Chapter 2: First Step to Taming
When Hakuryuu came back along with four servants to aid the dying humanoid, Pitou glared at them with slit pupils, visibly causing the normal humans to tremble as they huddled together. All of them froze, although there was at least 15 feet between each human and the Chimera Ant.
Still, Hakuryuu steeled himself, by thinking of what his late brothers would do, and stepped forward. Instantly, a loud hiss was heard throughout the surrounding areas as a clawed hand feebly attempted to take a defensive stance. Neferpitou's wide, flaring red eyes spoke of the danger he was capable of... Even more, however, they spoke of the fear and doubts plaguing the beast's mind - at least to Hakuryuu.
Gaining the courage he needed, the scarred prince continued moving forward, ignoring the cowardly servants' screams as they plead for him to stop and back away.
A couple moments had already passed when the first princess of Kou and her assistant arrived from the inner palace, swords still gripped in their hands. Although they had come as soon as they heard the loud hisses and cries that could only belong to that of a wild beast, the two found themselves unable to describe the scene in front of them. With his hair and clothes in a tattered mess, Hakuryuu was struggling to keep hold of a bloodied humanoid cat - while crying and spewing out almost unintelligible words. Before Hakuei and Seishun could even speak, however, the struggling creased and silent followed.
A brave servant, soon followed by others, slowly ventured forward. They met no resistance as they worked on moving the humanoid cat to an infirmary.
To be honest, Pitou wasn't sure what happened. All he knew what that no matter how much he threatened and harmed the scarred boy, he wouldn't go away. At first the boy had been calm enough - even if nervous. But then, he broke down and cried when Pitou aggressively refused to let him help - at least that what the boy had stammered out along with "stupid" and "you're going to die!"
In the end Pitou became too tired to fight. Deciding that giving in wouldn't be too bad - the humans here seemed weak and harmless anyway - he let himself sink into the warmness of the boy without a word. He could kill them and search for his king after he recovered more strength. Right now, he could not even summon his Nen.
Kei was more than amazed. He had watched the whole scene behind the bushes, watched as the boy who seemed to be younger than him held and calmed the cat girl even as she struggled and clawed him. Staring at his torn, expensive-looking cloth soaked with blood, it sent shivers through his spine - how could the boy stand that?! Unconsciously, his hand stroked his injured arm. It was just damp in comparison.
"Who are you?"
Kei jumped, turning to meet a sky-blue-haired boy who was looking at him suspiciously. Is that dyed? Kei found himself thinking. The thought quickly evaporated, however, when he realized a metal sword was pointing at him. In this world, he might be killed for real.
Waving his hands desperately in front of him, the raven-haired stuttered out, "M-My name is Kei Nozaki and, um, I ca-came for a-a job-b!" Kei averted his eyes for a second, "but I got lost and e-ended up here! Hahaha… I'm so sorry!" He quickly bowed.
Hakuei nodded in acknowledgement as she gracefully appeared next to her assistant. Reluctantly, Seishun lowered his sword. "Princess…"
The cat lover let out a breath in relief at the sound of metal dropping, but did not dare raise his head even as he paled at the thought of being in a royalty's presence - at their palace no less. I'm doomed. I'm totally doomed. Kei thought.
Lost in a mental breakdown, he must have misheard the princess' words as he quickly straighten up, and said "I-I beg your pardon?"
Smiling, she repeated her words. "Would you like to become my brother's assistant?"
v****v
Meanwhile…
"I hate to say this Goat, but we have to work together to bring Kei back." said Hiroshi Inaba, bending down to Don Valentino's eye level. Beside the private eye was his (former) partner, Ogino Kuniharu, who held a specialized handcuff with a neutral expression. Although he wanted to arrest the goat, doing so would not make rescuing Kei easier given the government's current technology. They needed Noah, the teen genius currently glaring with disgust evidenced in her indigo eyes, to cooperate with them.
"How can you say that aro!?" said Valentino as he swung in midair, "I am tied up, I am!" All four of his hooves were tightly bounded together with a rope tied to the ceiling, leaving the Don upside down. On the opposite side of the room, frantic shouts of Lorenzo were being muffled by a special type of bondage done by Inaba. How he had managed to gag a guy wearing a bag over his head without taking it off remain a mystery that only masochists would know. Of the people who could still move freely, there was no one strong enough who could save Don Valentino, except one. "Gabriella!"
The streak-haired woman scowled as she lift up her gun. Inaba Hiroshi tensed as he gazed behind him toward the female assassin, but settled his eyes on his blond assistant, Yuuta Sasaki. The wolf was silently telling Yuuta to help him transform in case he needed to fight. The assistant shrugged slightly before turning to Noah, who only paid him a second glance as she kept her eyes on Gabriella. "What?" said the streak-haired assassin, before clicking her tongue and lowering her gun. "I'm not going to shoot him." said Gabriella, "I mean my minion getting send to some dangerous place without me or my permission wasn't his fault."
"You already strangled me, you did." said Valentino, as he thought that was the reason he got captured in the first place. When it came to people Gabriella counted as her underlings, she was awfully protective and caring.
"Kei's my assistant, streaked hair!" said Inaba, "And it's you guys' fault he got sent away with that machine! What if he ends up dead?"
"Shut up Wolf!" said Gabriella, firing at him. Inaba shrieked as the bullet missed him by a hair's breadth. "Anyways, this is getting no where. Noah, do you know what world the wolf was meant to go?"
The teen genius shook her head before looking down in thought. "I only found a wave signal of another world coming from a dimension near ours. While I was developing the time-space jump chair," said Noah, "I realized that there were actually multiple worlds near each other in that dimension, but since the purpose was to send the wolf somewhere he can't return from, I didn't research that much into it. From the look of things though, it's like a past version of our world."
"Since you found it by its signal, can't you tune in to it again?" said Yuuta, tilting his head as he thought about the pros and cons of bringing Kei back. The cons outweighed everything. "If not, maybe we can tune in to his spirit through Soumei or necromancy." Given the existence of ghosts, werewolves, and talking goats in their world, Kei finding his way back to their world after death shouldn't be too impossible.
"He's not dead, Assistant." said Ogino, who was confident of his non-biological son's ability to take care of himself.
Noah hummed. "If the machine haven't been completely fried, I would have been able to recover some data or traces, but…" All heads turned toward Inaba, who shrank with dropped ears at the amount of judging eyes directed at him. The werewolf mumbled an apology, while blaming the goat and Lorenzo under his breath. Suddenly, Noah perked. "My lab! If I combine that data with that program I should be able to estimate where he end up, though it's rather risky to do a trial and error for this kind of thing…" Noah trailed off, cupping her chin with her hand. Within another minute, however, she ran toward the door. "Sis, and you Wolf, come with me- we should be able to get back your assistant in a few days."
Gabriella and Inaba glanced at each other, sharing a thought that all leaders of a pack would understand, before following Noah to her laboratory at the abandoned hospital. As Yuuta watched his boss left him to go save the other assistant, he sulked with unshed tears and vanished at the speed of sound. Left alone with tied up Valentino and Lorenzo, the two main pillars of the Valentino Family, Ogino observed them. The goat had fainted from the amount of blood that rushed into his head, causing the muffled screams to become even more desperate and annoying than before.
Should I turn them in now? Ogino thought, unable to keep from feeling disappointed that after all their previous attempts, the two criminals would be arrested so easily.