Entering: Grey, the white reaper

■■■

Akutagawa jumped back, stretching the space between and this version of weretiger.

The person in front of him gave him an off vibe, something akin to blood and death.

Like a grim reaper moving at night to collect lives.

It was not something the Mad Dog thought he could find from the weretiger.

Their target, Lewis Carroll stood there in shock. The boy clearly didn't expect this to happen either.

An ability that went out of control was bad news. Akutagawa needed to act quickly. Rashoumon shot toward the boy and captured him while Akutagawa kept his eyes on this new weretiger.

"...Akutagawa?"

The young adult probably came to his senses, the Mad Dog thought as he came to face a pair of bright golden eyes. The weretiger he knew... his eyes had the color of a sunset, gold faded to violet. It was always beautiful to look at, not that Akutagawa would ever tell him. But this weretiger, his eyes were that of a predator, always searching, always hunting.

"Jinko."

The weretiger blinked at the nickname, clearly wasn't familiar with being called that by Akutagawa. The young adult's eyes quickly sharpened as he finally looked at him fully.

"You are not my Akutagawa."

It made him wonder. Was he that different from the Akutagawa this weretiger knew? Probably yes, Akutagawa pondered as he looked at this completely different weretiger.

"I'm not." He answered honestly. "And you're not my Jinko."

The young adult stared at him intensely, like he was searching for something from Akutagawa. Something akin to understanding, to bewilderment, to recognition flashed through the golden eyes before it melted into those familiar sunset eyes that he knew.

"This is the world outside the Book then."

■■■

That was 10 minutes ago. Right now, he and this off version of the weretiger were traveling back to the warehouse where they had promised to meet up with Dazai-san. Lewis Carroll had been unconscious since Rashoumon captured him. The Mad Dog kept an eye on the weretiger as he didn't really trust this one yet.

The silence was broken by the weretiger.

"Who are we meeting by the way?"

"...Dazai-san."

Upon hearing his answer, the weretiger stopped dead track. Akutagawa turned back as soon as he realized that the weretiger had stopped moving. The haunted look in the weretiger's eyes was not something he expected.

"...Jinko?"

"...Dazai-san you say?"

The weretiger mumbled yet the haunted look in his eyes didn't disappear, it just grew irer. The weretiger looked so empty like this, like how his reflection looked when he thought Dazai-san had died back when he just left the Port Ma-

Oh.

Oh.

This weretiger, this Nakajima Atsushi was just like him, wasn't he? Being haunted by a man they both loved and hated, by a man who had abandoned both of them, they were the same.

The Mad Dog finally realized what this weretiger was. It made him want to laugh. Akutagawa remembered telling his weretiger that he wouldn't survive a day in the mafia. But that wasn't true, was it? Deep down, he always knew this. He always knew that he and the weretiger were more alike than he liked to think.

"Yes, Dazai-san, my old boss, your senior coworker, the man who pinched us together for this mission."

"Pfff- You really are Akutagawa, aren't you?"

Akutagawa stared. This was the first time he saw the weretiger smile genuinely. Normally, he was all growling and snarking. Which, Akutagawa thought was fair as they hated each other and... their first meeting was not a good impression. But this laugh, it made him feel warm inside, he wondered, if the weretiger he knew also laughed like this.

"Thank you, Akutagawa."

The haunted look didn't disappear completely but he looked lighter. And Akutagawa understood. Something like this would haunt them their whole lifes. But right now, this was probably enough.