Work Text
April 9, 20XX
It’s spring. The air begins to cool, bringing welcomed breezes and new starts. The streets of Tokyo are bustling with life. A body jolts awake from their short, yet deep slumber. They checked the time: 07:08 AM…sigh. Sudden jostling movements from the bag made it impossible to fall back asleep as a cat with blue eyes popped its head out to greet his friend. “Hey”, a boyish voice said, “You were out cold for 10 minutes! I told you to rest earlier, Akira!” A hand sheepishly made its way to rub their neck. “Sorry, Morgana. Ohya-san is a talker when she’s drunk,” Lies. “ I’ll buy you some sushi later.” That seemed to lighten the cat’s mood a bit with a touch of a softened expression. “You better! And you need to come up with an excuse to why we weren’t home last night to Boss and Futaba.”
[Next stop: Yogen-Jaya. This is Yogen-Jaya.]
Akira sighed and smiled tiredly, “Yes, yes.” They leave as soon as the doors open. “Akira! Morgana!” Before they could react, a flash of orange hair obscured their vision and was brought to a life-squeezing hug. Akira struggled to breathe and Morgana yowled like the cat he is. After quite some time, the hug was less of a crushing vice grip and more of an affectionate touch. “Where were you guys?! I couldn’t sleep and Sojiro kept looking at the door anxiously waiting for your arrival!” the orange hair complained and poked Akira’s stomach. Frowning, the orange started again, “Have you been eating at all? You’re starting to become like Inari…”. An itch. Not now. The raven wanted to claw at his scalp, instead settled with a hand at the back of his head. “Good morning to you, too, Futaba.” An affectionate smile was worn. Futaba puffed her cheeks out, “Don’t you think you can get away with this, Akira Kurusu!” and ran to Leblanc to share Sojiro the news. A paw patted Akira’s shoulder as an act of comfort, “Let’s mentally prepare ourselves for the talk.” Right. Sojiro‘s infamous talk. It wasn’t really a talk at all. It was mostly that ‘disappointed dad look’ when their teenage kid did something stupid. An itch. The feeling became stronger, almost impossible to ignore. Not now. Not this early. The raven counts to five and opens the door. The bell jingles when the door opens, alerting the owner. “Hm,” the scruff man replied and nodded his head to the stairs. Akira obeys and walks up. “Dusty as always,” Morgana leapt out of the bag immediately after it was placed on a counter. Akira yawned loudly and slowly trekked towards the bed, plopping down with a bouncing creak. “Get some sleep or you’ll go insane,” the cat noted. Akira sleeps. In his dream, he sees a silver-blue butterfly caught in the webs of a hungry black widow. The sounds from the TV in the café resonates throughout the room.
[A train has derailed onto the platform causing the death of 27 people and 50 severely injured. Police have suspected it to be another case of a mental shutdown. The police have yet to release more information about the recent psychotic mental shutdowns to the public.]
Sojiro turns the TV off. “Can’t the news show other things besides this all day? They’re making my customers anxious.”Futaba hums while typing away on her laptop. “But Sojiro, customers won’t come by even if the outside is safe,” she stretches, “And plus, lower the prices a bit, then maybe you’ll get more customers.”Sojiro sighs for the nth time.The only customer in Leblanc was a high school student that seems way too young to be a detective. “So, that’s it.” He murmurs, “Sakura-san, is it alright if I interview the person upstairs?”The man looks at the detective and goes back to the word puzzle. “He won’t wake up until later tonight, but feel free to try.”The brunette smiles. “Thank you.”He walks upstairs to see a sleeping form under a mass of blankets.It shouldn’t be that cold…The detective shakes his head and leaves. Akira wakes up. Huh. He turns to the window. It’s night…Akira pauses, I’ll go for a walk. Morgana is nowhere to be seen.