Vol. 5

Ch. 6

Words Have Power and Actions Have Consequences

Kōsuke stared at Shinji with the others. His mouth was open like a fish. The outburst caused one of the men-in-black to pop their bald heads in. "Hey, is everything okay with you kids here?" The agent asked, not unkindly.

Katsumi spoke up, smiling at the agent. "Oh, it's fine! Sorry for the noise!"

The agent glanced to Shinji and Shinji just looked away, timidly, still with his arms wrapped around Sakura. His lower lip trembled, but he said nothing. The agent sighed, and left the room, figuring it was just something between kids.

Kōsuke however found his tongue again. "Hey, what's your problem, Shinji?" He asked, upset. "I just want us to get stronger so we can take on bad guys together! Ya know?!"

"But we don't want that," Katsumi said, cutting in with a grimace.

Kōsuke looked slapped.

This couldn't be right.

They were a family, right?

No, he must be misunderstanding something. Kōsuke smiled, giggling a little and scratching his head. Yeah, he was just misunderstanding something. That's all. "Ah, okay guys, I get it," he said. "I know it was scary but hey, one day when we're all big and strong, that won't matter!"

"Kōsuke," Yū said, softly and timidly. It was clear to the other children that Kōsuke was not understanding what they were trying to tell him at all. He was denying their feelings. Katsumi went over to him first, and held up his hands.

"We don't want to be mafioso anymore," he said, bluntly.

Kōsuke smiled wider. "Well duh! The real deal is being a hero!"

"Kōsuke," Shinji said softly, as Sakura's tears began to soak into his t-shirt against his chest. She uttered a tiny sound of distress and everyone—except Kōsuke— seemed to catch it immediately.

"Don't worry, Sakura!" Kōsuke continued, "I'll make sure that no harm comes to you ever again!"

"Can you really promise that?" Katsumi interjected, frowning with bewilderment at his pumped up—somewhat lost in his own delusions— friend.

"Of course I can!" Kōsuke said, waving a finger as he spoke, "…in movies, stories, and even video games, everyone knows the hero always wins!"

"But this is real life," Katsumi pointed out. "This isn't a game or fiction," he added.

"So?" Kōsuke snorted, rolling his eyes. He put his hands on his hips. "Adventures shouldn't just exist in stories! After all, I read somewhere that heroes aren't born, they're made!"

"Stop," Shinji's quiet plea was barely audible, but while Kōsuke continued to ramble, Sakura's distress was only more apparent.

Kōsuke came over to Sakura and Shinji, squatting on his haunches like a gargoyle. He gave them a thumbs up, smiling with confidence. If they were afraid he'd be brave for them! If they were in danger, he'd protect them! Kōsuke wanted to be someone that his friends could rely on. He wanted to reassure them most of all. "As long as I'm around, no harm will come to ya!"

Shinji grit his teeth. "Kōsuke, I said stop talking!" He loudly burst out, honey-glint eyes filled with tears.

Kōsuke made eye-contact with Shinji to reassure him but suddenly he felt something weird in his mouth. His lips seemed to be pressed together and try as he might, he couldn't open his mouth? "Mmmf?!" He staggered back, eyes wide and sweating. He could still breathe through his nose, but this was definitely alarming.

"Ah! Kōsuke!" Katsumi exclaimed, dashing to his friend's side.

Shinji looked alarmed and merely stood with Sakura. "I'm going to our room," he said, shakily.

The agents came back into the room, as the monotony of having nothing to do was honestly less appealing than a fight breaking out amongst Odasaku's orphans. Shinji was shy, and he merely took Sakura by the hand, wordlessly, and the agents let them pass.

Kōsuke meanwhile struggled to make his lips part again. "Mmfff!" He sweated, waving his arms like a deranged bird.

"What is going on in here?" An agent asked the boys.

"Uh," honestly Katsumi had no good explanation. But they didn't really trust these big suits with their personal problems. "Nothing?" Katsumi said, awkwardly pushing Kōsuke comically towards the couch.

The agents could tell that Kōsuke was acting oddly. "What about you? What are you doing?" An agent asked the literally tight-lipped Kōsuke.

Kōsuke would have loved to respond but he couldn't. "Nn…." He said finally, catching the look Katsumi was giving him. Kōsuke realized that Katsumi was silently telling him not to tell these guys anything that had just happened. sweating, Kōsuke had a realization dawn on him. Had Shinji just…used an ability on him?

Wait, when did Shinji become an ability user in the first place? Kōsuke felt out of some loop and this frustrated him. Still, not wanting to alert these people to what could be perceived as an ability attack, Kōsuke picked up Katsumi's video game, and hid his face behind it pretending to be busy all of a sudden.

The agents sighed and simply left the room again. It wasn't their problem what the kids were fighting about as long as no one was hurt.

After they left the room, Kōsuke just gave Katsumi a look. Katsumi pursed his lips and he finally came over and spoke in a low voice. "You can't tell anyone about this, okay?"

Kōsuke nodded fervently. Of course he wouldn't tell—but wait…would that include…?

Katsumi smiled apologetically. "Yeah…we don't want to tell him before Shinji's ready," he continued, under his breath to Kōsuke. Kōsuke glanced at Yū and felt his heart sink. It felt like these two had already known what Shinji could do… did Sakura know?

Was Kōsuke the only one left out?

Kōsuke felt his lips suddenly free themselves from being stuck together. Breathing hard, he rubbed his mouth, gazing at Katsumi and the buzz-cut boy. "How long?" He asked quietly, curious.

Katsumi sighed. "I don't know…it only happened once before…"

"Eh? Really? When?" Kōsuke frowned, scratching his head. He'd never seen Shinji do anything before.

"I took a cookie and he really wanted it," Katsumi explained. "I told him it was mine, and he just said, 'drop it' and the next thing I knew, the cookie was on the ground gathering germs and stuff."

"Huh…" Kōsuke let this process. So it had only been recently? He prided himself in being sharp so how had he missed this? Still, this was kind of cool. He found himself smiling with excitement at Katsumi and Yū, like the earlier conversation had evaporated from his mind altogether. "Do you guys know what this means?"

Yū and Katsumi remained quiet.

Kōsuke plowed onwards, excitedly, "Maybe it means we'll get abilities! We just need to somehow trigger them!"

"I'm not interested in having an ability," Yū admitted with a grimace. "It'd just make me a bigger target…"

"Yeah, and I wanna play professional baseball when I'm older," Katsumi agreed. "I don't have time for something like an ability. That'll just get in the way of trying to be normal…"

Yū nodded with agreement.

Kōsuke couldn't believe what he was hearing from the other boys. "You guys!" He whined. He was the oldest but he felt like the only one who still cared about actually being cool! "You don't mean that."

"Kōsuke," Katsumi said, serious, gazing at Kōsuke who blinked at him, settling down in mood a bit, "playing mafioso was fun when it was with Odasaku…but that's as far as we follow you."

Kōsuke felt like his world was being ripped out from under him by that statement from Katsumi. Katsumi's own caramel brown eyes were locked with Kōsuke's blue ones. "What…are you saying?" Kōsuke felt like the wind was knocked out of him. He looked over at Yū as though hoping for some desperate confirmation that they were just joking after all and they'd tease him for taking them so seriously. But Yū caught Kōsuke trying to make eye-contact and looked away, averting his own gaze, a bit guiltily.

Kōsuke took a step back.

Then another.

"I think your dream is fine," Katsumi continued, hoping to diffuse the tension. "But you can't expect us to follow you forever…right?"

Kōsuke couldn't speak. His lips were free but they only quivered. Kōsuke had thought that these guys were like his own gang. Gangs were supposed to stick together no matter what, right? So why did he feel like an outcast in his own family? He hadn't even been told that Shinji had an ability! Kōsuke grit his teeth, breathing hard, frustrated tears beginning to burn hotly in his eyes.

He could feel the pressure. It felt like they were just saying…'we're better off without you'….

For the first time since losing his parents two years ago and meeting Odasaku, Kōsuke felt alone.

Kōsuke just turned on his heel, upset, to leave the room. Fine, if that's how they wanted to be…then he didn't need them anyways!

"Kōsuke," Katsumi asked, reaching out to touch his shoulder but Kōsuke slapped away Katsumi's arm.

He glared at Katsumi with angry tears, his eyes looking positively icy. "Don't touch me," he snarled and he left the room, leaving Katsumi standing there, awkwardly stunned.

They heard a door slam—to the bedroom the three boys shared—- and Katsumi just looked at the ground. In the room, hung a forlorn silence.

—-x—-x—-x—-

He was sitting at a cafe, just reading a novel. His eyes were like gunmetal, empty and observant. But within the pages of this book, a little bit of light flickered back into them like a backlit flame.

An older man stopped by, leaning on his cane. "Ah, I see you've picked up my book."

The young man looked up, surprised, from his novel. Was this really the author, themself? He couldn't be sure if they were teasing him or not. His questioning look just pulled out a chuckle from the man with tri-colored hair under his bowler hat. "This is your book?"

"It is, but I see you only picked up the first two volumes…good thing because the third one is my weakest…" the man continued.

The younger man with mahogany hair and steel eyes, just gazed at the pages of the current novel. "I still want to read it…if that's okay," he said quietly. He wanted to make his own judgment on how this series ended. He was still only in the middle after all. He didn't tell this author that he was an assassin. Or that he had gotten these books from a recent heist involving a hit he was assigned. Looking no older than a child of early teenage years himself, it was not a thought that would cross any normal person's mind to begin with.

"How about this…" the man in the bowler hat thoughtfully mused, "Why don't you finish it, then?"

He pulled out the novel from his coat and he placed it on the table.

The young man was puzzled. He picked up the book. Why would the author have him finish a story that was already written? It felt like a riddle. However, his eyes widened as he opened the book's pages. The ending was ripped out.

"Write an ending you think will best fit this story, lad," the man continued.

The young man was confused. "I'm not a writer…" he admitted.

"But you like my stories, don't you?" The older gentleman mused.

"Yes," the younger man couldn't deny that.

"Then become someone who writes about the lives of others," the gentleman continued. "I know that you are someone who is touched by other people's stories…so why not try to write an ending to this one?"

The young man wanted to tell him that someone who takes lives has no right to write about the lives of others. The older gentleman just chuckled. "What's so funny?" The younger man asked, perplexed. Was this old man just teasing him after all?

"Your face says, 'I don't deserve to write about the lives of others,'," the older man admitted, "but if that's the case…then become deserving."

The young man looked at the gentleman, as though he was being seen clearly for the first time. The older man just smiled warmly past his tri-colored mustache. "Can someone like me…become deserving?" He asked, softly.

The gentleman smiled at him, a twinkle in his eye. "I think anyone can become whatever they want to be…if their resolve is absolute."

The words echoed faintly, as his eyes slowly opened. Odasaku blinked a few times. Huh… where was he? The ceiling had a lamp hanging down from it. The sound of a clock ticking on a wall, made him realize he was in a hotel room?

His eyes wandered to a mop of messy brown hair near his arm, and he realized that Dazai had fallen asleep, head in his own arms, next to Odsaku's side. Odasaku made a small noise of surprise but then smiled. When Dazai was like this, it was kind of like he was a puppy, just constantly sticking like glue to Odasaku. It was oddly endearing.

Odasaku's memory came back a moment later and he remembered the attack from earlier. Looking at himself quickly, he was surprised to see that his shirt had been changed. Now he wore a red shirt, and no coat. But he was unscathed otherwise.

Butterflies…

All he could remember were the faint glow of butterfly wings… it must have been that woman. Odasaku made a mental note to thank Yosano sincerely for saving his bacon. He wondered what had happened since he'd gone lights out. It looked like he and Dazai were alone here.

Had Yosano gone back to the ADA? What about the girl…? Dazai was asleep and while Odasaku wanted to ask his friend all these questions that swirled in his mind, he looked at the clock to see it was 4:00 a.m. which meant …it was definitely not the time.

Odasaku gingerly moved off the bed, and Dazai made a noise of disapproval, still sleeping. Odasaku chuckled softly to himself. Dazai could really be a brat sometimes but honestly Odasaku wanted Dazai to be more like—well— a proper kid. Dazai had moments like this where even he was a deep sleeper. Odasaku gingerly helped his friend into the bed he'd been in and tucked Dazai in almost dotingly.

Odasaku wanted Dazai to find some comfort in this world even if it was in small minute ways like this one. Odasaku weirdly wasn't tired. He felt completely recharged actually. Odasaku just sat in one of the hotel room chairs, letting Dazai hog the single king-sized bed. Odasaku had a lot to think about.

—x—x—x—-

"Ugh," the boy, Ryou groaned, furrowing his eyebrows. His eyes slowly opened and he gasped, startled, his memory coming back to him. That's right! He'd lost…Yari and Charley had managed to escape at least, and Ryou forced himself to calm down.

He assessed his surroundings. He was in what appeared to be a simple room…no window, just cement walls,a simple bed, and a side bathroom with a washing sink? Huh…was this a cell? Ryou let his eyes wander.

The door was steel and it was shut tight.

Ah.

He was in some sort of facility. He tried to summon his swords for self defense but suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous. He stopped, putting a hand over his mouth. A drug? What sort of place was this that had him drugged if he tried to use his ability? He'd been studying the ADA and this just didn't fit their profile.

Not to mention, he didn't think it was the Port Mafia either, weirdly enough. So who? Was it the Division for Unusual Powers? How long had he been asleep? There was no distinct way of telling. His stomach growled.

Judging by that alone, some time had indeed passed.

He tensed, as the door opened. His eyes widened. A man with silver hair, wearing a kimono, and carrying a sword—talk about outdated— entered the room. Ryou recognized him immediately. "You're…"