Disclaimer: I own none of these characters.

/The Six-year-old Promise/

PART 2

Kanda woke up with a hoarse throat and an aching back and neck. His eyes darted at the unfamiliarity of the place and he almost bit his lips when he finally realized where he was – he was lying in an old dumpster! He scampered on his feet, feeling revolted at the thought that he spent hours in this grubby place. The place was vacant except for an empty box lying not too far away from where he woke up. Kanda immediately looked for his bag and coat, slung it on his shoulder and ran away from the place; his mind was racing while his body was freezing in cold. What was he doing there? He remembered taking a detour after school... he remembered the snow suddenly pouring... and yet he couldn't remember anything other than that.

Kanda sighed as he hurried his steps. He couldn't wait to get into the tub. He really needed a thorough bath.

† † † † †

"Welcome home, Yuu-chan." It was his father. Kanda just nodded at him before walking to his room. "There's a hot soup in the kitchen." He heard the old man said before he closed the door. "I'll eat later, Dad!" Kanda shouted. He looked himself in the mirror and remembered the filth in the old dumpster and shivered. He still didn't have any clue as to why he was sleeping there. Shaking his head in distress and annoyance, Kanda immediately took off his clothes and stepped inside his small bathroom as he waited for the water in the tub to get hot.

He sighed in comfort as the hot water swallowed his whole body. He moved his neck left and right, feeling the stiffness of his every move. He massaged his shoulder, his arms, and straightened his back as he washed his hair with shampoo. It felt great. He could feel the grub on his body being washed away by the clean water as his mind slowly drifted away. He tried so hard to remember the bits and pieces of what happened that afternoon. He closed his eyes.

There was a man.

And a dog.

Kanda opened his eyes and stared at the steam on the ceiling of the bathroom.

A dog. He could remember something about a dog. He remembered seeing it though he wasn't really sure if he was really awake then or just dreaming. And the man... he didn't remember much about the man. Maybe it was just a random person he met in the shopping district. He did go there after school, bought bread that he ate while he was walking home. Kanda splashed his face with warm water and groaned. Why couldn't he remember anything? And he thought it was weird enough that he found himself unconscious in some random dumpster...

† † † † †

"Just like it says, factoring by grouping means that you will group terms with common factors before factoring. This is done by grouping a pair of terms. Then, factor each pair of two terms..."

Kanda wasn't listening.

He was staring outside the window; his eyes were glazed with immeasurable boredom. He saw his classmates taking down notes, listening intently to the teacher speaking in front but he couldn't focus.

There was something that was missing... and he could feel it.

Something of great importance.

He closed his eyes and let the cold wind play on his strands.

It was already two days ago since that incident in the dumpster and he still couldn't remember anything.

There were snippets... but they weren't clear enough. Last night, he remembered being wobbly that afternoon and someone rushed beside him, helping him. He couldn't even know if it was a woman or a man, a kid, whatever... but he remembered feeling warm to the voice – as if it was lulling him to sleep. Don't worry, you'll be alright... But that was it. He couldn't remember what happened next or who was it that helped him be back on his feet.

And even now, he didn't know why it was so important that he remembered what happened back then. It was so weird.

His half-opened eyes suddenly found a running white dog in front of their school gate. It was being chased by a weird, pale man wearing nothing but a thin shirt and a denim pants. Kanda raised an eyebrow. The snow was so thick outside and wearing thin clothing like was a direct suicide. He must have been an idiot, Kanda thought. The dog, though seemingly running away from the man, stopped when the man chasing him, fell flat on his face.

Kanda winced. He thought he almost heard the man groan.

The man's body was now half-covered in snow.

He saw the dog ran back to the fallen idiot and started licking his face.

A small smile lit on Kanda's face.

The weird man suddenly glomped the unknowing dog and embraced it – well, squished was more like it.

"KANDA-KUN!"

Kanda lazily stared at the owner of the voice.

"It seems like you aren't listening again, Kanda-kun?" It was their big-breasted teacher. Kanda could tell that she didn't really like him as a student probably because of that incident at the start of the school year where he pointed out a wrong formula that she used in one of her discussions. Well, the feeling was mutual. He didn't stupid people like her, too.

"I'm listening," Kanda icily said.

The teacher scoffed. An opportunity to shame the most brilliant but pompous kid in the block was shining on her eyes.

Listening... my ass!

"Well," she started. "If you're saying true... then who was the famous mathematician considered as a major player in the development of modern mathematics?"

She smirked; her blood was pumping excitedly when Kanda remained silent for a few seconds.

Hah! Serves you right, you uncouth child!

She was about to say something when the raven haired kid gently spoke, his eyes were being hidden by his locks.

"It's Fibonacci," Kanda smoothly answered like he knew it all along. The teacher gritted her teeth. Little did she know that Kanda wasn't even done with his explanation. The terror that was Kanda Yuu wasn't even done with his little mischief.

"Blgollo, also known as Leonardo Fibonacci, is perhaps one of the middle ages greatest mathematicians." Kanda began to smile to widely and the whole classroom felt the coldness that was sipping through his mouth. "Living from 1170 to 1250, he is best known for introducing the infamous Fibonacci Series to the western world. Although known to Indian mathematicians since approximately 200 BC, it was, nonetheless, a truly insightful sequence, appearing in biological systems frequently. In addition, from this, Fibonacci also contributed greatly to the introduction of the Arabic numbering system. Something he is often forgotten for."

The big-breasted teacher was blown to pieces when Kanda titled his head and asked, "Am I right, Teacher?"

Kanda knew that she was discussing about factoring a while ago and that Fibonacci had nothing do to with their topic. The question was obviously a trap to humiliate a kind-hearted kid like him and he just shoved it down her sorry ass for answering it correctly.

Trembling with humiliation and anger, the defeated lecturer indignantly turned her back to the little devil and continued her discussion like nothing happened.

That's right, Kanda scoffed as he turned his head back outside the window again. Leave me alone. The man was still there outside the opened gate together with the adorable dog.

Kanda blinked as he studied the stranger with curious eyes. He wondered how he could take the blizzard outside with only those thin clothing donned on him. And he doesn't even have a jacket. Glancing on the man's feet, Kanda shook his head. The man wasn't even wearing a boots! It was just those strappy sandals you wear in the middle of summer.

He looked for any sign of frostbite on the man's pale skin but Kanda was just too far away to actually see it.

The dog, which was licking the man a while ago, was now, again, running away from his 'master'. Kanda watched as the man tried to stand with so much difficultly and ran towards his escaping pet.

Kanda's eyes soften as a gentle smile found its way to his face.

† † † † †

That afternoon, he decided to go home early and take a bath again. His body, for some unknown reason, was still feeling sluggishly tired even after a whole night rest last night. It was weird, given his high tolerance for fatigue. He was a game addict and being devoted almost 24/7 to playing nonstop RPGs and whatnots gave him a sky-scraping tolerance for staying late at night. But why was he still felt so tired after sleeping early yesterday? Kanda scrubbed his neck as he closed his eyes. It probably had to do with his little stunt last week. Her parents were out of the town for the whole week and well, he was tempted, you know. Damn... playing nonstop for straight two days was now, he believed, taking its toll in his body.

A twinge suddenly reverberated on his body when he hit something at the back of his neck while absentmindedly scrubbing. His fingers found their way on the aching skin, as he tried to determine what was causing the mild pain. He felt two small bumps on his neck and sighed. Maybe it was an insect bite or something, he thought. He had to apply some ointment on it later after he finished his bath.

† † † † †

Kanda was wrapping his almost shoulder length hair in front of the bathroom's mirror when he finally saw it. Two, small punctured wound was adorning his neck. They were almost closed at the back of his ears and they were very red. He immediately felt it with his fingers and immediately felt the bumps on it like what he first felt when he touched it minutes ago. Kanda's fingers began to shake a little as he tried to reason out the iffy thing that was happening to him at the moment. He swallowed as he looked at the punctured wounds again. These didn't look like insect bites at all. An insect bite weren't this prominent... weren't this big.

Kanda didn't want to admit it but they almost looked like they were made by some huge animal, a size of a grown human, with two, dangerously pointed pangs.

He looked at his reflection on the mirror and he almost hated himself for showing these kinds of emotion –something he was sure had never felt before:

Terror and fright.

† † † † †

A/N: I'm so sorry for the very late update... I don't know what happened to me, but I was kind of sluggish these past few weeks (again) and I stopped writing anything – or I couldn't write anything, to be exact. I just watched anime like One Piece, Attack on Titans, UtaPri, and Karneval and read my favorite mangas. Maybe it was fatigue or... whatever. But, hey, now I am freaking back again and I would like to thank those who read the last chapters and reviewed. For those who were kind of confused by the dates and the timeline of this story, don't worry, my lovelies... :) It was intentional! (coughing so hard for half-lying)

To Ami: A-anoo... I already changed the year mistake. So, basically, Allen and Kanda first met in December 1991. There was a seven-year gap from the current story, which was September 1998, right? Well, let's just say that the back-story between Allen and Kanda really happened in year 1992 where Allen left, quite obviously, in September-October of the same year. Why am I telling this? Because I am so bad with dates, as you probably know by now, that I tend to forget where I left off. So, this was also kind of a reminder for me. :) So, there. Sorry for the confusion.

To my lovely guest: Hey, no worries. I actually love it when my readers ask these kinds of questions. I lovingly accept them all with open arms! It only means that the story was interesting enough to work yourself up and think. It means you are not just reading. You are reading and at the same time, absorbing the story.

And yey! I am commending you for noticing that detail. Anyway, you are, indeed, right when you said that Allen, based on the date on the first chapter, should be more than 3000 years old by now. But that was intentional. You will know more about it as the story progresses. :)