Rearranging Fate | Tokyo Revengers x OC

169 • Puzzle Pieces #3

"Hm?" Blinking at the sight before him, he tilted his head to the side, raising an eyebrow at his sister, who was casually munching on some muffins as if the whole situation was normal. It probably was. For her, anyway. "It's unusual for you to double-schedule like this, Reina. What's up with that?"

"I didn't schedule anything with them," answered the girl with a smile that radiated too much smugness. "I'll put it simply, Aizen." She placed her fork down and propped her chin on the back of her hands. "I agreed to give Toman information if they can bring me something that'll satisfy me, and they turned it into a game. It's like a Russian roulette on who will be coming next."

"Hmm." It really spoke volumes of just how much he had grown to know Reina because Aizen was unfazed. He was unfazed by the two boys standing beside their table, glaring at Reina as if she had kicked their puppy or something. He also remained unfazed when the chubbier of the duo slammed his palm on the table, twisting his face in what Aizen could only describe as uncomfortable.

"Oi, are you really Nyx?"

Reina, elegant as ever, dabbed her clean mouth with a napkin before proceeding to shove an entire blueberry tart into her mouth. She raised a hand while the other covered her mouth, chewing exaggeratedly as she deadpanned at the boys. Then, she swallowed the tart, and asked, "You dumb or something, Sherlock?"

"Shaddap! It's not Pahchin's fault his head is empty!"

Sometimes, Reina didn't know whether Pehyan wanted to cheer Pahchin or further insult him. Knowing him and his limited brainpower, however, she concluded that his intention was to cheer Pahchin up, but his brain came up with the worst word combination possible, and it ended up sounding like an insult. And Pahchin was too stupid to understand.

They were an interesting duo.

"Well, whatever. I'd rather deal with blockheads than time-wasting smartasses." Tossing her hair behind her shoulders, Reina swept aside the empty plates and placed her elbow on the table, leaning her chin against her knuckles and crossing her legs, flashing them a smirk. "Depending on what you can give me, you can get from zero piece to ten."

"And here comes the villainess act." Sighing, Aizen decided to just watch everything unfold. Lucky for him, the dessert they ordered arrived just in time. "Be sure to tone it down, Reina. We're in public and we're being watched enough already."

"Let them watch. I'm a villain for a reason."

At that, Aizen deadpanned. Surely, while Reina always gushed over how fantasy-hero-like Aizen looked, she never once felt offended when Aizen called her a villain in joking retaliation. In fact, she would smile sharply and say, "In every story, the villains will always win first and the heroes last. And they lose because they underestimate the heroes, or the hero gets a magical power boost with the power of friendship or some shit."

Aizen remembered her scoffing at his collection of American comics back then, huffing lightly at the memory because a Shonen manga collector had no right to diss his Marvel and DC comics.

"If that's the case, then as long as I underestimate no one, as long as I continue to improve myself, I can remain victorious every time."

Aizen supposed he would be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to whatever Reina would make. As far as he knew, since the first time he met her when they were children, Reina always looked like she was looking far into the future. And while he may not be part of whatever she was scheming, it was thrilling all the same.

"We dunno what to give you, so tell us!"

Ah, but Reina has a tendency to choose the most brainless people, so Aizen was a bit worried. But then again, Reina was smiling as if things were going her way, so Aizen couldn't stay worried for too long. In fact, he almost pitied the boys.