Ryuko poises himself on the very edge of the precipice, cutting an elegant silhouette against the oil-paint sky, a streak of rusted pomegranate piercing through the navy. He lines his toes up against cliff, leaning precariously over.
Taunting fate.
Teasing gravity.
He waits for the sound of a body hitting the concrete force of the water with a resounding hit.
The sound of a thunderous slap.
A wound to his flawless mannerisms, to the name he had endowed upon himself.
Bushido.
The teenager stares down into the canyon where he has thrown his victim. He is no adult.
Just a child, a youngun searching for answers fruitlessly, well aware that inevitably, he will go reeling down into a pit of despair.
Flashes roared through his mind, tempest-like as they conflict, clash, and shatter against his skull.
A voice:
"Give me all your money!"
Bushido turns, reflexively towards his antagonist. He draws out a shiruken. He allows himself, somewhere within his composed expression, a small smile.
A throw.
A thud.
A man hitting the wall, clutching at his stomach in horror. Blood welling, dripping from the wound, the faintest glimmer of the weapon protruding from him. He looks up, indescribable pain glancing through his eyes, the fleeting fear of the deer, and a sudden realization.
"Y-you-you you hit me…a hero…killed me."
Shiny red, oozing from the corner of his lip.
A final breath.
Bushido blinks, and, somehow, manages to clean the evidence, scrubbing hard at the ground as if to erase his deed. He wraps up the body, pushes it off the cliff side.
Ryuko wipes away the unexpected wetness on his face, losing his composure, the façade he has worked so hard to maintain, in the blink of an eye. He crouches, sobbing on the ground.
So human.
So mortal, so moral.
And then the call, the blaringly childlike pop melody coming from his communicator.
He opens it, reluctantly due to the fresh tears on his face, and the fact that he looks so…young.
Weak.
Robin's face appears onscreen.
"Bushido, I have an important stakeout planned for tonight. I need you to come and…"
Damn. The boy wonder, ever observant, sees his tears.
"Are you crying?"
The unsure laugh of a distant friend.
"Are-are you really crying? W-what happened?"
Bushido gives Robin the wary look of the cornered dog.
He doesn't want to say, but Robin is Robin. The boss. The leader of this whole operation.
And Ryuko desperately needs to confess.
The story spills out of his mouth like celestial rain, and he averts his eyes.
When he looks back up at the communicator, Robin is giving him a- pitying? no, not sympathetic- a knowledgeable look.
The boy wonder nods his head. He speaks, his voice strangled and hoarse and rough.
"We-we've all done things we regret. Things that haunt us."
A quivering fake-smile.
"Come over and talk with us."
An invitation.
Ryuko blinks in surprise. Robin barely invites Titans East over, much less honorary titans.
Warmth spreads across his chest, a burning sensation that sends his heart pounding wildly and blood rushing to his head.
He stares incredulously.
Beastboy appears in the background. Then Starfire. Then Cyborg. Raven.
An epitome.
The original Titans team, the founding members. They know exactly what he did. They've been listening the entire time.
And, Ryuko finds, he doesn't really mind at all.
Finis