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This had to be one of Megumi’s worst days. That’s the conclusion he came to when he found a suspicious white-haired man loitering in front of his house looking out of place. There were days where nothing out of the ordinary happened, so why couldn’t all the problems be spaced out instead of piling them like a sickening sweet pancake to be served to Megumi.
Back to this person, what could they want. Was it about hearts again? They were the reason his day wasn’t going nicely. Life would be easier if they just stayed where they should be. Not manifested as rings that could be stolen by said suspicious man as he later found out. Great.
Since hearts could take on a physical form, people were able to literally gift their hearts and feelings to others. Romantic souls were even more unbearable to him as they placed excessive significance on the rings. Something that Megumi loathed as he believed that there were other ways of expressing affection that were just as important as giving your heart to the person of your liking.
He recalled his commute to school that morning with a grimace. A pink haired guy with tattoos showed up out of nowhere in front of his school gate and proclaimed his love to him.
“You have made me fall for you, Fushiguro Megumi!” said guy exclaimed as he was holding out a ring on his right hand.
A commotion was building around the entrance, and he started hearing whispers from the crowd.
“Is that guy in our school?”
“Fushiguro-kun is so lucky.”
“He’s so cool. I wish I could confess like him.”
“Is he not wearing a shirt?”
Megumi could feel a tic forming above his left eye when he caught the glint of a flash.
“Sorry!” Megumi apologized out loud with a bow adding that he didn’t know him and tried to break through the sea of curious students quickening his pace to enter the school grounds.
Megumi tried to ignore the indignant squawks from the offended guy who was being dragged away by someone similar looking to him. He made a mental note to use the school’s less crowded exit when classes ended lest he wanted to be the center of attention again.
Yes, feelings could be a hindrance, and he didn’t need them.
Right now, his priority was focusing on his studies. Megumi was also considering taking up a part time job to help pay for Tsumiki’s hospital bills. All things accounted for, there was no reason for him to start a relationship as he had enough on his plate. For that reason, he was glad to have left his ring and feelings behind at the bank. One of the few good things that his father did for him before vanishing.
So much for trusting that bank to keep his heart safe though.
During lunch, he was absent mindedly scrolling through his phone, when a classmate called out to Megumi. It appeared that their history teacher was out in the hallway looking for him.
Pocketing his phone, he stood up and walked outside the classroom hoping that it wasn’t about the morning incident.
“Fushiguro-kun? Please come to the office. You have a call.”
In that moment, Megumi thought that he should be careful about what he wishes for as he followed his teacher to the office.
It was the bank informing him that his heart was stolen. Megumi froze in a mixture of frustration and confusion. He couldn’t understand why someone wanted his heart to the point of stealing it from a bank. Racking up his memories to come up with a possible suspect who would resort to theft, he could only remember the guy from this morning only because of the peculiar timing.
“Right, thank you. I’ll be waiting for the update.” He ended the call and walked back to his classroom thoughts swimming around his head. Did the thief make a mistake by stealing his heart? Then again, it must have been someone skilled to leave no fingerprints or DNA behind. And why his heart? There was nothing unique about it.
At least, that is what he thought until that evening.
- -
“Fushiguro Megumi-kun, right?”
“Who are you?” On second thought, he added. “Or rather… what’s with that face?” The stranger in front of him wore dark clothes and the pair of black round shades covering his eyes made him look even more suspicious. A contrast to the man’s expression as his face looked as if someone had tricked him into eating bitter tasting food.
Like father, like son. Hopefully it was only on looks. Satoru recalled the huge incident Touji made him go through in the past. One of the worst ones he had experienced. He brushed off the memory with a shudder.
“Just thinking you look similar, that’s all.” He regained his composure and adopted a grin. With the flourish of a bow, Satoru introduced himself.
“Gojou Satoru, the strongest sorcerer that stole your heart!”
“…”
“…I guess I should add thief and magician too…” Satoru appeared to ponder over the new job titles.
Megumi’s silence and his deadpan expression screamed ‘Is this guy for real.’ to Satoru.
“Kukuku… well! Some people prefer actions over words, they say that seeing is believing!”
Holding out both hands to show that they were empty, Satoru twirled deft fingers and closed his palms.
“Left or right?”
“Left.” Megumi chose hastily to get this over with.
Satoru’s left-hand fingers spread out and Megumi caught a glimpse of a red and blue ring which seemed to blur into purple. He quickly closed his left hand again. “Woops. Wrong one!” He received a glare from Megumi. “Haha, I think this one is yours.”
He opened his right hand. Resting on top of his palm was a ring that appeared to contain dancing shadows inside its translucent band. Embedded were tiny gems of the same shade of green as its owner’s eyes scattered like emerald stars in the night sky across the ring.
Those same eyes that widened at seeing his ring. “That’s-!” Megumi made to reach for it but, Satoru had anticipated the move, and was dangling the ring above the shorter man.
Megumi tsked. He didn’t want to entertain Gojou any further but wasn’t going to resort to force either… at least not yet. This thief had to have other intentions if he showed up in front of him hours right after stealing his heart.
Seeing how Megumi gave up with an annoyed but cute face, Satoru chuckled and slid the ring inside his pocket. To his delight, he found it entertaining teasing him.
"Sorry, I can't return your heart, but you can have mine?" Satoru offered with a playful wink.
"Not interested. Please give me my heart back." A humorless Megumi countered him.
Satoru pouted at the refusal. "You sure? The heart of the Great Thief Gojou (G.T.G.) rejected… Megumi-chan, I’m hurt!" He cried, hand reaching his chest where the heart would be and clutching at the space.
Megumi rolled his eyes at the dramatics from the white-haired man… child? His patience was running out and he had many questions like how can he still look handsome while sulking?
What? No, that was wrong! Why did he steal his heart and what is he planning on doing with it. Those are the important questions.
While Megumi was pondering how to wring out the answers out of the moron, Satoru straightened and went over his course of action. He did intent on giving the ring back to Megumi, but only after he explained the situation to him. In the end, it was up to Megumi on what he wanted to do with his heart, although he deserved to get the full story to make a conscious decision.
“Megumi-kun, did you know that the hearts of some humans are special?”
“You don’t mean to say that in a sappy way, do you?”
“Wah! Megumi, I didn’t know you were a romantic deep down!”
“…can I punch you?”
“Hmm! Well, you could try~” Maybe he could change plans. “Here. Take my hand.” Satoru held out his hand, palm facing upwards as if asking for a dance.
Megumi raised a suspicious eyebrow.
“Come on! Please?” His shades slid down revealing puppy eyes. He wiggled his fingers to persuade him. Megumi sighed and hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake by giving in to Satoru’s begging. A small part inside of him questioned why he acquiesced to this person’s whim.
Which was quicky pushed to the back of his mind when he realized that his hand was stopping short from touching the other. The more he tried to force his hand down, the harder it was to reach him.
“It’s a rare occurrence, but some are born with powers. Blah blah something about how powers are fueled by feelings.” As Satoru half explained, he started interlocking their fingers. “Megumi was blessed with powers, or maybe you are one?” He whispered the last part and released his hand.
Megumi noticed that he was wearing his ring. Satoru had somehow slid it on while they were interlocked before.
“I…”
Words caught up inside his throat. He was unable to elaborate as a rush of emotions flooded his body like a dam opening its gates to let out feelings that were contained for nine years. His thoughts that until now were controlled by logic were overwhelmed by emotion and he wished to be swallowed by the ground to escape that sensation. Only that it came true, and he was sinking into the ground or what looked to be a shadow underneath him.
Megumi was invaded by panic when he felt two strong hands grip him by his waist and lift him up.
“Woah! Don’t go running away. I’m feeling pretty heartbroken after returning your heart, you know?”
Fear and shock disappeared to make way for annoyance at the joke. Something about Gojou calmed Megumi, and his muscles relaxed after almost being killed by his own power in front of someone else. Maybe it wasn’t too late to try that trick again, how embarrassing.
“Serves you right.” He replied.
Megumi took a few seconds to regain his bearing and thoughts. “That shadow, did I do that?”
Noticing something off, he added.
“…and thank you, you can release me now. I’m not going to escape.” Megumi frowned at Satoru who was still holding him. Raising both of his hands up, Satoru laughed.
“Yep! That was all you! So cool~”
“There has to be another reason why you stole my heart to give it back to me.”
“Full points! Megumi is clever too.” Said person shot him an unimpressed stare at his evasive answer. Mentally sighing he decided to do the explaining.
“Ok, story time. So, your dad used to be from this famous Zen’in family of sorcerers until he left the clan and had you. They love sorcerers that have quality powers like yours and would pay a fortune to obtain their rings.” Eyeing Megumi, he continued.
“Even I think he’s a big loser after defecting the family and selling your heart to them. The conditions included that he would put the ring in a bank until the Zen’in are supposed to collect it when you turn eighteen.”
Megumi wasn’t surprised although it made things clearer. He had an inkling about it after his father and, subsequently, Tsumiki’s mom left. Probably because the money ran out. Three months later, a man said to represent a family called the Zen’in arrived to tell him about their agreement with his father. He would receive monthly payments from them as long as he kept his heart in a bank until he became of age.
While Satoru was telling the story, he was carefully observing Megumi’s face. The ten shadows user kept a perfect poker face and Satoru worried whether he had been detached from his feelings for far too long.
“Now then, you have two choices.” He held out one finger at Megumi. “You can either surrender your heart to the Zen’ins where you will permanently lose your feelings! Or-”
Raising a second finger, he proposed.
“I take care of the Zen’in issue, and you can work with me and other colleagues. It’s an exhausting job having to scout alone for possible technique owners.” Satoru complained.
Megumi’s face at the solutions looked as if someone had added eight cubes of sugar to his coffee. He didn’t find any difference in both, but maybe…
“Do your colleagues have healing powers? If it’s for Tsumiki, I’ll take the second option.”
“What- you won’t take the job because of the opportunity of working with me?!”
This arrogant idiot…
“I don’t think I would take a job with someone I want to punch."
“Really? I think we would do a decent job together! But to answer your question, we do have people that can heal.” He grinned inwardly, already sensing the outcome of their deal.
Megumi made a disgruntled noise.
Taking it as his acceptance at working with him, Satoru snickered.
“Gotcha! I’ll take care of things!” He ruffled Megumi’s hair and received a swat that missed his arm.
“Megumi, you’re gonna have to work extra hard. On top of that, I’m a busy person so I must go now, but tomorrow we can go over the details in depth. There’s this café that just opened last week in Shibuya. They have an opening discount and I want to try out their parfaits~ Word of mouth is that they could become the best in the area…”
Megumi had started to drown out his rambling voice. He was usually skeptic of people’s intentions but for some reason, he felt that he could trust Gojou. ‘Obviously’, that was the fault of his recently reacquired feelings. Later, he would make sense of the confused mess that were his emotions.
“Alrighty then. Check your pocket for my number!” Turning around he waved at Megumi with a grin “See you tomorrow for a Valentine’s date~”
The gears in Megumi’s brain spun around processing the information. He didn’t notice that Gojou had slipped a note inside his pocket. What did he say next? Vale-
“Hah?! W-wait…”
Although it was too late, those long legs carried Satoru far away and he could only hear a faint ‘waku waku’ (1) and ‘uki uki’ (2) by the man. He wasn’t particularly interested about Valentine’s before. But now, his face turned a crimson shade at the implication. That wasn’t a date! Or was it? He cursed the feelings that made him doubt himself now.
Leaving a blushing Megumi behind, Satoru walked away with a spring to his steps as if he had won a lifetime of free kikufuku. That was a cute reaction.
Megumi wouldn’t have reacted in such a way without gaining his heart back. It was a shame that he lost nine years of his life, but Satoru didn’t mind teaching him now to make up for the lost experiences. Wondering what he should wear the next day to bring more expressions out of Megumi, he laughed to himself. They had all the time in the future and right now he was looking forward to tomorrow’s date.