That voice sounds rather familiar than unknown, and judging from the gunfire, I already knew who it was.
"Did you just try to shoot me?" I said in an annoyed tone, still not bothering to look at the person who may be responsible for all of this mess.
Tachihara had burst an obnoxious laugh before replying, "Well, I wouldn't have if I knew it was you, Akutagawa."
"What's the deal here?" I asked. Tachihara is a student from the same school that we attend to, and as far as I know, he is one of Gin's classmates. Having the rule at school that we cannot randomly pick a fight on a student unless given a logical reason, they must have something against Ira.
"Sorry, we can't tell," Tachihara walked toward me, reaching out his hand. "It's all an order, now please hand me Mitsuya."
I gave out a sly smile, but immediately got interrupted by my cough. "Damn, I miss having a real fight."
I placed Ira down next to a tree, making her unconscious self lean on the trunk. As soon as I was done, I engaged a direct attack at Tachihara right away. Him being one of my 'allies', he knew my tactics like he had made research beforehand.
Tachihara must have known by now that he has nothing against me, since he only brought several guns as defense. Surely, it would be effective on his victim, but not on me. So now I have to deal with a target that keeps on running away like a little kid playing tag. How irksome.
"We are aware about the school rules, just so you know," Tachihara said, still being able to dodge some, but not all. "Therefore you must have gotten the idea already, no?"
"I am not dumb," I coughed again, cornering Tachihara on a wall of trees. "But what is it that made you interested to pick on such a wimp?"
"Well..." He put his finger below his lip like he was actually using his brain to think of an excuse. I kept him cornered and tried to squeeze information out of him, but I swear, this guy is just toying with me right now.
"Well?"
I heard the clink of a grenade behind me, and so I tried to get some height but Tachihara pulled me back down to the ground. I saw several lemon-shaped grenades on the ground, and that's when I knew that he wasn't alone in the execution.
The grenade has exploded, filling the empty spaces of the forest with gray clouds of smoke. My cough started to get more chronic, but soon dissipated as the smoke cleared out. I managed to push Tachihara to the mess, therefore damaging him more than me.
"Ah, this order sucks," I heard another voice; definitely not Tachihara. "Michizou, why did we even take this order? I was not informed that Akutagawa would be the knight in shining armor!"
"S-Shut up, Motojirou," Tachihara replied choppily, trying to recover from the damage he had taken. "I didn't know either; I expected Dazai or someone else."
"Fools." I spoke up, feeling annoyed from the fact that my own 'comrades' had looked down on me ever since the contract. "I would've have killed her long ago if I wished, no need of your assistance."
The two looked at each other in confusion, but burst out into laughter a moment after. The vile sounds of their unknown reason for happiness was echoing around the area. I don't recall saying something funny from my last sentence, but I took the chance to slide an attack beneath their feet.
I was able to take Motojirou out of his standing balance, yet he was able to throw another set of lemon bombs to the air aimed to land toward my direction. I was not able to react fast enough, so I wasn't able to defend myself using my ability.
Oh well. Pain is fine. I am fine.
But no explosion came.
I opened my eyes to see what was going on, only to see three new people in the scene -- two teachers and a student; my classmate to be precise.
"Ah? Starting and ending the party without us?" Chuuya came to the scene along with Dazai and the weretiger. So they are the people who were assigned to this task?
"Akutagawa?" The weretiger looked at me with a surprised look, probably not aware that I was already here. He averted his gaze to look at what was behind me -- Ira. He tried to make a run to her, but I held him in his shoulders and stopped in his tracks.
Dazai, in his non-serious self, crouched next to the two people that were responsible for the incident. "A current student of the school, and a guest I see."
Motojirou attempted to throw more lemon bombs at us, but Chuuya sent them off somewhere else to explode using his ability.
"This is not fair," Motojirou weakly said in between gritted teeth, but still managing to give a taunting smile. "Four against two?"
"That's what you get for messing with us!" The weretiger exclaimed, pouncing lemon dude to a nearby tree. "What is it that you want from us?"
Tachihara tried to get up on his feet once again, reaching out for his handgun. "We told you, it is an order that we have been asked to do."
"And from who would that order come from," Dazai calmly asked. "To the point wherein the mastermind has to bribe a student and hire an outsider?"
"All we know is that it has to do something with..." Motojirou recovered from the knockback, weakly pointing his finger at me.
Rashoumon.
"What about me, huh?"
Dead.
"Oh easy there, boy," Dazai said as if I was his pet. "We could have used him as a tool for interrogation. How many times should I tell you about that, Akutagawa?"
I said nothing, but deep inside me I am pissed off. Was that still not enough for him to notice my worth? I basically cleaned up the mess for them, and still I get a lecture from the oh-so-ever-great Dazai? Tch. I wouldn't have come if I only knew that this would happen.
"Don't bother about him," Chuuya said to Dazai. "He's just an outsider. Our own student would be a better one to throw questions about the matter."
I approached Ira, who was subconsciously awake and forcing herself to get her conscious self back in the real world. I stared at her blood-covered face for a while, until my emotional instincts have told me to slap her.
"What the hell, Akutagawa?!" I heard the weretiger exclaim from behind me, hearing him stomp to get to me but Dazai had held him back.
"Shut up, weretiger," I answered back. "I did not escape campus only to get spat with words from any of you."
Ira slowly opened her eyes, her swollen cheeks from my slap not helping her to stay open them completely. She attempted to sit in position but only to end up leaning back to the tree.
I am pretty sure that I am supposed to be the first one that she sees, and yet she spoke out "D-Dazai?" earning her another slap from me. I can here the weretiger getting agitated from what I'm doing.
You don't know anything, Atsushi.
"A servant of mine does not wimp out," I said, still a bit offended about me being mistaken for Dazai. "You are a weak and pathetic trash! You do not deserve to be called mine-- my servant!"
"Y-Yes I am," Ira weakly stuttered out, still plastering a smile on her face. "I know I am weak and pathetic, master. I do not deserve to be called to anyone's possession."
"You are nothing but a tool to follow orders, aren't you?! Why don't you get your weak ass up right now?"
Ira heavily sighed, positioning back to seat more properly. The weak smile that she is showing and her shivering body aren't fitting in her current condition at all. Dazai went next to me, putting a hand on Ira's shoulder.
"Don't get up, we'll take you to Yosano." Dazai said in a rather sweet and soothing voice, making me look at him for a brief second and looking away again in anger.
Dazai picked her up and carried her lightweight body like a newborn child, not minding that Ira seemed like she dived in her own blood. He looked at me again and back to the ground, indicating that he wanted me to pick up something. I looked at the direction of where he was looking and saw Ira's school bag, which was also splattered with blood.
As we were about to leave, Tachihara reloaded his gun and had Atsushi to be hit with quick shot. Chuuya immediately used his ability against Tachihara, making him unable to move and Chuuya having complete manipulation over him.
"What a bother," Chuuya yawned. "Let's get back to campus and I can't hold him that long."
--
As I waited for Ira to be done being treated by the doctor, I sat outside the clinic with her bag on my lap. It felt too heavy for a school bag, considering that we barely take down notes for all the subjects. Normally I would just bring one notepad and a pen, but hers felt like she brings more than a kilogram of rocks behind her back everyday.
Out of curiosity, I opened her bag. It was filled with a bunch of books, one hardbound notebook and a pen case. I pulled out one book entitled 'How to Make Your Senpai Notice You, Volume 4'. Now why would my servant read such a book?
Sometimes I wonder what goes on in her thoughts. Ira is a weird assistant, to be honest. Comparing her to my past assistant, Higuchi, their traits are far from being the same or not even slightly alike. Higuchi would randomly engaged on a fight head-on even without my command, while Ira is totally the opposite. On the other hand, Ira would always do my commands as precise as I would tell her.
If only she was way stronger.
I heard the clinic door open beside me, making me in an adrenaline rush to hide the stuff that I took out from her bag like nothing happened. There I saw Ira standing at the door, looking good all over again (I mean no injuries whatsoever).
"Good afternoon master," Ira greeted me with a smile as always. "I am now able to serve you pro-- eep!"
I interrupted her greeting and pulled her towards me, "How dare you wander off in the middle of the night and escape your duties?!"
"I-I didn't wander off, master," Ira protested, fear visible in her expression. "I am truly sorry, I would never engage on random people again."
I forcefully pushed her away, letting her go for I didn't want anyone to misinterpret. Ira quickly gathered her composure like nothing happened.
"A-Are we going to train today, master?" Ira asked innocently.
"Stupid. We're going home."
She stared at me confusingly. It must have been new for her since 'train with Master Akutagawa' has always been in her schedule.
"And I'm dropping you off first."
•••
happy birthday, nakahara chuuya! hope ya grow some height lol o 3o