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“A self-taught outsider,” Rei said, scoffing, as he and Hiro walked through the long path of guillotine gates to the Shinigami’s mirror room. “How could someone who’s never wielded a demon weapon before be of use? Can he even sense soul waves?!”
His friend sighed. “I don’t know, but the Shinigami seemed quite optimistic about this match.”
Rei huffed. “I should just ask Hagiwara to be my meister— why not! A meister can have two weapons.”
Another sigh. “What’s a scythe technician gonna do with a gun?”
Rei knew he was right, but wasn’t ready to give up yet. “It’s good to branch out, isn’t it?! He might find me useful for long range attacks,” he rambled, even though he sensed his friend was barely listening at this point.
Hiro massaged his temples. “Please, for the love of god, Zero, give this a try? We agreed it was worth a shot.”
Now it was Rei’s turn to sigh. “Alright! But if we’re not compatible or he drops me because he doesn’t know shit about souls, that’s on him!”
“Sure, sure.”
Truth be told, he didn’t want to be anyone’s weapon but Hiro’s. But he couldn’t say that. He couldn’t possibly ask Hiro to not quit and keep fighting together, not when it was Rei’s fault that Hiro got injured in the first place—and when he couldn’t guarantee it would never happen again, especially now that Hiro’s physical condition was impaired. Even now, they were walking slowly and Hiro still had a slight limp.
As a weapon, it would’ve been his duty to protect his meister, but he failed. He knew Hiro didn’t blame him, Hiro wanted to protect him as much as vice versa, but it just wasn’t right.
So now, with Hiro retiring due to his health and Rei determined to keep fighting, it was only natural that he’d be assigned a new partner, and supposedly the Shinigami had found just the perfect candidate. But Rei wasn’t convinced. Not for the first time he wished he was more independent—he could somewhat fight on his own, but certainly not well enough to become a death scythe, he knew that.
Still, he dreaded who the Shinigami might have picked. Maybe this guy was a psycho or a weirdo or— oh no. It was much worse. The guy standing next to the Shinigami was hot. Really hot, in a ‘dark and brooding’ way, which Rei found ridiculous but quite attractive nonetheless. He was sure only Hiro heard the little noise that escaped his throat—and Hiro knew his type too well not to notice, anyway—but Rei reprimanded himself inwardly and put on his disinterested, sullen look from before.
“Ah, greetings!” the Shinigami said as they entered.
“Shinigami-sama,” both replied and bowed.
“Akai-kun, this is the weapon, Zero-kun, and his former meister, Hiro-chan.”
Zero looked the guy up and down skeptically, so Hiro took it upon himself to take the lead and extend his hand to Akai. “Morofushi Hiromitsu, nice to meet you.”
The man returned the handshake. “Likewise! Akai Shūichi.” Then he turned to Zero, who was still glaring sullenly. “So you’re my future partner? Aren’t you going to say anything?” he asked playfully, and Hiro was sure he saw a vein starting to pulse on his friend’s temple.
“Ah, he’s just in a bad mood because—” He trailed off. Because you’re his type, he could hardly say.
“So you’re rude,” Zero finally said, “and inexperienced, too, I heard you’ve never had a demon weapon before? Plus, from the bags under your eyes, you don’t even take good care of yourself.” His smile was razor-sharp. “There’s no way I’d let a guy like you pull my trigger.”
Between the two of them, Zero was definitely the ruder one at the moment, Hiro thought, but Akai only grinned.
“Ohh, a sexual innuendo already, and we have only just met.”
“Wha—!?” Zero spluttered and blushed, but Hiro couldn’t help but chuckle. At least the attraction seemed to be mutual.
“Now, now, you two,” the Shinigami interfered. “Don’t make me shinigami chop you before you’ve even tried teaming up.”
Zero huffed. “Alright, let’s get this over with.” He extended his hand, smirking. “You’ll probably just drop me like hot coal anyway.”
Akai smirked back and took the offered hand. “Hot, are you? Well, I believe you.”
Hiro did his best to hide his laughter, while Zero fumed with rage but seemed to make the wise decision to transform nonetheless. Akai seemed fascinated with the demon gun in his hand.
The feisty blond beauty neatly turned into a weapon under Shūichi’s touch and even with his lack of experience in this area, he could feel immediately that they were compatible. “Ohh…” he said, weighing the gun in his hands. “That feels pretty good.” He looked at the silver gun closely and stroked along the shaft, where the light glinted over an elaborate cherry blossom pattern that was engraved alongside a cursive zero. “Beautiful,” he said, absentmindedly.
“Shut up!” came Zero’s angry voice from the steel. Shūichi could see his image reflected on the metal’s surface. There was a blush on his cheeks, and at this angle, Shūichi could just so make out his naked shoulders. He tried not to get carried away expanding the image in his mind. “Just try to aim me, will you?!” Shūichi suppressed a smirk and, finally focusing on the task at hand, aimed the gun at the distant targets the Shinigami had placed.
He hit every single one right in the bullseye. Somehow it was even easier than with a regular gun, like Zero was doing a part of the aiming for him and helped him keep it steady. “Wow,” Shūichi said.
His thoughts were cut off by Zero jumping out of his hand and transforming back. “Alright, maybe you aren’t completely useless.”
“Thank you!” Shūichi said, unbothered, and added, “I must say, it’s certainly nice pulling your trigger.”
Zero scoffed, blushing harder. “Whatever! This is stupid, I’m probably better off hunting souls on my own!”
“Come on, Zero…” Morofushi tried, but Shūichi felt mischievous.
“Say, is your nickname ‘Zero’ because that’s how many souls you managed to hunt on your own?”
“You—!” Zero looked ready to strangle him, but before his ex-partner could step in, he and Shūichi both got struck down with a shinigami chop.
“That’s enough now!” the god chided. “Since your souls are obviously in harmony”—Zero huffed—“you’re partners from now on, and I don’t want to hear any more about it!”
They shakily got back up and once he was steady on his feet, Shūichi once again extended his hand towards Zero. “Well then, looking forward to working with you!”
Zero seemed reluctant, but shook his hand nonetheless. “Fine. But you better keep up!”
Shūichi smiled. “Of course!”