When a child needs your help...
"There's no way out…you little scoundrel!!", a man about twenty exclaimed in a menacing tone, while collaring the raven-haired child. He lifted him up bodily and pushed him against the wall. His gang of three hangers-on followed him cheering loudly.
In spite of it, the child didn't even let a moan come out of his mouth. He had grazed his knees that were bleeding profusely, because of the fall he had on the ground, which led to his capture by the four men. Not even the pain caused by the wound had made him cry. He would have never given such a satisfaction to those swine.
They had been so gutless that they desired to beat such a young child as he was…
The little boy, without saying one word, was trying to restrain the fear from showing in his eyes, while looking at the four men moving to hold him in such an uncomfortable position. A crowd of thoughts were filling his mind. And these were differing at all from the expression he put on .On the surface, he looked untouched by the situation, quite a menacing expression on his face betraying him to be cross for the sudden trouble he had run into. But, deep inside, his frightened soul was crying out with terror. The guys were staring satisfied at him, with an evil ironic scorn. It was evident that they considered the captured child as a trophy, whom they could play trick on for their own pleasure, without caring at all.
"You're gonna pay for this, you little brat!! Prepare to cry!!", added another one, pulling his sleeves up, in order to inflict the punishment to the unknown-named child in a better way.
Despite the impending danger, the little rascal didn't give up his lively
attitude, still trusting in his astuteness, that was…too much, if anything,
for a child of his age. Even if, given the situation, he had realized
his bravery would have been useless to save him from the strict punishment
promised by the three guys, who seemed
rather serious about putting it into effect.
"Well.....which way shall we punish you!?", asked one of the four nasty boys, rhetorically, with a vein of malice in his words.
"Shall we throw you off from an elevated railway, making your tiny body crash into the ground...?", one of them suggested maliciously, moving his face nearer to the child's one, displaying a cruel expression, in order to frighten him even more.
"Or rather...why not drown you in the park's pool....? Of course, it would be amusing . to watch at you gasping!", whispered the second, mimicking the other guy's tone of voice, while simulating the gesture of pushing the kid's head under water and holding him properly.
"Or rather…why not sprinkling you with fuel and burning you alive as
a chicken?!!", sneered the third criminal, laughing evilly.
At those words, the prisoner-child's deep-blue eyes couldn't help but
betray some fear, while he was imagining the moments when the hoodlums
will have put into effect their purposes of punishing him. This time they
wouldn't have limited themselves to a reproach or a little chastisement.
"Do you know, you snotty-nosed…?", so made his début the fourth of the group, who probably was the oldest among them, and thus he was the boss in all likelihood. He had kept himself some steps behind the other three guys. He came in sight, inhaling a last puff of the cigarette which he held in his hand, then threw it onto the ground, finally putting it out by treading upon it.
In a quiet manner, he whispered the words: "I have got a passion for
wild animals, and there's a jaguar in my house..."
Both the gang and the terrified child abruptly turned to the 'boss',
whose last words had sounded unexpected in a moment like that.
"He' s very fierce, do you know? He has a special dislike for unfamiliar fellows..." Through those further words, the three accomplices became able to understand at once what was on their boss' mind, thus they smiled evilly at him.
"Aaahh! I got it, Boss!" exclaimed one of them.
"You're always the best!", went on an other, showing satisfaction, then he addressed the child, who was still unable to seize the third kind of torture which the boss was having in mind as a possibility. "Just think, what if that fierce jaguar bit your little empty head and crunched it..." , he added, while slowly drawing his own hand towards the kid's head, imitating the behavior of the animal at issue.
But once the young man's hand came near him, the child leaneds as much as possible and quickly resorted to a trick suggested by both astuteness and survival instinct, biting with all his strength the hand of the man, who hurried to lean the other hand on the painful one. Because of his suffering he relaxed the grip with which he held the child lifted by the neck. The child immediately took advantage of it, desperately attempting to escape. Unfortunately for him, the situation was visibly uneven: it would have been an exceptional case, if four big guys had come off worst from a brawl against a child of just about five. In fact, it didn't take long for the three men to catch the raven-haired child again, and push him against the wall. This time they were showing a much more menacing and evil expression than before.
"Little damned bastard!!" the young man, who had been treated rudely by the child, exclaimed while massaging again the hand, which had been bitten to blood just before. "You're gonna pay dearly for that!", the young man continued, while his companions were preparing to hit the child's face with a strong blow.
"Take this, you filthy brat!" The child closed his eyes instinctually,
being resigned to suffer the unavoidable punch at last, he drew his candid
face back as much as possible to dampen the blow.
The seconds seemed like hours, but the impact that terrified the child
so much never did happen...There were only some astonished exclamations
from his 'slave-drivers'.
At first, the child did not consider those exclamations, as he should have done. But if he had really watched what was happening, he wouldn't stand still…He abruptly opened his eyes again, when he heard an almost familiar voice mixed with the cries of the three villains who had been caught unawares. They were in fear and suddenly started to relax the grip on the child still pushed against the wall by his neck; then they let him slowly slide on the ground.
Once the child became free, he didn't run away. Not only because he wasn't able to stand on his little legs, which were still tired and hurt, but also because of what was happening, which involved him so much that he was dumbfounded.
"Aren't you ashamed of getting angry with such a little child!?!" exclaimed Kaji Ryouji, the man who had opportunely spared him from a bad fall down the big carob some days ago. Now he had suddenly stopped the blow, which the three hoodlums had in store for the child, with his own hand.
"Who the hell are you?! Eh?, mate, are you looking for some trouble?" But the hooligan did not receive any verbal answer from Kaji; on the contrary, Ryouji 'confined' himself to answering him in the same way the hooligan wanted to punish that brat: a quick punch in the stomach, which knocked out the criminal at once, making him groan with pain.
The other three bunglers looked at the scene, with terror in their eyes. Instead, Kaji was absolutely calm, maybe he was a bit angry for having seen how they had treated the child, but his look was quiet and resolute after all; he was only waiting for the other three to come forward. In fact, one of them, after having recomposed himself, drew near Ryouji, his look filled with anger and grudge.
"You stupid meddler!! You'll pay dearly for this intrusion!!", exclaimed
the hooligan, trying to hit the Seele's ex-spy with a kick. But Ryouji,
thanks to his very good reflexes, blocked the kick with an arm, and hit
him in the stomach with the other one, making him fall backwards. The hooligan
on the left tried to catch him around the waist; he was robust enough,
and wanted to block Kaji, gripping him between his arms. But Ryouji prevented
him, and hit him on the neck near to the carotid, with the hand's edge.
A blow given on that point would leave anyone breathless; in fact the young
man fell over the ground, desperately trying to get his breath back, helped
by the last member of the gang still on his feet, who, seeing the previous
experiences of his three companions, understood that if he had tried to
beat that
extraneous who interfered in their brawl, he would come to the same
end of his three bunglers.
Kaji stopped to defend himself and the 'little brat', as soon as the three hoodlums, now badly reduced for his punches, went away imploring pity, escaping frightened and painful.
Following with the look the four running ones, Kaji slowly got his breath back after the violent fight. After all, in spite many years were passed, he still remembered the secret moves which were basic to know in his job of spy.
"Tsk...mean cowards!", he said in a low voice, drying this way the sweat he had shed during the quarrel. After some seconds he turned his glance towards the real interested person in this bad adventure.
"Don't you believe you have chosen rivals much stronger than you?", Kaji said ironically, looking at the child who was trying with difficulty to stand up on his feet again.
The child turned his big blue eyes to the man, but his glance was not at all different from that one he had casted to the three hooligans during their terrible menaces: in his eyes one could read all mistrust which the child felt, for some unknown reason, regarding his helper...
Kaji laughed, not looking after the menacing glance of the little one, and approached slowly to him.
"Come here kid...I'll take you home...", said Kaji with a loving and reassuring tone. In the same time he bent down to the child and stretched out his arms trying to lift him from the ground.
But the child appeared reluctant to comply with the wish of Kaji. "N...no!!", he exclaimed, while abruptly pushing the ex-spy's hands away from himself. After this, he desperately tried to escape, as if Kaji was even more dangerous than the three hooligans he had just dealt with. Ryouji was astonished, seeing the reaction of the child who was running away from him for the second time, having no reason for doing it.
He had not even had the time to recall him, before the child suddenly had fallen onto the ground again. The fall was probably caused by the pain of the grazes on his knees, which didn't let him support his tired body's weight with the little strength he had left. After the fall, the kid made his best to stand up again and return to run, trying to ignore the pain, which the wound renewed. Thoughts of the unknown man being able to take advantage of his weakness, in order to catch him again, made the child terrified.
But the child's fear was a well founded one. In fact, before the child could become aware of it, Kaji was already close to him, showing him his smiling and good-natured face, while leaning his own hands over his tiny shoulders.
"Let me go!!", the child yelled with fear, not succeeding in moving a muscle, which filled him with panic. Not being impressed by the child's words, Kaji tried again to reassure him by caressing his shoulders. He knew that the likelihood of the child reacting this way was due to the fact that the hooligans' bullying a few minutes ago had traumatized him.
"Quiet down...I don't wanna hurt you." , whispered the man in a sweet and reassuring tone. "I know that your parents probably said to stay away from strangers, and they've gotta good reason for that! Maybe what happened to you has been a confirmation of the advice your parents have given to you! But...What do you think could happen if those bullies found you again all alone on your own?" , he went on, trying to explain the situation to the young child in simple words.
The child was very sharp and it didn't take much for him to understand, by reflecting over the man's words. For some moments, it looked as if he was trying to win over his fear, comparing the two situations at present: either trusting the man, or staying all alone on his way home, running the risk of meeting with the hooligans again.
Kaji stared at him. The mission seemed impossible to him: to understand the thousand thoughts filled with emotions, which were running through the little rascal's mind. Silently staring each other motionless, they spent a few moments, letting time pass...the both were looking at the unusual similarities of each other's glances. After it, for one more time Kaji hinted to the gesture of taking the little rascal into his arms, letting him accept or refuse offer, this time.
The raven-haired child's glance turned to the big hands of Kaji, which were stretched out in openness to him. The kid leaned his trembling white hand over Ryouji's one. Kaji felt the child's tepid hand trembling over his own hands, and clasped it tenderly, as if wanting to contain it...what a strange sensation it was, finally to clasp the hand of that child, who still remained a stranger, after all. That young child symbolized hope for him...Maybe hope which had finally succeeded in filling the void left by the absence of Misato...
Hope which he had relinquished for good. The child still wavered, before
thrusting himself forward towards Kaji and lifting his own arms to be grasped
by him. At that move, Ryouji immediately received the child, standing again
and leaning him over his left arm.
The child drew close towards the man and leaned his hand over Kaji's
shoulder, trying not to cross his glance, as if he was giving vent to the
need of protection, which he had concealed during the terrible moments
when he had dealt with the hooligans. Without even being aware of it, he
started to sob, covering his arms around the man's neck, venting all tension
he had accumulated till then, by repressing his true feelings.
Kaji smiled and hugged the weeping child, reassuring him with a warm embrace "Don't worry, little guy...you'll be ok, I'm with you now...Just settle down, it's all over..." The child pressed closer to the man, clinging to Kaji's shirt with his tiny fingers and wetting it by tears. The child had not given to those hoodlums the satisfaction to see him crying with fear. Gosh, that child had behaved just like him, in front of the danger, Kaji thought.
"Well, will you tell me your name?" Ryouji repeated the answer to the young child for the second time, hoping that he will have reacted differently, at least. "My name is Kaji, I've already told you…" The child stopped crying, while wiping the last tears from his eyes, turning his face to Kaji doubtfully with sadness. The child didn't answer.
Kaji sighed deeply because of this last refusal from the frightened kid. But he tried patiently to accept the child's choice of remaining anonymous. "Ok..ok..if you don't want to tell me your name, just tell me where you live!", Kaji exclaimed, removing the child's black hair away from his forehead. One more time, Kaji received silence as his answer...there was nothing to do...despite the man's patience and goodwill, the kid did not want to give any information...probably his parents had educated him in a sever manner as for dealing with strangers, and he had acquired an excessive taboo about it…
Kaji petted the child on his head. "Well! 'Cause you don't want to tell
me where you live, I'll take you to my home...is that okay with you?",
he exclaimed, winking at him nicely.
The child was dumbfounded by the question from the man.
"I can't leave you alone on your own after what happened! Don't you
think?!", he went one in a loving tone.
After a moment of reflection, the child nodded dubiously, agreeing
with his helper that he was right after all. Nevertheless, he didn't change
his look; so different from the one he had some days ago, when he was playing
happily on the tree together with his friends.
"Well...then..." , whispered the man, caressing the child's back, "Let's
go to my home…"
End of the Third Chapter.
*************
Very much thanks to my big friend Faby-chan (shinchan@inwind.it)
and Dave for the translation.
And Thank very much my pre-reader Henry for the corrections!^__^ (hypocritical_view@yahoo.com)
If do you want send me your comments, please email me: reichan@inwind.it
or sailormnemosyne@tin.it