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Yu wasn’t one who wants attention, but he always ended up getting it. He wasn’t really complaining though, it could help out sometimes to find things or talk to people…
That is until you get the wrong kind of attention.
Yu couldn’t help but notice a bunch of other teens, guys that are mostly third years, constantly looking at him with a repulsed looks. The leader paid no attention. He was used of people finding him weird and out of place before. “Weirdo”, “robot”, “teacher’s pet”, “goody two shoes”, “loser”, “psycho”, “empty shell”... He already heard them all.
All thorough the year, it evolved. The looks became name calling, the name calling became pranks.
But, too bad for them, Yu was an expert in school survival.
The chalk dust above the door ? Just open it from farther away. The bucket full of water to throw at the next toilet stall ? Just bring your umbrella. Thrashing school shoes or notebooks ? Just keep them on you at all times and put a lock on your locker.
The leader had no time for that stupidity. He gave those bullies none of the attention they wanted, not like he had any attention to spare to them.
And as soon as they recognized themselves as bullies, Yu placed the same label on them as all of the other bullies he had faced : Bugs. School low lives that just made everyone miserable to get attention.
The silver haired teen got rid of the threat with the silence and cool he was known for, blocking them at every corner, and eventually, they never showed up again and disappeared. As they rightfully should. Yu slipped back into his old habits and discarded the supplementary protective measures against them.
Later in the span of the year, during january, with the case finally over, Yu could fully dedicate himself to his “normal” life. During this span, he spent more time with his classmate and friends, using the most of his time before he would have to go back to the city.
And today, he was honestly delighted.
Yesterday he had the occasion to talk to his partner at the Samegawa riverbed. They talked about what happened at Junes, what Yosuke wanted to do…
And his partner told him words that kept ringing of the back of the leader’s head, words that he treasured. Many words.
That gave him some courage, maybe now, he will have the courage to tell him about his feelings. Yosuke valued their bond just as much Yu did, even if he was going to get rejected, which was probably the case, they would still be friends, partners.
Yu couldn’t remember for how long he secretly wished for someone that would form a bond with him. Between the crushing loneliness of his empty home and ostracizing of school, he resigned to his fate as being lonely forever.
But now, sunshine was introduced into his life. And he wouldn’t bear to see it taken away or flicker.
The Magician tapped at the back of the Fool’s.
“Hey I’m gonna go ahead, I have some stuff to pick up. I’ll join you later at your place ok ?” Yu nodded with a smile in understanding. Yosuke picked up his bag and waved at Yu on the way out, the leader waved back, before exiting the classroom and running some errands around the building.
As he walked through the corridor, he heard the noise of feet running on the ground from behind, several in fact. He turned around and saw nothing. Must’ve been a bunch of students running around the corner, taking advantage of the fact Mister Morooka wasn’t there anymore to scold them for running in the hallway.
He picked up his shoes from his locker and left.
He waited and waited at home, fidgeting.
He was both looking forward to talk to partner and dreaded it as the same time. He already knew his answer was going to be negative, and that everything will be safe nonetheless, but the simple fear of rejection was enough to make him weak in the knees, which is one of the reasons he had sat down.
Yosuke was running late.
The Fool kept playing with his phone, waiting for a response to one of his text. The brunette would be late sometimes, but he would always text in advance. And Yu knew deep down Yosuke wouldn’t miss dinner at the Dojima’s for the world.
The food the silver haired teen prepared was cold by now. He was getting worried. He scrolled down his contact to call his friend and learn what was the issue, and maybe put this sleepover at a later date if necessary.
As his finger slid down, he finally had what he wanted, a notification from his partner. His face lit up at having news from him, he got up and he pressed on the notification without even reading it.
It was a video. From the thumbnail, it was in an industrial place, with metal and trash around. Yu’s stomach twisted in worry. He hoped it was maybe just Yosuke recording what was happening instead of texting it. He pressed the play button with a trembling finger.
A bunch of male voices talking and laughing to each other as the camera slowly panned down, and it finally stopped on a boy sprawled on the ground and held down, with one of the guys pulling his head up by tugging his hair.
It was Yosuke. His face was twisted by pain as the others arched his back backwards by pulling on his head. He was trying to resist by grabbing the arm of the oppressor, but another ruffian grabbed his limbs and held them on the ground. The one sat on the brunette’s back pulling his hair took it as his cue to pull further, Yosuke’s face contorted in anguish as he was clearly trying to stop himself from screaming, making only grunts of suffering.
Yu dropped the phone on the table. His breath shook and he wasn’t able to speak or to scream. He could only watch as the colors drained from his face and light disappeared from his eyes.
“Come on scream !” Passed through the speakerphone as a bully kicked the Magician in the stomach. “You fucking talk all the time why can’t you make some fuckin’ noise !?” The one pulling his hair let him go, only for another to step on his face. “Hey guys I have an idea !” The oppressor spoke in a low voice that the phone couldn’t render properly. They then grabbed Yosuke up on his feet. As soon as he gained some balance the Magician tried to fight back, but they stuck his arms from behind and kicked him a second time in the guts with a crushing noise, making Yosuke spit.
“Stay still you little shit !” Another one punched him in the face, making him bleed from his nose and disorient him, and they pulled him out of the camera range.
The camera then twisted around to reveal the one filming. A third year that Yu has erased from his mind that decided to make a comeback. The asshole made a victory sign and proudly claimed “That’s our farewell gift you fucking psycho.”
And the video stopped.
Yu truly became an empty shell for a few seconds. Immobile and repressing the need to puke. But he didn’t stay empty for long, the void started to fill as his stomach and heart twisted in rage and anguish. Like a cable snapping or a window breaking, he truly discarded any emotion, only left with bloodlust and fury as he picked up his phone, his coat, and walked through the door of the house, with his katana sheath in one hand.
The four bullies wiped their hands against each other and joked around as they turned the corner of the local junkyard. Only to be met with one Yu Narukami.
“Oh look it’s the asshol-” The silver teen didn’t let them finish.
“Where is Yosuke.” He deadpanned with a face devoid of emotions.
The bully sneered. “Wouldn’t you want to kn-”
“Where, is, Yosuke.” He said. With eyes just as devoid of emotions as his face.
They laughed : “The trash is where trash is supposed to be ! Do you t-”
Yu cut them off one more time. “I said. Where. Is. Yosuke.”
One of them laughed and stepped forward. “You really think we’re gonna tell you you fucking- !” He runned up to Yu clearly about to throw a punch. The leader stayed unphased and as the fist was about to hit him, he dodged to the side and grabbed the bully’s arm with his free hand, easily twisting it.
As the boy writhed in pain, Yu continued in the calmest of tones :
“You got something wrong. This isn’t a question, a negotiation, a suggestion, a deal, a treaty, an agreement, a compromise, or a capitulation.”
He twisted his arm further before kicking him in the stomach, making the rascal kneel onto the ground, knocked him out with a kick in the face, and the silver teen finished his sentence :
“This is an order you bugs.”
The leader started walking forward the same way he would on the way to school. The other three guys stepped back as the one leading stuttered. “Wh- Ho- Tha-”
The Fool cut him off. “”Wh” ? “Ho” ? “Tha” ? What language is this ? Speak in one of the three languages I understand.” Another one ran up to him, this time about to throw a kick. Yu just as easily grabbed his leg mid-air, and threw him away in front of him, leaving the bully wide open.
To keep him from getting up, the silver teen stepped his foot on his crotch, grinding the heel of his shoe into it. The despicable boy writhed in pain like his previous comrade and cried “It hurts- !”
“ This hurts ?” Yu grinded further. “This is nothing compared to what you did to Yosuke.” He brutally kicked one final time, making the third year cry and crawl into a fetal position. He kept walking. “Where. Is. Yosuke.”
Another bully sneered, voice shaking with fear. “Like I’d tell you ! You’re trash just as much as that Hanamura dumbass is !”
Yu tightened his grip on his sheath. “I don’t think so. No one thinks so. Only bugs like you do. Bugs than roam in garbage in search of food.” He snapped the handle of his sword out of the hilt with his thumb, making a quick metal noise. “You’re like cockroaches. And you only do one thing to cockroaches :” He slowly pulled the katana out of its shell, the metal shining in the moonlight of the late evening and making a long smooth steel noise.
“You exterminate them.”
One of the two held his pants and ran away, probably pissing himself. Leaving only one terrified pest : “You can’t- You can’t-”
Yu lifted him up by the collar. “I can. Just as much as you gave yourself permission to put your filthy hands on my partner.”
The mention of the nickname flooded back in memories.
“You’re special to me.”
“I want to be equal with you !”
There is a lot I'm grateful for from this past year, but the biggest thing...
I think it was that I met you."
Those words would swoon his heart with joy and gratefulness, but here;
It only brought more rage.
He stared dead in the face of the monster that hurt his best friend, and a faint reflection of light shined in the corner. Yu’s eyes followed the light, only to found Yosuke’s phone. Broken and left on the ground.
Other memories came rushing back.
The ones where Yosuke explained why he didn’t want to change his number.
Yu stared at the lonely device abandoned on the ground.
The void spread further as he clutched at the bully’s throat.
He watched the insect writhing and screaming in his grasp. But that didn’t quell his fury.
He perceived the light reflecting on another object in the junkyard.
A TV screen.
He walked towards the out of order screen with the bully struggling in fear in his grasp. He stopped in front of the screen and looked at his reflection. He let go of his katana, letting it clatter onto the ground before slowly pulling the despicable pest towards the black mirror.
Do it.
They’re bugs.
They’re those who make others suffer.
They’re those who made us suffer all this years.
They’re those who made partner suffer for nothing.
Said his own distorted voice.
He started pushing him through the screen.
Bugs are better exterminated.
The world would be better if all of those bugs were crushed.
The eyes of his reflection in between the ripples took a brighter color.
As he was about to let go;
“Partner !”
The world around him stopped.
He slowly turned around to notice a beat up and dirty Yosuke, holding his stomach with tears in his eyes.
As the life appeared back into Yu’s eyes, he looked back at his hands “What am I..?” He realized what he was doing. He gasped and pulled the boy out of the TV, tossing him aside. The bully ran away as Yu held his hands to his mouth, looking at his reflection. “What was I- !?”
He felt something tackle him away from the screen. The magician threw himself at him like he was protecting him from an attack thrown by a shadow. Yosuke face was full of tears and blood. “What were you thinking Yu !?”
“I- I don’t-” He stuttered.
“You were about to kill him ! You can’t- You can’t turn out like he did !” The brunette crushed him with a hug. “I almost made that mistake- I won’t let you do it ! I won’t let you become like Adachi !” Yosuke sobbed in Yu’s shoulder and held him tight.
The leader started choking up sobs as well as the weight of the words crumbled onto him. “Yosuke-” He held back tears. “I-” He broke down and hugged back his best friend as his heart crushed itself with guilt. “Partner- !”
Yu emptied himself of all of the tears he could as Yosuke did the same. They both held on tight to each other as they cried, they just sat down and hugged in the junkyard in front of the broken TV screen.
For what seemed an eternity they both bawled in the night sobbing each other’s names and embracing each other, as is to reassure themselves they were still here.
Once they could cry no more and they both calmed down, they decided to take it from the top and tell each other what happened.
“I left the school and I was going to Junes to run some errands for Teddie, when those idiots attacked me from behind. I could react and I ran away for awhile, but you know my luck.” He shrugged. “While I was jumping to escape something broke under me. They caught up to me and next thing I knew I was here getting beat up. They left me farther away in the yard, when I woke up I left to get out and I found you…” He looked down and reached out for Yu’s coat, grabbing it for reassurance.
Yu grasped his hands on his coat. “We should treat your injuries… and... also... your phone is broken…” He pointed to the device left behind.
“Oh…” Yosuke got up and walked towards it to pick it up, before sitting in front of Yu again. “Well that sucks.”
“I’m sorry… You didn’t want to change your number and-”
The Magician interrupted him. “Dude it’s fine ! And don’t apologize it’s not your fault ! Yeah I was hoping I’ll get a text but… I made peace with the fact it’s not gonna happen. It’s ok Yu, really.” He gave him a sad smile. Yu reached out in his pocket a found and old handkerchief, pressing it against Yosuke’s bleeding nose. The brunette let him and claimed : “Don’t worry buddy- I’ve seen way worse in the TV World !”
“You’re still hurt- I’m going to bring you home to treat you.” Yu looked down. “I’m sorry…”
“What are you sorry for ?” Yosuke asked.
The leader gritted his teeth. “It’s my fault they went after you, because I didn’t pay attention to them ! I’m so used of just letting them stop on their own by myself that I didn’t even think they would try and use you as bait !” He gritted them harder. “And now I… I almost-” He took a deep breath. “I almost became a murderer.”
The atmosphere became heavy with those words. The grey haired leader stared at the ground as the hand that was wiping Yosuke’s nose became limp.
The brunette took the hand holding the tissue and lowered it, and bumped his forehead against his friend’s.
“I know how that feels.”
Yu’s gaze shot up.
Yosuke continued : “Watching someone you care about suffer because of someone, being overwhelmed with hate and rage… and then you stop thinking for your own sake…” The Fool remembered those words, the Magician said similar ones yesterday. “That day… Me, and the others, we almost did something that was terribly wrong- that would have made us no better than the asshole we were pursuing…” Yosuke placed his hands on Yu’s shoulders. “You’re the one that made us realize that.” He smiled. “Remember what I said ?” They stared into each other’s eyes, and the silver teen knew exactly what he was talking about.
Yosuke spoke just like he did yesterday, as the words rang back in the Fool’s mind.
“If you ever lose your way, I’ll go knock some sense into you. It won’t matter if you’re at the ends of the earth or in somewhere dark and bleak.”
The hands on his shoulder moved to his cheeks.
“That’s what partners are for right ?”
The Fool found himself crying again. Mirroring his partner’s mouvements and cupping the other’s face, before leaning in with similar timing.
It tasted like dirt and blood, and he could tell that it hurt Yosuke a bit. But he made peace with the fact that sometimes, partnership has to hurt, so it could be mended stronger than before, like the fog clearing and letting space for sunshine after long days of rain.