Not showing weakness isn't courage...
The kid was still afraid, and so he clang to the only one he believed he would protect him, the man now known as his grandfather. The old man then patted his head gently.
Yoshimitsu: " we will be reaching to your new home soon, hope you will like it."
The kid looked up. Though it was still hard for him to believe his parents were gone for ever, that his mother won't sing him lullabies when its bed time, that his father won't take him to the park again, he could only believe in this man who promised to be his family.
When they reached the mansion, his eyes widened in awe at how huge it was. And when he walked in, still tagging his grandfather's hand, the maids there bowed down, much to his surprise.
Yoshimitsu: " Jin, don't show that look."
He looked up at him. Yoshimitsu had a smile as he glanced down to the kid.
Yoshimitsu: " from now on, you're the master of this mansion. All those maids and servants are there to serve you and please you. You should look up high and give them orders."
Jin blinked at that.
Yoshimitsu: " don't you ever dare look down. From now on, live and be strong, never show weakness to others..."...
As he walked through the empty halls, he thought back to all the time he had spent with his grandfather there. While acting as his family, Jin never knew back then just how many people he had hurt. If anything, the one who should be taking the responsibility after Yoshimitsu was gone was him.
And thinking back about that responsibility, it downed heavily on him. Another crucial question that he had long trying to unveil its answer flashed in his mind. He wondered whether the old man cared for him like a family or was he a mere expandable pawn for him, just like Yuuya.
What did he mean to his grandfather? A question that always had been asked, yet, never once was answered.
What Lilyan said when she pulled him aside and told him what happened during their encounter with Gichii is still ringing in his ears even at the moment. The strongest LBX player project, it was all thought up by his grandfather, and the one who was meant to wear the real suit, not the prototype used on Yuuya, was him.
Just thinking that Yuuya was used to provide him with the best CCM ever, it caused a crunch in his stomach. Unbeknown to him, his friend had been suffering because of him during those 8 years. And he just...
He shook his head. He needed to fix everything, to make them right. He made his mind on what to do. And before he carries on with what he decided, he needed to try one last time to dig the past.
With the last hope he had, he headed to where it started, hoping maybe upon finding a small sign, a lead to the answer.
Walking off inside his grandfather's office, he felt kind of nostalgic, yet, his feelings were confused. When he was a kid, he used to admire his grandfather, much more do anything to make him happy, literally. But now, the more he learned about him, the more that man fell down. He could no more look at him the same way he used to when he was a kid.
He walked to the desk and sat down, running his hand on the wooden texture. A sigh escaped his mouth as all the memories, bad and good raced through his mind.
Jin: " Grandfather..."
He didn't come back after the Innovators' incident, because he didn't want for all those memories to haunt him again. But, he had no other choice. He had to come. To ask one last time, was he a pawn or a family for Kaidou Yoshimitsu?
As he looked through the drawers, all he could find was dust, the ones from the government made sure to clean the mansion well.
He walked out of the office, heading to his grandfather's room, but he stopped midway as he looked at the door to the room that used to be his.
Despite him, his feet changed direction as he walked to it. It was huge, like one of his friends before said they could play basketball there.
Just as he entered, he was faced by the small glass cabinet holding all kind of trophies and rewards, medallions, cups... All what you can think of. As he looked at all of them, his reflection on the glass showed his eyes dropping. Why had he pushed himself too far? To only please someone who was merely using him? Just like how he started playing LBX, it was all for his grandfather, but his grandfather was just using him.
He snapped when he heard footsteps in the corridor. Who could it be? He doubted it was someone from the government for they never actually cared for the mansion since they cleaned it up. Everything that could have been valuable were taken away when Zeizen's men raided the place shortly after Saturn's incident.
He walked out of his room only to come face to face with Elie who was wandering around, looking for Jin's room. It didn't help that all the huge doors in there were similar.
Jin widened his eyes as he saw her.
Jin: " Elie... Why you..."
Elie flinched momentously but was soon relieved, seeing Jin sound and safe in front of her, it took her all she could to not drop to her knees.
Elie: " that should be my question? Why are you here? Why didn't you pick your phone? You made us all worried!"
Jin looked away.
Elie: " say something, Jin!"
Jin: " sorry..."
Elie: " that's not what I wanted to hear."
She inhaled deeply as she tried to calm herself down.
Elie: " why did you come here?"
Jin: " just... Wanting to recall a few things of the past. How did you know I was here? How did you even get here?"
Elie: " Jiiya-san was worried about you, so he called us and told us."
Of course, he should have seen that coming from his caretaker. He shouldn't have called him in the first place but... He couldn't go without seeing him one last time.
Jin: " sorry for the bot-"
Elie: " it relieved me!"
Jin widened his eyes at her.
Elie: " we all were worried! We ran through half of the city, looking for you! We thought you may have gone to Dream Future as well so Gouda and his gang went to check there! And when Jiiya-san called me... I was so relieved... to know you're safe!"
She was fighting back tears at that point, yet the man in front of her could see some of them pricking up the corners of her eyes.
Jin: " why..."
She blinked at him as his head fell down slightly.
Jin: " why would you go as far as to do that? If I head to Dream Future, they may leave Ban-kun. Why would you think of stopping me if it can bring back your brother?"
Elie: " because I won't ever forgive myself if I accept it that way!"
She snapped out at him, making him rise his look to her.
Elie: " I do want Onii-chan back! But I don't want you to get hurt! I don't want them to take you!"
Jin: " but if I..."
Elie: " Jin! Can you stop blaming yourself and listen to others when they say you're not at fault! You were not at fault in any of the previous mishaps as well!"
He blinked at that.
Elie: " I heard you last night, everything you said to Zenon!"
Jin: " you... Heard me..."
His eyes narrowed, clearly not expecting this. Elie looked down, slightly ashamed. Still, her resolution unwavering.
Elie: " it wasn't on purpose, I just happened to wake up then. But! Jin, you shouldn't have kept all of that from us! You shouldn't have struggled with all your doubts on your own! You should have told us before, we could have cleared your doubts! "
He bit his lip as he looked down, his bang covering his eyes while Elie continued, eventually tears streaming down her eyes the more she talked.
Elie: " You know we wouldn't turn on you! You know you could lean on us! You were always there for us! You even went as far as to borrow money from Takuya-san for Yuuya!"
Despite him, an eyebrow shot. How did she know that piece of information was beyond him. The girl however, wasn't keen on elaborating.
Elie: " you never told us anything about you! Hell you didn't even tell us you had been taken for questioning after the Innovators' incident!"
Jin: " I was part of a dangerous group, you couldn't just expect them to turn a blind eye on that."
He said trying to avoid looking at her eyes.
Elie: "even if, at least someone should have gone with you! You were on your own! You are always on your own! Don't you trust your friends!"
He clenched his fists tightly. That hurt not to say the least. He trusted them, he really did. But at the same time, he didn't want to lean too much on others.
He had to admit that subconsciously, he built up fences around him, not letting any of them indulged too much in his life. It was so as to not show his weakness to them. And most of all, which he didn't want to acknowledge yet, so he would never feel hurt again for the loss of someone close to him... So he could be safe.
But it was clear then, even with those fences, he still got hurt didn't he.
Elie: " why don't you just ask for help! Why do you keep pushing us away! You should have told us! You should have shared your pain with me!"
Something cracked at the back of his mind...
Jin: " Because I can't!"
He snapped back at her, much to her surprise.
Jin: " I just can't! You're all struggling with your own problems, I can't overwhelm you with mine!"
She stepped closer to him.
Elie: " we want to be overwhelmed, Jin! Stop deciding on other people's behalf!"
The crack widened slightly...
Jin: " you would never understand! You would never have answers! You would never care!"
Elie: " I care! We all care! Just how you care for all of us! Why can't you see just how much everyone is worried about you!"
A small ray of light spread through the extending fractures...
Jin: " still! You can't just expect me to go around talking about my parents and how they lost their lives because of me! How I was deceived and manipulated by my grandfather only to have him pass away without knowing what I was for him! How Eva struggled as an experiment for so long, and is even now, with something I allowed him to get! How Yuuya was hurt because of me for a whole 8 years! And it's just adding more and more!"
Jin: ' ... Why...'
The rays of light were finally casted upon the kid huddled away in the corner...
Elie backed as she heard him yelling for the first time.
Jin: " I was the reason why Seredy lived on to hurt more and more kids! Even Hiro!"
Jin: ' My chest suddenly... Feels light...'
Drip... Drip...
The dark green eyes widened at the sight in front of them.
Jin: " and now, Ban-kun is taken in my stead and possibly getting hurt! I just... I just can't talk about all of that easily to anyone! I can't speak of all of that..."
The kid's shoulders could be seen shaking as the light spot enlarged...
Elie stared at the lonely red eyes in front of her and her look softened.
Elie: " Jin... You..."
It was then when her realized the cold drops cooling from his eyes and his hand fastly reached to them. He was surprised at that, he didn't realize he was crying.
Elie walked over to him with steady steps and her hands extended to his head, pulling him into a tight embrace.
Thump... Thump...
As his head rested on her chest, he was able to hear her heartbeats.
Elie: " see, you were suffering so much on your own."
The kid merely hugged his knees closer as the woman dropped by his side, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him closer to her...
Elie's once harsh expression soothed and tear drops fell on his cheek, his surprised eyes slowly softened at that.
Elie: " for so long, those feelings and doubts that you've kept in your chest must have hurt so much. Deep inside, you wanted to be saved as well, didn't you? Let them out, no more hiding them now. Hiding your weakness isn't considered courage."
His lips started to shake and his arms reached around, hugging her tightly.
The small child rose his head up. Tears gashed down his face as he cried in her arms while the walls around them came crumbling down. He had been bottling it for so long, since he was told to not cry again...
They were both kneeling down as he clutched her tightly while she gently stroke his dark hair. All that could be heard was his muffled sobs.
Elie: " we have all the time right now, cry as hard as you want... For the sake of the past 14 years..."
The whole corridor bathed in a warm orange color as the sun was about to set...
Outside, Jiiya was looking at the entrance, waiting for when both of them would emerge out. Elie had been taking a long time there and that worried him.
Soon, both of them walked out the door tagging hands much to the two LBXs' surprise. Jin was looking down, never daring to glance up as he got on the car, sitting on the back seats along with Elie, not letting go of her hand.
As Jiiya got on, Elie addressed him with a small smile.
Elie: " Jiiya-san, let's bring Jin home."
Jiiya managed a small smile at that and drove them home...
Tiny Orbit...
Eva read through the message and let out a sigh of relief before allowing herself to slump down the chair.
Jessica: " is everything alright?"
The other blonde nodded.
Evangeline: " Elie said they're heading home now."
Everyone breathed out.
Gouda: " I will give him a piece of my mind! Worrying us like that!"
He had crossed half the room to the door on the other side.
Jessica: " hold on. Let's leave it to Elie now. We can all lecture him tomorrow."...
Jiiya placed down a tray with a mug of tea for Elie and a cup of coffee for Jin before walking out to get some sweets. Jin held his cup in both hands as he told the young woman the reason behind him going back to the mansion. He had abandoned his purple jacket at the front door, so he was merely wearing his white shirt and black light vest.
Elie: " I see, so you went back there to look for answers."
She placed back the mug after taking a few sips and Jin merely nodded, his coffee still untouched.
Jin: " it was the only left place for me. I was hoping to find even a lead, I wanted to clear that only question at least before..."
Elie: " before heading to Dream Future."
He solely looked down and Elie sighed.
Elie: " figure..."
Her look softened as she glanced at the man sitting next to her, eyes were still slightly red, so was his nose.
Jin: " in the end, we couldn't find anything in grandfather's room."
Elie: " And with the only one who may have the answer gone..."
Jin: " now for all I know, he merely considered me a pawn. Some tool that he would dispose of at the end."
Jiiya: " I don't think that, young master."
They both looked up at the man who walked through the door with another tray of sweets, mostly cookies for he knew the brunette liked them.
Jin: " Jiiya..."
Jiiya: " young master, I can guarantee that the master thought of you as his family."
He said fishing out his wallet as he took out a picture. Its back was facing them so they didn't know what was on it.
Jiiya: " pardon me, young master. I couldn't help but taking it with me when we left the mansion."
He placed the picture on the table and their eyes widened as they leaned on for a better look.
On the picture was Kaidou Yoshimitsu, tagging on little Jin's hand and the butler was a few feet away from them.
Jin's eyes glimmered for a second as he saw the man's face. His look wasn't fixed on the camera, rather on the kid by his side. A smile was crossing his face. A genuine one for that matter.
Jiiya: " I could tell, the master was really happy having you around him. It was my first time for a long time, seeing him that happy. If he didn't think of you as his family, I don't think he would make such a smile."
Elie exchanged her look between the old man and her friend before smiling softly.
Elie: " see, the answer was right next to you this whole time. If you don't voice out loud your question, you won't get it."
Before he knew it, a tear fell down upon the picture. Jin quickly wiped the tears that had accumulated in his eyes.
Elie: " ne, Jin."
The man looked up at her.
Elie: " even if he was considering you as a tool. Would your feelings towards him change?"
He blinked twice at that.
Jin: " even if, for me he is still my grandfather. I will always respect and love him."
Elie: " then, whatever your grandfather was thinking. Your answer won't change, right?"
She told him with a bright smile and he managed a small one.
Jin: " I think you're right."
He never thought he could find the answer to his question that easily. Was it because he was trying to do things on his own that be couldn't reach any result? Maybe Elie was right, it was way easier with someone's help.
Jin: " Jiiya, may I be selfish and ask to keep the picture with me?"
Jiiya: " as you wish, young Master. If you want, I still have some old albums as well."
Elie & Jin: " eh!"...
The books fell upon each other as Jiiya flipped the box.
Elie and Jin sat down on the ground, looking through them.
Jin: " I almost forgot about those."
A small smile formed on his lips as he looked through the albums.
Elie: " these many!"
Jin: " not my fault if Jiiya wanted to capture a lot of memories."
Jiiya: " not my fault that I'm getting old and my memory may get bad."
He turned to them as he was about to leave them alone. Both of them chuckled at his comment before Jin flipped another page.
Jin: " this one is from the school race."
Elie: " show me!"
She crawled to him and peeked at the picture.
Elie: " you were so cute when you were a kid!"
She squealed and snatched the album from Jin's hands to take a closer look. The man slightly blushed at her comment, not that she realized anyway.
She continued to flip the pages. Pictures of his first day at school with him wearing a grey uniform, his grandfather and butler with him, of events he participated in as a kid, tournaments he had won.
Elie: " I didn't know you went to school. I thought you were home tutored?"
Jin: " it was just after elementary school. Grandfather insisted that there are social skills that can't be gained other ways."
As she flipped more, the beaming face of little Jin slowly changed until it became more like the cold, stoic face he used to wear when they first met.
Elie: " ah, this looks much like you!"
Jin had to roll his eyes at that.
Elie: " I envy you."
He reverted his look back to her.
Elie: " I never had the chance to enjoy school, to take that first picture with my mother and Onii-chan. Never raced, never had friends to chat with during lunch... Most of my life, I was trapped in between four walls. But now it's all different. I want to make it up for all that lost time. I want to make memories that would last, something that I can speak of, not just my boring days at the hospital. That's why, I will fight till the end, against Leviathan, and against my own illness. I may shiver, I may fear and have doubts, but in the end, I will keep fighting. We will keep fighting, together."
She turned to him with a determined smile and his eyes softened at her.
Jin: " thank you..."
She was startled when hearing that.
Jin: " for running around to find me, for coming, for always trying to reach out to me... Thank you very much."
Her face fell down.
Elie: " you don't have to thank me... I've turned my back on you after all... "
She tried busying herself with another album.
Jin: " no you didn't."
He spoke firmly making her snap towards him.
Jin: " even though I pushed you, more than once, you still tried to reach to me whenever you had the chance to. Isn't that why you came?"
He gently caressed her cheek.
Jin: " you were worried about me more than angry, I'm sorry about that."
Elie's eyes glazed over and she clutched his hand in hers.
Elie: " you idiot, you should be sorry... You were bearing so much on your own and were breaking down... You made us all worried and pushed us away... It hurt me a lot... And then this... I thought I was going to lose you!"
He froze at her words. As he knew the pain of losing someone, he never wanted to cause the same pain to someone else. But now seeing Elie like that in front of him, he understood he was about to do the same thing by surrending. And even after all what Ban and the others went through to protect him, he was just about to throw all of their hard work behind him.
He gently wiped away her tears and stared at her with tender eyes.
Jin: " sorry, I will consider my actions more next time."
Elie: " you better."
She manged to smirk back and a smile escaped him as well.
Jiiya smiled as he looked at that. Seeing his young master's face smiling again, he deeply thanked the girl. As their faces got closer, he hurried to the door. But not before grabbing both Zenon and Beargguy who were peeking at them from behind the counter.
Jiiya: " time to stop third wheeling."
Before they even knew it, both of them were kissing. They parted after a few seconds and Elie chuckled.
Elie: " just what are we doing? The world is in danger and Onii-chan is taken by the enemy but we..."
Jin: " well, I think a break is needed, else we both may have broken down under the pressure."
He said recalling Higurashi's words.
Elie: " ho, well said from someone who already broke."
Jin hardened his look at her for an instant before they both chuckled loudly...
