Mafia's Guide For A Tiger Cub

Chapter 4: The Sun Meets The Moon

Click

Atsushi's ears twitched and he looked up quickly at the familiar sound of the door to the room being unlocked. It was odd for the Headmaster to come back twice in one day, but he had done the same thing a week ago so maybe... 'Those aren't the Headmasters footsteps.'

Atsushi quickly got to his feet instantly put on high alert.

'If it's not the Headmaster who is it? Are they more dangerous? Byakko what should I-'

An older boy with orange hair, a dark green jacket which his hands were in the pockets of and jeans descended the stairs. He stopped halfway through his descent when he caught sight of the white-haired kid standing in the cell. The two stared at each other for what felt to Atsushi like forever, both too stunned to speak and at least one of them too scared to make the first move. Blue eyes meeting Atsushi's purple and yellow ones.

"EHHH?!?"

A loud confused noise suddenly erupted from the ginger causing Atsushi to fall back flat on his butt and scramble back a bit which caused a twinge of pain to shoot through his side. In the confusion, he had almost forgotten about his fractured rib which was slightly healed now.

"You're just a kid?! The monstrous beast that demolished a street in Yokohama, causing countless to lose their homes and was only able to be subdued by the special military division of ability users is a kid!!"

The ginger made his way down the stairs and stood at the door to his cage. 'Huh, he's pretty short, maybe he's not that much older than me.' Atsushi got to his feet quickly and backed further into his cage as the ginger started to fiddle with the lock. Atsushi could hear the ginger muttering under his breath as he seemed to be trying to unlock the door even without a key or lock pick. Atsushi could hear "No way it's a kid" and "I gave that guy ¥8,000 for nothing". Atsushi was beyond confused, who was this? Why was he here? Did the Headmaster know him? What does he want from me?

'This must be the human that caused the Headmasters early departure.'

Byakko was right, he probably had something to do with that. In that case, he's not with the Headmaster. 'But if not the Headmaster, who was he with? Should I ask-'

Click

The ginger stepped through the cage door as Atsushi dug his back deep into the wall behind him which felt less than comfortable, painful actually.

"Hey kid, can you talk? I got some questions about, uh all this" He motioned to the cage around them.

'What should I do? If I talk to kids in the orphanage I get punished, does it change anything if their kids from outside of the orphanage?'

'Don't worry cub, say what I tell you and nothing bad will come of it.'

Atsushi listened to Byakko's careful instructions for a few seconds before responding. "Y-yes I can talk, why are you here h-human?" Atsushi barely ever talked to anyone besides Byakko and the Headmaster so he struggled, but he still got the point across.

"Hu-? Never mind." He sighed

"In short I'm here for you." He took his right hand from his pocket and pointed at Atsushi.

"You are the tiger right?"

Atsushi gulped, he was nervous, but Byakko's instructions helped him answer quickly.

"Yes I'm, uh the tiger" Atsushi had almost said he was Byakko but realized that this boy wouldn't know the tiger's name. Even the Headmaster had no clue of Byakko's sentience or his name.