Part of Your World {A Bungo Stray Dogs fanfic}

Fight or Flight

'My head hurts,' I groan as I finally come to. My heartbeat comes forth in an annoying barrage of pounding vibrations in my temples. They hit me one after another, so strong I get dizzy. Struggling to see clearly, I try to take in my surroundings and remember what the hell happened to make me feel so bad. As soon as the memories come back to me, I wish they hadn't... The scenes that come forth in my mind cause a single, heartbreaking tear to slide slowly down my left cheek. It splashes silently upon the cold floor below me, leaving a dark, wet circle in its wake. I can't help but think how that splotch resembles the thousands of drops of blood I caused to fall yesterday...

I'm instantly ripped from my train of thought by someone opening the door. Akutagawa enters. "Look who finally decided to wake up," he says coldly.

I hurriedly wipe the tear off my cheek before answering, "What do YOU want?"

"What do I want?" he says callously, "You're the one who's in MY room." I open my mouth to say something snarky, but stop when I register what he said. Finally getting a good look at my surroundings, I realize that's exactly where I am. I'm in Akutagawa's bedroom. Actually, I'm in Akutagawa's BED. What the hell?...

He continues saying, "In fact, you should be doing is thanking me for saving your ass."

"Thank you?!" I exclaim.

"Yes THANK ME," Akutagawa raises his voice, "If it weren't for me, they would have had you executed a long time ago."

"So why haven't you then?" I ask feigning accusation. In reality, I'm starting to feel very uncomfortable about the whole situation...

"Because soon after you went down... so did Mori," he explains in a low voice, "He was attacked by the same virus your own president is currently struggling with. In the ruckus of your dimwitted attack, we were too distracted to get a good look at Mori's attacker. So, since it's obviously all your fault, you're going to be the one to fix it."

"Don't you think that if I knew how to do that I would have saved my president already?" I respond, crossing my arms with sass. I hate being ordered around by this prick.

"Well, if you don't figure it out fast, we're going to have to go with plan A," Akutagawa says with a smirk.

I know he wants me to ask, but I do it anyways. "Which isss?" I say.

"Which is- we kill your so called president and solve the problem ourselves. You see, if one person with the virus dies, the other is cured," Akutagawa finishes his explanation with a devious smile. "So why don't you run along to your little agency friends and figure it out," he adds. I'm so focused on the ultimatum he presented me with that I can't even come up with a response. Instead, I just get up slowly to leave. I'm just starting to open the door when Akutagwa slams it closed again. He stands over me with his hand pressed against the door, his arm barring me from opening it.

"Say it," Akutagawa demands in my ear, "Say thank you." My mouth goes dry. His proximity makes me want to punch him in the face, but I know I'm in no shape to fight. And he knows that too. 

With my jaw clenched tight, I force an answer out of my mouth. "Thank. You." I say begrudgingly through my grinding teeth. With a fraudulent grin, Akutagawa slowly moves past me and allows me to open the door. I walk stiffly away from him, slamming the door behind me. He's taking way too much joy in this... I run as fast as I can away from that retched room. Along the way, I run into a surprisingly familiar face.

"Junichiro? What are you doing here?" I call out to the friendly redhead down the hallway. 

Junichiro just runs right past me, grabbing my arm as he passes and dragging me along with him. "No time to explain! Let's go!" He yells over his shoulder. Once we make it outside, Junichiro scoops me up and practically throws me into a random white delivery truck that was parked inconspicuously outside. The two metal doors have barely latched shut before the truck takes of with a big jerk that knocks me backwards. I fall right into the arms of Atsushi. That's when I finally look around and realize that the entire Armed Detective Agency is in the back of this truck.

"Kagami! Are you okay?" Atsushi asks, looking down at me as I try to sit up.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. What's going on?" I lie and change the subject. One after another they all chime in to explain what I've missed. Apparently I was out for two whole days. Turns out a lot has happened in those forty-eight hours. The president's conditioned worsened, and he is now hidden in Anne's Room. They discovered that the virus was all part of Fyodor's master plan, and that the only way to reverse it is for one of the infected to die. Sadly, that means everything Akutagawa told me earlier was true. To make matters worse, Junichiro was only in the mafia headquarters because he was attempting to kill Mori and save the president. Apparently it didn't go very well. But at least he ended up accidentally saving me. I mean I didn't really need saving per say, but it still counts I guess.

The only person who remains silent throughout this entire jumbled recap is Kunikida, surprisingly. I honestly hadn't even realized he was there until just now. "What's wrong with Kunikida?" I whisper to Atsushi.

"Umm..." he whispers back, "I'm not sure we should talk about it. He uh- lost someone for the first time."

No wonder he looks so rough... As much as I hate Kunikida, it's impossible to not admire his ideals. Out of all of us, he's definitely the strongest. Everyone's melancholy faces suddenly make a lot more sense. Seeing Kunikida like this, with his tear-stained face buried in trembling hands, is really hard for the group. My heart genuinely hearts for him. I can't help but wonder what we're supposed to do without his leadership. Though it was annoying and bossy, it was leadership nonetheless. 

The truck unexpectedly comes to an abrupt halt, and Ranpo comes around to open the back door. I've never seen him look so serious in my entire life. With grave eyes, he asks us to make an even graver decision. Ranpo asks us to choose between listening to the President's explicit orders not to fight the mafia, and doing the complete opposite. I watch helplessly as almost everyone gets out and goes along with Ranpo's rebellion. The only people who remain in the truck with me are Atsushi and Kunikida. With all this new information coming in so rapidly, I can't even begin to comprehend everything, much less make such an important decision. It seems that instead of choosing between fight or flight, my body chose freeze...

I need to talk to Dazai...