The Slightly Hungry Caterpillar

Yamada's apartment was by far the biggest out of the bunch. Did editing shoujo manga pay that well? He had a piano at the corner of the living room, a crystal bookcase holding no books, a room solely devoted to his pet reptiles. 

He's been the one to give Youji a turtle because apparently she'd become too aggressive or something. Youji handfed her every now and then. So far, there had been no incidents. "You act like children," was his greeting when Youji showed up uninvited. Still, Yamada let him in.

Youji correctly assumed that Yamada's dinner would've been instant ramen, so he went to the kitchen to remedy this. Yamada followed. "I'm not. I just know Jun well enough to know that he has to be the one to talk first."

"See? Like children."

"Here, chop these up." Wordlessly, Yamada took the vegetables Youji pointed at, then began to cut. "How's everyone doing?"

"Fine."

"Did Miyo make it to the deadline?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, good. I was worried she'd come up with excuses again. How about you? How's it going?"

"Also fine."

"And—"

"They are talking to the Touma guy, if that's what you want to get at," said Yamada. 

Youji obviated telling him that conversation was a thing people did, and that often, it had nothing to 'get at'. With Isao, silence felt like another way to talk, but in general... 

"Jun added him to the group chat."

"Yeah. Teddy told me earlier." Among other things, such as them never really cutting contact at all, or Touma showing up, or Isao's little stunt. 

"Like children," Yamada mumbled, then ran out of vegetables to cut. Youji gestured at the meat, which was then cut cut cut. 

There were some pictures of a little girl at the fridge, one with reptiles, one with her plus a woman plus Yamada. Youji knew better than to ask. Still, it prompted him to admit, "I'm surprised you're so indifferent to the whole thing. You usually ask things in roundabout ways."

"That sounds accusatory."

"It is, kinda."

"If you insist..." Yamada cleared his throat. "Who stabbed who? Why? Who is the Touma? Why did they talk to him in secret for so long? Why did... whatshisname chase him out of... whatsthename today? He drew a fork on the foam of the coffee for some reason. The Touma sent pictures."

Isao...

"Answer at your leisure," said Yamada. 

He did, while they had curry for dinner. They'd made enough to last for days.

Again: wrong time, wrong place. He'd always struggled with studying, so he ended up in a pretty bad middle school. Jun was there. Miyo was there. Fights broke out often. Sometimes Youji got into them for the thrill of it. That was how he met Touma on his first year of high school; he saw a pack of upperclassmen bullying a boy in his class, and he chose violence (against the bullies). 

Yamada's commentary on the matter was: "I always knew you guys were brutes."

"I'm a pacifist now," said Youji. 

"Would you be a pacifist if you walked across the street and saw whatshisname getting attacked by gangsters?"

No. 

Yamada stood up. "Gimme a moment," he said, left the dining room, then showed up many moments later with a notepad and pen. "Continue."

Again, best not to ask. Anyway, Youji felt bad for Touma, so he forced him into the group. Jun wasn't pleased. Miyo was Miyo so she didn't care. With time, the four of them... well, the three of them plus Touma got somewhat of a reputation, which lead to more fights, which lead to more word of mouth, and so on and so forth. Cycle of violence and whatnot. 

"You're rushing," Yamada grumbled.

"What, did you want a day-to-day schedule?"

"So you were the strongest fighter from the strongest gang in the district, and the Touma was your weakness."

Youji had a feeling Yamada and Isao could get along. Truly. 

He'd even taken both earphones off for this. Yamada wrote his fictionalized version of events with such passion Youji could almost see action lines form around him. "So," he said, "You became so confident with your strength that you forgot about your Achilles' heel. One of the rival gangs—"

"There were no gangs."

"—delinquent groups kidnapped him to force you to submit... maybe... 'join ur or we will ruin his pretty face'. Hm, no. No. Hm. 'We'll release him, but we'll also make sure you never use your right arm again'. Youji said yes, and that's how he became a pacifist."

"I can use my right arm and that never happened."

Yamada wrote as he spoke, wrote what he spoke. Uncanny. "Youji said no, but he didn't want to involve his friends, so he went to the rival delinquent group's den alone, and... Teddy was there... with... Touma as a hostage."

Youji opened his mouth, then closed it.

This caused Yamada to look up. He didn't need to smile to smile. "Knew it," he mumbled, then went back to the notepad. "Youji and Teddy fight, and it's a close one, but Youji is still stronger, so then... Teddy's delinquent friends come to help. Since Youji didn't tell his friends, he's alone, so he gets outnumbered, but he fights for the... whathisname... Ta... To... what's his name?"

"Touma," Youji mumbled. 

"How do you wr—that's not important. So he fights for T-O-U-M-A, and he finds out that his Achilles' heel is actually his source of streng—"

"Yamada, cut it out. Seriously."

"It's not my fault you're predictable."

"I'm not. Most of what you're writing is just bullshit. It's annoying. Cut it out."

Yamada sighed, though he put the pencil down. "Describe the stabbing scene," he said instead. 

Youji glanced at his empty plate, at the table, at the floor. He said, "There was no kidnapping."

"Continue..."

"Touma is a dumbass. He thought he was hot shit because nobody messed with him at school anymore, but Teddy and his group went to a dififerent one, so it's not like they could've known. Somebody told me they were messing with him in this..." Youji sighed, covering his face. "...abandoned church."

"Oh! Was it raining?"

"...sure, whatever. Let's say it was."

To his credit, Yamada resisted the urge to keep writing. Youji went on: "And, yeah, fine, I went alone. Teddy never learned how to fight. He just had other people do it for him, and he's always been like... that... so he thought he was doing a good thing, because like I said, Touma is a dumbass. He liked provoking people a lot. Probably still does, I don't know." That could explain Isao's behavior. Youji shouldn't have gotten as irritated as he had at the stunt. Isao's face when Youji mentioned his phobias, however dimmed by the landscape, would stay with him for a long time. It took so much effort to make someone happy, so little to hurt them.

"And? What happened?"

"...and... one of Teddy's guys had a pocket knife. You know the rest."

"Describe the scene."

"No."

"Please."

"I said no." It was a good thing he'd covered his face.

"That's too bad. Hey, Youji. Relax. I won't ask anything else. I'll let you feed the iguana."

"I'm fine."

Yamada seized—that was the right word to use—the dishes, then washed them. He tried to behave. Really, he did. It showed. He offered tea. He offered cake. He tried. Still, at some point, he couldn't hold it back anymore: "So what happened with you and Touma?"

And, knowing this, Youji couldn't help but smile. Even if Jun and the rest could be too... brisk for Isao, so to say, Yamada should be fine. Isao talked about conversations with non-Youji entities the way people did about winning world championships. They could get along.

Youji replied:

Youji tried to reply:

Youji shook his head. "Sorry."

"...that's too bad."

"Mind if I smoke?"

"Yes."

"...that's too bad." And then Youji smoked anyway. 

Did he even want to meet Touma? For what? He was the one to call the police. To be fair, had they not arrived in time, and Teddy might've died. It helped to see those memories as somebody else's. That was the last time they'd seen each other.