223 chapter 24

While Leonard was in a dizzy-like state due to the amount of blood that he loses in the fight with that strange Iron Man imitator and passed out in a deserted section of the city district, he felt a tugging sensation, pulling on him ever so slowly across the rough pavement.

"What...the hell...is going on?" Leonard complained as his body had previously stressed out too much to the point where he couldn't move a finger.

"Eapp!!!" the moment Leonard voiced his complain, he heard a small yelping sound of a child which rudely woke him up and forced his eyes wide open.

"huh?" he questioned as he looks at the source where the sound originated from, only to find a child in worn out clothes and grime all over his face who look about the age of ten, staring at Leonard with fear in his eyes.

"Who...are you?" seeing that it was only a kid that disturbed his rest, Leonard let out a sigh of relief and asked the little child.

However the child did not response to Leonard question and quickly rushed behind a trash can and gazed at him with a pair of fearful eyes.

Seeing the little kid reaction, Leonard couldn't help but chuckle as he finally noticed his appearance, which, if could be described as bluntly as possible, he was a pathetic mess, covered in recently dried up blood with tattered clothes.

"Don't be afraid kid, I may look scary now, but I swear, I'm a handsome and nice person, I won't hurt you- here, have some snack." Leonard tried to ease the tense situation between him and the little kid who seem to be dragging him away in a makeshift sled from the original location where he passed out, aways from prying eyes of potential pedestrian.

Leonard pulled out a snack bar from his inventory and baited the little kid who was gulping down mouthful of saliva as he looked at the snack bar held by him.

"Come on, don't be afraid, come and take it, it's for you." Leonard offered as he had an innocent smile on his face, however he noticed that he kid was still a bit hesitant.

His inner chibi smirked as he pulled out another snack bar from his inventory, doubling the temptation of the little kid.

To which the little ten years old can no longer held himself back and walked away from behind the trash can that he was hiding behind of and slowly walked toward Leonard with mesmerizing eyes for the foods being offered.

When he was close enough, he quickly snatched it from Leonard hand and teared off the wrapper and begin biting down on the crunchy texture of the cereal bar.

"See? I'm not such a bad person right?" Leonard asked while smiling gently.

*nod *nod *nod the little kid nodded his head like a pecking chick.

"Do you mind telling me who you are? I'm curious- why did you decided to drag me with you from my original comfy spot?" Leonard asked him.

"Dangerous, bad men go there a lot…" he said in a shy tone of voice.

"Bad men?" Leonard got curious as who the "bad person" could be, coming from a little kid who would work so hard to pulled Leonard beaten body onto a wooden sled and dragged him away on a rope for whom know since when.

"Uhmm, they bad people, mother and big sister said to stay away from bad men, they killed my dad." the little kid told him, about the incident of his dad and the run in with the "bad men" where he was never seen again since the last three years, everyone in the family assumed that he had died and buried somewhere- either that or feed to the mutated fishes in the river.

Or that was what his mother and elder sister told him back then when his dad disappeared.

"Well, look like I have to thank you then, for saving me from the bad men, here have another one." Leonard handed him another snack bar from his inventory, seeing such an innocent kid saying such depressional words like it was a normal everyday thing, he felt pity for him.

"It must be the local gangster who killed him." he thought, as it was the only logical choice and option available, who else within the district/city would go around rampantly killing without much consequences? Answer- mobsters.

"Alright, thanks kid, you should go home, your family might be worry about you, seeing that you're with a man covered in blood from head to toe." Leonard smirked as he tried to picked himself up and kept his balance.

"Wah!" however, unexpectedly he slipped and fell flat on his face onto the hard pavement below.

"You should stay on the sled, mommy might be able to fix you, like she always did to me and dad back then." the kid suggested, Leonard wasn't complaining much since he still felt weak inside and could barely move, he found out the hard way.

*****

They finally arrived at their destination, it was a broken shack at the end of the city.

The little kid might not look like it, but he's pretty strong for his age, being able to pull someone who was twice his size and weight on a wooden sledge on wheel for almost a kilometer.

"Is this your home, kid?" Leonard asked as he stared blankly at the "house"

"Uhm, mommy and sister is inside, let me call mommy, maybe she can help." the little kid said as he quickly rushed inside of the house and later came back with a woman, who seem to be in her late twenty in an apron with a worry look rushing out with some medical supplies in hand and began checking on the "wound" that covered his body through the tatter clothes.

"This is strange...why is there no wounds? Is this your blood kiddo? Are you playing a prank on me?" she asked the kid with glaring eyes.

"No mommy, he's hurt, when I found him, he was leaning against the forbidden...building…"he stuttered as he mentioned the forbidden area.

"You did what?!" the woman exploded in a rage as she looked at the kid.

"But...mommy…" droplets of tear began to roll down from his eyes as he looked at his mother, who was very angry at him.

"Please don't be angry with the boy, he's just being a good kid, blame it on me for not knowing that the place was dangerous and just passed out there." Leonard intervenes as he tried to stand up and get between the kid and his mother.

"Who are you, from which family are you belong to?" the woman narrowed her eyes as she questioned Leonard, from his own view, he could see that she secretly hidden a dagger which could draw at any moment notice.

"I'm not officially affiliate or involved with any family yet." he replied

"Lies! Do you think that I honestly believe an injured man appeared near a gathering spot of a Corleone family to be not affiliate to that family?!" she yelled at him with rages and tears in her eyes as she gripped onto the dagger she hid tightly.

"Huh? This is the territory of the Corleone family?" Leonard asked.

"Isn't that obvious? They had their marking all over the town, any fools could see it even if they're blind." she pointed at a broken and shredded poster on the road.