K – Seven Stories - Chapter 1

The first short story by Azano complementary to his R:B novel and its movie adaptation, thanks to . who never fails to provide latest info and texts for K.

K ~ Seven Stories: 24 Pieces
Piece 1: Suoh Mikoto (Ember: R)
by Azano Kouhei

“…Hey, are you listening?”
“Yes, yes, I am, I absolutely am.”
“…Let me be honest: this is my first time meeting a jerk who’d annoy me that bad.”
“Right, right, annoying, so very annoying.”
“…”
“You don’t need to glare at me that much just because of that though. Keep your anger in check so you don’t vent it on the wrong people, will ya?”

It was at bar HOMRA, and the hour was more fittingly described as early morning rather than late night. At the counter sat Suoh and, highly unusually for him, kept grumbling over a shot. Saying he’d been drinking heavily would be quite accurate. As a result, his eyes got glassy, making the look in them, already mean as it is, appear about 80 percent more frightening.

“I gotta say though, you sure were getting into it, eh…” Kusanagi murmured under his breath, and Suoh immediately shot him a sharp glare. The glint in the king’s eye was so fiendish that a lesser man who was not Kusanagi or Totsuka would surely feel faint from that alone. Thanks to today’s battle finding such an unsatisfying conclusion, the Red King was left feeling restless. That said, the reason why Suoh was so agitated and off-balance had probably a lot to do with the opponent and the emotions said opponent invoked in the redhead. It was safe to say that this kind of emotional state was exceedingly rare for the man who hardly ever took any interest in others. As far as Kusanagi was concerned though, it spelt a pain in the neck he’d really rather not have to deal with.

“Look, Mikoto, this will be a fourth time I’m gonna repeat this friendly advice, but we have a blamestorming session with His Excellency tomorrow, so how about laying off alcohol already and going to bed to get some sleep?”

Suoh only snorted at his friend’s concern and made a show of draining his glass. Pulling the nearest bottle towards him, he poured himself another drink.

Kusanagi let out a deep sigh. He wondered if the new Blue King, too, was finding his anger and frustration unmanageable right now. To Kusanagi’s grief, he couldn’t picture the cool man in the same position at all…

“I’m worried about the future. Very worried.”

One thing was clear: it was going to be a long night. What’s more, the number of such nights threatened to go up from now on…

“…Well, probably better this way than how it was lately.” Kusanagi smiled, gazing into the eyes of his king – still sulky, of course, yet at the same time ablaze with vitality. The next thing he did was to shrug his shoulders and pour himself some whiskey into the glass he was polishing until now.

“To the brazen rookie and Yamata’s future,” he raised his glass towards Suoh.

After sending the blond a glare, Suoh ignored him as he gulped down his drink. Kusanagi smiled once more and put the amber-colored liquor to his lips.