Chapter seven: Coins and a Fox
Zeno yawned having gone to take a walk that he hoped would clear his head. He wished that everything would be fine but it wasn't that way…it wasn't as he hoped. Luka seemed to somewhat be MIA but that was also because he hadn't tried to call her or anything related to that matter; preferring to want to stay silent until she called him and wanted to speak up about how she felt about everything that seemed to be going on between Zeno and Rin. The rage that she expressed to him seemed to be bottled up…like it was something that was being held in for some time rather than being a flip of the coin instant outburst. 'No Luka's not one to be like that she's more expressive of her feelings.' thought Zeno while he walked down a random sidewalk.
On the other hand was Rin; he agreed to be her friend since he didn't want to be romantically involved with her or anything that leaned or inclined a relationship of that kind. 'Rin is cute and nice but I want Luka; Luka is a woman!' Zeno mentally screamed to himself as he began to walk down a crosswalk.
Paying no attention to the road in front of him Zeno adjusted the gloves that he wore making them slightly tighter. Looking ahead of him laid the abandon industrial area of the city. Large forgotten buildings with broken windows, large bricks of cemented concrete lay about the ruined buildings, broken wooden planks, and large stone cylinders stacked up. 'I love coming here; it's always so nice and quiet.'
Walking through and about the abandon walkways that connected building to building, Zeno stumbled up an abandoned Genetics laboratory that read:
"Huh they must have been working a on a massive scale." stated Zeno curiously as he read the sign. Deciding to follow his curiosity and banging on the double doors with his elbow Zeno got the doors to unlock. "Ow! That hurt." Zeno said in a low tone rubbing his elbow which became sore. Other than the sound of his own voice the only other noise that penetrated through the infrastructure of the science building was a low but strong breeze. Pushing the doors opened Zeno entered the large building; inside there was a staircase that led to the upper levels on one side of the building; through a door in the wall there was a number of items everywhere which made it evident that the building was indeed abandoned.
However…there was something that made Zeno feel…feel like he was not alone…like something was there with him…watching him. Shaking the feeling off he began to walk through the building. Walking down the hall Zeno began to peek through the windows of doors to see what was inside. 'Seems like ordinary science laboratories that are found in school…then again this is only the first floor the complex stuff is probably on the second and third levels.' thought the mahogany-eyed boy continuing to walk down the hall before ascending to the upper levels of the building.
Entering the stairwell Zeno walked up to the second floor; the second floor was much more complexly laid out more so than the first floor or at least the design was. There were large testing rooms where genetic work could take place without any prior disturbances from other people. Rooms that were identical to operation rooms, rooms that looked like suspended animation chambers where people could be stored and studied at the use and benefit of the corporation that owned that building. A particular chill ran down Zeno's spine the rooms reminding him of a sci-fi horror film.
Ignoring the feeling once again Zeno entered the stairwell once more to go up to the third floor; however the third more than the first or second floor was drastically more complex than either of the two prior levels. It was more scientific than the first but was much more horrific than the second. The third floor was very dark except for the few beams of light poking in from the outside and what those few beams of light revealed was not optimistic. 'It seems like whoever owned this building conducted unethical experiments…but what kind of experiments.' thought Zeno observantly. Stepping through the maze of corridors and rooms Zeno made extensive mental notes of what he saw there. 'There seems to be a number of bloodstained tables' he noted with particular importance. Aided by the few beams of light invading the room Zeno saw shattered needles and cracked IV bottles probably sedation but Zeno wondered for what. Suddenly the feelings that he was being watched…the first feeling he had when he entered the building…the feeling that made him truly uncomfortable about being in this place.
Wanting to continue on Zeno kept on moving not wanting to stay in one place for too long as something kept on troubling him…ever since he first set foot in this building. Walking toward a large observation room he looked through the large rectangular window and thought he saw something move. 'Huh what was that?' thought Zeno intensely about what he saw. Having walked through the maze of rooms Zeno was about to head downstairs to leave before he heard the squeak of a door that soundly like someone was there with him.
Turning around and walking back, Zeno walked to find the door that he heard opening a few moments before. The opened door led to what seemed to be the attic of the building or at least another level that Zeno had not noticed of before making his first round through the halls. Stepping slowly and silently as he could up the stairs to the highest floor of the building he soon found himself in a bright light room. Looking out of the windows Zeno saw that it was sunset; the sky was becoming an orangish-pink color. There were windows on all four walls of the room and the staircase was built into the floor. The entire area seemed to be a storage room as there were tables and chairs upon one another and various machines stacked and complied together in various corners of the floor. Walking around and scouring the junk that lay about the room the mahogany-haired boy saw a small brown bag from the corner of his eye. Looking over in that direction he confirmed that it was a brown bag. Going over in that direction he picked it up and heard the sound of coins that seemed to be contained in the bag. Untying the string he found there to be number of ancient coins. 'These might be worth something.' thought Zeno somewhat blankly. Not bothering to play attention to the things around him Zeno didn't notice the figure coming toward him which had been standing behind him for some moments while he was absorbed in his own thoughts.
Zeno was knocked to the ground hitting his back against the leg of a table. "Ow!' he shouted out loud. Bending his head down for a moment, Zeno used his hand to stand up trying to regain his balance. Looking in the direction that he had been hit…the figure seemed to be sitting on one of the unstacked tables hidden by a shadow. Somehow Zeno did not feel the presence that was there with him to be so menacing at he had instantly thought.
Deciding not to move as to cause injury to him again Zeno waited for the other presence to make the first move; the figure seemed to take notice of Zeno's actions and began to move out of the shadow to reveal itself to him.
Coming out of the shadow into the sunset light the figure's appearance was shown: The figure was of a young male about five feet, eight inches wearing a plain white t-shirt with a long dark blue sleeve t-shirt underneath; he wore tan cargo shorts with black and white converse sneakers. His hair was shoulder length and shaggy and he had bangs going to the right of his face and then continuing upwards. His eyes were the color of electric blue however his left eye was a cloudy and somewhat murky blue and a vertical scar went across his face that affirmed that he was blind in that eye. What was most notable about the young man was that he had fox-like whiskers that graced his cheeks and a fox tail that seemed to be moving slowly moving almost with the flow of a stream or river indicating that he seemed to be calmed.
"Who are you or…what are you?" asked Zeno curiously to the young man who stood across from him. The young man turned around to the table and opening up a notebook that laid on the table he pulled out a pen from his pocket and began to write something down on a clean page. Turning back around to face Zeno the silver-haired man walked over to him with the notebook in his hand and putting his finger on the page that he wrote on wanted Zeno to read what he had wrote down. Looking at the page Zeno read what the young man wrote:
'My name is Hiroku; I am a human…more like a human experiment. As you can see and I believe you already know I am blind in my left eye. The whiskers and tail are another story and the reason why I am writing in this notebook is because my vocal cords were surgically removed during experimentation…I am not deaf I can understand you very clearly…I'm just very lonely.'
Finishing Zeno looked up at Hiroku who smiled somewhat sadly to the mahogany-eyed boy who stood before him. "You have no friends?" asked Zeno curiously. Hiroku again wrote down the answer:
'No…well once I did but that was a long time ago. You're the first person I've met in awhile.'
"I'm sorry about that." replied Zeno.
'It wasn't your fault or your doing at all.'wrote Hiroku in the notebook for Zeno to read.
"Were you abused?" Zeno asked wondering
'Yes I was…the good thing though is that I don't care about it at all…I'm just not angry…you know what they call optimism.' wrote Hiroku with a smile.
Zeno chuckled, looking out of the windows he saw that it was becoming darker and he wanted to get home. "Not to be rude or anything Hiroku but I have to…or more like want to get home." said Zeno feeling kind of guilt for leaving him alone in this abandoned building. Hiroku wrote something down very quickly in the notebook, his tail whipping back and forth quite fast. 'Do you mind if I come along…I have nowhere to go…as I told you I'm very lonely and I don't have a single friend.'
"Sure I need another friend anyway." stated Zeno, "By the way are these your coins?" 'Yeah sorry for knocking you over before I didn't know who you were so I was taking precautions…but those are mine…by the way you didn't give me your name.' "Zeno Mikishigi." said Zeno answering Hiroku's question while handing the coins back to him. Hiroku followed behind Zeno as they exited the large abandoned building to abode at Zeno's home.
Walking from the large abandoned industrial site to the inner city they communicated back and forth with Hiroku scribbling in his notebook and Zeno responding in natural speech. Zeno looked at the large moon and saw its brightness in the sky. 'The moon is unusually large tonight.' Zeno commented to himself. They continued to walk for a bit before Zeno spoke, "We should be there in just a bit you okay?" asked Zeno to Hiroku who nodded his head in return. Beginning to recognize familiar streets Zeno sped up his walking a bit Hiroku noticed this and sped up to match Zeno's pace. With Hiroku following behind Zeno they soon reached his house. Pulling the keys out of his cargo pants pocket Zeno opened the door and walked in with Hiroku close behind. Closing the door behind them Zeno threw the backpack on one of the chairs and took off his jacket and gloves throwing them on the same chair. Hiroku sat down on the couch placing the notebook on the table. "You want anything Hiroku?" asked Zeno, 'No…but do you mind if I use the bathroom to take a shower?' wrote Hiroku in the notebook for Zeno to read. "I don't mind go right ahead." said Zeno putting away his jacket and gloves. "The bathroom's upstairs though." Zeno pointed out.
While Hiroku went upstairs to take a shower Zeno grabbed a snack and going into his room closed the door. "Hmmm I think I thought about what I was supposed to do." said Zeno jumping on the bed, "Oh yeah." he said to himself. Zeno wanted to call Luka and wanted to check up on her to see if she was okay; he also missed her company and wanted to see her. However he wanted to wait for her to call first…but he really could not wait anymore. Although he wanted to call her he didn't noting that it was late out and that she'd probably be asleep by now. Looking at his phone Zeno saw a text message from Rin. Thinking it over Zeno decided not to open it. "I'll deal with all this tomorrow." Zeno said to himself.
Hearing the bathroom door open, he opened the bedroom door and saw Hiroku dressed in the same clothes that he had on. Zeno went downstairs to give Hiroku his notebook and pen which he left on the coffee table in the living room. Giving the items back to Hiroku Zeno led him to the guest bedroom where he would sleep. "Is there anything you need Hiroku?" asked Zeno hospitably. Hiroku nodded his head he seemed to be tired. "Alright then I'm going to go to bed I need some sleep." said Zeno scratching the back of his head and laughing , leaving Zeno closed the door behind him and went to his own room.
Hiroku sat down on the bed and thought to himself, 'Hmmm Zeno seems nice…he didn't freak out when he saw me that has to be a plus…it's a plus in my book…besides he's the first connection that I have made in a long time considering what I am or what I was made to be.' Hiroku thought to himself before turning the light off to go to sleep.