Nectar of Insanity
Tissue Paper Flowers
Disclaimer: I don't own Paranoia Agent. If I did, there would have been better characters for a yaoi pairing.
Pairing: Human!Slugger x Maniwa (You'll see)
Rating: T for now. Will go up to M if I decide to throw in a lemon.
Summary: Tokyo, two years after 'the incident'. People have forgotten, moved on. Radar Man has faded into the past, and Mitsuhiro Maniwa has taken back what was his-a normal life. But as long as there is fear, there will be a shounen bat. But shounen bat is not what he used to be. No, he is changed. Nothing more than an empty man, robbed of any memories. All he knows is that he is cold, wet, and wearing rollerblades.
Prologue
Tokyo had been rebuilt, recovered. Whatever you wanted to call it, the bustling city was now as normal as it had ever been. Save for the fact that the popularity of dogs, cartoons, and baseball had seen a somewhat jarring decline. But aside from this, people went about their normal every day lives. Exactly the same as they had always been, long long before the Shounen Bat terrorized their city streets.
And this is where their fault is found. In similarity.
There was no transition from wrong to right. There were no lessons learned. Lies still brewed in the thick august air, false promises and affairs were more abundant than biycles on the street. Laughter was enough to mask the pain that still welled within human hearts. The pain of betrayal, of tortured hearts and minds. Loving those they can not have, losing things that were once so dear to them. And on the outside…they are still all smiles.
Which make it worse.
Because as long as there is this pain, this malice, this fear that dwells deep in their hearts, Shounen Bat will never be quite gone. Perhaps he is nothing more than the shadow that grows from a woman who is cheating with her husband—on other women. Or maybe, he instead flits around the jealous teenage boy, who is willing to do anything to get into Tokyo U. Even murder? Perhaps, perhaps.
But for now, the people live in the same state of ignorance that they have always lived in. Like a shining red apple, that is rotted to the core. Hellos, Goodbyes, and polite bows are exchanged, smiles and bright eyes adorn every face. How sad, that it all had to be fake. It painted such a lovely picture, seeing people being able to return to their lives after such a tragedy. Such a horrible tragedy. Deaths, an overwhelming darkness…
Had they learned nothing? So it seemed.
Everyone had gotten a full grasp back on their 'normal' lives, their 'normal' state of mind. It all clicked perfectly into place, a strangely deformed puzzle. They all accepted life for exactly what it was. The lie that lack of Shounen Bat had allowed their minds to create once more. And among them? Mitsuhiro Maniwa. Who he had once been had lost resolve with the passing of Bat, and he was his 'normal' self again.
But how long could this ignorance last?
With a clap of thunder, it all began again.
