about me. Not even him.
The mission we received seems quite simple: eradicate a sub-organisation who threatened the mafia for some reason I didn’t care to register. Whatever, as long as I get to open up the gates of hell today, sending new people in, I’m satisfied.
“We’re here.”
The old warehouse seemed a pretty cliché place to locate your hideout, but eh who am I to judge? Besides the Devil himself. With confident steps, Akutagawa’s coat flares to life, completely destroying the double doors in front of us. An instant rain of bullets responded to Akutagawa’s oh-so-dramatic entrance. His Rashomon ate the space between its master and the assailants, but it was a different story for me.
“Bo-ring.”
I close my eyes and utter the three cursed words I live with:
“Ability: The Time Thief.”
It’s quiet again. No more gunfire, no screaming, no Akutagawa yelling my name to watch out... It’s just me in here. Their bodies are still and yet they still portray their burning sensations through their amusing expressions. It’s... relaxing to say the least. But I know I’m not here to relax. My hand slowly grabs the handle of my katana at my waist and releases it from it’s restraints, as if it were a caged animal. Once in position, I slide towards one of the men with my sword ready to pierce through his neck.
*sigh* If you haven’t noticed already, my ability, The Time Thief, allows me to completely stop the time of people, objects and of the universe itself if I wanted to. However, during a complete time-freeze, I would be overpowered and could kill everyone and everything, therefore I’m limited to one thing: I cannot, under any circumstance, hurt or kill anyone while using my ability, even if I’m only slowing bullets down, or I will feel their pain myself.
You now realise that I’m about to kill this man in front of me; you’re not wrong. I quickly exit the freeze as I stand behind him. With a swift slash of my blade, I make an impeccable cut through his neck, decapitating him. A click of my fingers, and I’m back in my nirvana. And I repeat my process. Again. And again. Until they all drop dead, and the only ones left are Akutagawa and myself surrounded by a lake of blood where corpses swim towards the gates of hell. I turn towards him and he stares at me with his usual blank look on his face.
“What? They had too much time, I thought I should chip off some of it.” I grinned.
“It looks more like you chipped all of it.”
With a click of his tongue, the fearsome Dog of the mafia turned on his heels, and made his way towards the exit.
“Why... why is it you?” he mutters.
“Ask him. How the hell should I know what he thinks?” I throw back at him. “Besides, he’s gone now, why care about him anymore?”. Big mistake. I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut...
“HE STILL HASN’T ACKNOWLEDGED MY POWER! Only this way will I ever have any meaning.”
There he goes again, spewing nonsense about his obsession with acquiring Dazai-san’s acknowledgement and praise. Then again, I wouldn’t know the reason behind his behaviour because I was on the complete opposite side of his situation. He would always get possessive of Dazai-san and jealous of me whenever I successfully completed my rigorous training with him, while Akutagawa would simply get kicked around and become frustrated. I cannot lie, I felt bad for him and I did help him overcome Dazai-san’s challenges. During the Mimic hostage issue, I’m not sure if Akutagawa would’ve survived Dazai-san’s punishment without me...
|Flashback|
The sound of a fist connecting with an unsuspecting face was sickening, yet nobody dared to even breathe. The force of the blow led to the apprentice colliding with my completely silenced figure. Securing Akutagawa by his shoulders, he puked a frighteningly generous amount of blood while I was powerless to even dare continue helping him in the presence of the real demon in the dungeon. I stepped away and took my spot in front of the goons, to the demon’s left.
Dazai-san’s extended arm reached me, along with four words:
“Hand me your gun.”
With no sign of defiance on my face, I pass him my gun, consequently increasing the oppressive tension in the supposedly cool room.
“Someone I know happens to be taking care of some orphans…”
Ah. Sakunosuke-san.
“If Odasaku happened to pick you up from the slums, I’m sure that he wouldn’t have abandoned you.”
Yes… he wouldn't have.
“He would have patiently and firmly guided you.”
Of course he would have.
“That’s what righteousness is…”
I would know… I’m the one Sakunosuke-san took care of when I was supposedly ‘saved’ by the Mafia…
“However I’m a man hated by righteousness.”
These few words returned the ever-so-cold air in the dungeon.
“Men like me…do this to their useless subordinates.”
That moment was either life or death for Akutagawa, and everybody knew. My (E/C) orbs widened and turned (S/E/C) as I focused on the bullets, now ripping through the heavy air, succeeding in slowing them down, even just a little. Because I knew. I knew what Dazai-san has asked of Akutagawa and his ability, I knew that the subordinate had been working on it for quite some time without results, I knew that if Akutagawa’s life was in danger, Rashomon would make a defensive move, I knew that it would still be slower to react than the bullets would take to reach its user, and I knew that by slowing them down, Rashomon would protect its master.
The delay after the three shots was terrifyingly quiet. Following that, a red light glowed between the boy and the man, signalling the comforting outcome of the situation. I let out a sigh of relief before straightening up.
“Oh? See? You can do it.”
Fortunately…
“How many times have I told you? Cutting open unfortunate hostages isn’t the only thing you’re good for. You should be able to use your powers for defense, too.”
This sounds… surprisingly uplifting… coming from him that is.
“I’ve never been able to successfully do that before this.”
Akutagawa’s rasped voice made me shudder. He sounds weakened… maybe consuming the space in front of him took a toll on his body already.
“But you just did. Isn’t that great?”
Oh, the sharp sarcasm was easily felt by everyone.
“The next time you mess up…I’ll punch you twice, and shoot you five times. Got it?”
Nobody said a word. Nobody moved a finger. The words hung heavy on everyone’s minds.
“Now then, let’s check their corpses. Something might turn up.”
Hearing this, I meticulously fished out my pair of gloves and approached the corpses, leaning down upon one. A faltering voice was heard from between the mafia goons:
“Um… what should we check on the corpses?”
“Everything. We’re going to find any trace of their hideout that we can.”
I continued to examine their inside pockets, their nails, their shoe soles… their shoe soles… wait, a leaf?
“For crying out loud… Apparently all of my subordinates must think that beating our enemy to death is the only thing the mafia does.”
Upon my discovery, I skilfully peal the leaf off the shoe and raise it towards Dazai-san. He turned his head sideways in my direction and added quietly enough so only I could hear:
“Perhaps not all of them…”
I didn’t spare a second glance towards his fierce gaze and continued my analysis of the corpse.
“At this rate, Odasaku might figure this all out on his own.”
I threw a peak behind me towards my fallen partner and he returned the look with a very disturbing anger behind it.
‘You better thank me for this…because I’m risking a few shots and punches in my direction too after this little stunt…’
|End of Flashback|
“How the hell is he going to acknowledge you and your power if he isn’t even here?”
Akutagawa stopped dead in his tracks. He didn’t say a word as if daring me to continue. And I’m a (L/N). How can I not respond to this silent provocation?
“He left. Gone. Whoosh. Gone and became buddy buddy with the Agency know-it-all-s. Do you really expect him to come back to you, to us, grab a seat and watch you demonstrate your what— power? That he already knows of? Give me a break, I’ve told you a million times before, this isn’t what he expects of you. Don’t you remember what he taught us? Having a second blade is crucial. A second blade that may not physically cut through enemies, but will grant us strategic advantages over them. How do you think I was able to ‘please’ him back then? I was polishing my analytical skills through forensic and detective work, and look where I am now: one of the Port Mafia executives with hundreds of men under my command… including you—“
A sharp blade made of dark matter interrupted my increasingly loud speech as it attempted to stab my stomach. The assailant’s silver eyes met my (S/E/C) irises with a shocked expression, as Rashomon abruptly stopped a few millimetres short of my extended hand, then quietly returned to its rightful owner without being called back.
“See? You expect to show off to Dazai-san and yet you can’t get anywhere near to touching me with your ‘power’! Your own fucking partner, fellow apprentice and—”
In a snap of fingers, I enter the melancholic time-freeze and approach Akutagawa while unsheathing my sword. Placing it to his neck from behind and blocking his movements, I exit and continue:
“—your lover…”
Akutagawa visibly tenses at the sudden sight of a blade to his neck, but even more to the shattering words he heard. I drop my weapon with an echoing clatter in front of him and proceed to drop my arms around his figure in a sincere hug, sheltering my face into the nape of his neck. I take in the smell of the blood on his onyx coat, mixed with his own comforting aroma… a blend of black tea and lavender soap.
“You have to shift your focus on other things and not remain fixed on a goal you are not able to presently reach. Please, Ryuu, be more considerate of your own health before sacrificing it all on someone that doesn’t deserve your undivided attention anymore.”
I could feel his muscles gradually relax after this; his palm captured my own sprawled on his chest.
“(N/N)… thank you.”
He slowly turns his body around, cupping my face with one hand while he placed the other on the small of my back, pressing my figure impossibly close to his. I studied his silver eyes for any sign of regret, sadness or loneliness but found none. Instead, I could see a sliver of hopefulness and content behind those eyes that suffered enough pain for one lifetime. He motioned my face closer to his where I could feel his warm breathing soothe my quivering lips.
“Thank you, (Y/N).”
I didn’t have enough time to register his quick movement which closed the gap into a sweet but passionate kiss. Me? Not have enough time? I pulled my agitated thoughts and feelings together and kissed back with what was left of my heart, my fingers aching for the feeling of his soft dark hair. The discrete stroke on my lower lip left me aching for more, making me compliantly part my lips and allow him to overwhelm my mouth with his demanding tongue. In what seemed like ages, we ran out of breath, and begrudgingly parted, only to feel another, more forceful, push on the back of my head, allowing our lips and tongues to meet again in a fierce exchange of emotions and frustration.
However, the ‘great’ (Y/N) (L/N) does not accept to be submissive in front of anyone. Heh… My arm extended, and my fingers clicked, freezing his tender movements and allowing me to escape his loving embrace. What an oxymoron, Akutagawa’s loving embrace, right? Stepping away and heading towards the door my beloved idiot broke through, I returned time to him and watched his confused expression look for me when he realised I wasn’t in his arms anymore. His desperate eyes found my figure standing in the doorway and, with a growl, probably noted that my eyes were now (S/E/C) again.
“Time’s almost up, love. I told you, if you have time left… I own you.”