“What the heck was that fight out there?”
“Enjyu, why are you in this nasty city?”
“Hey, stop ignoring me!”
Yamato strides after Enjyu, demanding his attention as they traverse the inner depths of the building. Enjyu walks with a purpose and determination that Yamato cannot quite distinguish. Yet, though Enjyu’s feet are clear in their destination, his gaze is evidently downcast, a far cry from the Enjyu of a year ago.
When they come to a stop before an unassuming door, Enjyu finally acknowledges him again.
“Get lost,” he growls.
“No, I don’t think I will,” answers Yamato immediately.
Enjyu sighs. “Then stay out of sight,” he says, and when Yamato starts to protest, he adds, “No, believe me, they’ll kill you if they see you.”
“Story of my life,” snaps Yamato. He furrows his brow. Irritation bubbles within him, roiling towards indignation as he takes in the details of Enjyu’s appearance and combines that information with what he’s observing of this place. Vega City is no place for a warrior of Enjyu’s caliber. “What’s your game here, Enjyu?”
“Nothing but survival.” Enjyu’s voice is low, some indiscernible emotion straining within it to be heard. “I sell everything I have, everything I am, piece by piece every day just to survive. ‘Course, you wouldn’t know a thing about any of that.”
“Enjyu…” Yamato draws in a breath, trying to keep his emotions quashed. “What happened to you?”
There’s a long and pregnant pause, where Enjyu drops his gaze away again. His face, Yamato notes, barely shows his emotions anymore, where the Enjyu in his memory was always so lively, so eager to express what he thought of things.
“Nothing. Nothing happened to me,” he says. “This is just the kind of place where I belong.”
He doesn’t offer another warning after that, heading through the door before them. Yamato hears it shut but doesn’t hear the lock click and he wonders for a moment if he should follow.
He suspects whatever he’ll find…there may not be much left of the building or the city after he’s worked through the anger.
Enjyu steps back out moments later, a pouch in his hand.
He stares at Yamato, clearly hovering on something he wishes desperately to say. But the silence stretches and stretches, on and on, and Enjyu says nothing in the end. Yamato stares back, taking in Enjyu’s ragged features. He looks into those sapphire eyes and searches and searches, but gone is the life and passion that once marked them.
“You don’t have to stay here,” he tells Enjyu. “C’mon Enjyu, there’s a place for you in Cowtoon.”
Enjyu gazes back at him with a quietly pained expression. “And on your team?”
“Yes,” answers Yamato immediately. “My offer from last year still stands. You’re welcome to join the League of Power whenever you want.”
Enjyu looks away, and Yamato already knows what he’s about to say.
“I can’t.” Enjyu starts back down the way they came. ”…I have to go. Stop wasting your time on me, Yamato. Go home.”
Words come and go through Yamato’s mind, as he opens his mouth to protest again, but this time—there is something about the joyless finality in Enjyu’s words that gives him pause. He senses more arguing is pointless, so Yamato shuts his mouth and simply watches Enjyu’s back recede into the darkness of the corridor ahead.
He can feel his anger and disappointment straining against the surface of his emotions, against a chilling calm that clears his senses and brings his mind to clarity.
It is time for other methods.
- Next chapter: the modest warrior
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- Back to: Dark Nights, Vega City
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