Twisted Innocence

Marked for Death

"Attack is the secret of defense.

The defense is the planning of an attack." 

- Sun Tzu (The Art of War)

~oOo~

        "..................what the hell are you doing, brat?" Kunikida's eye twiched at the sight of Seiko lightly brushing a cattail toy against the sleeping Atsushi's face. The three were currently in the Agency's infirmary, where Atsushi and the Tanizaki siblings had their injuries treated. Right now, Kunikida and Seiko were at the new recruit's bedside, waiting for him to wake up. However...

        "It's already been an hour now, Kunikida-san, so I'm just keeping myself busy for the time being." Seiko explained without looking up from her business. She brushed the tip of the cattail toy over Atsushi's nose, looking intrigued when it started twitching from the ticklish touch.

        "That's not the point. What are you doing with that catnip toy?" Kunikida flatly asked. 

        "Well, Atsushi-san's a kitty, so I thought he would enjoy this ~ " The young girl cheerily replied as she waved the toy around like a wand in her hand.

        "He's a tiger, not a goddamn house cat!" Kunikida yelled, irked at the young girl's apparent stupidity. "Get your head out of the gutter, you pig-brained brat!" 

        Seiko, however, was unfazed by the man's harsh tone as a comically blissful expression made its way onto her face. "Pig-brained...pig...piggies..." she giggled to herself as an image of a chubby pig popped into her head, the animal letting out a cute oink. "Piggies are pretty cute, too ~ Even though people like to make them into bacon...which is nice, too ~ "

        "What part of 'get your head out of the gutter' do you not understand, you idiot?!" Kunikida snapped, his eyes twitching nonstop at the child's simple mind. "Even if you're twelve years of age, you can't possibly be this stupid, Seiko!" 

        While he yelled at the young girl, he failed to notice that his glasses were on top of his head rather than on his face, showcasing the stressed state of his mind. Seiko, of course, knew all along, but decided not to tell the exasperated man for the sake of teasing him about it later. 

        "I'm not stupid, Kunikida-saaaan ~ " The little girl pouted as she lazily waved around the cattail toy. "I like to think I'm selectively intelligent."

        "That's the same thing as stupidity, you moron." 

        "Is not ~ !"

        Just when Kunikida was about to retort back, the two stopped their bickering when they noticed Atsushi's expression scrunch up in pain, before his eyes shot open in an expression of terror. 

        "Where...am I?" He muttered, staring up at the white ceiling with a frozen stare before taking note of his surroundings. 

        "You're in the infirmary, Atsushi-san!" Seiko smiled down at the boy, leaning over him as she stood by his bedside and blinked down at his pale face. 

        "...Seiko-chan...?" Atsushi weakly spoke up, glancing at the young girl before his attention was drawn to something else. ".......why do you have a cattail toy?"

        Seiko blinked a few times before looking down at the toy in her hands. Then she hid it behind her back while whistling an innocent little tune. "No reason ~ "