Chapter Text
Akira foggily opened his eyes as the gray ceiling of his room greeted him. He sat up and looked at his hands as if something had just happened. He was back to his own world, after Serph and Sera had successfully convinced God to fix the broken world. His mind then tried to recall the events leading to this moment: the wrongful arrest, the rejection, his transmigration to Junkyard, surviving as a rogue Tribe man, following the Embryon to the Tower, Nirvana, Black Sun, the experiments, Vritra devouring him, Serph saving him and finally, his last stand against the horde of demons sent by Angel to secure a path for Serph and Sera to reach God.
Akira went to the bathroom and looked at his reflection: no scars, no blinded left eye and no Atma Brand on his neck. He felt both relieved and disappointed at the later.
"Eh, better than going around eating people." He muttered out loud before going back to his room. From what he could remember, he had few months before that day, the day he rejected Igor and was thrown into Junkyard. Perhaps he should accept it this time and watch the following events unfolded, just like Gale had told him: wait for the precise moment and strike. He had not forgotten the hellish experiment as an Atma Tuner, constantly tortured by the Hunger. Whatever that guy was, he would pay…
After a while of thinking, Akira decided to go to Tokyo early, both to familiarize with the city and to amass his strength. Even without Atma Avatar, he could still subdue an attacker easily with all those trainings from the Embryon. The next day, he presented the suggestion to his parents. His mother was as loving as ever, worried for his wellbeing, and his father was as obnoxious as he remembered, berating him with every insult he had. Akira took it with stride as the old man was nothing compared to Gale and his calm but harsh verbal punishments.
In the end, they relented and allowed him to go to Tokyo. Just like last time, he would stay there one year and Sojiro Sakura was chosen as his guardian and was responsible to monitor him alongside the authority for the rest of his probation period. Akira had nothing against Sojiro; he was understandably wary of the teen, giving his record, but was kind enough to provide a meal. If only he had heeded of the older man's words and brought the umbrella with him that day, he would not have been stuck in the station, confronted by the long-nosed dude and the rest was history. This time, he would try to get closer to Sojiro and earn his trust. Once Sojiro was no longer hostile to him, he might overlook some of Akira's activities. Yes… that was the plan.
To Akira's annoyance, the process took too damn long, nearly a month. To be fair for his parents, they had to take care of his transfer papers, legal documents and many other procedures so he did not voice his complains. Eventually he was accepted and was expected to arrive at Tokyo on January 6th.
At the train station, Akira exchanged hugs and kisses with his mother while his father impatiently tapped his foot on the ground and looked at his watch, as if this was taking too much of his time.
'Mom looks tired. I won't prolong her suffering any longer.'
Akira walked pass his father and gave him a side-glance and a chilling grin, a habit he picked up during his time in the other world. The old man was furious but unable to act as there were train guards around them.
"See ya around, Mom… and Dad."
4:30 PM, Yongen-Jaya Station, Tokyo
"Rend…Slaughter… Devour your enemies! There is no other way to survive. You cannot escape your hunger…"
"!"
Akira's eyes snapped open. He took a look at his surroundings and sighed in relief as he was no longer inside Junkyard. Hearing Jenna Angel's hypnotic mantra was a nightmare to him. Still, he had arrived at Tokyo so he quickly took his bag and exited the train. This time, he would not use his phone's navigation app and try to get to Café Leblanc on his own.
Unfortunately, Akira got lost and after asking for directions, he finally reached the residential area pf Yongen-Jaya, just about twenty steps from Sojiro's house. He was tempted to ring the doorbell to see if the old man was there. No one answered as expected, but to his surprise, there was a silhouette of a girl from the second floor's windows frantically running back and forth.
'Must be his daughter.' Akira mused and turned around. 'Probably leave her alone.'
He made his way to Café Leblanc and Sojiro was indeed there, reading newspaper while the TV was broadcasting a recap of some gymnastics competition or something.
"Good afternoon. You are Sojiro Sakura, right?"
"Yeah. And who are you?"
Akira put his bag down and showed the documents to Sojiro. Upon reading the first paper, his eyes narrowed in recognition.
"Right, today it is. You'll be in my custody over the next year. I was wondering what kind of unruly kid would show up, but you're the one, huh? Have you been told? A customer of mine and your parents know each other and- Well, not that that matters…"
"Please take good care of me from now on." Akira politely lowered his head and Sojiro grunted, accepting the gesture. He put away his newspaper and asked Akira to follow him to the attics.
"They said you personally asked to be transferred to Tokyo this early to, what, get familiar with the city? Whatever, as long as you behave, I have no problem with that." Sojiro scratched his hair and took a judging look at Akira. "I got the gist of your situation. You protected some woman from a man forcing himself on her, he got injured, then sued you. Right? That's what you get for sticking your nose in a matter between two adults. You hit his head hard enough to bleed, yeah? And now that you've got a criminal record, you were expelled from your high school. The courts ordered you to transfer and move out here, which your parents also approved."
"That was a miscalculated move from me, sir." Akira spoke up. "I would have dragged him to an alley where he couldn't see me and beat him. That way he couldn't do anything to me."
"…That's a dangerous tongue there and I don't like it kid." Sojiro glared at his cheeky comment. "This world doesn't operate on pure black and white. I mean sure he might sexually assault that woman and you can't ignore that. But, there is a reason they advise you to call the police rather than take the matters into your own hands. Lawyers are easily bought and as it turned out, they sued you. But whatever, now you are here and I have the responsibility to look after you. This place is all yours and it's up to you to clean up the rest. I'll be leaving after I lock up each day. You'll be alone at night, but don't do anything stupid. I'll throw you out if you cause any trouble. Understand?"
"Understood." Akira replied monotonously, being reminded of that time. Sojiro shook his head and went downstairs, leaving the kid to his own devices. Minutes later, he heard scuffing sounds from the attics and smiled slightly, knowing that Akira was cleaning his room.
'Well, at least he is behaved, aside that cheeky and dangerous tongue. Hope I can survive a year with him.' Sojiro picked up his newspaper and suddenly remembered something. 'Wait, I forgot to tell him not to go to my house. On the bright side, the less he knows about Futaba, the better.'
It took two hours for Akira to fully clean up the attics. It would have been done earlier with some corners left alone but after many times being ordered to examine and clear rooms by Serph, he kinda picked up the habit. At least the place was much better now and he could even sleep on the floor without fearing the dusts. He began unpacking his stuff and placed them on the shelves. He frowned a little as he realized that he did not have his belongings from that world. The Rose flower that girl gave him before being devoured by an Anzu, a photo that a Lokapala member gifted him depicting the world before Black Sun and many more.
'The past is the past, I shouldn't delve into it…'
Sojiro was closing the café and was about to leave when he decided to check on the kid once more. He was impressed by Akira's handiwork and told him that there was some curry left in the kitchen. Akira, being very hungry at the moment, nodded eagerly and headed downstairs. Sojiro just shook his head and followed.
"Right, I forgot to tell you this: you have to check on the sign on the door each night and flip it to Closed in case I forget to do that. Also, you are free to go around but don't do anything stupid. I don't want to be called by the police that you are caught drinking in a bar or something. Got it?"
"Gowt iet."
"Urgh, don't talk while eating." Sojiro sighed and took his hat with him. "Well, I'll be going. Be sure to lock the door before going to bed."
Akira waited until Sojiro was completely gone and his dinner was taken care of before thinking of his plan. The old man was more friendly than last time for some reasons he could not think of. Was it because of him coming here early? He filed this for later investigation. For now, he was allowed to go out at night and Akira intended to make full use of it. After taking his wallet and making sure to close the windows and taking the keys with him, he closed the door and began to explore the area. He was not kidding when it came to get familiarized with the city.
There were supermarket, a suspicious-looking clinic, an old cinema, battling case, public bathhouse and several vending machines. Not to shabby, he had to admit. He could make a base of operation right in this area of the district, assuming he had a target and a goal to do so. Satisfied, he returned to the café and went to bed. Though, not before deleting the damn eyeball app in his phone for the third time.
A soothing melody and dark blue surroundings greeted Akira in his dream.
*BANG*
A loud noise of someone hitting the iron bars all but ordered him to get up. Snarling quietly, Akira stood up and walked to the bars. Two petite wardens and the bastard with long nose stared at him and he stared them back. After a while, the long nose began to speak.
"An unexpected development I see. No matter." The man with long nose extended a hand toward Akira with a wide, creepy smile. "Welcome, to the Velvet Room."
'Ah shit, here we go again…'