Chapter 44 : Tempus Fugit - Entirely optional

In my newfound life, there are a lot of things that I am starting to take for granted.

One of those things is my capacity to instinctively feel out the emotions most strongly felt by any individuals in my relatively close proximity.

The radius of said ability, when I am actively repressing it -which is basically every waking second- still amounts to a good thirty meters in every direction, one which blessedly didn't increase in the last few months, which tends to make the whole high school experience a bit more of a challenge than it seems at first glance.

Thankfully, the relatively repetitive nature of Japanese education as a whole transforms this background noise into something relatively easily tolerable, or I probably would've gone all Carrie on the poor Kuoh High's schmucks after barely a week's time.

This also meant that, when three previously unknown individuals started to trail me after club hours one day, well, they weren't as discreet as they thought they were, especially considering all the dark-pink thoughts they were echoing in the Immaterium, Lust and Violence chief among them.

Since I wasn't born yesterday, I obviously didn't flee right to my home, instead choosing to wander in downtown's direction once it became rather obvious that I had a trail, and elected to give a shot at a little something my more recent experiments -in my frantic attempts to learn 'how to simultaneously look in three directions at once'- gave birth to.

Still walking unhurriedly, my trail leisurely following, I focus with one part of my mind on the outside world, not giving the game away one bit-

-while, at the same time, I open my mind-eye to the ebb and flow of the sea of souls and thoughts, momentarily seeing both the 'normal' world and the alien, coruscant vistas of the Empyrean, and look over my metaphoric shoulder, straight into my 'pursuers' souls-

-only to feel a little puzzled as those look, for all intent and purposes, every bit like those of baselines, in all of their dull and unimpressive majesty.

I shake the two dissonant points of view away, my brows furrowed as half of my point of view comes back to something less fantastical and alien.

…This raised some questions, ones I didn't have the answers for, because I was fairly certain that I had been rather inconspicuous on the mundane side of things-

-yet, somehow, I had managed to raise enough attention my way to get my plump ass followed by three would-be, what, 'investigators' or something?

I hide a wince even as I make my way farther inside Kuoh.

…Yeah, as if, considering what I could feel half the length of a road away.

I wasn't lacking in terms of possibilities, of options, though.

I could shroud myself in Indifference, and go on my merry way–

-but this kind of behavior was an open door to letting myself get blindsided and possibly home-invaded later down the line if I deliberately choose to use avoidance tactics every time something came looking my way.

Worse, it could potentially spell trouble for Sakura if someone -who wasn't part of the two local devils' retinue- caught her paying me 'a visit' on the weekend.

All of this left me with only one possible option: confront my trail, and extract some information out of them.

I sigh under my breath as I start taking a meandering path through Kuoh's alleyways, feeling the beginning of a headache at this unforeseen complication.

…This is gonna turn ugly, I can already tell.

Jotaro had some trouble repressing his eyebrow from twitching, as he followed their target through Kuoh's streets, because, for some reason, Ichi couldn't help himself from 'innocently whistling' -very badly, at that- which was making them, if anything, more suspicious than if he would just shut his goddam trap.

Seeing through the corner of his eyes the target turn the corner, and absolutely fed up with his current company, one of his hands flashes-

-landing with a meaty sound at the back of Ichi's head-

"Oi! What's that for?"

-and giving him ample time to whirl around to better spear his partner with a murderous look.

"Shut. Up." Jotaro hisses, his hand clamping itself around Ichi's forearm like a vice, "Stop making that kami damned noise, because it's suspicious as fuck and driving me spare!"

Ichi goes red in the face, visibly gearing himself up for an answer-

-only to slightly deflate as he apparently just remembers that Jotaro has a head and a half over him, and mumbles what can only be an apology under his breath.

"What was that?" Jotaro jeers, raising one of his eyebrows sarcastically, "I didn't quite fucking hear?"

"I said I'm sorry!" the shorter man growls, before shrugging Jotaro's grip, who magnanimously lets go as they start walking once more, "This whole business gives me the creeps, alright?"

At Ichi's words, Jotaro can only snort disdainfully while stuffing his hand back in his pockets.

"Way I'm seeing things," he drawls, hiding his relief as he catches a glimpse of their mark as the three of them turn the corner, the 'hunt' still on, "It's just business as usual."

"Except those are…" Fat Kenta, to his other side, starts, his own brows furrowed as he looks for his words, "Not ripe?"

"Yeah, that." Ichi quietly hisses while simultaneously gesturing in Fat Kenta's direction, "I know the boss got a backer and everything, but we never went for those so…"

Young, Jotaro ends the sentence for himself in his head, inwardly quite disgruntled at the idea that they were about to stoop so low.

But it hadn't been his call.

He was a thug, above the rest of them for sure, even had a team of his own, but his job was to follow orders, not question them.

That the Boss wanted to have his cake, eat it and have the pastry chef bounce on his cock too wasn't really his problem, in the end.

It could become it if they started taking some heat for this particular stunt, mind you-

-but that was why they had a backer, after all.

They never had any problem so far with their regular activities, so, it would stand to reason that they wouldn't either if they overstepped a little.

"Boss' orders." He ends up grunting to his two companions, "He didn't take kindly to a bossy rich brat strutting in his parlor and starting making demands."

Watching carefully for Ichi and Fat Kenta's reaction, he feels a little better as he sees the first wince and the second's complexion turn a little ashen.

"Said something about showing the uppity bitch how she should be 'careful what she wishes for' while offering her some 'companionship in misery'." Jotaro concludes, a little more darkly than he is used to.

If anything, the mood between the three of them turns somber and solemn after his declaration, none of them wanting to delve any deeper into what the Boss had meant, meanwhile knowing that it surely wouldn't be pleasant for the targets of his ire.

The three of them knew what it meant when someone crossed the Boss, after all, and they weren't in any hurry to poke that particular bear on someone else's behalf.

"Still," Ichi starts after a beat, a leer aimed at their target, "The brat wasn't anything to write home about, but her…"

"Disgusting." Fat Kenta sneers his way.

"Don't even fucking dream about it." Jotaro snaps, "We can rough her up a little if we have to, yes, but nothing happens before we bring her to the Boss."

It's Ichi's turn to snort disdainfully.

"As if we'll even have to, I mean, look at this," He gestures in their target direction, "Besides her ass, which, dayum, she's barely thicker than a twig. We'll just have to hold her up between two of us and she's shit out of luck."

Jotaro grunts in assent, Fat Kenta electing to remain silent, as they keep trailing after their quarry-

-only for her to do something that none of them expected as she turns into an alleyway which, if Jotaro remembers his map right, is a dead end.

"The fuck?" He mumbles under his breath, motioning for his companions to speed up the pace while he starts walking a little bit faster himself-

-only to be brought to a halt as he enters the alleyway and finds no one.

"We lost her?" Fat Kenta asks aloud, his eyes roaming around in confusion as Ichi steps next to him.

"Looks that way," Jotaro answers in turn, while gesturing toward a dumpster with his head, having the beginning of an idea where the girl can be, and inviting his lackeys to follow him deeper in the alleyway as he starts prowling that way.

Ever quick on the uptake, Ichi starts to yammer and bemoan their 'lack of luck', cursing how they could 'lost her so easily', the theatrics making Jotaro grin as he creeps closer to the overflowing dumpster, literally jumping the last meter in one fluid motion-

-only to stare in confusion as he finds no one-

-until he hears a sickening crunch, one his hindbrain tells him is eerily similar to the sound of a bone breaking, very quickly followed by a yowl of pain, all happening in less than a second, and forcing him to straighten and look back to the alleyway's exit-

-and Jotaro finds himself gaping as his eyes land on the same slip of a girl they were previously trailing, the one with big downward assets, holding a kneeling Ichi in a perfect chokehold, a few steps away from a whimpering Fat Kenta holding a crumpled leg.

Shrugging off his surprise, and his features distorting into an ugly scowl, Jotaro straightens, taking one step in the girl's direction, Ichi unsuccessfully clawing at the arm cutting off his airways through the fabric of the girl's blouse-

-only to stumble to a halt once again as a wave, no, a weight sets on his shoulder, giving him the impression that he and his two men are judged and found wanting, the disapproval and disgust so thick in the air you could almost cut them-

-and his own airways gets smothered in turn as the girl snaps her free hand his way, looking like she's clutching at something, wrenching a strangled gurgle out of his mouth as he finds himself unable to advance any further-

-and he tries to free himself, frantically, but there's nothing to hold, nothing to struggle against, and his eyes dart this way and that, stopping on Fat Kenta's frozen form for a beat, the heavyset man passed out, foaming at the mouth while still clutching at his leg, while Ichi's own battle against asphyxiation finally comes to an end and his arms fall.

Jotaro can only look as Ichi's body weakly lands on the ground a few handful of seconds later, his own vision starting to get dark at the corners, only very distantly aware of the sounds of footsteps coming closer-

-until he can finally breathe once again, and he does so with big, heavy gulping motions at the same time as he falls on his ass, his panic coming to a crescendo.

"You're going to tell me why you three were following me," Someone, no, the girl declares dispassionately, her voice a little husky and oddly charming, "And on whose orders."

Being talked to somehow managing what being able to breathe once again did not, Jotaro's attention snaps to the girl, locking eyes with hers-

-only to freeze for what seems to be the nth time as he finds himself staring into two deep, bottomless pits of blue-purplish colors, trailing eldritch lightning this way and that, set above the flattest disapproving scowl he has ever witnessed.

A beat passes, and Jotaro stays mum, trapped between his oath to the Boss and the apex predator in the shape of a teenage girl right in front of him.

Finally, he opens his mouth-

"That's alright," she cuts him, her two hands snapping on either side of his head, "Your consent is, as they say, entirely optional."

-but he is, alas, too late, and the girl does something.

And he knows only Pain.

[AN: Well, turns out, it's as good a moment to cut the scene as any, so you'll be getting a chappy today.

Also turns out, getting ambushed by a Psyker trained in TK and close combat is very scary, indeed.

Hope you enjoy, xoxo]