Archive of Our Own

“There’s a rumour floating around, that there’s an illegal laboratory dealing in human experimentation somewhere in Yokohama. No one knows seems to know where though.” Jouno mentioned offhandedly one afternoon after he’d finished delivering his mission report, like it was just a casual piece of gossip he’d happened to overhear and not something important and disturbing. Well, disturbing to a normal person’s ears. But then again, it was Jouno telling him this, and Jouno was the kind of man who reacted to things like human experimentation like he was being asked what he was having for dinner. And most people would be unnerved by Jouno’s casual way of sharing what he’d overheard, but Genichiro had worked with the other man for years at this point; nothing that Jouno did phased him anymore.

Still, Genichiro acknowledged his subordinate’s words with a hum, because he too, had heard the rumours floating around about such an organisation, one that stole children off the streets in the dead of night and from the surrounding villages, and took them somewhere to be discovered as corpses in garbage bins at a later date. All of them eighteen or younger, and all of them with mysterious injuries that the local police couldn’t figure out, and all of them dead. If the rumours were true, then it would be quite the case to deal with, but since no one had come to him directly about the issue, he’d made the decision to stay on the sidelines and simply wait until it was either dealt with and the rumours disappeared into the wind, or until someone came crawling up to him on their hands and knees, begging for his help.

Which he was expecting to come soon, actually.

The slippery government officials in charge of him and his unit couldn’t handle anything without relying on him and the rest of the Hunting Dogs, and as annoying as it was, it always brought him joy to watch them grovel and beg at his feet whilst he stared them down, watching them sweat and squirm. Was it cruel? Probably, but it was entertaining, and in the end, he always said yes. Because it didn’t matter who brought the problems to him, all that mattered was that they were solved and that the people in danger, protected and saved, since that was what he’d sworn to do when he became the leader of the Hunting Dogs in the first place.

It was then that he realized that Jouno was still standing there, staring at him with that intense—yet still bored—way he did even though he couldn’t see you in the first place, and Genichiro narrowed his eyes, leaning back in his chair. It squeaked as it shifted under his weight, loud in the silence of the room; Jouno’s eye twitched at the noise. “What is it, Jouno?”

Jouno turned away from him, and shrugged. “You don’t seem all that bothered by what I just said, that’s all.”

“Should I be?” They had seen everything as Hunting Dogs after all these years; an illegal laboratory using children as its test subjects was child’s play compared to some of the things they’d witnessed in the last year alone. Which was saying something considering everything that Genichiro had witnessed throughout his own, long life of bloodshed and fighting.

Jouno shrugged again. “No, I guess not. But should we prepare to be deployed anyway?”

It was a smart idea, one that gave him a sense of pride towards his unit, and he thought over it for a moment before he nodded. “Yes. I’m sure everyone’s already together, but gather them anyway, and get a few units on standby. I’ll be by with further instructions soon, I’m sure. We just need to wait for them to make the call to involve us.”

“Understood, sir.” Jouno gave a short bow, and then spun on his heel and left the room, so quiet it was almost as if he’d never been there in the first place. As was usual for him. Genichiro simply rolled his eyes and returned to the paperwork he’d been completing—paperwork he didn’t want to be doing, but Teruko had gotten mad at him for not completing his share, hiding all his alcohol, and promising not to return it until all the paperwork was finished.

A cruel decision, in his opinion, but Teruko wouldn’t budge on the matter for once, so he settled for slaving away at his desk for the next few days.

Or so he thought.

As it turned out, Genichiro made the right decision in telling Jouno to prepare for a mission, because not even ten minutes after he had, was he approached by a member of the government, who simply handed him a very thin case file and told him to deal with the problem before it got any worse. He wasn’t even given a chance to make the man beg before he slunk off like a kicked puppy. He flicked through the file as he made his way towards the office that the Hunting Dogs worked out of in order to familiarise himself with the case… not that there was much of a case to begin with. The file itself was a single page with a list of names—missing children from the Yokohama area, and a few from towns he had barely heard of—that’d turned up dead with wounds that could be compared to those of human experimentation. There were a few photos attached as well, and a rumoured location from people scouting the suspected areas, but other than that, there was nothing.

It was a challenge that Genichiro was more than willing to accept, one that got his blood pumping, and he was certain that they would succeed in bringing the people responsible, crashing down. Because they were the Hunting Dogs, and when they were set loose, there was no hope for the people they were set upon. It was their sole purpose in life, really, to be a group of people experimented upon and enhanced just so that they would be stronger than anyone they fought against, doing what they were told, like dogs.

The irony wasn’t lost on Genichiro, but they had all volunteered and accepted the risks involved with becoming a Hunting Dog.

The children that were being experimented on hadn’t. And that made him angry.

Genichiro took a breath as he came to a halt outside of the room, and counted to five internally before he threw open the door, a grin on his face as the four occupants within jumped—well, not so much jumped, because those of his unit were well trained and did not jump at sudden noises, so really, it was just an acknowledgement to his arrival—as he stepped into the room. “I hope you all are ready for some action; we have a new mission.”

“Jouno was just telling us, captain!” Tachihara jumped to his feet, and slammed his hands down onto his desk, his youth making him quick to anger when it came to missions involving his own age group. Not a surprise, considering he hadn’t been with them for very long, and Genichiro was counting on that passion for the current mission. “Human experimentation is bad enough, but on children? That’s just despicable.”

“You say that like you aren’t still a child yourself, Tachihara.” Jouno commented from where he sat, head on his chin as he leant against his desk. A grin split across Jouno’s face as he continued, speaking casually in a way that did nothing but rile the other person that was unfortunate enough to have that tone used against them. “Technically speaking, you are a child experiment if you think about it.”

“What—? I’m nineteen! I am not a child!”

“And how old were you exactly when the captain recruited you? Please do remind me…” Jouno continued to press.

Tachihara sputtered, mouth moving as he tried to think of a comeback to throw back at his teammate, and failed, a blush rising up the back of his neck as he realized that he had nothing. Jouno’s grin only widened.

And then—

“Tachihara was fifteen.” Came Tecchou’s response from across the room. Deadpan, like always, and stated in a way that made it seem like it was the most important piece of information he could offer. Jouno’s lips twitched upwards slightly, the only indication he would ever give that he appreciated Tecchou speaking up. On the other side of the room, Teruko snorted. And Tachihara turned even redder than before.

“You’re not helping, Tecchou!” Tachihara shouted back at his teammate.

“But he’s not wrong, Tachihara!” Teruko retorted.

Genichiro sighed, and simply stood there, watching as his unit dissolved into senseless bickering like they almost always did before a mission. It was so common that he simply did what he always did and waited; they would stop eventually. Sure, he could step in and stop them now, and he always did for the arguments that bordered on damaging—there was nothing like trying to complete a mission when two of your team wouldn’t acknowledge each other the entire time; something that happened fairly frequently when you left Jouno and Tecchou alone for too long—but for arguments like this that were pointless and fun? He’d rather leave them be and let off a little steam so they could focus on the mission better.

These… scientists, as they dared to call themselves even though they were anything but, would need their full attention after all.

But when the bickering showed no signs of stopping, and started to grow louder, that was when he knew he had to step in. Genichiro slammed his fist against the wall, the sound echoing throughout the room. “Enough! We have a job to do!”

Immediately, the room fell silent, and three sets of eyes looked towards him. He watched as they all straightened, their faces losing the mirth and becoming serious. Good.

“What are your orders, captain?” Teruko asked.

“Find the location of this lab of theirs, and crush them.”

As he’d expected, the moment that he and his team were put on the case, they successfully narrowed down the location of the lab within the hour, and were ready and waiting outside of the supposedly abandoned warehouse, waiting only until they received approval to storm it. Which wouldn’t be too much longer if Genichiro was right, which he was. Already, Jouno had gone on to investigate the building, using his ability to avoid being detected as he confirmed the smell of human blood, and the sounds of people shifting about deep underground, although he hadn’t managed to find the entrance into the underground. But that was all the confirmation they needed to confirm that something was up with the building. Even if it turned out that whoever was here, was harmless, as unlikely as it was, they may have seen something of interest that could be helpful.

Genichiro stood tall as he stared down the massive building in front of him, his hands resting on his sword, just thinking. He didn’t move, he didn’t remove his gaze, and he didn’t lose his focus either, ignoring those that moved around him, whispering, and watching to see what he would do. Most would assume that he was formulating some kind of plan for when they finally got approval—some were probably hoping to see him level the building as they’d heard in stories—but he wasn’t; instead, he was thinking of the last time he’d been sent on such a mission, back when the war had still been going strong, and the enemy had grown so desperate as to create an army of children that had been experimented on and modified against their will.

It’d been a desperate attempt to try and combat the growing number of ability users in battle, but in the end, they’d been sent to die by the enemy, and the battalion that he had been a part of at the time, had been responsible for their destruction. At the time, he’d thought it cruel and barbaric, and he still thought it so, even now.

The fear in those children’s eyes… the blood on their hands as they fought in a war they never should’ve been in in the first place.

It did nothing but fuel his anger at the world, at the people that turned a blind eye to such things. So of course, he would do everything he could to prevent such a thing from happening again, no matter the cost.

“Captain, we’ve been given the green light to go in.” Teruko said, a serious look on her face as she moved to stand beside him, following his gaze to stare at the building alongside him. “What are your orders?”

Genichiro didn’t hesitate to speak, raising his voice so it echoed to the others in the vicinity. “Take them alive. Groups like this don’t tend to have just one hideout, so take whoever you find alive and make sure you squeeze every last bit of information out of them. We’re ending whatever dreams they have, right now.”

“Yes, sir.” Teruko inclined her head before marching off, barking orders at those she passed. “You heard the captain! Get a move on! And you lot better do a good job or you’ll be the ones I get to have fun with next in the interrogation room!”

Voices rose in response to the order before silence fell, and he watched as they entered the building and turned right, just like he’d discussed with Teruko earlier. Genichiro waited, listening to the radio chatter in his ear as Jouno and Tecchou also entered the building from the opposite side, before he made his own way inside. With a building as large as this, with several paths that led both in and out, he’d told the members of his team to grab a handful of soldiers each, and pick an entrance to stake out. The intention was to create a barricade with no means of escape, and slowly work their way inside until they met up in the ‘centre’ of it all. Of course, he wasn’t fool enough to leave the outside completely unattended, which was why he’d ordered Tachihara to hang back in the trees with his own group of men, and not let anyone get past. Regardless of whether they were friend or foe.

With a plan like this, it was only a matter of time before they caught the people they were hunting.

He was looking forward to the hunt, if he was being honest.

Once he was surrounded in silence, Genichiro moved. He entered through the same door that Teruko disappeared into just moments ago, but turned left instead. Alone, for he was more than enough of a threat, and having soldiers trailing after him would be more of a hindrance than a help; they’d all fawn over his every decision like the fans most of them were, and that was the last thing he wanted. Besides, there was no knowing what awaited him on this path, what kind of atrocities he might walk in on, and it was always easier to face such things alone. Just like he always did.

Each step that Genichiro took was silent and deliberate; the floor littered with broken glass and rubbish, which wasn’t out of the norm for an abandoned building of this size. Over the years, many criminals or homeless people had probably hidden out here, and left things behind in their haste to leave. But what was out of the norm for a building that was supposed to be abandoned, was the smeared mud and the occasional boot print, no doubt having come from someone entering the building. And sure, it could’ve been old mud, but considering it had rained the previous night… he was inclined to believe otherwise. Genichiro stopped to crouch beside one of the smears, reaching out to touch it, rubbing his fingers together to get a feel for it; it was cool and damp through his gloves, meaning the mud was fresh, which further meant that the building wasn’t as abandoned as they’d initially been led to believe.

Genichiro let a grin grow on his face; he’d caught the scent, now he just had to follow it.

Drawing his sword as a precaution—you never knew what lay in the shadows, a lesson he’d learnt the hard way long ago—Genichiro made his way further into the building, listening out for signs of life, regardless of how slight it might be. But there was nothing. Just dead silence, and from what he could hear through his earpiece, no one else was having any luck either. Whoever these people are, they know how to hide, was the thought that crossed his mind as he continued moving. Wait, there’s something about that wall there…

The wall in question looked like any other normal wall, and Genichiro had seen enough secret entrances in both real life and movies to know how to find them, and this wall just wasn’t it. But there was just something about it that seemed… odd. Compared to the rest of the walls in this building that had stains of unknown origins, and crumbling paint jobs, this wall was… clean. Too clean, and that was what made it odd. It probably wouldn’t have looked so out of place if the floor had been in a similar state of cleanliness, but the floor was just as filthy as the rest of the building; only this wall was clean. Yet when he ran his hands along the wall, he found nothing. No hidden switches, no indentations in the paint job that would indicate the wall was a door, for all intents and purposes, the wall in front of him really was a wall.

So why didn’t he believe it?

For several minutes, he continued to stare at the wall, knowing that it was a key in this puzzle he’d found himself an unwilling participant in, like there was something that was keeping him there. He couldn’t put a finger on what that feeling was… it was almost as if he was… craving the wall? Wait, that’s not—

A pinch in the back of his neck was the last thing he was aware off.

“Keep him—too well-known—”

He couldn’t move, yet he was being dragged.

“—perfect—won’t die—”

His senses were dulled, and it felt as if he were floating.

“You fool—bring ruin—not—”

The first thing Genichiro became aware of when his eyes flew open, was the fact that instead of studying a wall, he was now bound and locked in a cage like some kind of animal. And that he was alone in some kind of room that certainly did not fit in with the aesthetic of abandoned building. The walls around him were like that of a typical laboratory or hospital, clean, free of dirt, and absolutely no windows. Although the lack of windows probably had more to do with the fact that wherever he was, he was now underground, and didn’t exactly need windows. Another look told him that his captors had been smart enough to take his weapons and clothes from him—not that he needed his weapons to be a threat, thank you very much—but not smart enough to remove them from the room they were keeping in him. He could see them in the corner of the room, dumped hapharzardly.

If he could just break free, everything would be fine.

And he would break free, but not right now. For now, he’d play the helpless victim, let his captors think they’d won, and gather some information.

He heard a door open from somewhere behind him, and allowed his eyes to slip closed, and slowed his breathing to match that of an unconscious person; he wasn’t the man of a hundred faces for nothing after all, faking unconsciousness was one of the first things he’d learnt on the battlefield, and it had come in handy more than once in his life. Besides, people tended to speak more freely if they knew their conversations weren’t being listened in on, and Genichiro was counting on whoever had just entered the room to be one such person.

“How much sedative did you pump into him? He’s still out.” A voice, male and young, came from right beside his head, and Genichiro felt a finger poke him between the brow, only to hear the sound of skin hitting skin. There was another person in the room.

“You foolish boy!” The second voice, older, and somewhere between feminine and masculine, snapped. “You don’t seem to realize just who we have here, otherwise you never would’ve used your ability on him!”

Ah, so the wall was an ability.

There was a scoff. “It worked didn’t it? And you were complaining just the other day about having no good subjects for E-1021. Who cares if he’s some important war hero? He’s strong—which you wanted—and older—which you also wanted—”

E-1021?

“And this man is the Fukuchi Ouchi!” The older interrupted, sounding even angrier than earlier. “The leader of the Hunting Dogs. You know, the government experiments they send out to catch criminals—stop looking so excited! If Fukuchi Ouchi is here, then you can bet your sorry ass that the rest of his unit is right behind him. It’s a good thing we heard rumours and started evacuating already…”

“You worry too much, Sensei, my ability will let us know—”

“Your first mistake is relying on your ability. Your second, was forcing me to use the sedatives for E-1021 on him. You know how long it takes me to make those!”

A sigh from the younger. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? But seriously, stop stressing so much, we’ve just got to get E-1021 to a new location and we’ll be fine. Not even the Hunting Dogs will be able to track us.”

Famous last words, boy. Genichiro thought, fighting the urge to just sit up and break free right then and there. While he’d learnt far more than he’d expected to, he still had questions that needed answering, and there was no telling whether these two were alone in the building, or if there were others busy elsewhere. He was certainly curious about this E-1021 that they kept mentioning, figuring that whatever it was, it must’ve been one of their experiments, but he doubted he’d actually learn what that was unless he outright asked. And that wasn’t happening anytime soon. If it was a helpless child though, he would make sure that these people paid, and paid dearly.

He continued to listen as the conversation veered off into useless casual conversation, like these two people were colleagues enjoying a peaceful day of work instead of murdering a bunch of children for their precious experiments. He continued to listen as their voices drifted towards the cage he was locked in, before they continued on back towards the door through which they had entered. The door shut, yet still, Genichiro didn’t move, just in case it was a ploy to get him to reveal that he’d heard their entire conversation. But once the silence had stretched on for several minutes, he opened his eyes and pushed himself upright.

The cage he was in was small, but not so small that he couldn’t move about. Sure, he couldn’t stand, but he didn’t need to. All he needed was something to use as a weapon, and this escape would be the easiest one ever.

Either it was luck or pure stupidity, but while his captors had taken his sword and his clothes, they had left him in his pants, the pants that were currently being held firm by the belt around his waist, the belt that, when placed within his hands and therefore the power of his own ability, was all the weapon he could ever need. It took some manoeuvring, but he managed to get the hands that were bound behind his back, in front of him, and from there, it was child’s play to unthread his belt and remove it. Once the belt was free, he looped it around the bars of his cage and pulled it tight.

And then he pulled.

He could feel his muscles straining as he put all his weight against the belt and the bars, but he did not stop. He pulled, and pulled, and pulled, feeling the bars beginning to bend underneath the force of which he was using against them. Genichiro knew, that if he were a regular human being, that such an endeavour as the one he was doing, wouldn’t be feasible in the slightest. Normal humans simply did not have the strength to just bend metal without assistance. But he wasn’t normal, not in the slightest; because not only was he an ability user, but he was also an enhanced individual. Things like breaking metal bars with his bare hands was just a warm up compared to what he could actually do.

Clang!

The bar gave way, snapping off and falling to the ground, creating enough noise that he froze for a moment, expecting to hear rapid footsteps approach him. But when none came, he continued, using his strength to widen the gap enough that he could squeeze himself through with only a little bit of difficulty. Once he was free, it only took a few minutes for him to cross the room and remove his bindings with his sword—really, you would think that if they’d bound his hands, they would’ve bound his feet as well—and redress himself. The only thing missing was his communicator, which was to be expected, annoying, but expected.

Not that he needed it, since if his captors had destroyed the device, it would’ve sent out a response to the rest of his unit of his last known location. He just had to hope that—

“Hey! What the hell?” The younger voice from earlier returned, and Genichiro turned to see a youthful face staring up at him with anger and just a little bit of caution. Good, the man knew just how dangerous Genichiro really was.

“I think I should be the one asking you that, boy.” Genichiro said as he picked up his sword, grinning when the stranger took a step back. “Oh? Are you scared of me now? What happened to all that bravado from earlier?”

He watched the stranger’s throat bob as they swallowed. “Well, uh, obviously you weren’t meant to hear that conversation, but you did, and well, um, really, um—”

What a pathetic excuse of a man. The last of Genichiro’s patience wore off, and he stormed up to the man and grabbed him by the collar. “How about this? You tell me what it is that I want to know, and you won’t find yourself impaled on my sword. Deal?”

The words weren’t even fully out of Genichiro’s mouth before the man was nodding frantically. “Ye—yes, of course, I’ll tell you anything you want, just please… keep your sword in its sheathe. I quite like my life, I also like being in one piece, although I suppose—”

“What’s your name, boy?” Genichiro asked, interrupting him before had to listen to whatever drivel was about to come out of his mouth.

The man blinked, looking just a little stunned at the question. “Wh—what?”

“Your name. What is it?”

“Haruto…”

Genichiro nodded and let go of Haruto’s collar. “Well then, Haruto, it’s your lucky day. I have a job for you.” He waited until Haruto nodded before he continued. “I want you to take me to whatever, or whoever, this E-1021 is. Understood?”

Haruto opened his mouth, a frown on his face, but before the refusal could even begin to be voiced, Genichiro lowered his hand to rest on the hilt of his sword and narrowed his eyes, the threat unspoken. He watched Haruto battle with himself, eyes flicking from him towards the door, and then down to Genichiro’s sword before he sighed, shoulders dropping. “I understand. Follow me.”

He followed behind Haruto carefully, keeping his distance just in case the man decided to try and use his ability on him again. His memory was still a little foggy from before his capture, so he wasn’t quite sure how the ability worked, only remembering the way that it seemed to enchant him. Some kind of illusion ability, perhaps? Whatever it was, it admittedly would’ve been useful to have such a person on their side instead of the enemies, but it wasn’t the case this time. He almost felt bad for Haruto. Almost. But he pushed that small amount of sympathy to the side and focused on the present, taking note of every turn they took, of every door they went through, and of the way that Haruto seemed to grow more uneasy the longer they walked. Ah, it dawned on Genichiro as they turned down yet another corridor, he’s trying to lead me into a trap. Clever boy, but not clever enough.

But even though he was aware that he was being led astray, Genichiro kept following Haruto, because chances were that Haruto was leading him to whoever it was that had been in the room talking to him earlier, and if that was the case, then playing along was the best thing for him to do right now.

After several more turns, they finally stopped outside a door. Genichiro tightened his grip on his sword, yet still did not draw it; he did stand tall, prepared to strike, as Haruto pushed down on the handle and allowed the door to swing open. The room inside was dark, so dark that there was no way of telling what awaited him inside. There was no way in hell that he was setting foot into that room. His eyes fell to Haruto. “Is this it?”

Haruto nodded. “We keep E-1021 here in the dark. It’s safer that way.”

“Safer for who exactly?” Genichiro asked. If E-1021 was one of the children being experimented on by whatever organisation that Haruto belonged to, it made no sense to keep their precious subject behind a door that wasn’t even locked.

“For everyone. E-1021 is volatile and dangerous, so keeping them isolated in the dark is the only way we can contain them. It keeps them calm.” Haruto shrugged and gestured for Genichiro to step through the doorway, only to shrink away as he was glared at. “What’s that look for…?”

Genichiro stepped up to the doorway, and peered into it, before he spun around and grabbed Haruto by the collar when he heard movement behind him, dragging the man in front of him. Haruto let out a cry as the floor disappeared beneath his feet, arms wrapping around Genichiro’s own as he held on for dear life. “No, please! Don’t, I’m sorry!”

“Oh? Are you now.” Genichiro took another step so that Haruto was now dangling over the darkness. Even now, as close as he was, he still couldn’t see into the room, which made him wonder just big of a room this was. Maybe the man in his grip was right, and that this was where they were keeping E-1021—which he still thought was a stupid idea, but then again, he still had no idea what exactly this experiment of theirs was. Was it a child? An animal? Or something else entirely? Regardless of the answer, he would figure it out, but first, he had to deal with Haruto. “Just what were you hoping to achieve here? Push me into this room and shut the door, hoping I would die?”

“No—no, not at all—”

“Lying won’t save you now, boy.” Genichiro loosened his grip, which caused Haruto to cry and cling even more.

“You said you wouldn’t kill me!” Haruto cried out desperately.

“I said I wouldn’t impale you on my sword.” Genichiro said, raising an eyebrow. “I never said I wouldn’t kill you.”

And then he let go.

Haruto’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open, but nothing came out as he disappeared into the darkness, far away from Genichiro’s eyes. His own eyes slipped closed as he listened for the sound of a body hitting the ground. But it never came. Big room. This is definitely what we were looking for.

“Captain!” Genichiro turned to see Teruko running towards him, Tecchou following quietly behind her. “I was starting to think we’d never find you in this hellish excuse of a maze. Seriously, so many twists and turns and for what? Nothing! That’s what. There’s nothing of interest here.”

“They knew we were coming somehow, and began evacuating.” Genichiro explained, and pointed into the room. “There’s something in this room though, according to the scientist I caught. There must be a second entrance further down, because the drop from here is lethal it seems.”

Neither of them questioned how he knew that, Tecchou simply stepping up to stand beside him and peering into the room. “It is rather dark.”

“Wow, look at you go, Tecchou, that has to be the most obvious thing you’ve said all day.” Teruko rolled her eyes as she too, approached the room. “Jouno’s busy on the opposite side of the building—we think at least, we haven’t heard from him in a bit—so we can’t get him over here to find out how deep it goes. How do you plan on proceeding, captain?”

Before Genichiro could even begin to answer, Tecchou interrupted by drawing his sword. “I can use my ability to lower the captain to the ground.”

Genichiro brought a hand to his chin, and rubbed at it. “Will your ability reach?”

Tecchou gained a thoughtful look for a moment before he nodded. “Should do. If not, I bring you back up, and we find that second entrance.”

“Alright then. We’ll go with that idea then.”

He waited until Tecchou had extended his sword, before he carefully lowered himself into the room, making sure that his foot was secured on the little hook that Tecchou made, before he let go and hung onto the sword. For a couple of minutes, they stayed like that, making sure that both the sword, and Tecchou, would be able to hold the weight, and then Genichiro was being lowered into the darkness. He continued to watch his comrades, watching as they grew smaller, until they were replaced with darkness, and then all he could do was stand there, on a sword, and wait. At this point, he was convinced that the darkness was some kind of ability, because there was no way that this was natural; it didn’t feel natural either, there was an unnatural chill to the air, and even though he should be a little unnerved at being surrounded by darkness so thick he couldn’t see the sword he was standing on, he felt nothing but calm.

Perhaps it was the ability of Haruto’s companion? The one that had been angry about his capture,

There was a quiet thunk and a jerk, as Genichiro’s descent came to a halt, and despite it doing nothing, he blinked a few times before stepping off the sword. He drew his own sword, unsure of what he would find in this room—if he found anything at all, that was. Somehow, the darkness was thicker now that he’d reached the bottom, and he took a few cautious steps forward into it.

He couldn’t even hear his own footsteps.

Slowly, he moved, placing one foot in front of the other, and keeping his sword in front of him. He listened out for anything that might prove dangerous to him, but he doubted he would hear anything approach him, if he couldn’t even hear himself; it was more out of habit at this point. Every few steps, he paused and looked around, hoping for maybe a little bit of light that would give him an inkling as to what was in the room. But of course, there was nothing. Nothing but darkness.

Clang!

Oh? Genichiro pulled his sword away, and reached out with a hand, feeling metal underneath his palm. The kind of metal that belonged to a cage. A cage that could be holding something inside of it. If only he could see what it was that he was—

Suddenly, the darkness vanished, flooding the room in a dim light.

—and he could see what he was touching.

And he was right in that it was a cage; the contraption was as small as the one he’d been kept in, perhaps a little bigger, and it was the only thing in the room. The only thing that surrounded the cage were the four walls that contained it, and the door that he had entered through. And well, the corpse that had once been Haruto just to the side of where he had descended. Genichiro returned his attention to the cage, peering through the bars to see what lay within, and was greeted by the greenest eyes he’d ever seen in a human being. They were as green as emeralds, but lacked the brightness of the gemstone in question, dulled by whatever trauma the boy had been through.

The eyes were attached to a small figure, a boy from the looks of him, scrawny and thin, with matted black hair, and E-1021 branded into the side of his neck. Clearly this was the all important experiment that Haruto had told him about, which begged the question of why he wasn’t in better shape. This boy looked half-starved and naked, with scars and wounds in various stages of healing. Did these people not care if their precious experiment died before they could accomplish their goals? Apparently not.

Genichiro crouched before the cage, watching as the eyes followed him. The boy didn’t approach, but his expression was one of curiosity, and for a few moments, they simply watched each other, Genichiro studying the sight in front of him, and the boy just watching to try and understand what was going to happen next. After another minute or so, Genichiro stood and swung his sword at the cage, and the boy shrunk in on himself to avoid the strike, even though it hadn’t been him that Genichiro was aiming at in the first place. He watched as the top half of the cage slid off, and fell to the side with a loud clang, and then sheathed his sword. The silence was even stronger now.

The green eyes looked towards the broken cage, before they turned back to focus on him, that curiosity from before giving way to wariness and a little bit of fear. Yet still, the boy didn’t cower from him, and that told Genichiro that he was strong. Slowly, he stepped into the cage and instead of crouching, this time he knelt, withdrawing his cape from his shoulders, and reached out to cover the boy with it, shielding his naked body from the world. Then, he sat back on his heels and waited. He watched as one of the boy’s bony hands reached up to draw the cape around himself, burrowing into it like a cat might with a blanket, closing his eyes and curling up. Now that he thought about it, the room was cold, so cold that even Genichiro felt the chill; he couldn’t even begin to imagine how this boy felt with nothing but his skin and the metal flooring beneath him.

“Are you cold?” Genichiro asked.

The green eyes flicked open and looked towards him. The boy nodded once.

“Come here then. I’ll keep you warm.”

Eyes narrowed at his words, untrusting, but Genichiro could be patient when he wanted to be, so he waited, placing his sword on the ground before stretching out his arms to try and encourage the boy to come closer. Eventually, he was rewarded when the boy crawled towards him, slowly, with eyes that never strayed from his own, and skinny arms that wrapped themselves around his neck. Genichiro dropped one arm to rest around the boy’s waist, enough for him to be aware that it was there, but light enough to not make it feel as if he were being trapped again. After all, if he was to get himself and the boy out of here, he needed the boy to trust him, and quick. And if a warm hug was all it took, he’d give as many as was needed.

“Do you have a name?” Genichiro asked after they had sat there for several minutes without moving or making a single noise. His legs were starting to stiffen from kneeling for so long.

Silence followed his question, and the boy’s body tensed in his grip before he felt the nod against his chest. It took another few minutes of silence before he was greeted by hoarse voice, one that clearly hadn’t been used in some time if the way it cracked and failed as the boy tried to speak. “Ranpo…”

Genichiro looked down, and reached over with his free arm to pick up his sword. “You can call me Fukuchi, or Genichiro, I don’t care. Now, how about we get you out of here? Get you some clothes, and some food. Does that sound good?”

The boy didn’t make a sound, or even move side from the arms around his neck tightening, which was all the affirmation he needed. Making sure he had a good grip before he moved, Genichiro stood with Ranpo in his arms, and all he could think about in that moment was how Ranpo was even alive in the first place with how little he weighed. Seriously, he felt lighter than the pen that Genichiro used to write his reports with. And somehow, this boy in his arms was supposed to be their most prized experiment? He looked more like a corpse than a prize.

Genichiro made his way back towards Tecchou’s sword, managing to figure out a way to simultaneously hold onto both the sword and Ranpo without having to disturb the boy. Now that the darkness was gone, he could see how deep the room really was, and the answer was deep. Without the darkness blocking his vision, he could see Tecchou peering into the room, but he was nothing but a pinprick, a small dot on the horizon. Still, Tecchou must’ve been able to see him, or at least feel his weight, since the moment he was secure, he began to rise, and he was glad when the trip to the top took less time than the trip to the bottom had, and before he knew it, he was pulling himself over the edge, Tecchou grabbing onto the back of his jacket to help him.

“So there was something down there.” Tecchou commented once Genichiro was standing, the door leading into the room now shut. He was staring at Ranpo curiously, who was doing nothing to hide his fearful look as he pressed himself close to Genichiro’s chest. Apparently the presence of another human being was more than the boy could handle. “A child?”

“Hard to tell, but most likely.” Genichiro said, glancing down at Ranpo. It was hard to give an accurate assumption as to Ranpo’s age, what with how malnourished and tiny he was, and it was even harder considering the boy’s reluctance to speak or make any kind of noise. Sure, he hadn’t exactly asked Ranpo how old he was, more focused on getting him out of that cage, but he didn’t think he’d get an answer even if he did. Genichiro lifted his head and frowned. “Where’s Teruko?”

Tecchou pointed down the hall. “We weren’t sure what was happening, so Teruko decided to try and find the second entrance. But we did speak just before, and she said she’d found some computers that she was going to try and get information off of.”

“And Jouno?”

“Still out of contact.”

Genichiro hummed. Normally, he would be worried if one of his team had been out of contact, but again, Jouno was Jouno, he tended to do that when focused on a job. He’d long since learnt that he only needed to worry if Tecchou was worried, and since Tecchou wasn’t worrying, he squashed his own down. There were more important things to focus on right now, like finding a way out of this god forsaken building for starters. In the trek to this room, Genichiro had tried to keep track of all the turns he’d taken, and he was confident that he could find his way out, but he did wish that the underground laboratory wasn’t so twisty and convoluted. It was a poor design choice if you asked him.

“We’re leaving. Tell Teruko to locate Jouno before she joins us.” Genichiro ordered as he strode past Tecchou.

“Yes, captain.”

Getting out of the laboratory proved easier than getting in, thanks to Tecchou memorising the route that he and Teruko had taken to get to Genichiro in the first place. Now came the next problem in trying to convince the boy he’d found to let go of him. The moment they’d stepped out of the building into sunlight, Ranpo seemed to have remembered that he had a pair of working lungs that worked very well, because he let out the loudest cry, surprising everyone in the vicinity, before throwing himself out of Genichiro’s arms to go and hide in the darkest corner of the building, which thankfully, was close to the entrance. Because if Genichiro had had to add chasing a naked experiment across the building to his list of things he’d done today, he would’ve called it quits then and there.

“You’re a bit of a brat, I hope you know.” Genichiro said as he crouched before Ranpo once again, and threw his cape over the boys head since he’d lost it in his mad dash to get away. “The sun’s not going to hurt you. In fact, it’s good for you.”

Ranpo glared at him from under the cape before he pulled it over his head and disappeared entirely.

Genichiro sighed, and tugged the cape back down until Ranpo’s face was visible. “Oi, you trusted me enough to get you out of that room, so do me a favour and trust that I’ll keep you safe. No one here’s going to lay a hand on you without my say so.”

There was no answer to his words, which he expected at this point, but Ranpo did reach out and latch onto his jacket with a tight grip, so that was something. And when he stood, Ranpo followed him up, standing on shaky legs that looked far too thin to hold him upright in the first place. Without a word, Genichiro swung Ranpo up into his arms and left the building, ignoring the way that the boy curled into his chest the moment they were outside—a reaction, he realized, was probably due to the fact that it’d probably been years since Ranpo had left the laboratory. He was just a little glad in that moment, that the sun was beginning to set, since it meant that the sunlight wasn’t as harsh as it could’ve been, and would be easier to tolerate; still, he pulled his cloak over Ranpo’s head a little to shield him.

His attention was drawn by rapidly approaching footsteps, and he looked up to see Tachihara skid to a halt in front of him, eyes widening as they fell upon the bundle in Genichiro’s arms. “Is that one of the children? Tecchou told me you found someone down in the lab.”

“We’re not sure how old he is. He may be a child, but he might also not be. Teruko seems to have found information related to him though, so we’ll wait until she gets back.” Genichiro said, thinking back to when Ranpo had stood and how he reached his shoulders. Just. That wasn’t the height of a child, especially not one in such a state as Ranpo was, but still, without any actual proof, there was no way of knowing.

“Poor guy…” Tachihara’s face became one of sympathy. “What’s gonna happen to him?”

Now that was an important question, one he both did and did not have an answer for. There was no knowing exactly what it was that Ranpo had gone through, what he might’ve been subjected to, or what the scientists had actually done with him, but he knew that despite that lack of knowledge, there would be a line of people wanting to use him for their own goals, and that wasn’t Genichiro’s business. He was just doing as he was ordered.

But then he looked down at the same time as Ranpo looked up, those piercing green eyes seeming to stare right through him and into his soul, scared yet still filled with hope, and he realized that it wouldn’t be right to let Ranpo be taken by others, and came to a decision; Ranpo would stay with them. Ranpo seemed to realize this, for his eyes relaxed and slipped shut, and he curled into Genichiro even more, nuzzling into the crook of his neck.

Genichiro sighed and looked back at Tachihara. “He’ll be under our responsibility upon our return.”

Tachihara frowned. “The bosses aren’t gonna like that.”

Genichiro huffed. I’d like to see them try and fight me.

The trek back to the compound was uneventful, well, as uneventful as it could be when one had a science experiment curled in their arms like a small child. That wasn’t to say that Ranpo wasn’t small, because he was. If Genichiro had so desired, he could’ve snapped Ranpo in half with his bare hands, and honestly, he had to wonder if that would’ve been the more merciful option. Ranpo’s grip on his jacket was so tight that his arm shook, and they stared at everyone with distrust, snarling whenever someone got too close, teeth snapping at fingers that wandered too close, and hiding in Genichiro’s cape whenever someone’s eyes landed on him; sometimes he did both, and the sudden changes in behaviour were beginning to give him whiplash. It was almost as if Ranpo didn’t know whether to fight or flee or hide, fighting against a myriad of instincts. It made Genichiro wonder just what exactly had gone on in that lab.

The only constant was his need to hold onto Genichiro, much to his frustration.

He’d tried to palm Ranpo off to someone else so that he could regroup with his unit and discuss their findings—Teruko had successfully pulled information off of the computers she’d found, and Jouno had apprehended the scientist that had been accompanying Haruto back when it had been Genichiro in the cage. But the moment that he’d pulled Ranpo’s hand off his jacket, and dumped him into the arms of an unwilling soldier, the boy’s mouth opened wide and an ear-splitting scream erupted from him, as he clawed his way out of the soldier’s arms, and threw himself at Genichiro with no hesitation and latching on even harder than before. And no amount of coaxing could convince Ranpo to let go—Genichiro tried everything he knew; bribery, gentle words, threats, but nothing worked.

Ranpo just would not let go.

So he was forced to cart Ranpo around like a parent might with their infant child and it as embarrassing as it was humiliating; the few soldiers that had dared to laugh at his predicament were promised a harsh training regime upon their return, and those that hadn’t laughed were silently threatened with a similar fate if they dared to.

The laughter stopped after that.

But now they were back at the compound, in a private room in the infirmary where Ranpo would stay and be tended to by the same doctors that tended to himself the rest of the Hunting Dogs when they were injured, and still, Ranpo refused to let go, slapping his hands away whenever Genichiro tried to grab him—even managing to bite him one time, which did nothing by make Genichiro lose his patience entirely.

“Get off me!” He snapped, trying for the umpteenth time to pry Ranpo’s hand from the collar of his shirt. He was so close to just ripping Ranpo off and slamming into the ground, but he refrained because he was trying not to traumatise the boy even more. But he thought about it.

“Fukuchi, sir, maybe we can—” One of the doctors tried to interject, only to recoil when Ranpo’s head snapped towards them, and snarled. Literally snarled like a dog would.

I should’ve left him in that cage. Left him and said sorry, too bad, we found nothing. “Just stay back!” Genichiro ordered, reaching over his shoulders to grab at Ranpo who was clinging to his back right at that moment; a feat made harder by the fact he wasn’t wearing any clothes—the cloak had been lost in the scuffle early on—and therefore had nothing to grab onto other than slippery skin, skin that was battered and wounded he had to remind himself. He got lucky, managing to snag one of Ranpo’s arms in his own—he ignored the way his hand engulfed the limb—and then pulled, flinging Ranpo over his shoulder and slammed him into the bed. From there, it was easy to pin the boy down, all it took was a hand on his chest, and a knee pressing his legs into the bed. Their faces were mere centimetres apart, eyes glaring at each other. Genichiro increased the pressure on Ranpo’s chest. “Behave.”

And just like that, the fight left Ranpo entirely and he slumped, although Genichiro made sure to wait another minute before he climbed off of him, nodding towards the doctors to indicate it was safe for them to begin working. He watched as they moved about Ranpo, bandaging the injuries on his skin, dressing him in a gown and connecting him to wires that would monitor his condition, tucking him into the bed and piling the blankets on so that he would be warm enough—even out of the lab, Ranpo’s skin was still like ice. Not a sound came from Ranpo, even as they stuck him with needles and poked and prodded to try and learn as much as they could from just his body, a far cry from the boy that had been fighting them all moments before. Instead, Ranpo’s eyes were dull and very far away.

Genichiro wasn’t stupid, he knew exactly what was happening, he’d seen it in the war amongst his fellow soldiers many times, and fewer times in himself before he’d learnt how to simply ignore it and push though; consequences be damned. Dissociation was what it was, the act of retreating into the darkest corners of one’s mind to protect oneself from traumatic events, and Ranpo had dissociated hard from the look of it.

A good person would’ve stayed with Ranpo, perhaps even sat by his bedside until he returned, but Genichiro was far from a good person. He may have saved this boy from his life as a lab rat, but that was all that was required of him. His part in this was done, it was up to the doctors to handle Ranpo now.

So he left.

Only to be called a couple of hours later by the doctor, telling him that his presence was required because they were experiencing some kind of issue. What issue, he didn’t know, and he was tempted to tell the doctor to handle it on his own, but he didn’t; reluctantly dragging himself back to Ranpo’s room after telling the man he’d be there momentarily. Apparently, the former lab rat—former, he had to remind himself—couldn’t have waited until debrief had finished, nor could he wait for Genichiro to get something to eat, so his foul mood was made even worse. He stormed down the halls, the thunderous look on his face more than enough to get people to get out of his way, and those that didn’t, were shoved aside, until he came to a stop outside the room.

He took a single breath, and threw the door open.

And was promptly tackled by Ranpo, who clutched at him desperately with tears in his eyes, apologies falling from his lips, along with cries and begs for Genichiro to not leave him. Genichiro stood there, stunned for a moment, because what the hell was this? This was unfamiliar territory to him, because people didn’t like Genichiro, let alone attach themselves to him in such a manner; he didn’t allow it. He lifted his head to look at the doctor, exasperated.

The doctor, Namikawa, threw him an apologetic look. “I apologize for having to bother you, Fukuchi, sir, but he became distressed upon waking. Noticed you were gone and just panicked, and we weren’t able to calm him down until I promised to get you back here.”

“You couldn’t just sedate him?” Genichiro questioned, managing to get Ranpo to let go long enough so that he could enter the room properly and shut the door behind him. The moment the door was shut, Ranpo threw himself back at him, forcing Genichiro to catch and hold him as he jumped. Yeah, he really wasn’t liking this behaviour. He wouldn’t have cared if it’d been one of the other Hunting Dogs that Ranpo had latched onto, he might’ve even found it funny, but it was him that’d been latched onto, so it wasn’t.

Instead of answering, Namikawa raised his arm, where there was a bite wound that had been drenched in antiseptic. “We tried, sir. He bites.”

Of course he does. Genichiro scowled, looking down at the boy in his arms, and used one hand to shove Ranpo’s head where it rested against his shoulder. “You are the biggest brat I have ever met. And I’ve met lots of bratty people.”

Ranpo whined, arms curling around Genichiro’s neck, and green eyes peered at him from where Ranpo had buried his face into Genichiro’s shoulder. The boy didn’t say anything, not that he needed to; his eyes told Genichiro everything he needed to know. You promised safety. You left. Don’t go. I’m scared.

It truly would’ve been impressive how much Ranpo conveyed without a single word, but the connotations that came with that weren’t anything good. He let out a sigh and lifted his head. “Was there something in particular you needed from him?”

“We were hoping to see if he’ll eat anything, otherwise just getting him to rest was the main goal of today.” Namikawa explained. “Are you going to stay, sir?”

“It’s not like I have a choice.” Genichiro grumbled, as he made his way across the room and tried for the second time that day to pry Ranpo from his being. This time though, it went easier, as if Ranpo somehow knew that he was staying, and he crawled onto the bed, waiting until Genichiro sat on the bed before latching onto him again.

It was uncomfortable, to have someone hold onto him so affectionately, and he couldn’t stop himself from tensing as Ranpo crawled even closer to him. If it weren’t for the risk of causing the boy to react badly, he would’ve shoved him away, kept him at arm’s length and told him no. Because Genichiro was the commander of the Hunting Dogs, and more than well-known for his military prowess and combat skills; he didn’t do soft and loving. Well, he had, once upon a time, but that was before war and bloodshed had tainted him.

A small hand tugged at his shirt, and he glanced down to look at Ranpo, the boy staring at him with a frown. After a moment, Ranpo reached over to grab at Genichiro’s hand, squeezing it, his eyes holding an almost understanding look within them. It sent a shudder down his spine, and he used his free hand to give Ranpo’s forehead a poke, gentle for a change. “Brat.”

Ranpo’s cheeks puffed out. Mean!

“From the information that I pulled from the computers, those scientists of that underground laboratory we raided, were trying to create the ‘perfect weapon’ or something like it. There’s still a lot to go through, but that’s the basic idea of what they were doing. We’re figuring out the how still as well.” Teruko explained, spinning in circles on a chair in the meeting room where they’d all met up to discuss their latest mission several days ago. “They were somehow alerted to our raid in advance, and managed to destroy most of the evidence, but in their haste to evacuate, they forgot to wipe the computers, so we have a decent amount of information, not to mention the scientist that Jouno managed to capture.”

Tachihara frowned, his fingers of one hand drumming against the table, while he rested his head on the other. “Are they talking yet?”

“No, they are not.” Jouno snarled unhappily from his own seat, a look of absolute displeasure on his face. Not that anyone could fault him for looking so pissed off when the scientists he’d apprehended had caused a lot of trouble with their ability—as it turned out, that suffocating darkness had been their ability, and the reason for its disappearance had been because Jouno had knocked them out, but only after sustaining injuries that he was still healing from.

“Someone’s a little touchy.” Teruko stopped spinning, and grinned. “Still salty that they had the upper hand on you until I arrived?”

“They did not have the upper hand—”

“Don’t lie, they totally did. You were about to be killed when I got there—”

Jouno’s face began to turn red, embarrassed, as he hissed at Teruko. “Shut up!”

“Enough!” Genichiro yelled, his voice echoing throughout the room, interrupting the argument before it could truly begin. “Save your quarrels and your teasing for after this meeting. Teruko, continue.”

“Yes, of course, sorry, captain!” Teruko changed positions until she was kneeling on the chair and hanging over the back of it. “As I was saying, the stupid fools forgot to wipe their computers, so we know a little bit, and I’m sure between myself and Jouno, that we’ll get more answers out of that scientist. Ideally, we’d try and get answers out of that experiment of theirs, E-1021, but unfortunately, the captain is still the only person that can get close to him, so I don’t think that’s a valid pathway right now.”

Unfortunate for me. Genichiro couldn’t help but think. The amount of times he’d been called to the infirmary to deal with some sort of incident because Ranpo somehow found his presence calming was far more than he cared to count. If it wasn’t a nightmare the boy had, it was something the doctors did. If it wasn’t his healing injuries becoming infected, it was an illness that made him even more clingy than normal. It was getting tiring, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that Ranpo still wasn’t speaking to them. He could, Genichiro knew that he could, but for some reason, any attempts they made to get Ranpo to talk were met with strong resistance.

By strong, he meant that someone got snapped at whenever they even tried.

“Do we know anything about him, yet? Where he came from? How old he is?” Tachihara asked.

Teruko clasped her hands together and frowned. “Well. We know he’s not a child, but we don’t have an accurate age, although the doctors are guessing he’s somewhere in his twenties. Dunno how they managed that since he keeps biting them—but anyway, we’re still going through the information pertaining to him exclusively. We know they picked him up when he was young from some remote village outside of Yokohama, killed his parents in the dead of the night, you know, all that stuff you do when you kidnap a child. The earliest record of him dates back about twelve years ago though. As for his name, he told the captain his name was ‘Ranpo,’ but there’s no record in the files so far as to if it’s actually his name or what he was called by those scientists, but we’ve got people looking into missing kids to see if we find one with that name.”

There was a pause, and Genichiro sat up straight as Teruko turned her attention towards him. “We’re being pressured by the higher ups to turn him over to them as—”

“Leave them to me.” Genichiro interrupted, more than aware of the pressure considering how many phone calls and visits he’d received asking after Ranpo and what he was going to do with him. He never gave them an answer, of course, only telling them that Ranpo needed time to heal from his ordeal before he could give them an answer. It wouldn’t keep them away forever, but none of them dared to go against his decision. Why they wanted a lab rat with an unknown amount of trauma, he didn’t know, although it was tempting to let Ranpo loose on them, if only to watch them lose their minds in trying to deal with him.

Just as he finished thinking, the door to the meeting room flew open, a harried doctor standing there, chest heaving. “Fukuchi, sir!”

Speak of the devil… Genichiro sighed. “What is it?”

“E-1021—I mean Ranpo, sorry—we need to draw some blood to run some tests, but he won’t let us close enough to even try.” The doctor explained.

He raised an eyebrow. “You’re telling me you still can’t handle one malnourished, scrawny boy?” He was going to lecture Namikawa on picking better doctors for his team the next time he saw the man if they were all like the one in front of him.

The doctor shuffled easily, looking a little ashamed and embarrassed at Genichiro’s words. “Uh, well… he bites… hard.”

Genichiro sighed again, this time standing from his seat. “Of course he does.”

Just his luck.

The first thing Genichiro noticed when he arrived at the room that Ranpo was currently staying in were the three doctors huddled in the corner, quietly whispering to each other, one clutching at their bleeding hand and looking pissed off. The next was that the bed that was normally occupied, was empty, and that Ranpo was nowhere to be seen—or so he thought, because on second glance, he noticed a shadow tucked against the wall underneath the bed, and bright green eyes peering through the blanket that Ranpo had used to hide himself with. Ranpo was glaring at the doctors, teeth bared, until he seemed to notice Genichiro; then he calmed, still on edge, but much calmer.

So the doctors are the problem right now. Genichiro met Ranpo’s eyes and raised an eyebrow, but before he did anything else, he turned towards the doctors. “What did you do?”

The one with the bleeding hand spoke up. “We needed to draw blood, so we followed what you told us to do when it came to interacting with him; we kept calm, we approached slowly, but the moment that we got the needle close to him, he lashed out.” Under his breath, the doctor muttered. “Decided my hand was his next meal apparently.”

Genichiro brought a hand up to his chin, thinking about how to best handle this without any more bloodshed, and after a few minutes, he nodded to himself. “You three, out.” He pointed to the three huddled together before he turned and pointed at the doctor that had come to fetch him. “You, stay.”

At first, he thought his orders were about to be refused, but then the doctors nodded and shuffled out of the room. Once the door was shut behind them, he held up his hand to signal for the remaining doctor to wait, and then crossed the room to sit on the floor beside the bed. “You know, things go a lot smoother when you don’t bite the people trying to help you.”

Green eyes narrowed into a glare, but Ranpo said nothing.

So it was going to be like that.

Genichiro raised an eyebrow. “I’m not about to play guessing games with you, boy, so either you tell me what the problem is—because I know you can speak—or I’ll hold you down myself while the doctor draws blood. Your choice.”

He was bluffing a little here, since the only word Ranpo had spoken since they’d retrieved him was his name, and even that had taken time to coerce out of him.

“Not a boy…” Came that same, wrecked voice that Genichiro had first heard back in the lab. It truly was awful, so broken that the words were barely decipherable. It made him wonder when Ranpo had last been allowed to speak—when he had last dared to even try. Because there was no doubt that the scientists had been cruel instead of kind, it didn’t take a genius to see that. But Genichiro didn’t voice any of that, just watching as Ranpo allowed the blanket to fall and reveal his face, eyes still glaring.

It was Ranpo’s words though, that had Genichiro stopping dead in his tracks, and he studied Ranpo carefully, taking note of the uncomfortable expression on his face, and the way that his hands clutched tightly at the blanket. He ran over several different ways of speaking the question that was on his mind, because Ranpo’s words could’ve meant anything, and saying the wrong thing would break the tentative trust that the two of them had with each other. And after all the battles of recent days, he was not going to risk breaking it. He gave a hum before he spoke. “What do you mean by that?”

Ranpo blinked, the glare fading a little, giving way to confusion. “It means… not a boy?”

“Then are you a girl?”

The glare returned, followed by a defensive snarl. “No. I’m me."

In that moment, Genichiro felt the insanely strong urge to strangle Ranpo and save himself from the trainwreck that was this entire conversation, but he restrained himself, letting out a huff of air instead. At least he’d learnt something about the person in front of him, even if it wasn’t the most helpful to figuring out where Ranpo came from or what the scientists had wanted from them in the first place. “Whatever. Boy, girl, neither, I don’t care, you’re still a brat regardless.”

That drew a huff from Ranpo, some of the tension leaving their body. “You’re an ass.”

“Temper, temper. That’ll get you in trouble someday.” Genichiro grinned, and offered out a hand. “Now, are you going to come out of there and let the doctor do his job, or are you going to keep being a brat? Because you know that I will squash you if I have to.”

Ranpo huffed, and shrunk back into the blanket for a couple of minutes, fighting internally with themselves over something before they slowly reached out and took his hand, finally crawling out from under the bed, and standing. Genichiro followed, lending a helping hand to get them situated back on the bed before waving the doctor over; only when he went to move, a scrawny hand latched onto his sleeve and refused to let go. He let out a sigh before he sat himself on the edge of the bed without a word, pretending that he couldn’t feel Ranpo pressing against his side as the doctor approached them.

Again with the strange attachment Ranpo had towards him.

He really didn’t understand why it was him of all people.

But he tried not to question it, not when Ranpo behaved, allowing their arm to be taken, and only letting out a quiet whine when the needle slid into their skin.

“You did well, Ranpo.” The doctor praised once he was done.

Ranpo’s face lit up, even more so when the doctor pulled out a lollipop from his pocket, and they were quick to snatch it from the man.

Genichiro just watched, momentarily stunned at the sudden change in behaviour.

“We learnt that they respond well when you praise them, and well, give them something for it. It’s allowed us to make some progress, but not much.” The doctor explained upon seeing the look on Genichiro’s face. “It leads me to believe that they didn’t get a lot of that in that lab.”

“Have you learnt anything else?”

The doctor shook his head. “Ranpo doesn’t talk to us, like, at all. In fact, their talk with you was the first time I’ve heard their voice. And believe me when I say that we’ve tried. There seems to be some kind of bond between the two of you that we can’t replicate. But it has only been a few days, so…”

Great, just what I wanted. A brat filled with unknown trauma latching onto me. Why couldn’t they latch onto someone else? Genichiro fought against the urge to say the words aloud, and just looked down at the happy person beside him, sucking away at the lollipop like it was their last meal on earth. Green eyes flicked up to him, all innocence and trust, instead of fear and caution, and focused on him like there was nothing else in the room but the two of them.

And then Ranpo smiled at him, and Genichiro felt some of that ice around his heart begin to melt.

Yeah, this was going to become a problem really quick.

And become a problem, it did.

The moment that Genichiro had been made aware of Ranpo’s attachment to him, he’d tried to put a pin in it and stop that attachment from growing. Tried, being the keyword there. He tried distancing himself from them, focusing on paperwork and missions and meetings instead of Ranpo, but when all the paperwork revolved around the laboratory raid, and all the meetings involved people asking after the person they’d rescued from the lab, it was hard to ignore. And it certainly wasn’t helped whenever the team of doctors that were supposed to be in charge of caring for Ranpo, called him every time they ran into a problem.

Just because Ranpo was attached to him, didn’t mean that he was some kind of miracle worker with the brat.

The first time Genichiro was called, he’d been sleeping, something he didn’t get much of an opportunity to do, so was rather disgruntled when he answered the phone, snapping. “What?”

A sigh came through the receiver, followed by a reluctant voice. It was Namikawa. “We’ve run into a problem with Ranpo.”

“You’re always running into problems. Figure it out yourself instead of coming to me.”

“Well, sir, we would, but… Ranpo’s gone.”

Genichiro sat up faster than he ever had before in his life when he registered the meaning of the words he’d just heard. Gone? What do you mean gone? He thought, before repeating himself out loud.

“We have a new doctor on staff—”

“Tell me you did not leave him in charge of the human experiment we rescued.”

“No, sir, we didn’t. In fact, we told him many times to not go into Ranpo’s room or try and engage with him, but you know how the young ones are, trying to prove themselves, so he took it upon himself to take Ranpo’s lunch to him. Not only did he get bitten for his efforts, but Ranpo fled, and we have no idea where they are.” Namikawa explained quickly. “We locked down the building, but they’ve found somewhere good to hide it seems.”

Of course they have, they’re small enough they could fit into an air vent. Genichiro dragged himself off the couch he’d been napping on, throwing his boots on, and left the room; the only reason he didn’t immediately tell Namikawa to check the vents, was because despite being small enough to fit, they were high up and hard to reach, and someone trapped in flight mode seldom was rational, even one who seemed to be as aware as Ranpo was. “Keep searching for them, and call me if you find them before I do.”

“Yes, sir.”

It didn’t take long for him to reach the building, and while it was amusing to see soldiers roaming the halls, looking under furniture and opening doors, he ignored them all in favour of the rooms that he knew to be quiet, the ones that were small. Because Ranpo fleeing meant that they’d been spooked, and they would try to find the closest thing to comfort that they could, and that would be something reminiscent of the cage they had spent most of their life in. And there weren’t a lot of rooms like that considering this was the medical wing meant for injured persons, with lots of space and friendly faces.

He searched all the storage rooms first, making sure that he left nothing unturned, but wound up finding nothing. Where the fuck did you go, you damn brat? It was like Ranpo had literally vanished into thin air; impossible without an ability, and as far as everyone knew, Ranpo didn’t have one. If he did, well then that was going to be a fun problem to try and figure out. Genichiro paused at one of the crossroads, thinking over all the places he’d searched, and what he hadn’t yet searched, only to come up emp—wait.

There was one place he hadn’t checked yet.

The operating rooms.

Turning on his heel, he made his way down to the lower levels where the rooms were located, feeling foolish for not thinking to search there first. It was easy to assume that because of Ranpo’s situation, that they would avoid hiding in rooms that reminded them of the laboratory that they’d been rescued from. But it was the opposite; those kinds of rooms would bring the greatest comfort because they were all that Ranpo knew.

And of course, low and behold, when he pushed open the door to the first of the operating rooms, he was greeted with the sight of Ranpo, huddled underneath the table in the middle of the room. Ranpo’s eyes flew towards him the moment the door opened, and they froze. Genichiro stepped into the room with the intention of being nice and coaxing Ranpo out instead of dragging them from their hiding spot, only to find himself dodging a scalpel as it was thrown at his head. He paused then, eyes narrowing as Ranpo armed themselves with another scalpel, an open box of them at their feet.

Ranpo was lucky that Genichiro had orders, and that he cared just a little, otherwise they would find themselves at the nearest orphanage.

For a while he stood there, unmoving, trying to figure out the best approach to avoid having anything else thrown at him, because he really didn’t feel like playing dodgeball with something that could give him more scars if he wasn’t careful. But then Ranpo launched another scalpel at him, and all caution was thrown into the wind as he threw himself across the room in a split second, and snatched Ranpo up into his arms, away from their chosen weapon. Immediately, Ranpo screeched, flailing about in Genichiro’s grasp, and tried to pull away, but Genichiro was stronger, and managed to get Ranpo into a hold in which they couldn’t move, or so he thought, because the next thing he knew, there were teeth sinking into his hand.

“Fuck!” As any sane person did when bitten by another human being, he dropped Ranpo like a hot coal. Ranpo tried to flee, getting their feet underneath them, but that was as far as they got because Genichiro was quicker, grabbing them by the scruff and shoving them against the floor, placing a knee against their back. He leant down to growl into Ranpo’s ear. “I thought I already warned you about biting people. Calm the hell down, and use your words.”

“No!” Ranpo squirmed. “I won’t go back!”

“Go back where?”

Ranpo shook their head vehemently, biting down on their lip as they continued to squirm. Genichiro sighed; at least they weren’t trying to bite him again.

When Ranpo showed no signs of actually answering him, Genichiro increased the pressure of his hold until Ranpo stopped squirming before he eased off, sitting back and allowing Ranpo to do the same, although he did keep a hold of a sleeve, just in case they decided to try and flee again. “Let me ask you again, where don’t you want to go?”

“Back! I don’t want to go back!”

It was like they were chasing circles around each other, only Genichiro’s circle felt more like a maze. “Okay… why don’t you tell me what that means?”

Ranpo lifted their head to glare at him, and instead of speaking, let out a strangled noise.

Helpful.

Genichiro rubbed his forehead to alleviate the oncoming headache. “What scared you?”

“The stranger.” Ranpo said, dropping their head to rest on their knees now, looking as exhausted as Genichiro felt in that moment.

“Why did they scare you?”

The silence ticked by, but eventually, Ranpo responded. “They… weren’t nice…”

Genichiro hummed, and Ranpo gestured towards their face, where he noticed a bruise slowly forming on Ranpo’s cheek. Ah, so that’s what happened. “That’s what you get for biting people. Some of the doctors may back off when you bite them, but others will not.”

“It hurts.”

“Tough it out. I’ll get you some ice.” Genichiro stood and reached down to drag Ranpo onto their feet. “Are you going to behave and come back with me, or am I going to have to drag you back by that mess you call hair?”

A small body pressed into his own, which was all the answer he needed.

The next call came only a day later, and just so happened to be during an important meeting—a very boring meeting, but important nonetheless that required him to be there—with the government officials in charge of funding his entire unit present, which of course meant that they spent most of their time trying to slyly pry information about Ranpo. Unlucky for them, Genichiro had no interest in talking about the brat that he’d had to hunt down and drag back to their room, blatantly ignoring any and all questions on the subject. And thankfully, after the tenth or so attempt, the officials finally gave up.

And of course, that was when the phone call came.

At first he ignored it, because at first he hadn’t realised just who exactly was calling him—in his defence, he’d warned everyone he would be out of contact for that day because of the meeting—but when his phone had lit up with another call, and he’d recognised the number as the one of Ranpo’s doctor, he felt dread pooling in his stomach. What now? What could have possibly happened that they can’t handle.

“Excuse me for a moment, I must take this call.” Genichiro forced a polite bow before he swiftly left the room and answered the phone. “You better not have lost them again.”

“No, we haven’t lost them, Fukuchi, sir.” Came Namikawa’s voice through the receiver, tired, and resigned. “We were just trying to give Ranpo a bath, but apparently, Ranpo seems to have an aversion to water.”

And you had to tell me this right now of all times? “And?”

“It’s a very strong aversion.”

Genichiro bit back the groan that tried to escape. He didn’t think he succeeded from the sigh that came through from the other end.

“I know you are in the middle of a meeting, sir, but I’m afraid your assistance is required. Any attempt we make to get Ranpo into the bath is met with resistance, no matter how slow and gentle we try to be. And yes, we explained to them what was happening and how it wouldn’t hurt them, but still ended up in this situation.” Namikawa sighed. “If we could put it off, we would, but they need to have a bath before they get sick.”

“I’ll be there in a moment.” Genichiro rubbed at his brow. Damn brat, causing problems and making me do everything.

Namikawa thanked him before hanging up, and he took a moment to just stand there. Just when he thought they’d been making progress with Ranpo, the former lab rat proved them all wrong by pulling shit like this. After this, he was going to sit down and read all the files that Teruko had pulled off the computers just so he could find out what those scientists had done to Ranpo to make them cower in fear one minute, and lash out the next. And if those files didn’t give him the answers he seeked, he would go and interrogate the scientist that they’d captured.

But first, he had to go and help give Ranpo a bath of all things.

He returned to the meeting room with an apology on his lips. “I’m afraid I have something urgent to attend to.”

“Ah but we still haven’t discussed—”

“The urgent business I have to deal with, is in fact, the person we rescued from the laboratory, so if you will kindly use your brains, you will realise that there is nothing to discuss right now.” Genichiro interrupted, and didn’t wait for a response before he left the room. Honestly, those fools were too focused on trying to figure out how to use Ranpo for their own personal gain instead of understanding that the situation was far more complicated than that. For once, he was glad that they revered him, since it meant that he could brush off their attempts with minimal consequences.

Would they be mad that he brushed them off just like that? Probably, but he’d placate them later by offering to do some publicity or something, and everything would be fine.

With that dealt with, Genichiro quickly made his way to the medical wing for the second time in recent days, ignoring the looks he was given as he stormed past soldiers and other personnel. The same as the other day, it didn’t take long for him to arrive, entering Ranpo’s room to find Namikawa, and one other doctor, the one that he’d helped out days ago, patching themselves up. There were bite marks and bloodied scratches on their arms, which told Genichiro all he needed to know about what had gone down in the bathroom.

“They’re still in the bathroom.” The doctor explained. “Whatever you plan to do, please try not to hurt them. They were genuinely spooked this time.”

“I promise nothing.” Was all Genichiro said as he made his way towards the bathroom, rolling up his sleeves and pocketing his gloves. It was the truth; he couldn’t promise anything because whether or not Ranpo got hurt was entirely up to them. He would try of course, he wasn’t that heartless, but unlike the doctors who had to tread carefully because it was their job and also because Ranpo’s trust in them was as fragile as a leaf in a storm, Genichiro did not need to show such caution, and it was all because of that stupid attachment Ranpo had to him.

Genichiro pushed open the door to the bathroom and shut it behind him. His eyes fell towards the half full bathtub that was emitting a small amount of steam, and then he looked towards the figure crouched against the wall, glaring at him with so much tension in that small frame, they were trembling. He took one step towards Ranpo, and was greeted by a literal growl, which was new, as Ranpo had never growled at him since they’d met.

At this point though, you could’ve told Genichiro that the human in front of him was actually a dog and he’d believe you.

“You’re being difficult.” He said as he took another step. “A bath is not going to hurt you, let alone kill you.”

Ranpo said nothing, and their eyes followed his every move.

“A bath will make you feel better. And will keep you from getting sick.” He took another step, and then another, watching as Ranpo began to stand, pressing themselves further into the wall. “You let the doctors change your bandages and clean your wounds without a problem, a bath does the same thing, only your entire body is the wound. And that wound needs a good clean.”

He chose to avoid bringing up the hair for now, because like all the doctors in charge of Ranpo’s care did, they deemed it a battle not worth wagering right now. Worst case scenario, they would shave it all off and just let it regrow.

Still, Ranpo said nothing, although the trembling had stopped now, and it was clear that they were thinking over Genichiro’s words.

And then they shook their head, like they thought they had a choice in the matter—if this were any other situation, Genichiro would actually commend them for making a decision on their own, but this was a matter of personal hygiene and health, and refusal was not an option.

“Unfortunately, this is the one time no isn’t an option.” He was close enough now that he could grab Ranpo, and that was what he did, lifting them into the air and walking towards the bathtub.

The moment his hands touched Ranpo, Ranpo’s mouth dropped open and they let out an ear-splitting screech, flailing about in Genichiro’s grasp as they tried to escape. And it only got worse when they touched the water, refusing to let their legs bend and sit when Genichiro tried to gently place them down. Because he was being gentle, forceful, but gentle, and the last thing he wanted to do was agitate Ranpo’s still healing wounds. He’d also rather not agitate Ranpo, but that bridge had already been crossed.

Genichiro tightened his grip as Ranpo’s feet slid out from under them, and slowed their fall as they fell into the water. “There, see? It’s not killing—you fucking brat!”

Ranpo’s teeth sunk into his hand, as they bit down hard.

Pain shot up his arm as the skin broke, and he grabbed onto Ranpo’s jaw with his free hand, applying pressure until he felt their jaw loosen enough for him to pull his hand free. He continued to hold Ranpo that way as he inspected his hand, not at all enjoying the way it throbbed and burned. Meanwhile, Ranpo grunted, squirming and throwing their fists at him as they tried to get free, and Genichiro was glad that the bath wasn’t as full as it could’ve been, because there was no doubt that there would be water all over the floor if it had been. He couldn’t fault the doctors for giving up so quick if this was what Ranpo had done before they called him.

With a sigh, Genichiro let go of Ranpo’s jaw, only to press down on their chest to keep them in the bath, stretching as much as he could to reach the cloth that had been discarded onto the floor. He ignored the noises that Ranpo was making, snarls and guttural noises, and did his best to not react when Ranpo began to claw at him, sharp nails raking down his arms as he dipped the cloth into the water and began to scrub at Ranpo’s body, cleaning off god knows how many months—or years, even—of dirt and grime.

Immediately, Ranpo’s tune changed, and his instinct to fight switched over to flee instead, and it took everything Genichiro had to keep Ranpo in the tub. The noises Ranpo had been making before gave way into wailing, and he could see tears beginning to run down their face. A kinder person would’ve stopped and waited, maybe even helped Ranpo calm down before continuing, but Genichiro was an imperfect human, one that was frustrated and annoyed, so he ignored Ranpo’s cries and weak attempts at hitting him away, and continued to wash their body.

But the entire time, he continued to be gentle.

Eventually, the fight left Ranpo’s body, and they slumped in the tub, allowing Genichiro to finish bathing them without any further problems. He glanced up as he dragged the cloth down an arm, just to make sure that Ranpo hadn’t actually passed out or dissociated like they had that first day, but no, those green eyes were staring at him, focused and aware. Genichiro squeezed the hand of the arm he was holding before he leaned over to wipe away the tear tracks. “See? I told you the bath wasn’t going to kill you.” He placed down the cloth, satisfied that Ranpo was clean enough. “Do you feel better now?”

Ranpo let out a sob, and reached up to throw their arms around his neck. They shook their head against the crook of his neck before pausing, and then giving a shrug. There was no doubt that they were going through a conflicting array of emotions in that moment, so Genichiro, feeling generous for a change, returned the embrace, holding Ranpo close to him as they cried.

“All of Ranpo’s reactions are classic trauma responses, Fukuchi, sir.” Namikawa explained to him after Ranpo’s somewhat successful bath, looking just as exhausted as Genichiro felt, even though he hadn’t just been the one fighting to get them clean. “The emotional outbursts we witnessed yesterday were just Ranpo’s way of expressing themselves after years of not being able to, in my opinion.”

Genichiro hummed, glancing down at Ranpo, who was curled up beside him, asleep, with their head in his lap, and their arms wound around his waist. It wasn’t the reaction he’d expected to be given, not after how he’d treated them in the bathroom, but anytime he attempted to move, that grip tightened, so he’d resigned himself to being a glorified pillow. For now, at least. “And today? What’s your opinion on that?”

“That I can’t accurately give a reason to. It would be that the people in that lab used water as a punishment, or it could be something from their past from before the lab. But I doubt that Ranpo will tell us, even if we did ask.”

“And what about this attachment to me?”

“That? Well, to put it in simple terms, you rescued Ranpo from their captors, therefore, they most likely think of you as a ‘safe place.’ You see it a lot in people who go through something traumatic. There’s not much we can do about it right now until we can get Ranpo to trust other people.”

So that was what Genichiro did, only it didn’t go in the way that he’d hoped.

His first mistake had been thinking that the rest of the Hunting Dogs would have the sense to not get attached, but apparently he’d been wrong; it was like he’d handed them a pet on a silver platter from the way they swarmed Ranpo when he’d told them they were allowed to meet them. The second was thinking that by getting Ranpo to trust in other people, they’d start to rely less on Genichiro—wishful thinking on his behalf, because all it did was make Ranpo cling more.

Teruko was the first to fall victim to Ranpo’s charm, taking one look at them and becoming enamoured immediately, although she had been horrified at the state of Ranpo’s hair. It’d been quite a sight, to walk into Ranpo’s room and see them tied down and gagged whilst Teruko tackled the mess of knots that was their hair. And despite the fear Genichiro had expected to see on Ranpo’s face at being restrained, there was none. According to his vice commander, Ranpo had fought and tried to bite—he was going to have words with whoever taught the brat to use their teeth instead of their words—only for Teruko to overpower them and make them submit.

How that created trust and a bond, he didn’t know, nor was he going to ask. But he was glad when after that, the reports of Ranpo biting others began to lessen.

The next to fall was Tecchou, which didn’t surprise Genichiro in the slightest; honestly, he’d expected Tecchou to be the first, what with his quiet nature. But his way of trying to bond with Ranpo had been… interesting, using food as a way to get closer. At first, he’d been alarmed hearing that Tecchou had been taking Ranpo food, because Tecchou’s food tastes left nothing to be desired, but the doctors reassured him that the food Tecchou brought was not cooked by the man himself, but brought in from the outside. And the thing was that it worked. For the two weeks that they’d been taking care of Ranpo so far, they’d struggled to find foods that they would eat; fruits were always a safe option, but other things like porridges and soups—you know, meals you usually fed a half-starved person—resulted in having said food thrown across the room.

Genichiro admitted though, that it was good to see scrawny, malnourished Ranpo finally looking more human than skeleton as they finally began to put on weight.

Games were how Tachihara wormed his way into Ranpo’s small circle of trusted people, bringing one of his handheld consoles with him and teaching Ranpo how to play the many games he owned. At first, Genichiro had had to remain in the room when it was just Ranpo and Tachihara, something about the youngest Hunting Dog seemed to unnerve Ranpo and set them on edge, although it only took a few visits before Tachihara was approved of, and at the same time, whatever lock that had been chained to Ranpo’s lips fell off, because they began to ask questions about whatever game Tachihara had taught them to play, and god, Genichiro had never heard them talk so much before, not even to him.

But that was good, it meant that Ranpo was healing, trusting.

Jouno on the other hand… well there was no love lost between him and Ranpo, that much was certain. Jouno wasn’t much a fan of the way that Ranpo seemed to see right through him, and Ranpo wasn’t all too fond of the way that Jouno just lurked in the corner of the room—because Tecchou always dragged Jouno along to his visits. But as long as there wasn’t blood being shed, Genichiro did not care in the slightest. Having Ranpo place their trust in four people was more than he could’ve asked for, even if one of them was himself—much to his annoyance; he had work to do, there was no time in his schedule to babysit.

Which did not explain why he was currently sitting at the foot of the bed, playing a game of chess with Ranpo with a pile of paperwork sitting next to him that he had failed to work on for the past hour. Supposedly, the chess was a way of determining Ranpo’s intelligence, but when Genichiro had arrived that morning, the doctors had been very quick to throw him into the deep end, citing that they just couldn’t keep up with Ranpo. Admittedly, he’d risen to the bait—he liked to consider himself good at strategizing, and had used chess as a way to get his plans across to his fellow officers at times during the war—so he’d sat down across from Ranpo and made the first move.

And lost.

And then he lost again.

And again.

Fuming, Genichiro had thrown the paperwork he’d been carrying with him to the side, and truly focused, determined to not be beaten by some brat.

And then he lost again.

“Wow, you’re bad at this.” Ranpo commented as they reset the board for the fifth time. “The doctors said you were good at this.”

“I am.” Genichiro grumbled. “Apparently you just have a computer for a brain. No normal person wins chess in less than ten moves all the time.”

Ranpo shrugged. “I do.”

“I’m aware.”

“I don’t mean to.” Ranpo murmured, lowering their gaze.

Genichiro sighed, but it wasn’t one of frustration. “I’m aware of that too.”

Ranpo’s eyes flicked up to him, but Genichiro pretended that he didn’t notice the look, jotting his signature down on a piece of paper instead, and waited. He knew that Ranpo was curious, that they had questions of their own that they wanted to ask, but refrained from doing so because it wasn’t something they were used to being allowed to do. And Genichiro too, was curious, because despite reading through the files on the experiments conducted on Ranpo; there still was a lot that they didn’t know about them. The information that they did know was basic; physical tests, intelligence tests, health reports, the kinds of things you would expect scientists to keep on hand about their subjects, but utterly useless to them. And the information that they needed was locked behind a code that they couldn’t decipher—he still remembered the smug grin on the captured scientists face when they had told Jouno that the one who’d written the code was Haruto, the very Haruto that Genichiro had killed, meaning that they had no way of figuring out what was in those files.

That didn’t stop any of them from pouring several hours into trying to decipher the code, but they all knew that if they wanted to know what went down in those labs, that they’d need Ranpo to speak to them.

And so far, Ranpo had been unwilling.

It was like a game of cat and mouse, only neither side knew which was which.

“Why won’t you tell us what they did to you?” Genichiro asked after Ranpo failed to voice whatever it was they’d been thinking about.

Ranpo didn’t hesitate to fire back. “Why do you still keep me here?”

I wish I knew. It would’ve been so easy to palm Ranpo off to someone else; physically, they were fine, the only thing keeping them in the infirmary was the fact that no one really knew what to do with them, and for once, the choice wasn’t Genichiro’s to make. Even though it’d been over a month since they’d acquired Ranpo, the doctors were still unwilling to make the decision and discharge them. He scowled and placed the paperwork aside once again, lifting a hand to move one of the pawns forward on the board, starting the next game. Instead of answering Ranpo’s question, he decided to change the subject entirely. “You’ve become rather feisty since finding your voice.”

“Yeah, well, someone once told me to use my words instead of my teeth, so really, you only have yourself to blame.” Came the retort, along with the movement of a pawn.

“One can only handle so many complaints about someone biting everyone in sight before something needs to be done about it. If I’d known that gagging you was the way to get you to stop, I would’ve done it sooner.” Genichiro moved another pawn forward. “Tell me why biting is your go-to.”

Ranpo’s hand froze from where it held one of the chess pieces, and they let out a shuddering breath. He was heading straight into dangerous territory now with that question, and Genichiro knew he would have to tread cautiously if he wanted the answers he was seeking. But it was a risk he was willing to take. Ranpo trusted him, so he was going to use that trust to his advantage. After a moment, Ranpo swallowed, and moved their piece, but didn’t speak.

Not until Genichiro took his turn, taking Ranpo’s pawn with his bishop.

“Biting was all I had, I guess...” Ranpo murmured, head dropping until their eyes were hidden by their hair. “When they took me, I fought, but it did nothing. They were stronger. But I didn’t want them to think that they’d won that easily, so I refused to leave the cage they put me in, biting and scratching at anyone that dared to take me from it. I figured they’d either give up and kill me, or dump me on the side of the road somewhere.”

Genichiro hummed to show he was listening, and tapped the board, which seemed to encourage Ranpo to continue.

They moved a piece forward, the knight, and sighed. “Obviously, they didn’t give me up.”

“What did they want with you?”

Ranpo shrugged. “They never said it outright, but I knew they wanted me for my brain.”

Probably because you’re a genius. Genichiro couldn’t help but think as he moved another pawn, right into the path of Ranpo’s knight. “If you’re expecting answers about you from us, I’d stop. The documents we recovered from the lab are encrypted.”

“Well, decipher them.”

Genichiro’s eye twitched. “I don’t think you know what encrypted means.”

“Sure I do, it means to conceal data by converting it into a code.” Ranpo said, taking Genichiro’s pawn with their knight. “Why can’t you decrypt it?”

“The code was created by someone who is dead, and without knowing how the code was written, it makes it impossible to decode.”

“Oh…” Ranpo gained a sullen look on their face, that grew as they continued to think, understanding the situation. The troubled look tugged at Genichiro’s heart just a little. Just a little.

Genichiro reached over and poked them in the forehead with the chess piece in his hand. “What’s on your mind?”

“Well, if you’re expecting answers from me, I’d stop, because I don’t have any.” And before Genichiro could ask what Ranpo meant by that, they continued. “I don’t remember most of my time in the lab. I can tell you how about the pain and the fear, but if you want details on what they did to me, I can’t help you.”

Trauma induced amnesia, something that Genichiro had seen a lot of during the war, and many times during his time as a Hunting Dog; it was common, and expected, since the human brain often chose to forget the incidents that brought pain in an effort to protect itself. Hell, he was almost certain that there were things he himself had forgotten, so he couldn’t really fault Ranpo for locking their memories away where they couldn’t access them. If he’d been subjected to experimentation as a child for as long as Ranpo had, he probably would’ve done the same thing.

That didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying, because it was. It meant that their only lead was a scientist that was so close-lipped, not even Teruko and Jouno had been able to get them to speak in a month.

“You’re mad.” Ranpo commented, dragging Genichiro back to the present.

He nodded; there was no point in lying after all. “We needed answers that we were hoping you would be able to give us.”

Ranpo was silent for a moment. “I can try to remember—”

“No.” Genichiro interrupted. “It will only do more harm than good if you try to force yourself, and it’s taken us this long to get you to this point. Don’t ruin our hard work.”

Ranpo puffed out their cheeks. “That’s a bit selfish to say.”

“I’m allowed to be selfish; I earnt that right years ago. Now are you going to make your move or what?”

“I already did. Checkmate.”

Genichiro looked down at the board to indeed see that he had been put into check. “You are the literal worst.”

Ranpo’s lips stretched out into a grin, and they leant forward, somehow avoiding the chessboard and the paperwork, to drape themselves over Genichiro’s lap. “Yet you keep hanging around me, so why don’t you tell me what you really think.”

“Okay.” He reached down and flicked Ranpo in the forehead. “You’re a brat.”

It was another week before the doctors finally came to a decision to discharge Ranpo, citing that physically, Ranpo was okay, and that there was nothing much they could do for them in regards to their missing memories, so there was no reason for them to stay in the infirmary any longer. Which was good, in a way, because it meant that Ranpo could finally leave that room, but it was also not good, because that meant that Ranpo’s care now fell to Genichiro, his promise to take Ranpo into Hunting Dog custody coming back to bite him in the ass.

As if he hadn’t spent the past week doing his work in Ranpo’s room in the first place because they had claimed they were lonely, and that Genichiro was the only one they could properly talk to. The words didn’t surprise Genichiro in the slightest, since Ranpo still trusted him the most out of everyone. He’d long since accepted his fate at this point, giving in and just allowing that strange bond between them to grow.

“Why are you so attached to me?” He had asked one day, when Ranpo had crawled into his lap and curled up against his chest like they belonged there. What he didn’t question was the way that he just allowed it to happen.

Ranpo’s eyes turned towards him, and they frowned. “Is it such a bad thing? For me to be attached?”

Genichiro thought about the way Ranpo had clung to him for the past month, and the way that they listened to Genichiro and Genichiro alone—for the most part—and decided that no, it probably wasn’t such a bad thing. “No, I guess it isn’t.”

Which was why he was here, on one of his rare days off, waiting for Ranpo to find the courage to leave the room that had become their home, because Ranpo had asked for him to be there, and Genichiro had just gone to help without question. Like he was the dog here. Which, now that he thought about it, he kind of was, and although he was loath to reduce himself to that kind of thinking, he couldn’t deny that Ranpo had him wrapped around their finger.

He’d been warned against forcing Ranpo into leaving, being told by Namikawa that this was something Ranpo had to do on their own, and that using force could potentially damage them. That didn’t mean he couldn’t try and persuade them into moving faster. “How long are you going to stand in the doorway?”

“Shut up! I’m getting there!” Ranpo snapped from where they indeed were, standing in the doorway whilst Genichiro stared them down from outside the room, leaning against the wall. There was fear behind their brave face, and their hands were clutching at the borrowed hoodie—courtesy of Tecchou if the way they were drowning in it was any indicator—they were wearing.

“You said that an hour ago.”

Ranpo glared at him. “And you call me a brat. You’re just an ass.”

Genichiro threw a smirk at them. “So? What’re you going to do about it?”

It was fun to rile Ranpo up, he had to admit, to watch them glare and puff their cheeks whenever Genichiro’s words annoyed them, and it was just as fun when Ranpo fired back because they could be creative at times, although they mostly went with calling him an ass or some variation of the word. So, of course he grinned as Ranpo huffed at him, and his grin widened as Ranpo stormed over to him to hit him in the chest with their fists.

“This! This is what I’m doing!”

“Ah I see. Well, now that you’ve left the room, we can go now.”

“Don’t patro—wait, what?” Ranpo froze, seeming to realize that they had in fact, stepped out of the room, and the hands that had been hitting Genichiro, suddenly clutched at him desperately, and they buried their head into his chest, hiding.

He rolled his eyes, and dropped a hand to rest on top of Ranpo’s head, ruffling their hair. “You’re fine. You did well.”

“You suck.” Even though he couldn’t see the pout, he could hear it in Ranpo’s voice.

“It got you out of that room, didn’t it? Now come on, Teruko’s itching to get her hands on you, and the others are excited, even though they won’t admit it.”

Ranpo brightened a little at that, and they let go of Genichiro’s shirt, only to grab at his hand with their own and tug. “Teruko said that she went and got clothes for me. Although I do like this hoodie that Tecchou gave me…”

Genichiro nodded as he followed Ranpo, idly listening to them chatter; he’d endured such conversations from Teruko on missions they’d been partnered together on, often having to shoo his second in command away from the windows of clothing stores that had caught her interest, so while he didn’t get it—he much preferred simple, plain, clothing himself—he didn’t hate listening to it. Besides, Ranpo was smiling, and not thinking about their surroundings, which was much better if you asked him. Less chances for something to go wrong—which he expected to happen at some point, just preferably not on the work from the medical wing to the accommodation building that housed the Hunting Dogs.

Or maybe they’d get lucky and have nothing go wrong.

And for once in his life, nothing did go wrong.

Ranpo quietened down as the two of them approached the accommodation building, and they pulled their hand from Genichiro’s in order to hide behind him; apparently, despite knowing the rest of the Hunting Dogs, having them visit one by one was far different to meeting them all at the same time. Genichiro didn’t tease Ranpo for their uneasiness for once, noticing the way that despite being scared, they still tried to be brave, and pushed onwards. That was good, it was behaviour that Genichiro wanted to encourage, because the less Ranpo tried to hide from things that scared them, the better. It probably also helped that he had his hand on their shoulder, providing some silent encouragement.

“Ah, Ranpo!” Teruko clapped her hands together the moment that the two of them stepped into the building. “So glad that you could finally join us in our humble abode!”

It wasn’t humble, in Genichiro’s opinion; custom built for the five of them to live as peacefully as they possibly could, but he figured it that for Ranpo, it was probably the fanciest thing they’d ever laid eyes upon.

Ranpo nodded slowly, and moved to hide behind Genichiro even more. Oh no you don’t.

He reached behind him and tugged Ranpo out of hiding, shoving them lightly towards Teruko. “Go with her. She and the others will show you around, and get you settled in.”

“Where are you going?” Ranpo spun around to face him, with a look of betrayal on their face. “You said you had the day off today, that’s why we did this today.

Genichiro stared down at them, lips twitching as he listened to Ranpo whine. “I have to file the paperwork that allows you to stay here under our custody, brat. I will not be gone long, because as you said, it’s my day off. I want to enjoy it while I can.”

Ranpo pouted, but pulled away from him to go over to Teruko, who for once, was calm and quiet. She was good like that, and Genichiro knew that she and Ranpo would get along once Ranpo came out of their shell a little more. He watched them disappear into the building before he turned around and left, heading towards the main building this time; it was time to go bully the higher ups into doing what he wanted again.

Which hopefully wouldn’t take long, but knowing the higher ups, they’d find some sort of excuse to try and keep him longer.

Unluckily for them, he had somewhere he wanted to be, so he wasn’t willing to play any games this time.

One paperwork filing, and one irate phone call later, Genichiro was on his way back to the Hunting Dog dorms, a little later than he’d originally said, but the sun was still up in the sky so really, he wasn’t late at all. He checked his phone as he walked, pleased when he saw no frantic messages from any of his team; it meant that whatever they’d been up to while he was gone, hadn’t gone wrong, and it meant that Ranpo also wasn’t having a bad time. Although he wouldn’t know for sure until he got there, since something could very well be happening, but his unit was too focused on trying to deal with the situation instead of letting him know. And that worried him.

Who would’ve thought, that all it would take for him to worry, would be a lab rat that enjoyed being a brat and making his life hard? He certainly hadn’t expected it, nor had he expected to welcome it as much as he had.

For all intents and purposes, he shouldn’t have let Ranpo get so attached to him. Such attachment would only bring pain and misery further down the line when one of them inevitably got hurt, and Genichiro had had more than enough of that in his life already, he didn’t want, or need more of it. Or maybe he did, since he hadn’t really tried all that hard to stop Ranpo’s behaviour in the first place, welcoming it even in some instances. Bright green eyes, and smiles that only came out when the attention was on him of all people. He could play it up that he was simply letting Ranpo heal and recover from the life they’d lived, but really it was far more complicated than that.

And right now, he didn’t have the means to explain it.

Right now, he needed to see what shenanigans that his team and Ranpo had gotten up to.

He pushed open the door to the dorms, and made his way to the common room that they all shared, following the sound of quiet chatter that he could hear echoing down the hall. Genichiro paused for just a moment outside the room, taking a second to listen to the chatter to get a feeling for what kind of mood he was about to walk in on, and after judging it to be good, he entered. The room fell silent upon his entry, although the silence didn’t last long because he soon found himself with an armful of Ranpo, no longer dressed in the dark hoodie they had been in that morning, but instead in a bright pink sweater that suited them well. “You’re back!”

“I am. Did you behave?” Genichiro said, walking further into the room with Ranpo still hanging off his front, completely ignoring the quiet laughter that came from the others in the room.

Ranpo nodded and let go with a grin on their face. “Yep! Teruko left me with Tecchou, and Tecchou showed me about, and then Teruko came and gave me these clothes, which are actually quite comfortable, and not such boring colours—”

A huff came from Tecchou’s direction, the man seemingly offended, but he didn’t say anything.

“—oh and I saw Jouno, and I know you said to be nice, but he called me a brat, so I threw my snacks at him because only you get to call me that and you really should tell him off for being so rude all the time—hey!” Ranpo’s voice was muffled as Genichiro slapped a hand over their mouth.

Genichiro made a mental note to apologize to Jouno later—better yet, he’d make Ranpo do it—and sighed. “Calm down, brat, I’m not going anywhere.”

Ranpo pouted. “Of course you aren’t. Why are you telling me to be quiet though? Don’t you want to hear what I have to say?”

“You need to let people in the door before you start talking their off. Besides, I am going to cook dinner—” Immediately, all eyes in the room swivelled towards him, and he could sense the excitement in the air, and confusion from Ranpo when they noticed the change; the others always did like it when he cooked, even if they never outrightly expressed it. He knew why of course; he’d heard the horror stories and witnessed many kitchen mishaps over the years. “—so you can hold off for another hour.”

“Ugh, fine. Can I at least show off the clothes Teruko got for me?” Ranpo asked.

“So long as you don’t get in the way, I’ll allow it.”

“Don’t worry too much, Ranpo! The captain’s cooking is to die for, so it’ll be worth the wait.” Teruko called out, waving a hand at Ranpo to coax them towards her. “In the meanwhile, why don’t you let me finish that outfit so you aren’t just wandering about in your boxers?”

“Oh, yeah, okay!”

That night, Genichiro curled up in his own bed for a change instead of the couch in his office, or one of the spare infirmary beds when Ranpo had needed help during the night, and he never wanted to leave. He was warm and comfortable, and the night was peaceful, just as it should be. Dinner had been a peaceful affair—if you didn’t count the tension between Ranpo and Jouno, of course—and everyone had split off afterwards to do their own thing. He’d intended to go straight to bed after cleaning up the mess he’d made, but Tachihara had insisted on a movie night, citing that it’d been a while since they’d last all been together, and it hadn’t taken the rest of them much convincing after that. Of course, he hadn’t expected to be roped into it—seldom was he included in these bonding activities, usually too busy with work and other things to join in—but then Teruko and Ranpo had ganged up on him, dragging him into the common room and shoving him onto the couch, and he’d sat there and watched a movie.

And now he was going to sleep.

Or, he would be, if it weren’t for the sound of his door creaking open, and quiet footsteps approaching his bed. His eyes remained closed, only because the footsteps were familiar at this point, the person attached to them having wormed their way through all of his defences and straight into his heart. The bed dipped, and that was when Genichiro opened his eyes, watching as Ranpo froze once they realized he was awake. Ranpo stood there, half on the bed, and half off it, looking very much like they’d been caught doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing—and while trying to sneak into his bed wasn’t something Genichiro particularly wanted to deal with, he was more curious than angry about it.

He allowed his eyes to slip closed again. “Give me a good reason, and I won’t drag you back to your own room.”

“Just—just for tonight… please.” Ranpo’s words had Genichiro’s eyes opening again, because not once in the time they’d been here, had Ranpo said the words please or thank you, and he stared them down, waiting for them to go on. Ranpo swallowed. “The room, it’s new, it’s unfamiliar, and it’s—it’s dark, and you are familiar, and—and it’s just for one night—”

“Alright, fine.” Genichiro interrupted before Ranpo got lost in their rambling. He lifted the covers and closed his eyes again. “Get in here.”

Ranpo didn’t say anything as they did just that, crawling underneath the blankets and curling up against him like they usually did, but this time, Genichiro allowed it without much of a fuss. He waited until Ranpo stopped wriggling about, before he dropped the blankets, draping an arm over Ranpo’s waist and tugging them even closer. There were no words said between them as they shared space and warmth, but even without words, Genichiro could hear Ranpo thinking hard.

“Stop thinking so hard.” He scolded.

“I can’t.” Came the retort. Ranpo’s voice shook a little; they were scared.

Genichiro squeezed Ranpo’s waist. “Then tell me what you’re thinking.”

“You’ll think it’s stupid.”

“Probably, but tell me anyway.”

Ranpo hummed before falling silent, and staying silent. The minutes ticked by, and Genichiro was just starting to give in to sleep when Ranpo spoke up. “Genichiro…?”

He grunted, allowing one eye to open to see the troubled look on Ranpo’s face. “What?”

“Why did you save me back then?”

Why indeed. Genichiro thought before he opened his mouth. “Can’t say for sure. I guess you reminded me of myself a little, but honestly, I don’t know.”

“Oh.”

“Does my answer bother you?”

“Not really.” Ranpo said, and then snuggled closer to him, all concepts of personal space thrown out the window. “But thank you anyway, for saving me.”

Genichiro scoffed, and pinched Ranpo’s side, getting a weak kick to his shin in response. “Hearing thanks come from you is weird. Don’t do it.”

Ranpo huffed in response. “Don’t worry, I’ll call you an ass in the morning.”

He didn’t respond, not that he needed to, and listened to Ranpo’s breathing as it evened out, sleep coming for the former lab rat in his arms. He still wasn’t sure what to think about this bond that he and Ranpo had formed, wasn’t even sure how it had formed so fast when Genichiro usually went to great lengths to avoid bonding with others. But it’d happened, and there was nothing he could do about it at this point in time other than nurture it. If Ranpo was going to attach themselves to him, he was going to use that attachment to his advantage, and it would be up to Ranpo to understand what that meant.

But for now, he’d allow himself this bit of tenderness and comfort to happen, and he drifted off to sleep with soft breaths against his chest, and a warm weight pressed against him.