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By the time his soul mark appeared, Tecchou had already killed a person.
It wasn’t a big thing, or at least that’s what they had been telling him, since long enough ago for him to believe it. He had been fifteen at that time, working for the military for a while and training for a lot longer. It wasn’t that he enjoyed killing; he wasn’t left with much of a choice, and as long as he followed his own rules, he’d be fine. He had been given the gift of a supernatural ability made out for the battlefield, and it was his responsibility to punish bad people. He was fighting for justice, and that was all he needed to know.
He had never really given it deeper thought. Then his soul mark appeared, and suddenly turned around everything he had known before.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t known about this phenomenon, even though the people around him never talked about it much. The only occasions where it would be brought to his attention was when he saw them on other people’s skin; black words on their wrists, necks, hands, ankles, anywhere.
The last words their soulmates would say to them.
Tecchou remembered his parents explaining it to him, after he had asked about it when he had been a lot younger. That at a certain point in their life, those tattoos would appear anywhere on people’s bodies, telling them the last words their soulmates would say to them. That it was a useless, painful thing for most of them. It wasn’t exactly useful for finding them in most cases, and just knowing wouldn’t let one save them, or even know how they were going to die.
Tecchou, however, had never had this impression. Maybe he just got lucky, for some weird reason, but his mark told him everything he needed to know; it told him about how his soulmate was going to die.
Or, more importantly, by whose hand.
It was not like anyone had ever been interested in his mark, and Tecchou had been lucky enough to have it appear on his shoulder, a place he could usually easily cover with his uniform or shirts. No one had ever asked him about it or wanted to see it, either, and he wouldn’t have shown it to them anyway. Those words didn’t leave much room for interpretation, and Tecchou really didn’t need people to know about what he was going to do one day.
Then shall we settle this by blade instead?
He had a few theories regarding why his soulmate would challenge him to a fight; it wasn’t something that hadn’t happened to him before, either, and he didn’t know about the circumstances of the situation. However, those were the last words his soulmate would say to him, making it quite obvious what was going to happen next. Tecchou was strong, had been trained to fight with a sword since he was eight, let alone had a supernatural ability that granted him a huge advantage in this setting.
It shouldn’t have been a big deal. Tecchou knew that much, because no one else around him was slightly bothered by their marks, or so it seemed (to be fair however, they weren’t in his situation either, though). Still, he failed to ignore the dull sting inside his chest whenever he raised his sword for the first few days after discovering his mark; his mind being dragged back to those words on his shoulder against his will.
He tried to convince himself that he didn’t know who his soulmate was; for all he knew, they could very well be a bad person, an enemy, a criminal, but for some reason, he failed to truly believe in any of this. They were his soulmate, they had to be good. No one whose blood he wanted on his hands.
After a few days of thinking about it whenever the silence of the peaceful nights caught up on him, Tecchou arrived at a conclusion. A life plan, a solution to this problem.
If his soulmate was a bad person, he’d find them anyway. He didn’t need to worry about it before facing this moment, so it didn’t matter to him.
If his soulmate was a good person, however, he would not hurt them. The soul marks couldn’t change for all he knew, but the thought that emerged in his mind eventually seemed so painfully obvious, so painfully easy to follow through, that he didn’t bother much with this.
If he didn’t want to kill his soulmate, he would just pretend he didn’t have one.
He wouldn’t search for them. It wasn’t that he really cared, anyway, and if he ever met someone that could possibly be his soulmate by coincidence, he would make sure they’d never get far.
By the time his soul mark appeared, Tecchou had already killed a person, so he couldn’t promise himself- and his soulmate, whoever that was- that he would avoid their fate by never killing anyone. There was something else he could do, though, something else he could avoid to save them.
He wouldn’t let himself fall in love with anyone.
Two years passed, and neither his soul mark nor the promise he made to himself turned out to be much of a problem. He continued his life as though nothing happened, his tattoo rarely present on his mind; he quickly learnt to ignore the thoughts at night, whenever he had time, and soon managed to pretend that nothing happened at all. There had been two or three cases where he felt weird around certain people, but it was easy to ignore until it eventually went away on its own (he had been admiring their strength, beauty, ideals, whatever it was; he hadn’t broken his promise, it was all going to be alright). Maybe it meant that none of those had been his soulmate from the start, but even so, it gave him a strange sense of faith. The knowledge that he could live without those feelings, and that experiencing them didn’t mean that he had to act on anything.
Three years passed, and the Hunting Dogs were founded. An elite team, consisting of the best soldiers from all around the country- Tecchou had heard the names and stories of the other two so often he knew them by heart, so it almost felt like he had known them ever since he joined the military. He was eighteen at the time, and with the surgeries, getting used to his new position, warming up with his commanders and the missions that were suddenly on a whole different level than anything he had been dealing with before, he wasn’t left with much room for anything else, let alone something as irrelevant as his soul mark.
Five years passed, and while Tecchou felt he had adjusted to his new job quite well, it had left him in a bubble of his own before he realized. Even though he handled the missions, surgeries, meetings and whatnot better the more time passed, it seemed to put a barrier around him and his teammates. No one appeared to dare approach them beyond distant admiration, or that’s how his commander put it, and Tecchou hadn’t bothered to keep questioning. It worked perfectly fine for him, after all; he liked his job, and the fact that it didn’t leave him with any room for meeting many people other than his teammates, higher-ups and occasionally other soldiers working with them was, essentially, another bonus.
Six years passed, and Jouno Saigiku joined the Hunting Dogs.
It was the first time someone else joined the team since it had been founded, and at first, Tecchou thought that maybe this was the reason why he needed to get used to how he felt around this new member. The following months however were filled with a series of totally objective observations about said new member, which eventually gave him the impression that maybe this whole thing wasn’t just a result of the circumstances after all.
He could tell that Jouno was, objectively, attractive. It required no great observational skills to notice that, and it was nothing Tecchou wouldn’t say about a handful of other people that spontaneously came to his mind too. To be fair, what he couldn’t say about them was that he was curious about them too, but okay, that was no big deal either. Teruko probably thought about Jouno’s eyes just as often, and was just as sure that they must be as beautiful as the rest of him. Tecchou would really like to see if he was right, though.
It was similar when it came to his personality. Sure, maybe Jouno’s methods needed some adjustment (but Tecchou would gladly help with that), and maybe he was cold on the surface, but beneath that he was honest, hard-working and had a strong sense of justice Tecchou really wouldn’t have expected to see in a former criminal executive, of all people. That was probably the reason why Jouno fascinated him so much, so he really didn’t need to read too much into it; aside from that, those traits were admirable regardless of the person, and having them was basically part of their job description. It wasn’t something that was exclusive to Jouno, so there was nothing wrong with acknowledging it.
Tecchou found himself listening in to Jouno’s conversations with their commanders or other soldiers more often than he would have liked to admit; not because he was interested in what they were talking about (in fact, he rarely paid attention to the words themselves, and in the great majority of cases, he wouldn’t have been able to answer had someone asked him what the topic of the conversation had been), but because he liked the sound of Jouno’s voice. It made him feel at ease, for some weird reason.
He had been told about Jouno’s ability; everything they knew about how it worked, its strengths, weaknesses, and that it basically made him immune to Tecchou’s blade. What they hadn’t told him was how beautiful it looked. The first time he saw him use it was on their mission to capture him and the accomplices left from his organisation. He had been trying to help Teruko, despite his commanders telling him to stay back and focus on their other targets, but he hadn’t had another opponent and Fukuchi had been busy elsewhere, while Teruko, at that moment, looked like she could have used some help. In retrospect, he should have known this wouldn’t work, but he had turned around to attack, only to stumble when his sword cut through air. Jouno’s body had turned into dust where he hit him, a flawless transition from the solid part of his torso and dull colors fading into invisibility. It left him distracted for a moment, a split second where he didn’t even think of taking his eyes off it, before he was snapped back to reality by Teruko pushing him away and continuing her fight.
(Teruko had been fine, of course, and Tecchou’s actions ended in nothing more than a small bruise and a lecture, and a picture that wouldn’t leave his mind for the following days.)
Jouno was still new to the job, and didn’t even have all of his surgeries yet, so it was completely normal for Tecchou to be more protective of him, too, and stay by his side at the hospital whenever he got hurt. It was his job to do so, sort of; Jouno was his partner after all, and partners looked out for each other. Especially when one of them was stronger and more experienced.
It wasn’t that he realized it when he first noticed these things. It was when he noticed that no one else seemed to see it.
Teruko had always acted differently towards Jouno than she did towards Tecchou or their commander. She ignored him most of the time, and whenever she’d interact with him outside a mission she’d be cold even more so than usual or, if she went for the other direction, her teasing would become sharper and less persistent. It took Tecchou a while to realize that it wasn’t just a coincidence, and even longer to realize that she probably acted that way because she didn’t like him.
Their commander appeared to value Jouno, although as far as Tecchou could tell, it remained on a purely professional basis. Tecchou didn’t question it one second; it was Fukuchi’s job, after all, and aside from that, he had been the one recruiting Jouno in the first place. He left it up to Tecchou to stop Jouno from going too far during their investigations more often than not, but Tecchou never thought much about that, either.
Even later, when Tachihara joined the Hunting Dogs and Jouno immediately took the position of his mentor, there remained a strange barrier between them. Tachihara respected Jouno. Maybe he got the closest to him Tecchou had seen so far; he clearly trusted Jouno, always looked so proud when he got praised by him, followed what he said, and even let him comfort him. Tecchou hadn’t seen everything the two of them did, of course, but Jouno seemed to show Tachihara a side of himself no one else knew, not even him, maybe. Yet, Tachihara appeared to be more focussed on the things Jouno did than the things he was.
As for people outside their team, they never even got as far as taking a second look.Whether they were civilians or other soldiers, most people that knew him seemed to either fear or hate him, or sometimes both. From what Tecchou had seen, a few of them wrote him off for his background alone, and the others only needed a look at his methods or personality to confirm that the former group must have been correct.
It didn’t help that Jouno never cared about any of this, as far as Tecchou could tell; if anything, he seemed to embrace his reputation, so no one bothered to look beyond the surface.
He did.
It wasn’t that it had been a conscious choice- damn, at no point had he put so much thought into it at all, and if anything, it brought him a step closer to breaking his promise.
It was a ridiculous thought. It wasn’t the first time he found himself with a small crush on someone, and they were partners, after all; of course he couldn’t expect his feelings to wear off as quickly and easily as they usually did. He settled with this thought, especially when, a few months later, it came to his mind that if Jouno was his soulmate, he would be Jouno’s soulmate too, and that imagination sounded far too abstract and distant to take it seriously for a second.
They got along quite alright, for all Tecchou could tell; they worked together really well, and Jouno quickly adjusted to their teamwork. Yet soulmates? There was absolutely no way, even if it hadn’t been for his promise. Everything aside, they fought far too often, and… he really didn’t expect Jouno to return his feelings.
This thought was new, but he managed to brush it off the same way he did with everything else on that matter. During none of his previous crushes, he got as far as thinking about whether they might like him back; but fine, it was different with Jouno. Because he was his partner, not his soulmate or anything.
Tecchou had pictured his soulmate’s death in various ways ever since his mark appeared, and it had always looked differently, the person opposing him turning from a faceless shadow into whoever he liked at that moment into a fictional character consisting of all of them and a lot more at once, but no matter how hard he tried, he failed to imagine Jouno in this position. He wasn’t really the type of person that enjoyed fighting, usually leaving it up to Tecchou on their missions unless there was no other way, all aside from the fact that possessing a supernatural ability that allowed him to turn his body into fog made Tecchou doubt that he wouldn’t survive this fight.
Not that he expected them to ever get this far, anyway.
All in all, after he gathered all these observations, they gave him a strange sense of safety. There was no way Jouno was his soulmate; they were teammates, partners, for the rest of their lives. He didn’t need to think about soulmates or love or promises, he could just work with him, fight by his side, and stay at his hospital bed when he got hurt. It was just the sort of things teammates did.
And frankly, it was everything Tecchou could have wished for on that matter.
Tecchou had soon learnt that Jouno didn’t make a difference between their targets. It didn’t matter who they were, he’d treat them all the same, and although Tecchou didn’t exactly like his methods, he knew enough to tell when it was justified. Jouno was a Hunting Dog, just like him, and they had a purpose to fulfil. A job to do.
The issue was that he didn’t make a difference between their targets and innocent people either. If he thought they could be useful in any way, he would make sure they were, and his approach didn’t differ much from the interrogation tactics he used on the criminals they captured.
And that girl was, like, ten years old at most.
“Now, if you’re defending the agency, you’re also a suspect.“ Jouno moved closer to the girl; from his position, Tecchou could see neither their expressions, but he had experienced similar situations by far often enough to picture both. “Would you become another part of my pleasures?“
The girl replied, but her voice was too quiet for Tecchou to understand. There was the same terrified tone most witnesses and targets showed during Jouno’s investigations, though, and that told him everything he needed to know.
“Stop.“ He drew his sword, extending the blade to Jouno with his ability. It didn’t cut deep, nothing that would actually hurt his modified body, but it was enough for him to turn around to Tecchou with a yowl. “Don’t use people for your enjoyment,“ he said as he put his sword away again.
“Then just call me instead! Stop stabbing me in the butt every time!“ Jouno took a step towards Tecchou, raising one hand to his chest. “I was just asking suspects for cooperation!“
“Then do it after they sign the consent form for judicial transaction,“ Tecchou replied bluntly. “Otherwise, it’s not justice.“
He wasn’t exactly surprised when Jouno drew his sword as a response. Not that this had happened before (despite his personality, Jouno had a dislike for violence and picked words over weapons whenever he could), and maybe things would have been different if it hadn’t been for Jouno’s words, familiar words that wiped everything else from Tecchou’s mind immediately. “Then shall we settle this by blade instead?“
It felt like Tecchou’s heart stopped for a moment.
A cold flash shot through his body as if each syllable turned into sharp ice, cold enough to burn him from the inside, and eventually all gathered on his shoulder, where those words were tattooed on his skin.
“Stop.“
Tecchou flinched, making a poor attempt at covering it up by turning around to his commander in the same movement. He saw Jouno turning to Fukuchi as well, lowering his sword again.
Fukuchi handed the girl a phone and said something to her, but Tecchou could barely follow his words. His entire consciousness was taken up by the same sentence over and over, and another thought that sat deeply in this ice that still filled his body.
That was impossible.
It should be impossible. He never expected to hear these words from anyone, least of all Jouno; where did he mess up? He had been so careful. He had been so sure that this small crush, if he could even call it that, would stay exactly that. He had been so careful- he had been so sure Jouno wasn’t his soulmate.
No, this wasn’t possible. There must have been some sort of mistake. Maybe it was just a strange coincidence, maybe he misheard, maybe he remembered the words from his mark incorrectly, anything- anything made more sense than accepting that Jouno was his soulmate, and that those words…
A faint, high-pitched sound reached Tecchou’s ears and he took half a step backwards.
The girl had left, and Fukuchi had started talking to the Hunting Dogs; Tecchou had enough routine in listening (although, yes, this was an extraordinary situation) so he still recognized his commander’s words, although the thoughts on his mind almost drowned them out. His mark was glowing, every inch of the tattoo burning into his skin, and he was sure that if he took his uniform off now, he would see the black having turned into a deep crimson.
The edges of his vision began to blur and Tecchou blinked. The pain itself was nothing noteworthy, he had been through far worse on battlefield and kept fighting, but there was something about it dragging him away from reality.
Knowing that Jouno was in danger?
Tecchou fixated his eyes on his commander, more than anything in an attempt to keep himself from looking over to Jouno. He had never been exceptionally good at reading people, even less so his teammates, despite all the time they spent together. He was sure that Jouno’s face wouldn’t tell him wether he had recognized the words Tecchou had said to him right before, and if his tattoo was burning into his skin right now, too.
He had seen a glimpse of Jouno’s mark before. It had been after a mission, when they had been forced to stay at the base for the night during a storm. He had seen it when Jouno changed clothes, a few lines of black on his chest, but he hadn’t read it. It just felt wrong; something gave him the feeling that Jouno definitely wouldn’t have told him had he asked him about it, and it seemed like an uncomfortable invasion of his privacy to read it without his consent.
Then again, there was a small part inside him that was afraid. A small part of him that shouldn’t exist, a part that kept questioning him what if it sounded like something you would say, or what if it sounded like something you wouldn’t say. Tecchou didn’t know which option was worse.
Jouno would say something had he recognized the situation though, wouldn’t he? He knew the dangers they were dealing with on a daily basis, but he wasn’t that stupid or careless or suicidal to just ignore such obvious dangers. He could rely on Jouno that much; he knew what he was doing. There was nothing he had to worry about.
“Jouno.“ Tecchou didn’t have nearly enough time to convince himself of this thought when his commander’s tone shifted as he addressed Jouno, dragging him back to the reality of this situation. “Follow me. I want to show you something.“
This time, Tecchou was sure he felt his heart stop for a second. Every bit of self control vanished for that short moment and he finally turned around to Jouno, who- if he heard it- ignored Tecchou’s heartbeat. He ignored the situation as a whole, if his tattoo burned itself into his chest right now too; if he had noticed anything, he didn’t show it.
It might have been a reassurance for Tecchou hadn’t it been for the situation. It might have told him it’s alright, he doesn’t recognize it, this is some sort of mistake, had he had the capacities for forming that thought in the first place. But watching Jouno disappear behind a corner as the pain from his mark turned into an itch that made him want to rip his skin off left his mind completely blank, a single silent urge remaining.
Follow them.
Tecchou’s grip around his sword’s handle tightened while part of him was debating whether he should follow this silent instinct, and another part debating whether he should fight it. It was quite clear that their commander meant to speak to Jouno alone, whatever that was about, and despite his personality Fukuchi usually didn’t appreciate it when they didn’t follow his orders (even when he technically never voiced them in the first place).
Then again, this wasn’t a regular situation. A word from Jouno would be enough, too, a word directed at him no matter what it was; anything that made sure that this cursed sentence wasn’t the last thing he had said to him before he left.
He would probably get punished, but in this situation, it was difficult to see this as a real threat. He would accept anything- he would give up anything if it meant that there was a way to save Jouno.
“Tecchou?“ Teruko’s voice snapped him back to reality, so abruptly he almost flinched, turning around to her a little faster than it would have been normal. Her tone of voice had been calm, casual, questioning at most, but there was a hint in her eyes, strong enough for Tecchou to pick up on (he knew she did this on purpose, but he didn’t really bother; it was a form of communication, and one they often relied on during their missions), a cold glare, prohibiting him from moving one step.
Tecchou hesitated. To be completely honest, he had forgotten Teruko was here, and that suddenly provided him with a new set of possibilities. Possibilities he wasn’t sure were good or bad.
He got along with her quite well, and had asked her for advice before; not that it occurred regularly, but he knew he could talk to her, and more importantly, she was his vice commander. And this was a matter that concerned their team, if it was real.
Then again, it also meant that he couldn’t just follow them- there was no way Teruko would let him, not without a very good explanation, anyway. And, well, he really lacked the capacities to discuss this with her right now.
For the first time in his life, he considered showing his mark to someone else. He didn’t know how old Teruko really was, or what her tattoo said- she could have already watched her soulmate die for all he knew, but either way, she could probably judge the situation better than him; she could tell him to follow them, a ridiculous stray flash of hope shot through his mind.
He wrote the idea off again almost immediately. He was on a mission, and bringing his personal concerns into it wasn’t an option, especially since nothing had even happened yet. Aside from that, he could picture her answer anyway, and getting scolded for not trusting their commander was nothing he wanted in this situation, either.
These thoughts were spinning through his head in the span of a few seconds, a few seconds he spent hesitating. Then, taking a deep breath, he lowered his hand from his sword. “Apologies,“ he said simply, closing his eyes for a second.
Teruko turned away again, and Tecchou couldn’t help but let his gaze drift back to where Fukuchi and Jouno had disappeared to.
Had Jouno recognized his words, he would have stayed, right?
Tecchou’s own mind suddenly seemed an eternity distant from him. What had he been thinking? Jouno would have laughed at him for sure had he known. Them, soulmates? They had been working together for six years, and yes, maybe he liked Jouno, more than he should. But that didn’t mean all this time would have went by like nothing had they been soulmates.
Everything Tecchou had been telling himself ever since he met Jouno caught up on him at once, and with such force he almost started laughing. There was no way Jouno was his soulmate, really. There had to be a chance that this was just a very strange coincidence.
Those thoughts were running through his mind on repeat, without him actively paying attention to any of it. What did it matter?
Just because you know, doesn’t mean you’ll be able to save them.
It was what Tecchou had been told for all his childhood, from when he first asked to when people stopped talking about it, and ever since his mark appeared, he hadn't thought he’d ever be confronted with such a situation.
No, this was stupid. He wasn’t anyone. He was a Hunting Dog, and the strongest one, too- regardless of whether Jouno was his soulmate or not, he would save him. That’s what partners did.
What was going to happen? They were on a mission, so it was more than likely that there was going to be complications with their targets. The sort of situation Tecchou was used to. The sort of situation he had been trained to handle for the greatest part of his lifetime, and the sort of situation he had been dealing with ever since he joined the military.
Then shall we settle this by blade instead?
Jouno’s voice grew more distant in his head, and his mark stopped itching, too. Tecchou took that as a good sign; yeah, it was all going to be alright, there was nothing he had to worry about. Jouno was going to be fine. He was a capable fighter, and besides that, what was going to happen? He would be back soon, and Tecchou would do everything to protect him then.
But for now, he had no reason to worry. Jouno was going to be fine. Jouno was safe.
He was with their commander, after all.