Tokyo Colony No. 1.
November 11th, 2018.
12:53 PM...
The building looked exactly like every other half-collapsed relic in this district — except for the fact that it was still standing, which in this colony basically counted as a five-star review.
To be perfectly honest, the destruction caused by both curse users and curses alike wasn't that severe to the point that all the buildings were coming down. What exactly was the problem was inside the buildings. You never knew who's camping there, from an innocent bystander in this colony to a mindless curse ready to eat you alive, it could be anything.
Remi stopped at the entrance, arms crossed tight under her chest, jaw doing that thing where she was clearly building up to say something she didn't want to say. I could notice her eyes wandering from me to the building from time to time, and even at the exit of the said building.
"You really don't have to do this," she said, quiet enough that I almost missed it.
"I really do, though." I stepped past her toward the door.
"You don't…" She retorted, almost a bit too harshly for a girl and boy who met just hours ago. But this was also the same boy who saved her life, made a sandwich for her, the very one she tried to kill, and he shrugged it off and kept teasing her by calling her 'Princess'.
"Are points really that important to you? You'll give away your life for those useless things." She chided, almost annoyed at how nonchalant the boy was about his own life. She had seen him fight, he was strong, yes. But this was Reggie they were talking about.
Just being strong wouldn't be enough to face off against him. Even his technique, those helicopter hairs, it's a better technique than she initially thought it was, even she had to admit that, however, it's not enough against Reggie.
Remi's lips pursed into a tight line, her hands clenched with irritation. Just wondering, no, more like cursing one thing.
'Why can't he just listen this one time.'
It was baffling that she was the one thinking like this, someone who was supposed to take people like him to Reggie.
That reminded her of Reggie then, the man who said he would protect her when this entire situation started.
She even believed that if Reggie didn't exist, then she would have died long ago. However, at the same time, now that she was actually thinking due to the conflict of preventing this idiot from meeting Reggie, she couldn't help but wonder whether Reggie had really ever protected her.
To come under Reggie, it wasn't free or out of the goodness of his heart, he had heavy demands. She did everything he asked just because he offered protection, a man who would protect her.
But did he really?
Wasn't it because of him that she had to roam the deadly streets of Shibuya alone to lure out players to him?
Compared to that…
Her eyes roamed over the boy's back. The wound was gone, even he had changed into something that wasn't half-burned, so the back wasn't visible, but she recalled the boy burning off his entire back just to save her.
Her fingers clenched tighter than ever, almost drawing blood.
"Yami—" She sounded one more time.
"Remi." I glanced back, gave her the most reassuring look I could manage, and started walking toward the building.
"Don't worry, I've got this."
She didn't look convinced, but didn't try to stop me after that either, just followed me in.
The inside was surprisingly intact — some kind of old office lobby, dust-covered but structurally sound, and standing dead center in it, waiting like he'd known exactly when we'd arrive, was a blond man in a suit that looked, on closer inspection, to be made entirely of paper pieces.
I had to do a double take at how ridiculous that get-up looked, especially how the stitched-up suit made entirely of small paper pieces left the majority of the grown man's legs bare, as if he was wearing a short skirt.
I certainly could do without that image in my mind. However, not even for a second did I underestimate him for this.
Because, if Gojo was any indication, clothing sometimes is not just for style, but had practical uses for sorcerers.
And if Hazenoki's memories were on point, then those pieces of paper weren't ordinary pieces of paper.
They were part of his technique.
A dense cursed energy radiated off him before he even opened his mouth. That was more than enough to explain he wasn't like Remi here, this one was good with his technique and cursed energy manipulation.
Not at all the "I awakened ten days ago and I'm winging it" vibe both Hanyu and Haba gave off.
Reggie Star, presumably, since Hazenoki's memories obligingly supplied the face along with the confirmation that yes, this was really him and not some elaborate decoy.
He didn't even look at me first.
"Remi," he said, warm as anything, like she'd brought him a nice bottle of wine instead of a stranger who'd very recently killed his last errand boy. "Good work. Another new face."
Remi's expression stayed carefully blank. I felt the tension radiating off her though — she was bracing, waiting for the moment I'd turn on her, learn what she'd done, react.
She had no idea I already knew. Small mercies, I guess, that I could spare her that particular flavor of humiliation for now. I just completely ignored her for now.
Number one rule of facing an enemy is to face the enemy, keep your eyes on the enemy, and observe everything you can even before the fight starts. Because that could make you win half the fight right there. I no longer had the advantage of knowing everything by my memories like I had in Shibuya.
I could only wonder what would have happened if I didn't know about Dagon, Jogo, Mahoraga, or Mahito when facing them. Even with my domain, I might have died. What would I trade away if I didn't even know what made them strong?
Intel was a crucial part of my survival back then, and I don't intend to change that now.
Reggie's attention finally shifted to me, his eyes doing a slow, assessing sweep. Not the crude, sizing-up-a-threat look, wondering how many teeth he had to break to blast this one, like Hazenoki had. Reggie's was more like someone reading the fine print before signing anything.
"And you are?"
"Yami. Yami Akindo." I kept my hands loose at my sides, casual. No reason to open with hostility when he clearly wasn't either. Though I highly doubt my luck, if a miracle struck today, I might have my first non-violent exchange with a major player in the colony.
"And before you ask — no, I'm not interested in knowing how you know Remi here. Just remember this, I asked to be here, not the other way around."
Remi blinked at that, looked at me like I'd said something incomprehensible.
As for Reggie Star, that got the faintest twitch of amusement out of him. "Interesting…"
His eyes roamed to Remi for a second, observing her partly stunned and partly nervous state, and then came back to me.
"Very well, if you say so. So, now tell me, what exactly are you here for, Akindo?"
"Same thing everyone's here for. Points." I shrugged. "The difference is what I plan to do with them."
"Oh?" He tilted his head, genuinely curious now, or doing a very good impression of it. "Enlighten me."
So I did. Same pitch I gave Remi, more or less — enough points to start bending rules, freeing people trapped in these colonies if I could manage it, and eventually finding a way to actually end this whole rotten game instead of just outlasting it one kill at a time.
Reggie listened to the entire thing with the polite, faintly indulgent expression of a man listening to a child explain how he was going to grow up to be an astronaut.
He wasn't the only one who felt like that. If I had any idea how making a few rules could stop this madness, then I might have sounded a bit more confident myself.
By the time I was done, the man seemed to be chuckling. It should have annoyed me, but it didn't. My speech really sounded like a half-cooked excuse I came up with just this instant out of desperation.
The chuckling wasn't mocking in nature though. More like genuine amusement, like I'd told a joke without realizing it. That felt worse than him laughing, to be honest.
"You want to end the Culling Games," he repeated, like the words themselves were funny.
"Yeah. Something wrong with that?" I grumbled.
"Only that you clearly have no idea what you're up against." He said it without malice, almost like he was doing me a favor by pointing it out. "This isn't some accident Kenjaku stumbled into. He's the game master, and everything happening here — every colony, every rule, every death — is part of something much bigger than points and survival."
That got my full attention, though I kept my face carefully neutral.
Bringing up Kenjaku's name to an unknown like me meant either he was trying to draw some sort of reaction from me to figure out how much I myself knew or gauge how ignorant I was.
Though, when it came to this entire Culling Game, I was indeed ignorant. I just happened to know a bit about Kenjaku.
So I listened. Anything he said just filled pieces in my gap of knowledge, no matter how many more plot holes they created later on.
"You know Kenjaku?"
At that he smiled.
"A mutual acquaintance then, I believe. You don't feel like an ancient sorcerer though, how strange." Reggie's tone dropped, more measured now, the amusement fading into something closer to genuine caution.
"I'm not. However, this mutual acquaintance of ours made quite a mess in Shibuya not so long ago…"
"Ah… so you're one of the modern sorcerers. Gotta say, I'm impressed. You hide it well, but I can feel it, that output you're so desperately trying to hold back. That pressure your cursed energy possesses."
"I'm flattered. You're not half bad yourself for an ancient relic, but can we talk about Kenjaku and this whole mess now?"
He at that just shrugged…
"What? You didn't seem to have any problem talking a second ago?" I narrowed my eyes.
"It's not like I have a problem talking about it, but I myself am not clear. Whatever's coming next, it won't be small, I only know that. Knowing Kenjaku, I'm certain that by the end of this all, he will drop a bomb on top of us. I'd wager most of the players in these colonies are already dead men walking and don't know it yet."
I filed that away carefully. Meaning we were only on borrowed time and no one even knew what that Kenjaku was cooking up. That somehow had me more uncomfortable than the real possibility of having to fight him to the death in the future.
However, it lined up with things I already half-knew, half-suspected, but hearing it confirmed by someone clearly better informed than the average colony rat was worth the price of admission alone.
"So that's your excuse, then," I said. "For all the killing. Survival of the fittest, gotta stack points before the real storm hits."
"It's not an excuse. It's math." He spread his hands, his paper suit rustling faintly. "The stronger I am when whatever Kenjaku's planning actually happens, the better my odds of walking out the other side. Everyone here is doing the same calculation. I'm just better at it than most."
"You could stop." I said it plainly, no anger behind it. I already was a bit too used to this place to feel anger building up like the first time. I just gave a straightforward offer. "Whatever's coming, killing your way through a hundred more people between now and then doesn't actually fix your position. It just adds bodies."
"Better other people's bodies than mine, wouldn't you agree?" he shot back.
And, no matter how big of a justice rat I wished to be, I had to agree with the man. Better other people's bodies than mine.
"I really can't argue with that…" I grumbled, earning a rather cheeky smile from him.
"However, you're clearly strong enough to protect yourself without killing. And I doubt that all you were doing was protecting yourself by making others lure other players into traps."
"Oh my… 'trap' is a very harsh word, you know. I'm not a brute. I can see in your approach as well, violence is not the first thing you do. We are the same, you know. You and me." He stated, which made me feel like insects were crawling all over my skin.
"So… how about it? You could join me instead of wasting time trying to convince me otherwise." He said it just as plainly back, like we were negotiating a business merger instead of standing on opposite sides of a very obvious line. "You're clearly capable — Hazenoki was no pushover, and you're standing here without a scratch that matters. I could use someone like you. Better odds for both of us."
That made me stiff. How did he learn about Hazenoki? That happened, what, a few hours ago? My eyes halfway shifted to where Remi was sulking with her head down, but I stopped…
She had no way to contact him. Phones and other electronics don't work inside the colonies. And now that I think about it, the man was here in this room waiting as if expecting us to come… he clearly knew we were coming.
My eyes darted to him again, my body tensing just a bit. It wasn't a comfortable feeling learning that the enemy had his eyes on you all along while you weren't even aware of it.
"I'm not interested." I said with firm conviction.
"You haven't heard the terms yet."
"Don't need to. Whatever they are, they end with more people dying so you can keep score." I shook my head. "Not my kind of math."
Something shifted in his expression — not anger, more like mild disappointment, the look of a man crossing an option off a list.
"Then I assume," he said, folding his paper-sleeved arms, "you're here to take my points instead."
"That was the plan, yeah. Preferably the version where you just hand them over when it becomes physically possible to do so in the future and we both go about our day."
"That," Reggie said, the faintest smile returning, sharper this time, "was never going to happen."
The lobby went very quiet. The kind where my instincts were screaming to be on guard. And sure enough.
I didn't see it, but I sensed it. A fast-approaching figure with cursed energy. And he was heading directly for…
I moved before the thought was even completely formed in my mind. One second I was right in front of Reggie, and the next I was diving toward Remi when I saw a man rushing directly for her.
#Slash.
Pain shot up from my side as claw marks tore through my new shirt I stole, I mean borrowed, from the nearby department store.
Blood dripped down, and finally the culprit's face was visible in front of me.
'Chizuru Hari, another one of Reggie Star's shirtless weirdos… good lord, I'm happy I have Hazenoki's memories.'
My eyes flickered to my side. Deep claw wounds had painted my new T-shirt red, and then to the man's hands. His fingers were like fangs. His technique, most likely.
Bloody hell… and here I thought I had any chance of a non-violent resolution.
xXx
A/N : Man this chapter was way to big... what you guys things, did I do Reggie's chracter right ?
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