'How did I get into this?' Kai thought as he sipped his black coffee, he hoped that the liquid would help to clear his mind. So far it wasn't working.

Ray was sat next to him, and the others who had spied on their conversation sat around the table as well. That included Tyson, Max, Hilary and Kenny, it looked like Rage had something better to do.

"I don't remember it all, only some of it. I remember being in the abbey when I was younger, I guess about five. I stayed at the abbey continuously from then to when I was ten. I kind of trashed the abbey by using black dranzer, that was how I lost my memory. I don't remember much from that day except that I was angry. I remember feeling so angry that I couldn't see straight, I just kept wanting what was happening at the abbey to stop.

I couldn't take it anymore. Black Dranzer used that to it's advantage, it told me that if I was powerful then nobody would be able to make me do anything I didn't want." Kai swallowed, debating whether to tell them something else that had convinced him. If he didn't then it would only haunt him he decided, so avoiding their eyes he told them.

"Boris said that the reason that I got hurt, punished so much was because I was weak. So I thought that if I was strong with black dranzer then I wouldn't get hurt anymore. I guess that's why I took black dranzer the second time in Russia. Because even though no one was hurting me at that time, I was scared that it might happen again. Especially when I saw Boris again and was reminded of the things that had happened to me in the abbey. It took your friendship that made me finally realise that not everyone wanted to hurt me. That I didn't need the power of black dranzer to protect myself from the world.

At the abbey the kids there, sometimes they would just disappear. Boris would take them away if they had done something really bad like lose a lot of matches. Mostly they came back, badly wounded but freshly determined on the need to win at any cost. Sometimes they didn't, you never knew if you were going to be one of those kids.

There were two categories for punishment at the abbey. Boris or Bathos. Bathos is Rage's step dad, as you should know. He was employed by the abbey as a torturer. Which was why Rage went to the abbey, they arrived about half a year after I did. Boris's methods of torture were crude, which was why some of the kids that he took away to be corrected never returned. He would just treat the child in question like a punching bag. The only tools I've ever seen him use is a whip and a couple of times when he was really angry a knife.

Bathos was different; he'd play with your mind as well as physical torture. He would pretend that it wasn't his fault that he had to hurt you. His 'work' was precise; he was like an artist in his profession. The key was to cause the most pain with the least lasting physical damage like scaring. A lot of the scars I have are faint because Bathos tried his best to make the damage he gave me to not scar.

I guess that he got bored with always being so precise in his work. Because he used Rage to take his anger out on. I guess you could say that I was his job and Rage was his hobby. The trouble is that he's used all his mental torture skills to convince her that he hurts her for her own good. To correct her behaviour, which is total bullshit of course, not that she'd believe me." Kai looked up, his face showing confusion at the sympathy in their expressions.

"I guess that's all" he confessed, "Unless you have any questions." he added as an after thought.

"I have one."

Kai turned his attention to Hilary, wondering what she would ask.

"Kai you've said what happened at the abbey, but what about before it? I mean you must have had parents, you couldn't have just appeared out of thin air at the age of five."

Kai nodded, "My grandfather didn't like me asking about my parents. But I remember him once saying that they had been killed about a month before I came to the abbey. He told me that some lunatic gang probably high on drugs broke into my parent's house while they were watching TV. They shot them execution style in the head. Apparently I was in the house when it happened, that's why he said that I couldn't remember it. Because I was so traumatised by what I had seen that I blocked it out, at least, that's my grandfathers theory."

"Kai that's terrible" Hilary said near tears, she felt like just hugging him to try and make him feel better. It was only Hilary's knowledge of how much Kai hated to be touched that stayed her.

Kai merely shrugged, "Its no big deal, its not like I remember it or anything."

"O.K" Max reasoned, "We've sorted out what happened at and before the abbey, but what about after?"

"After the black dranzer incident I was sent to my grandfather's house in Japan. His business is in Russia a lot of the time, so he wasn't there a whole lot. Which was good…"

"Why" Tyson cut in.

"Well as you already know he wasn't the best of grandfather's. He'd be angry with me a lot for some reason or another. He told me that if I didn't keep blading and winning at the tournament in Japan, then I'd have no use anymore and he'd kill me. So I kept training and searching for more power so that that would never happen.

Of course I failed when I lost to Tyson, I thought that he was going to kill me then because of my loss. Things were tense then, he kept me in suspense of what would happen. I didn't eat any of the food at the meals in his house, I was afraid that he might poison it. He liked to put toxins in my food from time to time, to keep me on my toes he called it. They'd keep me sick for days, so I figured that he might add something stronger that would kill me that time instead.

He finally got around to saying that he had bigger plans, that he wouldn't kill me yet. So then I went off with you guys and you know the rest."

"If you remember all that then how come you said that you hadn't remembered it all?" Ray asked curiously.

"Because I haven't, there's something else. Something dark that is on the edge of my mind, only I can't see it clearly." Kai looked down at his coffee, only to see that he must have finished it ages ago. He pushed the empty mug away from him, and crossed his arms on the table. His eyelids drooped, he was still so tired. He hadn't had a proper nights sleep in ages, too long even for him.

"Why does your own grandfather treat you like that?" Kenny exclaimed, clearly horrified.

"He just gets off on seeing me get hurt I guess." Kai's head was hung low, his eyes threatening to close. "I think he's afraid of me though, cause he only used to hurt me himself when I was too young to know how to fight back. Then he got Boris to take over, cause Boris didn't mind getting a black eye or a broken nose. Boris would just keep on punching and kicking until I couldn't fight back anymore. Then mostly Boris would keep on beating me up, until I became unconscious."

Kai wasn't even registering what he was saying anymore. "Grandfather came up with new ways to keep me in line when I was sent to live in his mansion in Japan. He called it keeping me on my toes, when he would visit sometimes he would slip a toxin into my food. It was usually when he was feeling angry about something I think, so I know that it wasn't for my benefit like he said it was.

The toxin would usually cause a fever high enough to make me barley strong enough to walk. Then he would hit me and beat me up like he was always too afraid to do when I had the power to fight back. He liked to hit me with objects as well as his fists; I always used to think that maybe this time he'd go too far. That he'd finally kill me this time, but I'd always wake up in the end."

Flashback

The boy awoke slowly, not really wanting to feel the pain that he knew would come. He wanted to stay in the safe nothingness of sleep for a little longer, maybe forever. His eyes opened to reveal the near darkness that surrounded him. Pain seized his body, reminding him of the torrent of fists from before.

In the moonlight that shone through a nearby window he spotted the table leg from before. It was smeared with dried blood; he thought it crude that a table leg had been used to beat him up. 'Where's the rest of the table?' he wondered idly as he struggled to sit up. His fingers slipped on the wooden floor, there was a liquid covering the finely varnished wood on which he lay.

He managed to push himself in a sitting position, and stared at the floor again. 'Blood' he thought numbly, 'that's all my blood'. He pushed himself to his feet, leaning heavily on the wall. He took one steady step after another, leaning all his weight on the wall to prevent him from slipping on the slick surface of the floor. He finally made it to the bathroom; everything was a bright white in colour. The trail of red behind him stood out on the shining white tiles.

He clung to the sink, hearing it creak beneath the weight he applied on it in his desperate fight to stay on his feet. His reflection in the mirror stared back at him, his white shirt hung off of one shoulder. It was ripped and covered in patches of scarlet; the rest of him wasn't much different. He was bruised and broken all over, blood leaked from countless places.

He focused on the mirror until all traces of emotion disappeared from his face. He would keep his feelings locked inside, that way no one would be able to get close enough to hurt him like his grandfather did. He had to be cold, emotionless, strong and powerful. That way this would stop happening, that way no one would be able to hurt him again.

His trembling fingers reached for the first aid kit.

End Flashback

Kai's head was lowered so far now that it was almost touching his arms that were rested on the table.

"What about Boris?" Hilary asked, moving so that she was close to Kai. "What were his reasons for hurting you?" She had realised that the more tried he was the less he seemed to keep back from them.

"Orders" Was Kai's barely audible answer, his head hit his arms and rested there. He mumbled something else that Hilary had to lean in to hear. Her face turned white, and she gave a small gasp of shock.

"What?" Tyson asked, "What did he say?"

Hilary swallowed heavily before continuing. "And Boris said that he liked to hear me scream." She said quoting what Kai had mumbled word for word.

"He seems more peaceful now" Max remarked looking at their sleeping captain.

"Yes" Ray smiled as he placed a gentle hand on Kai's back, he didn't even stir. "He does" the neko-jin confirmed.

Rage stood unnoticed behind the kitchen door. A small smile graced her lips as she walked back toward the bedroom. It was replaced by a frown as she thought of what she had done. Bathos hadn't said to do that, but she had anyway.

She sat on the floor in the corner of the room. If she didn't accomplish her mission then Bathos would punish her, she didn't want that. But then again, if she did accomplish her mission then Kai would get hurt. She just didn't know what to do.

Not sure how this turned out. What do you think?