Childhood Friends

Chapter 19: The Attempt

By time Maki was back at her apartment, she felt like everything was automatic. By time she dumped her school bag on the ground and opened up the file again, she had almost forgotten everything at the hotel. By time she was packing away the components of a sniper, she could no longer feel anything. However, when Maki happened to glance down at her wrist, seeing the woven bracelet once more, she was reminded harshly as to why she was doing this. This was going to be the hardest hit that she ever had to do. Kaito's life was on the line. She had to do this. A life for a life. Seemed like a fair trade. However, she was reminded once more of how hard this will be when she looked at the file again, making sure that the information that she had processed was correct. With a heavy heart, Maki lifted up the case with the sniper inside it. It felt heavier than it should in her hand, feeling more like an anchor for a large ship. She knew why that was the case. 'Forgive me, Kaito. Forgive me.' Maki silently begged, knowing that Kaito may change into someone different after this. He may grow to resent her. But even if that happens, she'll be happy that he's alive. When Maki heard a quiet vibration, she picked up the mobile phone and read the text. Time to go. With silent footsteps, Maki left the apartment behind, wanting to get this over with.

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Kaito didn't know what was worse at this moment. Getting kidnapped by assassins, having poison course through him, Maki being forced to kill some random punk for his sake or all three at once. Either way, he needs to get out of here, he has to save Maki from she's about to do. Like hell he's going to let this "Shi" bastard have his way. He can't let Maki be turned into a monster by these people, no matter what. At first he thought of trying to call for help since the idiots that checked him, didn't find his phone when he was first brought here. However, there was no signal. Even if there was, he couldn't do it now. Someone must have taken it off of him while he fell into an uncomfortable sleep the night before or when they dragged him out from earlier.

He stayed as calm as he could as he looked at all possible escape routes. Unfortunately, it only resulted in one. Kaito was locked up in an old storeroom that had a vent, one window that leads into an alley and the door. He tried to rip the vent grating off but the screws were brand new. Besides, even if he could get it off, the vent looked too small and narrow for him to crawl through. The same thing went for the window. The door was his only way out.

Kaito will have to fight back when the door opens, so he scavenged the room for anything he could use as a weapon. Since he was going to be up against assassins, his fists won't be much good. The room was pretty much picked clean, there wasn't much that he could use. He searched everywhere he could. He finally found something after rather stupidly climbing the shelving unit that was in here with him. He reached up and grabbed what he found with a glimmer of hope. It was an old metal paint can. At first, Kaito thought that it was empty. However, as he weighed it in his hands a little, he deduced that there was just enough left. It might not be heavy enough to kill (something that he wants to avoid, but use as a last result), but just heavy enough to knock them out. Kaito stood by the door. From where he was stood, if it was open wide enough, he'd be concealed from sight for a couple of seconds. Now it was the waiting game.

After a couple of minutes, Kaito had the urge to cough. Unable to suppress it, he did so. It was rough, left his throat burning. Kaito put it down to just him being thirsty. However, when he looked down at his hand, he felt like he was going to have a heart attack. In his now shaking hand, was warm, sticky blood. Did he really just cough up blood? This had to be because of the poison. How much time does he really have left?

Kaito snapped out of his internal panic when there was a quiet clicking of the lock. He'll have to worry about this poison once he gets out of here and is taken to the hospital. The door opened carelessly wide enough, hiding him immediately. He held his breath as the assassin came in, carrying in a small tray of food. When the assassin stood still dumbfounded, upon not seeing Kaito, he hefted the paint can as fast and hard as he could at the man's head. There was a dull clang and quiet crash as the assassin went down. The tray he had carried hit the ground, the plate smashing and the glass of water shattered. Tiny shards of glass, pieces of ceramic and food scattered all over the ground. Kaito waited for five seconds, deciding that he hit the assassin hard enough to leave him out cold for now. He wasted no time in exiting the room. If anyone was close by, the noise would no doubt alert them. He kept the handle of the paint can clenched in his fist. He saw no point in not using it again until he found something better. He was about to start going down the corridor, but heard voices around the corner ahead of him. Kaito rapidly changed direction, running as quietly as he could and hid around the corner. The voices and footsteps stopped at the storeroom. Kaito once again held his breath until he heard the men go in the storeroom to see what was going on. Thinking quick, Kaito looked around for somewhere to hide until it was safe enough for him to come out. However, he saw a pale green notice on the wall opposite him. It was a sign pointing in the direction of a fire exit. Not wanting to take anymore risks, Kaito started running towards the fire exit. This was his chance.

Kaito felt his hope grew as he hastily found the exit. He was going to get out of here. Once he does, he can get help and stop Maki. He can get her far away from these people and keep her safe. She can finally be happy, and step out of the shadow that she was forced to hide in for so long. She can have a real future, one without killing. That hope shattered when Kaito was suddenly struck between the shoulder blades from behind, just as he reached to open the door. The paint can that he used as a fairly reliable weapon for self defence clattered loudly to the ground. Stunned by the attack, he crashed to his hands and knees, instinctively reaching to where he was hit. As he did so, his attacker kicked him brutally in the side. This caused Kaito to fall onto his side in shock. As he recovered, he looked up and his eyes narrowed at who attacked him.

"If you were going to try to escape, you should've been less predictable." Shi stated, his face blank. At first this caused a chill to run throughout Kaito's body. Then he clenched his teeth and kept his eyes trained on the man like a furious cat. He felt like a fire of rage had sparked inside him.

"You BASTARD!" He roared as he stood up, ignoring the burning pain between his shoulder blades. He drew his fist back, ready to punch Shi in the jaw, but he was immediately held back by the assassin's bodyguards. Kaito thrashed as hard as he could, but once again, he couldn't break free from this. He felt even more frustrated than he was earlier, wanting nothing more than to get away from this place now more than ever. Shi stood there, smirking at the show he was watching. This only made the Ultimate Astronaut want to fight back even more, but he exhausted himself too much at this point. He stood there, catching his breath as his body suddenly felt heavy.

There were footsteps behind Shi, as he turned to see who it was approaching them. It was obviously the man that Kaito had knocked out, as he was tenderly rubbing the back of his head. Now that the student had a better look at the man, he couldn't help but feel quite surprised. It was the new substitute teacher, the same one that held him back after school. No wonder they were able to snatch him so easily. How long had they been planning this kidnapping?

"I thought I told you to secure him." Shi suddenly sighed, his voice was almost too clam and calculated as he spoke.

"Well, the room itself was secure enough. Tying him up would've-" the substitute teacher stuttered. It was clear that he knew that he was to be blamed for this.

"Prevented this from happening. And I thought you said that the room was clean of anything he could use against us." Shi interrupted, his tone sharp but quiet at the same time. He kicked the paint can over to the assassin, the offending object stopping at his feet. Kaito couldn't help but watch the colour drain from the substitute's face as his eyes seemed close to bulging out of his skull. The student never thought he would see a man look more afraid than he had now.

"I'm sorry sir. It won't happen again." The man stuttered, his form trembling so much that an earthquake may as well be happening in his body.

"No. It won't." Shi said coolly. Before anything else could happen, he abruptly took out a gun and shot the man in the head. Kaito couldn't help but be frozen in shock. It was like a harsh déjà vu, as he was taken back to the day he witnessed Maki's assassination on the drug dealer in the alley. He tried to remind himself that he had seen something like this before. However, to Kaito, a broken neck was much less brutal than a gunshot to the head. Bits of bone, brain and blood splattered behind the body. The deceased's eyes were wide and dull, all life drained of them. His mouth was wide in an O shape, as if he was going to scream as he died. His limp body was sprawled out almost like a starfish.

"Dispose of the body." Shi muttered, unfazed by the murder he had committed. He turned to Kaito, who was still frozen in shock. "As for you..." Kaito snapped his head to look up at the man. He snapped out of his shock long enough to see the butt of the gun before it struck him in the head. And once again, his world went dark.

A/N Hey there everyone. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Just as another quick warning, future chapters might take a while to come out as I am suffering from a bit of writers block and I need to rethink about what I want to happen in future chapters for a bit. I will get them out as soon as I can, but I do apologise in advance. Again, the only thing that I ask for is to not be spammed about future chapters as it doesn't really help me at all with writing.

Thank you all so much for your support and the comments. Hope you all stay safe and have a nice day.