Having taken down the leader, Shugo then turned his attention to the three who were all but petrified where they stood, silently daring them to attack.
"Bastard!" screamed one of them as he charged forward, sword raised high.
'…Dammit!'
Shugo let out an involuntary cry of pain as he responded with a reflexive rising block. While he'd just narrowly stopped the attack from reaching his head, the blade instead dug deep into his right forearm, and Shugo could tell from the extent of the bleeding just how close the punk had come to chopping off his arm below the wrist. The youth glared at the gangster through bloodshot eyes that flashed red, before uttering a single word in a voice that was no longer his alone:
"FEAR."
Shugo shoved his would-be disarmer aside with his uninjured hand before walking past. He didn't bother sparing a glance as the gangster fell to his knees, clutching his head in both hands before throwing it back with a bone-chilling howl of terror. While he didn't know exactly what the older man was experiencing at this moment, the youth nevertheless felt a rush of vindictive pleasure knowing that the man was now trapped in his own personal hell. Though Shugo hadn't so much as laid a finger on him, the way the man writhed and shrieked in terror on the ground was nevertheless a strong indication of the kind of suffering he was now going through.
'Enjoy it while it lasts.'
Shugo glanced back at the man now writhing in agony on the asphalt, before pulling the sword out of his still-bleeding arm with his good hand. He felt the bleeding stop as his arm healed itself, but if the way the pain continued to pulse and throb was any indication, Shugo had a nasty feeling it'd still be there to greet him when he woke the next day.
"Don't mess with us!"
One of the remaining hoodlums lunged at him at that moment – his empty gun lying forgotten on the ground behind him – only to be met with a vicious strike across the gut with the blade's blunt edge that sent him flying a foot or two away and was likely to have cracked his ribs in the process.
"BEHAVE," he growled, not even looking back as he walked menacingly toward the remaining gangster who slowly sunk to his knees and was now quite literally grovelling at his feet.
"You'll find the kid in the trunk," the man offered desperately, his forehead almost touching the asphalt as he begged for his life. By now, both Shugo and the spirit bonded to him could taste the mortal terror that now consumed the miscreant who, together with his peers, had attempted to shoot him to death just moments ago. 'It'd be so easy to kill you right now…'
"Please, just let me go! You'll never see me again, I swear!"
Shugo's sword hand itched as he eyed the grovelling man with barely concealed disgust. More appropriately, he felt a powerful urge to plant the sword right through the man's skull who, as it turned out, had been complicit in an act of kidnapping. The youth took a deep breath as he raised the sword high, letting it out in a roar of righteous fury as he plunged the blade downward-
'…No.'
…Only to stop dead just an inch from the cowed miscreant's head before lowering the weapon to his side.
"ON YOUR FEET, ASSHOLE," Shugo spat contemptuously, the look on his face one of murder as he watched the miscreant get to his feet.
"Please don't kill me!" begged the man a second time, his eyes visibly darting in all directions as he desperately sought a way to escape what was likely to be his impending demise. "I don't wanna die!"
Shugo said nothing as he looked over the gangster like a predator eyeing its prey. Once again, he felt the urge to run his sword right through the older man's gut. And once again, he exhaled heavily as he restrained himself from indulging that impulse. As it was, the way he glared at the miscreant just might have been enough to burn him to ash where he stood.
"GO GET YOUR FRIENDS AND GET OUT OF MY SIGHT. I WON'T LET YOU GO NEXT TIME."
Shugo simply stood there, savoring the righteous justice he'd just meted out along with the feeling of repaying evildoers with their own coin. He paid no attention as the cowed criminal ran past him to where his two peers continued to twitch in anguish, with whom he would undoubtedly attempt to flee. Several moments later, he heard the spirit's voice in his head.
"Only one remains."
------
Ayato sat huddled on the asphalt as he leaned against the rear bumper of his companions' vehicle, opposite from where the youth they'd shot up just moments ago was now breaking them down one by one.
'How could this happen to me?'
It seemed like a good idea at the time. His friend Haru had talked him into joining in one of their side gigs which he claimed was an easy way to make money. As all Ayato had to do was to serve as a lookout while his companions did the heavy lifting and the dirty work, the end result was that he'd get to keep his own hands clean while still getting paid no less than the others by the end of it.
"We've got you," Haru had assured him. "Consider it one of the perks of ending up under a nice boss."
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Ayato had met Dan a week ago, and as Haru had said, the older man was surprisingly nice considering his line of work. Not only had he treated the two friends to an upscale all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant somewhere in their commercial district, the man even gave Ayato enough money to buy a month's worth of groceries on top of the medicines his younger sister desperately needed.
"No pressure, Ayato," Dan said a night ago. "You're not gonna be in harm's way."
It wasn't a lie, either. At no point was Ayato required to even set foot in the compound, much less get directly involved in the job. Instead, all he had to do was sit at the fast food establishment just across the compound, from which he was to watch for any pursuers who might attempt to chase his companions once they'd secured the package. Once he'd made absolutely sure they weren't being followed, he was to meet them at a pre-arranged location, at which point they were to deliver the package to their client.
In all fairness, the smoothness with which the job had proceeded clearly proved that Dan had been at this for a while, and that he knew what he was doing. It was just Ayato's luck that the one gig he joined happened to be the one where they crossed paths with what was basically an unkillable demon out of hell.
Needless to say, what seemed like a good idea at the time proved to be anything but.
'Damn you for dragging me into this mess,' Ayato inwardly cursed his friend who, at the moment, was writhing and screaming on the road from whatever it was that their would-be victim had done to him. If the words he'd heard earlier were any indication, the 'package' they were hired to deliver was, in fact, a person. And while there were many things Ayato was willing to do to earn money, he drew a line at kidnapping and other heinous crimes.
'Damn you for dragging me into this life.'
In his defense, Haru had been a friend of Ayato's since childhood, he'd always stood by him and Ayaka, even when everything else in their life seemed to be going wrong. When that plane crash took their parents from them, and when the grandparents who took them in died in a fire barely two years later, Haru was one of the few friends who was at the wakes and the subsequent funerals.
"C'mon, get real, Ayaka," he told his sister just a week ago, after having just laughed off her latest plea to sever ties with his childhood friend. "Haru's stood by us ever since we were kids. He's always been there helping us get more money when we barely had enough to stay afloat. He's the one you've got to thank for those medicines of yours, and he's the reason we've got enough groceries right now to last us a month! Really, aren't you girls being unfair to the guy?"
The girls constantly warned Ayato that his friend was bad news and could very well get him killed one day, but he never really took those warnings seriously until now.
'Thanks for getting both of us killed, asshole!'
It was only now, as he struggled to make his peace with his impending demise after the job Haru had gotten him on board had gone wrong, that Ayato finally realized just why both his younger twin sister and his girlfriend never seemed to approve of the friendship between them, and why they never missed a chance to urge him to cut ties. Somewhere along the line, Harusaki Ayumu had gotten involved with some really dangerous people, and he, Ayato, was about to pay for it with his life.
'Whatever he did to you, I hope it hurts,' Ayato thought bitterly as he shot a contemptuous sideways glance at his childhood friend.
"Found you."
Ayato's blood froze in his veins as he looked up at the youth – still bloody all over with bullet holes all over his clothing – who was now eyeballing him with a curious look in his eyes.
'Ayaka... Erina…'
'…Forgive me.'
And as Ayato squeezed his eyes shut and waited for death, it was all he could do to pray to whatever higher power existed that the loved ones he was about to leave behind would be properly cared for.
------
Shugo carefully considered the man who'd curled up into a ball at his feet as he raised his sword just in case.
"I find no guilt in him," the spirit stated simply in her contractor's mind. "Inflicting pain on him, or forcing him to fear, would serve absolutely no purpose."
Even without those words, Shugo could sense as much. While he could feel the man keeping his fear under control in what was presumably an effort to face death with dignity, even more telling was the distinct lack of the malice and ill intent that the others possessed. Instead, the man at his feet seemed to radiate a sense of worry and concern about something. Though Shugo wasn't quite clear as to what it was, what was clear to him was that the man was neither a threat nor a target.
He then lowered the sword he held in his right hand back to his side after several seconds, before carefully dropping it on the ground.
"Get away from the car," Shugo finally said, this time in his normal cadence rather than the echoing and menacing blend between his voice and that of the spirit. "And find a new crowd. You might not be so lucky again."
Shugo watched for a moment as the other man got to his feet and did as he was told, standing aside to the right in order to allow the masked teen to open the door to the SUV's rear. When he was satisfied that the older youth wouldn't try anything rash, he turned his attention back to the trunk - and even then, Shugo didn't dare take his eye off him just in case he got any stupid ideas and decided to act on them.
He opened the trunk…
'What the literal hell?'
…And as he did so, Shugo was greeted by the sight of a young boy whose mouth, hands, and feet had been bound with duct tape, and who was now staring back at him with eyes wide with terror.
Located at the exact opposite end of town from where the incident happened was the police department, which was currently on high alert. At that very moment, the entire compound was on lockdown, with teams of policemen and K-9 units searching every inch of the premises. Something very important had gone missing hours ago, after all, and their chief had ordered them to comb every nook and cranny nonstop until they found it.
And all the while, a man watched the search unfold from the terminal in the chief's office.
'Help your old man out, Taro,' he thought anxiously as he glanced momentarily at his child's framed photo on the wall right across his desk. 'Who took you, and where did they take you?'
Even now, the longtime lawman was at a loss as to how this could've happened. That day had begun like any other, and there was nothing about how the day began that could've clued any of them in as to what was in store for them later that afternoon. As his son's classes ended early that day, he'd instructed his personal aide to fetch him from school and bring him back to the department. And once they'd arrived, his aide was to take him to the unused boardroom further down the hall from his office, and to babysit him there until they clocked out that evening.
Needless to say, the chief feared the worst when he came by the boardroom at exactly 6:00 in the evening to ask his aide and his son what they wanted for dinner, only to find said aide keeled over on the carpet with a tranquilizer dart buried in his neck – and his son not at all.
'How could I let this happen!?'
In hindsight, the chief knew this scenario wasn't at all unlikely. Both he and the police department under his leadership had made more than their fair share of enemies, after all. And as difficult as it was to fathom, he knew better than to hope that those enemies wouldn't sink so low as to harm innocent children. On the contrary, the half-dozen child predators his boys had arrested since the start of the year was sufficient evidence that some people were, in fact, that depraved, however much everyone wanted to pretend otherwise.
'They better not hurt you, Taro,' the chief said to himself as his thoughts took a correspondingly dark turn. 'If they do…'
Mercifully, he was snapped out of that train of thought by a knock at his door.
"Come on in."
And when he saw who it was, the expression on his face went from one of fear and anxiety to an exhausted yet relieved smile.
"I'm glad you're alright," said the chief, his face brightening slightly as his aide entered the room. "A welcome development, I hope?"
"Oh, you'll love this, sir," the aide replied with a look that told the older man exactly what he needed – and wanted – to know.
"Someone called me up from an unidentified number just a little while ago…"
------
"Here, you have this," said Shugo with a reassuring smile as he extended the chocolate shake to the boy he found tied up in the trunk approximately an hour ago. "My treat."
He then watched as the boy took the frozen drink and began sipping quietly, before going over to the seat right across. He began to sip on the iced coffee he'd ordered for himself, before placing the last remaining iced drink - also an iced coffee - on the table to his right. The boy before him had calmed down somewhat after being repeatedly reassured that he was safe, and that the bad men who had bound and gagged him weren't going to hurt him again anytime soon. "Nothing like a nice chocolate shake to lift our spirits, is there?"
Though the boy gave no verbal reply, the slight laugh that came from him was as good a sign as any. As easy as it would've been to just ask him if he knew how to get home, Shugo considered the boy's state of terror and distress when he was found and thought better of it. The boy could barely form a complete sentence, much less calm down long enough to call up his parents - or guardians - or whoever else may have been entrusted with looking after him - so they could come get him.
'Hopefully, this'll get him to open up.'
Shugo looked up at the sound of the restaurant's door swinging open.
"Oh, it's you," he said when he saw the new arrival – a young man not much older than Shugo himself – who then took the vacant seat beside him. "That iced coffee's yours, by the way. My treat."
It was something they'd agreed on. Just after freeing and ungagging the boy, Shugo confronted the straggler who'd been abandoned by his companions. The straggler, who introduced himself as Akizuki Ayato, confessed that the gang paid him to act as their lookout while they retrieved a package of some sort. Apparently, Ayato's job was to keep watch and verify that they weren't being pursued as they made their getaway. Once he'd made absolutely sure that no one was in pursuit, the next step was for Ayato to meet them at a prearranged pickup point, after which they'd all escape together.
"I swear, I didn't know that the 'package' was a kid," Ayato had insisted earlier. "Please, you've got to believe me!"
Shugo took him at his word, which was helped by the fact that he, Shugo, knew for certain that Ayato was telling the truth. Neither he nor the spirit attached to him could sense any malice or ill intent emanating from Ayato, which was more than could be said about the rest of the gang he'd dealt with. More importantly, it was Ayato's idea to accompany him as they waited to return the boy to his family. Whether it stemmed from a sense of pragmatism and self-preservation, or from genuine shame and remorse at what he'd gotten involved in, it was clear to Shugo that Ayato felt compelled to make up for what happened.
"They should be here any minute now," Ayato informed both of them in between sips from his own frozen drink, before turning his attention to the boy in particular. "Sorry you had to go through all that."
Still the boy said nothing – in fact, he'd barely said a word since he was freed from the trunk. If nothing else, thought Shugo, the small smile the boy flashed towards the lean, shaggy-haired youth who'd just spoken was encouraging. Judging from his behavior, Shugo surmised that while he keeping the boy company right now was indeed the right call, it was nevertheless likely that only someone from the boy's family could get him to open up.
'It's not like I can force him to talk if he really doesn't want to,' thought Shugo with a sigh as he watched the boy across him who had finished half his chocolate shake and was now continuing to sip on what was left. 'Oh, well. At least he's safe now.'
Shugo didn't really hold it against the boy. On one hand, the fact that the child went with him and Ayato indicated his trust that the two were friends; at the very least, it signified the boy's certainty that the two of them meant him no harm. Shugo in particular took that as a good sign, not least because his clothes – now concealed under the blue-and-white jacket Ayato lent to him – were covered in blood and riddled with bullet holes all over when the child first laid eyes on him. At the same time, he also realized how unrealistic it was to expect the child to open up so quickly about the ordeal he'd literally just gone through, and even less so to two people he'd just met and barely knew.
Just then, Ayato's phone rang.
"Hello?" Ayato said tentatively as he picked up the call, only to hand it to the child immediately after. "It's for you."
"Hello?" said the boy to the unknown caller. "Yeah, we're here."
"Okay, see you soon!" he then added a moment later, just before giving the phone back to its owner. "Bye!"
As it turned out, 'soon' wound up being shorthand for 'five minutes later at most'. Not long after the phone call, all three of them spied a dark red sedan with tinted windows come to a stop right in front of the establishment. Ayato and Shugo followed not too far behind as the boy leapt to his feet and ran outside to meet whoever it was who came to pick him up. Though the two had differing reasons for feeling the way they did, both of them felt a mingled sense of curiousity and apprehension at the idea of meeting the boy's fetcher.
'…Fetchers, rather.'
And those feelings were only amplified further when two males exited from the driver and passenger sides of the car.
On the right was a spry young man, likely in his twenties, with dark hair cropped close to his scalp. He was clad in an olive-green sweater with matching cargo pants, the right side pocket of which contained something that jutted out just enough to give warning of what he was carrying. As Shugo sized him up carefully and watched the boy run up and hug him around the waist, he wondered just who this kid was to warrant the protection of an armed bodyguard.
'And the other one must be…'
Meanwhile, the other man was much older, likely in his late thirties or early forties if Ayato were to guess. He was clad in the navy blue uniform of a high-ranking police officer, which said something about his position within the police department. This impression was further reinforced by the man's graying hair and imposing demeanor, which further suggested that he earned his current rank – whatever it was – through years' worth of service, and that he wasn't one to be messed with.
"They're nice guys, dad!" exclaimed the boy as the policeman – his father – got down on one knee to embrace his son. "They saved me! And they even got me a chocolate shake while we waited for you!"
"Hush now, Taro," the policeman said gently but firmly to his son, before he opened the door just behind the driver's seat and gestured for his son to get inside. "Here, get in. I'm sure you're exhausted after everything you've been through today."
The man watched for a moment as his aide took his son and ushered him into the car.
And when that moment passed, he then he turned towards Ayato and Shugo, who had been watching the reunion, with an unreadable look in his face as his eyes darted between the two. "I'll have to thank you for helping out my boy," he began with a slight smile.
"My name is Hikawa Ryoma," the longtime lawman said as he introduced himself, while at the same time extending his hand to the two youths in in invitation to a handshake. "I'm pleased to meet you two."