Innu wanted to do whatever he could to help Suzan, and he had a plan. Once he got enough money, he would change this place and hire someone to help her. Right now, he would help them out now and again.
“You know you didn’t have to do this,” Suzan said, smiling at him. “Your visit is honestly enough for the kids, and they love just seeing you.”
“No, I like presents more!” One of the kids shouted, who had red rosy cheeks. “Every time Innu comes, he should bring a present; otherwise, he’s not allowed to come.”
The small girl with the pink dress who had hugged Innu hit the boy on top of the head.
“Don’t say mean things to our big brother.”
The group couldn’t help but laugh at the cute scene.
After coming back, Innu helped where he could. He tried repairing certain things, but he didn’t have the most delicate hands, and he knew this well, so he avoided doing harder tasks. Still, he could clean up and do the dishes.
When doing this, Innu looked around to see if Suzan was there, but she was too busy putting some of the kids to sleep. He then started to unwrap the white wraps around his hands, placing them on the side and rolling up his sleeves.
“They look pretty banged up.” A voice said.
Turning around, Innu could see a young teenage boy with wild red spiked hair. He looked to be around thirteen years old. This was Kevin. Someone who Innu was close with when being at the orphanage and knew about a lot of what he did.
“Are you still fighting? The bandages are covered in blood and your hands.” Kevin pointed to them.
Innu immediately dipped them in the water so the other couldn’t see clearly, and started to wash up as fast as he could. Worried Suzan could come back at any moment.
Kevin gave out a big sigh.
“You know, if Suzan knows, she would never accept any of the money you give her. She would think she was to blame and tell you to stop.”
“And that’s why you will keep quiet about it. Besides, I don’t fight as much as I did.” Innu replied.
Kevin couldn’t help but laugh at that comment.
“Really, then how did you manage to get the money to pay for all those toys, books and school supplies you brought today? They couldn’t have been cheap. Stop lying. You don’t have to lie to me, you know that.”
The thing was, Innu wasn’t lying. He hadn’t been to many of those underground fights. It was how he made the bulk of his income before. Now though, although he used his fists, it was different. The fights he had gotten into recently and the money he had gotten was almost an extra. He did it because..he wanted to help them.
And now that they had the Wolf club, perhaps there would be fewer reasons for him to earn money through his fists.
‘Huh, I’m just lying to myself. Now that I’m in a gang, I properly will have to use my fists more, but…it feels different.’
“Don’t worry,” Innu said. “I might still be using my fists and making money, but it feels different somehow.”
After finishing the washing up, Innu placed the bandages back on his hand and said goodnight to the others while heading outside with Kevin.
Here, Innu would show Kevin a few moves. The reason why they had gotten close was due to them both having a similar interest, fighting.
As for how Innu knew how to fight, this was a story that no one at the orphanage knew, but when arriving, it was clear he already knew how to quite a bit.
One day, Kevin had returned, beaten and bruised by kids at his school. Kevin had come up to him with a request to teach him how to fight.
Innu had taught him how to defend himself. They didn’t go to the same school, so Innu couldn’t give them a beating himself, so he did the next best thing. After that, the two continued to grow closer until he left.
Right now, Innu was showing moves while Kevin was just watching. After nine minutes of nonstop shadow boxing, he was now breathing quite heavily.
“Wow, I mean, maybe it’s not my place to say, but your kicking and punching have gotten stronger. You’ve really improved. I guess all that outside fighting has really helped you.” Kevin said as he attempted to imitate what Innu had just done.
It was then that Innu sat down on the floor and watched, giving pointers whenever he could see mistakes. Still, he was a little distracted and hardly said anything because he thought about what Kevin had just said.
‘I’ve improved…I keep thinking back to that day.’ Innu thought. ‘Those twins, we all could have died, but Gary, he somehow saved us. He went into that container and took care of both of them. No matter how I think about it, no matter how many times I try to envision fighting both of them in my head, I just can’t see how I would win in the state they were in. Gary, how did you do it?’
This was what had been on his mind. The Gary that had fought against the two twins along his side would have never been able to accomplish such a thing, so he thought it was impossible for Gary to beat both of them so quickly.
“Hey, I don’t know how much I should tell you,” Kevin said after he had stopped his training as well. “Lately, there have been a few people that have been coming to the orphanage, they’ve been talking to Suzan, and she always seems to be down after that.
“I tried asking her, and she won’t speak to me about it. Maybe she will speak to you.” Kevin said.
“Hey!” A voice shouted from the building. Looking at whom it was, it looked like it was the very person they were talking about.
“Speak of the devil.” Kevin started to run back as he knew it was time for him to get some sleep. At the same time, Innu thought that perhaps he should say goodbye to them all before heading back.
Kevin had run off into the building, and Innu slowly got up. He thought he would do one more round before saying goodbye to Suzan and started to shadow box once again, but this time on his own.
He visualised the two twins in their strange forms that day and went for a kick to the head. Trying to go faster, stronger, and throwing one more kick, his body spun, and for a second, he thought his eyes caught somethi Ig.
Turning his head, he looked towards the gate, but nothingSuzanthere.
‘Am I imagining things? I could have sworn I saw someone standing there, but there’s no one there?’
Ignoring the images his head was making and the shiver in his body, he decided to head inside.
“Maybe I’ll stay here for the night.” Innu thought. “And I’ll talk to suzan about what Kevin said.”
—–
At that moment, outside of the gate a little further away down the street, Gary had tackled a hooded figure to the ground, and standing behind him with two batons in his hand was Blake.
“Looks like we got you this time before you could do anything, Billy!” Gary said with his hands already transformed.
On the ground under the hood, the person could be seen smiling back.
******
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