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Ike Eveland adjusted his glasses as he studied the young man in front of him. Dark hair with highlights, a pretty solid build, clever purple eyes and a gentle smile. He looked like a smart kid from school—someone who wasn’t fit to sit with them. Yet here he was, seated with them at the manor’s long table where important meetings took place.
Shu Yamino was his name, apparently. He looked a bit younger than Ike, but maybe he just had boyish features. He wore a suit similar to what the boss wore. Maybe he was taken for fitting before being presented to the family. He watched everyone quietly and smiled when referred to. Other than that, he seemed pretty ordinary.
Ike wasn’t sure why their boss, Luca Kaneshiro, picked up this boy and introduced him as a new member of the family. This man just went out on a mission and came back with someone new, fully trusting them without question. It was a good thing Fulgur and Mysta were able to do a background check on Shu before Luca announced his joining of their family.
“You’re a sorcerer?” Mysta, their resident private detective, asked. Luca hadn’t said anything about the young man being a sorcerer but Mysta probably already knew it in advance. He had always been quick at keeping tabs on whoever entered their manor. “How powerful are you?”
Luca laughed and answered for Shu. “I’ve seen him destroy some people in the alley,” he said. “But he’s unrefined. He needs to rein in his skills more.” He turned to Ike, smiling, as if he’s expecting Ike to comment on it.
“No one here has experience with sorcery, Boss,” Ike said, crossing his legs under the table as he considered their options. “He can train with Uki, since he had experience dealing with sorcerers before...”
“Nah,” Luca dismissed. “Uki’s too cruel to newbies. He’ll eat Shu alive.” He looked at Shu before turning back to Ike. “We need someone who is disciplined and gentle. Also someone knowledgeable with everyone in our family.”
Ike need not see the pointed look everyone, including Shu, gave him. He was so sure Luca referred to him. Letting out a deep breath, Ike agreed to take Shu under his wing and teach him the inner workings of the Kaneshiro mafia group.
--
After some time training the young man, Ike realized that Shu Yamino wasn’t a normal guy. He was smart and could easily pick up techniques and remember information about the family. He was enthusiastic about learning and helping Ike with his paperwork—a mountain of it considering the issues the Kaneshiro group had to deal with. He liked helping other people out, too, and would always be ready to assist anyone who needed it. Just a while ago, he had helped Mysta organize his case files and then volunteered to be Vox’s test subject in testing out his new technique. He was the ideal underling, to be quite honest, and Ike was more than satisfied in that aspect.
In terms of skills, Ike still barely knew anything about Shu’s abilities. He had been great at using his sorcery in combat and information gathering. Everyone’s fascinated about his skills, after all, it’s rare to see a real sorcerer in this era. But it was difficult to gauge the limit of Shu’s power. Maybe they would be able to witness it once Shu’s gotten used to going out on missions. Other than that small hump on their path, Ike was sure Shu would shine as part of their main team.
However, one thing that puzzled Ike about Shu was the fact that the sorcerer was too attached to him. The moment he announced that he agreed to support Shu’s training, the man hadn’t been able to hide his enthusiasm. He would stick by Ike’s side the entire day, even outside their training hours. Shu said he was trying to learn more about the family, and Ike initially didn’t see anything wrong with that.
But for the past couple of weeks, Shu had been acting a little bolder when it came to invading Ike’s space.
A light tap on Ike’s fingers, a small nudge of his foot against Ike’s knee, a smooth lean over Ike’s shoulder when he’s reading, a gentle pat at the small of Ike’s back when ushering him while walking—Ike never mentioned them but he would be a rock to not notice the way Shu was slowly but surely becoming a little too physical with him.
And every time Ike turned to Shu with a quiet but questioning look, challenging the man to speak up about his advances, Shu would just smile at him with an innocence that made Ike question if he was the one being delusional about everything.
---
“Their building’s as secure as a prison. I would need some intel inside before I can push in and get the data.”
Alban, their very talented thief, was giving his evaluation of the next mission. Ike was not part of the team that would be infiltrating their target, but as tradition, all the higher members of the family attended the meeting in order to be briefed about all the missions they were all planning to do.
Luca rested his elbows on the table and leaned his head on his clasped fingers. “Can Fu-chan extract intel from their servers?”
Fulgur started explaining about how their computers could only hack into a small part of their target’s system. Ike listened carefully as data was one of his concerns, but all his thoughts suddenly flew out of the window when he felt a foot nudge his leg.
Shu sat across him, eyes trained on Fulgur as he listened to the explanation. It was as if his foot was not gently traveling up and down Ike’s leg and catching itself in the hem of his pants.
Ike let out a slow breath. Luca sat to his right while Mysta sat on his left. Both men were quick to notice strange things and they would definitely find out if Ike made any weird reactions. He looked down to the papers in front of him and flipped through them, trying to act busy as he tried to ignore the dexterous toes slowly climbing to his knee.
Shu’s foot landed in between Ike’s thighs, and Ike slightly trembled.
“What do you think, Ikey?” Luca suddenly asked, making Ike stiffen. “What do you think of Fu-chan’s idea? Do you think we should push it?”
Everyone looked at him. Luca considered him to be the brains of the group along with Mysta, so any input he made was put into consideration. But at the moment, Ike’s head was empty except for the sensation he could feel between his legs. He swallowed and forced himself to remember bits and pieces of Fulgur’s report. Surely he retained something that wasn’t the ticklish sensation caused by Shu’s roaming foot, right?
“Uh...” Ike said, rubbing his temple as he concentrated. “I think pushing through hacking is too risky, especially in a high security area like this. Maybe we could plant one of our men in there?” He pointed to a photo of an invitation in one of the papers he was shuffling. “It seems they’ll be having a party soon. We can Yugo to go inside as a DJ or someone else to be hired for the party.” He looked at Luca and nodded. “I think it’s better for us to use as many means as possible to infiltrate and gather intel instead of forcing just one method.”
Luca studied him for a bit, as if reading his face. Ike anxiously wondered if there was anything obvious in his face. Was he blushing? sweating? Thankfully, Shu had stopped his actions while he was speaking, so he was able to assert his suggestion. But Luca might have noticed something the other people had not.
“Okay, let’s go with that,” Luca finally said, seemingly noticing nothing strange about Ike. The novelist inwardly sighed. As the boss continued discussing their plans, Ike took a moment to glare at the man seated across him.
Shu stared back at him, chin cradled on a hand. He gave Ike a small smile before turning his attention somewhere else. Under the table, his foot was lodged between Ike’s thighs. It had stopped moving, but the sensations Ike felt continued to bother him until the end of the meeting.
----
As soon as Shu entered his office and closed the door, Ike had picked up one of this throwing knives and flung it towards Shu. The blade cleanly missed the side of Shu’s head and instead embedded itself at the door.
“What do you want from me?” Ike said, standing up and approaching the surprisingly unperturbed man.
Shu looked straight at him, his purple eyes gleaming. “You. I want you.”
Ike laughed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. “Why? Do you have a crush on me or something?” When Shu didn’t answer, he looked up. He was surprised to see Shu looking more serious than ever. “What is it?”
“It’s not a crush,” Shu explained. “I really do like you, Ike.”
Ike took a step back, and another, and Shu followed his steps. Eventually, he found himself trapped against one of the walls. “Why me?” he asked. “We’ve only met each other for two months, Shu.”
There was a flash of disappointment in Shu’s face, but it was gone within seconds. Shu seemed to ponder on his question for a while before chuckling and planting a hand at the wall behind Ike, his arm raised just slightly above Ike’s head. “I don’t know, maybe I liked the way you looked like you hated me when we first met.”
“I didn’t hate you.”
“You were wary of me.”
Ike looked away as Shu stepped even closer, pressing him against the wall. “Anyone would be wary of new people. It is part of our job.”
“I guess that’s true. But can’t you give me a chance?” Shu whispered in Ike’s ear, making the novelist jump in surprise.
Ike resisted the urge to shiver at the way Shu’s breath tickled his ear and neck. “I could, but you have to do better than what you’re doing now with your missions.” Now, it was Ike’s turn to look at stare at the sorcerer. “Maybe if you prove to be powerful enough to be part of the Boss’s family, I can make some considerations.”
He needed no verbal cues to know that Shu agreed to his terms with the way those purple eyes flared with motivation.
---
Ike issued the challenge so that Shu would be discouraged and stay away for him at least for a while. But instead of keeping his distance, it seemed the sorcerer became even more brazen with his efforts. It became some sort of a game of Shu trying to score a point by surprising Ike with his touches and Ike avoiding or not reacting to his advances. Sometimes, they both ended up flustered due to their own mischief, but Ike started to not mind it. It gave him a thrill—to be chased by someone so teasingly and incessantly.
Ike couldn’t explain the details of what happened but somehow, he eventually found himself agreeing to giving Shu a small kiss whenever the man excelled at something. He probably wasn’t able to say no with the way Shu looked at him with a needy look in his eyes. He was like a pet, wanting to be patted after every successful task.
Eventually, the kisses became deeper, rougher, and longer. Even during stakeouts and before missions, Ike would find himself pressed against a wall as Shu buried his tongue in his throat. Soon, it became almost a nightly thing—Ike being trapped against any surface available as Shu teased him relentlessly with his fingers and mouth. Ike would scold him every time for not being discreet but the sorcerer would just laugh, his boyish laughter just music to Ike’s ears, before saying that Ike liked the idea of being caught anyway.
“I said...” Ike would whisper between whimpers as Shu’s fingers traversed down his chest to his stomach. “You should become powerful first, didn’t I?”
“I will be when the time is right,” Shu would reply. Ike would be too far gone to understand the meaning behind those words.
---
It would take a nearly fatal incident for Ike to understand Shu’s obsession with him.
Ike gasped for breath as another kick was delivered to his stomach, the pain almost making him unconscious. He tried to avoid the next round of kicks, but the men held his arms and forced him to stay still so they can reach his stomach and chest. Ike could taste blood in his tongue.
He didn’t know how long he had been confined in this old warehouse. But he was aware that these men knew enough about him to abduct him just when he was defenseless and vulnerable. He was going home from a book signing—as his front was being a novelist—when these men surrounded his car. They dragged him out of the car and pushed him into an unmarked van, blindfolding and tying him up so he wouldn’t know where he would be taken.
They removed his blindfold but kept him tied up in the darkness. Despite his lack of vision (his glasses were also broken), Ike could tell from the silhouettes of boxes and crates that he was in some sort of storage. He flared his nostrils and took a deep breath, noticing the salty wind from the sea. He was probably near the pier. Before he could find out even more, the men returned and interrogated him about Luca Kaneshiro. Tight-lipped, Ike refused to say anything, and the men decided to torture the answers out of him.
There was no way he’d give information about the boss or their family, Ike was sure about that. Even if he was punched and kicked multiple times, even if he was stabbed or shot or killed, no information would ever leave his lips. The family was the most important thing to him at the moment. No one should touch them even at the cost of his life.
Ike closed his eyes and concentrated on his family instead of the way someone’s foot was painfully digging into his shoulder. He thought of his friends who had been with him and the boss since the Kaneshiro group was established, along with the oath of loyalty that they kept. He thought of Shu, who had been left in the manor because Ike promised to train with him when he got back.
He could feel his consciousness fading as the men continued their assault. He believed the family would rescue him, but there might not be enough clues for them to know where he was. He hoped Uki would’ve felt something or Fulgur would’ve unearthed some data about his abduction. But if worse comes to worst, he needed to keep his oath and protect the family.
There was a sudden loud crash. His abusers stopped their assault and looked around. Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity as they started screaming and grabbing their guns to shoot. Ike struggled to sit up against a crate to see what was going on.
Shu stood in the middle of the large warehouse floor, his shikigamis—guardians made of paper—flying around him. The men pointed their guns at him and started shooting, but Shu merely raised a hand and deflected all of the bullets, his eyes glowing as he let the men be shot by their own bullets.
Ike watched as Shu raised another hand and blew on a shikigami trapped between his fingers. Instantly, fire broke out in different parts of the warehouse, enclosing the men in a flaming circle. Ike flinched as the flames started near him, but Shu instantly saw him crouched by the crates. For a moment, Shu’s eyes stopped gleaming as they looked at each other. But instead of approaching him, Shu grabbed another shikigami and tossed it towards Ike.
Ike looked in awe as the shikigami was torn above him, its pieces showering him with something that felt like warm sunlight. It was a kind of shielding spell Shu had been learning. Ike didn’t know that he had actually perfected it.
Once Shu was sure that Ike was safe, he turned around and faced the numerous men still waiting to attack him. Ike watched as his aura turned from purple to green—it was something Ike hadn’t seen before. Was Shu learning other types of sorcery?
It was then that Shu Yamino, Kaneshiro group’s only sorcerer, started to wreak havoc.
----
“How is he?” Ike asked as Luca left the room where Shu was confined.
Luca gave him a half smile. “It seems he just exhausted himself after using a huge amount of power in a short time. He didn’t have any external injuries and internal injuries would just take about a week to fully recover.”
Ike rubbed his temple. “He didn’t have to go all out in that rescue mission,” he said. “I was alive and we could have just run away. He literally killed everyone in sight and made the warehouse explode. No wonder he fell unconscious the moment the real rescue team arrived.”
Luca laughed and sat with Ike on the bench outside the room. “He’d have to be punished when he wakes up, though. He left without permission and searched for you on its own. Then he attacked the enemy base by himself. If Mysta didn’t suggest putting a tracker on him, we wouldn’t have found you both on time.”
“I don’t know why he even did that,” Ike said, watching the unmoving door to the Shu’s room.
“You don’t know?” Luca asked. When Ike shook his head, Luca patted his shoulder and explained. “You know when I found him during a mission? He annihilated a team of human traffickers by himself.”
“What...but you said you found him in an alley!”
Luca laughed again. “I said that because I wasn’t sure if he was really that strong or he had just caused some sort of scene that escalated into that result. Anyway, he did not have any family so I asked him if he’s interested in joining the mafia. Do you know what his condition was?”
Ike shook his head.
“His condition was that he gets to be near Ike Eveland.”
“What...?” Ike’s eyes widened. Have they met before?
Luca played with the hem of his jacket as he continued. “Remember one of the first missions you did? The one involving human traffickers crossing the borders? Apparently, he was supposed to infiltrate that base, too. But were already there and had beat up everyone already. Then he said you confronted each other and you nearly killed him, too. He said he was immensely impressed with the way you beat up all those people.”
“He was impressed with the way I knifed people?” Ike said, stunned.
“Yeah. I guess he fell in love with you back then. Then he kinda became obsessed with finding you. So when he found out that you’re in my group, he accepted my offer to be my ally.” Luca clapped Ike’s back a little too strongly. “Isn’t that romantic for you and beneficial for me?”
Luca then bid him goodnight and went back to his office, leaving Ike sitting outside Shu’s room. He couldn’t fathom what kind of logic Shu had applied to this...attraction towards him. It was almost hilarious. But then again, the man saved his life and went on a frenzy because of him.
Ike slowly got up and entered Shu’s bedroom, thinking about what favor to give Shu when he woke up. After all, an excellent deed should be rewarded.
A few hours later, as he knelt on the bed between Shu’s knees, watching the sorcerer writhe and clutch the blankets in pleasure, Ike confirmed that Shu really liked the reward.
--END--