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“Woo!” Kuina cheers. “It’s a great thing that we’re finally allowed to eat some real food.”
Opposite her, Chishiya simply slides onto the seat, but Kuina can see the way he’s staring a little too intensely at his chicken drumstick— Chishiya’s been looking forward to this, too.
She opens her box of food, and sighs, contently, at the delicious smell.
But just as she was about to sink her teeth into juicy meat, there was this loud shout.
“Explain yourself, Suguru!”
She freezes. Chishiya freezes as well. They look at each other, before their heads slowly turn towards the source.
It’s really crowded— a normal sight to see during peak lunchtime hours— but it was as though they were dragged by some invisible force to focus their attention on two individuals.
Both of them in dark coloured uniforms, the black hair man in a half bun looking ahead, while a white haired man stood behind him, a distance away.
“Hold on—” Kuina squints out as she looks out at them. Their hair defies gravity, stiff and upright as the trees around them sway to the wind. And the colours— too flat, solid and unnatural. “Do they look a little wonky? Or is it just me?”
She looks around the fast-food restaurant, and it seems as though no one’s noticed the two guys. But for some reason, passers-bys keep walking around that couple, instead of through; not sparing them a single glance.
“The angles are weird.” Chishiya supports her viewpoint, scrutinizing them. “A little too sharp… and boxy.”
“Hm,” Kuina says, “perhaps it’s the window’s reflection.”
Chishiya simply shrugs. “Could be the side-effects of the Borderlands.”
Just then, the black haired male must have said something, from the way his mouth is moving.
Kuina leans closer to the window. She can’t seem to hear them— the volume seemed to have been turned down— but it must be something important, for the white haired man is looking at the other with pure desperation and disbelief.
There’s a quirk on Chishiya’s lips, and realisation dawns on her—
“You can read lips?” she asks, flabbergasted.
“I have many talents, Kuina. You’ve not even scratched the surface.”
“Translation. Please!”
“Only if you give me a french fry.”
Kuina pushes the box to him— uncaring if he was joking. “For this entire session.”
Chishiya smirks— his greed truly knows no bounds.
“You’ve already heard from Shoko, right?” Chishiya says. “That’s all there is to it.”
“Shoko?” Kuina mumbles.
“Possibly a mutual,” Chishiya tells her.
Kuina gasps, her imagination running wild and fast. “A love triangle? The white haired man could be the second lead.”
Chishiya gives her a pointed glance. “You’ve been reading too many romance mangas.”
“Well,” she defends herself, “choices are really limited when you’re bed-bound.”
Then, the two men continued, as if there wasn’t a long pause between them when Kuina and Chishiya communicated.
It’s like the world wants them to see this without any interruptions.
Kuina and Chishiya shoot another curious glance at each other, their thoughts syncing up as the scene continues to unfold.
“So you’re just gonna kill everyone who’s not a sorcerer?”
Huh, Kuina thinks. Sorcerers exist?
“Even your own parents?”
And Kuina’s jaw drops. Chishiya just continues staring, but there’s a faint movement in his facial features— he’s mildly surprised, too.
“I can’t just give my parents the privilege. Besides, my family is not just them, now”
Kuina is so glad that she’s also at the angle where she can’t really make out the black haired man’s face— doesn’t think she wants to— because this situation just escalated off the charts.
“He has daddy and mommy issues?” Kuina whispers.
“It’s pretty common,” Chishiya says, “I mean, look at us.”
Kuina can’t fight that at all.
White haired man’s face scrunches up, pain pooling in those blue eyes.
“That’s not what I’m asking at all. I thought we weren’t allowed to kill when there’s no point in it.”
“Yeah.” Kuina nods. “Tell him, Diva. Pointless killing isn’t good.”
Chishiya takes a bite out of Kuina’s french fry.
Kuina observes as the black haired man takes a deep breath in, and for a moment, his shoulders slump, before the tension comes back.
“I have my reasons, and there is a point. It’s for the greater good.”
Kuina blinks in disbelief. Chishiya leans in a little closer— like they were both some specimen that he was observing.
“No, it’s not. You’re going to kill all non-sorcerers and create a world of only Zutusi sorcerers? You know that’s impossible.”
“Zutusi?” Kuina asks.
Chishiya sighs. “I couldn’t make out what he was saying.”
“Should we… leave?” Kuina asks, because while she doesn’t know what Zutusi is, she knows that they aren’t sorcerers— and if there’s anything she’s learnt from the Borderlands, it was that anything that can happen, will probably happen.
Chishiya shakes his head. “I’ve a feeling that things will get interesting.”
“That’s because you have the survival instinct of nothing,” Kuina informs. Nonetheless, she follows her friend’s course of action after much reluctance.
There’s a pause.
“Damn,” Chishiya says boredly, but Kuina can see it clearly from those eyes— his eyes are zoned in on the scene ahead, hungrily, “not in front of my two-piece crispy fried chicken box.”
“What—! What did he say?” Kuina eagerly asks, hands drumming the table in anticipation.
“You’re really arrogant.”
Kuina gasps once again; louder, this time. And she feels the emotions from the man’s expression— because Kuina isn’t stupid; she understands that those two probably have history… and the man looks shell-shock, mouth opened, as those he wasn’t expecting such words to come out of the other.
“You could do it, couldn’t you, Satoru? Yet you would try to convince someone else that it’s impossible to do something that’s possible to you?”
“Okay…” Kuina drags the syllabus out. “Now I really feel like we’re entering something extremely private.”
“Don’t mind.” Chishiya waves her off. “They chose to make this public by airing out their laundry outside of KFC, of all places. We are just exercising our use of free will.”
The black haired man turns around. Tired lines around his face, as he stares blankly at his companion.
“Are you the strongest because you’re Satoru Gojo, or are you Satoru Gojo because you’re the strongest?”
Kuina stares, baffled as she tries to wrap her head around those string of words. “Where are the cameras? That was deep. Do you think that man is studying philosophy?”
“I think they are just hangry,” Chishiya says instead, with an eyebrow raised judgementally. “Do you think they’ll calm down if you offer them some KFC?”
Kuina gives him a pointed side glance. “Only if you offer yours first.”
In response, Chishiya slowly takes another bite of his chicken.
“If I were able to become you, this foolish ideal would become more grounded and real, don’t you think?”
“This entire interaction sounds like something straight out of a romance drama with a bad ending,” Kuina whines, munching on a french fry. “Like the climax, after all the pining and yearning.”
“Suguru clearly has some issues,” Chishiya analyses. “Perhaps some disagreement in their worldviews.”
“Oh!” Kuina thinks out loud. “And Satoru is trying to reel him back in?”
Chishiya smirks. “He’s clearly failing to.”
Suguru smiles.
“I have decided on my way of life. From now on, I will strive to achieve what I’m capable of.”
It seems like Suguru wanted to end the conversation, because he turned back around.
And Satoru grits his teeth, bringing up both of his hands. They are trembling. She feels her heart clench at the utter agony on white haired man’s face— he looks close to tears.
“If you want to kill me, then kill me. There would be a point in that.”
Kuina frowns. “That’s so sad…”
She turns and gives a flat stare to Chishiya. “How can you keep a straight face and not break character?”
“Another one of my talents,” Chishiya says, before taking a long sip of his drink. “Or would you rather I start sobbing uncontrollably and make everything incomprehensible?”
Kuina ignores him, partly because she can’t imagine Chishiya ever doing that; and partly because she sees Satoru barely keeping it together, his fingers curled up— his eyes speaking of desperation and heartache.
“It’s like watching someone go through a bad breakup with no closure,” Kuina sucks in a breath. “That Shoko person might be the third wheel, actually.”
Kuina copies Satoru’s pose, fingers pointing towards Chishiya.
“Chishiya…” she begins, tone deep and definitely threatening, “if you don’t let me have a taste of those mashed potatoes, I’m gonna smash your head, instead.”
Chishiya rolls his eyes. “We both know that my answer won’t stop you at all.”
Kuija grins, reaching over to take a scoop. When they turned back, the two men disappeared. As usual, the crowd moves— natural, fluid— as though they had never existed.
“That was weird,” Kuina says, tilting her head in confusion. “And here I thought that the Borderlands was crazy enough.”
Chishiya shrugs. “If you ask me, I think their problems would be solved if they shared a Kit-Kat.”
And Kuina laughs at that. The quality of cosplays are getting better and better each day. “Seriously, just wait till the others hear about this!”