One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor

The walk to Haru’s stand felt eternal, and not just because the convention hallways were packed with people. It felt like we took as long as Frodo carrying the damn ring to Mordor.
Of course, to make things worse, I had Aya refusing to walk while she kept scolding me for what I did to Johnny.

Am I the only one who finds this absurd? I mean, yeah, I stripped him and put a live grenade in his mouth, but it was just a fucking annoyance, and I didn’t even know the whole thing was one of Aya’s stupid plans.
There are better ways to relieve stress, you know?
On the other hand, what if he opened his mouth? What if the girl got so fed up with his stupidity that she decided to pull the chain herself?

“Are you even listening to me, Hiro?”

“Not really.”

“Why do you always have this fucking habit of solving everything by leaving corpses behind?”

“I don’t know. Why do you have the most useless neurons I’ve ever seen in my life? Who comes up with a plan like that?”

“I was trying to do you a damn favor and keep you from going even crazier than you already are you motherfucking idiot!”

“Great, then after this you can go put Johnny’s pieces in a plastic bag.”

“You know… right now I really feel like splitting your throat in half…” she said, finally starting to walk, but straight toward me.

“Oh, please, go ahead. From this angle I can blow your head off, and even if I miss you’ll spend the rest of your fucking life eating through a straw.”

I gotta give Aya at least one point: in a place like this, nothing draws attention.
Not the fact that she had a knife pressed to my throat, nor that I had my gun pressed under her chin.
Advantages of people used to anime, I guess.

“So that’s how it’s always gonna be? Cher… Cher… Cher…” she said, pressing the knife a little harder. “I wanna ask you something, Hiro. What would you do if I led you the wrong way… if, I don’t know… maybe I didn’t want you to find her?”

“I’d put a bullet in your head.”

“That simple? Even with me? I see…” I felt her hand loosen. She didn’t even put the knife away, just let it drop to the ceramic floor. “And what about me? What place do I have?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Am I someone you can just remove from the way? The other me too? Because I can switch places with her if that’s what you want… just… just say it…” Her last words were almost lost in all the noise. She just stood there, looking down for a while.

“Aya, come on… it’s not… it’s not all like that…” I said, holstering the gun. “I’m not planning to just blow your head off…”

“Still, you didn’t say you care about me.”

“Aya, what the fuck is wrong with you?” I don’t know why, but I found myself way too close to her, almost brushing her cheek with my hand.

“Just say it: I’m a means to an end, and that end is Cher.”

I had an urge, one completely unnatural for me, to tell her it wasn’t just that, that somehow, even though her company was aberrantly hateful, it kept me slightly anchored, even if she was a fucking psycho with multiple personalities.
I had that urge until I realized both she and I were under the effect of something I couldn’t quite understand.

“Aaah, I’m dying, that was beautiful, it looked so romantic… of course, I should’ve waited a little longer and maybe you would’ve kissed, but I couldn’t hold back!” said a girl appearing from behind a stack of books.
She tripped a couple of times trying to pass through the stand instead of simply going around it, adjusted her clothes, and pointed at where Aya and I were standing. “My domain, my stand. No hate, only pure and sweet, unadulterated love.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked, turning my face toward her.

“I’m Haru, nice to meet you.” She extended her hand, way too cheerful for my taste.

“What the fuck did you do to us?” I asked directly, turning toward her, trying to see what the hell had caused this change in our behavior.

“You won’t find anything… just the sweet scent of my stand… you follow me, right?”

“You drugged us with the air freshener?”

“No, you fell into it yourselves by getting too close to the diffuser. The closer you are, the stronger the effect, plus you were tense, it was good for you.”

“Just bring her back to normal,” I said, pointing at Aya. But right then something shifted in my head. “Wait a second… you said Haru.”

“That’s my name, duh.”

“So you’re the informant.”

“Huh? You guys are Aya and Hiro?” she asked, flicking her eyes between us so fast it looked like her head was gonna start spinning. “Gah! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn’t know it was you, I should’ve warned you about this.”

“Yeah… don’t worry… at least I feel more relaxed,” I said, ruffling my hair. “Seriously, just… you know, bring that idiot back to normal and let’s get to the important stuff.”

“Uh…”

“‘Uh’ what?”

“It’s just… there’s no 'off' button. It’ll wear off in a few hours… for both of you…” she said, turning around. “But anyway, we can talk at my stand. There are ears everywhere here.”

“It doesn’t affect me at all.”

“Ha! Yeah, right…” she said, crossing through the stack of books again. I started thinking it wasn’t just a shortcut, she just liked doing things that way. Weird, but whatever…

Aya was still stuck in place, not lifting her gaze, like a stake driven into the ground. It was clear this was gonna be difficult if she didn’t cooperate and by cooperate I mean going back to being the usual fucking psycho.

“Hey, mission, remember? Let’s go.” I tried forcing her to walk, but I couldn’t move her.

“You go… I’ll catch up later…”

“Don’t be an idiot, Aya. Walk.”

“What for? You already have Haru. You were looking for the informant and there she is. You don’t need me to find Ashley.”

I exhaled long and slow, almost until my lungs emptied. “That’s true, but I want you to come with me just because I want to, not because I need to.”

“Huh?” She lifted her head. She looked me in the eyes, slightly tilted to the side. “You just want…”

“Yeah, I want you to come with me… we’re a team, right?”

Fucking goddamn drug.

“You mean that seriously?”

I crouched to pick up her knife and tucked it into the bow of her outfit. “Yeah, I’m not lying to you, idiot, by the way, seriously put some underwear...” I said, taking her by the hand. “Look, once this is over…”

“You gonna use Johnny’s pieces to make a happy face emoji?”

“What? No, you sick fuck. I was gonna say you could, I don’t know, teach me one or two things about those model kits you build.”

She didn’t answer anything, but I felt her steps get lighter. The situation felt lighter too, and though anyone would say that’s a good thing, we were racing against time.