He hesitated for a moment about whether to get up and help the other person, but immediately after, he heard the animal cries becoming clearer and clearer.
The sound didn't quite sound like a cat, but it was somewhat familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before. As he thought about it, Oda Sakunosuke slowly opened his eyes.
Oda Sakunosuke leaped from the bed with the same speed he used to escape for his life back when he was a top-tier assassin.
Bang! The sound of the door slamming against the wall was extraordinarily loud.
Oda, you're awake?" Hearing the sound, Uchiha Obito looked up and smiled at Oda Sakunosuke, who had stopped by the door, reached out a hand in a friendly greeting. "Sorry, did that guy's noise disturb your sleep?
Although his expression didn't look apologetic in the slightest.
“Obito-kun.” Oda Sakunosuke managed a perfunctory response, immediately all of his attention focused on the black-and-white creature in Uchiha Obito's hands.
“It really is a tiger!” Oda Sakunosuke's expression was complicated. Before, he could still comfort himself by thinking he might have been mistaken, but now the facts told him that he was right.
At this moment, he couldn't help but miss the previous Uchiha; although they were cold and avoided social interaction, they were much better than Uchiha Obito, who gave him all sorts of "surprises" the moment he opened his eyes every single day.
Thinking about everything that had happened since picking up Uchiha Obito, the owner Oda Sakunosuke felt that raising a Husky instead of a cat was truly an unbearable burden of life!
Yeah!" Uchiha Obito excitedly lifted the tiger's paw and waved it around. "It's actually quite fun. It feels good to touch. Do you want to try petting it too?
Underneath Uchiha Obito's strong physique, the weak little tiger was completely suppressed and could only whimper in protest, looking exceptionally pitiful, with none of the aura of the king of beasts.
“Obito-kun, no matter how much you like tigers,” Oda Sakunosuke said, weighing his words, “it's still wrong to sneak into a zoo and steal one. You'd better send it back as soon as possible!” This tiger was still wearing a collar; heaven knows which zoo Uchiha Obito had stolen it from?!
“No, it's not!” Uchiha Obito denied with a smile. No one knew how he had done it, but in the blink of an eye, under Oda Sakunosuke's gaze, the scrawny tiger transformed into a white-haired youth. "Look! This isn't a real tiger anymore."
“It should be some kind of Ability,” he said with a shrug. Although most people in this world didn't possess much strength, the various types of Abilities with different effects were quite interesting.
So it's a person." Oda Sakunosuke breathed a sigh of relief, then paused—humans seemed like they would be even more trouble! "Obito-kun, where did you get this person from?
He couldn't have just kidnapped them simply because he thought their Ability looked fun, could he? Believing that Uchiha Obito was capable of such a thing, Oda Sakunosuke had already begun to wonder how he would explain this if the boy's family came looking for him.
“It looks like an orphanage.” Uchiha Obito rubbed his chin, beginning to recall the scene he had seen.
At that moment, as he poked his head out and saw the white-haired boy huddled in the corner, he felt a delicate twitch in his heart, as if at some point in time, he had also watched a white-haired boy curled up alone in a corner.
This thought caused Uchiha Obito to involuntarily emerge from Kamui and walk toward the boy.
The white-haired boy, who had his head buried in his knees, heard footsteps approaching. When he opened his eyes, he saw a pair of black shoes stopping right in front of him. Following the shoes upward, he saw a strange Single-eyed Whirlpool Mask; in this dark environment, the sight made his skin crawl with fear. Before he could even make a sound, the person in front of him vanished, in the next second, a head floated in front of him at his eye level, almost touching his nose. Seeing this scene, the boy's eyes rolled back, he fainted within minutes.
Too cowardly! If this were Kakashi, he would have lunged with a kunai long ago; Uchiha Obito was somewhat disappointed by the boy's reaction.
But that disappointment didn't last long, as he was shocked to find the boy emitting a blue light before transforming from a human into a white tiger.
Tailed Beast Transformation? The term popped into his mind; the most famous people in the Shinobi World who transformed into animals were the Jinchuriki.
"Roar!" The tiger let out a fierce roar at Uchiha Obito, its instincts telling it that the person before it was extremely dangerous, so it chose to strike first, lunging directly at him.
Uchiha Obito dodged with ease, playing around with the tiger for a few moves with interest. After teasing the opponent until it was exhausted and confirming that the tiger had no other special abilities, he finally struck it to knock it unconscious.
The tiger that had been knocked unconscious reverted to a white-haired youth, Uchiha Obito thought for a moment before casually taking the unconscious person with him.
"An orphanage?" Oda Sakunosuke looked at the chains binding the boy, a massive question mark popping up in his small head.
Author's Note:
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Chapter 29
What kind of orphanage would lock a child up with iron chains? No matter how you look at it, it doesn't seem like something a legitimate orphanage would do.
Looking closely, the child's face was pale and he looked very thin, appearing malnourished as if he had suffered from long-term food shortages.
Oda Sakunosuke's gaze gradually grew sharp.
Obito-kun, do you know where that orphanage is?
"Let me think." Uchiha Obito rested his chin in his hand, looking thoughtful.
"Ah!" Suddenly, he struck his right palm with his left fist, a look of sudden realization washing over his face as if he had just thought of something.
Oda Sakunosuke's eyes shone with anticipation.
"I can't remember at all," Uchiha Obito said righteously.
Even the good-tempered Oda Sakunosuke felt a sudden urge to give Uchiha Obito a beating.
“It's no use looking at me like that; if you can't remember, you just can't remember.” Uchiha Obito spread his hands; he had just been wandering around casually using Kamui, so how could he possibly remember where that place was? "That kid looks like he's about to wake up, though. Why don't you just ask him directly?"
"Ah!" Nakajima Atsushi sat up directly from the bed, but what met his eyes was no longer the pale, sickly ceiling and mottled, peeling walls of the orphanage, but rather warm-toned wallpaper. The place beneath him was no longer a cool, damp floor, but a warm quilt as he sat upon a dry bed.
Where is this, why am I here?
You're awake.
Hearing the sound, Nakajima Atsushi looked up and saw a man leaning against the door wearing dark clothes, he shuddered as his memories from before he lost consciousness began to resurface.
It's you! That floating head!
“Why did you scare him like this?” Oda Sakunosuke, who had just carried him onto the bed, walked in and handed Nakajima Atsushi a glass of milk. “Don't be afraid, this is my home; no one will hurt you. Drink some milk first to settle your stomach.”
He had noticed when he picked him up just now that the boy's weight was extremely light, far below the standard for someone his age, his stomach was very flat, as if he hadn't eaten dinner.
He scanned the boy's entire body with a look of pity. It was a distinctive white-haired boy with side-swept bangs; the hair on one side was longer than the other, because his face was so thin, his large, golden-brown eyes with a hint of purple appeared exceptionally big.
Looking at the steaming milk, Nakajima Atsushi swallowed hard. His intuition told him that the person in front of him had no ill intentions, since he was indeed very hungry, he carefully took the milk and gulped it down in one go.
“Drink slowly, don't choke.” Oda Sakunosuke looked at the boy with concern, who looked as if he hadn't eaten in days.
“Thank you!” After finishing a cup of steaming hot milk and feeling as if he had come back to life, Nakajima Atsushi politely thanked Oda Sakunosuke.
“You're welcome!” Oda Sakunosuke smiled at him and pointed toward Uchiha Obito. “This is Obito-kun. Although he doesn't seem to have the best temperament, he's a good person. He brought you back because he saw that you weren't doing very well.”
He used the most tactful words possible to describe Uchiha Obito's actions.
Uchiha Obito raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, but said nothing.
"Can you tell us what your name is and what happened to you?" Oda Sakunosuke asked softly.
I.. my name is Nakajima Atsushi. I've lived in an orphanage since I was a child.
Hearing this question, Nakajima Atsushi's hands involuntarily tightened around the corners of his clothes. After a moment of silence, he began to tell the two of them about his experiences in the orphanage.
From the time he had memories, he had been in the orphanage. He just didn't know why the orphanage director seemed to take a strong dislike to him; he was frequently abused and beaten, his freedom was restricted as he was locked alone in a dungeon, chained up.
The two people listening to this account in the room had different reactions; Oda Sakunosuke grew more and more furious as he listened, while Uchiha Obito listened in silence, his face showing no emotional change.
Why! I didn't do anything wrong!" Nakajima Atsushi's golden-brown pupils shimmered with tears as he said tremblingly, "Why did the Principal treat me like this!
He was, after all, just a teenager, suffering through the pain of the Director's abuse with no one to turn to. Now, suddenly encountering someone's care, all his grievances seemed to have finally found a place to be released, large tears streamed incessantly down his face.
"Good boy, you really did nothing wrong." Oda Sakunosuke rubbed the boy's hair and gently wiped the traces of water from his face with a tissue.
"Then why am I being treated like this!" Nakajima Atsushi asked blankly.
Faced with Nakajima Atsushi's question, Oda Sakunosuke didn't know how to answer for a moment.
Just as he was thinking about how best to comfort Nakajima Atsushi, a voice rescued him.
“Oda, I remember that the Armed Detective Agency you work for accepts all kinds of requests.” Uchiha Obito sat by the window with one leg resting on the sill, casually twirling a kunai, "Then, as a client, I shall place a request with your Armed Detective Agency."
Just help this kid find out why he had to go through such an ordeal.
Nakajima Atsushi turned his head in surprise to look at Uchiha Obito.
Author's Note:
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Chapter 30
This was a low-rise office building that stood in stark contrast to the towering structures surrounding it. No one would have guessed that the fourth floor of such an aged-looking office housed the so-called "Twilight Armed Group" of Yokohama, an organization that specialized in dangerous incidents that could not be entrusted to official armed groups. Not only were most of its members Ability Users, but they also possessed business licenses for their abilities, which they had only obtained after Mori Ougai of the Port Mafia had exhausted every scheme and ultimately lost his position as leader.
The atmosphere at the Armed Detective Agency was somewhat unusual today. Although every member was going about their business as usual, their gazes repeatedly and intentionally swept over the person lying on the sofa.
Early this morning, Oda Sakunosuke, who had only recently joined the agency, arrived at the office with a white-haired boy and a black-haired man who looked quite extraordinary.
Oda Sakunosuke explained the details of the situation to his colleagues with a serious expression, along with the request made by the clearly extraordinary man, Obito-san.
After the Armed Detective Agency accepted this commission, this Mr. Uchiha Obito stayed at the agency continuously. He said he believed in their abilities and that they would definitely be able to resolve it today, so he stayed there to wait for Oda Sakunosuke to finish work.
"What is the relationship between you two? Why is he waiting for you to finish work, Oda-san?" The members of the Armed Detective Agency asked Oda Sakunosuke with gossiping looks.
"Probably because I'm his poop scooper!" Oda Sakunosuke accidentally blurted out his thoughts.
Uchiha Obito??
Even though Uchiha Obito had been lying on the sofa doing nothing, his own powerful presence still made these agency members unable to resist stealing a few glances at him.
As they watched, the man on the sofa suddenly vanished.
A space-type ability? The members of the Armed Detective Agency who witnessed this scene wondered to themselves.
"What a convenient ability." Edogawa Ranpo picked up a book and covered his face with it, openly slacking off.
However, Edogawa Ranpo's "Super Deduction" was the absolute strongest, he thought to himself with pride.
Uchiha Obito sat on the rooftop, watching from a distance as the white-haired boy followed behind Oda Sakunosuke, looking dejected.
“So, brat, do you know what happened now?” It wasn't until the two of them entered the Armed Detective Agency that he vanished from the rooftop and reappeared inside, standing before the dejected Nakajima Atsushi, who was surrounded by people.
"Obito-san!" Nakajima Atsushi's eyes lit up when he saw the man standing before him, but as he heard his question and thought of the "truth" he had uncovered, his expression began to fall again. He pursed his lips and asked,
Obito-san, did you already know why the Director would act this way toward me, that's why you helped me take the request to find out the truth?
No." Uchiha Obito paused, "But I can guess more or less.
After seeing that scene back then and witnessing this child's ability to transform into a tiger, he had more or less reconstructed how the events had unfolded.
“Just because of my ability to turn into a tiger, does that make the Director's actions toward me correct?!" Nakajima Atsushi grit his teeth. Even though he had known the so-called "truth" for some time, he still couldn't suppress his anger whenever he thought about how he had been treated.
“Of course not.” In Uchiha Obito's view, Director Nakajima Atsushi's behavior was nothing short of laughable; using violent means could never be considered proper guidance.
“Whose fault is that?” Nakajima Atsushi was dazed; he didn't know who he should actually hate for the treatment he had endured. Should he hate the Director? But the Director's actions were due to his uncontrollable Ability. Should he hate his own Ability that turns him into a tiger? But he couldn't control his Ability either!
“Is this all you can do? Are you already at a loss because of this much!” Uchiha Obito took a few more steps toward Nakajima Atsushi, looking down at him from above.
"There was once a boy with white hair just like yours. He lost his father at five, went to the battlefield at seven, lost two of his fellow disciples at twelve, lost his teacher at thirteen, his favorite student defected at twenty-four. His entire life was a continuous cycle of loss." Uchiha Obito spoke the cruelest words with a calm expression.