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Nikei was fed up with everything. His leadership had long since been taken by that blonde bastard, their group was renamed to 'Void,' and to make things worse, the rest of the group were getting in better spirits since he took over.
When Mikado Sannoji arrived in person, at Nikei's demand, he brought more food, water, and first aid supplies with him. He rented a house under a fake identity to move them into, and he was held in high - albeit wary - regard by the people who once treated Nikei like that.
He hated it, he should be the one they listened to! He should be the one above everyone, but that blonde bastard was now above him too. Even though the living conditions for the five improved, with Mikado citing the reason being 'they needed to regain their strength before the plan,' Nikei wanted revenge.
But at this rate, killing the man seemed impossible. Not just because of his powers, but such an action would surely turn the other members of the group against him. So he just settled on creating minor annoyances and inconvenience for him. Moving his bed slightly, putting a bit of salt in his coffee, turning off alarms, that was the kind of revenge that kept Nikei satisfied for now.
Today, Mikado was in the 'living room' of the house, holding a flashlight and reading out instructions while Hajime was fixing something or another. That meant he wasn't in his room, which gave Nikei plenty of time to slip inside and see if he can cause more mischief. He had to be quick, or else he'd get caught.
He looked around and smiled as he planned how to trouble the wizard today, then noticed something on his desk. There seemed to be something set up there: a metal pot over a deactivated hot plate, and beside it, a glass full of a clear liquid. Nikei walked over to it and cautiously touched the glass.
It was a little warm, most likely from the liquid inside, so it seemed like Mikado had left it to cool down. Nikei didn't know what this substance was, but if Mikado had made it, then it would trouble him in it disappeared, right? He doubted that it was poison, maybe just chemicals at worst, and having one teammate out of action and being nursed back to health will delay and inconvenience him too.
With this in mind, Nikei steeled his determination and put the glass to his lips, drinking all of the liquid. As soon as he put down the glass, he felt a wave of dizziness intense enough the knock him off his feet. The journalist stumbled as he tried to find the desk to balance himself, but he felt himself falling and a sudden impact as the back of his head hit something.
He must have made a lot of noise, because now the sound of footsteps was making his headache worse. His vision was getting blurry, so blurry that he could only see one blob of colour at first when he opened his eyes. His heart rate sped up as he watched the colour, and he fell unconscious as the blob split into four blurry ones.
***
Nikei slowly regained consciousness again, but he realized that he wasn't on the floor of Mikado's room anymore. He was somewhere softer, and there was a cold and wet cloth on his forehead. Beside him, sitting on a chair, was none other than the wizard he was trying to avoid.
"Where am I?" Nikei muttered, catching the wizard's attention from the book he was reading.
Mikado looked up from his book with his mask smiling. "Ah, you're awake. Luckily for you, your skull didn't fracture from hitting your head on my desk. But you're going to be bruised there for a while," he explained to the journalist.
"Answer my question."
"Poor thing, you aren't even well enough to swear at me... Well, if you must know, we're in your room, I had Mr. Makunouchi put you in your bed," Mikado recalled. "Oh, and I had Ms. Nijiue clean up the glass you dropped. Did you even know what was in that?"
Nikei shook his head, then winced from the motion. Without a warning, Mikado suddenly reached a hand towards him and touched his cheek. The journalist was about to question what he was doing when he felt himself lean towards the touch.
Mikado drew back his hand as he to snicker, and Nikei was confused. His body seemed to have moved involuntarily, and he quickly righted his position again. Mikado reached towards him again, cupping his cheek this time. As Nikei's body leaned into the wizard's hand, he was perplexed as his heart rate sped up.
"Well, you're not poisoned after all. But the effects are still there!" Mikado drew his hand back, laughing all the while. "You drank the base of a love potion, one that I was going to make into a smokescreen!"
"A love potion?!" Nikei exclaimed, trying to force himself to his feet. Unfortunately, he didn't quite have the strength to get out of bed yet. "Why would you make something like that?!"
"I told you, it was the base for a smokescreen. Were you not listening? But the effects that you're feeling are the effects of falling in love with the first person you see," the blonde man sighed. "But to answer your question, I'm a wizard. Do you think potions are too unordinary for me to not make? Which means that I can make an antidote as well."
"Well then, do it! Fix this, right now!" the journalist demanded. "I'm not in love with you, or those coloured things! I don't know what the hell my body's doing, but-"
"Hold your horses, I don't have the proper ingredients for an antidote-" Mikado suddenly paused. "Hold on, 'coloured things?' Explain."
Nikei rolled his eyes and grumbled out, "Before I passed out, I saw a moving coloured blob, and then it split into multiple blobs."
Mikado was silent at first, then burst into anther round of hysterics. "Ahahaha! Oh, this is priceless! This will be an interesting few days indeed!" When he calmed down and noticed Nikei glaring at him, Mikado quickly cleared his throat. "As I said, I don't have the ingredients for an antidote. You'll have to wait a while until I can make one."
"Why can't you make one now?! Shouldn't you be prepared for anything happening?!"
"Well, I wasn't prepared for an intruder foolishly drinking something that they didn't know about."
Nikei turned his head away and began to sulk as Mikado closed his book and stood up. "The effects will grow stronger over time as the potion takes root, but the antidote will remove all traces of it from your system," the wizard told him, putting Nikei's chair back at his desk. "Until then, this'll be fun. For me to watch, that is. Not for you."
"Shut up."
"I suggest enjoying the potion while it lasts, it might be the last time you'll feel like that!"
"Fuck off!"
***
Hajime was busy training in his room, as always. He had bought some weights with his own money, even if he knew they would have to be left behind when the plan started. Nonetheless, he kept up his training routine to keep his body healthy.
Nobody else trained with him, which is why he was surprised when Nikei entered his room without a warning. "Huh? Oh, hey. You need anything?" the boxer asked with a friendly smile.
Nikei shook his head. "Just came here to crash. Mikado was a prick earlier, and the girls are loud. I thought you'd be more tolerable than them."
Hajime grimaced at his words, he did guess earlier that Nikei would wake up with one hell of a headache. From what Mikado told him, the bruise on the back of his head must have been gotten by hitting his head on the wizard's desk while he crashed to the ground.
Speaking of which, Mikado did tell him to give something to Nikei earlier. "Oh, there's some painkillers for you on the desk, if that helps. I got them earlier, they're got you," Hajime offered, trying to phrase his words so Nikei couldn't guess that Mikado gave them.
Nikei saw a bottle of water on the ground near Hajime, so he borrowed it to swallow the painkillers. After he put it back, he fell back onto Hajime's bed. As the journalist tried to relax, he suddenly had the urge to slip under the covers and tuck the blankets around him. To his relief, he was quick to catch his movements and sat back up as his face started to go red from embarrassment.
Fortunately for him, Hajime didn't notice it as he continued to train. Nikei wondered to himself how he was going to deal with this spell until Mikado made an antidote, especially if it was going to get stronger over time. His train of thought was broken when he realized his body was staring at Hajime working out, and he quickly broke his gaze.
***
He didn't know how, but a few days later, he was lying facedown on the floor of Iroha's room. He was shirtless while she painted on his back with cold paints. "Um... Thanks for helping me with my art! You've, um, been really still so far!" Iroha chirped nervously.
"This shit better not be permanent," Nikei grumbled out, making the painter squeak with fright.
"I-It's not, I swear! It's watercolour, it'll wash off if you shower!" the painter squeaked, and Nikei sighed as he put his head back into his arms. He had no idea why he had automatically agreed to this, but he had gone with her when she asked if she could do some bodypainting on him.
The past few days were just as bad, he began hanging out with the other Voids some more. He let Emma do his hair, he bickered with Mikado while reading near him, he wrote an article on Hajime's back as he did push-ups, and a lot more things. All he could do was to wait impatiently for Mikado to make the antidote already.
Half an hour after falling asleep in Iroha's room from the cold paint strokes on his back, he woke up and went to shower off the watercolour paint. It was a little difficult since he couldn't see how much paint he needed to scrub off with soap, but his back was eventually cleaned. He left the shower, thinking that nothing else would happen today.
All of a sudden, Mikado came out of practically nowhere and surprised Nikei by pulling him into a kiss. Nikei's mind practically screeched in protest as he body melted into the kiss, but the longer the kiss went on, the more he felt a bitterness in his mouth and throat.
The journalist eventually was able to push himself off from Mikado with a horrified expression, and screeched curses as he ran back into his room and slammed the door. The wizard burst into laughter as the other three Voids came to the area to find out what was going on.
"Was that Nikei just now?" Iroha asked. "Why was he so mad?"
"I gave him the antidote he wanted," Mikado explained. When the trio gave him confused looks, he continued, "The reason why he fell and hit his head was because he drank the basis of a love potion, but he told me that apparently he only saw one colour and focused on that first. We all arrived at his room at the same time, so the spell's effects made him feel attraction to the four of us."
Emma nodded as she began to understand. "That explains why he's been acting a bit abnormal over the past few days. But you gave him the antidote?" she asked.
"Well, if I just handed it to him, what fun would that be? So I kissed him and transferred it from my mouth to his. It must have worked, seeing his reaction." Mikado began to laugh to himself quickly. "The look on his face when he regained control and realized who he was kissing, how priceless!"
All Hajime could do was shake his head at Mikado's reaction. "Guess things are back to normal now," he concluded.