12 An unwanted guardian

"Everything happened so fast, it never gave me any time to think about what had happened," Katsu thought to himself.

He took three deep breaths and then stood up slowly, his wound still hurting. He looked around the room, trying to get his bearings, and noticed a note lying on the table beside the bed. It was from Vin, and it explained what Katsu needed to do while Vin was gone.

Katsu walked over to the table and picked up the note. As he read it, he felt a sense of urgency building inside him. Finally, after everything that had happened to him, he was ready to take action.

Moving carefully, he opened several drawers, searching for something to wear. He found a shirt and put it on, then grabbed a small coat to hide his bandages. He also put on a hat and arranged his hair to cover the rest of the bandages.

As he was getting dressed, a man opened the door and stepped inside. He had a deep, somewhat scary, and manly voice, and he spoke in a gruff tone.

"Hey, child! What are you doing!?" the man demanded.

Startled, Katsu stumbled and fell to the ground.

"Tch, get up… you should expect the unexpected!" the man shouted.

Katsu cautiously got up and asked, "W-who are you, sir?"

The man ignored him and instead took out a cigarette and lit it up. He took a long drag before responding.

"I'm a bounty hunter paid by a gang to watch over you so that you don't tell the police of what had happened. So, back to my question. what are you doing?" he said, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

"I was just looking for some clothes to wear," Katsu responded nervously.

The bounty hunter sighed, "well don't go doing anything that I wouldn't want ya to do."

He turned to leave, but Katsu stopped him.

"Wait, what's your name, sir?" Katsu asked.

The man scoffed. "Does it matter? Well, the name's Von," he said before leaving the room.

Katsu continued getting dressed. Despite experiencing a traumatic incident, he was devoid of urgency and took his time doing things without worrying about the situation. He stopped thinking about what had happened and focused more on following the notes left by Vin.

Vin had mentioned that he needed help from Bon, a good friend of his, and they had planned what to do if something like this were to happen.

"At least that's what I thought," The voice spoke once more.

The note contained another letter, and Vin instructed Katsu to bring it to Bon and strictly follow his instructions. Katsu looked at himself in the mirror and saw that he had grown, and was now ready to help someone he deeply cared about.

"Looks like I'm ready, time to go to Bon's place," Katsu said to himself.

He left the messy room and locked the door, then made his way downstairs. However, he was stopped by Von, who was leaning against the stairs.

"Where do you think you're going?" Von asked in a menacing tone.

Katsu quickly thought of an alibi to avoid attracting the bounty hunter. "Umm... Going out to shop for some food," he nervously responded. "Well, then I'm going with you," Von insisted. Katsu tried to resist, but to no avail. He had no choice but to let Von join him.

As they walked down the long empty road, lightly illuminated by the sunrise, Katsu's palms began to sweat, and his hands got cold in the chilly morning. He needed to think of a way to stop Von from following him.

"Hey, kid!" Von yelled. "We're just going around in circles. Where are you going?" he questioned Katsu's alibi.

"Umm... We're close, almost there, hehe," Katsu said, sweat dripping down his face.

Entering the commercial district, Katsu noticed crowds of people packed in the streets, stalls and shops everywhere. The rays of the sun barely passed through the district's skyline, and on the morning of a hot and busy autumn day, many shops offered large discounts to attract more customers. People stampeded to these shops in the thousands, rushing to get there first while there was still stock. This fact gave Katsu an idea.

Passing by a jewelry store, Katsu loudly shouted, "All jewelry is 50 percent off!!!" Within seconds, hundreds of people flocked to the store, overwhelming Von.

Realizing what Katsu had done, he turned to him, but he was quickly swept by the massive amount of people trying to rush towards the store.

"Why you! Come back here, kid!!" Von shouted, trying to catch up to Katsu. However, Katsu slipped through the crowd, taunting Von as he went.

But just as Katsu thought he had escaped, Von grabbed his hand before he could run.

"Gotcha! You ain't escaping me!!" he said, refusing to let go.

"Let me go!" Katsu resisted.

"Tch, stop resisting!" As the crowd grew bigger and bigger, more and more people bumped into them. Von slowly lost his grip and eventually let go of Katsu. Katsu immediately dashed away from the mob of avaricious people.

"Come back here! Don't let me lose my money!!" Von yelled, getting lost in the crowd.

Katsu hastily ran away, not looking back. The faster he ran, the more his body began to ache. With each step, he remembered when he was running toward his house, leaving the destruction behind him. And now, he was running once again, passing familiar landmarks until he arrived at Bon's store.

Katsu bursts into Bon's store, the bell ringing noisily as he swings the door open. Bon, who is busy cleaning some mugs, turns around to greet him, but his cheerful demeanor quickly turns to one of alarm when he sees Katsu panting heavily and covered in bandages. In his shock, Katsu drops a pricey mug, shattering it into pieces.

"Katsu, what happened? What's wrong?" Bon asks, his concern mounting.

Katsu walks up to the counter, struggling to catch his breath, and hands Bon the note. "Monsieur, w-what's this?" Katsu gasps.

"Vin told me to give this to you," Katsu explains, his voice trembling.

Bon opens the letter and begins to read, his face growing increasingly tense with each passing moment. Suddenly, he grinds his teeth, crumples the paper in his hand, and slams it on the table. "VIN!!!! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!" he shouts.

"What? What's wrong, Bon? What did the letter say?" Katsu pleads, his heart racing.

Bon gulps, deliberating whether to share the contents of the letter with Katsu. "Katsu, here's... wait-" he starts to say before abruptly stopping and dropping the letter.

Suddenly, his face twists with anger, and he yells at Katsu to "GET DOWN QUICK!!" Bon grabs Katsu and throws him out of the way just as a bullet grazes his face and hits a shelf behind him. The sound of the gunshot and shattering glass echoes in Katsu's mind, reminding him of his traumatic past.

"Oh, Kid! WHERE ARE YOU! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE!" the bounty hunter's voice booms as he enters the store, rifle in hand.

End of chapter 12