"Hey, kid. You can't laze around here. Get going punk."

A policeman kicks Sakamoto's leg to wake him up from his slumber. The boy tired from running on no sleep for days, trying to conserve his cash, not that he had enough for a hotel anyways. However, he didn't wake up nor did he respond. The officer gives him another kick raising his voice.

"I get it's the middle of the night but you can't hang around here! Homeless or otherwise!"

Nothing. The officer leans down and checks the body. Untreated wounds from weeks of abuse revealed under the shirt, splinters in the cheeks and around the lips, even his eyes looked bruised although it was only bags from sleep deprivation.

The policeman spits to the side shaking his head.

"I can't believe someone would just drop a corpse here… Why on my patrol?"

He walks away with his phone in hand. He thinks about it, then puts it away.

"No one else is out so I can just say I wasn't here at the time… Let someone else deal with this. It's just some hair dyed punk anyways."

But he is wrong. A passerby, someone who would rather not get involved saw this injustice and couldn't ignore it. An elderly man nears Ryuji's body to inspect it himself. He's never seen a dead body outside of proper funerals, so this is a shock to him, that someone would treat somebody like this. Of course, like the officer, he had his own biased judgements from looking at him… However, it didn't mean that this boy deserved to die, not to him.

Just as he is about to call out to the officer, Ryuji coughs, startling the old man. Weak breathing as he mumbles in his weakened state.

"Can't… Stop here… Gotta… Keep going…"

The old man steps back caught in between the emotions of amazement and sympathy. The boy manages to stand on his own and even take few steps.

"Fffucking cop… Never any help… I can do this on my own…"

"Are you sure about that?"

Sakamoto stops nearly passing the man. The usual wild look and idle crazed smile he had, gone. He stares at this frail geezer with a scowl.

"Get lost… Going to call me a punk and keep going too, huh?"

"You're a punk alright. Look at you though, you look like you've been mauled by a tiger, and even worse is I can tell most of those wounds are old. How long have you been going with these untreated cuts, kid?"

"Why's it matter to you… No cash for the hospital bill, so I just keep going."

"Where are your friends? Family? Anybody?"

Sakamoto is silent. Sure, he could get to Haru if he could find a phone, but he didn't want her to see him like this. Weak, pathetic, that unstoppable force that he tailored just for her and those at the school to see. In his delirious state, he begins to hallucinate, seeing Yamazaki in his eyes standing behind the old man.

"(What's wrong, Bastard? Can't move? Can't breathe? I told you, you'll never be like me, so stop trying! You're too damn weak, too damn soft, you're still clinging onto being human…!)"

The mental apparition wraps his ghostly hands around the neck of the concerned old man.

"(You know how the power works… You kill, you get stronger, and you get healed! Kill to be better! Kill to surpass me! That's why you keep fighting by my side right!? Then kill! Kill! KILL!)"

"… I don't have anyone, old man. You're wasting your time."

The old man strokes his beard sighing.

"I guess I am… Still, if you can walk on your own, there's a clinic nearby that's ran by one of my customers. Tell her Sojiro Sakura sent you. She'll put it on my tab."

Sakamoto's eyes widen at the gesture. His menacing scowl falls away to a small smile.

"You'll pay for a stranger's treatment? What's the catch…?"

"You're a student of Shujin, right? I can tell from your uniform pants. Just start taking school seriously and stop doing… Whatever it is that got you like this. The world has enough dead children in it already."

The apparition fades as Sakamoto shakes his head.

"Can't do that. Sorry…"

He falls, succumbing to his exhaustion as he hits the pavement; Sojiro groans watching the boy pass out.

"I'm tempted to leave you like this as is… I don't know if I could live with myself if I did that."

He lifts the boy's body up and has him lean on his shoulder.

"I swear the gods are punishing me with all these young idiots falling my way… Why couldn't it be a cute girl instead?"

Sojiro arrives at the clinic and barely manages to get the door open. A woman calls out as she locks the door to the examination room.

"We're closed. Go to a normal hospital."

"Sorry ma'am, it's a bit of an emergency, and I don't want his blood in my car."

She turns around quick before quickly unlocking the door.

"Is this what I get after being a loyal customer? You couldn't have just wrap your car seat in plastic?"

"I thought about it but he would've walked off and passed out somewhere else by the time I'd be done."

She turns around raising a brow at the comment.

"He was able to walk looking like that? Never mind that, bring him in. I'll take over from there."

"Thank you, Takemi-sensei."

Sojiro nods and makes his leave after laying the boy out on the examination bed. Takemi has no issues taking his shirt off but is surprised to see the problem. Scars have reopened, internal ruptures, recent wounds overlapping old ones that barely healed. The damage itself was not to a lethal degree, but the amount of injuries were troubling, and could lead to a death similar to a thousand cuts. The more she examined the more she found wrong.

His teeth weren't filed as she originally though. They were naturally grown into fangs, and the shape of his jaw is unlike anything she's seen, a discovery she made by accident when she thought she had broken the lower jaw. His knuckles had little scarring yet suffered the most damage, indicating all the fights he has gotten into throughout his life, and she didn't dare go past the abdomen.

Thankfully for her, the damage stops there, and she had just enough supplies to treat him. The moment she pricks his skin with the sewing needle gave her a slight fright as he stood up abruptly with a loud gasp.

"N-Not again-!"

He shouts having broken into a cold sweat. She looks at him trying to calm him down with a gentle yet stern tone.

"If you have a phobia of needles, that's too bad. I'll need to use them to close these."

"… No I… I was just having a bad dream."

He starts to lay down but she grabs him by his shoulder.

"Ah, ah. Stay like that for a moment. I've got a few questions for you."

"If it's about my face I know I'm ugly and the teeth is genetic disorder."

"That's not it… Well, the teeth one was one of them. How did you get these wounds?"

Sakamoto rolls his eyes at her.

"I got hit by a car."

"I could make a call to the police and they could ask you instead."

"U-Ugh!"

He hates dealing with people like these, especially women; being at their mercy like this is infuriating. Enough to make him go wild when she smirks smugly, but he refrains himself since she's treating him. He growls looking to the side.

"So I get into fights with assholes who have a problem with me. What's the big deal?"

"I've noticed that much already. What I'm asking about is why did you lose consciousness now as opposed to earlier? Studying some of these I can tell you've been at it for days."

"I don't sleep."

"You were sleeping a moment ago. Don't you have-"

"I don't have a house, hotel, nothing and no one. I just go to school, get out of school, and then hit the streets until its morning again. I just… Tell people I sleep on the streets but it's too dangerous to actually do that."

"I see."

She continues her work on his body shaking her head.

"There's internal damage too. I'm not sure how bad it is but I-"

"I'll be fine. I just need to eat something and I'll be good to go."

"Oh? So, you're a Shonen character?"

"I don't read that stuff."

"It'll take more than food and good rest to fix what's wrong with you… You don't have any money?"

"Usually I steal it off the guys that pick fights with me."

"So you're a bonafide thug. I'm starting to feel like these injuries are justified."

"You're free to stop at any time."

They give each other a cold narrowed look. It lasts for about a minute before Takemi smiles at him.

"I saw you before, actually. You were that boy that kicked those loudmouths out the Beef Bowl shop. They must have come after you later, is that it?"

He stays silent but breaks eye contact.

"I heard what you said to your girlfriend then too. You're not that bad of a person, are you."

"What's it matter to you?"

"Want a job that can pay you enough to get you to stop fighting for your cash?"

His head snaps back at her quick as all the anger in him receded at once.

"Hell yeah! I'll do anything for a job! Anything that doesn't cost me my dignity at least!"

"How's being my assistant sound?"

"… Huh?"

Takemi chuckles as finishes tending to his body and leans back casually.

"You've got a scary face, so I bet people don't often talk to you, in fact it might be that face that gets you into fights."

"Just come out and call me ugly, would you…?"

"I never said that. The streets are getting crazier these days and people are getting dumber. I could use a bit of protection here and I'd rather not rely on lazy cops or cutthroat loan sharks. You can stay here, provided you don't make a mess or steal anything, and I'll pay you to act as my security and assistant."

"You're making me feel like Frankenstein's Monster here. I've even got the stitches to go with it!"

She tilts her head amused as she looks him over.

"You read foreign novels?"

"I read whatever I can get my hands on. When you're of the few people without a phone you gotta make do with what you can."

"Then... I guess you would be my monster. There's more to the job but, I'm rather tired, so I'll tell you about it later. I can't give you my keys yet so I'll have to lock you in. There's a bathroom and some snacks in my office you can eat if you're hungry."

Sakamoto merely lays down on the bed and waves at her with a grunt. As she's about to leave though, he calls out to her.

"Oi, doc. You're not going to ask for my name?"

She turns with a coy smile.

"I never gave you mine so I won't ask for yours."

"You're cheeky… I'm Ryuji Sakamoto."

"Tae Takemi. Goodnight, Sakamoto-san."

The next morning, she opens the clinic to see him asleep in one of the waiting chairs. She sits next to him and observes him closes, his bags had nearly vanished, and when calm his face is relatively normal. She's curious about his body, as she could see the bruises all but heal and his cuts nearly sealed, which brought about an uncomfortable question.

If his body could heal this fast overnight then just how harsh has he been living his whole life. She decides these are questions for later and lightly slaps his cheek.

"Up, up, up Sakamoto-san."

"Mrrgh, is the Sun even up yet?"

"I'd say so. It's Sunday though, so I could let you rest a little while longer."

"Will you?"

"No."

He grumbles and stretches with a yawn.

"Fine, I'm awake. What's the first thing you need me to do?"

"Here. Go into the bathroom and clean yourself up. You stink."

She hands him a bag of hygiene products from soap to a whole new toothbrush. He takes it blinking at her generosity.

"This place has a bathroom?"

"It's a bigger building than you think. Sojiro found some hand-me-down clothes for you to wear when you're done being filthy."

"Uh-huh."

Ryuji exits the bathroom surprised that the clothes are near his size. Takemi greets him with a whistle as she nods for him to follow her.

"I saw you didn't eat anything in the office. You have enough money to pay for your own meal, right?"

"Barely…"

"Then hand me what you have and we'll go out on me."

"I sleep at your place, you take me out to eat, I can't tell if I'm your unconventional tenant or your pet."

She chuckles with a hand over her lips.

"My own personal pet… I usually prefer the company of plants but, somehow, I think this may prove interesting. Don't give me a reason to make you a stray again."

"Yeah yeah…"