Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

—

The soft breeze of the wind could be heard, the breeze gently brushing at his tattered cheeks. A melancholy melody, far too quiet for the average passersby ringed in his ears. A tune far too peaceful for the deranged scene that sat in front of him.

Blood. Splattered almost everywhere. It stained his hands, his body, the smooth wood floor, but most importantly, the lifeless body that stared directly at him. It felt like a fever dream, one that he’d live through a thousand times over. Except this time it was different. Normally, he’d feel nothing. Yet, as he stared at the reflection of the knife he clutched ever so tightly, a sense of dread and guilt overcame him.

Reluctantly, he tore his gaze away from the corpse. Adrenaline fading away, he finally realized how much his body ached in pain. He took a deep breath in. Except he couldn’t with the way his lungs burned at the action. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe.

A particularly harsh breeze blew his way. Several red petals surrounded him, almost as if they were mocking him for his crimes. He willed himself to calm down. His head was spinning in insanity, the world felt like it would swallow him whole. Slowly, he limped into the clearing.

Immediately, he felt the rain. The droplets of water rolled down his face, washing away the crimson blood. He never liked the rain, it was an inconvenience, an annoyance to him. But as of now, he couldn’t help but enjoy the way it splashed against his skin. The way it fell at a steady, calm pace. As the blood faded from his body, in a way his sins were also being washed away.

Suddenly, he heard quiet footsteps from behind. He turned to look, no sense of vigilance left in him. There stood a man, pointing his handgun towards him. He expected no less. But as he recognized the man, he couldn’t help but feel his stomach drop.

“Why?” He whispered, unable to mask the hurt and betrayal in his voice. He sounded terrible, his voice raspy and out of breath.

The man’s confidence seemed to falter at that. However, they still pointed the gun shakily at him.

He heard a gentle click, followed by a loud obnoxious noise.

“It was never going to work.”

So why did he feel himself burn in betrayal?

—

It was a peaceful day for Tsukasa Tenma. The sun was high in the sky, reflecting against the snow beneath his feet. The trees were bare, the autumn leaves nowhere to be seen. As he walked through the plaza, he could see the pedestrians wearing heavy jackets with scarfs and mittens, signifying the cold season. He too wore his own winter clothing, an especially thick yellow scarf draped around his neck.

On days like this, the strawberry blonde enjoyed strolling through the city. He looked through the windows of different shops, marking down any that seemed of interest. As he mileniously walked, a particular dessert shop caught his attention. The smell of coffee and fresh baked treats welcomed him as he approached the window. There inside the shop sat some of the best treats he’d ever seen. The shop didn’t seem to have many customers either. He could get some desserts for his dear sister and himself!

As Tsukasa was about to enter the shop, his phone rang. He grumbled in annoyance before fishing the phone out of his pocket. This better be important! The screen lit up, revealing that none other than Emu was calling him. He picked up the phone and brought it to his ear. Big mistake.

“Hello?”

“TSUKASA-KUN!! Hello!!” A loud and enthusiastic voice screeched out of the phone.

“Gah!” He physically cringed, quickly lowering the volume. “Don’t scream into the microphone like that, Emu!”

“Oh, sorry~!” Emu giggled, clearly not sorry at all. “There was just something very very important I had to tell you!!”

“Eh? Important?” What could possibly be more important than getting his sister and himself delicious bakery treats! Many things, actually.

“Mhm mhm! The executive said they have something superrrr important they have to talk to you about,” Emu said, a little too happily for the context. “Oh! But! I’m sure it’s nothing bad…” She trailed off.

The executive wanted to personally see him? Was he in trouble? Did he do something bad? Surely not. “Oh. I see.” Tsukasa muttered.

Emu seemed to sense his worry, “It's okay Tsukasa! It didn’t sound too bad! But then again… the boss never asks to see coworkers personally…”

Tsukasa visibly groaned, slapping himself on the face. People passing by probably thought he had a problem. “Thanks a lot, Emu. You made me feel so much better.” He said sarcastically.

“No problem Tsukasa!!” Emu beamed, clearly not sensing his sarcasm. “So- huh?” He could hear Emu get distracted by another voice talking to her. She seemed to get farther away from her phone, as he could now only pick up inaudible voices.

“Ah, it seems that I have some super duper important stuff I have to do!!” Emu sighed, her voice audible once again. “Sorry Tsukasa!! Bye bye!”

“Eh? Okay, by- oh.”

Tsukasa was cut off by a beep, signaling that the call had ended. He couldn’t believe it! Emu had essentially dropped a bomb on him while he was in a great mood and ditched. He huffed to himself in annoyance, leaning against the concrete wall. Today was going just splendidly.

Now, what was Tsukasa so worried about? Confronting his extremely intimidating boss. Normally for any job, of course you’d be nervous around your boss. It’s normal. However, Tsukasa didn’t just have any ordinary job. He was an assassin. An assassin for a particularly feared organization. The executive of said organization was an incredibly feared man, well known to be skilled and capable of taking many lives. So of course, when they personally request to see you, it can’t be anything good.

Tsukasa was also, however, an experienced and gifted assassin. He had worked in the industry since he was young, having spent years becoming the person he was today. Tsukasa was no average player and had the title of one of the best assassins at his age. He and his boss had a decent relationship, both holding immense respect for each other. (Or at least he held respect for his boss) He sincerely hoped that that was true, his boss couldn’t possibly end him now right?

The strawberry blonde took one last glance at the bakery shop and made a mental note to come back when he had time. Why’d he have to sign up for such a stressful and taxing job? Well.. technically he didn’t.

Tsukasa began his dreadful journey to the organization's building. Luckily it was only a short walk to get there, so hopefully he wouldn’t be yelled at for being late.

Upon arriving at the admittedly, fancy building, he sighed to himself for probably the 12th time since he had gotten the message from Emu. Tsukasa opened the spinning doors to be met with… your average office space. As he walked towards the elevator, he saw plenty of people walking by, busy with their own normal 9-5 lives.

You see, for obvious privacy reasons the institution decided to make an underground base so as to not be easily found out. The workers here were completely oblivious to the fact that essentially a mafia was underneath their feet. He still had absolutely no clue why they haven’t stopped to question why the same people, who don’t work here, keep showing up to take the elevator and disappear. He knew for a fact that they noticed him, because many of the same workers waved to him when he passed by. Maybe the organization was paying them to keep quiet.

Tsukasa entered the elevator once he made sure there was no one entering. He pressed 1 followed by a quick 3 and 9 on the button pad. The elevator seemed to hesitate for a moment before shaking in registration. Suddenly, a robotic voice spoke:

“Hello, Tsukasa Tenma.”

“Hi Miku,” He greeted back. Miku, or Hatsune Miku was a built in artificial intelligence that existed throughout the secret underground base. It was in charge of handling any tech matters and was especially useful when it came to hacking databases. It always irked him on how such an intelligent being came to be, but unfortunately that was just something no one knew. Or at least if someone did, no one ever bothered to tell him.

“Where are you heading?” Miku asked casually, her formal tones dropping as she realized who she’s talking to.

“R1, specifically Kaito’s room.” Tsukasa said rather hesitantly.

“Ah! Kaito wants to see you? Well that’s certainly new.” Miku giggled. The elevator shook slightly before starting to descend. “Is our future best assassin in trouble~?”

“WHAT! Of course not!” He shouted gruffly. “I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong!”

“Oho! Tsukasa-kun sounds so sure of himself!”

“Miku!”

“Kidding~! Just teasing you.” The robotic voice giggled light heartedly. “Kaito thinks quite highly of you y’know, don’t assume it’s something bad.”

He thought for a moment. Miku wasn’t wrong, when had Kaito ever shown ill intention towards him? If anything, he’s been nothing but kind and polite. Maybe he was just overthinking it. “Hmm… maybe you’re right, Miku.”

“You act like I’m not always right!” He laughed as he could hear her pouting.

The elevator came to a halt, the letters “R1” appearing at the top of the exit to signify he was here. “Well, I guess I’ll see you next time Tsukasa! Bye bye, and good luck.”

“Thanks…” He sighed. “Bye Miku!”

The shiny silver doors slid open to reveal an extremely modern and fancy hallway. The walls were painted a shiny white and were decorated with several paintings. Some walls had intersections that led to the computer rooms. These rooms were mainly used to search up data on your victims and what not, but at this time of day almost no one came here.

As he walked through the hallways he couldn’t help but shiver. It was awfully cold and it didn’t help that it was deathly quiet. After what felt like forever walking through the irritatingly long hallways, he arrived at the main attraction of this floor. The executives room.

Tsukasa couldn’t help but wonder who decided to make the entrance to this room look so damn intimidating? The doors were huge, almost like they were made for literal giants. The doors were covered in golden flower patterns and two flower pots with Iris hung from the roof.

Tsukasa took a deep breath and made his way to the doors. He was about to grab the handle when the doors dramatically swung open. He quickly stepped back, nearly face planting into them. Muttering a curse he looked up to find brown eyes glaring at him. He was met with a woman much older then he was with short brown hair. She wore a black leather coat with dark leggings, as well as a noticeable silver necklace.

“Ah- Greetings, Meiko.” The strawberry blonde gulped. Well this was just exceptional timing.

“What a nice surprise,” Meiko smiled at him coldly. “Hello Tsukasa. You must be here for Kaito, no?”

“T-That’s correct,” Tsukasa stammered. Gah! Get yourself together Tsukasa, it’s just your co-worker. Okay, maybe not just your co-worker.

Meiko was one of the superiors in the organization, well known and especially feared. The big question though was why? Why was she such an important figure? MEIKO didn’t participate in missions nor help with planning them. She had no special feats to back up her skills. She was simply a mysterious figure that showed when she wanted. There were several rumors of her being a deadly assassin, but retired after a mission that caused her a grave injury. He personally thought that that couldn’t be true, she must’ve done something in the past to gain such a title. Maybe her secret power is just being intimidating, her glare already enough to scare away her enemies.

“No need to be so timid,” She deadpanned. “Kaito isn’t going to kill you or something.”

I’m scared of you! Not Kaito! He wanted to scream. “Ah, of course.” He nodded politely. “Is this a bad time though? I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

Meiko raised an eyebrow at that before shaking her head and putting on her intimidating grin. “No, I’m sure he’d love to see you.” She stated. “I’ll leave you two alone now. Nice seeing you Tsukasa, until next time.” She patted him on the shoulder before walking away.

Tsukasa looked back utterly stunned. “Bye…?” He said, but judging by the way Meiko didn’t show any sign of acknowledgment, she didn’t hear him.

Tsukasa grumbled to himself, reaching for the door knob once again. He was almost expecting something to pop up and scare the living shit out of him. Fortunately for him though, nothing unexpected came up and he peacefully walked into the office.

Kaito’s office was a drastic change from the outside. The walls were painted in a royal blue color and were covered with monochrome shape patterns. Book shelves littered the room, almost to the point it could be called a library. Despite the mass amount of folders and paper work, the room was surprisingly tidy.

At the front desk sat none other than Kaito. The dark blue haired individual seemed frustrated about something, as their eyebrows were furrowed and they seemed to be in deep thought. Uh oh.

Kaito seemed to notice his presence and looked up. “Ah, Tsukasa. I’m glad you could make it,” He smiled politely. “Please, take a seat.” He gestured to the cushioned chairs that sat directly in front of the desk.

Taking a deep breath, Tsukasa mustered as much confidence as he could and walked forward. He took a seat in the black chairs and tried his best to look polite. “Thank you, sir. What did you need to discuss?” The blonde inquired.

“Right, yes, there was an important matter I needed to talk to you about.” Kaito opened a drawer and pulled out a massive folder. He opened it and pushed it into Tsukasa’s direction.

Tsukasa looked over curiously at the document. It seemed to be a document with… a lot of information on an individual. Judging by the bold words “Kamishiro Rui” at the top, that was who the information was on. Why exactly was Kaito showing him this? “What’s this about?” He asked, clearly confused.

“Kamishiro Rui,” Kaito said, a hint of unhappiness in his voice. “He’s been causing quite the trouble for the organization.”

Trouble, eh? It must be a big deal if Kaito looks so distressed talking about them. “How so?”

“They’ve been sabotaging a great deal of our missions, even going as far as murdering people within the organization.”

“Why hasn’t it been dealt with yet?” If this was such an important matter, surely it would’ve been solved by now?

“We initially thought that this was some rando and sent the inexperienced ones to assassinate them,” Kaito explained calmly. “Only one came back on the brink of death. They were sent back with a message.” Kaito flipped through the folder to reveal another page with a picture of a bloodied note.

I see you’ve finally caught up to my advances. Although I must say, I’m quite disappointed. The ones you sent were nothing short of pathetic. Either your little corporation has been failing or you think this a joke. It doesn’t matter, though. I’ll enjoy our little game regardless of the outcome.

:3

This Kamishiro guy sure was… how should he say it? Boring. Tsukasa knows he should feel some sort of dread, but he can’t seem to take them seriously. He’s dealt with many of these types of people. They try to sound menacing, sending intimidating notes and making a big deal out of their murders, but in the end they’re not very smart. They do all this teasing, trying to seem like they have the upper hand, but while putting on this show of theirs they slip up and end up dead.

Kaito seems to tell that he doesn’t care, and visibly sighs. “Kamishiro… he’s not like the others. He’s very capable of causing harm to us if not put down soon.”

“But why? He seems pretty average to me.” Tsukasa mutters, maybe a little too loudly. “Do you even know their motive?”

The dark blue haired male seems to think for a moment. “We believe it’s revenge.”

Tsukasa tilts his head in interest. “Revenge? For what?”

Kaito sighs, “You see, Kamishiro was an ex-assassin at this organization. He worked with a different branch so you wouldn’t know him. He was an incredibly skilled assassin, surpassing, essentially, everyone. He…” He pauses for a moment, his eyebrows scrunch in thought, seeming to debate his next words.“After an incident several years ago, Kamishiro disappeared without a trace. No one’s really sure what happened, but something must have angered him.”

Tsukasa’s eyes widened at that. An ex-assassin? That left voluntarily? He wasn’t familiar that such a thing was possible. Why would Kamishiro just… disappear with no reason to? Tsukasa can’t help but be suspicious of Kaito’s story. There’s so many holes in it. It doesn’t add up. However, he’s not going to push Kaito for an answer at this very moment.

“I see,” Tsukasa begins. “But how does any of this have to do with me?”

Kaito smiles at the question, “Ah, yes.” He reaches for one of the many folders on the desk and hands it to Tsukasa.

“We are giving you the mission to assassinate Kamishiro Rui.”

Chapter Text

Tsukasa stared dumbfounded at the smiling blue haired male. So let him get this straight. Kaito essentially told him that there was this highly skilled man, explained why they were highly dangerous, and then gave Tsukasa the job to assassinate them. He’s honored that Kaito thinks so highly of him and believes he's capable of handling it, but what if he’s just discarding him into the flames like everyone else?

“Oh.” Tsukasa barely gets out.

Kaito tilts his head, seeming to sense Tsukasa’s uncertainty. “Do you have a problem with that?”

Tsukasa quickly shakes his head, “Of course not. I’d be honored to take the mission. Just…” he trails off. “Why me?”

“Well, we’ve been trying to deal with Kamishiro for quite some time now. We’ve sent multiple agents, none of which have been successful.” Kaito explains. “As you know, Tsukasa, you are one of our best assassins. If anyone can get the job done, we know you can.”

Tsukasa can’t help but feel flattered at that, a small smile crossing his face. Wow Tsukasa. Priding yourself on being able to kill people well? He shuts off that thought as soon as it begins. “Of course! I won’t let you down, sir.” Tsukasa grins.

“I know you won’t.” Kaito gestures to the folder he just gave Tsukasa, “There are several documents in this folder regarding Kamishiro Rui. If you have any questions, you can come back to my office later. I would’ve liked to discuss with you longer, but unfortunately I have an upcoming meeting.”

“Thank you, sir.” He stood up and took the folder, bowing slightly out of respect.

“Ah, you can stop with the formalities,” Kaito chuckles. “Please, call me Kaito. We’re friends, no?”

“Oh… okay. Thank you, Kaito!” He said, before waking out of the office.

Tsukasa let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as he exited the office. As he walked through the hallways he contemplated whether the meeting went better or worse than he had expected. Kamishiro Rui, eh? The guy seemed to be quite the trouble maker. It didn’t matter though, he would succeed in his mission regardless. He had never failed, and wasn’t about to let some measly ex-assassin ruin that for him! Though, he best be careful.

Looking down at his watch, it showed that it was 3:00. He decided that he’d go to the main floor and find a table to look over the document.

Tsukasa rode the elevator down to the main floor, which was possibly the busiest one in the whole building. The arena, study rooms and training rooms were located on that floor. Not to mention it was a wide area where most people went to discuss missions with others. He could’ve gone to the library, but he preferred to be in a more lively environment.

The entire organization was truly huge. He always wondered how an assassin group could attain this many members. However, when he thinks of it, it’s not all that surprising. Like himself, most people joined because they were in a desperate situation. When he was young, his family suffered from poverty. It didn’t help that his little sister, Saki, had a terrible illness that they didn’t have the money to treat. The organization, introduced as Sanguis Cohors, noticed their situation and offered to help their family, promising fortunes if they joined them. As the oldest son, he was pushed by his parents into being the candidate. Not like he would’ve had it any other way. From then, being an assassin was all he ever knew. Such a shame that his parents never fully understood what they had pushed their son into. Still, he wonders how the organization found and picked out all these kids. What were they really getting out of all this?

Besides Sanguis Cohors, which was what he worked for, there were many other assassin groups that existed. “Swiftmoon” was another one that his organization was enemies with, often being competitive with each other in terms of kills. Despite the mass amount of assassins that existed in these groups, commoners were completely oblivious to it all. However, it was noticeable that crime rates were high in their city. The amount of police officers increases with each passing year, making their missions all the more difficult.

Tsukasa walked into the main floor to be met with quite the crowd. People were dashing from left to right, most likely busy with their upcoming missions. The whole organization was like a full on business with how everything worked. He walked past a few familiar faces who waved at him before taking a seat at one of the open silver tables.

The blonde plopped the folder on the table, the words “Kamishiro Rui” plastered on the front. He opened the folder and picked out a document that seemed to be the basic information on his target. Rui was assumed to be a 21 year old man, about the same age as he was. He was known for being very talented when it came to inventions, and was especially skilled when it came to far ranged combat. Judging by such personal info, this was compiled from the time when he still worked as an assassin.

Tsukasa skimmed down to the portion that talked about Rui’s attack patterns. Apparently Rui was very conservative in his attacks. According to the others who faced him, they said he likes to draw out the time, catching his victims unaware before quickly disposing of them. He wears a black hood and mask, appearing as a very quick and dark figure. It states that no one’s ever really caught a glimpse of what Rui looks like without the mask on.

The rest of the information Tsukasa reads isn’t particularly useful, and he finds that the entire document is fairly short. He scrunches his face in confusion as he finishes reading the provided information, before flipping through it again in search of something. Where was the picture of Rui? He flips the pages again and again, but no picture. Surely they would have provided some kind of picture of his target? As he stares at the papers in denial, a voice cuts off his train of thought.

“Tsukasa! Tsukasa!” A voice calls out.

“Oi- Give it back!” Another voice says gruffly.

Tsukasa turns his head to find a particular pink haired individual running his way, swinging a piece of paper enthusiastically in the air. Following them appears to be a very pissed off ginger who attempts to snatch the paper away from them.

“Tsukasa! Loo-” The grinning pink haired tries to hand him the paper before being pulled backwards. The supposed victim of the scene snatches the paper aggressively from their hands. “Ow! Akito! What was that for?” They whine.

“For stealing my paper you little shit-”

“Eh? Mizuki and Akito?” Tsukasa says in surprise.

Mizuki and Akito. Two of his relatively close friends who worked as assassins at the organization as well. He had gotten to know the two of them well after being put on a mission with them, and the three became good friends afterwards. Although Akito always put in some snarky comment, saying how the other two were insufferable, he and Mizuki both knew he loved them deep inside.

Mizuki continues to try and grab the paper again, but Akito swiftly dodges all of their attempts at it. Eventually, the pink haired huffs in defeat and takes a seat at Tsukasa’s table.

“Ugh, why can’t I show him that little crush of yours?” Mizuki whines, flopping their arms on the table to emphasize their disappointment.

Tsukasa perks up in interest at that. “Akito has a crush?!” He gasps loudly.

“Shut up! I do not have a crush for god's sake!” Akito growls, face turning a bright shade of red.

“Yes you do!” Mizuki grins. “Y’know Tsukasa, I saw him “working on his case” but all he was doing was staring at the picture of-" Akito immediately covers their mouth, an annoyed squeak coming from Mizuki.

“Akito!” Tsukasa gasps, “I never knew you were someone to do something like that!” The stoned heart Akito taking an interest in someone? Well that was new.

“I’m not- Ugh! You guys are terrible.” Akito grumbles. Tsukasa notices Mizuki eyeing the paper that the ginger has currently forgotten, and he already knows what’s going to happen next. They snatch the paper out of Akito’s hand and much to his dismay plop it onto the table to show Tsukasa.

The paper is much like the one he received on Rui, filled with information on the given target, except this paper actually has an image of who you’re after. The target's name is Aoyagi Toya. The image is of a man that looks pretty young. They have light and dark blue two toned hair and sharp gray eyes. The name sounded oddly familiar to him. Aoyagi Toya? Where had he heard that name…

“Ooh, wow Akito.” Tsukasa smirks.

At this point Akito has completely given up and looks like he’s having a mental breakdown.

“Hehe! They totally look like Akito’s type,” Mizuki giggles.

“Since when did you know what Akito was into?” He frowns.

“Uh…” They pause, seeming to think. “Since now!” Mizuki announces proudly.

“You guys are the worst…” Akito mumbles to himself.

“Aah, what a shame.” Mizuki sighes dramatically. “They have such a pretty face! Too bad you’re gonna have to kill them.”

The atmosphere suddenly becomes tense with those words. Mizuki seems to realize and goes quiet. Akito looks away, an unreadable expression painted on his face. It was always uncomfortable to talk about their jobs and the whole… murdering aspect to it. They mainly just did what they had to and didn’t really think about the fact that they did it. You’d think assassins would be cold hearted and all, but in reality the subject was quite touchy. They were raised to be killing machines. That still didn’t erase the fact that they were humans with very human emotions.

“W-well, anyway, how’s everything been for you guys?” Tsukasa speaks up, attempting to break the silence.

Akito snorts, going back to his original self. “Was dropped off a buttload of paperwork earlier today. I thought you didn’t get paperwork when you were working on a mission.”

“Aha, sucks to be you.” Mizuki snickers. Tsukasa laughs as Akito shot a glare at Mizuki. “I was assigned to work on new suits for someone’s mission. Masquerade party or something.”

“Oh yeah,” Akito disregarded whatever Mizuki said and instead pointed at Tsukasa’s folder. “What’s with all the papers?”

“Oh, yes! I was assigned a new mission today by Kaito!” Tsukasa proclaims proudly.

“Oh. Who’s it on?”

“Some guy named Kamishiro Rui.”

“Ohh!” Mizuki chimes in. “The Kamishiro dude. Tough luck,” Akito too seems to recognize the name, and sends Tsukasa a pitiful nod.

“Tough luck? You know him?” Tsukasa says confused. He was aware that others had been assigned the same target, but for people like Akito to know him too?

“Of course,” They say in usion. “Haven’t you heard? That mission has been floating around for a while now. Still no one has managed to assassinate the dude.” Mizuki tells him, looking curiously over at his folder.

“Eh? Surely it can’t be that difficult?” Tsukasa was fairly confident in his abilities. Hell, he would even consider himself one of the best agents out there. Although this seemed to be a difficult mission, he was almost certain he would be successful.

“I don't know, man. Sounds pretty hard to me…”

“I am the world’s best future assassin! Nothing is too hard for someone such as me!” Tsukasa grins, putting his hands on his hips to emphasize his point.

Akito and Mizuki look at each other with a doubtful expression. He can’t believe it! They don’t trust in his abilities?

“I mean.. you are pretty good at what you do!” Mizuki elbows Akito in the shoulder, “Give him some credit, Akito. Maybe he does have this covered!”

“I really doubt that,” He deadpans.

“Gah! Why can’t you guys ever believe in me? When have I ever failed an assassination?” Tsukasa grumbles angrily.

Mizuki pauses, seeming to think for a moment. “I guess that’s true. It’s not your regular mission though if everyone who was assigned it failed.”

Tsukasa hates to admit it, but they’re right. What if he’s just another pawn Kaito’s throwing in to most likely get killed? Just another assassin that’ll weaken the enemy? Well, not if he had anything to say about it. “W-well!” Tsukasa stutters, “It’ll be different for me!”

“If you say so,” Akito shrugges. “Just be careful. The last thing I want is to hear your sorry ass dead.”

“Mhm, just remember, don’t get cocky.”

“I’m not cocky!?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Akito checks his watch and frowns. “Mizuki, we have to go.”

Mizuki turns their head in confusion, “Why?”

“The meeting?”

“OH! Shoot!” They quickly stand up out of their chair in panic. “Ah, I’d love to talk with you more Tsukasa, but we really got to go.”

Tsukasa nods his head in understanding. Best not to be late for a meeting, especially if it’s important. If you’re lucky, you get the embarrassment of walking in late and a few glares. If you’re not so lucky… well, you can probably tell how that’ll go. “No worries! It was nice talking to you two! Oh, and, good luck with your mission, Akito.”

“Thanks I guess. You too.”

The two wave goodbye before hurrying off into the distance. As they disappear out of sight he pulls his phone out of his pocket. It lights up to show the numbers 4:27 in bold. It would get busier in a few hours, as most agents came in during the evening. Tsukasa glances at the folder again and sighs, mentally deciding whether or not he’d bug Kaito again for the pictures. He opted to just email him and hopefully get the pictures via online later.

Hi Kaito. I noticed that there weren’t any provided images of my target. If you have time, could you send them to me later? Thank you!

Tsukasa clicked send and prayed for a future response. He organized his documents into a neat pile and shuffled them into his handbag. He’d look it over more thoroughly when he got home. The blonde left the building to be met with the cold winter air and the sun already sinking over the horizon.

Tsukasa unlocked the door to his apartment and was welcomed by the smell of home. He stripped off his heavy jacket and kicked off his shoes, “I’m home!” He yelled, walking into the kitchen. He was met with empty silence and the sudden lonely atmosphere. He mentally slapped himself for following his stupid habits. Tsukasa lived alone. That’s how it’s always been. That’s how it’ll always stay. The thought of his sister, Saki, welcoming him home again with that bright smile of hers, that smile that lights up the entire world, makes his heart ache in loneliness.

He quickly brushes the thought off and changes into his pajamas. It was a childish yellow onesie covered with stars that just barely fit him. It was gifted to Tsukasa from Saki so they could match when they were younger. He knew he shouldn’t still be attached to such small things, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t help but cling to the little things that reminded him of family. The little things that made him just a little less lonely.

The blonde must’ve looked ridiculous. Lounging on the couch wearing a yellow starred onesie that just barely fit him, while simultaneously looking through an assassination document. An embarrassing sight indeed.

Much time passed as he looked over the folder, occasionally taking notes of useful information. As he skimmed through the documents in the folder he came across a clipped section labeled “Tsukasa’s Mission”. So they already had it planned out for them? That made his life quite a bit easier.

MISSION [FOR TSUKASA TENMA]

Tomorrow at 6:30pm, you will attend a Masquerade party hosted by a close client of Sanguis Cohors named Hiroto Takahashi. According to our data and attack analysis, we believe Kamishiro Rui will attempt to murder Takahashi tomorrow night. You will pose as an invited guest and will find and assassinate Kamishiro at the party. This will be a solo mission. Further details on the party invitation are below.

Good luck.

A masquerade party? Tomorrow? Tsukasa gawked at the mission description, he didn’t think it’d be this sudden. They could’ve at least given him a few days to prepare in advance! For such an “important” mission, you’d think they’d organize it more thoroughly. As he stared at the last words, “good luck” a shiver ran down his spine. The words carried an uncanny feeling that seeped into his mind. Not even a second after, his phone buzzed obnoxiously, making him jump in surprise. He burns in embarrassment at the realization of letting out such a humiliating sound.

Tsukasa reaches to grab his phone, secretly hoping that Kaito sent the photos to him. Instead he’s met with two unread messages from none other than Mizuki.

Akiyama Mizuki

mizuki
Remember how I said I was making suits for a certain someone’s mission?
That certain someone just so happens to be you~!

Tsukasa lets out a quiet groan in disappointment. He glances at the time that shows that it’s 1 in the morning. Why was Mizuki texting him at such an outrageous time? It wasn't like he was any better though. In his defense, he had lost track of time. It wasn’t like he did this every night unlike a certain someone he knew. He does remember Mizuki mentioning that they were assigned to make suits during their earlier conversation that day. It wasn’t uncommon for the organization to request them to make costumes and such for missions, as they had a knack for designing.

Tsukasa!!
Yeah, I just found out
The masquerade party is set for tomorrow??? Can you believe that?

mizuki
ooh, that sucks
at least you’ll look good lol

Tsukasa!!
I can’t believe that’s the first thing you think

mizuki
oh cmon! i tailored it to youu
oh btw, you wanna meet at my place to get the suit tmr?

Tsukasa!!
if that works for you then sure!!

mizuki
aight, meet me at 12pm
i should hopefully be awake at that time

Hopefully awake? He’d forgotten how messed up Mizuki’s sleep schedule was. At this rate, he wonders how they're even surviving with the amount of sleep they're getting. It was always surprising how the pink haired always seemed so energetic when he saw them. Not nearly as much as him, but still a considerable amount.

Tsukasa groaned in defeat and belly flopped onto the couch, curling his hands around a nearby pillow. He let out a weak scream in attempts to voice out his frustration, but it only added to his growing grogginess. He scrolled through his email history, but not to his surprise, there wasn’t a single response back.

Tsukasa would be going to assassinate someone blind. It was funny, really, to think of him trying to track down someone he didn’t even know. Asking everyone at the party, “Do you know someone named Kamishiro Rui?” and then what if he happened to ask Rui himself? He’d be killed right then and there. From a viewpoint it would make for a hilarious comedy, but for him? Not a fun time. Not at all.

Tsukasa felt his head begin to sink into the pillow. Exhaustion had finally caught up to him, the price to pay for staying up so late. He knows he should at least drag himself to bed, but his body won’t move an inch. Soon enough, he found himself drifting off to sleep, with a certain individual clouding his mind:

Kamishiro Rui.

Chapter Text

A dark figure hid in the shadows of an alleyway, peering at the glowing mansion. Many people could be seen walking up to the mansion, wearing tailored suits and expensive long gowns. Most importantly of all, they all wore an intricate mask. A mask that hid their identity to everyone in that party. A mask that allowed you to blend in, to become something you weren’t.

He too, wore a mask of his own. It was pure black with hints of purple streaks that outlined the edges. It did the job well of hiding his true self. But while he wore it, he was someone else now. He was assumed and reduced to be just another privileged individual. Just another one of the many corrupt people that surely swarmed that party now. It made him feel disgusted. However, sometimes you had to do things that felt wrong. As long as it was just another necessary thing you needed to do to achieve your goal, then so be it.

As the others disappeared into the mansion, he walked out into sight, striding confidently to his target. He walked up the red carpeted stairs and towards the giant glass doors which were covered by long white curtains. Outside the door was a tall man who seemed to be checking names off of a clipboard. They notice his presence and offer him a cold smile.

“Hello~!” He greets with a catlike grin.

“Name?” The other man asks, clearly not bothered to use formalities.

He pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to the man.

They flip through the pages in search of his name. As the awkward time goes by, he can’t help but worry that he forgot to register his name into the system. He sighs in relief as they scribble something down and gesture for him to go in. He offers them a polite smile before pushing the curtains open and entering the building. As he gazes down at the river of people, he takes a deep breath in.

It’s showtime.

—

A man could be seen running frantically through the streets. It was snowing quite heavily today, most people taking cover inside, while some children opted to play in the snow instead. Why was a man, specifically a blonde, running so urgently in such conditions? Well, he might’ve forgotten a few important things.

Tsukasa may have woken a tad bit late. Scratch that, he woke up at a god awful time. At least to his standards. He then proceeded to do his morning routine incredibly slowly and then lay on the couch without a care in the world. After a whopping 20 minutes, when the clock showed 12, he finally had the decency to remember he was supposed to pick up his suits from Mizuki today.

This led to the situation Tsukasa was in now. It didn’t help that the snow coated the ground as he ran, making it especially difficult with each passing step. Mizuki’s house wasn’t too far from his, and was about a 5 minute drive away. Unfortunately for him though, he didn’t have a car, so he was forced to go on foot.

The watch on his wrist showed 12:20, elighting a quiet groan in frustration from the blonde. Tsukasa could only pray that Mizuki wouldn’t scold him when he arrived. He finally stopped at a pink house that sat peacefully in between several of the same buildings. It was your ordinary household, nothing special but still far fancier than the apartment building he lived in.

Tsukasa took some time to catch his breath, wheezing slightly as he walked up to Mizuki’s door. He pressed on the doorbell, waiting nervously for a very annoyed Mizuki. God he was late. To his surprise, it took far longer than he expected for them to open the door. He had stood there waiting for a solid 4 minutes, wondering if Mizuki had gone out, before the door finally opened.

Tsukasa was met with a very groggy Mizuki who seemed to have just woken up. They still wore their pink sleeping pajamas and had their hair tied into a messy bun. He got one thing right though, and that was that Mizuki looked really pissed off.

“What are you doing here, Tsukasa?” Mizuki says, their voice cracking slightly.

What? “I’m… here for the suits?” Tsukasa scratches his head in confusion, clearly not expecting those words.

Mizuki continues to stare at him dumbfoundedly, a newfound irritation growing in their eyes. After seconds of awkward staring, his words finally seem to register into Mizuki’s head. “Oh… oh!” They laugh, grinning apologetically. “I totally forgot you were picking them up today. Oops?”

Seriously? Tsukasa mentally slaps himself for believing that Mizuki would ever stay true to a schedule. This wasn’t even the first time it happened! The pink haired had done this on several similar occasions, most notably the time when they invited him to go shopping. Mizuki had been begging him to go to the mall with them for quite some time now, and after a while he begrudgingly agreed. Besides, he might’ve been able to buy Saki some cute outfits to give when they met again. The blonde had shown up at the mall and waited for Mizuki for a solid half an hour, before receiving a text saying that they forgot about the outing. Ever since then, he’d become skeptical whenever Mizuki proposed an event.

“Why am I not surprised?” He sighs in defeat. The pink haired simply chuckles and gestures for him to come inside.

Tsukasa steps into the house, and much like the outside, is greeted with a pastel pink environment. He’s only been to Mizuki’s house on a few occasions, but one of the most notable things about the place was how tidy and fashionable it was. It truly was a very fitting place for someone like them. He takes off his shoes before getting dragged by Mizuki up to their room.

Once they arrive, Mizuki quickly scrambles to pick up the loose string and sewing materials scattered on the floor. “Aha, sorry for the mess. I wasn’t expecting visitors.” They say, shoving a sewing machine into a drawer.

The blonde raises an eyebrow before quickly shaking his head, still gazing at the room in curiosity. “No, it’s… really tidy actually!” Besides all of Mizuki’s designing materials that he assumed were forgotten to be put away, everything in the room was organized in a neat and visually appealing way. Designer bags and cute plushies sat on the bookshelves, and he could see several of Mizuki’s designs put on display that really complimented the overall look of the room. The whole atmosphere had an aesthetically pleasing pink atmosphere that really reminded him of Mizuki.

While Tsukasa was focusing on the room, Mizuki had been rummaging in their closet in search of something. “Aha!” They proclaim happily before exiting the closet with a garment rack. He looks back and watches them pull out a white tuxedo off one of the hangers. They raise it up proudly for Tsukasa to see.

It was a gray tuxedo with a line design and a dark gray collar. It came with a white dress jacket with golden floral patterns around the sleeves and waist, along with a white and golden chiffon ruffle collar that acted as a tie. To compliment it all off, there was a fake red rose sprinkled with just barely visible white stars. To say Tsukasa was a little overwhelmed would be an understatement. He’d never seen nor worn something that fancy in his, admittedly, sad life.

“Isn’t it great?” Mizuki grins, showing off the outfit they made. “I bet you’ll look amazing in it!” They hand him the suit and accessories, still smiling just as widely.

“Umm…” He hesitates, unsure of how to go about his next words. Mizuki notices his hesitance and tilts their head in question. “Don’t get me wrong! It looks really good!” The blonde says, making sure that they didn’t get the wrong idea. He thought the outfit looked exceptional. Almost… too exceptional. “It just… doesn’t really suit me, y’know?

“Eh? What makes you say that?”

Tsukasa had been born into a poor family. Although working as an assassin had garnered him a fortune, most of that money went to his family. He wanted them, specifically his sister, to live an easy life. A life that didn’t constantly require them to worry about finances and such. Maybe they lived a more extravagant life, one that allowed them to afford this type of clothing, but he sure didn’t. “I’ve just never worn something that fancy before.”

Mizuki blinks in surprise at that, before smiling and softening their expression. “Ah, Tsukasa. You’re so silly sometimes.”

“Huh?”

“Does it really matter if you think you’ve never worn fancier clothes? You should be thinking about the opportunity this presents you!” Mizuki grins, putting their hands on their hips. “This could make you shine more than you already do!”

“Ah…” Mizuki was right. Why was he dwelling on such small matters? They had made him such an extravagant piece, and he’s thinking about how he doesn’t deserve it? He should be appearciating the fact that he’ll even be able to wear it! “You’re right! Thank you, Mizuki.”

“Heh, I’m always right!” They smile proudly. Although sometimes Mizuki could be a pain, they still were a great friend.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say that…”

They pout slightly before going back to their excited demaneor. “You should go try it on!”

As Mizuki hands him some more accessories he’s practically pushed into the closet to change. It reminds him of when they went shopping together with Akito and they forced him to try out clothes way out of his budget line. He remembers him and Mizuki laughing as Akito came out of the dressing room looking as stiff as a tone while wearing one of the most bizarre costumes he’d ever seen.

Speaking of dressing rooms, or more so, Mizuki’s closet, all he had to say was it was ginormous. Much less a closet, and more like another mini room. He changed into the tuxedo, ultimately having difficulties with the jarring amount of layers the outfit had. Once he finished, he clipped a cute star pin on the side of his hair, an accessory that Mizuki had provided him with.

Tsukasa stepped out of the closet feeling admittedly, a little bit embarrassed. He almost felt like another person while wearing something this extravagant. Mizuki looked over and immediately grinned in excitement. “You look amazing!” The pink haired exclaimed, looking at their piece of work proudly.

“Hah, of course I do!” Tsukasa put his hands on his hips, showing off the outfit more. “Oh erm, I didn’t know what to do with this.” He hands the other a ribbon. He didn’t really know what it was for, so he decided against putting it on to save him the embarrassment.

“It’s a hair piece,” Mizuki says, before gesturing to a chair in front of them “Come here! I’ll put it on for you.”

Tsukasa walks over and takes a seat, and before he knows it, Mizuki is expertly tying his hair. They tie his hair into a short ponytail and clip on the previous hair accessory. “Tada!” They hand him a mirror, and he’s slightly taken aback by the person he sees. Mizuki had parted his bangs and gave him a small ponytail, the previous ribbon attached to it to act as a hair tie.

“Y’know, you’re doing my hair now, but I’m worried I’m not going to be able to do it later tonight,” Tsukasa laughs.

“Ehh, it’s not that hard. I’ve seen you style your hair, I think you know what you’re doing!”

Tsukasa hums in acknowledgment, continuing to stare at the mirror and the new found person in front of him. “Thank you a lot, Mizuki! I really appreciate you making this for me.” He looks back and smiles.

“No problemo!” The pink haired gives him a thumbs up. “You better kick some ass tonight! Make sure that Kamishiro dude knows who he’s messing with.”

“Of course!”

Tsukasa changes and packs the clothing into a bag Mizuki provides him with. The pink haired ends up convincing him to stay for lunch, or more so breakfast for them, as a way to say sorry for forgetting the meeting again. He tries to convince them that he already owes them for making him the costume, but unfortunately to no avail.

Before he knows it, it’s 2 in the afternoon and he’s leaving Mizuki’s house. “Thank you for the outfit and lunch!” He says, expressing his gratitude to the best of his abilities.

“Don’t mention it!” They grin. “Good luck on your mission.”

“Thanks,” He replies weakly. Now that he’s leaving, the mission is finally resurfacing into his mind, which he can’t say is a good thing.

Tsukasa waved goodbye before hurrying down the street back to his apartment.

—

A few hours had passed. The sun had begun to slowly sink over the horizon, a warm orange tinge painting the sky. The blonde stared off into the distance, clutching at the railings of the apartment's balcony.

Tsukasa had spent the majority of his time preparing when he arrived back home. He had loaded several weapons within his dress coat, some including a few of his favorite daggers and a pocket pistol. He had put on his suit and spent an embarrassingly long time figuring out how to style his hair properly. Or at least how to make it look nice. After what seemed like hours, he had come up with something that didn’t look too bad. Still, he can’t help but think that in the few minutes Mizuki spent, they managed to do a better job.

When everything was ready, the blonde had decided to spend his last few moments staring at the setting sun, taking possibly his last few breaths. He glanced at his watch, the time showing 6 in the evening. The masquerade party started at around 6:30, and according to the provided document, someone would be driving him to the party some time before that. As he watched from the balcony, he noticed a conspicuous black car parked right outside the apartment's entrance. If he squinted a little more, he could make out two letters in bold, “SC” stamped on the trunk.

That was his cue to quickly grab his things and rush out the door. The blonde rushed down the stairs and out the apartment, looking around before spotting the black car once again. He approached it carefully, double checking that his intuition was correct, and sure enough the organization's logo was displayed on the car. He opened the car's rear doors, before stepping inside.

Inside sat a women dressed in all black, their face covered with an equally dark mask. Something about them gave him an eerie feeling, but alas, he’s accustomed to it. He’s had to deal with the likes of many people, and this is no exception. They seem to glance over at him before starting the engine, and soon enough the vehicle begins to move.

Tsukasa stares out the window, mind empty, enjoying the comfortable silence. However, all good things come to an end, a voice interrupting his peace.

“You should put your mask on,” They say, their voice surprisingly smooth and honey-like.

Tsukasa blinks in realization and quickly grabs the mask he stored in his bag. Like everything else, it was made by Mizuki once again. It was white and golden, made to match with his outfit. He slips the mask onto his face, grumbling a little when it at first obscures his vision. He adjusts it, but still finds that it makes him uncomfortable.

“Thank you,” Tsukasa says gratefully. Although he doesn’t believe that wearing the mask right now is necessary, as the other most likely already knows what he looks like, he still appearciates their thoughtfulness. It’d also be a good idea to be masked before exiting the car.

“Don’t thank me.” The other deadpans, a hint of venom laced in their voice. Rude. He doesn’t really care, though.

The rest of the drive is in silence, which the both of them seem to appreciate. He occasionally glances at the driver, but he can never really see much because of the mask. At one particular moment, he catches a glimpse of their eyes, which are a light shade of purple. Huh. They seem to be focused though, because their eyes stay glued to the road, never once glancing in a different direction.

Eventually, the car comes to an abrupt stop right in front of a giant mansion. As he exits the car, he sees several other people approaching and entering the building, all of which are wearing a mask just like himself.

Tsukasa walks over to the entrance, placing himself in the lineup of those waiting to enter the party. It surprises him just how many people were attending this masquerade party. Sure, it’s a rich client. Of course they have a big fancy house and invite virtually everyone they know, but seriously? He’s just in the lineup of those entering the building at this moment, who knows what awaits him inside.

As he makes it to the front of the line up, he’s greeted by a tall muscular man who seems to be the admission person. In front of them is a large wooden stand which he assumes has the names of all the invited individuals. As soon as the man looks up from his clipboard, a look of recognition lights in his eyes.

“Tenma,” The man greets, bowing slightly out of respect.

So the organization had informed them of his presence. How fun. “Aha, no need to be so formal!” Tsukasa smiles awkwardly, not used to being treated like a respected figure.

“My apologies, then.” They look back towards their clipboard and check something off, which he presumes is his name. “I assume you’re here for…?”

“Yes,” He quickly cuts them off. He’d much rather not go into the details of an assassination with someone, much rather someone at the front desk.

The man nods in understanding, “Well, welcome to the party. We hope you enjoy your stay.”

Tsukasa flashes them what he hopes is a confident smile, before pushing the curtains guarding the entrance and walking inside.

Chapter Text

The first thing Tsukasa thinks when he enters the building is loud. Very, very loud. Oh, and, that’s a lot of people. Tsukasa would say that he dealt with crowded and loud situation’s well, but god. Yeah, yeah, He instinctively covers his ears the second he walks in, booming music practically screaming into his ears. He glances at the sea of people around him, all of which seemed to be unaffected by it. The blonde grumbles in annoyance. He’d just have to suck it up.

Tsukasa pushes past the sea of people, attempting to find the main room, or more importantly, the client. Judging by the close relation they had with the organization, he’d be expected to protect them. Rui was waiting somewhere in this party to kill the man, and as much as he doesn’t want to, he’ll have to make sure Takahashi doesn’t die. It’s best he stay close to the target, as Rui could only be lurking nearby, waiting for a chance to strike. He still couldn’t believe he didn’t know what the guy looked like! At this point, he might as well stalk anyone who comes close to interacting with Takahashi.

As Tsukasa approached what he thought was a mini stage, he noticed a particular man talking to another, and he immediately realized who they were. The blonde walks up to the two people, politely greeting them.

“Hello,” Tsukasa put on a bubbly smile. The two look at him, slightly confused. Beside his client was a well dressed woman who was wearing an intricate red gown. Although he assumed Rui to be a male, he should still keep tabs on everyone regardless of their appearance or gender. Who knows, maybe Rui could be double teaming with someone. “You must be Takahashi, no?”

The man immediately dives into a fit of laughter, before grinning at him proudly. “Of course! The one and only,” Their words slur, continuing to laugh. Guh. He couldn’t believe it! The guy was already drunk and the party had just started. Judging from their choice of speech, it was what he feared. They were yet another snobby, arrogant rich guy. He didn’t know why he expected anything different.

“Aha,” Tsukasa laughs awkwardly. “Good to know… I’ll be taking my leave now.” He really didn’t feel like talking to someone like him right now, much less while they were drunk.

Takahashi tilts their head in confusion, “So soon?” They then shrug and continue their conversation with the women, promptly ignoring his existence once again. He’d rather it be that way.

Tsukasa takes a seat at one of the many tables scattered across the building. He chooses one that allows him the best view of the client so he can make notes of whoever approaches him. He looks around for a moment, gawking to himself when he sees a giant bar in the corner, already seeing many people downing alcohol nearby.

Suddenly, the music stops and is replaced by a loud voice. He sighs in relief at the loss of sound before redirecting his gaze to where the noise came from. He glances over to see an individual that he doesn’t recognize standing on the previous stage with a microphone in hand.

“Hello everyone. We’d like to thank you all for deciding to attend Takahashi’s masquerade party…”

An info announcement. How wonderful. Tsukasa ignores it as soon as he hears it, gazing down at the table with a bored expression. He catches a few bits of information, like how the party would be lasting till around 4 in the morning. Wait. The party would last till 4 in the morning. He glances around for any clocks on the walls, and fortunately for him, he finds one. Man, rich people really had everything. Not so fortunately the hands showed 7. He buries his head in his hands at the realization that this was going to be a very, very long night.

When the announcement ends, sure enough, the music hits right back up. Tsukasa looks back to where Takahashi was and realizes he’s disappeared. Fuck. He stands up abruptly and looks around the area. The man is nowhere in sight. In the midst of his panicked search, he accidentally crashes into another person walking the opposite direction.

Tsukasa grumbles in confusion, looking up to be met with two sharp yellow eyes staring down at him. They stare at him curiously, eyes shining with a glint of amusement.

“Enjoying the view?”

The blonde flushes in embarrassment at the realization that he was caught staring. It wasn’t his fault he got lost in the moment! He was just a little dazed from the accident, that was all. “What! Of course not!” Tsukasa denies immediately, crossing his arms and looking to the side, unable to meet the others' gaze. Still, curiosity gets the better of him and he looks over to see who exactly he bumped into.

The person in front of him had messy purple hair and what seemed to be turquoise highlights. The majority of their face was covered by a dark purple and maroon mask, but their yellow eyes were still very much noticeable. They wore a maroon corset along with a lengthy purple coat that had black feathers popping out of the sleeves. Much like him, they had a chiffon ruffle collar on their chest except it was black and had a red gem in the center. Along with dark leggings, they wore black thigh high boots with subtle maroon and gold specks.

The purple haired tilts their head to the side, smiling ever so catlike. “Hm, yet you continue to stare at me so hard.” They remark, staring down at him. He’s reminded of how much taller they are compared to him.

Tsukasa huffs and rolls his eyes, “You’re just delusional,” He mutters.

This elights a small chuckle from the other who continues to smirk at him. “Ah, whatever makes you feel better, I guess.” They shrug.

“You—” He’s about to shoot another comment, but quickly saves himself the humiliation. Clearly he wouldn’t win this argument, so he wasn’t about to lose trying. Why was he so worked up, anyway?

The other seems to notice him give up, and he swears he can see them smile triumphantly. “What’s got you in such a hurry, anyway? As far as I’m concerned, you still have a long night ahead of you.”

Shit. Right. Where the hell did Takahashi go? He had better find him soon, or at least before Rui got to him. “I’m looking for someone. We promised to meet around here, but I can’t find them,” Tsukasa lies.

“Ah,” The purple haired nods in understanding. “A date, perhaps?”

Tsukasa’s face contorts into disgust at the mere thought of his organization's client as his date. Yuck. He hopes he never has that kind of image resurface in his mind ever again.

“Definitely not a date,” They laugh, Tsukasa’s disgusted expression clearly visible.

“No kidding…” The blonde mutters under his breath. As much as he found the purple haired in front of him to be an interesting case, he needed to go. He couldn’t let a distraction like this cause the failure of his mission. “I should go now,” Tsukasa informed, attempting to hop out of the interaction.

“Of course,” The other agrees solemnly. They then stick out their hand as if for a hand shake, so he hesitantly reciprocates the action. As soon as their hands touch, the purple haired takes his hand in his and plants a small kiss on his knuckle. “Until next time,” They wink before walking away in the opposite direction.

Tsukasa was left speechless, face flushed and hand still floating mid air. He glances down at his hand, blinks, glances back down before covering his face in embarrassment. Get a grip, Tsukasa! He’s had several people flirt with him when he’d been required to go to public places and such for missions. This kind of thing usually irritated him at best, but something about that particular purple haired was… different. Was it the way he spoke to the blonde? The way he smiled at him so endearingly? Whatever the case was, it didn’t matter. Tsukasa had a mission, and that was to assassinate Kamishiro Rui. It wasn’t like he’d see them again, anyway.

Tsukasa lightly slaps his head, coming back to his senses. There wasn’t any time to dwell on past events. He had to find Takahashi. The blonde pushed through the crowd of people, looking left and right for a certain party host. If he didn't realize how big this mansion was before, he sure as hell did now.

As Tsukasa entered what felt like the millionth room, he wondered why anyone would possibly need a place this huge. Maybe he was just irritated about the fact that it made his search far more difficult. With each room he entered and came out unsuccessful, the more the building anxiety in him increased. At this rate, the client might as well already be dead.

Eventually the blonde makes it to a large ballroom. The music here is significantly less traumatizing then outside, a gentle romantic melody playing instead. Although it doesn’t completely mask the heavy metal and pop rock from outside, it still does it’s job well in painting a much calmer environment which he very much appreciates. He scans the room and sees several couples dancing together. For such a large ballroom, it’s quite empty.

Tsukasa was about to give up when he spotted just the thing he was looking for. Did he just label Takahashi as a thing? Maybe so, but at this point the man might as well be an expensive object that he’s trying to prevent breaking. He sighs in relief to see that they were still most definitely alive and derived from any life threatening injuries. He takes a seat at a nearby table, a thought resurfacing in his mind. Why were there tables everywhere, anyway?

God was playing the protector role tiring. Tsukasa was used to locating his target and simply assassinating them. Screw the casualties that come before that. But now? He had to sit around and make sure this completely oblivious, snobby old rich guy didn’t die. All because he lended a few big bucks to the organization.

It didn’t help that he had no idea what his target looked like. ‘They're usually dressed in black’ said Kaito, which was just so incredibly helpful. He scanned the room and could already see at least 10 men wearing black. Even if he could let Takahashi die, he’d still have to watch over him to find his target.

Tsukasa mopes to himself, continuing to complain in his head about how stupid this mission was. He glances back at Takahashi to confirm that he was still there. To his utter annoyance, the man is leaving to a different room again. He looks at the clock on the wall that shows it’s 8, and he visibly groans.

Contrary to what the previous purple haired had said, this was indeed going to be a very long night for him.

—

It had been several hours since he had begun stalking Takahashi. Not a single sign of Rui, just several people shoving themselves in the party hosts face in attempts to get a free drink. To say Tsukasa was annoyed would be an understatement. He was so fucking tired and bored and he still hadn’t found his target! He’s starting to think that maybe the organization got it wrong. Maybe Rui wasn’t even here and all of this was just a waste of time.

The only thing that had Tsukasa still being observant and cautious was the description on the document. He likes to draw out the time before striking when everyone is unaware. If this really was Rui’s tactic, he was doing a damn good job at making it the most irritating thing in the world for him. Imagine having to track him down several times! It would be a complete nightmare.

Takahashi begins his movements once again, so Tsukasa is forced to crawl out of his chair and follow him. To the blonde's surprise, he’s not the only one following him. Several, if not most of the party attendees follow Takahashi or move ahead of him to the same direction. The direction being towards the ballroom. Oh no.

The party host separates himself from the large group of people, and although Tsukasa’s tempted to continue following him, he opted not to as to not seem suspicious. Or more precisely, to not seem like a creep. When Tsukasa enters the ballroom, the atmosphere is a lot different than before. And unfortunately, not in a good way. Instead of a few couples dancing together, the room is filled with what looks like half the party. Huh. Maybe that’s why this room was significantly larger than all the other ones.

Tsukasa’s thoughts are interrupted by someone tapping a microphone obnoxiously. He reverts his attention to the sound and finds Takahashi standing in the center of the crowd, grinning and still very much drunk.

“Thank you all once again for attending my masquerade party!” He says, words slurring. No one in the audience seems to notice or care, as most of them are just as intoxicated. “We’ve finally arrived at our main event, the dance…”

Oh no. Tsukasa did not like the sound of that. He subconsciously backs against the wall while blocking out whatever the announcer says. He did not feel like dancing in a crowd like this. Sure, the ballroom was big and all, but not enough to not make this entire situation incredibly uncomfortable. If Tsukasa could, he would run out of here as fast as he could. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option for him.

Just thinking about all the sweaty bodies crowded in such a small area makes his skin crawl. Soon enough, the announcer's voice shuts up and the slow dance music starts up. He watches as everyone gets into pairs and begins dancing. He knows they're all lost in their own world, but he can’t help but wonder how they manage to block everyone out.

As Tsukasa stares at the crowd nonchalantly, he just barely realizes a person approaches him. They stand by his side quietly before breaking the silence.

“Not one for dancing, huh?” They observe, sounding bored. He vaguely recognizes the voice.

Tsukasa blinks and looks up to find the same purple haired individual from before standing at his side. Like the blonde, they stare at the crowd of dancing people with an uninterested expression. Tsukasa can’t help but be surprised at meeting them again. With a party like this, he was fairly certain that they’d never cross paths again.

“Not really,” Tsukasa muttered quietly. He wonders if the other can even hear him over the music. They do though, and send him an understanding nod. “You too?”

The purple haired chuckles, face still as unreadable as before. “Eh. Even if I did, I’m not so sure anyone would want to dance with me,” They sighed dramatically.

Tsukasa can’t help but find the comment absurd. Someone like them seems like the type of person to sweep anyone off their feets, whether it be women or men. He’s sure that the other could go out right now and grab a dancing partner with a simple “Would you care to dance?” and come out successful. The purple haired definitely had the looks and personality to do it, so that begs the question of why not?

Tsukasa snorts unintentionally, finding the comment to be quite funny and absurd. “I’m sure anyone would be willing to dance with you,” He laughs.

The purple haired raises their eyebrow at that, and he swears he can see their yellow eyes brighten in curiosity. “Oh? And why might that be?” They urge him to continue, now facing him with their arms crossed.

“I mean…” Tsukasa pauses to think about his next words. “You got the looks and personality, not to mention you have a charming smile. I’m sure you could sweep any lady off her feet if you wished to!”

“Oh my! I’m flattered that you think that.” They chuckle lightheartedly. “However…” They trail off, a cat-like grin appearing on their face, “my charm only works on ladies?”

Tsukasa blinks in surprise at their question. He didn’t expect them to care about that kind of detail. “I’m sure it’ll work on whoever you want,” the blonde says with a shrug, not thinking too hard about what the other’s words might be implying .

“I see…” The purple haired puts their hand on their chin, seeming to be deep in thought. They then suddenly walk towards Tsukasa, getting closer and closer till the two are just inches apart. Tsukasa gulps, face starting to turn a shade of pink. They take the blonde's hands in theirs, “Then, would a pretty guy like you care to dance?”

Tsukasa stands there in complete shock, before the situation finally registers in his mind and his face flushes into a bright red. Was this guy really serious? Out of all the people they could’ve picked on, they chose Tsukasa. Somewhere in the massive crowd of people were several pretty women who would’ve been far better choices for the purple haired, but no. They chose to flirt with Tsukasa.

In any other scenario, the blonde would’ve immediately rejected anyone who came with such a request. How could he not? They were strangers after all. There was just something about the purple haired individual that he found… enthralling. Something that made them seem different from the average person. And unfortunately, his curiosity got the better of him.

Tsukasa opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. How does someone reply to this kind of thing? “…Sure.” Tsukasa blurts out hesitantly. He probably looks like a complete idiot.

The other doesn’t seem to mind and simply smiles at Tsukasa. They take his hand and guide him to the edge of the ballroom that’s farthest away from the crowd. All the while Tsukasa’s blushing furiously at the predicament he’s found himself in.

“Do you know how to dance?” They stop in their tracks, turning around with a questioning gaze.

Did Tsukasa know how to dance? When he was younger he remembers doing dance as a hobby. However, that was such a distant memory that he wasn’t sure he still remembered or had any of the required skills. Surely it couldn’t be that hard to slow dance, right? “Of course!” Tsukasa proclaimed, putting his hands on his hips proudly.

The purple haired seems to be a bit surprised but quickly goes back to his regular sly demaneor. They approach him once again, and he feels a hand snake around his waist. Tsukasa has to will himself to remember that this was normal. That this was part of dancing. The blonde hesitantly puts an arm around the others neck, and his free hand intertwines with the others.

As a new song starts to play, the two begin to dance. They sway calmly to the music, and Tsukasa has to thank the gods that he still vaguely remembers the basics to dancing. Their bodies are so close together, practically only a few inches away. He hopes he doesn’t look like too much of an idiot with how red his face probably is.

“So, what’s a pretty guy like you doing at a party like this?” The purple haired asks, breath ghosting over Tsukasa’s neck. It makes him shiver.

“Ah… I was invited by a friend. They ended up not showing up,” Tsukasa lies with a shrug, staring ahead blankly. When he has to look up to meet the others gaze, the height difference makes itself known once again.

“Oh? That’s unfortunate. But that means I get you all to myself, hm?”

“Y-yeah. I guess so.”

They seem to really enjoy teasing him, huh. Tsukasa knows it’s probably all just a flirtatious act, but he can’t help but fall victim to it. Well! Two can play at this game.

Tsukasa’s about to shoot a teasing comment, but the other seems to beat him to it.

“You’re a good dancer,” The purple haired comments, twirling the blonde before dipping and catching them. The action forces Tsukasa to grasp onto the others shoulders, clearly caught in surprise.

“You’re not too bad yourself,” Tsukasa squeaks out, continuing to cling onto the other, still practically dangling midair. The hands on his back seem confident enough, but a little part of him holds on tighter with the fear of falling backwards. Why weren’t they pulling him back up? His heart begins to pound in his chest as they bring themselves closer to him, their faces soon just barely apart. Tsukasa has the decency to flush at the action, looking back at glowing yellow eyes with a dumbfounded expression.

The purple haired continues to stare at him with a look of amusement. Their eyes dart to his lips, and he’s suddenly very aware of what is happening. He’s seen enough cheesy romance shows to predict what’s going to happen next. Tsukasa should be pushing the other away. Should be getting as far away as possible from this person. He should’ve never got into this situation to begin with. But something must be really wrong in his head, because he does none of that. Instead, he squeezes his eyes shut.

What he expects never happens.

Tsukasa is suddenly back on his feet, and is no longer at such a close proximity to the other. He’s very glad that his previous intuition was wrong, but he can’t help but wonder why?

“Ah, sorry.” They chuckle softly, expression unreadable.

Tsukasa, still very much startled, just blinks at the other, still processing the past situation.

“I’d love to spend more time with you, but there is actually something very urgent I need to attend to,” They say apologetically.

“Oh, of course!” Tsukasa nods in understanding. Well that was very sudden. One minute he was mere seconds away from being kissed, and now the person who almost initiated said kiss was leaving abruptly. That could only be a good thing though, as he should really be focusing on the task at hand. This individual clearly served as a big distraction. Although, he can’t help but feel that a little part of him is… disappointed? What’s wrong with you Tsukasa!

The purple haired flashes him a smile before abruptly walking off. Not even a moment after, though, they turn and walk back just enough to a proximity that Tsukasa can hear them. “Before I go… could I get your name?” They smile innocently, their request seeming derived from any ill intentions.

Tsukasa, not thinking too much about it, gives his name out without hesitation. He’ll probably regret it later. “Tsukasa,” He says softly, just loud enough so that the other can hear him.

“Tsukasa,” The purple haired says, seeming to test the name on his tongue. “Well then, Tsukasa-kun, farewell! May we meet again soon.” They wink at him, much like the time from before, and hurriedly walk away.

A thought flashes in his mind. “Wait—” Tsukasa calls, but the purple haired is already gone. He didn’t get the person's name! Through all the time they spent together, he didn’t even know their name. He should’ve asked as soon as the other had. Now they knew his name but he was clueless to theirs.

Tsukasa slaps himself lightly on the forehead, groaning in defeat. He was making a lot of mistakes today. A lot more than he should be.

He thinks back to the earlier situation. When the purple haired dipped him, using their hands on his back to hold Tsukasa steadily. The way they looked at him so cheekily, having no clue to the fact that the blonde's heart was beating in overdrive. Tsukasa can’t help but wonder what really caused such an abrupt leave. It all happened so suddenly that he’s not really sure what to think about it.

Tsukasa shrugs it off. He had more important matters to deal with.

The blonde looked over the crowd, attempting to spot a certain party host once again. Unfortunately for him, they seemed to love to disappear. Tsukasa walked along the edges of the ballroom, gazing at the people for any hints of where Takahashi went.

As he approaches the exit of the ballroom, he spots a woman and a man seeming to discuss something urgently. Their facial expressions are full of worry and concern, and it’s obvious they're trying to keep whatever they're talking about a secret.

In any other scenario, Tsukasa would mind his own business. Why should he eavesdrop on a conversation he didn’t have to? The thing was, these weren’t just any ordinary party attendees. They were servants and maids who most likely served at Takahashi's disposal. Big chance was, they knew where the man was.

Tsukasa creeped silently nearby, hiding as a random bystander to the naked eye. He tried his best to make out what their hushed voices were saying.

“Mr. Takahashi hasn’t come out of his room for a while now…” The woman whispered nervously. “He was supposed to have made the announcement a while ago.”

“Yeah… it’s a little bit odd. Maybe you should go check on him?” The man suggested.

“Why me! Why can’t you do it?” She hissed.

“He already yelled at me earlier! You’re on better terms with him than me!”

“Ugh… fine. But you owe me…”

Jackpot.

Tsukasa watched as the woman exited the ballroom, silently opening the doors and disappearing. He followed slowly after, making sure to not alert the man she was previously talking to. He slipped through the doors and began his chase.

Based on the maids' input, Takahashi definitely wasn’t safe. Not showing up when he should be? Huge red flag. It was a huge possibility that Rui had already murdered them. He’d have to find them quick if he wanted any chance of saving the client's life.

Luckily for him, the maid moved at a fast pace. Tsukasa followed silently from behind, watching for any twist and turns the woman would make. Eventually, after making it up two flights of stairs and several hallways, the maid stopped at a particular door.

Tsukasa watched as she hesitantly knocked on the door, biting her lip.

“Sir Takahashi?”

She was met with silence.

“Um… is it okay if I come in?”

No response.

The maid seemed to take a heavy sigh, before opening the door and walking in. Tsukasa walked towards the door calmly before hearing an ear splitting scream. Fuck.

Tsukasa dashed towards the door, pulling out two throwing daggers. As much as it’d be more efficient to use a gun, it’d be far too loud and would alert the entire party. If this went badly, he didn’t want his face stamped onto a news article.

The blonde pushed the door open abruptly, throwing his dagger at the first threatening figure he saw in the room. They just barely dodge.

Tsukasa, in the few moments he has, assesses the situation he’s found himself in. Below him is the maid from before, a knife drove right into their chest. She’s dead. In front of him are two figures. One being Takahshi, who is sitting at the edge of a bed, cowering in fear. Beside him, who is carrying a large knife, can only be the villain of this whole ordeal.

However, it’s not who he expects to see. Not in a million years. Tsukasa’s heart drops in his chest as he sees someone all too familiar. Purple hair and yellow eyes. They stare back at him, face just as surprised.

“Tsukasa-kun?” They whisper softly, not a hint of ill intent in their voice. He hates how innocent they sound. Hates how betrayed it makes him feel.

The purple haired… no, Rui. He was Rui. All that time, it has been Rui all along. The person he had talked to like a friend. The person he danced with. The person… who admittedly, almost stole his first kiss. It had been Rui. The person he was supposed to kill. Assassinate. He hates how betrayed he feels. The one time he actually found interest in someone, they had ended up being his enemy.

“I…” No words come out. He’s completely speechless.

Rui looks at him with a blank expression before his eyes darken. He moves his attention back to Takahashi, ready to end the man next.

Tsukasa shakes himself out of his devastated state, and reminds himself that he still has a mission to accomplish. Screw his current feelings, he had to fucking focus. Rui lunges to stab the man, but not before he’s tackled to the ground by a certain blonde. Tsukasa plunges his knife towards Rui’s neck, but ultimately misses as he gets roughly pushed to the side.

The purple haired completely disregards Tsukasa and gets up, his only focus on Takahashi. Before Rui can make the finishing blow on the useless party host, Tsukasa grabs his leg and drags him to the floor. Unfortunately, seconds too late. Rui manages to stab Takahashi in the leg, elighting a pained scream from the other.

Tsukasa curses to himself at the noise. He really didn’t need the man screaming his lungs out because of an injury. If he got out of here without further injury, he’d be fine. As the blonde pulled Rui down, he couldn’t help but yell at the cowardly man in the room. “Get out!” Tsukasa hissed, seconds away from stabbing the purple haired again.

The man looks at him, eyes wide with fear, before making a break for it out of the room. All the while he’s screaming “help” at the top of his lungs. I’m as good of help as you’re getting!, he thinks to himself.

Rui glares at him before attempting to push him off and chase after Takahashi. Tsukasa doesn’t budge, instead going for another lethal attack at his neck. The purple haired deflects it, using his own knife to push against the other. Suddenly, the force causes Tsukasa’s knife to fling to the other side of the room, and soon he’s effectively been pinned by Rui.

Tsukasa can only lay there pathetically, weapons out of reach. He glares back at Rui’s unreadable eyes, hoping to mask the fear bubbling up in his stomach.

“You know, Tsukasa-kun? I liked you.” Rui breathed, breath ghosting against his skin. “I still like you,”

Tsukasa struggles to break free, hands harshly pinning him to the ground. He goes limp once he realizes that this escape method clearly wasn’t effective. He then feels a hand on his hair, fingers slowly threading between the messy strands. Their hand then goes to the back of his head, pulling his mask off. While one of Tsukasa’s hands are free from the deadly grip, he searches the ground for any sharp objects. He feels his hand incase around a broken shard of glass.

“Such a shame…” Rui sighed in disappointment. “You’re pretty. Has the organization been sending good looking guys to see if that’ll mess with my concentration? Or is it just a bonus?”

The blonde continues to glare at him. “Don’t call me—”

“Pretty?” Rui finishes for him. “It’s only the truth.” He chuckles dryly. He pulls out his knife again, having it hover over the other’s chest. “A shame indeed. It was nice knowing you, Tsu-”

Tsukasa stabs him in the side with a small piece of glass, kneeing him in the chest before making a break for it to his daggers across the room. He hears Rui curse as he picks up his weapons and swerves around. Tsukasa turns to find a large knife flying right towards his face. He just nearly dodges it, heart beating uncontrollably fast.

Tsukasa sees a flash of purple leave out of the doors, and realizes that Rui’s trying to escape. He pushes the doors open, glancing left and right for a certain purple haired individual. He sees them making their way to the end of the hall, and he quickly sprints at them. He couldn’t let Rui get away. He couldn’t fail his mission.

At this point, the party is in total chaos. People are dashing left and right worriedly, some going as far as screaming in distress. Knowing the client, he probably made the whole ordeal far more dramatic then it had to be. He then realizes that police are probably seconds away from pulling up to the mansion.

Tsukasa pushes past the distressed party attendees, his only focus being on not losing Rui. As he runs, he can hear several surprised screams as they realize he’s holding a weapon. After the eventual news gets out, everyone stays clear of his path. Well that certainly has its perks.

As he turns the corner, he can see Rui running, almost on their way to another turning point in the lengthy halls. If Tsukasa didn’t do something soon, he was going to lose him. In a moment of desperation, he pulls out the handgun he had prepared in his dress coat from earlier. He closes one eye, aiming at his target before shooting.

Rui seems to realize his advances and begins to move in a zigzag motion, still running just as fast. Tsukasa continues to shoot, hoping to land a hit before the purple haired makes it around the next corner. He mutters a silent curse as he continues to sprint through the long hallways.

When he makes it to the end, he turns cautiously, gun ready to shoot at any moving targets. However, no one’s there. He sees a trail of blood staining the marbled floor and begins following it carefully. Tsukasa wasn’t sure if the blood was from when he stabbed him, or maybe he had gotten a lucky shot earlier. He points his gun around, preparing himself for Rui to jump at him from anywhere.

The trail leads him to an open window, glass shattered and all. Tsukasa looks out the window to see several police cars parked outside the mansion. No Rui in sight. Oh, Fuck.

Rui was gone. There was no way he was going to be able to find him. He had lost him. Tsukasa watches as a hoard of police officers begin to enter the mansion, as well as a wheeled stretcher being pushed into an ambulance. Knowing the context, that could only be Takahshi. He could hear loud shouts and commands by the police officers who had just entered the building, urging everyone to calm down and point to the threat.

At this current moment, he’d love to be wherever Rui was right now. If Tsukasa wanted to get out of here without getting arrested, he needed to get out. Now. He stared at the broken window begrudgingly.

Tsukasa couldn’t believe the situation he had got himself into.

Chapter Text

Shallow breathing could be heard in the midst of a dark alleyway. The air smelled of blood, sirens blaring in the distance.

Rui leaned his body against the wall, clutching at his bleeding side. Not only had he been careless enough to get stabbed in the hip, his arm had been grazed by a bullet as well. If you had told Rui a few hours prior to the incident that he’d end up in such a condition, he would scoff, say that it was impossible.

Well. It seems all things are possible with the help of fate.

Now, how exactly did he end up in such a condition? Rui supposes it’s carelessness. That, and a certain blonde seemed to have more tricks up his sleeve then he had anticipated.

Ah, Tsukasa. The mysterious blonde he had taken an interest in. Rui by no means was a man that actively sought out to pester and tease strangers. He’d like to say it was fate that the two had bumped into each other. Rui found Tsukasa to be fascinating with their confident demeanor and cute reactions. Sure, that was no good reason to flirt with the blonde, but he truly found no harm in it at the time. It was just simply entertainment that brightened his boring night.

As you can probably already guess, it went deeper than that.

The plan that night was to assassinate the party host, Hiroto Takahshi. Takahashi was a rich man that just so happened to be aflighted with the organization he had sought out to destroy. It was simple, really. Kill the man and get out. Rui always expects casualties. His missions never truly go that smoothly. However, it seemed that this time he didn’t face any ordinary casualtie.

Tsukasa definitely was not any ordinary individual that he just so happened to take an interest in. No. Tsukasa was an assassin. And by the looks of it, had the honorary mission of assassinating Rui himself.

Rui had been stupid. So incredibly stupid, careless and overconfident. He had had Tsukasa within possession. He could’ve killed him, no, he should’ve killed him when he had the chance. But Rui had been an overconfident fool. He had assumed that Tsukasa was a weak opponent. An opponent he could take his sweet time with before ending him.

Oh, was Rui so incredibly wrong.

Now, he had to suffer the consequences of his actions. Rui has failed at what he set out to do. A little part of him is happy though, that he wasn’t the only one that failed miserably. Tsukasa hadn’t killed him. Not yet, at least. Knowing Sanguis Courteous, Tsukasa would surely be suffering as well. How pitiful Rui has become.

A buzzing noise escapes the pocket of his dress coat. Rui fishes the phone out of his pocket carefully, blindly accepting the phone call and bringing it to his ear.

“Hello?” He croaks out, voice incredibly shallow and raspy. He hates how terrible he sounds.

“Where the fuck are you, Rui?”

Ah. Of course.

Rui chuckles dryly. “I’m at home.”

“Bullshit. You’re not here. Where are you?” The voice accuses harshly. He can’t say he doesn’t deserve it, though.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at your night job?”

“Don’t avoid the fucking question. Where are you?”

Rui closes his eyes and sighs softly. He peaks out of his hiding spot and sees several police cars parked nearby. “The usual.”

The person on the other side of the line audibly groans in disapproval. “You can’t keep doing this, Rui…” They mutter.

“I’m sorry,” He laughs quietly. The movement makes his chest hurt.

“Ugh. Send me the location. I’ll pick you up.”

Rui immediately rejects the offer. “No need! I can get myself back just fine.”

The static noises of silence can be heard. “You sound terrible, Rui. Just let me pick you up.”

Ah. They noticed. He chuckles to himself, sounding incredibly pathetic. Rui would need to step up his act if they could already tell he was faking it. But then again, he wasn’t trying very hard to begin with. “No. I’ll be fine,” Rui insists. He’s not about to get them to drive into an area full of police. “I appreciate the offer. I’ll see you later.”

“What— don’t you dare hang up, Rui—”

*beep*

—

“Tsukasa.”

The words send a shiver down his already shaking body, elighting a new type of fear within him. He looks down at the floor in shame, fingers digging into the palm of his hands. The pain makes him feel just a little bit better.

“Tsukasa,” The voice repeats. There’s a hint of annoyance in it. He doesn’t want them to be annoyed with him.

He looks up towards the voice, eyes dilated and vision distorted. In front of him is the man who is the owner of said voice. They stand beside another individual strapped to a chair, a brown paper bag shoved over their head. If he looks a little lower, he finds a pistol presented delicately on a glass table.

“Focus. Pay close attention, Tsukasa.”

He nods fearfully, staring ahead at the vile situation he’s found himself in. The man smiles at his cooperation before tearing the paper bag off of the others head and sending a deliberate punch against their face.

The person strapped in the chair can only make a muffled noise at the impact, mouth taped shut. The man punches them again. And again. And again. Until they pull their hair back and the victim of the whole ordeal can only whimper in pain.

“See this? This is a very bad person, Tsukasa,” They say venomously. “And you know what happens to bad people?” Their expression suddenly turns soft as they turn to gaze back at him.

Tsukasa shakes his head, too scared to answer incorrectly.

“They suffer.”

Tsukasa flinches as they knock the head of the individual in the chair with a metal object. Not surprisingly, their head rolls back at the impact, bloody face and all.

The man suddenly tears off the tape roughly, a loud gasp of pain could be heard as their mouth was now free from constraint.

“Y-you sicko!” They screamed. “You’re teaching children to—” They’re cut off by a knife being plunged into their leg.

The sudden display of violence makes him look down and squeeze his eyes shut. Maybe if he looked away. Maybe if he couldn’t see what was happening. Maybe he could pretend he was somewhere else. Anywhere from here. Anywhere.

“Shoot them, Tsukasa.”

What?

Tsukasa looks back up, the individual in the chair stares at him in terror, eyes widening at the realization of what those words meant for them.

“W-wait! No! You can’t! You won’t!” They shout, moving in their chair in distress. The perpetrator twists the knife that had been sitting in the other’s leg. Another scream could be heard.

“Shoot them. Now.”

Tsukasa flinches again. The words grow impatient with him, and in his panicked state he shakily grabs the gun that had been presented in front of him. To his utter demise, it's loaded. With a singular bullet.

“H-hey, kid! You don’t have to do this!”

He lifts the gun slowly, gaze slowly traveling forward.

“Whoa- HEY! Dont- don’t do this!”

He looks up, steadying himself before aiming at the victim. If he shoots the right place, maybe they won’t suffer as much.

“STOP! P-please! I have a family, dont—”

He closes his eyes and pulls the trigger.

Maybe god will accept his apology one day.

—

It was a Saturday morning. The ground had been covered with a sparkling white, the morning sunlight shining against the powdery snow. The sky was completely clear, painting a perfect winter morning.

Unfortunately for him, a perfect day like this would never be enough to rid of the ugly thoughts that clouded his mind. But at the very least, it proved to be a helpful distraction.

It was Saturday. It was the weekend, the start of his incredibly short break. Weekends were never an automatic break for his job. Tsukasa had personally requested this so he could visit his family. This was before the incident. Before the mission.

Ah, the mission. The mission Tsukasa had so horribly failed. After his target, Rui, had fled from the scene, he had been put in what can only be an awful situation. He had been forced to climb out the same stupid window and hide on the rooftop until a section of police officers disappeared. Then he was forced to run home in the dead of night.

Although Tsukasa had come out of the situation unscathed, the whole ordeal had left a big impact. Specifically, on the news. He had already seen several breaking news reports about the incident. How Takahashi had nearly been assassinated. How assassins were roaming around the city. How everyone should be afraid for their lives. It was blown way out of proportion in his opinion, but nonetheless the news did what they had to in order to garner attention.

Fortunately for him, and Rui too he supposed, they had no leads or information on the assassins. That had been a huge relief for him, but the damage had already been done. And that was that the public was getting increasingly aware of the existence of assassins through these incidents.

It was safe to say Sanguis Courteous was aware of the situation. And god, they were going to kick his ass for being so negligent. Tsukasa had screwed up. Really badly. Not only did he fail in assassinating his target, the public now knew of the threats as well.

Confronting Kaito and the others would be an absolute nightmare. And that’s precisely why Tsukasa was hiding in the streets, being the lowly coward he always was. He knew he couldn’t hide from them forever. That much was obvious. However, because his break just so happened to align with the event, he thought he’d put it to use.

Today, Tsukasa was supposed to visit his family. Catch up and enjoy dinner together. He’d hate for his failures to ruin this meeting. He hadn’t visited his family in… what, weeks? Months? God forbid, years? Time had become a blur with his job.

So, Tsukasa decided he’d be selfish. He decided he’d disregard the mission and pretend that he didn’t have any responsibilities. Sure, he was a coward. But right now? He was so exhausted and really didn’t feel like confronting his current problems. He’d be in deep shit on Monday, but that was a problem for another time.

Tsukasa sighes, looking up to the sky with a blank expression. His mind is void of any thoughts, a rare occurrence he must say. He appreciates the lack of sound immensely. At least his mind seemed to pity him in this depressing situation.

The blonde walks blindly down the sidewalk, boots crunching through the powdery snow. Before he made the long journey to his family's home, he decided that he’d buy a few treats from the bakery he had found a few days back. Saki always enjoyed the little snacks he gifted her, so he thought it’d be a nice little gift.

Upon arriving at the bakery window, he was hit with a waft of chocolate and sweets. It did the job well of making a part of him crave the redundant treats. Tsukasa shook his head in disapproval. He was buying these treats for Saki, not himself! Although, it couldn’t hurt to grab an extra croissant… right?

Tsukasa was about to open the painted glass doors when he noticed a certain pink haired individual chatting furiously with someone he didn’t recognize. As soon as he registered who the pink haired was, he yelped to himself and jumped out of the window's view.

The pinked haired could only be the person he feared: Emu Otori. On most days, running into her would be, for the most part, a pleasant surprise. Emu always loved to tackle him to the ground, explaining that that was her way of greeting him. Although Tsukasa had scolded her time and time again for it, he had unfortunately gotten used to her ways. Nowadays, he didn’t mind her crazy antics and instead found himself enjoying her company.

Today, though? Seeing the pink haired made his stomach drop in anxiety.

Like him, Emu worked for the same organization. However, instead of an assassin, she worked as an intel collector. She collected information on targets and often went undercover to spy for attack patterns and such. No one should be fooled by that, though. Emu was equally as deadly as the average assassin.

Tsukasa couldn’t let her see him. If she did, she would almost certainly inform the organization of his presence. But… the treats.

The blonde couldn’t just forget about the bakery treats. He had to give something to Saki when he visited her! He hadn’t had the chance to see her in quite some time, so this was the least he could do. Augh! Why did Emu have to show up at the worst times?

Pondering his dilemma, he comes to a risky conclusion. Tsukasa pulls out a black mask and puts it on his face. He drapes a hoodie over his head and hopes to god that it’ll be enough. If he played it low, surely Emu wouldn’t recognize him. He peeked through the window and sure enough, the pink haired was still chatting enthusiastically with a green haired girl. Judging by how into the conversation she looked, it was incredibly unlikely that she’d focus on a mere hooded bystander. Right?

Tsukasa sighs before opening the painted glass door. A soft ring could be heard as the door closed behind him. Fortunately for him, Emu paid no mind to the sound, not even glancing in his direction. So far so good.

Tsukasa lines up behind a group of people who are also picking and choosing the sweets they’d like to buy. When it comes to his turn, he’s hit with a huge selection of desserts. From Anpan and croissants to cream puffs and cheesecake, the sweet treats were presented in an almost overwhelming way. He thinks for a bit before choosing to buy a strawberry and chocolate croissant and a Japanese cheesecake. Saki never really had a snack she preferred over all else, so he could buy whatever he wanted fairly freely.

The cashier packed his things in a small bag which had their shop's logo stamped on the front. They handed it to him and said thank you before going on to attend the next customer.

As Tsukasa walks out, he glances slightly to where the two girls were, and they still seemed to be deep in conversation. It seemed the lords had spared him just this once.

Tsukasa opens the doors and exits the shop, being greeted with the cold air of the winter morning. The plan had been a success! All that was left to do was make the journey to his family's home. He takes his mask and hoodie off, believing to be safe from the previous situation. Wrong.

“TSUKASA!!” He hears a high pitched scream from behind him. Oh no.

Tsukasa swerves to look behind, and all he can see is a flash of pink before he’s thrown to the ground. He groans in pain at falling and the body that’s practically right on top of him. Nevertheless, they squeeze him into a tight embrace and he can only try his best to reciprocate the action.

“Ugh… Emu!” Tsukasa squeaks out as the other continues to squeeze him tighter. He hears soft sniffling and looks down to find the pink haired girl with watery eyes. “Eh? Why are you crying!”

Emu sniffles again, and looks up at him with sad and teary eyes. “You…” She whispers quietly. “YOU DISAPPEARED!” She yells, punching his chest with no real intent in hurting him.

“H-huh?”

“You disappeared! After the mission you- you… went poof!” She tries to emphasize the ‘poof’ with her hands. “We were all messaging you, but you weren’t replying! I was so worried that maybe you… you…” The word is left without being said, but the implication still hangs in the air.

Tsukasa can only stare at the pink haired girl with surprised and apologetic eyes. “I’m… I'm sorry, Emu.”

Emu stares back at him, tears threatening to fall at any moment. The sight makes his stomach drop in guilt. He didn’t think that he’d worry anyone this much.

Tsukasa pushes her off enough so he can stand up and heave her back up as well. She goes without resistance and soon enough they're both back on their feet.

“I failed my mission, Emu.” He says bluntly.

“W-wha?”

“I failed. Really badly. It's all over the news, if you haven’t noticed already.”

Emu goes quiet, no longer sad but instead slightly surprised.

“You know how Sanguis Courteous is. This isn’t going to go well for me.” He knows Emu is aware of this. Aware what this situation means for him.

“I’m sorry, Tsukasa-kun…” She whispers quietly. If he looks close enough, he can see the fear and pity in her eyes. The fear and pity for him.

Tsukasa simply smiles sadly. “You don’t need to apologize for anything. I just hope you understand that I don’t want the organization to know of my existence,” he pauses. “At least for a little while.”

Emu nods in understanding. Her serious face is such a rare sight that seeing it makes him shiver a little. “Okay. That’s okay. I promise not to tell anyone. I pinkie promise!”

“Thank’s Emu,” He chuckles softly. Even though most times the pink haired seemed childish, she still knew when to be serious. He appreciated that about her.

“Where are you planning to go?” She tilts her head in curiosity.

“I’m going to stay with my family for a little bit.”

“Oh!” Emu’s eyes light up in interest. “Say hi to Saki for me!”

“Of course! I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear from you!”

“Emu…?” A voice interrupts their conversation. He looks over to find the same green haired girl from earlier. The one Emu seemed so ecstatic to talk to.

“Oh! Nene!!” Emu squeals, pulling the girl into a tight embrace as well as planting a small kiss on their forehead. The green haired girl flushes in embarrassment from the action, looking away from him shyly. The action bewilders him just as much as the other.

“Emu… you shouldn’t do that in public…!”

The pink haired pays no mind to the comment and continues to shower the other in love and affection.

Tsukasa coughs loudly, hoping to gain their attention. He was not about to continue watching… whatever this was in silence. The two finally notice him, and Emu detaches herself from the other girl.

“Oh, hehe… I must’ve gotten a little carried away,” Emu giggles. “Tsukasa-kun! This is my girlfriend Nene! Nene, this is my best friend Tsukasa!” She gestures to them both.

Tsukasa eyes Nene skeptically before reaching out his hand. “I wasn’t aware Emu had a… girlfriend. Nice to meet you, Nene!”

His hand is left hanging in the air, the green haired girl showing no sign of returning the action. “Um. Hi.” she says quietly.

The atmosphere becomes incredibly awkward as the two strangers stare at each other in confusion. “Hehe! I’m sure you guys will get along really well!” Emu breaks the silence, swinging her arms around their shoulders.

“I’m not so sure about that…”

“He’s kind of weird…”

“HEY!” Tsukasa shouts defensively. “I am not weird! You’re weird!”

“So loud…”

Emu giggles. “See! The two of you are getting along just great!”

He and Nene look at her with doubt. Emu doesn’t seem to mind at all.

“Well, I’ll leave the two of you alone to do… whatever girlfriends do.”

“Awe…! You have to leave so soon? I wanted to hang out with you both more!!” Emu sighs sadly. “Alrighty… bye bye Tsukasa-kun!”

“Bye.” Nene mumbles.

“Goodbye! Have fun… you two.” Tsukasa waves goodbye, heading in the direction of the train station.

—

It’s a long journey back home.

Curse the organization’s whereabouts for being so far away from where his family lived. Tsukasa rarely visited them purely because of the fact it was a 6 hour train ride. It made seeing them incredibly inconvenient and difficult.

Tsukasa yawned sleepily as the train came to a stop at its location. He stood up and stretched before exiting the train along with all the other passengers. The cold evening air brushed against his cheeks, a small shiver escaping him.

Tsukasa exited the station and called a taxi over to drive him to his family's residence. The ride was short and uneventful.

By the time he arrived, the sun had nearly dipped below the horizon. Tsukasa was greeted by a large fancy white house as he stepped out of the vehicle. He was incredibly sleepy from the long train ride, but a little part of him sparkled in anticipation to see his sister again.

Tsukasa walked towards the grand doors and pressed the doorbell, patiently waiting to see the faces of his loved ones.

The door opened and he was greeted by puffy strawberry pigtails.

“Onii-chan!”

A body pulled him into a tight embrace. He couldn’t help but smile happily as he wrapped his arms around them, laughing a little as they managed to squeeze him harder.

“Saki! I might pass out if you squeeze me any tighter!”

“Sorry!” Saki squeals, pulling off with a bright smile. “I just missed you a lot! It’s good to see you. Now get inside! It’s cold out!” She grabbed his arm stubbornly and pulled him inside.

Tsukasa stepped inside and slipped his shoes off, immediately hit with the smell of food. He slips off his backpack and pulls out the bag of bakery treats, handing them to the strawberry blonde girl. “I found a nice bakery the other day so I decided to get you some snacks!” He smiles confidently, brown bag hanging in the air.

Saki gaspes and takes the bag gracefully, “Onii-chan!! You didn’t have to!” She smiles gratefully before her expression changes to one of pure surprise. Tsukasa's stomach immediately drops in anxiety. Did he do something wrong? “Ah??” She squeals, opening the bag and pulling out a strawberry croissant. “No way… How’d you get this…?”

“Eh? Is… something wrong?”

“Ah! I can’t believe it!! You got the treats from the famous bakery that’s been trending recently! I’ve been dying to get my hands on some of these treats… Thank you so much Onii-chan! You’re the best!” Saki says in awe, staring at the strawberry croissant like it was a gift from heaven.

“Hah? Well, um, of course! As your best big brother, it is my responsibility to get you only the best!” Tsukasa puffs out his chest in pride. His smile softens as he sees the genuine happiness in his sister's eyes as she hugs the bag of treats.

“Tsukasa? You’re finally here,” Tsukasa turns to see his dad making his way over to him.

“Hi dad,” Tsukasa greets, giving him a small shoulder hug.

“We’ve missed you. Moms in the kitchen right now, dinner should be finished soon. We can catch up then.”

“It’s good to see everyone again! I apologize for not visiting sooner…” Tsukasa chuckles guiltily.

“We understand that it’s difficult for you to visit, you don’t have to apologize.” He pats him on the shoulder reassuringly. “It’s been a long journey for you, no? Make yourself at home.”

“Thanks, I will!”

His father sends Tsukasa a kind smile before heading back in the direction of the kitchen. Tsukasa is about to head to the living room before Saki grabs his arm and drags him upstairs. They arrive at Saki’s room, and soon the puffy pigtailed girl is digging furiously in her drawers for something.

While Tsukasa waits patiently for whatever Saki’s searching for, he glances around the room. A particular picture of Saki and her friends catches his eye. The picture is all of them at the front of a cafe holding drinks. Saki’s grinning widely, her arms thrown over all the girls shoulders to pull them together.

Tsukasa vaguely recognizes them all, but can’t quite put a finger on what their names are. It makes his head hurt. He stares at the long blue haired girl who seems content with Saki’s shenanigans a little bit harder, hoping that something, anything will come up. A name. A memory.

“Onii-chan? What’s got you staring so hard?” Saki pipes in, suddenly standing right beside him.

“AUGH!” Tsukasa screams in surprise, flinching back. “Don’t just pop up like that all of a sudden!”

“Ehh??” Saki pouts, cheeks puffing out cutely. “I had been trying to call you out of your trance a while ago! You were so focused…” She trails off with a confused sound, “on this picture of me and my girlfriends?”

Huh? How long had he been out of it for? “Really? That’s odd… wait a minute, girlfriends!?” Tsukasa shrieks in realization. Don’t tell him this was going to be part two of the Emu situation…

“Of course! Ichika, Shiho and Honami are my wonderful girlfriends and bandmates!” Saki says with full confidence, unaware of the current mess of her brother's brain. “This happened a long time ago! You should know this! Unless…” She stops and scrunches her eyebrows in thought. “Has it really been that long since we’ve seen each other…?”

Ichika! Shiho, Honami… it was all coming back to him. Saki’s childhood friends who eventually formed a band together. How could he have forgotten such important figures in his sister's life? But still… girlfriends? He knew they were all extremely close, but he still could’ve never expected it. “You’re still so young though…!”

“Onii-chan!!” Saki huffs angrily. “I’m not a child anymore! In fact, I’m a full grown adult who’s in college!”

“In college!?” Tsukasa shrieks in disbelief. Was he really that old already? That Saki was already in college? That she was no longer his baby little sister? “That… that can’t be…! I can’t be that old already!”

Saki swats at him gently with her hands, “I’m only like, a year younger than you! You sometimes treat me like some precious baby!”

“Well..! You’re still my little sister, and that’ll never change!” Tsukasa huffs stubbornly, wrapping his arms around his beloved sister and squeezing her.

“Gah! Onii-chan!” She whines, struggling out of his weak hold. “Enough! We came up here for an important reason!”

Tsukasa lets her go without much struggle and the strawberry blonde girl goes back to her desk to pick something up. She instructs both of them to sit down on the floor before presenting a small stylish rectangular box to him. “So, as you already know, we don’t get to see each other that much,” She begins, a tinge of sadness in her voice.

“I’m sorry, I wish I could visit more—”

“I’m not finished!” She cuts him off, a look of determination in her eyes. Tsukasa immediately shuts up, his only course of action to stare at her in bewilderment. “So… I got a necklace made. Not just any ordinary necklace, though! A necklace with a very special pendant…” Saki opens the box and pulls out a shiny silver necklace with a star shaped pendant. She carefully places the piece of jewelry in his hands. “Open the pendant,” She encourages.

Tsukasa takes the necklace carefully in his hands, treating the object like a precious artifact. He opens the star pendant curiously and his heart melts at the sight. Inside is a picture of him and Saki when they were little. They’re wearing their matching star onesies in addition to Tsukasa wearing a ridiculous star shaped clip. He can’t help but smile stupidly at the memory. He loves it.

“Since you’re always away, I thought it could be used as a reminder of me! That no matter what, I’ll always be by your side… Onii-chan? Why are you crying??” Saki panics worriedly.

“WHAT!” He yells, wiping his eyes with his hands. Sure enough, his face is wet. “I’m not crying! This is… don’t look at me!”

“Onii-chan…” Saki says softly, tilting her head with an understanding smile, “Do you like it?”

Tsukasa immediately jumps up in defence, “Of course I like it! I love it! I can’t believe you made something like this for me…” his eyes glow with passion. “Thank you so much Saki!” He wraps his arms around her and squeezes her tight.

Saki laughs lightheartedly, patting him on the back. “I’m glad,” she giggles, and the smile he sees makes his heart melt once again.

“Gah…” Tsukasa pulls back with a frown. “My gift seems so unthoughtful compared to yours now.”

“No! I love it a lot! The strawberry croissant looked really good, I can’t wait to eat it…”

“Well, I'm glad you like them,” Tsukasa sighs in defeat. “I’ll just have to get you something even more grand the next time I see you!” He announces proudly.

“You don’t have to, Onii-chan…” Saki giggles. “Oh! I hope you don’t mind, Toya’s coming over for dinner tonight.” She says casually, fiddling with her hands.

Toya… Toya? That can’t be. As he racked his mind for any recognition of the name, the only memory he had been able to conjure up was the one of Akito’s target, Toya Aoyagi. Being a target of an assassin organization meant, for the most part, you were a bad person. A very bad person. Surely… they couldn’t possibly be the same person?

“Toya… Aoyagi?” Tsukasa blurts out hesitantly.

Saki tilts her head in confusion like he’s lost his mind. “Yes? You don’t remember Toya?”

Tsukasa’s heart drops at the confirmation. There were several Toya Aoyagi’s, right? It had to be a coincidence. It had to be. “Am I supposed to?”

“Of course!” Saki gasps defensively. “Toya was our childhood friend! Our families were friends with each other so we met over dinner all the time. You don’t remember him!?” She continues to stare at him like this was the most obvious information in the world.

“Really? I don’t… really remember a “Toya” in my life,” he mumbles apologetically.

“How? I…” Saki trails off looking stumped. “Maybe you didn’t get to spend as much time with him as me. I thought we were all really close, but maybe you left earlier than I remembered…”

Tsukasa tried his best to think back to his childhood. All he really remembered was taking care of Saki. Everything else was a convenient blur that his mind had blocked out. You’d think he’d miss these parts of his life, but he’d say his life never truly began until he became an assassin. Of course, that didn’t stop him from feeling like a bad person for forgetting so many faces. Faces that he should remember.

“That could be. I’m sorry, Saki. I really just can’t seem to remember.”

Saki sighs but pats him on the shoulder reassuringly. “It’s okay, Onii-chan! Maybe when you meet him that’ll jog your memory!”

“Hopefully..” Hopefully he recognizes a different face than the one he’s thinking of. At that moment, the doorbell rings.

“Oh! That must be Toya!” Saki jumps up excitedly. “Cmon Onii-chan, let’s go meet him!” She grabs his arm again and proceeds to drag him down the stairs. Tsukasa’s mind swirls with a mixture of thoughts, but the most prominent one is him praying for this to not be who he thinks it is.

Tsukasa waits inside completely stoned as Saki opens the door. He instantly hears a squeal which can only mean it’s exactly who he dreads. Soon enough, his sister walks back in followed by… oh no.

The blonde's heart practically drops into his chest as his eyes meet the blue haired boy. No. This couldn’t be. It was impossible. How could his family be aflighted with a target from his organization? He rubs his eyes again, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he’ll see something other than the two toned blue hair and those sharp gray eyes. Unfortunately, his vision never changes.

Tsukasa’s skin crawls as Saki carelessly hugs them, completely unaware of the fact that this man could only be trouble. With having such a high profile assassin like Akito to go after him, it was very likely that they were deadly. He couldn’t let them harm his sister. Never.

Toya smiles kindly at Saki before switching his attention. Their eyes meet and he swears he sees Toya’s eyes darken coldly. A gaze meant for only him to see. At that moment, he wonders if Toya already knows. That he’s already figured Tsukasa out. As soon as it began, the tense moment ends. To the average watcher, you would’ve never noticed it. But Tsukasa noticed. And he knows the other must’ve noticed as well. Toya’s eyes light up innocently and he offers his hand out.

“Tsukasa,” Toya greets in a friendly tone. He hates it.

“Ah, Toya!” Tsukasa shakes his hand. It feels terribly awkward. “It’s been a while. It’s…” He gulps nervously, “It’s good to see you again.”

“I could say the same.” Toya flashes him a smile, but this time, it’s cold. It carries a menacing feel to it, sending a shiver down his spine. As much as Tsukasa wanted to believe that this was just any friendly exchange, he knew to think better. This wasn’t just any ordinary childhood friend.

And as Toya moves away to greet his parents, he can’t help but think that this,

This was going to be a very interesting night.

Chapter Text

Tsukasa sat in complete silence, chopsticks in hand as he stared at the plate of food in front of him. It was ginger fried pork, one of his favorite foods. On any other occasion, he would’ve gobbled down the food in a heartbeat. As of now though, he couldn’t bring himself to eat. Not with a criminal sitting diagonal from him.

The blonde looked up timidly and watched as Toya ate without a care in the world. Every now and then the blue haired would exchange a few laughs with his sister and parents. Tsukasa hated how natural he was making the whole situation seem. Was he the only one that recognized his identity?

“Tsukasa? Is something the matter? You haven’t once touched your food,” His mother spoke up worriedly.

“Oh um,” Tsukasa panics, putting a piece of ginger fried pork in his mouth, “I’m fine! Just a little distracted, that’s all.”

Tsukasa’s mother looks unconvinced but decides to drop the topic. “How’s everything been for you? Is work treating you well?”

Tsukasa choked on his food at the question, earning a few concerned stares around the table. If he wanted to discuss his job with his family, now was not the time. He’s never really told his parents what he does for work, merely hinting on what it could be. It was safe to say they hadn’t figured it out. However, to discuss these details in front of Toya? The boy would know immediately.

“Everything’s been great, thanks for asking!” Tsukasa spoke hastily before moving to chew on his food aggressively.

“Ah, what exactly do you do for work, Tsukasa?” Toya asked earnestly, tilting his head to the side. “It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen each other, I'm curious what path you chose.

Oh, just kill him now. Toya just had to ask all the right questions. Tsukasa shoved another piece of pork into his mouth, hoping that’d buy him some more time to think. What could he possibly lie and say he worked as, without his family catching on? In the few moments he had, he came up with the dumbest answer he could think of.

“I’m a detective!” Tsukasa answered as confidently as he could. That was believable, right? He had informed his family several times that his job was related to crime, so surely this would sell it?

“Onii-chan’s a detective!?” Saki gasps. “That’s so cool!”

Toya raises an eyebrow at Saki’s surprised response, “You weren’t already aware of this?”

Saki simply shrugs, digging into her dinner. “Onii-chan doesn’t really talk much about his job. We just know he’s really successful!”

“Ah,” Toya nods nochantly. Tsukasa swears his eyes darken in deep thought. “A detective… How fascinating. You must be aware of the recent incident on the news then?”

Tsukasa freezes, nearly choking on his food for a second time. “W-why yes! As a detective, I must be aware of such things…”

“Surely this must be a big case? Are you planning to track down the culprit?” Toya urges on.

What was he getting at? “Um, perhaps. Although I’m sure other big shot detectives are already on the case! I don’t think I’m needed for this.” Tsukasa says, hoping Toya stops and drops the topic.

“Not needed, you say?” Toya hums in thought. “With the assassin having such a clean escape, you’d think they’d need all the help they can get, no?”

Tsukasa gulps nervously, racking his brain for a convenient response. “I’m sure they have it figured out. All assassins are put into the light one day.”

“So you believe this one will be caught?”

“Y-yeah. Probably.”

“You don’t sound very confident, Tsukasa.”

“Guys… enough of the crime talk! Let’s just have a nice dinner, okay?” Saki interrupts, putting an end to Toya’s interrogation. Toya doesn’t seem to have finished his mental assault against Tsukasa, but nevertheless drops the topic and continues to eat. Tsukasa takes a shaky breath he didn’t know he was holding as he begins to eat silently.

The dinner table is silent as Tsukasa tries to piece together in his head what the fuck just happend. He had hoped that by some miracle, Toya was an innocent person. That he’d remembered the name wrong and the two simply looked similar. That was definitely not the case. With the way Toya was asking all these strange questions, it could only mean that he knew of Tsukasa’s identity.

“I’m going to use the restroom. Please excuse me.” Toya suddenly says, standing up from his chair and heading to the left door. Tsukasa eyes him skeptically. The direction he headed was not towards the restroom. It was towards the stairs. You’d think Toya, being a close relative to the family, would know this by now? Could he be lost? Tsukasa didn’t buy it one bit.

“I think I also need to use the restroom,” Tsukasa lied, heading the same direction Toya went.

Tsukasa crept silently towards the stairs. Toya was nowhere in sight. He couldn’t have gone in any other direction, the left side only leading to the front door and stairs.

The blonde made his way up the wooden stairs slowly, praying for the infamous creaking to leave him alone just this once. Once he made it up, he looked around at the selection of rooms. The hallway, thankfully, had a dim light so he could see his surroundings fairly well. He looked around, most of the room's lights not on, all except one. His old room.

Tsukasa rarely stayed over at his family's house, but for the few times he did he stayed in his childhood room. The room was fairly empty, save for a few meaningful ornaments that he decided not to bring to his sad apartment. What could Toya possibly want that could be in there? Why was he lurking up here, anyway?

Tsukasa slowly walked towards the lit room, taking a deep breath before opening the door carefully.

There was no one there. Unless Toya was planning to jump scare him out of a closet, he wasn’t anywhere in sight. Tsukasa walked in carefully, observing his surroundings for any signs of the blue haired individual. The place seemed untouched. Almost as if…he never came in to begin with it. With every step he took inside the room, the more it began to dawn on him that this seemed oddly like a tra-

Tsukasa yelps as he feels two arms encase around his neck. He attempts to fight back, but goes still when he notices the knife hovering dangerously close to his neck.

“Shut up,” A voice hisses. It belonged to none other than Toya.

“What do you want?” Tsukasa asks surprisingly calmly given the current situation he was stuck in.

“I have a few questions. And I think you have the answers to them,” Toya answers simply, his hold on the knife unyielding.

“Maybe if you let me go, I’ll be in better condition to answer them.” Tsukasa gasps a little as the knife against his knife inches closer.

“And why would I ever do that? That doesn’t seem like a smart move on my part.”

“My families downstairs,” Tsukasa says through gritted teeth. “What could I possibly do?”

Toya narrows his eyes, seeming to debate the proposal. He then suddenly pushes Tsukasa away, almost sending him tumbling to the ground.

Tsukasa turns, watching as Toya puts the knife into his pocket threateningly. Knowing him, he probably had several other weapons within his possession right at this given moment. And knowing him, he probably wants him to realize that.

“I’d rather things not get messy, so let’s do this quickly. Who are you?”

“You know who I am.”

“You know what I’m trying to say. Who are you?” Toya repeats.

“Tsukasa Tenma. Son of the Tenma family.” Tsukasa says blandly. He knows what Toya wants him to say. But he isn’t going to give in that easily.

Toys sighs, a look of irritation in his eyes. “Do you really want to make this difficult? I can very easily make it so this family no longer has a son.”

Tsukasa gulps. He knows he’s in no position to talk back, but his mouth speaks for him regardless. “Could you do that? Would you really do that? To Saki?”

It seems his words hit a trigger, because Toya’s eyes darken and he becomes defensive. “Don’t bring Saki into this.”

“Why not?” Tsukasa pushes. He hates using his sister as a means to help him out of this situation, but sometimes sacrifices must be made. “She’s my sister. She means the world to me. And judging by your response, she’s important to you too.”

Toya purses his lips, a look of guilt arising from his eyes. “You don’t know anything.”

“I know the two of you are close. In a way, you view her as your sister too, no?” At this point, Tsukasa’s bullshitting his way through and hoping to hit some kind of sensitive spot. He’s aware the three of them used to be close childhood friends. Well, more like the two of them. As far as he’s aware, he was gone before he could even develop a proper relationship with the other boy.

Toya looks to the ground, completely silent. Tsukasa wonders if he’s won the emotional manipulative game before he’s lunged at and pinned effectively against the wall. He so desperately wishes he could fight back, but he had no kind of weapon on him as of now.

“Just who exactly are you, Tsukasa? You’re an assassin. I know that much.” Toya says venomously. It scares Tsukasa. He’s never seen the other boy so… mad.

“Y-you’re an assassin too,” Tsukasa stutters out.

“You’re right. Assassins really can sense each other.” Toya deadpans. “You know? I really want to kill you right now.”

“I know,” Tsukasa gulps nervously.

“But I can’t. I just can’t. I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt,” Toya mutters bitterly. Tsukasa understands why.

“Then let’s make a deal,” Tsukasa suddenly proposes

“A deal?”

“You let me go, we eat dinner in peace, and we pretend this never happened. You can go on to do whatever you’d like, and I’ll go on to live my life as well. Nothing has to be complicated. Nothing has to be messy.”

Toya looks at him skeptically. “Why would I do that? I don’t gain anything from it.”

“Our families will stay friends. You and Saki’s relationship will stay the same. We can live our lives normally. Besides, there’s nothing I can really give you.”

Toya seems to think for a moment, debating the pros and cons in his head. “I highly doubt that. You seem to be an important assassin figure.”

Tsukasa shrugs, “Looks can be deceiving. I’m just trying to get by and take care of my family. Is that so hard to believe?”

“That’s…” Toya trails off, glaring at the blonde in front of him. “I suppose I can respect that. But how can I believe that you won’t come after me when you have the chance?”

“I don’t have any reason to,” Tsukasa says instantly. “Why would I involve myself with another assassin? Especially one that’s so close to my family?”

Toya goes silent, continuing to stare at the blonde coldly. He then walks backwards, releasing Tsukasa from the compromising position. “Fine. You swear we won’t speak of this ever again?”

“I swear,” Tsukasa promises truthfully, finally starting to breathe normally.

“Then let’s go eat dinner. They must be waiting for us,” Toya says, walking away. The sudden change of attitude surprises Tsukasa. He has to chase after the blue haired boy once he realizes that he has no intention of waiting for him.

The two of them walk back to the dinner table with as fake smiles as they can manage. They take their seats and mutter small apologies to the others.

“Where were you two?!” Saki glares at them accusingly.

Both Tsukasa and Toya look away guiltily. They glance at each other with knowing eyes. Only they would know of what happened.

“We went to the restroom! On the way back we started chatting a bit. Sorry, we got carried away,” Tsukasa apologizes.

Toya nods in agreement. “Yeah. It’s been a while since we last saw each other, so we wanted to catch up on everything. I apologize as well.”

Saki eyes them skeptically, before moving to pout and eat her dinner. “Fine. I guess… I’m just glad you guys are getting along,” She smiles brightly. It makes him feel so incredibly guilty. If only she knew what exactly they had talked about…

“Yeah… Toya’s… Toya’s pretty cool.” Tsukasa mumbles softer than he expected.

“Well, let’s finish dinner all right? The food is starting to get cold. This goes especially for Tsukasa and Toya,” His mother says accusingly.

“Yes ma’am!”

—

“Ah, it’s a shame you have to leave so soon,” Saki pouted sadly.

“I apologize, It’s just getting a little too late for my liking,” Toya chuckles.

Saki suddenly gave Toya a tight hug, “It was good to see you! I really missed hanging out with you.”

“Ah,” Toya mutters in surprise before returning the gesture. “I missed seeing you too.”

Saki let’s go with bright eyes. “Remember to take care of yourself!! Don’t be like Onii-chan…”

“Hey!? I take great care of myself!” Tsukasa huffs defensively.

“That’s a lie and you know it!”

Tsukasa grumbles before switching his attention to the blue haired individual. “It was good to see you again.”

Toya nods in agreement, “It was nice seeing you again, too.” He smiles, and it looks so incredibly genuine and sincere that it catches him off guard. Tsukasa can only blink in confusion before chuckling softly.

“I’ll be taking my leave now, then.” Toya smiles sadly. “Goodbye everyone.” He waves before exiting the building.

“Bye Toya!!” Saki waves energetically.

“Bye,” Tsukasa says softly.

Toya turns around one last time and sends them a wave. Tsukasa and his eyes meet, and there’s a look of dissatisfaction in the blue haired’s eyes. However there's also a gleam of contentment that makes a little part of Tsukasa feel reassured.

A little thought in the back of his mind wonders if they’ll ever cross paths again.

—

“Akito!”

Tsukasa swings the door open aggressively, panting heavily as he finally stops to catch his breath. The ginger looks at him in bewilderment, eyes blown wide as the pencil he was holding clatters onto the table.

“What the hell?” Akito mutters out silently. Realization seems to hit him though, because he gets out of his chair violently and grabs Tsukasa’s collar, “Where the fuck were you?” He yells angrily.

“O-oh! Yeah. I forgot about that…” Tsukasa laughs nervously. He’d come in a rush, and just maybe had forgotten the fact that he’d been ignoring everyone’s messages for the past week.

“What the fuck do you mean ‘I forgot’? You’ve been gone without a response for the past week. Everyone thought that Kamishiro guy killed you.” Akito continues to berate him, his hold on his collar never lessening.

“Seriously? You guys think that lowly of me? I wouldn’t get myself killed that easily.” Tsukasa frowns.

Akito lets go of him, slapping his face with his hand with a loud groan. “Out of everything I said, that's what you chose to pay attention to?”

“Okay, look. I’m sorry. I’ve been dealing with a lot recently, and didn’t want to get into contact with the organization,” Tsukasa says apologetically.

“That’s…” Akito sighs, “You could’ve at least told us. You know we wouldn’t have told Kai-”

The door that had been previously closed shut springs open once again. “Akito! I found this really cool place at— Tsukasa?” The person who opened the door is none other than Akiyama, whose mouth hangs open in complete shock.

Tsukasa and Akito turn to look at them, eyes equally as wide. Tsukasa opens his mouth to say something but immediately shuts it at the realization that he’s at a loss for words.

Mizuki stomps over to Tsukasa and begins to shake him violently. He can’t help but think that this oddly feels like deja vu. “Where were you dumbass? We all thought you died!”

“Eeh…” Tsukasa lets out a noise, his thoughts incoherent as he continues to be shaken aggressively. When Mizuki doesn’t get a response from him, they shake him even harder. “I’m sorry!” He cried out, “I didn’t want to get found out by the organization…”

Mizuki stops shaking him and lets out a quiet huff. “That’s kind of dumb.” They frown. “If you were going to hide, why show up now?”

“Seriously Mizuki?” Akito sighs in despair.

“Kidding! We’re glad you’re back, bud,” Mizuki grins, slapping him on the back. “No but like, you’re in a lot of shit. The higher ups kind of want to kill you.”

Tsukasa yells quietly in his hands, before looking back up at Mizuki with an unimpressed gaze. “You think I don’t already know that!?”

“I dunno. Just thought I’d confirm your suspicions,” Mizuki shrugs. “You’ll be fine, Kaito has a soft spot for you anyway.”

“Kaito does not have a soft spot for me—”

“Yes he does,” Both Akito and Mizuki say in unison.

“It’s blatant favoritism, really,” Akito snorts. Mizuki nods in agreement, earning a quiet gasp of betrayal from the blonde.

“It is not—”

“Anyway!” Mizuki cuts Tsukasa off, “How’d you manage to… y’know, I don’t mean to say it but…”

“How’d you manage to screw up that badly?” Akito finishes for them.

Tsukasa glares daggers at them. “You wouldn’t have done any better if you were put into my position!” He grumbles. A thought in the back of his mind calls bullshit.

“I highly doubt that,” Akito deadpans.

“Ooh ooh, did you meet the Kamishiro guy?” Mizuki asks curiously.

Tsukasa breathing freezes at the mention of his name. “Yeah. Yeah I did,” he mumbles.

“What was he like?” Mizuki continues to ask, “Was he wearing all black? Did he drop down from nowhere and catch you by surprise?” They laugh teasingly.

“Of course he didn’t,” Akito makes a bewildered noise.

“But that’s what all the people that have encountered him have said! They all freeze up and cower at even the mention of his name. So I’m asking Tsukasa to confirm the rumors.”

Tsukasa sighs as Mizuki looks at him expectantly. If he glances at Akito he can also see him listening curiously. “Uh. He was tall… had purple hair and I guess you could say he was wearing dark clothing. Felt like he was talking in code the whole time.”

Mizuki hums in thought, before some kind of realization hits them. “You talked to him!?” They gasp loudly.

“Yeah?” Tsukasa says, tilting his head to the side in confusion. I also danced with him and we almost kissed, he doesn’t say.

“Woah. Tsukasa’s already beaten the knowledge of, like, all the victims of the dude!” Mizuki claps like it’s some kind of accomplishment.

“You talked to him, so you were in a range that you could’ve killed him. So why didn’t you?” Akito asks almost accusingly.

“It’s not that simple!” Tsukasa squawks defensively. It could’ve been.

“If I were you, Kamishiro would be dead by now,” Akito snorts.

“Ey, cut the guy some slack,” Mizuki jabs the ginger in the shoulder. “You’re not any better, y’know.”

Akito raises his eyebrow in question. “Excuse me?”

Mizuki rolls her eyes like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “You know how many times you’ve met that Toya guy? Have you killed him yet?”

Akito flushes in embarrassment, looking away from the now grinning Mizuki. Tsukasa looks at the two of them, feeling like he was missing something important. He then suddenly remembers something.

“Oh right! That’s exactly why I came here…” Tsukasa says, opening his backpack and beginning to dig for something. Mizuki and Akito approach him curiously, wondering how their conversation could’ve been related to anything important.

Tsukasa finds what he’s looking for and gingerly places a watch into Akito’s hands.

“A tracker watch?” Akito asks in bewilderment as he turns the watch on. Mizuki looks over to see as the screen lights up revealing a small red dot in a certain location. “Who is this tracking, and why are you giving this to me?”

“Toya,” Tsukasa says casually. Both Akito and Mizuki’s eyes widen in shock. “He’s your target, right? I thought this would be useful for you.”

Akito looks at him in disbelief. “How did you get this? No, how did you even get into contact with Aoyagi?”

“What can I say?” Tsukasa smirks proudly, hands on his hips. “I’m great at my job!” The two of them didn’t need to know the details.

“Now you’re just blatantly lying,” Akito scoffs, still completely transfixed with the small screen on the watch.

“I have so many questions…” Mizuki mumbles.

“Anyway, I’d appreciate it if you know… you would complete your mission soon,” Tsukasa laughs nervously. Not if, but when Toya finds out a tracker had been placed on him, he was absolutely dead meat. Hopefully with this new intel, Akito will be able to finish his mission faster. Tsukasa knew it was horrible to wish death on someone, especially that someone being especially close to your sister, but they were dangerous. And he couldn’t have them being in such close proximity to his family.

Akito raises an eyebrow, “Why? What’s it to you?”

“Um… nothing. Just giving you advice like the wonderful senior assassin I am haha!”

“That was your take on advice?” Akito snorts with a laugh. “That sounded more like a plea and less like advice to me.”

“Sorry to break it to you, Tsukasa, but I don’t think Akito’s ever going to succeed in his mission,” Mizuki sighs dramatically, swinging an arm over the blonde’s shoulder.

“Eh? Why?”

Akito glares up at Mizuki, looking seconds away from ending them himself. “I’m going to kill you one of these days, Mizuki.” He grumbles in defeat.

The pink haired simply giggles, relishing in making the ginger's life miserable. “He’s sooo infatuated with that Toya dude. With the amount of times they’ve come across each other, I’m surprised Akito’s not dead yet.” Mizuki sighs dramatically. “Oo, oo, maybe it’s because he also likes Akito. What a dramatic love story—”

At this point, Akito’s behind Mizuki and it almost looks as if he’s about to choke them. Tsukasa quickly intercepts the two and lets out an awkward laugh. “Let’s… not provoke him, Mizuki. Plus, it’s obviously not true. Right, Akito?” Tsukasa looks at him expectantly.

“Yeah.” Akito gets out. It sounds incredibly strained. “Yeah, of course. Obviously.” It sounds so painfully un confident that Tsukasa decides to not pursue the matter any further.

“Well, I guess it’s time for me to confront my problems,” Tsukasa sighs painfully. “If you never see me again, you know what happened.”

“Awe, cheer up man,” Mizuki laughs lightheartedly. “You’ll be fine. Will you get your ass kicked? Definitely. But y’know what? Sacrifices have to be made.” As much as Tsukasa appearciates their reassurance, he also can’t help but feel that their words hold no reassurance at all.

“Just don’t be stupid again,” Akito pitches in.

“Ugh, you guys are so unhelpful!” Tsukasa cries in defeat.

“Hehe, anyway, you better go now. Kaito’s leaving the building in half an hour, and without him you're dead fish.” Mizuki urges, practically pushing him out of the office.

“Huh!? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Tsukasa yelps in panic, quickly grabbing his bag and rushing towards the door. Mizuki just had to be last minute about everything!

“Bye Tsukasa! Let us know when you’re off the hook!” Mizuki sends him a thumbs up.

“Thanks for the tracker. I don’t know how you got it, but you did. It’ll be helpful to have.” Akito says, and Tsukasa can’t help but feel touched that he gave his genuine thanks. Getting something like this out of Akito was quite rare, so Tsukasa will silently celebrate this small victory. “Don’t die.”

“Thanks Akito…” He grumbles to himself.

—

The sun had started to set, an orangey tint painting the sky. Snow gracefully fell around him as he walked through the empty streets. Toya himself didn’t quite know where he was going, but he walked nonetheless.

A distant ringing caught his attention. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and scanned the screen. An unknown number. Toya would normally ignore the call and go on with his day, but something made him feel more generous than usual.

Toya answered the call and put his phone to his ear, not sure what to expect.

“Hello?”

“Hello. You must be Toya Aoyagi, no?”

Toya froze, his breathing slowed an exponential amount. “Who are you?”

“My identity isn’t important,” The person on the other side of the line chuckled.

“What do you want?” Toya says, beginning to walk once again.

“You work for Blood Moon right? You’re an assassin,” Toya can almost hear the cheeky grin in their voice. It irritates him.

Toya sighs, debating on hanging up or continuing with this dangerous phone call. Curiosity gets the better of him. “That’s correct. Are you simply here to scare me because you know my identity? If so, please find someone else to pester.”

He hears a faint laugh escape through his phone. “I would like to make a deal with you, Aoyagi.”

Toya raises an eyebrow at that. “A deal? What does this deal entail?” He questions.

“I’d like you to help me assassinate someone.”

An assassination. How odd. Toya had never been asked to assassinate a person except well, for his organization because that was his job. But something this personal? He doubted he’d agree to do it, but he’d be lying if he didn’t say he was a tad bit intrigued. “And who might that be?”

“You’ve probably already heard of their name. In fact, I’d say the two of you know each other quite well!”

Know each other well…?

“I’d like you to help me assassinate Tsukasa Tenma.”

Chapter Text

“Tsukasa.”

He shuts his eyes, curling himself into a ball as he lets out faint sounds of whimpering. He blinks, upset with himself when small tears escape his cloudy eyes.

“Tsukasa.”

The sound of distant footsteps makes his breathing erratic. He can’t help but struggle to breathe as his heart beats in overdrive. Fear courses through him, and he finds that he can’t stop himself from shaking.

“Tsukasa?”

Tsukasa blinks. He’s in front of Kaito’s office again. The lean doors are open, and the dark blue haired is staring at him expectantly. He quickly walks in and shuts the doors behind him, dreading to keep the other waiting.

The blond carefully makes his way to the already pushed out chairs and takes a seat. He gulps nervously as the man in front of him stares at him skeptically.

For a few long moments, the two of them don’t speak a word. Tsukasa’s anxiety only creeps up as the blue haired stares at him almost expectantly.

“I deeply apologize—”

“I have a new mission for you—”

The two go silent.

“O-oh. You do?” Tsukasa blinks.

“Yes,” Is all Kaito responds with as he skims through a large document. “Are you injured?” He suddenly asks.

“No?” Tsukasa frowns at the unexpected question.

Kaito hums in acknowledgement, “That’s good to hear. Were you able to handle Kamishiro well?”

The mention of the purple haired’s name makes his blood turn cold. “Well? I guess you could say I wasn’t at any disadvantage.” All these strange questions confused Tsukasa. Why hasn’t he mentioned what happened yet?

Kaito nods, before handing him a small document. “Your mission location and information are here.”

Tsukasa tilts his head, skimming through the document quickly. Another party. He can’t help but scowl. “What is my mission?” The blond asks, not quite catching on.

Kaito raises his eyebrow like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “The same as before. To assassinate Kamishiro.” The blue haired man ignores the others wide disbelieving eyes and points at the document, “We’ve been getting many hints as to where Kamishiro will be, and we’re almost certain he’ll be at this party.”

“I…” Tsukasa wants to say something, anything then simply agreeing, but his voice betrays him. “Okay.”

“Is Kamishiro aware of your identity and what you look like?”

“Yes… unfortunately,” Tsukasa nod’s begrudgingly, finding the admission quite humiliating.

“That’s what we presumed. Although that makes things difficult, we will continue forward.”

“But,” Tsukasa hesitates, “He knows who I am. He’ll see me coming.”

“You’ve also seen their appearance as well, correct?” Kaito asks expectantly.

“…Yes. I have.”

Kaito smiles, “Then we have the upper hand.”

Tsukasa scrunches his face in confusion. How did he have the upper hand? Rui and him were tied at best. “How…?”

“The document states everything you need to know. You can look at it later.”

“Ah, okay.” Tsukasa nods unconfidently. He stares at the dark blue haired as he cleans up his desk, and Tsukasa remembers that he was due to leave the office soon.

“Tsukasa,” Kaito begins. Tsukasa already knows what he’s going to say. “I’m not sure what happened at the masquerade party, but you came out unscathed. That’s already better than any of the agents we sent previously. Although…” Kaito sighs and Tsukasa can sense the disappointment admitting out of his voice, “You were far too careless. I’m sure you already realize the damage you caused.”

Tsukasa stares down in shame. “Yes. I apologize sir—”

“I don’t need an apology. I need you to be at your best and succeed in this mission. There is no room for silly mistakes anymore. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir. Of course. I won’t make any more mistakes,” Tsukasa winces slightly at the petrifying gaze.

“Good,” Kaito smiles coldly, standing from his desk and hooking a brown bag over his shoulder. “Then I expect only the best from you,” Is all the blue haired says as he walks out of the office, leaving Tsukasa to stress over his words.

—

“I have to WHAT?!” Tsukasa screeches, staring at the document in pure disbelief.

A robotic voice behind him giggles loudly, only fueling Tsukasa’s building rage. Miku, now in the form of a hologram, peaks over his shoulder, laughing at Tsukasa’s dismay.

“Ahaha,” Miku continues to giggle. “Tsukasa’s gonna be a girl!”

“I am NOT!!” Tsukasa grumbles, debating on face planting into the table right at that moment. A girl. He had to dress as a girl. Kaito’s words finally made sense and he absolutely hated it. There was no way he was going to attend a party as a girl! It would be so incredibly embarrassing as well as so painfully obvious. He couldn’t even fake a girl's voice for crying out loud!

“Hehe. Tsukasa would make such a cute girl!” Miku exclaims like there wasn’t any problem with this predicament.

“I WOULD NOT!” Tsukasa retorts almost instantly. “I am not going to pretend to be a girl. That’s so embarrassing!” He whined into his hands.

“Whyy?” Miku asks, confused. “Do you have something against females?”

Where did Miku get that from!? “Of course not! But I’m a guy. It’d be so weird, not to mention obvious!”

“Ehh?” Miku tilts her head to the side, a small frown appearing on her face. “Tsukasa’s already pretty girly. I don’t think anyone would notice a difference!”

Excuse me? Tsukasa stares at the pigtailed girl in pure disbelief. No way Miku just called him girly. “I’m- I’m not girly!” He barely stutters out.

“Yes you are!” Miku smiles brightly. “You have…” She pauses to think, “I dunno. A feminine body?”

“I—” Tsukasa is flat out speechless. His face burns in embarrassment. Miku was wrong! She was an AI. She wasn’t programmed to know these types of things, it must be a simple Misunderstanding. It had to be. “I’m not going to argue with you anymore…” Tsukasa sighs in defeat, mindlessly staring at the document.

“Awe,” Miku pouts, standing behind Tsukasa and looking over his shoulder. “You’re just upset that I’m right.”

“No…” Tsukasa frowns in annoyance. “Your programming is wrong. You just don’t know any better.”

Miku stares at him blankly before huffing defensively, “My programming is never wrong! I always give correct information. You’re just in denial,”

“I’m- ugh. I’m going to find a higher up to alter my mission. No way I’m doing this.” Tsukasa stands up and stretches before making his way to the door.

“Hey! Wait!” Miku calls out. “I can contact them for you so you don’t have to find them yourself,” Miku smiles.

“Oh…” He’d forgotten Miku could appear around anyone in the building. The only reason she was here was because she enjoyed pestering the blond. It must be nice being able to teleport wherever you want, he thinks distantly. “That would be very helpful! Thanks, Miku.”

“Yay! Wait here, I’ll be back soon!” Is all Miku says before her hologram disappears from sight, leaving Tsukasa alone in the office room.

Tsukasa takes a deep sigh before glancing at the document clutched between his hands. Reading it only infuriates him further, but he knows there’s no one else to blame but himself. You were careless and now you have to deal with the consequences, a little voice in his mind pitches in. He wonders if Rui feels the same way.

It makes sense, really. He had exposed his identity to Rui, so assassinating him would be infinitely more difficult. So of course, it makes sense to alter his appearance. But still, a girl? The organization would stoop so low as to have one of their best (in his ever so slightly delusional mind) agents cross dress?

To say Tsukasa was opposed to the idea was an understatement. It sounded so incredibly humiliating, and he wasn’t sure his self esteem could take it. Just imagining himself approaching anyone like that made his skin crawl. The problem wasn’t about cross dressing, or being a girl, but rather how painfully obvious it’d be to the naked eye. There was absolutely no way he could pull it off!

Maybe the blond was just sick of dealing with the purple haired. Rui only spelled trouble, which was obvious from their first encounter. He didn’t want to continue tarnishing his reputation because a certain purple haired made things complicated. Couldn’t the organization hire a different assassin to take the job? However, he’s reminded of Mizuki’s words explaining that he’d already had better progress than any other agent who took the mission. It couldn’t be helped, he supposed.

As Tsukasa drowned in soft static noise, a thought arose from his mind. Why was Rui so important, anyway? It was simply one guy pestering the organization, yet Kaito made it sound like assassinating him was an urgent matter. It wasn’t uncommon for a rando to cause them trouble, but they’d either be forgotten or killed off. What could one man do? Why was Rui so intent in taking them down?

Rui seemed to have a deep connection with the organization. Far more than the average person should. Was he aflighted with them in the past? No, that didn’t make sense. Why would he want to destroy them if that was the case?

It was with these thoughts that Miku appeared behind him. “You look troubled. Whatcha thinking about, Tsukasa-kun?” She asks innocently, alighting a surprised yelp from the other.

“Gah! Don’t scare me like that, Miku.” He sighs, his heart coming back to steady pace. “So? What’d they say?” He asks expectantly.

“Errr,” Miku trailes off, a frown appearing on her hologram. “Most people I asked said they couldn’t do anything about it. Meiko and Luka said to suck it up,” She shrugs.

“What! Seriously?” He groans in defeat. “I’ll just ask Kaito when he’s back. He’ll surely understand,” Tsukasa tries his best to hold onto a copious amount of hope.

“But… Tsukasa-kun’s mission is in 3 days. Kaito won’t be back for another week.”

“Wha… WHAT?!” He shrieks in disbelief. “But why? He never leaves the office for this long!”

Miku shrugs apologetically. “Kaito said it was a super important event he had to go to.”

“An important event…?” He wonders out loud.

“Mhm! All the head leaders of the assassin organizations are coming together for one big meeting.” Miku says enthusiastically. “Oh… but I probably shouldn’t have told you that.”

All the head leaders coming together for a meeting? Did something drastic happen recently that he was unaware of? A thought in the back of his mind wonders if it’s his fault. “But why? There’s no good reason to,” He questions mainly to himself. He doesn’t expect Miku to answer since this was obviously confidential information.

“Somethings been causing them all trouble recently. They're meeting up in hopes to potentially team up and solve it!” Miku answers, putting her hands together with a smile. “Or at least something like that… they haven’t been letting me listen in on their conversations recently.”

“Trouble?” Tsukasa frowns. Trouble… what could possibly cause this much trouble that they’d have to go to such extremes? And to not let Miku know? Well, he can now obviously see it was a good choice. “That’s odd. But Miku—”

“Yes?” She answers immediately.

“Maybe don’t relay this information to others. It might cause some panic that the higher up’s won’t be happy with.”

“Ah… okay. Sorry Tsukasa-kun! I just haven’t been able to talk about it with anyone so it burst out of me suddenly.” Miku clasped her hands together apologetically.

“It’s fine! I’m glad you told me anyway.” Tsukasa smiled, returning to glance down at the table. A curious thought appears in his mind. “Hey Miku… do you happen to know anything about Rui?”

“Rui?” Miku tilts her head in question.

“Kamishiro,” Tsukasa corrects himself. He had forgotten the organization never referred to Rui by his first name. “Do you happen to have any information on him? Besides the known facts, obviously.”

Miku hums in thought, “Let me look into the database.” Miku’s face turns expressionless, her eyes unblinking. It’s an oddly creepy thing to see, but as time passed Tsukasa had gotten used to Miku’s spirit practically disappearing from her hologram body. As the blond turns to look away, Miku becomes alive again.

Miku’s frowning, and although it’s not an uncommon thing to see, the expression sends a shiver down his spine. Despite her spirit returning back, her eyes are unusually dull. He notices she’s slightly fidgety, a nervous smile creeping onto her face.

“Did you find anything?”

“No. I didn’t find anything. Just the document’s Kaito’s already handed to you,” Miku says, returning to her usual demeanor. “Although…” There it is again. That unusual expression. This time, Tsukasa can’t help but feel that it looks more fearful than anything. “There were a lot of documents labeled ‘K1A’ when I searched Kamishiro’s name. All of them require authorized access, and if I try overruling it I get kicked out.”

Tsukasa blinked. “Don’t you have access to virtually everything in the database? How is it possible that you’re unable to open it?” Miku was quite literally the owner and prime user of anything revolving around the database. Very few people could block her out, but even so, why would they go so far as to do that? What could possibly be so confidential that they made sure Miku couldn’t know about it?

Miku looks away, her eyes dark in thought. “Yes, that’s correct. I’m… I’m not sure. I’ll have to look into it more.”

Tsukasa stares at her blankly, trying to find a reasonable explanation to why this would happen. Why Rui out of all people? How did K1A have anything to do with him? It all deeply confuses him, and a part of him can’t help but wish he never asked Miku to check in the first place. But another part is also incredibly curious.

“Sorry, Tsukasa. I think— I think I’m going to go now,” Miku says hesitantly. The pigtailed hologram has been acting on edge ever since she looked into the database. If he had to pick another emotion he’d say she almost looks guilty.

“Oh,” Tsukasa frowns at the sudden abrupt leave. “Okay, then. Bye Miku—” Before he can finish, the hologram is already gone and he’s left alone once again. Miku didn’t even say goodbye.

Tsukasa sighs, picking up the documents scattered on the table before placing them into his folder labeled ‘Kamishiro Rui’.

Just who exactly are you, Rui?

—

Quiet footsteps could be heard as a hooded man stopped outside a house's front door. He pressed the doorbell, waiting patiently as the wind brushed against his coat. He chuckled quietly to himself as he heard loud steps making their way to the entrance.

The door swings open, revealing a blonde pigtailed girl with a bright smile. “Toya! Come in,” she ushered him inside, closing the wooden doors behind them.

“Sorry I came on such late notice, I hope you don’t mind.” Toya says, taking off his shoes and putting them neatly into a corner.

“No problem at all! My friend’s are here as well, so I hope that’s alright.” Saki gives him a thumbs up.

“That’s fine. Is Tsukasa here?”

“Oh, unfortunately not. He left to go back to his apartment a week ago.” Saki smiles apologetically. She seems to notice his disappointment. “Sorry. Were you looking for him?”

“I was hoping to see him, do you know when he’ll be visiting again soon?” Toya asks.

Saki hums in thought. “No. He’s always busy with work so we almost never see him,” she smiles sadly. “He lives really far away, so sorry to say, but I doubt you’ll be seeing him for a while.”

“Ah, I see.” Toya is admittedly disappointed. He was hoping to see the blond boy. To have a little friendly chat. Although, he was half expecting him to already be gone. With being such a high level assassin, Tsukasa almost always had to be moving. That doesn’t mean he’ll let this visit go to waste, though. “That’s too bad. Do you mind if I explore the house a little? It’s been a while since I got the chance.”

Saki perks up at that, back to her usual cheerful self. “Yeah, of course! The house is all yours.”

“Saki?” A voice comes from the living room. A girl about Saki’s age with short messy gray hair peaks from the kitchen. “You coming?”

“Oh, I’ll be right there Shiho-chan!” Saki replies quickly. “Let me know if you need anything! I’ll be in the living room,” She skips away towards the living room, her pigtails swinging in the process.

Toya smiles briefly before the blonde girl is out of sight. He looks around, deciding where it would be most optimal to explore. He climbs up the stairs, each step making an obnoxious creaking sound.

As soon as Toya’s at the top, he heads for the room he visited just so recently. Tsukasa’s room.

The blue haired flicks on the lights, revealing a huge, yet empty room. It looks almost abandoned, which was reasonable since Tsukasa hadn’t lived here for a long time. At least that’s what he supposed.

Toya walks around the room, glancing at any of the things that still remain. The room was pretty much completely empty save for a few objects on display. He approaches a wooden toy with a castle and a small knight riding on a horse. He vaguely remembers Saki showing it to him when he was younger. It’s supposed to play a lullaby when you turn it on.

Toya puts the knight on the wooden platform and turns the key to start it. When he flicks the switch on, the toy begins to whir to life. It begins to play a soft melody while the knight on the horse travels in circles around the castle. Every so often, the princess would pop out from the castle and disappear once again. Toya walks away, leaving the melody to ring through the room as he looks around.

With nothing useful in sight, the blue haired decides to rummage through the drawers. He skips through several stacks of paper that seem to have been Tsukasa’s old school work. At the bottom of the drawer he finds a dusty yellow folder. Out of curiosity, he pulls it out.

Toya blows at the book, causing dust to fly into the air. He opens it, not quite sure what to expect, but is surprised at what he sees. It’s a photo album. What shocks him is that these photos are of him, Saki and Tsukasa.

Although this is straying from the task at hand, he decides to indulge himself. He flips through the pages of them as children. A particular picture of Tsukasa hiding behind Toya as Saki holds a caterpillar makes him chuckle out loud. A soft smile rests on his face as he flips the page and it’s a picture of the three of them curled up in a blanket watching a movie. Tsukasa’s eyes are blown wide in awe while Saki clutches onto his right arm. He himself looks surprised as well, and he notices that he’s also clutching onto Tsukasa’s left arm.

What Toya would do to be a child again. It was all so much simpler, really. If he could, he would mend the bonds he had with Tsukasa in the past. They could be friends again. Toya would never admit it, but when he was younger he saw Tsukasa as an older brother figure. When they were children, Tsukasa was like this bright light pushing him forwards. The person that took his hand and brought him back onto his feet. The person that would stay by his side, consoling him after a fight with his father. Making him laugh so his mind was taken off his worries.

So what happened? Why did the blond boy have to disappear and leave him in such a state? It had all happened so soon. One day the three of them were happily together and the next he was gone. No goodbye, no apology, nothing. All the love and admiration he had for Tsukasa died after the 4th year. Because that’s when he realized Tsukasa had abandoned him for good. That he left and was never coming back.

Toya was bitter. Venomous, even. He despised Tsukasa. Hated him for leaving him the way he did. The blue haired had come to the conclusion that Tsukasa didn’t care about him anymore, that he harboured the same hate he had for him. As he grew up, his heart turned cold. Sometimes he wondered if anything would’ve changed if Tsukasa had been there.

As Toya stared at the photo album, all he could feel was an intense feeling of jealousy pooling in his stomach. He was so incredibly envious of his past self. The blue haired wanted to rip the photos out. Why did he get to live such a carefree life? Why was Toya left to suffer? He hated his past self. He hated that genuine smile that appeared in every goddamn photo. He hated it all.

A loud buzzing noise interrupts his train of thought. Toya blinks, disgusted when he feels a tear slip down his cheek. He rubs his eyes, reaching into his pocket for his phone. It’s the exact person he expects, but he doesn’t feel in the mood to talk to them at all.

“Hello?” He mumbles out.

Soft static noise. “Well you don’t seem to be in a good mood. Did something happen?” They ask

Toya scoffs at the question. He so badly wants to tell them to shut up. “I’m fine. What do you want?”

“I presume you’re in the Tenma household? Is Tsukasa there?”

“No, he’s not here. According to his sister he won’t be back for a while.” Toya says nonchalantly.

The person on the other end hums in thought. “That’s a shame. Did you find anything of use?”

“Nothing too important. I’m looking right now. I’ll update you if I find anything.”

“Okay. Until next time I suppose~!” The call ends before he can even press the bold red button. Toya sighs, glancing at the photo album before shutting it and stuffing it back into the drawer. He hopes to never see it again.

As Toya descends the stairs, from a distance he sees an odd bump on one of his shoes. It’s such a small thing that almost no one would notice, but it catches his attention. He walks over to them, not quite expecting anything to be there. He crouches down to examine his black boots and touches the out of place surface. His hand freezes when he realizes it’s a hard surface.

Toya puts his hand around the small object and pulls. It takes some effort but it eventually comes off. He freezes when he realizes what the small black cube is. A tracker.

Someone had placed a tracker on him. The question was who? Who could’ve possibly been able to do that? He racks his mind for anyone he's come across that would be able to do this, and the answer could not be more obvious. Tsukasa. Who else would have a tracker and be able to conveniently place one onto his boot?

Toya laughs to himself at the realization. So Tsukasa already knew he was at his family's house. A small smile creeps onto his lips. Good. Let him know I’m coming for him.

The blue haired places the tracker back onto the boot.

Come and find me, Tsukasa. I’ll be waiting.

Chapter Text

The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon. The street lamps had switched on, shining down on the sidewalks with a mechanical fluorescent light. Fortunately, it wasn’t snowing but he still couldn’t help but shiver at the icy breeze that occasionally brushed against him.

Slowly taking off his hood, he looked up at his destination. It was a tall 15 storied hotel. The building was a pale white with golden accents, the entrance decorated with several uniquely coloured plants.

Once Tsukasa was in close enough proximity he stripped off his jacket and walked through the spinning glass doors, immediately welcomed with a wave of warmth. He sighed in relief, grateful that the piercing icy winds were no longer attacking his sensitive skin. Why was he forced to wear something so revealing again?

Ah, right. Tsukasa’s clothing, if you could call it clothing at all.

A tight, flowy white dress made by yours truly, Akiyama Mizuki. Despite his never ending complaints, Kaito refused to alter the mission, which meant he was forced to go along with the original plan. To dress up as a girl so his identity would be concealed.

As much as he wanted to throw a tantrum and refuse, he was in no position to cause any more trouble, not after the stunt he pulled last time. So, with the help of Mizuki who provided him assistance in dressing up, he now looked like a girl. It was impressive, really, that Mizuki was able to disguise him this well. He almost couldn’t recognize himself when he looked in the mirror!

Tsukasa had naturally longer hair than most men. Not long flowy hair that reached to the ends of his back, but still long enough to tie into a small, neat ponytail. Most of the time he tied his hair up simply because it was more convenient that way. Mizuki, however, used this to their advantage to style his hair to match one of a young girl with short hair. To finish the look off, Mizuki had added a clip on ponytail to the back of his head.

It was incredible that Mizuki managed to pull off the look. Despite the fact that he disliked being portrayed as a girl (it was embarrassing), Tsukasa had to admit that the pink haired did a damn good job. Paired along with the silky white dress and matching heels, he could say it was almost believable.

Almost.

Now, Tsukasa prided himself on being able to act well, as it was a crucial part of his job. However, he’s not exactly sure if he can pull off a believable feminine voice. The blond had tried to make this point when arguing against the mission, but his words fell on deaf ears. So all he could do now was pray that his voice would be at least somewhat passable and no one would think too much of it.

He was a great actor. Surely this shouldn’t be too much of a problem?

Tsukasa made his way to an elevator, entering an empty one before the doors closed shut. If he wasn’t mistaken, his destination should be on the 8th floor. The hotel was notorious for its famous nightclub that many celebrities had attended. Tonight, an infamous director along with their cast would be attending the club. It had been reserved only for the people that worked on the project along with a handful of filthy rich celebrities that bought their way into the party.

As for Tsukasa, well… that was a different matter entirely. The director was a close benefactor to the assassin organization. They were by no means a good person, after all they sought out the organization to do their dirty work. Their fame if anything was a pedestal formed by the lies and corrupt things they had done.

Unlike most missions where they would have to come up with extensive ways to invade parties such as this, with the close affiliation the director was all but required to aid them. So, Tsukasa could enter the nightclub freely without much trouble. As for Rui… he can only wonder how the madman would get in.

According to Kaito, Rui had been showing signs of posing their next target on the director's back. With the upcoming party tonight, it was the perfect chance for Rui to strike. Thankfully, this time Tsukasa didn’t have to protect anyone. If anything, he hopes Rui kills the director.

The elevator made its way to the 8th floor and the metal doors slid open. Tsukasa blinked, quickly rubbing his eyes as he adjusted to the change of lighting. Compared to the ground floor, the lights were a lot dimmer despite not even having entered the club yet.

Slowly, the blond made his way to what looked like the entrance of the club. There were two men dressed in suits guarding the entrance. This was really starting to feel like deja vu.

“Hello~! I’m here for the party.” Tsukasa smiles sweetly, hoping to pull off his best impression of a young lady.

“Greetings, miss. If I may ask, who are you?” The guard looks at him expectantly. Tsukasa freezes for a solid second, caught off guard by being called miss. It felt incredibly unusual, but he mentally told himself that he’d have to get used to it for tonight.

“Tsu—” He paused, catching himself. “Kasumi Hamasaki.” That was the name he came up with at the last minute before registering it for the attendance list. Did it have absolutely no meaning or correlation to him whatsoever? Yes. Was that a good thing? Absolutely!

“Thank you. Please, come inside.” One of them goes to open the door for him. Tsukasa gives them a polite nod before making his way inside the nightclub.

It was busy. Busier than he originally anticipated for a party specifically reserved for only project members, but he supposes obviously people outside of that group got invited. He can’t be talking since he’s here, after all.

Despite the larger than anticipated group of people, the nightclub isn’t nearly as crowded as it usually is, which Tsukasa is eternally grateful for. He can actually get around without brushing shoulders with someone!

It seems he’s arrived rather late to the party, or well, definitely not early, considering most guests have already entered and the lineup to get in was completely empty. If Rui really was hijacking this club he’s almost guaranteed already inside.

Tsukasa ends his train of thought, putting on his flashiest smile as he begins his search.

—

It hasn’t been that long. Or at least, that’s what his phone tells him. Tsukasa’s wandering proved to be futile, the distinct purple haired male nowhere to be seen.

Throughout this time, several people have approached him. These people mostly consisted of drunk men that were taking their shot with any attractive women they could find. Although Tsukasa definitely isn’t a female by any means, his appearance seemed to be quite convincing. Maybe a little too convincing.

It’s funny, really, when Tsukasa thinks about it. Imagine they found out that they were flirting with a man! That dopey grin of theirs would be wiped right off of their pathetic faces. Unfortunately, all the blond can do is hint that he isn’t interested and go along with his search. A sad, sad reality.

Tsukasa flinches when he feels a gloved hand tap on his exposed shoulder. He turns around to tell whoever it is off, but when his eyes meet olive green he freezes in place.

“A-Akito?!” Tsukasa half whisper-shouts as he stares dumbfoundedly at the ginger. What the fuck?

“Tsukasa? I thought I recognized you but I can’t believe…” Akito stifles his laughter, smirking at the blond. Tsukasa’s face flushes in embarrassment as he pushes the other angrily.

“Shut up! What are you even doing here?!” This mission was reserved for him, not Akito. As far as he was aware, Rui was his target. Unless he was here for something else but why would he out of all people come to a party like this?

“I’m looking for my target. They’re at this club right now as we speak.”

“Huh? You’re hunting for Rui too?” Tsukasa all but blurts out in surprise. If he had known someone else could cover for him…

“What?” Akito scoffs, looking at the blond like he was a madman. “Of course not. Isn’t that your job?”

Tsukasa blinks in surprise before frowning, “Yes? Then… why are you here?”

“I told you already.” The other groans in irritation, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Remember Aoyagi?”

“Toya?”

“…Yes, Toya, whatever. Remember that tracker you gave me? It points to him being here.”

What? Toya was… at the nightclub with them? Right now? That didn’t even remotely make sense. Surely it couldn’t be that coincidental? “But… Rui’s supposed to be here. Not Toya.”

Akito shrugs. “Could be a coincidence. Maybe they're both after someone at the party. After all, with so many celebrities it’s bound to be a hotspot for assassinations, don’t you think?”

Although Akito’s reasoning was the most probable, Tsukasa couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more to it. What if it wasn’t a coincidence? What if this was perfectly planned out? “Don’t you think it’s… a little weird though? It feels like something more than a one off.”

“…Are you suggesting Aoyagi and Kamishiro are somehow connected?”

“I mean…” In theory, it was almost impossible. Toya worked for Blood Moon, another highly ranked assassin organization. With Rui’s keen attempts at destroying Tsukasa’s organization, surely he must dislike the whole assassin franchise in general? Why team up with your worst enemy? “I guess it’s improbable. But with two highly wanted targets in such a small area, we better be careful!”

“Of course, dumbass.” Akito laughs, “Isn’t that obvious?”

“As your senior, I'm just looking out for you!” Tsukasa grumbles, punching Akito lightly on the shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah.” The orange haired looks him up and down again before a dumb grin finds itself plastered on his face again. “I can’t believe you dressed up as a girl. And you don’t actually look that bad.”

“Gah! Stop mentioning it!” Tsukasa’s face burns in humiliation. If Akito would stop reminding him maybe he’d eventually forget he was dressed in such an embarrassing choice of clothes. “Also, of course I look okay! I have to be convincing, don’t I?”

“Eh, I guess so. Why did you think this was a good idea anyway?”

“This wasn’t my idea!” Tsukasa shouts a little too loudly. Thankfully, no one seems to notice with the loud music covering most noises. “This was against my own will! I didn’t want to do this!”

“Oh, is that so? Hah, well it sure is a hilarious sight, so props to whoever got you to do it.”

“I’m going to kill you—!”

“Anyway, it’s best we separate so our missions don’t overlap. Don’t want things to get messier then they already are.”

“Yeah… you have a good point.” Tsukasa sighs, about to withdraw from the conversation when a thought crosses his mind. “Oh, right. Have you seen Rui anywhere? Purple hair? Teal streaks?”

“Uh…” Akito seems to think for a moment. “Try the bar. I think I saw someone like that hanging around there. No promises, though.”

“Thanks, Akito!” Tsukasa instantly flashes him a bright smile, clasping his hands together in thanks. At least he could sometimes be helpful.

“Ugh, it’s fine…” Akito mumbles. “I’m assuming you haven’t seen Aoyagi?”

“Yeah… sorry.”

“Fine. I’ll be on my way, then. Good luck, don’t die to some purple haired freak please.” Wow… Akito really had some choice of words! He guessed that’s just how he is, though.

“Don’t worry! I would never! I wish you… the same I suppose?” Tsukasa gives the other a thumbs up which they promptly ignore.

“…Thanks. Bye.” Akito leaves the blond without any second thoughts, walking in the opposite direction of where Tsukasa would be going next. Knowing their current situation, he doubts he’ll see, much less talk to the ginger again tonight.

To the bar, he supposed.

—

As expected, the bar was filled with drunken individuals. It was so unlike a place Rui would be, but he’ll trust Akito’s word for it and at least check the place out.

Tsukasa roamed the area, passing by several people lounging on chairs and sofas, laughing as they sipped at their alcohol. He was of age to start drinking, but the whole thing just seemed so unappealing in his opinion.

Something catches his eye.

Alone on a circular sofa is a purple haired male, and Tsukasa immediately recognizes them as Rui. It has to be. As he inches closer to them his hunches are proven correct.

It was time to set his plan into motion.

What was his plan, you may ask? It was simple! First, he would use his ladyness to attract Rui, then he would gain his trust with the help of some alcohol, lead him to an empty room and when Rui least expects it… boom! Dead. Maybe not the most foolproof plan, but if worse comes to shove he’ll improvise.

Tsukasa casually approaches the table and takes a seat next to the purple haired who glances at him dejectedly.

“Hello~!” Tsukasa greets Rui, turning to face them with a grin. “What’s a handsome young man like yourself sitting all alone?” He hated having to do this, but he had to lure the other in somehow.

“Ah,” Rui makes a sound, clearly uninterested. He stirs the untouched cup of alcohol in front of him before turning to get a better look at who was pestering him this time. “I’m just minding my own business.”

“Hmm…” Tsukasa begins to think. “Surely you can do something better than sit here alone. Why not drink and chat with someone like me?”

Rui sighs, turning to look into space once again. “I’m just going to be forward with you. I’m not interested. Please bother someone else.”

Tsukasa blinks in surprise. It seemed that it was going to be far more difficult than he expected to grab the purple hairs' attention. Makes him wonder how he was able to do it without even trying last time they met. “You’re no fun!”

They sit in silence before Rui sighs in annoyance, turning to face him once again. “Are you going to leave yet?”

“Nope!” Tsukasa grins cheekily. “Come on, let’s go grab some drinks together! The one in front of you looks so sad and gloomy.”

Rui stares at him for a long time. It’s scary actually. It almost feels like he’s trying to burn a hole through Tsukasa with his penetrating gaze. Then something seems to flash in his eyes, almost like a newfound curiosity.

Slowly, the purple haired inches his way closer to the blond. Tsukasa moves away when the distance starts to close, but Rui grabs his arm to stop him from moving. “H-huh? Hey, w-what are you…” Tsukasa’s face turns a bright shade of red as he turns his head away from the other. Where did this even come from? Wasn’t he uninterested just a second ago?

When Tsukasa turns to gaze at Rui, whose face is just barely away from his, he sees the other smirk. “Fufu…” Rui chuckles, his breath ghosting against the blond’s neck.

“Sure.”

Tsukasa blinks. Rui had pulled back and was now a respective distance away from him, smiling with that cheshire grin of his. He takes a few moments to calm his hammering heart, breathing because apparently he hadn’t been doing that earlier. This was his enemy for crying out loud! Tsukasa had to learn how to control his emotions more. It was never a problem before, so why was it now?

“Sure? Didn’t you just say you weren’t interested just a second ago?” Rui never failed in making Tsukasa second guess himself. The way he acted, the way he simply was, is something Tsukasa thinks he’ll never understand. Why couldn’t he have gotten some shallow, stereotypical snob as a target? But he supposes if Rui was like that he’d already be dead by now.

Rui hums in thought, “I changed my mind. If a pretty lady wants my attention, who am I to refuse, hm?”

Guh. What was with the sudden flirtation remarks? Wasn’t that his job? Why did Rui suddenly switch moods so quickly? Tsukasa glares at him suspiciously before standing up. “Well then. Shall we?”

“Mm,” Rui makes a noise of agreement before taking Tsukasa’s hand and leading him to the center of the bar.

As they made it to the counter, a woman with black hair with blue tips came into view. She was dressed in a sleek black suit and could be seen serving drinks. Once they walked over, she turned to face them, her eyes lighting up in recognition.

“Ah, Shiraishi. Hello.” Rui greeted with his signature cat-like grin. The black haired women, or rather Shiraishi, responded with a wave. Did Rui and Shiraishi know each other? How did Rui manage to get into contact with a bartender, especially one from a famous nightclub?

“Hey K-” Shiraishi stops herself. “Can I help you with anything?” Tsukasa notices the hint of hesitation as they correct themselves. You mean Kamishiro, right? He wanted to say. Tsukasa was almost certain they knew each other outside of the club. Why else would she hesitate when speaking Rui’s name?

“We’d like to order some drinks. What would you like?” Rui turned to look at Tsukasa expectantly, still smiling. Tsukasa blinks. He forgot he was also supposed to order a drink. With his inexperience with alcohol, he could only laugh nervously.

“Um… anything works! You can pick.”

Rui glances at him one more time before shrugging. “We’ll get whatever you think is best. I trust you have more experience than us in this area.”

“Oh, alright then!” Shiraishi gives a thumbs up before beginning to work on a pair of drinks. Tsukasa watches intently as she goes about mixing different ingredients but quickly gives up once he realizes he doesn’t have a clue on what’s going on.

“For someone who asked me to drink with them, you don’t seem very experienced in this matter at all.” Rui teases, chuckling lightly.

“W-well…!” Tsukasa searches for an excuse to defend his actions, but Rui beats him to it.

“Don’t worry. I’m not very good at this either.” Rui laughes before leaning towards him, their faces barley inches apart as he whispered into his ear, “We can learn together, hm?”

Tsukasa stares blankly at the purple haired before his words finally register in his brain. By reflex he looks down in embarrassment, trying to hide the growing red creeping onto his face. Why did Rui have to be like that? Why was Tsukasa falling for the lamest trick in the book?

“Err, hey.” Tsukasa heard a cough come from the counter. He quickly looked up to find Shiraishi staring at them, which only proved to fuel his growing embarrassment. “Your drinks are ready.”

“Aha, thank you Shiraishi!” Tsukasa laughs nervously, quickly pushing Rui away to grab his drink. On the table were two wine glasses filled with a strange concoction, strange because Tsukasa wasn’t at all familiar with the concept of alcoholic ingredients. He watched as the contents swirled in the glass, a fusion of colors clashing together to create a yellowish hue.

Inconspicuously, he carefully examined the two almost identical glasses for anything that could differentiate the two. If Rui and Shiraishi were working together it was possible that she purposefully added something poisonous into one of the two drinks. Then again, if that we’re the case wouldn’t she mention which glass was for who?

While Tsukasa pondered on this oh so difficult decision, Rui swiftly took both glasses into his hands. Tsukasa snaps his head back in confusion to see Rui saying his thanks to Shiraishi. Before he knew it, Rui was gesturing for him to follow along.

The alcoholic drinks were now acquired. Now all Tsukasa had left to do was watch it do its magic. Hopefully the drinks contained enough alcoholic substance to at least make Rui a little woozy, better yet to let his guard down. That’s what alcohol’s supposed to do, right?

Tsukasa wasn’t planning to touch the drinks at all, so he silently prayed Rui wouldn’t pay too much attention to that. The back of his mind highly doubts that this kind of trick will even work on someone as intuitive as Rui, but well, it was worth a shot he supposed. The whole plan was already deemed a mess before it was put into action. Tsukasa didn’t mind getting his hands dirty.

“Hm? Is something wrong?” Rui carefully places the two identical glasses on the previous polished table before glancing at him curiously. Tsukasa quickly snaps out of his thoughts and chuckles dismissively. (Lady like, mind you!)

“Not at all! Something just…” The blond frowns, thinking of a reasonable excuse, “caught my attention. That’s all.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. His unorganized scheming indeed caught unwanted attention.

The purple haired hums in thought, his gloved hand finding its way towards his chin. “Oh? And what might that be?” He chuckles teasingly, tilting his head down ever so slightly. Why did it feel like Rui was suggesting something else?

Tsukasa silently glares at the other, fed up with his teasing remarks. Two could play at this game. Slowly, he tiptoed and brought his face towards Rui’s ear before whispering, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Rui seemed slightly stunned at his sudden change in attitude but quickly recovered with a smile. Disappointing. Tsukasa had been hoping for a better reaction… he had to step up his game! “After you,” He gestures to the long cushioned seat.

Smiling, Rui graciously took a seat. Tsukasa followed shortly after, making sure to sit a respectable distance away from the purple haired. The glass of alcohol stared back at him invitingly, almost as if it was intentionally luring him in. Tsukasa had to admit, the curiosity of having a taste was tempting, but he vowed to stay away from it. This kind of thing only proved to be a distraction, and well, he couldn’t have any of that.

“Are you going to have a sip?” Rui leaned his face against the palm of his hand, carefully swirling the liquid with a metal straw. Tsukasa grimaces. If he didn’t take at least a sip of the drink now, Rui would definitely find it suspicious, especially after all that big talk of wanting to. It was just a teeny tiny sip, right? What was the worst that could happen?

“Yeah. I wonder what Shiraishi decided to make…” Tsukasa hesitantly peered at the liquid, watching as faint particles bubbled inside. The drink itself didn’t particularly smell of anything. Perhaps a faint scent of something citrusy? It didn’t seem poisoned at the very least…

“Mm, It tastes good though. You should give it a try.” Tsukasa looked over to find the purple haired sipping the drink with a neutral expression. At least Rui was willing to drink it, that meant his plan wasn’t totally out of the picture yet.

Slowly, Tsukasa brought his lips to the metal straw and took a sip. Very surprisingly… it didn’t taste bad! He expected to grimace in disgust, after all, it was alcohol, but it actually tasted… pretty good! The flavor reminded him of the fruit drinks he bought at the superstore occasionally except a lot fancier. It was a little too sweet for his liking, but besides that it was decent.

“Huh… it’s pretty good.”

“Fufu, indeed. I will say, I’m quite surprised as well,” Rui chuckled, watching as Tsukasa took another experimental taste.

“So,” Tsukasa begins, drawing Rui’s attention. “What brings you to the infamous nightclub? You must be an important part of the crew to get into a place like this. Or were you an invited celebrity?” Tsukasa already knew Rui wasn’t either of these. But he needed to make conversation, and it’d be fun to see what kind of story Rui would come up with.

“Ah, yes. I am close associates with the director. I occasionally helped in the directing of the project.” Rui answers earnestly like he wasn’t just spouting some bullshit he made up on the spot. “Nothing too major, so you won’t see my name in the credits and such.” Nice save.

“Close associates with the director, huh?” Tsukasa wonders out loud. A smart choice of story. Convincing enough to not be questioned and vague enough to not be outright exposed. “Friends, perhaps?”

“Indeed. We are very close friends.” Rui chuckles lowly, a sinister smile slowly creeping onto his lips. The blond shivered at the atmospheric change. He knew full well what Rui’s words implied. “Now, I’d like to ask the same question. I don’t recognize you from the crew, so if I may ask, how did you come to attend such an event?”

“I dabble in theater as well.” Tsukasa lies naturally. Well, it wasn’t exactly a lie. He was a theater kid at heart. In his spare time he used to act out plays with a small club he was a part of. That didn’t last long once his… job got more serious, so he quit. Tsukasa’s not too sure what happened to the rest of the club members. He doesn’t really remember them anyway.

“I’m an acto-actress! I have worked with many of the cast members in the past and they so happened to invite me.”

“An actress, you say?” Rui hums in interest. “You must have been in several famous plays of your own to garner a reputation within the cast.”

“T-that’s right!” Tsukasa nods, going along with the lie, his previous truthfulness gone down the drain. Yes, indeed, he thinks to himself. I’ve been a part of several famous plays! Tsukasa can’t help but snicker to himself at the thought. How absurd.

“Hm, maybe one day I’ll have the gracious opportunity to direct an actress such as yourself.” The purple haired flashes him a grin. Tsukasa’s face heats up a little. He’s not sure why.

“Oh, you’re an official director?” Rui sure was getting bold with his statements. Tsukasa didn’t mind in the slightest, it just made things all the more entertaining.

“Well… not yet, at least.” Rui sighs. “I hope to be one in the future.” It bothers Tsukasa. How real Rui seems. Like… he truly had a passion for directing. But that was fundamentally impossible, it couldn’t be the truth. How could it? Tsukasa could only applaud at how realistic Rui’s acting skills were. “It’s a far-fetched dream though,” Rui quickly laughs it off dismissively.

“Say, what got you interested in theater? Or well… directing I suppose.”

“It’s always been a dream of mine.” Tsukasa swears Rui’s eyes light up the slightest bit, like a child speaking of their greatest desires, and it’s truly a sight for sore eyes. “Stage directing, or simply putting on shows has always been something I was interested in. Alas, it’s not something I’ll ever be able to pursue.” Tsukasa so badly wondered why Rui’s ending words seemed so pained, like he truly, truly wanted to pursue this dream. It hit oddly close to home.

“Really?! I feel the same way!” Tsukasa couldn’t help but blurt out. Having a dream but not being able to pursue it, it almost felt like Rui was purposely calling him out. But Rui couldn’t know that, and Tsukasa quickly realizes that his words won’t make sense from an outside perspective. Tsukasa was playing the lie that he was already a famous actress, he shouldn’t seem like he was able to relate to Rui. “I mean… of course I do—”

“You do?”

Tsukasa and Rui stare directly at each other in silence. Rui’s eyes are widened in disbelief, like he can’t begin to believe that what Tsukasa just said was true. Why?

“W-well, of course… if I chose to work in this industry, I have to have a passion for it, right?”

“Of course, I just…” Rui pauses, looking down at the glass in his hands. “ It seemed so prominent in your words.”

“Hah, is that so?” Tsukasa chuckles softly. Could even Rui pick up how hopeless he was? But as Tsukasa stares back at the purple haired he finds that maybe, just maybe they’re in this same sinking boat together. Two pathetic individuals unable to pursue their greatest desires. How laughable. “I… could say the same for you.”

Rui blinks at him before smiling softly. Tsukasa can’t help but return the gesture in such a scary sincerity that he doesn’t even recognize himself.

“Say, what’s your favorite show?”

For once in a very long time, Tsukasa lets himself indulge in his childlike dreams. It was rare to find someone who was equally passionate in something similar to him, much less the person he’s supposed to murder. He had time to spare, and if Rui was willing to let him indulge in these futile desires, how could he say no?

It was just for a moment.

Just for a moment, could he allow himself to pretend that things appeared as they seemed?

As Tsukasa lets himself get engrossed in whatever he and Rui were chatting about, he distantly tells himself he’ll worry about his job later. A little break never hurt anyone, right?

Chapter Text

☆

This little break of his lasts a little longer than originally anticipated.

Tsukasa’s giggling. He’s not sure why, but he is, and everything around him is a blur of colors and sounds. He feels light headed, like he’s floating in space, but he finds that he sort of likes the feeling.

Rui’s laughing alongside him, soft giddy sounds escaping willinging lips. Tsukasa thinks that he really likes Rui’s laugh like this. It sounds better than his short, calculated chuckles by a long shot. It’s soft, and real, and the nonsensical part of his mind thinks the word pretty.

Pretty.

The word keeps appearing in his mind. When Rui’s eyelids flutter shut with a soft grin, purple strands of hair falling to the side, Tsukasa thinks pretty. When Rui speaks so passionately about his interests and his golden eyes sparkle, Tsukasa thinks that he looks really, really pretty.

Tsukasa feels like he’s going insane. He must be, to think such insane things about — about Rui of all people.

He doesn’t initially realize it, but Rui’s a lot closer than he remembers. Their bodies are almost touching with his head gently leaning against Rui’s shoulder, and Tsukasa’s just now noticing the arm wrapped around his waist.

As Tsukasa takes another sip of his drink, he wonders if this is what it feels like to be drunk. Oh.

That couldn’t be good.

Tsukasa wasn’t supposed to get drunk. He wasn’t supposed to even drink more than that first sip to appease Rui’s suspicions. Oh.

He looks back at Rui, who’s pink in the face and laughing about some stupid remark Tsukasa doesn’t even remember. He feels a little relieved that at least he wasn’t the only one that got carried away.

Rui glances at him, and suddenly his previous contagious grin is gone. It’s still there, but it’s not the same. It feels cold. Tsukasa doesn’t like it in the slightest.

“Is something wrong?”

Rui distanly stares out at the crowd of people around them. Now that Tsukasa’s actually paying attention, he notices there are a lot more people flooding into the bar than before. “It’s getting quite crowded around here. Would you like to go somewhere a little quieter?”

“Oh, I… Sure.” Tsukasa gulps. “The noise was starting to bother me a little as well.”

“Not a big fan of the music?” Rui says teasingly, face inching closer to his.

“Well, if it prevents me from hearing your voice, how could I enjoy it?” Tsukasa shoots back with a sly grin. Tsukasa applauds himself. He’s getting better at this back and forth game! Not his proudest achievement… but still one nonetheless!

“Fufufu.” Rui chuckles, and Tsukasa catches a glimpse of that same genuine smile again. “Follow me then.”

Rui stands up from the cushioned seat, brushing his black pants before lending a hand down for him. Tsukasa takes it without hesitation and brings himself up.

His head spins as he wobbles a little, vision disoriented as he blinks. Rui wraps a hand around Tsukasa’s waist to steady him. The blond’s face heats up at the gesture but he makes no effort to move away.

Tsukasa was definitely drunk. There was no denying it now, not with the way he clumsily walked as Rui pulled him along. Didn’t they drink the same amount? He should improve his alcohol tolerance for future situations, he distantly thinks.

As Rui leads him through the sea of people, Tsukasa realizes that this is it. That it was now time to get on with his mission. Everything was aligning with his plan, oh, except for the fact that he was downright drunk. That certainty wasn’t a part of the plan.

Tsukasa wanted to withdraw himself. To peacefully leave without finishing the mission. To do it another time. After all, he didn’t exactly think facing Rui while he was under the influence was very optimal. But with a heavy sigh, he supposed that wasn’t really an option.

He dug his free hand into the hidden pocket in his dress, clutching at the ends of a small pistol. It gave him an odd sense of reassurance.

Soon after the turn of a hall, Rui brought him to a tinted glass door. Tsukasa had no idea where it led, but he assumed it was somewhere excluded from the party. No one saw the two as they walked through the door. No one would know of this exchange.

The room was empty. It was clearly off limits with the large stand up sign telling them to not go any further. When Rui said he wanted to take Tsukasa somewhere quiet, this wasn’t at all what he expected. This wasn’t just quiet. They were completely alone.

Tsukasa watches Rui take a few steps forward with his back turned. His grip on the pistol tightens, his confidence slightly faltering, before he snaps his hand out and shoots. Shoot he did, but seconds too late.

Rui swerves out of the way and roughly knocks Tsukasa backwards. He grabs at the blond’s wrist in attempts to knock the pistol out of his hands. Tsukasa furiously kicks at Rui while blindly shooting to get the other off of him.

It all happens too quickly.

His gun is lost to the ground, but not before grazing Rui’s shoulder with a flying bullet. Although he landed a hit, it didn’t prove to slow Rui’s vicious advances in the slightest.

“Rui! I—”

Tsukasa is roughly pulled by the waist before colliding into the wall, or more or less Rui, behind him. He thrashes in the iron tight grip, kicking desperately at Rui’s unfaltering legs. His body feels like putty in Rui’s hold. Everything’s numb, and with every swing of his arm he feels his strength diminishing.

His movements come to halt when he feels a sharp blade skim his neck, a small cut forming in his skin. A scarce amount of blood appears. The injury itself is almost harmless, only acting as a warning, a threat of what it could do if he continued to be disobedient. It should sting, but Tsukasa’s too lightheaded and numb to feel anything.

“Ah, Tsukasa-kun. I will admit, you almost had me fooled!” Rui laughs from behind him, practically whispering into his ear. “An excellent performance, really. You would make for a great actress, you know? Although seeing you dressed up as a girl to fool me is certainly a treat, I think I prefer you as is.”

Rui knew.

Rui knew, and now he was going to die. Tsukasa’s instincts scream at him to run, to defend himself, to get away from this awful situation, but he stays planted in place. Because really, where could he go? His fate was sealed, and yet he still chooses to blink away the fog and look for a way out.

He glances at the gun splayed across the floor and then at the blade barely inches away from deepening the already existing wound in his neck. He could escape Rui’s grip, he knows he can, but that would only end in his throat being sliced open, which wasn’t exactly ideal. With limited options, he whispers a silent plea.

“Let me go…!”

Tsukasa feels Rui’s grip lessen ever so slightly, and he takes that as his cue to retaliate. He blindly kicks at Rui’s crotch and grabs the handle of the blade in a desperate attempt to escape. Tsukasa only gets so far before Rui roughly grabs him again and slams him directly into the wall, now towering over him. The blond finds that seeing the other face to face does not make things any better.

“Ah, ah, let’s not be feisty now.” Rui presses the dull side of the blade against his neck hard enough to hurt but not quite enough to tear skin. “You’re in no position to make such demands.”

Tsukasa shuts his eyes, trying his best to mask his trembling state. He stays like that for what feels like forever, awaiting for his eventual demise, when he feels slender fingers gently brush against his cheek.

The agent's eyes shoot open in bewilderment, clasped hands loosening around the fabric of his dress. Tsukasa’s mouth hangs open the slightest bit, watching intently as Rui traces his fingers against his cheek as if he was touching a delicate object. Rui stops, his hand finding a suitable place to cup Tsukasa’s cheek.

Tsukasa's face must be red. It must be, because he feels the upper regions of his body burning. The last bit of sensibility he has left tries to reason that it’s because Rui’s way too close. What bothers him the most is that he should feel disgusted, but instead his face flushes and his heart won’t stop hammering in his chest.

It was so confusing to him. What was Rui doing? Why was he doing these annoying teasing remarks out of free will? The act was over, there was no need to shoot flirty gestures and remarks any longer. Unless Rui found it entertaining to mess with him?!

Then, something becomes very apparent to him. Shouldn’t he be dead already? Rui should’ve killed him a long time ago. He’s had several opportunities to do so, and the list only continues to grow.

So that begs the question of why?

“So what? Are you going to kill me?” Tsukasa chokes out, hands finding their way to the hand holding the blade against his neck. Rui glances down at Tsukasa’s desperate grip but makes no move to stop him. It only serves to fuel his overflowing confusion. “What are you waiting for?”

Rui frowns, eyes lowering ever so slightly. The hand cupping his cheek moves away to delicately brush a strand of hair away from his eyes. Tsukasa’s breath hitches, face going impossibly redder.

“I suppose I should, shouldn’t I?” Rui laments, hand retracting from Tsukasa’s beet red face. “It’s just…” A pause. Tsukasa feels the other's shallow breath ghost against his neck. “You intrigue me, Tsukasa-kun.”

“H-huh?”

“We’ve barely known each other and yet… there’s something about you that’s different and I just can’t seem to place what.” Rui’s gaze is gentle as his eyes flick over Tsukasa’s overwhelmed expression. His voice is so soft and unfairly soothing, that Tsukasa finds his senses lulled into a state of calm. If Tsukasa felt like putty before, he now felt as if he was sinking into the floor.

“You must feel the same, no?”

Tsukasa finally looks up to meet Rui’s eyes, glowing yellow meeting sunset orange. It’s really unfair, Tsukasa’s mind wanders, how effortlessly handsome Rui is. It’s a simple observation, his brain instantly argues. It didn’t mean anything, especially not to him.

What Tsukasa fails to notice is that the blade against his neck has long since disappeared. Instead, the hand once holding the weapon curls around his waist and brings him impossibly closer. Tsukasa’s brain must malfunction, because instead of using this as his chance to escape like any sane person would do, he stays glued to the spot like an absolute idiot.

Rui giggles, seeming to notice Tsukasa’s eternal dilemma. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Tsukasa’s voice wobbles as he attempts to speak up, “N-no… that’s not true…!”

“Ah, but your actions and words seem to contradict themselves,” Rui teases, seeming to relish in Tsukasa’s flustered state. Tsukasa huffs, fed up with Rui’s infuriating comebacks.

“Say, Tsukasa.”

“…huh?”

Rui’s annoyingly playful expression comes to a sudden halt. “Do you wish to kill me? Truly.”

Tsukasa freezes. The words come in and out of both ears before finally registering in his mind. The question sends him reeling back in surprise.

“W-what kind of question is that?”

Rui continues to stare at him blankly. As the silence ensues, Tsukasa realizes he’s actually expecting an answer.

It’s so stupid. Why would anyone ever ask an assassin whether or not they wanted to kill someone? Of course the answer would be yes, especially their target of all people. It was his job for crying out loud. And yet, Tsukasa pauses to think for a moment.

He lets his mind wander, would he find satisfaction in ending Rui’s life? Tsukasa’s face scrunches up at the thought of Rui lying lifeless on the ground, blood tainting their body. It doesn’t give him the least bit of joy, no, it makes him feel terrible.

It surprises him, however.

Normally, Tsukasa never felt any remorse when it came to the simplicity of ending someone’s life. With so much blood on your hands, you begin to stop caring of the small, insignificant details. The thing is, Rui was different. With ordinary targets, he never got the opportunity to get to know them because they would be dead all too soon.

Now, Tsukasa didn’t know Rui, no, such a bold statement was laughable. But he had gotten glimpses of who Rui was, and now it was too late to go back. The strange, infuriating, purple haired man had made too much of an entrance to be watered down to a mere target anymore.

“No.”

Tsukasa instantly slaps his hand on his mouth, disbelief at letting such a small word slip out. Rui's eyes widened before he laughed, the sound light and airy. “Oh, Tsukasa. You have me stumped,” Rui takes a step away, his expression one of a triumphant cat. “Whatever will I do with you?”

The door to their empty hiding spot slams open, the sounds of music and yelling suddenly making itself very apparent. At the doorway is none other than his dear co-worker and good friend Akito, who Tsukasa cannot be happier to see. He can’t say the same for the ginger, who shoots him a nasty glare before firing a bullet his way.

Tsukasa subconsciously ducks out of the way, but soon figures out that the bullet wasn’t intended for him, but rather Rui. He looks over to see Rui, who is now distancing himself from the previous situation while dodging Akito’s advances of ending his life.

With a strained laugh, Rui flees the scene.

Tsukasa scrambles to run after him but is quickly stopped by a hand tightly gripping onto his arm.

“Akito!?”

“Goddamn it, Tsukasa! How stupid did you have to be to even get yourself into that position?” Akito practically snarls. The words are more than deserved, but Tsukasa can’t help but feel a tad bit hurt at the jab to his ego. “And how are you even alive?”

“I… look—” Tsukasa tries to sputter out a poor excuse to defend himself, but Akito ignores him, continuing on with his tangent.

“Don’t bother answering. Kamishiro is getting away and Aoyagi is not too far behind. We need to get moving.” Akito lets go of his wrist to pick up the gun he lost on the floor. He pushes it towards Tsukasa, who takes it without a second thought.

“…Toya? You found him?!” Tsukasa didn’t doubt that Akito was lying when he said the tracker pointed to Toya being at this very location, but it was still far from expected. Another detail quickly catches his attention. He’s not too far behind?

“Long story short, but in a few minutes Aoyagi will be here to put some bullets through our heads if we don’t get our asses moving right now.” Akito states rather bluntly. Tsukasa sighs at his confirmed suspicions.

“He’s after us? Is he working with Rui?”

“Don't know about “us' ', but he's surely going after you.” The ginger shrugs, walking back towards the tinted glass door. “As for Kamishiro, I’m not too sure but it sure as hell seems like it.”

Oh shit.

Why specifically him? What did Tsukasa do to deserve this treatment!? The more he thought about it, however, the more he came to the realization that maybe he did deserve this. It was almost guaranteed that Toya figured out the tracker was placed by him, and well, he couldn’t be too happy about that, could he?

“Okay, okay.” Tsukasa lets out an exasperated sigh while reloading his gun. “I’ll go after Rui, can you handle Toya for me?”

“I’ve already been doing that but yes, I’ll handle it. Be quick though, the police are bound to show up soon.”

“What? Why?!” His and Rui’s interactions couldn’t have been made aware of. How did they already jump to the police showing up? Unless—

“Uh… never mind, just— go!” Akito dodges the question by using the current situation at hand. Tsukasa can only assume that Akito was involved in alerting the police. He makes a mental note to use this as black mail when Akito jabs at his carelessness later on. “Stop being a dumbass and kill Kamishiro already!”

“Alright, good luck!” Tsukasa gives Akito a silent salute before sprinting after Rui’s trail. When he’s turned the hall, he hears glass shatter and bloodshot screams.

☆

The rooftop.

Or well, the giant bar and swimming pool on top of the hotel. At least that’s what he expects, with a typical place like this.

Tsukasa hums a tune to himself as the elevator rides upwards. His hands are bawled up into fists, breathing coming in shallow puffs. It was a hassle to get here in the first place, so excuse him for taking a breather.

After departing from Akito, he had followed in Rui’s direction. It led to the hotspot of the night club, much to his own dismay. Tsukasa quickly realized that Akito wasn’t kidding once he saw the swarm of officers invading the party, heading to the cause of the commotion while trying to control the panicking crowd. Glasses were broken on the ground with liquids staining the carpet, tables and chairs were flung into unusual positions, and bodies laid lifeless on the floor with some officers crouching down to check their pulses.

It was, to say the least, difficult to get around the chaos of people who pushed him roughly out of the way, too focused on their own survival. Tsukasa had to silently endure the mess of things while looking around for his target. He kept his gun close to his side as he passed through the crowd, not wanting to alert the people around him.

In the distance, Tsukasa had spotted him.

Rui had been casually walking in the direction of the elevators, swinging the dagger in his hand playfully. The elevators which spewed out more and more officers by the second.

Tsukasa had been convinced that Rui was insane, how else could he explain the purple hairs rash behavior? Still, he pursued nonetheless. He watched from afar as Rui attempted to enter an open lift. The officers quickly stopped him, explaining that they had to keep all suspects of the crime in place.

Rui had tried to reason his escape, but his words went to deaf ears as the cops pushed him back, clearly set on refusal. With a tired smile, Rui plunged his knife into the nearest person, sending the others into a state of panic.

It didn’t take long for Rui to quite literally slaughter the group of officers in his way, all with the help of his trusty blade. Tsukasa had taken this as his cue to run forward and face the purple haired who had just stepped into the elevator. Rui had seen him. He had met Tsukasa’s eyes and smiled, before the gates slid shut.

Tsukasa had cursed under his breath before hitting the call button in hopes of catching the next lift. He was not so pleasantly greeted by the sight of police once the gates to the elevator reopened. He remembered wondering why the hell they needed to send this many people.

Not surprisingly, they exited the elevator and pushed him backwards, unwilling to let him through. Tsukasa had tried to reason his way out of it, coming up with the most bizarre of excuses. He really did. Unfortunately, however, he had no other choice but to shoot them all before politely stepping over their bodies to enter the elevator. A shame, really.

So that brings him to the present.

The present, where Tsukasa is only just realizing this elevator only goes upwards. Which frankly doesn’t even make sense, but as he glares at the numbered buttons it becomes apparent that this is a one way ride. He shakes his head. It didn’t matter. Now he knew there was only one place Rui could be.

As the lift came to a halt, Tsukasa let out a much needed sigh before proceeding forwards. Although his body was still incredibly sluggish, the adrenaline willed him to continue on. If he was lucky, maybe the effects of the alcohol had already worn out. As he takes a step out, he’s hit with a wave of dizziness. Guess his previous statement was out of the question.

The area he found himself in was an empty, indoor bar. As far as Tsukasa was concerned, it looked untouched, not a single out of place object in sight. Looking forward, Tsukasa notices the doors leading outside were left wide open, almost invitingly. He grumbles. It was almost as if the door was mocking him, daring him to go through. Rui must have done that intentionally to mess with him. Without a better option, he walks through the tinted glass door. When he makes it outside, he feels the burn of the cold air against his skin, a stark reminder of how little he’s wearing.

“Rui!”

In the distance hanging on the roofs edge was unmistakably the purple haired individual he’s come to dread. Rui spares a fleeting glance towards him before smiling sinisterly, swinging around the pocket knife in his hand like a mere toy.

“Fufu, if it isn’t Tsukasa-kun!” Laughing maniacally, Rui tilts his head to the side, still carrying that same sickly sweet grin. It’s far from the gentle smile Rui had graciously offered him earlier when they had talked over drinks. No, Rui looked mad, and Tsukasa couldn’t suppress the full body shiver that ran down his spine. He wasn’t sure if his shaking was just from the cold weather anymore.

“I thought you would’ve given up after narrowingly escaping your demise. Are you really that desperate to meet your end?”

Tsukasa grimaces, tightening his grasp on the handle of the gun. There’s no way he’s losing to Rui, even if that outcome has come scarily close a few too many times. This was his job, and as a skilled assassin he had to prove that he could take someone like Rui down. No matter the casualties that come before it. Rui had been toying with him for far too long, Tsukasa had to get himself together. “No, this is my mission and I’m going to succeed! You’re dead, Rui.”

“Ah, how cruel of you, Tsukasa-kun.” Rui sighs dramatically, clutching his chest like Tsukasa’s words actually hurt him. The act quickly fades as soon as it begins. “I will say, I admire your confidence. You’re going to need a little more than that to kill me, though.”

Suddenly the purple haired jumps behind a mini structure and he’s gone. Tsukasa blinks in shock before quickly going after his tail, gun in hand ready to shoot at the slightest glimpse of the other. Moving in this dress is a pain, Tsukasa curses to himself as he moves around the rooftop.

A glimpse of moving black catches his eye and he shoots. In the darkness, he can’t even tell if he landed the hit, but when he hears an amused chuckle he knows he obviously missed.

“So mean~! I thought we had come to a mutual agreement that we’d simply dance around each other. And here you are openly shooting at me!”

“W-what!?” Tsukasa couldn’t help but sputter out in bewilderment. When did he come to that conclusion? Surely he didn’t take what Tsukasa said earlier to heart? No, Rui should’ve easily been able to tell that it was a lie. Him? Actually not wanting to murder Rui? It was a lie, right? “I never agreed to that!”

“A shame, really…”

Tsukasa grumbles in irritation. This was getting nowhere. Why was Rui dancing around him just to get on his nerves? “Quit hiding! There’s nowhere to go, just face me already so we can have a fair fight!”

“Oh, but it’s hardly fair.”

“What?” Tsukasa scoffs, fingers dancing along the trigger. “Scared of a gun?”

“Fufu. I meant for you.”

Tsukasa swerves around to see Rui dashing towards the inside of the small building. The one that housed the elevator. What was he doing? Did he have a death wish? If Rui went down there he’d surely meet a swarm of police.

Then again… there really was no other way out.

The glass door slams open and Tsukasa quickly focuses his attention on the black cloak escaping from his sights. He can’t let Rui get away so easily. Not again.

As Tsukasa makes it inside, warm air welcoming him, he sees Rui hastily entering a lift in the distance. He runs as fast as he can, heart dropping when he sees the all too familiar gates closing. In a last ditch attempt, he grabs the metal doors to prevent them from closing. It’s not enough. He knows he can’t keep them open.

Inside, Rui simply stares back at him with a taunting smile. It’s infuriating.

“Rui! You’re going to die if you go there— are you insane!?” Tsukasa yells, gritting his teeth as the metal doors refuse to cooperate with him, their persistence only growing. Aren’t elevators supposed to automatically open when they sense a being's presence?!

“Help me out, won’t you Tsukasa-kun?” Rui walks closer to the door, tilting his head to the side like a mischievous cat, before waving.

Tsukasa's eyes widened in shock before he quickly retracted his hands from the jammed space, unable to keep up with the persistent pressure any longer.

Help me out, won’t you Tsukasa-kun?

Does… Rui expect him to fight off the police with him?! As far as Tsukasa was concerned, the police didn’t even know he was one of the culprits yet. Unless they witnessed him shooting a group of officers before entering the elevator.

Never mind. Tsukasa’s pretty damn sure they knew.

As the elevator reaches the 8th floor, Tsukasa takes a deep breath and steadies his reloaded gun. Two would be more optimal, but he didn’t exactly prepare to fight an entire squadron of police.

The two metal doors slide open, revealing two arguing officers and a background of chaos. They swerve to stare at the new presence, backing up once Tsukasa carelessly strolls inside.

“Hi ma’am, sir.” The two officers glance at each other in confusion before looking back, eyes visibly widening when they catch a glimpse of the gun dangling from his fingertips.

They immediately point their own guns at him in alarm. “Hands up! Drop your weapon!”

Tsukasa shrugs, pushing past them with a smile. “Sorry. I’m afraid that won’t be possible!” He quickly shoots the man in the chest before knocking the woman's gun out of her hands. Tsukasa whispers a small apology before sending her the same fate.

Beyond the sea of panicking individuals, he spots Akito fighting off… oh, it really is Toya. What alarms him the most however, is the all too familiar purple haired silently approaching the two.

Hell no.

Tsukasa sprints towards Rui, shooting when he’s at close enough proximity. Rui notices his presence, and ducks behind a bystander who falls to the ground dead. Well, the dead part is up to debate… for now at least.

Rui throws a dagger towards his head which he swiftly dodges, looking back to find it pierced into a nearby officer's neck. When he looks back, Rui’s giving him a thumbs up like he purposely helped him. Gah.

Several gunshots sound from behind him, urging Tsukasa to swerve his head backwards to meet the gaze of more rallying officers pushing through the crowd. He locks eyes with one in particular, who signals their group to move his way.

Against his own will, Tsukasa trails closer to Rui, who glances at the army of people with a frown. He prepares himself for an attack, but to Tsukasa’s surprise, Rui makes no advances to harm him when he draws closer. It confuses him, but he wasn’t going to complain.

“My, my, Tsukasa-kun, that’s quite the crowd you’ve attracted.” Rui says with a strained laugh, clearly not thrilled in the slightest. The two lock eyes, with Rui offering him a tired smile. Tsukasa should take this as his opportunity to shoot, but with the given circumstances, he’d rather not alert the people around him. Once the panicking individuals noticed his dangerous presence, that would only aid the officers in getting to them.

Tsukasa huffs, moving closer to Rui without a better choice. Rui still doesn’t make any threatening moves. “This was not my fault!” He scowls defensively, pointing at Akito and Toya who are the real cause of the commotion. “It’s their fault.”

“Is that so?” Rui hums in acknowledgement, now staring at the two fighting individuals who have yet to realize the group of officers closing in on them. “I could’ve sworn I saw the leader of the pack point in your direction…”

“Ugh, that’s besides the point! I didn’t start it, therefore it isn’t my fault.”

Rui chuckles, a sound far too carefree for the given situation. “Well, it seems we’ve all fallen into the same dilemma.”

“Yeah…” Assassinating Rui was currently at number two in his list, number one being to get the hell out of here without getting arrested. Just moments ago he had been determined to assassinate Rui, and now here he was backing away. Tsukasa hated the fact, but at this point he valued his life over the given mission. Ugh, if only Rui had chosen to initiate an attack, then he wouldn’t have the choice to be friendly with him. It seemed as though Rui shared the same thought, so with a heavy sigh, Tsukasa walked straight up to Rui and confidently took his hand.

“Let’s work together? Just for now,” Tsukasa looks up at Rui who stares at him with wide eyes. His expression can only be described as bashful, eyes flicking downwards as Tsukasa stares up at him expectantly. Despite the crack in Rui’s usual stoic expression, it doesn’t take long for the purple haired to shake his head, his signature cheshire grin blooming on his face.

“Oh? That’s quite bold coming from you. Weren’t you the one who denied my earlier truce and insisted on coming for my head?” Rui cocks his head to the side innocently, fluttering his lashes with a frown.

“That’s…” Tsukasa looks down in embarrassment, trying to hide the growing red on his cheeks. “Uhm… look, that’s different—”

Rui giggles. “Don’t worry, I didn’t take it too much to heart. I accept your request.” Tsukasa sighs in relief, before yelping once Rui tugs him away from the commotion.

Tsukasa spares a glance behind him, tensing up once he notices the officers have almost pushed through the crowd, mere moments from catching up to them.

“If we want to make this deal worthwhile, I suggest we get a move on,” Rui hums casually, moving at a moderately slow pace as if he didn’t mind getting caught. He made it seem as though it was completely Tsukasa’s decision, and their fate lied in his hands!

Wordlessly, Tsukasa urgently nods, now pulling Rui into the crowd of chaos. Their best bet of escaping unwanted attention was to blend in out of sight. As long as they kept their heads low, they should go completely unnoticed.

“Are you not worried about your partner?” Rui whispers, the words only barely possible to be heard over the panicked shouts and screams.

Tsukasa frowns, thoughts wandering to his orange haired friend, foul expression and all. Regret begins to bubble in his stomach as he realizes he completely left Akito alone. He was so hung up on escaping that he completely forgot about his ally, instead partnering up with his godforsaken enemy! What the hell was wrong with him?!

It’s not the same, no— nowhere close, but Tsukasa decides to jab at Rui as well. “What about Toya? Are you not concerned about how he’s doing?”

Rui’s eyes lower but his poker face never leaves. When Tsukasa doesn’t immediately get an answer, he opens his mouth to pry a response out of him, but not before harshly being pulled to the side, his yelp deafened by a large hand slapping itself onto his mouth.

With wide eyes, Tsukasa eyes flick over to watch as a group of officers rush down the hall, clearing the space up by scaring off panicked individuals with their weapons. The blond quickly realizes that would’ve been the end if they hadn't suddenly moved locations.

Although Tsukasa knows it was with good intention, he grasps Rui’s insistent hand on his mouth, trying to pry it off. Rui doesn’t budge. Tsukasa slowly feels himself become lightheaded and dizzy as his attempts become more and more futile. He had already been feeling like this beforehand, likely due to the alcohol, but with Rui blocking one of his means of oxygen the condition was only worsening.

It didn’t help that he was yet again in such a vulnerable position. His body screamed at him to get away, but he just wasn’t strong enough. Tsukasa began to frantically struggle, the edge of vision beginning to fade out—

“Tsukasa?”

The agent blinks, looking up to meet Rui’s concerned gaze. Huh?

Just earlier he swore they were in the corner avoiding the police. They hadn’t strayed far from the area, Tsukasa silently notes once his senses begin to come back to him. The memory of the earlier situation presses back into his thoughts, reminding him of what previously had happened.

Ugh, how did he keep getting himself into these situations?! It’s been a single night and he feels as if Rui’s had him cornered way too many times. This many slipups was humiliating. He silently declares that he will never touch alcohol ever again. Although they were momentarily teaming up, Tsukasa absolutely couldn’t trust that Rui wouldn’t end his life if given the opportunity to.

Tsukasa takes a step away from the other, but quickly offers Rui a confident smile. He prayed Rui wouldn’t notice the falter in his demeanor. “Yes?”

Rui eyes him skeptically before shaking his head. He points in the direction of an enclosed hall, completely cut off from the main area. “There’s an elevator back there. It should be empty. Most of the officers went a different way.”

“Ah, I see… Then let’s get going.”

Rui continues to stare at him. It’s oddly discomforting. With the way Rui was looking at him with such intensity you’d think he was trying to burn a hole through him. It was more likely than you’d think, actually. Tsukasa opted to move ahead, hoping Rui would stop with that incinerating gaze of his.

Thankfully, he does, and the two make their way down the hall. It doesn’t take long for them to catch a glimpse of the elevators. What’s not right, however, is the thing he sees just in front of their destination.

Akito and Toya, in the flesh, standing side by side. Tsukasa's mouth hangs slightly open in bewilderment, trying to make sense of what he was witnessing. “Akito?!” Tsukasa can’t help but gasp, instantly regretting his sudden outburst once the orange headed boy swerves around with wide eyes.

The two look almost guilty as they turn around, the elevator they had requested opening and closing.

“Kamishiro?” Toya looks stunned, a glint of betrayal flashing in his eyes. With furrowed eyebrows, he holds up his gun and points it at Tsukasa. The blond freezes, preparing himself to pull Rui in front of him in case worse comes to shove. Tsukasa watches in bewilderment as Rui steps in front of him anyway, acting as a barrier between the two.

“Let’s not be heisty, Aoyagi.” Rui smiles innocently.

Toya narrows his eyes but drops the gun to his side. “What are you doing?” He questions, confusion evident in his tone. “Are you… under the influence of something?”

Rui chuckles, “Do I really give off that impression? Though I must say, I could ask the same for you. I’m surprised to see you so friendly with one of your enemies.”

The blue hairs eyes flick back to Akito, clearly caught red-handed.

Loud footsteps begin to sound from behind Tsukasa and Rui, the only explanation being the officers found them and were drawing closer. Tsukasa grits his teeth, dreading their eventual arrival. He could care less about the tension in the air, their escape route was right in front of them, like a sliver of tuna dangling in front of a starving cat, and if they wouldn’t make an initiative, he would.

Disregarding Akito’s gruff yells, Tsukasa pushes past and urgently presses the call button, praying for a quick arrival.

“Are you just ignoring the fact that—”

“Would you shut up, please?” Tsukasa lets out an exasperated sigh, heart beginning to quicken as the footsteps get louder. Thankfully, they seem to get the idea, wordlessly approaching the elevator.

When Tsukasa turns around, he hears the cock of a gun as it points directly at him. The culprit, Toya, narrows his eyes in distaste. “Why shouldn’t I shoot you now?”

Tsukasa rolls his eyes, irritation threatening to overflow his collapsing resolve. The whole ordeal felt incredibly stupid. It seemed like common sense to disregard the priority of killing each other. Besides, Toya had no place to say such things. “Well, you seemed just fine with Akito earlier, so you’re clearly not opposed to the idea of teaming up for mutual gains.”

Toya looks taken aback, likely not expecting such a blunt response. He reluctantly drops his gun to the side, eyes darting away.

Finally, the gates open just in the nick of time. Tsukasa can hear the officers just turning the corner as he pulls Akito inside along with him, who growls in disapproval. Rui chooses to side with Tsukasa, while Toya begrudgingly squeezes inside next to Akito.

Akito slams the button to shut the elevator as a hoard of police appear. Once they make eye contact with the escaping group of agents, they begin their hasty dash towards them in a frenzy of shouts to stop.

Tsukasa and Akito squeeze to the side to avoid the onslaught of bullets that shoot their way, muttering panicked curses as they repeatedly slam the ground floor button. The gates just barely close on the officers faces, relief immediately washing over him as he slumps subconsciously against Rui.

As the elevator begins its steady descent, Tsukasa moves himself away from Rui only to bump shoulders with Akito, who sends him a nasty glare in response. Oh. The realization dawns on him that this elevator was small. Smaller than it had any right to be, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Uncomfortable as it may be, Tsukasa willed himself to suck it up. He was already infinitely grateful that the others weren’t at each other's throats.

…

Well, this was certainly strange.

Four assassins crammed into a tiny elevator, shoulder to shoulder, with upbeat music buzzing in the background to make the entirety of the situation all the more bizarre. All of which want to slice each other's throats open, but have currently come to a mutual agreement not to.

Well, for now at least.

From a standpoint, it must look like a scene pulled straight out of a comedy. Utterly hilarious to those watching. For Tsukasa, it couldn’t be farther from hilarious, much less funny.

Tsukasa takes a shallow breath, only just now noticing his heart that’s hammering in his chest with no sign of settling down. With each blink, Tsukasa feels his vision become more and more disoriented while the spinning in his head makes itself more apparent. The adrenaline that has kept him moving is dying down.

He can’t let that happen.

Not when he’s locked in a tight space with deadly agents that could end his life in a matter of seconds. Not when the moment those metal doors slide open he’ll be welcomed by the sight of guns poised at his throat with the only intent of killing him.

Tsukasa desperately tries to wake himself up by shaking his head and rubbing his eyes. It must be the alcohol. He’s been through missions far more exhausting without breaking a sweat.

How is Rui faring so well?

Inconspicuously, the groggy agent glances at Rui who was at his left. Tsukasa had hoped to catch a quick look without alerting the other, but as soon as he so much as tilts his head towards Rui’s direction, he finds the purple haired staring right back at him.

It catches him off guard and Tsukasa quickly whips his head away by reflex. Curiosity gets the better of him and he takes the slightest peak at Rui.

Rui’s still staring at him.

It wasn't a gaze of hatred or murderous intent like he expected. Instead, it seemed distant, unreadable. But the more Tsukasa analyzed Rui’s lingering gaze, he found that it almost looked like he was… concerned? No, worried.

That alone made Tsukasa’s head spin more violently.

The elevator shook before coming to an abrupt stop. Rui tears his gaze away and that odd expression of his vanishes as if it were never there to begin with. Tsukasa follows his movements and wills himself to pay attention to what was at stake. That thing being his life and dignity.

Akito reloads the pistol in his hand and stares forward expressionless. “As much as I know you’re all thrilled at the idea of shooting each other, let’s save the bullets for the people that actually matter, yeah?”

Rui lets out a hearty chuckle. “How forward of you. Are you afraid I might go for your beloved partner?”

Akito instantly scowls. “No, you can have him. I’d just rather get out of here without fucking dying.” Tsukasa pouts at Akito’s disregardment for him. Here he thought they were friends and yet he was openly willing to throw him into the arms of the predator! Tsukasa would almost feel hurt if the embarrassment of being thrown around as some delicate object wasn’t greater.

“Mean…” Tsukasa grumbles quietly.

The elevator doors begin to open, and it’s so agonizingly slow that it almost feels like that one part of an action movie where they purposefully slow down the scene to make things extra dramatic. Or maybe it was just Tsukasa and his mind was failing to comprehend basic movements in real time. That was very possible.

As he was once fixated on his sense of time perception, Tsukasa was driving a blade into the neck of a struggling officer. Their grip on his arms slowly releases as Tsukasa pushes them to the ground to join the rest.

The marbled floors reeked of the crimson blood that painted the once shiny tiles a thick shade of red. It was almost grostique the way he could only smell the stench of death and iron. Almost, because the smell was too familiar to disgust someone like him any longer.

With heavy steps, Tsukasa runs. He runs as fast as his aching legs will take him, ignoring the shouts and screams that hiss from behind him like a heavy reminder of the lives he has taken. Tsukasa distantly registers a distinct shout from a far and recognizes a figure beckoning him to move towards an empty alleyway.

Tsukasa doesn’t remember exactly what happens next. It’s a blur of colors and noises.

He remembers a hand firmly gripping onto his wrist and pulling him along, yelling incoherent words that he couldn’t be bothered to understand. He remembers sitting in a car, a black car that he didn’t recognize, hearing the soft patter of the snow against the ground and the fading sirens raging in the distance.

He remembers standing outside his apartment door alone, hands stiff from the cold as he fumbled for the keys in his pocket. And then, Tsukasa thinks he fell, because that’s his last memory.

Out of all the flashing colors and ringing noises and lingering touches, there’s only one thing Tsukasa remembers clearly.

A cloaked figure, disheveled purple hair and piercing yellow eyes. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, Tsukasa couldn't seem to forget the moment he turned and met their curious gaze. A soft smile that cracked into a mischievous grin, a wave and a wink like a promise that they’d meet again soon.

It irritated him to no end, but unlike before, Tsukasa couldn’t help but be curious as well.

Curious of Kamishiro Rui and his unpredictable ways, curious of his strange actions and words, curious of when they’d ultimately meet again.

To his absolute dismay, Tsukasa looked forward to the day they’d cross paths again.

Chapter Text

Shiraishi An.

Fluorescent light leaks into his eyes with the absent clicks and scrolls of tiled plastic. On the screen in front of him is a grinning black haired girl, brows furrowed with the upward curve of her lips.

Scrolling past the image, Tsukasa’s met with a large block of unhelpful text. Information on the previous nightclub alongside details on the indoor bar. Tsukasa clicks his tongue in distaste, slumping into the cushions of the couch in dissatisfaction.

Yet another website that proved useless in his findings.

All the digging Tsukasa had done on Shiraishi always traced back to the same set of information. She was in her early twenties much like himself, served as a bartender at the infamous nightclub, and had a father, Shiraishi Ken, who ran the entire business. On her social media accounts a girl named Azusawa Kohane repeatedly showed, likely her partner with the mass amounts of heart emojis tagged.

Looking into Azusawa, Tsukasa had been just as unfortunate with his findings. She rarely posted or interacted on any social media platforms, practically invisible to the internet. A bystander looped into unfaulty trouble, he concluded.

Despite his lack of findings, Tsukasa managed to uncover one thing of seemingly importance.

Toya had been featured on one of Shiraishi Ken’s posts. Ever so briefly, but he was there, clear as day. Smiling fondly as he sat sipping his coffee while advertisement pictures of an unfamiliar live cafe and bar were taken. WEEKEND GARAGE, Tsukasa quickly uncovered. The post was made almost a year back, meaning Toya had a connection with this family for quite some time now.

Tsukasa made a brief note to himself to investigate the cafe when he had the time.

After all, Toya was the accomplice and Rui was the target. He was merely a stepping stone to reach closer to his real goal—to assassinate Kamishiro Rui.

However tedious it was, Tsukasa needed all the advantages he could get. Rui was no ordinary target, he quickly came to realize with their increasingly bizarre encounters.

A month or two, Tsukasa wasn’t entirely sure, had passed since the incident at the nightclub. His encounters with the insufferable purple haired had only steadily increased. Rui no longer seemed to bother in concealing himself, no—in fact, it could only be closer to the opposite. Rui wanted Tsukasa to see him and that was something he would never be able to grasp his brain around.

Tsukasa had encountered him four times in the span of two weeks.

It should be considered a record, really, with the previous history of Rui’s appearances. Unfortunate, Tsukasa must be, to be favored by Rui in this strange particular way. In the past, catching even a glimpse of the devils purple bangs was considered a miracle. Nowadays, it seemed Rui was purposefully popping his head into Tsukasa’s business.

Over those two weeks Tsukasa met Rui in the most unlikely of places. As instructed by Kaito and a handful of higher ups, Tsukasa would go to the given location and encounter the cheeky man without fail. Once at a prestigious church hosting a ceremony, and another at one of the largest bakeries in the city. And every time, Rui would always, always escape—purposefully making sure Tsukasa saw him do it, and with a wink, blow a kiss in his direction.

Ugh.

Tsukasa curses to himself, feeling the growing warmth creep onto his face.

He vividly remembers one of the rascals' antics during the escape at the bakery. Tsukasa had tried to be as inconspicuous as possible while Rui and him danced around the cake-filled floors.

“Gah— Rui!” Tsukasa hissed, chasing after Rui as he pranced around the shop without a care in the world. Every so often he cocked his head backwards to send a cheeky wink before scurrying along ahead.

Rui disappeared through the crowd of people, soon nowhere to be seen. It took only a fraction of a moment for Tsukasa to hear the clash of broken glass followed by the sea of concerned voices and whispers.

Tsukasa ran towards the exit of the bakery, pushing nearby shoppers aside in his haste. When he felt the icy air blow against his skin, he realized it was too late.

Groaning, Tsukasa was about to turn back into the bakery when he felt something—a box of some sort, tap against his back and fall to the ground. He swerved around in anticipation, frowning a little when he saw a neatly wrapped box of sweets. Tied in a neat purple bow tie, a note written in cursive laid on top.

Tsukasa knelt down to pick it up, eyes catching to the white string attached to the bottom.

“Tsukasa-kun,” A voice called from… above?

He glanced up, eyes widening when he caught a glimpse of purple. Rui waved, lips curved into a grin as he sat on the bakeries rooftop. Tsukasa could only gawk in absolute disbelief as he stared up at him.

“Surprised to see me?” Rui grinned, leaning his head against the palm of his hand. Tsukasa bristled in irritation.

“I’m going to kill you,” He breathed, a puff of air escaping his lips.

Rui cocked his head sideways,“Huh, now where have I heard that from?”

“I’m serious!” Tsukasa fumed, reaching for the gun located comfortably in his coat pocket. “Don’t take me as some ignorant fool!

Rui gasped, shaking his head in disbelief like that was possibly one of the most offensive things he’d ever heard. “I would never! It hurts that you would think so lowly of me. Oh, but you’re so adorable when you’re angry, did you know?”

“You…!” Tsukasa opened his mouth to yell a retort, practically bristling in irritation, but the only sound that escaped was a silent squeak of disbelief. His cheeks burned. His hands balled into fists. What is he even supposed to say to that!?

The sirens of incoming police cars began to come into ear shot. “Now that’s my cue to leave! Please enjoy the treats, I got them especially with you in mind.” With a stretch of his arms, Rui stood and blew him a kiss. “Toodaloo~” He ran across the rooftop and disappeared from sight, ignorant to Tsukasa’s shouts to stop.

The packaged sweets—a set of chocolate and strawberry croissants along with the bakeries signature cheesecake, had been given to Saki and Akito. Tsukasa had refused to eat any of his enemies' gifts, he’d never stoop that low, but throwing away the expensive treats seemed far too much of a waste.

So, Tsukasa came up with the ultimate plan! He made the thoroughly thought out decision to give the croissants to Saki and the cheesecake to Akito. Saki took it without hesitation, clearly pleased to have a new stack of sweet treats to try, as always. Akito on the other hand had eyed him skeptically, but not without snatching the packaged cheesecake out of Tsukasa’s hands with a quiet “thank you”. It was always amusing to witness Akito’s soft spot for cheesecake and the likes. Tsukasa silently prayed Akito wouldn't figure out where exactly he got the sweets from…

After their fourth encounter, however, Rui had… disappeared.

Weeks went by of tracking the purple haired down and there was nothing. It was like he disappeared off of the face of the earth. But why?

Rui had seemed so keen in making himself known, so why disappear now? He was clearly hiding himself again, purposefully covering up his tracks to avoid being found. Tsukasa had come to the assumption that he must be planning something big. After messing around with him for too long he finally decided to go serious, that must be it.

Or did he die? No, that couldn’t be it. Rui can’t have gone out that easily. Moved cities? Unlikely. Personal issues? Possible, but something like that wouldn’t keep him off the field for so long.

So… where did he go?

Tsukasa hates that it bothers him so much. He continuously tries to push away the lingering thoughts of where and why, but Rui still somehow manages to crawl his way back into the crevices of his mind.

It’s frustrating.

Damn that insufferable purple man.

Tsukasa shuts his laptop, eyes dilating in frustration as the fluorescent light fades from his vision. An untouched cup of coffee sits patiently at his table side. He reaches to take a sip, grumbling when he finds it a tad too bitter for his liking.

On the topic of assassination targets, Tsukasa wonders how Akito was managing Toya.

It still came off as a surprise that night Tsukasa found the two having a battle to the death. Well, maybe not to the death, no — but it surely seemed they were intent on harming each other to the best of their abilities.

The whole ordeal had been one of chaos. Tsukasa vaguely remembers the details, which he will confidently blame on the foul play of alcohol.

According to Akito, when the four of them had escaped the building, Toya and Rui fled in opposite directions. Strange, considering the two had obviously formed some sort of partnership beforehand. To save face, he supposed? Realistically, it must have just been the heat of the moment.

Toya was there to aid in Tsukasa’s assassinstion, likely due to Rui and his sources. So why… Why didn’t Rui kill him when he had the chance? Rui had the perfect opportunity, the perfect set up, all he had to do was execute it—and he didn’t.

After the incident, Tsukasa interrogated Akito on his knowledge of Toya and their past interactions. Like the stubborn man he was, Akito stayed silent, Tsukasa’s questions answered with vauge “yes” and “no”s. When he had attempted to ask on more personal matters, Akito became scarily defensive, reverting back to his old gruff ways. Tsukasa decided to leave it at that.

So many questions, so little answers.

Tsukasa impulsively stood and trutted towards the door. He glanced at the selection of coats graced along the rack. The sleek black jacket he wore that day stared directly at him.

He reached for a white fluffy coat, a gift from his mom when he inevitably had to move away, before pushing the apartment door open. Then shut.

Where are you, Rui?

“Tsukasa-kun, Tsukasa-kun!”

A bundle of pink jumped up and down around him. If it weren’t for the huge smile spewing out jumbled words, Tsukasa swore the girl could resemble a hyperactive missile. Actually, maybe she was.

“Emu,” Tsukasa decided to begin, hoping to distract the pink haired from her spout of nonsense. “Any information on Kamishiro?”

Emu stopped in her tracks, a visible frown beginning to grace her puffy cheeks. “Hm? Shouldn’t you know Kamishiro-kun the best?” She tilts her head, pink bangs falling to the side. “It’s hard tracking him, no one really spends any time on his case anymore.”

“What?!” Tsukasa sputters in bewilderment. Rui was an important case—or at least that’s what Kaito went on and on about. Surely they wouldn’t just… stop tracking his whereabouts? “That’s not—why?”

With the skip of her legs, Emu made a little hum noise. “Well, not since you took the job. Kamishiro-kun has only ever revealed himself to Tsukasa-kun! He must really like you!”

His cheeks felt warm. “T-that’s… It’s the complete opposite, you hear me?!”

“Ehh? Kamishiro-kun doesn’t like Tsukasa-kun?” Emu eyebrows furrow, like this was some kind of revolting discovery.

“Of course not!?” Tsukasa felt his body begin to burn. From embarrassment, of course—that must be it. Emu was always so blunt with her words, time and time again Tsukasa finds himself taken aback. “We are enemies! Arch nemesis’, even.”

“Whaaat?!”

“You know my job Emu, why are you surprised?”

“But…” Emu puffs her cheeks, frowning as if in deep thought. “Tsukasa-kun never messes around with his targets. It’s always boom boom and he finishes the job!”

“It’s been so long and Tsukasa-kun still hasn’t finished the job. That’s why I thought… it was different.”

Tsukasa stares forward for a good while, digesting Emu’s words in silence. It irritates him when out of all the times Emu spouts her jumble of gibberish, this has to be a time when it actually makes sense.

Ugh…

“No, Emu, that’s…” He hesitates, unsure of how to go about it. “It’s different, I will admit but… it doesn’t change what must be done!”

“Ah…” Emu smiles, a little droopier than usual. “Well, Tsukasa will succeed like he always does, right?!”

Tsukasa brightens, happy to be in familiar territory. “Of course! Rui is no match for someone like me,” He puffs out his chest proudly.

Emu, like she always does, claps enthusiastically beside him to fuel his ever growing ego. “Yeah, yeah! Tsukasa-kun really is great!”

The two chatter on and off as they make their way through the windy halls. Tsukasa didn’t really have a set destination, but it was always nice to lay it loose and talk with the people he was close with. Not as co-workers, but simply as good friends. He smiled.

However, one teensie little thing had been bothering him. A lingering thought that overstayed its welcome, a thought that refused to leave his mind.

“It’s been so long and Tsukasa-kun still hasn’t finished the job. That’s why I thought… it was different.”

Was it different?

Well, objectively speaking, of course not. Rui was like any other asssassination target he’d been given in the past. The job was precisely the same. Murder him, and leave not a trace behind.

But of course, nothing was ever that simple, no. Not since Rui had made the wonderful appearance in his life.

A mix of chaos, mischief, and talent, Rui really was a force to be reckoned with. He was no ordinary run of the mill target. Of course not, Tsukasa figured that the day he set out to kill him.

Tsukasa would argue that the reason time and time again Rui had escaped from his clutches was that the other had gotten lucky. A few more times than he’d like to admit, unfortunately. Tsukasa, with his ever boasting ego of being one of the best assassins, could not face the idea that Rui was better than him.

However, if the issue had nothing to do with his overall skill set, then that implied something far worse was affecting the situation.

Feelings.

Emotions.

And that was possibly the most revolting piece of information he’d ever come to think of.

Of course, the idea is met with instant denial.

Why would Tsukasa ever let feelings get involved in such a mission? The mere thought of the idea was absurd. Besides, it wasn’t like he even liked Rui in the slightest! Maybe if the purple man showed positive qualities like… not making his life a living hell, maybe he’d come to understand it a tiny bit more.

But Rui was absolutely terrible! He purposely stringed him around like a fool, pulled stunts incomprehensible to the average mind, made his life so, so, so much more difficult than it had to be, and yeah, maybe he was a really great sweet talker— but that's besides the point!

Tsukasa lets out an audible groan of frustration, one that Emu catches onto rather quickly.

“And that’s why— hm? Tsukasa-kun? What’s wrong?!

Shaking his head, Tsukasa grumbles silently. “It’s nothing, Emu.” God forbid Emu discovers where his mind has been wandering off to.

“Ehh? Well, okay.” Emu shrugs, prancing ahead. She suddenly stops in her tracks, whipping her head around with sparkling eyes. “Right! Tsukasa-kun, Tsukasa-kun~!”

“What?” Tsukasa watches her become a burst of colors as she jumps up and down in front of him. He prepares himself for whatever Emu has in store for him with a skeptical raise of the eyebrow.

“Come with me and Nene to lunch together tomorrow!” Emu’s eyes practically glitter in anticipation.

Tsukasa stares at her, blinks, frowns, blinks again, before finally mustering the words to speak. “That sounds like a great idea! But, um… wouldn’t you guys want to go by yourselves?”

“No! Me and Nene-chan really really want you to come with us! It’d be super wonderhoy!” The pink haired insists, eyes furrowed in determination.

“Ah, but…” Tsukasa scratches the back of his head. Don’t get him wrong, Tsukasa loved spending time with Emu, no matter how chaotic she was. But to go along with her and Nene? Just them? Third wheeling did not sound very appealing right about now.

“Plus, there’s someone super wonderhoy I want you to meet!”

“I’ve met Nene before, Emu, what do you mean—”

“No!” She pouts, puffing her cheeks round and squishy. “Someone else. One of Nene’s super duper close friends!”

“Oh, Nene’s friend?” Tsukasa pauses, eyebrows furrowed as he considers the idea. “What’s their name?”

“That’s a surprise~!” Emu giggles, smiling big and bright. “You have to come! I think you’ll find him just as wonderhoy as me!”

Tsukasa sighs. Of course she would say that. It was at least reassuring to know it was a guy. Not that he minded being around girls, of course! “Well, alright. I suppose I could spare some time for my wonderful friends!”

“Yay~! ☆ ” The pink haired cheers. She hooked their arms together and skipped forward, dragging a yelling Tsukasa along with her.

“Emu! S-slow down!” Tsukasa shrieks, trying to pull the other into a stop. Emu pays no mind to his attempts, continuing to pull him forward with no regard whatsoever. Tsukasa always prided himself on being one of the more physically strong individuals out of his co-workers, and yet Emu, a mere intel collector, had the capability to drag him along like a stuffed toy. Tsukasa would never get over this fact. What did that girl do in her spare time?!

—

Tsukasa sang a little melody to himself as he strolled through the marbled halls. Emu had unexpectedly been ushered away by a tall pony tailed girl he vaguely recognized. Not enough to conjure up a name, but enough to have recalled that he’d seen her somewhere around the building. Some time or another, at least. Tsukasa said goodbye, while Emu took careful precaution to make sure he remembered lunch plans for tomorrow.

With time to burn, Tsukasa made his way to his office. Each person with an important affiliation to the agency had their own personal room in the building. Incredibly generous, If you ask him! Tsukasa supposed they must be pulling in a lot of money to afford everything. Each room came personally customized to the user's needs, and to enter, a unique keycard was given to unlock the specialized door.

His trail of footsteps came to a stop as he reached for the doorknob to his room. His hand freezes, hovering just above where skin meets metal.

Sounds of shuffling, papers being frantically tossed, chairs moving across marbled flooring. It threw Tsukasa off. What was someone doing in his room? And how did they get in? He was prepared to slam the door open and confront the culprits when he heard hushed voices.

“Hurry up! We were supposed to be out hours ago!” A high pitched voice hissed out.

A slightly lower pitched voice replied, confused. “Hours? But we came in just a few minutes ago!”

Tsukasa eyebrows furrowed in bewilderment. Whoever these people were, they sure didn’t seem like they had the slightest clue of what they were doing. For that reason, he chose to eavesdrop a while longer, intrigued on how the situation would play out.

“Exactly. Hours. Did you find anything?”

“Um… not really. It’s just mountains and mountains of useless papers. Did you?”

“No! I’m starting to think there’s nothing here!”

“Mr. Kaito put us up to this. There must be something…”

Huh?

“Eeh, I say we go now! I don’t want to get caught.”

“Yeah, you’re right… let’s go!”

Tsukasa feels more than hears the set of footsteps that begin to edge closer towards the door. He panics. Bolting towards a corner in the empty room, he holds his breath, waiting for the expected click of the metal door opening.

The door opens. The two strange individuals hurry away, steps skipping in their haste. Tsukasa dares a peak, catching a glimpse of blonde hair before they escape from his field of vision.

When they’re finally out of earshot, Tsukasa sucks in a much needed breath of air. He cautiously steps out of his hiding place and walks towards the door. Hesitantly, Tsukasa scans the keycard to unlock the door and enters.

The room is… spotless. Like nothing ever happened.

Damn it. Why did he let those two intruders escape!?

What were they doing in his room? No, why did Kaito instruct them to invade his room? It should be well known by now that all documents within Tsukasa’s possession are no secret, especially from Kaito of all people. There’s nothing Tsukasa could possibly have of particular value.

Did he suspect otherwise?

But why? And If—for some odd reason he did, why not just communicate his concerns directly to Tsukasa?

Ringing. Tsukasa reaches into his coat pocket and answers blindly.

“Hey! Could you come over?”