Work Text:
The night is absolutely not what Kai, nor Yamagata for sure, were expecting. They just wanted to relax, have fun with a drink or two, maybe even pop some pills after the whole shitshow that was Tetsuo’s hissy fit, subsequently his detention by the army, and Kaneda’s disappearance. It would have just been the two of them. No girls, no gang. The wonder duo Yamagata and Kai, bitching all night long. In the morning they would get out of the bar, take their bikes and search for their missing friends.
Now, it’s just Kai in a destroyed cellar in front of one of the objects of his very needed, very wanted bitching session.
Gone’s the drink, gone’s the wallowing self-pity party. Gone’s the barkeeper. Gone’s Yamagata.
Gone is Yamagata.
Actually, the self-pity party could stay, but perhaps not now.
Now, there’s just him and the rooting fear getting under his skin. Now, there’s just a horrifying chuckle in front of him and sweat running on his back. He dares not look up. (But it’s Tetsuo. His friend!). And the laugh dies as quickly as it starts. It’s chilling, the silence after the noise. Tetsuo was never silent, he grumbled, he complained. Sometimes, he sniffed, he was never–
“Scram,” Tetsuo says. That guy has never been a one word man. Kai doesn’t know what to do, he has never faced this Tetsuo.
And so nothing happens.
Kai is still rooted to the floor, unable to move, horrified. He can almost feel his best friend’s blood running down under the sole of his shoes. He doesn’t dare look at both of his closest buddies. He’s not– he was never brave. He doesn’t want to see a murderer instead of his friend. And he really doesn’t want to see a corpse instead of his best friend.
He arduously takes a step back. His feet are like leads and sap at his strength. Fear weighs on his shoulders and makes his eyes drop on the floor. Very dirty floor, he notes faintly, full of bits of glass and metal craps. Oh. There’s a speck of red on his right shoe. He almost gags.
For them, it has always been fight or flight. Kaneda was all fight and Tetsuo was all flight. Kai, well, he’s freeze. Fear makes him shake his soul, lock his bones.
“Scram,” Tetsuo repeats and he is getting impatient.
Kai knows what Tetsuo says-said, he understood it very well the first time. And really, he might be at the bottom of his class, he’s not stupid enough to not get it. Yet, he doesn’t want to run away, not only because he cowers but because it’s Tetsuo in front of him and it’s Yamagata at his feet.
Tetsuo clicks his tongue, irritated.
Tetsuo was always quick to anger and now that he is-, that he can-
Kai doesn’t want to look at a murderer, but he doesn’t want to trigger Tetsuo’s violence either. Few days ago he was ready to kill a clown as he was struck by extreme migraines. Now that he’s on the top of the food chain with more freaky powers...
A second click of the tongue makes him jolt like a puppet pulled by its string.
Kai finally looks at his former friend. His face is deformed in a monstrous figure, it’s angry and deranged. It’s awful. Kai wants to weep. He looks and looks and it feels like the face grows fangs and horns in the folds of his frown and sneers. It’s more devil than Tetsuo.
He is a beast that already got his first taste of blood and wouldn't hesitate to relish in it again. Tetsuo is gone, just like Kaneda, just like Yamagata. Kai is only left facing a demon.
It’s horrifying, Kai cannot see anything past the anger and the hate. Tetsuo disappears right before his eyes and the monster left in his wake is not someone he knows.
He is left with one choice, really.
Kai scrams.