Tin Pin Turnabout:
A Sauce Project Production
By EeveeGen9988 and Chronic Guardian
[Shibuya Operation - Story Storm]
Chapter 5: FeintRueban waited until the call ended, then put his cellphone on the booth table and let out a long breath. A small smile spread across his face as he collected himself. He'd done it. Yoshiya had agreed. It wasn't the whole plan, true, but it would probably be the hardest part. Pitting his skills against the current Tin Pin giants was hardly comparable to dealing with his cousin.
Across the table from him, his current partner in crime watched with her chin rested on on a black stuffed cat she'd caught up in a loose hug. She wore an old school uniform from their shared time at Ebisu, now colored red and white instead of the customary monochromes, and a matching pair of designer headphones. She'd spent the majority of his conversation staring at him. Not listening, she made sure to cover his privacy under the pulsing hum of whatever it was the hip kids listened to these days, but she could read his expression well enough to offer a reproving frown whenever he started letting Yoshiya get the better of him. Now that the call was over, she lowered her headphones to rest around her neck and raised sandy eyebrows in an expectant look.
"Wellll?" she drawled out tentatively.
"He'll do it," Rue confirmed, nodding to himself. "And he even gave us a nice little hint for the next round of our treasure hunt. I'll have to find Ayumu on my own-"
She rolled maple-brown eyes and cut in sarcastically, "Because heaven knows I'm totally gonna bail on you now that you're in the clear."
"Fine-without Joshua's help," he corrected. "I wasn't sure if you'd be up for possibly wasting an entire afternoon chasing a psychic who doesn't want to be found. My dear cousin certainly isn't."
"Yeah, well… baby steps, Kiryu," his companion sighed, reaching across the table to give his shoulder a half-hearted punch. "He agreed to help somehow. That's still progress."
Rueban rubbed the spot of contact and gave her a dry smile. "Careful now, 'Ultimate Eden'. We Kiryu's bruise easy."
"Mmm… Particularly in the ego."
He chuckled at that. It felt good to laugh at himself, to not have to worry about preserving some perfect image to keep Yoshiya off his back. Rue learned early on in his tin pin career that Yoshiya exploited weakness as a matter of habit. Among many other things, it was one of the reasons Rueban despised his cousin. One could hardly say three idle words around Yoshiya Kiryu without being made into a fool.
But, again Rueban reminded himself, that part of the operation had been dealt with for now. And as difficult as Ayumu would be to tack down, Rueban could at least be honest with his younger cousin.
Well… mostly honest, anyway.
"So, not to presume against the infinite Kiryu wisdom, but…" Eden trailed off and tilted her head to one side. "...You've tried calling, right?"
"I have. He doesn't answer me for… well, obvious reasons."
The girl shrugged. "Had to check. I mean, you hadn't tried calling the infamous pink kindred spirit until I sat you down for it. Anyway, mind elaborating on those 'obvious reasons'?"
Rueban's smile faltered for a moment as he stopped to dig up the memory. It had been years since he paid the incident any mind, especially since he could just dismiss any associated guilt as paranoia if he never looked too close. Still, at the back of his mind he knew. Part of it was still his fault. Whether or not Joshua had cheated, Rue was the first one to turn his back on Ayumu.
Finally, Rueban shook his head and forced the corners of his mouth upward again. "Ah, well… Who can tell who he blames for it?"
Without much surprise, Eden dipped her face a little further into the back of her stuffed animal and gave him a reproachful look. "I thought you said it was 'obvious'," she mumbled around a mouthful of fabric.
"And it will be," he assured her, before adding, "With time. Meanwhile, we have a target to catch, don't we? Considering Yoshiya will be scheduling the event he'll probably make it as soon as possible so we don't have to suffer through practice together."
"Kind of counterintuitive, don'tcha think?"
"You mean skipping practice with a team he knows he doesn't mesh with?" Rueban offered. "It would be, yes, if he actually cared about teamwork. Yoshiya Kiryu is a one man band; the rest of the world is just his backup dancers."
Eden straightened back up. She scrunched her shoulders towards her neck, accompanying the stretch with a squinting grimace, before widening back out and looking towards the door. "Okay, so your work with Pink isn't over yet, then. Guess we'll just have to brace ourselves for round two. Or..." She paused to give him an apologetic smile, "you'll have to brace yourself. I'll probably bow out once we get a bead on Ayu-kun."
"You know he hates being called that," Rue muttered, sliding out of his side of the booth.
"Who, Josh?" Eden frowned. "I thought he insisted on you calling him by his spirit color last time."
The Kiryu boy gave his one-time master a light reproachful look before moving towards the door. "Ayumu," he answered. "He hates it when you shorten his name like that. It sounds too effeminate."
She chuckled and followed. "Aww… that's too bad. I think it sounds cute."
Rue rolled his eyes and continued to the city streets outside. He couldn't tell if Ayumu ranked "cute" above or below "effeminate", but the lack of distinction was about to work in his favor. The blind psychic made a point of being elusive these days, so even if they could track him they would still need a way to pin him down for a talk. With any luck, Eden would provide that vital pin.
The plan was, unfortunately, to take advantage of Ayumu's more instinctive nature. While Rueban and Yoshiya preferred outsmarting their opponents with olympic bouts of mental chess, Ayumu had always been more emotionally driven. To the youngest cousin's credit, his instincts served him well in most situations, allowing him to move more quickly and freely than his calculating contemporaries. But Rueban didn't have to outmaneuver his cousin's luck, he only had to outsmart it. If Ayumu sensed something he didn't like, such as a certain someone infamously attached to his nickname, he'd naturally try to escape in the opposite direction. And if a perfectly non-malicious Rueban just so happened to be in that direction, Ayumu's instincts wouldn't catch on until it was too late.
All that left was finding out Ayumu's general location so they could enact the strategy. Tapping into a few old contacts around the neighborhood, Rueban traced his cousin's path to the back streets of Udagawa. Even if he half-expected it, he couldn't help grimacing at the news. Word in the family was that Ayumu was falling in with the wrong crowd these days. For his part, Rue hoped the "wrong crowd" was only a skate club ignoring parking lot regulations, or perhaps even a pin gang like the Black Skullers if Ayumu really insisted on pushing the envelope. Anything worse than that and Rueban might have to consider waiting for another opportunity.
It was tempting to just set up shop at Aunt Chise's and wait for the blind blond to come home, but that plan carried its own risks. After all, if Ayumu really didn't want to see Rue he'd probably do something foolish like spending the night in the streets. Honestly, sometimes Rueban just wished his younger cousin could be more rational.
...Like Yoshiya.
You hear that, Josh? The middle Kiryu added in his head. Maybe there's something I like about you after all.
"So… are we going in?" Eden asked, crossing her arms around her stuffed cat as she studied the entrance to the backstreets. They'd stopped around Shibu-Q Heads to get their bearings before heading in. After a moment Eden tilted her head and went on, "Or, I mean, am I going in, Lord Kiryu?"
"Don't get too enthusiastic," he sighed. "You know I'm only using you as the hammer because I have to be the anvil."
She tilted her head to the side to give him a mock hurt look. "You don't think I'd make a good anvil?"
"The anvil doesn't work if it drives our mark off with annoying nicknames," Rueban pointed out, pacing a few steps to the side as he scoped a possible route. He needed to distract himself to keep from inventing possible worst-case scenarios awaiting his partner. It didn't help any that this part of the city was positively infested by secondhand smoke. If Ayumu really was in there, Rueban would have to make sure his clothes got a good wash afterwords to get rid of the stench. "He at least trusts me to respect him." After a pause to turn back towards Eden, he added, "... I think."
"Ah, well... He'll get used to it someday."
"And until then, we can use his ire for our purposes," Rue concluded, nodding to himself as he found a decent hiding spot. Not that he needed much. There were advantages to hiding from a blind person. Basically, as long as he wasn't in the direct path and making noise, he'd be virtually invisible to a distracted Ayumu desperately escaping an unintentional tormenter. "So," he went on, "Just go around from the back and see if you can drive him this way."
"Got it."
"...And don't be afraid to call if things get-"
"Rueban."
"Right, sorry," he shook the feeling and waved her off. "Good luck."
Something about those backstreets just felt wrong…
A moment more and Eden was out of sight. Rueban forced himself to stop counting seconds after the first minute and just go over the plan once they got through the current step. If he could at least coordinate with his younger cousin, they might be able to make it through the match even if Yoshiya insisted on being Yoshiya. The important thing was that they all made it through together. That was what Ayumu wanted last time, and that was what Rueban had failed to deliver. Not this time, though. This time they would make it work. He would make it work. He had to, for the sake of their family. He was the only one who could.
He sighed and shook his head. Rueban Kiryu… You insufferable narcissist.
The self reproach probably would have budded into a full-blown lecture if he let it go on. Fortunately for Rueban, someone in the alleyway wanted the whole world's attention right now. An explosive stream of shouting, mostly populated by words unused in respectable company, flowed out and flooded over his reverie. From what he could decipher, they were upset with someone's sudden existence in their foul little bubble.
...Which would make sense, considering he'd just sent a certain someone to invade in that direction.
Scrambling back to his feet, Rue hastily fished his phone out of his jacket pocket and checked for a message from his compatriot. He'd told her to call if something happened, hadn't he? Sure, she'd brushed him off, but she'd still heard, right? Or was she too tied up to call right now? What was he doing waiting around for her to give a signal when she could be dealing with all sorts of back alley punks? Maybe if he just got a little closer, just so he could listen to what was going on...
"Just get out of here, you fuc-"
Rueban blocked the rest of the sentence out and fell into full automatic. He was moving down the alleyway without thinking, and part of him knew that was absolutely, irrevocably stupid. He wasn't exactly built for a brawl, and he didn't have much spare cash in his wallet. Not that bribing would be a great idea in the first place. Even sparing the dishonor of it, flashing money at a hostile party would essentially amount to asking for his wallet to be stolen if he didn't have any other collateral.
So what did he think he was going to do? Challenge them to a Tin Pin match?
No, you'll just sic your Tin-Pinjas on them, his inner critic drawled. That's sure to solve everything.
But as amusing as it was to think of a ten-year old in bedsheets trying to tackle a back alley ruffian, he needed an actual plan. Rushing in headlong would only mean putting them both in danger. He needed a plan for escape, not confrontation. If he could get just scope out the situation a little more, maybe he could come up with something. Depending on how many of them were, he could probably come up with a diversion and dash into a shop afterwords. The merchants around these parts would undoubtedly defend a paying customer, especially considering the usual prospects.
He was almost to the scene when his tactical side finally re-engaged and he flattened himself against a shop wall. The angry resident was still raving something with a veritable rainbow of vulgar vocabulary, but he couldn't hear Eden yet. Was she holding back, taking the punishment for the sake of the mission? He shivered against the bricks, vaguely acknowledging he was probably standing out like a primrose in a dandelion patch.
And doubly so if a certain blind psychic wasn't focused on avoiding his partner.
Closing his eyes, he took a second to habitually berate himself before doing his best to casually lean out and actually see what was going on.
The first thing to catch his eye was his partner. Flushed red, but patiently enduring the verbal abuse. She looked doubly irritated when a stray glance detected his presence. Mentally, he tallied up the instance to his running guilt-log before moving on.
In front of Eden was the young woman causing the general disturbance: some hedgehog-headed scamp with snow gloves and a marshmallow vest. On the upside, she was more modestly dressed than most gang-related girls, so odds were good she didn't have any heavy muscle in the area to back her up. Rueban did a quick case of the subject, noting her lithe form and aggressive, though unrefined, stance. If it were two on one, they might be able to take her. Unfortunately, she had company.
Familiar company.
Rueban had to check his surprise before it became to obvious. Externally, he mitigated the response to a slight downward twitch in his mouth corners. His cover was probably already blown, but the old habit still stuck. He'd only been doing it for the first twelve years of his life, after all.
There, standing beside this uncouth young woman, was Ayumu.
"...Rueban," the youngest Kiryu cousin addressed him with cold composure. Not quite outright anger, but fully disillusioned. There was no surprise, no expectation. Even if Ayumu hadn't seen him coming, he'd already decided how this would end. Rueban would disappoint him again.
All the guilt-building self talks Rueban had stocked up over the years fell off their shelves to join the chorus.
The ruffian at Ayumu's side stopped her diatribe long enough to notice Rue's presence and rally for a new salvo in his direction. He saw her lips move, but she wasn't saying anything refined enough to make it through his filters. What a pity. For all he knew, she was just saying an extremely wordy "hello" with unnecessary verbal spice.
Well, considering the previous example of how long she could string insults, he wouldn't get anywhere fast waiting for her to finish. Taking a moment to clear his voice, Rueban almost gave a small wave before remembering who he was dealing with and settling for a nod to himself. "...Cousin," he returned. "Could we talk?"
"I don't know," Ayumu answered coolly. "Could you listen?"
Touche, you don't have the greatest track record for that.
Flipping a mute switch on the internal commentary, Rue stared back at Ayumu and forced himself to focus on the present circumstance. He needed to be pithy, to the point. Beating around the bush with Ayumu wasn't just inefficient, it was dangerous. He was already treading on thin ice with the way he'd left things, adding embellishments would just cement his previous failures.
"I want to make things right," he said after a moment, careful to use the same words he had with Yoshiya. It was the simplest way to put it, anyway, so he might as well stick with that. Hopefully Ayumu would appreciate the directness. "I want to fix things with all of us; you, me, and Yoshiya."
Ayumu pursed his lips, tilting his head slightly as he stared at Rueban. "You want to fix things…" For a few seconds the younger boy was silent, scrunching up his face in thought before frowning. "Don't you know it's a little too late to fix things?"
Something was off in his tone. Maybe he'd meant it to sound resolute and reasonable, but Rueban was more detecting years of pent up frustration with a generous slathering of regret on the side. Certainly not ideal, true, but at least the reaction meant Ayumu still cared on some level.
Before Rueban could respond, Ayumu's eyes darkened as he went on coolly, "If I recall it clearly, you seemed perfectly fine walking out on us." The younger cousin punctuated his sentence with a sharp exhale before moving on, "You acted exactly how Joshua said you would, and now…" Ayumu shook his head. "I hardly can look at you-both of you-when you could have fixed things there! And now-you want to fix things!?"
The middle Kiryu took the accusations with a straight face. He already knew he deserved it, but that didn't mean it hurt any less. Ayumu was right, Rueban had made a mistake three years ago. It wasn't just Yoshiya ignoring Ayumu's panic and recklessly disregarding the rules, it was also Rueban turning his back on a promise.
And that was why he needed to atone for the event now.
Ayumu's companion had gone silent at that point. She'd probably actually shut up once Ayumu started talking, but Rue hadn't noticed it until now. She was glaring ebony daggers his way, but Rueban found he actually preferred that to another round of her vulgar vocabulary. Who was she, anyway, and why was she hanging out with Ayumu? She didn't quite look homeless, although she certainly didn't seem well looked after either. Judging from her manners and wardrobe, odds were good she wasn't exactly miss popular at school. Maybe that was why Ayumu identified with her? Because they were both outcasts?
Rueban was still puzzling out the connection when the girl put a hand on Ayumu's shoulder. The blind psychic tensed, causing the shaky joint to go rigid, before relaxing under her touch. Her ebony glare softened to a smolder, but that was probably more for Ayumu's benefit that Rueban's. In a way, the gesture almost looked… tender.
Consciously pacing his next inhale, Rueban assured himself he was imagining things.
"Don't tell me… you want to fix things," Ayumu hissed bitterly, clenching his eyes closed now. "Not when… N-Not when…" He choked on his breathing, struggling to gulp in another. "Just give it a rest." He lowered his head. "...Leave me alone."
Rueban gave a respectful beat of silence after the last words before slowly raising his eyebrows and opening his mouth. "...Cousin," he said frankly. At this point, addressing Ayumu by name felt presumptuous. "I was wrong."
"You're just saying that because you know it's supposed to be right," Ayumu muttered, turning to go. "I'm not some little puppet you can jerk around with magic words, okay?"
"All right, so maybe you can't trust my words," Rueban admitted with a shrug. "And you can't trust my phone log that says I had a good fifteen minute conversation with Joshua because for all you know, I could be lying about that too. Maybe I'm exactly the self-obsessed scum Josh says I am. But you wouldn't know. You know why?"
Ayumu stopped with his back to Rueban. The next words would be a complete gamble on an Ayumu that might've only existed in Rue's head, but they were running out of options. There was no perfect angle to play, no desire to analyze, and no perfect expectation to fill. The only way Rueban would win this was through absolute, terrifying, possibly-totally-wrong sincerity.
Well... here goes nothing.
"Because," he sighed, mentally preparing himself not to cringe at the unrefined confession, "the Ayumu I knew cared too much about other people to read the answers out of their heads, even if he always could. You wouldn't know what I'm thinking because even when it's hurting you most you don't drop to that level. You're too good for that. And that's why we need you now, why I need you to do this. Because if the best the Tin Pin world sees is a couple of grudge-ridden Kiryu cousins, that's a sad world to live in. Maybe I can't take back what I did, but I won't let it overshadow your future. I was wrong to leave just because I'd had enough. This time I promise, if you come, I'll stay until it's over. Actually over. And after that, you never have to see me again. Just this one last shot, and no matter how it ends, I won't bother you anymore after that."
"So…" Ayumu said quietly, still facing away. "If I say no...?"
"That's right, I'll never let you hear the end of it," Rueban shot back, his tone shifting back to unintentional lightness on a nervous twitch. It seemed his accustomed Kiryu wit had finally had enough of the down-to-earth mush and was now pulling a mutiny at the crux of his argument.
Hang it all, what did he really mean and why couldn't he just say that? Why did he always fall back talking in funny circles instead of getting to the point?
For a moment, he just stood there watching his cousin's back. He'd probably just shot his only chance of making this work because he couldn't keep from making a dumb joke.
"...I guess that'd be pretty awful," Ayumu finally answered. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking, but he sounded more like his old self now. Maybe that stupid cliche speech actually did the trick after all.
Rue exhaled and put his hands in his pockets. "Would that be a yes, then?"
"Rueban," his cousin went on. "Are you really sorry? For everything?"
The older boy forced a smile and almost opened his mouth before his inner critic snapped back on to whisper, Everything is a strong word, Rueban Kiryu. And yet, despite the warning-
"Yes." The word slipped out before he could test it.
He caught a glance from Eden. Not quite alarmed, but certainly questioning. She knew something wasn't right.
But Ayumu wasn't Eden.
The blind psychic slowly nodded as he mulled over the single syllable answer. "...I'm going to hold you to that," he said, and finally Rue could detect a hint of relief in his tone.
Rueban let that relief fuel a genuine smile. "Thank you," he answered.
Because if nothing else, at least he meant that part.
…
CG's Delirious Author's Notes:
So… I kind of get the feeling that I'm glossing over crucial details here because I'm in a state of bedraggled, illness-fueled delirium right now, but as long as the chapter was approximately proper English, I guess it'll work. I mean, Eevee will have to sort out whatever loose ends I just made next chapter, but she's capable enough that she should be able to pull that off. I mean, not to abuse having a competent partner, but that's the great thing about not working alone, kids: You get to rely on someone else when you're not feeling 100%.
*cough cough cough* Ohhh… my lungs…
Yeeah, so, not much more to say this time around. Enjoy me being brief for once. Guess that's everything except…
Slammer Profile: "Ultimate Eden"
A former pro-slammer now operating off the grid, "Eden" was and is a mystery to the current slamming generation. Some say she was a genetically engineered super slammer created by Dr. Pin himself to bring balance to the Tin Pin world, others believe she descended from extra-dimensional angels to deliver the ultimate Gatito set unto this earth, but whatever the real story is, Pinheads Weekly has still yet to corner her into an interview so it's more or less irrelevant.
During the height of her career, Eden was infamous for only playing with two pins of her opponent's choosing. Otherwise, she was known to play with her signature "Eden" set (shipped and sold exclusively by Gatito) and control up to three pins at once in a withering assault known as "The Holy Field". Many unfortunate slammers have fallen to this righteous purge, and only the best of the best have managed to survive it without sacrificing a life in the process. It seemed she was destined to rule Tin Pin by sacred right...
After last year's slam-off, however, Eden quit the professional scene and went to ground. While it's suspected she may be in contact with some of her fellow slammers, she has yet to make an official statement regarding her disappearance, leading to wild speculation. Whether she has ascended to Tin Pin heaven or just taken a break to pursue other hobbies, her fate remains unknown...
…
EeveeGen9988's Brief (as always) Author's Notes:
It's always a pleasure seeing CG in action, especially when he handles elements of stories brilliantly. As such, seeing him handling my OCs with care always is wonderful to see. Why? It's always interesting when you see another person's thought process and perspective on things that you know and love, and writing someone else's characters is one of them. Not to be philosophical or anything, heh, but I believe the person who knows you the most is actually not yourself, but others around you. Your perception is not always clear when you look at yourself in a mirror, only when you have someone describe yourself do you actually get to know yourself. CG here was always able to bring to light new things about my characters I've never known about, and the way he's written my characters always is exciting to see. =3
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, especially when CG's been working so hard on it. =D
(And I hope CG gets better. I didn't know he was sick until the end of the chapter… D=)
- EeveeGen9988