Archive of Our Own ^beta

Hotdogs have started to taste good again. Fujita eats them rarely and when he does he never stacks up on them like Matsumura did, but he gets one for him and one for Ebisu and they don’t feel like a lump clogging his throat anymore.

According to Ebisu, there’s nothing special about them, they taste the same as any other hotdog she’s ever had, maybe even worse. Drier and lumpier. Fujita doesn’t try to fight her on that; he rolls his eyes and takes the trip to the same place every single time. Ebisu never learns to accept the free meal with her mouth shut but Fujita never expects her to (she pats him in the back twice and when he checks, there aren’t any ketchup stains where her fingers were).

Hotdogs have started to taste good again and that’s the natural course of things.

Fujita’s life was never as wild before he met the lizard man but it has since started cooling back down. Not many interesting stuff happens when the powerful magic users most prone to starting trouble are all dead. It certainly is better this way, he’s too weak to deal with that kind of life on the daily, anyway.

There’s not much to do and that means he’s got plenty of time to think . And because his life was never as remarkable as it was in the past year, he thinks of the department store, of the most important thing he’ll ever do and… of the people that left the magic world in its current state. Of the people he shares more experiences with than he wants to note.

Though the thought of ink staining around his eyes makes his skin itch, he knows well, how, if things were any different, he’d probably have ended up as one of them himself. But they were powerful, they could take out the most skilled magic users standing in their way without any magic of their own and Fujita might be able to put out more smoke than all of them together, but they had nothing to envy him for.

And, as for the elites. As for Tetsujo, he had to stop himself from listing all their similarities.

None of the crosseyes deserved his kindness, his empathy (he spoke up and asked Shou not to let them die). None of the crosseyes deserved his kindness or his empathy and yet Fujita sometimes lies awake and wonders if they made it. They had nothing but a carpet with holes in it and themselves, after all, and… Dokuga? He was barely awake.

Fujita thinks he would have helped them further if they had stayed a bit longer. He doesn’t know what he could have done for them. Beg Noi to heal the wounds En left on Dokuga? Even though she was exhausted… maybe he wouldn’t have been of much help anyway.

“Running away is all those bastards are good for,” Shin said when he found Ebisu and him looking at the vanishing smoke the carpet had left.

But Fujita understands. He watched them for a while and as much as he hates it he grew to think he knew them, somehow. He helped them because he felt for them, he shouldn’t have, but he did, and Tetsujo thanked him for sparing them but ran away the next chance he got and that’s okay! Because to them Fujita was nothing more than a stranger. They were strangers to him too, even if it didn’t feel that way, entirely.

Him and the crosseyes elites never actually met before the invisibility wore off. Ebisu never actually met Dokuga until a switch seemed to turn on him and he used her to escape (neither of them could take their eyes off the smoke trailing to the exit of the hole).

If it wasn’t for Ebisu bringing up her ‘servant’ every chance she gets, to complain that Fujita isn’t as useful or just for the sake of it, her voice deescalating from a mean chuckle into a hollow sigh scarily quick, maybe Fujita would have stopped worrying so much about them long ago (Tetsujo wanted back people who were important to him and he couldn’t save all of them. Tetsujo also seemed to drop everything when it came to Dokuga. If he didn’t make it, then… wouldn’t that make them all the more similar? Doing their best to save their partners- failing). If it wasn’t for Ebisu, he’d have no one to share these stupid worries with.

The crosseyes are scum and they didn’t deserve to be saved. If En had been alive then, he probably wouldn’t have liked that Fujita wanted them to live. The crosseyes are scum and they changed everyone’s life for the worse… but they aren’t so different from any of them.

Isn’t everyone alive because they fight? Haven’t they killed? The crosseyes might be scum but Fujita wants them to be okay, wherever they are. Because they may not have any magic but they’re far from weak or stupid (Fujita wants them to be okay, Ebisu laughs at him for it but he’s seen the drawings stuffed in her drawers and he knows she wants the same thing. None of them has mentioned going back and looking for them, not once).

Is Ebisu as scared as him to never find them? Never find out what happened to them? Worse, to find only Tetsujo, alone? Or is she just trying to save herself the disappointment of a ctually meeting the one she called her servant?

As do most serious matters, asking her goes nowhere ninety percent of the time. And when she seems ready to answer properly, there’s always something getting in the way. As much as Fujita hates it, he- can’t walk into Hole and look for them on his own. They need to do it together.

“Don’t wanna,” crossing both her arms, she sulks, yanking Kikurage’s toy from side to side as she does. “Bet he’s dead anyway,” she adds, looking him right in the eye (the hand on the stick wavers, Fujita can’t tell what’s going on behind her mask).

“I hope he isn’t,” he lets his back slide on the wall until he’s sitting right next to her. “I know he looked really bad but-”

“Enough!” and she’s lost around the corner in no time, Kikurage trailing behind her.

For someone who constantly claims with a wicked laugh that they’re most likely dead, she really doesn’t want to check if she’s right.

Maybe he can go on his own. Look around and see if he can find them… any of them. If he can just catch sight of them, he doesn’t need to ask any further questions or approach them at all. That would be more than enough to rest easy for the rest of his life, and if Ebisu wants to do anything with that knowledge, she can do it by herself!

Fujita tells himself this and packs up for the day- the doorknob is impossibly hard to twist.

“I think I forgot something,” he tells the guard, retreating with steps so quick they almost send him flying down the hall.

For starters, he’s not even sure they stayed in Hole. Could they make doors of their own…? No, they couldn’t produce a single smoke particle. But they could manage something if they tried, probably, they were smart after all. Any sorcerer would do their best to leave that dumpster- Nikaido stayed . Fujita doesn’t have many other options.

Looking for them in the magic world would be looking through piles and piles of corpses. Looking for them in Hole might be just as pointless but he’s gotta start somewhere. That’s the place he last saw them, they have no means to make a door and they were hanging by a thread; it’d make sense if they stayed. Then again, it’s been more than a year, and there’s only two possibilities.

What’s he so afraid of? They’re just a couple of nobodies no one even remembers the names of! (Fujita remembers. Remembers how badly they clung onto life and how hard they fought for a long-lost cause. Ebisu remembers them as well). He’s seen his fair share of dead bodies so he guesses the possibility of never finding them haunts him a little more.

“What you so sad for?” Ebisu blocks his path, eyes narrow behind her mask.

“I’m not sad, go away.”

She looks behind him for a second, balancing her weight on one leg, the other hovering lightly off the ground. “You goin’ to Hole?”

“… Not anymore.”

“Why?” she blinks once, tilting her head.

“Because… looking for them is stupid in the first place. You said it yourself; they’re probably already dead,” and why is he so stung about it? He did a lot more for them than he should have, if they fucked up after that- it’s on them entirely.

“But you didn’t want them to be?”

“I never get what I want,” Ebisu seems to have a thing for being discouraging when he’s convinced of what he’s doing and encouraging when he just wants to give up. Fujita wants neither but only one of them makes sense, maybe it’s on him for trying to get something out of her, of all damn people.

Rubbing her mittens together, she turns around. “… Don’t want ‘em dead either.”

Fujita sighs. “So?”

“So what?” her shoulders shoot back up, her arms now tightly closed.

“Will you help me look for them or not?”

“Duh!” she exclaims, taking off her mask and offering it to him. “You too weak to go on your own,” she chuckles, shaking the mask in her hand until Fujita takes it. “Stay.”

“ ‘Stay’ ? I’m not a-!” she runs around the corner before he finishes, no other explanation.

Wasn’t she against the idea just two days ago? Is she just bored enough even going to Hole seems better than doing nothing all day? Ebisu is unreadable sometimes! 

… Ebisu is also not quite good in the head so maybe that’s to be expected.

She comes back three minutes later, wearing an oversized “ I love Hole ” shirt and the dumbest smile Fujita has ever seen.

Both their masks stuffed in his backpack, they get to walking.

Fujita realizes he made it farther than he thought when they find Noi standing in front of Shin’s room, holding the door open with her free hand, a piece of fried chicken in the other.

“I’ll be back later!” she announces, happily ripping off the leftover meat from the bone in a single pull of her teeth.

“En-san said he needed us at noon,” Shin says from inside, voice monotone, a mere suggestion.

“Fuck En!” she takes a step back, ready to let go of the door. “I told him I would be out all day, if he asks about me tell him he can die.”

“Got it.”

With a slam, the door closes and, huffing, Noi takes two careless steps into Fujita’s path, his forehead bumping into her arm.

“Ow,” he complains. More surprised than anything. By his side, Ebisu laughs at him.

“Ah, sorry guys I didn’t see you there,” she apologizes, quickly searching both of them for any injury. As she does, her eyes light up: “Oh! You’re going to Hole?” Fujita nods, sheepish, and she smiles a friendly smile. “What a coincidence, I’m heading there too! I’ll take you!”

“Really? Thank you,” she nods enthusiastically, already turning around to blow smoke in the middle of the hall.

Her door is quick to appear. Quicker and better than Fujita’s ever has. He can summon one, of course he can, but it takes a lot more of him than it’s worth and it would only look pathetic. Ebisu has made fun of him before but she never puts hers out either so it’s probably all talk.

“You always in Hole when we can’t find you?” Ebisu asks, pulling on Noi’s shirt.

She’s been going out on her own a lot since a while back. When asked, Shin shrugs and carries on with his day or answers a quick and simple ‘out’ . What business does someone like Noi have in that shithole anyway?

“Yeah,” she answers, making her way through the door.

On the other side, there’s a blocked entrance to what seems to be a restaurant and Fujita can hear vague rustling, getting louder and louder. Noi and Ebisu cross before him, the latter turning to look at him as he takes the last step away from the door, which dispels shortly after.

“You’re early today,” a voice greets as the last of the metal pane slides up the front of the restaurant, following suit, it’s Noi’s enthusiastic smile.

That voice… Fujita has heard it before. He’s more familiar with it than he’d like.

All it takes is a single look up, ahead, and there she is. The one who made him watch as the lizard man killed Matsumura. There’s more to her than that, probably, the wound now not as fresh as it was when En forced her to become his partner and live with them. Noi sets her hands hard on both her shoulders and there are grudges Fujita should be ready to let go of. If something like that can be reduced to a mere grudge.

Nikaido doesn’t pay him more than a single, friendly look and a quick invite to the inside of her restaurant and… everyone is always so easy to forgive and forget. So is he the odd one, still holding the death of his best friend between them? The first time they met, she put him in a chokehold and broke his finger, now she gives him a friendly greeting and turns her back on him; Noi was sent to kill her, then keep an eye on her, now she comes visit her and Nikaido receives her with a smile all over her face and a light jab to the side.

He’s done just as much damage as it’s been done to him, and… things change, he guesses. The first step into the restaurant is the most difficult one and he stands at the counter in no time. It’s not like he’s here to make friends with her anyway.

“Noi,” Ebisu calls waving her arms to get her attention. “You come here all time?”

Sat at the counter, Noi stretches both arms over her head. “There’s not many reasons to come here but! Nikaido has the best food!” she finishes with a grin as a plate slides in front of her. “Thank you!”

Nikaido smiles, propping both her hands on the opposite end of the counter to Noi. “If it’s so good you should start paying for it.”

“But I always make up for it!” even while she pouts, the food disappears as fast as it got to her plate.

The seats are right in front of Fujita but he doesn’t want to get too comfortable, they should be going out to look for the crosseyes right now. But of course Ebisu always has other ideas, taking up the space a seat away from Noi, her eyes fixed on the plate. Extending her hand, she tries to reach for one of the meat bits at the edge of Noi’s plate. A loud growl of her stomach gives her away before she can make it, though, and both Noi and Nikaido’s eyes fall on her tense shoulders.

“You wanted some?” Noi asks, wiping the edge of her mouth on the back of her hand. “Why didn’t you say so!”

“Are you hungry? I’ll make something for you,” Nikaido offers, already heading to the kitchen.

“Food!” Ebisu wastes no time.

There’s no helping it now. Fujita takes a seat as well, looking around at the empty booths and the sauce jars on the counter.

And Nikaido tried to kill Ebisu as well, didn’t she? The lizard man and her cut her fingertips and tore off the skin of her face, made her this way in the first place, before the hairclip even came around. She wouldn’t even be here, if it wasn’t for him!

Ebisu lets her pat her head with a calm smile and Fujita shifts on his seat.

He’s got to reason to be on edge, not now. No one means any harm; they’ve all let everything in the past and it seemed… he had, too. He wanted her to be okay. Maybe he’s just taken aback because he didn’t expect to meet her today, to find out Noi frequents her at least once a week, to-

“What about you?” both shoulders jumping and a shriek thankfully dying in his throat, he turns to the voice, closer than it has been since then . “You want anything to eat?”

For someone like him, appetite is easily scared away; hunted down by as little as a lump in his throat or a spin of his head, but the smell doesn’t quite make him nauseous.

“I do!” Noi chimes in, extending her empty plate towards Nikaido.

“I already know that,” no matter how long it takes her to roll her eyes, in the end she still takes it. “Fujita?” she knows his name. She remembers and yet-

And yet… what?

“If… if it’s not a bother,” one firm nod later, she disappears into the kitchen.

“By the way,” her voice can be heard all the way from there, as the plates clinking together. “I’m not feeding them for free, Noi! someone’s gotta pay for that and you brought them here.”

“Sure, sure!” thoughtful, she rests her hand on her chin.

“We leave Fujita as dishwasher 'til he pays it!” Ebisu says, snickering behind her mittens.

“Hey!”

In the kitchen, the rustling stops, crackling of food and steam taking over instead. Nikaido’s voice follows soon: “And what made you guys tag along this time? I’ve never seen you around before.”

“Oh, right! You didn’t say why you wanted to come,” Noi backs up, nodding. “You didn’t know I was coming here so it’s not a meal…”

“We looking for my servant!” the seat clicks under her weight as she tries to reach for something at the other end of the counter, whatever it is. “And Fujita’s. He scared to come alone.”

He bites his tongue just this once, for his own sake.

“Your servant?” Noi blinks, raising an eyebrow soon after. “Oh! that crosseye you mentioned!”

“Kaiko,” she clarifies, like it serves any purpose.

“Hm, now that you mention it…” hand traveling to cover her mouth, Noi looks back into the kitchen.

From there, Nikaido peeks, a ladle secured tightly in her hand. “You’re looking for a crosseye?” she asks, eyes wandering around the room. “Risu, maybe?”

Fujita spared Risu too, though that was only by chance, more so than the others. He was nothing but a tool to En’s goals and stopped being that long ago. He barely remembers him, his first impression back when he was a talking head in a borrowed body is not memorable in the slightest but after that… he was kind of scary. Which isn’t saying much coming from someone like Fujita but that’s not important, he wouldn’t want to meet him again in his right mind, doesn’t have a reason to.

“No, it’s not him,” he says as Nikaido proudly places the food in front of them. “It’s uh… Tetsujo and-”

“Dokuga?” so she knows them as well? Did she also try to kill them? (Didn’t they all try to kill each other at some point?). Many things happened at the department store and the weeks leading up to that, she’s best friends with the lizard man… it makes sense she’s caught in the whole thing just like the rest of them, it’s not that weird that she knows who they are. So Fujita nods, quickly. “It’s your lucky day,” she announces, walking around the counter to the other side. “They work here, they should be arriving soon.”

“They work here?” that was… surprisingly easy. Too easy, maybe.

Wide eyed, Ebisu stops eating to look at Nikaido when she assures them: “Yeah, they’ll be here anytime now.”

“Why didn’t you mention them before? I’ve seen those two like a hundred times!” Noi says, sliding back an empty plate once again, Nikaido seems to mind it this time.

“Didn’t know you came here!” Ebisu complains, bits of chewed food landing on the counter.

Then that means… they’re alive . Healthy is another matter entirely because if it's usually hard to get your hands on healing smoke in the magic world as someone with no resources, it’s most likely impossible in Hole, and they really needed some of it last time Fujita saw them. Maybe they’re not in peak condition then but at least they’re alive- Noi is sitting right next to him, chatting away with Nikaido and he could ask . Noi said she’s met them, right? Wouldn’t she help them if she saw the poor condition they were in, out of pity, at least? Noi sits right beside him and Fujita takes a bite of his food instead. He’s given them enough trouble.

Besides, he knows for sure they’re alive now… which means he could return to the magic world, not look into it any further, content with the knowledge that they survived despite it all. He doesn’t have to wait for them, not even to make sure…

The food is great. He keeps taking bite after bite and understands why Noi comes to the awful place that Hole is as much as she does. The food is great but he doesn’t know what he should do when he finishes it.

“They’re alive, both of them,” he says, Ebisu’s eyes quickly falling on him. “We don’t need to look for them or… wait around.”

“Fujita's a coward!” she stuffs her mouth with all that’s left in her plate and chews away happily. “Whatcha so scared of? Just blow their heads off if they try anything!”

“Why the fuck would I kill them?”

“... Dunno,” there’s no more food in her plate yet she still moves her chopsticks around, clicking them together, knitted eyebrows and some kind of pout on her lips.

“You still wanna see them? We only came here to make sure they were alright…”

“Wanna see Kaiko,” her gaze lifts from her plate, only for a moment. “Well,” then back up again, her hand now reaching to pat- hit Fujita’s back as hard as her arms will let her, which thankfully isn’t much. “Don’t be such coward, Fujita, they alive,” and her laugh is strangely quiet.

“We’ll… wait for them, then.”

Behind his back, the door creaks open. Ebisu turns around immediately and Noi glances over her shoulder but Fujita is frozen in place. He swallows a chunk of food he should have chewed a lot more thoroughly and loudly chokes on it. Ebisu’s hard hits on his back only make it worse .

“Kaiman!” Nikaido welcomes, then.

So he was choking for no reason.

Not like it would’ve made any sense if it was actually Tetsujo or Dokuga but this is way more pathetic.

“Yo, Nikaido!” he greets back, his teeth on display. But his sharp mouth closes at the same time his gaze settles on them, on the counter. “Dammit, why is this place always full of sorcerers eating my food!” stomping, he makes his way to one of the empty seats where Noi greets him with a grin, sauce staining her cheek.

Ebisu is oddly quiet, eyeing the lizard man out of the corner of her eye. Well, that’s to be expected, after all he-

“Your head looks so dumb!” she breaks out laughing, pointing skinny fingers directly at him.

“Ebisu!” Fujita tries his best to lower her arms and move her away from the growling lizard man, he won’t let her get mauled. Not- not again.

In the end Kaiman just huffs and turns around to wait for his food, narrow eyes quickly fading into a tired morning stare. Things really have changed…

“Noi, want more food?” Nikaido calls from the kitchen.

“Later, it’s time we go fight!” she says. Pushing both her fists together she stands up from her seat.

“You never get tired, do you…” by the looks of it, Nikaido does .

“No way, you’re the only one that puts up a good fight! You’re too strong to let it go to waste!”

Nikaido offers her nothing more than a sheepish laugh, “I guess so.”

“Uh huh, everything would be so boring without you,” more than a competitive smile, Noi’s feels strangely warm even from where Fujita sits.

“Let me finish up here and we’ll go,” placing a plate in front of Kaiman (who looks like he would rather not be sitting right between their conversation) she rolls her eyes again, but it looks a lot more… fond? Fujita isn’t sure that’s the word he should be using but he can’t think of any other one.

“That’s why I like you!” Noi catches her as she makes her way back to the kitchen, her words roughing up as her arms close around Nikaido’s smaller body. “You’re the best, Nikaido!”

And the only thing she does is chuckle against Noi’s chest, a droplet of sweat running down her temple (her smile holds up nonetheless).

“Can hear bones crushing,” Ebisu whispers behind her mittens.

Everything settles down as Fujita takes the last bites out of his plate; Ebisu rocks her feet back and forth, the worn-out seat creaking under her weight from time to time. Noi stands excitedly by the door as Nikaido takes off her apron and ties up her hair, Kaiman scrubs the dirty dishes, as instructed.

“I’ll be leaving then,” she tells him, already holding the door open. “Tell those two to get to work when- ah, you’re here for them, right?” she turns to Fujita and Ebisu, sighs. “Whatever, we can do without them. I’ll be back soon.”

“Yeah, yeah, take care,” the door closes right after he finishes his sentence and the only sound in the whole place is the running water.

The plates in front of them are empty and they should leave. There’s nothing else for them to do here, they can wait outside. The lizard man has not shown any signs of wanting to finish up the job he left undone long ago, or even any interest in them whatsoever but the… air inside the restaurant is still so thick (Ebisu laughs quietly as she tips over a closed off sauce bottle and maybe Fujita is imagining things).

“What you looking at? Weren’t you here to see those crosseyes?” he suddenly asks, wiping his hands in an old, stained kitchen cloth.

It startles Fujita more than he can conceal. He doesn’t know it for sure but Ebisu’s snicker probably means he did scream. “Sorry! We’ll wait outside!” still shaken up, he marches to the door and right out, no looking back.

Ebisu keeps laughing at him. That’s old news and it usually doesn’t bother him as much but right now she’s making fun of him. That’s not strange, either and he’s used to it, used to Ebisu’s antics more than anyone else- completely against his will- but thing is… he doesn’t want to be made fun of, right now; he has enough with how pathetic he already feels on his own. In his defense, the lizard man is huge and terrifying, and Fujita has noodles for arms, no magic and no weapons because he forgot to bring any, and the lizard man didn’t even try to kill them but he shrieked like a baby .

“Shut up, Ebisu, I already know I’m pathetic,” it only makes her laugh louder.

Fujita wishes he could say he hates her.

“Very,” she adds, patting him in the back anyway.

Shoulders slumping down, his back in tow, Fujita sighs. He’s about to let his back hit the restaurant’s wall so he doesn’t have to hold his weight any longer, even the moldy wooden box looks welcoming now- then he sees a shadow growing closer towards his feet. Ebisu is quicker than him to look up but she doesn’t seem to have much of a reaction, her eyebrows vaguely twisting up.

“What’s up with your eye?” she chuckles.

Eye?

“What?” the familiar voice asks, more confused than upset.

Fujita finally turns around, finding right in front of him the face that has haunted him with worry more than it should have. Back then, Noi made him a new body, so he really had no reason to expect any less than that but still the world is hard and cruel and… he’s glad. The words get stuck in his throat because- why is he so happy over someone like him ? (Someone he came to Hole to meet, specifically ). The words get stuck in his throat but Tetsujo stands no less than two meters away, not moving at all, knitted eyebrows and a fixed eye that doesn’t seem to know what it’s looking for.

“You’re alive!” he says then, the plug in his throat not quite gone yet. Tetsujo places a discreet hand on the sword at his hip.

Fuck . Does he not recognize him at all? Does he not remember, for whatever reason? Is Fujita really that forgettable? Or does he hate him? Their alliance was short-lived and out of pure necessity, Fujita wasn’t supposed to care about them in the first place and he didn’t save them to earn any favors but-

Wait.

His magic blew his hat off (and a good chunk of his body as well) when he killed that crosseye to protect that thing the crosseyes’ boss had become. Could it be that…?

Quickly, he decides to take no chances. He takes off the hat so fast he almost sends it flying instead of grabbing onto it, he digs his fingers into the fabric and his back is uncomfortably still under Tetsujo’s wary, unwavering gaze.

… Until it finally sparks recognition. “Fujita,” he says, not a question in the slightest. The hold on his sword loosens but his hand still rests there, he takes a cautious step forward and he wants to think his expression relaxes. “What are you doing here?”

The sigh of relief that escapes him is poorly timed, but he can’t help it. “Ah, well, we-”

“Kaiko!” Ebisu squeals, throwing herself at the unexpecting man who seems to have just turned the corner.

He is carrying some wooden boxes with both his hands (last time Fujita caught sight of him, a distressed Tetsujo carrying him around, shielding him, he was missing his entire left arm and one side of his face was unrecognizable. He wasn’t supposed to care about them but something tugged at the air in his lungs every time he looked at him, at how much Tetsujo didn’t want him to die. Fujita didn’t want to have yet another thing in common with them, not that ), so he can’t do anything but tense up at the hug. Shaken, maybe confused, he stares down at her, then at Tetsujo who offers the same look back to him.

“ Kaiko ?” Tetsujo asks no one in particular. Then he looks right at Dokuga: “Is she…?”

Ebisu’s arms still around him, Dokuga nods as he slowly opens his mouth to speak, tilting his head the tiniest bit to the side.

“Hey, um…” he lets go of one of the boxes and pats her in the back of the head, unsure. “Sorry, what was your name?”

“Call me Master!” she demands, stepping away from him.

“Really, you…” he tries. Ebisu remains firm, expectant (he doesn’t know Ebisu’s teeth don’t let go until she draws blood).

Fujita knows about it because Ebisu simply can’t keep her mouth shut, and of course she’d brag about having a servant at any opportunity. But the Dokuga she described- excited, energetic, carefree even- it didn’t sound like the Dokuga Fujita had observed for the past days. If anything, it was the complete opposite.

Then En was resurrected and he started acting strange until he was stopped, Ebisu said. That, and the way he went with the name Ebisu chose for him on the spot (her stories are too consistent for her to have made it all up, Fujita decided after the ninth time she brought it up), Fujita’s best guess is that he didn’t actually remember who he was until something triggered back his memories, and that’s where he changed. So, him, here, right now, is the same as he was back when they were killing all those sorcerers, just not- well, stressed out of his mind. Probably a more accurate version of him than the one Fujita caught sight of.

He told her that on the tenth time, though his comment didn’t seem to make her happy. Dokuga stands in front of them now, quiet and unsure and Fujita was right all along.

Ebisu is a handful, he knows this better than anyone.

“Her name is Ebisu,” Fujita offers. When all eyes fall over him because of this, he swallows.

“Stupid Fujita!” she cries out, stomping the ground. “Why you got ruin it!”

“He doesn’t want to play your stupid games,” he says, pulling her away from Dokuga. “We came here to see if they were okay, not for you to get a servant.”

Arms tightly closed, she groans, turning her head away from all of them. Fujita steps forward. She’ll come around eventually.

“So you came here to check up on us?”

Shit, he talked too much. Of course he’d have to get to that eventually! But he didn't expect it to be so soon, and especially not because he ran his tongue a little too much. But really, what other reason would he have- what would they think if he said nothing?

It might be because Ebisu isn’t squeezing him anymore, but Dokuga looks slightly less stiff. Tetsujo, too, has let go of his sword for good, his eye now just expectant. Fujita cannot think of any other reason he could be here to meet them; he can’t imagine what went through their minds for the past couple minutes but the less worrying- (probably equally as disconcerting, incomprehensible) possibility seems to make more sense to them, enough to wait for a confirmation with a more relaxed stance, all things considered.

In the end, they know he saved them when he had no reason to. This… they should have been expecting it.

That’s what he tells himself to make the talk easier, anyway.

“Yeah…” he starts, the words spilling out; more like goo than like water. “She wanted to check up on you,” he tells Dokuga, a last resort and a deeper grave he’ll soon have to launch himself into either way. “She wouldn’t shut up about it, so I-”

“Liar,” of course Ebisu is the one to push him into it, no mercy and no second thought, just an evil little giggle. “You so worried they died you cried. Twice.”

How the hell is he supposed to recover from that?

“Anyway! That’s not important,” he can feel the sweat trailing down his back. Hates every second of it. “It was… kinda eating up at me, I guess. You guys weren’t in the best shape,” he turns to Dokuga. “You were so fucked up, man.”

Unexpectedly, Dokuga takes a step towards him. “Yeah, it was tough the first few months,” he agrees, Fujita catches a glimpse of the fingers in his left hand, twitching in and out. “Then Kaiman gave us a bottle of smoke and we had to test our luck, I’m all good now.”

Fujita doesn’t ask why the lizard man would do such a thing because everything about him is a mystery and he’s not sure anyone even has the full story. Besides, he won’t discuss the crosseyes boss with two of his higher-ups (the organization dismantled and they aren’t just that anymore, are they?), with Dokuga of all people. He has bits and pieces of what he saw and heard, and what he has he does not understand. Maybe it’s better that way.

“Healing smoke? Noi’s?” Ebisu pries, Dokuga looks at her, at Fujita immediately after.

“She gave a lot of it to that hospital a while back,” he nods. “The lizard man is friends with the doctor, right? He probably gave him some.”

“Oh,” Dokuga looks around for a bit, “Thank you?”

“It’s not like I asked her to, none of us knew you’d end up with some of it.”

“You spared us, though,” Tetsujo backs up, his arms closed, loosely. “I already thanked you for it.”

Is that what they…?

“I didn’t come here for you to thank me,” he says, his eyebrows knitting together. “Only thing I wanted was to see you were doing okay.”

For a moment, Dokuga looks back at Tetsujo, his face unreadable. Yet Tetsujo nods once, almost imperceptible, takes a step forward.

“That’s… actually nice of you, man,” he says, the corners of his mouth so relaxed they seem to go up, and Fujita holds in the smile.

Thank the devils, they don’t hate his guts!

Aside from checking in on them, and as embarrassing as it feels to him… he cares about them. The time he spent following them and his brief time with Tetsujo really did a number on his pathetic heart.

That’s why… now that he met them, saw them alive and well, settled, even… he’s not sure of what to do next. Fujita wants to be hopeful; remembers how he half expected them to hang around after they made it back to the surface, not exactly sure of what he’d do if they had. But they’re not desperate now, there’s no danger. He half expects them to care about him, too.

And for that, he’s pathetic .

At least they don’t hate him… as far as he can tell.

“We have to work now, though,” Dokuga says, walking to the restaurant’s door.

Before Fujita can try to let them know, things around him moving a little too fast to catch, Kaiman steps out the building with light steps, humming an off-tune song he doesn’t seem to know very well.

“Ah, you’re here,” he stops his song, holding up a sign. “Nikaido’s said you’re out. Since you got business.”

“Out?” Tetsujo asks.

“Yeah, man,” he points an elbow in Fujita’s direction. “And Noi came by, so,” shrugging, he turns to Dokuga: “You brought the boxes? Leave them by the door, she won’t miss them there,” Dokuga nods and steps inside.

Just as fast, he steps back out, walking to stand right next to Tetsujo. Fujita swears he’s unreadable. He’s not sure why he’d like to know what he’s thinking- except he is . Tetsujo is a little easier to figure out, even back when they were fighting for their lives, but Dokuga… Fujita only wants to make a good impression.

Even if a part of him keeps asking him just why does he wants to get on their good side so bad, Fujita thinks he knows it. He’s not exactly happy about it but- well, he came all the way here; he’s standing here now. As much as he hates it- (he doesn’t hate it, not anymore, he just… wishes it wasn’t so obvious), they have lots of things in common. And they’re good people, as far as that can go, anyway. They’re completely different from every other low-level sorcerer he’s met. He had many things in common with them too, enough to feel the littlest bit like he belonged among them, but in the end he was never friends with any of them. From the start he only had Matsumura; now he has Ebisu and he’s not mad he has to be both her friend and her babysitter, if she were to leave he’d do anything to get her back like he did before, they’re friends, after all, she’s like an annoying little sister.

But he wants to belong. En has accepted him into his family, lets him make his way freely around the manor and live a fairly good life there, all the powerful members of the family care about him… in their own ways. They don’t want him dead, at least, maybe they’d even bring him back if he died. Still, they’re powerful and he’s weak ; they’re both things the other will never be and he’s walking on eggshells all the time. Even if they’re in his own mind, the sounds they make when they break are nerve-racking.

He’s not even sure if Tetsujo and Dokuga are willing to let him take some of their time like that, but he’s got to try, as pathetic as it may be. He already came all the way here, right?

“You coming or…?” Tetsujo runs the sentence down to where Dokuga and Ebisu already stand, half turned into the road.

“Ye… yeah!” his confidence is quick to deflate and he’s not sure how many times he can pump it back.

The crosseyes are strong and he’s weak, Tetsujo still assumes he’s here to stay.

Days like this one are not that uncommon. They usually don’t know it when they wake up, or when they start their daily duties around Nikaido’s restaurant because Noi shows up late in the morning. Nikaido gives her food she promises to pay for and Dokuga has never seen a single penny. Whatever Nikaido does with her business is her problem, but she’s quicker to cut their pay off than to stop her friends from eating everything for free. He won’t complain, though, he can’t.

Noi arrives loud and beaming, crushes Nikaido’s ribs as soon as she’s within arm’s length, barely acknowledges their presence and gets on to eat. Then Nikaido kicks them out of the kitchen with a wave of her hand. The same thing she does when she catches them talking about missing out on discounts by less than an hour, not being able to catch their landlord to get him to fix their sink because he always shows up just before noon. Those times, Nikaido kicks them out too- out of the restaurant entirely. Something about not wanting them to start getting ideas that she’s an unfair boss who won’t listen to reason and promising not to cut too much from their paycheck, if they miss a shift here and there. After the first few months Tetsujo and him just started kind of expecting it.

The noise coming from the kitchen is impossible to miss. All they’ve noticed has been by chance, they have no reason to stalk their employer, after all. Apparently Noi has been coming since long before they were hired, Nikaido sure treats her as such. Sometimes she stays the night. They know this because they see her leave, yawning as she walks down the stairs at around noon, sometimes the man with the heart mask comes to pick her up, complaining about how late she is, and she tells him to shut up in the same breath she apologizes. He always stays for lunch.

After all this time, Tetsujo and him have come to the conclusion that they’re not prying if it all happens right before their eyes. There’s really nothing else to do around. They don’t care that much, either, it’s just good to see people that used to want them dead… ignore their presence entirely. Reassuring, in a way, that it’s all over.

Life has been good to them for a while now (he’ll try to keep that thought positive for as long as he’s able).

“Kaiko!” the girl walking at his side in quick strides calls out.

Ebisu , that’s her name. She should use his actual name, back.

When Tetsujo and him finally talked about the time they spent on their own in the department store, in detail , she was bound to come up, the same way Fujita was. Dokuga remembers all of it, how fucking dangerous being around him was for her without her having any idea, how he felt a little guilty over treating her like a tool- as desperate as he was. She doesn’t seem to hate him and that’s good, even if he’s not entirely sure of what their intentions are, coming to look for them.

According to Tetsujo, Fujita wasn’t so bad; what he’d expect from someone with no connections to them, on edge in the right ways. He stalked them for a few days, after all. But he did say he was surprisingly kinder than most people, stupidly so, in a world like this- yet the reason they’re still alive, today.

Fujita tells them he’s here to check up on them, Ebisu puts him on the spot, says he cried over their safety, and Dokuga watches Tetsujo’s expression relax. On his own he’d take it as a very convincing lie; Tetsujo seems to accept it, however, and Dokuga trusts him more than anyone. In the end, they know better than anyone else how to take down even the most powerful of sorcerers with their bare hands- it won’t be necessary. Not when Tetsujo trusts it won’t.

Dokuga gave him a silent nod and Tetsujo returned it immediately; his hands don't itch for the handle of his knife.

“Hey, Kaiko!” she calls out again, stomping.

“Dokuga,” he corrects, she only shakes her head.

“Want ice cream!” Tetsujo trusts Fujita enough to chat with him, no hands shifting on the handle of his sword. And about Ebisu… she’s just a kid .

Dokuga still isn’t sure how he should behave around her. She remembers him for someone he’s not- a part of him feels weird about that, guilty even. Maybe uncomfortable is the right word. But it’s not her fault and Dokuga doesn’t hate her, he couldn’t hate a kid if he tried. She calls him by the wrong name but he pats his pockets either way.

Buying ice cream for a kid is not how he thought he would be spending his money today.

“Sure,” he sighs. “Let's go.”

Cheering, she throws her arms in the air as a celebration. The only thing holding her back from breaking out running being she most likely doesn’t know where to head to.

His life up until a few months ago revolved around hiding , in both the literal and figurative sense. It was second nature to him. A very forced, not very natural second nature but he held out well, he didn’t have a choice. Despite how much his walls have crumbled down lately, a part of him still feels the need to try and keep him from some things he knows are there. Right now, when he looks at Ebisu’s big smile, that something tumbles down a bit more.

She’s bolder and louder than she ever was but both of them are young and too unprepared for this world. No matter how strong their magic or how good they are in a fight.

Natsuki was a kid. She was older and taller than Ebisu but in the end she was a kid . One that looked up to him. Dokuga wanted to protect her and failed . Ebisu is a kid and it’s not his job to protect her but he’ll buy her an ice cream even if it means he has to buy the rice that Tetsujo says tastes like dust, next week. He’s sure Tetsujo will understand, they have talked about them before.

“This place sucks!” Ebisu complains, kicking a rock in front of her. “ Why stay here?”

“We’d get hunted down if we went back,” he answers. Way too simple to be truth.

“That’s on you for having no magic,” she grins, her steps excited. All sorcerers who can produce smoke are the same, no matter how young. “I’d protect you, am strong,” she declares, a proud hand on her chest. “Can make more smoke than Fujita, am the strongest here!”

“Yeah? What’s your magic?” he asks, not really expecting any answer.

Not that he needs one. He remembers her mask from all over the smoke stores. He remembers buying her smoke more than once, carrying it around just in case, remembers giving some of it to-

“No tellin’!” shaking her head, her eyes closed, she almost trips on the road. Dokuga finds himself ready to bend down and catch her. “Stupid street!”

“She used black powder anyway, you’d be fucked,” Fujita says, turning from his own conversation.

“Am strong without too,” her arms are crossed and her voice harsh. Dokuga chases away the thoughts of dark, thick liquid as fast as he can.

“Doesn’t matter as long as it makes you strong, right?” Tetsujo joins, earning a grin from her.

“Yeah!” and she doesn’t need to know more than that. “Too bad's not ‘round anymore.”

“It’s better that way,” Dokuga breaks through the air stuck in his lungs. “Look, the ice cream shop is over there,” conveniently .

“Ice cream!” Ebisu cheers, taking off running almost immediately, everything else forgotten.

Fujita stalked them in silence for days with the mission to steal En’s tumor, Ebisu took advantage of Dokuga when he didn’t remember who he was; Fujita convinced the En family to spare them and Ebisu kept him alive, healed him when she could have left him to die. They both came to check up on them because they were worried, Dokuga starts to see why Tetsujo believes them, now.

They can take both of them in a fight, anyway. Tetsujo said Fujita isn’t that much of an opponent, and Ebisu is a child. It might not be necessary (Dokuga trusts Tetsujo as much as Tetsujo trusts him, he really does), but they could .

Tetsujo spoke of Fujita and said he didn’t dislike him, Dokuga said the same thing about Ebisu. Neither of them thought they would show up one day, not even after running right into Noi for the first time all those months back. Now Tetsujo has a friendly talk with Fujita and Ebisu jumps excitedly, both her hands on the ice cream shop counter while Dokuga searches his pockets, and this isn’t so bad.

When the shop owner tells him the total, Dokuga reconsiders .

What the fuck did she order? Can she even finish all that on her own? She seems to be digging through it already so Dokuga has no choice but to sigh and start counting.

“How much?” Tetsujo flinches at the price but recovers fast enough to pat his own pockets. “I’ll give you half, we'll be alright.”

I hope, the coins click together as they exchange hands.

“Ebisu what the hell did you order?” Fujita steps towards her, eyeing the massive thing that barely fits in the cup. “Fuck, I have no money from here, is there a way I-?”

“Nah, man it’s fine,” the coins pile on the metal counter and the shop owner pockets them one by one. “It’s not that bad.”

“Ebisu if you waste a single drop of that-” unexpectedly, she shoves the spoon towards him. He takes it. “Hey, at least it’s good. We should all have some, at least you’ll get something out of it.”

Tetsujo glances at him, half ready to ask for extra spoons, half ready to refuse in solidarity.

“Go for it,” Dokuga encourages. Tetsujo already knows Dokuga wants him to enjoy everything he can’t (for whatever reason, he still refuses unless told otherwise).

“Won’t eat?” Ebisu asks, the spoon stuck in her mouth.

“My spit is poison,” he answers, almost mechanically. “I’d rather not risk it.”

They walk away from the shop with a lot less money than on their way in but if Dokuga doesn’t think about it, he can ignore it. For a while.

“Those prices are a total scam,” Tetsujo complains, digging into the cup.

“But is it any good?” Dokuga looks at the spoon, he’s not sure he ever properly had ice cream before having it served no purpose.

“Yeah,” wish you could see for yourself , he doesn’t say. Dokuga hears it loud and clear just by looking at him.

“That’s good,” he gives him a light smile Fujita and Ebisu are too busy arguing to notice.

Midway through his spoonful, Fujita turns to them. “I’ll pay you guys back, promise.”

“I don’t think there’s a way to exchange nicks here,” Tetsujo looks around the place. Dokuga can’t think of a way to do it either. Who would want something like that? “Don’t sweat it, we won’t starve because of this,” he pats Fujita in the back twice.

“… Okay,” it doesn’t make him look any less stressed, but he doesn’t say anything else.

Ebisu, in contrast, eats spoonful after spoonful, not a care.

At some point in their walk, intruding spoons stop digging into Ebisu’s ice cream, their owners shaking their heads when offered the cup. She takes this with a growing smile and a big chunk of melting swirls, marching towards Dokuga. He never got to see her face before today, and he’s never seen lots of other people’s faces in his life, never will, that’s how sorcerers are, but he finds that all her expressions are hauntingly familiar, like he’s seen all of them before, something deeper than glimpses under her mask. If it were up to her, Dokuga thinks, she would have wanted to keep her face hidden just like she did before, to keep the upper hand, or for whatever other reason. Coming to Hole with a mask might as well be walking in with a target stuck to the chest, sorcerers come to fight or don’t come at all; disguise themselves as humans. Aside from no signs of her mask, there’s something else missing.

“Didn’t you have a pet?” En’s , technically, but it seemed pretty attached to her.

“Kikurage isn’t pet,” she declares, eyes closed under narrow eyebrows. “they friend,” Dokuga can never remember that damn creature’s name. “Can’t bring them, too dangerous.”

Well, that’s true. Even the people of Hole know about the creature that brings life, enough to recognize it, maybe. Though he’s not sure if their magic works on humans, most would probably be willing to give it a shot.

“So what made you show up today?” now that Ebisu is busy enjoying the last of her ice cream, the conversation behind him finally catches his attention.

“I’m always busy,” Fujita says. “I’m from the En family, after all,” he starts his sentence so proud it’s egocentric - it crumbles down loudly as he makes his way through it. There’s silence and with the corner of his eye Dokuga can see Tetsujo glaring at Fujita at his side, unimpressed. “Yeah, uh… not really,” he’s surprisingly see-through, just like Tetsujo said. “They’re just letting me tag along for now, I’m not-”

“Die then,” Ebisu cuts, turning around. “You just complain how weak your magic is, just die,” despite how harsh her words are, they seem to kick Fujita back up.

“At least you can put out some smoke, right?” Tetsujo adds, his fingers moving like a reflex.

“I don’t need your reassurance, of course I’m better than you,” he’s entertaining. Dokuga thinks with a short story about Tetsujo outsmarting him in the first fifteen minutes they met and putting him on the floor playing in the back of his mind.

“Your magic is,” Tetsujo corrects. “I can take you down easy,” it’s not foreign to Dokuga how his hand goes to rest in the handle of his sword as he laughs: “If you gave me a reason to.”

“… I know that,” not just see-through but weirdly honest, too. “You’re stronger than me, both of you,” after a sigh and a clear throat, he scratches the side of his head, “To answer your question… I was worried… about what I would find if I came here, if you would-” Dokuga is so focused on listening to what’s being said, he almost walks face first into the cup Ebisu offers him.

He takes a quick step back that it’s still so much slower than those he took in his worst days back in the magic world. His reflexes aren’t what they used to be, he’s noticed that before. Maybe it’s to be expected, with how tame their life is now in comparison, and Tetsujo has picked up on doing sword tricks because he can’t even consider the possibility of getting rusty like that, the sword like an extension of him since he first held it, but Dokuga has let routine wash over him a little too much, no matter how many times Tetsujo insists that’s perfectly fine. Still- he avoids the cup and the extended hand.

“Rude,” Ebisu complains, her eyes fixed on him.

“I told you I’m poisonous, you’ll die if you’re so careless,” it’s because she got lucky back when he didn’t remember it himself.

“Ya,” she nods. “Am giving it to you now.”

The cup is a mess of swirling colors, all melted, all mixed. Dokuga has been offered something like this before. Once, when they were all still kids, convincing Saji to let them spend some money on something dumb for once, something for themselves. They went out to get the biggest bowl of ice cream Dokuga had ever seen and said it was cheaper than individual cones for everyone. Tetsujo offered to ask for an extra empty cup so he could have his own portion but there was really no point when plain ice would taste the same, he’d just be taking away something they had all looked forward to, something they could enjoy. He declined and still Tetsujo walked up to him with a melted layer of ice cream, flowing around in the bowl. The poison coats his taste buds in rubber and plastic; Dokuga drank the melted ice cream anyway.

Ice cream tastes like nothing. Ebisu offers him the last of it in the cup with a serious nod and they all said it was good.

“Thank you,” he says, the lukewarm cup in one of his hands and the other on top of Ebisu’s head.

The only thing he can feel is the weight of it on his tongue but she giggles and lets him mess up her hair even more.

For a while she walks ahead, dragging her hands all over dirty shop windows and running around kicking dust. While she does, Dokuga remembers he was eavesdropping in the conversation behind him and it gives him mixed feelings. On one hand, he’s used to it- was . At the dining table and at times when their chats became a little too loud and lively, he would sit back and hear them talk, not really anything to contribute himself. But it’s been different for some time now, now that there’s no one else to talk to when they get home- Dokuga is aware Tetsujo doesn’t talk to him out of necessity; he did it a lot before all this, too, searched around to talk to him every chance he got. He knows how Tetsujo feels about him, but it’s the realization that Dokuga still settles back whenever there’s a conversation he doesn’t need to be in. Fujita talked to him before and Dokuga answered fast and simple; Tetsujo and him keep their conversation going and they’re all following Ebisu around. Fujita came to see Tetsujo; Ebisu came to see him. Now Ebisu is distracted, meters ahead of them, and Dokuga is just… here.

“No, we-” he hears Tetsujo’s words stop at his back. “Dokuga, is everything alright?”

Dokuga nods once. He’s only overthinking, after all. There’s a lot of time for that now; one of the downsides of not having to fight for his life every waking moment or worry about whether or not they'll make it to the end of the month.

Still… Tetsujo doesn’t believe him. Dokuga can see it.

“You came to see Tetsujo, but you’re both stuck following her around,” he says, and the words taste weird on his tongue.

“I have to keep an eye on her,” Fujita does seem used to walking behing her. He finishes his sentence but his mouth doesn’t fully close. “And I came to check up on both of you, it wouldn’t make sense not to. I’ve-” his words get cut, almost as if stuck, until he clears his throat. “I’ve seen you guys, you know. I needed to make sure you both were fine- especially you, Dokuga. You, uh… looked awful. I talked to Tetsujo, I knew you’d be with him when I showed up, you had to be, I needed to see you were,” Dokuga exchanges a look Tetsujo doesn’t seem quite sure how to return. What’s he going on about? “What I mean is! He was looking for you; I got him to spare me by saying I knew what had happened to you… it wasn’t a lie, by the way! But I knew that would make him… consider.”

“Fujita, what the fuck is your point?” Tetsujo asks looking him straight in the eyes, his voice sounds like he’s seconds away from physically shaking him.

It makes his shoulder shoot up and his voice woobly: “I was sent to keep an eye on all of you, remember? I got more invested in your safety than I was supposed to! After seeing that… thing kill all your friends I couldn’t sit there and let you die. Tetsujo kept looking for you and he just… looked like he would do anything to save you, I needed to know he actually managed to. Because…” once again, he lets his words die down slowly, a blown candle.

“You so pathetic,” Ebisu steps into their conversation holding a laugh and a long, thin stick, Dokuga didn’t notice her approaching. “You reminded him of his partner.”

Her eyes are closed with her best attempt at disinterest. Unfortunately for her, she's not a very good actress.

“Aren’t you his partner?” Tetsujo asks despite the way Fujita’s eyes fix on the ground.

“Not me. Old one.”

Dokuga turns at Fujita’s sigh, as everyone else seems to do. He stands loose limbed, maybe even defeated.

“ … She’s right,” he says, slowly standing upright. “The lizard man killed my partner, and… I spent a lot of time trying to bring him back but in the end I couldn’t save him. After seeing you lose your friends I… needed to see you both made it. Tetsujo wanted you alive the same way I wanted Matsumura alive, you know? I guess I saw a lot of that in you both. Sorry,” he finally sniffles.

Ebisu takes the few steps left to reach Fujita and puts a hand on his shoulder. Her other hand goes to cover her smile but her eyes aren’t laughing.

“Don’t apologize,” Tetsujo puts his hand on his free shoulder, too.

“We didn’t die then because of you,” Dokuga didn’t see any of it for himself since he was barely conscious at the time, but he’s heard it all from Tetsujo.

Dokuga is alive because of him, too. Without Tetsujo, he would never have survived. Slowly, he’s been moving away from thinking he didn’t deserve any of it. He still wakes up believing in it wholeheartedly, some days, but Tetsujo’s been there each and every one of them. Still, he went to such lengths for him. Dokuga is alive because people did more for him than he ever did for them, he’s been working on improving that.

“And you’re partners,” Ebisu shrugs. “You gonna be together.”

They’ve never been to a Blue Night. Now it’s not even a possibility for the future but they all used to talk about it sometimes, when the blue beetles marched on their windowsills and they had to scoop them up from their table. Tetsujo was quietly set on Dokuga being his partner and the boss never had any interest in the matter, so Dokuga promised he’d sign the contract. Now, years later, Dokuga would sign that contract. No ifs, no buts.

They never entered the black house and now they’ll never do (people like them never had the chance in the first place), Dokuga feels like Tetsujo’s partner anyway, they’ve always acted like it, after all.

“Never officially,” Tetsujo says like he’s never called Dokuga his partner before.

“Big deal, don't matter,” she steps forward, leaving the conversation.

Ebisu and Fujita came to see them because they wanted the both of them to be alive and well. Ebisu runs around the storefronts and her devilish grin tells Dokuga she’s looking for a way to drain his wallet further, Tetsujo and Fujita chat away about whatever and Dokuga joins in on their conversation at some point he doesn’t catch until both him and Tetsujo are waist deep into Fujita’s (surprisingly entertaining) retell of his time following them around, a side of the story they never had until now.

Fujita tells them he almost got beat to death by a giant cockroach, Dokuga says he’s seen one of those close around the area and Fujita s hrieks .

“This place stinks,” Ebisu complains as they make their way through a street not different from any other. She got tired of running around storefronts and leaning too low on exposed windowsills a while ago and she’s been walking at their pace ever since. “And have nothing to do.”

As right as she is, Dokuga can’t say he noticed before. Not when he’s already used to a routine where the closest thing to having fun is just getting to hang out at Nikaido’s restaurant after hours and have a couple beers with her friends. They’re not a bad bunch, they’re loud and lively and it feels familiar . Not enough for him to sink into it (less when he must sit on a completely different table all by himself), but enough that the background noise is more than welcome .

Dokuga looks around, and he can’t think of a single thing a kid would like to do in such a place.

“Legs tired,” she complains at his side again, her arms and head hanging low. Suddenly, though, she shoots straight up. A heavy step and the sound of gravel shifting, she stands right in Dokuga’s way. “Lift?”

Dokuga looks down right where Ebisu remains expectant, both hands at her sides but her fingers twitching.

Indulging her wouldn’t be such a challenge. Not when he’s used to lifting heavier weights than she’ll ever be. Still, the request takes him by surprise.

“You want me to carry you?”

She nods once: “Is an order.”

A part of him wants to refuse. She’s light enough he wouldn’t notice the extra weight after a while but she can walk on just fine. She’s still a kid and Dokuga has no reason to stand as if they’re on opposite sides anymore. He certainly doesn’t want her to act like he’s her servant but she only remembers it sometimes, nothing but a childish game.

With a sigh, Dokuga crouches down.

Ebisu cheers, moving too much for him to get a good hold of her for the first few seconds. Her legs kick the air and threaten to make him lose balance, her fingers dig a little bit too hard on his shoulders, pull a little bit too hard on his hair and Dokuga is too focused on keeping her from banging her head on the ground to think of setting her down.

“Look, Fujita, am taller than you,” she says, sticking out her tongue.

“Yeah, enjoy it while it lasts.”

Surprisingly, Ebisu doesn’t try to drag Dokuga around from where he stands, nor does she ask for any of the things that catch her eye as they make their way through the streets. Though she does settle in, which makes her a fair bit heavier, Dokuga has stood worse and she’d probably fight back if he asked her to hop off.

Fujita said they had more things in common than he’d like. He tells them about his friend in the same voice Tetsujo and Dokuga talk about their own friends when they stumble upon something that reminds them of them, and he was right, after all. They tell him about them; about the ones he met and about Natsuki (Dokuga feels Ebisu’s weight on his back, thinks about devil statues, calls that never picked up and it’s not the same, but it feels like another chance).

Dead bodies stocking upon each other, dead people they cared about, they all have no reason. No reason to have died. Yet they lie lifeless, their voices and faces forever at the back of their minds as they talk about them like old friends they haven’t heard from in a while.

Life goes on- despite how w rong that feels at times, right now it’s clear that’s the most natural thing. They laugh and there aren’t tears pooling in the corners of Tetsujo’s eye anymore. Their voices don’t suffocate halfway out their throats and Fujita tells them about his old partner with a smile they know exactly how to return.

They talk about other things too. Fujita tries to convince them to teach him a way to fight off any magic user too arrogant to consider their own power as a liability. Something like that takes time and effort and… and they’ve been getting too comfortable lately.

“I guess I could use the exercise,” Tetsujo agrees, tapping the sheath of his sword. “I won’t go easy on you, though.”

“You’d really do it?” his voice spikes, excited.

If Dokuga had to say it, he probably can’t deal with the training, in the long run (the handle of his knife feels familiar and they’ve managed worse).

“I’ll think about it,” he says. If he sees Tetsujo leave for it he’ll probably tag along, but until then…

“Great!” Fujita celebrates on his own, a closed fist raising along a big smile.

“Thought you didn’t want anything more to do with the crosseyes,” Dokuga comments, turning the corner. “I guess since the organization doesn’t exist anymore-”

“That’s the crosseyes’ training?”

“Why would a powerful sorcerer need to fight without magic? They don’t care about that as long as they have an advantage. You figure stuff like this out because you don’t have any other way to fight,” some people who came to them could produce smoke. Not a lot but enough to prove they weren’t just humans without their head having to be cut open. But Tetsujo is right; the ones who weren’t in it just for the money wanted to feel powerful enough to take down strong sorcerers, too caught up in the power of their magic to bother with anything else.

As the organization grew, people stopped worrying about things like that and focused only on the gains the black powder left them. No one ever cared because the whole thing was a lie and a scam and everyone picked up the bits and pieces they liked most. In the end there was no meaning.

“I guess that’s true,” Fujita says. “But you guys are strong, and I want to get stronger!”

Fujita said he didn’t want to have so many things in common with people like them; Fujita tells them about what makes them similar and asks them to help him get stronger.

“Ah, she fell asleep,” Fujita points behind Dokuga’s back as soon as they make it to the front of Nikaido’s restaurant.

Ebisu got heavier and heavier on their way here and she snores on Dokuga’s ear sometimes but she won’t for much longer; sunset a perfect time for them to go back before navigating the streets becomes a maze of familiarity and luck.

“You can’t make doors?” Tetsujo pries, both his arms crossed as he leans against the wall.

“Of course I can ! But I want to ask Noi-san if she’ll leave too, just in case.”

“It’s fine if you can’t make them, I’ve never made one in my life,” under his tipped helmet, Tetsujo sighs, though it turns into a smile at the end, Dokuga can see it.

“ I can! ” he insists, banging on the door.

“What about her? Can’t she make one?” Dokuga takes a few steps forward, just enough so he’s standing close to the wall as well.

“She says she can, haven’t seen her make one in a while.”

And she’s fast asleep anyway.

“Oh, it’s you!” a voice calls from above their heads. When Dokuga looks up he finds Noi, waving at them from Nikaido’s open window. “If you’re leaving just tell senpai I’ll be late!”

Fujita nods. Before returning inside, Noi gives him a thumbs up and a big smile and that’s all there is to it.

“We leavin’?” Ebisu asks, tapping Dokuga’s shoulder to let him know she wants down.

“It got pretty late while you were out.”

Tired eyes and sloppy movements, she yawns. It seems to make her energy replenish, her back quickly straightening.

A movement of her hand and some smoke later, a door appears before them. It’s got all the things one would expect from her, she seems proud of it as well. Every door is different and sometimes Dokuga wonders what his or Tetsujo's would’ve looked like.

Closer to it, Fujita is the first to step in. “Well, goodbye guys, good to see you were okay.”

For a moment, before taking a step forward, Tetsujo glances at Dokuga. He says nothing but, does Fujita think they have something against him?

“Why are you talking like you’re not coming back? Didn’t you want us to help you?” Tetsujo asks him.

Fujita scratches the back of his neck, sheepish. “… I guess I did.”

“I’ll be back soon!” Ebisu now jumps into her door, pushing Fujita further inside.

“Then I’m coming too!” Fujita joins, grabbing the edge of the door to peek from it once again.

Other sorcerers visiting them in Hole only for the sake of it? That possibility hadn’t crossed Dokuga’s mind before. Nothing in there for them but a grey landscape and some combat training. Nothing in there for Tetsujo and him but someone to know who isn’t their employer or her friends.

“Find fun stuff to do!” Ebisu demands, her eyes locked on Dokuga in the same way her fingers curl on the edge of the door.

Hole is cold and dull, a place for survival, but... Dokuga thinks if he looks hard enough he can figure something out.

“I will,” he promises, filing this away in hopes Tetsujo and him can come up with something before next time, whenever that is.

She seems satisfied with his promise, her smile growing as she lifts her hand to wave it. “Bye-bye, Kaiko!”

“ Dokuga ,” he tries again, searching her for a reaction.

“ Kaiko. 'Til you can make smoke!” she decides after a long hum.

Dokuga is not sure if he’s fine with such a condition. There’s only hoping she’ll drop it someday. It’s only a little bit annoying, after all. Annoying has never killed anyone.

“I can’t produce any smoke either,” Tetsujo says, pulling himself off the wall. “What are you gonna call me?”

Her eyebrows knit close together, her eyes narrowly fixed on Tetsujo, she seems to be thinking hard about it.

“No one!” she suddenly announces, a door slam trailing the end of her words.

Smoke goes up and disappears into the air, Tetsujo stands next to him, still confused when Dokuga turns to him.

But a chuckle escapes him as soon as Dokuga’s gaze reaches his eye: “Guess you’re better off than me.”

Be it a life or death situation or something as small as a kid refusing to call them by the right names, Tetsujo always wants him to get the better treatment. Dokuga used to be too distracted to notice but once he did, it became increasingly more difficult not to. It’s a little hard for Dokuga to be okay with that. Not because he’s not used to it, but because he wants just the same for Tetsujo. A harmless tug of war that gets them more places than it takes from them.

And so, he smiles a tiny smile that feels more and more natural every day. “You think so?”