22/12/12 - EDIT!: I have gone through the entire story and revised the chapters. Nothing major has changes besides perhaps a few words here or there. If you want to re-read it feel free to. If you want to review but already have, just PM me, I won't bite :)
16/04/2012 Re:Edit! – Someone was kind enough to inform me that I was spelling Seijuurou's name wrong so I've gone through all the chapters and changed that! Thank you very much 'Kouki' for correcting me
So, did people not like the last chapter? I feel there were less enthusiastic reviewers?
To those who did review THANK YOU! I'm sorry I didn't get back to you but I was so busy – I did read them all and thank you, you gave me the urge to begin writing this chapter!
Warning!: not many, the usual, mention of blood and somewhat mature subjects bordering on complacent killing etc. But that's the general warning for the entire story so if you're reading this chapter you must be fine with its contents.
To the Untrained Eye.
The boy with the golden legs
To say his meeting with his ex-sister was awkward was an understatement. Of course, as with most awkward situations there were a few catalysts for the reaction.
First was the fact he had been forced to call the chestnut haired girl before him his sister - that in itself posed some problems now that Sena was in the mafia.
Secondly was the fact the girl had no idea of the awkwardness surrounding the four boys.
Thirdly was the fact his once-sister had that unrightfully protective gleam in her eyes, and it made fury fill Sena's belly, he knew that his darker side was causing the hot anger to churn his stomach, but that didn't stop his face from falling into an expression that was somehow pitying and condescending at the same time. The girl was trying to insinuate- through her eyes- that Sena shouldn't be anywhere near these tall, brutish boys, and that was something Sena couldn't let slide.
Fourthly was the fact Sena had to act normal- or normal from the past- because he'd have to slowly worm this girl away from him. Unlike other nuisances he couldn't just strike a bullet through her skull or threaten her- she wasn't from the mafia and had little worthy black mail material- he had to simply show her that they had grown apart over the seven odd years they had been apart.
While this prospect sent a sigh wracking through Sena's entire body and left his brother looking somewhat bored with the effort- it was necessary in order to live a more peaceful life once again.
"I got back just a little while ago, Mamori-nee." He shortened her name, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. Eventually he would refuse to call her so familiarly.
"Oh, why didn't you contact us, Mom and Dad always asks if I've heard from you. How are your parents?" Mamori's smile faltered at the dark look the boys behind Sena were giving her. She saw the flickering emotions in the boy's eyes as they shielded themselves in sad look that made Mamori bristle. Since when was Sena so high-and-mighty? It's like he's looking down on me.
"They died years ago Mamori, part of the reason I moved was the fact my guardians died." He explains simply. He was something of ten when he was moved around the world. He remembered it, and it was a sad day, but he was a mafia boss, to dwell on the past was to plan your own funeral.
It was just a few days after Sena's tenth birthday when the funeral was held. Both his parents had been gunned down on their vacation to some resort in Japan. It was a bloodied death; one Sena witnessed and was having issues suppressing. He remembered them talking, and then his father slumping into the table. He remembered his mother's screams and then her too slumping on the table. He remembered many men in black suits filing in, checking his parents, then sweeping him into their arms and running towards a chopper landed in the backyard of their cabin.
The man holding him was kind, and familiar- later he would understand that the suited man was his father's right-hand and Sena's godfather. The man rubbed his back and let him cry as the full situation hit Sena, of course he knew what had happened, his father had already taught him to shoot and snipe. It wasn't as if he were unprepared for the prospect of his parents being assassinated- even his civilian mother was a mafia daughter- the fact she kept a shot-gun in the closet didn't mean anything to Sena, but the blood all over his clothes and face did.
His father had begun teaching Sena the more knowledge based aspects of the mafia, about the history, and the enemies. Sena- in only two months- had memorised every single famiglia in Italy; he had learned their crest, name, and their strengths and weaknesses. He was not even nine and a half when he had started memorising the Japanese and American mafia families, and by the time his parents were killed he was beginning to memories some of the other countries mafia famiglia, of course that tutelage was now going to be self-taught.
It was a long ride in the awaiting chopper, and once the tears had stopped- acceptance settling in as his father had told him to do- Sena watched them fly to a big mansion he had seen only in pictures and on blue schematic paper.
His father had always told Sena to accept death, darkness, and famiglia. Those were his only absolute laws. If he could accept those three things, then his life would be easier and less painful. So that is exactly what Sena did.
His parents were dead.
He accepted that.
His mother was not the cozy black-haired woman from which Sena was physically born, or the woman from the baby album, no, his mother was now the darkness- as it always had somewhat been.
He accepted that.
His father was no longer the strict, warm man who held Sena close when his hand hurt after his first shot, no, his father was now death, the one whom would use his power to both save, and one day take Sena's life, the one he had fathered with darkness.
He accepted that.
His family was now his famiglia.
He accepted that.
Those were the only three absolutes.
"Sena!" Mamori threw herself at the short-but-tall boy and squeezed him tightly. He sighed imperceptibly at the emotional explosion but let the girl cry. It wasn't her fault she was kept out of the loop.
"Mamori, there is no need to be upset." His voice was a little colder than he intended, but it got the girl to stand up, he handed her a tissue he had in his pocket and allowed her sniffling to lesson some.
"So where have you been?"
Crap. She is a little too curious for her own good. Sena's mind was twisting and thrumming, but he had his answer as soon as he felt the shift of his brothers behind him, he mutely heard the clink of a knife being fiddled in its holster and couldn't help but smile.
"I've been living here and there with some of my relatives. My father had a large family." He explains. "These are three of my brothers whom I've been living with."
"Brothers?" she asks incredulously. She eyes them suspiciously and the hot anger churns in Sena's stomach again.
"Yes." Sena's voice strains with the seething emotions only just in check. "My father had a large family, these are his nephews and my cousins, but I've been raised better than that, these are my brothers by blood, Mamori."
Before she can answer, just as the shock filters onto her face at her brother's dark and dangerous voice- one that the subconscious and instinctual part of her brain screams for her to run as it hears it- the boy behind Sena, the one with the scar and blonde hair speaks with a deep, heavily accented voice.
"Sena, we have to be going, the others will worry where we've gone."
Nodding, he bows somewhat to the shell-shocked girl and leaves with a casual wave that leaves Mamori tingling. "Maybe I'll see you around in school, Mamori."
He hopes, with all his heart that the ignorant girl will that the hint that no he doesn't want to see her around, and that no, he hadnointention of being friends, and that if she did try to find him; well he'll leave her imagination to think up the consequences.
He was fuming as they walked home, but not so much for reasons one would initially think. He had just put his family in an impossible situation that had two roads; both ending with bloodshed. He could easily kill Mamori and her family off and make it seem accidental, or he could use them to his advantage. But leaving them alive was leaving Sena's famiglia vulnerable, and he was not prepared to do so.
As they walked home, Sena realised someone was watching them, it was very good stalking, sleek and barely noticeable, but nowhere near the level of any dangerous famiglia. Using subtle signals that his brothers and he knew as well as they did their own heart beat, Sena explained the situation.
He received three replies and the act begun.
"Well Sena, we'll see you at home, we have some errands to run." Kuroki and Shozo explained as they walked away. They hands wove to the blonde and the brunette as they turned the corner, Sena smiled and waved back.
"Well, what are we going to do Meteora? We cannot let this person find our home, at least not yet." Jumonji asked as he swapped effortlessly to Italian.
"Hmm, we're just going to have to lose him... I assume Kuroki has taken up his position?" Sena asked as they walked- calmly despite their situation- towards a crowded part of town.
"Yes, his rifle is primed..." he paused and subtle touched his ear. "...and the enemy is in sight, he hasn't been noticed and will eliminate the threat if the need is evident."
Sena smiled but denied that possibility, he received crackling static in his blue-tooth receiver – a hidden one- and was relieved to hear that Shozo was ready at the train platform.
Smirking slightly, and preparing for some sudden activity, Jumonji urges Sena onwards, and in an instant the boy is gone. Gone through the crowds, and leaving nothing but a breeze, and an afterimage.
Giving himself a moment to appreciate and awe over his brother, Jumonji breathes in the wind, the strange scent the boy leaves, and then takes off after him.
Weaving effortlessly, soaring past people for them to notice him on when he's long gone. He jumps and rolls and spins, as if he were dancing, as if he were the wind teasing the people. Maybe that's what he is; maybe he was raised by the wind when death and darkness were away.
Smiling, and letting laughter of pure delight burst from his lips, Sena muses to himself, watching the people's shock faces when their hair and clothing gets whipped around by some invisible pixie. He has many dance partners, most of the time he waltzes with death and tangos with the darkness, but sometimes, when he can truly let himself go, Sena jives with the wind, he rocks out with the light and laughs with the sun. Of course such times are not often, but when he can truly let himself go for a childish reason, when he can stretch his abilities and run full-throttle for no other reason than to run, well Sena knows not too many more satisfying feelings in the world.
"Meteora." He hears Shozo call.
Ripped from his laughter, fully aware once again of the danger, Sena spins around his brother and down the stairs onto the platform, completely aware of his two brothers filing in just after him, barely missing the closing doors.
He mutely hears a gasp and the words 'jump' die on the wind, but as he pants and smiles at his brothers he ignores them in favour of catching up with Kuroki for a full briefing on his findings, and to find out whom exactly it was that decided to try and stalk them.
Well hello my dear readers!
I know this is two days late, and also shorter than my usual update, but I realised that the chapter I intended to write didn't make sense and missed out some vital information *gasps in horror* so to counter this I decided to just update a shorter chapter and try and get the next chapter out a little earlier than two weeks today- no guarantees but hey, I'm not perfect.
Please review.
I hope this was ok and not too fast paced or awkward.
Merci. Gracie. Thank you.
~~Bleach-ed-Na-tsu :3