Mismatch 4
Crossover fanfic; Obey Me x Tokyo Debunker .✦ ݁˖
Author's Note:
─ Yesssss, another post not long after the previous one. I'm too sleep-deprived now, any error, mistakes, or inconsistency (you name it) would probably be edited after I have enough sleep. goodnight!!
─ Today's fic: OM! MC still tries to blend in to Darkwick without anyone noticing, but it seems very hard, and no one wants to really point it out directly to her, which makes her more agitated in fear and anxiety. And what's worse than that? Leo
─ Taglist; @gulaaren-123 (please dm me to be added or removed, ty)
─ MASTERLIST [ Mismatch; (1) | (2) | (3) ]
It was Leo.
Unlike most people she'd met at Darkwick, Leo gave her the distinct impression that noticing things wasn't a skill.
It was a hobby. A hobby he enjoyed far too much.
"Interesting?" she repeated carefully.
Leo smiled. Immediately, her level of concern doubled. "You looked startled."
"I almost walked into you."
"You almost did something else too."
Oh no. Her heartbeat immediately sped up.
Not visibly. Years of surviving Lucifer's scrutiny had trained that out of her. Internally, however, every alarm she possessed began activating simultaneously.
Did he notice? No. Impossible.
The spell hadn't even formed. The magic barely manifested. Nobody should have sensed anything, especially not someone from this world.
Right?
Unfortunately, confidence became difficult to maintain when Leo continued staring at her like she'd just become the most interesting thing he'd seen all day.
Which, given this was Leo, wasn't reassuring.
She folded her arms. Mostly because it gave her something to do. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Hm." That single syllable somehow communicated complete disbelief.
Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
The conversation had existed for less than a minute, and she already wanted to leave. Unfortunately, Leo seemed perfectly content keeping her there, which she doesn't understand. Actually, now that she looked closer—
He seemed unusually cheerful.
This immediately made her suspicious because she didn't know Leo particularly well. What she did know came mostly from observation. And one conclusion had become abundantly clear.
Leo in a good mood was probably bad news for everyone else.
The same way Mammon smiles near expensive objects. Or Belphegor smiling near unsecured plans. Or Solomon smiling in general. Nothing good ever followed.
"...Why are you smiling?"
Leo blinked, then smiled wider. Mistake, that was a mistake. She should not have asked. "I didn't realize that bothered you."
"It concerns me."
Leo snickered, which somehow confirmed every concern she had. "Maybe I learned something interesting recently."
Her stomach tightened immediately. Not because of what he'd said, but because of who had said it.
Over the past week, she'd learned enough about Leo to understand that information wasn't something he merely collected. He enjoyed it. Pulled it apart. Examined it from different angles. Poked at it just to see what happened. The man treated secrets the way some people treated puzzles.
Which would normally be irritating. Right now it’s terrifying.
The panic arrived first. Logic followed several seconds later.
Because Leo's stigma existed.
And she knew that.
She knew enough about Dark Wick and the ghouls by now to understand that Leo wasn't simply observant. His stigma let him hear things ordinary people couldn't. Snippets. Fragments. Hidden details. Information people weren't supposed to know. Information like—
Her pulse jumped again. No. Stop.
The panic immediately started losing ground the moment she forced herself to remember.
Every conversation, the important one, the dangerous one. All of their conversation, actually. She'd been using concealment spells, Leo shouldn't have heard anything.
Nobody should have. Which meant she was panicking over nothing. Probably. Hopefully.
Leo continued watching her. The silence itself felt deliberate. Like he was waiting.
For what?
A flinch? A mistake? A confession?
The realization settled unpleasantly in her stomach. He was looking for a reaction.
"...Interesting?" she asked carefully.
"Alan came back in a terrible mood yesterday," Leo hummed, a very annoying noise. "Apparently, he'd gone all the way to Frostheim for something. Next thing I know, he's stomping around looking like he wants to punch a wall. I heard Jin was involved somehow."
Another baited hook. Which was exactly why she refused to react.
The mention of Jin had caught her attention. She knew it had. The memory of that argument she'd witnessed while following Lucas and Kaito surfaced immediately.
Jin looked angrier than she'd ever seen him. Tohma is looking equally unwilling to back down. At the time, she'd only caught fragments. Enough to understand they were fighting. Not enough to understand why.
Was that connected?
Her stomach sank. Leo was watching her again, watching far too closely. And suddenly she understood.
Oh. Oh, he was fishing.
The realization hit with enough force that she almost laughed. Not because it was funny, but because it was irritating.
The annoying part? It was working.
Because she genuinely wanted to know what happened between Jin and Tohma. Unfortunately, wanting to know and letting Leo know she wanted to know were two completely different things.
"That sounds unfortunate," she said.
"Hm." That was all he said. Just that single syllable. And somehow it was infuriating. "You know, I couldn't hear much."
His tone seemed to imply that it was bothering him, but the expression on his face didn't match his tone of voice. If anything, he seemed entertained. Which was exactly why she didn't trust it.
"I hate when my stigma cuts out at the interesting parts. And that Himbo was no help. Every time I asked, he got annoyed. Which is rude." For someone supposedly complaining about Alan's mood, Leo looked far too pleased with himself.
She stared at him. "You were literally trying to listen to something that wasn't your business."
"Exactly."
The answer came immediately. Without hesitation. Without shame. Without even a hint of self-awareness. She honestly didn't know why she expected otherwise.
Leo crossed his arms. "I was gathering information."
"That's called eavesdropping."
The problem was that Leo said it with the same tone somebody might use when explaining basic arithmetic. Completely unbothered.
As if the distinction between "gathering information" and "eavesdropping" existed only for people who enjoyed making life unnecessarily complicated.
For a moment, he looked genuinely confused by her objection, then he shrugged. "You know what, I think eavesdropping sounds cooler, actually."
Of course he did.
She should've known arguing with Leo was a waste of energy. The man would probably argue that gravity was optional if it annoyed enough people.
"You know," Leo continued, seemingly abandoning the topic entirely, "I was expecting something way more interesting."
Immediately suspicious, she narrowed her eyes. "About what?"
"You."
Every conversation involving Leo felt like accidentally stepping into a trap you couldn't see. The worst part was that half the time she wasn't even sure he knew where the trap was either.
He just enjoyed throwing things onto the floor and seeing what somebody stepped on.
"What about me?"
Leo hummed. A long, thoughtful sound.
The kind people make when deciding whether or not they should say something. Unfortunately, Leo had never seemed particularly burdened by such decisions.
"You've been weird lately."
Her heart dropped. There it is. The thing she'd been waiting for. The thing she'd been dreading. The thing that apparently every person in Darkwick had collectively decided to notice.
Fortunately, panic has become familiar territory recently. And familiar territory was easier to navigate.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"See?" Leo pointed at her immediately. "That's weird."
"...What?"
"Normally you'd ask who."
The response came so fast she almost missed it.
Leo looked pleased. Like he'd found an unexpected piece while assembling a puzzle. She felt a flicker of alarm. Small. Sharp. Dangerous.
"You remember stuff like that?"
"NPC, I remember everything."
The nickname somehow sounded less insulting and more matter-of-fact when it came from him. Which honestly wasn't better. But considering Leo's personality, maybe that made sense.
The original MC had spent years helping everyone. Showing up whenever somebody needed something.
Fixing problems.
Running errands.
Supporting people.
Being available.
Being reliable.
Being there. Always there.
The role itself practically encouraged becoming part of the background.
The person everyone relied on. The person nobody really questioned. And she supposed from Leo's perspective—
Someone suddenly developing stronger opinions probably would seem strange. But the realization didn't make her feel better.
Leo leaned slightly against the wall.
Not blocking her path. Not trapping her. Yet somehow making it impossible to leave naturally.
"I mean, usually you'd ask."
"Ask what?"
" 'Who said that?' " His voice shifted slightly as he mimicked the conversation.
" 'When?' " Another gesture.
" 'What exactly did they say?' " Another.
" 'Why do they think that?' " He dropped his hand.
"You skipped all that." The smile returned. "You accepted it really fast."
For one horrifying second she wondered if she'd actually made a mistake. Then she stopped herself.
No.
Because the more she thought about it, the more obvious the pattern became. Leo wasn't presenting evidence. He was collecting reactions. The same thing he'd been doing since the conversation started.
He noticed something. He said it. Then watched.
If somebody reacted, great. If they didn't, he moved on and found something else.
She'd spent enough time around manipulative people to recognize when somebody was deliberately steering a conversation like this one.
Solomon did it. Asmodeus did it. Diavolo occasionally did it while pretending he wasn't.
Leo was doing it now.
The difference was that Leo wasn't trying to guide the conversation toward a specific conclusion.
He was watching. Testing.
Dropping pieces onto a board and seeing which ones made people react.
And suddenly she understood why he made her nervous.
Unlike people such as Romeo or Jin, who approached problems directly, Leo seemed to enjoy circling around them.
Observing. Collecting information. Finding weak points.
Then smiling while he did it.
"And you know what?"
"What?"
Leo tilted his head. "You could probably get replaced and nobody would notice."
She stared at him. "...Excuse me?"
"I'm serious." A little smirk tugged at his mouth, the kind that made her want to throw something at him. "If Sho suddenly closed his food truck because he got bored of it, everybody would notice."
She hesitated for a second. She wasn't entirely sure how to respond. "That may be a little concerning."
"Exactly." Leo pointed at her. "See? You're getting it."
She wasn't getting anything.
"You disappear for a week, people ask where you went."
A shrug.
"You disappear for a month, people get worried."
Another shrug.
"You get replaced by some weird clone?"
He paused.
"Honestly, I think half the school would still ask you for favors."
Her eye twitched, not because the comment was particularly cruel. Because it wasn't, and that was the problem.
Leo had managed to summarize months of the original MC's existence in a few careless sentences, reducing her to the person everyone called when they needed something.
God, she hated that.
Hated how casually everyone seemed to accept it. How normal it was for people to take and take and take, then act surprised whenever MC wasn't immediately available.
And the worst part? Leo wasn't even wrong.
Leo immediately perked up. "Oh, there it is."
"what is?"
Leo leaned back against the wall. "You never used to look annoyed when people said annoying things."
"I absolutely did."
"No."
The answer came immediately. Like he'd already decided she was wrong before she opened her mouth.
"You looked tired." The correction landed so casually she almost missed it. "You know how old phones look right before they die?"
"...What?"
"You had that vibe."
She blinked. "What does that even mean?"
"It means you looked like somebody running on a three percent battery." The grin returned. "And now you don't."
She hated that comparison.
"Actually, that's what was bothering me."
"Bothering you?"
"Yeah."
His gaze narrowed slightly. "You actually react now."
She frowned. "I reacted before."
"No." The answer came immediately. "You tolerated things before."
A finger lifted.
"You'd smile."
Another.
"Nod."
Another.
"Fix whatever disaster somebody dumped on you."
Another.
"Then disappear."
"Now you look annoyed, you actually push back" His grin widened slightly. "And honestly? It's way more interesting." He looked far too entertained.
Her stomach tightened. Immediately. Because he wasn't wrong. And because he sounded entirely too pleased about it.
Leo gestured vaguely between them. "The old you would've escaped this conversation ages ago."
That caught her off guard. "What?"
"You would've done the polite thing." A hand gesture.
"Smile."
Another.
"Then leave."
His eyes flicked over her face. "But you're still here."
The words weren't accusatory and that's the problem.
If Leo had been accusing her of something, she could've denied it. If he'd been suspicious, she could've laughed it off. If he'd been trying to prove something, she could've picked apart his logic.
But he wasn't doing any of that.
And every casual observation felt like another finger pressing against a bruise she was desperately trying to hide.
Her shoulders locked. Her pulse thudded unpleasantly against her ribs.
Don't react.
Don't react.
Don't—
"Huh." The sound left him suddenly.
Her pulse immediately spiked. "What?"
Leo blinked, then laughed. "Oh wow."
"What?!!"
"You did it again."
Her stomach dropped. "Did what?"
"That face."
"What face?"
"The one where you look like you're trying really hard not to panic."
"..."
"..."
Leo snorted. "There it is."
She hated him.
Leo pushed away from the wall. Still grinning. "You know..."
His voice turned thoughtful. Or at least Leo's version of thoughtful, which mostly sounded like trouble preparing itself.
"The old you was easier." The statement landed strangely. "The old you would've nodded by now. Way less fun, though."
Her stomach tightened.
"You make me sound boring."
"You were boring." The answer came immediately, without hesitation.
Leo grinned. "You were useful."
Somehow that felt even worse.
"You just showed up, solved problems, and disappeared."
That...
Actually sounded disturbingly accurate.
"You didn't argue."
Another point.
"You didn't roll your eyes."
Another.
"You definitely didn't look at me like you're doing right now."
His grin widened. "There it is."
She hated this conversation. She hated it so much. Mostly because she couldn't tell how much of it was nonsense and how much of it was genuine observation.
With Leo, those two things seemed to overlap far too often. Fortunately, she'd already reached her limit.
Lucas. She needed Lucas. Or Kaito. Either one.
Immediately.
Preferably before Leo decided to continue whatever bizarre social experiment he was currently conducting.
So she took a step backward. "I have somewhere to be."
"Frostheim?"
The answer came too fast. Her eyes narrowed immediately.
Leo looked delighted. "Wow."
"..."
"That was a really good reaction."
Damn it. Absolutely damn it.
He laughed again, like the conversation had confirmed something entertaining.
"You're impossible."
"I get that a lot." Leo looked pleased by the response.
Of course, he did. At this point, she was beginning to suspect he treated irritation as a form of positive reinforcement. It's only strengthened her desire to leave.
Preferably before he found another conversational landmine to throw in her direction.
A hand caught her wrist.
The movement happened so suddenly that her body reacted before her mind did. Her muscles tensed. Magic threatened to surge instinctively beneath her skin. For one dangerous second she nearly twisted free on reflex.
"Hey—!!" The word died halfway out.
Not because Leo was holding her particularly hard. Because he wasn't smiling anymore. Even the lazy, careless attitude that seemed permanently attached to him had disappeared.
Leo had leaned slightly closer, his fingers remained loosely wrapped around her wrist. "You know, if somebody ever does replace you..."
Her entire body went cold. For a second she genuinely forgot how to breathe.
"...tell them not to."
Silence.
Her pulse slammed against her ribs. The hallway seemed to disappear. Every sound. Every voice. Every movement.
Gone.
"What?"
She hated him.
Hated how often he stumbled dangerously close to things he shouldn't know. Hated how easily he kept holding on details that everyone else probably tried hard to miss. Hated how impossible it was to tell whether he was joking.
Because he couldn't know.
He couldn't. Nobody knew. Nobody was supposed to know.
Then why did it feel like he was staring directly at the secret lodged inside her chest?
"If somebody steals your spot, puts on your face, starts pretending to be you..." A small frown appeared, like the hypothetical itself offended him. "...they should give it back."
Her heart nearly stopped. "What the hell are you talking about?"
The question came out sharper than intended. Leo ignored it. Or maybe he simply didn't care. Both were equally possible.
His gaze remained fixed on her face. Then, finally, the corner of his mouth lifted. "Because if I find out somebody actually replaced you..." His voice softened. "...I'd find out what happened to you."
A pause.
The smile on his face didn't reach his eyes. "And if they're hiding you, I'd drag you back."
Another pause.
"If they're pretending to be you, I'd make them slip." His fingers tightened ever so slightly around her wrist. "And if they still refused to leave..."
The words came out almost thoughtful. "...I'd stop being nice about it."
Silence stretched between them.
"Actually, scratch that." His grin widened. "I don't think I'd be nice about it at all."
Something cold crawled down her spine.
The words should've sounded ridiculous. They should've sounded like another joke. Instead they sounded horrifyingly sincere.
Not because he knew anything.
Because he sounded like he'd already decided what he'd do if it happened.
The thought terrified her. Because Leo wasn't looking at her like somebody making a joke. He was looking at her like somebody imagining a scenario. And deciding he didn't like it.
Then suddenly he blinked.
The moment shattered. Just like that. The strange intensity vanished, his grin widened. And Leo was Leo again.
"Oh." He laughed. "There it is."
"What is wrong with you?!" The outburst escaped before she could stop it. Several students glanced in their direction.
Leo looked delighted. "See? This never gets boring with that face."
She yanked her wrist free immediately. "You're insane."
"I've heard that one before too." Leo shrugged, completely unconcerned.
Like the last thirty seconds hadn't happened. Like he hadn't just reached into her worst fear and squeezed. She couldn't tell whether he'd meant any of it. Couldn't tell whether he was joking. Couldn't tell whether he was guessing.
The uncertainty followed her even as she turned away. Fast.
Because for the first time since arriving in Darkwick, she wanted only one thing. Find Lucas. Find Kaito.
Immediately.
Before she had time to think about the fact that Leo had just described her exact nightmare without having any possible way of knowing it existed.
⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖ .fin
Early warning: Tbh, I'm still not finished with all the episodes up to the latest update, so I actually have little information to go on while making this (please forgive me if there's any OOC; have mercy). Word count: 3.034