Kaoru was numb. He was terrified. Why had this man taken him? What was going to happen to him? Questions like those danced around the edge of his mind, but his main concern always returned to Hikaru. His brother had been left, lying on the cold concrete, at night in the commoner's shopping district. What if he'd been trampled by unseeing feet? Or hit by a drunk driver? Or… what if he'd been taken as well?
Kaoru was lost in his thoughts for the entire car ride, and didn't notice when the vehicle halted and the engine shut off. It wasn't until the trunk popped open and he was dragged out of it that Kaoru's fear completely set in.
He stumbled over himself as he was dragged forcefully to the back door of a massive mansion, even bigger than his own estate. The man knocked twice, waited a few seconds, then knocked three more times before stepping back and waiting for there to be an answer. Moments later, a hulking man opened the door and slammed it shut as soon as Kaoru and his captor were inside. The man with the iron grasp all but dragged Kaoru through a long, dark hallway, and down a set of grimy stairs.
"What is this place?" Kaoru wondered to himself, trying to keep his mind off of the fact that he'd been kidnapped.
They emerged from the dimly lit staircase into a musty, concrete hallway. Kaoru took note of every turn they made from the staircase to the heavy looking door they ended up in front of. There was another hulking man standing before this door, wearing the same black t-shirt and slacks the guard at the back door had been wearing.
"Newcomer?" The guard grunted.
"Caught him a couple of hours ago." Iron fist nodded as the guard typed in a code on a keypad next to the door. Once the code was fully entered, a panel in the wall slid aside to reveal a slot in which the guard inserted a key card that hung from a lanyard around his neck. "He's a Hitachiin."
Kaoru forced himself not to gape at the man's words. How did he know who Kaoru was? Was this planned? Were he and Hikaru being stalked before this? "Snap out of it." He shouted in his head. "Don't let them see your fear."
"He'll go for more than usual." The guard observed.
Once the card had been read, the door swung heavily open and Kaoru was shoved through the hole in the wall, landing unceremoniously on a thin, lumpy, stained mattress. Iron fist quickly straddled the boy before he could move, causing Kaoru's breath to catch for a moment before he realised that the man was simply cutting his restraints away. Kaoru relished the feeling of his wrists being free from the chafing rope, but his relief was short-lived as he felt thick metal cuffs being closed around his raw wrists. Once the cuffs were in place, the man rose and Kaoru pushed himself into a sitting position, staring the man down with a glare as menacing as he could muster, which wasn't really very menacing at all.
"I'll be back soon with the boss." The man smirked at the kid's attempt to be brave. It was obvious he was terrified. "Don't go anywhere." He mocked over his shoulder as he disappeared around the corner and the door slammed shut with a heavy thud.
Kaoru let out a shaking breath once he was alone. Trying to keep calm, he surveyed the room, deciding he'd better know every inch of it if he was going to escape. He was sitting on a lumpy, thin, very stained mattress. He didn't really want to think about what made up those stains. His gaze moved to the cuffs on his wrists, which were attached to chains that kept him from moving more than about six feet from the wall they were anchored to. That probably wouldn't be an issue considering the rook itself was only about six feet by six feet. Everything was concrete; the walls, the floor, the ceiling. The only differentiation in material came from the door and the mattress, which Kaoru spotted a thin, holey blanket at the end of. Across the room there was nothing but two empty corners. Looking to the creases where the wall met the ceiling, Kaoru didn't see any sign of weakness in the foundation, and there definitely weren't any windows. There was a small security camera perched in the top left corner of the room, so it would never be blocked by the door opening. Kaoru could see all of this due to the dim, grimy lightbulb that hung by a couple of frayed wires from the middle of the ceiling. It gave off enough light to get by, but definitely needed to be either cleaned or changed.
More time than he thought must have passes as he collected information of his surroundings, because Kaoru suddenly heard a faint beep and the door swung open to reveal iron fist and a strange man Kaoru didn't recognize.
"Hello, Kaoru Hitachiin." The new man smiled a smile that could only be described as evil.
"How do you know me?" Kaoru demanded, feeling pride in his steady voice. "What is this place?"
The man chuckled, kneeling down to be at eye level with the boy. "I suppose there's no reason to lie to you, this is my business." The man gestured around, looking proud of the dank cell. "See, I'm the CEO of a company. I have a very specific process. First, I decide how much money I want to make, and how much time I feel like waiting for. Then, my analysts pull together a list of names, which is passed on to my runners, like Kaito here, who you've met. They watch for a while, see if the project is possible, then act, like Kaito did today. Then, our guests are brought here where the rest of the transaction will be carried out. I also take requests from my clientele. Do you have any questions?"
"Yeah." Kaoru could feel the panic rising in his throat again, but managed to keep it down below his Adam's apple so he could know the answer to his question. "What did you do to my brother?"
"Oh, how sweet!" The boss nearly squealed. "You're the one who's in danger and you're worried about your brother." Kaoru's breath caught, but he managed to keep his composure. "When we have difficult cases such as yours, our runners need to make sure their projects go off without a hitch. Since you were always with Hikaru, Kaito simply ran into him before he was ready to take you. He was carrying a thumbtack covered in a small dose of very pungent sedative, which caused your brother to lose consciousness within a few minutes. You don't need to worry about him, you should be worried about you."
"Why's that?" Kaoru cursed himself at the slight quiver in his voice.
"I'm all about transparency here, do you know why that is?"
"Hadn't given it much thought."
"Because you're never getting out of here." The boss shrugged. "You are going to die here, Kaoru Hitachiin."
"Fuck you!" he suddenly shouted, his tongue not waiting for his brain to process the thought before it became words.
"Well now, that simply won't do." The boss chuckled and rose to his feet. "Kaito." He said over his shoulder as he left the room.
Just as the boss disappeared from sight, Kaoru felt something solid ram into his chest and force him back against the concrete wall, effectively knocking the breath out of his lungs. He looked down as he struggled to remember how to breathe, seeing that Kaito had kicked him square in the chest, and was now holding him against the wall with even, heavy pressure. Kaoru struggled, trying to pry the foot away from his chest as his lungs screamed for air, but Kaito also seemed to have an iron foot. Just as the edges of Kaoru's vison began to darken, Kaito released Kaoru, who immediately fell forward, bracing himself against the cold concrete floor as he coughed and choked, letting the oxygen flow through him any way it wanted to.
"Never backtalk the boss." Kaito grumbled as the door thumped shut.