Akari had such wonderful ideas of what working for Circus would be like. Those ideas were of course valid but it wasn't exactly what Akari thought it would be. Having been a researcher for over fifteen years he felt that the dreams he had once held were being replaced by different ones; ones that were more palpable. He sipped his black tea and placed the cup gently down upon the porcelain saucer. He turned in his chair and glanced out the window. His office overlooked a small garden that was neatly maintained at the Research Tower as not many people in this place had time to leisurely walk about due to their profession. However, this day was different as the patients that had been brought to the Tower were now well enough to move around. A brunet, an albino and a golden haired man were lazing about in the grassy area below Akari's window. It must be interesting, Akari thought, to have time to be so carefree even though they were basically in the midst of a war with Kafka and the Varuga.
Gareki and Nai seemed to be arguing over something while Yogi was gently trying to calm Gareki down, though to no avail. Yogi's distressed face looked around quickly in search of some assistance. The young man looked up towards Akari's window and caught the doctor's eye. His face suddenly changed from distressed to nauseous and he quickly spun around to face the two arguing boys once again. Yogi was an unusual kid and not just with regards to his personality. Akari could remember so vividly the day that Yogi was brought into the Research Tower for the first time.
Akari was in the middle of a deep slumber when something was shaking him with extreme carelessness and urgency. Akari's rose coloured eyes fluttered open and he grimaced at the person standing in front of him. Akari wasn't the type of person to be angry with anyone but the audacity of someone interrupting his sleep was something that he could not let go of easily.
"Ah Akari sensei, please wake up. There is an emergency and we really need your help." The young boy pleaded with piercing blue eyes while his dishevelled appearance and unkempt ashen hair showed that he had just been woken from his slumber also.
"Azana, what's the problem?" he asked his newly appointed apprentice.
"A young boy has been brought into the Tower." Azana leaned in closer to Akari like he was afraid someone else would hear what he was about to say.
"They say that he is the Prince of Rimhakka, the country which has been attacked recently." Akari leered at the adolescent which made the young boy feel that he was wasting the young doctor's precious sleeping time and repeatedly said sorry to the sleepy man. Akari grabbed his pillow and nuzzled back into it dismissing the young boy indirectly.
"That's not the most interesting part though" the boy hastily went on, afraid that he was going to lose the battle against Akari's love of sleep. "They say that the boy has had Varuga cells implanted in him and yet he is still maintaining a human form." This part interested Akari immensely. He shot straight up and grabbed his lab coat off of the back of his door. He was quickly followed by Azana who he asked for more details.
"It seems that the boy is malnourished and has numerous injuries though I am told that they are self-inflicted." Azana explained.
"Self-inflicted? How old is this prince?" Akari inquired.
Azana flipped through his clipboard to locate the information that the doctor had asked for. "It says here that he is ten years old and that he is the only one to survive the destruction of Rimhakka. It also says that he destroyed the facility that he was being held in along with killing everyone inside."
Akari's footsteps gradually began to get slower. Ten years old. That's all this kid was? What the hell happened to him that allowed him to wind up in this mess. "Who was the one that found him?"
"Uh…." Azana quickly flipped through the pages on his clipboard once again. "Ah it was Tsukitachi-san and Hirato-san."
Oh god dammit. Not those two. It could have been anyone but those two. They had made his life a living hell while he was a professor in Kuronomei and continued to do so when they joined Circus. That didn't matter now. All that mattered was checking this kid out and seeing what kind of thing he had turned into.
The examination room doors slid open as Akari walked through followed by Azana but neither were prepared for what they saw. The child Akari had been told about was cowering in the middle of the room while screaming loudly. The medical staff that had been attending to him were flung into different corners of the room though they simply seemed to be unconscious and not dead. The young boy had lacerations all over his body while his crystalline tears were streaming down his face and dropping onto the floor. This child would be in serious danger if he were to lose any more blood. Akari approached the boy though Azana tried to beckon him back to a safe distance.
Akari knelt down in front of the child and simply stared at him. Was this child really a Varuga? How was he maintaining his human form if it was true? He placed his hand on top of the golden curls and waited for the boy to cease crying. The child looked at the young doctor with eyes filled to the brim with tears waiting to be released.
"Hi there. My name is Akari, what's yours?
"I-I don't…I…My name is…Yogi" the boy sniffled while holding his shaking hands up to his swollen eyes.
"Yogi. That's an interesting name but it suits you. So, can you tell me what happened to you?" Akari inquired.
I don't...I don't remember…I can't…remember." Yogi's hands began to shake uncontrollably and his screams once again filled the air.
Akari gestured to Azana asking for his help. Akari grabbed the child and placed him upon an operating table while Yogi began to struggle immensely. Azana grabbed the child's hands and tied them down and then moved on to do the same to his legs. Akari hastily injected the blond with morphine and anaesthesia hoping it would lull the child to sleep. This is not at all what happened. Instead the child's screams was replaced by quiet and eerie laughter. Akari looked up at the boy's face which had changed considerably. His golden hair was now replaced by silver curls and his eyes had a faint red glow. The grin plastered across his face was not one that inspired confidence in the young doctor.
"I'm afraid something that weak won't put me to sleep, mister" the silver haired child smirked.
"W-what are you?" Akari was visibly shaken by this sudden change in appearance and personality.
"He couldn't handle it you see. Watching his sister and entire family being murdered. It was all too much. So I had to step in before his mind was completely broken." The boy grinned with this explanation.
"You're a by-product of the cells implanted within him." Akari stated.
"Yes, I suppose but you see, I can't let him know about what happened to his family because if he breaks, then I go away. It's better for everyone this way! He stays blissfully ignorant of what happened to his precious family and country and I get to inhabit his body from time to time. It's better than not existing at all, right?!" the boy giggled.
Akari had never seen anything like it. He had never heard of anyone surviving being implanted with Varuga cells without turning into a Varuga of some form themselves. This child was interesting to say the least but he needed medical attention right away and since the boy had knocked out all the staff besides him and Azana, he needed to be quick but how would he do it without anaesthetic? He couldn't just cut the boy open while he was awake!
"Hey mister will you play with me? Come on just a little bit?" the child asked.
"It's not mister, it's Akari sensei to you" he reprimanded.
"Whatever sensei! Please play with me. Come on play with me! These wounds are nothing. I'll be fine. Come on play with me! Play with me! Play with me! Play with me!"
The chanting was grating on the doctor's nerves until he couldn't take it anymore and stuffed a towel in the young boy's mouth and yelled at him to be quite. The boy looked taken aback but did not look frightened by the sudden outburst. Rather, he began to sulk while the towel still inhabited his mouth. While Akari calmed himself down, he began to search for the formula that he had made for times when Varuga had been captured and they wanted to experiment on them. He grabbed a vial from a nearby closet and emptied the contents into a syringe. He carried it over to the boy and injected it into his right arm.
The silver haired boy gave Akari a look that said "I told you that stuff won't work on me" before he went cross eyed and his head landed on the table. It had at least put him to sleep so that Akari could begin operating on the boy before he lost all of the blood that he had in his body. While he was working on the young boy, Akari noticed that his hair was beginning to revert back to its original gold colour. Akari was beginning to complete his surgery on the boy when he began to stir. Akari realised what was happening with a very real horror and began to hasten his fingers though he did not move quickly enough. The young boy's eyes began to open while Akari was still operating on him. Yogi woke up with his arms and legs bound, a towel stuffed into his mouth and a man that he had only met moments ago poking at him with a needle trying to stitch up his wounds. It was probably in this moment, Akari thought, that Yogi developed a very real and strong fear of Akari and it seemed to be pretty well justified when Akari discovered that the golden haired Yogi couldn't remember anything that the silver haired Yogi had said or done.
Akari had managed to save his life but a rift had been formed between the two males because of it. Akari could never explain to Yogi why he had to tie him down or why he stuffed a towel in his mouth to stop him from talking because it could cause that dam in his head to collapse and cause trouble to ensue. To stop silver yogi appearing too often, Akari decided to create a patch with the serum he had used to make silver Yogi sleep. Yogi was awfully cautious around Akari, especially for the first few years after he joined Circus though he could never know the truth. The higher ups had wanted to do extensive testing on Yogi but Akari would not allow it saying that it could endanger all who partook in it if the silver Yogi were to appear again. Truthfully though, it was because he did not want Yogi to be subjected to such an awful life. The rift formed between them would never be mended unless Yogi knew the truth but Akari was never going to be the one that told him.
"A-Akari sensei. Please wake up." A gentle hand was placed upon his shoulder and carefully rocking him. He opened his eyes to see the golden haired man standing in front of him. Once Yogi saw that Akari had responded to his stimulation, he quickly backed away and lowered his head.
"Uh H-Hirato-san asked to speak to you about our conditions. He asked me to c-come and get you though I didn't want to wake you." The young man was trembling and fiddling with his thumbs. Yogi hadn't changed from when Akari had first seen him in that regard. Still a kid on the inside.
"Got it. You can go now." Akari gestured with his hand towards the door.
"T-thank you." Yogi turned on his heel and dashed towards the door. He grabbed the handle and spun around to walk out but not before giving the doctor a goofy smile that graced his innocent face.
Akari treated Yogi coldly a lot of the time, he knew that but he did not dislike the man. Akari just found his bubbly personality hard to deal with. He watched him grow into a capable fighter and a decent guy that was willing to help anyone. Though he was able to protect himself, Akari still felt that Yogi needed to be looked after. He may project the appearance of a confident, bubbly guy a lot of the time but the scars that formed over the years are not something that can heal. Akari was a professional; a doctor of the National Defence Organization: Circus. He was not supposed to care about the patients outside of what was professionally acceptable. This boy was an exception, he needed to be protected; he was a kid that was forced into this life, he did not choose it. Yogi had nobody outside of this organization. It was his family now and Akari was a part of it too. He felt a brotherly responsibility to look after the child that had changed his expectations about this job in more ways than he could have imagined.
A/N: I used to always wonder what took authors so long to update their stories. I get it now! Sorry about the really long wait again. Here is the new chapter. Please review and thank you all again for reading this! It gives me great confidence!