Troublesome Brats is back with its twelfth chapter! Oh yeah!
Oh what's that? I'm early, you say? Well who cares! Think of this as my gift to all you lovely readers out there, because y'know...I tend to be late and all. Haha...
By the way, I've read some of the latest reviews I've had, and I ended up laughing so hard that I could've sworn I saw my life flashing before my eyes! Yeah, it was that hilarious to me. Readers oh readers, I know I'm creative, but to tell you the truth, I'm not that creative! Haha!
Anyway, reviews!
Gerard Sta Maria Terumi 310: Now I wonder where you were able to get such an idea...pfft...
EpicLinkSam: Yeah, I kinda feel bad for him myself. But well, he deserved it anyway.
SolarxBlack: Really? Well thanks a bunch! Your kind words really means a lot to me!
SifTheGreat: Thank you, thank you. I try my best. And you are curious you say? Well that's a good sign, in my eyes, anyway. As for Terumi, this chapter will pretty much explain a bit of his background, but only a bit. We'll get to the rest later. And again, like always, thank you for reviewing. I appreciate it.
xDearestHeart2375x: You, my friend, have been assaulting me with your heartwarming reviews nonstop. I appreciate it, but there is one thing that I would like to correct. In Special 004, the White Fang had actually been planning on ambushing Terumi, but after Adam received the news that someone went in and sabotaged the whole operation, he knew that it was Kazuma's doing. So Adam being Adam, he decided to hire an assassin in order to eliminate Kazuma. As for who our little assassin is, you'll just have to wait and see.
Now with reviews aside, let's read!
I own nothing.
-IIXII-
The next day came, and as expected, the terrible feeling from the day before still lingered. And as less as it was now compared to yesterday, it still kind of bothered him.
Terumi sighed.
And the worst part was that it took him nearly the whole night to finally realise that his little brother was missing. The fact that his scroll somehow wasn't broken after he had been squeezing it tightly in his hands last night in order to give his youngest sibling a call was nothing short of a miracle, though thankfully all that panicking went away the moment he took note of the new unread message in his mailbox.
From Kval himself.
Turned out he had been so upset that he failed to notice the device vibrating inside his pocket.
Still, it was reassuring to know that he was safe. Dangerous scumbags were lurking everywhere these days, especially during the night…
"Well, at least he's at Summer's place…" he muttered to himself, actually sounding a bit relieved at the fact. "He's smart enough to know what he should do when I'm not around, so that's good."
Though that still didn't stop him from blaming himself for not noticing his brother's lack of presence the other night. Like in all seriousness, he was an older brother for fuck's sake! He should take note of these things sooner!
A fucking failure.
That's what he was.
And so still feeling like shit that's been on the ground and stepped on for decades, Terumi pushed himself off the couch and decided to get some fresh air into his system. Lord knows he needed those in order to calm himself down…
Terumi stepped out of his apartment without even bothering to bring along his signature cloak, though he can't say he was expecting to meet his neighbour so suddenly, whom appeared to be gazing up at the sky with a troubled expression.
"Rags? What are you doing up so early?" he called out, purely out of curiosity of course. He knew that the man wasn't a morning person, so seeing him up this early pretty much caught him off-guard.
Ragna jumped and turned to face him, seemingly surprised, if that look on his face was anything to go by. "Y-You! Damn, don't scare me like that! What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?"
Terumi shot his neighbour a blank stare. "I wish."
Ragna glared. "Dick."
Then silence.
For about three seconds.
"Anyway, just wanted you to know that I'm not fired yet, surprisingly."
"Hmm?" Terumi shot his neighbour a puzzled look, before commenting, "Well that does sound weird. Lucky to be you, I guess. That said, sorry for splattering shit all over your plate while you were working, Rags. I mean, sure I intended to give you trouble at first, but not that much trouble." His expression turned sour. "That asshat Jin just suddenly decided to show himself, that's why."
Ragna spared him a brief glance. "Y'know, I won't ask what happened between you and my brother the day before, but you should be happy to know that Jin has his arm broken thanks to you. He'll be fine of course, but it'll take a bit of time from what I've heard. In fact, to my knowledge, he was so beat up that the guys at the NOL had to give him a vacation of sorts in order for him to fully recover. Jin wasn't too happy when he received the news, though. You know how he is."
Terumi scoffed at that. "Serves him right. He better pray that I won't run into him by accident, or else he's gonna have something else broken."
Ragna rolled his eyes. "Terumi, I know you're untouchable, but that doesn't mean that the NOL will tolerate your bullshit forever. Keep this up and they are bound to do something, eventually anyway."
Was Ragna worried?
The man wasn't showing it, but he knew that he wasn't hiding it either.
But still…
"Honestly speaking, I don't care what they do. In fact, I kind of doubt that. Before I came here years ago, this area was crawling all over with scumbags and whatnot, and who had to take action and make those peasants know their place? That's right, it's me. Those NOL bastards only started coming by when I was about done halfway with all the cleaning." Terumi scowled. "They never cared one bit when it came to this zone. Hell, White Fang activities were a common thing years ago, and to make matters worst the NOL were unable to do anything about it! How pathetic is that?"
Ragna found himself rolling his eyes the second time. "And yet you single-handedly took the organization down and scared most of them away by beating their leader with an inch of his life. I know, Terumi. I was there to witness the whole thing. Sheesh…"
Terumi sighed. "Look, what I'm trying to say here is that the NOL just simply doesn't care. I wouldn't be surprised if I were to find out that they were too busy with prioritizing money over the innocent lives of children who had to endure all the shit years back. I'll say, those assholes just wants to get their hands inside your shirt and squeeze your tits until they turn purple as payment for the sake of, 'maintaining peace', as they liked to call it. Heh, what bull." He scowled. "They basically owe me for stomping on the White Fang, those nitwits!"
"Which is why they aren't touching you," Ragna pointed out. "Heck, you've been at war with the NOL yourself and they couldn't do shit after all the stunts you've pulled! You've basically showed them what you're capable of when fully provoked, alone at that, so of course they decided to turn a blind eye when something has you involved! And it's because they're scared." Ragna then folded his arms, as the look in his eyes sharpened. "But you forget one thing, Terumi. When we have ourselves backed up against the wall with absolutely no ways to overcome our fears, we tend to seek others in order for them to do it for us. Sooner or later the NOL are going to start making their move on you with the help of an outsider."
"Oh yeah?" Terumi turned and faced his neighbour, noting how serious he was. "If that happens, then I'll just face whatever those assholes has in store for me head-on. I ain't planning on running, mind you."
Ragna groaned. "Man, you never change, do you? Here I am, worried that the NOL might catch you and whip your ass like there's no tomorrow, and you're just brushing it off like it's nothing. Heh…" He actually chuckled after that. "Just how weak do you think the NOL are?"
"Pretty weak." He shrugged. "Sure they were intimidating before, but after personally dealing with them when they decided that I was a threat? I honestly can't even tell the difference between them and a child wielding a toy sword who's having a tantrum."
Ragna laughed a bit. "Wow. I've fought with those bastards myself in the past, and even I still find them to be intimidating. Makes you wonder what we would have ended up doing if we kept creating trouble instead of just deciding to live normal lives, doesn't it?"
Terumi chuckled. "Yeah. I'd have to agree with you on that."
Now that Ragna had brought it up, just what would he have ended up doing? It was honestly an interesting thing to think about actually.
"By the way," Ragna smirked. "a caretaker, huh? Never thought you had it in you."
"Before you say anything that would cost you an arm and a leg, no, I was not desperate," he replied, and this time he was the one rolling his eyes instead of his white-haired neighbour. "It was the first job that presented itself right after I got fired, so what do you expect?"
"True." Ragna nodded. "I guess this pretty much explains the reason why you wanted me to buy you all those snacks a few days back. Just when I was done fighting my way through a bunch of crazed morons and paying for the items, I was surprised to see you waiting at the entrance. That, and also when you suddenly came snatching all the items away without saying a word, including the ones that were mine. That kinda left me confused back then. I mean, not even a thank you? Harsh."
"I was in a rush," Terumi grumbled. "Can't blame me. And I'll pay you back once I have the money, like I said before."
"I'll wait," was Ragna's short reply.
"Brother! Teach me how to make scrambled eggs!" Saya suddenly called out from Ragna's apartment room.
"Oh shit, I almost forgot the main reason why I'm up early in the first place!" Ragna exclaimed. "Gotta hurry!"
"Teaching her how to cook, I assume?" he guessed.
Ragna nodded. "What else? I just hope the food would still be edible once we're done cooking…"
Terumi watched as his neighbour rushed his way over to the door leading towards his apartment, and when he was finally out of sight, he let out a small sigh and redirected his attention towards the sky, doing exactly what Ragna himself was doing before he had decided to come out.
All he had with him now were his thoughts, along with some silence.
Exactly what he needed.
"The NOL, huh?" he muttered. "What a bunch of pathetic wimps. Whatever. I can't be bothered enough to start thinking about this shit. Though with that being said," He turned and calmly made his way over to the stairs. "I better pay Summer a visit and see how Kazuma is doing. Hope he isn't causing her trouble."
Fortunately, not much happened while he was making his way over to Summer's house. Stares and glares coming from bystanders and pedestrians were some of the things that he had gotten used to dealing with, so they honestly didn't count.
Though just when he was about halfway from reaching his desired location, fate decided to be a douche and throw something at him. Like, literally.
Terumi, not really aware of the shit that he was going to deal with in the next few seconds, pulled out his scroll as well as his earphones from his pocket. He placed them into his ears each and opened up a song, though just when he was actually starting to enjoy himself, a hand belonging to some jackass came grabbing him by the shoulder from behind and roughly turned him around.
"Wha-"
Terumi staggered when a fist was thrown at his face, which was then followed by another one, this one aimed at his gut. He did what other men would do in his situation and coughed, before deciding to get a clear look at his attacker.
"Yo. Did you like your gift?"
Terumi shot the man a confused stare, as pained as he was, and it roughly took him about three seconds to finally remember who this person was.
If it weren't for the red cape he had attached on his back which appeared to have seen better days, then it probably would have taken him a full minute to actually remember.
"I remember you. You're that guy who tried to start something with my little brother a few days back…"
The man smirked. "Good to know that you still remember me. I just wanted to give back the present that you've given me, along with some other things." He brought his hands together and cracked his knuckles. "Hope you wouldn't mind me taking a bit of your time."
Oh he minded. A lot.
Damn. I thought for sure that he wouldn't recognize me when I had my cloak on, Terumi thought as he narrowed his eyes. Well whatever. I just want to end this quick and see Kazuma.
"Hey. What's with the look?" the man taunted. "Too afraid to make your move? And here I thought-"
-IIXII-
Jin started narrowing his eyes upon noticing the glances that the people around him kept shooting in his direction, and as subtle as they tried to be about it, it was painfully obvious. His blood was boiling at this point, though he couldn't really blame them as the reason why they were doing that was due to the stupid cast around his left arm.
Oh how he hated it.
This was why he had always hated hospitals. They had a tendency to give him unnecessary burdens to carry around, like the cast on his arm for instance.
Were it not for his desire to fully recover himself so that he could start getting himself back to work like usual, then he probably would have torn the damn thing open and threw it away the moment he had exited the hospital.
"Tch! It seems that I have no other choice but to bear with it. For now, at least," he muttered. "How unfortunate."
Oh yes, indeed. How unfortunate it was.
And it was even more unfortunate when a man with a red cape suddenly came flying out of nowhere and slammed into him by accident.
"Guha!" Jin cried out, wide-eyed and pained.
-IIXII-
Terumi gave out a small breath of air and planted his foot back down onto the ground where it rightfully belonged. Figuring that he didn't want anything to do with the asshole who had just attempted to beat him up due to petty reasons, he put on his earphones once more and continued his walk, not quite realising the fact that he had just taken care of two birds with one stone.
Not that it was important.
And so, he walked, enjoying the theme Endless Despair II that some fan of his decided to compose and upload to the Internet a few years back. And he had to admit, it quickly turned out to be one of his favorites.
Hey, he was quite famous back then, so it wasn't anything surprising. The entire world practically knew his name by now, all thanks to the stunts he'd pulled against the NOL and such.
Well, almost the entire world, anyway. There were probably a handful of people out there who were unaware of who he was, which was in fact, fine by him.
Anyway, all those aside, Terumi was quite relieved when he found himself standing a few feet away from his destination. Summer's house was the same as it ever was, nothing changed, he noted. So after pulling off his earphones as well as keeping away his scroll, Terumi walked up to the front door and knocked.
To his surprise the door suddenly swung itself open in just a matter of seconds, and not long after that something, or rather someone, came tackling him as hard as they could, but thanks to their small size they were unable to knock him down to the ground.
And this someone, was none other than Ruby Rose herself.
"Mister Terumi!" she exclaimed.
Terumi lowered his eyes down to the little child with limitless energy and patted her on the head, resisting the sudden urge to smile as he did so. "What's up, squirt? Where's my little brother?" he asked.
Ruby pulled herself away from him and shot him a wide grin. "First, I want to show you something!" she said, her voice dripping with pure excitement. Hell, she was practically shaking from what he could see.
Terumi raised an eyebrow as curiosity settled in, but when little Ruby suddenly pulled out the very same teddy bear which he'd bought for her from behind her back, his entire face was immediately swallowed up in shock.
Its arm wasn't missing anymore.
"H-How…?" Terumi found himself asking. Though without even bothering to get his answer from Ruby, he picked the little girl from the floor and raised her up high, much to her absolute delight of course. No longer was he fighting back his urge as he allowed a wide smile to display itself across his usually expressionless face. "It's not retarded anymore! Oh damn, I can't believe it! It's fixed! Fixed!"
No words were able to describe how happy and relieved he was to see his gift all repaired and fine compared to yesterday.
Indeed. He was happy.
But…
"Ahem," a familiar voice sounded from the doorway, gaining his attention.
Curious, Terumi lowered Ruby a bit and turned to the voice's owner, and what soon met his eyes was the sight of his little brother whom had his arms folded, along with an extremely unhappy Summer Rose by his side.
His smile vanished in an instant.
If the look on Summer's face was anything, then all he could assume now was that he was in serious trouble.
"What?" he said.
Summer, with her silver orbs now emitting a faint glow, came marching her way over to where he was and grabbed him by the ear, forcefully dragging him inside.
And boy was it painful.
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow! W-What did I do!?" Terumi quickly dropped Ruby just as he was about to pass Kval, and just as he predicted, his little brother swiftly jumped forward without thinking and caught her in a bridal carry, thus causing him to blush upon realisisng the position they were in some moments later.
"Hi," Ruby said, grinning.
"H-Hey…" Kval responded, embarrassed.
After a while of being dragged here and there, Terumi found himself in the living room where Summer finally decided to release his poor ear. The woman settled herself on the couch and nodded towards her table, and it didn't take long for him to spot the newspapers there.
All with his face featured on the front pages of all things.
But was he surprised?
No, not really.
"Ah. So that's why you're pissed," he figured.
His boss just remained on the couch, giving him a pointed stare as well as nothing but cold silence.
Terumi scratched his head and looked away. He was so regretting the fact that he left his cloak back in his apartment. Hiding his face would have been so much easier.
Just when he was about to give in to the silence that was presented to him by his pissed off boss, he flinched when she suddenly picked one specific newspaper and held it up for him to see.
And just his luck, the newspaper that she had in her hand had a picture of him and Ruby clinging onto his back featured on the front page.
He started sweating a whole river soon after that.
"I-I…can explain."
"There is nothing to explain," she finally spoke, her voice as sharp as all the knives he usually carried around with him. "It was all over the news this morning, and luckily Kazuma was here to make it all easier for me to understand. He explained nearly everything about you, so don't even bother."
Okay, so now he was confused. He could've sworn that she already knew by now.
"But I thought you knew," he said, while fully making sure that he sounded genuinely confused so that she'd knew just how truly confused he was. "You said that Kazuma had told you everything the first day we've met, didn't you? So something like my face popping up on the news shouldn't really surprise you."
Summer slammed her free hand onto the table, thus rendering him silent once more.
"All he told me was that you had a fight with your second brother regarding his job and that you were struggling in terms of finance! But this?" She nodded her head towards the newspaper she was still holding, before finally deciding to drop it back down onto the table. "No, he didn't, apparently. When we first met I thought you were just a regular guy who had to deal with financial problems, but I never expected to find out that you were actually…"
Silence.
"Actually?" Terumi repeated, encouraging for her to continue.
Summer said nothing in return, in fact she never did finish her sentence. All she did was bury her face into her hands and gave out a heavy sigh.
"Now I know what you meant when you said that I wasn't from around here while we were shopping for that turkey that day, and you're right," she muttered. "I've just moved here only recently, so I don't know much about what goes on in this area. I just…didn't expect you to have such a background when I decided to have you as my daughter's caretaker. Did not."
Judging by how upset she was, Terumi knew where this was heading. Damn, he knew it all too well apparently. She didn't need to say too much for him to understand what she wanted, because he could already tell.
Though can't say he was happy about this either.
Shit. Now this just goes to show that I shouldn't lose my temper in public. But well, have to admit that it was…nice, while it lasted I guess. Sort of. With how smooth things were going, I honestly didn't expect it to end so soon…
Resigning to his fate, Terumi rubbed the back of his neck and released a sigh with his eyes glued down to the floor. Then after having some thoughts flying in his head for a while, he figured that she at least deserved a thank you for how nice she'd been treating him all this time when compared to his previous employers, as much as how uncomfortable he was with the idea and the fact that Summer hasn't even paid him yet for doing his damn job.
But he just felt like he needed to.
Scratch that, he wanted to.
For putting up with his shitty attitude and whatnot, he basically owed her one.
And so he did.
-IIXII-
"Thanks."
Summer blinked.
To be honest, she wasn't quite expecting her employee to thank her of all things after telling him how upset she was, so this really left her feeling surprised as well as confused at the same time.
Yet as much as she'd like to question him about this, she wasn't able to find the chance to when he decided to continue.
"For everything. I know I'm bad at this, and you don't need to tell me, but I just want you to know that you've been the nicest employer I've had so far. Believe it or not, I'm grateful for that."
If she was extremely upset before, then she sure as hell wasn't now due to feeling even more confused, and nothing else. Just where was this all coming from exactly? Yeah she knew she was upset, but she didn't expect to get this sort of reaction out of him.
If anything, she kind of felt like she was the villain now, as silly as it sounded.
"I-I don't understand. What are you going on about, Terumi?" Summer watched as he shot her a brief glance, and that look she saw being displayed in his eyes was enough to get herself worried. She didn't have proof, sure, but she had a feeling that he was misunderstanding something here.
The only problem that kept her from getting the full picture was Terumi, to be more precise his thoughts. If she could just get more clues regarding what was going on inside his head right now then she would probably be able to piece things a whole lot easier.
And how fortunate she was, because the next thing that came out of his mouth a few seconds later pretty much killed off all of her questions in one go.
"Finding another job, what else? What, did you expect me to laze around in my apartment after immediately getting myself fired?" Terumi scowled. "Screw that. I got a younger brother to feed."
So with that said and now out in the open, all the dots were finally connected.
Oh. Oh!
Summer immediately rose up from her couch with her silver eyes widened the same size as dinner plates. She then quickly threw a hand out towards her employee so that he wouldn't leave, in which she succeeded in doing so, thankfully.
"W-Wait!" she called out. "I…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you think that way, Terumi. J-Just…please, sit down. Sit down and let's talk about this." She noted him shooting her a confused stare, and in response she rolled her eyes at how slow and stupid he was being. Pardon her for thinking that. "I wasn't planning on firing you, silly. I…I may be upset, but firing you was never my intention. I swear!"
Silence.
"Eh?"
As serious as she was before, Summer couldn't really help herself from giggling too much upon getting a clear look at the funny expression he had on his face. And just before he slammed his face into his hand, she could have sworn that he was blushing a bright red.
"You should have told me that sooner, you damn woman!" Terumi yelled out at the top of his lungs, but Summer knew that he was just actually embarrassed rather than being angry. "Saying all those things about how grateful I am to you nearly made me shit my pants, just so you'd know! I was on the verge of vomiting, damn it!"
And at that, Summer came bursting out laughing.
Was he actually serious?
"Hey, don't laugh at me!" Terumi, despite sounding angry, knew that she knew his face was the same color as a fresh tomato, as much as he tried to hide it with only one hand. So saying that he was embarrassed was truly an understatement. "The nerve…"
"Haha! I-I…I'm sorry." Summer slowly wiped away a tear from her left eye, a big smile on her face. "It's just, I never knew you were the type who would get embarrassed quite easily," she said.
"I-I am not!" he quickly denied.
"Yes you are," she teased.
Terumi just clicked his tongue and grumbled, which soon earned him another set of laughter from Summer, much to his displeasure of course. Well, at least he wasn't blushing anymore.
"S-Sorry, sorry. That was my bad." Summer cleared her throat once she was done laughing, though her smile still remained, before patting the couch. "Now please, sit down."
He took his time, but eventually Terumi did what he was told, and she knew he was still embarrassed judging by how awkward he was being. Really, his face just gave it away. It kind of made her wonder just how much she'd missed thanks to that yellow cloak of his…
"Are you…sure you're not planning on firing me?" was the first question that came out of her employee's mouth, and Summer couldn't really blame him for being extra curious on the matter. Lord knows just how many times he had to endure the pain of getting himself fired from multiple jobs in the past.
So figuring that she should ease his worries for a bit, if not for his own sake, Summer turned to face him and shook her head. "No, I'm not. So don't let it bother you no more, you hear?" she said in a gentle manner.
"W-Who said I was worried…?" he grumbled.
Summer giggled. "No one, but you yourself looked worried." She saw him flinch right beside her, and she couldn't help herself from giggling some more at how silly he was. Though soon after she was done, Summer guessed that it was about time they started discussing about the more serious matter at hand. And so she did.
And she wanted to start by knowing the reason why he decided to lay low after years of picking fights with the NOL of all things, along with another certain organization she knew…
"Terumi, would you mind telling me the reason why you stopped?"
"Stopped? Stopped what?"
She nodded her head towards the newspapers, and he understood immediately.
"Oh. That. Well…I guess you could say that I stopped causing trouble because I started realising the fact that I had a younger brother to look after. That's…about it, actually."
Summer nodded. "If you stopped, then why did you decided to pick a fight with a bunch of NOL officers the day before?"
"I don't know," he grumbled. "I even told them that I was busy, but still they insisted on starting something with me. It was all self-defense, mind you, and the only reason why I went berserk on that last guy was because he damaged the gift I bought for your kid."
"Oh." Summer blinked. "Well that explains everything."
Terumi shot her a pointed stare. "You assumed I was the one who started the whole thing, didn't you?"
Summer just laughed sheepishly in response to that. "Sorry, but at least I know better now. And I know this is weird coming from me, but I just wanted to be sure. Is it true that you handled the White Fang organization yourself? Kazuma was the one who told me that, though he didn't say why, however."
"I did, but I don't want to get into detail as to why I did it."
"Hm?" Summer, surprised as she was to discover that it was actually true, was somewhat curious as to why he wanted to avoid the subject. "Why is that?"
Terumi went quiet as he stared at the newspapers on the table. But after a while, he finally answered, though he appeared hesitant at first.
"Just…personal reasons. Actually, the same applies to why I even started causing trouble with the NOL in the first place. So, as curious as you are, I…don't really want to talk about it, if that's fine with you."
"I see." Summer paused, before sighing. "That's fine. For now, I'll just stop breathing down your neck for your sake. But don't think that I won't start questioning you regarding other things later on, you hear?"
"Loud and clear. And thanks…"
"Anyway, speaking of thanks, you should thank Kazuma later on." Summer turned to her employee and smiled at him. "He came here yesterday with the teddy bear's missing arm. He found it by accident, apparently, and knowing you he just decided to keep it with him."
"Oh that little shit…" Terumi grinned, and just by looking at his eyes Summer could tell just how grateful he was. "Yeah, he knows me a bit too much, judging by his instincts telling him to keep that bear's missing arm with him. Heh. Yeah, I'll be sure to thank him later."
"Right. Just don't forget," Summer teased. "Oh yeah, and thanks for buying my daughter that cute little gift, Terumi. It seems that she has taken quite a liking to it, just so you'd know. She just practically couldn't stay still when I told her that I was able to fix it. The sight was so adorable! You should have seen the look on her face!"
"E-Eh? Oh. Well. Don't…don't mention it…I guess…" mumbled Terumi.
-IIXII-
That was tense. Even he had to admit that.
It was a miracle that no tables came flying into the air by the time they were done.
"What are they talking about in the living room?" Ruby asked.
Kval smiled. "It's safe to assume that they're bonding right now, I guess. But that aside…" He looked to Ruby, whom apparently was still in his arms for the past few minutes, oddly enough. As cute as the sight was, Kval could basically hear his arms screaming at him for all the torture that he was putting them through. "…will you get off now? My arms are starting to hurt, you know."
"Oh. Okay then." Ruby did just that and got herself off of him in just a couple of seconds, but not a while later Kval was surprised when she suddenly rushed behind him and latched onto his back before he could even react. "Piggyback!" she exclaimed.
"W-Why…?"
"Because I like being carried around," was her innocent answer, and he had no other choice but to give in due to her absolute cuteness. And hey, at least his arms weren't hurting anymore, so that's that.
Kval sighed, then later converted his temporary frown into a small smile. "Alright, where do you want to go, Miss Rose?"
Ruby giggled with a wide grin. Clearly she was enjoying herself. "I want-"
A handful of knocks which came originating from the door interrupted Ruby, and she just looked to Kval and the two ended up exchanging confused looks soon afterwards. Though that didn't exactly stop her from continuing with her fun, if the happy grin that came conquering her face two seconds later was anything to go by.
"Let's go greet our visitor!" she ordered.
Kval just nodded and smiled. "Right away, Miss Rose."
Ruby found herself giggling once more. "You make me sound like I'm a princess, Kazuma."
Kval only chuckled in response. Yeah. He knew better than to say anything, lest he'd end up getting flustered by his own mistakes.
He calmly made his way over to the door, not minding the fact that his little passenger was unable to keep herself still for even a second, and when he did reach the door, Kval just simply requested for Ruby to turn the knob for him. Just as she was done with his request, he wasted no time in just kicking it open, though he made sure to not put in more force than necessary.
Breaking a door was the last thing he needed right now.
"Hi, what can I help you with-"
The sound of a sidearm cocking assaulted his ears, and Kval went pale in an instant.
When his eyes got a clear look at their little 'visitor', the first thing that came into his mind was one particular ice cream, but when he took note of that psychotic grin, all he felt was fear.
And that was probably the last thing he felt.
Bang!
-IIXII-
xDearestHeart2375x, I'm pretty sure that you can guess the identity of our little assassin by now. It's pretty obvious.
By the way, I just wanted to let you all know that Terumi is not the only one with a tragic past here. But right now let's talk about him. I've been laying out hints all over the place, like for instance the one from way back in the first chapter, Struggles And Whatnot. Who was Terumi talking to on the phone? And also there were those rumors regarding him and his actions in the past. Then there's this chapter and the previous one. Personal reasons from Terumi means big business, I'll say that immediately. I was kinda weirded out when almost no one pointed some of those out.
Then there's Summer. Ever wondered why she was even injured inside her messy kitchen back in Meeting New People And Unexpected Offers? And don't even get me started on Velvet's mysterious relationship with Kazuma.
And then Adachi. Adachi anyone? Who was he talking to right after Kazuma left the café during Rainy Days And Annoying Detectives? The answer is quite obvious.
Yeah, I just wanted to get that all out for some reason. By the way, don't mind my ramblings and lunacy. I'm probably just tired and haven't been eating and drinking too well, but that's just the life of a writer, I guess.
Don't know if I can get another chapter out in the next few days, but a special? I think I can manage. But even so, I apologise if I suddenly start slacking again. It's a bad habit of mine, apparently.
This is CPL, signing out.
