Chapter Text
“Are you sure you have eaten enough?” Akutagawa asks. “You have the metabolism of a jungle cat. And yet you are eating like an underweight human man.”
“You ate less than I did! Why is this all on me!?”
“I have a sensitive stomach. Our bodies have different needs.”
“He’s right!”
Piper does not ask. She takes Atsushi’s plate from him and loads it with another large helping of breakfast. Just like the day before, it barely makes a dent in the mountain of food she prepared.
Eating enough to make his host feel as though she didn’t waste her ingredients is not a problem Atsushi ever believed he would have. If he could pull his past self into this very moment - two weeks after being kicked out of the orphanage, starving, riding the line between life and death on the dirty side of a river bank, and showed him this - a smorgasbord of scrambled eggs, thick-cut bacon, sausage, french toast, waffles, pancakes, steak, fruit and juice from the garden outside - past Atsushi would kill him for not devouring every bite.
…Piper and Akutagawa are correct.
- -
“Did you even stretch before electing to toss me around this way? We are not training for the local rodeo.”
“What the fuck is a rodeo?”
Akutagawa kicks him in the ribs. Atsushi rushes for the gate, slamming Akutagawa’s leg up against it.
If it weren’t for Rashoumon’s quick decision to reinforce it, that leg would have broken with the force.
“Imbecile! Have you learned nothing?”
“ASS! YOU don’t even know what it is! And why would you, it’s not like Dazai would’ve taken you anywhere near the general publi-”
“Shut up. I should have worn spurs. I could have dug them into your hide and forced you to continue healing around them. Like a bicycle stuck forever in a tree.”
KICK.
“Aww. Would you be doing that if Piper was around? You’re only jabbing me in the ribs because she isn’t out here yet. She scares the shit out of you, doesn’t she? That’s really funny. She doesn’t seem like she can hurt a fly.” A brief pause, and then a vicious smirk. “Oh…Akutagawa. That’s so sad. Do you really think you’re less than that? I mean I agree , but -”
“I will skin you. And I will not even turn that skin into anything remotely useful. Even in death you will have no dignity. I will sell purses made from your hide to old gambling women.”
“You have to sell my skin? You’re still that poor?”
“I’LL KILL Y-”
“Sweeties! Are you warmed up? Good!”
Piper pulls on the strap of one of her vambraces, securing it in place. Her hair is pulled back into two braids, presumably to prevent it from obstructing her eyes. Most notably, though, are the clothes she’s in.
Matte black and patterned like dragon scale. Light and dense like kevlar. An outfit that Akutagawa is very familiar with.
She is wearing full armor.
“Alright babies. Yesterday’s lesson saw great improvement! Today, we’re going to build on that foundation. Get you some real world experience! It’s not exactly a fair matchup, but you aren’t always going to get those in battle. Besides! It’s not like I’m trying to kill you. Just think of it as a uh…race!”
There was something Piper told them yesterday that Atsushi didn’t fully understand until now. How very subtle movements in the leg and seat are enough to communicate exactly what the rider wants from the mount. He figured he wasn’t getting it because Akutagawa is unbelievably weak , but that clearly isn’t the case.
Through where they are connected on his back, Atsushi feels Akutagawa go absolutely still.
Piper snaps a small metal disc from the underside of one of her arm pieces.
“Jinko. Move.”
She tosses it. Akutagawa’s leg taps him in the side. Once. Twice. Frantically.
“Go. Please go.”
Please? He’s never heard him -
Before the disc hits the ground, it expands to its true size and shape faster than even Atsushi’s eyes can register the transition.
A black, winged horse. Made completely from steel and padded in the same material as its rider’s armor. Its cordlike mane and tail swish independently of its movement as though prehensile.
When Piper springs onto its back, it is with one effortless leap off the balls of her feet.
SLAM.
Akutagawa’s foot hits Atsushi’s belly with enough force to leave a mark on anyone without his regeneration.
“Don’t hesitate to use your abilities!” Piper calls, just as Atsushi moves to turn around. “I will be using mine.”
“Atsushi run. Run. Go.”
He starts. And then the ground beneath his paws begins to tremble so violently that he has to brace against it to keep from stumbling.
“You fool! Go, now!”
Atsushi feels Rashoumon wrap itself around his torso, effectively tying Akutagawa to him. Without having to worry about dropping him, Atsushi staggers back to his feet and scrambles to the left, making for the forest.
“So her ability’s like Ivan’s?” He calls. “It’s earth manipulation, isn’t it?”
“Not earth.”
Akutagawa must be an idiot, then. Because cutting off their current path is a twenty-foot tidal wave of rock and stone and dirt.
His reflexes are quick enough to twist him sideways, allowing him to grip the side of the newly created hill and launch himself off of it to change course. But the impact hurts more than he’s expecting. Because whatever is under the dirt is hard .
Harder than bedrock.
The hill gains on them, expanding to Atsushi’s right side and following along their path as it begins to reach over them, sending debris falling into Akutagawa’s hair.
“So what is it? Just rock?”
His question is answered for him before Akutagawa has the chance. The formation has crested nearly completely over the top of them, effortlessly keeping pace with Atsushi’s gallop. As the dirt falls on top of and around Atsushi, finally, finally , he sees what his paws slammed into.
Brilliant, shining, blade - sharp crystal. Pink and gold and orange. Glimmering with its own light like a prism that trapped a sunset.
And he remembers . Not only from his memory of her dropping by in his kitchen to bid Kyouka farewell. But from what effectively amounted to ghost stories of the mafia told to him by the ADA.
Yosano spoke of her with the same reverence and fear that one would tell of a massive black dog that haunts a riverbank. A deer that stands on two feet. Elk that aren’t elk. Things slinking in and out of the ancient spine of a forest.
One of the final remaining true terrors of the Port Mafia. A master torturer who grows those very crystals inside of veins, in eye sockets, in the honeycomb hollows of bone.
It was then, during that conversation, that Atsushi remembers the closest thing he’s ever seen to fear on Dazai’s face.
Blood Valkyrie.
Crystal princess.
Death on a winged horse.
A shadow of feathers is cast over the ground in front of him.
“Rashoumon can cut this!” Piper calls. She’s closer than Atsushi anticipated. “But not if she’s tied off, honey! Remember what I told you! You’re gonna have to use your seat and anticipate his moves! Counterbalance, right? Let’s work on that core strength!”
Suddenly, they aren’t running from a cresting wave anymore. But a prison of glimmering crystal springing up all around them like the mouth of a beast emerging from the ground.
Atsushi’s claws find purchase on it. He scrambles from the pit, only to be immediately shoved back into it by a spire that separates the tips of his claws from the sharp material.
The crystal rapidly closes like a massive flower bud around both of them.
“Do your claws not break it? This is only crystal. I have seen you shatter far worse.”
“What, like your bones? Um…they’re pretty brittle…”
“Is this the time.”
The walls grow tighter around them. Yeah, maybe not.
“I think you should unwrap Rashoumon. I know she can cut this.”
“Of course she can. However, that leaves the unfortunate possibility of you rapidly changing course again and launching me into a crystal wall.”
“Then counterbalance.”
“I do not think you know what that word means.”
“But you do! Right?”
“I -”
“Sweeeeeeeties!”
The crystal trap opens from the top, just a foot. Enough to let in sunlight.
“Just checking on you! Are you two okay? Can you breathe? Do you need water before we continue?”
Atsushi’s eyes adjust to the light just long enough to see Piper hovering above them on that terrifying mechanical horse. He quickly takes a step back, just as --
THUNK THUNK.
Two water bottles fall into the hole, landing right in front of them.
“Um…”
Atsushi looks up at Akutagawa.
“I…yeah, we can breathe! I can, at least!”
“Was that supposed to be -”
“Wonderful! Please continue when you’re ready. You two look so cute in there.”
The hole closes once again, and they are in perfect darkness.
“...Unwrap Rashoumon.” Atsushi says. “I won’t let you fall. I promise.”
Akutagawa shifts. Atsushi can hear him take a deep breath, as though he plans to refute his proposition, but he never does.
Instead, he feels the tendrils of fabric loosen from his waist.
“This is not because I trust you.” Akutagawa clarifies. “I simply must make the most of the training session.”
“Uh huh.”
There is a sound, half like glass breaking and half like a train crash.
The crystal flower crumbles around them.
Atsushi launches forward, and Akutagwa’s body follows him perfectly. As another wall of crystal cuts them off, Akutagawa’s calf presses hard into his front left side, just under his arm. As Atsushi pivots sharply away from the pressure, Akutagawa leans to keep his balance.
The wall shatters behind them as Rashoumon cuts it.
“YES! That’s EXACTLY it! Keep going, angels! We’ll have a big lunch after this!”
“I’m still stuffed from breakfast…” Atsushi says under his breath.
Akutagawa pats him on the shoulder.