Bound – Ch. 15 Sins

24 Hours Prior to the Kidnapping

"This isn't what we had agreed to!" Jin slammed his hands on his desk as he spoke to the person on the other side of the phone.

"Things aren't going the way as planned Izumi-kun." An older voice answered showing little reaction to the captain's outburst. "We have to make the first move before 'they' do. Besides, they can't stay in the dark forever. Sooner or later, they will learn that their lives were all part of a bigger plan. They're no longer children."

"You planned on implicating them from the very beginning, didn't you?" The mysterious man stayed silent on the other line. Jin clenched his jaw, holding back frustration. "This isn't their fight!"

"Need I remind you that you are talking to your superior right now Captain Izumi?" The man used an authoritative voice to show who was on top. "I have made myself clear. You know that they would be involved the moment you started training them."

"Even if it will get him killed?" Jin pushed.

"Are you threatening me?" The voice on the other side of the line turned cold. "Do not forget that he is not the only one involved. You know very well that she is too because of your decisions."

The captain knew that if they were talking face to face, the temperature in the room would be dropping in degrees. Silence filled the room while neither one wanted to concede to the other. A tired sigh came from the other line revealing that he was getting too old to be arguing with the younger man.

"How many more lives do you want to be sacrificed?"

Jin hesitated in answering. He didn't know how to. After all, the Organization was a group that was always working in the shadows. Many years of chasing and they still weren't anywhere close where they want to be. "But…"

"I know you made your own sacrifices, but remember, they also share blood with some of our best. Because of that, we cannot let their talents go to waste." The man paused their conversation to speak to another on his side of the line. Jin could hear the other speak softly to a woman before returning to speaking with him. "I have other matters to attend to now. Am I to understand that you have nothing else to say?"

"…Yes, sir…" The captain reluctantly answered. But one heavy question weighed on his chest. "Do you ever wonder if he will hate you for this?"

Although the other was quiet for a bit, he also posed a question for Jin. "I believe the real question is: will you ever be able to forgive yourself for the decisions you have made?"

The line was quickly cut before Jin could say anything else. The brown-eyed man set the phone down and sighed heavily to himself. He leaned back in his large office chair and stared at the ceiling. Slowly, his eyes drifted to the lower drawer of his desk. Unconsciously, his hand pulled it open and revealed a picture album filled with the days when he was younger. Unable to resist, he flipped through and stopped when he saw a photo with many familiar faces that were no longer in his life.

xXx

23 Years Ago

Squeals filled the room while two heads poked in to see what was up. The two men were unsure what was happening, but it seemed like three women were overly excited for some reason.

"What's up?" Jin questioned. "Something good happen?"

A redhead was jumping up and down with her hands laced between her friend's, while the third woman giggled softly at their reactions. The blue haired man beside him silently shook his head and sat down beside the quiet woman. He casually threw his arm around her and played with her long, dark brown hair lovingly. She leaned onto his shoulder and smiled while she watched her two friends continue to jump with joy.

"Are you done yet?" Jin asked impatiently after waiting for the two to calm down.

"Yuhi is pregnant too!" Bright eyes shined at the man. Not so long ago he had received the news that he was going to be a father from his wife. If Jin were honest, he was sure he fell in love with her all over again. But that thought was short-lived when she gave him the news. "Eh? EHHHHH?! So, he wasn't gay after all?!"

His comment earned a hard punch in the shoulder from the redhead. "Rude! Kyosuke isn't gay! He's just a bit awkward with the way he conveys his love!"

"Seriously…" Jin rubbed his aching shoulder and looked at the blue haired man.

"No comment." The other replied.

"Oh, come on, not everyone is a natural Casanova like you Kaito," Yuhi remarked. "I'm surprised you only ever had eyes on one girl, no offense Ayane, but your husband is a natural flirt even if he isn't trying."

The woman named Ayane laughed and brought his left hand closer to her cheek, playing with the silver band on his ring finger. "He's just a hopeless romantic. Hopefully, our child is everything just like him."

Kaito felt his body go rigid. His reaction earned a smirk from both Yuhi and Jin. The blue haired man looked into hazel eyes for answers. With a slight nod and a bashful smile, Ayane confirmed that she too was also expecting. Overwhelmed with joy, Kaito leaned in and kissed his wife in front of the others, making his wife flush in the face.

"Oh, get a room already." Jin frowned. "How the hell did you all manage to get pregnant at the same time?"

"Considering that they're roughly one month apart into their pregnancy, it shouldn't surprise anyone." A monotonous voice answered Jin's question from behind. His sharp looking eyes stared blankly at the taller man before frowning at the bubbly redhead. "Yuhi, didn't I say that you shouldn't move your body unnecessarily unless needed?"

The said woman could only laugh sheepishly and walk up to the man, giving an apology kiss on his cheek. Their display of affection made Jin rolls his eyes. "Let's take a picture to commemorate." Jin felt a slender hand touch his.

"No objections here~!" Yuhi grabbed the woman to sit in between her and Ayane. Their respective husbands stood behind their wives with silence following not long afterward. "…So, who's gonna take the picture?"

"Why don't I do it for you?" A much older woman walked into the room with a gentle smile. She looked lovingly at the young couples and took a Polaroid camera off a nearby shelf and snapped their picture. She set the camera aside and sat down to converse with the younger generation. "This house is going to become livelier again soon."

"What are you hoping for Kaito to have?" Yuhi asked with a grin. "Knowing him, he might fight with the poor child for affection from Ayane since he's such a doting husband." The old woman chuckled because she believed it was true too.

"That could be a problem." A small mumble came out of Kaito.

"It shouldn't matter what gender the child is, as long as you love them, the will grow and be strong. Regardless of who they will fall in love with, opposite gender or not, I'm sure they will know who is the one they want to spend the rest of their life with, just like all of you."

Discussions of the good news continued to excite the soon-to-be mothers. Before their husbands could stop them from overdoing it, their wives were already discussing possible engagements between their children.

xXx

Jin closed the album. There were so many emotions inside of him, but nowhere for him to release them. Sacrifices? He has made too many. Just where have the simple days gone? Or were they ever simple to begin with? So many questions, but no answers. Tired, the captain ran a hand through his graying hair.

"No matter what I do, it will never be enough to pay for my sins…" Too many people were missing from his life. He would give anything, just to be able to have them back again, but even heaven would never grant his wish.

Present Time: 4 Hours After the Mission

"Damn it!" Eiichi took his anger out on the white hospital wall. Anger was etched into his eyes after being informed of Ushio's condition. He blamed himself for not being there to help and not being able to do anything.

Masaki wasn't any better. He sat on the chair distancing himself from the others, blaming himself for being weak. His mind swarmed with negatives thoughts of the many possibilities that could happen to Ushio, and those thoughts were becoming a void swallowing him whole.

Too wrapped up in their own worlds, the girls were unsure how to approach the bodyguards. Nozomi worried that Eiichi was blaming himself too much for something that was out of his control. It was a mission that involved life and death. It was then that the purple haired girl realized that they were all being too lax with their lives. What if one day they get targeted again? Will someone lose their life next time? Did their parents know? Is that why they were given bodyguards? But even so, Nozomi refused to believe that this was some simple kidnapping. She had a gut feeling that there was much more to what they, as heiresses, know.

Nico and Kotori, on the other hand, weren't sure how to feel. They had just been saved and who knows what could have happened if Ushio and Masaki weren't on time. They were given blankets from earlier to keep them from the cold, as they were still in their party dresses, however, Kotori couldn't stop her body from shivering when the image of blood flashed through her mind.

Tension continued to gnaw at everyone until the red light of the ER sign turned off. All heads looked up snapping back into reality when the surgeon walked out of the surgery room. "The patient is currently out of critical danger; however, unsure when he will wake up."

Before he could get a word out of any of them, he quickly went on with more explanations. "May I ask, are any of you here his family?"

"I am." Captain Izumi arrived just in time to take care of the situation. Before pressing on with Ushio's matter further, he looked at both Eiichi and Masaki, giving them orders to return with the heiresses and get some rest. Eiichi wanted to argue and stay, but since it was an order from his higher-up, he had no choice but to obey.

"We will talk later. I'll inform all of you of Ushio's condition once I go through the procedures." The blond stormed off first with Nozomi in tow, Masaki and Nico followed afterwards when the captain put a knowing hand on the redhead's shoulder.

Jin realized that Kotori was the only one who didn't move. His eyes gaze at her long enough for her to noticed that she was being stared at. The taupe haired girl was not sure what to say to the older man. This was the first time she has ever met him in person, but she felt his presence to be very familiar. Maybe they have met when she was younger, and she just couldn't remember. But it also seemed like it was the same for the other party.

"You should go before they start worrying." Captain Izumi clear his throat to avoid any further awkwardness. Kotori couldn't help but blush and nod meekly before turning around to leave.

"Don't worry," The captain spoke up with little thought. "he's stronger than he looks. So, don't go blaming yourself for what happened. It wasn't your fault."

Kotori held back the tears that were threatening to fall. Even though she knew it was Ushio's job to protect her, she couldn't help but be worried. Who wouldn't be if it involved someone else's life? Large drops fell from her eyes while she clutched the blanket around her to hug herself. She ran off before Jin was able to comfort her any further with his words. He couldn't help but let out a sigh once he lost sight of her tiny back.

Wasting any more time, Captain Izumi showed the doctor proper documents showing that everything related to Ushio's case is to be under strict confidentiality. All information of how he was injured was not to be revealed to the public under any circumstances. After signing a wavier agreeing to their terms, the doctor explained the current condition of Ushio.

"The patient was struck where his temporal lobe was located. The impact may have not left any life-threatening damages, but our concerns as of right now are the possibilities of disruptions towards his memories."

"So, you're saying that it's possible that there could be problems with his memories." The captain frowned. "Is it possible that he could regain memories too then?"

The doctor didn't confirm it, but neither did he deny that possibility. Jin followed the busy man to the room Ushio was temporally being held in. The sight of the young man in bandages and a white gown reminded Jin of when he first saved him. The burns on his back were terrible, but with the advanced technologies in their hands, they were able to save Ushio without doing too many surgeries. Although it left an ugly scar behind, they were able to preserve his life.

Jin sat down and stared at the sleeping figure in the hospital bed. It pained him to see Ushio in this similar state like he once was when he was seven-years-old. The middle-aged man took deep breaths to control his emotions. He hid his face in his hands with his elbows propped up on his thighs. No one was there to console the disheartened man. No one could understand what he was going through.

"How many more trials must heaven put you through before they are satisfied?"

Instead of usually putting a message at the top, I decided to leave it all down here for this chapter. Although I'm not sure how many of you are still reading this story, I want to let you know that I don't plan on dropping it despite not updating it for over a year (at least, that is my decision atm). For the longest time, I was having trouble getting back into the groove of writing. The motivation for writing when I first started was the wanting to improve my writing and enjoy what people who read my stories thought along the way. Before I knew it, it somehow became a heavy task when trying to live up to the expectations that the readers had. I know that I'm not the best at writing action or coming up with good pacing or whatnots, but this started out as just a fun experiment for me to play with my writing style. However, all criticism helped me improve in my writing, so I really appreciate them (if they were pertaining to my writing that is…).

When I see long reviews that comment on the story and point out things I can work on, it makes me feel better. As much as I would like to go through all the comments like I would usually do, I think I will make this message short as possible. Yes, I know I can have bad grammar in sometimes, but to be fair (if you will take it into consideration) I would use to type all my stories on my old iPod and send it to myself over email, copy and paste it into word, and then quickly review for some simple mistakes. For those who would like to get to know me better, by all means, try your best to get my attention and take your best shot in trying to get past my awkwardness. If you're awkward too, then we'll both be awkward together. Pretty much what I'm trying to say is, I'm back, but life if life so I can't promise constant updates like when I was younger. But I will try my best to complete this story, so I can write more.

Thank you as always to those who are still keeping up with this mess of a story and also to those who are just starting. I hope you continue to stay until the end (if I don't stop) and see it through with me.

Xero

Until Next Time…