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chapter thirteen
shh!
Shit.
But more importantly: what the hell was that?
"The fuck?" Tetsu muttered, lunging across the tile floor for his jeans. "Stay here, I'm going to find out what that was."
I shook my head, following the boy out of the hot tub. "I'm not letting you go on your own. What if it's the yakuza?"
"They don't hang out in our part of town." He didn't sound too sure of that. My mind wandered back to the Kuryu Group. I never did get my proper explanation.
"I'm coming with you." I insisted, using my American flag hoodie to dry off my legs before struggling into my jeans. We weren't exactly being quiet, and were probably attracting more attention from whatever made that crashing sound.
Tetsu looked back at me, as if he was weighing all of the possible solutions and outcomes in his head. As if he was trying to determine if the threat was- best case scenario: a racoon, or worst case scenario: the yakuza. "Fine." He eventually gave in. "But stay behind me. I don't want you getting hurt, Gilly."
The boy didn't think to put his shirt back on, the pink lights from the hot tub reflecting off the water droplets on his chest. It was all I could do to keep my breathing steady as I pulled the black lace tank top over my head, letting my hair down. "You have anything to hit this guy with?"
Tetsu looked around nervously before pulling a storage closet open, sending a set of mops clattering to the floor.
"Smooth, Inspector Gadget."
"Shut up." He said, reaching into the closet. "I've got a metal baseball bat."
I raised an eyebrow. "You have a metal baseball bat, in the storage closet at your bathhouse?"
Tetz shrugged, twirling the bat in one hand. "In case of break ins. My dad was pretty paranoid back when I was in high school, when Mugen was getting big and there were some break ins in the area." He smirked. "Little did he know it was actually me and Dan, with this other guy, Daichi Kurosawa. He actually lives a few doors down from me now, but it was summer vacation and we were bored."
"Lovely story," I interrupted, "and I would love to hear it sometime, but right now we could be facing certain death."
"Right. Sorry about that."
As we moved away from the neon hot tub, and the glowing stars on the ceiling, the bathhouse became less wondrous and more creepy. I could barely stand it. I had a bad feeling as I stuck close to Tetsu, wandering through the dark as we heard another crashing, followed by some rapid-fire Japanese that I couldn't translate.
Definitely not a racoon.
"Stay here." Tetz said quietly, his grip tightening on the baseball bat as he ducked down a side hallway. I knew I should have stayed out, but instead I found myself following the Japanese boy, a nag in the back of my mind telling me that something was up.
