Jokes, Whims, & Coincidences
By: Aviantei
Chapter Twenty, Adjusting
Susanuma Aiako: New Player
My name is Susanuma Aiako. The kanji for my family name are the characters for consult, the second character from colonel, and swamp. My given name uses the characters for love, the "a" character from zinc, and child. Aside from a couple of nitpicky phonetic kanji, I'd say it's a pretty normal name.
I could spend time telling you about who I am and where I came from—but Sosa-san's already covered most of that, I'm sure. Down to the very last detail, omitting nothing on the premise that it's too sensitive or private. That's absolutely the type of person that Sosa-san is, so I don't have any doubt. So I won't waste my time repeating what you already know.
Instead, what I will tell you is that I was beyond confused. Or maybe frazzled was the better word?
Only a few outings with Sosa-san had already let me know she didn't care about my schedule. Sure, she'd respect that I had to go to school—probably because I'd told her I wanted to go, and she actually cared about that rather than the societal expectation of it all—but other than that? If I was free, that meant I could get pulled into part-time work for easily the most terrifying person I'd met in the whole of Tokyo. So I'd been dragged into tea with an underground doctor, helped with some minor work, and went out for sushi—and then promptly dragged into a man hunt connected to a kidnapping case.
If nothing else, Karisawa-san and the others, colloquially known as the Van Gang, weren't bad. Karisawa-san was a bit huggy, but not that big of a danger if I ignored the fact that she and Yumasaki-san were in the middle of threatening the two human traffickers we'd cornered with…a stack of light novels and manga? Once I'd heard the word torture, I'd dipped right on out of there, and that was before Togusa-san had mentioned the gasoline. Sosa had hung around, though, and she was distinctly laughing inside the van as Karisawa-san and Yumasaki-san did something with lighters and nope, I absolutely didn't see anything, I don't know what you're talking about.
I literally just transferred into a new middle school not even a few weeks ago. How is this my life already?
"You doing okay?"
The deep voice of Kadota-san—it didn't matter how much Sosa-san insisted I also use Dotachin, I wasn't about to be so disrespectful to someone I'd also heard had a high position in the Dollars—was recognizable. Kazutano-san was with him, and they seemed to be carrying a couple of convenience store bags. "Saburo, time for morning ritual!"
I pulled myself away from the strange fascination watching Kazutano-san and Togusa-san alike both gear up to chug a carton of milk while facing the sunrise as best they could to look at Kadota-san. While he'd looked plenty serious while chasing after the human traffickers, his current smile was reassuring with just a little bit of concern mixed in. Yumasaki-san had compared me to a "little sister" character before, but Kadota-san fit the role of "concerned and sometimes exasperated big brother" to a T.
"I'm okay, thanks. Just a little tired." I was all too aware that I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before and that school started in a few hours. Kadota-san didn't look completely convinced, so I gave him a smile. "I'm going to be Sosa-san's protégé, after all. I gotta be able to handle this much."
Kadota-san grimaced, and it occurred to me just a bit too late that I should have picked out a different response. I'd have to keep watching Sosa-san and Orihara-san to see how they managed to navigate conversations so easily. "About that," Kadota-san said, glancing to the van where Sosa was presumably still enjoying whatever it was the otaku duo was getting up to. "Maybe I'm overstepping, but you do know that woman's trouble, right?"
"Yes, I know." My quick response shocked Kadota-san enough that his eyes went wide—but was it really that surprising? Sosa-san had spared me no detail about the kind of work we'd be doing; dealing with yakuza wasn't something any decent person did. Not to mention I could see it whenever she and Orihara-san were discussing plans: As far as the two of them were concerned, the concept of human decency didn't even exist. I clasped my hands together to ground myself. "I know I'm naïve in a lot of ways, Kadota-san. But even I can tell that much."
"Ah, I didn't mean—"
"I know," I said again, flashing a smile. That time, Kadota-san relaxed right away. Good, that had been the reaction I was going for. "I don't know if I want to do things the way Sosa-san does. But I do know that I don't want to feel powerless anymore. I'm shy and I keep to myself too much. And while there's nothing wrong with that, that's not the person I want to be for the rest of my life." I widened my smile and beamed up at him, and the emotion behind it was sincere. "If I shoot to be someone as extreme as Sosa-san, I'm sure I'll end up somewhere in the middle and turn out okay, right?"
Kadota-san scratched the back of his head, clearly not knowing how to react to that. "I mean, I guess…" he said, not sounding convinced. Of course, he didn't sound opposed, either, and that was good enough. Eventually, he sighed. "Well, if you ever need help, you can contact any of us, okay? We'll look out for you, Susanuma."
"The rumors were right. You really are like a leader figure in the Dollars, aren't you?"
He shook his head fast enough that I was impressed his beanie didn't slip out of place. "Come on, you should know there's no such thing as a leader of the Dollars. I—well, all of us actually—we just behave the way we want to see out of others, you know?" I shrugged. There was no point in arguing it, even if I thought Kadota-san would be a good leader. But part of the appeal of the Dollars was that there was no leader, so maybe it was a moot point. Kadota-san reached out to pat me on the head. "Do you need to stop by home? I'm sure Saburo will be okay with dropping you off at school if you need it. And the least Sosa can do is buy you some breakfast."
The imagery of Togusa-san sending me off like a parent dropping his kid off at school pulled a giggle out of me. "I'd really appreciate it, Kadota-san."
"Yeah, no problem, kid." And then, as if to signal the end of the conversation, Kadota dug into the convenience store bag he'd been carrying. There was an identical milk carton to the ones the others had had for him, and then Kadota-san surprised me by pulling out a smaller carton of strawberry milk for me. With another thanks, I took it, and then, hands on our hips and our heads tilted towards the sky, Kadota-san and I chugged down our milk as a signal of the new day upon us.
Eventually, the human trafficker duo freaked out enough to spill everything they knew without any damage done—Sosa-san praised Yumasaki-san and Karisawa-san for their psychological warfare and I decided to conveniently tune out the details in favor of trying to plan how I was going to finish up the homework I couldn't touch before the class periods where the assignments were due without taking a nap in the process. Thankfully, I still had enough adrenaline running through me from the, well, everything of the night before, that would help at least the second point.
It probably wasn't the best practice for a part-time info broker to intentionally avoid hearing about something, but it also wasn't normal for middle school kids to hear about how to shake down scumbags like human trackers to spill all their dirty secrets, so that probably balanced out on the scales somehow maybe?
This is one-hundred percent my life right now.
The van crew had already dumped off the traffickers somewhere—"It's really best if you don't worry about it, Aiako-chan," Karisawa-san had said, and I gladly took the opportunity to stay ignorant, no complaints from me, ma'am—and now we were en route to my apartment so I could at least pick up my bag and change back into my uniform. Sosa-san had bought me breakfast in the form of stuffing a strawberry banana crepe into my hands plus some bills to presumably pick up lunch later, so I wasn't about to complain.
"You really think that Yagiri Pharma's experimenting on humans, though?" Saburo asked, checking oncoming traffic before making a turn at a stop sign.
"Come on, man," Kadota-san said. "We don't need to talk about that in front of Susanuma."
Sosa, arms folded behind her head and leaning back in her seat, chimed in with, "There's no point in being all secretive about it, you know. Anything you say about this I'm just gonna tell Aiako-chan later, you know."
Kadota-san looked back to give Sosa a Stern Frown of Fatherly Disapproval (maybe he was more of the team dad than the big brother, I considered), but she didn't budge. I only shrugged and gave him a smile, and he sighed, muttering something that I thought sounded like, "Like we needed another Izaya in this city…"
"It scary!" Kazutano-san said, his accented Japanese not too difficult to understand once you got used to it. "Why would you a wanna experiment on humans?"
"That's because they're trying to overcome the law of equivalent exchange by using human souls to create a Philosopher's Stone!" Yumasaki-san said with a tone that made it clear that he was perfectly serious.
Karisawa-san shook her head, but the words out of her mouth weren't a refutation—or, at least they weren't a normal person's refutation. "No, no, no, Yumacchi. Obviously Yagiri Pharma is just a cover for the new Social Welfare Agency that's going to reveal the third generation of cyborgs thought to be discontinued. Ah, be careful, Aiako-chan! Cute girls like you are perfect fits for becoming undercover assassins!" Karisawa-san pounced on me in what I thought was meant to be a protective hug.
"Oh, do you think Aiako-chan is more suited to cosplay Angela-chan or Claes-chan?"
"Hmm, that's tough. Aiako-chan, are you the type that prefers to cosplay characters like you or ones that are super-duper different?"
"Huh? I mean, I… I like ones with cute costumes the best, so…" For me, most of the fun was in the process of getting to make the clothes than actually wearing them, so I guess it didn't matter. Karisawa-san and Yumasaki-san continued to bombard me with questions, tossing in references to some series I was pretty sure were older than I was, and I did my best to answer. I tried to catch Sosa-san's eye for help to escape, but she had a smug looking smile plastered over her face.
Kadota-san seemed to notice it, too, because he asked, "You wouldn't happen to know something would you, Sosa?"
That was enough to call off the otaku interrogation I'd been subjected to, and a silence fell over the van as all eyes (save Saburo's, who was being a responsible driver) looked to Sosa. She didn't crumple the slightest bit at the attention, still appearing like a far too satisfied ruler on her throne. "I know that Yagiri Pharmaceuticals actually is conducting human experiments, if that's what you're asking."
She said it casually, but that delivery alone was enough to make everyone more tense than they were already. The silence stretched out, unfittingly backgrounded by the quiet sound of a Hijiribe Ruri track playing on the radio. Maybe everyone was hoping that she'd follow it up with a "Just kidding!" but Sosa-san did no such thing.
"That's fucked up," Togusa-san after a few moments.
Yumasaki-san leaned forward in his seat. "Sosa-san, you've got the casual villain talk down. Is this the part where you drop a line like 'And since I gave you that information, it's time you pay my fee?'"
That statement brought a completely different tenseness to the van. Maybe Orihara-san pulled something like that before? I thought, but Sosa-san only shrugged. "Nah, there's no point. You guys found that info on your own. I just confirmed its validity. Now, if you wanna know about what kind of experiments they're doing, that I can charge you for…"
Kadota-san grimaced, and even Karisawa-san and Yumasaki-san had similar expressions. Admittedly, all my "work" with Sosa-san had been minimal so far, so I'd never actually seen the bill for getting information off of Orihara-san, but I could easily bet it wasn't cheap—especially if you started factoring in people paying an extra fee to keep their intel under wraps.
"Yeah, I think we'll pass on that," Kadota-san said, but he turned to face forward before I could make out if his expression was queasy or not. The van started to slow, and I recognized the neighborhood—including the cruddy apartment I lived in. "Erika, let the kid free so she can go change for school."
Karisawa let out a disappointed sounding sigh, but she did as requested anyways. Kazutano-san opened the door for me, and I hopped down to the pavement, grateful that I hadn't lost my key in the wildness of the night before. "Thanks again for the ride, Togusa-san. I'll be back in a minute."
I may or may not have sprinted away from the van and up the stairs, more than happy to give myself a little breathing room after everything we'd gone through.
School may have been utterly dull in comparison to the adventure I'd had the night before, but I settled into it like relaxing into a comfortable blanket after a long day. School was boring, school was predictable, and—because of that—it felt beyond safe. This was what transferring to a new middle school in a new city should feel like; this was normalcy.
Too bad, I would later recognize, that no one who lives and breathes in Ikebukuro is even remotely normal.
"Congrats on the half day!" Sosa-san said as a form of greeting. As if her mere presence as an older woman hanging around a middle school wasn't enough to attract attention, her wardrobe choices and the fact that she had started waving both arms upon spotting me were more than enough that every student exiting Raira Middle's school gate noticed her. Some people outright stared, others caught a glimpse and then tried to pretend that they'd never noticed, and plenty others seemed concerned and started walking faster before they could get caught up in whatever that was. Sosa-san let all their gazes slip right off her, as if they didn't even remotely matter in her world. I was more than a little bit jealous. "You ready to go on another adventure, Aiako-chan?"
A handful of those gazes turned me into their target, and I couldn't handle them anywhere near as well as Sosa-san could. I half-considered using her as a shield, but that probably would have attracted way more attention, so I just accepted my fate of being bombarded with questions come Monday with the fragile hope that maybe the time off in between would make the occurrence disappear out of the student body's collective memory.
I didn't have that much hope in the possibility. Our middle school had a surprisingly robust rumor mill.
"Is this adventure going to be as, uh…" How are you even supposed to describe trying to find a kidnapping victim without it being obvious that something shady is going on? "…wild as yesterday?"
Sosa-san only laughed, not caring in the least for my turmoil. Since she didn't care in the least for anyone's turmoil, I didn't take any offense. "I sure hope so! Last night was awesome!"
With a little start, I realized that part of me agreed with her.
"But if something like that happens, it's going to be out of luck," Sosa-san continued while I was trying not to make it obvious that I was questioning my sanity while she did so. "We were lucky to get caught up in a super cool coincidence, you know? But even if we don't have that much of an adventure, never fear, Aiako-chan, you absolutely won't be bored. That's the Tekichu Sosa guarantee. Because I managed to wrap up my work early, so Izaya-kun said I could free intel gather. Which means we can go ahead and chat with Shinra-kun again!"
At the news that Orihara-san likely wouldn't be with us, I let out a relieved sigh. Kishitani-sensei had been strange, but not necessarily terrifying. If we were going to chat with him, I could handle that much—though I'd need to figure out a way to go home at some point and get some proper sleep, check up on the chatroom and the Dollars forum…
"What are we going to see Kishitani-sensei for?" I asked.
Sosa beamed at my proactiveness, mussing up my hair in approval. It had kind of already been a mess, so it wasn't like she'd done too much damage. "That's an easy one, Aiako-chan. I could tell—yesterday, we only heard a fraction of Shinra-chan's embarrassing stories about Izaya-kun! If we go without him, we'll be able to get all the details without any worry of him stopping it. Plus you said it last night, you know; there's something else we need to check on."
Sosa-san had pointed her index finger at me, waiting with an expectant smile. If it weren't for the tiniest traces of bags under her eyes, I wouldn't have suspected that she'd also pulled the same all-nighter I had with how chipper she was being. I tried to recall just when I'd said something worthwhile in the process, and it dawned on me a few seconds later. "You mean the reason why Orihara-san and Shizu-chan-san get into fights all the time?" With only the man's nickname to work with, I had to compromise.
"Pin-pon-ding-dong! That's exactly it. Shinra-chan said he's been friends with Izaya-kun since middle school, so I'm willing to bet that he knows the deal, too." Sosa snatched my arm, getting ready to pull me down the sidewalk. "So let's go forth and collect all the information on Izaya-kun that we can—"
"And just what do you plan to do with intel on Iza-nii like that, huh?"
[Author's Notes]
Happy holidays/end of the year/my fanfic anniversary everyone! Plus it's the twentieth chapter of this fic, goodness gracious. Plenty to celebrate, especially as I'd say this update is a bit long overdue...
Extensive thanks go out to bloodyhell99, PaperWorld, NerdyPengy, Synchronicity911, yukihatake0, FANGIRLWHODIES, and Of-Constellations-and-Coffee for the favorites and follows! Much apologies for the wait, but I think we can all agree that this has been a wild year, yeah?
That said, I wanted to do something special for chapter 20, so here it is: Aiako POV! I do have plans to regularly include slips into some other relevant POVs over the course of the fic, tho the core focus will remain on Sosa and Izaya. Sometimes we just need to slip out of the mold, though, like this update here... Not much for Izaya to do while all the fun's over here (though that won't last for long, either, haha). But, yeah, who's POV would you like to see most in a future chapter? Drop me a review and let me know; I'm curious.
Next time (whenever the hell that happens to be): twins. Please look forward to it!
-Avi
[12.27.2020]
