That night, Levi slept in a bed all his own. It was a strange feeling, but even its comfort did not change much for him. He still could not sleep for long. At most, he could rest for a full three hours straight but no more. The boy was not really sure why it was like that. Perhaps it was due to a force of habit or the change of location. Everything was so different all of a sudden. Levi was having trouble adjusting. It was too quiet to sleep. The silence was deafening, but it was interrupted by the soft sound of footsteps. Levi woke up (though it would be arguable that he was never truly asleep) and went to the door of the room. He opened the door slightly and saw Kenny at the desk. The man was busy looking over some papers.
"Thought you'd be asleep," he said, still looking down.
Levi did not expect to have been noticed but knew it was too late to pretend he was sleepwalking.
"I've been awake most of the night," he admitted.
"Well, I'm heading out in a few."
"Where are you going?" the boy asked, looking surprised.
"It's work-related, so no questions."
Kenny got up from his seat, deciding to leave earlier than he had planned. It was strange being around the boy. He was too much like his mother at that age. She was always asking him what he was getting into as well, though at that time, his worst shenanigans involved scuffles.
"Don't expect me back for a while."
The man was about to leave when Levi spoke up. "Do I have to stay inside?" he asked.
Stopping with his hand on the door handle, Kenny turned to glance at him. "Like I said, I never liked being told what to do. If you want to stay in, have at it. If not, here's the door. Just keep it locked. There are some knives in the back to unlock it when you're ready to come back inside."
Levi nodded and watched as the other individual left. He frowned immediately afterwards. There was too much he still did not know about Kenny. It bothered him to be with a complete stranger like this. After knowing the only person he had been around for so long, a change like this felt jarring. Unsure what else to do, Levi tried to go to sleep again, but it was a failed attempt. Minutes passed slowly as the boy kept tossing and turning.
"So much for this," he thought. "Maybe there's something I can do around here to help out."
Levi got up and walked back to the main area. It was then that he realized how much dust was on everything. Just by blowing on the floor, he saw a cloud of dirt be shifted. Disgusted, Levi began to look in a closet for some cleaning supplies. If Kenny was going to be out doing whatever it was that he was doing, he could be staying productive inside by making sure they did not live in a filthy home. The brothels got so dirty (especially the last one), but Levi never got used to the unsanitary state of things. If that life was behind him, then he wanted to move on from everything.
For the next several hours, Levi was busy scrubbing, dusting, and sweeping. It positively shone when he was done. He looked at it with pride on his face. Someone could have mistaken it for a brand new home no one had ever lived in. Of course, this meant the boy had nothing else to do. Technically, he could have kept cleaning, but it would just have been to keep new dust from gathering and that seemed like an endless task. So, Levi considered what Kenny had said. He could leave if he so desired. Him leaving was not a foreign concept, but him being given permission to was. It felt nice–like he was being given a privilege only granted to adults.
Almost forgetting at first, Levi went to the back to grab one of the knives. Then, he went to open the door, lock it again, and leave. Truthfully, he was not sure where he would go. He did not plan on going far since he wanted to be sure that he could find his way back and knowing his way around the Underground was still a work in progress. Levi walked around until he found something interesting. There were several kids who were around his size or just slightly larger. From what he could see, they did not have any adults with them. He got closer and saw that they appeared scared. They were huddled together when he approached, jumping at his presence.
"What do you want?" a blond boy asked him, hostility audible in his voice.
"Nothing really. It just looks like something's wrong," Levi answered, lifting an eyebrow.
"Nothing's wrong. Get out of here."
With a suspicious scowl, Levi "left." By this, he just went far enough to not be noticed. Something was wrong and he was not going to pretend otherwise. He waited a little bit as it did not take long to see what the group was doing. They had a collection of items and were trying to sell them to people. At first, Levi wondered why they had been so secretive. He soon found the answer to this as well. To his right, Levi saw a young girl walking past several people. She kept looking at them, not realizing as some took notice of her.
"Hey!" one man called out. "Thief!"
The girl took off with a watch at full speed. She had nearly been caught when she slid through a small hole in a wall. The man furiously banged on the building, yelling after her. On the other side, the girl panted heavily.
"I told you to not get noticed," the blond boy said.
"I wasn't trying to!"
"You shouldn't be so obvious," Levi said, making the others jump. "They were suspicious as soon as they saw how much you were looking at them."
"You again?" the leader asked. "Why are you following us around?"
"I'm not following you. I just didn't leave the first time. Clearly, you need help."
"We don't need anything."
A smaller boy tugged on the blond's arm. "They'll be mad if we don't bring back enough money."
"Be quiet," the leader ordered, but he could not keep the look of fear off his own face.
Levi got a better look at them. They were all young. The eldest–the leader–could have been no older than eleven. Their clothes were dirty and a bit tattered. It also did not take the most observant person in the world to know they had not eaten in a while.
"Do you have any parents?" he asked.
This made the blond stop to look at him. Before he could tell the dark-haired boy to mind his business, the smaller child answered.
"Yeah, but we haven't seen them in a long time."
"Why's that?"
"They owed some debt to these guys–"
"Shut up," the leader hissed, grabbing the collar of the younger boy's shirt.
Levi looked thoughtful, then took out his knife. This made the other kids become tense as they wondered what he would do next. He saw this and kept his expression neutral.
"These guys are making you steal and sell for them?"
The little boy nodded his head sadly. "They get really angry with us if we can't. One almost broke my arm last time."
This news made Levi scowl and he went to the hole in the wall, looking out. The person who had chased the girl was gone, but more people were starting to approach. There was a nice sized group of them.
"We saw you go in there, kiddos," someone said.
Huddled together again, the kids stared at the hole as though the people were going to crash through the wall and attack them. Levi went over to them and spoke quietly.
"If you didn't have to worry about them, would you be able to go back to your parents?" he asked.
The kids nodded. "We could, but we'll never have to not worry about them. Our parents owe too much. They didn't want us to get involved, but those guys said they'd kill them if we didn't."
Despite looking ready to snap at the talker again, the blond sighed, defeated. "They've had a lot of kids work for them like this. They know how to teach us to not get noticed for the most part. That's why they wanted us to pay it off instead of our folks."
A sad look was in the girl's eyes and it was matched by the others. Levi felt the handle of the knife in his hands and turned. He began heading towards the hole, being small enough to go through as well. The blond grabbed his shoulder before he could.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm getting you all back to your parents."
They looked appalled by that and did not know what to say. Letting go, the blond just watched as Levi left the building to go outside. Out there, the adults looked smug before they realized he was not one of their workers.
"Do you want part of this or something?" one asked.
Levi glared daggers at him. "They just want to be reunited with their families."
"Well, they can be as soon as they've paid off their debt. No one told their parents to go spending money they don't have."
"There's got to be a way to pay it off without separating them and turning them into criminals for you."
"If there is, I guess we just haven't found it," the man said, chuckling. "Until then, they belong to us. Now, if you're not going to join us, get out of the way and let us reclaim our property."
The man went to shove Levi out the way, but he quickly drew his hand back as his blood spilled on the ground. A blade had cut through his palm. Yelling in pain, he growled at the boy and saw a violent glare looking back at him. He had never seen a look like that before. It would have concerned him had he not been so enraged by the injury. Still, he moved back and turned to his comrades.
"Teach him what happens when kids forget their place," he instructed.
Following his orders, the group closed the distance between them and Levi. He saw a kick coming and dodged. Remembering what Kenny had said about how to hold the knife, he switched the blade to point behind him and brought down his hand so that he stabbed the calf. A cry filled the air and made the others more cautious.
"What are you all waiting for? Get him!" the boss bellowed.
In spite of their hesitation, the others were more afraid of their leader and brought out weapons of their own. One slashed at Levi with a blade and missed. When he moved back, he was unable to avoid a hard kick to the side. It sent him into a wall. Before he could push off of it, one of the guys grabbed his head and forced his arm with the knife behind his back. He was stronger than he looked and the man found it to be more difficult to restrain than he expected. Another one came up to take the knife from him. Once the weapon was gone, Levi felt his neck being grabbed from behind. He was so thin that the man's hand could easily wrap itself around his neck entirely.
Lightheadedness started to consume Levi as the lack of oxygen got to him. He barely noticed as a new sound occurred. It was the sound of someone gurgling on his own blood. The hand went limp and let go. Unsurely, Levi turned and he saw the man with blood pouring from his mouth and a slit across his throat. If the others were hesitant before, now they were terrified. Their eyes were wide as they saw their new opponent–Kenny. His knife dripped with the fresh blood and he had bloodthirst and rage in his eyes.
He charged two opponents, kicking one behind the knees and punching the other in the head. They both fell and he brought out a second knife, using it to slash them both in the chest. When they went down, they stayed that way. Three tried to go up to Kenny, but they missed with their knife slices. He ducked and went low, tearing the Achilles tendon for one, making the man yell. The others were ready to run, but they were in the fight by this point and Kenny was not someone who allowed any surrendering. He threw his blade into the nape of one runner's neck, making him faceplant. For another, he chased him down and tackled him to the ground. Grabbing his forehead, Kenny forced the man's neck to bend backwards until it should have gone no further…and then had it go further.
Kenny continued doing this until only the leader with his bleeding hand remained. He had been too paralyzed by surprise and fear to run (not as though that would have done him any good, though). Yoking him up by his shirt, Kenny punched the man until blood came out of his mouth.
"No more! Please!" he pleaded.
A cruel glare appeared on Kenny's face which reminded the man of Levi's.
"What kind of coward has his gang attack a kid?!" Kenny yelled, furious. "This is my Underground! Nothing happens without my say so!"
"I'm sorry! It won't happen again! I swear!"
Kenny began smirking. "Now, that's something we can agree on."
With a smooth motion of his hand, he slit the man's throat. Kenny let go of the shirt, watching the corpse fall to the floor. He then turned to Levi. There was no fear in his eyes for what he had just seen. Instead, he looked glad. Levi went back to the hole in the wall.
"It's safe for you to go back home now," he said, surprising Kenny.
Intrigued, the man watched as several kids exited the building. They turned away from the corpses and gawked at Kenny. He began frowning as a realization dawned on him.
"We're going home," he told Levi, a strict sound in his voice.
Levi left the kids who still were in a state of shock. He tried to keep pace with Kenny, but the man exuded rage. When they reached home, he slammed the door shut, nearly forgetting to lock it due to his anger.
"What were you doing?!" he telled.
The boy looked at him in shock. "I was helping those kids out."
"I got that part. Why?"
"Because they weren't able to go back to their parents," Levi explained. "They couldn't be with them until they paid off the debt."
"Sucks, but that's not our problem. You could've died."
"So what? What does it matter? At least I'd go out helping people. Mom would be proud of that."
Kenny took a breath to calm himself, but it did not work very well. "I didn't bring you here just to clean your blood off some wall."
"I had to help."
"No, you didn't."
"They still have parents," Levi said, voice cracking slightly. "They can still be with each other."
The boy's throat became sore and he swallowed hard. What he would have given for a chance to see Kuchel again.
"I miss her too," Kenny revealed, not sounding angry anymore, only sad.
"I can't believe she's gone," Levi admitted, getting choked up. "She was the only family I ever had, Kenny. Those kids still have the chance to be with their families. I had to try to help them."
A tear fell down the boy's face and he wiped it away quickly. He had the feeling that Kenny would not approve of a display like that, but the man said nothing. Going over to him, Kenny put a hand on his head. It was not as comforting as he hoped it would be, but it was all he could offer. When those eyes looked up at him–Kuchel's eyes–it took everything in him to not let a tear come as well.
"She might've been your only family, but you're not alone," he said.
There was something in his voice and face that made Levi feel like he wanted to say something else, but that was all the man told him. Still, it was not unpleasant. It was not lonely like all that time after Kuchel had died. Even if Levi did not have her anymore, he had someone. Maybe Kenny was more right than he thought. Maybe they could be a new family.
