Chapter Text
A lot had been on Oda Sakunosuke’s mind lately.
He was now out of prison again, yet he was still thinking about the lengths that silver-haired man was willing to go to save that obnoxiously smart kid from that day. He wondered if that was what having someone to care about was like.
Well, not like he really had the liberty to care about such things in his line of work. Getting attached to something or someone was dangerous when you were a hired hitman, like he was.
He has no shortage of people, those who knew his targets, seeking revenge on him. It was to be expected too, seeing as that was half the reason to hire someone like him in the first place. Since he’s the one with the blood on his hands, the hatred would be directed at him, and not his clients.
Of course, the other main reasons include an inability to carry out the murder, whether due to skill or mentality, and to try to avoid any troubles with the law. It’s not like hiring someone to kill for you wasn’t almost just as illegal as doing it yourself, but it was certainly easier to cover up.
Sakunosuke was a good assassin for a few reasons, including: his useful ability, his skills in combat and marksmanship, his ability to keep a secret, a lack of moral intervention when killing, and his lack of weaknesses caused by sentimentality. His lack of attachment.
However, after seeing the odd duo of the bodyguard and know-it-all kid, or rather, finding out how much the former worried about the latter, he couldn’t help but be faintly curious about what it would be like to have someone by his side.
He doesn’t need an adult figure, it would be worthless at this point since he’d already matured enough to manage on his own for a while now, and he supposes he might actually struggle to be able to trust and bond with someone closer to his own age…
Maybe this train of thought is pointless.
Clearly, he doesn’t need, or wouldn’t trust, someone else being in his life. He’s already used to the solitude, and he has no issues with it.
Again, it would serve him no purpose to get attached to anyone or anything.
Not long after he’d gotten free again, he was back to work. After all, he needed the money for survival.
It was just the usual jobs: someone with a grudge, someone from an opposing company, someone who knew too much, et cetera.
Nothing particularly noteworthy happened during his jobs. No one was able to avoid his bullets, whether they tried fighting back or not. No one was strong enough to even provide him a challenge.
On one of his jobs, just another common one, he’d caught sight of a bookshelf.
Of course, bookshelves weren’t an unusual find. Normally he would just ignore them, but this time he decided he was interested. Maybe he didn’t need people to keep him company if he had books to read in his spare time instead?
He barely looked at the selection of novels when one of them caught his eye. Well, it was actually two, but they were sitting next to each other, part of the same series.
He decided he’d give them a try, and grabbed them off the shelf. Who would care if he got a bit of a bonus on this job? It’s not like his client said anything about taking any of the targets’ possessions, and it was doubtful anyone would really miss two random novels sitting on the shelf of a dead man.
Not that he needed any justification. He was going to take them anyway.
And it turned out that that was one of the best decisions he feels he’s ever made.
It quickly became his favourite pastime to sit in a café, with its peaceful atmosphere and the gentle aroma of coffee, allowing himself to be immersed in the world of the novels.
It didn’t take him very long to finish reading the two books in his possession, but there was still more to be read. The novels were part of a trilogy, so there was still one more that he had yet to see.
But he wanted so badly to read it, and so began his search through new and used bookstores alike. It was unsuccessful. He couldn’t find the third book anywhere.
For now, he had to settle for just re-reading the first two.
Despite his utter disappointment at not being able to finish the series, he still found himself enjoying the first two parts almost just as much as the first time he’d read them. He very quickly realised that no matter how many times he reads it, a good book will remain a good book, worthy of being re-read for the rest of eternity, or at least however long his life lasts.
It was during one of his regular visits to the café that he’d met a strange man, and they’d talked about the books. The man said that the third book was bad, and that Sakunosuke was lucky that he hadn’t read it, but the reddish-haired teen couldn’t see it that way. He couldn’t see it that way, because he had been so determined to find the third volume, and he decided he would judge for himself whether it ruined the story or not.
But then, the man gave him an interesting suggestion: to write his own conclusion to the novel.
Ever since, the idea of writing kept swimming around in his mind, and he wondered if he should try. Though, is someone like him even allowed to write…?
It wasn’t very long after that encounter that he’d met the man again, and this time, the man gave him a copy of the third volume.
The man had said something, something that resonated with the fifteen-year-old. It was something about how ‘ to write novels is to write about humans ’.
But is someone who takes the lives of humans allowed to write about them? Should Sakunosuke, an assassin for hire, be allowed to control the lives of the characters he writes about?
No. At least, not with how he is now.
But for once, something ignited in him, a spark of determination, of desire. He wants to write.
Briefly, he envisions himself sitting at a desk, looking out at the lake outside his window, pen in hand as he writes a story onto the paper in front of him. He likes this image, this idea. And for once, he feels as though he’s truly found something he wants to do.
But that dream came with a difficult first step: to stop killing.
Taking lives without mercy, at the whims of his clients, was his job . And he was already fairly well-known in underground society. He wouldn’t be able to break away from such a thing so easily.
There would be little-to-no mental difficulty with quitting killing, though. He’d never exactly… enjoyed taking the lives of others. He didn’t mind it as much as he should have, probably, but that was less out of enjoyment and more so merely his apathy at the situation. Nothing more, nothing less.
Honestly, having found a direction he wants to take in his life, he’s more than willing to ditch killing, a task he didn’t care much about.
He had been out on a walk to think, to give the rest of his senses a change in scenery in hopes it could inspire different ideas. What would he do when he quit being an assassin? He had to do something . And how would he manage to avoid the repercussions of leaving such a field?
He was mainly sticking to alleyways or less popular areas, preferring the lack of crowds present.
He was deep in thought, just managing to come up with an idea, when he started to hear a sound coming from just around the corner, in the alleyway he was about to turn into.
He immediately put his guard up, because everyone knew to avoid such spaces in this city unless they’re skilled fighters or involved in crime. More likely both. As such, the immediate belief when there’s a sound from the alleyway is that it’s either a cat or a danger.
Sakunosuke approached cautiously, but his ability didn’t activate and tell him he was in danger, so he took it as a good sign.
As he got closer to the sound and was able to hear it more clearly, he started to notice that it sounded oddly like… crying? And the voice sobbing was fairly high pitched. A child maybe?
A few steps later, having rounded the corner to see who was there, his guess was confirmed.
Sitting curled up in a ball at the other end of the alleyway was a young child, probably no older than five or six years old, with choppy silver hair and tattered clothing.
Sakunosuke was considering just leaving. Whyever that child was crying was none of his business, and it wasn’t his job to warn the kid that he chose a pretty dangerous place to hang out, especially with the sun beginning to set.
But for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to turn and walk away.
Maybe it was because of his thoughts after that bodyguard had tried to save that genius kid. Maybe it was because of his new plan of stopping his life of killing and trying to be a better person. Maybe it was because of how unnerving the tattered clothing and much-too-thin, bruise-littered arms of the child were.
After getting over his hesitation, Sakunosuke made a decision and started to carefully, slowly, approach the child. It would do him no good to scare the kid.
But the child noticed him, even though he’d been making sure to stay silent. The kid snapped his head to face Sakunosuke’s direction, seemingly startled by the teen’s presence and on high alert. It made the older pause for a moment, before carefully resuming his approach.
The child’s eyes never left him, and there was an unmistakable fear in them, which Sakunosuke noticed when he got close enough to see their unique gold-purple colour.
When the reddish-haired teen was close enough, he knelt down so that he didn’t appear quite so tall and intimidating.
“This isn’t a very safe place to be crying, you know. Especially since it will be night soon.”
The kid continued to look at him in silence for a moment, before they started opening and closing their mouth, as if trying to speak. More accurately, the kid was probably trying to figure out what to say, or bring himself to actually say it.
The teen decided to be patient. He’d decided to approach the kid, so he can wait to figure out what the child wants to say.
“I-I..” The child’s voice finally sounded in a stutter as the kid tried sounding out their words. They were still quite young, so it was understandable if perhaps they struggled a bit. Besides the age, there was also the fact that the kid was probably quite scared, and it might be affecting their ability to communicate. Happens to adults as well, Sakunosuke notes.
“I have nowhere else… I don’t…” The kid continued, and it was enough for Sakunosuke to start coming up with some guesses on what happened.
“You don’t have anywhere else you can go?” The teen asked, trying to help the kid complete their sentence. The child nodded in response.
“You don’t have a home? Parents? An orphanage? Anything?”
The kid shook their head. “I-I got kicked out.”
“From where?”
“Orphanage.”
Kicked out from an orphanage? Seriously?
Listen, Sakunosuke shouldn’t really be the one to comment on legality or anything, but isn’t it illegal to force such a young child out onto the streets alone? If the orphanage didn’t want them, shouldn’t they have arranged for somewhere else for the kid to go?
Again, considering his own situation, Sakunosuke probably isn’t in much of a position to comment. He’s only fifteen, and he’s been managing on his own for a while. Doesn’t mean he’s had a particularly pleasant life up to this point though, and he’s able to take care of himself. This child, clearly, is not.
But what is he supposed to do?
Should he bring the kid to a different orphanage, and just hope the same thing doesn’t happen again? Should he bring the kid to the police station and let them handle it? Should he just leave them here?
No, that last one isn’t an option. He’d already decided before walking over here that he was going to do something to help. It’s his first step toward becoming worthy of being an author.
He spoke his next words without much thought, surprising both himself and the child. “Do you want to stay with me for now?”
The kid looked up at him with wide, gold-purple eyes, wondering if they were really allowed to say yes. Wondering if Sakunosuke’s offer was genuine.
Eventually, since the teen didn’t rescind his offer and claim it was a mere joke, the kid finally nodded.
“I’m Oda Sakunosuke. What’s your name, kid?”
“Nakajima Atsushi.”