Chapter Text
The subway train full of tired office workers on their way home after a long day of labour, their fingers clicking on screens, and quiet snores filled the atmosphere.
This regular routine, followed day after day by the citizens of Korea, would be broken.
Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, the Port Mafia’s Rabid Dog, The Demon Prodigy’s subordinate, the leader of the Black Lizards, a man feared in Yokohama, was on this very exact subway.
Why was he, a Japanese Mafioso, on this train?
Well, he didn’t know either.
He assumed this was an ability of some sort. Perhaps a teleporting ability? Or maybe a hypnotizing power of some sort.
His eyes frantically searched and examined each and every person in his vision, hoping for any kind of hint. He was about to summon Rashomon, when a feminine voice was heard.
“Are you okay?” A lady asked, sitting next to him on the subway seat.
She wore a beige blazer with matching pants, her hair was light brown, and her eyes shone a beautiful hazel.
“…” Akutagawa would’ve responded but he needed to process what was just said.
A kind gesture of her helped Akutagawa a ton. Assuming he was taken to Korea
—South Korea, hopefully— he worked his brain to muster up some Korean.
“Yes. But I don’t speak good Korean.” That was the only Korean sentence he knew by heart.
He made a mental note to thank his boss for partnering him with a Korean on a mission a few months ago.
“Oh— uhm, what language do you speak?” She asked, her tone harbouring concern.
“Uh…J… J—“ His mouth shut immediately.
Akutagawa couldn’t remember the word, “Japanese”, in Korean.
The lady’s eyes widened and she mumbled something to herself,
“Are you Japanese?”
Akutagawa was shocked she could speak Japanese, her pronunciation was decent as well.
“Yes, I am. Are you Japanese too?”
“Oh no!” She scrambled. “I just like to learn languages in my free time.”
The mafioso was impressed, learning a language was an impressive achievement.
“That’s impressive. My name is Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, what shall I address you as?
“My name is Yoo Sangah!” She announced, smiling brightly.
He was about to ask more about her but the subway station announcement interrupted his thoughts.
Oh, Right.
He is currently in South Korea, alone.
With absolutely zero recollection of how he arrived here.
“Pardon me but, where exactly are we right now? Which city to be specific?”
“Seoul, South Korea. Why do you ask?” Her tone a bit suspicious.
Before he could make up a viable excuse, a cough struck his throat.
The cough was loud and sounded painful. Well, it was painful for him.
Yoo Sangah, concerned, tried patting his back to assist in someway.
He flinched as she made contact with his back.
Suddenly, a cough candy was in front of him. Pale hands holding out the sweet in their slightly trembling hands.
“Uhm, I had an extra and thought you could use it…”
Black eyes made contact with his grey ones.
“Thank you.” Akutagawa replied
“No worries.”
The man went back to tapping on his phone, he was practically attached to the screen with how much attention he put into it.
Honestly, Akutagawa wasn’t going to consume the candy. Too many times, he was poisoned and he didn’t need to risk it again.
He swiftly shoved it in his left pocket.
“Akutagawa! Are you feeling alright? That was quite the cough…” Sangah’s voice was worried, an unfamiliar tone for Akutagawa.
“Ah, yes. Don’t worry about it.” He avoided her eye contact.
“Thank you, Kim Dokja!”
“H-huh?!” The man who seemed infatuated with his phone screen whipped his head up, stammering and blushing.
“Akutagawa, you should say thank you to him!” Her casual tone was surprising, considering they’d met barely five minutes ago.
He didn’t see why he shouldn’t comply. Rotating his body, that was awfully sore—more than usual— he gave a slight nod,
“Thank you, Kim Dokja was it?” His Korean wasn’t the best but it’ll do.
“Ah, no problem—“ He cut himself off.
“Akutagawa Ryuunosuke.”
“Oh, are you here on a business trip?” Dokja inquired.
Akutagawa didn’t really know why he was here.
He shrugged. “Something like that.”
“Oh Dokja—“ Sangah chimed in.
The two Koreans kept talking and Akutagawa drifted off.
Left alone with his thoughts, he started to conjure up any sort of clue as to why he was here.
The last thing he remembered was, leaving his apartment and bidding goodbye to his sister, Gin.
And nothing after that.
Perhaps, he was attacked right after closing his front door? That would explain his aching body.
But still, Akutagawa couldn’t recall any weird behaviour nor any fight happening.
The ability user zoned out and let his mind take over.
Snapping back to reality, a loud bang shook the train unit.
He flinched and looked up, confused and worried. Everyone else shared the same expression.
A flash appeared in front of the civilians and all Akutagawa could think was,
Danger.
He moved into a defensive pose and was about to use Rashomon when the flash changed into a… white thing?
“$##@-@@)”$”€]_}”
Someone cried out,
“Dokkaebi!”
He guessed that was what the creature was supposed to be.
The Dokkaebi started speaking coherent Japanese, it was about to continue when a man spoke up.
“Hey, what are you doing? Is this a movie? I have an audition to attend, so I need to leave, quickly.” His arms were crossed and he looked annoyed.
The Dokkaebi just laughed to itself.
“Oh, I guess we didn’t investigate properly. I was told most people would comply after 7pm when monetization was applied.”
‘What the hell?’ Akutagawa thought to himself.
The Dokkaebi continued but the crowd got more and more agitated.
People exclaimed they were busy and had places to be.
Out of the corner of his eye, Akutagawa saw Dokja’s expression.
The Korean seemed nervous, as if he knew something bad was about to happen.
Angrily, the Dokkaebi yelled out,
“I told you, BE QUIET!”
The man standing next to shot blood out of his forehead and dropped dead.
“This is not a movie shoot,” The creature grinned.
More and more people were killed.
Akutagawa was worried, he had to stop the monster.
But, how?!
He didn’t have a plan, his body hurt, and the screams weren’t helping.
“EVERYONE, HASN’T YOUR LIVES BEEN PEACEFUL?!” The Dokkaebi screamed out.
Akutagawa couldn’t fight. His body froze, if only he was stronger, if he wasn’t useless, if only Dazai—
A blue screen appeared in front of him.
“Huh?” He thought aloud.
[THE MAIN SCENARIO HAS ARRIVED.]
———————————————
[Proof Of Value]
[Kill One or More Lives]
Category: Main
Difficulty: F
Time Limit: 30 minutes
Reward: 300 coins
Failure: Death
———————————————
A blue timer of 30 minutes appeared over everyone’s heads.
“Well then, good luck everybody,” the Dokkaebi smirked, “Please show us an interesting story.”
And then he was disappeared in a blink.
The people around him started to call the police.
Akutagawa would do the same but he is a wanted criminal so… That was out of the question.
He pondered to himself, looking at the blue-screen-thing, touching and trying to make sense of the artifact.
A broad man started shouting with a commanding but kind voice.
“Everyone please calm down!”
The man went on about something but Akutagawa paid no mind.
“I am currently an Army Lieutenant serving in the Unit 6502.”
Now, that caught his attention.
“I received a message from my superior, this is a national disaster.”
“WHAT?!”
“CALL THE PRESIDENT!!!”
“I apologize but i’m just an ordinary soldier—“
Akutagawa rolled his eyes at their noise.
But, he understood the fead. A national disaster is worrisome and he didn’t know what was happening in Japan.
He hoped his sister was safe.
A bug crawled around his shoes, pissed off, Akutagawa wanted to stomp on it with anger.
But he didnt.
He couldn’t kill people because of the goddamned promise he made with the weretiger and killing bugs seemed… wrong.
Was the weretiger even alive? Maybe, he was here too.
Who was he kidding? No way, he’d be here.
If he was, he would’ve made some sappy speech already and calmed down the crowd.
A loud noise brought Akutagawa back to the present.
The Dokkaebi was back and looked angry.
“Then why don’t we increase the difficulty of this game?”
The timer suddenly went down, all the way down to ten minutes.
[AS AN ADDITIONAL PENALTY, IF THE 'FIRST KILLING' DOESN'T HAPPEN WITHIN THE NEXT 5 MINUTES,
“ALL LIVES IN THE CARRIAGE WILL BE WIPED OUT.]
The people screamed even louder.
Akutagawa felt this situation was getting even more serious, dangerous.
Fear, disbelief, and anger clouded the unit.
“AHH!!”
“TH-THERE WAS A MURDER IN THE NEXT UNIT!” A random citizen screamed out.
Blood pooled on the door.
Akutagawa knew he had to kill, but he couldn’t take back his word. He was a man of promises and killing something for the scenario—
‘Wait, something?’
A theory popped into his mind.
‘No way, right?’
He looked on the ground, the bug was still there.
Akutagawa lifted his skinny leg up,
And slammed down.
——————————————————————————————
[YOU HAVE OBTAINED THE FIRST KILL ACHIEVEMENT.]
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