8 Chapter 8: The Hidden Facts (2)

"What the hell's going on here?" Katya growled out, over the break out attempts of the boy pinned to the ground.

"The boy suddenly decided to let loose a little," said Shade letting out a hearty laugh.

"Kriti, are you alright," said Katya moving towards her with concern.

"I…I'm fine," her friend muttered, wincing as Katya pried her hands off her wound to see a gash on her arm above her elbow.

She turned to look at the feral boy with a glare, "What the hell happened to him?"

"I don't know," said Kriti clutching her bleeding wound again.

Emilia suddenly rushed out of a room carrying a first aid kit when she was intercepted by the doctor in Touya's gang, Ly. Ly grabbed the box off of her.

"Allow me," he said looking at the feral boy with curiosity, then at the blade and finally at the wounded Kriti.

He moved over and knelt down in between Katya and Kriti and opened the box.

"Remove your hand please," said Ly.

He pulled out a bundle of alcohol swabs and ripped apart her shirt at the shoulders. As he was about to dab he paused and then frowned.

"This might require stitches," he said. "It's not necessary but there will be large scarring."

Kriti bit her lips as she looked at the boy, "It's fine, just wrap it up."

"Well if you're okay with it," said Ly as he wiped away the blood with the swabs and cleaned the wound.

"Wait…we have skin adhesives," said Emilia suddenly and Katya looked at he with a questioning gaze.

"We get wounded all the time, it's better to be prepared," she continued with a shrug.

Ly's eyes lit up as she said skin adhesives, "That's work, get that for me."

Emilia ran back into the room she came out from and moments.

"Are you sure she'll be fine," Katya asked Ly. "What about stitches?"

"This is better, quicker and also hurts less," said Ly with a knowing smile.

Emilia quickly returned with some tubes and Ly raised an eyebrow, "This isn't exactly over the counter."

"No but it works better," retorted Emilia.

It was a small operation during which Kriti let out a few pained cries after which the entirety was sealed with an adhesive tape over the wound.

"There…that works better, minimal scarring as well," he said with a pat on her back and she nodded.

"Thanks," said Katya and then looked towards the boy who still appeared to be struggling but had considerably less energy now.

"Kovit, take that knife away," said Katya nodding towards the bloody weapon the floor.

Kovit quickly came forward and bagged the weapon. As she was still looking at the boy Touya came and knelt next to her.

"Doesn't look like much does he," he said with a light whistle.

Surprised she quickly turned and almost fell on her ass but was caught by him and righted again.

"You need to stop with that," she said.

"With what?" he replied innocently but a grin could still be seen through and at this point she was too tired to even get angry.

"What the hell happened with him?" she asked trying to figure what exactly had happened.

***

"Did you say anything in particular to the boy?" asked Touya looking at Kriti and then at Shade who had him pinned to the floor.

"We…we were talking very well," Kriti said. "Well I was talking, he just nodded, shrugged and did a whole host of other body actions but I was getting him to communicate."

"What else?" Touya needled.

"At some point Shade came in and joined in on the conversation," Kriti continued. "The discussion slowly got onto the topic of parents."

"The mother…" said Touya with a raised eyebrow and looked at the boy but then he smiled, it wasn't a warm smile but cold and calculative, it was a distinct smile and something that Katya was very familiar with considering her line of work.

"It wasn't the mother," said Touya shaking his head. "It was the father…"

The result was almost instantaneous there was loud roar that even Shade was surprised and he momentarily loosened his grip. The boy on all fours pounced towards Touya intending to no doubt reach and rip apart the man who had said those words. Suddenly a large hand came out from the side and grabbed the boy by the throat in mid jump and slammed him to the ground with enough force to shake the nearby desks and all of the boys struggles ceased.

***

Katya looked on shocked and she half doubted that the boy was dead, such was the force of the impact but she could still see the boy twitching and Quedell standing above him with a glare.

"Wha…what just happened?" asked Kriti and then he suddenly shrieked. "Oh my god is he dead!?"

"No…no he isn't," said Ly with a smile. "But he is very winded and dazed."

"Did you have to do that?" Touya asked with a sigh.

"He attacked you," Quedell said simply.

"Wait, wait, hang on a second," said Katya. "He attacked Kriti because she mentioned his father?"

Touya looked at her with a grin, "Yes, yes he did, the mother's fine but the father's sore topic for him."

Touya tapped Katya as they both moved towards him and he looked up at them with unfocused eyes. The boy appeared to shudder whenever the word 'father' was mentioned.

"There's trauma associated with the mere word," Kriti said gasping.

"This boy hates his father?" said Katya trying to make sense of the situation.

"No...not hate," said Touya who turned towards Kriti.

"Fear," she said. "He is frightened of his father, it's an irrational amount of fear."

"Right," Touya said. "Which then begs the question why he is so frightened."

"The most common reason to be frightened of a father would be…abuse right," said Katya and Touya nodded.

"It's the most common and most popular reason," agreed Touya. "I think that's the case here as well."

"Stop saying the word," said Kriti suddenly and sharply.

Touya glanced at the boy and then sighed. "Yes, we had better do that."

"You've never seen his uh…other parent figure?" asked Katya turned towards her friend who shook her head.

"No…just him, his mother," said Kriti.

"His mother has passed away," said Touya and Kriti nodded.

"So who exactly is the boy?" asked Katya still curious as to his identity.

"Well let's surmise the situation," said Touya again easily invading her personal space, this time however due to the mystery she didn't mind so much.

"The forest snakes are after him," he said.

"Yes," Katya agreed. "They even held Kriti captive, but when they found him they did nothing, they were just captives, it couldn't be kidnapping, it just doesn't feel like it."

Touya agreed. "Right if it was then considering you were her friend and they know it, then you would get a ransom call."

"So then, they were after the boy, they didn't care about Kriti, the boy then has to be important," said Katya. "His mother died and then he was kidnapped."

"How exactly did the mother die?" asked Touya and Katya faltered there for a moment.

"It…it can't be a murder," she whispered, unbeknownst to this all this while they were moving closer and closer and they now looked to be in a very compromising situation.

"Well I have reason to think so," said Touya with a wide smile as Katya was slowly catching onto the situation.

"That must mean, that the boy is related to one of the Forest Snakes gang members," said Katya. "No, it can't be just a member, it has to be an executive, someone high in the gang."

"Right, think, think back to what they said at the warehouse," said Touya and they were right in each other's face.

Emilia had a hand over her mouth and so did Kriti, Ly had let out a sigh whilst Kovit was looking at the scene with undisguised horror. Shade had let out a light grin along with Quedell, it wasn't because of the conversation but because of how close Touya and Katya now stood to each other. If anyone just came into the room suddenly they would assume there was something intimate happening at the moment.

"Wing…he said Wing won't let you get away with this," said Katya as she made a breakthrough. "Oh hell…Jin must be related to the leader of the Forest Snakes."

"Yes, there it is," said Touya with a wide grin. "Jin if I'm not wrong and Kyler's information is on the dot, which it is, then Jin is Master Wing's son."

"Oh bloody hell," said Katya. "Did we really screw that badly with the Forest Snakes."

At this point they paused their speech as they appeared to have realized their proximity to each other. They both looked at the other and then froze, both staring into each other's face in depth and the room itself seemed to be on the verge of something of a collapse.