"What...what are you—"

 Ryu backed away from me, placing his back against my door. He folded his arms, putting his right foot on the door as he looked down at the floor. I was unsure what words wouldn't come out of his mouth next. I was half hoping for a joke...but I never knew Ryu to be a jokester. 

As the silence continued, my mind began to feel overloaded from thinking about the man who stood before me to remembering the man who birthed...no tortured me for years on end. Why...why does this all have to be connected?

"Kizuna's father loved the opera and for his last outing, he enjoyed a show at Tokyo Opera City. When he and his men were leaving, a man fleeing from the cops ran into his guards with enough force to knock the Raichi leader from their arms. Kizuna's father was so frail, that when he fell down the staircase beneath him, that his injuries were so severe that he died on his way to the hospital."

I felt like my heart was thumping so loud from anxiety that Ryu would hear it. He looked up at me then, his green eyes fading back into that of a serpent.

"Instead of the police apprehending the man, he was commanded to be brought to Kizuna. By that time, Kizuna had already killed every one of his father's men who were at the scene at the time of the incident."

My eyes shook as Ryu moved his hands to his pockets, "I didn't know at the time, when I picked your father up, that you were related. I honestly didn't care who he was until Kizuna cut off his left hand and he squealed at the top of his lungs Mori, Uto Mori."

My dad...how did my dad...

"I remembered you saying that name...even though it was so long ago. At the point it was irrelevant. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, so I didn't get involved in his unfortunate circumstances. It was only until Kizuna mentioned killing his family in front of him that changed everything."

Ryu's sunset gaze held onto me, "So, I hunted you down first. I knew the only way to save you was to keep you in my protection...to keep you far away from Kizuna. Every day I threatened your father to keep him silent, and in return I lessened his blows. Kizuna wanted him to stay alive long enough to suffer, and suffer he did."

I felt sick...just by the way he was talking...it wasn't like the boy I remembered.

"It...it wasn't until your father had had enough that he decided to give into Kizuna's wills. He opened his mouth, only long enough to get 'Ni' out before he died. He had to die in order to keep you safe."

He had to die.

The words clung to me as I felt the blood drain from my body. Kizuna...Kizuna didn't kill my father....

"Who...who killed my father, Ryu?"

He didn't say a word in response. If my father was alive when Ryu found me in the gallery, then he died...

"When...when did he die?" I asked, my voice shaking. 

That day, the day Ryu found me after I went to the ATM...he had blood on his shirt. Was that...was that when he killed him?

Bile leaped up my throat, "Fucking tell me!"

The yellow became more apparent now. The monster taking hold.

"I did."

My heart thumped into my eardrum. 

"So...so that day that you came to my ap—" 

I couldn't even get the words out loud. Shock completely swallowed me hole, my chest burning in a freighting realization that the boy I loved. The boy I so desperately wanted to see...

"Yes. If I didn't kill him, if I didn't shut him up, he would've come clean. He would've told Kizuna then and there that he had a son. So, I couldn't—"

I laughed at that response, taking me by surprise. Yet, my emotions were so clouded.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" 

The rage finally came to its peak.

"You killed my dad, walked into my apartment, slept in my bed..."

"Niko, I had—"

"Get out!" I screamed, the tears clouding my eyes as Ryu stood emotionless before me.

I wept, unsure why. My father was a monster. I had wished so many times that he wouldn't come home, that he'd disappear from my life. I couldn't stand him with every fiber of my being...but having Ryu kill him. Having Ryu hide that from me...it made me want to throw up.

"Get the fuck out!"

Ryu took a step forward,  only agitating me more, "Niko—"

"Ray, Fucking go! Leave me alone!"

 All I heard were his footsteps stopping...fading. The door cracked and his last words were, "My father started calling me Ray because I was a weapon, and during my time as a young adult, the only thing I knew was how to kill."

The door began to close as my eyes began to water.

"Ray's my demon, Niko...but I needed him, not Ryu, to protect you."

 The door closed.

Tears were streaming down my face again. I didn't know what to think...or even what to feel. All I knew from that moment on was that I was caught in the serpent’s grasp.