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The clink of Rin’s gear felt like a baton to a gong in the silence that was BLUE LOCK corps hallways.
He had a lazy hand on his hip, walking with no particular urgency. As morbid as it was, there was a sort of calm to it. The dim blue lights on the walls, the way his switchblade fit so snugly in his hand as he held it tight. He needed to get rid of that habit. That habit of always being on his toes, like someone was going to jump out at him whenever. The habit of being so untrusting.
His cool stride is interrupted by the pause he takes to wait for the automatic door in front of him to open.
“Itoshi,” a voice calls from within the newly opened room, raspy and disgruntled in its manner. The figure doesn’t even turn to look at him, already expecting Rin to make his way to his side by the time he’s finished speaking his name.
Extending a document over his shoulder, Ego Jinpachi continues to type on his computer with one hand.
“Sir,” Rin says as he takes the file. It’s burgundy in colour, black and yellow accenting the sides. More high quality than the ones he knows BLLK has, at least. “What’s the occasion?” He asks. The file feels like sheepskin to the touch, Rin notes as he opens it.
"Early birthday, apperantly," Ego raises his eyebrows in mock acknowledgment, turning his chair to face Rin. "You get to pick your poison."
"What do you mean?" Rin says as he scans the first paper. At the top it read, BASTARD MUNCHEN, in bold letters, with a sword piercing the logo in the middle. "Bastard..." he read aloud. His eyebrows knotted in confusion, and overtaken by curiousity, he moves to Ego's long desk to spread the documents out.
Agent profiles. An abundance of them. Rin quickly god to work, taking them out on the desks and spreading it like it was money. It extended so far that Rin had to turn his head left and right to catch them all in his field of view.
"I get to pick one?" Rin says, uncharacteristically astounded by the sheer volume of Agents. BLLK was a baby their measly 275 members or so looking silly next to... however many this was.
"Yep," Ego exhales, tired. "God, why couldn't he have put this in a binder. I swear..." he whispered to himself as he brought himself closer to the table.
Rin inspected the papers quietly alongside him. It was rare, but sometimes Rin would feel... in tandem, with his eccentric boss. Like the gears in their head were turning at the same time, like Ego was the new teacher at his Highschool that was infinitely better than the others and the only one that Rin really tried hard for.
"Okay," Ego says, just as Rin finishes his own train of thought, "Ignore all these extras," he waves in the general direction of the documents, "I think you should pick this one."
The older man places a long index finger on one of the papers, pulling it out of the messy pile Rin created. He inspected it once, twice, three times, before handing it over.
The paper was thick like an expective sketchbook paper. Silky to the touch, too. Rin could probably use this as a weapon if need be.
Having made documents such as these plenty of times himself, Rin immediately identifies a key insignia at the top right of the paper.
"SPECIAL I SOLO. #11ISG"
"He'll be a good addition to your team. A good balance too. A good cop to your bad cop," Ego suggests.
"I already have Shidou as a sub-captain," Rin protests, inspecting the document further. "ISAGI YOICHI" was the agents name. A year older. Born on April fools, too. Rin tried not to sneer. "Won't this be overboarding the team? GHOST doesn't need this much people."
"I wouldn't exactly qualify Shidou as a good cop."
"You know what I mean. We've already started our operation. Introducing a new life form to this ecosystem is going to throw off the food chain. So, denied."
"Denial denied," Ego retorted right as Rin extended his hand to hand the documents back. "Introducing a new life form to this ecosystem will instead promote evolution. Great analogy, by the way," the ghost of a smile snakes it's way on his face. "I've taught you well."
"Yeah, thanks," Rin rolls his eyes, "This is a Bastard agent. Ranked double SS, mind you. He's either not going to listen to me at all, or make me kill him with his incompetence. No in between."
"Trust me, Bastard already does that themselves," Ego actually laughed this time, pushing onto the sides of his chair to bring himself to his feet. "And just try it out. If he's horrible, send him back."
"Right. Like you'd ever let me pass this up," Rin scoffs, dropping his arms to his hips.
"I'm going to go talk to the others to figure this out,” he says after moments of silence. Ego doesn’t say anything as Rin turns on his heel to leave the room. Rin can already imagine the choice words his team members will have for this circumstance…
Rin quickly finds out new things about his new colleague.
1. ISG11 is extremely quiet.
Surprisingly, no one was opposed to the prospect of extra help. Rin couldn’t blame them, because considering that the newest member of the company, Seishirou Nagi, was more of a decoration than a real officer, just one more cook couldn’t possibly spoil the broth. When ISG did eventually show up, everyone was quick to get along with him, his presence calming rather than alarming. A first for the team. Shidou could never.
This is also because, ISG kept to himself like a cicada in the winter. Rin swears he just disappears during the day and re-appeares at the end, when he’d come back to their shared BLLK funded apartment to clock out for the night. Even then, every sign of life was nigh impossible to detect. Other than the sounds of the shower running, Rin wouldn’t hear him walk around or go into the fridge or even use the bathroom. Sometimes he was almost inclined to ask ISG personally if he had silencers on the soles of his feet, because lord, Rin hasn’t met someone this quiet since Otoya.
No one seemed to call attention to this, so why would Rin? If his team was okay with a literal mouse as an additional partner, then he was too.
That was, until Shidou brought it up in the company bathroom. A simple, "So what do we think of the new guy?" was all it took.
Otoya's head snapped into Shidou's direction, Rin turned to look at him in the mirror as he washed his hands, and even Nagi looked up from his phone as he waited for them on the side.
Otoya exclaims first, "Oh my god," he says, as expressively as he can as he flicks the water off his hands hastily. "I've been waiting for this."
"Dude," Shidou laughs, "Someone's eager!”
"Always," Otoya finger guns, "I've been holding my thoughts in for way too long."
Rin scoffs. "Thoughts where?" he asks under his breath, but he can see Otoya send him a glare through the mirror.
"He looks like a doll," Nagi says, his head now fully raised from the phone. "Like a creepy one, like one your grandma collects and keeps in the room you use when you sleep over."
"No, dude!" Otoya holds his head in surprise, his face failing to convery such passion. "That's exactly what I wanted to say!"
"Okay, so it's not just me," Shidou grins, "That's the first thing I noticed other than his height."
Otoya puts his hands up in mock offence. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with being a 5'9 snack. In fact, it's actually correct to be under 6ft because that's normal height."
"Okay," Rin rolls his eyes, leaning on the sink with arms crossed. "Sure. Anyway, any other productive thoughts on him?"
Shidou’s shoulders go limp as he grins, looking up at Rin through his eyelashes. "Rinrin,” he coos. “You need to stop worrying so much about bad things happening," Shidou shook his head, "We’re just kidding!"
"For you. I for one, take my job seriously, so answer the question or I'm just going to leave."
"Fine! Fine—" Shidou rolls his eyes with his whole head. "He's fine, we're just poking fun."
Nagi nods. "Yeah, he's really nice."
Everyone's ears perk up. Shidou acts on the curiosity first, "Has our little owlette Nagi Seishiro talked to the newbie of the nest?"
"Stop," Rin closed his eyes, cringing. "How do you even come up with that?"
"Shidou, you're so weird," Nagi pushes off the wall, forcing everyone to remember how he towered over them. "But anyway, I talked to him like, yesterday. He taught me how to make mac n' cheese."
"Dude…" Otoya trails off. It is alarming, considering Nagi was the hardest person to talk to after Rin. You'd have to put subway surfers gameplay next to your face when you conversed with this guy, so considering that ISG was able to teach him something and have him remember it, was promising prospect. "You don't know how to make mac n' cheese?" is Otoya's next question, though, because of course he wouldn’t be concerned with anything else.
"No," Nagi shrugged. “Big deal.”
Rin scoffed. “Talk about baby steps.”
"He just taught you how to boil water, babe," Shidou said with a lopsided smirk, one eyebrow raised. “Water.”
Nagi shrugs again, "He still talked to me. You guys are just jealous."
"Why would we be jealous?" Rin scrunched his nose. "He's just another member of the team. We'll all talk to him eventually."
"Okay, sure, Mr, i need to know what people are doing all the time at every second," Nagi mocked. The others laughed along as well, and Rin couldn't help but not be annoyed at them. "It was creepy though. He needs to invest in brown contacts."
"I know, right!" Shidou exclaimed, clapping his hands together in excitement at something happening in his brain. “The other day I was showing him around the base, and he was looking at me with those orbs it sent shivers down my spine!” Shidou hugs himself to exaggerate his point.
“Yeah, he’s so shiny,” Nagi nodded along as if that statement wasn’t ridiculous.
"Right!” Otoya taps Nagi’s shoulder harshly in his excitement. "I saw him in the showers recently, and he's got like, no cuts, no scars, nothing. He's like a figurine, or like, a drawing or something.
"Why were you watching him shower?" Nagi questions, hands having found themselves back in his pockets.
"Irrelevant!"
Shidou cackles. "God forbid a man appreciate a work of art when he sees one, dude."
"I was asking you guys if he was bothering you, I don't need him telling me that you're bothering him," Rin massages his nose bridge before a headache takes him out before anything in this profession can. Rin seriously wonders where the hell he found these people, and what low he’s reached to actually care about—
"I don't mind."
The quartets heads all snap to behind Shidou. Rin almost laughed, 1, because his mouth was already half open and the air that escaped him in surprise could be registered as a laugh, and 2, he's never heard Shidou squeal in surprise the way he just did.
Spinning around wildly, Shidou is greeted by ISG, staring on with a soft smile, amused by Shidou's antics. "Sorry," he says with a small chuckle. "Didn't mean to scare you."
In the harsh lighting of the bathroom, Rin could admit he does look very shiny. No visible blackheads or a hair out of place—aside from the V shape doohickey springing from the top of his hair. ISG looked between everyone silently, scanning everyone’s expressions like an identification unit. He doesn’t say anything, though, so silence follows him as he walks to the sink.
”Excuse me," he orders Rin aside to reach the soap dispenser. He smells vaguely of mint. Maybe basil. Rin just knows he smells exactly how he looks—a picture perfect advertisement on display.
Otoya is once again the first to speak. "Dude… I think I just pissed myself," he comments, very helpfully.
"Thanks for letting us know," Rin sighs. "Hey," he calls, to ISG, but if the man heard he didn't make it clear. "How long were you in here for?"
"I was waiting for you guys to leave so you wouldn't feel bad about talking about me," ISG says as he flicks his hands into the air. "But I'm really hungry, and I thought it'd be more awkward if you found out I was here via tummy rumble."
At first he smiles at the group, but Rin knows himself and his team well enough that no one is smiling back, which leaves ISG's eyes awkwardly darting between all of them to search for a reaction.
"Okay… well—" He nods to himself. "I'm going to go now…" He mutters with an awkward smile pushing in between Nagi and Otoya without making any more eye contact to leave the bathroom. It doesn’t get lost on Rin how he walks slightly faster when he’s past them, breaking out into a jog once he thinks he’s completely out of sight. A smile threatens to appear on his mug.
Once he is, officially fully gone, the group glance between each other in silence.
"Was that rizz?" Otoya asks. No one dares to answer as Rin's hand connected with the back of Otoya's head.
2- ISG11 is a has a childish grin.
"Excited, Nagi?" Otoya asks as he re-clasped his last bit of leg gear on, jumping up and down to set everything in place.
"Woop," Nagi exclaims lazily with his fist in the air. "Yes sir,” he gives a quick thumbs up before adjusting back into a snipers crouch. One eye closed and the other wide and peering through the scope, Nagi was ready.
It was an exciting day indeed. But the boys definition of excited was… definitely warped.
You see, today was going to be a practice day for Nagi. This usually means that they'll be going on an easy mission that was quickly put together by yours truly (Shidou), to test out Nagi's skills for his end of week eval. Shidou recently started referring to Nagi as a "talented little hatchling," so Rin was sure that the groups excitement also had to do with watching a genius at work.
This time though, their new companion, ISG, would be joining them today.
Rin isn't sure why Ego insisted on this, but boss' orders are boss' orders. So here he is. Rin had to admit he was curious too.
The night starts cold. Very cold, actually. It had Shidou jumping up and down to stay warm, Otoya running in place to outrun the chilly breeze, and Rin tensing up his muscles to keep his uniform collar up to his nose to make sure the offending forces around him wouldn't get to his neck. It didn't help that they were on a tall rooftop, too, so they were directly susceptible to mother natures torture. Rin glances sideways at Shidou, mentally cursing him for this fate.
Then, something wills him to glance to ISG as well. Standing at the edge of the rooftop, ISG stood completely still, unfazed by the climate. Hands in his pockets, his hair (somehow he had his hood off) swayed gently in the wind as he overlooked the cityscape. Calm. Quiet. The qualities of a killer, Rin has learned with his time at the corps, but when attributed to ISG, it couldn’t help but seem much more juvenile.
“Oi,” Rin calls. ISG turns coolly, eyes widened slightly in recognition. “Don’t stand so close to the edge, I won’t be jumping off to save you.”
ISG laughs sheepishly as he turns around to situate himself next to Rin. “Volunteering yourself, Captain?” He says once he’s close enough. His eyes turn out to look as grand as the ocean instead of bleak and robotic like his teammates foretold. “Very virtuous of you.” He continues. Now, at this proximity, ISG’s smirk morphs into a fox’s mischievous grin. The bastard. (No pun intended.)
“Very funny,” Rin rolls his eyes. “Maybe you should have become a comedian rather than an assassin.”
ISG’s eyes soften. “Maybe I would’ve.” He says. Rin doesn’t have the heart to tell him that the right word to use would be “should’ve”. He chalks that up to him growing up in Germany.
A shot rings out suddenly. It’s loud, and it startles everyone and their mother on the rooftop. Nagi fumbles with the sniper, almost dropping it off the side of the building.
“Nagi!” Shidou shouts, over the noise, “Dude, did you forget the silencer again?”
“No, it’s there,” Nagi says as he inspects the muzzle of the gun. “It just… didn’t silence.”
”The target is leaving,” Otoya mentions in passing as he stands still for the first time in the time that they were here. “In a limo is crazy, where’s he going?”
”Probably to his 17th mistress,” Shidou notes playfully, though his real tone fails to convey it.
“The silencer split at the top here,” Shidou observes as Rin gets close to inspect. “So it’s busted. I thought this test sniper wouldn’t be so janky, but apparently we can’t afford good equipment like that.”
”It’s fine,” Rin assures. It’s not, because he can see people below looking up and all around at where the sound came from. “It’s—“
“Snipers are always loud,” Isagi’s voice stops him mid thought. He’s crouched down next to Nagi, reassuring him with a gentle smile. “It just matters how far you are from it,” he says as he takes the sniper from Shidou’s hands and bringing it into his own.
“Here, Nagi,” He says after he’s looked into the scope himself. “You see the target, right? In the limo?”
“Yeah,” Nagi confirms as he braces the gun to his shoulder.
Isagi puts a hand on Nagi’s and laughs, the melody in his voice carried out through the night sky like a lullaby. “Relax your shoulders! You’re not the one getting shot, are you?”
Rin and the others eye each other with a question mark in their eyes.
“Just breathe,” Isagi suggests. “You’ve done this before. He’s even poking his head out to let you go for it.”
Nagi’s shoulders drop as his back heaves with a deep breath. The sniper starts to look like it’s attached to the person rather than the person being attached to it. It’s nose begins to follow the limo like it was glued to it.
”Right, focus,” Isagi mutters, focused too.
Shidou stands up again to wrap an arm around a shivering Otoya. Looking above the shorter head however, he locks eyes with Rin. “Are you seeing this?” Is written in his face, and Rin nods. He is seeing this. He’s taking it in.
“Don’t shoot directly,” Isagi instructs when he notices Nagi’s index clutch the trigger. He brings a deft finger to the muzzle, pushing it slightly beyond where the limo is. “Always aim for the future.”
Nagi nods, and Isagi lets go of the barrel to cover his ears. After a short beat of nothing, another loud shot shrieks through the sky. One second, the man is cheering out his expensive car like he owned the universe, and the next, his galant body hung limp over the side of the vehicles cold metal, dangling off the side as the car drove off past the sea of buildings.
“Woah,” Nagi exhales as he removes the scope from his face, allowing the wind to rejuvenate him once more. “That felt good.”
”That looked good, dude!” Shidou tackles Nagi from behind to ruffle his hair. “A+!“
”That totally played out in slow motion, like a movie,” Otoya observes with his arms still wrapped around himself. “So cool, so cool.”
”Thanks,” Nagi manages to say with bated breath under Shidou’s weight. “Especially you, 11, you’re amazing.”
“Just Isagi is fine,” IS-Isagi rubs the back of his neck shyly. “And I didn’t do anything—it was really just you working out your genius, Nagi! Good work!” He holds a palm out for a high five, and it takes Nagi half a second too long to notice what he was trying to do.
Isagi’s laugh is cut off when Rin pokes his back with a knee. “Quit playing leader,” Rin scolds. “You’re just supposed to be an extra.”
His fox-like grin makes a reappearance, and this time Rin can make out the wrinkles on his face, the gaps in his teeth. It finally feels human when he says, "Then why don't you keep me in check, Captain?"
3. Isagi is... interesting.
Rin volunteered to live with Isagi for the mission, as to not subject his team mates to an unnecessary amount of awkwardness to keep their sanity.
Quickly, he's realized he's accidentally given himself the leg up.
One night, he's subjected himself to coming home late because he thought that doing extra work at night would be a good idea.
Update: It wasn't.
Because now Rin's going to get 6 hours of sleep instead of seven, not even get to shower or go through his whole wind down routine of yoga, a rewatching of an old horror movie with green tea on the side, and on top of all that, figure out what to eat for dinner.
Sniff. Scratch that, he thinks as a nutrient odour wafts to him as he enters the apartment. Peeking his head into the kitchen, he sees Isagi sitting at the counter island on his phone, forking a wad of food into his mouth as he scrolled aimlessly.
Dinner is served, it seemed.
Isagi looks up from his doomscrolling trance. His eyes light up in once they land on, "Rin," he calls, "Welcome back!" He greets. At least somebody had a good day today. Means one of them will actually do the dishes tonight.
He tried not to roll his eyes when he nods before putting his bag on the floor. Straight to the kitchen, he tears open a cabinet as poised as he can to get to the plates.
"Oh, no need," he hears Isagi say behind him, "Your foods right here," He points at the full plate discreetly covered with a sheet of paper towel that sat pretty right next to him.
The Captain stops in his tracks, his arms freezing mid air as they decide if he should pretend he wanted something from the cabinet anyway, or if he should just accept defeat this one time.
He decides the former. Rin wasn't going to embarrass himself in front of his new acquaintance.
Turning around with a glass, Isagi stops him again.
"There's water here, too," he says. Rin wants to rip his hair out.
"...Thanks." Rin says slowly as he put the cup on the counter behind him instead of back in the cabinet. He couldn't turn his back on this apex predator, not now, not ever. A silly concept, but he'd rather be safe than sorry.
"What's the occasion?" Rin asks as he hesitantly rounds the island corner. Why was this newcomer so excited all of a sudden? He was so expressionless a few days ago, until the awkward bathroom thing. Rin wonders in the back of his mind what changed.
Isagi sets down his phone to the side, and turns to face Rin. His posture is casual, back slightly slouched with a hand on his thigh. Like Rin was a friend and they were catching up on old times.
"I just thought you'd be hungry," Isagi says. "Also can't eat all this on my own, so. Dig in."
"I don't need your pleasantries." Rin protests even as he sits down.
"Oh please, just eat up," Isagi rolls his eyes with a laugh.
Rin takes a bite. It's good. The swirl of ingredients brushing his tongue all at once like a harmony. The textures melded all together beautifully too, the landscape that was this dish just too smooth to the taste.
But, "It's lukewarm," A statement that is 100% Rin's fault for coming in so late, but it is voiced nonetheless.
"Can it. Just reheat it, then," Isagi dismisses Rin's nonsense. "Or do you want me to do it, Captain?"
"That's Captain Itoshi to you," he corrects. Isagi only laughs even louder.
They sit like that for a while, Isagi's phantom silence making Rin extra conscious of his chewing noises. He didn't even sound like he was breathing or anything, just existing, with no rhyme or reason. His presence is warm. Almost warm. Like the tease of a sunrise at dawn. But he couldn’t call it lukewarm. Isagi was everything but that. The silence is broken by Rin's own nosiness. "I have a question for you,” he says, muffled, because Rin never learned how to slow down when he ate.
Isagi makes a small "?," motion with his head.
"Why did you agree to help with GHOST?" Rin asks, fork half way to the plate. His stomach is dying for more food, but his brain is clawing for knowledge. Rin picks his poison.
Isagi seems to pause at this. "Why?" He repeats back. The beats of silence consume him. "I was told to. Just another job, for me." He finally says. To Rin, that just seems like the reply he's allowed to give, but he won't press on.
”You get paid a good quarter million each job, you get to take vacation when you want to, and you don’t need to help your boss with paperwork because there’s barely enough people in the corps to make ends meet—so why?”
"Curious."
Ah. There's a real answer. One Rin wants to indulge in. "Curious of what?"
"What Blue Lock was like," Isagi sighs like he’s juggled this thought for a while. "It's different from bm. Like, really different," his eyes widen as to stress his point. "But it's nice. Different in a nice way."
"In what world is an assassin corps described as nice?"
"Mine."
...
"Plus," Isagi saves the silence once more, "I wanted to see you."
This makes Rin pause. “Me?"
"Yep," Isagi smirks, "I heard of a bright newcomer with a knack for strategy and leadership,” he says, unseriously painting a rainbow in the air with both his hands. “I just wanted to see what new things this industry brought to the table. What kind of people they want as the face of it."
Rin nods slowly, then scoffs. "Well, you better have come prepared. I'm no pushover."
Isagi beams. "Oh, I know," he nudges Rin's side, an unfamiliar act of comraderie that Rin has never seen from him before. It was so genuine, so boyish in the way Isagi (sadly) misses when Rin dodges and laughs anyway. It was like all those times in the base, or on the roof, he looked free from any worry.
"I won't need to make up time for getting to know you, Captain!" Isagi beams.
Sure. Rin supposes he could spare a little time to get to know him too.