We'll Still Be Together

Chapter 23

The resurrected mafioso had pulled out sticks of metal from his hair. Both were sharp, and both had a green and purple gem on the handles. The handles of the sticks with the purple gems were shaped like butterflies, while the ones with the green gems had floral design.

His eyes narrowed, his eyebrows furrowed, and he had positioned the hairsticks in his hand, ready to throw them.

"Riko, what the hell is happening?" Chuuya asked, lowering his guard just a bit and straightening his posture.

"Just don't lower your guard and get ready." Moriko replied, softening his gaze slightly. "I'll explain later."

Dazai stood there confused, contemplating what to do with the situation.

They bathed in the silence until a Russian accent could be heard from behind them.

"I see you're back and ready, Momo-kun," said the voice.

"When was the last time I heard that nickname?" Moriko asked.

"Probably when we were kids," spoke a Ukrainian accent.

"Ah, right, ten years ago. Before we drifted away for... reasons we couldn't understand." Moriko recalled as he did his best to hold his composure.
"Well, enough with the chit-chat," he sighed, "let's get this started."

Moriko and Nikolai fought head-on while Dazai and Fyodor... they just used psychology.

"You haven't showered in years, have you, Fyodor?"
"And you haven't taken a shower since last week, haven't you? Your bandages smell, by the way."
"Excuse me? ! I shower twice a day! Ask Chuuya, he knows!"
"Ah, come to think of it, where is your dog?"

Sounds of weapons clashed in battle as Moriko and Nikolai fought hand-to-hand, also with the use of their abilities.

Chuuya was with them, throwing whatever rock or branch was near.

"Chuuya, quit throwing branches." Moriko stated, using his ability to summon tree roots from underground up to Nikolai's limbs to hold him back.

"Oh, come on! At least I'm using branches and not those weird, icky— At least I'm not using those slimy, dirty, worm-drenched vines!" Exclaimed Chuuya in attempt to retort.

"My vines are perfectly clean," Moriko corrected, banishing the roots and exchanging them for vines. He'd used the vines to pull Nikolai up to the tree. "That should hold him there. No way of getting down when you're stuck like you're a pig being roasted, huh?" He chuckled, putting his hairpins back to where they were before.

"He's stuck up there." Fyodor pointed blankly at the branch the white-haired male was hanging from.

"That's Blessed Forests for you." Dazai shrugged, looking bored at the sight of it.

Fyodor lowered his arm and stared expressionlessly at Nikolai and listened to his blabbering of "let me down!".

Dazai walked up to the two gingers in which Chuuya was shouting at the captured.

"Kolya, sweetheart, if you don't shut up, I'm not going to braid your hair for a week." Fyodor stated, knowing well enough about his blond's weakness.

"Fedyaaaaa! Help meeeeee!" Nikolai exclaimed.

While Fyodor, Dazai, and Nikolai were where they were, Chuuya and Moriko went somewhere more private.

*****

"Okay, smart stuff. How are you alive? I swear you died." Chuuya questioned with a following assumption, furrowing his brows.

"Well, you know how my ability let's me kill off and resurrect things so long as they are part of nature?" Moriko asked.

"Yeah, so? What about it?" The short one queried.
"I used it on myself when I was fading out."

Silence.

.
.
.

"What?!"

"I know, I know, surprising. Sorry 'bout that, short stuff." The older teased, sneering slyly at the end.

"One, I will never forgive you for that," chime sarcastically by the shorter. "Two, I am nowhere near short."
"And three—!"

"Yeah. Bye. Too lazy to deal with this now." Moriko said, waving him off and walking away.

A/N: ok so i can't rlly post much because I have practice for graduation basically everyday (besides Saturday and Sunday, duh) and I have a lot of other stuff to do so I can't be as consistent with posting. Bye