To Be A Scrapper (Suzuya Juuzou)

Chapter 71

PREVIOUS TRIVIA: Who is the most organized out of the elites?

Answer: Shin

He definitely has to be. Working with Jiro and Ryuu can get messy at times, although Jiro is pretty okay with keeping his stuff in place. But sometimes Jiro's muse overpowers him and he looks like desperate artist trying to capture art in the moment XD and Ryuu just sucks at keeping his shit together.

~~~

The waiting area had never been a loud place, Emi remembered, but the silence that dawned upon the room as she entered made her very bones chill. Perhaps it had been the soft clicking of their shoes as they came upon the room, or maybe the way her breath was coming out in short puffs, or the warmness of Jiro's hand between hers that attracted every single pair of eyes on the group. Immediately after entering she felt their gazes like bricks against her skin.

Harsh, heavy and deadly.

So many unfamiliar faces appeared across her vision as she skimmed through the gathering of scrappers that had all stopped their movements and were now watching her. Emi's heart sped a bit, and suddenly she was unable to stand still as she shifted her weight between her feet. Some familiar faces turned up, these carrying a lighter stare which was almost entirely clouded by surprise instead of a need for asserting dominance.

Her name escaped a pair of lips, soon being picked up by every single mouth as it now danced across the wide room like a chorus of prayers. As the mutters got louder, so did Emi's pounding heart. The stares morphed, which once were cold and unforgiving now held a studying, astonished look. The walls seemed to close in on her with each mention of her name, desperate to hug Emi's figure. She felt the weight of the room on her shoulders, spreading through her entire body as it consumed her whole.

After long years of wait, their child had finally returned home.

Emi was too lost taking in every inch of the room that she failed to notice a particular gaze locked on hers, but he certainly hadn't failed to notice her.

It was a boy who stood at the very end of the room. Snow white hair framed his face perfectly, cascading down his shoulders in soft waves as his delicate, porcelain skin seemed to glow under the lighting despite the countless marks and scars littered across his body. But his most interesting feature was his bright, blood red eyes that were wide in incredulity as they stared at the girl across the room.

He was completely frozen in place, his heart hammering against his chest, exploding in his ears as his spinal chord sent waves of shudders down his entire body. Something about that girl made his heart clench like an old rag being stripped of its last drops of water. His voice caught in his throat, sound completely abandoning him and he was rendered useless, managing to utter nothing more than a whisper of her name as he stared at the girl.

His brain squeezed in pain, the name resonating through his entire being as the scrappers repeated it over and over again.

Emi... Who was that girl? Why was his body shutting down on him? Why was his heart begging for her to look his way? Not a single question could be answered, and the thought brought an even stronger wave of pain across his chest.

The pain was soon opaqued, however, by a sudden surge of inexplicable anger as he caught sight of the girl's hand interlaced with the blond's.

It was like a wildfire alit his entire body, bruning to his very core as his crimson gaze circled around the group of unfamiliar faces. The girl's face rattled against his skull.

Why hadn't she noticed him?

He was enraged, utterly undignified at the treatment he was recieving from the group. He was not just any scrapper, he was at the very top, and those at the bottom could do nothing more than look up at him. Yet the group entered like they didn't know their place among the ranks.