Akito walked on the street outside the hospital trying to clear his head. An impossible task. 

He pressed his palms to his face, "Fuck..." 

Rein almost died. 

He almost died and instead of getting proper medical treatment, he had gone to some nutjob quack. Akito swayed on his feet, as if he was standing at the edge of the yawning pit in his stomach. With the adrenaline gone, there was little else holding him up. 

The bottoms of his feet tingled to turn back, to gather Rein in his arms and stay by his side. 

He stood up straighter when the sound of frantic footsteps echoed through the night air. A tall man dressed in a long black coat and beanie shoved past him. 

"Watch it!" Akito said. 

The man spun around, "What did you say?" he snarled. 

He could not make out the man's features in the dark, but he sounded foreign. Korean perhaps. Piercings in his ears glinted in the meager light, and a strand or two of green hair peeked out of his beanie. Akito put his hands up. He did not need any more excitement. 

Luckily, the man seemed preoccupied and headed into the hospital.  

Akito's phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text from Kimiko asking him if he was okay. He looked towards the hospital again, gut twinging in worry. 

'There were many people killed.'

Her text read.

'Even news channels are covering it. Stay safe, please.'

Akito didn’t really want to face her but not meeting her could bring them into awkward territory at superluminal speed. That was to be avoided at all costs. 

“Himura-San.”

Akito startled so badly he dropped his phone. He whipped around to see a woman with a blood splattered lab coat standing under a flickering streetlight. Like she'd crawled out of a slasher movie.

“Do you really think you should be walking around like that?” He asked the Ex-Doctor, picking his phone up. There was a huge crack on the screen. Excellent.

“Like what?” She looked at herself, seeming to realize what she was wearing, “Ah, I forget that I’ve got this on sometimes.” she said, taking it off. Under the coat was an extremely see through, wispy scrap of cloth that could be called a shirt, kind of. She walked over to him and stared at him, not saying a word.

“…Okay, I’m leaving now.” Akito turned to continue walking. There were too many weirdos in his life.

“You really care about how you look, don’t you?” she said, falling into step with him.

“I don’t like being covered in blood.” He increased his pace, hoping that her much shorter legs couldn’t keep up. But they could, very easily. She was very fast for a middle-aged woman. Damn it. 

The woman grabbed his arm, stopping him. “What?”

She stood on her tiptoes, brought her face to his neck and sniffed him.

“What are you doing?” Akito pushed her back by her shoulders, being as respectful as possible, and she smiled.

“You use expensive perfume. The suit you dropped at my doorstep was very expensive too, your haircut looks like it costs more than my rent, your skin is spotless, even your nails look unnaturally well kept.”

“So what? Get away from me.”

“But you are naturally good looking, and from what I have heard, of above average intelligence. So now the question is, what are you compensating for?”

Akito hailed a cab that was approaching them and got inside it as quickly as possible. This woman was not sane. But she got in too, from the other side. He promptly got back out and closed the door, hoping that another one would pass by, but the street was irritatingly empty.

“You are confident, don’t get me wrong,” she said, getting out of the car as it began to drive away, “but your appearance is too intentional and carefully planned. Like you want to hide something about yourself from the world. Rein hides his scars differently, but you two are alike that way. You feel guilty about something, don’t you?” 

Wide blue eyes flashed in Akito's mind. Rein had the worst night of his life, and Akito had left him alone. 

He tried to stop the cab again, but the driver just sped up and left him behind.

“I paid him to not give you a ride,” the woman came to stand in front of him again, “I just want to talk to you Himura-San, won’t you oblige a lady?”

“What do you want!?” Akito hissed.

“Let’s introduce ourselves, shall we?” She bowed, her grey-black hair flying, “My name is Shiina Yuki, former psychiatrist, currently manager of a nightclub and part time Doctor to Yamakichi Rein. Delighted to meet you.”

Akito really needed to get away from this person, but running seemed like such a cowardly thing to do. Besides, he had a feeling she would catch him. He needed to control this situation and get the upper hand.

“Himura Akito, Lawyer, fresh out of college. But you already knew that.” he sighed. Akito would have to dictate how this conversation would take place if he wanted to leave alive. This woman was not going anywhere. “Look, you win, let’s go eat something while we talk.” 

He walked across the street to a Sushiya, and she followed.