Chapter Text
Ever since his teacher’s assassination all those years ago, Chiba Ryunosuke hasn’t touched a gun. He’ll always decline a game of paintball or laser tag, and he won’t even say the word ‘gun’ if he doesn’t have to. He knows this avoidance is irrational- it was a knife that dealt the final blow, after all- but he just can’t feel comfortable around a gun like he used to.
As far as he knows, none of his former classmates had this problem. Nagisa admitted that he’d never look at an octopus the same way, but that held true for everyone. The class groupchat was still active, and Yuma and Hiroto would regularly send photos of especially delicious-looking balls of takoyaki with faces drawn on them in sauce. Ryunosuke ate octopus, too- it was now a running joke to send a picture of any tentacled meal to the chat. He was completely fine with anything related to his last year of junior high, except for guns.
That’s why he flinched as the sound echoed across the alley he walked down. It was unmistakably a gunshot, most likely from a BB gun like the former sniper once used. Ryunosuke pressed his hands to his ears and took a few deep breaths as three more shots rang out in rapid succession. Gunshots were unusual in a residential neighborhood, so once the noise died down, he walked over to where the sound had come from and peered through a hole in the fence.
There were three children in the yard, all girls. None of them could see him from this angle, so he took the time to observe them. Staring at kids felt a little creepy, but gunshots? He felt that it was his duty to investigate, just in case something was wrong.
The children were young. The youngest one looked about six years old, with her orange hair tied in two braids. She was on a scooter, riding in circles around the yard. The older girls (her sisters?) were the ones with the guns.
The smaller one’s blond hair was streaked with blue that matched her eyes, and it fell around her shoulders as she aimed at the bottles and cans lined up on a bench. She was sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking happier than any ten-year-old with a gun should.
Standing next to her was the eldest girl, who looked around 12 or 13. Ryunosuke realized she was only a few years younger than his class was that year. Her hair was the same peachy orange as the little one, and her eyes were bright green.
As Ryunosuke watched, the older girls took aim and fired at their targets. Each knocked a bottle to the ground, and they looked satisfied. Ryunosuke found himself mentally correcting their form. All his knowledge, it seemed, had not been forgotten.
Ryunosuke continued to watch the children, though he still flinched with each shot. Ordinarily, he would have left long ago, but something about them felt oddly familiar. Comforting, even. He felt like he had seen them before. Maybe in a picture? He couldn’t see their faces, though. Except for when he caught brief glimpses of their eyes, they remained turned away from him.
It was almost ironic, Ryunosuke of all people wanting to see someone’s eyes. He started keeping his hair short about a ten years ago, but his unusual appearance still shocked people sometimes. He turned his attention back to their shooting and imagined his younger self, aiming at the targets and hitting them with ease. Practicing after school, either alone or in companionable silence with Rinka, who he hadn’t seen in years. For the first time in almost 25 years, Ryunosuke wanted to feel the weight of a gun in his hands. He wanted to pull the trigger and watch the bullet fly right into the center of his target.
The feeling vanished seconds after it appeared. Guns were dangerous weapons, not toys! Ryunosuke had almost become a cold-blooded killer, handling murder weapons without a second thought. He didn’t want to be who he was in junior high. Someone could have been hurt because of him. Still, he watched the children shoot, especially the oldest girl. Something about her felt so familiar. Ryunosuke didn’t know what it was, and he soon dismissed the feeling as nothing.
After a while, the blond girl said something Ryunosuke couldn’t hear. The bigger girl nodded, and the two began to pack away their guns. The little one noticed her sisters packing up, then quickly discarded her scooter as to not be left behind. Ryunosuke would have left then- there was nothing left to watch. But a single stray BB pellet caught his eye as it rolled toward the fence. He gasped in shock once he got a closer look at the bright pink ball. Printed on it were the letters S.A.A.U.S.O.