Chapter 15:

Snake in the Grass

BLOODY BAT ROMEO


Oue opens his eyes, and all he sees is white. The ceiling is white; the walls are white; the open curtains fluttering in the cold autumn breeze are also white. His head throbs sharply, which he nurses immediately while wincing in pain.

As he sits up, he realizes that he’d been tucked into a small bed, and what he feels around his head isn't his usual red headband, but bandages.

“What is this place…? A hospital?”

Oue likes hospitals. They’re pristine. Getting beat up often means that he’s quite familiar with them, but this time, he couldn’t remember how he ended up here.

Forcing himself to think, he slowly recalls the last thing he saw before losing consciousness: Cooking Pan kicking him into a filthy wall. He shudders. Another memory quickly flashes through his mind: a brief moment in which he'd regained consciousness and looked up to see Romeo, carrying Oue against his warm body bridal style as he walked. He gasps.

Considering they were already behind a hospital, he starts piecing the jumbled pieces of his memory back together, an effort quickly interrupted when someone answers his question.

“Yeah,” responds a deep voice next to him.

Oue slowly turns to look at the source of the voice. His eyes go wide in absolute fear.

R-R-Raging Fist Endo!?

He scrambles back in such a panic that he falls off the bed with a loud thud, yelping.

“... Raging what now?”

Trembling, Oue clings to the side of the bed, barely lifting his head enough to peek over the edge at the other boy.

Right in front of him, on the bed next to his own, sat the leader of the largest gang in the city, idly browsing his phone. He looks as terrifying as always, save for the bandages around his head. With the curtain between their beds open, there's nothing to separate the two of them. Oue gulps.

“Y-You are Endo, aren’t you? So, this is where you were…”

Endo clicks his tongue. “You’re damn loud. Do I know you?”

“Probably… not? Though I’d be honored if you did…”

Oue’s eyes shift towards Endo’s head and the bloody bandages around it. Like everyone else in Makai, he knows that Romeo was responsible for putting Endo out of commission, but there’s a certain code of honor between delinquents to not mess with hospitalized enemies. He points at his own head.

“That must have hurt, huh.”

“... Dunno.”

“—Eh?”

Oue raises himself up, climbs back onto his bed, and kneels on top of it, facing Endo. Instead of responding, Endo continues flipping through phone apps.

“How can you not know if it hurt or not? It obviously did, right?”

Endo doesn’t turn his head, instead of glaring at him from the corner of his eye. Oue jolts up. Endo turns his gaze back to his phone before responding.

“I guess so, but I can’t remember shit.”

“... Oh.” Oue leans forward again, tilting his head to the side as he regains some courage. “You don’t remember anything? Nothing at all?”

“Why the hell do you care? How do you know me?”

Oue looks at him in silence for a long time, incredulous. Part of him is scared of this strange development, but another quickly picks up on what happened. It’s that part of him that guffaws immediately after it dawns on him.

“... Hah. Hahaha...”

Endo slams his phone face down on the night table by his side, and Oue yelps again, covering his mouth.

“You little shit, did you do this to me!?”

Oue waves his hands in front of him and shakes his head quickly.

“No way! I could never!

“But you know something, don’t ya!? Tell me now, or I’ll strangle you in your sleep!”

“Why in my sleep!? Can’t you do it while I’m awake!?”

“—What!?”

“Ah, I mean… It wasn’t me, but… I do know you, yeah…”

The vein on Endo’s forehead looks like it’s about to pop out, and Oue’s heart begins to race. Despite his anger, Endo has an unmistakable look of confusion on his face. Oue thinks he hit the jackpot.

“Tell me who the hell you are, weirdo.”

“I’m Pain Ki— ... I’m Oue. I’m a delinquent from this side of town.”

“A delinqu—? ... Ugh

Endo holds his head in pain again. Oue tries very hard to keep himself from letting his excitement show. Leaning forward on both his hands, he presses on, disregarding Endo's obvious suffering.

“Tell me, Endo. What do you remember about yourself?”

Endo keeps holding his head while he responds.

“... Huh? Everything, I guess? Name, address, family… I just don’t remember who the hell did this to me. Apparently, I got attacked, or something like that.”

Oue can tell something doesn’t add up. He leans forward even more, lowering his voice.

“Endo… do you remember the Kappore gang?”

“The what?”

“.......Haha.”

CRASH!!

Endo hurls a flower vase at Oue, and it crashes into the wall just behind him. It's terrifying enough to startle Oue into yanking the blanket over his head— trembling, but unharmed.

“If you have something to say, come out with it already. I won’t miss next time.”

“S-Sorry, sorry!” Oue whines again while slowly lowering the blanket, so it's just below his eyes. “This is just… kind of unexpected, that's all.”

A nurse comes running into their room after hearing the crash, asking if everything is okay. Endo and Oue are the only ones in there, and because the pieces of the vase are on Oue’s side, Oue quickly tells her he knocked it over by accident. The nurse, relieved, reassures them that she'll call for someone to clean up the mess as she leaves.

Endo watches Oue skillfully deceive the nurse with a straight face and waits until he can’t hear her steps anymore to address Oue again.

“You’re a snake in the grass, aren't you?”

Oue laughs, settling back down on his bed to rest, his own injury throbbing again. It wasn’t the first time he’s heard that, after all. He shrugs.

“I just saw no point in getting her involved. Unlike the Kappore gang, we Makai folk don’t like to get civilians tangled up in our business.”

Endo holds his head again and winces, as if the mere mention of those names caused him immediate pain. Oue looks at him and sighs with zero sympathy.

“Your assault isn’t the only thing you can’t remember, huh. It seems you can’t remember a certain other side of you, either. Your terrible, vicious other side.”

“....”

Endo’s silence is all the answer Oue needs. He grins and shifts on his side, leaning his weight on his palm.

“I can tell you everything you want to know about yourself, Endo. About you and the Kappore gang—”

Endo finally looks at Oue— a surprising but small glint of hope in his eyes. Oue bites his lip to keep his excitement from overflowing. He no longer just liked hospitals— he loved them.

“... But you have to do something for me in exchange.”

“Like hell I will.”

“Aw, you haven’t even heard what I want yet!”

Ugh. What is it!?”

Oue flashes him a smile of questionable sincerity.

“I want you to be my friend.”