𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄-𝐋𝐀𝐏𝐒𝐄 [Tokyo Rev.][YAKUZA!OP!F!R]

004: ODDITY-SMITTEN

TIMESKIP: SANO RESIDENCE, 3AM

It felt like a dream. Like all of the soft lullabies he'd heard singing softly into the shell of his ear into a complete silence, strumming a nightmare's tune. His cold gaze narrowed at the blank ceiling below his pale skin, adorned with a harshly contrasting black beneath, brows furrowed in what seemed to be a deathly concentration- but no.

He couldn't grasp it.

He couldn't look at you and confidently point out all the little odds that crept through your skin's pores. It was something even atoms failed to fathom and demonstrate, like a burning ray of sunlight down his fallen body, crashing down his wings just as Icarus bid the sun goodbye. You drew people in, you slowly coaxed hands into reaching out for you, like longing beasts crawling to burning embers, stung a metre away, ashes and dust to the treacherous. You were difficult to talk with. You'd nod and smile, chuckle and retort. But it felt as if you were worlds apart. As if you weren't there. As if you weren't talking. Everything bore a subtle strangeness with you.

Was it the way you smiled your damp sadness away or was it the reflected glimmer off your dull eyes? Was it the way you briskly avoided the contact of skin like a flame by your side with a tinge of panic or was it your lingering gaze laid on exposed flesh like a dazed ghost trembling in shadow with jittering fear? Was it the way your eyes wavered to your gloved hands or your clenched teeth? Was it your pained resistance to your burning coal of bone to the scorching heat below your coat tingling across your warm skin or was it the way you refused to touch your sweat and wipe it away? Was it your trembling feet below the table as you kept a composed smile or was it your unfaltering stare?

He didn't know.

He laid there like a dying fish, sprawled across his bed.

What could you gain from a deal so one sided? Your words resonated through his empty shell of a head, shrouded with a thick mist.

"We gain your enemies. It's that simple."

"I'm after someone, you see."

No, he couldn't see. He felt almost blind as he stood next to you, no further than to perceive an outline cast by your opaque shadow. You were dead in a sense, you felt like a cold, rotting corpse but he knew better by the shift in your chest as it rose and fell harmonically. Shuffling echoed through the silent moonlit room, skin brushing against the smooth, cold covers below him until he laid on his side. His smooth, free blonde locks sprawled below him and caressed the frame of his face. A ladder of blue light painted his walls, casting a subtle glint in his onyx eyes, crawling up to his hands.

Just what are you?

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SHIE HASSAIKAI MANOR

Twenty frantically scavenged the maze-like manor home's dark hallways, overwrought and corybantic as he hastily fumbled with every door, greeted by a cold gust of wind and nothing more.

Seven ran towards him, almost furious. His panting entangled with Twenty's as he spoke anxiously,

"I can't find her!"

"Shit..." Seven muttered, hunched over as he leant on his shaking knees.

"Oleg? What about him?" He tried to stay composed, yet his voice trembled in a wary worry.

"Nothing. Eight can't find her either." Twenty spoke, furrowing his brows and clenching his teeth bitterly. He seemed utterly dishevelled. Poorly buttoned, wrinkly white blouse. Slippers encased his feet, contrasting his formal black pants, a rare sight for the usually elegant, lavishly dressed man.