Part 3

Power and Order

Ryuunosuke thought of himself as more of an attack dog than anything else, as long as he had a target to take down he knew exactly what to do.
But the ADA's erratic behaviour made it very difficult for him to stay ahead, it's like they didn't even have an actual strategy, they were just like cockroaches, startled by someone turning on the lights, running around in panic.

At a certain point his chase lead him to search the streets, which was a nuisance in it of itself, and the further away he strayed from everyone else, the harder it was for his communicator to pick up Higuchi's signal.

He tried raising his voice, but she couldn't hear him, and she also tried to raise her voice, but he couldn't understand a word she said.
In his anger he was just about ready to toss that worthless piece of garbage off the nearest bridge, but then he heard a loud car horn behind him and turned around to see a large cargo van just stopped not too far from him.

The driver opened the door and jumped out of the van and the pale golden locks and bright opal eyes immediately set his insides on fire –

"YOU!!!" Ryuunosuke dashed forward with a growl of rage and sent Rashomon charging at her, and she let out a pathetic shriek and raised her hand as a show of surrender, but the black torrent froze just millimetres away from her neck.
"HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS – "

"Wow, wow, easy there, easy!" The familiar voice of his former superior calling out from the passenger seat of the van made Ryuunosuke tense up and lower his head and his voice.

"What is Dazai-san doing with you, concrete-girl..?"
"Actually, it's more like, I'm with him? He just needs me to drive him around, I don't really have a say in this – "
"Do you want to die?"
"In general, or like, right now?"

"Guuuuyyyysssss," Osamu honked the horn to draw their attention, "hurry up and get in, we're on a deadline here!!!"

Ryuunosuke withdrew and gave Junko one final threatening glare before walking over to the back of the van and climbing in.
Junko took another couple seconds to collect herself and ran back to her seat.

"Snookums, I know my blood is still, like, 60% pain killers right now, but it REALLY looked like you stopped Akutagawa-kun." Osamu didn't pay attention to Ryuunosuke when he entered the haul, but as soon as Junko was back in the driver's seat he leaned back and gave her a dirty look.
She just lowered her head silently, and from where he was standing Ryuunosuke could see her reddening face.
"Akutagawa-kun, tell me," Osamu turned his head to the side to look at Ryuunosuke with a cheerful smile and dead eyes, "can my little kitten control Rashomon?"

Ryuunosuke squinted his eyes and grit his teeth, but nodded.

"GODDAMNIT JUNKO!" Osamu scolded, throwing his hands up in the air and then banging on the dashboard, "why don't you just get a megaphone and stand around in the middle of the street and tell everyone about it."
"I-it's not like it happened on purpose!" she whimpered.
"How DID it happen, then?"
"It was a fight, he just grabbed me, I couldn't do anything to avoid it..."
"Does she have some kind of a manipulation ability?" Ryuunosuke hissed angrily.
"No, it's not manipulation, more like copyright infringement." Osamu shrugged. "Junko is kind of my opposite, instead of nullifying abilities she comes in contact with, she adopts them."
"S-should we really be sharing this information, Osamu-san..?"
"He already saw it in action, there's no point in trying to hide it now. Besides, he won't tell anyone." for the first time since Ryuunosuke stepped into that death-trap, Osamu fully turned around in his seat to face him, and he still wore a smile anyone else might mistake for an innocent and friendly one, but Ruuunosuke knew better, "I don't believe I need to threaten you, but just for the record, whatever your imagination managed to come up with, just assume I'll do something worse, alright?"