Chapter 19: Surprise

Upon seeing Toto Senji instantly sprang into action activating his crow claw and calling out.

"All of you stay back, he's mine!" Toto looked surprised for a split second before leaping right over Senji and grabbing his wrists and restraining the larger man all while laughing with a sweet smile.

"Oh relax Crow im not here to fight, but its nice to know you still love me." As Senji protested the young pale man leaned in and licked the wound Crow Claw had come from. Senji then broke free screaming.

"You Dirty Little- I Can- Stay The Hell Back!" Alex and Hunter looked to one another in confusion.

"What's with this guy?" Alex asked dumbfounded.

"How should I know?" Hunter said equally as confused. Senji noticing this clarified.

"That's Mockingbird word has it he's the strongest Deadman there is." Hunter and Alex had different reactions to this. Alex was in disbelief, this was the strongest deadman in wonderland? Alex had expected... well not this. Maybe he had a really powerful branch of sin to make up for it? Hunter on the other hand felt chills run down his spine as the words left Senjis mouth. Senji had seen, faught, and probably killed several powerful deadmen in his time and if he thought this guy was the strongest Hunter took that as reason to give him a wide birth. Toto on the other hand just laughed the comment off saying.

"Well people say lots of things, to be honest right now i'm probably the weakest, but maybe you can help with that." Before anyone noticed he had even moved he appeared in front of Ganta and with a wide smile asked. "What about you Woodpecker, can I have a taste?" Before either of them could get in a word Shiro stepped in between the two and pushed Toto a good few feet back.

"Leave Ganta alone!" Toto tilted his head in confusion.

"Oh? But I thought... Oh nevermind. Most people call me Mockingbird but please, call me Toto." Hunter however had wanted to get the conversation back to what

"What was that you were saying about a artificial Deadmen?"

"Oh well it's just a rumor really, but apparently they're Deadmen that were created by Tamaki, who gave them the name forgeries." Artificial deadmen? This couldn't be good. Hunter looked over to Alex who seemed to be thinking something along the same lines as he was currently brooding. "Well would you look at the time, it's been fun but there are other I still need to go and see. Goodbye!" And with that he left and the uneasiness in the room slowly drifted out after him. Hunter sighed, It hadn't even been a full day yet and he was exhausted.

"We can talk about this later, for now I'm calling it a day." Senji and Hunter were the first to leave with Alex taking a seat and calling out.

"Hey Shiro... can we talk for a bit, alone?" He looked to Ganta as he said the last part. It wasn't a threatening look but more a pleading one. Ganta seeing this gave a nod and turned to Shiro who was starting to look nervous.

"I'll wait for you outside okay." She nodded and walked over to Alex and sat down next to him. She knew what this was about. Alex had killed someone, this was serious, she knew this, and Alex knew that she knew. He sighed and began speaking in a soft toan.

"Shiro I-" He stopped himself from saying anything and figured it would be better to ask her what she knew before trying to explain himself. "That video you saw with me in it... is there anything you want to ask?" Shiro looked down before asking.

"Who was she?" Alex sighed and looked away

"I don't know, we were forced to fight and... Things got out of hand." She looked up.

"Why?" Alex didn't want to be the one to give shiro this talk but it needed to be done and frankly with no one else around it was his responsibility.

"Shiro, sometimes in life there will be bad people and those bad people do bad things for no real reason."

"But shiro doesn't understand." He put a hand on her back trying to comfort her.

"I don't either." He said pulling her closer. This felt so strange to him, he had never imagined he'd need to act like someone's guardian. If that was even the right word, he certainly wasn't anything like a parent. "Life isn't all fun and games Shiro. Sometimes its kill, or be killed." She thought about what what he had said for what felt like minutes, but she in fact came to her decision in less than ten seconds.

"Shiro doesn't care." She had lost him before, She had lost him, Jason, Ganta's mom, and even Ganta. Now that she had three of them back she didn't care if Alex was some sort of supervillain, He was her brother and she loved him. He looked down at her and she looked up at him. "As long as Alex is safe then I don't care what happens." That tugged at Alex's heartstrings. He and Hunter had a young brotherhood that had given him the first real friendship he had in years. But now he felt... loved? It felt weird even thinking that but he felt it. He smiled at her and pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you Shiro, it really means a lot to me." She returned the embrace and said.

"Just promise you'll be safe."

"Of course snowflake." He lied to her yet again, he wasn't going to be safe for a while. Alex's thoughts drifted to the forgeries. They were a serious threat that could kill someone in one attack. They needed to get everyone together and talk about this.

Meanwhile Shiro's mind was on something less ominous but in her eyes far more important, She had planning to do and she would need help, thankfully she knew just who to ask.

The next day a figure wearing a black cloak and mask was being escorted down a hallway with two guards. While the guards where talking about their day the figure walked in silence.

"So then he tries to tell me it's gonna cost fifty thousand Yen just to have the engine looked at!" The other guard made a surprised sound before saying

"What a rip off."

"That's what I said!" As the guards walked under a vent the cover was kicked out knocking over one guard and staggering the other. Jason then dropped from the vent and stood as the two armed men took aim at him.

"Hold it right there!" In the blink of an eye Jason had dislocated one guards leg with a kick and had knocked the others smg out of his grip. The disarmed guard reached for his combat knife but before he could reach it an open palm struck his chest sending him into the wall denting it. The crippled guard raised his gun to fire but was too slow as Jason twisted around creating a hatchet like blade that started at his hand and reached his shins. He stuck the guard twice, the first hit shattering his armor and breaking all the bones in his shoulder area. The second hit cleaved the man in two. The first guard was now back on his feet and running. Jason raised his hand which formed into a spike on the end of his arm, the spike then extended out stabbing the man through the heart killing him instantly. Jason then retracted the spike and turned to the masked figure who stood still and started chanting 'Kill' over and over again.

"Lets see if you're as deadly as those files say you are, Forgery." The Forgery made the first move creating its blood snake and sending it at Jason who recalled his blood hatchet and raised his arm to block the bite. As the snakes fangs sunk into his arm Jason felt a wave a warmth spread throughout his arm the the snake retracted back into the forgery who tilted their head in confusion as nothing happened. Jason rolled the sleeve of his hoodie and examined his pale and scarred arm. There was a bright red glow that quickly spread to his wrist before fading. Then nothing, Jason looked back at the Forgery who was still just watching and then spoke.

"Kill, Kill, Kill, Killing feels good." Jason knew what was causing this, the masks were brainwashing them and somehow turning them into mindless killing machines but before he just put them down he had to know if taking the masks off would save them so he rushed forward and ripped off the mask before kicking the forgery onto their back. It was a man around thirty and upon seeing Jason holding his mask he began to panic. "Mask! MAsk MASK MASK!" He then stood up and frantically reached for the mask but was once again kicked back by Jason.

"So it seems there is no helping you after all, but don't worry." He then tossed the mask at the forgery who leaped up and caught it. But as he reached up his midsection was left completely unguarded as Jason readied his Spiked arm to cut the poor man open. Blades then sprouted from the spike curving so their points were facing the same direction as the spike's. He then swung this spike-blade hybrid cutting the Forgery's stomach open well into the spine. He then pulled his blood weapon back and drove it into the man's chest. "I'll put you out of your misery." and with that the Forgery fell to his side and with shaking hands put his mask back on still chanting.

"Feels good, Feels goo- Fee-Fe." And then he fell silent and Jason walked off. This had been a valuable experience regardless about his personal feelings on things, he had learned that their Venom wasn't enough to overtax his regenerative abilities. And that information was without a doubt worth the deaths.

Hunter had never been so happy to see the sun before in his life, he realized his as he sat at a bench simply basking in the sun's rays with Haru who was doing the same.

"I forgot how good this feels." The few minutes of warmth felt great after the weeks of isolation. He could only imagine what Haru was feeling after several years without even seeing the sun.

"I know, it's strange how much you miss something once you've been deprived of it." Even though he was happy to be out of G-Block Hunter felt wrong pretending he hadn't seen the forgery demonstration yesterday. After a good few minutes of building up the courage to talk he asked.

"Hey Haru, do you know who he was?" There was no need for clarification, the match was all anyone was talking about.

"He was called Dove I believe" Haru hadn't know the man personally, he had always been too aggressive for his liking but that by no stretch meant he deserved to be publicly executed like that.

"Should we be talking about them? The Forgeries I mean?" Haru sighed, he didn't want to, even though he knew something needed to be done about them he was more focused with enjoying what little freedom he had been given. Actually that seemed to be the main consensus among the Deadmen.

"Maybe, but for now I think we should just enjoy this. I have a feeling we won't have long to." Hunter didn't want to argue with that. There was a storm coming, everyone felt it just over the horizon but for some reason Hunter felt something else growing just past it.

"Hunter!" Hunter turned around screaming as he nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden appearance of Shiro. "Shiro needs your help!" Hunter breathed holding his chest as Shiro looked at him expectantly.

"With what?"

"Alex's birthday!" Hunter had to do a double take when hearing this.

"What?"

"Yeah It's tomorrow and Shiro needs help decorating and getting gifts and guests and-"

"Okay slow down, I'll help you." Shiro breathed a sigh of relief hearing this. "Now what do you need help with?" Hunter was certainly willing to help but in truth he was very confused. Alex hadn't said or really hinted at anything like this and now Hunter was being told it was tomorrow.

"Well, to be honest Shiro doesn't even know what kind of party Alex wants." Hunter thought he had a good idea. Alcohol, Blackjack, Maybe some pot, A good brawl or two, And screw it throw in some hookers for good measure. That sounds like the kinda party Alex would call fun. Fortunately Shiro probably couldn't all of that.

"I'm sure Alex would like any party you put together for him." Alex was a lot of things but he wasn't an asshole- Okay well he could be If he wanted too but he was usually an entirely different person around Shiro ever since he found out she was his younger sister.- So Hunter was certain he probably would genuinely like anything Shiro did for him.

"But Shiro wants it to be special, its his last year to be a teenager." So he was turning nineteen? Hunter had always assumed he was at least twenty but now he guessed not.

"Leave that to me~" Hunter had no idea where Chaplin had come from "I'll make sure he loves it Shiro, you just focus on keeping him out of his room for the day." Okay that was one thing taken care of that just left presents and a few guests. Easy enough, there was no way Chaplin would skip out on a party, Ganta would likely be dragged along by Shiro, Minatsuki would be easy enough to convince to come along and she'd likely bring Yo if for no other reason than to waste his time. And Rin and Haru liked him enough. So boom, All they needed were some gifts.

"That shouldn't be too hard, but whos gonna-"

"I will." Toto said seemingly materializing from behind Chaplin. "I've got something he's bound to be interested in."

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?" Toto had practically dragged Alex into the elevator promising that it would be worth fifteen minutes of his time.

"I told you it's a surprise."

"And I told you I don't like surprises." Hagire rolled his eyes at this, the boy was just as impatient even with a whole new memory and ten years of growth.

"You'll like this one trust me." He then lead Alex to an eerily familiar location, the Scarchain headquarters. Alex said nothing as Toto opened the door to reveal that not much had changed since the Undertaker raid, there were a few limbs from dead undertakers Senji had cut apart, a few old beers were still on the counter, and the pool table had been left with an unfinished game on it. There was the new addition of a random steel chair in the back. The young man tied to it was very familiar to Alex however. After double checking just to be sure he saw Bundo Rokuro who was gagged, handcuffed and tied to the folding chair. With a death glare pointed right at Alex. Alex froze up for a moment before getting over the shock and turning to Toto who had an innocent smile on his face. "I'm sure you two have met, after all you were both Undertakers right?" Alex had no patience for this and walked right up to strange man and got in his face asking.

"What the hell is going on here?" Toto didn't miss a beat walking right past Alex and walking behind Rokuro placing his hands on the young man's shoulders and saying.

"You see Rokuro here has some very sensitive files, files that hold information you want." Alex was done with Toto's cryptic bullshit and growled out.

"And just what the fuck do you know about what I want?" Still with that damn smile on his face Toto said.

"I know you want revenge for you and Hunter being framed."

"Lucky guess, now what does that have to do with him?"

"Well, Rokuro has some rather, enlightening files considering The Wretched Egg and Hades." Alex had never heard of this Wretched Egg before but the name Hades was familiar.

"You mean, That bitch in the red cloak and her friend in the hoodie?" Toto's smile turned sinister as he continued.

"Yep, Rokuro here has they're identities on his little laptop, but there's a couple of issues with that. A: I don't know where the laptop is and B: He's not telling." Alex then turned to the restrained man and narrowed his eyes. "I tried asking nicely but he wouldn't tell me anything." Alex walked closer and knelt down pulling off the gag and giving one attempt to end this without bloodshed.

"I'm gonna give you one chance Rokuro, tell me where the laptop is and it turns out you told the truth i'll let you go and we never have to see each other again." Unfortunately Rokuro wasn't in a cooperative mood, he knew damn well what Alex was capable of and that didn't scare him anywhere near as much as Hades did.

"Sorry but whatever you're capable of it's nothing compared to what they can do." Alex sighed but then a sick smirk appeared on his face. A grin Hargire was very familiar with. Hagire walked out and the door was closed as Alex reached into his pocket, pulled out his pocket knife, and bent over pressing the knife against Rokuro's cheek.

"Well we're gonna have to see about that now, aren't we?" Hagire smiled as Rokuro's muffled screams found their way to his ears, after all he had managed to kill two birds with one stone. Alex was going to find out the information he needed to further the plan and Rokuro likely wouldn't make it out of that room alive, it was a win win for him.

"What are we gonna get him?" Minatsuki raised a rather good question. They didn't know what Alex was really into. Now in fairness this wasn't entirely their fault as the topic of his interests never really came up. Ganta on the other hand was more surprised with the fact that Minatsuki was even taking this slightly seriously and asked.

"You're getting him something?" She scoffed at this.

"Yeah, he's my friend. What kind of bitch do you think I am?"

"you can make friends?" Now Ganta hadn't meant for that to sound as bad as it did, he had just asked what to him seemed like a completely reasonable question. She didn't see it this way.

"That's it! I'm gonna-"

"Will you two stop for one minute?" She made a final mutter before turning to Hunter who pointed at a shop window. They looked at the display to see the front and back of a expensive looking leather Jacket. It was navy blue with two straps on the chest instead of a zipper and went all the way down to the thighs, the shoulders and upper back had black padding that extended into a stripe that went up the middle of the hood "Shiro told me Alex has been looking at this for a while but couldn't afford it."

"Okay that covers one of us but what do me an-"

"No look." He pointed again this time to the price tag, it was gonna cost over a million cast points. "Way I see it, we pool our money together and get him this."

"I mean that could work." Ganta said.

"I don't know isn't it usually a shitty thing to do?" Hunter then shook his head saying.

"When it's this expensive? No. Besides Shiro says he REALLY wants this jacket so I'd say he probably won't care." Minatsuki shrugged, that made enough sense for her.

"Well if you say so." And with that the party was ready, they just needed to wait for Alex to show up.

Alex sighed, who knew torture could take so much out of someone? He really had to give it to Rokuro, the bastard could certainly hold out in shitty situations. But after about four hours of beatings, cutting, breaking, and everything else Alex could think of the nerd held out. So Alex just left him tied up in the dark, literally. And after stopping for a can of some generic soda from a vending machine he was finally back at his room. He sighed, opened the door and was greeted by the majority of the deadmen he knew yelling out.

"Surprise!" However he wasn't expecting anything like this immediately threw his still closed can at the first person he saw who happened to be Yo. Everyone in the room stared at the blond who had been knocked to the floor by the sudden attack. After a few seconds of awkward silence Alex spoke up asking.

"What are you all doing?" Hunter rubbed the back of his head and bashfully said

"It's a surprise party..." Wait surprise party?

"For who?" Minatsuki now chimed in almost yelling at him.

"For you dumbass!" Why would they throw him a surprise party? Did he do something?

"Why?" Shiro who was starting to get annoyed just blurted out.

"Because its your birthday!"

"It is?!" Now it was their turn to be shocked. a soft murmur before Rin couldn't help but ask.

"You forgot your own birthday?"

"I never knew when it was!" He then turned to Shiro looking flabbergasted. "How old am I?"

"Nineteen..." Her face grew sad at this. how does someone forget their own birthday? "You didn't even remember your birthday?" Alex started to feel incredibly bad seeing his younger sister, who he assumed had to have been the one to put the party together, so he decided that even if he didn't remember he wasn't going to let that stop him from having a good time with his friends and little sister saying.

"Hey you all put all this effort into this party and you're just gonna let me come in, knock out Yo, and bring the mood down? Come on, im gonna show you all how Alexander Kato Parties! Now where's the booze?!" This helped boost Shiro's spirits, after all he was right. So what if he had forgotten before? He knew now so everything was alright again!

"Drinks are right over here!" Chaplin called out holding up two bottles of high quality liquor.

"Guys I think Yo has a concussion." After making sure Yo didn't need medical attention Chaplin handed out drinks to everyone. From there the party went rather smoothly with everyone present starting to get buzzed. This would lead to the current situation at hand.

"Shiro I'm just saying you shouldn't drink this stuff, you're not old enough yet." Alex spoke in the calmest voice he could manage while trying to wrestle a bottle of whiskey away from his sister who was holding on to the bottle with a vice grip.

"Ah thas bull! Yo-you let Ganta have some!" Alex sighed, he was now regretting letting Shiro pick her own drinks. Honestly he had assumed that she would have taken one drink and decided she hated it. He was right but seeing him down shot after shot had her feeling confident, if he could do it so could she!

"I'm not responsible for Ganta, and besides. He can actually handle it." Across the room Ganta sat Next to Hunter in the chairs that had been brought in. Hunter chuckled at the situation but Ganta was a little worried.

"Is this my fault somehow?" Hunter laughed at this, the youngest party member had taken one shot before stopping, Shiro had downed three quarters of a bottle.

"No, it's like Alex said, She's his responsibility." Alex felt Shiro grip start to loosen and he pulled hard. Then Shiro gasped and let go of the bottle entirely sending Alex to the ground before proclaiming.

"We should do presents!" From his spot on the ground Alex rubbed the back of his head and pushed himself up asking.

"You guys got me presents?" Shiro effortlessly picked Alex up and set him back on his feet saying.

"Well duh! It's your birthday!" She then ran over to the corner and picked up a small square that had clearly been hand wrapped before handing it to Alex and impatiently saying. "Come on open it, open it!" Alex did so ripping the monstrosity open to see a picture. In the picture Shiro was around five and wearing a little pink dress, She sat on an older boys lap who Alex assumed was him. That wasn't all there was however, Right next to them was a similarly aged Ganta and someone Alex had never met before. A young boy who looked just like him.

"Is this us?"

"Yeah! You, me, Ganta, and Jason!" Like most things in his early life Alex didn't remember Jason. But he had a very good idea of who the boy was, this boy looked exactly like the younger version of Alex in the picture they even had the same simple haircut. The only differences being in their clothes and facial expressions. Alex was wearing a black t-shirt and shorts he had an abnormally grim expression staring into the camera with an amount of hate even Alex had never remembered feeling before. Jason on the other hand wore a white sweater and black dress pants and had a bright smile only rivaled by Shiro's. Alex knew he had more forgotten family than Shiro but a twin? That was something he had never even considered that possibility and now it was staring him right in the face. With a big, dumb, toothy smile.

"Thank you Shiro, I love it." He said bringing her into a tight hug earning an 'aww' from Chaplin and Rin.

"I knew you would like it!" She beamed, very proud of herself before pointing to a gift bag and saying. "Come on you still have another!" Hunter in turn walked it over to Alex saying.

"Me, Ganta, and Minatsuki all picked this out." Alex raised an eyebrow at this before opening the bag and quickly exclaiming.

"Holy shit!" Shiro frowned at his blatant potty mouth and reminded him

"Swear."

"Hey, it's my birthday, I get at least one freebie!" He said pulling his new jacket out with a satisfied grin. "Besides you know how long i've been wanting to get this." He then slid it on and looked at himself still smirking. "So how do I look?"

"You look so cool!" Shiro yelled out circling him to get a better look. Hunter looked him up and down before holding up his thumb.

"It looks good on you."

"Alright everyone time for cake!" Chaplin exclaimed.

As the party kept going into the night the drinks simply didn't stop and at some point everything devolved into a mess of stupid laughter and things none of them with the exception of Shiro would ever consider sober. Some highlights included Alex and Hunter going up against Shiro and Ganta in a game of chicken and losing. Minatsuki talking Yo into playing five finger fillet until one of his fingers needed to be stitched shut by Alex at the height of his intoxication. Chaplin getting knocked out by a bottle thrown by Shiro. Ganta getting dressed up as Aceman and getting his ass kicked by Shiro. And last but not least Rin and Hunter getting into a fight that eventually turned into an impromptu make out session that ended with the two of them passing out on Alex's bed. Now at three in the morning Shiro was missing and there were only two people left conscious. Both still half drunk and barely conscious Alex and Minatsuki were left sitting against the wall. As much as they tried to ignore it things were still pretty awkward between the two with neither wanting to bring up the elephant in the room. Eventually Alex's curiosity got the better of him though and out of nowhere he asked.

"So are we gonna talk about that kiss?" Minatsuki cringed at the suggestion. She knew they probably should, but at the same time she really didn't want to.

"Oh god do we have to?"

"I mean, not really but I want to know, what were you trying to do?" She buried her face in her hands letting out an embarrassed groan.

"I guess I just wanted to get some kinda reaction out of you, I fucked up, can we move on now?"

"Yeah, that sounds best." They sat for a few more minutes of silence before Minatsuki had enough and said.

"Okay i'm gonna head back to my room." She then tried to stand only to stumble over and fall onto her side. Alex in his semi-drunk state found this hilarious and burst out laughing. Minatsuki looked back to him and growled at this. "Yeah, very funny asshole." Alex eventually stopped laughing and asked.

"Need some help?" She watched him closely for a second before coming to the conclusion that he was actually being sincere.

"Would you mind?" Alex stood up and stumbled himself before steadying himself and throwing her arm over his shoulder

"Not at all, come on let's go."

Jason hadn't celebrated his birthday in years at this point. He just didn't see the reason to, he didn't have anyone to celebrate with besides Shiro and Hagire so he usually just worked or took a personal day. Right now he was doing the lator sitting on his bed reading a book. There was a knock on his door and he walked over opening it to see. "Shiro?" She was holding a small slice of cake in her hands and smiling

"Well the girl wanted to see her big brother on his birthday." Hagire said making his presence from behind Shiro known. "And really who can say no to that face." Jason smiled, even if he didn't celebrate his birthday, it was still nice to know Shiro cared enough to see him on it.

"It's good to see you Shiro."

"Here, Shiro grabbed it for you!" And for the first time in a while a genuine smile came to his face as he took the piece of cake before setting it aside and hugging the albino girl.

"Thank you Shiro, You're a wonderful sister." Shiro smiled, her family may not have been back together just yet but she knew Jason just needed some time and convincing. Then they could be a happy family again. "Why do you smell like alcohol?"