The quiet muttering and clicking sound of cameras resonated through the alley. The whimpering woman had been accompanied to the hospital hours ago, but his poor self and his colleagues were simply not that lucky.
A heavy sigh escaped him as he turned away from the charred corpse and his gaze settled on the other two bodies.
'...if you can call them that.'
It was nearly 18 hours ago, that a call had come in. With a empty voice, the young woman had described her surroundings and spoken about her day, as though distracting herself. Then, her voice had broken into screams as she described her surroundings and the corpses of three men.
This, had obviously required the Police. Thus, they moved in quick.
Arriving at the scene, the first officers to enter the alley came back out and emptied their stomach's, and only a few officers with stronger stomachs managing to get the woman out of her corner covered in flesh and blood.
He himself had been called in a little later in order to allow the first respondants to go and rest. Which... well, it was obvious why they needed it.
Two of the men's upper bodies had been torn apart. When saying that, he meant it literally. He wasn't really privy to information like this, but he overheard some smarter fellas comparing whatever hit the guys, to a bullet train.
And whilst Takumi Fujiboto had never bothered to imagine what a man pierced by an object going the speed of a bullet train would look like, the mess he saw seemed to fit the picture.
So now, he kept standing his guard, steadily signaling the dumbass reporters to stay out, whilst praying there wasn't some villain out there whose Quirk was "Bullet-train-punch" or some other bullshit.
But, whoever reading his thoughts could have noticed the mention of three victims, not just two?
That was because there was indeed a third victim. That one was a bit difficult to spot however, because his color was the same as the charred ground around him.
That's right, corpse-shaped ash. Or carbon, whatever it was called. He wasn't a policeman for his science knowledge.
That being said, he was smart enough to understand that this should be due to fire. Or something hotter than it. Or, a hyper-specific Quirk imitating all of Fire's aspects and consequences.
'...i hope i can go home soon.'
He'd been here a while. He'd overheard enough and honestly, from what he had been told, it was time to call All Might.
'To be fair, calling All Might somewhere is always a good idea.'
Apparently, a bunch of villains, namely the three victims had gone after the women. From what the inspectors discussed, some random old Mutant came in, burned one, blew up the two so quick the woman didn't see how, then asked stupid questions before just leaving.
'And blowing up people faster than people can see how, is an All Might level threat to me.'
The inspectors were trying to know what kind of questions the Mutant asked while he was trying to find out what the Mutant looked like, so he could stay the fuck away from him.
Another heavy sigh escaped him as he prayed for a Cigarette to spawn in his mouth. Or a nice joint.
"Takumi! You doing all right?"
'Hm? Oh! Kirito!'
"As well as you'd think. Did you see?"
"Nah, im not stupid. They told me its disgusting though."
"Brutal stuff. If you turn around, you'll see the victims being carried out. In shoe sized boxes."
"Urgh, shut up."
"Ah! Is that a leg?"
"SHUT UP, uurrgh."
Takumi laughed a little. There was nothing being carried out right now, he just needed to share his disgust with his friend, which obviously worked best when said friend was as naive as Kirito.
"I'm just joking, nothing being carried now. They're still trying to get what the hell exactly happened. Or how."
Kirito grimaced, his face a little bit green. "Lets talk about anything else. Please."
Takumi shrugged. Honestly, concentrating on conversations was difficult for him. His Quirk, Big Ears allowed him to be in earshot of... more than he wanted.
So, he heard more details than others and if he had to suffer that knowledge, so should others.
That being said, he also liked Kirito more than others. "Sure, you got anything going new in your Life? I haven't, just some kid calling me Jumbo."
His friend deadpanned. "That's nothing new, is it? Didn't that happen last week too?"
Takumi just nodded as Kirito broke out in a grin and continued.
"I mean.... nothing special happened. I just met some old guy at a cafe, complaining about things."
Takumi shrugged in answer.
"Another geezer of the "good ol' days", right."
Kirito laughed at that. "Weren't the old days basically anarchy? He seemed old enough though. Kind of hard to tell when the guy looks like a volcano-frog."
'Hm?'
For a moment, Takumi's gaze shot back towards the alley and the inspectors. Kirito continued, unbothered.
"Dressed like straight from the mountain temple. Some weird jacket. Smoked something cool though. His pipe's decor was amazing."
'...whatever. I crave some weed though. Fuck.'
Despite the strange itch at the back of his head, Takumi just shook it off as half his brain dreamt about his dealer, whilst the other remained in conversation with Kirito.
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(POV: JOGO)
"Please. Please can you please teach me?"
Jogo was staring at the child, whilst leaning on his cane. His lone eye remained transfixed on the pleading expression and the shaking eyes.
His gaze remained fixed and unmoving, disconcerting to the child who awaited the answer to his desperate plea.
'...i am here for information and knowledge, not to kill time with a human brat.'
But.... what if it was just manipulating the brat like Mahito had done to... some other human.
The thought lingered. Despite that, Jogo knew that this wasn't his field of expertise.
"...No. There is no point in wasting time playing teacher for a whining brat."
"Huh?!" The child froze before lashing out, his voice cracking. "But... then why?! Why did you come here anyway?! Why...no! Please! Teach me! I want to... control my flames!!!"
Jogo had been midway turning and leaving, but a single sentence of the child held him back.
'Why did i come here anyway?'
The grip on his cane tightened.
'What am i to do here.'
The pressure in his ears rose.
'What the hell, could be the point of my presence?'
*Crack. The cane splintered in his grip. The child tumbled backwards as Jogo felt his Cursed Energy lash out, barely restrained from setting his surroundings ablaze.
There was nothing to it, was there? Just a twisted mockery of him, an invalidation of his strength and truth.
Like Sukuna. Like Gojo Satoru. Their existence alone, a mockery to his own.
And now this. A foreign place, invalidating all of his knowledge. Breaking all of his beliefs. Trampling on his very identity and pride as a Cursed Spirit.
"Stand proud, you are strong."
His earplugs popped out and the massive pressure of his Lava shot outwards, tearing a trench into the soil and carbonizing trees were they stood.
Jogo's face distorted at the memory of Sukuna's words, or perhaps the delusion he had created in his mind before death.
The pressure in his head sunk, but Jogo's expression remained one of feral rage as he turned back to the petulant human questioning him. His anger rose at the frightened expression of the human.
"You shitty brat!-" In an instant, the child found itself dangling in the air in Jogo's grip, staring into the large rage filled eye of the Curse.
"You whine about control? About training?? About recognition???"
'Stand proud, you are strong.'
"You think, you'll be better because someone else recognizes you? Because you follow their words and learn their tricks, like an obedient little pet???"
With a flick of his arm, the child was thrown, crashing against a tree, his expression frozen into shock.
"YOu think? You think someone taught me my strength??? You believe i carefully curated my power for recognition?? So someone can tell me, WHAT I AM WORTH???"
Again, in a single second, the distance between the two was closed as Jogo stood above the foolish child.
"NO! I took it! I burned! I tested. I became it. And my mastery grew, with each and every single attempt!"
His clane clattered against the ground in the background. Jogo's voice settled into a higher pitch.
"And you. ask. me. to. train. you?"
Only millimeters were left between the Curse's and the Human's faces.
"L-let go!"
The child struggled, even blasting a wave of flames into Jogo, but he did not even acknowledge them beyond a glance.
"These flames of yours. They're the only honest thing there is about you. You cannot control them?? Its because you cannot control yourself!
Your power, your fire does not grow in the way you want? That's because you do not know what you want."
Jogo felt his anger rise again at these words, but the flames bursting around him died out nevertheless, as though strangled out of existence.
His voice, changed to quiet tone, simmering with absoluteness and disdain.
"Your true nature. Your true feelings. Your true thoughts. That is what will shape yourself and your power. Nothing else will."
"And if you cannot understand and accept that, you will remain as you are, a raw diamond, rolling itself in the mud to fit in with the rest of the rocks."
The child's eyes were wide, its mouth hanging open. Part of its skin had swelled with the heat, further clutched by the child who tried to subdue the pain.
But his eyes shook, not with determination, but with fear and understanding.
The understanding of what he risked to become and the fear that accompanied the realization.
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CHAPTER END
AN: Whew. Now, Hanami fic.