Panic swells in his chest like a tight knot whenever the breath of the person tickles the back of his ear, as he leaps away from them by instinct. Looking back he's expecting to see someone but to his surprise,...there is no one there. He's frantic to look around for any intruder, as he transform his arms into those of a white with black striped tiger pattern, the thick muscles of tiger form arm tightening the more he clenches his fist.
'Who was that?! Where did they go?' He thinks in a hurried mess as he continues to be on the defense. `I'm all alone out here, so if it's an ability user, I won't be able to call for help. Having Dazai around would be really amazing right now, since I don't know what I'm up against or how many.' His wide eyes keep searching for anything that might look out of place, but he finds nothing. His nerves frayed and near singed at the spook he had just experienced. A small trickle of sweat runs down his face as he nervously tries to loosen up, but not quite putting down his defenses yet. He doesn't know if that just now was a figment of his imagination or if it was real.
He waits around for a few more minutes before he decides to just straight up bolt to his apartment where he can see the light on for the siblings a couple doors down from his own, if they were still awake surely he could go to them for help. In a blur that he hardly remembers he's in his cozy little apartment with the door locked behind him, breath heaving from his chest. With the lights on and the door locked he felt a little bit better to be in a familiar setting instead of on the streets where he had any opportunity to get jumped. He slides down the door, lightly hitting the flooring with a thump.
His legs almost feel like jelly with how fast he ran to get to his apartment, he hardly even remembers running up the stairs in such a rush to get away from that voice. Pulling in a shuddering breath he thinks 'That voice it felt so real. I could swear that I could even feel there breath tickling the hair on the back of my ear. I could feel their presence behind me like they were just standing there.' He hugs his knees to his chest as he just stares out into his living area that connects to the very small kitchen he owned. It's then that something clicked 'That was a woman's voice.' Yeah now that his mind went back to that moment, he could clearly hear a young woman's voice coming through the static that previously was blocking his senses.
'How did she know my name though?' He thinks once again, as he gets up shakily, only to plop down on his unfolded futon not very far from the door. 'No ordinary person would sneak up behind someone like that and whisper that kind of question into their ear.' His eyes go wide a bit further as another thought comes to him. 'Wait! Could it be that person that I saw outside the agency earlier? Did they follow me the whole time?' His thoughts were running a thousand miles a minute with all kinds of questions and speculations.
Shakily after about 10 minutes of just sitting on the floor, collecting his thoughts, he gets up to go into the kitchen. He takes out his old flip phone to see if he had any messages from anyone, while he grabs his rice cooker from the side of the cabinets, and proceeds to get out a bag of rice he purchased cheaply just a few days prior. It doesn't even take him five minutes to get some of the rice cooking in the cooker, as he turns back to his phone. He has a few from Dazai, that as usual is complaining about having to stay after hours to finish up paperwork.
[Dazai:Can you believe that Kunikida is forcing me to work like this. :(]
[Dazai:I just ordered a new suicide book a few days ago, and I was so eager to check it out!]
[Dazai:Atsushi come save me!]
[Dazai:God Kuni is such a na...]
The last message was cut short when it was sent, all Atsushi can guess is that Kunikida caught him in the act of slacking off on his phone yet again, and had snatched the device from the bandaged mans hands, or started chewing the other out. It brings a tiny smile to his face, as he feels a bit safer inside his own apartment with all the windows and doors locked. He proceeds to check on his other messages, seeing one from Aku.
[Rashoumon:Sorry about tonight. I couldn't avoid having a last minute mission. I'll try to make it up to you sometime tomorrow or another day whenever I'm free enough from work.]
Atsushi clicks the reply option under the message.
[Jinko:It's ok. I just got home, and I'm making chazuke at the moment for dinner. I'm kind of late coming home to, had some backed up paperwork to finish up.]
He sends the message, putting down his phone on the counter to check on the rice in the cooker. Nodding his head more to himself as a check of making sure everything was going smoothly, he goes towards the upper cabinets to get out a canister of green tea he always had on stock in his kitchen, for that was his favorite tea. Getting out a tea kettle he busies himself measuring out the tea, and water he needed, always being sure to measure a little extra so he could drink some solely from a cup while he ate his food.
With that out of the way in a matter of minutes, he fires the pilot light underneath the kettle to boil. He turns back to his phone to see a message from Aku.
[Rashoumon:That's good. So am I the only one getting messages from Dazai-san about him complaining about having to stay after hours?]
The tiger giggles a little bit as he sits on a low stool that he had set off the side of the kitchen, sitting in it he texts back.
[Jinko:No your not the only one. He was mid into the fourth text, before he was cut off.]
[Rashoumon:Cut off?]
[Jinko:Yeah, Kunikida got onto him I presume. Earlier he got caught trying to dump the rest of his paperwork onto my desk, and Kunikida nearly made everyone in the office deaf by the time he was done yelling at Dazai-san. He forced Dazai-san to finish all that paperwork for the rest of the evening, and now.]
[Rashoumon:Do you want me to tell Chuuya about it? He would really enjoy kicking Dazai-sans 'ass' as he puts it.]
Atsushi unconsciously shakes his head, knowing that Aku wouldn't be able to see him as he continues the conversation. Feeling a bit better as the minutes tick by, though still a bit shaken from earlier still.
[Jinko:That won't be necessary. I'm sure Chuuya is off somewhere drunk right now, and he isn't in the mood for being bothered right now.]
[Rashoumon:You're right. He got drunk off of two shots of liquor half an hour ago. Thankfully I wasn't stuck with him, my sister was. She keeps telling me over my messages that she is frankly getting sick of hearing Chuuya-san rattle on about how much of a bastard Dazai-san is.]
[Jinko:I would as well in her situation. ^_^]
Atsushi continue to message the other for a bit more when Atsushi hears the kettle whistling from where he's sitting, as he is quick to put his phone back on the counter, and shut off the pilot light from beneath the kettle. Being gentle he picks it up by the handle and sets a pad under the kettle for it to cool down on the counter beside the stove. Next he checks the rice cooker to see the rice perfectly soft and fluffy just the way he likes it. Turning the cooker off he gets a bowl from the shelves above.
Scooping some of the rice out of the cooker, his mouth is drooling already at just the stream rising off of the mountain of white. He plops a good serving of the rice into the bowl, and then brings it to the cooling down kettle. He pours a generous amount of green tea over the rice like it was a five star meal, and to him it was, since it's what he's eaten most of his life. He wishes he had some cuts of chicken or pork to go in the dish, but looking back at his budget for the week on groceries he couldn't afford any meats on the small paycheck he gets from the agency.
He had some vegetables in the crisper of his small refrigerator, but he was saving those for another time. Kyouka was thinking about coming over one night in the next few days, and making ramen noodles with some sliced vegetables, and tofu slices. Picking out a spoon from the few he had in the utensil drawer, he scoops up a heaping helping of the tea on rice, and plops it in his mouth. Being quick he pours himself a cup of the semi hot green tea and with both in hand he walks to his living room sofa, setting both on the low table in front of the sofa.
He picks up the remote lying on the same table, and turns on the old boxy TV that was gifted to him a few months after he became a member of the agency. He never had a TV to watch while in the orphanage, and even though this TV was considered ancient history to most people in today's time, for him he was just grateful to have the old thing, despite it only providing okay service, and the only thing available to watch, was cable or to pop in a movie. It was something he could use as background noise, so the apartment didn't feel so empty with him just there over 90% of the time.
He had an old radio as well, that he had to fight through the static half the time to find something to provide as background noise as well. Though some of the stations he came across, he found to greatly enjoy the music or radio shows that aired over the bulky radio. Mostly classical music, but sometimes he would find some good modern music. He clicks the TV to some news channel, as they draw on about updates of the weather, the latest fashion, and so on. He has it loud enough to hear about what's being talked about, but not high enough it blows out his eardrums. The thing that people are talking about the most are the most recent in the murder cases, that has been dubbed 'Heartstring murders'. The news anchor and everyone he could tell were on edge, as a woman in her mid 40's gets the camera pointed at her.
"The latest we've got was from our own police force in Yokohama station. Stated today that they may have a break in the case, but not many details have been revealed to the public yet. An interview from the senior detective division made a statement today in an email that they may have an idea as to who the suspect may be. Though they said that need to be 100% sure it's there suspect, more is going on in there investigation, but since the case is ongoing not many details are being allowed to be leaked out to the public. Though many in the public fear that they'll end up as the next victim to be found. Many hope that the suspect will be caught soon so they can rest easy at night once more." The woman says in a very professional manner, looking completely at the camera.
She continues on about the subject as Atsushi takes another bite of his food, as he perks up. 'I left my phone in the kitchen.' He thinks as he's quick to retrieve his phone, and lays back down on the old, but comfy sofa. He checks his messages once more to see another one from Akutagawa a few minutes ago.
[Rashoumon:Have you been watching the news?]
[Jinko:Yes. I'm watching it right now. They aren't telling the public it's an ability user that is behind the murders. Why is that? Don't you think they have a right to know?]
[Rashoumon:They do have the right to know, but the reason they aren't telling the public that one simple fact is because most already have a bad image on the rest of us ability users. If they tell the public it's an ability user, they'll start being wary of the known ability users in this city, and start to make accusations.]
[Jinko:I guess that is a valid point.]
[Rashoumon:So what happened after me and Chuuya were called back to work?]
With a heavy heart he tells the other everything of what happened at the police station, in the interview room. He felt tears comes back to his eyes as he watched that woman die once again in his head, knowing there was nothing he could have done for the woman at the time. He tells the other all that he knows of this Beatrix girl, and that there was more than one suspect.
[Rashoumon:If Dazai-san couldn't disable the mark on the girls wrist, we'll have to hunt down the actual ability user and stop her from killing aymore people. If she can kill people that easily with her ability, than she's far more dangerous than my ability is. She can kill long and short range. Watch yourself, she may come after one of us if she knew were close to cracking her.]
[Jinko:I know. I'll be watching out. You best watch yourself as well. The only one that can't be affected by her ability is Dazai-san, but if she were to figure out his ability, she may try to attack the rest of us when he's not around, or distracted.]
[Rashoumon:Exactly. Does Dazai-san know anymore about her?]
[Jinko:I don't know it's hard to read that man. I can't ask him either, he'll keep dodging my questions, or play the 20 questions game himself with me. He went for that walk when the aftermath of the couple was brought up, but he never said anything about his walk.]
[Rashoumon:I have to get back to work. I'll text you again when I'm free. Don't hesitate to call me directly if a problem arises, we don't know this girls location, her accomplishes, or when she'll strike.]
[Jinko:Got it. Ttyl]
With that message sent he lets out a sigh, and puts his phone down on the tables surface. His tea on rice has gotten a tad cold, but it still held some warmth to it. He starts eating once again, as he decides to change the channel to a cooking show instead to pass the time. The warmth of the meal warming his being up as he tucks in his legs against his chest, and watching a girl making some kind of beef dish on the program. It looked good, and he so wished that he had the funds to make something like that for a meal one night.
Thus it was just a dream for now, so for the next half hour he sits on the couch curled up in an old blanket watching as the competition heated up against the four competitors. His meal long finished, as with his tea, both dishes sitting on the table in front of him ready to be washed at any time. It's when another 2 hours pass of watching cooking competitions, the clock beside the couch reading 9:50pm that he realizes he hears some kind of shuffling outside his apartment door.
He was half dozing off before to notice, but as he listens to the sound a bit more he hears that it's right outside of his apartment door. He wonders if it may be Dazai or one of the others at the ADA, but what would they be doing outside his door mulling around. Most everyone in the ADA would be getting ready for bed or already in bed by now. The siblings live a couple doors down from his own apartment, so he could probably go to them if he needed help with anything.
He took his shoes off long ago, so being as quiet as he can be he tiptoes to his door, the blanket laying on the cushions of the couch forgotten, but still holding warmth. He reaches the small peephole to see if he can see anything, but as his focus comes about, there is nothing outside his door, drawing a blank to him. 'What? Could I just have been hearing things?' He thinks as he continues to look through the peephole, but nothing shows up after a couple of minutes of looking out the small hole.
He didn't know what could be out there, so opening the door was a no go. After all he would watch horror flicks with Ryu, and Kyouka at times in the past, and he knew all to well what happened if someone opened the door to there house after hearing strange or unusual noises outside there house. His mind was racing with what could be out there, he kind of wanted to know, but at the same time he wanted to not find out.
He waits for another five minutes of watching out the hole, before he gives up and goes back to the couch to see that it's a few minutes past 10pm. A yawn escapes past his lips as he decides it's time to go to bed, so picking up his dishes he turns off the TV, and picks up the blanket putting it under his arm. He puts the blanket over the back of the stool as he puts his dishes in the sink, deciding to wash them tomorrow for it was to late at night to do them that night. He puts up the remaining of his meal together in one dish to heat up for the morning, and sets it in the fridge. He doesn't have to get to work until 9:30 the next morning, so he'll have plenty of time to eat, and wash the dishes.
He makes sure everything is locked and the lights shut off before he goes to his bedroom right across from the kitchen. It was fairly small, but he didn't own much so he didn't care either way, it was still much better than the sleeping conditions of the orphanage. He drags his extra futon out of the closet, and gets it set up in no time at all. Next he changes into his night clothes, throwing the others in the laundry hamper, and goes to get his phone that's normally in his pocket, but it's not there. It's that second he remembers he left it for the second time somewhere behind.
He steps out of his bedroom, and back into the darkness with a small flashlight to find his phone lying on the table in front of the box TV. He cocks his head to the side 'Huh? Was it in that position whenever I left?' He thinks a bit confused, the need for sleep messing with his mind a bit. He just shrugs as he picks up the phone, and the charger along the way before returning back to his bedroom, closing the door behind him. Atsushi flips the phone open to see that it's nearly dead, and plugs the device into the wall to charge as he snuggles into his futon loosing consciousness quickly. Meanwhile the shuffling is quietly heard by his door once again, but closer than before. Outside of the tigers window, storm clouds are rolling in, with lightning crackling across the sky in bright yellow streaks of gold. A flash streaks across the sky illuminating the sky outside, and in one of the windows by the door a black figure stands.