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Yuki’s eyes fluttered open as she slowly woke up, her mind still clouded with sleep. In spite of her groggy state, she could clearly see that the room she was in was definitely not hers. Rather, this foreboding-looking bedroom – if one can call it as such – most certainly belonged to someone else.
She did not feel welcome here.
Yuki was quick to notice that the bedroom had a faint scent of cigarette smoke, a smell that she found to be repulsive. Moreover, the bed she was laying on was fairly hard, and it only had a pillow and a thin sheet. As soon as Yuki was able to get a good stretch to fully wake up, she slowly removed herself from the stiff bed and started to get her bearings in this unfamiliar room. Aside from the scent, she noticed that the walls were bare and concrete, bereft of any decoration save for a brightly-colored poster of Jimi Hendrix. A window showed that it was clearly sunset, which made Yuki figure that she must’ve been out for a long time. In one of the corners of the room sat a red-and-white bass guitar, which was propped against its amp. The headstock on the bass read “Fender”.
Yuki then proceeded to exit the room, and was struck by a much stronger hint of that pungent scent. When she finally got to what seemed to be the living room, she gasped and was taken aback by what she saw. Sitting on the couch was none other than Iori Yagami, who was now smoking a cigarette. He is currently wearing a black tank top and dark grey sweatpants. The shirt was able to show off his powerful build, and part of her admitted that he was rather easy on the eyes. But even that wasn’t enough to stop her from recoiling in shock.
“What – “ Yuki started, the fearful tone in her voice enough to catch Iori’s attention.
“You’re awake?” he asked, not long before taking another drag of his cigarette.
“O-of course I’m awake!” Yuki spluttered as she felt a sense of dread overtaking her. Somehow, she wound up in the residence of the man who was constantly trying to kill her boyfriend. Her mind was alight with confusion and panic, but she tried to keep her composure as much as humanly possible, given who she was interacting with.
“Wait…is this place…yours?”
That only got a nod from Iori, who took yet another drag of his cigarette and stared at the ceiling.
“How could you live in someplace so…grim?”
“It’s fine.” Iori curtly replied.
Yuki sighed at Iori’s apathetic response.
“Well, it certainly isn’t very accommodating.” She replied wistfully as she saw him sink into the couch.
Having a simple conversation with the redhead seemed like a tiring exercise in itself, so Yuki decided to give it a rest for a while and walk around the area – while avoiding Iori as much as possible, that is.
The living room had the aforementioned couch and a television set, alongside a small coffee table. Like with his bedroom, it was rather sparse, save for a small collection of CDs, vinyl records, and a record player.
Yuki felt even less welcome here, and this place was rather reflective of the personality of its surly tenant. It seems that comfort is a foreign concept to Iori, which didn’t surprise Yuki in the slightest. From the few interactions she had with him in the past (some of which were life-threatening), and from what Kyo told her about him, Yuki would try to be as wary of the redhead as much as humanly possible.
Given Iori’s incredibly volatile temperament, his single-minded obsession with killing Kyo and his vicious brutality in the ring, Yuki could only anticipate the worst from him.
But, she needed to have answers, and soon. She felt a wave of anxiety wash over her – where was Kyo? Will she ever see him again?
No, she cannot let this go unanswered.
“Yagami…” she started, still thinking of what she truly wanted to say.
Iori hummed as Yuki had his attention.
“How did I…end up here?”
But Iori said nothing as he continued to look away from her, while putting out the cigarette in the ashtray on the coffee table.
“Why can’t you just give me a straight answer?!” she suddenly shouted as the panicked thoughts entered her brain.
“I just wanted to know how I got here!”
Iori furrowed his brow in annoyance at Yuki’s sudden demand.
“Stop being so damned noisy,” he spat. “It’s annoying.”
Yuki was not having it. She wasn’t going to let this guy get the better of her, even though she is well aware of what he is capable of.
“Noisy?! All I wanted to know what happened!”
“Shut it!”
“Why is it so damned hard to get a straight answer from you?!”
This was enough to get Iori off the couch and make a beeline towards Yuki. As he was much taller than her, he loomed over Yuki with an intimidating glare.
“What do you want from me?!” he spat as he leaned his face into Yuki’s, making it all the more uncomfortable for her.
However, Yuki was not going to let Iori get the better of her.
“I just want an answer!” she yelled.
But…that made Yuki remember something. It was starting to come back to her in vague pieces.
“Wait a minute…” she murmured as she tried to calm herself down. “I remember now – some strange men were after me. They mentioned something about Kyo…I don’t know where he is now, but they wanted me…”
And then it hit her.
“Did you…save me?”
That was enough to make Iori move away from her and pace back and forth in the living room, clearly frustrated and at war with himself. That was also when it hit Yuki – was Iori truly as bad as people made him out to be? The fact that he didn’t outright kill Kyo was enough to tell the story, alongside the visible anger at himself.
Yuki steeled herself – she knew that this will be a risky move, but she would have to say what was really going on in her mind. She walked towards Iori and gently tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, but not without any trepidation.
He quickly spun around and glared at her once more.
“What?!” he barked as Yuki tried to stand her ground.
“I…I just wanted to thank you for saving me.”
That was enough to make Iori pause, and seemingly reflect on this for a moment. Her gratitude seemed to stir something in him, but it wasn’t just frustration and anger this time. It was mix of shock, confusion, and disgust with himself. At this rate, Yuki was unsure what to make of this, and she didn’t know exactly what was going through Iori’s head – he truly was an unpredictable man.
Maybe, just maybe, he had more layers to him than she initially thought.