December 25th, 2005
'According to what Takemicchi saw in the future, if Hanma really was frantic when Kisaki was trying to kill me.. if he was really on my side.. then maybe.. I can get him to be on my side right now instead of just in the future..'
Aoi thinks to herself while walking around the dark alleys close to the church where Black Dragons and Toman were having their battle.
'By now, Hanma and Kisaki must have already betrayed Takemicchi and Chifuyu.. I need to find Hanma when he's alone..'
As she was looking around the alleys, she didn't notice a boy in the back who had recognised her from afar.
Hanma was walking around town after betraying the Toman members. After having talked to Kisaki, he was looking for some thugs to beat up in the narrow alleys because he was bored.
'So dull~ I can't even see one puny gangster to beat up.' Hanma thinks to himself but soon notices a figure in the front.
Finally having seen a human walking around and being excited to beat them up, he walks toward the person only to stop in his tracks when he realises something. 'A familiar looking purple hair.'
Feeling overly enthusiastic about this meeting, and especially interested in what Aoi was doing in the dark alleys, Hanma was about to call out to her when suddenly a drunk looking guy appears out of nowhere. He pulls Aoi by her hands, asking her to come with him to a 'club'.
Irked by the guy's behaviour, Hanma was about to interfere but he paused when he saw the scene in front of him.
Aoi took out her taser and in the lowest voltage, she zapped the guy with zero hesitation in her eyes.
"AGHH!" The drunk guy screamed and was about to run away but Aoi caught hold of his arms.
"I need to ask you something." She says in a calm voice, as if she didn't just zap him before.
"W-What?!" He asks frightened.
"Have you seen the 'Reaper' around here?"
"R-Reaper?"
"You know, the one with tattoos on the back of his hands, Hanma Shuji?"
"I don't k-know anything!" The guy scurries away, removing his hands from Aoi's grip while Aoi just sighs at the sight of the drunk guy running off. All of a sudden, she hears a chuckle behind her.
Turning around, she comes face to face with the man she was looking for.
"Hanma Shuji." She calls out while walking toward him.
With a slight smirk on his face, and his voice sounding ever so amused at the fact that the girl was looking for him, Hanma starts to speak to her.
"Isn't this the first time you called me by my nam-
The smirk on Hanma's face suddenly falters and he couldn't continue with his flirty remarks anymore.. when all of a sudden.. Aoi reached out her arms to place it gently on Hanma's cheeks.
"I was looking for you." She smiled at the man.
For Hanma, he had always thought that Aoi was an interesting girl. Maybe it was the fact that he saw her smoking when she looked to be so innocent, and the way she was so feisty even threatening to kill him.
How could she still be radiating innocence when she just mercilessly zapped someone? He couldn't quite wrap his head around it. In a world full of delinquents, you're either one of them or not a part of it. You're either evil or good. It's supposed to be black or white. But why was it that she seemed so grey..
"W-What- His words came out with a stutter, even surprising himself. He was about to continue when Aoi shushed him.
"I realised something. All this time, I was really rude to you every time we met.. I'd like to apologise for it. Maybe it was just me being in denial, y'know? I think I really like you Hanma." Aoi says with sincerity laced in her voice.
But only she knew that her words had zero truth in them.
Hanma found Aoi interesting, nothing more, nothing less. Just pure interest out of seeing her contradictory personality. But why was it that his breath hitched when he heard those words coming from her mouth. He couldn't understand it himself. The weird palpitations of his heart.. it was almost as if he was happy to hear her confession..
'But how is that possible?' Hanma thought to himself, trying to take deep breaths to settle down the fastening pace of his heartbeat.
He was about to say something but then he met eyes with the girl in front of him. He saw her smile suddenly drop as she broke away the contact of his face and her hands.
"Aahh~ I really can't do this!" Aoi stretched her arms out, sighing in a defeated voice.
"What do you mean?" Hanma looks at the girl in a confused way.
"I'm sorry, you must've seen through my lie already, right?" She gives a lazy grin.
Hanma lets out a slight chuckle. Not because it was funny, but because he found this situation ridiculous. He was dumbfounded at the fact that the girl lied to him, but even more so when he felt his heart flutter previously. Why was he feeling so disappointed right now? He couldn't possibly love her for real, right? It was a joke when he said it was love at first sight to her.
"I'll be honest with you." Aoi says, causing him to stop his thoughts and stare into her eyes.
"I want to use you."
Finally regaining his composure, he processes what Aoi just said to him. This time he laughs for real. "Use me?" He questions.
"I want you to be on my side and betray Kisaki." She says in a straightforward way, not a hint of faltering in her voice.
"And why would I do that~" Hanma begins with his usual teasing tone.
"Because you like interesting things. And right now, you find me interesting, don't you?"
He smirks at the girl's confidence. "I could just as easily tell Kisaki about you though?" He challenges.
"That's fine. If you choose not to work with me, I'll just have to find other ways to achieve my goal. I could be killed by Kisaki in the process, but who cares." Aoi laughs. Hearing this, Hanma gets lost in thought again. 'Kisaki is more than capable of killing her.. but.. I don't want her to die..'
'You don't want me to die, right?'
Aoi smirks a little because she knew that he found her interesting. He wouldn't let a thing of interest go away that easily.
"I'll give you some time to think." She continues when the boy seems like he's lost in thoughts. "On New Year's Day, I'll wait for you near the XX Convenience Store. Tell me your answer then."
Hanma nods at the girl. He was staring at her intensely, trying to figure out what she's thinking. He was curious of her intentions, what she was hiding.
"That easily? I thought you'd definitely reject me outright." Aoi chuckles a bit at the sight of the boy who's in a daze.
"If you keep looking at me like that, I'll believe you're growing soft on me." Aoi jokes, when she sees that the man has no intentions of taking his eyes off her.
She turns around and was about to leave when Hanma finally speaks up.
"What if I am?"
"Then I'll use your soft spot for me to my own advantage."
Aoi turns around and grins at the boy who looks almost star-struck. Waving a cheerful-looking goodbye, she heads toward the church where the battle was going on.
"Hah.." Hanma lets out a small whisper when she's gone and he's left alone. "She's gonna be the death of me, huh?" He chuckles at the realisation of what he's feeling for her.
______________________________________
January 1st, 2006
"I look forward to working with you, even if you don't trust me Aoi~"
I smirk at his statement. "Me too, Hanma."
"So what do you plan to do first?" Hanma asks me. "Just to let you know, Kisaki is busy right now so I won't be able to talk to him much."
"Tenjiku, huh?"
"How do you know about that?" Hanma looks startled.
"I've got connections." I simply smile and shrug him off.
"But you don't look like the type to be affiliated with delinquents."
"Yeah.. I didn't want to be involved myself.. But look at me now!" I laugh a little.
"Things happen, people change." I mutter to myself. 'I don't want any of my friends to die.'
"The first thing is, Kisaki will be kicked out of Toman after a few days." I say to him.
"So you want me to betray him and stay in Toman instead of following him?"
"No you idiot." I lightly chuckle at his enthusiasm. "You'll follow him and leave Toman too. He's trying to pull some strings with Tenjiku right? He'll try to manipulate the captain, Kurokawa Izana. What I want you to do is help Izana to not be manipulated by Kisaki."
"So when I said I'll work with you, it involved me helping another guy?" Hanma grits his teeth in annoyance.
"Why does that matter?" I look at him confused.
"Aghh!" He sighs. "Nevermind, continue with what you were saying."
"Okay... It won't be easy to help Izana as Kisaki is a cunning bastard.. He'll get what he wants through whatever means possible."
Hanma looks at the girl in awe, how she knew so much about everyone.. She really was as interesting as he thought she would be, maybe even more..
"That's why, it's okay even if you fail."
"Huh?" Now he was absolutely confused. If it was okay to fail then why did she ask him to help in the first place.
"I said what I said. It's okay to fail. All I want is for you to create a slight dent in Izana's trust toward Kisaki. Just a maybe will do. If just a small percent of him feels reluctant to work with Kisaki, that's okay. Even if he decides to do as Kisaki says, I want him to acknowledge of a what-if situation that could occur."
"How do you think I should do that?" Hanma questions.
"That's of course.. by constantly reminding Izana of the times Kisaki has failed before. In the tone of 'we planned this and that before, then Kisaki failed, but somehow we managed, so you can trust Kisaki'."
Hanma smirks at my idea.
"If you constantly tell a person to trust someone, but you keep reminding them of their failures before that.. What do you think will happen?" I smirk back.
"Doubts will start to appear." Hanma replies, not letting go of his grin.
.
.
"You're really a scary person~" Hanma says while laughing. "Why did your Toman friends get so surprised when they saw you threatening to kill me with the taser?" He jokes but I get a little startled at his words.
"Hmm.. what's this? They don't know about this side of yours, huh?" He looks at me in an amused manner.
Expecting him to threaten me by saying he'll reveal it to them, I brace myself for his words but what he says next takes me by surprise.
"That's great! I'm the only one who knows then~" He stares at me. His lips were grinning but somehow his eyes looked serious.
"You won't tell them?" I ask confused.
"Why would I? I'd love to have a little secret that only the two of us know~"
"Well they'll find out sooner or later.." I mutter, loud enough for him to hear.
"Till then, it will be our secret."
"By the way.." He starts to add to what he was saying. "What should I do if Izana catches onto what I'm doing and tells Kisaki about it?"
"Even if Kisaki did find out, he wouldn't toss you away so easily, would he? He'll probably find some sort of other use for you." I question.
"Knowing him, he could throw me away just as easily." He laughs.
"If he does, then I guess I'll take you."
"Huh?" Hanma looks at me in confusion while I laugh at his expression, that almost looks innocent.
"His loss for throwing away a useful sword. I'll take you instead of him~" I give him a genuine smile for the first time.
Hanma wasn't the type to get all sappy with things like romantic attraction. But right then.. he could swear that it was the first time he saw something so mesmerising. He knew for a fact that Aoi's smile toward him was a genuine one for the first time, without any acting. And her words of taking him.. it made blood rush to his cheeks for some reason.. even though he knew she just meant she would use him.
It was a good thing that it was still a little dark so Aoi couldn't notice the blush on his face.
'Then I'll use your soft spot for me to my own advantage.' Aoi's previous words ring in Hanma's ears.
"I don't think it's just a soft spot anymore.." He whispers to himself.
"Hmm?" Aoi questions the boy, not being able to hear what he's saying.
'I think I've fallen hard..'