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"Hello, Nathan," Neil said, tilting his head with a cheerful smile filled with as much ice as Nathan's murderous one. The prison officer left to wait outside the visitors room and Neil released his father from his halfhearted embrace. Nathan looked like he wanted to kill Neil for daring to touch him, but handcuffs connected to the table made actually doing it a bit too difficult for the infamous Butcher.
"When I get out of here, you are a dead boy, son ." He spit the word out like poison, and Neil laughed.
"Oh, don't be like that. If you kill me, then I can't kill Riko, and that would be a problem."
"Riko Moriyama?" When Neil nodded, Nathan scoffed. Neil placed his elbows on the table and rested his head on his palms.
"You see, Riko took away someone I cared very deeply about, much like you did. And now you both have to die. But I won't kill you. I have a better idea." Neil giggled and kicked his feet under the table like a small child.
"I suggest you leave, Junior. It makes me sick looking at you. Every day I wish I had murdered you."
"Too bad you missed your chance, Nathy." Nathan jumped from his seat, pushing the table forward. Neil scrambled out of his chair just in time to avoid the table knocking into him.
"When I get out of here, I'm going to cut you up limb by limb. I think I'll start by gouging out your eyes. Or maybe your tongue. Teach you to ever talk to me like that. You will regret ever being born, do you understand me, Nathaniel? I'll fucking skin you alive!" Neil put a finger to his lips and shushed his father.
"The guard will hear you," Neil whispered. Neil sat back in his chair across from Nathan, simultaneously slipping a knife from his boot and dropping it on the floor. He kicked it to Nathan with his foot before pulling out the lock picks. He studied the camera angle and determined where the blind spots were. He placed a hand on his father's, slipping his other hand underneath and picking the cuff locks. "I'm not scared of you. I want your freedom. So better hide that knife. I'll see you on the other side. You're my most important pawn. Maybe if you catch me, we can use betrayal as a bonding tool." The lock clicked. Neil yanked his hands away just as Nathan dove across the table and wrapped his clawed fingers around Neil's neck.
"You think you're tough? You think I can't still make you cry? I will do far worse to you than I did to your mother. It's such a shame you ran when she told you to, like the good scared little child I'll show you you still are."
"Better grab the knife," Neil choked out before the officer ran in and separated them. Neil coughed as the office yelled for backup. "I best be going now," Neil said, rubbing at his sore and scratched up neck. He turned his blue eyes onto Nathan and gave him an icy glare. "Sorry for the trouble, officer. I thought prison might have done my father some good, and I was wrong." Neil walked out before the officer could reply. Nathan's escape was crucial to Neil's plan if he wanted to live afterwards or at least have Ichirou order Nathan's murder.
Onto phase two then.
Neil couldn't help but smile.
***
Shivering and soaked to the bone with icy water, a duffel bag filled with stolen money and everything Neil owned hanging across his chest, Neil stood face to face with Ichirou Moriyama in the front doorway to his mansion. Ichirou's expression was perfectly neutral, as if he expected Neil to come running back. Neil left in November. The foxes had already been disqualified due to a loss of players, so Neil staying wouldn't have helped his chances. He took his stolen money, gave an anonymous call to the police telling them where to find the evidence of a couple of Nathan's killings and landed Nathan a life sentence. He went into hiding immediately after, knowing the Moriyamas would soon discover it was him.
"Nathaniel," Ichirou greeted and then waved Neil inside. He brought Neil over to a table with wine and offered Neil a glass. Neil accepted the offer. "I do hope you have a good explanation for your sudden disappearance as well as your assistance to the FBI."
"Stupidity," Neil murmured before taking a sip of the wine. Ichirou gestured for Neil to sit as he took a seat for himself. "I felt at the time that it was deserved. Riko killed two of my teammates, so I took two of your investments out of the equation." Ichirou's lips quirked up in a half smile.
"And yet one of those investments sits before me."
"I visited The Butcher. I figured if I was going to die running a second time, I at least wanted the chance to see him locked up. While I was there he said he was going to kill me when he got out, as expected, but he also told me he believes his current predicament is your fault. While he is not much of a threat to you, I had a change of heart about dying on the run and thought a warning might help my chances of negotiating with you."
"How many times have you rehearsed that little speech?" Neil stared at the table cloth and bit his lower lip. Ichirou leaned back and swirled the wine in his glass. "What use are you to me?" Neil opened the duffle bag now resting on the floor and pulled out the stacks of money Mary and him had hidden as well as what was in his binder.
"I'll earn back the rest of the money my mother stole from you. I just need another chance. I'll take whatever opportunity you're willing to give me. If you have none to offer, I will accept my death quietly." Ichirou set his glass down, leaned forward, and grabbed Neil's chin, forcing their eyes to meet.
"This is all very funny to me because Riko seems to think you're going to come after him."
"I will admit, I did want revenge. But Seth and Andrew's deaths were both consequences of my disobedience. I only have myself to blame."
"If I send you to the nest, you will finish college as a Raven and join a pro team afterwards. I will decide where you live and every penny that does not go to living expenses and food will go towards repaying your debt. This arrangement will stay in place until you can no longer play Exy or you die."
"I agree to those terms."
"How predictable. I'm sure that will change soon." He released Neil's chin and they finished their wine in silence.
***
Neil had been in the nest only once before, when he first met Kevin and Riko and the three of them watched Nathan take a man apart. Neil stared death in the eyes with a blank face. Kevin cried. Riko looked more scared of Neil than Nathan, but only for a second. Riko smiled at Neil, staking his future claim. What a weapon Neil could be if he learned how to break Neil down and wield him.
Riko's smile was not condescending now. His eyes were a little too wide, he twitched uncomfortably, and his hands shook until he balled them into fists. Neil hadn't needed to warn him he was coming. Riko remembered Neil's reaction. Neil hadn't realized just how important Andrew had become to him, how attached he could get in the span of less than a year. Neil doubted Riko had realized it either until Andrew was dead. Until Neil found Drake's phone and called the last number Drake had called. Riko asked if the job was done. "Did you send Drake to rape Andrew or murder him?" Neil asked, his voice matching the look he had watching that man die. Riko hung up.
Neil felt like he should be panicking, but just like the moment he rushed over to Andrew after Aaron killed Drake and realized he was dead, all he felt was numbness.
"Why don't you show Nathaniel around?" Tetsuji asked- told- Riko. Riko glanced between his uncle and Neil. He stood up straighter and demanded Neil follow him. He showed Neil all the occupied places and stalled the inevitable part of their trip where they were alone by introducing Neil to the other ravens, resulting in stranger looks and whispers. The king treating anyone like they were even remotely significant was an oddity.
Neil cut their tour short by shoving Riko into an empty room and locking the door. He removed a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, repocketing the lighter afterwards. He breathed in as deeply as he could and blew the smoke next to Riko's head. The smell no longer just reminded him of his mother. It resembled all the times Neil had stolen Andrew's cigarettes and all their truth trades on the roof. Grief weighed heavy in his chest, but he choked it down for later.
"It's so unlike a king to show fear in the public eye. Of course, I did try warning everyone you're a false king." Riko pulled out a knife.
"You belong to me. You will stop talking this instant!" Neil laughed.
"You sound so sure you have control over me and yet you begged your family to not send me here. How interesting. How pitiful that I am here when your brother knows I came to kill you." Riko tsked.
"You were sent here to be my property."
"So make me beg then. If you control me, make me beg like Drake made Andrew. I'd like to think he didn't, that Drake died without getting what he wanted. But fear is such a tricky thing. It's a disease everyone has. You should know that. I'm willing to bet you jerk off on other people's fears. Don't you ?" Riko flinched. "Oh don't give up now!" Neil stepped forward and Riko stepped back. "You were so confident! So full of yourself! Such a king! SO MAKE. ME. BEG!"
"You wouldn't hurt me," Riko growled. Neil sighed.
"You've become so boring." Neil flicked his cigarette at Riko's face and pulled a knife from his boot. Riko and Neil's knife clicked together. Neil easily disarmed him and cornered Riko against the walls. "I have a secret for you. Do you want to hear it?" Neil whispered in Riko's ear. "No one believed you when you said I was coming for you, because Ichirou told them not to. You see, killing one of my teammates was irresponsible. But killing two was suspicious. It raises questions, and questions are how people get caught. You've officially become a problem. I wanted to kill you, Ichirou needed you gone and knows I'm my father's son. It was all too convenient. I've accepted that I'm going to die. It's all about how I can drag with me now. Have you accepted your death yet?" Riko went to speak but stopped at the feeling of Neil's cold blade against his throat. "I don't really want to hear your voice, so keep quiet for me." Neil slit his throat, and Riko choked on blood in an attempt to scream.
***
Neil logged out the library computer and leaned back with a heavy exhale. Nathan Wesninski had escaped prison and came to Virginia in search of Neil. He found his way to Evermore the same day Neil left Riko's mangled body and disappeared. The news said that Nathan had killed the King of Exy and that the cause of his own death was undetermined. The butcher was really gone.
Neil wondered if Ichirou was going to come after him or let Neil run himself into the grave being chased by ghosts. Neil still had one ghost to repay.
***
Neil rested a folded paper on Andrew's grave. Every time he and Mary switched identities, she'd force him to form a new handwriting. Making a new one after all the practice didn't take long, and as long as he left out name's, it was safe to give Andrew a list of the secrets he never got to tell. Safe for whatever poor soul found the paper, though hopefully Earth would destroy it long before then. Neil owed Andrew the secrets since he learned more than Andrew had wanted to share when Drake came. He deserved the secrets because had Neil not convinced him to go to Nicky's parents house, they would have traded more truths with each other. Neil didn't know if Andrew blamed him for his death. Maybe he could ask if they ever met in another world.
.