God damn he was hungover.

Kai rolled over in his large hotel bed. Light was streaming through the windows, it made his head throb.

What had happened last night? Why on earth had he drank so much? Well, the drinking must have been Bryan's fault, it was always Bryan's fault, and Kai seemed to remember being made to do shot after shot and then at some point picking up a bowl of purple liquid and drinking from it without a second thought. What an idiot he was.

Speaking of Bryan, why was the lilac haired oaf in his bed?

"Bryan. Why are you in my bed?" he asked groggily.

Bryan groaned into the pillow.

"Get out!" Kai shoved him.

Bryan groaned again. "Don't! I think I might throw up and shit myself at the same time if I move."

"Ugh!" Kai said, disgusted, although he felt quite the same but did not say it out loud.

There was a knock at the door, "is Bryan in there?" it was Tala.

"Please take him far, far away from me!" Kai begged, still unable to move.

Tala walked in holding two pint glasses of water, followed by Spencer with a jug. "Feeling a little worse for wear are we?"

"Hhhduufhhhfhhf," said Bryan, dribbling on one of Kai's pillows. Kai made a mental note to ask housekeeping to burn his entire bedspread.

"Do I want to know what happened last night?" Kai asked, trying to sit up without retching. Tala passed the water to him.

"You got into a fight with Brooklyn, and then we sent everyone back to their rooms and you and Bryan proceeded to get absolutely wasted. You said you were angry and wanted to forget the whole thing happened."

Well, Kai had achieved his objective. He had forgotten that the whole thing had happened. Although now small snippets of the previous nights events flitted in and out of his brain.

"Mr D is in the kitchen, he wants to talk to you about something. And hes not pleased about the mess."

"Right." Kai nodded, gulping down his water even though he was sure he was about to go throw it back up in the toilet. "I need a shower. He can wait."

He stumbled into the bathroom and locked the door, pressing his head against the cold marble for a moments reprieve from the headache coursing through his temple. He turned the shower on and tried to wash away the memories as they came back to him. The party, the shots, the weird green punch, and then the purple punch. Hilary being upset at Tyson, and Brooklyn. Oh, and not to forget that overwhelming shadow that threatened to cloud his vision even now, making him feel if possible, even more sick than he already did.

"Good morning Kai!" he recognized Mr Dickinson voice as he strode into the kitchen, trying not to look as if he was hanging out of his arse. He sat himself down at the breakfast bar next to the old man and swayed in his seat, maybe he was still a little drunk. Mr Dickinson surveyed him with a disapproving look.

"Kai, this is not quite how I hoped to find you this morning. I know over the years I've tried to impress upon you the importance of making friends, but I didn't quite mean, well.." He trailed off and picked up an empty bottle from the work surface which was still littered with the previous evenings antics.

Kai looked at his feet. It was not like this had been his idea, Bryan was to blame, did no one understand that?

"I hear you had a bit of a falling out with Brooklyn?"

Kai sighed. What had Tala told him? Kai didn't want yet another lecture from Mr Dickinson about learning to control his emotions, and that he would pay for him to see a therapist if it would help. It would not help.

"Yeah. Whats new?" Kai muttered bitterly.

"I know hes a difficult character but you really must restrain yourse-"

"He wasn't invited! I don't want to talk about him!" Kai said stubbornly, shutting Mr Dickinson down before he could say anything else. "Why are you here?" he demanded.

Mr Dickinson raised his eyebrows, he clearly thought Kai was out of line. But Kai was hungover and angry, and he wanted to go back to bed.

"Please don't be like that," said Mr Dickinson, getting up and pottering over to the coffee machine. "I know you to be a sensitive young man at heart- No, don't give me that look! I imagine that the news over the past few days has been a bit much. It would be a lot for anyone to take in. I can sympathize if you went a bit overboard at your party last night as a result of it. Although I cannot say I approve, you're not of legal drinking age, even in the UK!"

"Hnn." Kai could not think of anything more belittling than being referred to as a sensitive young man.

Mr Dickinson returned with a mug of black coffee and handed it to Kai and then hoisted himself, with difficulty, back up onto one of the bar stools.

"I'm afraid I have two things I'd like to discuss with you, one is rather urgent. You'll need to be ready to leave for 11 o'clock."

Kai glowered at him, he had wanted to stay in bed all day.

"The first thing, er," he stuttered at the look on Kai's face, "is about your inheritance. We wont go into huge detail right now, but in the event that Voltaire remains in custody for the entire term of the trial, the estate and all of Hiwatari Enterprises will be transferred to you on your eighteenth birthday."

Kai watched the steam spiral from his coffee, "I know."

"Oh, you do?" Mr. Dickinson sounded surprised, "then you know you'll be the sole owner and CEO of the company?"

"Right." Kai replied, reaching over and opening the cutlery draw to take out a spoon. He held it up to his face and examined the distorted bags under his eyes. He looked like shit. He had to go out like this?

"Well I suppose that makes things a little easier then!" said the old man, pushing some papers he had out on the worktop into a briefcase. "At least you have a few weeks to prepare. Although its likely you'll still be here at the Tournament when it happens." Mr. Dickinson said happily.

"Yeah, I know when my birthday is, thanks."

Mr. Dickinson gave him a worried look. "Oh Kai, I do hope you're OK."

"I'm fine." Kai was not fine, he was hungover and was sure that this might be what death felt like.

"Well aside from berating you about yesterday evenings antics, I'm afraid I must also take you to the police station."

At this, Kai flinched, had he done something wrong?

"There's some evidence that the BioVolt investigators would like you to review. They've impressed upon me that it must be done as soon as possible, theres a lot to get through."

It took a few seconds for this information to sink in. He gripped the coffee cup tighter.

"Evidence? Why do I need-"

"I'm not sure, but they need you to verify something. I'm afraid this may require multiple visits, there is a lot to get through. You might be called in a few times a week from what I hear."

A few times a week? What in the ever loving fuck-

"I thought the investigation was in Russia and Japan?"

Mr Dickinson sighed, "it is, but the evidence has been sent to the local police here along with someone from the BioVolt investigatory team, so that you can go in a verify it."

"And I have to go right now?" Kai complained.

"You do."

"Fuck!" His hands on the coffee cup shook and some of it spilled over the edge.

"Kai!"

"Sorry." He paused for a long moment. "Guess I'll go put my boots on."

The journey in the taxi to the local station was filled with anxiety. Kai wrung his hands together, he had forgotten his gloves. Tala and Spencer had demanded to come with him, but Mr Dickinson had refused. Bryan had tried to register his interest in joining too, but he was too busy throwing up off the side of the balcony, much to Mr Dickinson's disgust.

What on earth was Kai going to have to verify? Would he need to lie again for his grandfather? Could he? What if he couldn't and all of his other lies came crumbling down. He knew it would happen eventually. Would he get in trouble? He could feel his heart thudding in his chest.

They walked into the station. It was a boring dull gray building full of boring dull police officers.

A stern woman in a black suit greeted them and led Kai through windowless corridors with artificial flickering lights. Mr Dickinson did not come with him. Eventually they reached a small room with an old TV and a large, sad looking sofa and armchair.

"Please take a seat," said the woman. She sat across from him in and hooked up a small box to the TV with a HDMI cable.

"I am DC Smith, I am the person you'll probably see the most in relation to the BioVolt case whilst you are here in the UK. Can I just confirm that you are Mr Kai Hiwatari?" She said this with little expression.

"Yeah, thats me." Kai said shakily, hangover and anxiety melding together to create the most distressing anticipation he had ever experienced.

DC Smith seemed to register this and said, a little more gently, "the videos I am about to make you watch may be distressing. If you would like me to pause at any time just say so."

Kai nodded. Videos? There had never been any sort of videos before, the only evidence he had ever seen for the investigation had been paper documents of financial transactions that had linked Voltaire to BioVolt.

The picture was fuzzy, lines crackled across it like old CCTV footage. It showed a hallway, Kai recognised it instantly, his heart skipping a beat. It was one of many tunneled hallways of the underground Balkov Abbey. The hallway was lined by small cells, they all looked empty, lit dimly by torch brackets that flickered that gave the only indication that the image was not merely a still photo.

"Could you please confirm if you recognise what you see on the screen in exhibit KH-152?"

"It's a hallway from Balkov Abbey, the bit underground," he answered.

DC Smith wrote something down on a clipboard.

It was strange that his recollection of this place was from his short time at the abbey during the first world championships. Kai knew he had spent years there as a child, but he could not remember it. At least, not in his waking hours.

The video continued to play. Shadows had begun to move down the hallway and eventually two figures slipped into view. A man and a boy who was half stumbling, half being dragged along the cobbled stone floor. The man was a Balkov Abbey guard. There was no sound on the video but the boy was clearly kicking and screaming. Behind them, another figure loomed into view. Boris Balkov. Kai inhaled sharply as the boy was thrown into a cell and the railings slammed shut.

"Could you please confirm whether or not the boy in the video is you?"

"Me?" said Kai in alarm, squinting at the picture. If she hadn't of pointed it out, he may not have noticed. There, peering through the bars, crying and shaking was the younger version of himself. He still had the same two-tone hair and purple eyes. The only thing that was missing was his shark fins.

Fuck. It really was him.

Were all of these videos going to be of him? How many were there? Was he going to have to watch every single one of them?

He felt lightheaded and queasy.

"Mr Hiwatari?" Her voice sounded a long way off.

"I- yes! That's me," he muttered, still staring at the screen. God, how old must he have been here? Eight, nine? Perhaps even younger?

"Is this- how many of these are there?" he asked DC Smith.

"Thousands," she said. He gaped. "But we've narrowed it down so you need only watch the most important ones, unless you wish to see more of course. This appears to have been your first day at the abbey."

"Right." He swallowed hard as Boris and the guard swept out of view.

The boy- Kai, was left to scream and cry through the bars.

"This goes on for quite some time with not much change, would you like to move on to exhibit KH-153? It is quite similar."

"OK." He said, but it was not OK at all.

Two hours later Kai was sat once again in the back of a taxi with Mr Dickinson.

All of the videos had been the same, the same angle, the same hallway. Sometimes Boris came, but often it was merely a guard that pulled Kai from his cell, dragging him off elsewhere and then bringing him back later on. DC Smith asked him questions like, 'do you remember this guards name?' or 'do you remember if it was the same guard or a different one each time?'

Kai did not know. All he knew was that as each video went on, he became increasingly horrified. He watched as younger Kai got thinner and thinner and gradually gave up on screaming for help. By the fifteenth video, months later judging by the date on the screen, his younger self was defeated. Curled up on what looked like a freezing cold floor, trying desperately to sleep.

At that point Kai had told the investigator that, that was enough and that he would like to stop. DC Smith seemed satisfied and warned that he may need to come back again soon, perhaps even this week to review some more. Kai nodded and made his way shakily out to the waiting room to where Mr Dickinson was sat.

It wasn't as if what he had watched was hugely traumatic, but it made Kai too want to scream like his younger self. He could not stop shaking as he climbed into the car.

"Would you like to stop for food, Kai? I bet you're hungry!" said Mr Dickinson.

Kai shook his head, unable to form a response.

As they got closer to the hotel, Kai began thinking of some of the choices he had made since he had left the abbey. For instance, the rundown warehouse that he had chosen for himself when Voltaire had emptied his bank account of every bit of money he had saved for his own place. Why had Kai decided that living in a warehouse was preferable to living with Voltaire? At least he would have had a bed, but no. Kai had chosen to sleep on the cold, hard floor of an abandoned warehouse every night. In fact, he often chose to sleep in horrible conditions. He was used to it, Kai even slept rough when he didn't need to. There was a weird sort of comfort, a strange morbid enjoyment in the fact that he knew he was depriving himself of a warm soft bed.

Kai shuddered, coming quickly to the realisation that he was not ready for this.

Well hi, guess whos back ehuhuhuhu! I got a few reviews and story favs recently and it certainly rekindled my excitement for the fic so thank you! Can't believe its been a year and a half since I last updated, very sorry! I know this is a relatively short chapter but I wrote it all today so HOPEFULLY its fine, sorry if there were any typos!