Chapter 4: Distance

Haruichi was at his father's workshop even though Eijun hasn't been to work for a while. His father had mentioned that the young man had something to do, so he asked for some days off.

It seems as though there has been some distance between them. His friend hasn't even contacted him, even though Haruichi has called and messaged him.

"What's wrong?" His father asked.

"I feel like I have been avoided." He sighed.

"Are you talking about Eijun?" It was Haruichi's brother who entered the workshop when he overheard his younger brother whine to their father.

"Son, what are you doing here?" His father was confused since the older son didn't come to his workshop often.

The older brother is holding a plastic bag in his hand.

"I was doing some errands when I met mother, and she told me to drop these off."

Ryosuke opened the bag, and it was lunch for the father and brother.

"I had a feeling Haruichi would be here since he's always here to see Eijun."

"That's true." The father laughed. "But the young man asked for some time off."

"That's something new. I never knew that he could do that."

"What do you mean by that?" Haruichi asked.

"I mean, he's always so hardworking and never asked for a day off."

"Now that you mentioned it when I asked a few months back, he didn't want any vacation." The father recalled their conversation of that time. The young man was just happy to work.

"I feel like he's going back to how he was when we first met."

"I'm sure he just has things to do," Ryosuke assured his younger brother.

Ryosuke said goodbye to his father and brother because he was meeting up with a friend. He went to the park where they were scheduled to meet. On his way, the older brother saw a familiar face.

"Is that Eijun?" What shocked the older man was the child that was next to him. Somebody he has never seen before and the brunet has never mentioned.

Ryosuke knew there were some things that Eijun didn't say.

"Is that a family member?"

"He said he had no family left."

"Ryo-san!" The pink-haired man turned to the voice of his friend and police officer.

The friend saw that his senior was focusing on somewhere out someone.

"Who's that?" He asked.

"My younger brother's friend, so he's like a brother to me."

"Is something wrong with him being there?" He asked.

"It's not that, but I'm curious who that child is since he has never mentioned any family members. And as I know, his only friend is Haruichi."

Ryosuke could tell the child seemed attached to Eijun.

"Yoichi, can you do a background check?"

"What are you saying, Ryo-san?" The one called Yoichi was shocked by what his friend was telling him to do.

"Sorry I asked something so uncalled for. I'm just worried."

"It's fine, Ryo-san. I'm sure it's just a friendly kid who got attached to your brother's friend."

Ryosuke decided to let this behind him and continue his day spending time with his friend. Ryosuke and Yoichi left to what they had been planning.

Rio was getting so attached to Eijun to the point that he didn't want to go anywhere without him.

"Rio, are you having fun?" Eijun asked.

"Yes." Rio smiled.

Eijun had decided to take Rio out for some fresh air. The half wolf-boy was able to hide his ears and tail so that people wouldn't notice.

It felt like Eijun had a little brother. Eijun still didn't know what exactly was Rio. He was like a human, but he was a wolf too. It didn't look like he was an experiment like he was as a child.

Eijun then remembers that person he met a while back. His two men had attacked him to test him. Eijun remembers but not all of his memory. There were still some missing, and the most were the memories of those kids in the photo.

"I should go speak to him. Maybe he knows about Rio as well as if there are more people like those men he killed."

Rio was still cuddling him.

"Rio, there is somewhere I have to go, but I can't take you with me."

"I can't go with you."

"You can't, but I promise when I'm back, I will spend a lot of time with you."

"Okay." Rio licked Eijun on his cheek.

So Eijun took Rio back home and then headed to the same place that he met that man and those twins.

Eijun was sure that he wouldn't come back here, but here he is.

He entered the house that was in before. It was the same as he remembered. The same image appeared in his head like last time. Eijun didn't know why things like this were happening or why it happened the first time either.

Eijun knew one thing for sure was this place had something to do with the past.

"Your back." It was the same voice. Eijun looked up and saw the man staring at him. It was Mima Souichirou.

"There are some things I need to ask you."

"Alright." The man said. "Follow me up."

This was the signal for Eijun to up the stairs in meet the person face to face.

Eijun went upstairs, and the stairs made a sound, and he could tell this place was pretty old.

They went inside a room, and in there, the man stood standing near the window, and that's when Eijun spotted the twins.

They waved at Eijun like some kids who were excited to see a new toy. This didn't make Eijun happy.

Mima turned to face Eijun.

"What is that you would like to know?"

Eijun didn't know if he could completely trust this man, but he was the one in the photo. One of his friends in childhood.

There was silence for a while since Eijun didn't know how to start their talk.

"I smell blood on you. Did you kill somebody?"

"How?" Eijun didn't know how this man was able to tell.

"Don't look shocked. We that have been experiment can tell right away." Mima looked a bit sad, but Eijun couldn't tell since his expression looked the same.

"Is the past repeating?"

"How did you feeling killing somebody with your own hands?"

"That's none of your business." Eijun glared. He was unhappy with what Mima asked.

"Anyway, what is the reason you are here?" Mima asked.

"I need to know about wolves that can contain their human forms as well as the people who are still doing experiments."

"You have a lot to ask."

Mima didn't think something like this would happen, but he knew Eijun would come to him.

"You always did come to me when you needed answers."

"Can you help me then?"

"I can, but what you will be doing is dangerous."

"I don't care!" Eijun was determined. " I don't want anything to happened to more kids like us."

"Wait! Did you get your memories back?"

"Only bit and pieces. I still don't know who you and the others are. But I know that we were close."

Even if it was a little, Mima was happy but sad again. He didn't think it was good for Eijun to remember everything.

"You worried about me, right."

Mima looked surprised.

"I killed a lot of people in my past, and I didn't care."

"Eijun."

"Blood was already in my hands before I knew it. I said I wouldn't kill, but I did exactly what I did as a child."

Mima went closer to Eijun and held his hand. Eijun felt warmth coming from the man who was a stranger to him. He felt a familiar feeling. Eijun knew something like this happened before, but he had no recollection of it.

"Thank you." Eijun smiled.

After a while, Mima let go of his hand.

"Eijun, you may kill them all, but every generation, they will keep coming back."

"Then what should I do."

"You have to deal with their leader as well as the main PowerPoint."

"What do you mean by PowerPoint?" Eijun asked.

"He means the source of power that experiments." Isamu interrupted.

"Source of power."

"What Isamu said is right?" Mima said. "Even I don't know where it could be."

"That means I have to find it."

"Eijun, I will help you, but for now, don't do anything crazy."

"I can't promise you I can't deal with the bad guys, though."

Mima smiled, thinking Eijun was still the same boy he grew up with, even if he doesn't remember everything.

"You mentioned wolves that contain human forms. I'm sorry, but there have never been records of such."

Was this something new that has never happened? It looked like Eijun had to do some investigation on his own.

"Thanks for the help and rest. I will deal with it on my own." Eijun said.

"There are things I would like to tell you, but you should find out on your own." What Mima said was true that he should find out himself.

Eijun and Mima exchanged contact info since they were working together. The twins even took Eijun's contact without hearing him out. Guess the twins didn't want to be left out.

After he was done there, he headed home.

Rio greeted him when he arrived.

"Rio, are you hungry?"

"Yes."

Eijun went into the chicken and took out some food for both of them to eat. It had been a long day for Eijun, or he felt like it had been. The brunet took out his phone and saw many missed calls and messages from Haruichi.

"He must be worried that I have been ignoring him."

Eijun replied to one of the messages and told his friend that he has been busy. Eijun didn't want Haruichi to be involved with anything that had to do with his past or what he was up to.

The two sat down and started eating their food. There was still a lot on Eijun's mind.

"Rio, do you want why you were caged with the kids?"

"Rio was already there when the kids arrived."

"So you don't remember how you got there."

"I don't know why but the men decided to keep me because I looked like a child."

"Those bastards probably thought Rio was like those other kids!" It made Eijun upset just thinking about it.

Eijun couldn't tell what Rio really was.

_____________

Haruichi was taking a walk with a friend he met a couple of days ago. The guy was quiet and didn't say much, but the black-haired guy was blunt about it when he did there.

Haruichi heard his mobile phone vibrate, and when he looked, it was a message from Eijun. He was happy that his friend had finally messaged him.

"Sorry, I have been busy. I will make it up to you."

"What's with the smiling face?" The friend with him asked.

"Oh, Furuya, it's the best friend I was talking about."

"Oh, the one that works with your father."

"Yes. Eijun-kun has been busy. I was sure he was avoiding me, but that isn't the case."

"I'm curious about him since you talk about him a lot."

"I'll introduce you one day, but right now, he takes some time off. I don't even know when he will be free." Haruichi sighed since he really wanted to meet Eijun. He could always go to his home, but that would be rude to come unannounced.

"Do you have a picture of this best friend?" Furuya asked.

"Oh yes." Haruichi took out his phone and looked through his photo gallery. He turned to Furuya and showed the photo to the young man.

It was a photo of when the two went out for ice cream. There was a little bit of ice cream on EIjun'd mouth. A smile appeared on Furuya's face.

"You two look like your having so much fun."

"It was fun that day," Haruichi said.

After taking a walk with Furuya, they said goodbye since it was getting late.

Furuya wasn't going home but to Eijun's apartment. He knew everything about the young man. Even since they parted, he had kept tabs on him.

The doorbell to EIjun's apartment rang, and the brunet was surprised since nobody had scheduled to come by his place and not many knew where he lived. Eijun didn't even have friends besides Haruichi.

Eijun opened the door and was surprised. It wasn't that he knew the person but that power surging through this guy and the fact he looked like one of the boys from the photo he saw.

"Ei-chan." The man smiled.

It felt something from when Eijun met Mima and Mei. This guy seemed stronger that his power was overwhelming him.

Eijun wondered why this guy was here since everybody else seems to be hiding and not wanting to approach him suddenly. Even Mei hasn't shown up since that day.

Furuya just smiled at Eijun standing there with that powerful aura.