Chapter Text
As the motorcycle screeched to a complete stop, Akira hopped off with a resounding pfft against the asphalt, a kind break from what just happened quite literally a few moments ago. It was a nice change of pace, he doesn’t want to be beating the shit out of people forever. Wouldn’t that just be hellish?
“Say hi to the gang for me,” Matsu requested, already prepping to ride off.
“Wait, Matsu... Why not come inside, say hi yourself? You're already here!” Akira replied, a bit surprised at the request.
“Peace!” Matsu drove off, throwing up a peace sign as he quickly grew further and further away.
Akira immediately deflated slightly as he sped off. There’s something up, he could feel it, but with Matsu being gone now, he couldn’t get a read on his thoughts.
With a sigh of defeat, he turned around and walked through the front yard of the orphanage. It was silent for a moment, before a single gust of wind rustled the leaves of a tree standing nearby.
Crossing into the threshold of the building, a familiar voice called out to Akira.
“Akira, you’re back! I was starting to get worried!” It was Taeko, caretaker of the orphanage. As she approached, her face contorted from relief to mild horror as she saw Akira’s wounds. “Wait, you’re bleeding! Don’t tell me… you’ve been fighting again?!”
“Quit freaking out, it’s not a big deal,” Akira dismissed her worries, waving a hand.
“You coming home in blood isn’t a big deal?!” Taeko exclaimed, “Dear dear, your shirt’s ruined too! Take it off, it needs to be washed right now!”
“Tch, I’m not a little kid.” Akira crossed his arms over his chest. He looked down, and yeesh, it really was wrecked.
With a resigned sigh, he took it off and dropped it into Taeko’s outstretched hands.
“There we go, all done.” With a sigh, Taeko turned around and walked off to the laundry room. “It feels the more laundry I get through, the more laundry there is to do!”
Akira followed close behind, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he kept pace.
As they arrived, Taeko dropped Akira’s shirt into an overflowing laundry basket, before picking it all up and tossing it into the washing machine. Clicking a few buttons, the machine hummed to life, starting to spin around the clothing while drenching them with water.
“Now, have you washed your hands? Properly?” Taeko deadpanned, turning her head to look over at Akira.
Akira was silent for a moment, before walking out and into the bathroom, which was only a few paces away.
He turned on the sink, cold water flowing over his hands as he scrubbed away. The water was slightly tinted red, likely due to the blood on them, but it washed away pretty quickly.
Once he finished up, he grabbed a hand towel hanging nearby and dried off his hands. Can’t risk it with slippery hands.
Wait, isn’t Taeko dating Matsu? Maybe she has some answers about whatever’s been up with him lately…
Akira peeked over the laundry room door, where Taeko was working on folding up a batch of clean clothing for the kids.
He focused, really focused on her…
Hmm, I haven’t seen Kenichi in a while…
Bust.
Well, he should check on Kaori. See how she’s doing, see if she’s okay…
He started walking over to Kaori’s room, peeking in to see if he was even welcome. The room was near pitch black, the only light coming through the barely split curtains of the front window. Kaori was tucked into bed, fast asleep despite it being like 2pm, but kids need sleep, don’t they? And people need to rest when they're sick, almost everyone knows that fact…
Over by the table, the orphanage’s matron sat in silence, knitting like an average old lady in a nursing home. She looked up at Kaori, before noticing the open door with Akira standing there. She ushered him in with a wave of her hand.
“Kaori’s finally settled down to sleep,” She whispered, her words barely audible, “so don’t disturb her, will you?”
Akira just stood next to her, watching Kaori from a distance like some form of guardian angel.
It almost felt like habit when he read Kaori's thoughts, just to get an idea of what’s up with her.
Tarokichi… You can’t die…
Oh yeah… the turtle Kazu caught for her. He thought that she needed something from the outside world…
Even if it’s in her heart, a miracle’s probably not happening for the damn creature. Such is life, he supposes.
Akira walked out of the room, glancing over at the dying Tarokichi, belly up in their tank like a bloated whale corpse washed up on the beach. It was sad, really. Kaori got attached to that thing so fast, only for it to be slipping through her fingers right as he thinks these words.
He walked off to the living room, to the sight of cheering kids crowded around the TV set. Akira knew what that meant any week of the day…
Wrestling was on. The kids were always massive fans of wrestling.
“It's time for the long-awaited national wrestling showdown! And boy, do we have a matchup for you today!” The announcer… announced (what else am I supposed to say?!), lingering on every words with through the oh so graceful method of yelling at the top of their lungs. “In the red corner- Misawa the Menacing! And in the blue corner- Mutou the Merciless! The time has finally come to witness these two legends of the ring throw down! Prepare yourselves for the unprecedented! A no-holds barred, no-round limit fight to the finish! And there's the gong, signaling the beginning of this legendary bout!”
With the booming ringing of the gong, the round began…
“Quick, quick, wrestling’s on! I wanna see Misawa!” One of the kids yelled. Yuki, to be specific. She was practically vibrating in her seat as she watched the TV.
Kazu turned around to look at Akira, likely having sensed his presence.
“Hey bro, get your butt kicked?” He asked, “Give me a heads up next time and I'll back you up!”
Akira stifled a chuckle at the remark. Kid would’ve been kicked to the grass if he was part of it, hell, his bones probably aren’t fully developed!
Hearing Kazu’s remark, one of the kids tore their attention away from the match to chime in.
“Hey, Akira, why are you always getting into fights?” It was Aki, probably the 2nd largest protester of Akira’s fights, right up there behind Taeko herself. “Don't you realize how much it stresses Taeko when she sees you coming home all messed up?”
“I have my reasons, Aki,” Akira retorted, before walking up behind one of the boys before kneeling down behind him.
“Hey, Watanabe, can ya go and check Taeko’s room for anything I can patch up with?”
“Aww, but I’ll miss wrestling!” Watanabe whined.
“I’ll catch you up on what happens.”
“Fine… but why me?”
With those parting words, Watanabe got up and walked off to Taeko’s rooms…
And seizing the opportunity, Yuki leaped into Watanabe’s seat.
“Oh my god, Misawa is just SO COOL!!” Her words were a half-brag half-her fangirling the fuck out.
“H-hey, that was my seat!” Watanabe nervously declared, pointing a shaky finger at her.
Yuki stuck her tongue out at him in response. Whatever was going to happen when she got back, it was inevitable that she was going to rub in the seat theft.
A few minutes passed without issue, besides how loud Yuki was being about Misawa. Odd, Watanabe would usually be back by now.
“Come on, Misawa! Give him the Corkscrew Elbow!” Yuki got up and spun around, hitting Akira with enough force to knock him back into the idle Watanabe.
“Oof!” Watanabe yelped as Akira barreled into him.
“Hey, not cool Yuki!” Kazu firmly stated, crossing his arms over his chest. “He’s still hurting!”
“Huh?” Yuki didn’t seem to understand what Kazu had stated, but it was not even a second before the wires connected in her brain. “I barely touched him!”
“Guys! Stop fighting about… fighting!” Akira declared, physically pushing the two apart in an effort to keep shit from escalating.
“I-I found what you wanted,” Watanabe held out the first aid kit to Akira.
“Thanks.” Akira spared no time before opening up the kit, pulling out bandages and such, and patching up his wounds. He would be lying if he said he hadn’t done this before—it’s practically become second nature to him.
While Akira was patching up, Watanabe returned to his usual seat and sat down like he had never left.
“Hey, that was my VIP ringside seat you’re sitting in!” Yuki pushed Watanabe out of it, sending him tumbling a few feet. Jeez, that kid had some goddamn strength. “Come on, Misawa! Give him what for!”
“There was no need for shoving…” Watanabe mumbled, rubbing the back of his head before looking over at Akira. “Kaori’s been pretty upset lately, by the way. Seems Tarokichi's sick or something. You know about Tarokichi, right? The turtle Kazu caught for her a while back.”
“Yeah, I know,” Akira admitted, his voice turning more solemn. “I’ll go check on her…”
Akira walked through the short hall of rooms until he arrived at the same door he was beholden to just a few moments ago. Based on the soft crying barely cutting through, Kaori was awake…
Akira opened the door, and his assumptions were confirmed. Kaori was sitting against the cabinet holding up Tarokichi’s tank, knees to her chest as she cried into her arms. She looked pretty bad…
Akira stepped over and sat down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder to try and bring some sense of comfort.
“You good?” Akira asked, his voice almost uncharacteristically soft. He already knew what was up, but he didn’t want that to spill.
“T-tarokicki… he…” She sniffled, clearly barely holding back a lake’s worth of tears. “He’s dying. He must be so scared, the poor thing….”
“Well…” Akira had to think for a moment, putting a hand to his chin. “He still has a chance to survive, doesn’t he?”
It was cold comfort. Tarokichi has no chance of making it, and Kaori is probably aware of that fact. In the end, though, it was the best way to say it.
“He probably won’t…” Kaori mumbled.
“Well, maybe the afterlife will serve him well.”
“But… I don’t want him to die!”
Silence. No one could say anything, it wasn’t worth the effort, Tarokichi was dying and everyone knew that. There were no words of truth for Akira to try and comfort his sister with, it was obvious that the turtle probably wasn’t going to last a week without an insane miracle.
Kaori had given up on holding back, crying softly into her arms as Akira just sat there, unknowing of what to do now.
“Even… even if your body dies, your heart won’t, will it?” Kaori choked out between sobs.
Then, an idea popped into Akira’s head.
“Wait, maybe Doc Tobei can help Tarokichi!” Akira declared, “Y’know, the weirdo old dude running the antiques shop! Wait here, I’ll be back!”
Akira shot up and hit the ground running, ready to see if Tarokichi could be saved after all. The kids looked away from wrestling, but that was only for a moment.