One moment Akutagawa was behind him, fighting off another ability user while he battles the one on front of him. The next, there was darkness, and cold.
Atsushi opened his eyes to a slightly blurry, dark world. He was shivering and the familiar pit of emptiness in his stomach nagged at him.
He felt... different.
After a few moments of confusion, he took a shivering breath and lifted his hand to inspect himself.
His hand was pale, not bloodied, not in the tiger's paw form. He was wearing tattered clothes that shouldn't be familiar but he felt like he has been wearing it for years.
Has he blacked out during the battle? And where is he?
For one thing someone must have cleaned and changed him, yet he's not in a hospital, or Yosano-sensei's sickbay, or even his own flat.
It doesn't seem to be any containment facility, too. And he wasn't bound, and so many things were off.
It doesn't makes sense.
As he tried to get up— he's suddenly got a feeling that he must do something— a burn ran up his throat and he coughed.
Before it subsided, a black lump moved besides him, and he jumped.
"Onii-chan?" A beautiful girl peered at him worriedly from just beside him, "Are you ok?"
"Onii-chan!?" Atsushi exclaimed, shocked. And was shocked some more at the voice that came out if his throat.
"What's the matter? I'm Gin, your sister, Akutagawa Gin, remember?"
"Akutagawa... Gin... A- Akutagawa!?"
And he had wondered for a moment why his new voice sounded a bit familiar.
Atsushi has got a very, very bad feeling right now.
"Ur... Gin-chan... am I by any chance... Akutagawa Ryuunosuke?"
"Of course, Onii-chan, are you really ok? Did those people hit you in the head too hard yesterday or something?"
"No, no, I'm fine—"
Atsushi was NOT fine. He was in Akutagawa's body! And he has a sister!
H- He was in the Mad-fucking-Dog's body! Of all people! And he don't even know why!
"I'm really fine, don't worry."
"Ok... if you say so."
Gin stopped talking, expectant and still a little suspicious. And Atsushi scrambled up to stand.
He felt weak, and cold, and hungry, and his throat burned with a vengeance.
Is this what Akutagawa went through, before he entered the Port Mafia?
Atsushi was no stranger to hunger and pain, but at least in the orphanage there were clothes, and medicine if need be, and even if it's barely nutritious there is a schedule for meals.
Now, Atsushi was at a loss to what to do.
What would Akutagawa do?
His ideas included robbing and bombing— mafia kind of things. But judging by the circumstances, he haven't got into Port Mafia yet.
Without the protection of the organization, if he committed a serious crime he was sure to bring doom to himself, and his sister.
He looked at Gin, who was bringing out a kind of rag wrapping.
"I kept some of the food you found for me yesterday, Onii-chan, let's have breakfast before you go out again."
With shivering white fingers the girl unwrapped the rags, and in there was a half-eaten, frozen burger and bits and pieces of thrown away food.
Atsushi cringed at the notion, but his hunger prompted him to take half of it anyway.
He almost put the piece in his mouth, before a feeling of wrongness surged inside him.
He stopped, then he halved what was left of his portion and handed it to the girl. "Here, eat that, Gin. You'll have to work today so you mustn't be hungry."
His lips moved of it's own accord. It felt disorienting. Then he realized that the vision— or whatever it is— is re-correcting itself to stay on course.
"But, Onii-chan!"
"It's ok. I'm not that hungry. Sick people are not very hungry."
Every minute Atsushi was surprised at Akutagawa's words spilling through his mouth.
Gin pursed her lips, but the notion of food was too tempting, even such old, stale food. She reached out and took it, and a weird feeling of relief and satisfaction floated up within him.
Atsushi ate the rest of the food— it doesn't taste as bad as it looks, but maybe that was the hunger.
Again, a fire clawed at his throat, and he had to let out a dry, painful cough. Atsushi had never known it felt and tasted this bad, the relentless coughs.
Without a word, Gin proffered him a bottle of relatively clean water. Atsushi was going to gulp it all down to wash away the foul taste in his mouth, but his (or rather Akutagawa's) muscles convulsed, and stopped him.
"Keep that. It's not so easy to find clean water. I'll find more for myself today."
Not wanting to see Akutagawa's sister's reaction, Atsushi turned away, and started to leave. He doesn't know where he is going, but he trust this weird vision to guide him there. So he put his hands in his coat pockets to protect it from the bitter cold, even just a little, and walked aimlessly on.
Questions whirled in his mind. It was winter, but when? How old is Akutagawa now? Is it some kind of ability that brought him here? If so… he has to find a way to get out, quick.
Before he knew it Atsushi took a turn that feels so familiar, and he was not in the slums anymore, but at the edge of a forest. A group of gangster-looking kids were loitering around there, seemingly waiting for him.
Who are they? Atsushi wondered, even as he nodded without a word in lieu of greeting. His comrades? Where are they now? Has they not joined the mafia along with Akutagawa?
But he had not the chance to dwell on the thought because they started moving, Atsushi lingered in the middle of the group, where it felt right.
He was not the leader. He was not a lackey either.
He was the trump card, waiting to be sprung.
Atsushi felt... like he should feel something. All his life he had wanted to belong somewhere, be accepted in a group, be enveloped by it and support by it.
Now, as he walk at the center of a pack of hungry stray dogs, he felt... nothing. Nothing showed on his placid expression. Nothing was felt in the inside.
Atsushi started wondering where they were going, and what they would do. But then something registered in his instinct. In the anxious gait all the others were employing. They were going to do something bad, he suddenly knew.
They were going to commit a crime.
As soon as he realizes it, the pack dissolved. Two boys up in front diverged onto different paths— lookouts, or a division to round the enemy.
When Atsushi turned back, the boys behind him were gone too.
They were more like wolves than dogs, hunting. But who is their prey?
"You ready, Rabid Dog?" A boy lock step with him and whispered. They work so well together, so automatically, yet these people don't know his name, Atsushi thought.
"There's nought I shan't be ready for." And he coughed a few times.
It was not hard to mimic Akutagawa's ancient Japanese speaking habit, as well as his unruffled, over confident attitude.
"As long as you don't screw us all." The boy replied, "remember, they have guns."
Ice fell into Atsushi's stomach. But he nodded with expression like stone. Still no feeling, no emotions.
The boy hastened away, and Atsushi— Akutagawa— ducked under a bush on the roadside. And he waited.
I'm the ambush. Atsushi thought, and felt he should be nervous. But he simply stared down the road the boy had disappeared from, dispassionate as a ceramic doll.
Then there was a commotion, and gunshots. Shouts, screams. The boy who had talked to him run back down the path, followed by gunfire. But the pursuers were cautious. They advanced slowly. Used their superior range to great advantage.
He needed to kill these people, or they're going to kill his friends— his pack.
Atsushi needed to be closer.
He backed away deeper into the foliage, careful not to make noise, and headed in the direction of the gunners. The tiger in his rival's body felt a prick of annoyance that his current body doesn't stop him. He must be doing just the thing Akutagawa would have done. Or, rather, had done.
Twenty feet behind the line of gunners, he took a breath, and erupted from the bush in a fury.
Atsushi felt the weakness in his legs, and remembered that he had not the strength of the tiger, and Akutagawa is such a frail boy. He closed the distance many heartbeats later than he had anticipated.
The gunners heard his approach. Turned around. Aimed.
Then, before triggers could be pulled, Atsushi felt an unusual sense in his body. Suddenly he was aware of his garment, the fine overlap of intricate threads, the ragged edges, the course, worn fabric.
He felt it as if it was his arms and legs. Like a limb he had not known was there his entire life.
And he moved it. Knocked away guns. Stabbed legs and stomachs and hearts. It felt physical, his ability, his Rashoumon. He could feel the warmth of the blood, heavenly warming his new, cold limbs. He could feel the thud of hearts like his hand was on it, right before he stab through and put it to a stop. He felt such an overwhelming flood of sensations that he was going to be sick.
And yet…. inside, Akutagawa felt nothing at all.
Nothing at all.
Atsushi fell into the void inside Akutagawa. Fell and fell and fell with absolutely nothing to hold on to….
And woke as himself.
The emotional void was still fresh in his mind, along with the disgusting sensation Rashoumon had felt. And before he even registered his surroundings, he keeled over, and was sick.
Author's Note:
My first attempt at AkuAtsu fic! Can't resist after chapter 84 in the manga. Please let me know what you think!