Writing binges are fun! This idea has been sitting with me for a long time and I feel that Taking in a Tiger has just made me love the characters being children. I thought, What if Atsushi wasn't the child? What if it was Akutagawa? And here we are.

Enjoy!

I'm not allowed to kill her. Akutagawa reminded himself as he watched a woman with dark eyes and brown hair. She'd obviously sensed she was being watched by now, and she constantly looked over her shoulder. Akutagawa held back a sigh. It'd be so much easier if I could just kill her. He coughed into his fist, and looked down at his hand to see if he'd spewed up blood. Nothing. He took a breath in, ignoring the painful scratchiness of his throat.

The woman wasn't stupid enough to try to sneak into an alley. That would make her an easier target. If he'd had Higuchi or any of the Black Lizard with him, he could have easily ordered one of them to "bump into her" and discreetly drag her into the alley. Then, he could easily frighten her into coming along quietly or drag her back with him using Rashomon. The problem was he hadn't brought anyone along to help him. He hadn't thought it necessary, and he still didn't deem them necessary for this job. Now, he'd have to get a bit creative with this abduction.

It started with him shuffling closer to her, quietly and discreetly. He could have dragged her off the streets, kicking and screaming. There were two issues with that plan that stopped him:

Rashomon would diminish his energy

The Port Mafia was constantly on thin ice, and a flashy abduction would get him into trouble

Rashomon curled around his fingertips, and he got closer to the woman. He didn't even have to lay his hands on her. His ability stretched slowly, pricking the woman's side. She didn't scream, she only stiffened next to him. "Make a scene, and I'll kill you. Understand?" She didn't respond. "Understand?" Akutagawa repeated, Rashomon stretching and sticking deeper into her skin, threatening to draw blood. She nodded quickly.

He clicked his tongue boredly at her pitiful surrender. If it was up to him, she'd die right there, his ability through her throat. She should have just died right there for being so weak. However, seeing as how his last job to bring someone in alive had failed, he wasn't feeling bold enough to test Mori's limits.

Rashomon wrapped around his prisoner's waist, ensuring that she couldn't run. He pulled her into an alley. The car would come along any minute to pick them up. Now he just had to wait. The woman didn't seem to try to put up much of a fight. Her eyes stared ahead, tired, frightened, and dead.

"You could have tried to do something," Akutagawa muttered. Though her lack of resistance made his job easier, some part of his brain begged for the adrenaline of a fight. A real fight.

"Why are you taking me?" The woman asked in a small voice.

"Orders." He let Rashomon recede. His captive slumped against a brick wall, her hand protectively placed over the spot where his ability had nearly broken skin. "That's the only reason I didn't gut you like a fish on the street."

They waited a bit longer. He turned his back on the trembling woman. She wasn't worth watching carefully. There was little she could do to escape. Where was the car? This was taking too long. The more time this abduction took, the higher his chances of getting stopped were.

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure the captive hadn't gone into shock or anything like that. She frantically typed something into her cell phone, probably trying to send for help. Rashomon pierced the phone, the point hovering millimeters from her carotid artery. The broken device dropped from her hands. "That was very stupid," he said calmly as Rashomon lowered and pricked her shoulder. Blood formed a nearly black circle on her green shirt.

He grabbed her throat, pulling her up and holding her so her feet just brushed the ground. "I was ordered to bring you in alive and unharmed. Do you know how difficult you're making that for me?" His grip tightened. "We have a great doctor in the Port Mafia. I'm sure he could fix a few broken bones and a few lacerations."

The woman didn't struggle in his grip. She took a strangled breath in and smiled.

"What's so funny?" Akutagawa asked, eyes narrowing. He loosened his grip so she could get a word out.

"You didn't think this through," she choked out.

"What?"

He felt her swallow hard under his fingers. "I may not be a very powerful ability user," she began hoarsely. "I'm not in any organizations and I don't have powerful friends." She was struggling to speak. She would start going cyanotic if his hand stayed around her throat. "But I'm not completely defenseless." Her hands reached to grip Akutagawa's wrist.

It was as though an electric shock tore through his body. He cursed and dropped her. She coughed, covering her neck with a hand. She forced a smile. "My ability: Forever Young." A purple glow engulfed Akutagawa. The soft light shining from his body burned. It felt like he'd crawled into a stone oven. "I only use it for defense," she rubbed her bruised neck. "You kind of brought this on yourself."

The pain intensified, Akutagawa groaned. His bones were snapping, shrinking in on themselves. He groaned as his energy diminished into the purple light around him. He was shrinking. His memories faded. One moment they were there, the next they weren't, and he was left with only the understanding that he'd lost something. The world blurred beyond his recognition so it looked like nothing but a confusing mix of colors. Then, everything went black.

Atsushi tensed as the tiger's sense of smell picked up a scent in the air.

"What is it?" Kyouka asked from next to him, noticing his sudden stillness. Her hand slipped down to her concealed blade in her kimono.

"I'm pretty sure Akutagawa is around." Atsushi's eyes narrowed. "I don't know what he plans to do, but…" He didn't need to say anything more. It hardly matter what he planned to do. Given Akutagawa's line of work, it was very probably that someone would die.

He tensed again. "I smell blood." Atsushi took off running before either of them had time to formulate any sort of plan. It was a spur of the moment thing. As he kept running, the stench of blood got stronger. It led him to an alley.

"My ability: Forever Young." A dark haired, dark eyed woman said as Akutagawa writhed on the floor. "I only use it for defense," she said, taking a step away from him. Then with a shrug she added, "You kind of brought this on yourself." She was bleeding from her shoulder, her throat was bruised, and she seemed have a stiff walk, but all things considered, she seemed fine. "Excuse me," she muttered distractedly as she bumped into Atsushi.

"W-where are you going?" Atsushi asked, reaching out to grab her arm. He glanced at Akutagawa, who seemed to be… Shrink? Yes, he was getting smaller, groaning in agony. "What did you do to him?" He said softly, staring at his enemy. He hated Akutagawa, but there was something that seemed to tear into his chest as he just watched him suffer on the ground.

The woman pulled away. "Well, I'm heading to the clinic to get medical attention before I get weak from blood loss." She clutched her wounded shoulder, and walked backwards. "You might want to take care of your friend. He's going to be out of it when the light show is over." She gestured to purple glow surrounding Akutagawa.

"He's not my frie-" Atsushi began, but the woman was already leaving, weaving her way through the crowd. He blinked. How could someone disappear that quickly? He put her in the back of his mind when he heard a blood curdling scream.

Kyouka sat four feet away from Akutagawa as though she was afraid to be too close to him.

"Akutagawa," Atsushi said over the yells of pain. "Akutagawa, can you hear me?" He asked urgently, not knowing what else to do. He rolled his enemy onto his back. Akutagawa looked… younger. He looked smaller. With a final, terrible cry of pain, the soft purple glow around him intensified into a blinding burst of light.

The detectives shielded their eyes, practically holding their breaths until the light died down. The light faded, and Atsushi released a breath. He looked at the girl next to him. "Are you alright, Kyouka?" No response. "Kyouka?" Atsushi asked again, trying to blink away the after images. The girl was staring ahead, open mouthed. She said nothing, only pointed to what she was looking at.

Atsushi's eyes followed her finger. He gasped and his eyes widened. In the place where Akutagawa had been writhing in pain, a child between the ages of four and six laid, curled up on his side. His breaths came out evenly, aside from a few gags or coughs in his sleep. He seemed buried in his clothes, the coat acting as a blanket. Atsushi squinted at the boy.

"It can't be," he whispered under his breath.

Kyouka frowned. "It looks like him." She gingerly prodded the child's cheek. He didn't wake up. "Do you think he's okay?" A soon a she'd said that, the boy coughed up blood, but remained asleep.

"That can't be good," Atsushi said, reaching for the child. "We can let take him up."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? He's tried to kill us several times."

Atsushi shrugged. "He's small, and it looks like he'll be out for awhile. I think we can risk it." He situated Akutagawa on his back, pretending not notice Kyouka's glare of disapproval. He made it another another minute before he broke under her intense gaze. "Kyouka, please stop giving me that look. Listen, I don't like him either, but we can't just leave him defenseless here. It doesn't feel right."

Sorry if that first chapter was boring. I felt like I had to explain what happened and let Atsushi and Kyouka see it happen. Just so we all know it's Akutagawa. The OC is here strictly to move the story along. She doesn't show up much.

I'm really excited to write more chapters of this!

Thank you for reading! Please review!