Chapter 6: Unexpected events
It is now nighttime and the family are heading home. Saori decides to ask Hayato if he was successful in his investigation but in a low tone so Snow doesn't hear the contents of the conversation.
"So Hayato did you find what you were looking for?"
"Yeah,the owner gave me a flash drive and his description of a suspect that matches the one of the victim. But something is still bugging me."
"What's that?"
"Well whoever that person was he should've known there were cameras and there was one obvious one you can see while entering the place and a camera placed looking towards the parking lot as well."
"When you put it like that it does ring some bells and these people had to have known since they were following the person you're protecting." Hayato stares at the window and goes into deep thought.
"These guys at Ayabe's lab weren't the brightest nor were they the dumbest but anybody would have known about those two cameras just by looking around. So this person that was sent to intimidate Ayabe had to have seen the camera's as well. Maybe I'm overthinking this." Hayato's train of thought was stopped when he saw that the car came to a full stop in front of their house. Saori leaves the car first and picks up the sleepy Snow and Hayato follows behind. Saori takes Snow to his room so he can change into his Pajamas and Hayato heads to his and Saori's bedroom to sleep but his phone checks to see who's calling and sees that it's Kisara."Hey Kisara what's up."
"Hayato I need you to go back to the diner."
"Why?"slight concern from Hayato's voice
"I intercepted a 911 call coming from there and the owner said that there were 5 men just standing across the street casing the place out."
"Alright, I'll be there shortly." Hayato hangs up and quickly goes to Snow's bedroom to tell Saori what's going Hayato opens the door he sees that Saori is tucking Snow into bed and wishing him a goodnight. "Goodnight mommy,goodnight daddy."
"Goodnight Snow." The couple said in unison and headed out the room.
"Saori I have to go."
"What happened?"
"Something's going down at the diner we left at and I have to be there before anyone gets hurt."
"What are you doing standing here telling me this, go, I'll be fine, they need you over there." Hayato gives Saori a quick kiss and rushes out the door and heads to his car to suit up. Once done he closes the trunk of the car and goes into the driver's seat,starts the car and drives off to Yamato's diner. Once nearing the diner he parks a few blocks away so he doesn't catch the attention of the men across the street and sneaks into the back entrance. The staff members look at the mysterious figure in shock and confusion as to why he's here. Whispers can be heard from them
"Is he a hero?"
"He doesn't really look like one"
"Why is he here?"
Hayato spots Yamato at the cash register and approaches him.
"Yamato Takashi, I need you to take all the staff members into the kitchen now." Yamato turns around to speak to the masked figure.
"Why should I listen to you? You snuck in here unannounced for all I know you're with those men out there."
"I can assure you I'm not." Hayato takes out his card but this one has visible information.
"Hyorinmaru? I never heard of you before."
"I'm an underground hero but that doesn't matter, please get into the kitchen before anyone gets hurt." Yamato still has some hesitation but decides to comply.
"Fine but please don't ruin the place."
"No promises there Yamato." Hayato nods and makes sure all the staff members are accounted for. "Good now, close the door and stand back. Hayato places his hand on the door and encases the entire door with ice. "No one's getting in or out of there unless I dissipate it myself. Now to worry about the main threat." Hayato heads to the front window and pushes the blinds down slightly and notices the men are walking towards the front door. "All of them are armed,4 of the 5 have handguns and the other has an assault rifle. Fighting head on will be suicide in this confined space but there's not much for hiding spots in here." Hayato quickly looks around and notices he might be able to use the hallways for the restrooms to be used to his advantage; he heads to the restrooms and hides on the right side of the hallway and waits for the men to enter the establishment.
"All right, spread out and find the owner and kill everyone else."
"Roger," The armed men said in unison.
"The guy in the middle with the assault rifle must be the one in to pick these guys off one by one." Hayato reaches for his belt and grabs a noisemaker and adjusts the setting to make sure it outputs a higher sound and throws it into the left side of the hallway. The sound of the noise maker was heard by all 5 of the men.
"You there go check out what that noise was." One of the gunmen headed to the restrooms and was greeted by a punch to the face knocking him out instantly. The 4 men noticed and 3 with handguns made their way to the restrooms and heard something rolling on the ground. It was a smoke grenade. The room was filled with smoke and loud coughs could be heard coming from the 4 gunmen. Hayato takes the opportunity to throw an elbow to one of the gunmen's gut making him reel over and then a quick strike to the back of the head knocking him out. Hayato takes his gun to use for later. Hayato throws a low kick to the back of one of the gunmen's knees and palms the back of his head and bashes into the floor knocking him out smoke clears up and Hayato is in full view of the gunmen and the last one with a handgun readies his gun and as he's about to shoot,Hayato throws ice needles at the gunmens hand forcing to drop the gun. Hayato then lands some quick blows on the disarmed gunmen and kicks him into the gunmen holding an assault rifle.
"Get off of me!" As the leader was pushing his partner off he noticed something. His entire body was frozen except his head. The leader in horor gets up and readies his gun and fires. Hayato dodges out of the way in time.
"Well that's one way to get the police here."
"WHERE DID YOU GO! I'M NOT SCARED OF YOU!" Hayato kneeling behind the booths on the other side of the room slowly moves to get behind the last gunmen. He takes out the pistol he took from one of them and aims it at the legs of the gunmen and fires. The leader drops down instantly and holds his leg where the insufferable pain is coming from. Hayato comes out of cover and slowly walks towards his victim and fires another shot to the side of his head grazing his right cheek.
"That was a warning shot and if I don't like the answers coming out of your mouth you'll just find out where the next bullet goes."
"I'LL TELL YOU WHATEVER YOU WANT JUST DON'T KILL ME PLEASE!"
"Glad that we have an understanding now, tell me who sent you." The leader, scared for his life, takes a couple of seconds to answer.
"I-I-I don't know." Hayato puts his foot on the gunshot wound and starts to apply pressure upon doing so the victim starts to scream in agony.
"That's not good enough.I need names."
"I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW!"
"YOU'RE LYING!" Hayato puts even more pressure on the wound and he might break the guy's leg.
"OK,OK,OK, there was this guy who hired us to take the owner to him and kill the rest of the staff. I don't know his name or anything. He gave a case full of money and we took it."
"What was he wearing?"
"Black trench coat and a face mask.I think he has red ha-" A loud gunshot was heard and the bullet traveled straight through Hayato's shoulder and straight to the leader's head killing him instantly. The unknown assailant takes another shot trying to kill Hayato and Hayato dodges the bullet and hides behind the wall. Hayato tries to ignore the pain and contacts Kisara.
"Kisara there's an unknown shooter and killed one of the men I was interrogating."
"Dammit he probably knew too much. Hayato, you need to apprehend that shooter and bring him back to HQ. He's the only lead we have now." Hayato decides to throw some napkins from a nearby table and 1 bullet travels through the stack instantly.
"It's easier said than done Kisara whomever this person is well trained. I have one smoke grenade left. I gotta make it count."
Hayato throws the smoke grenade out the front door window and jumps to the side window simultaneously to overlap the glass shattering. He then locates the shooter and sees the laser sight trained where the smoke grenade was.
"There you are." Hayato runs to the side of the building across the street and starts to climb up the fire escape. Once reaching the roof of the building Hayato tries to get the drop on the sniper and is met with a knife to his face. Luckily Hayato dodges in time and counters back by a quick palm strike to his opponent's chest backing him up a bit. Now Hayato sees the unknown sniper. He's wearing a military grade stealth suit with a snake-like mask covering his entire face.
"I don't know who you are and frankly I don't care ,consider yourself lucky I just have to bring you in alive." No response comes from the masked assailant and readies himself for the fight. Hayato takes out one of his daggers and also readies himself. Both start charging at each other dodging their attempts at slashing each other. Hayato starts to pick up the pace in his attacks to overwhelm his opponent and the masked person is struggling to keep up and slips up once by trying to stab Hayato's face. Hayato grabs the person's arm and breaks his arm by bending it, making him drop the knife. Then Hayato tosses his opponent on the ground. While on the ground the masked person kicks Hayato in the back of the head causing him to lose his grip. The sniper uses his non-broken arm to grab his knife and lunges his knife at Hayato and connects to his abdomen. Hayato reels back from the sudden sharp pain.
"Dammit I got careless." At that moment the masked person makes a run for it and Hayato gives chase. As they're running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop Hayato starts to lag behind a bit due to the pain he's in."Dammit I won't be able to catch up and it's not like I can use my quirk I'll just lose blood even faster." Whilst running Hayato reaches for something on his a tracker."All I have to do is throw it on his back and I'll send someone to track him down." Before Hayato could throw the tracker something or rather someone jumped from an adjacent building and dropped onto the mysterious sniper. As Hayato near the two figures he notices a familiar face.
"You've got to be kidding me. How did you even find me Soma?"Hayato says while having a scowl on his face.
"I see the look on your face hasn't changed in almost 10 years. I thought I taught you how to use your anger as a weapon." Hayato checks on his target to see if he's alive and to his surprise he is.
"His arm isn't broken anymore. He might have a regenerative quirk. I should use the quirk dampening cuffs on him." Hayato takes out a pair of cuffs and restrains the sniper. Hayato picks up the body and puts it over his shoulder and starts to walk away.
"What no answer? Is that how you're gonna treat your father?" Hayato drops the body and turns around with a scowl on his face.
"You want an answer fine I'll give you one. You trained me to use my anger as weapon,you made me into a weapon,a murderer,and you're proud of that aren't you?"
"Why wouldn't I be proud that I gave you a purpose instead of hanging onto such meaningless emotions?"
"Purpose?Meaningless emotions? I WAS 13 and mom had just died. You're just as bat shit crazy as I remembered."
"I'm crazy? Last time I checked you were the one who wanted to avenge her."
"Yeah I wanted to….But you could've stopped me that's not what she would've wanted. She would've wanted us to actually reconnect. Be father and Son for once but you never wanted any part of me until mom died."
"You and Aya are so naive to how the world works."
"I don't why I'm still talking to you. Leave Aptos while you can if you don't I will find you and only one of us is walking out alive."
"You and I both know that's an empty threat. You've gone soft Hayato,you're a family man now."
"If you ever set foot anywhere near them, I WILL KILL YOU!" With that last remark Hayato picks up the sniper's body and walks away from Soma, his father.
"You haven't changed at all Hayato if only you could see the greatness you're destined with." Soma goes the opposite way of Hayato. Hayato, now back at the diner, remembers to dissipate the ice barricade so that now Yamato and his staff can move about without any danger.
"They should be free now but I'm in no good condition to drive. I'll have to leave this guy in my car for extraction." Once at his car Hayato opens the door to the passenger seat and leaves the sniper there and closes the door. Hayato reaches for his comms device to contact libra HQ. "HQ I request immediate extraction at my location." Hayato hears a woman talking and barely makes out what she's saying. From the blood loss and exhaustion he's feeling Hayato is gonna pass out at any moment.
"Extraction team is on it's way Hyorinmaru."
"Good" Hayato realizes that he can't wait around for Libra members to come pick him up so he decides to make his way to Kisara's house. "If I remember correctly she doesn't live too far from here. I just need to stay away from public areas where random civilians could be out." Hayato slowly makes his way to Kisara's house with minimal trouble. Once there he knocks once and slumps on the front door.
"I wonder who it can be at this hour?" Kisara puts down the book she was reading and get's up from her mini sofa and walks to the looks out the peephole and see's no one there and decides to open the door and lets out a gasp from seeing Hayato on the ground. "Oh my god Hayato what happened?" Kisara helps Hayato up and into her house. She lays him on the sofa and quickly goes into her bathroom and returns with a first aid kit.
"Hey Hayato, I need you to stay with me ok." "My quirk isn't gonna heal this wound and he's lost a lot of blood. You can do this Kisara." Kisara looks at the wound, it's deep but none of the internal organs have been hit. "Whatever the sharp object was must've gone clean through and the bullet wound as well isn't that bad. I just need to disinfect the wounds and stitch it up." After an hour of medical treatment Kisara is done treating Hayato. Hayato starts to wake up and puts his hand over his eyes from the bright light.
"Thanks Kisara." Hayato says in a hoarse voice Kisara gets up from her chair and goes to Hayato's side.
"Hayato you're awake? I thought you'd be out for the rest of night. What happened out there after you called about the sniper I got concerned when I didn't get any updates." Hayato slowly gets up to sit.
"Yeah sorry about that and a lot happened after I last contacted you." Hayato starts to tell Kisara everything that happened between his confrontation with the masked sniper and his father.
"So he showed up after all this time. Hayato, you know how I feel about him."
"Trust me you and I are in the same boat. I hope I never see him again."
"But since he knows about Saori and Snow you have to get out of here Hayato. Who knows what he's scheming, especially with the knowledge that he has a grandson."
"I prefer to stand my ground. If he steps near them he'll regret it." Hayato says this while clenching his fists in anger.
"Hayato, I'm concerned about this whole situation. Your father randomly showed up and now this Ayabe case is going way deeper than we first thought. Don't you think things are getting way too dangerous now. I'm not saying you need to make a decision now but seriously think about pulling out and going for an early retirement."
"I appreciate your concern Kisara but I have to see this through now that things are escalating."
"Hayato your family!"
"I know that's why I have to do this,I have to see this through. Because if I don't, who will?" Kisara, wanting to argue back, decides not to.
"You may be right Hayato but what if-"
"What if I die? I won't."
"Hayato, what makes this case so personal to you? I can get anyone else on this case."
"I can't 100% say that my theory has concrete evidence but there might be a traitor within our agency."
"What are you talking about Hayato? We literally ran background checks on our entire staff and you said it yourself when Libra was first formed that no one was up to suspicious activity."
"I know but something isn't right. Don't you think that it's a bit coincidental that as I'm there interrogating someone they're immediately killed when they say the tiniest of details."
"What did they say?"
"He said something about red hair and the description he gave matched that of Ayabe's. Black trench coat and face mask."
"But that could be coincidental Hayato."
"I know but I just have this feeling." Kisara lets out a sigh and decides to go along with Hayato.
"If what you're saying is true we're gonna have to look through 100s of dossiers again for whomever has red hair. And not only that, we have to set up a trap to catch them."
"I'm glad you're hearing me out and I'm ready to help you sift through the documents. we will get to the bottom of this. Only we can know about this alright?"
"Alright." Kisara looks at the clock and realizes the time. "We should start heading over to your place so we don't keep Saori waiting. Here's a change of clothes." Kisara hands Hayato some clothes."Bathroom is down the hall to the left."
"Thank you Kisara." Hayato gets up from the couch and makes his way to the bathroom to get changed. Once changed Hayato follows Kisara to her car.
Kisara is helping Hayato walk to the front door of his house and knocks on the door. The door swiftly opens and Saori has a shocked expression by the sight of seeing her significant other injured. She quickly hugs Hayato and doesn't want to let go. Hayato, slightly taken aback, returns the hug.
"I'm fine, Saori. Really I am." Saori let's go and the 3 walk inside.
"Thank you so much for bringing him back here Kisara."
"That's what friends are for Saori and you Hayato are on medical leave effective immediately."
"Yeah I figured as much."Hayato says with slight disappointment.
"You need your rest Hayato but if we're really doing this I'll drop by later on tomorrow to drop off some documents. I should get going, I don't want to keep you guys up longer. Goodnight Saori and Hayato, and Saori please make sure he stays in bed, he'll only listen to you."
Saori lets out a little laugh and says "Don't worry I'll make sure he doesn't do anything to reopen the wound." Hayato and Saori say their goodbyes to Kisara and she walks out the door.
"Hey Saori, I have something to tell you."
"We can talk about it in our room. Do you need help walking Hayato?"
"Don't worry I'll be fine." Hayato starts to take some steps but stops due to a sharp pain in his lower abdomen. Saori rushes over and puts one of his arms over her shoulder and helps him walk to their bedroom. Once inside Hayato tells Saori that he wants to go into the bathroom and she helps to the doorway and Hayato goes into the bathroom. He lifts up his shirt to see the bandages to get an idea of how bad it was. "I hope this doesn't leave a scar." Hayato turns on the faucet to splash some water on his face and when he locks up in the mirror he sees his face and starts to wonder. Is he no different from his father?
"I live in the shadows,I'm barely home and much like my dad I was trained at a young age to kill. Am I really no different from him? Do I even love Saori and Snow? Who am I really?" Hayato walks out the bathroom and sees Saori sitting on the side of the bed and decides to sit next to her. An awkward silence ensues for 5 minutes until Saori decides to break the silence.
"Hayato….Kisara told me everything that happened and who appeared tonight. How did he find you?"
"I wish I knew Saori but that's not even the worst part he knows about you and Snow." Saori stiffens up from the news and wonders what will happen to Snow.
"Hayato we can't let him into our lives."
"But what if he already is?"
Saori, confused by the question, decides to ask Hayato to elaborate. "What do you mean by that Hayato?"
"Am I really no different from Soma. I'm barely in Snow's life,I live in the shadows,and this begs the question: do I see Snow as my son or my means of making a weapon? And do I- ." Hayato is hesitant to even state the last question on his mind."Do I really love you Saori?" Saori, not knowing how to answer instinctively, buried her head in Hayato's chest trying to fight back her tears.
"Hayato…. How could you even say that. Think about the times we shared in kowloon,our marriage,and Snow's birth. Do you remember what you said to me when you proposed? You said I was the light in your darkest days. The person that makes you forget all the pain and suffering you went through. When Snow was born you vowed to make sure he'd never turn out like you. You want him to live the best life he could have. You also vowed that no matter what you'd never turn out like your father." As Saori is pouring her heart out Hayato is holding onto Saori tightly and trying to fight back the tears in his eyes."You told me once Hayato that there are times when we feel like crying when we're alone but we should change these tears and pain into a light to illuminate our lives. I still believe in that and I know you do as well." Saori looks up and meets with Hayato's eyes a sad smile and tears on the side of his face.
"You always know what to say, don't you Saori?"
"I learned from the best." Hayato and Saori share a passionate kiss. Hayato gently pulls back and says
"Why did I ever doubt myself. Thank you Saori for reminding me of who I am. I love you, Saori."
"I love you too Hayato."
Author's Note: Alright finished up where we left off from last chapter, a bit of an emotional chapter and more about Hayato's past. While writing this chapter an idea popped up in my head. Should I write a fic for Hayato's past as to how he met Kisara and Saori. Only reason why I specified Hayato and not Saori is because Saori life is very much a run of a mill average life while Hayato's pretty much dark and mysterious. Let me know if you guys would want that. Just note that the story probably won't be that frequent from the main story, which timeskip happens in the next chapter and Snow takes the reins for being the MC. Probably wondering what about the plot point I introduced about the potential traitor in Libra. That will for sure play a role in this story. Soma Kusanagi's character description. Has the same quirk as Hayato obviously. And he looks like an older Hayato. The difference between the two is that Hayato resembles his mother in face and everything else physically is akin to father. His father also has a suit but not for heroism,his suit is very much like Hayato's. Instead of black and blue it's black and red and he prefers to have a sidearm accompanied by his twin daggers opposed to Hayato only having the twin dagger. I also recently changed the rating from T to M for this chapter in particular. And I think that's it for now I'll see you guys in the next chapter. Take care until then.
