"I've never been a debt collector before" I comment as I stroll across the clean concrete of the main campus steps, stopping at Asano's feet "but I quite like the feeling of you owing me"
"It's unbecoming to gloat" he replies in a cool voice but his face is cast in shadow from the overhead balcony, obscuring what I'm sure was a twitch of annoyance pulling his brow.
"A sore losers words" I counter. Gloating can be as unbecoming as any crime, but some people deserve the sting, and it brings me too much satisfaction to watch him squirm under it. Not that I particularly contributed to this win, but I'll capitalise on it all the same. Perhaps I am revelling in it too much, but it's hard to care when so little has gone right for me lately and this might be the start of changing that.
"Do not build your pedestal too high" He remarks, the lilac of his eyes darkening like the flowers of lavender on the turn of winter "lest you take a mighty fall"
"And yet, you are the perfect example of how the mighty have fallen" I shrug, taking a folded document from my jacket "my list of demands"
"I didn't say you could make a list, I said I would find out whatever it is you wanted from my father if A-class lost in the rankings. That doesn't equate to a list" He snaps, not taking the paper. I tilt my head, offering a pout of disappointment.
"There are things I want you to look into and things you're better off not exploring for greater efficiency but if you would prefer I speak my demands out to you for your father to hear, about all the things I want to dig up about him—"
"Alright" He cuts me off, swiping the paper with impatient hands "Alright, you made your point"
"You know where to find me when you have something" I say, adjusting the brim of my cap "I eagerly await our next exchange, Asano"
"No knowledge is wasted knowledge" He says, and it seems so contemplative that I'm unsure whether it was directed at me or himself until he continues "Aren't you afraid of what I might find out about you at the same time? Aren't you afraid that you've showed your hand here, that this is important to you? I can do a lot with the knowledge that this is something you want, Matsuoka"
"And you're so sure there are things to find about me? Because if we're playing detectives for each other, I'm sure I can exercise the same threat to you. Everyone has important things, even you. Extortion is just a ball throwing game—back and forth" This time the threat he's dealt falls flat and I feel strangely content. The feeling of being caught between two sides, two people...two futures, has dulled enough for me to feel I'm where I'm supposed to be if only for a moment. I have felt so powerless in recent days, that to be holding someone else over a barrel is a reward in itself.
Having power, even if only a little, over someone else feels more right than it should.
"I take it that doesn't worry you" He says, spite sharpening his words, the paper crinkling between the pads of his fingers. Such a light material so heavy in his hands.
"No" I reply easily, looking up from beneath the shadow of my cap, my chin tilted up with my hands rested in my pockets, my shoulders loose, my body free in a way I had forgotten it could be for a while "But I can assure you, if you happened to find files with my name on, you'll be far more afraid of that information than I would be"
"And yes, I'll enjoy the vacation we won from your class. I hear Okinawa is lovely this time of year" I finish, turning with a backwards wave so whatever words he had planned die on his tongue. As I walk out of that campus, looking up at the morning sun I feel the clarity of the sky it reveals reflected in my own mind.
Whether that is for good or for bad.
****
"You think it'll work?" I ponder as I sit next to Tadaomi, my feet propped up on the table of his hotel room, stirring my ice tea with a glass straw. I suppose nothing says 'vacation' like reusable straws. I can already say I prefer Okinawa to Kyoto.
YOU ARE READING
To Kill For the Truth (BOOK 1)
Fanfiction~ "That's the problem here. You say you want the truth as if it means the same thing to you as it does to me, but there's a big difference here. I'll kill for the truth" ~ Anri Matsuoka had spent her whole life knowing what she was good at. Killing...
