Chapter Text
Akutagawa’s eyes flutter open. “…huh…?” He has a horrible headache, and he’s wet and cold. He’s looking up at the dark sky in between apartment buildings, or whatever it is. He looks at his surroundings. He’s in an alley. He has no idea where he is, or how he got here. The last thing he remembers is fighting Fukuchi. He sits up and looks down at himself. He has his coat on him, and his usual clothes. He unsteadily stands up, almost falling back down while doing so. He looks around himself again, trying to figure out where the hell he is.
“…an alley…? How did I get here..?” He sees a few people walking by the alley, probably coming from a bar or a party, and he sees some rats by some dumpster. It doesn’t look like Yokohama. Of course, he could’ve just landed in some alley that he’s never been in before, which would still be weird, but better than being in a completely different city. He hears something that sounds like someone jumping from building to building. He looks up, surprised to find some homeless-looking guy with a scarf jumping over the gap between the two buildings Akutagawa is in the middle off. “What the-“ the man looks down when he hears his voice, spotting Akutagawa. There’s not many times the mafioso shows fear, but this is one of the few times he does. His eyes widen when he notices the strange man seeing him. “…another ability user…?” His first instinct is to hide behind the dumpster, like a kid. But he’s not a kid. He’s a mafioso, even. The man jumps down and lands in front of Akutagawa. “What are you doing out here in the middle of the night, kid?” The strange man asks. ‘kid?’ Akutagawa seems annoyed. ‘How dare he call me ‘kid’? I’m from the Port Mafia, he can’t call me kid!’ “I’m not a kid.” Akutagawa protests. He could easily kill the man. At least he’s pretty sure he could. But it might not be the smartest thing to do when he doesn’t even know where he is.
“Really?” The man gives Akutagawa a look. “Really!” Despite claiming to not be a kid, he sure is acting like one. “Then why do you look like one?” The strange man raises an eyebrow. “I don’t— I don’t look like a kid!” “Yeah, sure.” The man starts approaching Akutagawa. He doesn’t usually feel scared, not anymore. He was used to feeling scared all the time as a kid, but he’s not a kid anymore. He’s a feared Port Mafia member. Despite that, Akutagawa instinctively takes a step back. The man’s scarf suddenly moves on it’s own and grabs Akutagawa’s arm. “Huh?!” He immediately tries to get out of the scarf’s grip, frightened. “Hey, hey, kid. Calm down, I’m not gonna hurt you.” The man tries to soothe him, walking closer to Akutagawa again. First now, Akutagawa looks up at the strange man, seeing his face. He looks tired. Really tired. And it’s first now that he notices that the man is a lot taller than him. This man must be a giant or something. Akutagawa used to be pretty short as a kid, since he was very malnourished from living in the slums, but he grew in height after joining the Port Mafia and getting some nutrients.
“Shhh… I’m not gonna hurt you. Now, don’t be too loud, you’re gonna wake people up.” The tired man tells him, sounding somewhat kind and soothing. Akutagawa can’t help but still feel scared though. He can barley even believe that he feels scared right now. He feels just like he did when he was younger. “Look, I’m not gonna hurt you, alright? I just want to make sure you’re okay. My name is Shouta Aizawa, what’s yours?” The man, Aizawa, tries to sound as non-threatening as possible. It feels like he’s dealing with a scared and abused animal. Which he kind of is, except that it’s a person and not an animal. “…Ryuunosuke Akutagawa…” Akutagawa says quietly, now looking down at the ground. “That’s a nice name.” Aizawa compliments, hoping to calm the him a bit. “Anyway, since you’re out here in the middle of the night, all by yourself, i’ve got to take you to the police station.” Akutagawa’s eyes widens. ’police station? I’m a grown man, am I not?!’ For some reason though, he doesn’t dare to protest.
Akutagawa follows Aizawa to the police station, and before walking in, Akutagawa sees himself in the window. He looks like he did when he was 15. ’I must be hallucinating, or did I really become 15 again? And I don’t even know where I am. I’ve never seen this place before.’ No wonder he felt scared like he did when he was younger, cause he is younger. “Kid? Something wrong?” Aizawa asks, noticing that Akutagawa is staring at himself in the window. “…no…” he says quietly, almost whispering. His voice is shaky. Now he’s really scared. Where is he? How did he get here? He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t like this. He wants to go back home. Back to the Port Mafia. Back to Chuuya. And back to Gin.