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Kunikida kept his head down as he fiddled away on the joystick of an arcade machine. His eyes certainly didn’t flicker up to, as subtly as he could, observe the room around him with a sense of both fear and curiosity about him. He’d initially only come here because the Space Invaders machine at his usual arcade was broken and it had pissed him off. This place was out of the way but the reviews for the food were good which Kunikida thought made up for the fact that there were rumours about the regular clientele. He thought it would make up for it until he met them.
He hadn’t been able to get the two of them out of his head since they’d practically held a gun to him and forced him to share his time. It seemed they were still holding him hostage now. Even knowing they weren’t here, he felt their presence like ghosts haunting him. He knew he should have sucked it up and just walked straight home and holed up in his room… but he was antsy and called back to this wretched place like a homing pigeon. Well, not a homing pigeon. Because this was unbelievably far from his home…
Home was a place where you let your guard down. You left your shoes and your troubles at the door and slipped away from the pressures of the world. At least, he thought that was how it was meant to be. That was what he imagined a true home to be like. An ideal home. Here, was where devils lay. There was an unsettling atmosphere that had the hair on the back of Kunikida’s neck standing on end. Even without the mafia’s most… irritating duo… Kunikida was suddenly aware of exactly the type of people that frequented this place. Delinquents from the nearby high school were the least of his worries — he’d dealt with assholes like them a million times before. But the scrappier kids… and the more entitled kids… he knew there was something to be cautious about.
Regardless, he did his best to shake his ceaseless anxiety. Focusing on a small screen and the pleasant, stimulating noises and lights that erupted from it seemed to help at least. It was easy to get sucked into a screen and forget the world — sometimes he really didn’t blame Katai for it. But he would never admit that. This was a treat he rarely allowed himself.
“Eh…..?”
Kunikida froze. He watched the screen move on without him and leave him behind, flashing a big red ‘game over’ in his face.
“Look who it is, Chuuya!”
Kunikida didn’t move, hoping they couldn’t see him unless they did… like whatever that animal that could only see movement was. His brain wasn’t working.
“No shit! He’s back…”
Kunikida put together that his stillness wasn’t fooling anyone. He swallowed down the stupid part of himself that was insistent on taking the wheel in his brain. And he finally turned his attention to the horrible voices, eyes falling on the horrible people they belonged to.
Dazai and Chuuya were standing over him, observing him like a zoo animal. They really seemed like the type of kids to tap on the glass of a fish bowl until the fish went up for air to kill itself. Kunikida had never taken the time to imagine what it would be like to be a suicidal fish but right now he didn’t have to imagine. It was either die or become the pet of two uninformed, ill-intentioned, spoiled children.
“Kunikida-kun, do you remember us?” Dazai asked with a knowing smile.
“N… No, I don’t…” Kunikida said, “And besides, I just lost the game so I was leaving anyway—“
Kunikida stood up and tried to stumble away but Chuuya managed to catch his fall. Chuuya’s grin gave away his intentions far more freely than Dazai’s did. But that made it sinister in its own way.
“Careful there…” he said.
“D…” Kunikida took a huffing breath, “Are you sure you idiots actually have real jobs you do in the mafia?! Do you just come here every fuckin’ day?!”
“Do you?” Dazai asked.
Kunikida felt his body heat up with embarrassment. Chuuya was still holding onto his arm and could no doubt feel the change in temperature which, of course, just made it worse.
If Kunikida wanted to kill time, the arcade wasn't ever his first choice. It was maybe his third or fourth. Unfortunately for him, he was prone to a deadly kind of curiosity that led him to places he normally and logically would not venture to — it led him to follow people he had no business following. Well, it wasn’t like he was following these assholes, it was just he was a bit curious how often the two of them did end up in this specific location. Naturally, the study was so that he could avoid more confrontations like this. It was to learn when he could come here without fear of running into them again. Regrettably, it was his oversight that he didn’t fully comprehend the act of learning when they were here meant he’d have to be here when they were in order to know for sure. He really needed to work on his forethought.
“Like I said, I was just heading out,” Kunikida said, pushing through the strain in his voice.
“Eh, are you sure?” Dazai asked.
“Have ya asked us about that?” Chuuya added.
Dazai let out what sounded like an innocent giggle, “We’ve had time to do our research on you. You’re nothing special, Kunikida-kun… So… I think we’re gonna be making the rules. It’s only fair after you were so rude to us!”
“I wasn’t rude! It’s not my fault you’re selfish jerks!”
“Ya got a damn mouth on ya…” Chuuya scolded as if he were any better.
Dazai giggled again, “It is your fault you provoked us though. I know a way you can pay your dues.”
“I already paid plenty!” Kunikida exclaimed, “You two were yapping at me for hours last time!”
“That wasn’t repayment, that was just keeping us occupied so we weren’t hogging the game. You have yet to pay what you owe. And the mafia doesn’t take kindly to overdue debts,” Dazai explained.
“You’re really gonna fuckin’ kill me if I don’t listen to you?” Kunikida sighed, “So fuckin’ dramatic…”
“Nah, we wouldn’t kill ya.” It was Chuuya’s turn to offer what could have been a reassuring smile but was instead scheming and sinister. “We could make your life very hard though…”
Kunikida huffed. “I find it hard to believe you don’t have anything better to do than torment me… Don’t you have like… people to kill? Businesses to exploit? Officials to torture?”
Dazai giggled, “We’re off duty! We have to take advantage of disobedient youths instead!”
“We’re the same age!” Kunikida snapped back.
“Oh, but you’re born later in the year than both of us!” Dazai said, “That makes us your elders, Kunikida-kun!”
“No, the fuck it doesn’t!”
Chuuya sighed, “Don’t be such a pain, Kuni, you’re making this harder on yourself than it needs to be.” Kunikida cringed at the nonconsensual nickname. “You don’t even know what we’re askin’ of you. Don’t you wanna at least hear our terms first?”
“I have a hard time either of you know what it means to make reasonable terms!” Kunikida exclaimed. “Why would I listen to the words of criminals?!”
“Such prejudicial righteousness…” Dazai scolded, “You’re no better than the common police.”
“How dare you?!” Kunikida roared. He’d had his… problems with the group that he was now being compared to and it upset him.
“You’re so caught up in the nightmare versions of us you’ve made up in your head that you won’t even hear us out,” Dazai continued to speak calmly, completely unphased by Kunikida’s outbursts,
“Does our job necessarily reflect what kind of people we are?”
“That question is applicable to everyone but those willingly in the mafia,” Kunikida said.
“And we’re willingly in the mafia?”
Kunikida paused for a moment.
And then Dazai laughed. “Just kidding, of course, we are.”
Chuuya grumbled, “Dazai, shut the fuck up for once — you’re being confusing on purpose, it’s pissin’ me off…”
“God, just spit it out then!” Kunikida used his voice to silence them — it was a common habit of his. “What the hell do you want from me?!”
The two of them didn’t spend as much time discouraged by Kunikida’s rage as most. Both of their faces morphed into sinister grins Kunikida wouldn’t associate with anyone but the mafia. He wasn’t one to cower in the presence of others — this specific feeling of fear wasn’t something he felt often. He refused to acknowledge the way it impacted him now. Two kids he’d seen laugh with the playfulness of children shouldn’t have had the ability to crawl under his skin and make him shiver…
“Play with us again!” Dazai cheered.
Kunikida blinked.
“Just for an hour or two,” Chuuya added.
“What…?” Kunikida hated to admit that he was almost disappointed. If they wanted to keep him in line, they weren’t doing a good job. But maybe that really wasn’t their goal.
“Mm, since you were leaving, it doesn’t have to be the arcade, I suppose…” Dazai stroked his chin as he thought. “Hey, you hate us, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Kunikida said.
“We’d be able to arrange something cathartic for you!” Dazai said, “Would you like to watch Chuuya jump from a 200-floor building?”
“Seriously?” Chuuya rolled his eyes.
“He could shoot himself in the head?” Dazai went on,
“You
could shoot him if you like! We could do poison too but that one’s significantly less fun for him…”
“I’ll admit, I don’t exactly get how any of those could be fun for him…” Kunikida grumbled.
“‘Fun’ ain’t the right damn word,” Chuuya grumbled, “It’s work for me. It’s like a magic trick for you though so…” he sighed, “Yeah, what the hell. Take your pick, Kuni, whatddya wanna see me do first?”
“You’re serious? And on board with this?” Kunikida asked.
Chuuya just shrugged.
“Is there something wrong with you two?”
Both of them nodded.
Kunikida sighed. “Fine. Jump from somewhere… I suppose…”
“Any preferences for where?” Chuuya asked.
Kunikida shook his head.
“Alrighty then! I’ve mapped out every building tall enough to kill a man should they jump from it!” Dazai’s smile was far too bright, “There’s one only a few blocks from here!”
The pair of them headed towards the door before Kunikida realised they had moved. Dazai skipped away with a bliss about him and Chuuya walked confidently which didn’t sit well with him either. He almost thought he could be left behind. But his legs were carrying him along not long after. Kunikida felt a darkness lingering behind them and was sure he wasn’t the only one to feel it. It didn’t seem to deter any of them, however.
Kunikida could see the building up ahead long before they reached it — it was perfectly ominous — the perfect scenery for the morbid act they were all painting as a magic trick.
Kunikida didn’t believe they’d actually go through with it. There had to be something he was missing or obliviously walking into that would eventually turn this into a joke on him. But he had no idea how that could be the case. He didn’t know enough about them to be able to make any judgements. That was scarier to him than their supposed villainy.
It was silent until they arrived under the building’s intimidating shadow. Kunikida looked up and felt a chill run down his spine. It was just a plain building — he didn’t understand why he was having such a reaction to it. He supposed he’d been on edge all day… But even still, this was unlike him.
“How are you gonna get up there?” he asked.
“The getting up isn’t meant to be the fun part, so don’t worry about it,” Chuuya said.
Kunikida didn’t like being told what to worry about. “Back in a sec.”
Chuuya jogged around to the back of the building. And then it was time to wait. Dazai rocked back and forth on his feet with a quiet boredom about him. It was like he knew exactly what was going to happen and the whimsy had worn off. That didn’t comfort him either. He trained his eyes on the ground in front of him and tried to settle the storm in his head.
It was barely two minutes before Dazai poked at him and pointed up to the top of the building. Kunikida squinted his eyes at the figure on top. It sure looked like Chuuya. Little body with that flash of red fire… He wasn’t sure who else it could be. But it still didn’t really register to him as reality. There was something distant about this whole situation and it wasn’t just proximity.
“Count him down, won’t you?” Dazai nudged him.
“He can’t hear me from down here.”
“Obviously. Gesture with your hand — up in the air like this,” Dazai put his hand up in the air with a fist and then bent his elbow and put it back, “See. He can see that.”
“I’m not doing that. If he really needs a countdown to his death, you can do it.”
“I wish it was this easy to kill him…” Dazai sighed, “But, if you insist, I’ll do it.”
Kunikida didn’t watch Dazai for his movements. He just watched Chuuya stand on the edge of that obscenely tall building as if he were only a few feet from the ground. If Kunikida were up there he would have fallen by now — standing on something that tall was surely enough to make anyone wobbly. And then Chuuya fell.
There wasn’t enough time between him being a minuscule speck in the distance to being a tangible figure of the kid he’d talked to not that long ago for Kunikida to process. When he started making out the features of his face, the reality of it all set in. He wasn’t just watching some kid jump to his death but he’d specifically requested it. Even if he knew they wouldn’t offer something like this without some safety net, Kunikida hadn’t been able to determine what that caveat was. His eyes widened as Chuuya got closer. And just before he hit the ground, Kunikida flinched. He looked away. He couldn’t stomach it, no matter how fine he knew it was going to be. The thud on the ground was sickening to him — he couldn’t imagine watching it.
The lull of silence that settled on the scene was too long for Kunikida’s comfort. He knew they weren’t that stupid. He knew Dazai meant it when he said Chuuya wasn’t that easy to kill. But god, they could at least say something already and prove it!
“Aw, he wasn’t even watching,” Dazai pouted.
“I can’t be bothered to do it again…” Chuuya said.
Kunikida hoped the audible sigh of relief he let out wasn’t as audible as he thought. He opened his eyes and turned his body to Chuuya. Who was fine. He was completely fine. Chuuya was just standing there, hat still on his stupid head, as if nothing had happened at all. Of course, he was. But holy shit he was fine and he’d jumped from that height. Kunikida had several questions but the main one was: wasn’t this supposed to be cathartic? Not horrifically stressful?
“Alright, spit it out, how the fuck?” Kunikida crossed his arms.
“Well,” Dazai went to answer, “a magician never reveals—”
“I wasn’t asking you!” Kunikida snapped, “And that wasn’t just a fucking magic trick. So, what was it?”
Chuuya shrugged, “Not much to it. Just manipulated gravity so it wouldn’t crush my bones when I landed.”
Kunikida squinted his eyes. “The fuck are you talking about?”
“Have you ever wondered why two random kids are the scariest people in the scariest organisation in Yokohama?” Dazai asked him.
“I mean, yeah. Who hasn’t wondered that?”
“It’s because we’re not just random kids…” he continued, “We’re special.”
“No, we’re not,” Chuuya grumbled, “We’re just two random kids with special abilities — we’re not special because of them.”
Abilities…
Kunikida couldn’t describe the feeling that came over him. He’d only felt it once before — when he and Katai were younger. Having the knowledge that there must be something different or perhaps entirely inhuman about you and then realising the person in front of you understands it completely. They don’t just understand it because of their natural human empathy, they understand because they’re just like you. Kunikida had only ever heard about other ability users. He’d see them on the news sometimes but they were never right in front of him. He could never reach out and touch someone like him. Kunikida had spent so long almost convinced he and Katai were the only ones in the world who could ever get it. There was no one else who could understand…
“What’s that face, Kunikida-kun?” Dazai grinned, “Impressed?”
“I know it’s probably rare for a kid like you to get the chance to see stuff like this up close so if you have questions or somethin—”
“You idiots…” Kunikida said, “I thought you did your research…”
The two of them tilted their heads, completely oblivious to what he meant by that. Kunikida reached into his back pocket and pulled out a notebook. It was a tiny one he carried on him just in case. He took the pencil out from the binding and opened a page.
“What are you doing?” Chuuya asked.
“Um… Give me uh…” Kunikida tried to think slowly, not letting his adrenaline get the best of him, “Like a… Fuck! Um… Just… Just anything. Give me. Something. Like an object or…”
“A fortune cookie,” Dazai answered.
Kunikida nodded, “That’s good.”
Kunikida wrote in the notebook… and soon, it wasn’t Kunikida that was the shocked one. As the page glowed and transformed, Dazai and Chuuya looked on in wonder. They finally realised who they were dealing with. Kunikida picked up the fortune cookie and held it out towards them.
“No shit…” Chuuya said.
“We really didn’t do enough research…” Dazai mumbled in addition.
Chuuya took the cookie and crumbled it in his hands. He dug for the fortune but there wasn’t one. Kunikida had missed that detail when he was creating it. He still didn’t have the best handle on the limits of his ability. Chuuya still sniffed the cookie before placing a bit on his tongue. He blinked as it melted in his mouth just like a real one.
“Holy shit!” Chuuya exclaimed, “You really made one!”
Kunikida nodded.
“Impressive work, Kunikida-kun,” Dazai praised.
“You’re… Are both of you… really ability users?” Kunikida asked, nervously.
They both nodded.
Kunikida took a moment. “Well… Me too…”
Kunikida was sure he was giving away how much this meant to him. Katai always said he showed everything he felt right on his face. At the same time, there was the possibility that Katai had just spent enough time with him to recognise his every expression. Still, Dazai was clever and Chuuya was surprisingly perceptive too. He had no doubt they’d figure him out.
“Well, you know what that means, Kunikida-kun…” Dazai said, ominously.
“I do not.”
Chuuya smirked. “Well, it’s in the mafia’s best interest to keep tabs on any ability users around… in case they’re an asset or hindrance to business…”
“So…” Dazai clapped his hands together, “I think that means we have good reason to keep pestering you! You know, just considering our obligations and everything like that.”
Kunikida, finding something so rare he wasn’t sure he’d ever find and was almost certain would never find again, couldn’t bring himself to rationally let it go. He shrugged, “If you’re going to keep twisting my arm about it, I guess there’s very little I can do.”
Kunikida spent far longer with them during that day than he ever expected to spend with them. They were in each other’s company well into the night. Dazai had his turn showing off and Kunikida continued to try and remain unimpressed. Truthfully, their abilities were probably far more enviable than his own and, in addition, they had a much better understanding and control over it than Kunikida did. He supposed it made sense as they used theirs a lot more frequently and in a lot more defining and pivotal situations but still… he would be lying if he didn’t admire them for it just a little bit.
It wasn’t just the abilities themselves that were strong, it was their marvellous understanding of them and their subsequent ability to strategise around it. And then, when paired together, they unlocked a whole other way to optimise their individual and cooperative strength.
They were… quite incredible. But they knew that. And that was annoying.
“You two are like a circus act or something…” Kunikida said.
They both considered it for a moment, trying to work out if it was a compliment or not.
“Mm… Like those crazy trapeze artists or something?” Dazai asked. “Maybe… If we were though, I would definitely drop him. On purpose. Naturally.”
“Not if I drop you first, asshole!” Chuuya screamed back at him.
“No, not like that. I meant like… clowns… or something…” Kunikida trailed off, satisfied by the way Dazai pouted and Chuuya’s frustrated frown became even more cartoonishly grumpy.
They may have been freakishly capable and deserving of their status in the mafia… but… they were still just kids like him. Ability users like him. Kunikida knew he’d find his way back to the arcade if not just wandering aimlessly around the port, waiting with an odd sense of hope about him, anticipating running into them again. And… perhaps stupidly, he was not dreading it.