In a well lit room, Joey, freed from his restraints, could be seen massaging his wrists. His back was to the window. Using his peripheral vision to look outside, he guessed he was somewhere on the third floor of the building.
The room was large, probably the place's lounge, decently furnished and possesing all the necesities a mobster could want, like a couple hundred bottles of booze, cigarretes, and many other products.
The TV hang of the wall to his left, a news report about some new tech being showcased at some fancy new building next week, the volume was low, betraying the fact that the focus of the residents was elsewhere.
There were five individuals present, him included. He was standing while the rest sat at two comfy-looking couches, pretty much eye level. Joey, seeing as they had untied him and had the intentions of talking instead of straight murder, felt less worried about his chances.
He was unusually calm for a kid, something which didn't go unnoticed by the crowd surrounding him.
A middle-aged man with dark hair, a beard, and a scar on his right cheek, wearing a pair of yellow tinted glasses, presumably the leader of the bunch, spoke up, his breath smelling of alchohol.
"Wow, what's that smell, kid, you've been scavenging trash or something, what's your name?" his tone was calm.
"My name is Tsumugi Akira, sir, it's nice to meet you."
Joey answered clearly and with respect, the group already pleased with his behaviour towards them.
He had used the boy's name for obvious reasons, while also making sure to give an extra sqeak to his voice.
'Probably overboard, a more mature kid is more likely to get out of this in one piece,' he thought, deciding to tone down his acting and not die for the sake of the performance.
"Good kid, haha, I'm Tetsu." Tetsu smiled, showing his pearly whites, and extended his arm for a handshake.
"Hello." Joey repeated his greeting and shook Tetsu's hand, simultaneously trying to assess what type of organization these guys were running.
"Kid, about what you saw..." Joey's gaze landed on the man speaking, he was a muscular man with black hair and a beard who had a tattoo on his left shoulder.
He was wearing a construction worker's outfit, and his favourite hammer was at his side.
Joey listened to the man, but his mind remained stuck to the fact that this guy had actually struck him in the back with a hammer. First impressions were key in any relatioship, afterall. Unfortunately, being outclassed and all, he had no say.
So, he chose to pay attention in order to understand the situation and find a way to leave unharmed...
"...you need to promise not to say anything or else there will be a problem."
By now, after the long-winded half-baked explanations and masked threats, the answers to Joey's burning questions about these men's intention's towards him had, one way or another, been made clear.
Based on what he had gathered due to his own observations and experience, but also hammer man's speech, Joey concluded that he wasn't in any actual danger of being silenced forever.
These weren't the child killer kind of Yakuza.
The guy with the hammer had introduced himself as Soji, he had been messing around with a married woman when Joey accidentaly run into them, his reaction, although extreme, was sort of understandable. Joey, just after having managed to catch his breath and relax, had remembered little Akira glimpsing that same lady on TV with her husband, a high-ranking official for some kind of hero organization.
Besides him and Tetsu, the leader, the other two members of the gang introduced themselves as well.
First, Rojiya, a tall man with an imposing physique and a large scar on his left eyebrow, he was dressed in a white suit with a blue blouse underneath. He kept a serious and composed expression the whole time, while fondling a manhole cover between his legs.
'What a weird guy.' Joey didn't think much of him.
Next, Haruhisa, a large, elderly man whose body was marked by quite a few scars on his back and face. He had a defined jawline and cheekbones, and his hair was short and dark, with whitened temples and front top, worn swept backwards.
He wore sunglasses and a light-colored yukata and was smoking a cigar.
They were going to let him go, this whole kidnapping had been more of a formality than the real thing, all Joey had to do was act like a normal, clueless ten year old.
"Yes sir, I promise not to tell, can I go home now?" Joey kept on with his act, impatient to go home, which was the truth.
The gangsters thanfuly didn't see through his acting as they nodded amongst each other.
"Alright kid, it's settled, matter of fact, where do you live, I'm thinking of escorting you there myself. as a token of my appreciation, hehehe." Tetsu offered slyly.
Having a mobster know where you lay your head at night was definetely not at the top of Joey's to do list, but he couldn't outright refuse, as that would seem suspicious. He also had a feeling that Tetsu's motives weren't entirely pure, but that was to be expected, ten year old children very rarely dealt with mobsters, especially in such a calm manner, they were probably planning to monitor him for a while, not that it mattered.
'Ah, It can't be helped, hopefuly the cops haven't gotten whiff of what happened yet.' Joey resigned to his fate, thinking of the events that had led to the original boy's death.
His original plan, after skimming through his new memories, had been to return home and call upon the legal system to handle his case, or better yet Akira's case.
Once the authorities learned of Akira's mother abusing and ultimately killing her son, Joey was pretty confident child services would swoop in, take him away, maybe place him in a nice foster home. In his mind that solution, contrary to the grim alternative of begging on the street and most likely being murdered again by some villain, held way more ground.
Joey nodded submissively like a child would, accepting Tetsu's offer.
"Okay si-"
crash
!!
Before the kid could even finish his sentence, something with great force crashed through the windows.
It was a man, a single assailant, he wore black and red clothing that looked sturdy and thick enough to withstand bullets, although it didn't do much to hinder his movement, he had six small folding knives, three on the right side and three on the left side, with two pairs of pockets beneath them, but his most striking feature was his mask, which completely covered his face, his hair in a neat ponytail.
A traditional katana holstered on his back.
The reaction was instant, Tetsu and the gang's lieteunants sprinted into action immeadiatly as Joey literally dove out the way, not before a couple of glass shards embedded in his back.
He managed to stay conscious as a spectacle he was used to seeing only in movies and foreign memories unfolded, and this time he had front row seats to the action.
The Yakuza members all stood up, infuriated.
"YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE MESSING WITH?"
Tetsu crashed his sunglasses with his bare hand for dramatic effect as he shouted at the intruder at the top of his lungs.
The man dressed like a ninja didn't waste anytime, with lightning speed and pin accuracy he reached towards his leg and in one smooth motion threw two folding knives straight between Tetsu's eye's.
Unfortunately for him, Tetsu was no easy target, in a split second thick armour suddenly appeared all over his body, covering him completely. He looked like a humanoid tank, his right arm raised as he prepared to fire some kind of enery blast from the center of his new huge metallic palm.
The others didn't fall behind, lightning enveloped Soji as he gripped his hammer with both hands, ready to strike, Haruhisa, the cigar still in his mouth, exploded with strength, his body's size increasing while also transforming into a grey complexion.
Last but not least, Rojiya, expression mostly unchanged except for a bit more tension, took a throwing stance, his makeshift shield ready for anything.
Tetsu was the first to unleash his attack, as he furiously fired a lazar beam.
The masked man dashed to the left with explosive intensity, easily dodging...
!!
It all happened in a blur,
'what is thi-'
Joey's thoughts were interuppted as he was violently pulled across the air like a ragdoll.
His movements were completely unnatural for a human being, seeing as he moved through the air, such sudden bursts of speed and force though usually had just as impactful a stop.
Joey's eyes widened, in a moment which his brain simply couldn't process, he had gone from laying on the ground a safe distance away, to suddenly being face to face with the gang leader's blast.
The light was blinding...
'fuuuuuu-