Nakajima Atsushi
Atsushi was —Regrettably— on a mission with Akutagawa. But it was Dazai’s orders, and so he couldn’t say no.
He was in the middle of fighting an enemy when suddenly something shifted in the air. Then his ability reseeded and stopped functioning altogether. It made him panic, he wasn’t close to Ryuunosuke either. He was in the other corridor, and Atsushi wasn’t sure he could outrun these guys.
-”What? Are we getting cocky I see?!”
The guy yelled as he charged towards Atsushi. Atsushi refused to give up and readied his stance. If he couldn’t fight on his own, what good was he without his ability? He wouldn’t return to the scared and pathetic orphan he was before Dazai had found him.
-”God, that sounded like Akutagawa…”
He thought as he prepared his plan of attack. But then a blinding blue glacier light lit up around Atsushi. Atsushi immediately recognized it.
-”Dazai-San!?”
He said as he looked around hopefully to find Dazai, but he was nowhere to be found.
-”What?”
-”What the hell! Ugh, you damn brat!”
The guy had been blinded, but once he regained his vision, he charged, only for another blinding blue light to engulf Atsushi and blast the crazed man away. Atsushi tried to make himself smaller as he closed his eyes. When the light went away, he opened his eyes again. He heard something large fall behind him, a loud growl to fit it. He turned his head slowly yet stiffly.
His eyes landed on a humanoid tiger. Its legs were the same as a human's, kinda; they had the aspects of a tiger's hind legs, such as the giant paws that replaced its feet. Its arms were the same as a human's except for the giant claws in place of its hands. It had a long tiger tail and large, fluffy, circular tiger ears on the top of its head. Its skin was the fur of a tiger, and it had long black and white hair. Somehow.
-”What the…?”
Atsushi muttered as he tried to take in what was happening before the Tiger? Human? Tiger Human thing? Stood up and started growling. Atsushi immediately panicked and shrunk down as the Tiger? Leaped at him. Except it wasn’t aiming for Atsushi.
The man, who had been blinded just moments ago, got back up and charged at Atsushi. He was about to hit him over the head with a metal bat. The tiger had seen this and attacked.
-”You got some balls attacking the Kitten.”
The tiger said lowly with a growl echoing through it. It said this while it pined the man down with a single clawed tiger paw. It gave a large, toothy smile as it did this. Its razor-sharp teeth shined in the dim light.
-”Kit… *Cough* Ten…?”
-”Kitten????”
Both the criminal and Atsushi said it at the same time. Atsushi was terribly confused, and the criminal was too scared to be confused. The Tiger didn’t answer the man before it hit the man across the head, promptly knocking him out. Atsushi walked over to the Tiger carefully.
-”Hello Atsushi. You know me as Byakko.”
The tiger spoke as it turned around and threw the man at him. Atsushi was stunned.
-”Wait, you’re Byakko!? But how?”
Atsushi said as he caught the man and stumbled back a little.
-”Yes, I am. I don't know what happened, but we need to get to Yoko-Sama. Her Soul Energy was active just a few moments ago, but she was nowhere near us.”
Atsushi shook his head as he listened to his Ability speak. Though, he still felt so small compared to the giant that was his ability. Byakko wasn’t terribly tall, just around 6‘7 ". Yeah, not terribly tall, especially when compared to Atsushi's 5'7 ". Though, the long light teal and gold Montsuki —without its arm sleeves— he wore somehow accentuated his height. He also had no shoes and was decked out in a lot of little gold jewelry. He even wore teal flowers with golden leaves in his hair.
Atsushi snapped out of his daze and shook his head again.
-”Now is not the time to question what makes sense and what doesn’t!”
Atsushi heard the name ‘Yoko’ and was curious who that was. Byakko seemed to think highly of her and even referred to her as “Sama”.
-”Who’s ‘Yoko’? And what’s a ‘Soul Energy’?”
He asked as they walked the corridors.
-”And where are we going?”
Atsushi said as he walked next to Byakko. Byakko seemed to check every doorway and corridor they passed as they walked.
-”And can I still use my Ability with you being...”
Atsushi then gestured to all of Byakko. Byakko sighed and seemed to deflate with all the questions being thrown his way.
-”Okay, Rule #1. Stop talking and asking so many questions.”
Byakko said as he turned and lightly chopped the top of Atsushi's head in a disciplinary style. Atsushi held his head after.
-”Rule #2. Don’t ask me questions you can answer yourself.”
Atsushi was confused again.
-”Huh?”
-”You want to know whether or not you can use ‘your ability’? Try and use it.”
Byakko was annoyed, to say the least. Atsushi felt a little embarrassed and tried to use his ability like Byakko had mentioned. It worked!
-”It works!”
He cheered, showing it to Byakko. But he seemed a bit too busy looking for someone —or something— to care about it, though. He seemed stressed.
-”You okay? Are you looking for this ‘Yoko’ person?”
Atsushi asked as he deactivated his ability and walked beside Byakko again.
-”No, Yoko-Sama is Dazai-San’s Skill —or as you humans say it— Ability. If Dazai-San isn’t here, neither would she be, simple as that.”
Atsushi let that sink in for a moment. It made sense. Dazai had used his ability —somehow— on them, and Byakko had said something about ‘Soul Energies’; they must mean something similar or the same thing even.
-”Soul Energies are what you call our Abilities, in terms of power that is. “
Byakko continued.
-”And who I’m looking for is Rashomon-Heika. Because I’m sure me and her are going through the same thing.”
Atsushi froze.
-”Not Akutagawa!”
Why was his Ability looking for him AND his ability!
-”And why are you looking for them?”
Atsushi asked, trying to hide his annoyance.
-”Because she most likely is panicking. I don’t want to leave her to her stress and panic when I can help instead of escaping. And Ryunosuke-Kun is probably overthinking it all. Not good either.”
Byakko said as if he's met them before or even known them all their lives.
-”Why do you talk as if you’ve met them before?”
Atsushi asked.
-”Because —sadly— I’ve had to watch all of your life like a damn TV channel that won’t change.”
Byakko said, slightly annoyed as he checked every corridor.
-”Where the hell are they! I can’t track other abilities now that I’m in this weird form!”
Byakko yelled in frustration.