Inconsistent

Sute and Yoko were waiting for them at the entrance hall of their building. They both looked like their usual selves: the short girl with a hood, and with the hands in her sweatshirt’s pockets, hiding all of her body with an exception to the face; the young woman typing on her computer, more focused on the digital world than the "real" one.

“You sure took your time, Hisoka-kun.” Yoko crossed her arms, raising one eyebrow to Hisoka at the front door.

“Good morning Yoko-san!” Hisoka waved at her with one hand. “I’m sorry but we had to take a little detour!” he smiled and showed Yoko a can of grape soda he had in the other hand.

“Don’t come with that ‘Good morning Yoko-san!’ crap! I’ve already seen you today.” the woman frowned, “Besides, are you seriously drinking that.” she pointed at the soda can, “After having ice cream at this time in the morning??!”

“Hey! It’s hot today, I’m thirsty.”

“Thirsty?! If you’re thirsty you should’ve…”

“G-Good morning, Masuyo-san…” Sute greeted Masuyo weirdly, taking his attention out of the couple’s squabble.

“Masuyo-san?” Masuyo raised an eyebrow towards the girl.

“Yes… I don’t want to be disrespectful towards you…”

“You can cut that out. I prefer if you call me Masuyo.”

“Okay... Masuyo.” Sute took her hands out of her pockets and bowed: “I’m very sorry for yesterday, I hope you don’t hate me.”

“You don't have to bow. I accept your apology and I don’t hate you, just don’t get in my way like that again.” Masuyo scratched his cheek and diverted his gaze: “Why do you even bow all the time?”

“I’m just used to it.” she returned to her usual stance, “Maybe you could say my parents gave me a good education…”

“Does this mean I don’t have one?”

“Not at all! I’ve always been fascinated by the way you are…”

“This doesn’t sound like a compliment.”

“I’m sorry.” she hit the floor with her tiptoe and looked away, “But that’s the way I can put it now.”

“Okay.” Masuyo finished the conversation while returning his attention to Hisoka and Yoko.

“...one of the reasons I didn’t sleep properly is because I was looking for this!” Hisoka took something out of his pocket and showed it to the woman, it was a little stuffed tiger.

“What...? Yoko accepted the gift. “Hisoka!”

“Yes ma’am?”

“By any chance did you forget when our anniversary is?”

“Of course not! It is next week!”

“Hmm…” Yoko straightened her glasses with one hand while observing the little lion on the palm of the other, “So, you forgot when my birthday is?”

“Of course not! It is in Oc…” he glanced at Sute, who nodded affirmatively, “It’s in October! Obviously!” Hisoka grinned at Yoko.

“Okay, so only one alternative remains…”

“It’s for no special date at all?” Hisoka tried to guess.

“Of course not! You’re obviously having an affair! Tell me the name of that bitch!”

“Maybe her name is Sasaki-chan…” Masuyo murmured without letting the others hear.

“Haha! Good one, Yoko!” Hisoka smiled and approached her, “But the real reason is just that I love you, you know?!”

“Humpf!” Yoko sulked.

“C’mon, give me a kiss to cure me of this sleepiness!” Hisoka closed his eyes and pouted, inclining his head towards Yoko’s until he kissed… something. “Huh?” Hisoka opened his eyes, “C’mon, Yoko-san!” he was kissing the little lion he had just given to her.

“Maybe when you’re not so sleepy.” Yoko said while blushing.

“Guys?” Sute cleaned her throat and called them, “Can we get to work now?”

“Wasn’t you the one telling me to help that Hikaru boy, Hisoka?” Masuyo followed her.

“Oh, yeah! My bad!” Hisoka smiled, “It’s just that Yoko is looking very cute now!” and then started to make his way to the Diving Room while his girlfriend hit him with a stuffed animal.

“I don't think I'll ever get used to this.” Masuyo was on his knees and holding his head. He, Sute, and Hisoka had just dived again.

“Don’t be like that, man!” Hisoka helped Masuyo get up, “You have to be confident everything will work out in the end.”

“Okay, okay. What do we do now? Last time we came here, Sute said that we should blow something. Is that for real?”

“Well, not exactly.” Hisoka replied, “But before that, there’s something I have to tell you guys.”

“Is it about what you gathered from the Sasaki household?” Sute guessed.

“Exactly, Sute-chan!” Hisoka smiled, “I talked to the boy and found out he was in the park when the accident happened. It looks like he hasn’t been to the park since then.”

“Hmm... okay.” Sute turned to the direction the fight was happening, “Let's get to work then.”

The three walked to the Mekroxx fight, avoiding the fall of the blue swing and stopping when Hisoka rummaged his pockets:

“Okay! Let’s start things. Here it is.” he picked a small cylindrical object and showed it to the others, “How many will you need?”

“Two should be enough.” Sute opened one of her hands in front of Hisoka.

“What is this?” Masuyo stared at the object.

“Haha!” Hisoka smiled, “Oh, man! You really don't like to see want I send to you on the Utablet.”

“I’m pretty sure one of the times you sent me a video of a cat playing the piano.”

“Well, most of the time, I send A.M.A.-related stuff.” Hisoka shrugged his shoulders.

“‘This is a bomb.” Sute pointed at the cylindrical thing, “We call it Dawn.”

“Is Dawn really the name of a bomb?” Masuyo looked at Sute and then gazed at the object, “Is this little thing a real bomb?”

“Yes!” Hisoka approached Masuyo and showed him the cylindrical device, it was made of metal, being just short of the size of a can and having a little screen on its middle while the edges were of different colors and had two buttons each.

“Hmm... so, why do we need a bomb?”

“It is something capable of helping Hikaru-san!” Hisoka grinned and closed his eyes while swaying the cylindrical object, “And it's something I made!”

“So that too, huh?” Masuyo raised one brow.

“Yep! And it works like this: the first button you press initialize the device.” Hisoka pressed one of the buttons on the blue side and showed the screen lightening up, “Then you confirm the mode on the screen and set the timer.” he pressed a little yes on the screen, making a number keyboard appear. “After you set the timer you just press the other button of the same color and it'll start the countdown.”

“You're not pressing it now, right?”

“Oh, of course not! To deactivate it you just need to press a button on the other color side or press the first button again.” Hisoka showed the last example, “A lot of ways to deactivate it so you don’t get stuck in here or blow yourself up!”

“Hmm... and why the two sides?” Masuyo looked at the red side of the Dawn.

“Well, the blue is for ‘preserving'. it’s like a freeze bomb, although it actually just slows time a lot.” Hisoka showed the blue side for a moment and then turned the device to show the red: “And this side here is more like a ‘destruction’ bomb, but it just releases an impulse capable of ‘destroying’ the mind, not the body.”

“So, this is like an E.M.P for people.”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“We have to put those bombs into the right places to preserve or to destroy something in here. Get it Masuyo?” Sute chimed in.

“Well…” 

“You’ll understand when the time is right!” Hisoka grinned and hit Masuyo's shoulder a few times. The young man rummaged in his pocket to pick another Dawn, handing the two he had in his hands to Sute.

“Thanks, Hisoka-kun.” Sute accepted the bombs and bowed to the man.

“So, where are those going, Sute-chan?”

“A red one in the fight, and a blue on the swing.” she turned to Masuyo, “Which one do you want?”

“Hmm... the one that doesn’t sound lethal." Masuyo said while accepting one Dawn.

“Okay, then put your communicator and go to the swing so we can time the bombings.”

“Communicator?” 

“Yes, you have one in your pocket. Just put it in one of your ears.”

“Really...?” Masuyo murmured while searching his pockets. It didn't take long for him to find a simple ear communicator and put it into his ear.

Sute took a few steps away from Masuyo and put her own ear communicator as she started to test it: “Hello? Masuyo, are you hearing me?”

“Yeah.” the boy replied. “Hey, why are you giggling?” he asked after hearing a stifled sound.

“I-I’m not!”

“Really? Because I can see your body shaking from here.” Masuyo looked at the girl a few meters from him, who was stifling her laugh once again.

“Of... haha... c-course! I wouldn’t do something like that!”

“Ugh.” Masuyo turned around, “Let’s do what we came here for.” he headed to the huge debris of the blue swing while Sure giggled in his right ear.

“I-I’ll... haha go to the f-fight…” Sute started to walk towards the two Mekroxx.

“So, what do we do now?” Masuyo was standing before the debris of the swing.

“S-Stay away... haha... from it!”

“Sute, can you please stop laughing and do your job?”

"O-Okay, o-okay!"

"Oh my god, what is wrong with her?" 

"Haha." the girl kept giggling.

"Argh, she's making me lose my time here!" "Sute! You..."

“Don't get too close to it!!” her voice suddenly turned serious.

“Huh?” Masuyo pressed the ear communicator to hear her voice better, “'Don’t get too close'?”

“Yes! Get out of there!”

“What? Why?” Masuyo’s answer came with a loud sound that muffled Sute’s voice. The debris were whooshing beside him. The rest of the playground toy was reconstructing itself.

“YOU HAVE TO GET OUT, NOW!” Sute exclaimed.

“Oh, crap!” Masuyo started to run, but he was unlucky enough to trip and fall to the ground. Around him, various pieces of glass and debris were falling to the sky while lightly injuring him, but it wouldn’t take long for something to cause serious damage.

“Masuyo!” Sute’s voice sounded desperate, and for some reason, it wasn’t coming from the communicator anymore, the girl was right in front of the boy, helping him get up.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m helping you, of course!” she pulled the boy, making him stand up.

The two managed to leave the danger zone, but it wasn’t without scratches: Masuyo somehow had the lighter ones while Sute was limping.

“Are you guys alright??!” Hisoka arrived late, panting.

“Where were you?” Sute scowled at Hisoka, “Masuyo could’ve suffered something serious!”

“Wow... I’m sorry Sute-chan.  I thought I had seen something new in here so I went to check it…”

“Well, you should’ve stayed in your position! And helped Masuyo!”

“I appreciate your help and worry, but wasn’t you supposed to be ready to blow your bomb?” Masuyo chimed in, “I don’t get why you saved me again. You should worry about yourself sometimes.”

“Fine…” Sute turned her back to Masuyo, “Let’s go back to our positions.” she headed to the Mekroxx fight again.

“I’m sorry, Masuyo.” Hisoka apologized to the boy.

“It’s okay.”

“Yeah, but wow… I’ve never seen Sute-chan like that” Hisoka looked at the back of the short girl, “She really likes you.”

“Maybe.” “But there’s no reason for her to do it.” Masuyo walked to the swing again but this time staying at a safe distance from it.

“Hey, Masuyo.” Hisoka was talking on his communicator now, “Seems like you didn’t notice before, but the swing reconstructs itself after some time. It’s like a loop, he keeps getting destroyed and reconstructed.”

“Let’s count the time it takes for it to be destroyed and rebuilt.” Sute continued, “Then you can time the Dawn to keep the swing standing, understand?”

“I think so.” Masuyo looked at the pieces of glass in front of him with apprehension. They started to count the intervals in which the swing fell and was rebuilt, but: “It doesn’t make sense! It doesn’t have a pattern.”

“Yeah… that’s odd. The fight is the same, but the swing falls with different intervals.” Sute talked through the ear communicator. “Isn’t there a way to tell when it’s going down, Masuyo?”

“Hmm… maybe with the sound? But wouldn’t it be too late to throw the thing?” Masuyo looked at the swing being reconstructed again and then glanced at the fight. Something felt off.

“No, it should be fine. Let’s do it. Prepare your bomb.”

“Okay…” Masuyo pressed one of the blue buttons while glancing at the figure watching the meka brawl, he then looked at the fight itself and something felt off again: “Maybe it is the twitching?” 

“Okay! I’ve set the timer for ten seconds! I’ll start the countdown!”

“What? Countdown?”

“3, 2, 1…”

“W…” Masuyo started

“Sute-chan!” Hisoka was faster than him, “It looks like Masuyo has something to tell you.”

“Tell something? Is there something wrong?”

“First of all: why do you count so fast?”

“I’m used to counting like this…”

“Well, just wait for me.” Masuyo started to run towards Sute.

“Wait…?”

“Yeah, look behind you.” Masuyo said, making Sute turn around to see him rushing in her direction.

“What are you doing here?” the girl asked when Masuyo slowed down near her.

“Something is bothering me.” he peered at the fight and started to take cautious steps towards it.

“What is it? You don’t need to get that close to say it!”

“No, that’s exactly what I need to do.”

“What are you talking about? Getting too close will put you in danger again!” Sute dashed forward and tried to pull the boy.

“Hey!” Masuyo stopped and grasped the girl’s wrist, “What are you doing?? Why do you worry about me so much? You can leave me alone, you know?”

“...” she hid her face by looking at the floor and didn’t reply.

“Just let me test something.” he let Sute’s wrist go. Masuyo returned his attention to the fight before then, “Don’t you see this twitching as well?”

“W-What…?” Sute’s voice was low.

“Every time I look at this, something feels off. It’s like a twitching, maybe you could call it interference.” Masuyo pointed at the brawl, “When I looked at it from afar I noticed it only happened near the fight area.”

“I saw that as well… but thought it was all from my head…”

“Looks like it isn’t. I’ll go check it.”

“Hmm… bu…”

“Just stay where you are.” the boy approached the “twitching” with his hands stretched, noticing that it formed some type of wall. Masuyo tried to feel the wall with his hands, but they passed right through it. It was as if he destroyed a soft layer of plastic film. “What?” the other side felt incredibly cold.

“M-Masuyo?!” Sute called him.

“Stay where you are!” the boy shouted back.

Masuyo looked at the “wall” in front of him while taking a deep breath. “Okay, here I go...” he murmured before jumping forward, not hearing his name being called behind him.