Okay here it is last chapter finally. I have no idea how long it's been since I updated but hopefully not another two months because I'm a bastard like that.
Welp finally last chapter. Thanks to everyone who stuck with me and my very horrible procrastination. I don't think I'll have any new stories any time soon seeing as this time I'm going to actually finish it then have regular updates. I think I might also go back one more time and rewrite things from previous stories.
Alright here it is. Chapter 10.
Enjoy!
"The only thing we could try is find the person who's behind all of this and make them call off their man." Kaidou said.
"With our line of connections it would be relatively easy. All we would need is his name and picture." Momo added.
"And we can most likely get those from Echizen and Ryoga-san." Tezuka said. "Let's finish up here and get to the house. Minna yudan sezu ni ikou."
"Are you sure you're alright Chibisuke?" Ryoga asked as the two of them were driven to the house.
"I'm fine, just shaken." Echizen answered. "He's not like other people that have done this. He's hunting and he's enjoying it."
"I won't let anything happen to you Chibisuke. I won't let some scumbag bounty hunter get his hands on you just to make a few dollars. You've already been through too much in your life and even if something does happen I'll get you out of it."
The car pulled up to the house and the two boys existed. There was one thing that Ryoga noticed that immediately put him on edge and it was the fact that there was no one outside to greet them.
"Ryoga-sama." The security member realized it too.
Echizen had at least a dozen of security members at his disposal and yet the only one with them at that moment was the driver. Sure there were the few at the school searching for the shooter but there still should've been some at the house to keep a watch on everything. Ryoga hoped that Momo's people would hurry and meet them. At least then he could be reassured that if anything happened they would be able to take Echizen to a safe place for the time being.
"Keep a visual for anything. Chibisuke stay close to me." The two boys went in the front while the security went around the back.
Everything seemed normal as they searched. The only thing remotely close to an attack was Karupin leaping at Echizen from out of the darkness; both upstairs and down, nothing was out of place, there were no people or traps waiting for them, just a dark house. They still didn't know why the other security members were gone but they couldn't really contact them given the current situation.
"All we can do right now is wait for everyone else to get here. Try to get in contact with your group members and see what's going on." Ryoga huffed out. The security member nodded and went outside. "Chibisuke how are you holding up?" Echizen was lying face down on a couch with Karupin on his back. He made a barely audible groan and hand movement. "Do you want something to eat?"
Echizen brought his head up. "Do you think that I should've just gone with everyone to Sapporo?"
"What are you saying?"
"All of this could've been avoided; the car accident, the first attack in the park, and the one just now, none of it would've ever happened." He rolled over and put Karupin on his stomach.
"Not to mention making friends and having a relatively normal life. Do you think you should've gone with them? Would you have been happy if you went with them?" The room was quiet for a moment. "Don't go saying things you'd regret later. I'll make you something to eat."
Echizen laid there, Ryoga was right. If he had gone to Sapporo, he wouldn't have met everyone and he certainly wouldn't have been happy. Even if he had a chance to skip out on everything that had happened so far, it meant he wouldn't have met everyone and that made everything worth it. Besides, it was better to go through all of those things with people that understood to a point what it was like instead of practically dealing with it by himself like the other times.
Karupin pawed at his chest and hopped down. Echizen stood from his spot and stretched. He called to Ryoga that he was going to be taking a bath upstairs and to tell him if someone arrives when he's there. He went to the bathroom and turned on the water then to his room to get a change of clothes then back to the bathroom. Despite everything that had happened in the last few hours, he felt calm and relieved. The tension and pain from his injuries had left and he felt like he could fall asleep. He didn't know how long he was in there when Ryoga told him that Momo's people had arrived but he wished it was longer.
He exited the bath and changed. He lurked in the stairwell for a minute to see what everyone was doing and was satisfied when he heard them admiring the house and cracking jokes about stupid things. He made his way to his room to get a few things before he went to join them. When he went to his desk to search for a few things, he heard his door click shut and his stomach dropped.
"You know, I'm starting to get the feeling you don't understand the kind of situation you're in." Jack was leaning on the back of his door. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I actually admire how carefree you can be right now but that's the kind of thing that can get you into trouble."
"How did you get in here?" Echizen was scared; he didn't even know how he was able to keep his voice calm. "What happened to my security members?"
"I didn't kill them if that's what you're asking. You could say they're a little tied up at the moment. As for getting in, I know how to pick locks. If you mean how did I get in your room, I've been here since you've been home, hiding in the shadows if you will, like a ninja." He made 'ninja' moves with his hands. "Fortunately for you, my employer has it drilled into my head that you need to be alive. So let's have the old cliché for almost every action movie there is; do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?"
"Unless the easy way is you leaving calmly without me and never coming back then I think we're at a standstill." He needed a way out. If he tried he could probably get him away from the door but the best option would be the window.
"Well if you want to do it the hard way, I have a blowgun and Taser. I'll be nice and let you choose."
It was now or never.
Ryoga knocked on the bathroom door. "Chibisuke the others have arrived. At least show your face before we start everything." An audible groan was heard from the other side of the door. Ryoga made his way back downstairs to see the so called 'gang members' admiring the house, playing with the cat, and aweing at pictures of the two brothers when they were younger.
"Ryoga-san you were so cute when you were younger." One of them said. "What happened?"
Another one interjected. "Time is a cruel mistress Ryoga-san. Don't worry; I'm sure you can find someone who will love your dreadful mug."
"That means a lot coming from someone who looks like they got spit out of a tornado." Ryoga playfully shot back. The group laughed as the one who the insult had been meant for stuttered for a response but couldn't find one.
"Alright then enough with the jokes. Ryoga-san would you fill us in on what's been happening?"
Ryoga did just that, he told them the gist of Echizen's life up until just before he moved there and explained everything up until that point; the first attack they helped with, the car crash, the attempt in the park, and the one earlier at the school. He told them what kind of person Jack was; if you had money and you needed a job done he would do it but the strange thing was he refused to get innocent people involved in whatever he was doing. He was a mercenary with a basic decency of a human being.
"By the way," One of them asked. "Shouldn't there be more people than just us? I haven't seen one black suit since we left the school."
Come to think of it, the one that was supposed to contact the members in his group hadn't returned. Apparently the night wasn't going to be as calm as he had hoped. There was a sudden crash from upstairs and Ryoga swears his stomach jumped to his throat. He and the others quickly ran to Echizen's room only to find it locked. "Chibisuke!"
"Stand back." The group stood back as a member kicked the door open.
There was a lap and clock on the floor near the door, some papers were skewed around the room, the chair was knocked over, the window was shattered, and Echizen was gone. Ryoga went into a slight panic and guilt hit him like a ton of bricks; it had just happened, right above then and yet they weren't able to do anything and how his brother was missing.
"Whatever happened, they couldn't have gone far." The self-elected leader of the group pointed to a member wearing a hoodie. "Stay here with Ryoga-san and wait for Momoshiro-sama and his group. We'll go out and look for anything we could use to find them." The group rushed out of the room.
"Ryoga-san?" Hoodie had started to examine Echizen's room and noticed Ryoga standing in the middle.
"He was just here- I had just talked to him not fifteen minutes ago and just like that, he's gone." A very strong feeling of guilt prodded him. "We were right there and didn't notice a thing. Who knows where they've gone?"
"Calm down Ryoga-san. Didn't you say that there's a tracking chip in his phone?"
"It's no use if he doesn't have the phone on him."
"Who's to say he doesn't?"
"It's in his bag. He leaves it there and often forgets he even owns one. I hoped getting a new start would mean he would keep it on him but apparently not."
Hoodie checked Echizen's bag and did indeed find his phone. He sighed. "The important thing to do is stay calm. All we can do right now is hope Momoshiro-sama and his friends get here fast and that everyone outside finds a lead."
Ryoga ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah… yeah you're right…"
Echizen ran despite the pain in his legs and torso and cursed himself for not running towards the school because then he would've had a chance of running into the regulars and had a better handle on everything.
Echizen threw the lamp on the table at the uninvited guest and bolted for his window, knocking his chair over as he leapt onto his desk. He hurtled himself into it and out onto the roof, getting several scratches on his arms and legs from the broken glass. He gathered himself up and started looking for a quick and hopefully easy way down.
"Is that anyway to treat a guest?" Jack called from the window. "That hurt you know." He began climbing onto the roof. "I'll give you to the count of three. One…" Echizen spotted a tree and jumped for it. The branch didn't immediately break but it didn't give him enough time to assess what to do next and he tumbled to the ground. "Two…" Jack was taunting him from the roof.
The only thing he could think of doing at that point was run.
He hadn't even been running for that long but he wanted to rest, he needed to rest if he was going to try and stop that guy. He didn't even think he got two blocks when he started hearing Jack shouting incoherent things from behind him. He didn't have a set destination nor did he think of trying to double back and make it to the house. All he could think was to try and get as far away from him as possible.
A thought popped into his head; Momo had told him that if he was in any sort of trouble he could go to their hideout and he would get the help he needed. A seemingly abandoned warehouse not too far from Momo's house that usually had a few dozen people hanging around, waiting for something to happen so they could get in on it.
That's where he would go. Seeing that he was running in that direction anyways, it was his best bet. He could find someone and they would contact Momo and- a pain shot up his leg, one that he had never felt before. When the next step failed, he fell face first onto the asphalt, scraping his side in the process. The pain he felt from the fall was nothing compared to the one in his leg.
"Now-" Jack huffed. "I know that- you won't believe me, but" He took in a large breath. "Geez you run fast. I was almost scared I was going to lose you. Now I know you won't believe me but that was actually supposed to graze your leg, not embed itself into you. I guess I need to work on my aim while running." He was waving around a pistol with a silencer on it.
Echizen paid no heed to him. In all the times he's been captured to some extent, this was the first time he'd been shot. The pain was unimaginable; he was surprised he still had enough gall to stay awake but as Jack came closer he felt like he wasn't going to be.
"Since I messed this up, I'll make it easier on you." He took out his blowgun. "See you on the flip side kid."
"Any sign of them anywhere?"
"Spread out to see if you can find anything."
It had been only an hour since Echizen disappeared and his house was in chaos. When the regulars arrived, they were surprised to see several more people from Momo's group in place of the regular security officers that would've normally been stationed there. When they went inside, they found Ryoga seemingly passed out on a couch with an arm over his eyes.
"Kaidou-sama, Momoshiro-sama." Hoodie came into the room.
"What happened?" A question that seemingly arose in everyone's minds as they took in everything that was happening and an even greater one when they realized someone was absent. "Where's Echizen?"
"About that-"
"He's gone." A voice from the couch sounded. "We have no leads."
"Ryoga-san what do you mean he's gone?" Tezuka asked.
"If you would," Hoodie sat himself on a chair. "We arrived a few minutes after they came. Everything seemed fine; Echizen-san was taking a bath and Ryoga-san informed us of everything that had happened."
"Where are Echizen's guards?" Kawamura asked.
"That's the thing; we haven't seen any since we were at the school. Apparently there was no one here when they arrived, only the driver and he seems to have disappeared too. We're currently looking for them along with any trace of where Echizen-san could be. As to what happened to him-"
"He was taking a bath, a damned bath." Ryoga rose from the couch. "I had told him they had arrived then went back downstairs. I assume he went to his room to finish changing and was going to join us right after. Stupid. It happened over a course of fifteen minutes, maybe twenty at most. We searched the house before doing anything; should've just gone back to the school but he was tired and shaken and I was ignorant and now he's gone." Ryoga rested his arms on his legs and hung his head.
The room was quiet for a minute while everyone processed the information they received.
"You've no leads?" asked Fuji.
Hoodie shook his head. "We searched his room to see if we could find anything out; there was some dirt on his floor coming from his closet so we can suspect that's where his assailant was, his window was shattered and we figured it was his escape route. The glass on the roof and the ground leads us to believe he was able to get away though we don't know much more than that."
"He didn't run towards the school." Inui said. "If he did we most likely would've run into him."
"If he was running in the opposite direction from the school, he might have had the idea to go to the hideout." said Momo. "That would be the safest place for him."
"Contact them to check if he's there or not." Kaidou told a member. "Have everyone searching between here and there for anything else that might help."
"Stupid." Ryoga's tone was filled with guilt. "We were right down here."
"Ryoga-san we'll find Echizen, he'll be alright." Oishi said.
"If his stubbornness doesn't get him killed first."
"But isn't he more valuable alive?" Kikumaru asked. "He has to be alive for everything to work out; and didn't you say that the Jack person isn't one to kill right off the bat?"
"One of the first things I saw when I got here was my brother lying on the ground with a knife to his throat and hours earlier he almost had a bullet go through his head." Ryoga's voice wavered. "I'm sorry Kikumaru-kun but there really isn't that much evidence to make me believe he's alive."
An eerie silence filled the room.
"Ryoga-san…"
Just then Ryoga's phone rang.
The smell, a mix between garbage, salt, and rotting fruit and was perhaps the foulest smelling thing he'd ever been exposed to. Echizen's eyes shot open and had to stop himself from physically vomiting on the floor because of the smell. He went to move a hand to his mouth but found it bound to a chair along with the other and his legs. When he tried to move his legs he regretted it instantly and remembered the shot he had taken before.
"Whoa there." Echizen looked up from his bindings to see Jack enter the room. "I know it's not the most comfortable but I'd appreciate if you sat still. You're going to open the wound in your leg."
"I'd appreciate it if you'd let me go and leave me alone but that's probably not going to happen either." At the mercy of his captor and still as sassy and cocky as ever. "What's that smell? It's horrible."
"Now we're going to do one thing and the outcome of it decides what I do with you." Jack completely ignored Echizen's question and sass and went into the other room.
Echizen took a look around the room he was in; carpeted floor, poorly sound proofed walls, no windows, and one door leading to another room. It was also relatively cool which made him think they might have been underground, in a basement perhaps.
"It's useless to try and get out of here kid." Jack said upon returning into the room. "I doubt you can get out of your bindings and even if you did you wouldn't be able to get very far on that leg of yours." He took out a phone. "You're going to call your father."
"Why would I do that?" At mention of his father he wondered if any of them had heard about the crash.
"Because if I get the answer I'm looking for then I'll leave you alone." He cut one of the bindings on his arm and handed him the phone. "Call him."
Echizen scoffed and took the phone. "What am I supposed to tell him?"
"Ask him if he closed the deal in Sapporo and depending on what he says decides your freedom. Don't try any funny business either. Even if I get the answer I'm looking for and you try to pull something, I'll still hand you over to the big man to do whatever he wants."
He didn't understand what he was supposed to be listening for but called nonetheless and was relieved yet slightly annoyed at his father's lethargic banter. "Who's calling me at such a late hour?" Adding drunk or hung over to the entire thing almost made calling worth it.
"It's not late at all. You're just a lousy drunk who can't tell the difference between evening and midnight." Echizen heard Jack snort at his comment.
"Oh Seishounen. Did you miss your father's lovely voice so you had to call so he could tell you a bedtime story?"
"I called to get the status on the Sapporo deal. Did you get it?"
"What's with the sudden interest? I thought you hated the business part of everything." It was true; the moving, shows, expos, he hated having to sit through all of it.
"I do but depending on what happened," Jack raised his eyebrow at him. "I'll most likely have to move out there with you right, because it'll be too dangerous for me to stay here on my own, right?" The amount of sarcasm that was stressed on those words held no rival. "I'll need to tell everyone if I have to leave and I'd like to do it more than one day in advance."
"Well good thing for you then because you won't have to move."
"You didn't close the deal?"
"I sold the company. I'm finished with all of this." The line was silent for a minute. "Your mother and I were thinking, it's really starting to get to be too much to move almost once a month. It puts stress on us and we know it puts stress on you so I sold it. A good buddy of mine's going to take it over so you don't have to worry about moving or saying goodbye to your friends for a while."
Echizen was left speechless; his whole life was nothing but shows and matches and pompous people bragging about how much money they made and it was all over with in the blink of an eye.
"You can have the hose to yourself for a little while longer; we're staying in Sapporo for the remainder of the week as a much needed vacation. Don't decide to throw any last minute parties while we're not there."
"Yeah, okay."
"I mean it Seishounen. If we come back and the house is trashed-" Nanjiro was cut off my Jack taking the phone and shutting it.
"So? Did you get your answer?"
Jack huffed. "Looks like it's your lucky day kid." He cut the bindings on his other arm and legs. "I received a call earlier from the boss man saying I needed to bring you in now otherwise everything was for nothing. I had my suspicions that daddy had already closed the deal in Sapporo. That's the job I was hired for, Stop Nanjiro from closing the Sapporo deal by kidnapping his son. If the deal had been sealed then that would've put a dent in my record and I wouldn't get paid. I can't have that although it wouldn't have stopped the big man from taking you and not paying me."
"So this is the perfect way of dealing with things, boss man doesn't get to use you against your father, you don't get to be captured anymore, and I don't get a dent in my record." He walked into the other room. "I'll take care of boss man don't you worry but in the meantime I think your brother and friends are looking for you. We're not that far from your house actually."
Echizen heard him walking away and could help but ask, "Why don't you use me against my father? You could set your price at whatever you want."
Jack walked back and stood in the doorway. "That is literally the stupidest question you could ever ask right now and to tell you the truth, I don't know why I don't want to use you against your father. It's too much effort and I've had enough of you. I'll make sure your brother knows where you are." His steps began to fade once more.
Echizen heard a door shut and was left there, not understand what had just happened.
When Ryoga's phone rang, he honestly expected it to be the police saying they found a body, never would he have expected a call from the kidnapper telling him where to find his brother, alive and waiting to be picked up nor did he expect the location he was being held to be so close. That's what led him to bolting out of the house without so much as a word to the others.
A few blocks, just a few blocks in a basement of an abandoned home. That's where he was waiting. He could hear the regulars yelling behind him for some insight as to what happened but chose to ignore them and keep running to his destination. When he reached the address given to him, only then did he stop and catch his breath.
"Ryoga-san!" The regulars joined him.
Ryoga huffed out, "Chibisuke- he's inside."
"That's why you went running off after the call." Inui said. "You received information on his whereabouts."
"What are we waiting for then?" Kikumaru stepped forward to enter the building to be stopped by Fuji.
"You're thinking it's a trap?"
"I don't know what to think. He said Chibisuke was alive and waiting here to be picked up but it seems too easy." Ryoga sighed.
"What should we do then?" Kawamura asked. "If he is in there, what if he's injured?"
No one said anything as the door slowly opened. They didn't know if it was his capturer or someone else that had the same message sent to them but they were presently pleased, to say the least, to see that it was Echizen that opened the door and hobbled into view. The group stared at him and he back at them, silence accompanying then until Echizen broke it with one word, "Ah."
Momo walked over to him and put him in a headlock. "Ah? That's the only thing you have to say? We were worried about you and the only thing you have to say to us is Ah?!"
The others went over and greeted him as well. Oishi began fussing about his leg while Kikumaru was latched on practically crying into his hair. He didn't mind though, in fact he didn't really know what to do; it was the first time he was in a situation like that. Usually he was surrounded with aristocrats and business men asking if he would play a match either for or against their company. None of that mattered anymore.
Ryoga stared at the site in front of him a moment longer. A smile appeared on his face. He walked over and ruffled his brother's hair. "Idiot."
He explained to everyone how his father had sold the company and with that being what Jack had been hired to stop, Echizen was no need to him anymore. The security members that had gone missing were found in an empty parking lot a block or two away. When everything seemed to check out, they regulars took their leave and said to call if they could do or were needed for anything.
The next few days were more or less hectic. Echizen spent the remainder of the week out of school so his leg could heal. During the day that followed, the police showed up at Echizen's door and said they had information he should most likely hear. Apparently there had been an anonymous tip and tapes left at the station with very detailed instructions about his capture. They also told him they had brought in and have been interrogating a Heizo Takayama for attempted kidnapping.
Ryoga had stayed for the remainder of the week and then a few days after to catch up with his father, mother, and cousin. Seeing as they weren't bursting with worry, it was best to assume that they had no knowledge about what had happened in the time they were gone. It's not that they were trying to hide it but Echizen did wear long pants so to not bring attention to the bandages on it and when he was questioned about the limping he merely said he tripped at practice and twisted it a bit and it should be fine as long as he didn't put tons of pressure on it.
There was no form of communication from Jack after that. He just up and vanished though Echizen didn't feel like he should worry about it seeing as he said he was basically a waste of effort.
Everything after that was pretty much normal, or at least what he would think was normal. When he was questioned as to why he wasn't at school, he told everyone the truth though no one believed him in the slightest. He was late for morning practices and had to run; he slept in his classes, he cleaned his classes, he had to run with everyone else and in the times he didn't come in first, he had to drink Inui's juices along with everyone else.
Yeah. This was a life he could get used to.
Holy balls that was so anticlimactic.
I hope everyone enjoyed this. I'm sorry it took so long to get out though I can say that's probably the fastest I've ever had a next chapter out. Bad news is I probably won't have another story for a while because I really just don't have time to write; good news it I have several other stories that are done and practically done but they're for different fandoms but but most likely I can just- not like rewrite them but insert the PoT characters and boom new lovely story. If I do do that then the next one will most likely kinda have the same story line as this one but like not-? To be honest that's kinda what I did with this one and that's why the first couple of chapters got out so fast.
I don't know how to describe it but you should like it. After that I have another one that I'm in the middle of that I can tweak to fit and it's like all medieval and stuff and I love it so look forward to those ones.
Please forgive spelling and grammar and corniness and lateness and laziness and bad puns and plot holes and oh my god I'm so sorry this was so late.
Hope ya liked it! Peace out until next time!