Mafia's Guide For A Tiger Cub

Chapter 5: Welcome To The Sheep, Cub!

'This was a bad idea.'

Atsushi was currently sitting on his knees surrounded by delinquents of all ages who were all currently glaring down at him. He smiled awkwardly at no one in particular trying and failing to hide how scared he was. If anyone decided to look a bit closer at him they'd realize how much he was shaking. His shaking wasn't due to the coldness of the abandoned building they were currently in, it was actually pretty warm, he was shaking for one reason and one reason only. It was because of the menacing older kid with pale grey hair who was glaring at Atsushi the most. Atsushi had no clue what he had done to upset him specifically, but he doubted his confusion mattered to the teen. Atsushi avoided eye contact to the best of his ability and stared at Chuuya silently asking for his assistance.

Chuuya stepped in front of Atsushi defensively, blocking the gazes of the other kids from further penetrating Atsushi's little self-esteem.

"Alright guys, that's enough! If you've got somthin to say then say it!" Atsushi was a bit shocked at Chuuya's authoritative tone, but grateful nonetheless.

At Chuuya's harsh tone, most of the kids averted their gazes, some even looking ashamed. A few seconds passed and Atsushi almost let out a sigh of relief in the silence that followed Chuuya's words, his smile almost becoming genuine. 'They finally stopped glaring at me.'

"Fine, since no one else here has the balls to say it, I will!" The silence was shattered as the pale grey-haired teen stepped out of the crowd closer to Chuuya, their faces a foot away from one another.

"There is no way that's the tiger, Chuuya!" The teen pointed behind Chuuya directly at Atsushi who was still on his knees, his previous awkward smile replaced with a grimace. "I don't know what happened or what that punk told you, but are you really dumb enough to believe that, that is the tiger who rampaged through Yokohama? THAT KIDS LIKE 8!! There's NO way!" The teen was gesturing wildly throughout his speech with one hand, the other one still pointed accusatorially at Atsushi who had gotten to his feet, preparing to run.

Chuuya stepped back away from the pale grey-haired teen and towards Atsushi, placing a hand on his shoulder, which Atsushi assumed meant not to run yet. With a lot of restraint, Atsushi decided to sit back down, a worried look evident on his face, he didn't want to ruin any plan Byakko had by running anyway so he decided to trust that Chuuya could handle the unruly teen by himself.

"You don't know what you're talking about Shirase." Even though the other boy was yelling, Chuuya refrained from getting mad and kept his composure. "This IS the tiger. He was at the exact place that the second head of that orphanage told us he'd be, he even has the white hair that the tiger would have. That's no coincidence."

"Then this kid should prove it." A girl with pink hair and purple eyes stepped out of the crowd. Atsushi hadn't noticed her before even though she had such distinct features. She walked until she was also in the middle of the circle of delinquents like the rest of them. 'Great, another one.' Atsushi couldn't help but think, an inaudible sad breathy laugh escaping from his lips.

"Why stand here and yell at each other when the solution is so simple? Let's just make this kid turn into the tiger, and if he can't, then he isn't the tiger and we can just send him back to the orphanage, simple." At that all eyes flew back to Atsushi, even Chuuya's eyes landed on him, backing away to give Atsushi room to transform.

'Uh oh.'

At first, Atsushi thought this was a logical solution and was glad for a resolution to the fight the pale grey-haired boy whose name was apparently Shirase and Chuuya were having. That was until he remembered the effects of the drugs that he was still under the influence of.