Chapter 12: This just in—child kidnappee kidnaps his kidnappers

As I gaze out at the courtyard, a cup of tea in my hand and a box of daifuku (gifted to me by Nakamura) on the coffee table, I felt at peace.

Math lessons were wrapped up with a quick quiz, so I was let out early; the quiz didn't take more than five minutes, making my tutor side-eye me as usual. The staff was cleaning the rooms at the moment, so I was promptly kicked out to wait on the engawa overlooking the pond; falling red leaves from the nearby maple trees littered its surface, disturbing the calm water from time to time.

It was a little chilly due to the September winds, but Nakamura—bless his heart—made sure to bundle me up in dozens of layers topped off with a fluffy red scarf and hat to combat the weather. Despite the cold, it was a nice day.

Time to go and bother my neighbor.

"Ah," Catching sight of me pulling on my geta—messenger bag stuffed with a thermos full of tea and a box of daifuku by my side—a passing Nakamura walked over. "Young Master, I thought you still had class?"

/Ended early./

"Hm, okay then." With an inquiring smile, the man kneeled down next to me. "Where are you headed?"

Having slipped on the other geta, I stood up and glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. His tilted head brought forth the image of a curious dog; it was so spot on that I had to take a moment to keep in a dangerous giggle. Nakamura was too wholesome for words sometimes

/My secret hideout. Don't tell anyone, okay?/ For emphasis, I placed a finger to my lips in a shushing pose.

"Oh," Fortunately, Nakamura got the message, giving an overly dorky wink at me. "Got it, Young Master. But," A finger was waved in my face with a stern warning. "Make sure to come back before five, alright? I don't know what I'd do to myself if you were to catch a cold."

Understandable. Nakamura was my minder, and although it was understood throughout the household that I preferred not being bothered in my 'hideout', it was still his job to ensure my safety.

"-maybe you should stay inside for today. Now that I think about it, it's pretty cold outside-"

At his soft nagging, I let out a fond sigh and reached out to cup his cheeks, silencing the worried man into a puzzled and frozen state. With a light squeeze, I bumped my forehead against his in a playful manner, bringing a light smile to his lips.

"Well, I suppose it's fine for today." He acquiesced with a put-out sigh, reaching out to fiddle with my scarf. "If you need anything, we'll be just around the corner." Finished fussing over my clothes, he handed over the messenger bag and slid open the door, walking me out.

Stopping in my steps, I turned a bit to look at him. /Turn around and count to twenty./ I reminded, stubbornly staying put.

With an amused chuckle, he nodded and turned around. "Of course, Young Master."

With his back turned toward me and no one else around, I quickly made my escape into the thicket, geta clacking against the stone gravel as I followed the marked path Gaku-Oji helped me make.


At the sight of a young man getting dressed in Gaku-Oji's room, I blinked, turned to a Gaku-Oji sitting by his desk (who looked at me at the same time as the other man with a matching surprised look that quickly turned into one of horror) blinked again, and bowed my head in apology.

Ah, how embarrassing. Maybe they were probably getting it on.

Eyes widened, brows raised, jaw dropped, the stranger quickly shook his head. "Oi, kid. Whatever you're thinking, I swear it's not like that. I don't swing—"

Well, it's not like this hasn't happened before, albeit I was at least in university when my roommate started bringing his hookups home.

Not caring to listen to the rest of his very much unneeded explanation, I walked in and slid the door shut behind me, much to the surprise of both the inhabitants in the room.

What? It was cold. What was I supposed to do?

Too cold to care for pleasantries at the moment, I made my way to my designated cushion and sat down, ignoring the stranger's curious gaze as I soaked up the heat from the floors.

He was of average height and build, a bit on the muscular side though, and from what I can tell from a glance, he was pretty as well. Clear fair skin (although a bit ashy—some lotion needed applying), narrow hooded dark-brown eyes, dusky thick-set lips models would die for, thin dark brows, and a black crewcut that did his face shape a disservice. There were bandages wrapped around his abdomen and shoulder; plasters littered his face, hands, and arms.

Eyes still on me, the stranger shuffled a little closer to Gaku-Oji with a horrible whisper. "Am I seeing things, Miyama-san? That's not a ghost...right?"

At this, the older gave a sharp look. "Are you an idiot? It's just a kid. Don't ever mention him to anyone, got that Tachibana?"

Tachibana quickly nodded and wordlessly slid the rest of his clothes on in a flash, sprinting out of the room after a hasty bow goodbye. The man (more like teen—he couldn't be older than seventeen) didn't dare look back in fear of the old man's intimidating presence.

And then there were two.

"..."

"..."

"..."

/Give a kid a warning would you?/

"Don't even start—"


"So, who's the kid, Boss?"

Tachibana Aoi. Sixteen. Recovering from a mugging that happened on Gaku-Oji's turf. He has a personality as fun as a thorny brick wall hidden in a valley of nettles, but his reaction to my presence will never not be amusing to watch. Tachibana also likes sweets and is extremely partial to apples.

Today, Kaa-chan forced on me her old white turtleneck sweater tucked into pink overalls with colorful flowers embroidered in the corduroy fabric. The material was warm and comfortable to wear, posing no difficulty in my movements.

Sleepily glancing at Tachibana out of the corner of my eye where he was sitting on my right, I observed him. Despite his steely expression, I could tell he was unsettled by my presence. This being our fourth time meeting each other, the teen quickly understood that I was not to be bothered under any circumstance, as well as to be kept hush about.

Gaku-Oji mulled over what he should say to him, swirling his teacup in thought.

We were sitting in the old man's private office at the moment enjoying a plate of apple pie I helped bake and some jasmine tea Momo mailed over from his garden. The boy was going through a tea phase at the moment and had been trying his hand at raising various plants for tea, leading to him giving me box samples for feedback.

I smothered down a yawn and blearily blinked, struggling to keep my eyes open in the cozy feeling room. Gaze wandering the room, my eyes were still at the inviting sight of Gaku-Oji's lap.

"He's my nephew." Was all Gaku could muster up.

"...I see." Despite his deference, Tachibana looked from me to his boss comparing our drastically unrelated features. The only similarity he could find between the both of us would be our preference for quiet.

No, I don't think you do.

There was no harm in shedding some light on the poor boy; it's not like it'd harm me much. So with a lazy stretch forward, I picked up my pencil and notepad (with how much better Gaku's been at reading JSL, I mostly just use it to draw) and quickly wrote on the paper.

We're not related. I paused in thought before adding a quick, "I think" .

Tachibana raised a questioning brow at my contradictory statement.

Listen, with a family tree as complicated and large as mine, someone was bound to pork a distant relative unknowingly. That's why the children are forced to memorize the family tree and the names of all their closest relatives.

In the middle of writing a better explanation, I glanced over at Gaku-Oji's comfortable-looking lap again and made up my mind.

"It's complicated."

With that, I placed the pad down, signaling I was done, and crawled over to Gaku-Oji (who was looking at me in slight confusion) before unceremoniously plopping my sleepy head on his thigh.

It was bliss. The older man's thigh was warm and had just enough fat-to-muscle ratio to make his thigh the perfect cushion. Already I could feel my eyes drooping in exhaustion. It was so comfortable I almost didn't register the warm hand on my head. It was hesitant at first, stiff and heavy as it lay on my head; however, as time passed the movements became lighter and more satisfying. There was a quiet sigh of disapproval before someone let out a fond grumble.

"You've got half an hour before I kick you out, Brat."

I'm starting to think he likes me.


Looking through a pile of albums out of boredom, I flipped through a couple of pages before stopping at one peculiar picture.

It was a picture of me as a newborn, nothing special really. Nothing aside from the fact that I was being held by a woman in a hospital bed. There were dark circles and a tired but satisfied quirk on her lips as she smiled at the camera, despite the obvious sweat lining her gaunt face, she still had the strength to lift me up in her arms.

Those eyes...I could've sworn I'd seen them somewhere.

Intense carmine eyes shining with pride stared back at me as I mused over possibilities in my head.

Hmm, how interesting.


"Don't you have school or something?"

Chewing on a piece of apple turnover, I scribbled out an answer before going back to my embroidery. It was a hobby I picked up that I figure could help me train my fingers to be more dexterous; so far I've made three handkerchiefs for the triplets back in Oita with their namesakes embroidered on the edges.

Homeschooled.

"Isn't that illegal?"

I shrugged.

I'm nine; I don't know what that word means.

Tachibana scoffed and took a bite out of his share of apple turnover. "Funny."

Unlike any other day I'd drop by, Gaku-Oji wasn't here. It was by chance I stumbled across the teen on my way to his private office; having understood the reason behind my presence, Tachibana immediately explained that my neighbor was away on some business and that he wouldn't be back until a couple of hours.

Being raised with manners I accepted his explanation with a polite nod...and then proceeded to walk to the office anyways. It wasn't like I had anything else to do, and I didn't want to eat these apple turnovers by myself. After a moment of hesitation in my step, I turned around and wrote on my notepad.

You free right now?

Thrown off his game, Tachibana nodded in confusion.

Good.

Without any warning and blatantly not giving a fuck, I took his hand and hightailed it to Gaku-Oji's office. Tachibana, of course, went along because he wasn't blind and saw the box of apple turnovers under my arm and knew I always shared my treats with anyone I was close with.

Therefore, it was just us two bros, chilling in my neighbor's private office, enjoying some apple turnovers and a nice cup of iced tea in a conditioned room during the summer.

A thought hits me and I pause in my work.

Do I need friends?

The thought quickly vanishes as soon as it comes. There's no point in wondering. All will come in due time. And something tells me the friends I make won't be normal.


"-should we've left her? Seems a bit too young."

"Hell no! You want us dead or something? We need six girls. Six."

"My bad, just asking."

Sitting in the back of a van with hands tied with some sort of cloth, I sighed at the situation at hand.

There were little girls of varying ages stuffed in the space, the majority of them silently crying, too scared to make a sound after witnessing the first child who wailed get slapped so hard her head bounced off the window. Said child was still unconscious and currently lying on the floor next to me, her head cushioned in the lap of a girl who bore similar facial features. Probably his sister or something.

The ones in charge of the hostages were three middle-aged women. Two were in the driver and passenger seats while the third was responsible for handling the children in the back.

How did I end up here you might ask.

Well, it goes a little something like this.

Close your eyes and picture a boy (black wig fitted on his head and dressed up in white lolita wear because his mom felt adventurous that day and his auntie was too much of a tease to stop her) who was craving some fruit. Sadly, they were out of fresh fruit in the kitchen, but the fruit craving was just too strong in the boy to refuse. So off the boy went, accompanied by a maid and a bodyguard (because the household was protective like that) to walk to the supermarket.

Halfway to the supermarket a van drives by on the road. The van door opens and out comes a hand that reaches for my arm. Grabs it. Pulls me in. And drives away without pause.

The whole kidnapping was so blase, I took a minute to think over what just happened while someone was tying my hands together. Which, as I took another glance, I was decidedly not impressed with. Unfortunately for them, I was a boy on a mission.

I want my fruit.

And I am going to get my fruit.

Getting the children behind my plan was as easy as pie. All I had to do was point my chin over to the backdoor of the van, and they seemed to pick up on what I wanted them to do. A few of them were hesitant, but decidedly to throw their luck with me and followed the others. Thankfully, our watcher was on her phone, too busy texting her baby daddy or whatever to notice the migration of children going to the back of the van..

Before I carried out my plan, I paused in thought.

Right. They're still kids and probably shouldn't see this.

Turning around to face them, I moved my lips.

'Look away.'

They nodded and turned their bodies around, wary of what was to come.

Not gonna lie, they were more obedient than I thought they'd be. It was pretty sweet; would've been messier if there was any resistance.

Alright. Time to get my fruit.


"Um, Young Master?"

I glanced at Nakamura in answer from where my maid was bawling her eyes out in relief as her arms cinched around my neck like a noose, slowly suffocating me to an early death. They had just finished getting briefed and questioned by the officers and were finally able to see me.

"I'm glad you're safe and sound...but who are all these girls?" Flabbergasted, the poor man gestured to six girls sitting in the police station with me, all of them sucking on lollipops I bought them at the conbini we took a trip to before we walked to the police station.

In the corner of my eyes, I kept track of the officers present in the room, half of them side-eyeing me for the dubious bloodstains while the rest side-eyed my escorts.

I, of course, was happily peeling the oranges I bought before I was dragged into the clutches of my wailing maid.

Her crying was getting kinda annoying to put up with, so I pinched her nose close and pushed her face away from me. As expected, she got the message and let go of me with a final nasally hiccup.

/Fellow kidnappees. Three women. Human trafficking. Filling quota apparently./

Too tired to make complete sentences, I ended my explanation by biting into my peeled orange with a satisfying gush of juices flowing into my mouth.

Taking my answer in stride, Nakamura eyed my clothes and widened his eyes in horror. "Is that blood?!" He screeched, eyes wide as coconuts.

I rolled my eyes and bit into the orange to free my hands.

/Ain't mine. You know me better./ A pause. /Can you ask for my knife back after they finish running the blood tests? It's my favorite one./

My maid let out a nervous giggle. "I don't think that's what you should be worried about, Young Master."

Kneading his temple, Nakamura pulled out his phone. "Fine, just give me a moment to call for backup." The stressed man pressed call and walked away to a quiet corner to do whatever it was he was going to do to get past all the legal hoo-haa that would need to be dealt with. Maybe I should save an orange for my escorts, for the trouble. I'm sure getting a call from the police station to inform you that your charge was waiting for them with three kidnappers and six young girls in tow would give a stroke to anyone.

Satisfied by how things were going, I pushed the rest of the orange into my mouth and chewed on the delightful fruit.


Seeing the bloodstains on my clothes, Tachibana side-eyed me from where I was finishing up my embroidery project. "Did you murder an animal or something?" He had just entered the office with some papers and almost flinched at my presence when he placed them on Gaku-Oji's desk and finally noticed me casually needling away on some fabric.

Feeling an uncomfortable sticky liquid on my cheek, I tried rubbing it off with the back of my hand, not caring that it left a maroon stain on my skin.

/More like maim./

"What?" Not versed in JSL, all Tachibana saw were strange hand movements that frankly looked like the gang signs he often sees performed by American rappers in the music videos his classmates like watching.

Reaching for my notepad, I flipped to the seventh page and slid it over to him.

"Or something."