A/N: I don't own K Project or any of this characters. This was written without any intention of profit, blah, blah etc. etc. you guys get it, right? Alright. Read, review, and chunky stew. :3
Reisi Munakata sprints down the halls of the strangely-abandoned Scepter 4 building. It's not the familiar structure he knows and loves; it's a renovated building, having been reconstructed after Suoh Mikoto went on his pyromaniac rampage. The building plans, which had been sitting in the records room just a floor above the prison cells, were nothing but ash piles. As a result, the Blue King had ordered the records room and the prison cells positioned on opposite sides of his new building.
Unfortunately, making said new building included getting lost within it repeatedly. Which obviously did not help when one was being pursued. Reisi skids around a corner and glances at the reflective walls around him. Why in hell's name did Awashima-san order mirrors as walls?, Reisi thinks before he darts down another side passage. He knows his flight's in vain, though- he can see the reflection of what's behind him all the way down the hall to the next turn.
But there is no turn- Reisi skids into a dead end, his panicked and pale face being reflected again and again from all sides, and he can't bring himself to turn around because right behind him is-
Reisi wakes with a start, a strong plank of wood at his back and his desk, covered with papers as usual, before him. His left hand is clenched in a fist just inches away from the hilt of his saber, through which the comforting Blue Aura always flows. The Blue King keeps his hand away from the blade, though- over-reliance on Aura was a sure-fire way to shorten one's lifespan, and hadn't Mikoto Suoh been quite the example of that?
The door to his office opens, and Seri Awashima comes in with the usual stack of paperwork in her arms. The bland beige folders blend together so well with her hair that Munakata thinks it's a miracle he can see the top of her head at all. But he's not interested in his lieutenant just now- he's glancing at the turquoise-haired man standing outside. The man looks about 19 or 20 years old, and since Reisi hasn't seen him before, he must obviously be a new recruit.
"Awashima-san, who-?" he begins, rising from his desk.
"Three reports from the Gold Clan about suspicious movement from the Greens, a few requests about Strain testing, and an inquiry, marked by a silver post-it-note, from Weissman himself concerning his airship and a certain explosive incident."
"Munakata-sama, the Red King, Mikoto Suoh, is asking for you," says the recruit outside the doors. Reisi inclines his head to the side. "He said he'd be waiting at the bar for you."
"And you got this from... where, exactly?" Reisi asks.
Awashima glances at her King with a raised eyebrow and says something, but her words are drowned out by those of the turquoise-haired man. Reisi wonders how the younger one can be so loud from so far away. "He was next to me on the train today, Munakata-sama."
"I didn't know he took the train," Reisi muses. Awashima starts, and Reisi nods. "I'll attend to it immediately." He motions for his lieutenant to put the files on his desk and walks out the door, past the recruit, and down the south wing towards the parking lot.
"But you forgot the-," Awashima begins lamely, but her King is already moving and far gone. She rolls her eyes in exasperation and sets the lion's share of the files on Munakata's desk before dashing off after him with the silver-marked file in hand.
It's a good thing Awashima is in pursuit. Reisi is descending the second flight of stairs when the wooziness hits him. One second he's on his feet, and the next he finds himself falling down the stairs, and from the top of a new set, no less. He skids down the stone-edged case, his glasses flying off and coming to rest at the bottom not far from his motionless body. There's no blood- Blue Aura sees to that- but the commotion he makes is far from unnoticed.
Awashima arrives just in time to see Munakata pitch forward, eyes closed, over the stairs. She rushes toward him, but her reaching hand misses and she witnesses the entire horrifying tumble: it doesn't take a master of Pythagorean theory to know that the 20x20 dimensions of the staircase make for an extremely damaging fall. She's rushing down the stairs before Munakata's even hit the ground.
"Munakata? Munakata?" Awashima grabs her King and flips him over onto his back. She checks for his pulse, which is thankfully still present. Yes, he's breathing, and just as Awashima is about to go run for help, the Blue King's eyes flicker to life and glimpse her worried face just inches away. "Oh, good. I thought I was going to have to find Fushimi. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Reisi says with a half-hearted smile. His hand goes up to replace his glasses, masking his face while he does so; it's a habit stemming from his constant desire to hide his facial expressions. Fushimi's mentioned this once or twice in passing, and since then Reisi's found himself extremely self-conscious of such actions. Especially since I do it so often when I'm hiding something. Nevertheless, he says, "My Aura's been strained since last week's sortie with HOMRA. I suppose these are just the short-term side effects."
Awashima nods and holds a stack of papers, neatly arranged, to Reisi. "You forgot these when you left the office. What were you thinking?"
"The recruit you brought with you said Mikoto was waiting for me at Kusanagi's bar."
"The recr- Mikoto- Ku- what?" Awashima stammers. She rarely loses her cool composition, so Munakata takes this to mean that something is wrong. "I didn't bring anyone else with me to your office."
"Ah, I see." Reisi adjusts his glasses again and says, "What was I doing, again?"
"You were going to see Weissman about his ship."
"Yes, I- actually, would you mind taking over for a day? There's something I want to attend to." Reisi hands the papers back to his second-in-command and adjusts his glasses once again. "Please inform the others that I'll be taking today off for medical reasons."
"Of course." Seri Awashima nods once and turns away. She and her King each take one step in opposite directions before the blonde moves her head to the side and says, "You know, I think you should've seen a doctor earlier." Munakata raises his hand in a wordless reply and keeps walking down to the parking lot.
Reisi slips into his car and allows his mask to crumple now that he's out of sight of the Scepter 4 camera network. His hand goes to his face and rubs at it, a futile attempt at a reassuring motion. He calls his doctor's office and asks for a walk-in appointment, and as usual, his request is met. Being the Blue King does have its advantages.
Munakata keys the ignition in his car and backs up, careful to avoid looking into any of the rearview mirrors as he does so. As he begins the zigzag out of the Scepter 4 HQ parking lot and out onto the streets, he finds himself musing about his trip to the doctor's.
They told me Blue Aura would cure my physical ailments, he thinks. But they didn't mention anything about this. About why I keep seeing hallucinations.
Why I can't manage to wrap my mind around the fact that Mikoto Suoh is dead, and that I killed him.
And why I can't see myself in a mirror without him looking over my shoulder.
A/N: I wanted to put this at the beginning, but SPOILERS. Anyways, this is an AU where Weissman survived the final confrontation between the four Kings and Munakata is suffering PTSD from killing Mikoto. Yep. I'm a sadist. Have fun~