waking up the devil | oikawa tooru

v. abaddon.

THE JOSTLING OF THE crowd did little to ease your nerves. You were constantly worried that someone would reach into your bag and steal your wallet—the participants looked that seedy to you—or push you so far to the back of the crowd that you'd sustain injuries in the process. You almost regretted standing so close to the fencing when people started throwing confetti and what looked like bras and underwear down into the arena. That was a UTI melting pot just waiting to happen.

A man sidled up to you after a timer started on the tiny bars lining the fence. You would have ignored him, except his features were striking and his hair was one of the more bizarre styles you'd seen—tufts of spikes, each one seemingly held there by gravity alone—and narrowed eyes that were fixed on his phone screen. His name was written on the sleeve of his jacket, but you couldn't make it out because of the giant wrinkles in the elbow. He didn't even seem to notice how close he was to you so you subtly edged away, clutching your bag and looking back at the timer which was slowly counting down from ten.

The closer it got to one, the more rowdy the crowd became. You cringed at the loud screams echoing in your ears and the booming music that had started up, likely to drown out the crowd itself for the fighters, and tried to focus on the opening doors in the center of the arena on either side.

An announcer, hidden somewhere in a back room, coughed and tapped a microphone. The speakers squealed and all of the music cut off abruptly, as did the cheering of the crowd, proving your theory about drowning them out wrong.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, devils and angels," the announcer said after a moment. "How are we doing tonight?"

The resounding responses were loud enough that you almost jumped out of your skin.

"Good, good! As you all know, the betting pool for tonight's next match is unusually high; but so is the matchup—if you have not placed bets, I would suggest you do so before the end of the three rounds so you can rake in the rewards." A sly laugh. "Anyway, we have our first contender: Yuriel Bane! Give it up for the human!"

You watched as a man stepped out of the right door. He wore only shorts embroidered with the company name of his sponsor and waved to the crowd cheerfully. You clapped with the rest of them to be polite, but looking around you could tell that no one was rooting for the man—humans never fared well in Eden, you'd heard, at least in places like this.

"What a polite applause," the announcer noted, a thread of amusement in his voice. "I almost feel bad for him. What do you all think?"

Like you thought, everyone agreed.

"I thought so. Well, of course, he is fighting a devil—a notorious one at that. I'm sure you all know him, or why would you even be here?"

You had no clue who it was but the crowd did. Their shouts and screams were enough to rattle the fence—or maybe that was you just shaking from nerves—and consequently your bones. You'd have a pounding headache after this, you were dead certain.

"Wow, you guys are really excited huh?" The announcer snickered. "Well, there's no reason to delay the inevitable. Ladies, gentlemen, devils and angels, I give you Abaddon, the destroyer!"

The door opened—but no one was there.

Faster than you could blink, the human man was already on the floor, hit hard enough that he was reeling from the hit. In a few moments he was up and fighting with the seemingly invisible figure—he was hard to keep up with with human vision—and you watched as the man reached back in his pocket and throw a silvery substance in the other fighter's, Abaddon's, face. It sparkled in the light as it fluttered to the ground, but the effect it had on him was surprising; he stopped dead in the middle of the ring, right before the human man.