Everything wrong about that statement- or at least, that he’s unsure of, powered by his uncertainty- dies on his tongue. He can’t say he’s the best at figuring out people, even if those people are close to him… But Ken’s panic, at least, is clear as day to him. Carefully, he reaches up to touch his face.
The touch focuses Ken's eyes on Chikusa, and if it doesn't exactly calm him then it does seem to still him, eyes fixed on Chikusa's face. There's a touch of color to his face, like he's feeling some of his usual self-consciousness, but also sullen stubbornness - he's not going to back down from his, no matter how embarrassed he is.
His palm stays right where it is, not stroking or tapping or anything. It’s still and cool against the burning heat of Ken’s face. Certain that he has his attention on him and nothing else, Chikusa repeats himself. “I’m here.” He’s nowhere else. He’s not locked in the basement of a mafia hideout, waiting for the next bit of torture. He’s not in a lab, suffocating from the smell of chemicals and his own fear like when they were children. He’s not dead. He’s not even away from his body.
Ken stares at him for a long moment. Then he huffs. "I know that, stupid kappa. I'm holding you, aren't I?"
No one ever said Ken picks up on subtle meanings well.
But, then again, maybe something of the sentiment gets through to him after all. He turns his face toward Chikusa's hand, almost nuzzling it.
"We're still getting Sasagawa's box." He says this like a reminder that this isn't getting Chikusa out of anything, more or less speaking the words into Chikusa's palm.
A frustrated sigh disrupts Chikusa’s calm look. He hadn’t thought Ken would get sidetracked, not in this kind of situation, but he’s still not happy about having to go to Sasagawa at all. “...They get too involved.” Which is to say, Sawada’s group has cared about them all for little to no reason as far as Chikusa can tell.
"I told you, I'll steal the stupid box." Which is easier said than done. What will probably happen, in reality, is that Ken will attack Ryohei, Ryohei will smack him down and interrogate him on why Ken's attacking him all of a sudden, Ken will tell him, Ryohei will give him the box, Ken will bring it back to Chikusa to heal him up, and then Ken will thoughtfully return the box by throwing it through one of the Sasagawa residence windows or something. Or, if he's feeling more charitable, maybe he'll just dump it in their mailbox.
Ken doesn't have this planned out in any way. He knows he beat up Ryohei once; he likely hasn't even thought as far as considering that he'd beaten Ryohei a long time ago, before Ryohei had even undergone any real training in Vongola-style combat and was just your everyday student boxing enthusiast. But he's confident he can get the box, one way or another. Maybe on some level he knows that he could just ask for the box, even if he'd never be willing to ask Tsuna and his Famiglia for help directly. Hence the threats of force, or theft, when really he and Chikusa both know they don't need to resort to such things.
Chikusa's not the only one of them uncomfortable with this. He's just the only one more discomfited than he is determined.
Ken takes off again, Chikusa in his arms. It's nearly half an hour, even at full speed, before they reach the Sasagawa residence; the place where Chikusa had been held hadn't exactly been in the heart of Namimori. In fact, it was far enough on the outskirts to practically not even be in the city anymore.
Once they've arrived, though...Ken simply stands there on the street, shifting his weight restlessly from one foot to the other, looking between the house and Chikusa. His dilemma is painfully obvious - he doesn't know where to leave Chikusa while he goes in after the box. He probably doesn't want to leave Chikusa at all.
By the time they reach the Sasagawa residence, Chikusa has almost managed to nod off. The fact that Ken’s run is loping and rough hasn’t been a problem at all. They’ve had to sleep in worse conditions, after all, so what’s this to Chikusa? Where there’s a will, there’s a way…. And god knows that Chikusa is at any given time longing for rest and apathy.
Besides. Miracle of miracles, no one has seen them and managed to call the cops on a pair of bloodied boys looking like hell.
After a few moments of them having been brought to a standstill outside the place, Chikusa starts to stir. “...Ken? What are you doing?”
"...I need to go in there, byon." This seems like stating the obvious, so it doesn't explain the honestly agonized expression on Ken's face. "What about you, though?"
This may be the most openly distressed Chikusa's ever seen Ken, save for when Mukuro didn't show up at Kokuyo Land because he'd been captured by the Vindice. And Ken's not afraid to be openly upset over things.
What about him indeed. Chikusa’s still in the camp of “don’t bother to go in at atll”, but he knows that there’s no winning with Ken over this. Not while his knees are broken and he’s being carried in his arms and Ken is forever stubborn. Chikusa glances up at the house himself, silent in thought.
“...If I had a weapon…” He’d be able to fend for himself just fine, even like this.
Ken looks startled by that. "Oh yeah!" After some brief deliberation, he hops the wall surrounding the Sasagawa residence - from a standing start, holding Chikusa in his arms; channeling's a hell of a drug - and, after a moment's peering around the yard, finds a stand of bushes to carry Chikusa behind, carefully lying him down so as not to worsen his injuries. Then Ken digs into his jacket, and pulls out - some wonderfully familiar yoyos. And if they have blood smeared on them - presumably from whoever had them, or was simply standing nearby when Ken found them - then hopefully Chikusa can overlook it.
"I found 'em, byon," Ken says, with evident satisfaction. "They smelled like Kakipi."
Relief actually floods through Chikusa’s expression when he sees the two toys-turned-weapons, and there’s actually a bit of speed to the way he reaches for them. Not much, but enough to probably be noticeable to Ken. Chikusa isn’t like Mukuro or Ken, after all. His body was never engineered to be a weapon in of itself. When his back is against the wall or he’s searching out someone to murder on Mukuro’s orders, all he has are things he’s created himself in desperate fits of needing to be safe, needing to be useful.
“...I’ll be fine.” A pause as he looks up at Ken. “..If you’re getting the box, you’ll need the ring too.”
Ken hesitates at that. "...is my ring not good enough?"
Ever since the Vongola went to the future and came back, with Yuni sending a flood of future knowledge along with them, the Kokuyo gang has made use of that knowledge. Ken and Chikusa have rings now, Sun and Rain respectively - highlighting their position as opposites all the more blatantly - because obviously none of them are going to let the grass grow under their feet when the promise of new weapons, new ways for Chikusa and Ken to be useful, presents itself. But mass-produced rings still aren't as common as they eventually will be - Mukuro had taken some pains to find the ones they have - and what rings there are tend not to be particularly powerful. And as for boxes, well, those are still incredibly rare, still technology in development, and Ken and Chikusa don't have any at all.
Ken knows his ring doesn't have nearly the power of Ryohei's Vongola ring. It'll probably take him a lot longer, and a lot more effort, to heal Chikusa than it would Ryohei. But it hadn't occurred to him that his ring might not be sufficient to open the box at all. Chikusa's remark has him stopping to wonder.
Of course he figured Ken wouldn’t have considered something like this. Chikusa knows, which is why he’s made the effort to speak up about it at all. It’s how things have been between them for as long as he can remember: Ken acts, and Chikusa thinks.
...Good thing he’d been conscious in this case.
In response to Ken’s question, Chikusa shrugs. Frankly, he doubts their rings are really good enough for anything right now. As the technology progresses, he has no doubt that Mukuro-sama will keep them right on its tail so that they always have some measure of edge, but for right now… “There’s nothing else like the Vongola rings… The boxes might only match up to them.” A specific key for a specific lock. As far as Chikusa is concerned, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
"Can I even use the Vongola ring, byon?" Ken is frowning now in his uncertainty. Now that Chikusa's made him question one assumption, he's actually considering the other possibilities on his own.
Ken's not exactly stupid, not the way most people would think; he just doesn't bother engaging his brain a lot of the time, acting on instinct and impulse rather than thought.
Maybe he's just going to have to fetch Sasagawa himself.
In theory, he thinks it should only have been the Sky Ring which might cause damage to anyone besides the person it’s bestowed itself upon. That makes sense, from what he knows about the Flames and their various attributes. Sky is Harmony, so that’s probably why it can still carry on a will like that, or maybe it’s because anything that disrupts the harmony it has with a foreign entity….
...Or, more likely, all he can do is bullshit and theorize. Rings and flames aren’t his specialty, biology and poisons are.
He does, however, offer what are surely helpful words.
Ken just scowls at that. "Shamal wouldn't help enough, byon!" And as if that's decided him, he finally pulls himself away from Chikusa, moving away from the wall to glare up at the building.
Then he leaps. He scrambles up the side of the building with the assistance of animal agility and claws, sniffs at the first second-floor window he comes across, then leaps across to the next one down. This one apparently fits Ryohei's scent, and he slides open the window and disappears inside.
Thuds and snarls and yelling are shortly heard. Something shatters. After a minute, the light turns out. Chikusa is left to wonder, and possibly panic. Ryohei's a lot stronger now than he used to be.
Ryohei is definitely stronger than he once was. However, there's good news: he hasn't really advanced when it comes to brain smarts.
So one flipped table, a couple of broken lights, and a busted wall later and Ryohei is beaming at Ken across the room with his fists up like the feral garbage child hadn't just broken into his house. Sure, a few things are a little busted, but that's fine!! Ryohei has never been a particularly material person. There are more important things to consider.
"Hey!! It's you from Kokuyo! Did you finally come to join the boxing club!? I knew you'd extremely come around!!!!"
One can only hope that Kyoko is spending the night over Hana's or Haru's houses.
Ken's scowling at Ryohei in the light, perched on the side of his overturned bed, as he tries to parse what that smile could mean. The words irritate and confuse him further. "Hah? I didn't come to join your dumb club!" He bares his teeth. "I came for your box, byon!"
“Then I’ll extremely convince you!” If anything, Ryohei’s grin just seems to grow brighter as his fists raise up in a classic boxing stance. In a faint way, maybe Ken can recognize it. While it’s considerably less bloodthirsty, it’s the same kind of reaction he gets at the prospect of a fight.
“As for my box, no way! I’ve been told it’s extremely important!”
"Yeah, well, I need it for something extremely important, byon!" Ken scowls, made all the more irritable by the fact that if Chikusa wasn't lying bloody and hurt in the bushes below, he'd love to brawl with Ryohei. He'd get his ass kicked, with Ryohei as strong as he is now, but he'd still happily fight him.
But he's got business to take care of.
"I'll give it back when I'm done!" This is a minor concession, and the fact that Ken's offering this guarantee goes a long way to showing just how desperate he is. For one thing, if Ken was going to take Ryohei's box under normal circumstances, he wouldn't bother to give it back unless someone made him. For another, even if he was planning on giving it back, he probably wouldn't bother mentioning it; that would just be a fact revealed in the fullness of time, or a grudging admission after he'd already been beaten in a fight but was hoping he could manage by persuasion what he couldn't through force. (Which is to say, as a last resort.)
Right now, he wants the box so badly he'd forego fighting Ryohei to get it.
"Gimme your ring, too! My ring won't open it, byon!"
For all that Ryohei is in many ways the stereotypical jock, he's not completely a lost cause. Emotions are easier to parse than logic and it finally hits him that this whole encounter isn't just Ken being... Ken. Slightly, he lowers his face and furrows his brow at the feral child currently occupying his overturned bed.
Ken bares his fangs, bristling all over, and for a moment it looks like Ken might attack Ryohei just because there's no one else around to take out that much rage on. He almost vibrates with it.
Impressively, he manages to compress enough of it into a verbal snarl that he's able to vent that way. "They hurt Kakipi!"
If Ryohei's not familiar with that particular term of endearment, they're going to waste a minute or two longer while Ken has to explain.
As a matter of fact, he’s not, but that doesn’t seem to matter to Ryohei. All he does is lower his fists completely, expression morphing into concern. “Then I’ll go help! Come on, let’s go!” Without any regard for the fact that they’re on the second floor, he storms over to the window.
Then again, with the things he’s been hit with, maybe there’s no need for concern. Ryohei is astonishingly durable.
Ken's kneejerk feeling at Ryohei's unexpected cooperation (he should have expected it, the Kokuyo gang are fully aware that Tsuna's Vongola are weirdly compassionate and invested in their well-being and are actively kind of uncomfortable about it, but deep down Ken never really expects or believes in anyone outside their group being helpful or caring) is relief. It's followed, almost immediately, with the realization that Chikusa's not going to be happy about having to endure Ryohei personally while getting healed, and will be even less happy about the fact that news will inevitably get back to Tsuna and the other guardians with Ryohei's involvement.
But Chikusa gets grumpy about a lot of things, many of which Ken deems not important enough to fuss over - things like cleanliness or the lack thereof, and proper nutrition, and not being allowed to sleep until moss eventually grows over his body and the earth reclaims him. Ken can deal with an unhappy Chikusa. And while this happens to be something neither of them like, in the face of Chikusa's condition, Ken decides they can both just suck it up.
Ken beats Ryohei to the window in a single leap, and jumps from there down to the ground, looking back up at Ryohei expectantly for a moment in an unspoken invitation to follow before a thought occurs and he darts into the bushes where Chikusa is. He doesn't know how far out Ryohei will jump, and Ryohei doesn't know Chikusa's practically right below him, and Ken doesn't want Ryohei to actually jump down onto Chikusa. But, he figures, if Ryohei knows Ken is right below him, he'll make sure to jump a little further out.
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badliifechoiice22016-01-08 10:36 am
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There's a definite undertone of urgency to that statement. Borderline panic, in fact. What Ken may have meant instead was I need you to get healed.
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“Ken.”
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"...what?"
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His palm stays right where it is, not stroking or tapping or anything. It’s still and cool against the burning heat of Ken’s face. Certain that he has his attention on him and nothing else, Chikusa repeats himself. “I’m here.”
He’s nowhere else. He’s not locked in the basement of a mafia hideout, waiting for the next bit of torture. He’s not in a lab, suffocating from the smell of chemicals and his own fear like when they were children. He’s not dead. He’s not even away from his body.
He’s here. With Ken.
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No one ever said Ken picks up on subtle meanings well.
But, then again, maybe something of the sentiment gets through to him after all. He turns his face toward Chikusa's hand, almost nuzzling it.
"We're still getting Sasagawa's box." He says this like a reminder that this isn't getting Chikusa out of anything, more or less speaking the words into Chikusa's palm.
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Ken doesn't have this planned out in any way. He knows he beat up Ryohei once; he likely hasn't even thought as far as considering that he'd beaten Ryohei a long time ago, before Ryohei had even undergone any real training in Vongola-style combat and was just your everyday student boxing enthusiast. But he's confident he can get the box, one way or another. Maybe on some level he knows that he could just ask for the box, even if he'd never be willing to ask Tsuna and his Famiglia for help directly. Hence the threats of force, or theft, when really he and Chikusa both know they don't need to resort to such things.
Chikusa's not the only one of them uncomfortable with this. He's just the only one more discomfited than he is determined.
Ken takes off again, Chikusa in his arms. It's nearly half an hour, even at full speed, before they reach the Sasagawa residence; the place where Chikusa had been held hadn't exactly been in the heart of Namimori. In fact, it was far enough on the outskirts to practically not even be in the city anymore.
Once they've arrived, though...Ken simply stands there on the street, shifting his weight restlessly from one foot to the other, looking between the house and Chikusa. His dilemma is painfully obvious - he doesn't know where to leave Chikusa while he goes in after the box. He probably doesn't want to leave Chikusa at all.
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Besides. Miracle of miracles, no one has seen them and managed to call the cops on a pair of bloodied boys looking like hell.
After a few moments of them having been brought to a standstill outside the place, Chikusa starts to stir. “...Ken? What are you doing?”
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This may be the most openly distressed Chikusa's ever seen Ken, save for when Mukuro didn't show up at Kokuyo Land because he'd been captured by the Vindice. And Ken's not afraid to be openly upset over things.
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“...If I had a weapon…” He’d be able to fend for himself just fine, even like this.
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"I found 'em, byon," Ken says, with evident satisfaction. "They smelled like Kakipi."
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“...I’ll be fine.” A pause as he looks up at Ken. “..If you’re getting the box, you’ll need the ring too.”
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Ever since the Vongola went to the future and came back, with Yuni sending a flood of future knowledge along with them, the Kokuyo gang has made use of that knowledge. Ken and Chikusa have rings now, Sun and Rain respectively - highlighting their position as opposites all the more blatantly - because obviously none of them are going to let the grass grow under their feet when the promise of new weapons, new ways for Chikusa and Ken to be useful, presents itself. But mass-produced rings still aren't as common as they eventually will be - Mukuro had taken some pains to find the ones they have - and what rings there are tend not to be particularly powerful. And as for boxes, well, those are still incredibly rare, still technology in development, and Ken and Chikusa don't have any at all.
Ken knows his ring doesn't have nearly the power of Ryohei's Vongola ring. It'll probably take him a lot longer, and a lot more effort, to heal Chikusa than it would Ryohei. But it hadn't occurred to him that his ring might not be sufficient to open the box at all. Chikusa's remark has him stopping to wonder.
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...Good thing he’d been conscious in this case.
In response to Ken’s question, Chikusa shrugs. Frankly, he doubts their rings are really good enough for anything right now. As the technology progresses, he has no doubt that Mukuro-sama will keep them right on its tail so that they always have some measure of edge, but for right now… “There’s nothing else like the Vongola rings… The boxes might only match up to them.” A specific key for a specific lock. As far as Chikusa is concerned, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
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Ken's not exactly stupid, not the way most people would think; he just doesn't bother engaging his brain a lot of the time, acting on instinct and impulse rather than thought.
Maybe he's just going to have to fetch Sasagawa himself.
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In theory, he thinks it should only have been the Sky Ring which might cause damage to anyone besides the person it’s bestowed itself upon. That makes sense, from what he knows about the Flames and their various attributes. Sky is Harmony, so that’s probably why it can still carry on a will like that, or maybe it’s because anything that disrupts the harmony it has with a foreign entity….
...Or, more likely, all he can do is bullshit and theorize. Rings and flames aren’t his specialty, biology and poisons are.
He does, however, offer what are surely helpful words.
“I told you we should have gone to Shamal.”
Are we going to have to have one of us NPC Ryohei
Then he leaps. He scrambles up the side of the building with the assistance of animal agility and claws, sniffs at the first second-floor window he comes across, then leaps across to the next one down. This one apparently fits Ryohei's scent, and he slides open the window and disappears inside.
Thuds and snarls and yelling are shortly heard. Something shatters. After a minute, the light turns out. Chikusa is left to wonder, and possibly panic. Ryohei's a lot stronger now than he used to be.
on it
So one flipped table, a couple of broken lights, and a busted wall later and Ryohei is beaming at Ken across the room with his fists up like the feral garbage child hadn't just broken into his house. Sure, a few things are a little busted, but that's fine!! Ryohei has never been a particularly material person. There are more important things to consider.
"Hey!! It's you from Kokuyo! Did you finally come to join the boxing club!? I knew you'd extremely come around!!!!"
You are a god among men, James
Ken's scowling at Ryohei in the light, perched on the side of his overturned bed, as he tries to parse what that smile could mean. The words irritate and confuse him further. "Hah? I didn't come to join your dumb club!" He bares his teeth. "I came for your box, byon!"
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“As for my box, no way! I’ve been told it’s extremely important!”
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But he's got business to take care of.
"I'll give it back when I'm done!" This is a minor concession, and the fact that Ken's offering this guarantee goes a long way to showing just how desperate he is. For one thing, if Ken was going to take Ryohei's box under normal circumstances, he wouldn't bother to give it back unless someone made him. For another, even if he was planning on giving it back, he probably wouldn't bother mentioning it; that would just be a fact revealed in the fullness of time, or a grudging admission after he'd already been beaten in a fight but was hoping he could manage by persuasion what he couldn't through force. (Which is to say, as a last resort.)
Right now, he wants the box so badly he'd forego fighting Ryohei to get it.
"Gimme your ring, too! My ring won't open it, byon!"
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"Why do you need it?"
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Impressively, he manages to compress enough of it into a verbal snarl that he's able to vent that way. "They hurt Kakipi!"
If Ryohei's not familiar with that particular term of endearment, they're going to waste a minute or two longer while Ken has to explain.
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Then again, with the things he’s been hit with, maybe there’s no need for concern. Ryohei is astonishingly durable.
fuck you too DW I wasn't finished
But Chikusa gets grumpy about a lot of things, many of which Ken deems not important enough to fuss over - things like cleanliness or the lack thereof, and proper nutrition, and not being allowed to sleep until moss eventually grows over his body and the earth reclaims him. Ken can deal with an unhappy Chikusa. And while this happens to be something neither of them like, in the face of Chikusa's condition, Ken decides they can both just suck it up.
Ken beats Ryohei to the window in a single leap, and jumps from there down to the ground, looking back up at Ryohei expectantly for a moment in an unspoken invitation to follow before a thought occurs and he darts into the bushes where Chikusa is. He doesn't know how far out Ryohei will jump, and Ryohei doesn't know Chikusa's practically right below him, and Ken doesn't want Ryohei to actually jump down onto Chikusa. But, he figures, if Ryohei knows Ken is right below him, he'll make sure to jump a little further out.
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