“…another murder in Shibuya…”
Buriel Amori, standing just outside of an electronics shop clad in only a black T-shirt, jeans, and fingerless gloves, watched the news broadcast as it played on one of the monitors. Again. He didn’t know how he felt about it, whether he admired the person behind the murders or not, or if he wanted to find this person himself, for…many reasons.
Well, it wasn’t me.
Honestly, what sort of sick person was this? He taped his victim’s murders? Creative, yes, but also very… How you say in English… “Creepy.” Like he had any right to talk. Here he was, a man who was more than one hundred and missing bits of his soul, obsessed with a woman who wanted nothing to do with him. As if I can help that! He thought. She was holding one of the missing pieces to fix-
…but who cared about fixing anymore? He was past that point, the point where he needed to “care”. That part of him was gone now. What was the value of a life equal to, anyway? The value of a soul?
Of a heart?
He could not find a proper definition for any of these, neither could he think of something to call himself. He could no longer be considered a shinobi; he had already gone AWOL a long, long time ago, and had taken up a job as an assassin- which honestly wasn’t so different than being a shinobi.
He tilted his head to the side a bit. I’m better off than either of them, though…this Phantom thing and Danielle. She’s probably chasing after him, running her health into the ground… He sighed. Honestly, living without feelings wasn’t as bad as he’d imagined. He was sure he could think more rationally than the average person. The Phantom Killer was probably right under their no-
He paused for a moment. Right under our noses. The brunette ran his fingers through his hair and laughed a bit. “I’ll bet he’s an upstanding member of Shibuya’s community.” In that case, he was probably in Danielle’s midst, watching her every move…
If nothing else, he would protect her. He had already failed her once by nearly killing her whilst having an erratic bout of insanity- good thing she was a resilient woman.
He wondered if she knew he had been helping her in her plight; her reckless midnight gallivanting was enough to lose sleep over (it was good that he didn’t seem to have the normal human ability to crave sleep, so he had less than most) and she was so impatient and hot tempered that she didn’t always see attacks coming…at least he was always around to clean up her messes. It was also good that the boy was no longer around- or at least, that was his assumption. Buriel hated the long haired young man that made Danielle blush and giggle as if she were a teenage girl- though these actions were inexplicably past tense. He was glad; the boy had ignited such passions within him, passions he’d forgotten, and fueled him with such rage that he had almost murdered him out of that passion.
“Excuse me, sir,” a young blonde man, about the age of eighteen, almost knocked Buriel over.
Impassively, he said, “No problem.” He noticed quickly that he wasn’t necessarily moving from the area when he walked past him, and instead stood beside him to admire the news.
“Wow.” The blonde stuck his hands in his jeans pockets. “Some genius that guy must be, huh?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Buriel answered nonchalantly. “Most geniuses are too full of themselves to see what’s directly in front of them.”
The blonde grinned, glancing at Buriel as he leaned back a bit. “That’s kinda cool thing to say, y’know? Are you like a…philanderer* or somethin’?”
“The word you’re looking for is probably philosopher. And no,” Buriel found a smile pulling at the right corner of his lips. “But thank you for the compliment.”
“Never said it was a compliment!” The man yelled as he walked off. “See ya, philanderer!”
With a sigh, Buriel pinched the bridge of his nose. He could have sworn that “philanderer” was the word he’d meant in the first place after all.
*"Philanderer" is an allusion to a specific point in the book where Buriel an "undecided" character, stuck between two women, in the canon universe. Sometimes my characters need to stop breaking fourth walls.
