The Tiger and The God

Chapter 11

Chuuya's POV

The thought that these people might have been conducting experiments on children infuriated the Port Mafia Executive all the more. Walking over to the hospital bed he looked at the patient file that lay open on the bedside table. His eyes widened when he read the name on the file. Tachibana Bao. Chuuya flipped more through the past medical history. As he suspected, the child was the son of Tachibana Sou. Chuuya looked up from the file at the kid. Since he lacked any medical training he couldn't understand much of what was written but he did find out a few things. Bao was 8 years old and apparently, he had an incurable, rare disease referred to as Byoki o korosu, aka 'killing illness'. It seemed that the child had inherited it from his father, who was himself dying from this mysterious neurodegenerative disease that caused the brain to atrophy. The kid's organs had started to shut down as a result of the disease, the destruction of his brain had caused damage to the spinal cord and cell tissue.

Sighing, Chuuya set the file back down on the table and looked at the child. He made up his mind to come back for the boy once he had found Nakajima and dealt with Tachibana. "Hang in there, kid. I'll come back for you." He told the boy before finishing his search. Finding no sign of Nakajima nor Tachibana he continued up to the fourth floor. He dealt with the resistance he encountered upon setting foot on that floor before searching. He looked through eight different rooms before he finally found Nakajima.

"Nakajima!" Chuuya ran over to the operating table that the weretiger was restrained to. He shook the younger man's shoulders but he got very little response. "Ok, come on! Wake up, teme." Chuuya told Nakajima, undoing the restraints before picking him up and carrying him out of the room. He wasn't sure what he should do. He couldn't search for Tachibana with Nakajima in tow. The sign beside one door read EMPLOYEE LOUNGE. Chuuya opened the door and seeing that nobody was inside, he placed Nakajima on the couch in the room. "I'll be back for you, Nakajima. I promise. I just have to take care of one more thing." He told the weretiger. "At least this couch is more comfortable for you than that table."

"Not that it matters much, che-che-che! He's just goin' to get comfy on an operating table somewhere else."

Chuuya started to turn to face Tachibana but Nakajima weakly reached a hand up to stop Chuuya. "Don't look him in the eyes..." The weretiger said in a faint, teeny voice. Chuuya tried to ask him why but Nakajima didn't have enough energy to speak more.

Don't look him in the eyes. That was what Nakajima had told him. Chuuya activated his ability and closed his eyes and turned to face Tachibana. If he couldn't use eyesight there were still other senses that he could use. He focused on listening to the sounds around him. It was a small room. He should be able to hear their movement more than if they were in a big room; however, the room was also going to be a hindrance. If they fought in the room, Nakajima would get caught up in it. Chuuya also had no idea what sort of attack Tachibana might make.

The sound of a very faint footstep ahead of him caught Chuuya's attention. Charging in the direction of the noise, Chuuya used the changes in the field of gravity up ahead to help him detect where Tachibana was. He swung his leg up and swiftly delivered a kick. It seemed like he had made contact with Tachibana, judging by how he had felt his foot make contact with something and a cry of pain from right ahead of him. He needed to end this quickly. Nakajima needed to be taken to the hospital and so did Bao.

It was a miracle that he didn't run into the doorway or wall as he exited the room. He again listened to the sounds around him as he unholstered his knife, waiting until he heard movement before reaching out and grabbing up what he was assuming was Tachibana. He thrust the blade into what he assumed was the man's gut and twisted the blade.

Atsushi's POV

Bleary sunset eyes opened as the young male started to wake up. If one were to look at him closely they could see that his eyes were devoid of any bright color. It would seem as if the color of his eyes were drained away. He groaned as it felt like his body was hit by a freight train. He didn't know what happened after he had passed out. All he could remember last was telling a figure not to look Tachibana in the eye and then seeing the figure glowing red before moving in a blur. He looked around the room he was in to see if he could place where he was. It looked like he was laying on a couch in an employee room.