Work Text:
Sakaguchi Ango was 21 years old when the mysterious teenager appeared in his vision and never left his dream ever since.
It was just a normal day for him like any other days that he worked for the government. There were numerous suspicious activities spotted in a hotel that was at the heart of this city, and the black-haired man was there to investigate the matter, plain and simple.
Everything was supposed to be just like that, but coincidentally (and unfortunately for him), an event was taking place in the hotel when the investigation started. With that, Ango was greeted by the sight of a busy lobby with people chit-chatting echoing between the luminous space of the hotel the moment he stepped into the hotel, and that environment followed his footsteps all the way to his destination: to the fancy, luxurious ballroom, full of music and food filled to the brim on the patrons’ dishes.
Moving through the sea of people dancing and cheering in elegant clothes, the glasses agent couldn’t help but frown. To be frank, it wouldn’t deter him from completing what he needed to do, just made the investigation slightly more difficult for him to do so discreetly. That, and the fact that he might have to socialize with people that he didn’t know made his feelings about the investigation worsen over time.
Even though he had been a government agent long enough to attend these events without judgmental eyes glancing his way, Sakaguchi Ango was never fond of these occasions. It reeked of snobby people and corrupted money, all of which he hated to death but could never get away from them for the sake of his life.
Being too deep in his own thoughts, the black-haired man didn’t notice until he stumbled, one of his feet brushing against something on the floor, sending it flying to the corner of the ballroom. The shining intricate pattern on it caught his attention, and upon further inspection as he picked it up, he realized that it was a black kitsune mask with red glitters running at the edge of it. The smooth surface brought such a refreshing sensation to his fingertips, and he couldn’t help but look at it like it was a valuable antique at the shop he frequented.
As he let his touches danced on the contours of the mask, memories began to trickle into his mind like a gentle stream of water. The images were faint at first, with layers and layers of mist surrounding them, but with each step he took to approach the heart of this memory, everything started to get clearer. A room full of canvas that only had eyes on them, a table with the chair arranged in-between the paintings, a flickering light above his head, swirling back and forth with the creaking noise that never stopped echoing…
Wait…
Something wasn’t right with this memory. This wasn’t supposed to be a part of what had happened in this ballroom. The eyes in those paintings followed every step he took, observing his fear and anxiety in a sick and twisted way that only made the knot in his stomach grow tighter than ever.
Despite how quiet this room was, the paintings around him seemed to never stop whispering and commenting about him in unintelligible words. As his eyes darted around, Ango felt a chill run down his spine, dreading what was going to come next.
- You aren’t supposed to come here.
A voice rang somewhere in this room, soft and almost unreal, but somehow still so close to him, spooking him slightly. The black-haired man turned and looked around himself frantically, and although the voice was coming from this space, there was no sign of anyone else aside from him in this room.
- Who… Who are you?
He whispered, trying his best to calm his erratic heart. The voice didn’t answer him this time, but the eerie sensation never went away. In the blink of an eye, Ango found himself back in the ballroom where all of this started, and while the environment looked normal at first, something felt off. It was as if the room was overlaid with a thin veil of another place, another reality. He could still hear the distant creaking and see the eyes from the canvases staring at him, even though they weren’t physically there.
Then he saw the owner of that voice - faint at first, like a phantom. A teenager with bright lavender eyes and ethereal white hair stood in the corner of the room, watching him with an intense gaze. Ango's breath caught in his throat. Their presence was both mesmerizing and unsettling, their image flickering like the light in his vision.
Their lips opened slightly, and that familiar voice echoed again in his ears, but clearer and… closer this time, almost like they came from right next to him…
- You need to leave. You aren’t supposed to see me here.
With that, they snapped their fingers, sending Ango back to the original ballroom in such a rushed and unceremonious way that made him nearly fall flat on his face. Desperate, he spun around to make sense of the situation, his heart pounding in his chest. What he didn’t expect was to see them again in the ballroom, this time standing in the midst of people dancing and singing, their bright lavender eyes locked with his and their white hair shone on their shoulders. Time seemed to slow as they took in each other’s appearance in the room: him out of caution, and them out of curiosity.
- Who are you…?
Ango whispered, but the teenager only shook their head, refusing to answer his question. They then turned on their heels and started walking away, their movement almost gliding, making his heart race. He couldn’t let them disappear again, he had to know who they were. His footsteps started to pick up as he dashed towards the exit as fast as he could, trying to get to them.
- Wait!
The black-haired man called out desperately, yet the teenager never spared him a glance. The crowd around him got thicker and thicker, jostling and delaying him at every turn. He tried to push through, and just as he thought he could finally get to them, a group of people swarmed in and stopped him dead in his tracks.
- Please don’t look for me…
White hair fluttered in the air as they whispered those words (which sounded like they were in his ears even though both of them were miles away from each other) before using the sea of people in the area as an opportunity to disappear. When he finally reached the spot that they were supposed to be, the teenager was already gone like dust in the wind, leaving only a single strand of dandelion behind as a proof that their appearance in this place wasn’t just a dream. Not wanting to lose a crucial piece of evidence, Ango hastily bent down and picked it up, staring at it in disbelief.
- What… What the hell on Earth just happened?
He wished that whatever he had seen was a dream, but with how real the dandelion and the mask were in his hands, he really couldn’t pretend to ignore that. He wondered if the teenager he met was ever related to the string of incidents that he was investigating at the hotel.. He wondered if they were registered in the database as an ability user at all, because he was sure as hell that whatever just happened to him wasn’t an imagination of his tired mind.
And most importantly…
Ango wondered if he would ever meet them again in this life.
Clutching the mask tight in his hand, the black-haired man could only sigh, hoping for the best as he dragged himself back to the ballroom and continuing his investigation like the whole incident never happened in the first place.
『••✎••』
Before Ango knew it, four years had passed since then.
Sometimes the memories made the glasses man ponder about the teenager. Were they real or just an illusion? Were they dead or alive? Had they changed significantly through time or were they still the same?
Despite his constant effort to look for them, the question he had remained unanswered.
Time and blood had darkened the memory that he had of the mysterious teenager, but they never left his dream, always there to greet him with those bright lavender eyes and silky white hair strands fluttering with the wind, pure and unfiltered from this world’s constant chaos. Those thoughts lingered in his mind, as persistent as the bloody trail of the path he had walked on to get to his current position…
A knock on the door of his office pulled him out of his trance, and Ango turned towards the sound, fixing his glasses as he called out, trying to be as calm and normal as he usually sounded while also pushing away the hazy memory of the teenager lingered in his mind.
- Come in.
The door creaked open, and Tsujimura stepped into the room, followed by another agent, a new face that he hadn’t heard from before. She was posed and collected, with lavender eyes, white hair that fell to the middle of her back, and a young, yet mature face…
Wait…
Lavender eyes and white hair…
- Sakaguchi-senpai, I have brought the new agent here per Taneda-sensei’s request.
Ango swore to God that he could feel his heart skip a beat or two upon making eye contact with the young lady that stood behind Tsujimura. There was no doubt that the teenager that he met in the ballroom that day was indeed the same new agent that was just recruited - the one that haunted his dream for four long years. She may have grown and matured with age, but there was no mistaking those defiant eyes or that silky hair.
- Thank you, Tsujimura-kun. You may leave us.
Struggling to keep his voice steady, the glasses man took a long time before breathing out his response. Before long, he was left alone with the new agent, her eyes observing him curiously as she stood by the door and waited for him to say something. After a long moment of just staring at each other, Ango finally managed to pull himself together, gesturing to the chair opposite from him as he cleared his throat.
- My apologies for the long silence. Please have a seat here…
The woman nodded and walked to the chair with graceful movements (just like what he had seen for the first time in that ballroom), sitting down with a composed aura surrounding her that really contradicted her youthful appearance.
- My name is Sato Miwa, but please call me by the name Miwa. I was assigned to be your new assistant and bodyguard per Taneda- sensei ’s instruction, Sakaguchi-san, so hopefully we will have a good partnership going forward.
She was so polite, Ango thought idly, I wondered if she would remember me and the first time we met at all…
- I don’t think I have met you before, Sakaguchi-san…
He didn’t realize that when he was deep in his own thoughts, he had accidentally voiced his question out loud for her to hear. Miwa tilted her head, her eyes narrowed in curiosity.
- Is something else the matter leading you to ask me about that, Sakaguchi-san?
- … Ah, nothing. It's just... you reminded me of someone I met a long time ago.
The young woman giggled behind the back of her right hand like she just heard the funniest thing on Earth, and something in that whole motion made his heart melt and swell with adoration.
- I see, I see… Was the meeting very memorable for you?
For some reasons, this question saddened him. He had this one tiny hope in his heart that maybe Miwa would remember him, but her lavender eyes showed no recognition nor acknowledgement of their first meeting. It made him jealous even, for how unbothered she was to the whole situation.
- Yes… Very much so.
Still, the only thing he dared to do was swallow the bitterness at the back of his throat as he chuckled sadly. Miwa seemed to pick on this, but as her lips parted to say something hesitantly, he beated her to it.
- Miwa-kun?
- Yes?
She glanced at him curiously.
- Please… Call me by Ango if you can…
The bright lavender eyes in front of him widened slightly at his (seemingly) peculiar request, but eventually, the young woman broke out in a fit of giggles.
- Ango-san, then.
The black-haired man forced a smile in return, but the ache in his heart lingered, like it would never go away.