Rebellion

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Naoki stood in annoyance as he tapped his foot. He was in front of Benjiro's house, waiting for the much smaller man to open the door. His house was huge and very obviously expensive. It was so apparent he was rich that it was laughable. It took him way too long to even open it, and he had much more important things to do. 

Finally, he opened. His gaze had to go down by at least 20 centimeters to look at his eyes. His big blue eyes seemed worried, but Naoki didn't quite believe what he had to say was important. 

"Hello, Setsuko-San." He looked much less energetic than he usually did. 

"Hello to you too." It was noticeable that Naoki greeted only for politeness, not by his own will. 

Benjiro's hair grew quite fast. His hair was cut to his shoulders by Hiroji, but it already grew as much as to his upper back in just two months. His oversized hoodie made him look even smaller as he sat down on the couch. The whole house was neat and it looked perfectly designed for his personality. Naoki noticed tons of papers on the floor, all containing files from the gang members of The White Walls. He furrowed his eyebrows. 

"If this is about Tsukamoto, I don't want to hear it." Naoki said immediately. 

He disliked his sister liking of him. Not because of him as a person, but because Ayase was trying to help out with something that she really shouldn't be helping out with. He shouldn't know anything. Teruo would lose it. It would be too hard to handle. And if he becomes overly emotional... He didn't know what Hiroji could do to him. 

"No, it's not about him..." Benjiro said seriously, completely being out of character.

Out of the piles, he pulled out one. He gave it to Naoki.

"Is there supposed to be anything suspicious on this?" Naoki asked him midway through reading.

It was all normal. Shiro's file seemed normal and all of his information looked alright. He didn't feel like reading anything that wasn't important. Although he noticed something.

"Why is the year 2002. circled?" He asked, noticing his birthday was circled with a light red pen.

"I honestly found this file odd. Like it was made later than 1999. But I didn't look much into it... But then..." Benjiro gave him another file.

It was yellow and faded out, barely visible. It was his birth certificate. It was delicate to the touch, feeling like it could break any second, visibly old. It was written in very fancy handwriting. But he soon noticed why Benjiro was confused. 

'Name: Akiyama Shiro

Date of Birth: August 21, 1944'

Naoki looked in surprise. That means...

"A demon. Setsuko-San, we have a demon in the gang." Benjiro said seriously, looking like that was really bothering him. 

"I don't think this is a threat." Naoki sighed and put the paper back on the floor. 

"Not a threat!? He's a demon!" Benjiro raised his voice.

Naoki kept quiet, noticing that Benjiro gained his cool back under his stern look. As if he knew he shouldn't act like that.

"He hasn't been a threat so far, he seems to be more of help than anything." He repeated his previous words, just this time explaining a bit better.

"He could explode at any moment." Benjiro tried hard not to let get swayed by his emotions.

"He did it once and it helped us. I don't think that timid little boy can harm any of us. He looks like he quite likes us actually." Naoki continued, but he saw this made Benjiro angrier.

"He could harm your sister." Benjiro decided to play with his weakness, to get to the better good.

Naoki seemed dissatisfied by his obvious tactic. 

"You could harm her more than him. I don't think you noticed she isn't going out because she sneaks out well. I just decide to ignore it. I wonder how that would turn out if my father found out, hmmm..." Naoki returned the favor, making Benjiro feel really bad and ashamed.

"Last time I checked, Akiyama was the one who saved her, not you." He continued. 

Benjiro looked at the floor, feeling dissatisfied and ashamed. He was proven wrong. He didn't like that. He shouldn't have tried using Naoki's weaknesses against him. It just stung more than it should have.

"Look, we have more use of him for now. We're almost done with the digging, so when we're finished with that job I'll see what I'll do with him and I'll see if he's proven dangerous towards anyone but our enemy." Naoki finished off, feeling bad he played stupid games with him.

It wasn't his tactic. Nor should it ever be. He just disliked when Ayase was used against him, it just always made him do very dumb decisions. He didn't want to make any of his teammates feel bad, so he tried to explain one more time, this time without anything that could hurt him.

"But..." Benjiro tried, still wanting Naoki to rethink that decision. 

"No buts. I made a decision." Naoki stood up and started going towards the exit. 

Benjiro just looked at the floor, feeling terribly guilty he tried doing that. He just wanted to help everyone. He couldn't imagine what would happen if Shiro exploded in front of those people, how much he would harm... But he wondered how he even acted so normal, so human. All of the demons left in this town were animalistic and looked like they didn't even know the human language. Was he even so much of a threat as he thought Shiro was? Did Naoki think of all of this before making a decision? 

He sighed. Of course he did. He wasn't dumb. He was probably even smarter than him. He wouldn't just let Ayase, or anyone in that team get hurt. He wasn't like Hiroji. 

"You're a good leader, Setsuko-San." Benjiro said suddenly, just as Naoki was leaving. 

Naoki looked surprised at the sudden compliment. Benjiro could only smile at him.

"I try to be..." Naoki mumbled, but he did let out a small smile.

Benjiro had an odd effect on people. He made them feel this odd positivity. 

"I was stupid. You were right. I'm sorry." Benjiro apologized.

"Ah, it's alright. I'd rather have you opposing me than agreeing with every word I say." Naoki answered, opening the door.

"I need to go home now, I don't like leaving Ayase alone for long." he explained as he opened the door.

"I understand. Please protect her." Benjiro added. 

"I always do..." Naoki mumbled quietly as he closed the door of his huge house.

Benjiro was left in silence, his thoughts still feeling guilty.