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zonecho · 21 days ago

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The New Beginning

Date: 2023-11-07, 00:30; Exile Tribe Headquarters, Tokyo

Technically speaking, they all had been sent away and told to come back the next morning, since Riku wasn't awake yet. And technically Kazuma had followed those orders. Half past midnight was, in his opinion, the next morning. He slipped through the shadows into the corner, sitting out of view of the door in case someone opened it.

It was strange to see Riku lying so still. He moved constantly, even when he was sleeping - Kazuma would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to find that he had rearranged them in his sleep. But it was for the best he wasn't moving, considering how many things he was hooked up to. There were even more tubes and wires than Kazuma had noticed originally, all illuminated by the pulsating red glow of the rune on Riku's chest. A power limiting rune, Kazuma remembered, to make sure his powers didn't try to heal him - he'd die from heart failure if his powers activated now.

Carefully, Kazuma took Riku's hand in his, intertwining their fingers. "What the fuck were you thinking?" He asked, his voice low. "You were injured before the post, you should have gone back to the base. You got bit, thrown into walls, stabbed…" He squeezed his hand, repeating, "What the fuck were you thinking?"

"It was the last one," came a quiet response and Kazuma unintentionally tightened his grip on Riku's hand, not expecting him to be awake. "Couldn't miss it."

"What do you mean, last one?" Kazuma's eyes narrowed. "It wouldn't have been the last one if you had just -"

"You're quitting." Riku was angry, his jaw tense and eyes narrowed into a glare, and Kazuma froze. "You're quitting and everyone's going to leave and everything's over and you didn't even tell me -" All of the lights in the room flared brighter for a moment before settling back down. Kazuma's eyes flicked towards the doorway, relieved the door was shut. Riku turned his face away, trying to pull his hand back. "You didn't even tell me. Everything's over. I wasn't going to miss it just because I got hurt."

Kazuma tightened his grip before Riku was able to pull his hand away. "Nothing's over," he said. The tension in Riku's jaw got worse. That was apparently the wrong thing to say. "Nothing's over because I'm not quitting." That made Riku look back at him, his eyes wide.

"I'm not quitting," Kazuma repeated, reaching out to cup Riku's cheek. "I didn't tell you because -" he swallowed. "I knew you'd talk me out of quitting and I wanted to make that choice myself. I wanted it to be my choice to stay and then when I decided I was staying… I didn't think you knew I'd been considering it."

Riku was biting his lip, looking at Kazuma, like he didn't really believe him. "You're not quitting? For real? I'm not gonna wake up and everything's over?" The anger had given way to fear and Kazuma's heart ached. "This isn't a dream, right?"

"It's not a dream," Kazuma confirmed, before he leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to Riku's lips. Riku pressed forward as he always did, chasing Kazuma's lips even when he started to pull back. Kazuma pressed their foreheads together, saying, "It's not a dream, I promise. I'm here, I'm not quitting, nothing's over."

He could feel Riku shudder, so he opened his eyes. His lover's eyes were red and he was biting his lip harder to keep from crying. "Hey, hey," Kazuma rubbed his thumb against Riku's cheek. "I just said I'm not quitting, crybaby," his voice was teasing.

"Shut up," Riku retorted, but there was no bite to it as his voice was wobbling. He swallowed hard, bringing up his free hand to rub at his eyes. "I thought I'd lost everything, you know?" Kazuma's heart broke. "I lost you and the members and the Rampage and my dream and I didn't know what I was gonna do, I don't know how to do anything but this and I wasn't gonna have anything -"

"You're always gonna have me." Kazuma pushed Riku's bangs out of his face - he still needed to ask about that, Riku's hair had been orange when Kazuma left and in all the media from the fight - as he said, "I told you I was looking for forever when we got together, remember? We're together until we're old and gray. You're my forever, Aoyama Riku."

After a second, he said, "And you can't be my forever if you get yourself fucking killed." His own voice was unsteady, as he continued, "I keep thinking about what would have happened if Hokuto wasn't there."

"'m sorry," Riku whispered, looking away from Kazuma's eyes. "I didn't wanna miss anything, there were so many people who needed healing and the dinosaurs kept attacking the members and I thought it could be the last time, so I didn't wanna stop. And I didn't wanna miss the last post either. I wasn't gonna leave Hoku-chan to do it alone." He bit his lip, meeting Kazuma's eyes again. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't do it again," Kazuma said, before he kissed Riku again. "You're my forever, remember."

Almost lost, because Riku had thought they were already over. Kazuma felt his breath hitch and he pressed their foreheads together again, biting his lip to keep from crying. The last day had been so stressful. "You know all I wanted was to lay in bed with you when I got back," he said, his voice cracking. "This isn't what I meant."

"Kazuma -" Riku moved to sit up and hold him, but he stopped just as suddenly as he started, hissing. The noise made Kazuma lift his head up, opening his eyes, in time to see Riku reach up to cradle his cheek. "I'm sorry. We'll have cuddles when I get out of here, yeah? It can't be that long, you know I heal fast -"

"Don't know if you've noticed, but you di -" Kazuma stuttered, before changing his wording. "Your heart stopped from power exhaustion," he did his best to keep his tone dry, even as tears dripped down his face. "Your powers aren't working because they'll kill you. See the rune." He tapped the source of the red glow on Riku's chest, before pausing to press his palm to the older man's chest and make sure he could feel his heart beating still. Ever since that first night, he'd always found Riku's heartbeat comforting and it was helping him then.

"Ah, shit," Riku looked down at the glow. "That's why I feel weird. Thought they just had me on the good stuff, you know?" He gave Kazuma a smile, trying to get his lover to smile again. "I mean, I've never been on the good stuff, so I don't really know what it feels like -"

"You'd be less coherent than you are normally, which is saying something." Kazuma squeezed Riku's hand again almost unconsciously. He'd missed this. He'd almost lost this forever. His breath hitched again and he bit his tongue.

"Hey!" The sound of Riku's laughter echoed through the room, making Kazuma's heart sing - before he remembered they were still in an Exile Tribe facility, surrounded by nurses, and he leaned down to press a kiss to Riku's lips in a desperate attempt to silence him. Riku kissed him back eagerly, until he pulled back and started to ask, "Babe, what -"

The sound of footsteps coming down the hallway filled Riku in quickly and his eyes widened. The door opened before Kazuma could even think of a place to teleport to. He'd been teleporting all around Japan, it felt like, and he was getting tired. The first place that occurred to Kazuma was his older brother's apartment, in the Nagoya base, but Omi would have so many questions if Kazuma appeared there in the middle of the night.

A nurse leaned in, raising an eyebrow as she took in the sight. "Okay, good morning," she greeted, giving both of them a nod. "I'm glad you're awake, Hyena, because I can get some vitals from you, but then I do need you to try to rest, okay?" She glanced at Kazuma. "I'll come to kick you out before visiting hours start, but I do stress, I need him to sleep."

"Uh…" They were both confused, as she walked over and started to gather the information she needed. Riku looked at her. "You're not gonna tell anyone?"

"Nope. Whoever he is - and I do not need to know - you two are not the first two Tribe boys to be sneaking around and as long as you're willing to listen to our instructions so you get the help you need, I truly do not care who you're locking lips with. Secrecy's the name of the game in the Tribe, right?" She finished notating on a chart by the door, then opened the door to leave. "Visiting hours open at 08:00 and I've been warned a Rampage Cheetah will be here on the dot, so I'll be back at 07:30."

She closed the door on her way out, leaving them both sitting in silence.

"She's right, you should sleep," Kazuma ran a hand through Riku's hair as he said it, laughing when Riku immediately turned pleading eyes towards him.

"I don't wanna sleep," Riku was almost pouting. "I've missed you so much…" He'd spent so long thinking they were over, thinking he'd never have Kazuma again, that having to sleep instead of spend time with him felt like torture.

That reminded Kazuma of a question that'd been bugging him. "How long have you thought I was quitting?" He kept petting Riku's hair, knowing the motion soothed both of them for what was almost certainly going to be another upsetting conversation.

"Since Wednesday. I overheard someone talking about it and I thought they said they were sure you were quitting," Riku still didn't want to rat their managers out, especially since it seemed he must have heard the conversation wrong.

"Wednesday? After our call?" The phone call had gone pretty late, Kazuma wasn't sure how Riku would have heard a conversation like that, but he'd also thought he'd said that he was going to stop making mistakes in the field. To him, that would have implied that he was coming back, not quitting.

Riku shook his head, "Before." He bit his lip, before adding, "I heard you were quitting after I got back from my jog." Which would have been hours earlier. That at least explained why Riku had slowed down texting him, but -

"You thought I was quitting and our relationship was over that whole call? And you didn't ask me at all?" Kazuma blinked at his lover, he thought they'd agreed communication between the two of them was the only way this would work, with the fact they were hiding it from everyone else.

"I… didn't think you wanted me to know…" His voice was quiet. "You didn't even say you were going to Osaka until you were there, but you did stop to pack your computer, so…" Riku shrugged one shoulder. "Figured I wasn't important enough -"

'Figured I wasn't important enough'. Kazuma's hand froze in Riku's hair. There wasn't any world where he'd expected that to be the explanation, that Riku didn't think he mattered enough to know… He looked down at his lover, who was now staring at him with wide eyes again.

"Babe?" The older man's voice was concerned, bringing one hand up to grab Kazuma's. "You okay?"

"Since when have I given you the impression you weren't important to me?" Riku had mentioned the not telling him he was considering quitting and the packing of the computer before telling him about the trip, but Kazuma had explained the first one and the second one was because management was trying to get him out of the base quickly, without anyone stopping him. "It's not just the computer, or the potentially quitting, because that wouldn't have been your first conclusion if something hadn't made you think it before."

Riku's eyes were still wide. "I -" His mouth open and shut, like he was trying to think, but no words were coming out. Finally, he looked away. "'t's not you, yeah? It's not your fault or anything you did, it's just… I know I'm less important, you know? Everyone knows who the least important voice in the Rampage is and it makes sense, yeah? I just wanna support everyone else, I can't be the center, I'm not good for leading, not like you or Hoku-chan are…" He shrugged, still not meeting Kazuma's eyes. "It's not you, 't's just me."

"You are not less important," Kazuma couldn't believe he was having to argue this with Riku - hard-working, kind, cheerful Riku. He took his lover's face in his hands, trying to get his point through. "You are not the least important. Especially not to me." He swallowed. "I love you, Aoyama Riku. I chose you. You are important."

"Kazuma…" From Riku's voice, Kazuma could tell he hadn't gotten through to him and his head fell forward, his eyes closing in frustration. "It's okay, yeah? Don't worry about it. I love you, too, yeah?"

"So, you've thought we were over since Wednesday morning…And you thought I was just, what? Torturing you every time I said I loved you?"

"I didn't - I didn't think you were torturing me, I-I know you love me, I just -"

"Thought you weren't important enough, right," Kazuma was suddenly remembering that their first date had technically happened because Riku was stood up. If he ever met that man, Kazuma would punch him. How often had things like that happened that Riku just accepted he was less important. He opened his eyes and looked at Riku. "If I make a decision like that, I will tell you. I'm not going to just leave you to learn with everyone else. Am I understood?"

"Yeah," Riku was biting his lip again. "I'm sorry…"

Kazuma kissed his forehead, then the tip of his nose, trying to give him warning before he went to kiss his lips. Riku kissed him back, pressing forward as he always did, and Kazuma hummed into the kiss, trying to prove he wasn't upset at Riku. He was upset at everyone who had apparently made Riku think he was worth less than other people, but he had the worst feeling that wasn't what Riku was picking up.

Riku broke the kiss first, taking a deep breath as soon as their lips were parted enough. "Riku?" Kazuma asked, concerned.

"Sorry. It's hard to breathe like normal right now, you know?" Riku grimaced, shifting slightly in the bed. Then a thought occurred to him and he shifted over even more. "Can you fit in here with me?" He was giving Kazuma the best puppy dog eyes he could, as he said, "I'll sleep if you lay here with me."

"Are you blackmailing me into cuddling with you?" A smile was pulling at Kazuma's lips as he asked the question. This was the goofball he'd picked.

"Yes." Riku didn't even try to hide it, laughing almost immediately after he gave the blunt answer.

Kazuma laughed, pressing a kiss to Riku's forehead again, before he walked around the bed to see if he could get into the bed without disturbing all the wires. "This isn't comfortable, you know," he said, quickly pressing a kiss to Riku's temple before his lover could think the upset was real. "I have another question."

"Yeah?"

"What happened to your hair?"

"Dyed it, with Mako-chan and Takkun," Riku was yawning now, finally getting tired. He was losing the battle to stay awake, now that Kazuma was in the bed with him. "Takkun even let me dye his hair. They wouldn't let me touch the bleach for Mako-chan, though…"

"That's probably for the best," Kazuma teased. "We all know what you did to Zin."

"Hey! That was years ago…"

They laid there like that, Kazuma waiting for Riku to nod off before he closed his eyes to sleep until the nurse came to get him. He was going to be ready when Riku was released, he decided, so they could cuddle in a normal bed, not a hospital one. As he drifted off, Kazuma promised himself that he'd take care of Riku, he'd take care of his forever.

#z writes #the threat of withdrawal #shadow & light

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zonecho · 21 days ago

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The Aftermath

Date: 2023-11-06, 20:21; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka

Riku suddenly pitched to the side, collapsing to the ground in a symphony of clatters as different armored limbs hit at different times. Alarms started ringing - no heartbeat, no heartbeat - and Hokuto's focus narrowed, everything else falling away.

He dropped to his knees at Riku's side, the gold light of his magic appearing in the air above his partner's body as he silently cast an assessment spell. Heart failure came back immediately and he didn't think, placing his hands on Riku's side to shove raw magic through his breastplate and into his heart. The plate slipped aside as he did so, allowing his hand to touch wet fabric. 'Blood,' his brain helpfully supplied as he kept pressing the magic through his partner's body. He felt Riku's chest suddenly expand as the magic got his heart and lungs to move again, relief coursing through Hokuto's veins. As long as Riku continued to have a heartbeat and airflow, they could fix whatever was going wrong.

Extreme power exhaustion was the next thing the spell said. The spell he had cast was an emergency one, that focused on the worst problems in order. Hokuto lifted his head, suddenly remembering where they were. There was no way Zin wasn't lurking nearby, waiting for them to come back so he can verify he'd gotten all of his boys back safely. "Zin!" Hokuto shouted, throwing some extra magic to make his voice echo and reverberate throughout the locker room and sixth floor. No matter where Zin was, he'd hear it.

A flash of silver magic glowed in front of him, on the other side of Riku, and suddenly Zin was there. "Hoku-chan, wh - Riku," Zin dropped to his knees as well, placing glowing hands on Riku's chest. A flickering silver cast settled over Zin's eyes, his own assessment spell working to figure out what was happening. His jaw tensed, then the glowing from his hands intensified. Whatever he had found, he didn't like.

"Emergency assessment says heart failure and power exhaustion," Hokuto's eyes returned to Riku. The only extra information he had was, "His undershirt is soaked with blood." He was bleeding somewhere. Hokuto's magic continued to dart through his body, trying to fix issues as it found them but there was so much and nowhere near enough energy to fix it all, even with Zin's magic coming in to supplement. How had Riku made it through the press conference like this?

"Assessment spell says he got hit by a freight truck four times," Zin said, almost absently, as he pointed one hand towards the floor - a spectral hawk burst forward, flapping its wings as it mouth opened in a silent cry. It flew downwards, disappearing through the floor in search of someone. Most likely Kaisei, who was the best at healing magic among the Rampage's magicians. A second later, Zin flung out his hand horizontally, a glowing silver hyena running away towards the medical ward.

"How many times did he get hit by one of the big ones?" Hokuto asked, trying to remember if it was four. He knew about two: one which Riku had fielded a question about at the press conference - "Terrasaurus' dinosaur got to find out that hyenas make real bad chewtoys" - and one that Takahide had mentioned, saying it looked like Riku didn't know where he was for a moment.

Kaisei appeared in a flash of black right by Zin's side. Almost immediately, Hokuto felt magic settle into Riku's body, then start to push him and Zin back. "Stop pushing so much in, his body will overload -"

"His body's failing," Zin snapped, silver pushing against black. Hokuto glanced between the two of them, waiting to see what the ruling was - of the three of them, he was the weakest at healing magic, and he knew the least about saving someone in power exhaustion.

"Exactly," Kaisei snapped back. "If we keep forcing his body to heal like this, he'll die. There's only so much a body can take -"

"Zin, Hokuto, step back," the sudden voice of Yura made all three turn to look at her, as she almost appeared out of thin air. She hadn't come from the medical ward, but instead the teleportation room. Hokuto could feel the portal closing - Yura must have a key to the portal. "Kaisei, remain in place."

Letting go of Riku felt wrong, but Hokuto stepped back as he was told. Zin took an extra second to move, but he joined Hokuto at the wall of lockers. There was a dark, angry look in the leader's eyes as he crossed his arms, his jaw tense.

The only sign that Yura had cast any magic was a slight change of energy around them. Hokuto's eyebrows raised - it was one of the most subtle castings he'd ever seen. "Takeru, call Tokyo," Yura said, within seconds of kneeling next to Riku. "We have a critical trauma patient suffering from power exhaustion. He must be treated without the use of magic or elemental healing, which exceeds our facility."

Date: 2023-11-06, 20:40; Kawamura Apartment, Osaka

Kazuma: Good job at the fight and post

Kazuma sent the text to Riku, once he was fairly certain his lover would have his phone and be back in his quarters. Riku had looked a little beat up at the end, when the cameras had caught him healing the dog. For a second, it looked like he had grimaced when the little girl hugged him, but he'd also gotten knocked around by Terrasaurus' dinosaurs. The memory of the giant dinosaur nearly biting him in half still made Kazuma's blood run cold. Riku's response didn't come immediately, but Kazuma tried to push down any uneasy feelings. There were any number of reasons why Riku didn't respond as fast as he normally did - he might have gotten drawn into a conversation with Hokuto or Itsuki or someone else. He also might have been taking his time bathing and didn't have his phone with him. While he was typically pretty fast at responding, he wasn't always glued to his phone. Kazuma turned his attention back to the computer. He, Takahide and Kaisei had been playing Apex Legends together until Kaisei had gotten suddenly called away by Zin, so now he and Takahide were waiting for him to get back.

Date: 2023-11-06, 21:10; Kawamura Apartment, Osaka

"What's taking him so long?" Takahide asked. It'd been nearly an hour since Kaisei was called away and they'd long since figured out that Kaisei hadn't taken his phone with him. One, from the lack of response, and two, from the fact they could hear his phone going off every time they tried to contact him. "It's weird of him to forget his phone, right? He's normally so prepared - he didn't say what Zin needed, just it was ASAP…" He kept rambling, but Kazuma wasn't paying full attention. He was staring at his phone as he wondered the same thing about someone else.

Riku hadn't responded yet. Riku never took over half an hour to respond to a text. The image of Riku nearly being bitten in half replayed in Kazuma's mind. He couldn't have been injured that badly, right? He'd been walking afterwards, the fight had taken nearly another hour and a half after the bite, and then he'd done the post, too. Maybe he'd just fallen asleep in the bathtub or something - not great, but he'd done that a few times after hard fights.

"Kazuma?" Takahide asked, as Kazuma remembered he hadn't responded. He opened his mouth to say something, but there was a chorus of phone notifications. His phone vibrated on his desk and he could hear two chimes over the voice call - one from Takahide's phone, one from Kaisei's.

The text said THE RAMPAGE injury report update and Kazuma sat up straighter in his seat, ice creeping into his veins. "Isn't it too late for an injury update?" Takahide asked, sounding confused. The only person who could possibly have an injury update now was Hokuto, but the press conference had been nearly an hour long and had finished an hour ago. They never would have let Hokuto do a press conference injured like that.

A nagging voice at the back of his mind reminded him that Riku would often do the post with minor injuries, but only minor injuries. He never got injured that badly. So it couldn't be about Riku, it couldn't be. Kazuma tapped the notification to open it.

RAMPAGE HYENA's status has been updated to CRITICALLY INJURED

'Critically injured'. Kazuma blinked at his phone, not comprehending the words. Critically injured. Riku was hardly ever on the injured list and he'd never been critically injured before. None of them had, not since the fight where they proved their worth, over nine years earlier. Between Riku and all the healing spells the magicians knew, no one had ever gotten that bad since. His thumb pressed against the link to the incident report without him telling his body to move.

Incident No. 06-11-361-09, update 3

Rampage Hyena and Rampage Otter returned from the press conference. Upon entering the locker room, Rampage Hyena collapsed to the floor as the heart failure alarm began to sound from his suit. It is currently believed that the combination of extreme power exhaustion and severe internal injuries resulted in heart failure. Rampage Otter resuscitated Rampage Hyena through the use of unfocused magic and was able to call Rampage Cheetah for assistance. Upon assessing the situation, Rampage Cheetah summoned Rampage Lion for additional aid, as Rampage Hyena's injuries were deemed to exceed both Rampage Cheetah and Rampage Otter's abilities to resolve.

Dr. Tanabe ordered Rampage Hyena be transported to the Tokyo base for further medical treatment as the extent of his physical condition exceeded the Fukuoka base's medical facilities. Rampage Hyena is being treated by the Tokyo medical team, they have not provided an estimate for his recovery time. A short list of Rampage Hyena's current injuries has been compiled. List is incomplete.

Extreme power exhaustion

Grade 2 concussion

Internal bleeding

Punctured lung

Fractured ribs

Whiplash

Multiple contusions

Multiple puncture wounds

Update added by Akamatsu K., 2023-11-06

The world felt like it was spinning off its axis. 'The combination of extreme power exhaustion and severe internal injuries resulted in heart failure.' Kazuma swallowed hard, trying to breathe through the sudden surge of panic. What would have happened if Hokuto hadn't been there. Would they had even known or would someone had stumbled across him by accident -

"Fuck, I knew he wasn't okay when he got hit," Takahide was fighting hard to keep his voice steady. "He pushed me out of the way of a tail hit and it hit him into a building and I knew he wasn't okay, but he said he was fine. He said he was okay." His voice cracked. "I told him to be safe and he promised he would be."

Kazuma blinked, suddenly feeling a wet heat in his eyes. As he brushed it away with his thumbs, he remembered the clip of Riku being hugged after he healed the little girl's dog. He had flinched then, because he had cracked ribs. He swallowed hard again, then said, "Do you need a ride to Tokyo?" Two jumps like that would be hard, but Takahide was clearly upset and Kazuma couldn't just sit in Osaka while Riku - he shook his head, pushing the dark thoughts out of his mind. Hokuto had been there. Riku was now at the main base for medical treatment.

There was a pause, then Takahide said, "You're not back yet, I know you're not cleared -"

"Hokuto's probably in Tokyo and he just had to restart Riku's heart, I'm not leaving him there alone," Kazuma responded, making sure he had everything he needed. "Do you need a ride?"

Date: 2023-11-06, 21:20; Exile Tribe Headquarters, Tokyo

The mood was somber as Kazuma and Takahide entered the medical ward. They weren't the only ones who had come - alongside Zin, Hokuto and Kaisei, all of whom Kazuma expected to find, there was Itsuki, Kenta, Shogo and Takuma. Kaisei noticed them first, his head coming up and his eyes widening, "Kazuma, why -"

"Injury report update," he answered the unfinished question and went straight to Hokuto, who was sitting with Shogo and Itsuki. He knelt down in front of the other voice. "You okay?" Kazuma's voice was soft.

Hokuto gave a tight, wry smile and held out his hands. One hand was clean, the other stained red. Kazuma froze, his heart thudding in his chest. "His breastplate broke," he said. "He had a shard of glass in his side, about this big -" The gap between Hokuto's hands was about ten centimeters. "- No one even knows how or when that happened." Hokuto dropped his hands back into his lap. "And we can't heal it because his body'll die from overwork."

Kazuma reached out to grab Hokuto's clean hand - he couldn't take the bloody hand, not when he knew it was Riku's blood. "He'll be okay," he said, trying to sound reassuring, even though he was panicking inside himself. "You saved him, he'll be okay."

"I think I know how he got the glass," Takuma's voice carried over from the corner he was sitting in, his eyes on the notepad in his hand as he sketched something. "There was a mother and her kid trapped in a car that had been thrown. He crawled in through the broken window to heal them before I pulled them out."

That sounded like Riku. He might not have even noticed the glass because he was too busy helping someone else.

"Was that before or after the bite?" Zin asked, sounding exhausted. Kazuma glanced over at him - their leader was leaning against the wall, his shoulders slumped. "They're asking for a timeline of injuries if we can figure it out."

"His armor looked dented, so I think after?" Takuma answered. He pulled out his phone, then headed over to Zin, who tiredly watched the screen as Takuma pointed out the intersection where the car had been.

Their leader ran a hand through his hair, before picking up a notepad, writing Takuma's addition down. "That would fit in after." Zin sighed. "Riku probably should have been pulled an hour before he was, but no one knew he was that bad -"

"I did," Kenta interjected, sullenly, from where he was hiding in the darkest corner of the room. It was impossible to see his face, between the fact he was looking down, so his hair hid his eyes and he had his knees pulled up to his chest. "I knew he was off. I told him to go back to the base. He said he couldn't go back. But he was off."

"Off?" The exhaustion in Zin's voice was starting to slide into frustration. Kazuma glanced between Zin and Kenta, wondering if he should risk getting Likiya before there was a blow up in the waiting room. "What do you mean off?"

"He's been sad when he thinks no one's looking. Always spending time with us, even when he was tired," Kenta was getting quieter and quieter as he spoke and Zin was stepping closer, trying to hear him. "He's been lying to me." Zin's steps were getting heavier with every movement, his exhaustion making the frustration all the more obvious.

Before Zin got too close, Shogo slipped between the two of them, placing gentle hands on their leader's chest. "We can argue about this later," he said, cutting off the fight before it exploded. "When Riku's awake." The unwavering confidence in his voice made Kazuma's heart skip a beat. When Riku's awake. Like Shogo knew Riku would wake up, despite everything.

"Yeah, yeah," Zin ran a hand down his face, almost leaning into Shogo. "So Riku's been off and he got injured - a lot - and healed - a lot - but at no point did any of us - except Kenta - figure out how bad it was until he fucking died in the locker room." Kazuma's heart plummeted through his stomach. Right. Riku's heart had stopped. That was technically death, wasn't it? He had technically died.

Fuck. Riku had died. Kazuma squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe through the sudden rush of panic. Hokuto had resuscitated him quickly, but his heart had stopped and he hadn't been breathing. If Hokuto had been injured or Riku's heart had given out at another time - would they have been able to save him?

Date: 2023-11-06, 21:50; Exile Tribe Headquarters, Tokyo

It felt like it had been forever since they got to the waiting room. From checking his watch, Kazuma knew he'd only been there half an hour, but it had felt like an eternity.

He was now sitting in the chair next to Hokuto, allowing the younger voice to lay his head on his shoulder. Itsuki was still on Hokuto's other side, watching videos on his phone, with his brow furrowed. He hadn't said much at all since Kazuma got there.

Kaisei was now leaning against the wall next to Kenta, who was still curled up and ignoring everyone. He hadn't said anything since the almost argument with Zin. Every once in awhile, Kazuma would hear Kenta's phone buzz - he had a feeling it was Rui, since Kenta would actually respond to those messages. Kaisei almost looked like a bodyguard, as he stood over Kenta with his arms crossed, glancing around the room.

Takahide and Takuma were a few seats over from Kenta - Takahide had tried to talk to the other man, but got frozen out, so he was sitting next to Takuma, who was still silently drawing. The silence from that side of the room was getting almost overwhelming for Kazuma, much less Takahide, who was looking anxious and tapping his nails against his knee.

The only source of sound in the room was Zin and Shogo, who speaking in hushed tones by the doorway to the hospital rooms. Shogo was gently rubbing the older man's back. There was no way Zin wasn't taking this personally - he and Riku were the same age, in the same route and hosted the same radio show. On top of that, Zin was their leader. If anyone should be able to catch that Riku was feeling off and on death's door, it should have been Zin.

Finally, there was the sound of footsteps on linoleum and everyone sat up. Even Kenta uncurled, looking at the doorway expectantly, as a woman in purple scrubs entered. "I take it you're all here for Rampage Hyena?" She asked, trying to give them a comforting smile.

"I'm Rampage Cheetah," Zin said, straightening up. "His leader." An expression flickered across his face as he said it, but it was too fast for Kazuma to figure out what emotion had been attached.

"Cheetah," she nodded at him. "He's out of the operating room. We've got him in a room now." She turned around, gesturing for them to follow her. "We do have a limit on how many can be in the room with him at a time, but you can all follow me down the hallway."

Zin went first, followed quickly by Kenta, who almost teleported in his rush to be on the nurse's heels. Hokuto followed next, with Kazuma sticking close to him. The younger man had grabbed his hand again when he stood up, so if anyone asked, he was there for emotional support. It was killing him not to be the first one in line. The others shuffled along behind them, following the nurse to a room with a closed door.

Every other room had its door open, so that hopefully meant Riku wouldn't wake up to a barrage of injured people around him. He'd mentioned that being hard for him in medical settings, like hospitals.

"The limit is three at a time," she said, opening the door for them. "He's unconscious right now, we're not sure when he'll wake up." She was barely done talking before Kenta was through the doorway and into the room. They all heard Kenta inhale sharply, before whispering what almost sounded like "Damn you…"

The tension among them skyrocketed immediately. The nurse looked between them. "He will survive," her tone was matter of fact. "He looks - bad - right now because we're not doing any empowered healing. His body wouldn't be able to take it."

Hokuto let go of Kazuma's hand, so Kazuma forced himself to do the same thing. He was watching carefully as Hokuto entered - the way his shoulders went stiff and his chin went up. He was just as unhappy with what he saw as Kenta was. Kazuma tried hard not to swallow, wondering what the hell they were all seeing.

Itsuki went through next, the third person inside. Zin just leaned against the wall next to the doorway, letting him go through. "I'll be last," their leader said, waving off any looks he got. He still looked so tired.

Kazuma stepped over to stand next to him. "You okay?"

"This happened on my watch," Zin answered, dragging a hand down his face. "He was deployed with me, he was my responsibility -"

"Riku's stubborn," Kazuma responded, trying to sound calm and not just as frustrated. Riku was always trying to make sure everyone but himself was okay. "He might not have even known how bad it was." That felt like a lie. Riku knew what power exhaustion felt like. He could rattle off the symptoms like any well trained healer and he'd suffered it before. That was even before getting into all the physical injuries he had, most of which would have been noticeable.

Zin looked at him, giving him an expression that said he also knew that was a lie. "And what Kenta was saying, that Riku's been off - I hadn't noticed. If I had -" He cut off to a frustrated growl, running his hands through his hair.

"Management wouldn't deploy all thirteen protectors and only one voice, not unless Riku was genuinely incapable of being deployed." And they wouldn't have forced Kazuma back, not wanting to risk him. A pang of guilt hit. If Kazuma had told management earlier, would Riku had been allowed to stay back, if something was wrong? Would this have been avoided if Kazuma had just announced his decision back when he made it?

That question sat with him as he watched Hokuto and then Itsuki leave the room. He waited as everyone else went in to visit Riku, until it was just him and Zin. "You first," he said to Zin, who looked at him for a moment, before nodding and entering inside first. Kazuma was careful to follow behind slowly, considering how everyone else had stopped immediately as soon as they saw the bed, so he didn't run into their leader when Zin stopped cold and said, "Damn it, Riku…"

After a moment, Zin shuffled to the side, letting Kazuma see him. The first thing he noticed was that Riku's hair was dark brown now, which somehow made him look even paler against the white bedsheets. His moles were striking dark spots against his skin, mixing with a variety of bruises and cuts. He looked almost the same color as the sheets underneath him.

The second thing Kazuma noticed was that Riku wasn't wearing a shirt - probably to allow the tube sticking out of his side to do whatever it was doing. There was a semi-circle of cuts and scrapes around his middle that aligned with where the dinosaur had bit him, which was almost enough to take Kazuma's attention from the glowing red rune on his chest.

It was enough to take his breath away and Kazuma unintentionally leaned forward, gripping the footrest of the bed to stabilize himself, as he tried to fight back the sudden rush of tears. Zin didn't seem to notice, but he felt Kenta's eyes flick to him for a moment. He swallowed hard, knowing he should do something to make sure Kenta didn't pick up on anything - their relationship was a secret, after all, a desperate attempt to protect the other members if something went wrong between the two of them - but all he could think was that was his forever.

Riku was his forever, lying broken and bloody in a hospital bed.

Because Kazuma hadn't been there.

He swallowed hard, pushing himself back to standing properly. Kazuma forced himself to let go of the bed, before he nodded at Kenta, then Zin and turned around to leave. It wouldn't make sense for him to stay as long as anyone else, even though all he wanted to do was go back and grab onto Riku's hand.

#z writes #the threat of withdrawal #shadow & light

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zonecho · 21 days ago

Text

The Last Battle

Date: 2023-11-06, 17:25; City streets, Fukuoka

The water fell away just in time for Riku to see a car flying towards them. Bright light flared out from his hands, solidifying into a wall of shimmering pink and gold. As soon as the car collided with it, the wall wrapped around it like fabric, forbidding the car from flying further or just falling to the ground. Riku carefully lowered it to the ground and then dispersed the light, leaving it in the middle of the street. No one had been inside it when it went flying and it hadn't managed to hit anyone, so it was on the lower end of the priority list.

"Terrasaurus has three big dinosaurs active and five smaller ones," their lead operator today was apparently Koshiro, Route A's afternoon operator. A small pit settled in Riku's stomach, he wished it was Route B's operator instead, since they were inching closer and closer to Kazuma's return from Osaka and the end of everything. Rieko had been with them ever since they moved to the Fukuoka base and it felt wrong to not have her in his ear for their last battle. Admittedly, he didn't know for a fact this was the last one, but there was a chance.

"Understood," Likiya's voice came over the radio. Orders started being issued - civilians had to be evacuated, dinosaurs had to be stopped, and someone had to figure out where Terrasaurus was. Riku, obviously, was in charge of evacuating civilians and making sure they were okay. He could help out with fighting as needed, but his main responsibility was the people.

And speaking of the people, there were injuries all around. A lot of scrapes and some twisted ankles, but he could feel far more severe injuries - he turned and ran towards the big dinosaur, ducking past a smaller one that took a swipe at him. Shogo was on his heels, casting a spell to try and paralyze the rock dinosaur, while Riku ducked into an alley where he found a pair of women. One was sitting up, the other's head in her lap and she was pressing a jacket to a bloody wound on the other lady's head. The one who was sitting up was crying.

"Hey," Riku said, dropping into a crouch next to them, one hand already reaching out for the one lying on her back. "It's going to be okay," he always tried to open with that, always tried to reassure them.

"H-Hyena!" The crying woman looked at him, surprised, but he could see hope in her eyes. "Please, Sana-chan got bit -" There were small chunks of rock in the cuts in her head, which were in two crescent shapes. Riku could easily see one of the smaller dinosaurs jumping on her back and biting into her head, from the injuries he could sense.

"It's gonna be okay, Sana-chan's gonna be okay," Riku promised, as his healing slipped into Sana. "What's your name?" He closed the cuts, making sure to push the rocks and dirt out as he did it, not letting them become healed in her scalp. The healing spread to her brain, healing the concussion, and then went down to the scrapes in her back and palms. The scrapes were minor, in comparison, but Riku would always try to heal anyone he saved as much as possible.

"I'm - I'm Nei," she answered. Sana groaned, starting to shift in Nei's lap, and he watched relief spread across the woman's face. "Sana-chan!"

"Nei," Sana reached her hand up to cup Nei's cheek. "You okay?"

"Am I okay?" She leaned forward and pushed a kiss to Sana's forehead. "You idiot, I was so worried about you -" Riku bit his lip to keep from laughing. She sounded like Kazuma right there - his heart ached. He'd probably never be scolded like that by Kazuma ever again, huh?

Diverting his attention back to the situation at hand, he tapped his left arm bracer, activating the map so he could see the evacuation zone and how close they were to the edge of it. "Can you two walk?" He asked, before looking up and seeing that Sana was already halfway to her feet.

"Yep," Sana said, helping Nei to her feet.

"Keep going that way," he pointed down the alleyway, heading away from the street where the dinosaurs were. "In two blocks, you'll hit the edge of the evacuation zone. Emergency services will be there if you need any more help."

"Thank you, Hyena," Nei said, still clutching Sana's hand. "Thank you." He smiled back at her, the sincere thanks making his heart skip a beat. This is what he lived for, helping people and knowing they were safe. It was the only thing he might miss as much as the members.

"You're welcome!" He answered back, before he could feel another injury that needed his attention. "Gotta go!" He headed back into the street, while he could hear the women running the opposite direction down the alleyway. The hardest part was he couldn't just stop and make sure every civilian made it all the way, he had to move on and just pray they listened to him.

Date: 2023-11-06, 17:30; Kawamura Apartment, Osaka

Kazuma's phone vibrated with a notification and he reached over to pick it up.

THE RAMPAGE has been deployed

He sat up straighter in the bed, his heartbeat increasing slightly. It didn't specify which route, which meant all three had been deployed. Which meant whatever was happening was big. He hurried to where he'd set up his computer in the corner of the guest room, trying to pull up any news he could find from Fukuoka.

One speedy journalist already had a quick article up - Rush hour terror! Terrasaurus has dinosaurs in the streets of Fukuoka - but most of what he saw was posts on social media. Clips of rock dinosaurs terrorizing the streets, several of them big enough to throw cars around.

omg we're so dead she has like 10 dinosaurs

RMPG is here!!! Serval just saved my life!!!

Panther just moved 20-30 people all the way out of the evac zone, holy shit

His grip tightened on the mouse, as he kept scrolling through post after post. People were posting about loved ones, posting pictures and videos of the dinosaurs, of the members saving them. It looked like a rough fight. He had no idea how Terrasaurus was running that many dinosaurs, especially since he hadn't seen her in a single shot, which meant she had to be some distance away.

Kazuma's jaw was tense as he settled into his chair. He was under orders to not go back until the break was over, that he wasn't allowed to suit up until he was cleared, so all he could do was sit there and watch. And wait.

Date: 2023-11-06, 17:45; City streets, Fukuoka

Running a hand through his hair, Riku looked around, feeling another injury that was calling to him. He squinted against the setting sun, trying to find them, before his heart thudded to a stop when he realized who it was. Makoto was sitting behind a car, gripping his leg. Even from where Riku was, he could see blood seeping through his fingers.

The big dinosaur was still thudding around, its head swinging from side to side like it was looking for something - Riku swallowed hard, hoping it wasn't looking for Makoto, then darted over to where the speedster was kneeling. "Serval?" He asked, reaching out to place his hand over Makoto's. A pink glow slipped down through Makoto's fingers and the broken armor, to where the bite had broken the bone.

Makoto hissed, but pulled his hands out from under Riku's so he could get closer to the wound. They could both still hear the dinosaur stomping around, the ground shaking with every heavy foot fall. "It caught you, huh? Didn't think anything could do that to Serval-kun, you're so fast," Riku tried teasing in order to make him relax. Calmer patients healed easier, he didn't know the logic behind it, but he'd noticed that years ago, even before he was taught it in class.

The teasing didn't work. "Trap," Makoto's chest was heaving with effort. While Riku could power the healing mostly by himself, it still took a toll on the body. "It tricked me into running into an alley where one of the smaller ones was." For a second, Riku just blinked at him - the dinosaurs had never been smart enough to set up ambushes before.

"Alright, so we're gonna talk about that later, yeah? Mongoose and Fox are gonna spend hours talking about what that means, but we gotta get this done first, yeah?" There was an audible click as the bone snapped back together and Makoto's head snapped back, hitting the car door with a loud bang that seemed to echo through the space. That was when Riku realized he hadn't heard or felt the dinosaur moving.

The car snapped away, metal screeching against the ground for a second before it started flying.

Only one thought crossed his mind: 'Gotta keep Mako-chan safe.'

Riku's free hand came up as he tried to stand, gripping Makoto's hair and pushing his head down.

'Can't let Mako-chan get hurt.'

The dinosaur leaned in, mouth opening wide.

The mouth snapped shut and someone screamed.

It took Riku a moment to realize that had been him, as he felt his armor crunch and buckle, between the grinding of the dull rocks and the stabbing from the sharp ones. He could feel his skin cutting and tearing as the mouth moved side to side, before it started to lift up. His feet were leaving the ground and he had enough time to think, 'Fuck.'

The movement stopped almost as immediately as it started, the dinosaur jerking violently to a stop. Riku was first forced against the upper teeth, then dropped to press against the lower teeth, and bit his tongue to keep from screaming again. There was a sharp rock pressing against his left side - it felt like it might have cracked through his armor, but he wasn't sure.

"Hyena!" He could feel hands on him, touching whatever they could reach, with half of him in the mouth. There was desperation in Makoto's voice. Riku groaned as he tried to wiggle his way out, the rocks grinding against his armor and making painful screeching sounds. He didn't get far, only getting more pain.

"Hang on," another, softer voice said and Riku almost sighed in relief. Ryu was there, too. A gentle green glow slipped through the cracks in the dinosaur, wrapping around Riku like a careful hug. He could breathe easier as magic separated him from the rocks pushing into him. A second layer of Ryu's sage green magic seemed to separate from the magic holding Riku and started to fill the the dinosaur's mouth, forcing its jaw to open.

He was able to slide out of the mouth, with Makoto and Ryu helping him. Riku wobbled slightly as he landed, instinctually grabbing on to their shoulders as they reached out to stabilize him. "Thanks, Serval, Bear," he said, nodding at each one, while he tried to pretend he wasn't aching everywhere after that. "You two okay?"

Makoto was at least standing up now, which meant his leg was able to support his weight now, and Ryu looked pretty much fine - he was one of the better magicians when it came to shields and defenses, so he rarely got hurt. "I'm fine," Ryu answered, concern obvious in his eyes. "Are you?"

Riku forced a grin. "I'm good, yeah? Thanks to you and Serval, I'm not a dinosaur chewtoy anymore, so I'm okay." Sure, his entire chest hurt and his armor was going to need a lot of work, but he was standing and breathing. This was the last fight, he had to be okay. He had to be there with Hokuto for the last press conference, he wasn't leaving the younger voice to do it alone.

Date: 2023-11-06, 17:55; Kawamura Apartment, Osaka

A new tweet came in as Kazuma was refreshing the page and he felt his heart stop as he read it.

thank fuck for bear, i thought hyena was a goner T.T

Kazuma swallowed hard, clicking on the video attached without even thinking. It was shot from inside a building, an office building from the desks, looking down on where Riku and Makoto were kneeling next to a car outside. Makoto looked like he was in pain and Riku had a hand on one of his legs. The camera kept shaking - he wasn't sure if it was the person struggling to hold it or the footsteps of the gigantic dinosaur stomping around.

Suddenly, the dinosaur grabbed the car. Kazuma's eyes automatically tracked the car, before glancing back and feeling his heart drop out of his stomach. Riku was in the dinosaur's mouth. He couldn't quite see the look on Makoto's face, but he knew how his cousin had to be feeling. There was no way that had happened without Riku putting himself between Makoto and the dinosaur, not when Makoto had been closer to the car.

The dinosaur was straightening up, lifting Riku off the ground, and Kazuma's heart was in his throat. Fuck. Suddenly, sage green magic wrapped around the dinosaur, freezing it in place, and Kazuma slumped from relief. Ryu was there. He watched as Ryu and Makoto pulled Riku out of the dinosaur's mouth, but the video cut out almost as soon as Riku had both feet on the ground.

Fuck. He swallowed hard - what would they have done if Ryu wasn't there? The idea of Riku being trapped in the dinosaur, getting crushed and cut between the rocks as it moved - neither Shohei nor Itsuki would be able to find him inside it to pull him out, not the way Kazuma could.

It was killing him to just sit there and watch. Whatever had happened with Terrasaurus' powers was making this battle insanely difficult - none of the dinosaurs had been put down permanently, just reforming and going back to what they were doing when they could normally be exploded without reanimating. Kazuma grabbed his phone, sending a message to the managers.

Kazuma: I'm coming back. What do I need to do to be cleared?

Kiyotaka: Glad to hear it. Please read the attached.

Juri: Guess you're watching the news just like we are, huh?

Kazuma: My team is deployed without me. Of course I'm watching the news.

Date: 2023-11-06, 18:20; City streets, Fukuoka

From getting bit by a giant dinosaur to being thrown into a building by one, Riku was having a rough time in the battle. Either he or Takahide had been going to get hit by the tail and he felt that him getting hit was the right call, but his head was still ringing from hitting the wall. He'd healed the headwound as soon as he realized he had one - they wouldn't let him do the press conference if he was visibly bleeding.

"Hyena?" Takahide was reaching out for him, eyes wide with concern. "You okay? That was a bad hit…" He kept glancing between Riku and the blood stain on the wall from where Riku's head had cracked open.

"I'm fine, yeah?" Riku said, waving his hand in an attempt to assauge Takahide's fears. Sure, he hadn't known where he was for a moment after the hit, and the only reason he hadn't landed face first on the concrete was years of reflexes, but he was fine. He had to be fine.

Takahide opened his mouth - potentially to object again, but he was interrupted by the sound of the radio activating.

"Hyena, I'm sending you coordinates, we need a healer there stat," YamaSho's voice came over the radio and Riku nodded automatically, pulling up his map to figure out where he was needed. There was a pause, then a chuckle, "I'm going to assume you nodded, but I would like verbal confirmation, Hyena."

"Understood, Mongoose," Riku laughed a little bit as he responded. YamaSho understood all of them so well, he had long gotten accustomed to each of their habits. A pang in Riku's heart echoed the aches of his body - he was going to miss this, miss them, so fucking much. There was a quick spike of anger - how could Kazuma throw it all away - but he tried to suppress it. If Kazuma was done, he was done and it wasn't fair to force him to keep going.

But Riku had other priorities right then. He shook the thoughts out of his head, then took off, following the directions on the map.

"Stay safe," Takahide whispered, as Riku went past him.

"I will, Weasel, I promise, yeah?" He threw Takahide a comforting smile over his shoulder, as best he could when his neck complained loudly at the movement, and went on his way.

Riku was trying to look and act as normal as he could, but breathing was getting more and more painful every encounter. Between getting bit and getting hit by the tail, he had been taking a lot of damage, most of it centered on his torso. The fact he hadn't broken any bones yet was only luck.

He turned the last corner to where YamaSho had sent him and immediately saw the problem. Kenta was currently shielding a group of civilians - literally, he'd animated a giant shield, that was bouncing around to block the dinosaur's hit. This was the third giant dinosaur - and the only one Riku hadn't run into yet. A wry smile pulled at his lips as he realized his luck was probably running out.

He had to get to the civilians without getting caught by the dinosaur. As quickly as he could, with the pain in his chest and all of his aches, he dodged from bench to car to bus stop, hiding behind each object so the dinosaur wouldn't see him. Finally, far slower than he wanted to, he made it safely to where Kenta was. "Never fear, Hyena's here," he announced himself with a smile, as he immediately went to the man lying on the ground.

There was only one major injury - the man lying down had a broken leg from a dinosaur bite - so it was quick fix. The hard part would be getting the civilians out without the big dinosaur catching them. Riku bit his lip, considering.

"Jackal, I got a plan," he said, after a moment.

"Mm?" Kenta responded, his eyes still on the dinosaur, moving the shield in time to block a bite.

"I'm gonna go over there and distract it, yeah? Keep it focused on me so you can get these guys out."

Kenta glanced where Riku was pointing, his brow furrowing. "How will you get out?" Where Riku was going was a dead-end blocked off by thrown cars. Once he had the dinosaur's attention, it would be blocking the only exit.

"I'll figure it out when I get there," Riku grinned, before clapping Kenta on the back and starting to make his move. As soon as he figured no one could see his face, he dropped the smile and exhaled slowly. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to move, but he had to move quick. The dinosaur seemed to notice him, but didn't turn to focus on him as Riku made his way to the blockade of wrecked cars. Once he was there, he climbed up on one of them to make himself taller.

"Hey, you, bag of rocks for brains, over here!" He called, waving his arms to try and attract the dinosaur's attention. Again, it glanced at him, but didn't turn away from the civilians. He could feel Kenta's glare from where he was - Riku gave a sheepish grin and a shrug. He thought it was worth a try - if they were pulling off ambushes and blockades, maybe they were smart enough to understand insults now, but apparently not.

"Gonna have to do this the hard way," he muttered, lifting a hand. Fifteen orbs of glowing pink and gold light appeared around him. After a second, he raised his hand higher, sending them up further so they would fly down on the dinosaur - "Let's see how well you handle a meteor shower," Riku said, before bringing his hand down, sending the balls hurtling towards the dinosaur. Its mouth opened, releasing a loud grinding noise almost like a scream, as the orbs collided with it.

"Over here!" He shouted again, as he summoned another fifteen orbs. His breathing was getting more ragged, but the civilians still weren't clear. Once the dinosaur had turned around to face him, he sent the fifteen lights forward, sharpening them into spears as they went. The spears penetrated further and the dinosaur stomped hard, making the ground shake. Riku swallowed, wobbling as he tried not to lose his balance on top of the damaged car.

Now the dinosaur was facing him and he swallowed hard. He could see Kenta's shield moving, presumably covering the civilians as they escaped, so he only had to hold its attention for a little while longer.

Hopefully.

One more round, that was hopefully all he had to do. Fifteen more orbs appeared, but they were flickering. Finding the energy to hold them was getting harder. Riku gritted his teeth and sent the orbs flying forward, once again shaping them into spears.

The dinosaur roared, then surged forward. The ground shook as a result.

He lost his footing on the car and threw his arms out for balance seconds too late.

The air left his lungs as he fell onto the ground, hard, unable to catch himself in time.

Rocks wrapped around him, lifting him up and squeezing.

Riku gasped for air, struggling to breathe as it squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.

Something snapped. Then another. Then a third. The pain in his chest intensified.

Breathing was getting almost impossible.

The world was getting darker. He could hear something that sounded like yelling.

'Kazuma, I'm sorry, I won't be able to play for you again…'

Then the pressure released. The world started spinning and rushing past him.

He slammed into the glass wall before he'd even realized he was flying, collapsing to the ground in a broken heap. He was still gasping for air, but now there was air getting into his lungs, and he almost wanted to cry from relief. Riku pushed himself up onto one arm, lifting his head up, and the first thing he saw was Kenta's face, eyes wide and afraid.

"Jackal…" He gasped, reaching out with his other arm. Kenta darted forward, grabbing his arm and hauling him up. Riku bit his tongue to keep from screaming at the pain as they stumbled into a small alleyway, where the dinosaur couldn't reach them.

"You have to go back to base," Kenta said, as soon as they were far enough away. His voice was shaking. "Ri - Hyena, you have to go back to base." He swallowed hard.

Riku shook his head, leaning hard against the wall behind him. "I gotta - I gotta be here, yeah? Can't leave Otter-chan to handle the post all by himself…" Fuck. There was still the post battle press conference. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe as best he could. Goddamn it, hadn't they found Terrasaurus yet?

"I'm voice trained," Kenta responded, immediately. "I can do it." Kenta had been trained to be a voice like Riku, Kazuma and Hokuto. They had even tried running with four voices for a bit before they debuted, before it was decided that Kenta would stay a protector exclusively. "Please, Hyena…" He swallowed. "You're hurt, let me help you."

"I can do it, yeah?" Riku responded, finally forcing himself to stand up straight. It hurt like hell and he tasted blood from how hard he was biting his tongue, but he was standing. "Wolf's - Wolf's already not here, they'll have so many more questions if it's you and Otter, they'll wanna know what happened to me -"

"You got thrown into a building!" Kenta was raising his voice, which was unusual for such a normally soft-spoken man. He swallowed hard again. "I thought you were dead…"

"I'm not dead, yeah? And I'm not gonna be," Riku tried to comfort Kenta, who was looking angry now. "It's okay, Jacky-chan, I'll be okay, yeah? I'll be with Otter for the post and then I'll go back to the base and I'll be fine, yeah?"

Kenta looked away, clenching his jaw. Whatever response he was coming up with was quickly interrupted by the radio going off again.

"Hyena?" Takuma's voice came over the line.

"Here," Riku said, somehow managing to keep his voice steady and not like he was still winded. "Whaddya need, Tiger?"

"I got a mother and her kid trapped in a car. It was thrown and they're upside down. I don't want to risk anything pulling them out."

"Be right there." Riku glanced at Kenta, who was still angrily glaring at the ground. "I'll be fine, Jackal. I promise, yeah?"

"You promised last time…" Kenta muttered, but he didn't stop Riku from heading off to the next problem. Riku felt guilty as he walked away, but he couldn't go back to base. He couldn't miss the last mission, the last press conference. He couldn't.

Date: 2023-11-06, 19:00; City streets, Fukuoka

Every time he tried to breathe, his left side erupted in pain. Riku closed his eyes, trying to breathe slowly, but it felt like he was suffocating when he tried to slow down. He pressed his hand to his side, only to be surprised when the breastplate slid aside and he pressed his hand to damp fabric and something hard sticking out of his side. The pain in his side got worse as he accidentally pressed the hard object deeper before he yanked his hand back. "Fuck," he muttered, leaning against the nearest wall.

They had finally caught Terrasaurus, but they still hadn't done the post-battle press conference and he was struggling to breathe and bleeding from something. He couldn't heal either thing fully - he had the worst feeling they were related. Pulling the object out might allow his lung more room to expand, but he wouldn't be able to stop the bleeding. Leaving the object in slowed the bleeding, but made breathing hard when he had to be able to talk.

"Hyena, if you're available, I have a request," Rui's calm voice came into Riku's ear and he straightened up, clenching his jaw from the pain as he did so.

"Panda, I'm available," Riku answered immediately. He pushed his breastplate back into place as best he could - whatever had happened had broken the straps holding it in place, so it wouldn't stay where it was correctly when he moved - then covered it with his jacket. He could feel his teeth grinding together from how hard he was clenching his jaw to keep from making pained noises. "What's up?"

"I have a little girl and her dog - the dog was injured when he protected her from one of the dinosaurs," Rui explained, as Riku's map chirped to indicate it had updated with new coordinates. He pulled up the map and started hurrying to Rui's position as quickly as he could. "Emergency services are prioritizing the people, but I'm worried about what will happen to the dog if he doesn't get help."

"I got you, yeah," Riku responded, hoping the pain in his voice wasn't too obvious. He was tired, his head pounding, and it hurt so much to breathe, but he couldn't stop now. First, he wanted to save the dog. Then he had to do the press conference. So he kept walking as fast as he could, until he turned the corner to see Rui kneeling on the ground next to a large dog and a crying girl. Rui was holding fabric to the dog's side, trying to stop the bleeding.

The little girl couldn't have been more than eight, as she held her dog's head in her lap. The dog kept craning his neck, reaching out for her face. "Pumpkin, it's okay, it's okay," she was rambling, using one hand to help press the fabric down - it was a school uniform jacket, Riku realized, now that he could see it. It was the same uniform jacket that the kids from the base wore. He wondered if Yuzusa or Rio knew her, since they were about the same age.

"Hey," Riku greeted her, giving her a smile. "It's gonna be okay, yeah? Panda and I are gonna help him - his name's Pumpkin, yeah?" He knelt down next to Rui, gently lifting the jacket as best he could. A dinosaur had swiped at the dog and cut deep - there were three long cuts running along his flank, with dirt and pebbles in them. Riku laid a hand down on Pumpkin's side, feeling the dog jerk slightly at the contact. Rui started whispering to the dog and Riku felt him calm down under his fingers.

"Y-yeah, his name's Pumpkin," she sniffled. "He's - he's my best friend and one of the dinosaurs attacked us and he -" Her voice cracked, more tears sliding down her cheeks. Pumpkin jerked again, trying to nuzzle at her face, and Rui's whispering picked up, trying to keep the dog calm.

"It's gonna be okay, I'm here, yeah? One of the best healers in all of Fukuoka," Riku grinned at her, trying to instill her with confidence as the healing spread from Riku's hands. The pounding behind his eyes was getting worse, but he could feel chips of bone returning to their proper places. Again, he focused on making sure to push the debris out as he reconnected veins and skin, not wanting to leave something behind to potentially get infected later.

Pumpkin's tail started wagging with a bit more force and his girl looked at him. "Pumpkin?" She asked, her voice cracking. Riku brushed the dirt and pebbles off the dog's side as he tugged the jacket away, revealing the long scratches were gone. The dog stood up, bumping his head against his owner's as he licked the tears off her face, while she laughed, overjoyed that her best friend was okay.

Riku laughed, her joy was contagious, and he could feel Rui's approval from his side. The little girl then let go of her dog long enough to wrap her arms around Riku, squeezing as tight as she could. He couldn't help but flinch as she accidentally pressed the object into his lung, but he did his best to wrap his arms around her back. Luckily, his jacket was thick enough that the blood hadn't gotten through to where she could feel it yet. "Thank you, thank you so much, Mr. Hyena!"

"Of course! I'm always happy to help, yeah? But now you and Pumpkin gotta get home - your parents are gonna be worried about you two," he patted her head gently as she let go and stood up, grabbing Pumpkin's leash as she went. After a moment, she grabbed the destroyed jacket and shoved it in her backpack - there was no getting the blood out of it, he didn't think, but she still needed to take it home.

She was talking to Pumpkin as they walked off. "Pumpkin! You're the best dog ever, but you have to be more careful, okay?"

Date: 2023-11-06, 19:20; City streets, Fukuoka

It was almost over. Riku was bent in half, making sure no one could see him from the entrance to the alley as he tried to breathe through the pain and focus on just getting it done. He was almost there. He just had to stand next to Hokuto for the last press conference. Running a hand through his hair, he tried to find the strength to stand up.

"Hyena?" Hokuto's voice called. Gritting his teeth, Riku managed to straighten up. He bit his tongue to keep from screaming at the explosion of pain everywhere, but he was at least standing.

Riku left the alleyway he'd been hiding in and walked over to where Hokuto was waiting. "Ready for the post, Otter-chan?" He asked, giving Hokuto a bright smile and cheerful laugh. It hurt like hell, but he could only hope Hokuto wasn't paying close enough attention to notice. It was the first time the whole Rampage had been deployed, but Kazuma wouldn't be at the post, so Riku figured the younger man might be more focused on that.

Hokuto nodded, which was good timing because the city spokesperson running the press conference gestured for them both to come over. Riku tried to focus on walking normally. He was almost done, they just had to get through this.

They walked out to the space that was set up for them, Riku glad to see they'd been given a table as a podium. He could lean against it if he felt like he was losing his balance or something. Since Hokuto had caught Terrasaurus with Rui and Makoto, he would lead most of the press conference - Riku was mainly there to fill in any blanks Hokuto didn't have.

"Rampage Hyena, Rampage Otter, it's good to have you two with us," the moderator said, nodding at each of them. Riku hadn't expected to be addressed first, so his nod was a little delayed. He could feel Hokuto glance at him for a second, before stepping forward.

"We're glad to be here," Hokuto said, giving first the moderator, then the crowd of reporters one of his dazzling smiles. The press conference continued as Riku had expected - Hokuto fielded almost every question, while Riku leaned against the table, trying to keep people from realizing it was the main thing holding him up.

They were almost out of there when someone finally asked the question Riku was dreading.

"So where is Rampage Wolf?" The question drew Riku's attention to the reporter immediately. The Rampage's three voices knew her well. Itakura Shihori had been covering them since the beginning, she had even moved newspapers when the Rampage was formally assigned to Fukuoka. "This is the first time in years we've seen the Rampage deployed in almost full. To be missing your centerpiece voice is an interesting decision, especially considering the difficulty of this battle."

"Wolf is currently dealing with personal matters," Hokuto answered, delivering the answer that had been prepared for them, while Riku tried to remember how to breathe. "He is sorry he was unable to fight for the people of Fukuoka today, but he has full faith in our ability to protect our people in his absence."

Shihori nodded, her pen writing the answer down on her notebook. "I'm finished," she said, handing off the mic to the next person. Riku gripped the table a little harder, hoping it was almost over. He didn't know how much longer he could hang on.

Date: 2023-11-06, 20:20; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka

As soon as he stepped into the locker room, Riku knew that it'd be the last time. His limbs felt heavy, his head was screaming, and his heart was racing, on top of the injuries from the fight. It was getting nearly impossible to breathe. There was an ominous certainty that this was it taking over his body.

He was dying, he realized. He was dying and Hokuto was right behind him and he didn't want to land on him. He leaned to the side as he started to fall, making his last deliberate choice be to avoid harming Hokuto.

#z writes #the threat of withdrawal #shadow & light

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zonecho · 21 days ago

Text

The Unbearable Wait

Date: 2023-11-02, 16:50; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka

Every few moments, Riku glanced at the clock on his phone, waiting for Likiya to enter the communal kitchen area. It was Thursday, the night where they all ate dinner together, and their leader normally started cooking around this time. Riku wanted to be able to help out, so he was hanging out to make sure he didn't miss it, in case Likiya forgot to text him.

The meals had been Zin's idea, his desperate attempt to make sure all of the members ate something other than takeout. Some, like Riku and Kazuma, did cook when they had time, but some, like Makoto, cooked on their own less than once a year. Likiya would also sometimes just cook a lot for dinner and leave leftovers in the public fridge, but these were concentrated group dinners.

Riku heard footsteps approaching and straightened up, waiting to see Likiya turn the corner. To his surprise, he saw Kenta instead. The brunette walked over to stand next to him, as he started unpacking a bag of ingredients. Riku saw edamame paste and fried tofu, alongside gyoza wrappers.

"You making gyoza tonight?"

"Yeah," was the quiet answer. "Wanted to help with dinner, too," Kenta glanced at him as he said it and Riku had a feeling he was going to have to get used to the feeling of Kenta's eyes on him. The younger man was perceptive and he'd already picked up on something being wrong.

But Riku was still going to try to assauge his fears. "Really? I'm sure Rui was glad to hear that," he teased, which just got him an annoyed look - an annoyance belied by the way Kenta couldn't keep himself from smiling.

They stood there, both watching the door way. "Did Likiya say anything about the menu?" Riku asked, after a few moments.

"No," Kenta started pulling a pan out. But from the look on his face, even he knew it was too early to start making the dumplings if Likiya wasn't there yet. There was a second where it looked like he was thinking about something, before he asked, "You want to get drinks on Saturday?"

"Huh?" Riku blinked - Kenta only rarely offered invitations, usually preferring to be asked, and he almost never did plans a day ahead of time, much less two. "Yeah, we can get drinks on Saturday! Any special occasion?" Maybe Kenta was finally going to ask Rui out - everyone knew the two were going to date eventually, it was just a matter of Kenta being ready for it.

He got an one armed shrug in response, so probably not. "Aww, does Kenti just wanna hang out with me?" Riku teased.

"Maybe," was the almost mumbled response.

"Hey, you two," Likiya walked in just in time to miss the entire conversation. Takahide and Ryu were flanking him on either shoulder. He was going to have a full crew to make the dinner, which meant the meal would hopefully be made quickly and efficiently. Alongside Kenta's gyoza, Likiya was going to make his beef and pepper stirfry, miso soup, a cucumber salad and grilled salmon. On top of that, they'd also need rice. There was an immediate increase of activity as different people were given jobs.

Kenta was, obviously, working on his gyoza, and Riku had been assigned the salmon. Takahide got started on the miso soup, while Likiya was giving Ryu pointers on cutting the vegetables. The kitchen was normally more than big enough, but it felt a little cramped with all five of them in there.

After a little while, an additional voice chimed in. "Ah, everyone is working so hard tonight," Zin said, leaning over the counter, a teasing smile on his face. "Guess I don't need to help out after all, I can just lounge here and watch -"

"Zin, if you've got time, can you grab the wakame from my fridge?" Likiya asked, flinging his keys over to his fellow leader. Zin flailed to catch the keys, unprepared for the request. "I thought I still had some out here, but it's gone." His tone seemed genuine, but he turned back around to face the rest of the kitchen so Zin couldn't see him failing to suppress a smile.

As soon as Zin was gone, Takahide produced the packet of wakame seaweed. "You mean this?" He was trying and failing to keep from laughing, while Riku didn't even bother to pretend not to laugh. Likiya also laughed, nodding, before he held up a finger to his lips.

"Our little secret," Likiya stage whispered, to more laughter. Takahide put the seaweed back in the fridge while Riku watched, smiling. He loved this so much. He should volunteer to help cook more oft - he'd forgotten, this was almost over. Turning back to the fish, Riku ducked his head so no one could see the expression on his face.

He knew, almost as soon as he moved, that he hadn't been fast enough to avoid Kenta's attention. He could see the other man's grip tense on the skillet handle and when Riku glanced over, Kenta was looking back. "So drinks on Saturday?" Riku said, trying to smile.

"Yeah," Kenta nodded, returning his attention to the dumplings, his shoulders slightly more tense than before. After a second, he added, "I wanna play soccer, too."

That drew Riku up short, not having expected that request. He played soccer with some of the kids that lived on the base every Saturday, but Kenta had never asked to join before. "Sure! They'd love it, they've been looking for a new adult to gang up on, you know," he laughed.

Date: 2023-11-03, 15:00; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka

When Friday came, Riku knocked on the door to Makoto's apartment, carrying a bag with hair dye supplies. Makoto and Takuma most likely had what they needed, but he'd still grabbed a few extra things alongside his hair dye, since he was the one who suggested it. The door opened within moments, Takuma raising a hand in a wave. "Hey."

"Hey, Takkun," Riku greeted back, giving him a grin. The younger man's hair wasn't as vibrant as it normally was, but that was going to get fixed soon. He lifted up the bag he was holding. "I got the goods," he stage whispered, like he was bringing something illicit. Takuma laughed, which made Riku start laughing, too, as he entered inside.

Makoto was already in the bathroom. He gave Riku a quick wave, before taking the bag he offered. He pulled the dye out and made a thoughtful noise as he put the bottle down on the sink.

Takuma sat down on the edge of the tub, then glanced at the bottle of hair dye. "No more blond?" He asked. Riku didn't go dark for his hair very often, usually preferring blondes or light browns. He'd even done a short stint of pink, which was how his hair ended up turning orange.

"Nah, I think my hair's screaming for a change, you know?" Riku grinned at them, hoping neither of them caught the tension in his shoulders. He was trying to save his hair, yes, but he also needed to look professional if he had a chance in hell at getting a job once Kazuma announced he was quitting.

Makoto reached over and took a lock of Riku's hair in his fingers, his nose wrinkling at the texture. "I think it's screamed itself hoarse," he said, while Takuma bit back a smile at the look on his face.

As the redhead was trying to avoid looking at Makoto, he glanced over to Riku. "Just checking, you're okay with that getting stained?" He asked, gesturing to Riku's shirt. Riku glanced down, then swallowed hard - it was a shirt that Kazuma was fond of. At least once, he'd explicitly asked Riku to wear it for a date.

After a pause, Riku stripped the shirt off, exiting the bathroom so he could place it on a chair in Makoto's living room. "Ready?" He asked, grinning at both of them.

Makoto nodded, as he mixed something in a little bowl. He sat down on the stool in the middle of the bathroom, holding the bowl up for Takuma to take. Riku peered over Takuma's shoulder, crossing his arms so he wouldn't bump into him by accident, and watched as the younger man put a lock of Makoto's hair on a strip of aluminum foil, then painted the mixture on and folded the foil over it.

Takuma paused what he was doing after a few moments, looking back over his shoulder at Riku. "Do you wanna try?"

"Can I?" Riku unfolded his arms, looking hopeful. Maybe if he managed to successfully dye hair here, they'd stop ragging on him for the incident with Zin's hair.

"You can help dye my hair," Takuma said, returning back to what he was doing. "Bleaching's slightly different."

"It's more damaging if you do it wrong," Makoto added. He glanced at Riku, holding his hand over his mouth as he tried to suppress a smile, as he said, "And I remember what you did to Zin's hair."

"Hey!" Riku was laughing even as he objected.

The realization that this could be the last time they did this made his heart ache. Everything would be over, when Kazuma announced he was quitting, and they wouldn't be living together anymore. He didn't even know where he'd live - maybe ask his parents if he could crash on their couch for a bit?

But he put his focus back on the now. Now he was helping Makoto and Takuma do their hair and they'd help him with his. The bathroom echoed with laughter as they talked and joked. Makoto helped Riku apply the dye to Takuma's hair correctly, trying to suppress a smile again as he made Riku put the dark brown dye back after Riku jokingly mimed using the wrong dye.

While they waited for their hair to finish processing, Riku convinced Takuma and Makoto to take a group selfie. He wanted to have the memory forever, if he couldn't have them forever. For a second, he considered sending it to Kazuma, but changed his mind. He didn't want to bother him.

Date: 2023-11-03, 22:45; JOFG Radio Station, Fukuoka

Returning to the radio station for the weekly radio show was a relief - it was one of the few places where he wasn't constantly being reminded of Kazuma. Riku and Zin were sitting in the green room, looking at the talking points they'd been given for the show. They'd already decided on the songs they wanted to present for each of their sections, so they were mainly just sitting in a companionable silence.

"You want me to update that when we get home?" Zin asked, making Riku raise his head in confusion. After a second, Zin ran a hand through his own hair and Riku figured out what he was referring to. Right. The illusion still had the orange hair.

They wore illusions to protect their identities, since they mostly didn't wear masks otherwise - sometimes Shogo or Makoto might wear a bandanna on top of the illusion, but that was just a choice they made occasionally. Because the illusions were crafted to make them unrecognizable in their normal life, they would need updated for any changes in hair color.

"I thought you wanted to cuddle with Luky-chan and go right to sleep?" Riku asked, a teasing smile pulling at his lips. There wasn't much point updating the illusion, not with their career almost over, and it'd help with separating himself from Rampage Hyena when it was all over. "I'd have to find everything to be updated and that'd take time."

They often had the same illusion enchanted on several pieces at once, for redudancy. Riku had his illusion on multiple earrings, a few rings, a few necklaces, and even his suit's bracers. He knew where they all were - the jewelry was all stored in a box together, so he knew anything he pulled out of there was good - but Zin didn't know that.

Zin nodded, leaning back in his seat. "Yeah, you've got a point," he said. "Luky-chan's waiting for me." Luky was Zin's beloved cat, adopted a few years prior, and she was one of three cats living at the base. Since Takuma was allergic, the entryways to Zin's, Rui's and Itsuki's apartments were all enchanted to keep the cats and their fur inside. YamaSho, Takahide and Hokuto had worked on those runes for weeks back when Itsuki said he wanted to adopt Mars. The fact they had all worked so hard to make sure Itsuki could get his cat had been hailed as a sign of their unity as a group.

A unity they were losing. Riku closed his eyes, trying to remove the thought from his mind, before his phone rang with a notification.

Kazuma: Good luck with the radio show

It felt like Kazuma had started texting more often - though it might just be Riku was expecting him to pull away, since they'd be over soon. But either way, he sent a response back.

Riku: Thank you!!! Are you going to be listening in tonight?

Kazuma: Of course I always try to catch it

Riku's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't actually realized Kazuma tried to listen to the show every week. Considering the show would almost certainly end with the group, he wondered how Kazuma would feel about it, would he miss it? He had said he liked Riku's voice during the phone call.

Riku: Thank you!!! I'll make tonight extra special for you <3

Kazuma: It's always extra special Love you

That felt like a punch to the stomach. Kazuma just casually saying he loved Riku over text, like everything wasn't over soon. Riku inhaled sharply, waving off Zin's curious look. "Just a text," he said, before texting back.

Riku: Love you, too, babe <3

Date: 2023-11-04, 10:00; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka

There was a small hoard of children waiting for them in the lobby as soon as Riku and Kenta entered the room. Issei was sitting at his normal spot, smiling and nodding while Zento talked to him, barely pausing to breath between words. Zento and his little sister, Kayo, were the children of two of the nurses who worked on the base. Kayo had only ever lived on the base, Riku remembered - her parents had been assigned to the Fukuoka base when the Rampage debuted and Kayo had been born a few months later.

Standing next to Kayo, holding her hand, was Yuzusa, the daughter of one of their mechanics. Yuzusa was one of the more responsible kids on the base - Riku was fairly certain she joined them on Saturdays not because of a love of soccer, but so someone could help him keep an eye on the other children. He always tried hard to make sure she still had fun, even if her focus was the other kids.

"Riku!" Speaking of the less responsible kids on the base, Rihito flung himself at Riku, who caught him easily, laughing. Rihito was always up to some kind of mischief - he took more after his father, the joyous morning shift doctor, than his mother, who was Route A's calm, dependable night shift operator - and from the look on his face, he was up to something new today.

"Rihito! You're excited to play today, huh?" Riku put the kid down as he nodded energetically.

"Yeah, I'm finally gonna beat Rio and Ayato today!" Rihito grinned, before whispering, "I've figured out their weaknesses."

"Oh?" Riku asked, leaning in close. "What are those?" He did glance around the lobby to make sure the last two kids were there - and they were. Rio and Ayato were both standing by the door, the most prepared to play the game of all six kids. Rio had her bag over her shoulder, with her cleats dangling from the strap, and she was impatiently tapping her foot, while Ayato was reading a comic book, carrying his own bag.

"They both hate frogs."

Riku looked at him. "You don't have any frogs on you right now, do you?"

"No…" He was trying to look innocent, but Riku'd been a troublemaker, too. He knew that face.

"Good, 'cause if you had a frog and you used it to scare Ayato or Rio, that'd be cheating and we don't cheat in soccer, yeah? It makes it less fun for everyone else." Riku smiled at him and ruffled his hair, trying to take the edge off the gentle scolding.

Rihito twisted his lips to the side, looking a bit sour over the chastising, but he nodded anyway and slipped over to the side. Riku watched him pull a small bag out of his pocket and place it on one of the plush chairs. It wasn't moving, so hopefully it was only a toy frog, not a real one.

But with that crisis averted, Riku looked at the group of kids. "Good morning!"

"Good morning!" The children echoed back. Riku tried hard not to smile as he could hear the impatience in Rio's voice - she was already reaching for the front door. Kiyotaka had thanked him for the Saturday soccer sessions, saying they were one of Rio's favorite activities. Riku's heart gave a small ache again - maybe if he stayed in Fukuoka, he could figure out a way to keep it going for the kids. He could only hope they wouldn't all get shuffled to other bases or something.

"Today, my friend Kenta wants to play with us," he gestured to Kenta, who gave them a small wave and smile. He looked a little tense and uncertain. This was the first time Kenta was meeting the children, as far as Riku knew - they might have seen each other in passing in the lobby, elevator or stairs, but he didn't think Kenta had been interacting with the kids much. "Is that okay with you guys?"

"Yes!" Kayo's exclamation was loud, drowning out every other response. Riku was fairly certain he heard positive responses from every kid except one and he was trying not to laugh as he looked over at the one hold out.

"Can he play soccer?" Rio asked, clearly suspicious.

"I'm good at all ball sports," Kenta responded, puffing his chest out with a confident smile. The nerves were started to settle slightly and Riku ducked his head to hide his own smile.

Rio's eyes narrowed. Riku was biting his lip to keep from laughing - of all six children, she and Ayato were the most serious about soccer, but where Ayato was calm and easygoing about the sport, Rio was like a miniature female Kaisei. She was competitive and hated to lose.

"Alright, guys, we're losing daylight," Riku said, now that he'd at least introduced Kenta to the kids. "We don't wanna miss out on any precious playing time, yeah? Your parents expect you back at noon." One of the things the weekly soccer games was good for was making sure the parents had two uninterrupted hours to do whatever they needed to while Riku kept an eye on the kids, but he also promised to have the kids back in the base by noon.

"Hurry up!" Rio pulled the door open, rushing out the door. Ayato put his comic book back into his bag, but didn't follow her out, instead stepping aside and waiting for the other children to pass him.

"Rio, you shouldn't run off like that -" Yuzusa was saying, as she followed, gently tugging Kayo along by the hand. She had to gently tug because Kayo kept stopping to look back over her shoulder - Riku was confused for a moment, until he realized she was looking at Kenta.

"I think you have a fan, Kenti," Riku gently elbowed Kenta, nodding his head at Kayo. Kenta glanced at the little girl, who squeaked and turned her head back forwards.

Date: 2023-11-04, 10:15; A park near the Rampage Base, Fukuoka

"So, what are you going to do today?" Rio asked, as she held her soccer ball against her side and squinted suspiciously at Kenta. "You said you play all ball sports, but that just means soccer's not your main focus." Riku couldn't stop himself from smiling. She was so competitive.

"I'm good at soccer," Kenta objected. "I'm good at all ball sports, so I'm good at soccer."

"I know we normally do you guys against me," Riku said. "But I was thinking we try something new today, yeah? Since Kenta's here, why don't we do two teams? Three with me, three with Kenta, and have a game?"

"I'm with you," Rio said, immediately staking her claim on the one she knew was good at soccer. She walked over to stand next to Riku. "Ayato, you try the new guy. Keep him in line." Kenta and Riku glanced at each other, trying not to laugh - Rio was like a more aggressive version of her father.

"I wanna be with Kenta!" Kayo shouted, running over to stand next to him. Yuzusa glanced at Zento, who was talking with Rihito and not paying attention, then looked over at Rio, then over to Kayo. She was trying hard not to show how conflicted she was, as she bit her lip and then quickly stopped.

"Zuzu, you're with me," Rio commanded, solving the problem. Yuzusa gave her a small, relieved smile as she went to stand next to the

"I want Zento," Ayato cut in, laying claim to the better of the two boys left.

"Wait, what?" Zento looked around, confused. "We're doing teams?" Everyone except Rio started laughing, even Rihito, who elbowed his friend in the side.

"You're real bad at paying attention, huh?" Rihito asked, before he looked over where Rio was glaring at him. Since Ayato had Kayo and Zento on his team, that left Rihito - the weakest player next to Kayo, who had just turned six two months earlier - on Rio's team.

Riku gently pat his hand on the competitive girl's head twice. "If you wanna be a good captain, you gotta help your players get better, yeah? Gotta welcome them all onto the team and take good care of them so they'll play their best, you know."

She sighed dramatically. "Fiiine," she said, before calling, "Rihito, get over here. We gotta practice passing real quick."

"That's a good idea," Riku said, before raising his voice to make sure everyone heard him, "Let's do thirty minutes to practice as a team, then play a game, yeah?"

"Understood," Ayato nodded, as the Rio-appointed captain for Kenta's team. Rio gave a short, sharp nod. The other children all acknowledged it - everyone except Kayo, who was too busy trying to get and keep Kenta's attention. Kenta was laughing as she tugged on his hand and Riku felt his nerves settle. Since he'd been tense the last few days, Kenta had been tense, so seeing him laugh freely gave Riku hope for getting drinks later.

"What are we doing about powers?" Rio asked, suddenly. "Even Kayo's doing magic these days."

"They don't let you use powers at school, yeah? So no powers here either," Riku said, before noticing Yuzusa's eyes slightly widen. "No activated powers, you know? I know you can't turn your secondary off." He gave her a comforting smile. Yuzusa had an indestructibility secondary, which was a passive ability - she couldn't turn it off.

Riku turned to Rio, ruffling her hair. "So no flying, yeah?"

"No flying," she sounded disgruntled, but nodded anyway. She fixed her bangs, then turned her attention back to Rihito. "Go over there, I'm gonna pass the ball to you and you're not gonna let it go past you again, got it?"

The boy stuck his tongue out at her in response, which just made Riku laugh. He loved playing soccer with the kids - Rio wasn't the only one who looked forward to it every Saturday.

Date: 2023-11-04, 12:30; Amazing Coffee, Fukuoka

After returning all six kids safely back to the base, Riku and Kenta headed off to the nearby Amazing Coffee cafe. At some point, Tetsuya - Exile Mercury - had decided to found a coffee company and he had made sure to have locations by all of the Exile Tribe's bases. It meant they always knew where to find good coffee, which was helpful in a business with such unpredictable hours.

"You did a good job with the kids," Riku said, as they walked, watching a genuine smile appear on Kenta's face out of the corner of his eye at the praise. "Even Rio liked you by the end and she's a hard sell, you know?" Rio had actually cornered Kenta before she went back to her apartment, telling him she better see him next week. The thought of next Saturday made Riku swallow hard. Kazuma had to be back by then, everyone would know their fate, and he didn't know if they'd be playing soccer.

Kenta glanced at him. The smile had dropped as soon as Riku sighed. "It was fun," he said, his gaze returning to the sidewalk. "It's the first time you forgot what's been making you sad since Wednesday."

Before Riku could come up with a response, or even finish comprehending the words, Kenta opened the door to the cafe and went inside. "What do you want to get?" Kenta asked, as they joined the line. He was not looking at Riku, standing in front of him - a deliberate choice from a man who was typically at the back or side of the pack.

Riku looked at the menu, but his mind was elsewhere. As much as he could tell Kenta was rankling over him not being honest, it wasn't his secret to tell. Kazuma should have the chance to tell the members himself - no matter what Riku's feelings on the matter were, it was Kazuma's choice and he should have the chance to defend himself if anyone got upset over it.

After they got their drinks, they left the cafe, heading back to the park near the base. There were several secluded spots in there and they both knew the other wouldn't be honest in public nor would they risk potentially causing a scene at the base if an argument happened in someone's apartment. The walk was quiet as they found a bench tucked into an alcove, surrounded by trees and hard to see from the walking path.

They both settled onto the bench. Kenta was looking forward, which Riku mirrored after a second - he'd considered sitting facing towards the younger man, but it looked like Kenta was having a no eye contact moment.

"I know something's wrong," Kenta said, after a moment. "You're not okay." It was a direct statement of fact, with no wiggle room for Riku to talk his way out of it.

"Ahh," Riku looked down at his cup. "It's not a problem, yeah? I'm battle ready and I'm not gonna let you guys down, you know? I won't let it be a problem. We're down one, I won't make it two, I promise, yeah?" He glanced over in time to see Kenta make a frustrated face. Wrong answer, okay.

"I don't care if you're battle ready. I care that you're hurt," Kenta's straight forward description made Riku's breath catch in his throat. That's what that feeling was, huh? "You're hurt and you won't even acknowledge it. You just keep saying you're fine." His shoulders rose towards his ears, as he mumbled, "I thought you'd be honest with me…"

"I'm fine -" Riku said, noticing the way Kenta clenched his jaw in response. Yep, definitely the wrong answer. "It's not your burden to bear, yeah? I'm handling it, you don't have to worry, I promise. It's my problem, not yours, you know?"

"So you're the only one allowed to help hurting people," the younger man was almost glaring at his coffee cup as he rotated it at an angle, the liquid splashing around inside. "No one's allowed to help you, you just hurt and lie about it." Riku winced at the hurt in Kenta's voice.

"I'm sorry, Ken-chan," Riku's voice was soft. "I'm sorry, yeah? This one's my problem. I don't mean to keep lying to you and hurting you, I just gotta…" He trailed off, trying to find the words. "I just gotta handle this one myself, yeah? It's not that you can't help me, or that you're not allowed to, it's just this one, it's gotta be me. And I'll be fine, okay? I'll be okay, I promise."

From the look Kenta gave him, neither of them believed that he would be okay. But Riku wasn't going to budge, this was his hurt to carry by himself. Kenta forcibly exhaled, then leaned his head over to lay on Riku's shoulder, a quiet olive branch. "Next time you get hurt, you'll let me help you."

"Yeah," Riku said, leaning his head against Kenta's. "Next time I get hurt, I'll let you help. I promise, yeah?"

"You better."

Date: 2023-11-06, 17:15; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka Since Kenta was getting more and more suspicious about what was wrong with Riku, he had started to try to avoid the younger man. He felt bad about it, since everything was going to be over soon, but he also wasn't even supposed to know. If he told anyone, they would ask where he heard it and he didn't want to risk being wrong about either manager being involved.

So instead of the Rampage's communal areas, on the fifth floor, he was in the break room on the seventh floor. Anyone from the Rampage or the staff who wanted to hang out across job lines would go there, since Rampage members were restricted to their floors and the staff were restricted to their own floors, to allow extra privacy. He'd also heard it was to make sure that no one who got their hands on the wrong key would be able to get through the entire building - apparently something like that had happened years ago, to the original Exile.

The break room wasn't super busy, he only saw a few staff members sitting around. Kiyotaka was sitting at one table with Yura, the night shift doctor and Ayato's mother - it sounded like they were having a conversation about their children's soccer equipment, since Rio was rapidly outgrowing her cleats again. It was slightly odd to see Yura there, since her shift didn't start until 22:00, and she usually spent her evenings with Ayato before work.

At another table was Takeru, one of the afternoon nurses and the father of Zento and Kayo. He was eating leftovers from a bento box and reading a book on healing theory. He had headphones on and a focused look on his face, so Riku decided against bothering him. Takeru was studying to become certified to teach Elemental healing and the test was coming up soon.

The final person Riku saw was Megumi, one of the morning nurses. She was sitting in a corner, watching something on her phone, but she normally didn't mind when Riku spoke to her. "Mimi-chan," he greeted her with a smile.

"Rikkun!" She smiled at him, as she removed her headphones. "What'cha doing up here? Haven't seen you around the last few days."

"Sorry about that - I've been hanging out with the members," Riku apologized, sitting down. "Trying to check up on everyone while Kazuma's gone, you know?"

"Yeah, I can't believe he got sick like that so suddenly! Like, boom, he was gone, you know? Hisashi was the only one who saw him before he went home, he was just in and out." Hisashi was the morning shift doctor and father of Rihito. Considering when Kazuma left, it made sense that he'd been the one to sign off on Kazuma's going home.

"But how are the members taking it?" Megumi asked, propping her chin up on her hand. "It's gotta be hard, since he's the center and the big name around here. I bet Hokuto's missing him a lot, huh?"

"Yeah…" Riku looked down. "We're never really without Kazuma, you know? He's been our center for so long…"

"Hasn't he always been the center?" She asked, before her eyes got wide and she waved her hands. "Sorry, sorry, I forgot they switched the center from you to him before you guys debuted. He's just always felt like such a good fit for it, you know? It's sometimes hard to believe they gave it to you first."

Megumi was so friendly, but also so painfully blunt. Riku's fingers dug into his thigh unintentionally. "Yeah, they figured out their mistake quickly, huh?"

"I mean, it wasn't a mistake - well, I guess it was, huh? Since you're not a good choice to be the center. But either way, I hope Kazuma feels better soon. I'm still surprised he went down like that - I always thought he was so resilient, you know? Heroes gotta have a lot of endurance to save Japan, after all, and he's the best of all you guys."

Riku swallowed, looking down out at his hands. She was right, making him the center had been a mistake they'd quickly corrected. Kazuma was the best of them. And he was quitting. Everything would be over soon.

"Rikkun?" Megumi asked, concerned. She reached her hand out to cover the hand he'd left on the table. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, yeah," Riku answered, pulling his hand back. "Just thinking about - things." He was saved from having to come up with an excuse by the speakers crackling to life.

"All Rampage members, report to the lockers," the voice said, catching everyone's attention. Route C hadn't been called out very much, since Kazuma was out and they'd have to grab a different teleporter and voice from one of the other routes, and it was apparently big enough they needed all sixte - fifteen of them.

"Oh, this is a big one then," Yura said, as she stood up. "I should get back to work."

"Be careful, Rikkun - Dr. Tanabe's covering for Dr. Urata tonight and she's not used to being awake this early," Megumi teased.

"Hush, I am plenty used to being awake this early," Yura responded, as she and Riku left the break room side by side. They were going the same direction, after all - they had placed the medical ward on the same floor as the locker room, so if an emergency came back, medical services were just down the hall.

As they reached the door to the medical ward, Yura turned to Riku. "I don't want to see you until after my shift ends. Stay safe."

"Will do, doc," Riku promised, as he gave her a smile. She smiled back, before she turned around and went through the doors, taking up her trademark humming as she went. It was the same Atsushi song he'd been learning, which got it stuck in his head as he continued on to the locker room.

Probably because of the conversations he'd been having, Riku was one of the last ones to the locker room. Riku went to his locker, which was between Likiya and Rui, and tried to ignore that no one was at Kazuma's locker. Fifteen was an unusual number for them to deploy - at that point, just send out all sixteen - and typically, if Riku and Rui were suiting up, Kazuma would be suiting up, too. It felt wrong.

"Alright," Zin called, "Terrasaurus has unleashed dinosaurs in the streets in Hakata Ward. We don't have specifics yet, but we know she's got a few big ones and a few small ones."

"More than one of the big ones?" Shogo asked, his eyes narrowed in thought. Terrasaurus was an Earth Elemental with an unusual animation secondary, which she used to make dinosaurs out of rock and dirt. She was infamous for her ability to cause mass destruction, as she didn't need to directly control her dinosaurs. She would often just raise them and point them in a direction. Because her dinosaurs weren't puppets, she normally had a hard limit on how many she could make at a time, and that limit was related to the size of the dinosaurs.

"Yeah - we have different reports from different areas all referencing a big one. We think there's at least two, but we're waiting on confirmation."

Riku nodded along as he finished getting ready. Once he had his armor on completely, he activated the illusion on his earring. His hair changed back to orange and he tugged on one of his locks. He almost regretted not taking Zin up on his offer - if this was their last battle, he wasn't sure this is how he wanted to look.

His attention returned to the conversation just in time to hear Kaisei ask, "Any plan for how we get there?" His heart clenched at yet another reminder that Kazuma wasn't there. They'd relied on Kazuma for so long and he wasn't there. And he'd never be there, again, not since he was quitting.

"We were thinking two each with A and B," Zin's answer elicited nods from Shohei and Itsuki, the two teleporters who would need to handle the extra load. Kaisei and YamaSho went to Itsuki, to teleport in with Route A, and Makoto and Rui went to Shohei, to teleport with Route B.

One quick discussion of teleporting locations later, they were in the teleportation space attached to the locker room. There were two sets of members, each standing close to the teleporter they were traveling with. Riku could hear the flames behind him as Itsuki teleported his set out. Water droplets started to fall from the ceiling, circling around the group with Shohei. The amount of water increased to what felt like a river flowing around them and then they were gone.

#z writes #the threat of withdrawal #shadow & light

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zonecho · 28 days ago

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I have no self-control. Second chapter is up 😂

#z writes #z speaks

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zonecho · 29 days ago

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The Threat of Withdrawal

Riku could still remember how he'd felt, that first time the Rampage had come back from a mission, excited because they'd been successful with no major critiques from management. He'd been in the middle of the crowd, basking in their happiness, and he thought he might get addicted to that feeling, might get addicted to them.

Years later, facing down the potential of losing the Rampage forever, he realized he might have - and withdrawal was going to be a bitch.

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence Category: M/M Fandom: The Rampage from Exile Tribe Relationships: Aoyama Riku/Kawamura Kazuma, Aoyama Riku & Kamiya Kenta Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Whump, Miscommunication, Secret Relationship Challenge: Pre-July Break Bingo 2025, 'Addiction or Withdrawal'

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End (words: 3,908; Ao3)

Date: 2023-11-01, 11:00; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka The day Riku's world fell apart had seemed to be a normal one. He was sitting on the stairs at the bottom of the eastern stairwell, recovering from his jog before he walked up to his apartment - it was later than normal, but he'd stayed up late texting Kazuma, asking him how his trip back home was going and if he was feeling better from his illness. If he had taken his jog at the normal time, he wouldn't have heard the hushed conversation between two of the staff members.

He was only halfway paying attention when he heard a man's voice echo down the stairwell, "- for sure Kazuma's quitting." Riku's world seemed to slow down. He heard the next few words, but barely comprehended them.

"Do we know when he'll -?" This speaker was a woman, the stress in her voice obvious even through the echoing. Riku thought it might have been Ishiguro Juri, who was the manager for the base, but he wasn't sure. If he was right, it made sense for the other half of the conversation to be Akamatsu Kiyotaka, who was in charge of the Rampage as a group.

"He said when he gets back from Osaka." The door to the stairwell closed with a bang, cutting off the rest of the conversation as Riku felt his world shattering. Kazuma was quitting. Kazuma - was quitting. There was no way that was true. Riku grabbed for his phone, almost dropping it in his hurry. He couldn't have heard that right, he just needed to text Kazuma and ask and - he froze in the middle of unlocking his phone. Kazuma hadn't even told him it was an option. Kazuma had managed to pack up his computer and travel to Osaka before he even told him he was leaving.

Kazuma's computer was a bigger priority than Riku was. Kazuma: Still not feeling well, so they let me go home to Osaka for a visit. I'll be back when I feel better That had been the whole message. It felt like a standard text to any member Kazuma wasn't close to - Riku wouldn't have been surprised to hear that Likiya or Takuma had gotten something similar - but Riku had figured he'd just been trying to explain himself quickly since he wasn't feeling good and sent the same message to everyone. Now… He was realizing that Zin, Hokuto, YamaSho and Kaisei had probably gotten more specific information. A strange ache took over his chest.

He wasn't really Kazuma's partner, was he? They kissed and cuddled and spent time together, slept in the same bed together whenever they could, but when Kazuma started considering letting go of his lifelong dream - Riku wasn't even given a heads up.

His jaw clenched as he put his phone back into his pocket. They were over, weren't they? The Rampage couldn't exist with Kazuma, so that was over, and Kazuma obviously didn't think of him as his partner, so they were over as a couple.

Everything was over.

Date: 2023-11-01, 12:00; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka

Kazuma was quitting. The thought had been bouncing around Riku's head for the last hour, which he'd spent staring at his phone, not comprehending a single thing he was scrolling past. Somehow, no one had come down the eastern stairwell at all in that time. He'd known their support staff preferred the western stairwell, but he hadn't realized it was that strong of a preference.

The errant thought about the support staff's travel habits wasn't enough to keep Riku's mind off the bigger problem.

When Kazuma quit, the Rampage would be over and he'd have to figure out what he's supposed to do with himself without the members or his job. He ran a hand through his hair and grimaced - the texture had been getting more and more unpleasant, but he kept having to bleach it so his roots wouldn't come in.

He could dye it back to black, or another dark color, and let his hair grow out without bleaching it, but he'd been banned from doing anyone's hair after the incident with Zin's hair. Riku absently toyed with one of his rings, using his thumb to spin it around his finger, as he thought. A million different things were running through his head all at once.

He pushed his hair back with his hand, grimacing again at the texture. Finally, a thought stuck out long enough for him to act on it. He opened up his messages and sent a question to Makoto.

Riku: Hey, Mako-chan! I wanna dye my hair, can you help me, please?

After a few moments, he got a response back.

Makoto: yeah Takuma and I need to do our hair, too we can do it together on Friday

Riku: Thank you!!!

Now that problem was solved, he needed to figure out what he was going to do, since he couldn't just sit there all day. It'd been an hour, but he still didn't have the energy to stand up.

The door to the stairwell creaked open and he lifted his head to see a familiar elderly man. "Ah, Riku, I thought I hadn't heard you go up," Okamura Issei was one of their support staff, he usually sat at the front desk to make sure any strangers that entered the apartment building didn't get very far. "I have a request." It was almost like he'd known Riku needed something to spur him on - Riku couldn't remember if the old man had superpowers of some variety, but he wouldn't be surprised if he did.

Riku's breath caught in his chest momentarily as he realized Issei's job was also in danger - though he had hope that the Tribe would still find a place for their support staff, even if the Rampage was over. There were so many support staff working for them and many of them, like Issei, lived on the base. Some of them had families that lived there with them.

But he pushed that thought out of his mind. He had to at least try to act normal.

"What do you need?" Riku pocketed his phone, standing up.

"There's a food delivery for Shogo," Issei said, leading Riku back to the desk where a bag of food was sitting. "He hasn't responded to my ringing, I think he's lost track of time. Could you take it up to him?"

"Yeah," Riku grinned at the man, grabbing the bag. It was good to have something else to do. Once he was done with that, he could maybe go buy the hair dye or go find someone to talk to. He just needed to do something to get his mind off Kazuma and the future.

Date: 2023-11-01, 14:30; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka

After Riku dropped off the hair dye supplies he'd bought, he went up a floor to see if anyone was in the members' communal spaces and he was in luck. Kenta was sitting on one of the couches in the communal living room, holding a sketch pad in his lap. His kit of art supplies were on the seat next to him, pencils and pens sprewn about. Though Riku couldn't help but notice that the watercolors were still closed in their case, which made him fight back laughter. Kenta had gotten enough lectures about paint on the furniture over the years.

Riku made sure his footsteps were loud enough to be heard as he approached, keeping an eye on Kenta to make sure the younger man heard him before he got too close. Speaking of getting enough lectures, Riku had gotten told off a lot about making Kenta jump while he was drawing. Once he was certain Kenta had heard him and wouldn't suddenly jolt, Riku leaned over the back of the couch. "What'cha drawing?"

Kenta gave him a look - it was like he was aiming for annoyance, but he couldn't keep the smile off his face - before he reached his hand up to push Riku's face away as he tilted the sketchpad in the opposite direction. There was no real force to it,

"Okay, okay, I got it, I understand," Riku said, laughing, before he walked around the couch to sit down next to the younger man. If he really hadn't wanted Riku there, there wouldn't have been any amusement involved. Kenta even shifted over slightly to give him more room to sit.

Riku pulled out his phone. He hadn't had any reason to hang out in the communal space, but he knew they were on a countdown until he couldn't do it anymore and it was nice to just sit next to Kenta sometimes. He found an interesting video and tapped on it. The audio started coming out of his phone speakers, which made Kenta say, "Headphones."

"Right, right, sorry." Riku pulled his airpods out of their case, which stopped the audio from the phone speakers.

They sat there in comfortable silence for a few moments, Kenta continuing to work on his drawing, while Riku watched things on his phone. The sound of footsteps drew both of their attention and they looked up to see Kaisei and Takuma approach, Kaisei carrying a Switch.

"Kaisei, Takkun," Riku greeted, giving both of them a smile. "You two gonna play Smash Bros?"

"Takuma keeps saying he can beat me," Kaisei sounded amused, while Takuma jokingly glared at him. "I'm gonna remind him who the worst one is."

"Not the best?" Kenta asked, fighting hard not to smile as he kept his gaze on his sketch.

"Oh, he already knows who the best is -"

"Takahide," Riku cut in, laughing when Kaisei glared at him. Takahide had managed a rare win the week before and it was still bugging Kaisei, everyone knew that.

"I heard my name?" Takahide asked, as he left the elevator. He must have come back from picking up a lunch delivery in the lobby - he had a bag of food in his hand. The timing was just perfect for him to walk into the conversation. Riku didn't even try to hold in his laughter as Takahide glanced around the room. "Oh, are we playing Smash?"

"Yes," Kaisei answered immediately, seeing an opportunity for redemption. "So far it's me and Takuma, you in?"

"Yeah!" Takahide sat down on the other side of Kenta, placing his food down on the coffee table. "Just let me eat and I'll beat you again." He gave Kaisei a playful smile as he said it, gaining him a gentle smack in response. Takahide just laughed harder, joining in with Riku.

As he laughed at the antics happening around him, Riku sent off a quick text message.

Riku: Smash tournament happening right now!!! Currently playing: Kaisei, Takkun, Hide-chan. Anyone else want in?

Zin: Be right there

Shohei: I'm on my way!

Riku smiled at his phone, watching the responses come in. The arrival of Hokuto was heralded by the younger voice pretending to do an elbow drop on Takahide, which nearly made him choke on his food. Ryu followed behind moments later to check that his best friend was okay. As people started discussing the match order, Riku updated the list of players.

Riku: We're up to Kaisei, Takkun, Hide-chan, Zin, Shohei, Hoku-chan and Ryu. Anyone else?

He paused, a thought occurring to him. Even though he knew the answer, Riku still sent off a quick message, trying not to smile.

Riku: Icchan?

Itsuki: No You guys are loud enough from here, thanks

The blunt response made Riku laugh, throwing his head back. Itsuki's room was close enough to the communal living room that he could almost certainly hear Riku's laughter.

"You not playing?" Takahide asked, in the middle of a bite of food.

"Nah, I'm gonna be the cheering section with Kenta," Riku gently elbowed Kenta in the side. "Right, Kenti, we're gonna cheer for them?" The other man sighed dramatically, but didn't object, which just made Riku laugh more.

Itsuki: Can someone tell the hyena his name wasn't supposed to be so literal? Can hear him laughing all the way in my bedroom He's upsetting Mars

There was a picture of Itsuki's cat, Mars, attached, but Riku didn't think the cat looked upset - Mars looked as he always did. While Riku was laughing over the exchange still, a new text message came in, separate from the group chat.

Kazuma: You're not playing Smash?

Riku looked at the text, then gently elbowed Kenta again. "Selfie," he said, holding up his phone to take the picture. Kenta looked at him for a second, then opened his mouth like he was roaring, holding up a hand in a claw-like shape, which made Riku smile wider as he snapped the picture. "Thank youuu," he said, as he sent the picture back to Kazuma with the caption:

Riku: Kenta & I are cheering them on together!!!

Kazuma: You & Kenta look like you're having fun I hope the tournament goes well Who are you cheering for?

Riku: Everyone!!! Except Zin Zin can lose :P

Without even thinking about it, Riku released a deep sigh. He loved Kazuma so much, but it hurt to know he was losing everything soon. Lifting his head, he looked around the room, at all of the members he loved so much crowded together. Even Likiya had left his room to come watch, though the oldest leader kept waving off any attempt to get him to play.

Losing this was going to hurt so fucking much.

A gentle tap on his shoulder brought his attention to Kenta, who held up his sketchpad. The page had been flipped, with just the note 'Are you OK?' written in the corner above some unfinished sketches.

Somehow Kenta had noticed. Shit. Riku gave him a nod, holding up a thumbs up and trying to give him a smile - it was maybe a bit more strained than he'd wanted it to be, from the way Kenta's eyes narrowed in response.

But rather than let Kenta try to ask him again, Riku leaned back against the couch cushions to grab Likiya's attention. He had a question he wanted to ask.

Date: 2023-11-01, 19:30; Kawamura Apartment, Osaka

Since Takahide was off getting a drink, Kazuma decided to take advantage of the lull in the gaming session to take a sip of his own drink. It'd been a few days since he was sent home to relax and consider his plans for the future - if he wanted to keep the Rampage in those plans, or if he wanted to retire or go solo or something else. The stress of his position had been getting to him and it was dangerous for him to be so stressed out in the field - he'd been making dumb mistakes, which he knew had been adding to the others' work load.

Riku had been spending so much time healing him, fixing small cuts and bruises and other injuries acquired by stupidity. Kazuma had teleported onto uneven terrain without realizing it and managed to twist his ankle so bad his boot hadn't been able to come off until Riku brought the swelling back down. He'd been tired as he did it, Kazuma could tell from the way he'd been swaying even when he was knelt down. Then they'd gotten back to Kazuma's apartment, where Riku had taken off his shirt and accidentally revealed he'd skipped healing his own injuries so he could fix Kazuma's ankle.

"How are you feeling?" Kaisei's voice came over the voice call, bringing his attention back to the present, and Kazuma put his drink down, as he considered the question.

"Better," he answered, as he started to swing the chair back and forth with one foot. "Less tired." He'd spent a lot of his time away sleeping, which meant he kept waking up to a wave of texts from Riku checking in. His brows furrowed slightly as he realized he hadn't gotten a message from Riku in a few hours, not since the Smash Bros tournament. He picked up his phone to check he hadn't missed anything.

As soon as he unlocked his phone, it opened to his messages and he immediately saw the picture of Riku and Kenta again. Kenta's chin was basically on Riku's shoulder and they were sitting close to each other, all but attached at the hip. The desire to be there, sitting next to Riku, flared up suddenly and he swallowed hard. His trip back to Osaka was almost over, he reminded himself, and he'd be back home soon.

"Have you made a decision yet?" There was a cautious edge to Kaisei's voice that pulled Kazuma to a stop, making him put his phone back down onto the desk.

After a moment, he started his answer, "I haven't made a decision yet, not one I've told Kiyotaka or Juri yet."

"But?" This was Takahide, apparently returned from his drink acquisition. It was obvious he was trying to act casual about it, but Kazuma could hear the hope in his voice.

"I'm thinking about staying."

Date: 2023-11-01, 20:30; The Rampage Base, Fukuoka

Suddenly, Riku's phone was buzzing with a notification, the unexpected text message making him jolt suddenly. He swallowed hard at seeing the message from Kazuma.

Kazuma: Can I call you?

Such a simple sentence, a simple question, and yet it made Riku's heart pound out of his chest. Was this where he got the news? Where Kazuma told him everything was over?

But - he glanced to his side, where Itsuki was lounging on the couch next to him, then over to the dining table, where Zin was having a late dinner while he chatted with Rui and YamaSho. He couldn't exactly take that call here.

Riku: Not yet. Give me 5 minutes

Pocketing his phone, Riku stood up and headed towards his room. He had to take the stairs down a floor, to where Route B and C's rooms were, but he slipped inside his place quickly. Once the door was shut, he released a shuddering breath as he tried to calm himself down. Kazuma didn't know he'd overheard anything yet, he needed to at least act like he didn't know what was coming.

Once he felt calm enough, he tapped Kazuma's contact to start the phone call. Kazuma answered immediately, "Riku."

"Hey, babe," Riku tried to plaster a smile on his face. He hadn't heard Kazuma's voice since he left, since they'd be talking over text, and he did sound better than he had before. 'Apparently deciding you're done with a major source of stress relaxes you,' Riku thought, his heart aching, before he realized he had been quiet for a bit. "How's Osaka? You said you and your mom were gonna watch some Star Wars, right?"

"Yeah." Riku could hear the smile in Kazuma's voice and his heart skipped a beat, the image of Kazuma's smile popped into his head. Getting a real smile out of Kazuma always felt so special, especially since he'd been so stressed and serious recently. It was dazzling. And … Riku wouldn't be able to see it much anymore, would he? The Rampage was over, they were over, he was just waiting for Kazuma to tell him.

"Riku?" Kazuma asked, "You listening to me?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah - you and your mom watched the prequels you said, right? And she showed you some new makeup she's been liking," Riku rambled, happy he had managed to catch that much. He bit his lip, not sure how to segue into 'So we're done, right?' - he didn't want to risk getting Juri or Kiyotaka for discussing it when Kazuma apparently wasn't ready for it to be announced, especially since he wasn't sure if it had been them. "How are you feeling? You sound better, you know?"

"I do?" His laugh still made Riku's heart sing. "Yeah, I think getting to spend time with my mom back home has been helping me feel better and get my head on straight." Kazuma paused, then added, with frustrating inching into his voice, "I'm done making you heal me from stupid injuries."

"You don't gotta worry about it, yeah? I like healing you, you know?" Riku slipped his ring off his finger so he could more easily pick at his skin at the place where his finger met his palm, the slight pain from the pinching orienting him as he tried to sound normal. "I've always loved supporting you, you know that, right?" He was trying so hard not to sound desperate.

"Of course I know that -" He was getting more frustrated. Riku bit his lip. "But you shouldn't have to heal me so much - especially not when you're skipping healing yourself so you can heal me because I did something fucking stupid again -" Kazuma growled under his breath a bit, almost sounding like the wolf he'd be given his superhero name for. "I didn't call you to argue over this. I'm feeling better, I'm not going to be making mistakes like that anymore."

That was true. It was hard to make mistakes in the field when you weren't going into the field anymore.

"Sorry, sorry," Riku apologized, pinching harder at his skin, trying to anchor himself. "Why did you wanna call? You're missing me so bad, you can't stand not hearing my voice a little longer?" He teased, before laughing. He knew it couldn't be that. It was presumably about Kazuma quitting, since that would have a significant impact on everything.

To his surprise, he could sense Kazuma stiffen through the phone. "So what if I can't? That's not such a bad thing."

"No, no, no, it's not -" He rushed to reassure his - lover? Ex-lover? Fuck, Riku had no idea what they were anymore. "It's not a bad thing, yeah? I just - didn't think -" You liked hearing me talk that much. He bit his lip, trying to find the words.

"I like your voice," Kazuma's voice was gentle, the defensiveness gone. He'd long since learned Riku's complex over his voice, had noticed the way the older man pitched his voice down for interviews and press conferences, had heard him express jealousy over Kazuma's deeper voice once or twice. "What have you been up to while I was gone? Still learning that new Atsushi song on piano?"

"Yeah," Riku smiled. He accepted the change of topic easily, moving on to more pleasant topics.

The call ended nearly two hours later, both of their voices raw from speaking so long. Riku had even placed his phone by his keyboard and played part of the song he was learning, then finally revealed he'd been learning the theme song from one of Kazuma's favorite games. The excitement in Kazuma's voice when Riku started playing the notes almost made him mess up from laughter - he loved making Kazuma happy.

Kazuma's voice had been soft as he said, "I can't wait to hear that in person. I'll be back soon."

But as Riku put the phone on charge, his heart was heavy. Kazuma hadn't said anything about quitting, not directly. He hadn't confirmed his plans to leave.

Riku really wasn't important enough, was he? He didn't get to know Kazuma was considering quitting. He didn't get to know that Kazuma was going to quit ahead of time. He'd find out with everyone else.

When he finally fell asleep, his eyes were red and puffy from crying.

#the rampage from exile tribe #the rampage #rmpg #rmpg fanfic #z writes #aoyama riku #kawamura kazuma #jpop fanfic

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