Aquablaze [4/??, Hiroto/Shou]
~ chapter four ~
Aoi and his fellow angels could only find out one possible location where Tora might be. Apparently it was, according to Kai, “way up north” and could take days of travel just to get there. Ono drove us for a while, before dropping us off for a short break at a small town of only two thousand residents. He and Sakai wanted to follow us, but Aoi and Nao refused their offer - “We don’t want any harm done to you,” Aoi explained.
We jumbled into a jazz bar. It was fairly quiet, if you didn’t count the live music coming from the jazz band. There weren’t a lot of people around, but we still took a table at the back, calling for random drinks. I ordered the first thing on the cocktail list, but Shou only asked for cold soymilk. I opened my mouth to question him - after all, this was a bar, wasn’t it? - but Aki shot me a look that clearly said, “Keep quiet, child.”
Nobody said anything, not even when the drinks arrived. We thanked the waitress and waited until she left. I lifted my glass and took cautious sip. It tasted like peaches mixed with vodka.
“Like it?” Aki smirked quietly. I nodded.
Aoi took out a map and spread it out on the table. He and Ruki hovered over it for a brief moment; they didn’t say anything, but something in the back of my head told me they were communicating via telepathy. Finally, Aoi nodded and Ruki snapped his fingers to get our wandering attention back.
“Right,” He began smoothly. “Aoi-kun and I’ve analyzed this town. There is more than one way to our next destination, but after much consideration, we’ve decided that the quickest way is through this -” He pointed at a spot on the map. “ - cave.”
There was a loud crash. We all turned to see the waitress on her knees, hands frantically shaking to clear up the broken glass, her high ponytail swaying left and right, left and right as she apologized over and over again.
Still, nobody, not even a pretty girl, could get pass Ruki’s sharp instinct.
“You surprised?” He raised an eyebrow at her. She blushed and he smirked. “Stand up.”
Her blush deepened as she did so, wiping her wet palms on her skirt.
“Now,” Ruki continued, obviously enjoying the fun. “Please answer this question: what’s your name, miss?”
“M-Miko. Just Miko.”
Anyone could tell it was a fake name, but Ruki ignored it. “Thank you, Miko-san. I have another question: what’s so scary about a simple cave?”
“Well…” She lowered her voice. “It’s just superstition, sir, but people here say that cave’s haunted.”
Reita’s eyes widened a little. “Haunted?”
She nodded. “Yeah, haunted. By a ghost - a dangerous one.”
“How come?” Reita leaned closer to her.
“Anou, it’s a really long story -”
“We’ve got some time, now soot.” Ruki demanded, his eyes piercing into hers. She shivered slightly, before nodding again.
“Okay… it was two hundred years ago. There was this organization called VISION - don’t ask me what it means, I don’t know. Anyways, VISION’s not your ordinary group - they’re monster hunters; you know, they track down harmful predators and kill them. Every agent, however, is sorted into a particular division, depending on their skills - for example, strong fighters are put into MUCC, while the brains belong to Plastic Tree and the really weird ones make up LuLu and Nega.
“But VISION’s greatest actors are SuG. They’re sneaky rats - they act all high and bubbly and adorable, but they’re secretly nasty deep dwn. The nastiest one’s Takeru - he young but he does his job ruthlessly.
“On one not-so-special day, Takeru was given a mission. There’s a rumour floating around that some quasi-volcano deity monster thing’s taken the cave as his new home, and the - this town used ot be a village - villager’s were all scared. So VISION sent Takeru there to clear things up - but first he’s gotta make sure the target really is a monster.
“Takeru, as he had done with so many other missions, immediately packed and left. He went directly to the cave, a pistol in hand just in case of the target was hungry for meat. The cave’s extremely long and dark - but a few feet in there and he, for the very first time of his life, was surprised.
“Before him was a child’s paradise. No, it’s not overly lacy or frilly or whatever children liked back then - in fact, it’s quite gothic and even gloomy with all the candles and such - but… well, let’s just say there’re dolls and toys every where, not to mention a great big cheesecake in the middle of a giant sea shell. And guess what? The place was taken - not by a monster, but by a man.
“Of course, Takeru still held his guard, but seriously? He let it down in five seconds. Why? The man smiled at him. No, it wasn’t an evil sinister smile that dripped sadism, but it was a… how do you call it… a shy smile; kind of like how you’d smile at someone after being isolated from society for a really long time. Anyways, Takeru couldn’t help but smile back, and soon enough, they were eating cake and having afternoon tea together. Not your every day horror story, yeah?
“The man called himself Tsukasa. Just Tsukasa. He’s really lonely - been living with himself for a quite a while now, so Takeru, believe it or not, mushed down and decided to keep Tsukasa company - I mean, he can’t be a hideous quasi-oceanic deity monster, right? So yeah. Tsukasa’s a real nice man, actually - the toys he make? He’d go down to the village when it’s all dark and leave them for the children there. Not to mention he’s a great cook as well - he’d have cake with Takeru every day, then do sit-ups and such to burn the fat - gotta look good and stay healthy, no? And guess what happened? They kissed and fell in love.
“By then Takeru had forgotten why he was there in the first place - well, not really, it’s more like he chose to ignore his job. Eventually he moved in with Tsukasa, eating cake with him, drinking tea with him, even making toys with him. They had many conversations, but Tsukasa was quite closed up when it came to his life - he’d go silent at a question he didn’t like and Takeru would immediately change the subject. Perfect lovers, yeah?
“Then of course, every story needs a conflict. VISION somehow found out about Takeru and Tsukasa’s little romance and being the jerks they were, decided that it had to end, one way or another. Now, VISION’s merciless, but they were clever too - they sent the other SuG members, Chiyu, Yuji, Masato and Shinpei, to talk sense into Takeru’s clouded head.
“But Takeru wouldn’t listen to them. Tsukasa’s a peaceful person - at least, that’s what Takeru saw him as - and that peacefulness somehow succeeded in converting Takeru into the light side. SuG failed and eventually went back to VISION, but of course, VISION wasn’t ready to give up, so they sent their top members: Karyu, Zero and Hizumi.”