Work Text:
Isagi was just. Isagi was patient. Isagi was kind.
These were universal truths known to everyone in Z.
But the closer you got to Isagi, the closer you were to the truth:
that Isagi was a fucking monster.
The soldiers merely had a whiff of it at times; the capos, a glimpse.
But the sottocapi knew it by heart.
It was both a privilege and curse only those closest to him knew, but even then was a hard pill to swallow. Kunigami, with his golden heart and pure intentions, took it the hardest and decided to see it as a necessary evil in their fucked up world, but it still got to him every time. Chigiri accepted it without much fanfare but given the decision would still be against it. Bachira, on the other hand -
Bachira loved it. He was a monster himself and it was the reason he befriended Isagi Yoichi in the first place: because he saw that Isagi was a monster just like him.
Kunigami and Chigiri, in all their kindness in their bleak world, would never get it. It was why he was Isagi’s best friend and sottocapo di tutti sottocapi, the head sottocapo. Isagi’s most trusted and the next-in-line to take over were something to happen to their don.
Soldiers and capos alike bowed as Bachira made his way down the hall. When he entered the room, he plopped himself comfortably on the settee.
“Gentlemen! To what do I owe the pleasure?” Bachira asked, unwrapping a lollipop from the coffee table and popping it into his mouth easily.
Raichi and Igaguri gave each other a look.
“Bachira,” Raichi gritted his teeth before getting elbowed in the ribs by Igaguri.
“Sottocapo,” he corrects. “We were just wondering if you’d… enlighten us, your capos, about a certain decision you recently made.”
“Hmm, that’s one way of saying you’re questioning my decision,” Bachira singsung, whirling the lollipop in his hand playfully at them like a wand.
“O-of course not!” Igaguri stammered hurriedly. “We just wanted to … gain insight. Yes. That’s it. Insight.”
Bachira regarded them for a moment. Igaguri swallowed, hoping the sottocapo was bored enough to be willing to hear them out and not take it as insubordination. They were all-too familiar with the power of the sottocapo’s right foot.
“All right, I’ll bite! What would my dear capos like to know?”
Igaguri let out a breath. “Well, we wanted to know about… our newest member,” Raichi said slowly between clenched teeth, trying to hide his feelings about it.
Bachira’s eyes twinkled. “You mean our consigliere,” he mused. It had been a few weeks since Nagi’s instatement but Bachira knew that some of their members still had their reservations. “Do you hold resentment for silencing you when Nagi first came, Raichi?”
“He doesn’t,” Igaguri reassures, speaking on Raichi’s behalf, not trusting him to reply properly. “We were just wondering how the Boss… knew. That the consigliere could be trusted. When we were fighting with V the day before.”
“So it’s Isagi’s decision you’re questioning, then.” Bachira stated with a smile devoid of any amusement.
“No! Of course not, never! It’s just, the way he looked at our don —”
Bachira’s menaced smile cut, “Have you not heard the news?”
“Which?”
“About Sector X’s Family,” Bachira hummed,
“About Barou.”
The name made them stop in their tracks. During the earlier days of Z, they’d gotten into a rumble with the leading family of Sector X, led by the fearsome Barou Shouei. Despite the presence of Z’s entire forces, including the sottocapi and the don, the brawl had still resulted in Z’s loss, single-handedly caused by Barou himself.
“What about them,” Raichi muttered, still reeling from the memory.
“This morning, Isagi sent Nagicchi to defeat Sector X,” Bachira shared. “Alone.”
Their jaws dropped. They knew that Nagi was the infamous Angel of Death, but entrusting such a task to him —
“That’s insanity —”
“And just a while ago,” Bachira continued. “Nagi achieved it and more. X is gone and now Z’s. Guess who’s joining as the newest sottocapo?”
Bachira got up from the settee, dusting himself. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I must greet our champion back.”
He took a glance at the two, who were still shell-shocked in place. Before turning to the door, he chirped, “Oh, before I forget!” He sent each of them a roundhouse kick, knocking them to the ground. “That’s for questioning our don.”
It’s not that he didn’t understand their apprehensions, because he did. After all, who’d immediately trust someone who was their sworn enemy just the day prior?
But there was a reason why Bachira was Z’s next-in-line. Why he was Isagi’s most trusted. The others wouldn’t get it, and they never would.
The soldiers stationed outside of Isagi’s office let Bachira pass freely. Inside, he saw a sight that only he as the head sottocapo had the privilege of seeing.
“Stop moving.” came Isagi’s irritated voice.
“Oh no, no more patient Isagi, he’s snapped~”
“You’re right, and I’m seconds away from snapping you in half if you continue moving.”
Nagi was on a chair, clothes soiled, face a bloody mess. It was clear that Nagi had gone straight here once he came back.
Isagi was slowly wiping the blood off of Nagi’s face with a towel, which the consigliere kept dodging.
“Snapping me in half means more wounds, which means more Kind Nurse Isagi,” he concluded.
Isagi stomped on his foot. “And there he goes,” Nagi sighed, but not at all disappointed. If anything, he looked delighted.
One reason Bachira trusted Nagi was that he knew about Isagi’s monster, despite having just met him, and he wasn’t disgusted.
“If you’re bringing in the King, exact justice, won’t you? He’s an annoying tyrant.”
“Devour him?”
“Like the monster you are.”
“Like what I did to you?”
Nagi tipped Isagi’s chin up, murmuring,
“Exactly like that.”
But the real reason was that even before Nagi knew what monsters were, he loved Isagi’s all the same.