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“So you’re living with the cops now?”
Toi would’ve laughed at the horrified look on Enta’s face, if he felt like laughing, that was.
“Guess I am.” He kicked the ball full force against the wall, where it bounced off rapidly. Toi felt a small jolt of glee when he managed to catch it right before it could pass him by and land in the Sumida river.
“And they’re being…nice to you?” Kazuki voiced, what Enta was too shell-shocked to pronounce. He seemed adequately concerned.
Toi shrugged, balancing the ball on top of his foot.
“I think so.”
“You-think so?” Kazuki asked, cautiously.
“Yeah, did they try to kill you yet?” Enta voiced, disgruntled, “Maybe you’ll change your mind by then.”
“It’s not like I had a choice!” Toi snapped, and they both took a step back, Enta cautiously raising his hands, as though Toi was threatening him or something.
Perhaps that how they still thought of him, Toi thought, fear and resignation mixing in to the fury he felt. Perhaps they still thought he was a criminal that ought to be kept at arms length.
Perhaps they wished he had gone to juvie after all.
“Dude, calm down. We were just asking.” Enta had the nerve to say.
“Oh yeah?” Toi scoffed, faking bravado he didn’t know he had, “Good for you. Go shove your questions elsewhere.”
And then, he left, not turning around even when Kazuki called after him.
“You’re back early.” Reo said in lieu of a greeting when he entered the Asakusa koban twenty minutes later.
To Toi, it sounded almost like an accusation. No wonder, he thought. Him coming home early meant him intruding on the precious alone time Reo and Mabu got to spend together. And never mind them working together 24/7, Toi knew that especially with recent events in mind, the two of them were trying to make up for lost time as much as possible.
“I guess.” he replied, pulling on the strap that held his age-old backpack over his shoulder, and looking anywhere but directly at Reo.
It was still so very awkward. Toi wondered if he would ever get used to it.
“Oh, Toi, welcome home!” he heard Mabu’s voice emerge from the back of the koban, just seconds before the police officer joined them at the front.
Thankfully, his other adoptive father was wearing trousers underneath his apron, and if Toi focused really hard, he could almost ignore the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
“Are you hungry?”
Mabu smiled at him, and Toi forced himself to return it. It’s the least he could do, he thought, they absolutely wouldn’t have had to take him in and yet they did. The least he could do was act somewhat politely, making up in advance for whatever trouble he would cause them. He knew he would. With a brother like this, and a past filled with crimes, whatever else could possibly be waiting for him?
“No, thank you, Mabu-san. I’ll eat something later, though.” He said, not wanting to spend any more time here where Reo was practically boring holes through him and Mabu would try and convince him to try his newest cooking experiment regardless of what he said.
He excused himself and left the koban.
Toi still remembered the day it had all started in vivid detail.
“Well, looks like it’s us or juvie.” Reo had said, a smug smirk lining his mouth.
He then broke out into laughter, flinging his cap off and tossing it to the hat stand where it landed with miraculous accuracy. “I can’t believe this. Mabu, just look at it!”
“We should take the situation a little more seriously.” Mabu had interjected, giving Toi a glance that was almost apologetic, “It’s hard on him, too. Isn’t it, Kuji-kun?”
Toi had been stuck in the koban with them for two hours now. Hour one was spent in remote silence and everyone avoiding having to look at one another. Hour two would’ve gone similarily if not for Mabu that decided to break the silence by showing everyone an adorable video of his idol daughter Sara.
Needless to say, things went downhill from there.
“Hard on him, what the heck.” Reo exclaimed, jabbing a finger at the official court’s letter that lay on the table in all it’s menacing glory, “They’re making us adopt a kid we barely know. You know what a process adoption is? That’s not done by signing a form!”
“No-one is forcing us.” Mabu said, reasonably, “Would you like some tea, Kuji-kun?”
Toi shook his head. He hadn’t said a word all day, and he was planning on keeping it that way.
“Or some ningoyaki?”
“He isn’t five.” Reo rolled his eyes, “He’ll eat when he wants. You’re distracting, my love.”
“Apologies.” The faintest hue dusted Mabu’s cheeks upon Reo’s use of the endearing term.
That’s probably what happened when you were forced to conceal your emotions for months under threat of being a self-destructive bomb if you didn’t, Toi thought, trying hard to ignore the surge of pity he felt for the two of them.
Keppi had done his best in trying to explain the entire backstory including the malicious otter in a doctor’s coat, and since it wasn’t nearly close to being the weirdest shit Toi had seen in the past months, he had found it frighteningly easy to follow.
It was still a lot to take in, though.
But Toi would have taken a thousand shirikodama extractions in favor of what else the world or rather, the government, decided to surprise him with.
It was a court order. Nothing unusual and something Toi had always seen coming. He knew that, despite how much he tried to keep his tracks invisible and his hands clean, that one day, his misdeeds would come back to ruin his life.
And they had.
Spectacularly, the police hadn’t even found his weed stash. Neither had they linked him back to the seagull gang guy’s murder.
Apparently capturing him with a gun in his hands was incriminating enough.
Weird, how that worked.
Juvie had been an almost too obvious choice for him and it was where he would have almost certainly spend the next three years.
But it never came to that.
Instead- and Toi didn’t know if Keppi had played a part in this to some extent, he would trust it upon the kappa to have meddled with things again- there came a proposal from the court, declaring an option to juvenile.
Adoption into police custody.
And the suggested candidates were none other than the two police officers who were sitting right across from him.
“How would that even work?” Reo, the blond guy who handled a gun about as enthusiastically as he handled his love life, threw in. He scowled at Toi. “We can’t survey him 24/7. And they want monthly reports for a certain period.”
“Monthly reports?” Toi spoke up for the first time. His voice cracked a little. Mabu, the black-haired guy with the glasses, gave him an encouraging smile and pushed a glass of water across the table. Toi took a sip, just to please him.
“Yeah, to make sure you’re not getting caught up in criminal shit again. Basically.” Reo tapped at the line on the document that contained this specific aspect of the order.
“Basically.” Toi mumbled. His stomach clenched. He knew where he stood with the government now. Juvie or not, he would always be a criminal to keep an eye on for them.
How he resented it.
“They won’t have to be long, though. “ Mabu threw in, “And it’s only for the first year. Then, the intervals will grow larger as well- bimonthly, every four months, to stop completely once you are eighteen.”
“Still feels like they’re spying on me.” Toi said, his own voice sounding to him as hollow, as devoid of any emotion as he himself felt. He clenched his hands into fists, held under the table where he knew they couldn’t see.
“Of course they are!” Reo exclaimed, grinning at him, sharp teeth glinting in the cold, white light of the koban, “What the heck were you expecting? Better get used to it, kid.”
“Don’t call me that.” Toi retorted, glaring at the police officer.
“Did you hear that, Mabu?” Reo seemed to thoroughly be enjoying themselves, “Seems like I didn’t get the memo to formally address every brat that walked into here.”
“What would you like to be called?” Mabu asked, instead, sounding genuinely interested.
“Just…Kuji. Kuji’s fine.” Toi said, swallowing hard, “But it’s not like you’ll need to know anyway. You’re probably gonna reject that proposal, right?”
Reo and Mabu exchanged a look.
That’s how he ended up here.
Turned out the koban had a small, unused room next to theirs on the second floor, which had been used as a storage previously, and before Toi knew, it had become his room.
His relatives would’ve taken him in still, or, he knows his aunt would’ve, but with his recent history of a near-miss stay in Juvie, it was probably for the best.
They still resented Chikai, even after he had passed.
Some days Toi did too. And other days he missed him like someone had torn a hole in his chest, and he woke up from nightmares with tears in his eyes.
He would climb downstairs, through the kitchen and would take the back door out of the koban, would sit and stare at the night sky and listen to the cicadas and try his best to drown out the gunshots in his head.
That’s how Mabu found him occasionally, who either sat with him or encouraged him to go back inside. A few, unmentionable nights had occurred in which Toi had been too downright drowsy to properly listen to, let aside follow Mabu’s instructions, which had led to the police officer stooping down to pick him up and carrying him inside like he weighed nothing, all the way to his bedroom.
Toi found himself blushing at the thought. Yes, certainly something to never be mentioned again.
A ball slammed into the wall next to him. Toi jumped, startled, and then frowned when he noticed it was Enta.
Somehow, lost in his thoughts, he had walked on autopilot ,ending up by the riverside again.
“Hey there.” His classmate said. He grinned at him, that shit-eating grin that, despite how annoyed Toi was with him, still made him feel a little…something.
He did wonder how Kazuki could still be so oblivious to something Enta had openly stated, something they had pulled out a shirikodama for, if you wanted to go that far.
“Stuff it, Jinnai.” He grumbles, “Where’s Kazuki?”
“Oh, he had to go home.” Enta responded, “Haruka has another MRI appointment tomorrow.”
Right. Ever since Kazuki had come to terms with the guilt he was feeling, he had been more actively involved in his brother’s life, accompanying him to hospital visits, something that his parents and Enta had done previously.
“That’s good.”
“Yeah.”
There was silence. Thick enough to slice through with a knife.
Not that Toi had one in his pocket or anything.
“Want me to walk you back to the koban? It’s getting dark.”
Toi raised an eyebrow.
“What?” Enta exclaimed.
“It’s you who someone would need to walk back, Jinnai.”
Enta started sputtering his protests.
Toi tuned him out as he watched a cargo ship pass by in the setting sun.
It had a huge, wide-open deck and if Toi let his imagination run free, he could almost see his brother up there, lying on his back, bleeding from his chest.
Smiling at him despite it all.
“Let’s go.” Toi said, his mouth dry, and Enta didn’t ask any questions.
“There we are.” Enta said.
Toi saw he kept a certain distance to the koban and couldn’t blame him for it. If Reo had put him in the hospital, he would certainly have had a similar reaction.
“There we are.” He repeated, lamely, “So. See you tomorrow, then?”
“You’re coming?” Enta beamed at him, his grin back in place, “Awesome!”
“Not like I have anything else to do.” Toi said, but he cracked a smile.
That was a lie. He would have plenty of things to do, but he’d also pay a great deal to skip out on the embarrassing silences which marked the beginning of his stay at the koban.
“So.”
“Well then.”
“Well. Yeah.” Enta said, laughing a little, and then he pulled Toi into a hug.
It lasted longer than five seconds. Toi counted those things.
Enta took his time letting him go, and when he did, Toi thought there was a pink touch to the tips of ears. But that could’ve been his imagination.
“See you!” Enta said, waved, and then he was off, long before Toi had managed to sort newfound emotions into any categories
“I’m home." Toi said, uncertainly, upon entering the koban.
“Welcome back!” Reo sauntered around the corner and beckoned him inside, “Have you had dinner yet?"
Toi hadn’t. And his stomach growled as though to remind him of that fact.
“Want to join us then?” Mabu, who appeared beside Reo at that very second said, smiling warmly at him.
It was awkward, Toi thought, when he was sat at the small table with the two police officers who he had fought against only weeks prior and who were known acting as his surrogate family.
It was still so awkward. So very awkward
But maybe, he thought, catching a glance of Reo’s and Mabu’s intertwined hands underneath the table, and tasting the broccoli yakisoba that shouldn’t be tasting this good in the first place, maybe, eventually, he would start feeling at home.