◣ dazai-san ◥ :

              HUMAN TONGUE PROVES INFALLIBLE. he’d expected this, of course, one of the mafiosos running their mouths into a tangent when the walls grew ears and his identity spilled in excess along the way. but he doesn’t miss the girl’s clipped implications – she thinks more than she speaks, each word delivered carries a purposeful undercurrent. she blanches – but her mind processes a tad too much like his own, and that could be an inconvenience. however, he’ll play her game of silent, double meanings.

     ‘ have you now? from who i wonder – i hope they didn’t spin any tall tales or white lies. ‘ he muses, tossing the blade back in a gentle, wide arc.

       among the mafia’s pack of rabid bloodhounds, appearance and reputation was as essential to living as air. fire-mouthed and fire-armed foot soldiers carry their weight in gold, furs, and arsenal to scare, but to dazai, born seemingly another slice of quarry for slaughter, this act translated to cowardice and fear. intimidation was – is – a useful tactic, that holds no loyalties to any but the best, but this is the true difference between those who will fall and those who will rise: intimidation is best delivered small, unseen.

     armies are felled in a day, but it is an invisible killer that spreads panic. like the plague. ( you can’t stop what you can’t see. )

  ‘ not bad, not bad! you have the uses down, but you’re lacking on the meaning and the application. ‘ a weapon doesn’t have to draw blood. a weapon is a means to an end, a weapon is anything that can be used to win.

    ‘ what makes the blade impractical, you say — ? well, if i was the enemy, you would be at a loss and disarmed right now.   ‘ he spreads his arms, the length widening along with the smile growing on his lips. ‘   but here’s the real test, kyouka-chan! can you find where my weapon is? i’ll give you a hint – i’m carrying two. ‘

◣ ✿ ◥ Ah, so she was correct in assuming that there was no coincidence in the hairpin matter; however, his being a former mafia executive came as no surprise if only because he seemed the type and some of the comments he’d made. He would understand the full implication of the words, “Just because you’ve killed people, you think you can’t help them?” and how she felt at the time he said them.

Also in the land of implications, he didn’t need to voice the second part of the lesson for her to pick up on the meaning he was trying to convey. Anything could be a weapon. Anything could be applied in a way different from its intended use: fabric (and bandages) could be used to suffocate or choke another person, anything vaguely sharp such as a hairpin could be used to stab or slash, and anything hard could be used to bludgeon.

              A clever mind could discern all sorts of things.

Kyouka would never claim to be even half as intelligent as people like Dazai or Ranpo, but she was more observant than she let on. She picked up and memorised information with ease and could analyse it if she had to, though she kept this to herself for the most part. Sometimes she allowed a hint into the working of her brain; however, it didn’t happen often.

Either way, with the whole ‘everything can be a weapon’ philosophy, guessing two specific items became that much more difficult. If only she had more context as to what victory in this scenario meant. Outwitting her? Teaching her a lesson? It would help if she were better at reading people, but oh well. She wouldn’t back down from a challenge at the first sign of difficulty; if she couldn’t do this, then how could she accomplish her goals?

“Your mind, for one.” The most versatile weapon of all. He seemed to miss an important detail, though. “Even if you took my blade, I may have another one hidden you don’t know about, and if I didn’t, I have Demon Snow to call upon. Assuming I’m at a disadvantage because I lost a single blade could cost an enemy the fight. On the other hand, your ability could prevent me from using Demon Snow to protect myself.”

Never mind the fact that she’d used it on him once before while in close contact, but given the facts that a) she was holding his coat and not actually touching him, and b) he got captured on purpose, she didn’t count that as a failure on his part.

“In this scenario, if you were my enemy, your best weapons are your knowledge of how I fight and your ability to counteract my next attack.” She stared up at him. “And you have my knife.”