Chapter 328: Father and Son
His other hand was still gripping him tight by his suit. Hiro moved his eyes to look at the hand that was now shaking, clearly contemplating whether to touch his son or not.
Hiro didn\'t want to make sudden movements, so he just, waited for him to make the move first.
Those who were farther away from them didn\'t know what was going on, so they continued their fights.
Hiro then looked his father straight to the eyes. His kind eyes were gone, replaced by an imposter\'s, someone who stole his father\'s essence and now was parading in the shell he once was.
"Dad..." Hiro said gently, giving him the most innocent smile. Tears were streaming down his face, he couldn\'t believe it was happening again, he couldn\'t stop them.
"Hiroto," Jin muttered as if the name was familiar albeit distant from him.
His mind was covered in a mist, one that cloaked a lot of things, but it could never truly get rid of a father\'s love for his children. That much was clear from his demeanor, that suddenly changed at being reminded of them.
"Yuri, Isao." He continued as though he was waking up from a dreamless nightmare.
Hiro slowly moved his head closer to his shaky hand and it didn\'t feel as warm and as loving, the way he remembered it. His father\'s hand was now caressing his son\'s cheek. His expression was still unreadable.
"You\'ve grown up so much since the last time I saw you." He suddenly said, attempting a smile that came out very wrong.
Those who stood to watch grimaced at the sight but Hiro didn\'t mind it. This was father no matter what he\'d done and he found him, that\'s all that mattered to him.
Hiro jumped at him with a very tight embrace, so tight that he almost suffocated himself on his chest. The tears certainly didn\'t help the matter. Jin stood there for a second, not knowing how to react.
His arms were spread out from his sides. Kiro and his eyes met, he nodded to him, as if giving him permission to accept the love his son was still giving him despite everything he\'d done.
It was multiple of things that made him hesitate, the fact that he was a murderer now and that, he was scared if he let his emotions get the better of him, he\'d squeeze the life out of his once fragile boy.
He realised that Hiro wasn\'t going to stop clinging on him any time soon, perhaps he feared he\'d just disappear again if he let him go. His arms slowly reached out, and held him in an embrace.
He felt something warm rush up from the pits of his stomach. It was something foreign to him, something he\'d lost through the months he was the \'Gladiator\', familiar yet unfamiliar, it made him very uncomfortable like he was going to be sick.
Tried as he did to pull away, Hiro\'s grip on him was nothing short of amazing. He was losing strength by the second, slowly giving in to the feeling that let itself known and was refusing to disappear no matter what he did.
In time, he let it consume him completely, thereby unlocking memories he had no idea he had. Memories of his home, as poor as they were, the feeling of love thinking about them made him jittery.
All this time, he\'d been driven by the need to go back, but he never understood why until this moment. He felt very blessed, at the same time very angry that they took this away from him. It was one thing to kidnap him, but making him forget was utterly unforgivable.
Hiro hadn\'t stopped crying, saying incoherent things. Jin finally managed to calm him down, caressing his back, making him less upset by the second. The embrace was broken, Jin stared at his son, who was now different in every way. He look healthier than his memories gave him.
"I\'m so sorry Hiro, I\'m so sorry." He finally said, gaining back his ability to cry.
One of the prisoners looked in digust. Jin was someone respected amongst those who were terrible within their hearts, even their kidnapping was somewhat a salvation because that meant they could kill without worrying about the law. Enjoy new stories from мѵʟ
So he ran towards the duo, intending to kill Jin where he stood. Anybody who showed weakness in their prison was subject to being murdered.
"Sorry for what?" Hiro asked, oblivious to the oncoming dangers.
Jin\'s senses were way better, as he caught the man before he could do anything by his neck. He felt a ping of guilt that, this much excited him. He was excited that he was about to kill someone, in front of his son, it broke him a little.
He didn\'t waste time and snapped the man\'s neck, even with the crack and his lifeless body dangling in the air, he didn\'t stop squeezing until blood splattered out.
"I\'m sorry that I am not the father you remember." His smile was better than the first one, though this one carried a lot of sadness with it.
"Tha-that\'s okay dad, we just need to get you out of this place, I\'m just glad I found you." Hiro replied, excitement couldn\'t be masked from his voice.
"I can\'t." He said simply.
"What do you mean?"
"Hiro, I\'ve murdered so many people. I couldn\'t hope to raise my children as the murderer I am, worst of all, I don\'t even feel guilty about my deeds." He said knocking out another nosy prisoner who decided to disturb them.
"Yeah well, you had to. You\'re a victim in this too. You didn\'t have a choice." Hiro tried to reason.
"You always have a choice kiddo—"
Hiro was livid at this point, "don\'t you dare say that to me. I\'m a murderer too then, because that\'s what my friends and I decided, to clean up this society."
Jin didn\'t answer. He simply smiled, a smile Hiro recognised. He was utterly proud of his son, he fought for a better society for all, he killed for that. While he did everything for selfish reasons.
"Let\'s finish this first and talk about it more, okay?" He pleaded.
Hiro nodded.