CONNECTIONS, H. Kazutora

045

The tall man stepped inside the apartment, Kazu! I stared at him for a moment about to give him a hug but then noticed that something's wrong. He looks pale. Sweat was dripping from his head. He's also breathing so heavily. And he's wearing a... black jacket. Wait, black jacket? He never had a black jacket before.. He always wears that white jacket with the 'Tiger' tag. I don't have a good feeling about this.

"Sorry i'm late!.." He apologized with a wide grin and he held one of my hands.

"Kazu why do you look so pale?" I asked, slightly leaning to his face.

"I.. uhm.. The— The car broke down! Yeah the cat broke down so I had to run here!" , "And you didn't call me so that I can go pick you up?" , "I didn't want to bother you"

I was about to say something else but he beat me to it. "Let's go for a run!" , A run? Who the hell goes on a run in this hour?

He began running down the streets while holding my hand. He's acting strange. Once we walked across a dark alley, he placed his hand on my mouth and dragged me into the alley. I looked at him with confusion but only received an innocent grin in return. "I just... need a small break from running.." He panted as he said that. After a minute we began running again and every time Kazu sees an alleyway he would drag me in it to 'rest'.

We've been doing this for the last 20 minutes now. I'm starting to get really worried. What is he up to?

Before he could drag me into another alleyway, I pulled my hand away and stared at him. "Kazu, what's up with you? You're acting so weird—" , "(NAME) WATCH OUT" I turned my head around for a second and caught a glimpse of the man with short purple-pinkish with dark blue streaks on his hair that I saw yesterday at the warehouse, behind me with a baton.

Kazu pushed me, causing me to hit the wall.

All I heard was a whack and a thud.

I looked up and saw Kazu on the ground with blood pouring from his head. I was about to rush over to him but the man blocked the way. "Now, now, be a good girl and follow me." The man said as my hands began to tremble. In the corner of my eye, I saw Kazu reaching his hand out for a metal pipe next to the trash bin. Before the man could even lay a finger on me, Kazu stood back up and hit the man by the head causing him to stumble back away from me, hissing in pain as he held his head. Kazu took this opportunity to drag me out of the place and back to the streets.

"Kazu what's happening?!" At this point I was about to lose my mind. We're running away from someone. Kazu's head is bleeding. What the fuck am I supposed to do?! He wouldn't answer me but just kept on running.

Ran and Rindou's call

"Hey bro, seems like Kazutora is still alive."

"I thought Sanzu stabbed him?"

"Yeah he did, I guess he failed his task."

"Mikey won't be happy to hear that."

"Whatever, do you mind picking me up? That bastard whacked me on the head with a metal pipe."

"Sure, text me your location. I'm sure Mikey can get to (name) pretty soon."

Call Ended

We're now running through the thick woods. The only thing that was giving us better vision to see was the flashing lights from the moon. I think we got away from whoever is following us. But all i'm worried about right now is Kazu's head injury.

I noticed how heavy his was breathing so I grabbed his wrist and dragged him to sit behind a big tree.

Silence engulfed us for a moment. "Tch. It hurts.." He huffed out as he placed a hand on the left side of his hip. Curious, I quickly unzipped his jacket and saw a deep bloody stab wound. Panic washed all over my face as I leaned closer to examine the wound. "Kazu! You got—" , "Stabbed? Yeah. Bonten's number 2 did this." , How can he be so calm about this.. He's seriously injured.