Obsession (Ayano x Budo)

Chapter 36

Knock. Knock. Knock. "Ayano. It's me."

Budo waited.

Movement shifted inside, from one room to another in the form of an almost silent pair of footsteps. Budo shut his eyes and listened to her as she migrated across the floor - gentle as air, fluid like water. He could imagine her descending down the staircase, her feet sweeping across carpet as she neared the front door-

And then she stopped.

Budo could feel her presence on the other side of the front door. He could hear her heart thudding in her chest, see her as she looked through the glass peephole. He opened his eyes and lifted his head to stare at the small circle in front of him. He lifted a hand and waved casually, hoping to appear relaxed despite the rapid whirling of feelings inside him, which he was trying to push down.

The door cracked open.

Budo's eyes shot to the semi-open side of the door. Wordlessly, her own dark eyes considered him from around the door's edge. After a second, Ayano drew back and pulled the door fully open. 

Budo stepped into the house. He heard the door close behind him, and when he turned around, Ayano was facing him, arms crossed. She wasn't in her school uniform - instead dressed in black jeans, heavy duty shoes, and a jacket left unzipped over her shoulders. Budo approved - the black complimented her ethereal, almost ghostly features. The house was deadly quiet as she watched him, and Budo felt obligated to break the silence.

"Ayano, your parents aren't home, are they? So you're on -"

"Do you mind if I interrupt you?" Ayano suddenly cut in, voice sharp and clear as a knife. Without waiting for a reply, she continued, and Budo shut his mouth obediently, not at all offended, "From our conversation during lunch today... You were talking about helping me get revenge, weren't you?"

Budo simply nodded.

Ayano seemed only half satisfied. She looked sideways as she gathered her thoughts. "I appreciate the offer to help, but..." She took a moment to sigh, and then looked at Budo directly. He met her eyes, saw how beautifully dark grey and determined they were, and he felt his insides melt. "I don't know if you are capable of hurting others."

The urge to crack a smile was tempting. There was nothing he wouldn't do - in fact, hadn't already done - for her. But Ayano was being dead serious right now, and he would do and act however she wanted him to. He answered the unspoken question hanging in the air. 

"I'm fully prepared to kill someone tonight. Even many people, if necessary."

She shut her eyelids and nodded sub-consciously. He waited for her to speak again, during which Budo examined her features with interest - She looked tired, despite the confident aura emanating from her. In his ideal world, he would make her some coffee or tea, and they would drink together in his home. She opened her eyes again.

"Thank you." Budo knew she didn't say those words lightly, and that made him happy. "But I have to ask," Ayano carried on, "Why are you so determined to help me?"

Because I love you. Because you meaning everything to me. Because right now I cannot breathe. Even thinking these answers nudged the obsessive part of him awake, which was becoming more and more difficult to keep under the surface when he was close to her. With sudden comprehension, he could understand how Ayano had failed to maintain composure around Taro last week.

Budo grasped mentally for a believable answer, and felt it reach out to him. The truth. "I also want revenge," he said. "And I have the same enemy as you - Info-chan."

Ayano raised a questioning eyebrow. "She is my ally, not my enemy. I want to kill the person responsible for paralysing Taro."

"Actually..." Budo waited until Ayano had sensed the severity of what he was about to say. She unfolded her arms and stared at him head-on. "Info-chan betrayed you."

Ayano said nothing. Budo knew she wanted him to explain his reasoning, and he did so.

"Last week, you asked Info-chan for a favour - to make sure I was hurt. Don't worry. I'm not mad. We can talk about it another time," he added after seeing the look on her face. "So, continuing, Info-chan disobeyed, and instead sent the delinquents after Taro Yamada."

"No," Ayano sighed. "That's wrong. It was just a mistake."

Budo, by means of an answer, shrugged off the backpack on his back. He slung it off one shoulder, unzipped it, and reached inside. Ayano observed wordlessly as he pulled out a cellphone.

He extended a hand to her, cellphone resting in the centre of his palm. Gingerly, she picked it up and turned it over. Little skull stickers were plastered over the plastic as decoration, and she wanted to roll her eyes. "I didn't realise your taste in decoration was so cliched, Budo."

She said my name. "It's not mine," he muttered. "It's from the leader of the delinquents."

Ayano's head shot up in unexpected surprise, and then went down again. Immediately, she opened the phone. "Check the messages. Under Info-chan," Budo mentioned. He watched her carefully as she looked through them. Her brows were ever-so-slightly furrowed in concentration, her lips parted just a millimeter. The longer he stared at them, the more he wanted to step closer to her. Soon, soon, he told himself.

He could tell when she had reached the important one.

""Your target is Taro Yamada. He may be accompanied by a slightly larger boy. Do not make a mistake. Attached is a photo and his current location. Hurt only Taro, but do not kill him. Tell him Ayano Aishi sends her regards.""  

Budo echoed what Ayano had been reading. He saw as Ayano's face instantly became blank. She flicked the cellphone shut with a click that snapped through the room. He wondered what thoughts must be going through her head at that moment, and came to one conclusion:

"She's a real bitch, right?"

Ayano did a double take, but after a moment said, humorlessly, "Yes. She is."

"What are you going to do?" He already knew the answer. She was quiet, and then...

"She hurt Taro," Ayano whispered, looking up to the ceiling with a flash of distress across her face, unexpectedly caught in a rare moment of vulnerability. Regret instantly surged through Budo to have caused her such grief. Acting on impulse, he stepped forward, arms already reaching out to touch and comfort her.

"Stop," she commanded, suddenly, head whipped towards him, expression daring him, and he stopped. Hurt, but understanding, Budo retreated. Ayano shook her head, and with the movement, the pain fell off her face.

"I always knew I couldn't trust her... Yes, I'll kill her." Like a switch, her face was suddenly filled with silent, destructive anger. She looked ferocious, like a panther about to let out a rip-roaring snarl. It was an amazing sight to witness, and Budo forgot his rejection as he was filled with appreciation for her. She handed the phone back to him, and he compliantly put it away.

The silence was extended, during which Ayano did nothing but stare at Budo with that deadly severity. Her eyes were like a pair of luminous obsidians- intelligence and searing anger firing behind the cool darkness surrounding them. Budo could see that with every second passing, they were making connections, forming mental links. He had managed to show her who her true enemy was.

Ayano abruptly let out a sharp exhale and declared, "I will ask you more about how you got all this information later. For now, the most important thing to do is to make a plan of action."

Ayano started walking further into the house, probably to get a pen and paper to start planning. Budo turned to follow her.    

".... We must figure out where she lives, who is protecting her, and-"

Budo could practically see her ideas as they started rapidly forming inside her head. He hated to interrupt her, but... "Wait, Ayano, hold on-"

Ayano turned around, and her impatient eyes confronted his. "Yes? What? Is there something else you haven't told me yet?"

She was ready to kill something. Anything.

"Ayano... We don't need to plan anything. I've already got Info-chan for you. She's waiting at my house."