Chapter Text
Akito was beginning to dread the practice sessions that VIVID BAD SQUAD had to keep doing because of their upcoming live shows. While Akito knew that he was partly to blame for them continuing to push themselves so hard and never really giving each other a chance to just relax, he wished that they could take a break for a bit. Not because he’s losing his motivation or anything or that he’s tired, not at all. It’s his partner that’s making him not want to show up to practice.
Lately, being around Toya makes Akito flare up and feel as if he’s going to declare his feelings for the boy right then and there. There was never a moment where Akito wasn’t thinking about his partner, be it his half-and-half colored hair, or his gray eyes, or his angelic singing voice, or his—
There he goes again. When he starts thinking about one thing the boy has, he starts thinking about how that relates to every other part of the guy he’s crushing on, and it becomes a vicious cycle that he has to force himself to break out of. Most of the time, he fails to do so. Not to mention that he gets stuck in these thoughts even when away from Toya, and the feelings grow exponentially worse when he’s actually right in front of him.
To make it even worse, Akito could feel that he was coming down with something, with how his throat felt a bit off, and he was getting tired just walking down the stairs of his house to walk out the door. He felt off yesterday, and the feeling was stronger today.
Regardless, because he doesn’t know how to really take care of himself when it comes to practicing his music, here he was, on the way to the park where the four usually practice whatever it is they dedicated the day for. Today, if Akito recalled correctly, was for training their lungs. You know, perfect practice for a sore throat.
On the walk there, Akito again was lost in his thoughts. If you were to ask him when his crush actually started developing, he wouldn’t have an answer for you. He’d probably just tell you for as long as he remembered. He always knew that he felt something for Toya ever since he heard him sing by himself back in middle school, but he always shrugged it off as admiration. It was easy enough to deny whatever he was feeling back then. But then the two arrived at high school together, the era in which a lot of kids start thinking about other people romantically. While Akito knew some people who did it earlier, he always thought it was stupid to think about. Why think about relationships when he’s already married to music?
Well, he thought he was, until he filed a divorce because he wanted to see other people. Another person, anyways. Music’s more like an afterthought when it comes to Toya. He’s way more important.
Before too long, Akito made it to the park, where the three of his bandmates were already there waiting for him. He gave a small smile and waved and received an energetic greeting from An, a polite greeting from Kohane, and a very warm and inviting smile from Toya. That last one again made his face flare up.
Akito set his water bottle down on the bench nearby (after taking a bigger drink from it than someone should when they were just walking from their house to the nearby park) and walked over to the three as they started their stretches. He never let his feelings get in the way of their practices or their live shows, because he thought that it’d be selfish to do so. Even though he grew to dislike coming to practice because of what it’d make him feel near Toya, he always ended up dealing with it, so as to not let the other three get suspicious about how he feels about Toya.
Unfortunately for him, he was doing a pretty shitty job at hiding it. Toya is pretty oblivious and always was happy with their touchy celebrations, because he always thought of it as Akito being a touchy best friend. An and Kohane saw right through Akito and were always there to notice Akito stammering whenever he spoke and holding on to Toya for a bit too long after they won a live show. However, the thing that tipped them off the most was how whenever Toya did literally anything — say… speak — Akito would stare, then immediately break eye contact when Toya turned to him. What made it worse was how they could blatantly see Akito’s face burning a deep shade of red whenever he broke eye contact. How Toya, the target and reason for all this second-hand embarrassment, didn’t notice, was a mystery to the girls.
The girls were both alright with letting them be and having them figure it out for themselves, but also being happy to give any advice if either of the two were to approach them for it. Granted, they don't have much experience at all, but they’d be overjoyed to see their bandmates be happy together. If all that was needed from them was a push in the right direction, they’d happily acquiesce.
As practice continued however, Akito was acting… strange. It didn’t seem to be because of Toya this time, though. It seemed as if his lung capacity was severely smaller than usual, and he was breathing heavily just after stretching. The redhead was the most athletic out of the four, usually he’d be the last one to need a break out of the entire group. It struck the three of them as odd that Akito once again went over to his water bottle after stretching.
An walked over to him as Kohane and Toya kept stretching. Toya made sure to keep an eye on the two, as Akito did not seem to be doing well at all. “Hey, you alright?”
Akito gulped some more water and tried going for some more, but he was already out. That wasn’t good. “I’m… fine.”
An put a hand on her hip in disbelief. “Dude, you look like you’re about to pass out.”
“We have that event in like… 2 weeks? Right? We gotta practice.” Akito took a deep breath. “I’ll be fine.”
An sighed and walked back over to the other two as Akito put his hands on his hips. His breathing was starting to get heavier. He didn’t feel nearly this tired when he was on the way here, but maybe the summer heat wasn’t doing him any favors. In hindsight, it was a pretty stupid idea to make his way over here.
The more he tried to regulate his breathing and keep his condition under wraps, the worse he felt. It was as if his body was deliberately yelling at him to go back home before he expended all his energy simply taking deep breaths in the summer heat.
Again, because he doesn’t know when to quit, he made his way back over to his friends, but his vision started to get blurry. He stopped and raised a hand to grasp his head from the sudden headache he got. He realized the three in front of him hadn't noticed how badly he was doing just yet, so he figured he should walk back over to the bench and rest for a bit. He took a seat and rested his head in his hands, but leave it up to his partner to be next to him in the next few seconds when he took a seat and tried to take a break from even standing up.
“Akito, you look awful. How are you feeling?” Toya asked him in a hushed, worried tone. Toya moved Akito’s hands from his forehead and felt his forehead burning. “You’re warming up… you’re probably coming down with a fever…”
Akito merely let out a ‘hngh’ as he let himself fall on Toya’s shoulder. He suddenly felt too tired to care about who he was leaning on right now.
The taller boy sighed. “I knew it. Why didn’t you say anything? You’re probably making your condition worse by exerting yourself like this.”
Toya called over to the Vivids, who nodded back. They knew that Akito wasn’t feeling well already, it was pretty obvious. Toya notified them that they can keep practicing on their own, while Toya brings Akito back home.
‘ How I wish I had a car or something to drive us there…’ Toya thought to himself.
The boys stood up slowly and Toya whispered into Akito’s ear. “Can you walk? Although it’s probably a bad idea to walk all the way back to your house…”
An walked over with Kohane before Akito could reply. Not like he even would; the boy keeps grumbling and mumbling instead of saying actual words.
“Do you want me to get my dad over here? He could drive you guys to Akito’s house.”
“Y-Yes, if it isn’t too much of a bother.”
An smiled and shook her head. “Nah, of course not.”
Shortly after, An called Ken and the man made his way to the park with his van pretty quickly, and the two boys got in to go to Akito’s house. An and Kohane ended up returning to the Weekend Garage to make sure the shop wasn’t left unmanned while Ken was away. Toya made sure to thank him, although he might have been a bit too grateful considering the amount of times he told Ken how thankful he was, making the man start to feel a bit uncomfortable.
For the short ride to his house, Akito felt barely conscious, but he was able to start speaking actual words now. Toya’s face flushed when Akito wrapped his arms around Toya’s waist and pulled him closer.
“You’re cold…” Akito mumbled, giving off a soft smile, even though he still feels awful.
Toya didn’t want to mention that Akito hugging him so closely was starting to make him want to start sweating.
“We’re here,” Ken called to the boys. Toya opened the door to get out of the van and was carefully dragging Akito with him when Ken continued, “is… he always like this when he’s sick? I’ve never seen him like this.”
Toya looked down to Akito, who was still sweating and wheezing for breath. “I-I’m sure he’ll be fine. Maybe he’s just really tired?”
Ken nodded. “The kid’ll be fine. I’m sure he just has a mild fever. Make sure to keep him in bed and give him some medicine. If you can, try and give him some soup with a lot of vegetables in it. I don’t know how he’ll react if you put carrots into it, so just… leave those out.”
Toya nodded and thanked him again, while making his way out of the van and up towards Akito’s front door. He whispered to Akito again.
“Akito, do you have your keys?”
“‘S… here…” Akito pat his pocket on his right side, the side that’s away from Toya, but quickly wrapped his arm around Toya’s waist again.
Toya reached over to his pocket and grabbed his keys, unlocking the door to his house. After seeing the boys inside, Ken drove off, making sure to give Toya a thumbs up before doing so.
Now that the boys were inside, Toya made sure that he should first get Akito to lay down. He quietly and carefully walked up the stairs while holding Akito close and keeping himself balanced on the stair’s handlebar, to make sure the two boys don’t end up falling down the stairs with Akito putting so much of his weight onto Toya. As the two boys made it to the second floor, Toya jumped when a door opened, calming a bit down when he realized it was just Ena.
She gasped lightly. “Akito?! Ugh! I knew you were getting sick! Why’d you go off outside when it’s so hot out?!” Ena seemed like she was angry, but she still kept her voice down to not overwhelm her little brother. Although he was at fault for making himself feel worse, it didn’t help to yell at him.
Akito grumbled and hugged Toya closer, making the taller boy a bit uncomfortable now that he basically had to talk to Ena alone without Akito to respond for him.
“Oh, sorry. Toya, right? Thanks for bringing him over.”
Toya nodded. “Mhmm. I should bring him to his bed.”
“Yeah. I’ll go get the medicine and an ice pack for him.” Ena walked past him to go downstairs, but Toya called back.
“Oh uh, can I help with anything?”
Ena looked back with an annoyed look on her face. “Although it’d be helpful, I’m sure you won’t be able to. You’ll see what I mean when you actually put him on his bed.”
“Eh?”
Toya didn’t really know what she meant, but Ena was already on her way to go look for the things that Akito needed. He shrugged it off as Toya walked over to Akito’s room and set Akito down on his bed.
He was gonna go downstairs to try and see if the Shinonomes have anything to make soup for Akito, but he was stopped when Akito grabbed his wrist.
“Toyaaaa…” the smaller boy whined. He sounded childish, making his partner smile endearingly. It was a side to Akito that he’s never seen before, mainly because Akito wasn’t one to get sick very easily.
“Yes, Akito?”
Akito let out a small “mngh” as he patted to spot next to him in his bed, and continued. “Stay…”
Toya didn’t quite understand, but Ena was already on the way back upstairs and she was at the door to see what she was already expecting.
“Yeah, that’s what I meant.” Ena’s lips were a thin line as she huffed a sigh of exasperation. She passed by Toya and knelt down to Akito, who was looking at her with a pout. Very uncharacteristic of him.
“Eh?”
“When he gets sick, he’s like a little kid. And he gets extremely clingy. I’m sure you’ve noticed.” Ena nodded to Akito gripping Toya’s wrist, with no intentions of letting go. “I haven’t seen him get sick in a while, so I kinda forgot that he gets like this. At least he hasn’t changed.” Ena had a sad smile on her face as she put a cold compress on Akito’s head.
Ena placed some cold medicine and an inhaler on Akito’s nightstand, and put a thermometer in his mouth to gauge his temperature. Toya thought to let her take care of everything, but then she got up.
“Alright, look. Usually, Akito just… hates taking medicine. And usually the only way he’ll let you go is if you explicitly tell him that what you’re gonna do is going to make him feel better. I’ll be in my room, I was busy with something when you two came in. But if he gets worse or anything, just let me know, alright?”
Toya nodded and Ena was off to her room. Akito let out another whine and shook Toya’s wrist again, probably to let him know that he was still waiting for him to sit down on the bed. So, Toya did just that. What he wasn’t expecting was for Akito to hug his waist, similar to how he did in Ken’s van.
“Akito, aren’t you warm? Doesn’t doing this make you feel even hotter?”
Akito didn’t reply with any words, and that reminded Toya that he still had the thermometer in his mouth. Toya pulled it out, and Akito let out a little sound of discontentment as the taller boy checked his temperature.
Almost 38 degrees (100 degrees in Fahrenheit). Not too bad a fever, but it was still too high. It made Toya heave a sigh of relief that his fever was more like a cold, and that it wasn’t as severe as he initially thought it was.
“Cold.”
Toya turned his head to look at Akito.. “Hm?”
“You’re cold.”
“Ah, yeah. You’ve told me that before.” Toya smiled at him as Akito buried his face into Toya’s hip, which then made the compress slide off of his forehead.
“Akito, you have to stay somewhat still. You can’t have the compress fall off of you like that.” Toya had a soft smile on his face, as taking care of Akito when he was sick gave him a sense of fulfillment.
“Cuddle…”
Toya’s face flared. Did he hear him right? “W-What was that, Akito?”
“I wanna cuddle…” Akito’s face was also red, but Toya couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment, or from his cold.
Toya’s mouth hung slightly open in shock, but he shook his head and thought rationally first. “You have to take your medicine first, Akito.”
Akito merely whined in response. Oh, of course. Toya forgot the step that Ena told him to take whenever he didn’t want to do something.
“It’ll… make you feel better?”
“Hngh…” Akito’s grip on Toya’s waist tightened for a second, before he released it and sat up, albeit a bit slowly.
Toya reached over to the nightstand to get the cold medicine and gave Akito the recommended serving size, as Akito gulped it down with a shiver. He grimaced.
“‘S too bitter…”
“Well, at least you took it.”
Akito huffed and hugged Toya again, which surprised him still, even though at this point, he should’ve gotten used to it.
“Can we cuddle now…?” Akito weakly asked, again making Toya’s face flush.
Toya gulped. “S-Sure, Akito…”
The two boys laid down on the bed, Akito not sparing a moment to hug his partner closely, as if someone would come and take him away.
Toya chuckled. “Akito, I’m not going anywhere.”
Akito mumbled under his breath. “Better not.”
“Who knew you’d be like this when you’re sick. Akito, are you touch-starved?”
The smaller boy whined. “Why are you asking so much stuff when I’m tired…”
“Sorry, sorry. You’re just gripping with such strength that it’s hard to believe that you’re sick at all.”
In the back of his head, Toya figured that being hugged by a sick person for the rest of the day would surely get him sick as well, but he didn’t really care. Even if he did, it’s not like Akito was about to let him leave the bed, let alone the house.
He pulled out his phone to make sure to tell his mom that he’d be staying at Akito’s house tonight. If anything, he’ll slip out of Akito’s bed when he eventually falls asleep, and go to sleep on the couch to make sure he doesn’t catch anything. That is, if he hasn’t already been exposed to Akito’s germs already due to the fact that the boy was being as close as he possibly can, deliberately pressing his cheekbones onto Toya’s. Toya didn’t have a problem with it, and it seemed like Akito was smiling, so who was he to get him to move?
Toya decided he should take this chance to hug Akito back. While they do sling their arms around each other’s shoulders often (moreso Akito slinging his arm around Toya’s shoulder then Toya leaning into his touch), they didn’t actively cuddle like this when they were alone. While Akito and Toya both loved each other, both of them were too scared to say anything, so they settled for pining for each other.
It warmed Toya’s heart to feel Akito smile even wider when he hugged the sick boy. Akito further leaned into the embrace. Not according to Toya’s earlier plan, the two boys ended up sleeping in each other’s arms.
~
While the two boys were sleeping, Ena was in her room checking the internet for a place that could deliver chicken soup to their house for her younger brother. She would be working on her art for her group’s next MV, but her brother came first.
She jumped when she heard Mizuki’s voice through her headphones. She forgot she was even still in a voice chat with her group, because everyone was muted when Ena came in and put her headphones back on after giving Akito the cold medicine and the inhaler.
“Enanan~ are you doing alright with the art?” Their voice was perky as always, which made Ena smile.
“Ah, yeah, but I’m ordering soup for Ak— my little brother right now. He got sick and the idiot went out into the harsh sun and exerted himself too much.”
“Aww, it’s cute that you care so much for Lil’ Bro!”
Ena huffed. “Shut up. It’s not like he has the energy to get it himself, and I still have work to do with the art. I’d rather not go out right now.”
Kanade unmuted herself. “It’s okay. We could take a break, anyways. If you need the soup right now, you can go out and buy it. What do you think, Yuki?
Mafuyu unmuted herself, but didn’t give much of an input. “I’m fine with whatever we do.”
Ena reassured the group. “No no, it’s okay. I’m getting food for myself, too. If anything, we can take a break then.”
The group seemed to agree to that, so Ena kept working on her online order. After she was done and the order was received, she told the group that she’d be right back again, because she was going to check on Akito again.
She walked out of her room and into Akito’s and gasped but shut her mouth immediately by covering it with her hand. She figured she shouldn’t be surprised to see Akito and Toya cuddling in his bed, as Akito was like an embarrassed school girl when it came to talking about Toya. She barely knew the boy at all, but because Akito talked so much about him, she felt like she knew all about him, whether it was by choice or not.
She quietly walked over to the boys and put Akito’s blanket over the two of them, although she tried to put it over just Akito as wrapping Toya in a blanket with a sick person might get him sick as well, but the two were basically completely chained together with how tightly they were holding each other. They also looked like they were sleeping peacefully, so Ena didn’t have the heart to wake up either of them. Even though she liked poking fun at her brother, she knew that she shouldn’t do it right now.
She started to walk out of Akito’s room, but quickly snapped a picture of the two as she was walking out. Just because she didn’t have to be a nuisance now didn’t mean she shouldn’t have material to make fun of him for later.
Ena put her headphones back on, and the group asked how her brother was.
Ena huffed. “I knew he’d be like a little kid, but I didn’t think he’d be so bold with his friend either…”
Kanade and Mafuyu hummed and left it at that, while Mizuki was howling with laughter. They knew exactly who Ena was talking about.
~
A bit of time passed and the soup finally arrived, and Ena made sure to order food for both her and Toya, as she figured that Toya would be sticking around for the night, and she didn’t know if he ate before coming.
She set her bowl of soup on her desk and made her way to Akito’s room with the other two bowls. She set them on Akito’s desk and this time, she had to wake up the boys, much to everyone’s disdain. She weakly shook the boys awake.
“Boys, I ordered soup. You two have to eat, especially you, Akito.”
Toya was rubbing his eyes and nodded, but Akito grumbled and held Toya.
“Five more minutes…”
Toya chuckled. “Come on Akito, we can eat and then come back to bed.”
“Fine…”
“It’s on the desk there. Aoyagi, I’m not sure what you like so I just got you the same thing as us. I know you’re not sick, but you’re sticking around Akito a lot so I just wanna be safe.”
Toya nodded and smiled. “Thank you, Shinonome-san.”
Akito grumbled. “That’s my name too…”
Toya smiled wider at Akito and ruffled his hair, which embarrassed the smaller boy.
Ena smiled, nodded, and walked out of Akito’s room, complimenting Toya’s good manners on her way out.
When Ena was out of the room and the door was closed, Toya again turned to Akito and got close. “How are you feeling?”
Akito rubbed his eye, still drowsy. “Better. I still kinda feel sluggish, though.”
“Do you remember everything we did?”
Akito’s face turned bright red as he looked away. “I was sick, I wasn’t drunk.”
“I just wanted to make sure.”
Akito scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Can we um…” he gulped as he continued. “can we keep cuddling…?”
Toya’s face flushed. “I-I thought you’d only be clingy when you were sick.”
Akito had a smile on his face, but he was still bright red. “I mean… I’m not 100% yet…”
“Akito, can I ask you something?”
“W-What is it?”
“Will you go out with me?”
Akito’s eyes widened. He said it with not a hint of hesitation. Even though he was clearly nervous if his rapid heartbeat and his red face were anything to go by. He was clearly serious, though. Akito smiled warmly.
“I-I’d love to. I wanna be your boyfriend.”
Toya immediately hugged Akito tightly, who responded by wrapping his arms around Toya.
“You know…” Toya started as his chin was resting on Akito’s shoulder.
“Hm?”
“You’re really cute when you act so clingy like you did earlier.”
Akito quickly pulled away from Toya. “A-Anyway! We should eat our soup, yeah? It’ll get cold!”
Toya chuckled. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”
Akito got up to get their bowls of soup, and grimaced at it. It was chicken noodle soup, but…
“Akito? Is something wrong?” Toya tilted his head at Akito.
“There’s… carrots in it…”
“I mean… I know you hate them, but probably need them right now. It’s for your health, Akito.”
“That doesn’t work when I’m not as sick as I was before…”
Toya hummed. “Alright, I’ll take some of the carrots. But at least leave some bits of it in, okay? It shouldn’t taste like much because it was already in the soup for so long.”
Akito smiled. “Thanks, Toya.”
~
The boys finished their soup and Toya was about to leave to go to sleep on the couch, but he was stopped by Akito.
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, uh… to the couch.”
“We just shared my bed when I was sick, we literally just got together, and you think I want you to go to the couch?” Akito deadpanned at Toya, who scratched his cheek with a single finger in embarrassment.
“Well… when you put it like that I—“
Akito sighed. He laid down on his bed and opened his arms, signaling for a hug.
Toya smiled and did just as Akito wanted, with the smaller boy raising the blanket so that it’d cover the both of them again.
The boys hugged each other tightly and their silence was broken by Akito.
“Hey… Toya? I wanna tell you something.”
“What’s that?”
Akito pulled away but still touched Toya’s forehead with his. “I just… wanna tell you how grateful I am. Not just ‘cuz of being my partner in music — even though you’re amazing at that too, don’t get me wrong — but just… being so amazing to me in general.”
Toya smiled happily at Akito. “Akito, you—“
“Hold on wait, I’m not… I’m not done.” Toya nodded, and let him continue. “I know that I was very clingy and didn’t really let you leave, but you never actually fought me to leave or anything. You took care of me and actually stayed. And I love you for that.”
“I’m…”
“Not… just for that…” Akito’s face started to redden again. “I’m really happy you stuck with me all this time. Even after we had that fight, and even though I get jealous of Tsukasa a lot and I’m really overprotective…” Akito hugged him tightly. “You never left. I love you, Toya.”
The blue-haired boy sniffled as he started to feel tears well up in his eyes. “Of course. I’ll be by your side always.”
Akito’s smile widened as he tightened his hold on his boyfriend. “Same here.”
Toya rubbed his eyes on his sleeve to dry his tears. “I love you too, Akito. Although… it was basically your sister who took care of you. I just made sure you did everything.”
Akito chuckled. “And? I can’t be grateful for both of you? I’ll thank her later.”
“Do it for me, too. She bought me food, I should’ve thanked her better earlier.”
“I think you thanked her well enough.”
“Also, don’t worry about being overprotective.”
Akito hummed. “Huh?”
Toya smiled. “It’s adorable when you get jealous of any of my friends.”
Akito’s eyes widened, even though Toya couldn’t see it. His face reddened as he buried his face into Toya’s shoulder. “Toyaaaaa…”
Toya let out a hearty laugh. “Sorry, sorry.”
“You’re gonna be the death of me…”
“Who knew that the ‘bad boy’ Akito was so easy to embarrass?”
Akito smacked Toya’s back lightly. “I am not ! Shut up!”
Toya laughed again as the boys fell into a comfortable silence in each others’ arms, falling asleep together again.
~
The next day, Akito and Toya texted An and Kohane to meet them in their Sekai to hang out a bit there so the boys could quickly go back to Akito’s house if he felt off. Toya wasn’t too keen on letting Akito overexert himself again, but Akito assured him he’d be fine, and that’s where the idea of meeting up in the Sekai came from.
The boys clicked on Ready Steady on their phones to find that An and Kohane were already there waiting for them. The group made their way over to the Crase Cafe and took their seats at a booth after waving hello to MEIKO and Len, who were already there at the bar.
“You sounded like you had something you wanted to tell us?” An questioned the two. The girls couldn’t see, but the boys were holding hands underneath the table.
Instead of saying anything, the boys flushed and looked at the table in opposite directions, but raised their hands to show the girls that they were entwined. That’s all the girls needed to know before they started cheering.
“Congratulations, you two! I knew you’d be so happy together~!” Kohane clapped her hands.
“Eh?” Akito asked.
“Hm? D-Did I say something wrong?” Kohane had a nervous smile on her face as she tilted her head.
“N-No, it’s just… did you know we liked each other already?”
An chuckled. “Dude, everyone knew. Speaking of which, who confessed first?”
“I did.” Toya responded immediately.
Akito sputtered. “Toya!”
“I knew it! Mizuki owes me some yen~” An sang at the end of her sentence as Akito’s face flushed.
“Were you betting on who’d confess first?!”
“Yeah! They said you’d confess because you look like the type who’d ‘act first and ask questions later’, but I said even though you are reckless, you’d worry too much to do it first.”
Akito groaned. “I hate to admit it but you were right on the money with that one…”
“It doesn’t matter though! I’m happy for you two!” Kohane gleefully congratulated the two again, which made the boys smile warmly.
“Thanks, you two.”
“It means a lot, really.” Toya smiled.
“I mean, why’d you think we’d say something bad? Kohane and I are already dating.”
“A-An-chan!” Kohane stuttered.
“What?” An looked at Kohane with a smile, but then turned to the boys who both had their mouths open in shock.
“WHAT?!” Akito shouted.