N. Chuuya X Fem! Reader: The Territory of Gravity

16.6 - Stormbringer

Adam cut off the wire that bound Chuuya to him. Then, he pushed him away.

"Wha—..." Chuuya looked up at Adam in shock.

Adam smiled at him as he was sucked into the black sphere. Chuuya hit the ground before the other two.

He erased his gravity to hastily brake as he landed on the ground while enduring the sudden acceleration that had dyed his vision red.

He quickly looked up at the sky. Inside of the ball of gravity, Adam and Verlaine were entangled as one and were about to fall. The thunderous noise blew the trees away.

When the dust cleared, there was a crater that looked like it was left by a meteorite with a figure rolling in the center of it.

Verlaine was crouched in the middle. His body didn't have any wounds, and his eyes were slightly closed as if he were sleeping while he sat on his knees. Glowing patterns like an ancient script swam around on his skin.

Near him—Adam was in ruins. Everything below his chest, along with his left arm, had completely disappeared and his internal movements were showing. His artificial muscles and nerve conduction cable hung out of him and a white functioning fluid was leaking out.

Only the top of Adam's head moved to look at Chuuya. His eyes were strong, as he tried to urge Chuuya to do something.

He gave a little nod. Do it, he seemed to say.

With that, Chuuya's stomach hardened with determination.

He quietly walked on the hollowed out earth. Not with hostility or malice, but like he was taking a stroll with slow, sure steps so as to not make Verlaine perceive him as a hostile individual.

Chuuya's eyes reflected the figure of the man he called his "brother". He didn't need to suppress any hostility because strangely enough, Chuuya didn't harbor any animosity in his chest when he saw him. Right now, Verlaine wasn't human. He wasn't even a string of equations. He was just the fruit of power, an automatic machine that fought hatred with hatred.

Chuuya stood next to his older brother. He kept the feelings inside of his chest surprisingly calm and quiet. Verlaine had yet to respond. He took out the capsule from his chest pocket. The capsule was disk shaped and only about the size of a fingertip. Once he put it in his mouth, it would dissolve quickly. Then, it's lights out, and everything will be over.

There was only one way to settle this.

There was a tiny gap in his brother's lips. He didn't think of it like the mouth of a hated enemy, he didn't even think of him as a living being. He slipped the capsule into his mouth, like dropping a letter into a mailbox, like fitting a piece into a puzzle, like giving a stamp of goodbye to memories shared with someone close.

The capsule slipped off his finger.

He felt a sharp pain.

It wasn't a pain from his heart, rather, it was a physical pain. His fingertips were bleeding.

"Sigh... You never fail to surprise me, Chuuya."

Verlaine was laughing.

Chuuya's blood was on the side of his lips.

Immediately after that, Chuuya was blown away. It wasn't because of the spheres of gravity that pulled him in, but because of his usual ability to change the gravity of those he touches. Chuuya tumbled backwards without being able to take a defensive stance, crashing into the trunk of a tree.

"Ack...!"

"The day we first met... I left instructions inside of you when I opened your gate." Verlaine spat out the capsule while he spoke. It fell among the weeds and disappeared. "Touching it again is an instruction to close my gate, which is why my gate closed automatically. In my beast form my consciousness disappears, so this was the only way I could bring myself back."

"Beast...?"

"The state I was just in, when I'm not in control of my personality and the beast of singularity temporarily comes out. It was what Rimbaud called it when I said the verse that released the seal on my personality." Verlaine slowly stood up and looked at Chuuya. "He was the one who came up with the way to bring me back from my singularity when I couldn't do it myself. He was always thinking of ways to help me."

"That same Rimbaud you betrayed..." Chuuya said as he staggered, placing his hands on his knees. "Right?"

Verlaine didn't say anything immediately, only widened his eyes as he looked at Chuuya. He didn't blink once, only stared with a dryness in his eyes. He finally opened his mouth.

"This is to save you."

"I get it." Chuuya quietly looked towards him. "I did everything I could. It's your win. There's not a single person in the mafia who can beat you. Whether to Europe or the end of the world, I'll go with you."

Verlaine narrowed his eyes. "You think you can trick me by lying?"

"I don't have Dazai's wickedness, and I don't have L/N's charisma," Chuuya laughed with self-deprecation. "I gave it some thought. I wanted to try hating the whole world, too, someday. Maybe. To do that, I thought it was best to stay close and observe you."

Verlaine gave him a long stare as if all of life's answers were written all over his face, and said, "So... You're saying that right now, you don't hate the world?"

"I have people I hate, but it's not everybody. I..." Chuuya looked far off in the distance. A star twinkled before his eyes. "I know I'm not living all alone. You used to be like that, too, right?"

Verlaine didn't answer, but that lack of response was a reply in itself.