2. Ruptured: My Brother's Keeper

Yoh's friends know his brother is very protective of him, but a random encounter one afternoon teaches them Hao's definition of the word.

My Brother's Keeper

The restaurant was oddly crowded for mid morning. Manta was barely able to secure his friends a table, and much to Ryu's disgust the booths were full. The rectangular table had five chairs surrounding it with one chair on the end facing the window. Ren decided to sit in this chair because he didn't want to sit next to the other men and enjoyed watching people pass by on the sidewalk outside of the establishment. Manta sat to the left of him, since he had no preference, and Ryu sat beside Manta near the window. Horo sat directly across from Manta, and Lyserg opted to sit near the window across from Ryu. He wanted to sit as far away from Ren as possible, and his friends did not protest the action.

"I'm so hungry," Horo moaned as he rubbed his stomach.

"This may take forever," Ryu replied. "Why are they so busy today?"

"We can go somewhere else," Manta suggested. "Maybe somewhere less crowded."

"We're here now," Ren said sternly. "Deal with it."

"So where's Yoh?" Ryu asked. "Manta, I thought you said he was coming?"

"Oh, no," he sighed. "He had to do something with his brother today."

Silence enveloped the table with an uncomfortable tension, and Manta frowned.

"Why do you always do that when I mention Hao?" He was directing the question at all of them but staring at Lyserg's grave expression.

"Honestly," Ryu said weakly, "that guy bothers me. I can't even tell you why."

"I can tell you why," Horo added quickly. "He's creepy."

"Oh, I don't know," Manta rebutted. "I've met him a few times, and he seems nice."

"He's overprotective," Lyserg said calmly. "Extremely overprotective."

"Of Yoh?" Manta frowned.

"You haven't noticed?" Horo sighed. "He's borderline possessive. And, it's creepy."

Ren didn't respond but narrowed his eyes as he stared out of the window. His friends knew his opinion of Hao; he didn't have to tell them. As much as he liked Yoh, he hated his brother. And, that would probably never change.

"Yoh's his brother," Manta countered. "I mean, you're protective of Pirika too."

"Yeah, but," Horo rolled his eyes, "Pirika's my little sister. And, she's a girl. Yoh and Hao are twins. He's, what, two minutes older than Yoh? And, Yoh's a guy. It just doesn't make any sense to me."

"That's not what bothers me about him," Ryu said, slightly altering the focus of the subject. "He's too calm."

"How is that a bad thing?" Manta frowned.

"When someone is that calm," Lyserg explained, "they're extremely unpredictable. You don't know what they're thinking or feeling. That can be dangerous."

"It makes me uncomfortable," Ryu added. "He's never happy, sad, angry or anything. It's just this calmness. It's-"

"Creepy," Horo groaned.

"It's not calmness," Ren said finally. "It's arrogance."

The sudden noise of background chatter filled their table as they stared at him in silence.

"He's an arrogant bastard who hasn't met his match yet," he continued with slight irritation. "That's all there is to it."

"I don't know why you hate him so much," Horo teased. "You two are just alike."

"I'm nothing like that man," he seethed.

"Are you kidding?" Ryu complained. "If this is arrogance with him, he's a mirror image of you. You're the most arrogant man I know."

Manta giggled at the comment and scratched his head. Lyserg stared out of the window with a frown. He noticed the man entering the restaurant with a quickened pace but didn't say anything.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Ren groaned. "Let's look at this menu."

"I think he hates Hao because he's intimidated by him," Horo whispered.

"Yeah," Manta agreed.

"Men don't intimidate me," Ren growled. "Don't be ridiculous. If I wanted to-"

"Hao," Lyserg interrupted weakly.

"What?" Ryu asked with a frown.

No one saw him approach the table until he was standing beside Ren. His long auburn hair crashed against his back with escaping strands onto his shoulders. He didn't speak, nor did he address anyone at the table. But, with one swift motion he grabbed a large section of Ren's hair and twisted the violet strands aggressively until he was falling out of the chair.

Manta gasped at the violent display but the others seemed caught in a frozen trance as Ren was dragged ruthlessly out of the restaurant. Hao was holding him with one hand, which seemed abnormally strong, and Ren couldn't seem to free himself despite his kicking and punching the air.

After brief seconds of hesitation, Ryu jumped up from his seat and ran outside after them. The others followed after the shock began to wear off, and Lyserg was the last to leave. The restaurant patrons stared at him in horror; some were whispering and gasping, and others were leaning against the windows to watch the fight.

When Lyserg arrived outside the others were huddled around with horrified looks on their faces. Hao had been kicking and stomping Ren in the head, chest, back and stomach repeatedly, and each blow was increasingly stronger than the one before it. No one had the will to stop it, however. They were too afraid.

It was a fear they all resented, but for some reason it could not be shaken.

"Hao, stop it!"

Her voice startled them, but they didn't turn to see her. Hao paused momentarily after kicking Ren in the face and stared at her.

"Anna, I told you to wait in the car," he said calmly.

"Stop this!" she demanded. "What are you doing?"

Ren curled his knees into his chest and rested his hand flat against the pavement. The pain in his body was unbearable, and he groaned weakly as he slowly licked drops of blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Hao, I told you let it go," she growled. "I told you to stay out of it-"

"Get back in the car, Anna," he interrupted coldly. "Now."

Manta stared at him with widened eyes and held his breath. No one ever talked to Anna like that and got away with it. Surely this was going to be the end of his life.

She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes briefly before abruptly walking away. Manta, Ryu and Horo gasped simultaneously. This was impossible. It was simply unheard of. Why was she being so obedient? This made absolutely no sense. Was Hao so powerful that he intimidated everyone, including Anna?

Hao silenced their random thoughts by pushing Ren's face against the pavement and holding it securely with his foot. His face flushed burgundy from the pressure, and he moaned weakly beneath him.

"Listen to me very carefully, Tao." Hao's voice was incredibly calm despite the circumstance. "Anna is my brother's fiancè. I don't think you understand that concept, so allow me to explain it."

He pushed his foot further into the side of Ren's face, and he screamed from the pain. Manta held his breath and covered his mouth with his hand.

"If you ever touch her again," he bent over and released more of his body weight into the move, "say anything to her, or look at her in any way I don't like, I'll kill you. Do you understand me?"

Ren mumbled something inaudible under his breath. Hao stood abruptly, removing his foot. The pause was brief; he kicked him in the face, and he fell onto his back hard against the pavement. Gasps in the background didn't disturb his movements as he stood over him and leaned into his face, pulling a knife out of his pocket.

"We have to stop this," Ryu said finally but was ignored.

Hao slashed the sharp blade against his chest in a merciless display, opening a diagonal wound from the middle of his torso to his left shoulder. Ren screamed involuntarily from the piercing slice and widely opened his eyes.

Manta fell to his knees and stared at them in terror. Horo and Ryu seemed caught in the same awful trance, and Horo's limbs began to tremble. Lyserg's blank expression did not change, and his arms were now folded over his chest.

"I hope you were paying attention, Tao. I won't repeat it."

There was something about the way Ren's name rolled off of his tongue that was menacing and terrifying. He even flinched when Hao spoke to him again, and his eyes began to fill with tears.

"When you decide to cross Yoh, you cross me. Do you understand?"

"Yes," he said weakly after a few seconds of silence.

"Good," Hao replied cheerfully and tapped his forehead playfully with his hand. "Have a nice day."

He smiled at him and walked away, but Ren was unable to move from his position against the pavement. Horo, Ryu and Manta stared at Hao with shocked expressions of horror, but he did not address their discomfort.

"Hi, Manta," he said warmly. "Nice seeing you again."

"Hao," Manta replied timidly.

"We're going for ice cream," Hao added. "Why don't you come with us?"

"Okay," he whispered.

He couldn't say no; he was too afraid to refuse.

"Great," he smiled. "Let's go."

Manta stood slowly, realizing he was still on his knees. Horo motioned for him not to move, mouthing the words, "He's crazy" silently. Hao paused momentarily and randomly kicked Ren in his side. Ren closed his eyes and seemed to be losing consciousness, but Hao walked away from the bloodied man casually. Manta followed him reluctantly, and no one moved until they were a sizable distance away. Ryu ran quickly to Ren's side and tried helping him sit up. Horo pulled out his keys and rambled about hospitals and the police.

Lyserg was the only one who didn't move. He stared at them without changing his vague expression, and after a few moments of pause a small smirk covered his lips. This was probably a bad reaction to have, but he simply couldn't help the irony. And, there was an obvious point they all seemed to be missing.

Ren deserved this beating in Lyserg's mind. He had it coming for months and-

"It's about time."