Twisted Fate | Akutagawa Ryūnosuke ✓

22 | Until Death

"How's your wound?"

You ground your teeth together in frustration, eyeing Akutagawa with a frown. "Which one?" Your voice was already splitting at its seams, unraveling from the emotions provoking your heart.

A vein popped from his temple, yet he managed to remain composed, folding his hands neatly in his lap. "I think you should go back now. You need to rest. Don't let my efforts go in vain."

You nodded, defeated. "I know, I will." Yet you remained frozen on the spot, shuddering small breaths through your nose as the coldness of the evening began to creep into your bones. You didn't want to leave him. Not just yet.

"I do have a heart," he said out of the blue, clutching his hand to his chest as he peered down.

"Hm. Though it's hard to find life in something that's already died."

Akutagawa's lip curled, his skin paling again. "It beats."

"It's broken," you said brusquely. "Listen to it, Ryu. It's fragile, barely hanging on. Just like you are."

Akutagawa's breathing quickened, his fingers scraping into a clenched fist, as he struggled to quell his temper. His eyes were fixed intently on something over your shoulder, as if one glance at you would send him over the edge. "I am not weak. I am strong," he told you in a clipped whisper. "The strong live. The weak die. I will live."

You stayed quiet, turning your face away from him. You were scared to look him in the eye, in case he saw how much you were breaking because of him. "I'm going back now. Will you stay here?"

He gave a clipped nod. "I want to be alone."

Before you could stop yourself, you leaned over to him and pressed your lips right against his ear. "Don't you think you've been alone for too long?"

You pulled away instantly, hopping off the wall with a staggering away. He didn't speak out to stop you, but you felt his eyes on you the entire time.

You were almost at the lip of the alleyway when something tore the air in front of you and buried itself right beside your foot. You peered down at the rectangular piece of metal now wedged firmly into the ground.

A bullet.

"Bloody hell, how many enemies do you have?" You berated as Akutagawa skidded to your side, lifting his eyes to the overhanging rooftops in search of movement. It hung still.

"You need to run," he informed you without taking his gaze off the buildings. Dusk was beginning to settle, canvasing the sky with blood red streaks and painting a gruesome glow over the tiles.

You cursed loudly, shifting your weight. "You think I can run in this condition? I have a better chance if I stay and fight."

Recognizing the futility in arguing back, Akutagawa summoned his Rashomon, the black coat by his waist lifting on its own accord and warping into a myriad of twisted shapes. "Then stay behind me."

You could only nod, falling short of breath as your chest grew tighter. Why was it getting harder to breathe all of a sudden?

More bullets rained unseen from the sky, slamming into the ground around you with small thuds of impact. "Where are they... coming from?" You panted, trying to shake away the dizziness gripping your thoughts. Your vision blurred around the edges, like a camera lens pivoting out of focus all of a sudden, and you swayed to the side. "Wait - over there!"

Akutagawa was on the rooftop within seconds, scrabbling after the hidden perpetrator. A staircase made of dark iron clanged noisily a few metres away and loose pebbles skittered off the tiles, bouncing off the gutter to land in the bins below, throwing you into a frenzy of paranoia.