Ann quickly cleaned up Akira's wound whilst you were standing by his side, encouraging him to fight through the pain. She grabbed a needle and some cotton threads. "Unfortunately, he will need stitches. I don't exactly have all the medical tools needed to do this, and this'll hurt a lot without anesthesia. He'll have to go through a lot of pain, but please hold his hand by his side. He might even pass out from the pain, but please bare with it. It's the only way he can survive. Are you ready?" Ann informed you.
You sucked in a deep breath with your mouth.
You nodded your head, worrying for Akira. You held his hand tightly. You placed a wrapped towel into his mouth for him to bite on. Ann began stitching up his wound. "AHHHHHHH! IT HURTS! SIS! HELP! IT HURTS SO MUCH!" Akira wailed in agony, his voice muffled, squeezing your hand so hard it could stop the blood circulation in it.
You looked away from the sight of your brother suffering. "Kayami! Get yourself together! Hold him down to stop him from struggling!" You apologised to your brother before pinning his arms on the table. "I know it hurts, but you have to endure it! Endure it for me!" You encouraged him.
Soon, it was all done. Akira gasped for air, before sitting up. "I'm truly surprised that he didn't pass out from the pain. He's quite a strong kid. Now, let me treat your wounds for you." Ann said. After rinsing yourself with water to get most of the blood off your body, she treated the scratches by rubbing an ointment on it to quicken the healing process. As for your bruises, she placed some ice on them to numb the pain.
The two of you walked out of Ann's dissection room, you carrying Akira on your back. Chishiya was standing outside, waiting for you. He walked towards you, taking a look at Akira's injury. "This truly seems like a miracle that he didn't bleed out, considering that this injury seems quite severe."
"We are still going to continue on our plan to steal the cards. Don't worry about Akira weighing us down. I will take care of him. Plus, we talked out our strategies while Ann was away. There's a way for him to make himself of use in this plan." You whispered the plan into his ear, being cautious so nobody else could hear it.
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You laid Akira down on your bed, elevating his ankle by putting it on top of a pile of extra pillows contributed by Tatta and Kuina. While you were away with Chishiya, Arisu and Usagi visited Akira to cheer him up a little by chatting with him about their lives in and out of the borderlands, and playing games together. They were all grateful to you for saving their lives countless times. In return, they brought joy to your brother and promised to take care of your brother while you were away.
"Who knew that I would meet such nice people in the borderlands?" You chuckled. "Anyways, I found the location of the safe holding all the cards. During a meeting with the militants and Hatter, I got Akira to sneak into Hatter's room because he was small enough for me to carry down the rope to his balcony and he found a fake safe in the closet. There's no way he would hide a safe in such an obvious position. You can get Arisu and Usagi to get to the fake safe, and use Aguni to find out where the real safe is by ratting them out. I suspect that it could be hidden somewhere like behind a loose brick on the wall or something. I trust that you can pull this off, Shuntaro."
"Hmm? You're already one step ahead in our plan, Yuki. I must admit that this operation is risky, but you can't survive by taking the safe road all the time. After all, the right path is often the most challenging one," the latter spoke in his usual calm voice.
Kuina was amazed by your intelligence and the fact that you trusted your brother to be able to successfully sneak into Hatter's room, while he trusted that you would pull off that operation safely by distracting the higher-ups to buy him some time to escape.
"The two of you really seem to have 101% trust in each other, Yuki-san," Kuina complimented.
"It's simply because we've been by ourselves for 8 years, which is about 70% of Akira's life. We've been through countless hardships with each other. And, after all, we're the only family we have left of each other. To me, he's more precious than gold. I would gladly die for him anytime." You smiled when you heard Akira laugh at a joke that Arisu had told him.
Apparently, Arisu and Akira both loved playing the same shooting game. Akira usually played it at the arcade, Arisu played it on his play station. Usagi cared for Akira as if he was her own brother, giving him warm water to drink and comforting him. It seemed like she had lost her family members too, so she understood what you two were going through.
"I kind of feel bad for them, having to be used as pawns," Kuina held her cigarette in her fingers, twiddling with it nervously.
"I believe that they'll make it. They seem to have potential in the game and a strong fighting spirit that gives them the will to live on. Well, would you like to replace them?" You tauntingly asked her. "Every human would do anything to survive, even if it meant that they had to sacrifice their closest ally. These games I admire. They show a human's true colors and show that every life holds the same value. They also show me just how much I want to survive."
"If I were being honest, I don't exactly hate these games. They're quite fun, dare I say." Chishiya shared his honest thoughts.
"Man, you two are insane!" Kuina' s jaw dropped at the two of you admitting that you somewhat liked the games.
Before you went to sleep, you needed to use the bathroom to do your business. Akira called Chishiya before he could leave to his room.
"Is there something going on between you and my sister? You two are already on a first-name basis. I don't trust you yet, but if you dare to do anything bad to my sister, I will skin you alive and burn you with boiling hot water, just like what happened to the gangsters that tried to kill my sister and I." He threatened Chishiya.
"Don't worry, I don't like her romantically, and I never will. As for our first-name basis, you could say...we're friends with benefits." Chishiya silently replied.
You stepped out of the bathroom, staring at the two boys. "Huh? Planning to kill each other already? Quit sending him those glares, Akira." You scolded your brother. He sure had a big mouth for a kid. Man, you wondered where he got all those vulgarities from. You could not hear what they were saying, but judging by the way Akira glared at Chishiya, something was clearly wrong.
"Goodnight, Shuntaro!"
"Goodnight, Yuki, Akira."
"Oi, I never allowed you to call me by my first name, bastard!"
"Akira, it's pretty obvious that if he said Kayami, we'd be confused with who he'd refer to. Now go to sleep already before I actually make sure you don't live to say one more word!"
"Sorry, Sis!"
(Okay so let's pretend that we don't have periods in the borderlands. It only happened for one minute in real life so that's my reasoning. Bye!)