A/N: I don't own KHR or any of its characters.
I stuff my hands in my sweatshirt pocket as I shiver, sitting in a ball on the ground to keep in body heat. I glance over at Kyoya, who seems completely unperturbed by the weather. Must be nice. Street lights illuminate the street corners around us. The area is desolate at this time - business done for the day. Well, except ya know, illegal business - there ain't no rest for crime!
He glances back at me - "Cold?" I shake my head, "No."
He sighs, walks over and drops his scarf ungracefully on top of my head. "I said I wasn't cold."
"Just hold onto this for me then." I wrap the unbelievably soft, simple cashmere scarf around my neck. Smells nice.
"Fine."
A light scuffling sounds from beside us as Creepy Goatee Dude groggily awakens. His eyes lazily drift open with no sense of urgency or danger. He turns onto his right side, as if to curl right back to slumber. Kyoya's face hovered over him comes into focus - "AGHHHH!" He screams, shuffling backward in a crabwalk. "Where am I?! What's going on?!"
"Herbivore."
"Hahaha your face scared him away Kyoya~" Kyoya turns his glare toward me.
Creepy Goatee Dude's face drains of color as the memories of his previous whooping come back to him in full force.
"L-let me go p-please please please -"
So easy to break. And he is supposed to be one of their strongest members?
Kyoya cuts him off with an unsympathetic kick to the chest. "Take us to the other herbivores." It's a command, as Kyoya's words always are. And they leave no room for negotiation.
"O-of course - j-just please have mercy." Yes, yes this is called irony.
"Hurry it up, I don't want to be late for dinner." I chime in, stretching out my limbs from the long wait. "How many more of you are there anyway?"
He nods frantically, pushing himself up. "W-we're close. Only a handful of men." I chuck a pebble at the back of his head - "AGH!"
"A handful?"
"THIRTY - I MEANT around thirty men." I nod, yup, that's what I thought. Why do they have to go and make things so difficult for themselves?
He limps three blocks until we reach a large warehouse - a sterile, beige modern building. A line of cargo containers out front, but nothing particularly of note. It looks like a standard, nondescript shipping warehouse.
I poke Kyoya in the rib, "Two cameras." - my eyes pointing each out to him. One camera at the front door entrance, one at a high view of the entire street. "Is there another entrance?"
"There is a back entrance, but only the Boss knows the code."
Kyoya pushes him forward, "Enter from the front."
I sweatdrop. So straight-forward…
"Just be careful Kyoya."
"I'm strong."
We both step into the view of the camera and walk toward the front entrance. Creepy Goatee Dude shakily enters the code into the keypad. He's sweating profusely. The door lock swings open.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.
A blaring alarm sounds throughout their base. Red lights swirling over each door frame.
"INTRUDERS!"
"Who the hell is it?" The Boss says as he emerges from his office.
"Two kids with Mercy Mark."
The Boss' fist slams into the wall. A viscous smile on his face. "All the better, we can destroy them now. Where are they?"
"They're still on the first floor." There are two main floors to the warehouse - the second, where we are now, serves as most of the business operations. The bottom floor is where we house most of the goods.
"What the hell are you waiting for?! Open the hatch. All of you get down there!"
"Yes Boss!" He runs to the control room and enters the code. The ground beneath us vibrates as the floor starts to open up. I run alongside the outer walkway, getting out of the way of the opening hatch - the entire floor beneath us is a mechanical door to the ground floor.
Metal ladders drop down to the ground as it opens. A dozen men, at least, grab their guns and scramble down the ladders to face the intruders.
I stare down at the bottom floor from the railings. Two small bodies blurring quickly between our men. It's complete chaos. Bullets firing awry, agonizing screams from all corners, the deafening sound of the alarms all mixed into one. My eyes squint trying to make out any features in between their quick movements -
They really are kids - well, so am I, but - I watch as the intimidating boy with black hair easily slashes through four adult men wielding guns - but they're on another level. Ando-san, our strongest fighter, is knocked out in one blow to the head. What monstrous strength. He moves quickly, without any hesitation and continuously forward.
The other is a scrawny girl - I think - wrapped up in a scarf and huge hoodie. Tendrils of longer hair peeking out of the scarf are the only indicators of the intruder's gender. Though boys can have long-hair too! Just take a look at my fashionable hairdo. So who's to say from afar… And rather than the straight forward line of attack of the black-haired boy, this one weaves in and out in varied patterns as if reacting to all the movement around and becoming a part of it. Both tactics are obviously effective as I watch another swarm of men fall to the ground.
"Careful - that's Mercy Mark next to them!"
"AGHH BOSS! BOSS I'M HERE!" Mercy Mark shouts from below - his voice more shrill than I've ever heard from an adult man.
The Boss grabs a gun from one of his henchmen and fires straight at Mercy Mark from above. "What the fuck are you idiots doing?! I don't care where you shoot, just get the fucking kids."
I shake in anger - this is how you treat your right hand man?
"B-boss!" Mercy Mark wails as a bullet lodges into his leg and he flounders to the ground.
"What the hell are you looking at?!" The Boss screams at me and the last of his men on the railing. "Get them NOW!" They rush to the first floor.
The Boss reaches for the last resort - my eyes widen. He wouldn't? But his hand is already on the lever.
Before I even realize what I'm doing I tackle him to the ground. "What the fuck, you fucking brat!" He knees me in the gut, then grabs my face and smashes it into the ground. I can feel my teeth loosen on impact and the crunch of my bones. Searing pain, but I continue to wrestle with him on the floor. He swings his fist at my face again and again and again and again.
He drops me onto the railing, limp. "You're all dead." He spits at me.
And as I lay there on the railings, bleeding out as The Boss walks back to the lever, somehow grey-blue eyes meet mine. Steady. Frozen amidst the absolute madness around us. Is she watching me?
The Boss' hand grips the lever while her lip upturns slightly - a slight smirk. It's a challenge.
"... Run…" I wheeze out, barely a whisper. "... Everyone run!" Louder. "RUN!" My voice echoes clearly, cutting through all the other noise in the warehouse. I grab onto The Boss' legs from the floor. He kicks at me and I fly to the other side of the railing. My eyes widen as he pulls the lever down -
But instead of the smoldering heat of destructive explosives...
It's completely dark.
It's completely silent.
And that darkness lasts so briefly - not even a second - I must've imagined it.
Except she - How? She was just on the bottom floor, on the other side of the room...
She stands before me, the crushed remnants of the lever and machinery in her grip clanks to the ground. The Boss bloodied and unconscious on the floor. What look like black flames at her feet, quickly dissipate into nothingness. What was that? I gaze at her back, the scarf loosening around her, revealing more long hair.
She turns to me and smiles. She raises her index finger to her lips. Secret.
I nod, barely, through the pain.
The black-haired boy jumps up into the walkway. "I win."
"BY ONE. And I got the Boss - that should count as more points right?" Ah, definitely a girl. Even getting a clearer look at her she could be mistaken as a mousy, slightly feminine boy. But there's no mistaking the voice.
"He was weak. I won."
They clare at each other, both dripping with aggression. Dangerous...
"... Fine…" She grits out, extremely painfully. It looks as if she's about to pass 10 kidney stones at once. "...You won this one BUT BARELY." She looks away, now dejected. He smirks. "And wipe that smirk off your face." His smile grows. "You're actually pissing me off." He chuckles.
I attempt to push myself off the ground - neither coming to my aid as I struggle to lean against the wall in an upright position.
The boy's eyes flicker toward the broken lever on the ground. "What was that?"
"Probably an explosive. Smells like nitroglycerin - like a lot of it." He sniffs at the air, definitely having not noticed until now.
"Explosives are laced throughout the entire bottom floor." I wheeze out.
His eyes meet mine and it takes everything in me not to look away on pure instinct.
"It's a last resort he (I point to my now FORMER Boss, hallelujah) built in case the authorities showed up. Would wipe everything and everyone clean. I didn't think he'd ever use it when his men were all in the building though." Scum. I give his unconscious figure one last death stare for good measure.
"Hehe thanks for the warning. We'll call it even, you know, considering I stopped him and all."
I smile at her. "I'll take that. What are your names?"
The girl throws an arm around the boy's shoulder. "This intense maniac is Kyoya!" "Hn." He deadpans.
"And I'm Hatsu." She throws up a peace sign.
"Tetsuya." Kyoya glares at me as if to say 'I don't care. I didn't ask you. How dare you speak words." I sweatdrop.
"You're crowding." Kyoya turns around with a yawn, hopping back down to the first floor.
Hatsu waves at me then hops down after him. "Can we stop by the pastry store?"
"They're closed already."
"I hope Chieko-sama made dessert… What about a food stall?"
"You'll ruin your appetite for dinner."
"Ehhh just a little snacky for the walk home?"
Their voices become whispers in the wind as they walk out the warehouse.
I push myself up, clutching at my broken ribs (and probably broken many other things - I should really see a doctor). I make my way extremely slowly out the door, walking past the bloody carnage that is Hatsu and Kyoya. I wonder if I'll see them again.
A/N: Reviews do help :D. A timeskip will probably happen in the next few episodes! This one took me a couple rewrites since I wasn't that happy with it. Still feels eh, but glad to get it out. I'm not sure how this series became this length, but I feel like I'm nearing the halfway point lol. But I've started now to really fill you all in on Hatsu's backstory. Much more to come at this point.