Chapter Text
The most effective way to wound koko is not through beating him till he is black and blue nor forcing him to give you every single last cent he has to his name.
It's actually a much simpler thing, a weakness if you want to call it that, which tends to slip off everyone's mind despite how obvious it is.
"And so you can probably expect a visit on Christmas, boss." Koko smiles without a care in the world as if he had done nothing wrong when he had told the members of toman when and where Taiju would be the most vulnerable, the other black dragon members who were all standing in attention for the meeting all stunned into silence at the blatant betrayal he had just mentioned.
Taiju, despite being an action first words later person, remained eerily silent after Koko’s confession, merely staring at Kokonoi who was to his left, Inupi who was standing in attention to his left remained unbothered by the whole situation.
"Kokonoi." Taiju calls out amusement in his tone and his gaze glinting with an underlying threat. " How much did you say you sold that information for again?"
"100,000." he immediately replies. Black Dragon members glance towards their leader, no one used to him being this quiet and still. After what feels like an eternity to the members Taiju finally makes a move to look Koko into the eye.
“Is my life worth that much to you?” he slowly breathes out his question.
Koko’s eyes go wide, astonishment painting Koko’s face " Of course not! I merely saw it as an opportunity to earn some easy cash, what could a last minute put together four man team possibly do to you boss? It was a win-win situation, you could get rid of the first division leader and educate your little brother at the same time-"
Taiju laughs, interrupting Koko, his hands reaching up to cover his eyes as his laughter intensified by each passing second and echoed in the hideout of black dragons and then there was silence.
“Kokonoi.” the veins on Taiju's head were prominent, a clear sign that he was pissed “Don't even try to sugarcoat what you did. What you did was clearly a betrayal on your part. Perhaps you've been too complacent about your place recently. I haven't put you in your place in quite a while.”
Kokonoi eyes widen and then it's back to his usual sly look. His tongue slowly sticks out from habit. ‘ guess he won't let that slide as easily as I thought…’ he mentally prepared himself for the beating he was about to receive but.
" Inui."
"Yes boss." Inui walks straight to where Taiju was.
“?”
Koko stayed quiet as his eyes followed Inui's walking figure. Taiju slowly got up to his full height towering over Inui who stopped right in front of him.
Koko looked on, chills slowly crawling up his spine when he thought about it. Why was Inui, someone who had nothing to do with what they were talking about apart from being a bystander being summoned in front of Taiju?
And as if Taiju had heard Koko’s internal dialogue, he quickly showed Koko the answer.
It was as if time had slowed down in front of him. He saw Taiju raise his fist and the next moment it collided into Inupi’s stomach with such great force Inupi was sent flying.
“W-Wha!?” Koko could only stutter out and faster than he realised he was running towards Inupi's body.
“Hold him down!” Taiju roared out. A number of the black dragons snapped out of their stupefaction and assisted with the failing members who were trying to subdue Koko.
“Fuck! Get out of my way!” Koko yelled out as he punched someone straight into the face, his fists starting to hurt like shit after throwing multiple hits (he and Inupi were equally strong, don't get him wrong, but if it were to be a competition about stamina Inupi would win by a mile. He preferred to take on a more backstage position after all.) and yet more and more of them kept coming to hold him down like useless ants.
“Inui.” Taiju looked down at Inui’s shaking frame, ignoring Kokonoi’s screams. “Stand up.”
Inui coughed out blood and struggled to breathe, he’d blacked out for a few seconds there. Holding onto his stomach which had definitely just received a punch straight to his solar plexus, he struggled to stand up once again and faced Taiju. Just to get hit again.
“Inui, Stand up.”
‘Ah.. Stupid Koko’ Inui thought as he staggered back onto his feet just to get hit repetitively.
The last thing he vaguely remembers seeing before blacking out is the face of Koko crying of in the distance.
When the beating had finally ended Inui had already blacked out. True to his years of abuse there were clearly no signs of bruises on Inui's face. Though the parts which were covered under his uniform were otherwise. The bruised black dragon members let go of Koko after Taiju had allowed them to with a single glance and Koko scrambled to Inupi's body. Softly sobbing into Inui's limp body.
“Kokonoi.” Taiju looked at the trembling figure holding onto Inui's injured body for his dear life. “Don't think that just because you're indispensable you can do whatever you want. You’d best think with your head the next time you want to do something stupid like this again. Because the one to suffer the repercussions won't be you, but Inui.”