Escape
Rinne pushed the covers from his legs and sat with legs crossed. He sighed heavily before nodding for her to continue. The part of his brain designated to answering questions suddenly felt exhausted with the course of his day.
"I know you're the son of Rokudo Sabato, so how is it that you're… how should I ask this..?"
"Not involved in his business?"
"Y-yeah…"
Rinne closed his eyes and leaned back.
"Is it not so far-fetched that a man like him would be a deadbeat? I mean, just talking in a stereotypical fashion…"
She thought for a second.
"I can see that. So how did that guy -Naraku- know you?"
Rinne was silent for a time.
"Do I have to answer that?"
Sakura looked at him very seriously.
"I can't force you."
He knew full well she was trying to use a sort of reverse-psychology…partly because of the silence. She had yet to ask another question…he knew what she was doing, but he grumbled inwardly the moment his mouth opened unconsciously to answer.
"I did live with my dad a little while…"
He kicked himself for starting that conversation.
"You see, when I was 13, I was kidnapped…"
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"Rinne, smile."
Rinne just fisted his bandaged hand and glared away from Sabato.
"It will heal in no time. It was an accident besides."
"As far as you know," Rinne scoffed.
"What? I told him from the get-go not to be too rough, it's just training after all."
That not the fact. It may have started with Naraku taking him on as a sort of student, but now, with his father out of the complex during the matches, Rinne discovered Naraku's distaste for his position as the boy's retainer. He also discovered he had a natural talent for fending off the increasingly violent attacks of his "trainer". He refused to tell his father a word of the things Naraku had threatened towards him.
He hated Sabato. Truthfully, that was something he and Naraku had in common.
When Naraku finally did slip some cyanide into Sabato's drink, Rinne wouldn't care, but he would be wary of his own drinks.
Sabato left the room, leaving Rinne alone with Naraku. The man glared down at the boy, who easily returned the feeling.
"Why don't you tell on me, hm? Too afraid to squeal? Do I frighten you?"
Rinne clenched his teeth.
A woman, Sabato's secretary, who was barely 18, interrupted the glaring match.
"Naraku, how far along is Rinne in training?"
He scoffed, "Not far. He's much too stubborn to learn a damn thing," he emphasized his point by stomping his foot.
"Well then, Sabato's ready to take him out for a business trip, so you'll just have to come along as Rinne's bodyguard."
"WHAT?"
The woman left the room before answering. Naraku had heard right. He was designated as bodyguard for the kid; it was glorified babysitting and meant that was all Sabato saw him as.
Rinne fought the urge to smirk. This was his chance.
.
.
.
He was fast. He hoped he was faster than Naraku as he took those stairs two at a time. He made it to the roof, but Naraku was right on his tail as he prepared for the twelve feet that separated the roof of this and the next building. Naraku grabbed Rinne around the waist and spun him to the rooftop's floor. Rinne sprung back up with a pocket knife this time. Naraku grabbed Rinne's wrist, twisting it and the blade behind Rinne's back. Rinne kicked backwards harder than he had in his life, and he heard a crunch, muffled by a snarl of pain from Naraku. He crumpled down, but didn't let go of Rinne. Rinne spun and grabbed the knife in his free hand and stabbed it through Naraku's. Naraku still didn't release him, instead grabbing Rinne by the ankle and pulling him down. Rinne gave a stab to Naraku's other hand followed by a hard kick to Naraku's face.
He fell. Rinne had not realized the proximity to the edge of the building, but Naraku fell from the roof. Rinne stood and looked over the edge… it was a six story drop. At the bottom of the drop lay Naraku, appearing dead atop a pile of discarded furniture. A drop like that should not have been survivable. He'd never intended to kill anyone. The stakes had just gotten higher for him.
He looked across the jump he needed to make. If he missed, he would suffer the same fate as Naraku. He swallowed. He heard a ruckus ascending the stairs. He clenched his teeth and made the jump, catching himself from the stomach up on the other side, scrambling to climb up. He ran to the other end of the building and fled down the fire escape and ran.
He ran until the next city over, collapsing outside of a library. When he finally got back on his feet, he looked up a map and made his way to his grandmother's house. He stayed with her for three days, but on the forth day, his grandmother woke him and told him to hide. His father came looking for him, she heard his grandmother swat him upside his head several times.
"I just want to see my son, mom. Is that so wrong?"
"You've come to take him back, Sabato. You forget I raised you, I know how you behave."
"Mother, you don't underst,"
SWAT
"Do not talk back to me. Where have your manners gone?"
SWAT
"Ow. That really hurts you know."
"And my grandson came back to me hurting as well. He was covered in scratches and had a sprained wrist. He hardly said a word about it. You're a grown man, so quit whining."
"Yeah, well he nearly killed good friend of mine."
He left. But not before promising that he could never personally hurt her, but he wasn't sure his employees were as nice. Rinne began packing after that. He told his grandmother that having him around would get her hurt. She begged him not to go, but he felt he had to. Especially since Naraku was still alive somehow.
.
.
.
"You just left?"
"What else could I do?"
"I don't know, but your grandmother had been without you for so long, to just leave like that…"
Rinne grit his teeth and glared at the floor in front of him.
"Don't think I'm heartless, it was for her sake. I love my grandmother, and I really do miss her… it's too late for me to go back now."
Sakura wasn't sure what to say. A dark cloud seemed to be hanging directly over the small room, blackening the atmosphere. Sakura leaned back against the door. She pulled her arm out of its sling to roll it in circles. Suddenly, a thought came to her. She was hesitant to ask, but it felt pertinent enough despite the atmosphere.
"Isn't he still looking for you? Should you really be in town in which case?"
She spoke calmly and slowly, hoping the question wouldn't seem offensive.
Rinne shook his head.
"He's got another apprentice now, and he would never bother with anything other than that."
"Why did that one guy refer to you as 'the lost boy' then?"
"Something to do with the fact that I ran away. I don't really know, and I don't care what they refer to me as."
"Oh."
Sakura put her arm back in the sling. She looked away from him, but before she did, she noticed how unreadable his expression was. Considering the turn of the conversation, shouldn't he be even slightly angry?
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Sakura was up, bright and early the next morning, although her parents insisted she stay home. She missed breakfast with her dad, but her mom offered to make her something. She sat down on the table, just as she remembered their house guest.
"Don't forget Rinne-kun," Sakura commented as her mother cracked an egg into the pan.
"Oh, that's right. Will you go wake him up for me?"
Sakura stood up and quietly made her way back to the storage room. She knocked, and opened the door to a blanket with as suspicious lump beneath it.
"Rinne-kun."
The lump didn't stir.
"Rinne?"
Strange. He had woken up so easily last night. She crouched down next to the blanket.
"Rokudo-kun."
With that the blanket flew up in the air, and red flashed past Sakura's nose. A moment passed before she had the presence of mind to glance up at the boy with his back pressed firmly against the stack of boxes. He looked about in a panicked way.
"Oh. You're up."
Rinne looked back down, and slouched. When he realized where he was, his expression became that of a boy who'd just woken up, rather than a frightened cat.
Sakura reflected upon the discovery that Rinne Rokudo was not nearly as cool and collected as first impressions would tell. She stood up to finish her thought.
"My mom's making breakfast, so come out when you're ready."
A few seconds after she left the room, she noted that a sleepy-eyed Rinne followed her into the kitchen. She sat down at the table just as her mother scooped the food onto a plate and set it on the table. As Rinne crossed the threshold into the kitchen, he bowed for some reason.
"If it is okay with you, I would rather not eat with you this morning. You have been much too generous to me, and I'd like to take my leave as soon as possible."
Mrs. Mamiya smiled.
"I'm sorry, Rinne-san, but I'd rather not let all this food go to waste, so if you would please eat with Sakura, I would be grateful," she told him as she began to wash her hands.
Through the sound of running water, Sakura whispered, "That's my mom," to herself. Rinne tipped his head up from his bowing position with one eyebrow raised in confusion. How did the woman manage to turn the tables on his like that? Sakura just scooped up some eggs and sat down to a nice breakfast. Rinne stood up as Mrs. Mamiya passed him telling him, "And besides Rinne-san, I still need to give you back your clothes."
Rinne pulled on the front of the T-shirt he was wearing. Sakura waved him over when she had served her plate.
Rinne sighed and sat down to breakfast.
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"Get up."
Rinne panted from his place on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. He was completely wiped out from today's training exercises.
"I said get up," the man repeated.
Normally Rinne was obedient to an image of the perfect apprentice to his father. He did everything he was told, as pain and disgust that he could come from his father twisted in his stomach. He never smiled at anyone at the complex, but he also never talked back. That is, except for 'Kumo Akuma.' He hated how the man constantly taunted him, mocked him every time his foot slipped in practice, kicked him as he struggled to get to his feet.
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"What's wrong?" Sakura asked Rinne.
He stared into his food for a second.
"Rinne?"
He came back to the present with the sound of his name.
"Are you all right?" She asked again.
"Yeah, just had a… thought stuck in my head," he said before shoveling food into his mouth.
Sakura smiled, and just upon rinsing her plate, there was a knock on the door.
She moved to answer and when she opened the door, she gasped and stood still in surprise.
NOTE
My good friend Miyori999 drew the cover for this story. Please visit her DeviantART page for more beautiful images like this one.
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