Chapter 16: Fight Night

Yo looked around the corner before moving back into cover and breathing a sigh of relief. Why was he so paranoid it's not like he was in actual danger? This was a prison after all and prisons had rules, rules like you can't murder someone because they accidentally screwed you over in a deal. And to Yo's credit it was an honest to god accident, he had no way of knowing those cards had been voided so it wasn't even entirely his fault right? But according to Minatsuki Alex didn't really care about whose fault it was he was going to get his money if he had to kill someone, Minatsuki made it very clear that someone was Yo.

"What are you doing?" Yo whipped around in surprise yelling at the sudden voice from behind him. This in turn caused the person behind him to yell out more out of shock than anything else. They stayed like that yelling for a few moments before they both realized what they were doing and came to a stop. They stared awkwardly for a moment before Yo spoke.

"Hunter!? Why would you sneak up on me like that?" Hunter looked rather annoyed as he stared at Yo.

"I wasn't trying to, why are you looking around like the cops are hunting you?" Yo breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Hunter was alone and started to explain.

"Well, it's not the cops." He let out a nervous laugh, then remembered he was trying to be stealthy and whispered. "You remember how I gave Alex those cast points to check on Minatsuki for me?" Hunter nodded

"Yeah, why?"

"Well as it turns out my cards where voided right after I paid him."

"He isn't that mad is he?"

"Apparently he's trying to kill me." The younger teen raised an eyebrow at this, now he had no doubt Alex wasn't above doing some drastic things over money but killing Yo probably was a bit of an exaggeration... Still it was better to be safe.

"He tried to kill you?" Yo shook his head.

"No, but Minatsuki told me he would if he found me." And just like that Hunters worry went away. Anything out of Minatsuki's mouth was guaranteed to be some kind of lie. He understood why Yo would want to believe her, but he couldn't understand how he could after that carnival corpse where she tried to kill him, Ganta, and Alex. Then again Alex and Ganta didn't seem to care all that much so maybe Hunter was overreacting? No that couldn't be it, maybe they were just crazy.

"Well if it's money you're after." The two young men looked to the corner as Rin stepped out with her hands in her pockets and a smirk on her face. "I can get you some." Yo's face grew hopeful as Hunter's scrunched up. This was not going to end well, oh well maybe it will be fun?

"So she's your sister?" Minatsuki asked with a look of disbelief as she watched the young Albino to make sure she didn't destroy the flowers she was currently ogling. She then turned over to Alex who leaned against a wall with a smile.

"Yep." Minatsuki looked between the two, needless to say they looked nothing alike.

"How?"

"My current theory is adoption."

"Wait so you're not even sure?" Alex shrugged.

"Yeah, amnesia is a bitch."

"Swear." The older teens both turned to Shiro who was balancing an empty flower pot on her head. She was looking at Alex with a pout. He just raised an eyebrow at this, what was wrong now?

"What?"

"That was a swear." Alex still didn't see the problem.

"And?" Shiro sighed and put the flower pot down, this potty mouthed behavior of his had to stop.

"You say too many bad words." Alex rolled his eyes at this.

"I don't even curse that much." Minatsuki didn't know if that was him blatantly lying or if he honestly thought saying 'Fuck' every three sentences wasn't 'that much'. She also didn't care, this was a prime opportunity to make life harder for him and she was going to take it. She put one her best innocent face, used a soft voice and said.

"Don't listen to him Shiro he's got the mouth of a sailor." Alex glared, of all people she had no right to say jack shit about his vocabulary when her cesspool of a mouth was enough to shock the devil himself.

"Listen here bitch-" He was again cut off by Shiro

"Swear, also don't call her that it's not nice." Alex's eye twitched as Minatsuki moved behind Shiro, either to hide the growing smirk on her face or to make sure he didn't try to throttle her. She then spoke in a sad tone saying.

"Yeah Alex, be nicer to me." Alex almost snapped at that. Nicer? The fact that he hadn't burned her at the stake was more than enough for him.

"You beat the sh-" He had to stop himself before he gave more fuel to the fire. "The crap out of me remember? All things considered I've been very nice to you so far." Minatsuki smirked at this and threw him even further under the bus.

"Like that time you just came into my room, started smoking, and told me to shut the fuck up?" Shiro scowled at her older brother who raised his arms in defense. Why did she trust that bitch over him? He was her brother wasn't she supposed to take his side? But no, she had effectively backed him into a corner and the only way he saw out was acting 'nice'.

"Look I was in a real bad fu-" Okay maybe Shiro had a point. "I was just in a bad mood that day." He grit his teeth as he saw Minatsuki's smile widen. She was clearly enjoying watching him get more and more irritated and now considering Shiro's scowl he'd have to apologize or face the albino teens wrath. Still gritting his teeth he said. "I'm sorry if I came off as... Mean." He glanced at Shiro who looked satisfied with his apology. Minatsuki also looked satisfied, because she had won. Alex now rather pissy about getting told off by a psychopath and his younger sister turned around to leave. "Come on Shiro, I need to get ready for something." He walked out with Shiro at his heels. Before leaving she turned and waved.

"Bye Minatsuki!" Minatsuki smiled and waved back looking rather pleased with herself.

"This is the place." Rin said opening the door to reveal an amateur looking casino styled bar "Alright guys, grab a seat and I'll get someone so you can place your bets." And with that she walked off leaving Hunter and Yo sitting by themselves. The awkward silence was very noticeable as they sat across from one another. Until Hunter tried to break the ice.

"You know this place is nice, it kinda has that small family run business feel you know?"

"Yeah, I can kinda see that." Yo said looking around. Truth is it wasn't a bad place, it was clean, there seemed to be good service and the people were well behaved.

"Well Shiro thinks it smells." Both Hunter and Yo jumped in shock at the sudden voice next to them. Shiro had somehow snuck into the seat across from them without either of them noticing. Yo flinched upon seeing her while Hunter just sighed.

"Shiro what are you doing here?" She perked up and smiled at Hunter.

"Alex Told me to find you." She then held out her hand to reveal a small piece of paper. On the paper in sloppy misspelled handwriting it said 'Hunter keep shiro entertained until my match is done and for the love of god don't let her watch' Hunter looked at the paper, then to the TV that had Alex standing with his claws, then to the paper, then to the TV, then to Shiro.

"Oh uhh well you actually aren't old enough to be in here Shiro" She pouted at this.

"But you're only a year older." Hunter wanted to swear at that but tried to continue with that point.

"Well yeah, you're just one year away from being aloud in." This clearly didn't placate the Albino who continued to pout at him. "Look Shiro I'm sorry but its not up to me, maybe you can spend time with a friend until Alex is done?" She tried her best to pout until he caved in, but when that failed she started thinking. Ganta was someplace called a school, Hunter was staying here where she couldn't stay and she didn't know where Jason was so that just left...

"Oh Shiro can go see Minatsuki!" Hunter blinked a few times as he processed what she had just said.

"You know her?"

"Yeah, she's real nice!" That was on way to describe her. Personally Hunter would have gone with 'Crazy Psycho Bitch' but to each their own "Okay tell Alex Shiro went to play with Minatsuki!" With that she stood up and ran up leaving Yo and Hunter staring.

"Did you just send her to my sister?"

"Well yeah I was worried about that at first but then I remembered Shiro can drop kick robots and then I got over it."

"Im not worried about Shiro." Yo had seen first hand what Shiro and Minatsuki could do in a fight, while Shiro had nothing to fear Minatsuki would need to watch herself.

"I'm back guys!" The young men jumped for the second time as Rin announced her return with a tall blond man behind her. The man cleared his throat.

"Hello gentlemen, Who will you be betting on and how much?" Hunter thought for a moment and figured Alex would be a relatively safe bet.

"I'll put twenty-thousand on Alex." The man raised an eyebrow and Hunter clarified "Sorry, I mean Hawk." Yo figured he had nothing to lose if Alex lost and did the same.

"I'm betting everything on this card on Hawk." The man wrote their bets down on a piece of paper and walked off. Hunter noticed Rin hadn't bet anything and asked.

"Are you going to bet anything Rin?"

"Oh I already made an under the table bet." Hunter didn't like the sound of that and asked.

"Is this another Hunter bails you out situation?" She rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Oh come on Hunter, what's the worst that could happen?" Hunter wanted to swear again, because she jinxed it, why did she have to jinx it?

Alex stood still as his cage landed the arena was then lit up with bright lights the cage holding his opponent, Eagle. Then Chaplin's voice rang out

"Hello once again ladies and gentlemen to the carnival corpse!" She paused to give the audience time to cheer. "Today we have some you have all been begging to see since his first match against Ostrich, the infamous Hawk!" Alex stepped out wearing his usual jeans, boots, as well as a shirt he had bought specifically to wear for Carnival corpses a Black tank top. With his arms revealed with was now shown how heavily scared they were. With several large cuts, one or two old bullet wounds, a lot of smaller cuts most likely self inflicted in order to activate his branch. But there was something else that caught the eye, a Celtic cross tattoo with a fancy looking font under it. "And his opponent the deadly and beautiful Eagle!" His opponent stepped out. It was a small woman, she wore a red shoulderless sweater, black pants, and boots, She had long black hair with red highlights which Alex thought screamed 'Pay attention to me'. "Now deadmen you know the rules, put on a good show, fight dirty, and the more blood the better!" Alex and Eagle weren't paying attention, they were too busy sizing each other up watching to see who would cave in first. She wasn't intimidated, in her eyes he was nothing more than a punk with a flashy branch of sin. He didn't have a much better opinion of her, being as frail as she was, she was far from his idea of a fighter but that just made him think she was an easy target. "Deadmen, Bleed!" Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out a small knife and cut his left palm, rather than forming his signature claws he decided to mix it up and produced a blood chain with a ball on one end which was still attached to his palm. As he started to spin the more dangerous half of the chain with his right hand Eagle rolled up her sleeves at reveal bloody bandages which she pulled off revealing heavily cut and scared forearms. The cuts themselves were sealed with blood red crystals. One of said blood crystals extended out on each arm forming blades that extended about a foot out. They both inched closer before Alex swung the chain at her, she was prepared for this however and caught the chain with her wrist blades sliding them into the chain rings and twisting it around pulling Alex closer. Alex dragged his feet trying to stop but soon found himself very close to hitting range. As around seven feet worth of chain lay by her he smirked as his chain sprang to life, it rose up from behind her before wrapping around her leg pulling it out from under her. She stumbled down onto her knee as the chain wrapped around Alex's arm and he lunged at her landing a punch on her jaw and grabbing onto her shirt before sending another punch to her gut. He pulled his chain wrapped fist back and swung at her again but this time she punched a blade into his incoming arm impaling it and stopping his short lived assault. Alex screamed out in pain and she tried to send her other blade into his chest but he caught her wrist as the blade was inches away from his heart. They struggled for a moment and Alex was able to get the blade away from his heart. Eagle decided to take the shot while she still had it however and she extended her blades. The blade going through his arm slid even further making the wound widen, Alex didn't get the chance to properly react to that as he was far more concerned with the blade that had passed right through his shoulder. Eagle tried to rip the blade out of the side of his shoulder but Alex was able to keep her from ripping his arm off. In a risky move Alex jumped into the air and slammed both of his feet into her chest knocking her back. The blades slid out of Alex and were quickly used to steady herself as Alex rolled away before standing back up. The two glared at one another with equal intensity but it was Alex who called out

"You Bitch!" Eagle scoffed and shook her head with a smirk.

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Alex stood speechless for a moment before yelling out.

"AHH" Alex thrust his chain covered arm to Eagle and it shot out like one of his claws fingers. This did nothing as she slashed at the chain shattering the ball at the end as well as several other feet of the chain. Alex recalled his blood, this wasn't going to work even if she would have fallen for that again she was too dangerous to get in that close, he'd have to either even the offensive odds or disarm her, nah screw that plan C. Without a branch even equipped he ran into melee range and immediately got himself stabbed twice in the gut. Eagle laughed in bewilderment as he grit his teeth.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" As Alex looked her in the eye she got a bad feeling.

"Yeah, this wasn't my best plan, but it sure as hell worked." With that Alex pulled his arm back and formed the same American tanto he had used in his fight with the wretched egg. Eagle had less than a second to realize his what his plan was, how stupid and borderline suicidal it was, and that it had indeed somehow worked. Then the blade entered her torso nearly cutting her in two as her blood spilled onto the floor. Her blades fell to the ground in puddles. Now free from her blades he pushed his further in causing her to cough up blood. Alex looked at the woman, there was no point in sparing her, whatever time she had left would just be spent suffering. Alex ripped the blade out and spun around before beading her. Her head rolled after landing and her body hit the ground right afterwards. Alex took a deep breath as he looked down at the corpse, what the hell had he done that for? There was no real reason it, was just the first thing that came to mind.

"And with a finish as flashy as it was messy, your winner is Hawk!"

The crowd yelled out, some cheering and the others groaning and cursing. Yo's jaw dropped as he saw Alex kill his opponent. Hunter was also somewhat surprised at the brutality of the final blow but didn't think too much of it, he had been somewhat desensitized to death as of late. About thirty minutes later they were given their cards back with the money having

"You lost your bet Ostrich, pay up." Both Hunter and Yo turned to the young woman who leaned back and inwardly sighed.

"See the thing is, I don't actually have the money." Hunter face palmed at this. "But you know I'm good for it Tohru."

"Listen here bitch, I don't know who you think you're fooling but im not gon-AHHHH!" The man screamed and doubled over onto the table as a small blade pinned his hand to said table. All three of the tables occupants followed the arm holding the blade to see Alex leaning over the man with a smirk on his face. Ostrich smiled and waved

"Hey Hawk."

"Ostrich why did you drag my friends into a shitty betting ring?" He said pulling the blade out of the mans hand. Said man crawled away telling Alex he would pay. Alex however wasn't listening as he sat down.

"Blondie needed money, to pay you so less so if you think about it I'm doing yo a favor." Alex rolled his eyes at this before turning to Yo who froze upon meeting his gaze.

"Well did you get it?" Yo reached into his pockets and pulled out his card handing it to him.

"Umm, I got some, but not the amount that I owe you." Alex gave Yo a look, Yo couldn't tell what the look meant but quickly got an answer as he said.

"You know what, screw it we're even." Yo was shocked at this.

"Really?" Alex shrugged.

"Yeah, turns out Minatsuki wasn't a complete nutcase." Well she was, and still is but he at least enjoyed her company so close enough. "so you make sure to thank her for saving your ass." With that Yo nodded and decided to leave before things got worse. Hunter decided to try changing the subject and turned to Alex

"Y'know I never knew you had a tattoo." Alex shrugged and winced before rubbing his shoulder wound.

"You never asked."

"Well I didn't know, it's a cross right?"

"Yep." Alex nodded.

"So are you religious?"

"Not exactly, it was just one of those things that kinda happened."

"Well what does it say? If you don't mind me asking." Alex said nothing but moved his hoodie and rolled up his sleeve giving Hunter a better view of the cross as well as the writing underneath it which read 'Rest In Peace Scott and Laura Kato, Thank you for making me who I am'.

"My parents." Alex answered the unasked question. "When they died it changed me, turned me into someone..." He winced at the memory. "Someone I never want to be again, someone who was no worse than the people he was hunting. The things I did, well it's why I was called a demon." Hunter nodded, he knew Alex had a... Well troubled past sounded like a nice way to put it. "I'm not a good person." Alex preemptively cut Hunter off. "I can act like one, but that doesn't change what I've done. Or what I still do. I want to Change, and to some extent I think I have. But I know I can be better." Hunter thought for a moment before putting his hand on Alex's non injured shoulder

"Hey, no one's perfect, and most people won't even put in the effort to change. If you've really come as far as you say, then I think you can go even farther and become the kind of person you want to be." Alex looked up with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. That was enough to tell Hunter Alex could be saved. "Hell I think you can be better." Alex smiled sadly and said.

"Thanks brother." Feeling a tear start to form h rubbed his eyes and tried changing the subject "Hey where's Shiro?"

"Oh well we were watching your fight so I sent her to hang out with Minatsuki, they should-" He was cut off as Alex lifted Hunter out of his chair and shook the younger teen with pure panic in his eyes.

"YOU DID WHAT?"

"Minatsuki I swear to god if there is a single hair out of place on her head I will-" Well there was certainly hair out of its usual place but not quite in the way he meant. Shiro's hair now had twintails on each side of her head.

"You'll what?" Minatsuki asked with a smug look.

"Hi Alex!" Alex approached and examined the beaming albino. She seemed pleased with the look and wasn't harmed.

"You like that look Snowflake?" She nodded excitedly.

"Yeah Minatsuki made my hair all pretty, and said I can have one of her flowers, and taught me some english!" Alex didn't like the sound of that so he turned to minatsuki and asked.

"You know english?" She gained what any normal person would call an evil grin.

"Just a little bit" Her toan scared him as he got a pretty good idea of what exactly she had taught Shiro.

"Wait... How much english did you teach her?"

"Oh you know, just the basics, Like greetings, Goodbyes, and few less nice things." His eyes widened as he got confirmation.

"You didn't."

"Yep Minatsuki taught me bad words in english!" Alex stood there not entirely sure of how to properly respond. Sure there was the option of killing the psycho and being done with it, but then everyone would probably get all pissy over that. He could just continue to swear around Shiro and just pull the 'I'm eighteen so get the fuck over it' card, that probably wouldn't work though and he wasn't all that interested in arguing with her. Then there was the option of just giving up and watching his mouth around Shiro, no that wasn't happening he was NOT going to let her decide his vocabulary. Well in that case it was time for plan D

"Well in that case Vete a la mierda, perra." Minatsuki stared for a moment, she didn't know what he said or even which language that was. But she could take a guess that it wasn't anything pleasant.

"I- don't- What language was that?"

"Latin American Spanish." Alex smirked, Spanish was an even bigger challenge to learn than english was but thanks to his friend he was almost fluent. And that wasn't the end of it, he knew how to cuss someone out in way more languages than any one person should, and he was very proud of that fact.

"Well, what did you say?" Alex's smirk grew wider as he turned and walked away.

"Nothing nice. C'mon Shiro" Shiro stood up and followed him out waving to Minatsuki.