You are my king, and you are my queen

Chapter 32

Tachihara found it way easier than it should be playing as a blinded fool in love. All he had to do was push dazai's warnings to the side and treat the lady as a normal person and his act was sold. It was quite disturbing to realise if he hadn't been told what they did and who this 'lily' actually was, he would have been exactly what his role was. Even now, as he laughed and joked with her, he had to constantly remind himself not to fall for this beautiful lie. It was a shame, if he was being honest, she was his type, witty and pretty. Ah well, no one man could have everything, he supposed.
Thankfully for his sanity, she soon revealed her true intentions, suddenly throwing herself on him, giggling as thin yet muscular arms slithered around his neck.
"You're amazing, tachihara san."
"Ahaha...is that so?"
Being flustered was what he was supposed to act as, but he still tensed as he felt the movements that were anything but innocent as she lay on him. It wasn't that he doubted his ability to fend her off, actually he did but that wasn't the problem at hand, it was that he knew that this match between himself and phantasm would be one of the deciding factors between the war of dazai and akui. As he said before, they were two three year olds fighting, and the rest of them were like toys, although what chuuya san and this lady were was still debatable. Indeed, akui had few pieces, but tachihara could see why, given that this lady's aura of power was palpable, more intense than his own. Taking a deep breath as he caught a glint of metal out of the corner of his eye, he activated the ability that he had not had the pleasure of touching since he started his infiltration into the mafia. The soft gasp was all he needed to know he had succeeded in countering the first attack.
"Ah, so you knew."
The switch flicked, former warm brown eyes turned as sharp as that bent needle in her hand. Well, this was much easier for him to handle fighting her, her previous act had shaken him up quite a bit, this image of an enemy was strangely calming as she slowly slid off, taking a few steps away from him as he remained on the couch. It was with bated breath that he watched her hands move behind her back, and with a snap of fingers that their surroundings spun into pitch black. Yet, the feeling of the couch beneath his fingers and the fact he was still comfortably seated proved what dazai had said, her ability were mere illusions, exactly as her name suggested.
However, it still took him by surprise as he narrowly evaded the sword that was about to stab his head, warned only by the whistling of wind. Guess this would add to the list of times he wished he had jouno's hearing, since he was pretty much blind in the current situation, he couldn't even see his hands damn it. That wouldn't be much of a problem in itself, but the fact was, the sword she was using wasn't made of metal. It didn't make much sense but still it quite literally ruined all his plans of using his ability to end this easily. Although he expected her to swing the sword to the side to make an attempt of going for his neck to chop his head off, well, it was with much surprise that he sensed the presence of the sword disappearing entirely. Sure, he wasn't as amazing as jouno, but now he couldn't hear a thing either, just that thundering ringing silence and his own heartbeat that was strangely slow. Unless...
Ripping off one of the metal buttons on his suit, it was just in time to block an attack from above, but then, it shattered. Glass, of all the things it could be made of, it had to be glass. Indeed, ingenius, not good for him.
Jumping away from the rain of shards, he raised his fingers to his neck and yes, his heartrate was much much faster than whatever he was hearing. He also had the pleasure of tripping over the table, that was definitely not there before he was sure it was further away, and feeling his heart skip a beat. Before he fell over the table in an unceremonious heap. Another button sacrificed as once again he listened to his instincts now that his senses were pretty much useless, and another rain of shards causing him to jump back again, and bang into what seemed to be a cupboard that was again not supposed to be there. Was that what this crazy person was doing in the time he was sitting peacefully on the couch in the dark, moving around furniture? How the hell did she even do it that fast, he was pretty sure he had some hearing just now so he should have heard furniture scrapping over the floor, and none of them should have been an easy lift for the seemingly petite lady.
Oh wait, maybe, because chuuya was a good example of "looks smaller than you, but shame on you he can lift more than you". Wait sorry, the perfect example. Anyway, tachihara digressed, he was pretty screwed now, since it appears even his sense of touch was stolen, given he should be feeling something now given his body positioning but nope nothing. What did dazai say, oh this was an illusion ability? Oh he believed him, he had naively thought it would be that easy, and now he could see and hear no shit and was relying purely on instinct. Even his training as a hunting dog hadn't needed him to go this far, at most it was just like before, no sight no hearing, and now he was deprived of most of his senses, and he wasn't inclined to see if his sense of taste or smell was still working, not that he had an opportunity to.
As tachihara was about to desperately pull out his mind cauldron and cook up a plan that probably wouldn't work, the lights were turned on again. Or rather, lo and behold, he could see and hear and touch things again. Ow, his eyes weren't ready for the assault of the light yet.
And his ears weren't prepared for the amount of bullshit he was about to hear either.
"My my Lily, what are you doing? Attacking an ally?"
...did he miss something? He did, didn't he?
"Long time no see, tachihara."
...what the hell?
Tachihara was now inclined to check into a hospital, given that he was clearly going senile a bit too early, how on earth could he miss such a big development? Sure he was in the mafia for quite a while, but surely jouno would have updated him on this when they last met, unless it was recent, but still, what on earth was going on?
"...commander fukuchi?"