Red Lady Cigarettes

Chapter 5: "Does it Go Away?"

[ Kanagawa Prefecture. 10:42 AM ]

A burst of light illuminated her waking consciousness. It started out small, until awareness was completely driving into her system, and she was fully awake.

Shinkiro took a deep breath, before whispering. "Shit." A few seconds was enough to recollect the bits and pieces of her last memories before this, and she knew what happened. "This couch sucks." She complained out of the blue, which was responded to the moment she's done speaking.

"I could've trashed you down a ditch somewhere in Yokohama."

She sat up and looked at her surroundings. The ambience was calm, it was quieter than where she lives. The walls were patterned by red polished wood, there was a shelf of books, and another one for a small collection of vintage wine. The place smells like Touza but stronger, some sort of faded iced mint. "You didn't even remove my shoe. Ugh, my feet hurts." She continued to look around, her eyes mostly fixated on the vinyl collection of various musicians mounted on one side of the wall, and beside it is a vinyl player.

"You're the one to complain, I had to escape in the 23rd floor carrying your unconscious self." Finally, Touza walked to the couch and sat on the accent chair beside it, offering her a cold glass of water. "Next time, consider the consequences of overusing your power. So I don't have to jump off of a building again."

She sat up and removed her shoe before wrapping herself  with the covers. "Did you find what we're looking for?"

"No, there wasn't anything in the safe that would help us."

"We don't even know the location of the other safes." She added, looking down for a moment, holding the cold glass with both of her hands. "Kousetsu-san.."

"Yeah?"

"Do you.." Her pause was abrupt, trying to find the words and piece them together, she knew it would sound too sentimental, but at the same time Shinkiro wanted to know she isn't the only one experiencing this peculiarity. "Do you sometimes... Hear someone you know just talk in your head? Like... You're doing something and then suddenly you just.. hear their voice?"

Touza let out an exasperated sigh, and she finally took the glass to drink. He leaned back and crossed his legs. "I don't, but isn't it normal for people to remember things they want to forget?" A soft chuckle left his mouth, tilting his head as he continued. "And it's funny that what makes them unforgettable is because we told ourselves we want to forget them."

"Does it go away?"

"I like to think it does. So yes, it doesn't last."

[ 11:47 AM ]

An hour after she left, Touza had decided to halt the plans for a week and give Shinkiro her time to recover. For now, he focused on his own. "It doesn't last?" He spoke out loud, asking and mocking himself for saying it. What do they call it? White lies? He thought. His phone screen lighted up and flashed that a caller named "Doc" was reaching over to him. He promptly answered the phone and the other line started with a fair greeting, paired a cheerful voice Touza had been used to hear.

"Busy these days Kousetsu-san?"

"I had other plans, yes."

"Well I suggest you look into that later. Apparently, the 'Gray Area' is ceasing as we speak." Doc's tone of cheerfulness did not change, but he could still feel the worry the old man's trying to conceal.

"The problem being?"

"There's a war incoming Kousetsu-san. And I know it's going to be another shit show of this stupid stratification. Since All Might's fall we all knew our missions would stockpile."

A sigh left Touza's mouth, just thinking about it urged him to rub the temple of his head, just to ease the distress incoming. "Can I hear less complaints and more about what this have to do with me?" There are already so many things on his list.

And just as Doc said, since everything had seemed to be escalating in a rapid pace, it kept on stockpiling. "Alright. If All For One resurfaces again, I want to know which side you will choose to fight with." The old man went straight to his intent, somehow, Touza sensed the possibilities of Doc opposing if he didn't choose the right side, or rather, the side Doc wants him to take. "There are no sides to this Doc. The villains work in many sperate groups it isn't just two separate groups fighting. You have the heroes yes, but the villains are subdivided."

"I know what you are trying to say. But this isn't a fight about some petty crime. This is OFA we are talking about. When this guy rises, these villains, even if they have their own groups, they will unite under one ideology. Whichever works on their favor! You're a smart guy, you get it."

"You want to know what I'd do if that happens?" Touza heard a laugh from the other line and he just continued his reply. "I don't know."

"You fucking—"

He hung up before Doc spirals into screaming at him again. In a way, he knew that the heroes are somewhere out there planning to make a move against the League of Villains, he just doesn't know when. If possible, he wanted to have his familial records before this inevitably catalyzes into chaos.

Touza was never invested on picking sides, he values survival until he achieves his ultimate goal, but at the same time he never forgets to honor is own moral compass. There are a lot of things he has to consider if he doesn't want to confine himself in one group. In his mind, he sees the superhuman society in monochromatic colors, from the good colored as white, to the bad which is black. Although, it isn't as simple as that, it isn't just black and white to him, the spectrum of these colors spans into a wide range colors of gray.  Touza believes that people aren't inherently good or bad, their colors are sometimes an undertone of dark, or an undertone of light.

He likes to think of himself existing in the middle of this spectrum. Just the right undertone of gray.