Blackened moonflower and flourishing sunflower

Eight. Chuuya

Where the hell is that kid!

It's seven and I've had Akutagawa attempting to do push ups for the past half hour. His attempts are pathetic though, I mean the kid does two and ends up in a coughing fit. Absolutely useless.

"Oi! Akutagawa!" This caught his attention from his otherwise dying breaths.

"Take a break and then I want you to do a sparring match against me. No rules, we stop when I say." He nodded before disappearing to get a drink.

I'd heard great things about his ability, I was hoping it held up a lot better than his body did. Because my impressions so far were that he would die the minute he was put in the field. I knew that not to be true as he's been on countless missions and survived.

I needed both of these kids up to scratch pretty quick, as Mori had stated in an email he'd sent me later that day.

'Chuuya, with your prior knowledge of working with Nakajima, I believe a month will be sufficient in order to have the pair ready for missions. I am aware of Akutagawa's difficult working ethic, which is why I will be sending a member of the Black Lizard to check up after a couple of days. If all goes well we shall have another weapon at our disposal.'

Another weapon. That's all he cared about, another tool for him. After reading through the email once more Akutagawa walked back inside the training room.

"Hey Akutagawa, what do you know about the Black Lizard?" I received a blank stare from the boy. Guess he didn't know then. That was good, I could use that if he really was difficult.

"Let's get started then. No holding back, I doubt you could harm me anyway." Just as I'd finished my words a sharp spike cut the top layers of my left cheek.

That bastard.

The next few minutes proceed between a back and forth fight between the pair of us. The only hit he'd managed to do to me was the initial cut. He was a lot better at sparring than the Nakajima kid, I don't know what Dazai used to complain about. I decided it best to stop going easy on the kid. He wouldn't get that from our enemies. A quick sweep of his ankles made short work of him. The look on his face was priceless, a confused expression which then made its way into a deep scowl. I honestly had to stop myself from laughing so much.

Before I could do anything else the main door slammed open and the pair of us was greeted with a bloody Nakajima who looked on the verge of passing out.

"So you do show up then." I complained while crossing my arms, I'm surprised Akutagawa hadn't said anything to the boy as he stalked across the room tossing his coat aside.

"Give me... Thir... Thirty... Minutes..." He managed to spit out before slumping to the ground, now using his coat as a pillow.

Typical.

That kid was like a cat sometimes. He seemed to always be napping during the day, but never slept at night. Convenient for his job.

"Right, let's do another round. You need to start predicting my movements." I turned to Akutagawa expecting him to get to his feet but his gaze was fixed on Nakajima. What was his problem?

I snapped my fingers in front of his face. "Oi, are you listening? Back to work." He nodded before quickly getting to his feet in a battle position.

He immediately fell back down, he'd been so focused on predicting my next move he didn't focus on my current one. Idiot.

"Allright out with it." I complained pulling him to his feet again while swinging punches at him which he managed to dodge. Good.

"Out with what?" He questioned, using his ability he struck at me, I believe it was documented as Rashomon, I easily dodged away.

"Nakajima, why are you so transfixed on him?" He looked away at that. And down he went again. But not a second later he was up again.

"I knew him before we joined the Mafia." I rolled my eyes, I knew that already. I'd seen all three of the kids the day they'd been adopted into the Mafia. I just happened to get the last pick.

"Yeah, well it seems your relationship is more than 'knew him'." His eyes narrowed slightly at my words. I'd struck a nerve there. Good. Let's see what he's like when he's worked up.

"Why does it matter? We're both here now, I've got to work with the waste of space so what difference does our past make?" Okay not the reaction I was expecting. But I was slightly curious about the two's past. I mean all I ever got out of Nakajima was his orphanage days, which to be honest sounded a lot nicer than what he had to deal with here.

"The past makes the present. So why don't you inform me on why you seem to despise him so much." Why was I getting so metaphorical? That bandage wasting bastard was starting to rub off on me. I'm gonna kill hi-

"He got someone I cared about killed. Happy?" Perfect, his temper was starting to take hold.

"Well you must have not cared about them enough to let them die?" I watched as his clothing began to grow a dark shade of red. I was probably going to regret this later but what the hell.

"Why you-!" His gaze darkened ten fold.

"Am I right? Why is Nakajima alive if this person cared so much? And what about your sister, huh?" His paces were starting to become erratic and stronger. Good. He needed to get out of that repetitive pattern anyway.

"My sister has nothing to do with this! Leave her out of this!"

"But you brought her into this world, I know of the deal you were given that day. You could have saved her from all this, but you chose your sick sense of vengeance over her safety."

"Stop it... You don't know what you're talking about!" I think I'd forced him to his breaking point, I was having to actually put effort into dodging his attacks now.

"You think that we'd be able to settle into normal life after surviving in the slums for so long? Well we wouldn't! We were born in darkness, we thrived in it. So did so many kids we knew, yet they were mowed down like they were nothing!" I think I hit a vital nerve there, this kid was letting it all go.

"Mirai... He gave everything for us... He even gave his life to that worthless brat!" His arm shook in rage as he pointed to the huddled up body that was Nakajima. He'd rolled over at some point so he was now facing the wall.

"The least he can do is put that life to use! Instead of wasting it by doing absolutely nothing while we're training." I was now floating above Akutagawa, looking down at the rage painted on his face.

This kid had some issues.