leo, leonis (Akutagawa x Reader)

Chapter Nine

"My karma?" the boy repeated, his eyes wide with terror.

Akutagawa activated his ability, cutting deep into the ground beside the boy who cowered. Y/n sighed, shaking her head slightly at the sight. She knew Akutagawa and his tendency to go over board. While she agreed with psychological warfare and scaring people into submission, she worried when Akutagawa was the one employing the methods.

The dust cleared and with his sight restored, the boy gasped in shock at the burning crevasse beside him.

"I missed on purpose that time, of course." Akutagawa taunted, Rashoumon hanging threateningly over his head, "But my Rashoumon has poor taste. It devours anything and everything. I intend to take you alive, but if you continue to resist, it will take your leg next."

"Why..." he stuttered, his voice shaking, his body trembling, "Why me?"

"A... Atsushi..." a new voice, labored with the effort of speech, entered the arena, "Run, Atsushi."

None of the three Mafia members turned to look at Tanizaki as he spoke. Instead, they watched Atsushi's reaction to his companion's words, the way he stiffened, the way he shook. He shut his eye's tight, lowering his head so it was facing the ground. His breathing heavy, he stayed like that for a moment before letting out a yell of anger and jumping to his feet.

"Choosing death over surrender? How tiresome." Akutagawa sighed as Atsushi ran towards him.

Akutagawa shot Rashoumon towards the boy who ducked, sliding beneath it and trying to pick up a gun. His idea was stymied however as Y/n placed her foot firmly down on the machine, sending a pointed look to Higuchi as she did so.

"That move wasn't half bad." Akutagawa mused as he turned to face Atsushi who was still on the ground, trying to get the gun out from under Y/n's foot, "But in the end, it was a fool's last stand. Let him have it."

Y/n turned to Akutagawa, cocking her head to the side questioningly. After a second, she lifted her foot and Atsushi grabbed the gun. Though he shook, he had no hesitation when he aimed it at Akutagawa and began to shoot.

Akutagawa stopped the barrage from the machine gun with his devoured space, allowing the bullets to fall useless to the floor as the magazine emptied.

"See? Even if she hadn't stopped you, that thing would have been useless against me." Akutagawa scoffed, "I told you. My black beast in indiscriminate. It devours anything and everything. It consumed the very space the bullets were attempting to cross to reach me."

Y/n watched as Atsushi's eyes narrowed, his trembling turning from that of fear to that of rage.

"I am a man who keeps his word."

In a single, swift movement, Rashoumon severed the boy's leg, cutting it off at the knee. He fell to the floor with a brutal scream. Akutagawa coughed again lightly into his hand and they watched the pool of blood around the boy grow.

Suddenly, there was a crash. A flash of blue light and Y/n turned, along with her coworkers, to see the boy half transformed and half way up the wall.

"Regeneration." Y/n noted under her breath, watching as the leg she had just taken from him regrew.

"His right leg regrew!" Higuchi exclaimed and Y/n shook her head in mild annoyance.

"This is how it should be." Akutagawa grinned, his eyes flashing with something akin to desire as the transformation finished, leaving a huge, white tiger where the boy had been.

He roughly shoved Higuchi to the side as the tiger jumped down off the wall, landing between them. Y/n side stepped the attack and Akutagawa as he dodged, making her way to the top of a stack of crates along one of the ally's walls.