Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Requiem of Summer ❯ Chapter Six ( Chapter 6 )

Cye listened to the soothing sound of the rain as it fell from the sky and onto the ground below. After stirring the stew cooking on the stove, he went into the cupboard to get some spices from the spice rack. Everyone else was in the living room watching a sitcom while they waited for dinner to be served. His hand stopped at the black pepper when a knock on the front door was heard. He curiously opened the door only to be shocked to find Natsumi unconscious in someone’s arms.

“N-Natsumi?” he stammered in shock as he looked at the blood-stained body. “What happened?! He looked at the man who was holding the unconscious body in his arms. “Who are you?!”

Before Tim could get a word out, Ryo and the others ran into the kitchen, all stopping at the horrific sight in front of them.

“What happened?!” Ryo demanded as he ran toward the man holding his unconscious girlfriend. “What did you do to her?!”

“I-It wasn’t me,” Tim said, trying to stay calm. “Please, let me explain.”

Ryo took Natsumi protectively into his arms and rushed her out of the room. Kento growled and grabbed the front of Tim’s soaking wet shirt, smacking him against the kitchen wall, baring his teeth.

“You better have a pretty damn well good excuse or else I’m bashing your skull in,” he sneered at the now shaking man he was holding.

“Kento, please let him go,” Cye pleaded as he grabbed his friend’s arm. “This is no way to get answers.”

“He’s right, Ken,” Hana agreed. “I’m just as curious and upset as you are, but we can’t be acting brash right now. Let him go so he can speak.”

Kento glared at his friends before reluctantly letting go of the older man. “This isn’t over,” Kento said as he pointed a finger at the shaking man. The bearer of Hardrock stomped off into the living room while Tim tried to slow his breathing down.

Cye crossed his arms over his chest and walked in front of their visitor. “Hana, can you stir the stew for me?” Hana only nodded as she went to the stove to check on the food. He looked at Tim with furrowed brows before sighing through his nostrils. He brought Natsumi back to them, so he couldn’t be as bad as everyone thought. There had to be an explanation. “Let’s go sit in the living room and you can tell us exactly what happened.”

“O-Of course, thank you,” Tim stammered as he followed Cye into the other room where Kento was sitting on the leather couch, cross-armed. His eyes narrowed as he looked at Tim.

Natsumi let out a soft groan as she regained consciousness. As she looked up at the white ceiling, she realized that she was lying on her back in the bed of her bedroom in the huge house. Different parts of her body ached from the horrible ordeal that happened a few hours ago. She turned her head slowly to the left and saw Ryo sitting in a wooden chair at the edge of the bed with his head down.

“R-Ryo…” she muttered softly. When she grabbed her arm, she noticed that it, as well as her hand, were now bandaged, both stained with crimson.

Ryo’s body jerked in alarm when he heard the soft voice. “Natsumi?!” He quickly jumped to his feet and hugged her gently with his arms, relief washing over him. “What happened?”

The wounded girl closed her eyes and let out a shaky sigh through her mouth. “I can’t tell you…”

“Why?” He broke the embrace and looked in her broken blue eyes. “You came to us as a bloody mess. We need to at least get you to a hospital,” Ryo said gently.

“No… please…” she pleaded as she took her good hand and grabbed the front of Ryo’s red shirt. “I can’t go.” A sharp pain stabbed Natsumi in her midsection, causing her to wince.

“What do you mean, ‘no’? You’re hurt, badly,” Ryo argued. He avoided asking her questions before, and because of that, she was now laying before him badly injured.

“Please... I don’t want… anyone to know,” she said weakly. Tears started to flow down her dirty cheeks as her vision became blurry, resulting in her falling unconscious once again.

Ryo placed both her arms at her side, adjusting the bandages that he wrapped around her wounds. He covered her body up with the blanket before turning for the bedroom door. He stopped when he saw Cye standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.

“I think we should call Sage,” he suggested. “Obviously there is a reason why she doesn’t want to go to the hospital, and we can’t force her to go.”

Ryo sighed through his nostrils. “I know. I think I have his dorm number upstairs. I’ll do it.” He got up from his seat and headed for the door that Cye was standing at.

A hand rested on top of his shoulder, stopping him from going any further out of the room. His tiger-blue eyes met with Cye’s teal eyes, which were filled with concern.

“That man that brought her here is waiting for all of us in the living room,” Cye explain in a calm manner. “After you get a hold of Sage, come join us. He wants to explain what happened.” Ryo simply nodded his head. “I don’t think he was the one who did this to her. He did bring her here, after all.”

“I feel the same way. It looked like he was hurting from the inside,” Ryo said in thought.

“I agree,” Cye said as he gently patted his best friend’s shoulder. “I’ll see you in the living room.” The two men parted ways to their destinations, leaving the wounded girl alone to heal and rest.

Hana passed around coffee and tea to her friends as they waited for Ryo. She held out a black ceramic mug filled with coffee in front of Tim. “Coffee?” she asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Tim said with a small smile as he took the warm mug from her. He took a sip of the dark hot liquid and turned his attention to the auburn-haired man that was sitting next to him. “You said that your friend had to make a quick call?”

“Yeah. He should be down soon to join us,” Cye replied.

Tim could feel Kento’s eyes on him as the bearer of Hardrock glared at him from the other side of the couch. A small smile crept on his lips as he looked back at Cye. “I am glad that she found such good people who care about her so deeply. I was starting to think she would never find anyone.”

“And who are you?” Everyone turned their attention toward the staircase. Ryo descended down the steps and into the area. “I got a hold of Sage. He’s on his way as fast as he can.”

“That’s good news,” Hana said with relief.

Ryo leaned against the wall that was facing the couch. His left hand was clenched into a fist in his jean pocket. He was trying to remain calm as he looked at the older man in front of him. The horrible image of Natsumi, bloody and soaked to the bone, lying in his arms at the doorway, made his blood boil. “You didn’t hurt Natsumi, did you?” he asked Tim, looking at the man straight in the eyes.

“Not physically, no,” Tim replied, hanging his head in guilt. “I’m her uncle.” Awkward silence filled the room, along with the growing tension that was already present. “Are you her boyfriend?” He picked up his head to look at the black-haired man.

“I am,” Ryo confirmed, his eyes hard. The fist within his jean pocket didn’t loosen.

“Tell us what happened,” Kento said, not wasting any more time. He leaned into his seat on the couch. “And don’t skip any parts to your little story, either.”

“I’ll tell you everything. Just promise me you won’t go out for revenge,” Tim said softly. “I don’t want any more chaos.”

“That depends,” Kento said while smacking his fist into the open palm of his other hand. “I ain’t making no deals with you.”

“Kento, please,” Cye said sternly. “We promise.”

Tim looked around the room at everyone before sighing heavily out of his mouth. “Her father, my brother, is responsible for her injuries.” He looked at everyone once again as if to see if anyone would make a move. Everyone in the room had their eyes wide with shock and their mouths slightly open. “There’s a room at the house that he has his ‘meetings’ with her. There are no windows, only an armchair and a fireplace.”

“I’ve seen that room,” Cye said while looking at their visitor. “There are French doors that lead to it, right?”

Everyone turned their attention to the auburn-haired man in surprise.

“Y-Yes. How did you know?” Tim curiously asked.

“I was over one day last year. After I used the bathroom, I heard some noises coming from that direction. I opened one of the doors and that’s when I saw the room,” Cye explained. “She caught me with a look of horror on her face. I didn’t ask her any questions about it, though.”

“Sounds about right,” said the older man as he nodded his head. “That room is the reason why Natsumi hates the dark or anything that’s windowless. Her father is away most of the time on business, but he started to realize that she would go out often, more than she was allowed. He called her into that room to question her about all of you. Of course, I had something to do about it. I followed her and took pictures at his request.”

“You dirty bastard,” Kento growled. His hands turned into fists as he glared at the older gentleman.

“She obviously stood her ground,” Hana spoke up. She was sitting on the carpet, cross-legged as she listened to the story. “That’s why she got hurt so badly. She didn’t tell him anything.”

“You are correct,” Tim said. “I heard her stand up to him. The Natsumi I knew before would have told her father everything, without holding anything back. She has become a strong woman thanks to you all.” No one uttered a single word and just listened carefully. “My brother always told her she was useless, a nobody, all the while comparing her with her late mother. She always came home right after grade school. She wasn’t allowed to hang with anyone, and by that time, her self-esteem was at rock bottom. She was constantly being picked on and made fun of by what she wore and how she acted.”

“What’s his deal?” Ryo asked in disgust. He shifted his body against the wall, trying to get into a comfortable position.

A long sigh came out through Tim’s nostrils before telling them everything. “My brother likes to control things. I guess you can say he’s obsessed with the feeling of control and power. Not only that, he has a bit of a temper. He was like that ever since we were kids. Our father was the same way. If we didn’t obey his rules, we were punished. Aric wasn’t punished as much. As he got older, it was like the two of them tag-teamed against me and my mother. Sometimes they would argue with one another because they wanted the full control. Eventually, our father left us for some other woman. I was afraid of my brother by that time and did everything he told me to do.”

“So, he’s a psycho,” Kento concluded. “Someone like that needs to be locked up with the key thrown out.”

“I do believe he suffers from an illness,” Tim said sadly. “Our mother wanted to get him tested, but he refused. She eventually died by taking the wrong medication.”

“The wrong medication?” Hana asked with a raised brow.

Tim nodded his head. “Aric was the one who gave her the meds. I think he did it on purpose. He was twenty at the time. He told me that if I said anything, he would make my life a living hell. That’s why I think he murdered our mother. He made sure to keep me close to him, and because I was too afraid, I had to follow.”

“You really don’t have a backbone,” Kento said in a low voice. “Pathetic. How can you let your brother rule your life? How can you let him destroy your niece?”

“I’m too much of a coward to go up against him. He has that affect on people,” Tim said sadly. “That’s why he’s successful as a businessman. He knows how to manipulate people and have them do what he wants them to do.”

“I call bullshit. You aren’t some puppet in a show,” Kento said, raising his voice. “Because of you, Natsumi’s father found out about what she was doing.”

Tim hung his head as if the guilt was weighing down on him. “I know. I betrayed her. She trusted me, and I broke that trust.”

“Something doesn’t make sense,” Cye said in thought. He was looking at his folded hands as he tried to put the pieces together. “He would compare her to her mother and would call her useless. What made him want a child in the first place?”

“People do stupid stuff, dude,” Kento replied in disgust. “There really is no answer.”

“There is,” Tim said. “Aric and I grew up in England. After he graduated from college, he went to Japan for a bit. There he met Natsumi’s mother, Mai. She painted a portrait of him at one of the parks. He was attracted to her and eventually they got married. She was good at doing what she was told to do. She was a gentle, sweet woman. She accidently got pregnant and begged him to keep the child. Aric never wanted kids, but agreed to let her keep Natsumi. Mai was diagnosed with cancer six years later after Natsumi was born. I think the only reason why Aric kept Natsumi was because she looks like Mai, save for the eyes. I’m not one hundred percent sure.”

“Well, at least now we know why she would dodge the subject about her family,” Hana said with a solemn look on her face. “At least now she is safe from him.”

“And no one found out about his abusive behavior?” Ryo inquired. It was hard to believe that no one picked up on her strange behavior or noticed any markings of abuse.

“He made sure he didn’t hit her hard enough to leave any markings, that is, until now. She was too afraid of him anyway to say anything. He was also good at putting on an act.”

“Well, she won’t be seeing him again,” Cye said with a serious look on his face. “You can count on that.”

Tim nodded, a feeling of relief washed over him knowing that his niece had people who could protect her. “I’m sure he’ll try to find her, though. He isn’t one to give up so easily.”

“He won’t find her if you keep your damn trap shut,” Kento sneered. “You did enough damage, and if you really do care for her, you won’t say a thing about this place.” Kento felt sick to his stomach just thinking about how horrible the family of his two friends treated them. No one should have to feel like they didn’t belong within a family.

“I won’t be going back to him any time soon. I’m sure he’ll punish me, too, for disobeying his orders,” Tim said. His insides knotted at the thought.

“Where will you go?” Hana asked with concern. She knew that Tim wasn’t a bad person, but someone who was mentally beaten. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor man.

Tim noticed the concern look on the woman’s face and a small smile broke out across his thin lips. “I have a friend who I can rely on. You don’t have to worry about me, Hana, but thank you. You should just take care of Natsumi. I’m sure when she wakes up, the pain, both physically and mentally, will hit her hard.”

“We’ll take good care of her,” Ryo said. His anger diminished slightly after hearing the story. “She’s in good hands now.”

“I know that,” Tim smiled. He slowly got up from his seat on the leather couch. “I should be going. I’ll check in from time to time to see how she’s doing.”

“I’ll show you to the door,” Cye said as he got up from his seat on the other side of the couch. He led their visitor to the kitchen, leaving the other three alone in the living room.

Hana looked at Ryo, who was staring at the carpet with a pained look on his face. “You okay?” she asked softly. She could tell by his expression that he hurting, but she had to say something.

“Yeah,” Ryo whispered. “I’m going back to watch over her. Let me know when Sage gets here.” The bearer of Wildfire slowly walked out of the room and out of sight down the small hall.

“Ryo…” Hana said sadly. “I can’t believe Natsumi went through all of that. Even though my family shunned me, they never did anything like that.” To think her friend was all alone with no support system during her battle with her father, it made her nauseous.

“It’s disgusting. A family should never do anything to hurt one another on purpose,” Kento said. The thought left a bad taste in his mouth. All Hana could do was nod in agreement. There were definitely going to be new obstacles ahead of them for the next couple of days.

A figure with piercing dark gray eyes and short crimson hair walked down the candlelit hallway. He was clad in some sort of black sub-armor that made a clanking noise each time he took a step. He stopped at a medium-sized iron door. Grabbing the handle, he pushed it open, the heavy scent of flower hitting his nostrils.

“I knew it was you,” said a soothing, feminine voice. The man stopped in front of a tall woman who had long wavy pink hair and emerald green eyes. She wore a purple kimono with intricate designs. A scowl was present on her features. “You walk too loudly, Sosa.”

“Forgive me, Your Highness,” Sosa said sarcastically as he closed the iron door behind him. “You know I don’t care what you think, Kodoku. Your words just go through one ear and out the other.”

The woman scoffed as she continued to tend to her many flowers that were within the room. “Are you here because you have news?” she asked, looking at her visitor.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Sosa said in a smug tone. “Master Taikoku has finally awakened from his long slumber. He is currently in his room recovering some of his energy that Talpa took from him. I just thought you should know being that you hate being left in the dark.”

“I see,” Kodoku smiled. “Our waiting has paid off. Soon Master Taikoku will take over the throne to the Dynasty once more.”

“Don’t forget about those Ronin creeps that took down Talpa,” Sosa mentioned with his nose slightly scrunched up.

“Are you afraid of little boys, Sosa?” Kodoku asked with a grin across her pink lips.

“Did I say that?” Sosa said, his blood starting to boil from the remarks he was getting. “I’m just saying don’t forget about them. They took down Talpa with that white armor.”

“I’m not worried,” she said as she set her watering can down. Two big fans appeared, one in each hand. “They won’t stand a chance against us.”