Twisted Fate | Akutagawa Ryūnosuke ✓

16 | No Longer Human

Kidnap Atsushi.

That was your next assignment.

Kidnap the boy and bring him back to base. Alive, preferably.

How to go about it, you weren't entirely sure; deception wasn't a strong point of yours. You were more attuned to keeping under the radar, going about unseen and unheard. Lying for you was unpredictable. Some barely saw past your act, others caught you out from the onset.

You merely hoped you didn't fumble this up and ignite Akutagawa's hatred for you even further; you weren't sure how long you could last doused in the flame of his wrath.

Before you even got as far as deception, however, you had no definitive plan as to how you'd meet the boy again. They had forbidden you from entering the Armed Detective Agency - where he apparently spent most of his time - leaving you to walk aimlessly with the hope you'd somehow bump into him again.

After doing just that for little over two hours, you had decided to establish a base in the small teahouse you'd taken Atsushi to that one time, hoping - by some coincidence - that the boy happened upon this place of his past also. Choosing a seat by the high-arched windows gave you access to a view that panned over the town beyond, allowing you to watch absentmindedly as the world passed by.

Whistling a sigh, you ran your finger around the lip of your cup, blinking at your reflection in the dredges of tea still sitting at the bottom. Those bags of yours hadn't lessened in the slightest, and the chalky pallor of your skin was indicator enough of your deteriorating health. Lack of unpolluted air was probably one of the reasons; most of your time was spent 'training' at the base, and missions were often centred in downtown Yokohama, where the air was more toxic than a rat's den. So-called 'free-time' was sparse and often limited to but an hour out on the town.

The door to the teahouse rattled open and someone scuffed their shoes on the mat, and you lifted your head for less than a second before retuning gloomily to the cup in your hand, watching the black liquid slosh at the sides before replacing it on the table. Scraping back your chair, you eased yourself out of the seat and gave your muscles a stretch; they were stiff and cramped from being stuck in the same position for a few hours, and your stomach felt heavy from the amount of tea you'd consumed to reserve your place in the café. There was no point in wasting more time loitering somewhere the boy probably couldn't even afford to dine.

Leaving the squat building, you emerged out onto the streets, letting your gaze sift through the passerby's, brushing you off as merely another stranger on the sidewalk.

Not so long ago, you'd had a life not dissimilar to those passing by you; you had a job, money, an apartment. It hadn't been easy to build a life from scratch.

But it sure as hell didn't take much to crumble it back into a pile of dust and ashes.

"[L/N]! [L/N]-san!"

Your body reeled with shock at the familiar voice, your feet falling over one another as you stumbled around in a circle. "Atsushi?"

Sure enough, the snowy-haired male was tripping towards you, a dimpled smile thrown carelessly your way.

"Hey," you choked out, your throat drying up all of a sudden. Your spine tingled with shivers of apprehension, though you were still unsure of why you were so reluctant to execute this mission. You hardly even knew the boy.

Yet here he was, those mottled purple eyes brimming with concern. "Are you okay? You look a bit pale."

You shook your head, smiling forcefully. "All fine. What are you doing here?" Your feet shuffled restlessly, scraping your heel against the loose stones on the path. How exactly were you planning to do this? Coax him into a backstreet and knock him out? If he was part of the ADA, surely he wouldn't fall for such an ignorant trick.