Foreign
A/N: Finally. Some well deserved gore. Well, a small scratch on Kenji's part. Gore will come a tad bit later. I don't really like how I wrote the portion between Yugo and Gado, just like I didn't like the hospital scene but I'm too lazy right now to fix it the way I want it to be. I'll just rewrite it someday and post the chapter up again. Other than that, following this will be the first side-story on Alice and Yugo spending a day together. It's to make up for the romance this story will never have. Anyway, lots of transition in here. Kind of boring.
Chapter 3: You've Got a Head in Your Soup
The weather had turned for a worst in the natural climate of winter. No one expects the snow to just lift off of the ground and fly away, though. No one really believes anything will occur. The weather is just the weather, something that man kind has never been able to adapt to even if they can say that they are evolved creatures, the biggest cord in the food cycle. It didn't seem right to think that human beings could be lesser than anything else. But they were. Something had come to take their place, something that did not look the least bit human.
Child One knew. He knew it like he knew the back of his palm. He had been told over and over that the virus was not evil, the virus did not destroy mankind and the effects afterwards were not from the antibiotics. Usually he got his information from religious maniacs who entered the laboratory frequently just to rub some evidence of god in the scientist's faces. They never gave up. They never gave up a battle with science.
It was cold to stay behind glass all day long and ponder on the meaning of life. He had only been at the laboratories for eleven years now and already he knew how he was going to be killed on his expiration date. On the days that Child One had been allowed outside of his "cage" and when he was granted permission to travel across the colonies, he would walk carefully through the computer labs until he made his way over to the extermination rooms. It would be one older or younger than he strapped to a chair while an assistant administered a long needle into the patient's arm. Next to the assistant, on a small tray, lay a bottle with the word cyanide written over the label.
So that was the means of death. Poison. It seemed so simple. So simple to just grab that cyanide off of the tray and drink the whole bottle. Child One wasn't old enough to know what suicide exactly was. He thought of trying once or twice so he wouldn't have to worry in the future, so that he could die at a time that he felt appropriate. He snatched the bottle once. He grabbed it quickly and hid it in his cage. The only problem with his great and wonderful plan was that he never found a time in his life when he felt was appropriate to leave the living realm. It was too easy that Child One couldn't drink poison and die like everyone else.
He found his way to the outside of the laboratories once. Behind the building was a backyard that bloomed exquisitely in the spring. The dead snow that usurped spring's abundance in winter was without existence during Child One's younger years. Child One loved the flowers out inside this wonderful garden. He loved everything of the humongous backyard. But there was only one catch: when he had walked out, none of the guards stopped to ask him where on earth Child One thought he was going. He pondered for minutes on this until he realized he had broken an azalea off from her stem. She lay face up on his palm, curling towards her center to a slow death.
"There you are, Child." Child One had memorized His voice over the past years. Child One had memorized everything inside and out of Him, taking in only what interested a child's mind. Now that Child One thought back on Him, He seemed a lot like a Greek from the ancient civilizations. He had spent time and care on Child One, giving him gifts until Child One didn't bite Him every time He tried to interview the child. He had tried His best to gain Child One's acquiescing and in the end, Child One proved to be incredibly naive at thirteen.
"I didn't mean to come here, honestly! I won't come back again, never again. I swear, I'll stay inside of the laboratories from now on as long as you don't punish me. Please, don't punish me. . ." Child One sounded as if he were whimpering; something the child would swear never to do at seven. Yet here he was, begging the man who had molded and crafted him not to punish him. As sad as it seemed to the boy, the laboratories really had broken him in.
"I'm not angry at you", He murmured while His hand found its way to Child One's cheek. "You're so young. You have emotions that you can weld into a dagger or into a chain. It is a gift that only you have been given. All of the other children don't matter. It is only you I seek to examine. You are different from all of the others. . ." His hand fell to Child One's chin as he held it firmly into the light, inspecting the child's yellow within brown eyes. The man's lips moved slowly across Child One's forehead as the child's eyes widened in fear.
Before Child One's mind registered his surroundings, a giant beast had pinned him to one of the garden walls, His claws dangerously close to the child's throat. "You're just like me", came the rumbled growl from His throat. "I would tell you that you expire when you're sixteen but I'd be lying for the first time to you. The truth is that you have no expiration date. You will not be dying any time soon, at least as long as I'm in charge of my laboratories."
"Please, god. . ." Child One whispered hysterically. "Please, don't kill me, please don't kill me. . ." Child One didn't realize in his confusion that his fingernails had been growing. They were not like fingernails in any form though; they were long, black, and glossy fingernails but much sharper than a human's own canine teeth.
The man placed one claw effortlessly on Child One's cheek as it slowly rouged from this new treatment. His furry face came closer to the child's, leaving only one option only. For a while now, the child's arms had been resting by his sides. The man did nothing to keep them away and Child One's anger had grown over his seconds of helplessness. In one deft movement, the child's claws had sunk into His face and tore vertically across skin and bone.
Child One was dropped so quickly his head was teetering with darkness, near unconsciousness. He was able to keep awake; no matter how many times his head started to fall forward and no matter how many times his eyes tried to blank out on him. He could barely see the man, shriveled into a ball of pain. If his vision served him correctly, the man was now getting up, his eyes turned to a deep crimson, and walking towards Child One.
"You son of a bitch", he snarled and sunk his carnivorous teeth into Child One's shoulder. Child One seethed a shrill scream between his teeth as he bit down so hard on his tongue, he could taste the salty trail of blood in his mouth. The man let go for a second's haste, enough time for Child One to will his legs into movement and run clear across the garden. He clutched his imbrued shoulder but soon tore his hand away; it only gave him more pain to deal with.
The child stumbled across mathematically placed bushes, probably made just for this moment knowing that with one fault in his movements would be the death of him. Child One fell squarely on his knees and couldn't get up for the pain he felt throughout all of his body; his muscles itched terribly while they struggled to recover. As soon as he was able to turn his head in the direction of the monster, he could feel death knocking at his door: the monster, his master, the man who had raised Child One his entire life, raised one large clawed hand to deal a death blow.
Child One held up his own gigantic black claws, ready to inflict the same damage he had beforehand. With His other hand, the monster grabbed Child One's hand and twisted it until the child heard a loud wet snap in his wrist. It was the beginning of the end; Child One's eyes closed and his body stopped moving. He had fallen unconscious but his body would still end up being desecrated by the man he trusted most.
**
Kenji woke up swiftly, without a moments haste to reflect on his first nightmare. He found himself whispering that it only was a dream but inside, Kenji remembered the incident vividly. He remembered the feel of teeth crushing his muscles and bones, the pain of loosing all feeling in his hand. Only for verification, Kenji flexed his wrist. He could still feel the pain as it popped dreadfully each time. He dug his other hand underneath his shirt and felt the deep scars on his shoulder that would never fully heal. Neither of his traumas would ever ameliorate but Kenji was not so worried about the physical wounds.
For a second, he could believe he was a contortionist and cave in on his body underneath his blanket, wishing that the pain in all of this twisting and turning would somehow rid him of the memories he had. Kenji wished to be with someone he knew and this was few; Kenji's acquaintances only included three people, two of which he cared about slightly.
Kenji appreciated Yugo's help. It was not as if Kenji cared deeply for the older man (he had only been with Yugo for three days now) but he did like the companionship that seemed to follow. Yugo had saved Kenji, though. He had saved Kenji and tried his best to get the boy into school and stay healthy. He could not say that Yugo's help had been in vain or that he didn't like Yugo. His master had always told Kenji that He wouldn't help other children unless they helped Him in return. Yugo had helped Kenji without the slightest hesitation and didn't seem to expect anything out of the child.
The other person Kenji had known was Child Two. He had made a promise to her and he couldn't seem to keep it. Child Two had been the only other kid Kenji was allowed to play with. They were childhood friends until Kenji made it clear to her that he was going to escape sometime soon. That's when she asked him if he would take her. So Kenji promised Child Two that once he was outside of the laboratories, he would come back and help her. Yet he had spent three days with good food and a warm place to sleep and not once had he thought about Child Two until this sudden second.
Child Two had been completely different from Kenji. She had picked her own name right from the start. She had grabbed him by the shoulders and told him, "You will never call me Child Two ever again! My name is now Shaniqua!" And although Child Two had picked her own name, Kenji couldn't help but express his criticism on it. He told her that people wouldn't be able to pronounce it to which Child Two hit him in the chest for. Kenji's eyes fondled the red glaze of the one alarm clock in the entire house, loud enough to wake up the dead: it read 2:45. He wondered exactly what "Shaniqua" was doing at this hour.
Kenji put his legs out over the couch but he hadn't counted on what position he might have been in from his curling movements on his so-called bed. With a strangled yelp, he fell over completely and didn't move until the embarrassment passed. He sat up quickly and didn't realize that his eyes had fallen upon the picture of Yugo's old friend, Alice. He silently recalled Yugo proclaiming that she wasn't his girlfriend. So. . . If she wasn't his girlfriend, why did he still have her picture around? It seemed silly to keep a picture of someone Yugo had broken up with.
When Yugo had held a hand to Kenji's cheek in comfort, he had nuzzled his cheek into Yugo's palm on purpose. Yugo must have cupped Alice's cheeks many times in the same type of affection: there was care inside of the touch, but not real care. Not care as in love for one person but a care for someone's well-being. Alice must have nuzzled her cheek into Yugo's palm, too. That's why Yugo had almost backed away from Kenji.
It was a gesture of kindness on Kenji's part to give back comfort to those who gave it willingly. So then this Alice gave back pure love when she tried her best to please Yugo. Maybe, after Kenji liberated Child Two from the laboratories, he could meet Alice. She smiled so sweetly in the picture, something Kenji had never really seen inside of a human being before. But the problem at true hand was Child Two.
Kenji made his way to Yugo's bedroom, making sure he didn't catch a glimpse of anymore pictures to ponder on. Slowly, Kenji approached the sleeping Yugo. "Yugo", he whispered, shaking the older man. No response came. It was as if he were comatose.
"Yugo!" he called a little louder and shook harder. Yugo barely flicked his hand at Kenji's face. It was a stupid move though with a child who had carnivorous teeth instead of a human's blunt chewing teeth. Kenji bit down as hard as he could on Yugo's hand. Yugo could have been in a coma for all Kenji knew and he had a mission to save his old friend. Why couldn't they start now?
A river of strange tasting salt entered Kenji's mouth. In panic, he let go of Yugo's hand and tried to spit out all of the blood that contaminated his mouth. He scratched at his tongue with his claws, creating more blood in his mouth then he had intended. In Kenji's panic, he hadn't realized that one strand of his hair had fallen and flew down slowly in the air until it landed on Yugo's head. Instantly, Yugo was awake.
"What- oh, crap", Yugo muttered and tried to wrap his hand in his covers.
"I'll make up for it!" Kenji cried. "Let me make you breakfast, right now. Just give me a second-"
"Kenji . . . what time is it?" Yugo muttered, obviously annoyed.
"By now . . . about three in the morning."
"Three in the morning, eh? Why don't you just go back to sleep. God, this is just like the orphanage when Phineus would wake me up every two minutes. . ."
"I can't!" Kenji hissed and slammed his hands on Yugo's comforter. "It's imperative that I save a friend because I made a promise to her and if I break her promise then the next time she sees me she's going to ram me into a wall and crack my head open for dinner, you understand?"
"So you wake me up at three in the morning for girl trouble. All right, Kenji. Who is she and how do you expect to get her attention?"
"How many times do I have to tell you? She's not my GIRLFRIEND!"
Kenji didn't take in part that his voice may have been too loud for comfort. No banter came from Yugo's lips as a few minutes passed after Kenji's rage. "Yugo, she's my friend and I want to help her and I need your help. Is that so much to ask for? Now if you don't want to help me, there is a phone number written behind a picture of a girl you know well. I will use that phone number, Yugo."
"You fool! Do you know what you're doing? If you call Alice now and tell her what's going on, what makes you think she isn't going to do what's right and tell the authorities that I have an under-age child living under my roof and that he is personal property of a science program that I stole?"
"Well if you help me then I guess we won't have to find out, now will we?" Yugo looked as though he would strangle Kenji but he seemed to dull his anger in the pain of his hand.
"Kenji, can we please do this some other time? I've got someone I need to meet in the morning. You can have your little crusade tomorrow night or something just let me get my sleep!" Kenji was taken aback. He shook his head to get the words out of his ears.
"How can you have someone you need to meet? The only people you know are me and Alice."
"I have one other friend out there in the misty woods called a social life. Not that I'm the most social person in the world. . . You're right about that, though. I only know few people so just let me have tomorrow morning with an old friend and then you can do whatever you want to do. I need you to stay here and be good, you understand? You're going to be here all by yourself for the first time", Yugo pleaded.
Kenji kept his eyes on his toes. He couldn't believe that he had been selfish for a flight of time. Surely Yugo must have something he needs to do on his own. He can't have time for little Kenji every day and every hour. Not like the scientists who had put Kenji in the center of their universe and spent hours just studying what type of food he preferred. Yugo had other people out in the world where Kenji did not.
Once Kenji regained his sense, he brought his gaze to Yugo's bitten and bleeding hand. "Does it hurt?" he asked underneath a whisper.
"Yes. You've got some sharp teeth there." Yugo tried to wipe some of the blood away on his comforter. Kenji had never wished to harm the man who had provided life for the boy when he thought he was going to die.
Without an actual conversation between him and his common sense, Kenji barely placed his lips on the wound and quickly wiped the blood away from his mouth. "My friend told me that if you want something to heal then you kiss it", he prattled incoherently, praying that Yugo wouldn't think him to be a strange and disgusting child.
To Kenji's surprise, Yugo smiled warmly and finally crawled out of his bed. "Now that I'm up, we may as well have breakfast. . ." Kenji's yellow eyes lit up like lanterns and he rushed out of the room, headed straight for the small and dirty kitchen Yugo owned.
Kenji had already set up the whole table and all the contents that would usually be seen on any other family's breakfast table. He had already poured two bowls of cereal and drowned them in milk when Yugo came down the stairs, hindered more by his groggy morning attitude than the darkness. Kenji placed down spoons and sat down in his chair, looking to Yugo expectantly. Had Kenji been a puppy, Yugo believed he would have seen a little tail wagging as fast as it could go.
"I thought you said you were going to make breakfast", Yugo criticized. "Like make a waffle or make some eggs."
"I made you a bowl of cereal. Isn't that enough?" Quite frankly, Yugo couldn't argue. No one had ever poured a bowl of cereal for him, as stupid as it sounded. He wasn't used to some stranger giving him food for consideration in his health. It slowly dawned upon Yugo that this child might actually care about him. That made thinking of giving him up to one of the schools even harder to imagine.
Yugo could not dismiss the nuzzle he'd gotten just the other day. He hadn't been nuzzled since. . . Well, to say the least, he had never been nuzzled before in his life. Even when he and Alice had gone out places, a quick pat to her cheek and immediately her arms would be around him as she repeated to him what trouble Phineus had been up to. Thinking about Phineus had reminded Yugo of just how incredibly tired he was. Without further wait, Yugo placed his head into the cereal bowl.
A few bubbles of air popped out in the open atmosphere to which Kenji replied, "Yugo, you're supposed to eat it."
***
Yugo paced across the much bigger living room as he waited impatiently. Actually, he was worried to the biggest degree any mathematician could think of. He left Kenji alone with the words, "Be good", like Kenji was more of a dog than a child. He told Kenji where all the food was located and who to call if an emergency happened . . . even though he did not want the kid to meet Alice without introducing them first.
He should have never left Kenji alone. Maybe he had enough time to go back and pick him up and-
"Yugo, I haven't seen you in a long time." Yugo spun around at the familiar voice. It was funny how a familiar face could wash away all of Yugo's concerns in less than five seconds. "And yet you grow without me."
"Uncle Gado!" Yugo yipped ecstatically. He pummeled into the tall French man and hugged him dearly. Quickly, Gado detached Yugo and patted his shoulders in a mature fashion.
"You're going to scare people off, hugging me like that. It may have been fine when you were much younger but by now people will stare", Gado advised sternly. This was the first man Yugo had ever known in his existence. Gado was his role model, his savior, and (more importantly) his Uncle Gado.
"Can I at least still call you Uncle Gado?" Gado nodded in acquiesce. Yugo was bounding with so much joy; he didn't know what to explain to Gado first: the days he had spent in the orphanage with all of the other annoying kids, his short-lived days with Alice and enjoying a woman's company for the first time, or the child he had just taken in and named. He smiled pitifully, trying to think of some topic to pick up on, some topic that Gado could find universally interesting and believe that he did a good job taking care of Yugo as a little child of ten.
"Oh, Gado I have so many things to tell you. . . I don't even know where to begin. I grew up in the orphanage with so many other little kids that I just couldn't stand it and there was this boy named Phineus who always picked on me and wouldn't let me sleep and then there was Alice and she and I used to date because we thought we could trust each other but then we broke up because we thought of each other as brother and sister and then I found this boy-"
"Slow down, Yugo, slow down. . . There will be a time for you to tell me everything. But right now, why don't you sit down, eh?" Quickly, Yugo sat down and grinned sheepishly, hoping Gado didn't hate him for the rest of his life because he had to babble and Gado didn't like babbling . . . shit, and he was even think-babbling! Yugo hated babbling because he just wasn't the person to do it unless he was excited and he could never contain his excitement.
"Wait, no, this is really important!" Yugo's tone of emergency had already caught one of Gado's slit feline eyes. "I found this boy who didn't have a name so I had to name him. He told me he was an expired child and that he had escaped so I took him in and now he's living in my house. Actually, he told me quite a lot yesterday. He said that he came from a farming community", Gado's eyes dilated so quickly that his pupils became round once more, "and that he was raised by this 'He' guy. And now I'm going to try and send him off to school but he's really a cute little guy and I think I'm getting these fatherly feelings where I want to keep him as my own child, no matter how foul his mouth is."
"A farming community, you say?" Gado ventured before Yugo could continue. "A farming community where they spoke Zu-zu-ben?"
"Well . . . yeah. Why? Do you know a child like that?"
"Yugo. . ." Gado seemed to be searching for a way to explain his next few words. Yugo stayed intent to keep watch on every facial feature; he had spent so much time when he was a little kid with Gado that he knew what facial expressions meant he was lying. "There is something . . . a little different about the farming community up north. You see, at the time, they were being oppressed by warlords, daimyos, the whole kit and caboodle because what they grew was so important and everyone around them didn't want to pay the exact price. What was even worse was when bandits would come by and steal all of their food. They couldn't complain to anyone; everyone else was waiting for their crops. So, they started training themselves. Eventually, they came to be known as the fairytale term, 'Ninjas'."
"So. . ." Yugo giggled, "Are you trying to tell me that Kenji is a ninja? Is that it? He's going to blend in with the trees and then turn into smoke while I'm not looking? Gado, sometimes you tell the funniest stories, I swear. . . No, Kenji is a child. He couldn't hurt anyone."
He couldn't hurt anyone, repeated his mind. But deep inside of Yugo's cranium, he recalled a time when he had not know the child as Kenji. When the child had sat on his couch with a humongous black jacket on his slim frame and was covered in blood. Kenji had been soaked in blood and yet he still looked up to Yugo as if he were a happy young child with nothing else to do but look innocent. The blood had carefully slipped from Kenji's cheek as he smiled even wider.
"It's not my blood", he snapped back to Yugo's earlier comment about soaking his couch with blood. He had seen Kenji's claws covered with blood once, since the incident in the doctor's office. It was just a miniscule of a second but Yugo had seen the crimson blood contaminate Kenji's fingers just as it had when he watched the boy sleep on the first night; slowly watch the blood dry in the child's hair until Yugo was so disgusted that he started to pick out little bits and pieces. Was Kenji really and truly innocent?
"Yugo, I've been around him much longer than you have." Gado had slipped so badly that Yugo could see the sudden surprise in his eyes from the information he had just given.
"Uncle Gado", Yugo reassured, "Kenji lived in the laboratories for almost all of his life. You were taking care of me. How could you be in two different places at once? Well . . . assuming that Kenji is ten years younger than I am, I guess he wasn't in the laboratories at that time. But you never worked in the laboratories, right Uncle Gado? You never actually went there or spent time working there, did you?" Yugo scratched at the back of his neck. He thought back to a time when his neck used to itch day and night and then suddenly it stopped. So why was it itching again?
"Yugo, why don't you give this child to me? I could take care of him for you." Gado looked more and more distant that Yugo had ever seen him. Yugo got up from his chair and backed away closer to the front door. Something was clearly not right with Uncle Gado.
"That's okay, Uncle Gado. Actually, I have to get going now. I don't want to leave Kenji alone for too long. You never know what children will do when you're gone. Sorry we couldn't talk for longer but-"
"Tell me Yugo", Gado began quizzically. "Do you recall the first ten years of your life?"
Yugo became silent with thought. The first memory he had in life was when Gado had taken his hand and told him that he would be free in the outside world. Then Gado had taken him in for a year and transferred Yugo to the orphanage. Other than those memories, Yugo couldn't find any more information on his childhood. "Now that I think about it. . . I don't remember anything other than you taking me in."
"I'm only doing this for your best interest, Yugo." Gado pulled a plastic container out of his jacket and opened it, revealing a small disk that could be used on a computer. "All you have to do is put this into a computer and you will have loaded the most important portions of your first ten years alive. If you bring Kenji to the laboratories tonight, I will give you the disk."
To get those ten years, Yugo would transcend his fear of computers just to watch what happened in his life that he didn't know about. He had only had Kenji for four days now and the boy wasn't that attached to Yugo, now was he? Besides, when Kenji talked about the laboratories he didn't seem to make it look as though it were that bad. Yugo had even planned with the boy to save his friend. But Kenji was free now and he seemed so happy to make breakfast for Yugo and wake him up at three in the morning. . .
"I'll think about it", Yugo answered. Yugo turned around again and started for the door, in much need of the cold winter air than the stuffy confines of Gado's old house. At least the snow couldn't ask or tell him what to do.
"Yugo." He barely turned his head around just to meet Gado's eyes. Those were eyes that he had trusted for more than fifteen years. "I hope you make the right choice."
Yugo smiled weakly before muttering, "I hope I do, too", and walked out the door. **
It was nauseatingly boring stuck in Yugo's house without anything important to do. Kenji had spent better days with Child Two torturing him as she tried to "play". The house was so barren that any form of entertainment could only come from the shadow puppets Kenji created on the small window curtains. He was bored, completely out of his mind. So what was an expired child supposed to do to get any fun around here?
Kenji was sick with Yugo's little technophobia stage; he really thought it was one of those mid-life crisis things adults have. Maybe Yugo was so afraid of ending up dependant on technology that he forced himself to fear all things new. "What a baby . . ." Kenji murmured to the black painted walls. And who painted their walls black, anyway? Yugo wasn't one of those goth-people, was he?
The pros that occurred in the afternoon were the silence and quality time alone Kenji was offered. He took them up wisely, spending an hour just looking all throughout the house. Kenji was used to the living room and the kitchen; he had been there many times and had asked Yugo once if he could take up the bed and Yugo could sleep on the couch (To which Kenji is still trying to heal his ears for). Yugo's room was a mess but Kenji had expected that. Yugo looked like a person who couldn't keep his thoughts or room well- kempt. Kenji had also been in the bathroom before.
But Kenji had never gone into the backyard. His lingering curiosity had settled on the snow-covered backyard with a small fence and the little birds that sat idly on the tree Kenji had first been found on. Maybe Kenji had been there before . . . He had never been there in a way he would have liked. The boy had to lock his straying thoughts away before he went back to the living room, pondering on what he could keep his attention span on.
Expecting that no one was watching him, Kenji smiled as if he were a ruthless villain. He hadn't practiced in a long time; maybe he was a little rusty. He had gotten enough food over the days to pay for the times when he would go all day without eating just to anger the scientists. He could pull it off; he assured his mind over and over. It was a piece of cake, anyone could do it.
Placing himself in the center of the living room, Kenji swallowed what saliva was still in his mouth. He leaped into the air, falling into a back flip and landed upon his bare hands and feet. As he lay on the floor, the child gazed at his slim fingers, holding him above the ground, with a grotesque smile appearing between his cheeks. Kenji laughed with a pure adrenaline pulsing happiness. In an attempt to make up for the last three years, Kenji rolled across the floor in a cartwheel until he fell in front of the couch. He leaped into the air, falling back onto his feet with a small stumble.
This was paradise. This was what some of the religious men talked about. The ever-flowing river of youth rested inside his cheeks as he stretched his neck left and right, then shook out his arms. Finally, he scratched the back of his neck in an attempt to rid the small, incessant itch. "What would even be better . . ." Kenji uttered. Without finishing his sentence, he regarded the snow in he backyard, a hint of the childish will to play creeping onto his mischievous face.
Soon, Kenji was outside in the snow, tumbling across the white, painful ground. He had never known cold such as the fever of snow but he preferred to feel the sensation than sit inside and wonder exactly what that white blob was. He wished against his health that Child Two could see snow like this. She would adore the snow; she had more of a winsome spirit than Kenji could even pretend to own. He remembered days he had spent with Child Two fondly but he adored his days with Yugo more. It felt odd, he had only spent four days with Yugo and yet he could say that he appreciated Yugo's company over a child his own age.
Something was fairly odd inside of Kenji. He could feel it every now and then in the snow, when his heart would skip a beat and he couldn't breath properly. Whatever it was, it hurt terribly. Kenji kneeled on the snow, his bright amber eyes catching the tree he had once leaned on in exhaust. There was a hole inside of the tree, right in the middle and it would glow every second Kenji's heart beat skipped with an evanescent light, dwindling in the sun's retirement from the sky.
With a disintegrating interest, Kenji moved forward on his frozen knees over to the tree. Just being in the presence of this tree again was a bizarre occurrence on its own. But how could this salty smell of the ocean exude from the tree when Kenji was in the snow-covered hell of Japan?
"What are you doing outside, Kenji?"
The pain inside of Kenji stopped aching. He spun around and smiled like Yugo were the world above where angels roamed. He leaped into Yugo's arms as the older man scrambled to keep his hands on the child's back. Contradictory to the pain Yugo had in his back from catching Kenji, the child kissed the tip of his nose so softly it almost made Yugo believe Kenji's previous words: kissing heals a wound.
"Now that you're back, can we go find my friend? I know how to get to the laboratories from here. I did escape from there and come here anyway."
"D-did you . . ."
Kenji ceased to speak, listening intently to Yugo even if his words wouldn't come out as clearly as he had planned. Yugo gave up, staring into Kenji's wide luminescent yellow eyes. He wasn't used to children staring at him so affectionately. The last few words he had planned were ditched in the back of his mind. Instead, he settled for something else that wouldn't disappoint the child or encourage him.
"Did you speak to Alice today or something kid?" He chuckled nervously afterwards.
"I've never spoken to her in my life. You said we'd meet her after we went to go get Child Two. Why do you ask?"
"Nothing, really. It's nothing at all." Yugo's mind did not agree with him. Yugo's mind remembered a time when Alice had ran into his arms and kissed the tip of his nose while Yugo spun her around wildly. Her hair was free and she looked so natural but Yugo had been a teenager then. He didn't know anything about the relationship he and Alice should have had or what he really was supposed to do in a boyfriend/girlfriend situation. "You just reminded me of something when I was much younger . . . Just a child like you."
Yugo eyed the backyard, placing Kenji on the snow. "I bought you a few new clothes so that you don't have to wear that blood-soaked shirt anymore."
"You're kidding me, you bought me clothes?" Kenji smiled delicately, as if hinting something entirely surreptitious underneath. "How sweet of you. I hope they actually fit unlike the clothes the scientists gave me."
"I got you a turtleneck so you can suffocate yourself." A sweet laughter arose from Kenji's throat, just like the last time Yugo make a joke, only this time, Yugo was allowed to hear it for a longer period of time. "Come on inside and change. It's awful cold out here."
Without a word, Kenji followed Yugo to the inside of the house. The child raced to keep up with Yugo and slung his arm around the older man's upper arm. Kenji nuzzled his nose into Yugo's clothes; a hint of revelation decorated Yugo's scarred face. This really was his child. When Yugo had pondered for hours during the night, he had often thought that Kenji's parents were somewhere in this world and that he had to return the boy to them. Deep inside, Yugo fought with his fatherly instincts and said that Kenji must go to school. Kenji must live somewhere else. But Yugo fought just as dearly and told his mind that he could keep the child as his if he could make a little more money.
Yugo had spent most of his educating years reading about Hinduism, which he had found almost as intriguing as Uncle Gado's old cold exterior. He had read about Karma and destiny. He had recited to Alice that they both had to loose all attachment to the consequences of their actions but neither of them could actually do so. And Yugo gave up on Hinduism. Until today, that is.
Today, he apprehended that Kenji had lost his parents. Kenji had gotten out of the laboratories by his own strength. And by destiny, Kenji had found his way to Yugo's house. Yugo had taken care of the child, he had fathered a child until he understood that he would have to give Kenji up to someone because he lacked any professional skill to speak of. Just because Yugo wasn't experienced didn't mean that he couldn't learn how to take care of a boy. This child, by a twist of uncertain fate, was now his own and he had to learn to keep the child or something terrible might happen to Kenji.
Apparently, Yugo had made his choice.
As soon as Kenji was done dressing in the bathroom, he scratched at his neck with a crazed interest. Yugo would have stopped him and say that turtlenecks often give people rashes, but it was just too funny to let a sliver of a word out of his mouth. As if he were telepathic, Kenji glared sternly at Yugo and gave up scratching with a taciturn, "You try wearing a turtleneck for the first time . . . "
"Can I keep this?" Yugo asked while holding up the blood-stained shirt Kenji had once been confined in. Kenji shrugged indifferently as an expression of submission and Yugo balled the shirt up, placing it in a small knapsack.
"What are you going to do with it?"
Yugo's eyes peered intently at Kenji, inspecting the child slowly. For a brief second, he smiled like he had once done with Alice: a faint recognition of happiness goaded by the sight of a being well appreciated in presence. Yugo stood up from his knees and threw the knapsack over his shoulder. "Well, are we going to help your friend or not?"
"You really mean it?" Kenji yipped buoyantly.
"Lead the way." Kenji left his back to Yugo and marched over to the front door. He was too far away to hear Yugo grumble, "Forgive me, Kenji." He pulled out two taut pieces of rope, and underneath the couch, one gigantic bag like Yugo were Santa Claus.
"Well Yugo, are you coming or-"
Yugo rammed Kenji's head into the wall, the child disoriented for two seconds. It was enough time for Yugo to promptly tie secure knots around Kenji's wrists and ankles. Kenji would have cracked his head on the floor had Yugo not caught him. "Yugo, what on earth-"Kenji tried to begin but Yugo tied a gag around his child's mouth. With a few finishing touches, Yugo had Kenji inside of the bag and he tied the top of the bag and threw it over his shoulder along with the knapsack.
"Kenji, I know you said you wanted to meet Alice after we found your friend but I guess it's just going to happen much earlier", he mumbled before making his way out of the door.
A/N: Finally. Some well deserved gore. Well, a small scratch on Kenji's part. Gore will come a tad bit later. I don't really like how I wrote the portion between Yugo and Gado, just like I didn't like the hospital scene but I'm too lazy right now to fix it the way I want it to be. I'll just rewrite it someday and post the chapter up again. Other than that, following this will be the first side-story on Alice and Yugo spending a day together. It's to make up for the romance this story will never have. Anyway, lots of transition in here. Kind of boring.
Chapter 3: You've Got a Head in Your Soup
The weather had turned for a worst in the natural climate of winter. No one expects the snow to just lift off of the ground and fly away, though. No one really believes anything will occur. The weather is just the weather, something that man kind has never been able to adapt to even if they can say that they are evolved creatures, the biggest cord in the food cycle. It didn't seem right to think that human beings could be lesser than anything else. But they were. Something had come to take their place, something that did not look the least bit human.
Child One knew. He knew it like he knew the back of his palm. He had been told over and over that the virus was not evil, the virus did not destroy mankind and the effects afterwards were not from the antibiotics. Usually he got his information from religious maniacs who entered the laboratory frequently just to rub some evidence of god in the scientist's faces. They never gave up. They never gave up a battle with science.
It was cold to stay behind glass all day long and ponder on the meaning of life. He had only been at the laboratories for eleven years now and already he knew how he was going to be killed on his expiration date. On the days that Child One had been allowed outside of his "cage" and when he was granted permission to travel across the colonies, he would walk carefully through the computer labs until he made his way over to the extermination rooms. It would be one older or younger than he strapped to a chair while an assistant administered a long needle into the patient's arm. Next to the assistant, on a small tray, lay a bottle with the word cyanide written over the label.
So that was the means of death. Poison. It seemed so simple. So simple to just grab that cyanide off of the tray and drink the whole bottle. Child One wasn't old enough to know what suicide exactly was. He thought of trying once or twice so he wouldn't have to worry in the future, so that he could die at a time that he felt appropriate. He snatched the bottle once. He grabbed it quickly and hid it in his cage. The only problem with his great and wonderful plan was that he never found a time in his life when he felt was appropriate to leave the living realm. It was too easy that Child One couldn't drink poison and die like everyone else.
He found his way to the outside of the laboratories once. Behind the building was a backyard that bloomed exquisitely in the spring. The dead snow that usurped spring's abundance in winter was without existence during Child One's younger years. Child One loved the flowers out inside this wonderful garden. He loved everything of the humongous backyard. But there was only one catch: when he had walked out, none of the guards stopped to ask him where on earth Child One thought he was going. He pondered for minutes on this until he realized he had broken an azalea off from her stem. She lay face up on his palm, curling towards her center to a slow death.
"There you are, Child." Child One had memorized His voice over the past years. Child One had memorized everything inside and out of Him, taking in only what interested a child's mind. Now that Child One thought back on Him, He seemed a lot like a Greek from the ancient civilizations. He had spent time and care on Child One, giving him gifts until Child One didn't bite Him every time He tried to interview the child. He had tried His best to gain Child One's acquiescing and in the end, Child One proved to be incredibly naive at thirteen.
"I didn't mean to come here, honestly! I won't come back again, never again. I swear, I'll stay inside of the laboratories from now on as long as you don't punish me. Please, don't punish me. . ." Child One sounded as if he were whimpering; something the child would swear never to do at seven. Yet here he was, begging the man who had molded and crafted him not to punish him. As sad as it seemed to the boy, the laboratories really had broken him in.
"I'm not angry at you", He murmured while His hand found its way to Child One's cheek. "You're so young. You have emotions that you can weld into a dagger or into a chain. It is a gift that only you have been given. All of the other children don't matter. It is only you I seek to examine. You are different from all of the others. . ." His hand fell to Child One's chin as he held it firmly into the light, inspecting the child's yellow within brown eyes. The man's lips moved slowly across Child One's forehead as the child's eyes widened in fear.
Before Child One's mind registered his surroundings, a giant beast had pinned him to one of the garden walls, His claws dangerously close to the child's throat. "You're just like me", came the rumbled growl from His throat. "I would tell you that you expire when you're sixteen but I'd be lying for the first time to you. The truth is that you have no expiration date. You will not be dying any time soon, at least as long as I'm in charge of my laboratories."
"Please, god. . ." Child One whispered hysterically. "Please, don't kill me, please don't kill me. . ." Child One didn't realize in his confusion that his fingernails had been growing. They were not like fingernails in any form though; they were long, black, and glossy fingernails but much sharper than a human's own canine teeth.
The man placed one claw effortlessly on Child One's cheek as it slowly rouged from this new treatment. His furry face came closer to the child's, leaving only one option only. For a while now, the child's arms had been resting by his sides. The man did nothing to keep them away and Child One's anger had grown over his seconds of helplessness. In one deft movement, the child's claws had sunk into His face and tore vertically across skin and bone.
Child One was dropped so quickly his head was teetering with darkness, near unconsciousness. He was able to keep awake; no matter how many times his head started to fall forward and no matter how many times his eyes tried to blank out on him. He could barely see the man, shriveled into a ball of pain. If his vision served him correctly, the man was now getting up, his eyes turned to a deep crimson, and walking towards Child One.
"You son of a bitch", he snarled and sunk his carnivorous teeth into Child One's shoulder. Child One seethed a shrill scream between his teeth as he bit down so hard on his tongue, he could taste the salty trail of blood in his mouth. The man let go for a second's haste, enough time for Child One to will his legs into movement and run clear across the garden. He clutched his imbrued shoulder but soon tore his hand away; it only gave him more pain to deal with.
The child stumbled across mathematically placed bushes, probably made just for this moment knowing that with one fault in his movements would be the death of him. Child One fell squarely on his knees and couldn't get up for the pain he felt throughout all of his body; his muscles itched terribly while they struggled to recover. As soon as he was able to turn his head in the direction of the monster, he could feel death knocking at his door: the monster, his master, the man who had raised Child One his entire life, raised one large clawed hand to deal a death blow.
Child One held up his own gigantic black claws, ready to inflict the same damage he had beforehand. With His other hand, the monster grabbed Child One's hand and twisted it until the child heard a loud wet snap in his wrist. It was the beginning of the end; Child One's eyes closed and his body stopped moving. He had fallen unconscious but his body would still end up being desecrated by the man he trusted most.
**
Kenji woke up swiftly, without a moments haste to reflect on his first nightmare. He found himself whispering that it only was a dream but inside, Kenji remembered the incident vividly. He remembered the feel of teeth crushing his muscles and bones, the pain of loosing all feeling in his hand. Only for verification, Kenji flexed his wrist. He could still feel the pain as it popped dreadfully each time. He dug his other hand underneath his shirt and felt the deep scars on his shoulder that would never fully heal. Neither of his traumas would ever ameliorate but Kenji was not so worried about the physical wounds.
For a second, he could believe he was a contortionist and cave in on his body underneath his blanket, wishing that the pain in all of this twisting and turning would somehow rid him of the memories he had. Kenji wished to be with someone he knew and this was few; Kenji's acquaintances only included three people, two of which he cared about slightly.
Kenji appreciated Yugo's help. It was not as if Kenji cared deeply for the older man (he had only been with Yugo for three days now) but he did like the companionship that seemed to follow. Yugo had saved Kenji, though. He had saved Kenji and tried his best to get the boy into school and stay healthy. He could not say that Yugo's help had been in vain or that he didn't like Yugo. His master had always told Kenji that He wouldn't help other children unless they helped Him in return. Yugo had helped Kenji without the slightest hesitation and didn't seem to expect anything out of the child.
The other person Kenji had known was Child Two. He had made a promise to her and he couldn't seem to keep it. Child Two had been the only other kid Kenji was allowed to play with. They were childhood friends until Kenji made it clear to her that he was going to escape sometime soon. That's when she asked him if he would take her. So Kenji promised Child Two that once he was outside of the laboratories, he would come back and help her. Yet he had spent three days with good food and a warm place to sleep and not once had he thought about Child Two until this sudden second.
Child Two had been completely different from Kenji. She had picked her own name right from the start. She had grabbed him by the shoulders and told him, "You will never call me Child Two ever again! My name is now Shaniqua!" And although Child Two had picked her own name, Kenji couldn't help but express his criticism on it. He told her that people wouldn't be able to pronounce it to which Child Two hit him in the chest for. Kenji's eyes fondled the red glaze of the one alarm clock in the entire house, loud enough to wake up the dead: it read 2:45. He wondered exactly what "Shaniqua" was doing at this hour.
Kenji put his legs out over the couch but he hadn't counted on what position he might have been in from his curling movements on his so-called bed. With a strangled yelp, he fell over completely and didn't move until the embarrassment passed. He sat up quickly and didn't realize that his eyes had fallen upon the picture of Yugo's old friend, Alice. He silently recalled Yugo proclaiming that she wasn't his girlfriend. So. . . If she wasn't his girlfriend, why did he still have her picture around? It seemed silly to keep a picture of someone Yugo had broken up with.
When Yugo had held a hand to Kenji's cheek in comfort, he had nuzzled his cheek into Yugo's palm on purpose. Yugo must have cupped Alice's cheeks many times in the same type of affection: there was care inside of the touch, but not real care. Not care as in love for one person but a care for someone's well-being. Alice must have nuzzled her cheek into Yugo's palm, too. That's why Yugo had almost backed away from Kenji.
It was a gesture of kindness on Kenji's part to give back comfort to those who gave it willingly. So then this Alice gave back pure love when she tried her best to please Yugo. Maybe, after Kenji liberated Child Two from the laboratories, he could meet Alice. She smiled so sweetly in the picture, something Kenji had never really seen inside of a human being before. But the problem at true hand was Child Two.
Kenji made his way to Yugo's bedroom, making sure he didn't catch a glimpse of anymore pictures to ponder on. Slowly, Kenji approached the sleeping Yugo. "Yugo", he whispered, shaking the older man. No response came. It was as if he were comatose.
"Yugo!" he called a little louder and shook harder. Yugo barely flicked his hand at Kenji's face. It was a stupid move though with a child who had carnivorous teeth instead of a human's blunt chewing teeth. Kenji bit down as hard as he could on Yugo's hand. Yugo could have been in a coma for all Kenji knew and he had a mission to save his old friend. Why couldn't they start now?
A river of strange tasting salt entered Kenji's mouth. In panic, he let go of Yugo's hand and tried to spit out all of the blood that contaminated his mouth. He scratched at his tongue with his claws, creating more blood in his mouth then he had intended. In Kenji's panic, he hadn't realized that one strand of his hair had fallen and flew down slowly in the air until it landed on Yugo's head. Instantly, Yugo was awake.
"What- oh, crap", Yugo muttered and tried to wrap his hand in his covers.
"I'll make up for it!" Kenji cried. "Let me make you breakfast, right now. Just give me a second-"
"Kenji . . . what time is it?" Yugo muttered, obviously annoyed.
"By now . . . about three in the morning."
"Three in the morning, eh? Why don't you just go back to sleep. God, this is just like the orphanage when Phineus would wake me up every two minutes. . ."
"I can't!" Kenji hissed and slammed his hands on Yugo's comforter. "It's imperative that I save a friend because I made a promise to her and if I break her promise then the next time she sees me she's going to ram me into a wall and crack my head open for dinner, you understand?"
"So you wake me up at three in the morning for girl trouble. All right, Kenji. Who is she and how do you expect to get her attention?"
"How many times do I have to tell you? She's not my GIRLFRIEND!"
Kenji didn't take in part that his voice may have been too loud for comfort. No banter came from Yugo's lips as a few minutes passed after Kenji's rage. "Yugo, she's my friend and I want to help her and I need your help. Is that so much to ask for? Now if you don't want to help me, there is a phone number written behind a picture of a girl you know well. I will use that phone number, Yugo."
"You fool! Do you know what you're doing? If you call Alice now and tell her what's going on, what makes you think she isn't going to do what's right and tell the authorities that I have an under-age child living under my roof and that he is personal property of a science program that I stole?"
"Well if you help me then I guess we won't have to find out, now will we?" Yugo looked as though he would strangle Kenji but he seemed to dull his anger in the pain of his hand.
"Kenji, can we please do this some other time? I've got someone I need to meet in the morning. You can have your little crusade tomorrow night or something just let me get my sleep!" Kenji was taken aback. He shook his head to get the words out of his ears.
"How can you have someone you need to meet? The only people you know are me and Alice."
"I have one other friend out there in the misty woods called a social life. Not that I'm the most social person in the world. . . You're right about that, though. I only know few people so just let me have tomorrow morning with an old friend and then you can do whatever you want to do. I need you to stay here and be good, you understand? You're going to be here all by yourself for the first time", Yugo pleaded.
Kenji kept his eyes on his toes. He couldn't believe that he had been selfish for a flight of time. Surely Yugo must have something he needs to do on his own. He can't have time for little Kenji every day and every hour. Not like the scientists who had put Kenji in the center of their universe and spent hours just studying what type of food he preferred. Yugo had other people out in the world where Kenji did not.
Once Kenji regained his sense, he brought his gaze to Yugo's bitten and bleeding hand. "Does it hurt?" he asked underneath a whisper.
"Yes. You've got some sharp teeth there." Yugo tried to wipe some of the blood away on his comforter. Kenji had never wished to harm the man who had provided life for the boy when he thought he was going to die.
Without an actual conversation between him and his common sense, Kenji barely placed his lips on the wound and quickly wiped the blood away from his mouth. "My friend told me that if you want something to heal then you kiss it", he prattled incoherently, praying that Yugo wouldn't think him to be a strange and disgusting child.
To Kenji's surprise, Yugo smiled warmly and finally crawled out of his bed. "Now that I'm up, we may as well have breakfast. . ." Kenji's yellow eyes lit up like lanterns and he rushed out of the room, headed straight for the small and dirty kitchen Yugo owned.
Kenji had already set up the whole table and all the contents that would usually be seen on any other family's breakfast table. He had already poured two bowls of cereal and drowned them in milk when Yugo came down the stairs, hindered more by his groggy morning attitude than the darkness. Kenji placed down spoons and sat down in his chair, looking to Yugo expectantly. Had Kenji been a puppy, Yugo believed he would have seen a little tail wagging as fast as it could go.
"I thought you said you were going to make breakfast", Yugo criticized. "Like make a waffle or make some eggs."
"I made you a bowl of cereal. Isn't that enough?" Quite frankly, Yugo couldn't argue. No one had ever poured a bowl of cereal for him, as stupid as it sounded. He wasn't used to some stranger giving him food for consideration in his health. It slowly dawned upon Yugo that this child might actually care about him. That made thinking of giving him up to one of the schools even harder to imagine.
Yugo could not dismiss the nuzzle he'd gotten just the other day. He hadn't been nuzzled since. . . Well, to say the least, he had never been nuzzled before in his life. Even when he and Alice had gone out places, a quick pat to her cheek and immediately her arms would be around him as she repeated to him what trouble Phineus had been up to. Thinking about Phineus had reminded Yugo of just how incredibly tired he was. Without further wait, Yugo placed his head into the cereal bowl.
A few bubbles of air popped out in the open atmosphere to which Kenji replied, "Yugo, you're supposed to eat it."
***
Yugo paced across the much bigger living room as he waited impatiently. Actually, he was worried to the biggest degree any mathematician could think of. He left Kenji alone with the words, "Be good", like Kenji was more of a dog than a child. He told Kenji where all the food was located and who to call if an emergency happened . . . even though he did not want the kid to meet Alice without introducing them first.
He should have never left Kenji alone. Maybe he had enough time to go back and pick him up and-
"Yugo, I haven't seen you in a long time." Yugo spun around at the familiar voice. It was funny how a familiar face could wash away all of Yugo's concerns in less than five seconds. "And yet you grow without me."
"Uncle Gado!" Yugo yipped ecstatically. He pummeled into the tall French man and hugged him dearly. Quickly, Gado detached Yugo and patted his shoulders in a mature fashion.
"You're going to scare people off, hugging me like that. It may have been fine when you were much younger but by now people will stare", Gado advised sternly. This was the first man Yugo had ever known in his existence. Gado was his role model, his savior, and (more importantly) his Uncle Gado.
"Can I at least still call you Uncle Gado?" Gado nodded in acquiesce. Yugo was bounding with so much joy; he didn't know what to explain to Gado first: the days he had spent in the orphanage with all of the other annoying kids, his short-lived days with Alice and enjoying a woman's company for the first time, or the child he had just taken in and named. He smiled pitifully, trying to think of some topic to pick up on, some topic that Gado could find universally interesting and believe that he did a good job taking care of Yugo as a little child of ten.
"Oh, Gado I have so many things to tell you. . . I don't even know where to begin. I grew up in the orphanage with so many other little kids that I just couldn't stand it and there was this boy named Phineus who always picked on me and wouldn't let me sleep and then there was Alice and she and I used to date because we thought we could trust each other but then we broke up because we thought of each other as brother and sister and then I found this boy-"
"Slow down, Yugo, slow down. . . There will be a time for you to tell me everything. But right now, why don't you sit down, eh?" Quickly, Yugo sat down and grinned sheepishly, hoping Gado didn't hate him for the rest of his life because he had to babble and Gado didn't like babbling . . . shit, and he was even think-babbling! Yugo hated babbling because he just wasn't the person to do it unless he was excited and he could never contain his excitement.
"Wait, no, this is really important!" Yugo's tone of emergency had already caught one of Gado's slit feline eyes. "I found this boy who didn't have a name so I had to name him. He told me he was an expired child and that he had escaped so I took him in and now he's living in my house. Actually, he told me quite a lot yesterday. He said that he came from a farming community", Gado's eyes dilated so quickly that his pupils became round once more, "and that he was raised by this 'He' guy. And now I'm going to try and send him off to school but he's really a cute little guy and I think I'm getting these fatherly feelings where I want to keep him as my own child, no matter how foul his mouth is."
"A farming community, you say?" Gado ventured before Yugo could continue. "A farming community where they spoke Zu-zu-ben?"
"Well . . . yeah. Why? Do you know a child like that?"
"Yugo. . ." Gado seemed to be searching for a way to explain his next few words. Yugo stayed intent to keep watch on every facial feature; he had spent so much time when he was a little kid with Gado that he knew what facial expressions meant he was lying. "There is something . . . a little different about the farming community up north. You see, at the time, they were being oppressed by warlords, daimyos, the whole kit and caboodle because what they grew was so important and everyone around them didn't want to pay the exact price. What was even worse was when bandits would come by and steal all of their food. They couldn't complain to anyone; everyone else was waiting for their crops. So, they started training themselves. Eventually, they came to be known as the fairytale term, 'Ninjas'."
"So. . ." Yugo giggled, "Are you trying to tell me that Kenji is a ninja? Is that it? He's going to blend in with the trees and then turn into smoke while I'm not looking? Gado, sometimes you tell the funniest stories, I swear. . . No, Kenji is a child. He couldn't hurt anyone."
He couldn't hurt anyone, repeated his mind. But deep inside of Yugo's cranium, he recalled a time when he had not know the child as Kenji. When the child had sat on his couch with a humongous black jacket on his slim frame and was covered in blood. Kenji had been soaked in blood and yet he still looked up to Yugo as if he were a happy young child with nothing else to do but look innocent. The blood had carefully slipped from Kenji's cheek as he smiled even wider.
"It's not my blood", he snapped back to Yugo's earlier comment about soaking his couch with blood. He had seen Kenji's claws covered with blood once, since the incident in the doctor's office. It was just a miniscule of a second but Yugo had seen the crimson blood contaminate Kenji's fingers just as it had when he watched the boy sleep on the first night; slowly watch the blood dry in the child's hair until Yugo was so disgusted that he started to pick out little bits and pieces. Was Kenji really and truly innocent?
"Yugo, I've been around him much longer than you have." Gado had slipped so badly that Yugo could see the sudden surprise in his eyes from the information he had just given.
"Uncle Gado", Yugo reassured, "Kenji lived in the laboratories for almost all of his life. You were taking care of me. How could you be in two different places at once? Well . . . assuming that Kenji is ten years younger than I am, I guess he wasn't in the laboratories at that time. But you never worked in the laboratories, right Uncle Gado? You never actually went there or spent time working there, did you?" Yugo scratched at the back of his neck. He thought back to a time when his neck used to itch day and night and then suddenly it stopped. So why was it itching again?
"Yugo, why don't you give this child to me? I could take care of him for you." Gado looked more and more distant that Yugo had ever seen him. Yugo got up from his chair and backed away closer to the front door. Something was clearly not right with Uncle Gado.
"That's okay, Uncle Gado. Actually, I have to get going now. I don't want to leave Kenji alone for too long. You never know what children will do when you're gone. Sorry we couldn't talk for longer but-"
"Tell me Yugo", Gado began quizzically. "Do you recall the first ten years of your life?"
Yugo became silent with thought. The first memory he had in life was when Gado had taken his hand and told him that he would be free in the outside world. Then Gado had taken him in for a year and transferred Yugo to the orphanage. Other than those memories, Yugo couldn't find any more information on his childhood. "Now that I think about it. . . I don't remember anything other than you taking me in."
"I'm only doing this for your best interest, Yugo." Gado pulled a plastic container out of his jacket and opened it, revealing a small disk that could be used on a computer. "All you have to do is put this into a computer and you will have loaded the most important portions of your first ten years alive. If you bring Kenji to the laboratories tonight, I will give you the disk."
To get those ten years, Yugo would transcend his fear of computers just to watch what happened in his life that he didn't know about. He had only had Kenji for four days now and the boy wasn't that attached to Yugo, now was he? Besides, when Kenji talked about the laboratories he didn't seem to make it look as though it were that bad. Yugo had even planned with the boy to save his friend. But Kenji was free now and he seemed so happy to make breakfast for Yugo and wake him up at three in the morning. . .
"I'll think about it", Yugo answered. Yugo turned around again and started for the door, in much need of the cold winter air than the stuffy confines of Gado's old house. At least the snow couldn't ask or tell him what to do.
"Yugo." He barely turned his head around just to meet Gado's eyes. Those were eyes that he had trusted for more than fifteen years. "I hope you make the right choice."
Yugo smiled weakly before muttering, "I hope I do, too", and walked out the door. **
It was nauseatingly boring stuck in Yugo's house without anything important to do. Kenji had spent better days with Child Two torturing him as she tried to "play". The house was so barren that any form of entertainment could only come from the shadow puppets Kenji created on the small window curtains. He was bored, completely out of his mind. So what was an expired child supposed to do to get any fun around here?
Kenji was sick with Yugo's little technophobia stage; he really thought it was one of those mid-life crisis things adults have. Maybe Yugo was so afraid of ending up dependant on technology that he forced himself to fear all things new. "What a baby . . ." Kenji murmured to the black painted walls. And who painted their walls black, anyway? Yugo wasn't one of those goth-people, was he?
The pros that occurred in the afternoon were the silence and quality time alone Kenji was offered. He took them up wisely, spending an hour just looking all throughout the house. Kenji was used to the living room and the kitchen; he had been there many times and had asked Yugo once if he could take up the bed and Yugo could sleep on the couch (To which Kenji is still trying to heal his ears for). Yugo's room was a mess but Kenji had expected that. Yugo looked like a person who couldn't keep his thoughts or room well- kempt. Kenji had also been in the bathroom before.
But Kenji had never gone into the backyard. His lingering curiosity had settled on the snow-covered backyard with a small fence and the little birds that sat idly on the tree Kenji had first been found on. Maybe Kenji had been there before . . . He had never been there in a way he would have liked. The boy had to lock his straying thoughts away before he went back to the living room, pondering on what he could keep his attention span on.
Expecting that no one was watching him, Kenji smiled as if he were a ruthless villain. He hadn't practiced in a long time; maybe he was a little rusty. He had gotten enough food over the days to pay for the times when he would go all day without eating just to anger the scientists. He could pull it off; he assured his mind over and over. It was a piece of cake, anyone could do it.
Placing himself in the center of the living room, Kenji swallowed what saliva was still in his mouth. He leaped into the air, falling into a back flip and landed upon his bare hands and feet. As he lay on the floor, the child gazed at his slim fingers, holding him above the ground, with a grotesque smile appearing between his cheeks. Kenji laughed with a pure adrenaline pulsing happiness. In an attempt to make up for the last three years, Kenji rolled across the floor in a cartwheel until he fell in front of the couch. He leaped into the air, falling back onto his feet with a small stumble.
This was paradise. This was what some of the religious men talked about. The ever-flowing river of youth rested inside his cheeks as he stretched his neck left and right, then shook out his arms. Finally, he scratched the back of his neck in an attempt to rid the small, incessant itch. "What would even be better . . ." Kenji uttered. Without finishing his sentence, he regarded the snow in he backyard, a hint of the childish will to play creeping onto his mischievous face.
Soon, Kenji was outside in the snow, tumbling across the white, painful ground. He had never known cold such as the fever of snow but he preferred to feel the sensation than sit inside and wonder exactly what that white blob was. He wished against his health that Child Two could see snow like this. She would adore the snow; she had more of a winsome spirit than Kenji could even pretend to own. He remembered days he had spent with Child Two fondly but he adored his days with Yugo more. It felt odd, he had only spent four days with Yugo and yet he could say that he appreciated Yugo's company over a child his own age.
Something was fairly odd inside of Kenji. He could feel it every now and then in the snow, when his heart would skip a beat and he couldn't breath properly. Whatever it was, it hurt terribly. Kenji kneeled on the snow, his bright amber eyes catching the tree he had once leaned on in exhaust. There was a hole inside of the tree, right in the middle and it would glow every second Kenji's heart beat skipped with an evanescent light, dwindling in the sun's retirement from the sky.
With a disintegrating interest, Kenji moved forward on his frozen knees over to the tree. Just being in the presence of this tree again was a bizarre occurrence on its own. But how could this salty smell of the ocean exude from the tree when Kenji was in the snow-covered hell of Japan?
"What are you doing outside, Kenji?"
The pain inside of Kenji stopped aching. He spun around and smiled like Yugo were the world above where angels roamed. He leaped into Yugo's arms as the older man scrambled to keep his hands on the child's back. Contradictory to the pain Yugo had in his back from catching Kenji, the child kissed the tip of his nose so softly it almost made Yugo believe Kenji's previous words: kissing heals a wound.
"Now that you're back, can we go find my friend? I know how to get to the laboratories from here. I did escape from there and come here anyway."
"D-did you . . ."
Kenji ceased to speak, listening intently to Yugo even if his words wouldn't come out as clearly as he had planned. Yugo gave up, staring into Kenji's wide luminescent yellow eyes. He wasn't used to children staring at him so affectionately. The last few words he had planned were ditched in the back of his mind. Instead, he settled for something else that wouldn't disappoint the child or encourage him.
"Did you speak to Alice today or something kid?" He chuckled nervously afterwards.
"I've never spoken to her in my life. You said we'd meet her after we went to go get Child Two. Why do you ask?"
"Nothing, really. It's nothing at all." Yugo's mind did not agree with him. Yugo's mind remembered a time when Alice had ran into his arms and kissed the tip of his nose while Yugo spun her around wildly. Her hair was free and she looked so natural but Yugo had been a teenager then. He didn't know anything about the relationship he and Alice should have had or what he really was supposed to do in a boyfriend/girlfriend situation. "You just reminded me of something when I was much younger . . . Just a child like you."
Yugo eyed the backyard, placing Kenji on the snow. "I bought you a few new clothes so that you don't have to wear that blood-soaked shirt anymore."
"You're kidding me, you bought me clothes?" Kenji smiled delicately, as if hinting something entirely surreptitious underneath. "How sweet of you. I hope they actually fit unlike the clothes the scientists gave me."
"I got you a turtleneck so you can suffocate yourself." A sweet laughter arose from Kenji's throat, just like the last time Yugo make a joke, only this time, Yugo was allowed to hear it for a longer period of time. "Come on inside and change. It's awful cold out here."
Without a word, Kenji followed Yugo to the inside of the house. The child raced to keep up with Yugo and slung his arm around the older man's upper arm. Kenji nuzzled his nose into Yugo's clothes; a hint of revelation decorated Yugo's scarred face. This really was his child. When Yugo had pondered for hours during the night, he had often thought that Kenji's parents were somewhere in this world and that he had to return the boy to them. Deep inside, Yugo fought with his fatherly instincts and said that Kenji must go to school. Kenji must live somewhere else. But Yugo fought just as dearly and told his mind that he could keep the child as his if he could make a little more money.
Yugo had spent most of his educating years reading about Hinduism, which he had found almost as intriguing as Uncle Gado's old cold exterior. He had read about Karma and destiny. He had recited to Alice that they both had to loose all attachment to the consequences of their actions but neither of them could actually do so. And Yugo gave up on Hinduism. Until today, that is.
Today, he apprehended that Kenji had lost his parents. Kenji had gotten out of the laboratories by his own strength. And by destiny, Kenji had found his way to Yugo's house. Yugo had taken care of the child, he had fathered a child until he understood that he would have to give Kenji up to someone because he lacked any professional skill to speak of. Just because Yugo wasn't experienced didn't mean that he couldn't learn how to take care of a boy. This child, by a twist of uncertain fate, was now his own and he had to learn to keep the child or something terrible might happen to Kenji.
Apparently, Yugo had made his choice.
As soon as Kenji was done dressing in the bathroom, he scratched at his neck with a crazed interest. Yugo would have stopped him and say that turtlenecks often give people rashes, but it was just too funny to let a sliver of a word out of his mouth. As if he were telepathic, Kenji glared sternly at Yugo and gave up scratching with a taciturn, "You try wearing a turtleneck for the first time . . . "
"Can I keep this?" Yugo asked while holding up the blood-stained shirt Kenji had once been confined in. Kenji shrugged indifferently as an expression of submission and Yugo balled the shirt up, placing it in a small knapsack.
"What are you going to do with it?"
Yugo's eyes peered intently at Kenji, inspecting the child slowly. For a brief second, he smiled like he had once done with Alice: a faint recognition of happiness goaded by the sight of a being well appreciated in presence. Yugo stood up from his knees and threw the knapsack over his shoulder. "Well, are we going to help your friend or not?"
"You really mean it?" Kenji yipped buoyantly.
"Lead the way." Kenji left his back to Yugo and marched over to the front door. He was too far away to hear Yugo grumble, "Forgive me, Kenji." He pulled out two taut pieces of rope, and underneath the couch, one gigantic bag like Yugo were Santa Claus.
"Well Yugo, are you coming or-"
Yugo rammed Kenji's head into the wall, the child disoriented for two seconds. It was enough time for Yugo to promptly tie secure knots around Kenji's wrists and ankles. Kenji would have cracked his head on the floor had Yugo not caught him. "Yugo, what on earth-"Kenji tried to begin but Yugo tied a gag around his child's mouth. With a few finishing touches, Yugo had Kenji inside of the bag and he tied the top of the bag and threw it over his shoulder along with the knapsack.
"Kenji, I know you said you wanted to meet Alice after we found your friend but I guess it's just going to happen much earlier", he mumbled before making his way out of the door.