Itsy Bitsy Spider

51. Bumblebee

The group split up outside the café. Lucky, Rein, Machi, and Feitan accompanied Shal towards where he claimed the attacker was. A large group was better after all, and if they had Machi, they could avoid the worst outcomes.

Phinks went off in his own, "In case it's a dead line," he'd stated.

Feitan, behind his painted skull and dark bangs, had said he would be safe "Because no one likes you here."

Thus prompted an argument of such volume that one could easily hear it from down the block. One could easily hear it even if one happened to be standing in the next alley over, the darkness shrouding them from sight and the noon heat, and the soft smell of cigarettes lingering in the air as they inclined their ear towards what the group had to say.

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"I knew it. You were here, huh?" Kalluto pushed aside a few crates at the back of the alleyway to reveal Zushi, who he'd been looking for. At his slouched figure, he raised an eyebrow. "Have you been crying?"

"N-no! Why would you suggest such a thing?" Zushi wiped furiously at his eyes, as if somehow doing it with force would mask the mistiness welling up in them. He sat on the cold ground, the cobble stones more covered in grime than whatever pink, sugary powder covered the rest of the city. At the end of the alley was a large dumpster, and it was between this and the wall that Zushi had hid himself, covering himself from sight with whatever else had been thrown out. "I have been strong, all by myself!"

"Really." Kalluto swept a look around the narrow area. "It only took me half an hour to find you, you know. You're not the kind of person who would willingly watch all the things that happens in this city; if anything, it would make you uncomfortable. So you would avoid people, and that narrowed down the areas of search a lot. You got a sharp brain in that thick head of yours, so you must have noticed that the alleyways weren't safe either, because a lot of the scenarios happen there too. So the only place you could possibly be hiding at was either the café the rest of us met in before, or the one place in the city where there would be zero chance of anything story-worthy happening." He eyed Zushi, who refused to look back at him. "The dumpsters."

He hugged his knees tighter against his chest.

"Am I wrong?"

Zushi shook his head, not meeting his gaze for a while. "Am..." he said finally, "...am I that easy to predict?" When the other didn't answer immediately, he hung his head deeper. "That's not good for fighting, my master said so."

Kalluto was silent, biting at his lower lip before sticking his hand out toward him. "For now, you just get out of there. Nothing good can come from sitting in the trash."

He finally looked up, and took the outstretched hand gratefully, making sure his eyes were dry with a final rub at his face before smiling. "Osu!"

He pulled him up to his feet with a bounce. "What does that mean, anyway?" he asked, coaxing him out to the backstreets to avoid the crowds that Zushi so hated in this place. "You say that a lot."

"It is a word from the country Shingen-Ryu martial arts form originated from! It's normally used by people who practice martial arts, and normally used as a way to say yes." Zushi stuck out his arms and puffed out his chest to demonstrate. "Master Wing taught it also as a response to respect your superiors. I mainly just use it for 'yes', though," he admitted.

"Heh, so it is something your master taught you." Kalluto paused in his step and hung his bangs low, covering his face. "Hey, how do you do that?"

He looked back, curious. "Do what?"

It felt like the world was swaying beneath his feet, and for a brief moment, he wondered if bile would rise in his throat right then and there. He could hear echoes of his name over and over, slowly changing into 'darling' and 'dear', and suddenly even those being cut out from her sentences entirely. "Just kind of..." How? How did Zushi, someone who lived and breathed what his master had taught him, how did he-? "That, you know? Taking something you learn, taking someone else's lessons and changing them for your own sake."