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Adachi walked around in the fakeness of the Phantom Fields intending to find a place where he wouldn't need to fight. He found a tree with a nice shade; so he approached it. When, suddenly, a snake fell from the tree! Adachi jumped at the unexpected. Oh, never mind, it was just Hazama. The man had flopped on the ground like he was just a rag doll.
"Whoa? Are you alright? You took quite a fall here?" Adachi asked, worried at the blow it must have caused to the shady man.
Hazama didn't answer immediately. Instead, he wriggled his body and managed to stand back up and keep his about-to-fall hat on without using his hands. Adachi was impressed by the move and couldn't keep himself from at least clapping once. "Nice, skills… still doesn't guarantee you didn't hurt yourself," Adachi praised before delivering his comment in a light joking tone.
Hazama brushed the dirt off his clothes before finally speaking up. "No, I’m fine, I went through worse," Hazama shared. Which was a fair point; Adachi did see the people in the other's world: scary.
"Okay, now why were you in a tree exactly?" Adachi changed subjects. Hazama looked at his watch and fiddled with it a bit.
"I was taking a nap, but it seemed like my alarm didn't go off," Hazama explained, certainly trying to repair his watch. However, the words before were even weirder.
"You… took a nap… in a tree?" Adachi questioned, judgemental.
"Yes… I need a place where I am sure nobody will pester me… you get it?" Hazama explained.
Adachi shrugged. "Yeah, fair point," he admitted. It wouldn't be comfy, but the leaves could be used as camouflage.
Hazama slammed on his wristwatch and it ticked. "Finally!" He celebrated, now looking at Adachi. "Now that's out of the way… Adachi," Hazama pointed at Adachi; his shoulder slightly dislocated: the shoulder with the hand pointing was higher than the other and his head tilted to the opposite side. Adachi was left confused.
"W-what is it?" The ex-detective stammered, the pressure making him a bit nervous.
Hazama brought his pointing hand to his hat and took back a more normal posture. "I heard you're good at dancing!" Hazama revealed. If Adachi wasn't confused already; he was now: extremely. "So, I challenge you…" Hazama pivoted on his foot. His head hung low and his left hand was on his hat whilst the other stood higher in the air; the whole move was like a mid-bow while turning. Once his 90-degree spin was done, he finished his sentence: "... to a dance-off!" He shouted. Now, that was why no one should go and see Hazama when he was full of energy.
"I-Is this a prank? Because, if it is… cut it out," Adachi said, not able to handle Hazama's late 70's style. Adachi wasn't even born in the '70s; what was he thinking?
"No, it's not a joke, nor a prank. I just wanna dance," Hazama admitted, as he tried some moves with his hands, attempting to move them interestingly; the moves would've been interesting if Hazama knew where he was going.
"Okay, this is definitely a prank," Adachi turned to look around, "someone? Come on… where are the cameras already?" Adachi asked. Hazama stopped moving to look more formal.
"I'm serious, Adachi. I wanna see how well you dance!" Hazama challenged once more. The position he took of not facing Adachi, and, instead, bringing a shoulder toward the detective was provocative; it made it look like a fighting stance.
Adachi rearranged his tie, not feeling like it and also as a twitch. "I'm sorry, I can't… too tired," He excused. He emphasized his tiredness by talking with a lot of breath out like he had barely the energy to talk.
Adachi walked past Hazama, but Hazama quickly pivoted, doing a 180-degree spin, and caught Adachi from behind; Hazama's right arm caught the cop in some sort of backward embrace. Hazama made sure to hold Adachi close. At that, Adachi's breath became suddenly faster; he sensed that his life was in danger and yet… he couldn't bring himself to call his persona.
"You won't get away so easily," Hazama informed, spinning Adachi over so he could face the twisted man. Hazama had made the move so swiftly that, once Adachi was turned back face to face with Hazama, they were now in a tango-like position. Hazama held the cop close by putting his right hand on the latter's back and holding hands with the other. Adachi nervously sweated upon being grasped so intimately. "I'm not used to this type of dancing… but if it can stop you from running away…" Hazama glared right into Adachi's eyes, opening his eyes to do so. Adachi averted his gaze. Hazama's eyes were creepy with the slit pupil and all, but it didn't beat the awkward romantic vibe it gave. Adachi laughed to calm down his nerves.
"Ok, ok, let's do your dance battle… but no tango; we can't really battle with it since it demands cooperation. Also, I'd rather be the guy and with a girl," Adachi unreeled.
Hazama giggled. "Okay, phew… I don't even know how to properly tango; I only watched one tutorial video or two," Hazama admitted, freeing Adachi from his grasp. Adachi felt like his personal space got violated. He brushed the once held hand on his pants, trying to swipe Hazama's germs away.
"One tutorial video or two is still more than most people, I guess," Adachi sarcastically pointed out. He only saw the tango in movies; a tutorial video was another level.
"No! Don't tell me you never watched a tutorial on how to tango before? What would you do once you've found your soulmate?" Hazama asked, slightly teasingly.
Adachi began laughing hysterically. "Oh, oh, oh… oh man," he wiped a tear of laughter from his eye, "like it'll ever happen!" Adachi regressed himself. Hazama's expression went neutral before he smiled widely.
"Ah ah ah… oh, yes… who would want a sweetheart… ah ah," Hazama faked a laugh. They both stopped talking and looked at each other. Adachi was still bent forward and Hazama was playing with his wristwatch when they both came to the same realization.
"So…" Adachi hesitated. "...still want to do that… tango?" Adachi asked as he straightened himself.
Hazama chuckled and gave him an awkward smile. "Of course," he confirmed. Hazama then leaned in, tenderly bringing his hands to the places they should be; his right hand on the lower back of Adachi and his left hand grasping Adachi's right. Adachi finally made the last move and brought his left hand on Hazama's shoulder. He looked stressed and his face was flushed.
"We're doing that only to fill our emptiness, no homo, right?" Adachi blabbered, not daring to even look Hazama in the eyes.
"No homo, bro," Hazama replied.
"Okay, but I'm not your 'bro'. I hate that stupid word," Adachi complained. Hazama nodded until he seemed like he realized something.
"Wait just a moment… I need to look hot," Hazama disclosed, as he removed his left hand from Adachi's right and removed his tie. Then, he unbuttoned one button of his white-off shirt and threw his coat away along with his hat and tie; they all ended up in the tree's branches. "Okay, we can start now," Hazama informed. However, Adachi completely froze; Hazama undressed was, somehow, very different than with a hat; he could clearly see the man's, no, the young man's soft and perfect skin, his radiant green smooth hair… For some reason, Adachi thought he'd have spiky hair full of hair gel under that cover because, for some reason, every time he was completely removing his hat, it was like that. No. Instead, he looked like an idol. He was, at maximum, 20 years old. Adachi was so intimidated by Hazama's hidden beauty that he pulled away from the position
"How old are you?" Adachi asked out of nowhere. Hazama's hand was grabbing to nothing as if he was looking for something to grasp on.
"Hum… 21?" Hazama answered, with a smirk, sounding unsure. It was suspicious.
"21? Really? You look like you're 17 at most. What kind of special cream do you use; you don't even look real," Adachi asked. Hazama paused again.
"Now, this is why I wear a hat: 'Oh, you look like that', 'you look like him', blah blah blah!" Hazama grumbled, changing his voice as he mimicked the annoying people. "Now, I would appreciate you spare any comments about my appearance except if it is to say that I am hot, for that, I won't mind," Hazama teased, getting back closer to Adachi.
"You're… attractive, alright," Adachi muttered, as he gritted his teeth together at the simple fact flowing out of his mind. Adachi brought himself back into the position but, this time, avoided looking at Hazama's face, annoyed by his perfection. The hand Hazama was holding was moving way out of what it was supposed to touch, stroking on Hazama's long pianist fingers for some reason. Hazama moved to put the distracted hand back in place.
"Thank you," he thanked Adachi for the earlier compliment, but there was another problem at hand, "now, are you hesitating on how to grab my hand?" He asked, as he lifted their hands into the right position, "I think… I'm the one who is supposed to support it while you just…" he moved Adachi's hand in accordance, "put it into my palm… easy, right?" Hazama asked as he clenched his fingers on Adachi's hand, gripping it.
Adachi hesitated; Hazama's hand was obstructed by some gauntlets; it wasn't that comfortable. "Maybe you could remove your gauntlets first? it's distracting and unfitting," Adachi made up. It wasn't an excuse to touch his hand more… he hoped.
Hazama unglued himself from Adachi. "Of course, I must admit that it isn't very sexy," Hazama shared as he toyed with his gauntlets. He removed one after the other and threw them away right into a tree branch, not far from his other clothes. He then moved back to Adachi. "Okay, can we start now?"
"Sure," Adachi replied, hesitantly going back into position.
"Then, cue the music!" Hazama shouted. This was met with only silence. Hazama made a nervous smile, then cleared his throat. "I said… cue the music!" He repeated with a snap of his right hand's fingers.
"Did somebody say… MUSIC!?" A stranger in yellow appeared out of nowhere with an epic stance: coming from the sky, maybe the tree, an electric guitar in hand. Once his nice entrance was done, he positioned himself to play some of his guitar. "It’s Time to Rock N Roll!" He yelled, about to swing on the strings.
Hazama left the embrace looking annoyed by the strange stranger's appearance. "No! Go away! We don't want to hear your stupid guitar solo," Hazama yelled like he knew exactly what the dude was about to do. Adachi didn't have time to process the information before Hazama threw a chain snake at the guy's guitar and threw it away. Breaking the guitar in the process.
The guy in some kind of coat looked shocked at the loss. He gazed at his instrument flying away before he turned back at Hazama, looking outraged. "Ah! Skunk!" He shouted after his guitar turned into scrap.
Hazama brought back his snake to himself and frowned, "I don't want to hear 'MUST DIE'' for the thousandth time, Terumi. Geez, it hurts my ears. Scram now, I'm busy having fun," Hazama scolded, making brushing movements with his fingers as to indicate the guy, Terumi, to go away.
"Frick you," Terumi began to step away, turning his back to Hazama, and giving him the middle finger, "I'm going back in my unit and you'll both, DIE!"
Hazama leaned backward, both his arms on his hips and looking smug. "And I'll call the azure boys to put you right back to sleep… again," he threatened. This made the other man roar in rage before disappearing into green flames and shouting all sorts of swears. Once he was gone, Hazama turned back to face Adachi, looking as happy as before the interruption.
"Who was that?" Adachi asked, too confused to let it pass. Hazama put one hand on his hat and the other lifted into a shrug movement.
"Oh, just an old friend of mine, nothing to worry about. It's Susano'o, you know, the god?" Hazama explained. Adachi thought for a second; he knew Susano’o, but he was a big monster and not some kind of edgy teenage boy.
"Uuuh, I don't think I get it…" Adachi admitted, scratching his head in confusion and chuckling dumbly.
Hazama sighed, "he just got several forms, nothing to fret about; he is arrogant and so sure of himself in all of them," Hazama explained, before taking a quick step toward Adachi and getting back into the dance stance for the millionth time. Adachi jumped at the suddenness. "But enough about him, now, back to our little contest," Hazama changed the subject. "Cue the music!" He shouted again. This time, however, a little white cat-like thing with a jukebox on his shoulder came and pressed on his radio to play some fitting tango music: no electric guitar. Just another weird creature from this world.
"You ready?" Hazama firstly asked before doing any moves.
Adachi nodded. "I guess?"
"Ok then," Hazama finally murmured, before taking one step forward with his right foot. Adachi didn't have the time to react so their bodies collided and Adachi leaned backward. Hazama paused for a moment before back-stepping. Then, he brought Adachi straight back up and thought.
Adachi's face flushed. "You went too fast!" The detective complained. Hazama looked pensive before his face lit up as he got an idea.
"I think I'll be the follower. I really want to be the one swiveling," he said, as he moved accordingly to do the switch.
However, two in the same position didn't mix well, and Adachi got confused. "The follower?" Adachi parroted, not knowing what Hazama meant by that.
"We switch places, you're the leader and I'm the follower," Hazama explained like it was obvious. Adachi had to think for a while before he got it.
"Oh! You mean, you want to be the woman and for me to be the man?" Adachi asked. Hazama tilted his head in thoughts.
"Wh– OH! Yes, yes, usually the follower is the woman, but who cares? I'm the most flexible so I want to be the follower,"
"Okay, sure," Adachi smugly replied, feeling way more proud all of a sudden just because he was put into the leader's stance; this felt good. However, this meant he was the one left to embrace Hazama on the lower back and to carry his hand; he was the weight of the two, and he was shorter than his partner. This felt… wrong.
"Now, you just have to walk around, one step at a time; I'm taking care of the fun stuff," Hazama taught, leaning forward as if to push Adachi to move. Adachi took one step back with his right foot, and Hazama followed with one step forward with his left. Adachi took another backward step with his left foot; bringing his two feet together. Hazama followed but he spread his legs instead of awkwardly sticking them together as Adachi did.
Hazama then leaned toward the right side to invite Adachi to move that way. So, Adachi took one step to the left; Hazama did the opposite. Hazama then brought his left foot back to make a back step. However, from there, Hazama began to swivel to the right when he was on his left foot and to the left when he was on his right, the overall making a smooth interesting zig-zag. However, while doing so, he didn't think of his partner and went too fast. Thus, Adachi couldn't keep up and ended up stomping on Hazama's foot, finally making him stop.
"Whoops… I think I don't know what I'm do– Woah!" Adachi tried to talk, but Hazama swept his right foot away from the stomp and lifted the corresponding leg before intertwining it with Adachi's left. Adachi almost fell at that but managed to keep his balance until Hazama let the gravity pull him backward, almost making Adachi fall again. Instead of a crash happening, the body of the two ended up colliding with each other. Their faces almost slammed into each other too. To save any unfortunate end, Adachi let go of Hazama almost immediately; as the leader, freeing Hazama made the green man fall. The music stopped.
Hazama swiftly turned himself to not fall on his behind, but instead on his hands. He then pivoted himself with one hand, carrying his weight with a single hand for a second before falling back on his knee and quickly making a reverence, bowing, and making a hand twirl downward while the other raised diagonally. Next, he stood back up with almost only his legs: spreading his legs into the split before closing them up, slowly raising him straight back up, all with only a little push of his hands. Finally, he brought a hand in front of his forehead, pretending to pinch on his hat and the other hand dug its dumb into his pants’ pocket. Those two last moves were done all by having his shoulder toward Adachi and pivoting his head to look at him.
"Now, that was a quite dirty move," Hazama commented on Adachi's action, a crooked smile carved on his face.
"I was about to fall! Anyway, you stood back up without a scratch, no big deal," Adachi admitted, still agape and Hazama's little showoff.
Hazama dominantly walked toward Adachi, both hands' thumbs now gripping his pants' pocket. He stopped near the ex-detective and spread his left leg whilst he leaned toward his right. "Aww, stop, you're going to make me blush," he sarcastically thanked, tilting his head to the right.
"What? I must admit it: you’re quite the dancer," Adachi lightly laughed and clapped his hands together, "Bravo… I could never compete," Adachi shrugged, lifting his hand in surrender. "You won," he gave up.
Hazama reacted strangely by spinning on himself and, once the twirl was done, vaguely pointed at Adachi; his wrist limp and the finger pointing almost at the same height as the others. "Come on, don’t be a loser and give up! It’s easy once you get the hang of it. I know you got talent, you’re just too much of a sloth to use it," Hazama taunted, moving his hips a little as he talked.
Adachi was offended by the comments but kept his sluggish smile on. "Fine… if you insist that much…" Adachi complied, taking two steps backward and taking back his two steps by walking forward, his arms open in a dominant or vague shrug. He then stopped to rearrange his tie, looking confused. "Hum… wouldn't it be better with music?" Adachi asked.
"Oh, you’re right," Hazama admitted. Accordingly, Hazama snapped his finger together and the cat played a very boring song with an electric guitar. The music could be defined as: a guy mad at his electric guitar. Adachi rolled his eyes but figured he could deal with it. Hazama lightly tapped the side of his leg with his fingers along with the hard-to-figure beat.
Adachi took that as a call to try and listen to the beat too. He first lazily moved his hands one after the other while taping his foot lightly on the ground. After a short time, he got the hang of it and could already picture the moves he could do. He began to do what he did best: representative dancing. Those types of dances are usually staged and not over heavy metal music, so Adachi just did some moves he once practiced in jail without worrying about it being linked with some kind of hidden meaning of the music. His representative moves were mostly related to being oppressed or controlled, and freedom. For example, he would raise and move his hand like a bird taking flight, open his arms to assert his newfound dominance, pretend to be pulled by something discreetly to picture how he wasn’t in control or make a box with his arms to make it like he was entrapped. Nonetheless, his moves could be read otherwise. Also, he made the transition between the action non-rusty by adding some movement between his poses: walking, turning, or vaguely moving his arms to the rhythm. Overall, his movements weren’t maybe as swift as Hazama's, but they were still pulling weight, smooth and full of emotions.
Adachi danced for about two minutes until he was out of ideas and tired. The cat thing stopped the music after the signs Adachi made. Hazama was now sitting crossed-legged and looked truly engrossed in the dance; leaning forward, one of his eyes opened and his mouth not having the same crooked smile as usual. Adachi nervously chuckled as he rearranged his tie.
Hazama clapped his hands together. "Wow, oh wow. Just, wow," he praised with not as much sarcasm in his voice as usual.
Adachi almost blushed under the compliments. "Come on, it wasn't even that good," he instead answered with spite, hiding his true emotions.
"No, I'm honest. I rarely take the time to enjoy this… type of dance," Hazama smiled, eyes closing again, "It was wonderful, 'Magnifique'!"
Adachi scratched his neck in embarrassment but managed to make it look like stretching. "Thanks, guess I rocked it then, eh eh," Adachi chuckled.
"You were full of emotions; I could never replicate that," Hazama stood back up with a last clap of his hands. Hazama was acting weird, well, weird compared to his usual attitude. His smile wasn't as wide as usual and it looked a bit forced. Adachi was confused.
"Hum… why not?" He tried to talk out.
Hazama threw his ouroboros at the branches that held all of his removed clothes and broke them; he dashed to it with some kind of half-slide before it fell to the ground. He was able to put all of his clothes on without any of them being dirtied by dirt. He slid his arms into the sleeves of his coat with long stretches and put his hat back on: all of that while facing his back to Adachi. He stood there, hand hidden before turning back to face the ex-cop, gauntlet, and tie back on his body. His hat was so low it hid his eyes. He then looked at his wrist, fiddling with his watch again.
"Hum, Hazama?" Adachi called, feeling ignored.
Hazama paused and he began to grimace, "I… I think I will cry," he said, sarcastically.
Adachi chuckled, his face twisting into a grimace, "you're not serious, are you?" He asked playfully.
"Maybe I am, maybe not, who knows?" Hazama avoided the question. Then, he bowed to Adachi, "still, it was an honor to fight against you," Hazama said, now unfolding from his bow.
"Hum, you still won, you know that?"
"Uh? Really?" Hazama asked, sounding aloof from all this. Adachi sighed.
"Yes, you were way better than me. No matter the amount of emotional garbage I had, your moves were way more swift and smooth and all," Adachi tried to convince.
Hazama shook his head and pulled a hand toward Adachi, "Thanks but no thanks; you were way better. Dancing is about expression, the skill is important but the emotions are what flourish a dance," Hazama argued, moving his fingers around as he expressed his feelings.
"Come on, emotions are made to be ignored; skill is what matters," Adachi chuckled again, finding the idea stupid.
Hazama frowned. "Emotions make things more lively. Not that I know much about it myself," Hazama bit his lower lip, eyes smiling nervously, "I'm kind of a sociopath," Hazama admitted like it was something someone could just say normally.
"Oh, really?" Adachi questioned Hazama's reasoning, not fully believing it.
"Well, if having no empathy is being a sociopath then, yeeesss," Hazama cooed. Adachi wasn't sure, but who was he to judge? "Anyway, I'm not talking about not knowing what emotions are, just, no empathy… at all," Hazama pointed out.
Adachi was in an odd mood to tease, even if he knew that it was concerning him too. "No empathy, and yet, you are touched by the emotions in my dancing? Damn, I must be a really good dancer," he joked.
Hazama paused for a second before pivoting on his heels and bringing a hand to his hat to hide his facial expression even more. "Ya got me there. I just, you know, have the feeling that showing our emotions through dance is not the same as through words," Hazama kept his opinion, lifting his head to look at the sky, then pivoting it to look behind him: at Adachi. "Like, I'll maybe get a better grasp of your feelings if you express them through dance, or just care a little bit more about it," the dance lord said. No, really, he must be just some kind of weirdo artist if he understands more the feeling of people through the art of dancing than normal interactions.
Adachi shrugged, not caring too much about it all. "No matter, you still won. I can hardly keep up with you," Adachi nonchalantly argued.
"No, no, no. You are good with your emotions! It makes my dancing look 'copy and paste' when yours are more personal,"
"Copy and paste?" Adachi mocked, leaning forward and one hand on his stomach, "I almost copied all those moves I did!"
"Not the emotions," Hazama pointed out, his eyes opening to pierce Adachi, and, again, he turned to face him.
"Ok, you know what? I give up… I won, yay…" Adachi fake-celebrated, getting too tired of arguing anymore.
"Ok, but… I'm a better dancer," Hazama said soon after.
Adachi was utterly confused. "What!? That was what I kept saying!" Adachi said, shocked by Hazama's hypocrisy.
"Maybe, but I am the better dancer," Hazama smirked, obviously teasing Adachi at this point. Adachi didn't even bother to argue back and only sigh, turning his back to Hazama in desperation. He then raised a hand to wave him goodbye.
"Anyway, I'll be on my way now," the ex-detective lastly said, before walking away, putting his hands into his pockets.
"Hey! Wait up speedy-lazy bum," Hazama called, catching up rather quickly to Adachi. The prisoner jumped at that and turned to face Hazama.
"What again!?" Adachi asked, sounding surprised and annoyed at the same time.
Hazama's smile widened, one hand on the top of his hat to finally put it right up, uncovering his eyes. "Give me a sign if you ever wanna try that lovey-dovey tango once more; we'll do it right next time," Hazama suggested.
Adachi huffed out a laugh and turned back to where he was heading, not looking at Hazama directly, his lips curling dumbly upward like a happy brat. "Forget about it, weirdo," he replied to the suggestion in a half-mocking tone. He didn't wait for the green-haired man to answer before stepping away, but he did hear him emit a last laugh before losing track of his voice. He barely knew this guy, and he could be a bit annoying at times, but Adachi had to admit he might've gotten:
a friend.