Toman's Black Cat

I jerked awake in a panic as I tried to figure out where I was. I had been walking and bumped into someone.

"You okay, kid?"

Isn't that…?

I felt an odd sense of joy seeing Taiju. He looked different, but not in a bad way.

"Stop smiling at me like that. You're already so much trouble." He clicked his tongue but I stood speechless.

Why am I with Taiju?

"Let's hurry up. We need to keep you out of sight." His words worried me and I reached out to grab at his forearm. The look of concern I held must have been very obvious and his eyes softened a bit as he looked down at me.

"Every time I see you, I know why he treasured you."

My heartbeat started to race to the point it felt painful. As I tried to piece together what he meant. He pulled me along into what looked like a very fancy bar. I ran my eyes over the whole place and met the eyes of Takemitchy.

"Takemitchy!" Before I could stop myself, I tried to run to him to try to figure out what was going on, but Taiju kept me close, shaking his head. I could tell he wasn't doing this to hurt me, but I still felt sad.

I listened to Takemitchy ask as many questions as possible and felt my heart shatter at all the news. "Why do all the ones I care about keep dying? I don't understand…"

Our short meeting was interrupted by another familiar voice, but before I could turn, Taiju prevented me from turning around. I looked at him with confusion as he told Takemitchy and Naoto to take me with them.

Naoto grabbed me before I could say how much of a bad idea it was and began pulling me out the door. H even blocked me from view as we made a quick exit. 

Something is wrong….

I only just noticed that even I was dressed in something expensive. It seemed to be a dress made completely in white silk. I ran my hands over it and felt myself panic when I saw my hands or more specifically my ring finger.

Wait…I have a tattoo on my friggin finger????

"We need to be quick, Y/n." I looked up at Naoto with wide eyes and held my hand up. His eyes twitched at seeing the tattoo and let out a sigh. Before he opened his mouth to explain, he looked back to see Takemitchy had fallen behind.

Hearing him say we should go back, made sense. We need to find out more information and I need to know why I have a tattoo that looks like Izana's Hanafuda earrings.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion as I noticed a moment after Naoto did that Takemitchy was in danger. He bolted to try to save him and I couldn't hold back my scream seeing him be shot right in front of me.

I ran to his side, not even caring what would happen to me and tried to look over him even though I knew he was dying.

"Figures you ran away from me again. How insufferable."

I didn't even need to look to know it was Izana. I just held Naoto and tried to shush him when he tried to tell me to run. "It's okay, Naoto. I want to stay with you. I won't leave you alone."

Hot pain filled my body seconds after I heard the gunshot and I fell over Naoto as tears flooded from my eyes and my sight quickly faded.

It always hurts so much…but it hurts more when it's because of the ones I….

Naoto's POV

He felt her body go limp in moments and hated it more than anything he'd endured so far. Takemitchy had told him about her, but the description always seemed way too suspicious since he never met her. Then again, Takemitchy is never mentioned anything even remotely bad about her and he knew he was trustworthy. Feeling her body grow cold and his own feel heavier and heavier, he couldn't help but feel like be honest for once.

"Dying sure is scary, huh.." He moved one hand to take Takemitchy's and the other he placed on Y/n's now cold body.

It would be nice to meet her when he finally saves…