Zenin Days

[Author Note]

Disc: HrPrTeam

Akira is pretty cool.

__________

Order Apartment Complex: 3rd P.O.V.

Toji stood in front of his old apartment.

It took him a while to pick up all his stuff from the apartment he recently moved into, but it was easy since he could use the inventory curse to pack.

He'd rather not have his belongings cut by his various tools in the curse, so he put them in metal containers just in case something scratched them.

There was also the issue with the lease he signed, but it was nothing that a little money couldn't solve.

In short, it took a while to make his way here.

It was already 11:00 PM by the time he arrived.

*knock*

*knock*

He scratched the back of his head as he went over his thoughts. 'I still can't believe I came back here. This is so unlike me, but she's right. I can't sit around and be a 'gambling bum.''

It didn't take long for someone to walk up to the door.

After it opened, it revealed a black-haired teenager who quickly had a large smile. "Hey! What's going on, man!? I thought you wouldn't come back after what Rion said."

Toji rolled his eyes. "The woman talked me into it."

Nagumo returned a closed-eye smile. "I wasn't sure since she said you had a stick so far up your as-"

A voice cut him off. "HEY, TOJI!"

Toji put his hands over his ears as Rion jumped down the stairs, prepared for her reaction.

He has enhanced senses, including his hearing, so loud 'banshees' like Rion gave him a genuine headache.

His expression dropped for a moment as his hands left his ears. 'When was the last time I've been welcomed like this?'

While he thought, Rion came to the door, practically shoving Nagumo out of the way.

She raised an eyebrow. "The hell did you knock for, dude? It's your apartment."

Toji shrugged. "I haven't been in this place in months. Thought knocking would be better than breaking in."

She put her hands on her hips. "You have a key, dummy. Well, come on in."

Toji shook his head at the antics of the teenage assassins as he walked inside.

Nagumo leaned on the wall. "Sakamoto is out on a job right now, but he will be back in a few hours."

Toji nodded. "I'm going to drop off my stuff in my room and crash. It's been a long day."

He still wasn't very close to Sakamoto since Sakamoto doesn't talk much, but they still respected each other's space.

Unlike some people.

Nagumo's eyes widened as if he remembered something important.

He immediately turned to Rion and whispered in her ear; however, Toji could hear it clearly.

He spoke in a whisper. "What about her? She's sleeping in there, right?"

It was at that moment Rion realized something. "...shit."

Toji took notice as shock appeared on her face.

Near instantly, Rion vanished from her spot as she ran towards Toji's room.

Toji's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he sensed another person in the apartment, and it wasn't just anywhere inside the apartment.

It was in his old room.

Instead of running after her, Toji pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke to Nagumo. "Who is in my room?"

He sighed. "You weren't here, so we used it as a guest room. Rion ended up bringing her niece over to spend the night."

Toji returned the sigh. "You idiots, I have weapons in there."

While Toji had the inventory curse, there were weapons stashed around the entire room in case he was attacked in his sleep.

He was beyond cautious about his entire life.

Toji was no present father, but he knew keeping guns, knives, and swords around a kid was a bad idea.

It wasn't much longer that Rion made her way toward the front door, a child with light blue hair following suit.

She was wearing cat pajamas and was rubbing her eyes, seemingly just being woken up.

Before Toji, Nagumo, or Rion's niece could speak, Rion picked her up and brought her in front of Toji.

However, the way she was picked up resembled the scene in The Lion King, making it obviously uncomfortable for the child.

Rion tilted her head so she could see Toji around her niece.

She had a wide smile. "Meet Akira Akao, my niece!"

A deadpan expression appeared on Toji's face.

Rion continued as she gave him a closed-eye smile. "Isn't she cute!? She just turned 10!"

Before Toji could reply, Akira spoke as she seemed to wake up fully. "*Yawn* Auntie Rion, why did you...AHHHHHHH!"

Her eyes snapped open as she saw Toji in front of her.

A thought immediately came to Toji's mind. 'She looks just like her, even has the same eyes. The only difference is her lighter blue hair.'

If he didn't know she was her niece, Toji would've assumed that Akira was Rion's daughter. Even now, he was still questioning it since they looked nearly identical.

The panicked Akira turned and moved in Rion's arms, attempting to escape the man before her.

Instead of talking to the kid, Toji tilted his head to see around Akira, looking at Rion, who kept her close-eyed smile.

He shook his head. "Whatever, I'll sleep on the couch. I'll take the weapons out of my room for tonight."

*boof*

At that moment, Akira squirmed from Rion's hold and ran behind her, peeking out from behind her legs.

Rion crouched down to Akira's level and put her hand on her head with a genuine smile. "This is Toji. He's one of my good friends. He's straightforward, but he isn't THAT mean."

Nagumo spoke up with a raised eyebrow. "Are we remembering the same person?"

Rion shot him a look. "Shut it."

Akira spoke, her voice muffled from having her face on Rion's pant leg. "He's scary."

Rion shrugged and snorted a laugh. "You're telling me!?"

*whoosh*

Toji vanished as he left the awkward scene, moving toward his room to remove the stashed weapons.

Walking toward his room, he thought about how Akira reminded him of someone.

How Rion interacted with Akira reminded him of his own kid. 'Megumi'

The problem for Toji was that Megumi was no longer in the same world as him.

He couldn't see him anymore.

Toji still doesn't know where he is or why he's there.

Whether it was a joke by some God, judgment for his actions, or he was transported to a new world, he didn't know.

After arriving at his bedroom door, he grabbed the handle and opened it.

The scene before him made his eyes twitch in annoyance.

Everything appeared normal in his room aside from one key aspect.

There were around a hundred stuffed animals sprawled all over his bed.

...

'I hate dealing with kids.'