A/N:I recently watched the anime, and am in the process of reading the manga and novel. I love this story. I hope I can do it justice. Updates will be sporadic. School and work will make me unable to update as much as I would want to... Anyway, I hope this fandom grows bigger! No.6 is really amazing and it's a shame there isn't a lot of fanfiction for it.
His eyes were foggy, and wouldn't focus. His head was heavy, and he was hungry. Where... am I?
"Rat. Rat. Rat! Rat!" Hm? A rat? Where? Maybe I can catch it... and it eat... He was too tired to lift his head, though. Somewhere above him, the mantra of 'Rat!' continued. Someone catch the damn thing already.
The tone of the voice was harsh and gravelly; the hand was rough in his hair. "Rat, get up!"
Me?
"Huh..." he groaned, his head spinning. He tried to look up, but the hand in his hair refused to give, and he was too weak to fight it.
"Get up, I said!" The hand clasping his hair began to tug, pulling out loose strands and causing a sharp jolt of pain to go through him. This woke him up a little.
"Oi... what're you tryin' to do to me..." he gasped out, reaching above him to try and untangle the fist from his hair.
"Oh, so you're awake.." A softer, but no less deep voice said. From what the nameless boy could perceive, he was farther away than the man who currently had a fistful of his hair.
"The least you could do is help me out here..." the boy muttered.
"Hm? What was that, you rat?" The man asked, shaking his fist and pulling more of the boys hair.
"Oi! Stop it! I'm awake, I'm awake!" To prove his point the boy tried to sit further up, and that was when, thankfully, the man sitting farther away with the softer voice said, "Let him go, Ji."
The rough hand untangled itself from the boys hair, and he breathed a sigh of release. "Don't sigh from the bottom of you heart. Sighing opens up a crevice to let the devil in." The man with the not-so-soft anymore voice commanded. The boy looked up at the man for the first time, and saw that it was a middle-aged man with white hair. "What's your name, boy?"
"I don't remember."
"Then I'll call you 'Nezumi'. It's softer sounding than 'Rat'." The man said, waving a dismissive hand. He then turned to the man that had woken 'Nezumi' up (he saw that he was a brute of a man with balding hair, tiny eyes, and an official-looking suit). "Feed the kid. I can't have a conversation with him unless he's had something to fill that tiny body of his."
"Wait, where am I? Where's my family?" Nezumi cried out before the brute of a man could drag him away.
"That doesn't concern you anymore. Forget them." The white haired man said.
"How can I forget about my mother?! My father?!" Nezumi screamed. The man started pulling him away. "I won't! I won't!" Nezumi kicked and screamed all the way down the corridors until they reached what looked like a too-clean kitchen.
"Sit." The brute-in-a-suit ordered. Nezumi bit the inside of his cheeks and crossed his arms stubbornly. "Sit, you rat!" The man kicked the backs of Nezumi's knees, causing the boy to topple over. "There, now you can't stand. Sit."
Nezumi tasted blood in his mouth and spit, grudgingly sitting down. The man started rummaging through the white cabinets and taking various foods out. Where am I? Nezumi thought, looking around the white kitchen. Where's the forest?
A sudden memory shot through Nezumi's mind of being gunned down in the meadow just outside of his burning village. Men in uniforms were all around him holding guns and flame-throwers.
Those men... they killed my family! They burned down my village, and the forest! Nezumi half growled, half whimpered, a feeling of complete loss washing over him. Mom... Dad... I can't even remember your faces...
Sudden determination surged up into Nezumi. I will find the people who did this to you and kill them all! They're all dead!
"Here, rat." The man threw down a plate of stale bread, cheese, and dried beef. "You better eat up."
Nezumi looked down at his plate, thinking furiously. I have to get out of here, I have to avenge my village, I have to- "So, rat, how old are ya?"
Nezumi looked up from his plate, his gaze focused right over the mans shoulder. "I'm 11-" Right there, behind the man, was a rack of knives. If I had a knife, I could... "-I need a knife."
"Huh?"
"A knife to cut my bread."
The man muttered something about, "Kid's too weak to even eat his bread without help... tch..." but regardless, he still got up and took a smaller knife from the rack. "Be careful with this," the man warned, "the blade isn't dull."
Nezumi thanked everything in the universe that this man was stupid enough to give a child a sharp knife. Maybe it's because I look like a girl. Nezumi mused. He gripped the knife tight in his fist, quickly forming a plan in his mind on how to escape. He had noticed that the man had a key in his breast pocket when he came back from getting Nezumi a knife. Maybe if he could get the key, and then find out a way to get out, he could escape.
But then a horrifying thought entered his mind. What if these people were involved in killing my family? I have to avenge them!
"So, where are we-"
"Eat." The man ordered. "No talking until you're done."
"I just-"
"Eat."
Nezumi pursed his lips, but obediently picked up the piece of cheese and began nibbling on it.
"There now, that's a good rat." The man laughed. "Eat your cheese like a good little rat you are-" No more small talk. I don't care if this man was involved or not; he's pissing me off!
Nezumi yelled and threw himself at the man, embedding the knife in his throat. His eyes widened at the huge amount of blood that started gushing out, and he felt like he was going to puke.
The man started gargling and reached out for Nezumi, his eyes wide with fear. If he looked on any longer, Nezumi knew he would be sick to his stomach. He grabbed the key out of the mans now blood-soaked pocket and rushed out of the room.
Out in the hallway, no one was there. Nezumi went in the opposite direction that he had come with the man, and hoped that he would find an exit. But as fate would have it, as he rounded the first corner, and man in a suit similar to the one Nezumi had just killed appeared.
"Hey kid! Stop!" Nezumi tried to outrun him, but he was still weak from all the trials he had been through. After a scuffle in the hallway, Nezumi was detained. He didn't really remember much after that, only that he had been moved to a government building and he never saw the white haired man again.