Twisted Hearts▪︎Akutagawa Ryuunosuke

三 °• The Silent Rabid Dog

There was one person whom Hanabi was a bit nonchalant to meet.

And that, was the silent rabid dog of the Port Mafia himself, the cruel and heartless man by the name of Akutagawa Ryuunosuke

Hanabi and him hadn't ended in particularly good terms. A fight had broken out between the two of them just a few days prior to her leaving mysteriously.

A certain heaviness tugged on the corner of her dull heart, dragging her down slowly and she made her way to the port of the mafia. She had received word that the hell-hound beast was put in charge for managing the unloading of cargos filled with dangerous weapons.

The moon had risen by now, offering her a source of illuminated light to guide her path. Each step she took made her heart feel like it was about to burst, and yet she hid her nervousness by an empty and unpertude expression.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a familiar coughing. She looked up, her eyes full of expectancy and she barelled her fist to keep herself from calling out his name. No, she couldn't risk seeming desperate or needy, even if it were for the man she devoted her life for.

There in front of her was Akutagawa. He had barely changed since the last time she saw him. He seemed a bit taller, his features had hardened and his jaw more prominent. He was an adult now, no longer the naive and rebellious child he once was. And yet, Hanabi could still recognize him. His aura of mysterious and cruel death hadn't changed a bit, and neither did his hairstyle. She was sure that his harsh attitude hadn't either.

Hanabi felt the words dry on her tongue. All the hours and days she spent planning this moment with him and what she would say vanished like a cotton candy dropped into water. She stood there unmovingly, admiring his beauty from afar (like how she always had). The moonlight seemed to bathe him in a ethereal glow, making the tips of his white hair stand out from his dark attire.

When he turned around, Hanabi opened her mouth as if to say something, but there was nothing. She saw in his emtpy grey eyes a hint of shock, but it disappeared in an instance and was replaced instead with anger. Now, his eyes seemed more like a raging storm, of grey clouds crashing and an the swirl of a tornado formation.

"What are you doing here?"

His cold words brought her out of her trance, snapping her back into cruel reality.

"Akutagawa..."

"No," he snapped in a harsh tone. "You can't be back here. You can't just leave and make everyone think you're dead. Make everyone grieve and get over you, only for you to turn up like nothing had happened."

His words flew out in an uncontrolled rage, like a roaring river after a storm.

Death? At first, Hanabi frowned and was confused herself. But then it hit her like brick to your head.

"Wait! Aku-"

Hanabi's eyes widened when she saw him turn around and started walking away. She ran after him when he didn't reply, and when she was close enough, she reached out her hand and attempted to grab his forearm to stop him. But in a quick, swift movement, he dodged her hand and watched her stumble in front of him. Then, before she had any time to properly react, a piece of his coat had fully transformed into a black beast-like creature, shoving her agaisnt brick wall of the building next to them. As quickly as it appeared, the beast retreated back into his overcoat.

Ah, how cruel...

Hanabi watched his sillouette go further and further, until she could no longer see him anymore. She picked herself up from the floor, groaning as she felt shapr pain erupt from the abdomen. But that didn't matter to her at the moment. There was only one thought that rushed through her head now.

I have been too far from the mafia for too long, she thought as she brushed the dirt of her skirt and swept a strand of her hair behind her ear.

She had forgotten how heartless the world really was.

And most of all, she had forgotten the depths Mori would go in order to utilize his weapons.

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By the time Hanabi had made her way back home, the sun was already making its way up. She hadn't taken the bus, and persisted on walking towards her apartment alone. She had taken each step slowly, her mind in a daze.

Reaching the doorstep to her house, she used the keys that Mori had given her to unlock and enter her so-called home. Stepping in, everything else seemed to dissapear behind her as she took in her surroundings.

It was a small house, with everything easily accessible and convenient. All the items were placed in a way that was quick to access and the furniture placed in a systematic way so that she'd never have any problems getting around. She hadn't been in this house for so many years, and now that she was back, it didn't seem like anything had changed since the last day she'd stayed here. Everything was still in the same place she had left it.

Hanabi took of her gloves in a slow, agonizing manner. The interaction with Akutagawa kept replaying in the back of her mind like a broken record. She sat on the wooden chair in front of her dining table, with her head in her hands and back slouched. Specks of fine, dry powder fell through the stiff air, almost mirroring the slow march of snowflakes on a cold wintry day. She just sat there, with her heart in the palm of hands, unperturbed by the dust gathering awkward on the edge of the table.

At one point of her life, Akutagawa was probably the only person whom she ever cared for. No one else she deemed worthy nor acceptable in her conditions.

It wasn't like Akutagawa had always despised her either. No, they had both been children of the slums, climbed and clawed their way up the ranks of the heartless mafia. That would've been beyond a shadow of doubt for Hanabi to earn Akutagawa's recognition.

Care is not a word that can describe the Port Mafia. It's too soft, almost too belittling to be called. It rivets and courses through the veins of lovesick men, and made them fuzzy-eyed fools. To love meant to be weak, and terribly so at that, because one whom has surrendered themselves to love is one who was been blinded by the burning light, to hope for your prayers answered and to chase pointless dreams like a naive child.

Hanabi knew that better than anyone.

And so did Akutagawa.

But if not love, then what was it that she felt so strongly for Akutagawa and for him only?

A/N:unedited