- 𝐅𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐝 -

Chapter 9

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When arriving at the place, Akira took a look at his hands again. His appearance wasn't the most appealing at the moment, with the dried blood still hiding his face, bruises from kicking, punching, injections and other injuries covering his body, and his skin as pale as snow. What would the barista that took him in so long ago think?

But as he entered the Cafe, he let out an even terrified breath. Glasses and plates were broken, and the whole place was a mess. If his vision wasn't so fuzzy, he could possibly even see marks of blood.

It seemed like a fight happened there. But... the boy knew that Sojiro wasn't the youngest anymore, and there was a high chance that he could've seriously gotten injured.

He had nothing better to do, so he decided to investigate.

At that moment he was actually glad that his alertness was still so high from the chemicals, but it also made it harder to convert information.
That didn't stop Akira though, he was too determined to find out everything that he had missed.

So he continued to look around, and while looking around, he saw torn up pieces of the newspapers he knew his caretaker used to read all the time. Seeing the whole mess really felt horrifying, especially since this place was the only place he could call home.

As the wildcard then noticed the coffee in a just slightly damaged cup, he could tell it couldn't have been too long ago since somebody refilled it. Maybe about a few days old.

Just a few days ago.

That meant that only a few days ago this mess here had happened.
Akira now left out another huff, annoyed at himself for not being able to come here sooner.

But something more interesting caught his attention, the staircase to the attic.

The people who were here had left traces, and all the dark haired male had to do was follow them.
When he arrived upstairs though, he was even more shocked.

Everything was gone and destroyed.

All the things in the shelf, as well as every piece of clothing, all gone.
"𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘯..."

He growled and then punched the wall; which surely wasn't a wise decision. Because as soon as his fist hit the wall, the recoil of the punch made his whole nervous system feel like collapsing, adding that to the numbed pain of the bruises.

It made him cry out, and in the split of a second he could've sworn he saw his own hand fading and turning transparent. Akira shook it as forcefully as he could, but it's not like he had anything to lose anymore. He had already lost it all after all.

Sitting down then he shakily continued looking at his bruised hands, which flickered from time to time, as if they were truly fading.

The Noiret hugged his legs to his chest and buried his head in his knees, taking some time to recover from that lash-out.

He wanted to just turn back time and fix whatever mistake he had made, but it was too late now.
You can't get back what you lost. It was always like that in this world, after all.

But at the least expected time, he suddenly heard footsteps, seemingly approaching the stairs. The boy immediately got up, broke the glass of the window with his elbow...

and just jumped out of it; right into the cold air.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The snowstorm got heavier and colder, and the good old cottage of the Phantom Thieves wouldn't be able to last much longer if they weren't able to keep it warm.

Luckily for them, they always had enough blankets and other things to protect themselves and the residence from the snow.

Today it was Ryuji's day to get groceries, and as he came back, he immediately started being loud; "GUYS!!!"

"Geez! Stop being so loud you monkey!", the black feline replied with a slight scoff, swinging his tail from the left to the right.

"The future Prime Minister Ass just died and--"

"And?" a rather familiar voice then interrupted the blonde, and met the Thieves' ears.

"It's YOU..!", Kasumi tensed up, staring at the man that had just entered the scene.

"𝘈𝘒𝘌𝘊𝘏𝘐..."