A/N:
!! WARNING !!
Alright, for those squeamish with a little gore - this has an action scene and a scene with the result of that action scene, so this might be R-15. I don't think I over describe things, so I'm sure you're fine. Just know I warned you.
This is what happens when Minwoo doesn't have his eyes on Grayson.
(Also because I really wanted to write an action scene, even just a small one. Enjoy).
- - -
01: 'I MISS MY BEST FRIEND'
AKA THE TIME MINWOO UNWITTINGLY UNLEASHED GRAYSON
"THIS IS ALL your fault, you know."
"How is it my fault?!" The irritation swept right through Grayson's earpiece, but even the agent sounded a little exhausted. "And would you use proper honorifics, for god's sakes, I'm older than you!"
Grayson grinned even though he's sure the agent can't see him. Even if he has the power to watch him through the millions of CCTVs in the entire city, Grayson was good at keeping his dealings at the down low.
He was very clever that way.
As stated, one of the men he had just pummelled, stirred. Grayson clenched and unclenched his fist. But even this fight wasn't enough. This is what the adults call - addiction. For a while now, Grayson has remained a tad bit celibate. None of his missions or work required this.
But without anyone else to hold leash on him - or at least nag him like a spitting old woman - Grayson dipped one pinky finger back to this... little hobby of his, and finds himself addicted. Craving.
He drew in a shaky breath before answering the agent with the same calm, cheery tone.
"I'm a bad lot, agent. I think my lack of honorifics is the last of your concerns." As the man stirred himself to a somewhat possible, half-drunk position to fight, one fist wobbly over his face beaten in purples and drying blood as somewhat protection or a fighting stance, Grayson welcomed this small inconvenience.
In fact, Grayson saluted him. Those who do not stop to win, no matter the odds, deserve some bout of respect.
Even if it's such a lost cause.
"And what should I concern myself with?"
"Minwoo's new girlfriend."
Grayson's fist swung like a whistle, hitting this poor nondescript man's face with such vigour, his skull vibrated upon impact. Pain bloomed in his fist, but Grayson didn't care. Just like that, the guy was out cold once more. Three or four of them have stirred too, but once this man fell like Goliath facing a demon kid with Grayson's pearly, toothy smile, they all went back to sleep, their snores faker than one of their Rolexes.
The agent sighed long and loud. Somewhat guttural.
"Look Wang, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know if there's much progress. I know probably less than you do."
Grayson blinked, wide eyed. "For the first time agent, I think you just self deprecated yourself in comparison of me. Has Minwoo's absence affected us this severely?"
"Shut up," the agent grumbled, hot quickly and gone. The static with it, meaning he actually shut Grayson out. The line went dead.
Grayson wanted to laugh - this was something to laugh about really, but he couldn't. He still felt depressed. And the only person he wanted to talk to about this was Minwoo.
And he was gone.
Now the agent, who he wasn't sure if he took pity on him or he too was bored and feeling depressed, was also gone. Like Minwoo, who was now fully hands on handling the case of the Missing Prosecutor's Wife by himself.
Or doing most of the current work.
"It's not necessary for you to be involved right now," Minwoo had said, drinking through his share of banana milk while he browsed at something on his tablet. "All I need to do is gain her trust to gain far better access inside their main facility. The prosecutor said his wife donated a lot on her church, in thanks for healing her mind whatever garbage, so she must be a VIP. There's no way to hack VIP members."
Minwoo had set the tablet down and showed him. List of names, faces, stats and numbers... lots and lots of numbers. "These are all the third tier members of the church. There's no other way to access the executives and the second tier members. Not even through a hacking. It's good. Which means there's a lot of shady shit going on."
Grayson flicked his finger over the screen. "Jesus, it's like an army." On and on, the names and faces went.
"There would be a lot of third tiers, but this isn't an organisation to underestimate."
"You think this is an organisation then?"
"I'm still digging, but it is like it." Minwoo opened another banana milk. Then he produced a small, velvet box and threw it - Grayson caught it expertly. "Hopefully this one gets me somewhere."
"Good Lord, are you going to propose to her?" But as Grayson opened it, there were two rings. Similar design but different sizes. Simple silver bands with little stones on each. It was obviously not real, the diamonds.
"Of course not. We've only run for two weeks. But they're couple rings. It's apparently a thing couples do. Act like they're married even when there's an 80% chance of divorce, last statistics concluded." Minwoo laughed it off with that particular prickly, breathy chuckle of it that meant he loathed it very much and waved Grayson off.
And so Grayson had seen far less of him, deep undercover, deep ignoring him. He had even got himself a small dorm close to campus with his fake documents, anything that might lead back to Grayson and their operation - decimated.
And here he was, having to work on menial cases for the time being.
• • •
If Grayson was being honest, he didn't need to go this far. The case he undertook was from some young lady who is getting pressured by loan sharks to pay up, though she was only a two months behind, the harassment has scared her half to death. She sacrificed a good portion of three months worth of salary to pay him to at least scare them, pretend to be her older brother or whatever. Enough to give her time to acquire the money to pay them back.
Grayson took it one step over.
Well yes, he felt bad for her. After all, it's hard living in the city to make a living, especially by yourself. She was desperate - and had gotten desperate for Grayson's small help.
So yes he took it over, swinging fists at all these thugs.
But he wasn't satisfied.
No. The craving has started, and nothing can sate him now. Nothing but this.
He hauled one man out of his fake snoring with one fist, his face composed and smiling even, despite a speckle of blood near his lips.
"Tell me, where does your boss operate? Or is right now? I'd like to pay him a little visit."
• • •
The 'small business' was handled on top of a shady bar, some few floors up. Grayson kept his face cool as he slipped between sweaty, horny bodies. As he picked himself up the stairs, his eyes shot to the bar, ignoring the pounding bass and the overzealous DJ. The strobe lights and dark atmosphere made it hard to see faces clearly, but Grayson saw the small exchange of drugs by the counter.
He almost smiled. But he breathed it in. All of it.
Ooh, what a time to be alive.
As he got up to the top, a guard, bounded by muscles and permanent angry curl in his face that is seriously making him ten times uglier than he should be, stopped him.
"Club's downstairs."
Grayson smiled politely. "不好了. 我在这里是肮脏的."
"What?" His eyebrows scrunched hard. Then before Grayson pulled a fist, his eyes brightened. "Oh, poo? Bathroom. Downstairs. Not here."
Grayson blinked, threw off, then nodded.
Then he threw the first punch, letting him stagger before he delivered a kick to his chest that sent him flying.
To be honest, that move was mostly for show - he even spun first before the hit took. And sure enough, the people laughing and drinking, playing some sort of Backaract, all stopped and stared.
The men cracked their knuckles, the ladies, woven in between their arms like gallant accessories, Grayson strolled in, grinning.
What could be scary about this guy? their minds must've ran collectively. But they checked their big, buff bodyguard, groaning and rubbing his chest. Then turned back to him again.
A man with slick, greasy hair and half open shirt with some thick necklaces, stood up, leaving the women he had in his arms, and smirked at him.
"Listen, kid, I don't think-"
Grayson's smile dropped and for the first time since he came back to the world, out of that prison in the middle of the sea, he left some whiff of that darkness inside of him weave their way into his features.
That feral look that had him surviving not just prison, but being held captive in Amekghit, before he was branded a traitor. Before his entire platoon was wiped. Before his general ordered him to run, leave. As his brothers, his friends, all died around him. Tell them what happened here! I am your superior, I am ordering you to save yourself, go! Run! Abandon us NOW!
This 'boss' took half a step back, staggered by the monster he saw in this boy.
"很无聊." the monster said in a way of explanation. Then he grinned, brandished the small knife he had kept hidden, and aimed for the eye.
• • •
"Jesus Lord," Detective Bang half swore, half made the sign of the cross. From below the club, you could only smell a hint of the blood and what happened here. It blended with the smell of alcohol, sweat and a tinge of vomit from the bathroom.
But as soon as you walked upstairs, the smell came in full force. And then you see it all with your eyes, and you think at first you might've stepped inside a horror movie.
"What the fuck is this?" he asked one of the local police. When they received the call back at the main building, he first thought that small police forces are bored again. Then maybe gangs are rioting again like dumbasses.
But no. This was a slaughter.
"We're not sure, sir," one of them said, a patrol officer by the looks of his uniform, swallowing. His face was pale and he looked new. Detective Bang immediately felt bad for the kid. From the looks of it, he was the first man on the scene... whatever the fuck happened here.
"Can you at least tell me how many are there... in all of this?" Because of how brutalised the body has been, blood sprayed everywhere like a glorified painting, the detective wasn't sure whose hand or leg or... Good god, if that's still a face?
"From the... bloodbath, we can't be sure, sir. But we asked some of their gang members who were beaten up two miles from here -" At the detective's raised eyebrows, the patrol officer cleared his throat. "We're not sure yet if it was a different altercation. They said they were mugged by a group of masked men and one of them had asked for their boss' address. But then once they found out what happened here, they've been giving different statements. From a group of men, they said one person beat them up and asked for the location, and then some started muttering about the devil, sir, so..."
The detective wanted to pace around, to think, but everything was sticky with blood. And the crew dedicated to take on every and piece of evidence was having a hard time creating a barrier on what was most important. Find angles. Anything.
But it was everything... everywhere.
"And the people - the total. How many?"
"Eight, sir. Not including the women who were here."
"There are women here?"
"Oh, uh, no sir. They ran as soon as... the er, mob boss was it? Got his eye gouge out."
The detective spun to him, eyes wide, mind boggled. "He got his eye gouge out?"
The patrol officer nodded, throat constricted. He had always wanted to become a police officer, just like his father who retired as a Captain... but what in hell was this? Men with their bodies hardly together? A mob boss who had his eye gouge out?
He didn't want to ask it. He really didn't... but if it was true -
"Sir, do you think... do you think this is a serial killer case?"
The detective stared at the carnage, his face somber. "Let's hope it's not, officer. But from the looks of it... I think this should satisfy whatever maniac who did this. Go check any near mental hospitals or institutes whose patients might've escaped. I'll have one of my people check any international criminal or psychopath on the run. Any... MO about this could help. As much as possible, officer, double the security on this town. I'll interview the women who were here and the men who were beaten up."
There must be something... some sense of order around this chaos, this carnage. A reason. Every dead body should have a reason to have been died. Because if there was nothing in this multitude... then the detective can't think of anything else but kiss the cross tucked inside his shirt.
"Detective?"
The trio turned from their wild minds to one of the officers in charge of filing evidences. He waved them towards him and they trudged as cautious as they could, but it was useless. Blood was everywhere.
"What is it?"
"It's this, sir. I think you might find it curious." He brought a paper. "From an assumption, it was written post-mortem."
"Written?" The detective took the paper with a delicate touch of his blue glove.
The police officer peered - then got taken aback. "W-What? What does that mean?"
The detective's heart pounded, but he remained calm. "I'll have it examined for any clues or hidden messages. If this was something... this might be a hit by a big Mafia family or an organisation. We might need to contact FBI, Interpol - anyone out of the country. But why target a small gang of loan sharks? Please bag it for me."
As the detective's mind whirled and pounded, the note was carefully tucked in. There, written in messy scrawl of blood, wrote:
I miss my best friends. That's it.
- - -
TRANSLATIONS:
Alright, so supposedly, Grayson spoke in Cantonese. Because 96/7% of people from Hong Kong speak in Cantonese. This is according to a very small research. It might be wrong. Anyway, Google Translate, the only thing I use to translate languages because, well, there's nothing with easier access and I don't know anyone who can speak Cantonese, doesn't have Cantonese. They have Simplified and Traditional. From another round of research - the closer trans I can use is Simplified, so that's what Grayson spoke in.
If it's wrong, please do tell me. I only know hello, thank you, and goodness in Chinese, and I'm not sure if I know is general Chinese because they're very simple words, or if they're Mandarin.
But here's the trans. -
"不好了. 我在这里是肮脏的." = "Oh no. I am here to be filthy." | funny story, he was supposed to say I''m here for the dirt', but when I switched the translation, it came out as 'I am here to be dirty' and I laughed so hard I fell down my chair. So I changed it to 'filthy' because 'dirty' sounds like he's going to grind on them lmao.
"很无聊." = "So boring."
ON ANOTHER NOTE -
I am curious now what you think of Grayson. Grayson thinks Minwoo is far more dangerous than he is. But if Grayson is capable of this... what do you think Minwoo is capable of that even someone like Grayson understands he's far more dangerous?
Hmmm...