Chapter 3 - Wrong

The sudden screeching of metal on metal - a sound that made several people grind their teeth and twitch from the discomforting noise - was a welcome surprise that Zyro hadn't expected so soon.
He had been doing the Word puzzle that Madoka had gotten for him ever since he had left Metal Bey, and had to admit that it was strangely fun and almost addicting. Sure, it nearly fried his brain for how hard he thought on some of the puzzles in there, but he was stubborn, and it was fun to figure them out and get the end result. Madoka sure knew how to find the fun ones, that was for sure. Not to much that was it a good way to kill time.
He took the pen he was holding and hung it from the page he was on, and then tucked the puzzle book back into the open top pocket of his backpack. He then slung the bag over his shoulder again, and adjusted the one strap he was using so that it was more comfortable, then sat at the edge of his seat with his left hand placed on the railing beside him.
It wasn't long before the train came screeching to a full stop, and the doors slid open almost immediately, allowing all of the current passengers - which was really only 10 people, including himself, for as far as he could see - to exit.
Zyro was one of the five people that stood up, and headed for the door, finally stepping out of the large metal snake of a machine and back into the real world.
The bright, golden-orange light of the sunset in the distance was one of the first things that hit him, making him squint and lift an arm up to shield his arms briefly. The light - a beautiful combination of warm colors - reflected off of the silver surface of the train behind him, the windows and hoods of parked cars cars, and even the metal mailboxes standing side-by-side on the sidewalk of the road ahead. The smell of pine trees from the forest that bordered the Northwest side of the town permeated the air, shared by the scent of steam and sweat and perfume and all the bodies that were gathered around. The cool autumn breeze blew against his side and stung his cheek with it's hint of a winter nip, and it did an excellent job of waking him up from his weary state induced by the train ride.
The raven blinked and lowered his hand that had blocked his face from the light of the setting sun that set the clouds and sky on fire with a golden beauty, and made his way away from the train and out from the platform.

Omitama, in all of his years of being here, had never really changed all that much. It was a fairly small town, but it was big enough to supply all the necessities that a place like this would need, which included several hardware and grocery and furniture stores, along with mechanical help, plumbing, and the list could go on to a point. But it never seemed to change that much, other than the very occasional construction sites where something was being built or torn down, or when new mailboxes were put in. Those, however, were typically irrelevant.
Zyro just shrugged his shoulders at that thought and made his way over to stand in the shadow of one of the several buildings that lined the left-hand side of the station. Only then did he finally get a chance to look around, although there really much for him to see in terms of scenery and view that he hadn't seen several times before in his youth. There were surprisingly quite a few people at the station today, with seemingly a couple dozen people boarding the train for the scheduled departure time.
What time was it, anyway?
Briefly, Zyro swung his backpack around on his shoulder, and unzipped the front pocket where he stored his phone and the smaller bits of supplies he had purchased for school.

5:58

Almost 6.
Which meant that if he left down the road within the next twenty minutes, he could probably make it back home by about 7:30 or 8, as long as he kept a fairly brisk pace. Approximately, anyway.
Math wasn't necessarily his strong point, but if he knew how to estimate distance and time, and also compare them together, in his head fairly well after 2 years of 'high school', than that had to count for something.
"Okay, good." He said to himself after he made his approximate equation, and then tucked his phone back into his bag and slung it over both shoulders this time, ready for the trek that would lead him home.

"Zyro Kurogane?"

The raven nearly jumped slightly at the sudden sound of his name, and turned swiftly to the side to see who had spoken. When he turned, he found himself facing a man and a woman, both older than himself but still fairly young in appearance, both of who looked a little startled at his sudden alertness.
"Whoa, sorry!" Said the man, raising his hands and eyebrows with an apologetic smile on his face, "Didn't mean to scare ya!"

"Uhh..." Zyro droned briefly, feeling a wave of awkwardness sudden come about him.
It took a moment before he simply smiled apologetically in return and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"I-it's okay!" He reassured them, "Sorry, I just didn't expect that..."
The man chuckled softly in response, and smiled cheerfully at him, lowering his hands again.
"No, it was my mistake." He insisted, "You did kinda look a bit out of it for a moment, so I probably should've known better. But we had to catch you before you left... You are Zyro Kurogane, correct?"
Zyro lowered his hand from his neck, gripping both straps of his backpack gently. He took a moment to look over the twos' appearance.
The man had to be no older than thirty, perhaps - or definitely - younger, with dark green eyes and short black hair that stood out against his strikingly pale skin.
The woman, on the other hand, had to be about Madoka's age, with shiny, rust-colored hair brought over her shoulder in a ponytail, with eyes the same brown as mahogany wood and a pleasant smile. Both of them were dressed professionally, but in a more... casual, sort of way.
"Uh, yeah." He answered after looking them over, "Why?"
Silently, Zyro hoped that these two weren't news reporters or journalists that wanted to interview him on the spot, and was only really comforted in the idea that they weren't by the fact that he wasn't seeing any notepads out, or any cameras or microphones in their hands.
"Oh, right, how rude of me!" The man said with a nod, gesturing first to himself, "My name is Kyoji Maeda, and this," he gestured to the woman beside him, who hadn't said a word the whole time but was still gazing at him with a friendly smile, "is my wife and business partner, Aiko."
The woman, Aiko, waved politely at him, but still said nothing.
"She's mute, if you're wondering." Kyoji said in answer to his thoughts, and Zyro nodded politely, giving her a smile of his own in response. She seemed to appreciate that.

"Anyway," Kyoji continued on, "We're from the local WBBA agency, just a few towns away, and we were just recently called here for contemplation on upgrading and adding some new arenas for the locals here to use. We just happened to see you arrive while we were working, and we were wondering if you would be able to give us your input on any of the ideas that we and our colleagues have."
Zyro's eyes widened in surprise at this sudden proposal, and he felt the excitement of such an opportunity almost immediately, his sky blue eyes brightening automatically in child-like enthusiasm. He almost said yes without another thought, but then remembered that he did have to leave soon if he was going to get home at a reasonable time.
"Well..." He said, looking down slightly, and scratching his cheek lightly with the tip of his fingernail, "I'd like too, but I do have to leave in a couple of minutes if I'm gonna make it home in time..."

"It'll just take a few minutes, no more." Kyoji insisted with an honest smile, "We promise we won't keep you long. We wouldn't want to get you in trouble with your parents, after all!"
Zyro gazed at the man for a moment, and glanced over to Aiko briefly before looking to the bottom right of his eyes in thought.
He really should get going; he didn't want to worry his parents, and he knew that the road to his town could get dark and even dangerous when it got really dark out and the animals came out of hiding, so he really should leave... But, even still, the chance to get a say in that sort of thing was a a bit of an exciting thought, and they did say it would only take a few minutes... Well, he could make pretty good distance in a short amount of time if he really needed to, and surely giving a little bit of input wouldn't take that long, right?
The guilty part of his conscious told him that this probably wasn't the wisest of ideas, but he shoved that part aside and told it that it would be fine; he could still make it home in good time even if he lost a few minutes.
"Just a few minutes, right?" He specified with Kyoji, who nodded in response with a smile.
"Promise." He said in response, and Zyro slumped his shoulders slightly with a brief sigh. He then looked up again with a bright smile.
"Okay, sure, I can do that!" The raven agreed happily, and both husband and wife in front of him looked equally as cheerful.
"Great!" Kyoji exclaimed happily, "Good to hear it. Our colleagues are just a couple blocks away." He gestured over to his left down in the direction the main street ran, "We'll take you to meet them quickly, if you wouldn't mind. They'd be honored to meet you, and, either way, it'd be better if we're all there to hear from you, rather than just the two of us."

"Uh, y-yeah, sure." Zyro agreed with the same upbeat attitude, although he grew a little flustered at the thought of people actually being honored of meeting him. Sure, that had happened a few times back in Metal Bey City, with young kids and even a few teens and adults, but it still managed to get to him.
Honestly, how many times did anybody expect people to be honored to even be in their presence?

...

Well, Gingka probably expected it a lot by this point in his life, considering how he'd actually saved the world once, but still.

So, with that decided, Zyro followed along beside the two of them as they lead the way to the building they had mentioned, and, along the way (although it didn't take too long as it was only a couple blocks as they said), both Kyoji and Aiko made friendly conversation with him.
Aiko asked him questions about what he was doing in Omitama and how his day was and how he felt about Neo Battle Bladers and the BTF via notepad, of which she had pulled out of her back jeans pocket. Kyoji mainly gave him some basic ideas of what they were thinking about doing and what their colleagues had been coming up with so far and allowing him to get a feel for what they were trying to get at.
From what they were able to explain, Zyro was pretty sure he understood it well enough to give a bit of input on what he thought about it. After he did that, he could hopefully get going again.
As well as he could tell, he still had about 12 or so minutes to leave if he was making it back home on his originally planned time. And even if he didn't leave by then, he was sure he could still make it if he hurried.
"Ah, here we are!" Kyoji announced cheerfully as they approached the building that he had vaguely mentioned, and curved off to the left on their side of the street.
Zyro looked up at the building that all three of them had come too, halting for a moment to study it in his curiosity. He knew this building.
It had once been the old Community Centre, but it had long been torn down from its original use and was now used, he believed, as an office building, where the Mayor and other associates of the town would gather occasionally for updates on its finances, and taxes, and all of those other things. Or at least, that was what it was being used for the last time he checked, and he didn't doubt that it was still that way. He supposed that it was reasonable for Officials and associates of the WBBA to be making base here, since it was the only place he knew of in this whole town that had an actual conference room (it had a few, actually) for meetings and discussions.

"You coming?" Kyoji asked from the door, which he was holding open for both Aiko and said raven. Zyro snapped out of his temporary trance and shook his head a moment to regain himself, and then remembered where he was.
"Oh, yeah!" He said, smiling a little awkwardly before going along behind Aiko through the door, who chuckled soundlessly.
Zyro followed the two of them through the building, heading up a few flights of stairs to the third floor and walking through lazy office places and empty hallways. There didn't seem to be too many people around, let alone people actually working, and those who were didn't seem too enthusiastic or urgent about it. Zyro raised an eyebrow a bit as they passed through the 3rd office area that they had seen, where only 11 people, out of about 25-30 desks, were actually seated and working halfheartedly. No one looked up from where they were, though, and Zyro just looked away and followed along behind both Kyoji and Aiko.
"Alright, here we are." Kyoji announced once more as they came up to one of the several doors that lined the 3rd floor corridor. The man stopped in front of the door, and then looked towards Zyro.
"You ready?" He asked.
Zyro smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, for sure!" The raven said cheerfully, which made the man smile wider.
Kyoji then reached forward and took hold of the doorknob, twisting it open and allowing Zyro first entry out of courtesy.
Zyro quietly thanked him as he entered the room, and halted just a few feet in once he saw the group of 5 people who all sat around the table towards the far end of the large conference room, which was decorated pleasantly with some plants and illuminated with a line of rectangular windows mid-way up the walls. The windows didn't do too much good, however, since the sun was almost on the other side of the building, which just cast a weak, orange glow into the room. What few electrical lights were on were on a dim setting that allowed just enough light to see across the room.

At first, none of the five who sat there noticed them enter, and continued, for a few prolonged seconds, to discuss and bicker about topics that Zyro could barely make sense of in near-whispered voices with various hand gestures.
It wasn't until that one of the men actually facing in their direction spotted them out of the corner of his eye that the conversations were finally brought to a halt, and all of those at the table, male or female, visible in the dim lighting or not, turned to look at the three who had entered the room.
"There you are." A slightly older man at the table said with a shake of his head, eyebrows raised at, seemingly, both Aiko and Kyoji, "We were wondering where you two got too."

"Oh, you know..." The younger man said nonchalantly, "We've been around. But that's besides the point... 'Cause look who we just happened to come across!"
Zyro could practically feel rather than see Kyoji gesturing over to him, and he raised his hand a bit in an awkward, shy wave.
"Right!" Said a fairly young, red-headed woman at the table, raising an eyebrow in a way that Zyro couldn't really recognize, "I thought you looked familiar."

"Zyro Kurogane." Said one of the men at the table, all of whom seemed to be a little older or younger than Kyoji was, who was now standing up and making his way over to the three of them gathered, "What an honor to finally meet you."

Smiling, Zyro shook the lightly-bearded man's hand. This was followed by several other greetings from the 3 others who had been sitting at the table along with him, including the redheaded woman who had spoken earlier.
"I never thought we'd actually get this chance." Said one of the other men of the group, who looked to be the oldest with his silver-white hair, "What a wonderful opportunity!"

"I'm impressed." Said the redheaded woman, crossing her arms over her chest, "You two don't do too bad."

"And you still doubt us..." Kyoji said in a condescending tone.

"I never said that." The redhead responded nonchalantly.

"Well then!" Said another man, middle-aged and slightly bloated, whilst clasping his hands, drawing most people's attention, "Now that you two are back, and you-" He gestured to Zyro, who smiled shyly after still not being used to being treated as important as he apparently was, "-are here with us, I think we can get down to business, now can't we? I'm... certain that most of us are eager to discuss what is needed."
All of the adults that were gathered around nodded in agreement, glancing to and fro each other to assure that they were all on the same page. Zyro glanced around at all of their faces, still feeling a little off at being among all of them.
"I should hope so." Said a new voice that drew Zyro's attention, being one that he hadn't heard before now. The resounding 'clack' of heels against the tile below them suddenly made itself known to his hearing. The three people in front of him glanced back over their shoulders, and the older man and the redheaded woman both moved to opposite sides to clear the way for the woman that stepped through them and made her face visible in the dim light.
Whoever she was, she looked to be fairly middle-aged, judging from the few wrinkles that decorated her cold, stoic face. Her brown hair was pulled back into a tight bun that could never possibly let any hairs loose, and her dull green eyes, colder than ice, gazed at him from behind the glasses perched on her long nose. She, unlike the others who stood around him, was dressed professionally with no casual or nonchalant detail about her.
Truth be told, she was actually quite intimidating.

"After all, we've been working up to this for a very long time." The woman continued, "And I don't think we're just going to let this opportunity go to waste."
Zyro stared at her for a moment, eyebrows knitting together in his confusion. Slowly, he shifted from foot to the other, and raised his right hand half-way in a still wave.
"Uh..." He started dumbly, "Hi."
His 'lost-for-words' greeting pulled a tight, amused smirk out of the icy woman, who uttered a soft grunt in the form of a brief laugh and shut her eyes briefly.
"Cute..." She said, the hint of a cruel laugh hidden somewhere in her voice. She then opened her dull, icy eyes, and that smile - however slightly twisted it was - disappeared altogether from her face.

"Maeda."

Zyro was hardly able to register it as he felt a strong arm wrap around his upper torso and pull him back roughly while another hand, smaller, slimmer, was placed harshly over his mouth.
He reacted instinctively and kicked out, bringing both hands up to pull and scratch and tear off the arms that held him, tried to twist and pull away and do anything he could to just get away as everything in his brain screamed DANGER.
A sharp pain in his neck made him stiffen, and he tensed violently as he unconsciously let out a cry that was muffled by the hand that covered his mouth. His eyes were wide, pupils shrunk to pinpricks as his heart pounded uncontrollably in his chest. His breathing panicked and quick through his nose. Looking through fear-stricken vision as the 5 people before him - especially her - just stood there and watched as he struggled against the people he had thought he would be able to trust.

Why weren't they doing anything?

Why were they just

standingthere?

Zyro tried to keep struggling in his panicked frenzy, but his limbs suddenly fought against him, growing heavier and heavier by the second. His vision, already hazy and tunneled in his fear, blurred steadily until all he could see were the vague outlines of the people he had so come to fear in the few moments he had known them. His breathing relaxed alarmingly quickly, his pounding heart slowing against his will, his eyes fighting to stay open even as his eyelids slowly sunk over his vision.

No no no no don't go to sleep

It wasn't long before Zyro was gone to the world, his body unconsciously submitting to the deep sleep that forcefully overcame it, and all senses dying as he was lowered to the floor. But by the time he placed there, he was already too far gone...

"Good." Naomi said coldly as she gazed down at the now unconscious teenager on the floor, "That went a lot more smoothly than originally planned."

"He's trusting." Kyoji said matter-of-factually as he capped the syringe in his hand and wrapped it in a white cloth, "A lot more trusting than he should be. That's his problem... Made it a hell of a lot easier, though."
The middle-aged man of the group crossed his arms over his chest, eyebrows raised scornfully.
"And aren't you just so lucky to have all of the easy jobs, huh?" The man questioned sarcastically.
"Oh, shut up..." Kyoji replied bitterly with a sneer as he handed the covered syringe over to Aiko, who took it wordlessly and wrapped it in a plastic baggy that she had pulled out of her breast pocket.
"Enough talk." Naomi ordered them sternly, "We don't have much more time in here, so gather him up-" She gestured with her eyes towards Zyro, "-and head for the car. Do not let anyone see you. The Director will not be pleased if we lose him again."

"Right away." The dark-haired, bearded man of the group said obediently in say for all of them, before he crouched down to the ground and picked the unconscious teenager up bridal style. The redheaded woman then picked up the backpack that had been discarded on the ground for easier carrying of the boy, and held it up.
"What should we do with this?" She asked.
"We'll take it with us." Naomi answered as she walked to the door, "We can't have anyone finding it and growing suspicious... Besides, we could probably use some of the things in there to our advantage if we need too."
She stopped in the door-frame, the resounding 'clack' of her heels on the tile ever present, and she looked back over her shoulder with those loveless eyes of hers.
"Meet me around back, the car will be there." She ordered, "And, again, don't let anyone see you."
With those final commands, Naomi disappeared through the door, and was closely followed by the elderly man, the middle-aged man, and the redheaded woman, who had passed off Zyro's backpack to Kyoji.
The door was shut behind them, indicating to all other staff that the room was supposedly unoccupied at the moment. That only left Kyoji, Aiko, and the bearded man who held Zyro in his arms, all of whom had a different plan of escape due to the luggage they carried.
It was a bit hard to see in the dim lighting, but there was another door on the left-hand corner of the room, just behind one end of the conference table, which lead through several other rooms in the building - ones that were typically unoccupied at this time of the day - and that would eventually lead them down a stairwell and out through the emergency exit that left out into the back alley. It wasn't like the area was a secret to everyone, so there could definitely be the risk of meeting someone out there that they didn't want too, but it was the best place they had to conceal themselves for the time being. Whoever had designed the building in the first place sure had weird taste, but it was definitely fortunate for them.
Either way, it wouldn't matter, because in just a matter of minutes they would be hitting the road and leaving this small town for the area where the others had been sent to meet them in a chopper. From there, the boy would be taken back to where he had once belonged.

"Let's go." Kyoji said, checking his watch quickly as he slung Zyro's backpack over his right shoulder, "That interview in here is at 6:30, we need to be gone by then."

"Right." The bearded man agreed, and immediately turned and made for the other door in the room, followed by the Kyoji, and, soon, Aiko.
It took the slightly older man a moment to reach out and open the door with the young teenager in his arms, but he quickly got a hold of the knob and twisted it, swinging the door open to reveal the darkened room beyond. Both him and Kyoji walked through the doorway, and Aiko made to follow them.
However, she halted in her tracks as she came to the border of the threshold.
Her grip on the baggy in her hands tightened, trying to ease the trembling that she couldn't control and that made her teeth chatter as she bit at her bottom lip. The coil in her stomach - which hadn't been there before now - was tight, painfully so, and the sweat that trickled down the back of her neck made her shiver harder.
She looked back over her left shoulder into the dimly lit conference room, her brown eyes trembling, suddenly feeling uncomfortable beyond the words that she could never speak.
Only then she did really take a good look at their actions, what had transpired in there, what they had been planning for over a week.

God... He was, what?
Fifteen?
Fifteen and they had...

But it was for the best, they had always known that, and that was what they had always agreed on.
That was what this job was all about when it came to the things they did. You couldn't have any hesitation, any second thoughts, you just had to do according to plan. You had to disconnect yourself, or, if you couldn't, convince yourself that it was all for the best, all for the 'greater good', even if it wasn't true. She had done worse things than this to better people. And with them she had barely hesitated, barely stopped to think about what lives they had, what they were taking them away from, what they were stripping them of. She, and the others that she worked with, had barely blinked at those things.
So why?... Why did this just suddenly feel so... So wrong?

"Aiko, let's go." Kyoji's voice said from the other side of the room beyond the doorway she stood in, which snapped Aiko out of her wandering thoughts and brought back into the reality that stood before her. Her eyes shot back up to her husband, who stood there gazing at her silently, waiting for her to come along so that they could get out of this place before anyone could realize what was going on or catch them.
Shakily, she swallowed, but stepped over the threshold anyway, shutting the door behind her and snapping the lights off so that it really could seem like no one had been there beforehand...

Minoru could pinpoint the exact moment when he felt that something was wrong.
It was just so sudden, so unexpected, that he could well distinguish it from all other feelings. The rock that suddenly dropped in his stomach and made him feel slightly nauseous was one part of it, and then there was the goosebumps that raised all over his skin and the hairs on the back of his neck that stood up stock straight and refused to lay back down.
All he had been doing as sitting in one the small little coffee shops in town, sipping at the now lukewarm hot chocolate that he had purchased and playing a round of Sudoku when that sudden wave of uneasiness swept over him and left him very - underline very - uncomfortable.
Carefully, he set the pen in his hand back down on the table and then folded his hands together in front of him, watching as they trembled ever so slightly. He swallowed thickly, and then closed his eyes as he willed the feeling to go away, the small shivers that kept running down his spine unnerving in the least. He hated it when this happened.
It may have been surprising, but it wasn't like this was necessarily anything new.
Sometimes, back when he was just a preteen between the ages of eleven and fourteen, he would get the same sorts of 'feelings' that something was wrong for seemingly no reason. All of those episodes were sometimes far apart in occurrence, or would take place over a series of days all lined up in a row.
His uncle had dismissed it back rhen, insisting that there was nothing to worry about when they lived in as peaceful a place as they did, and Minoru had taken his word for it.
Now he kept getting them again, and this time he actually knew what was causing them.

Gingka and him had never really been the most 'normal' set of twins to start with, anyway, so having a sort of unconscious mental and spiritual connection probably wasn't too out of the ordinary for them. He assumed it was what most people called a 'twin thing', where they would sometimes finish each other's sentences or know when something wasn't right with the other. Only, in their case, on steroids.
These bouts of uneasiness and worry came upon him quite often these days, especially considering Gingka's fragile mental state and occasional but severe relapses due to his PTSD. Those could get bad enough to the point where he himself had to stop entirely what he was doing and take a breather. He could hardly imagine what they were like for Gingka.
In the time that he had realized and come to at least mostly understand their 'twin thing', he had also come to acknowledge the connection that he had with Zyro.
It wasn't an insanely strong one, but it was still there. He didn't finish Zyro's sentences, nor did he ever know what exactly could be wrong if something was ever wrong, but the two of them were still connected in the way that the elder of the two could somewhat understand and sense Zyro's emotions.
It really wasn't that surprising after all of the dreams that they had once shared with each other where no words were ever spoken, so he didn't say too much on it.
After all, he had made the kid.

...

Yup, that still sounded weird.

But the point was that if he had gotten one of those 'feelings', than that could mean one of two things.
1: Something was going on with Gingka and he was having one of his moments, or 2: Something was wrong with Zyro.
Either way, Minoru didn't feel especially good about either of those options, especially the latter.
What could be wrong with Zyro if that was indeed the case?
Had the train broken down?
Was he not able to get home?
Had he gotten lost?
Had something else unrelated to that have happened? He didn't know.
Whatever the problem could be, it was enough to make Zyro possibly worry, if that was actually the emotion. He really couldn't tell, since the raven was now so far away.
Whatever the matter might be, whether option one or two, whatever possibility or fact, Minoru knew that he didn't like it. But it wasn't like he could actually do anything about either situation at the moment, since visiting hours at the hospital - let alone the psychiatric ward - were long over, and Zyro was at a place he hadn't been before.
Sure, he could probably just teleport to Gingka's room to check on him like he had that one time, (one of the few times that he had actually used his teleportation abilities after the Alcorin ordeal) but, when he had, Gingka had altogether freaked out and it had taken him a few minutes before he had actually been able to calm back down again.
His brother had forgiven him easily, but Minoru knew better than to do try that again.
And, either way, he couldn't just go to wherever Zyro was, since he had never been to or seen the place. For all he knew Zyro probably wasn't even in Omitama at all, so that wouldn't help him much.

Minoru sighed quietly, tapping his left index finger against the knuckles of his right hand as he could do nothing to get rid of the uncomfortable worry that had come over him, other than wait for it to die down and go away.
Maybe he shouldn't really do that here, though. Nobody liked being in the presence of someone who looked nervous or kept fidgeting.
Thankfully, his hands had stopped trembling enough for him to reach into his jacket pocket and pull out three dollars in change for a tip. He then took one last, quick drink of his half-full hot chocolate and it on the table with the pen and the change. He got up while doing the zipper of his jacket all the way up to his chin, and then left the coffee shop with the sound of the door bell tinkling in his ears.