Lamentable Old Two

"Got em boss,"

"Good job Parish,"

As they talked the two figures appeared in front of Yamato. One a familiar face while the other is a stranger.

"Unruly kids, thought you could escape huh?" Yamato couldn't see the others outside his range of vision but he heard Luka clicking his tongue as he taunted. However Yamato was in no the mood to care about that guy, instead he concentrated on the people standing in front of him.

The familiar face was of course Elizabeth. The silver haired was woman wearing a black jacket, jeans and military boot. Seeing Yamato's glare she stopped behind Tila, placing a small knife against the 'alien' girl's neck.

"Let him speak Parish," the silver haired woman said. "He might have questions,"

"Aye boss," The blond guy beside her nodded and snapped his fingers. Immediately Yamato felt the part of his body from his neck up got back under his control. He had no doubt he could speak at that moment, but he didn't quickly try it. He flexed his jaw first then remained silent.

In any case he's in deep shit so maybe he could try not to give them the pleasure of seeing him all panicked. Instead he pondered about what he wanted to ask first.

It's just now that he realized that there are many things about this situation that he didn't know anything about. Especially because the person standing opposite him is Elizabeth, the same woman that employed him as a guide a week ago. She's obviously not some rich young miss and had just played him like a fiddle. The question remains, what did she want from him?

In the end under such immense pressure Yamato couldn't come up with a clever question. Instead he went for vague one that expressed his frustration. "What the hell is happening here?" He asked.

Elizabeth smiled approvingly. "Good question. I guess you deserve answers after all you have been through because of me and my friends. However it'll be time consuming if I should explain everything so I'll afford you three questions. Be more precise,"

Yamato considered his questions carefully. Three she said? After his outburst he'd calmed down and thought of a few of the more important things he wants to know. "First when you asked me to be your guide was it a plot? Secondly how did you know that Katrina will not be at home yesterday? And thirdly what do you plan to do to us?"

"Swift and precise good," Elizabeth nodded. "However next time you should delay to buy more time. In these kind of situation the more time you delay the more likely you are to survive,"

"Thanks for the advice," Yamato sneered. "Just answer the questions already!"

"Hey kid are you in a rush to die?" Luka shouted angrily.

"It is okay," Elizabeth lifted her hand to stop her 'friends' then looked at Yamato with a smile. "I am going to answer you questions. For the first one, employing you as my guide is just a mere coincidence, I had no idea we'll meet again, especially like this. As for the second question, there seem to be a misunderstanding. We did not come here to capture this little girlie, it was just Saldo and Luka that got sidetracked in the middle of the mission,"

Saying that she glared at the two one by one. "But it also led to a good result wouldn't you say?" She added.

"So again a coincidence," Yamato said not believing a word she said. "Then why are you here?"

"You are only privileged three questions," Elizabeth scoffed. Hearing that Yamato was disgruntled. He hadn't asked what she was doing here, instead he asked with she plans to do with him and Tila, because thought he'd already knew her purpose. Now he's less confident about it.

He didn't understand why she'd lie to him despite having him in her mercy.

"Anyway I'll still answer you because this question has a connection to your third question. What we do with you is entirely dependent on yourself. We could torture you two or let you walk free. Choose one option,"

"Naturally it's the second one," Yamato shrugged. "But I don't see why you'll go to all this trouble to ambush us only to let us go. If you want to know where Katrina is then fuck off!"

"You are making assumptions again," Elizabeth sighed.

Yamato believed that what Elizabeth wanted to know was where Katrina is so she could capture her too. It was an entirely wrong assumption but how could you blame him? After all he'd heard Saldo and Luka talk about capturing Tila so he'd be completely stupid to believe they just changed their minds. Completely stupid to believe someone on their side.

"Katrina, that's this one's mother huh?" Elizabeth said caressing Tila's neck with the flat of the dagger. Tila's eyes widened in fear and chill ran down her spine. She felt as if she was touched by a viper. Then Elizabeth withdrew the blade looking disinterested. "No, as I said I'm not here for her or her mother; that might interest shallow fools like Saldo and Luka, but not me,"

"Then what do you want?"

"There's a reason why we came to this city, we are looking for someone," Elizabeth replied.

Yamato thought about it. Occasionally mercenaries like this come to Kreal city to capture a wanted criminal with a high bounty, if that's their reason for coming here it'll make sense that she wanted a guide that time. 'To investigate under cover, but how does that relate to me?'

"Who's it?" Yamato know a lot of people here and thought that it might be possible to find as far as he knows the person's name so he asked.

"Black Hand,"

The reply came so abruptly that it caught Yamato off guard, making his expression to change. That was what Elizabeth intended. Seeing his expression she smiled. "I take it you know him?"

Yamato scowled realizing he'd giving himself away. "I don't know what you are talking about," he said. However his face soon went black when he realized that his reaction will further implicate him.

Hiding in the woods Old Two shook his head. Alas you are too naive boy, he thought. Still he was surprised that this people were looking for him. He'd thought that this is about their quarrel with Yamato but that's a misdirection to draw him out? However how did they know he's related to Yamato?

Old Two felt uncomfortable. Did I walk into a trap? He scanned the woods again with his divine sense but didn't notice anything wrong so he calmed down and turned to the mercenaries.

"Where is Black Hand?" Elizabeth asked looking around. "Is he here?"

"Why do you want to find him?" Yamato asked back. Since he couldn't convince her that he didn't know he decided to be thick skinned.

Elizabeth sneered. "Don't play with me. Yesterday Black Hand revealed his secret move just to save you, you think a criminal like him that values hiding will do it for just anybody? Tell me or I'm going to kill this alien girlie,"

Yamato frowned not knowing what to do. He couldn't just tell her that Black Hand is his father could he? On one hand he doubted she'd really kill Tila; it's not that he believed in her good heart but because Tila is the leverage she has against him, he didn't think she'd just throw it away.

But on the other hand, it's Tila life at stake, it wasn't fair to gamble with it. If anything goes wrong Katrina will never forgive him, he too will never forgive himself. So he has to give Elizabeth a satisfactory answer.

"Tell me Yamato, I'm not patient,"

Yamato looked at her. He just has to bend the truth in a way that will not harm his family. "Black Hand is my master," he said.

Elizabeth smiled. "Not your father?"

Yamato sneered. "You think my father is my Master... No you think my Master is my father? No that's even more weirder right?"

Elizabeth was just trying to see if he's lying to her and at the same time check if his father is really Black Hand. However from Yamato's reaction it seems she was off the mark. After playing him many times she'd underestimated him so his reaction this time was so flawless that she was fooled.

Not only her, thinking he's stupid because their boss tricked him earlier, the rest of the mercenaries also let their guard down. So they never entertained the thought that Yamato was lying so smoothly.

Watching his son toy with experts like these, Old Two grinned proudly. 'I take back my words. Not bad, really not bad!'

"Fine he's your master, where is he now?" Elizabeth asked.

Yamato shrugged. "I don't know,"

"Don't play with me Yamato. Really, I don't have time for this, do you think I do not dare to kill this little girlie? I don't care about her life or death, I'll kill her then grab you for torture. In the end you'd tell me everything. So please save us the time and save yourself and this little girl's suffering by the telling us. I promise on my martial heart that I'll let you go,"

Looking into the woman's smiling face he could see madness, desperation and most importantly honestly in her eyes. They said a person's eyes could tell a lot about them and Yamato always had the gift of reading people. He was sure that she'd do everything she said which scared him.

If he give his father up he and Tila will walk away safely. But it wasn't that simple. Even though Yamato could be said to be estranged from his parents, they are still his parents. How could he just betray them?

Old Two had come to find him when he was to exhausted after a fight and collapsed in the street when he was eight. Nora had tended to his wounds when he was beating so badly he broke a few bones. Although those are rare times when his parents showed a little interest in him, it was the same reason he couldn't hate them completely these years.

He closed his eyes feeling his heart was incomparably heavy from the weight of the decision. One side was his father while the other side was his life and Tila's. His master's trust and happiness.

In the end he was the one that implicated Tila and it was his father that implicated him. If his father wasn't a criminal then all this will not happen. The mercenaries will not come to this city to find him, that means they'll not even see Tila nor bring trouble for Katrina while trying to capture her. If it wasn't for Old Two, Tila will not be standing there fearing for her life!

"I lied," Yamato said deciding to come clean. "Black Hand is not my master but my father,"

Everyone paused in surprise. At this time a lamentable sigh was heard. "Good fellow, you just killed everyone of them," a voice said.

Everyone turned to the direction the sound came from. A tall man clad in darkness walked out from the shadow of a tree. On his right hand was a purple halberd which he held casually. His Astral weapon.

Seeing him the mercenaries were excited. "Black Hand!" Parish snarled and took a step forward, making a hand gesture, wanting to cast vein lock.

The man clad in darkness only gave him a glance then lifted his hand and slammed out with his palm. The air twisted and a giant dark palm appeared in the air and slammed at Parish.

Parish couldn't resist, he felt like he was hit by a train. He spat blood and went flying. At the distance he collided with a tree then collapsed to the forest floor.

He didn't get up.

"Pathetic," Black Hand said.