The Crow-Izuku Midoriya (Izumomo ver)

VI: Grape's demise

"You are very restless", Haruko whispered, lying on the table on her side next to a flaming goblet as she watched Bakura pace, and then stop to look out the window every once in a while. At her words, he came back toward her, slowly pulling out his chair.

"I just wish I was a little hungry again, that's all", Bakura replied. He'd loved going out even the night before Devil's Night just to scope out potential targets for that night, but now that he ran the whole city, his time outside - along with the fact that any good cop would want his head on a silver platter - had turned that chance to nil. And Bakura was smart enough to know to not take that chance at this point in his criminal career or life - he was just getting started, as far as he cared.

"Be careful what you wish for..." Haruko began.

"And I just might get it, I know", Bakura answered, sitting down at his throne-like chair, softly rubbing the tip of his nose against Haruko's in an affectionate manner. As he did, he let himself get a whiff of the smoke emanating from the flaming goblet - and the real human eyeball that burned within.

"There are energies aligning against you."

"Seein' is believin', isn't it?" Bakura asked rhetorically, a sly smile on his face. For one moment, it was covered by the soft warmth of Haruko's lips, and then set free just as quickly. He took the moment to run the tip of his tongue against a fingertip before dipping it into a tin of cocaine and tasting it. "Mm, yummy."

He was just about to start cutting a line of the Devil's dandruff before Iida walked in, F-Bird following close behind with a lit cigarette in his mouth. The expressions of both visitors were somber and suspicious. "Dio's Pawnshop just burned down to the foundation", Iida reported.

"Nobody cleared this little event with me", Bakura stated authoritatively, looking past Iida at F-Bird, as if expecting him to confess.

"I wouldn't have anything to do with that", F-Bird said, his voice carrying an undercurrent of irony.

"Oh, I'm sure you must be awfully disappointed", Bakura replied, rolling up a dollar bill between his fingers.

F-Bird continued with "I got problems of my own: one of my crew got himself perished. Or haven't you heard yet, boss?"

"No, I've not heard yet, F. Who might that be?"

"Judas Priest", F-Bird answered, his gaze flickering to Haruko's sultry form sprawling across the end of the table. "Somebody stuck all of his bayonets in all of his major organs in alphabetical order."

Now this was surprising. Usually, the only deaths that happened like this were either of unknowing victims of the Devil's Night infernos or cocky gangbangers who didn't know how to keep themselves safe while setting them. But to have one of them murdered - that was different.

For now, though, Bakura kept it in the back of his mind as a warning to watch out for any similar occurrences. "Well, gentlemen, by all means, I think we oughta have an introspective moment of silence for poor ol' Judas Priest", he said, punctuating it by leaning down over the cocaine tin and deeply drawing the line he'd cut up into his nose. "Gah...you're working for me tonight, right?"

Now F-Bird's focus went back to his boss, his demeanor all business. "Whatever you say, I can do", he said, lifting his cigarette away from his lips.

"Good, that's very reassuring", Bakura responded as Haruko leaned an arm across one of the arms of his chair, he placing a steadying hand on her inner thigh. "I still haven't heard the story of why Dio's place burned down. What is that, a natural catastrophe or an act of God or somethin'? Call it my need to know", he hinted. At this, Iida and F-Bird slowly turned away and headed back downstairs, leaving Bakura and Haruko alone.