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Dad Lore Chapter 11 - Not For Long
🕑 Added 2025-05-31 19:24:11 +0000 UTCTaro groggily woke up, his head still riding off a wave of vertigo, and it took him all of two blinks and three seconds to realize that he was tied up in the most discomforting way possible and his joints were all locked up in a way that trying to move them made his muscles twist and spasm. A muscle pull in such a position would definitely hurt like two kinds of hell.
Taro sighed despondently. “Really?” He knew he was getting on in his years and had been out of practice for the better part of a decade, but he wasn’t that rusty that he couldn’t shake off the League of Assassins.
Magic.
He held the thought for a moment before letting it go. If it was magic then he had little he could do about it.
This wasn’t the old days where his only worries was if he was better skilled than the next person or had the better weapons. There was little a man of mundane flesh and blood could do when faced with an alien that could probably displace the moon if said alien wanted to.
Back then the normal consensus was that no one was faster than a bullet, now what had been once a fact had devolved into a joke that even children wouldn’t believe.
Honestly, he was thankful that he gave up his blade when he did and had used that resolution to set the goal of living out a mundane life. A goal he had been contentedly living out, only for the blade he had given up to find its way into his hands again.
“What can I say? Some things are just not meant to be.” He murmured to himself. He could still feel the effects of whatever that paralytic toxin had been. His body still felt sluggish.
He closed his eyes and focused on his heartbeat and synced his breathing with it, and from there he gradually lowered his heart rate and blood flow. In this state he could tell if something foreign was in his bloodstream, and could even begin a filtration process.
It was an ancient assassin art that he had been lucky to learn in his youth. It saved his life more than a couple times and even helped him build up strong resistances to a lot of exotic and common poisons back in the day with how frequently he was exposed to them.
It was how he knew that the green poison was a really new mix-up. His body had seized up when it touched his skin, but no matter how much his immune system fought against the freshly foreign toxin, it ultimately failed as its defences were broken down in seconds.
“They must have dosed me with a ridiculously huge amount in the short time I’ve been out.”
His blood and his skin was filled with so much remnant of the toxin that the average man would still be in a semi-comatose state, and not having an absentminded conversation with himself.
Since there was nothing he could currently do, he drooped his head and willed the fatigue to take him. He set a mental reminder to his senses to wake him up the next time someone came in close proximity with his body. Ergo, someone entering his cell to either feed him or dope him up. The former was too far-fetched and the latter too likely to happen. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in a position to choose.
.
........
.
The sleep that came quickly left just as fast as Taro’s eyes blinked open and took notice of the people in front of him.
His brows dropped pitifully as if he was about to cry when he saw the foremost person standing barely three feet from his bound form.
He knew this moment would come one way or another when he found out that the League of Assassins were sniffing out his trail.
Taro – the perfect living example of a calm mind: accurately based on the astute observations of a distraught, haunted, traumatized and homeless child – suddenly became a nervous wreck; sweating profusely and trembling in his chains as he came face to face with this particular woman.
He would have remained fearless and casual had he been in the presence of the Demon Head, Ra’s al Ghul himself.
He has never met anyone in his life that scares him more than this woman in front of him. And unlike others, her strength and skill as a master martial artist was in no way a factor in why she terrified him.
“W-Wu-San, it is great to see you again.” He said after poorly managing to get a hold of his nerves.
Behind Lady Shiva, Deathstroke who was currently unmasked raised a curious brow at the casual form of address their prisoner addressed her.
For clarification, even the leader of the fearsome League of Assassins, Ra’s al Ghul, addressed her with respect by calling her Lady Shiva, as did everyone else.
A sign of respect to the woman who created a globally acknowledged name for herself with pure skill and strength.
Slade did not know of anyone who has ever addressed her by her real name, or spoke of it with such casual air.
But then he remembered his fight – the joke of one – with the chained up fatso and how he had used a pen of all things to fight against himself, Slade Wilson, the Deathstroke.
Subconsciously he nudged the trembling fatso to the same place he held the image of Lady Shiva in his mind. A step or two higher than even the Demon Head.
“H-how have you been d-doing? It has been over a couple years since I last saw you. I trust you are in good health, yes?”
Taro blurted out words that were both a mix of formal, casual and respectful speech patterns. Clearly, he was way in over his head.
“I greet you in kind, Sakamoto-dono.” Lady Shiva returned his greetings with a slight bow of her head. “As for my wellbeing, I have remained in great health in the years we have not seen each other, which has been well over a decade, might I add. As for fulfillments, I have had one, two or three excitements in the last decade. Alas, unearthing talents is as hard as it is fulfilling.”
How was he supposed to reply to that? He could not even get a grasp of the nature of their conversation. Were they friends? Familiar acquaintances, or simply respectable comrades?
“Then I’m glad.” He tried shifting in his binds but the strained tension in his muscles reminded him just how bad that decision would be.
“I am sure we will have a lot of good stories from the last decade to share between us but first I’ll have to ask you to release these binds, Wu-San. I cannot exactly share my stories in good spirit when I’m bound in iron shackles.”
He gave a shaky laugh, one that tried but ultimately failed to mask his frayed nerves with humour. They frayed even more when he found himself under her long hard stare.
“Ra’s has called for you. We’ll be heading to his domain soon and it is with my respect for your person and your skills that you will remain bound to the utmost and drugged multiple times every day to reduce the high chance of you escaping.” She said candidly. Her brisk words letting Taro know that no concession of any kind will be made.
Taro’s eyes crinkled in bitterness. “Your opinions of me remains as high and bloated as ever. You overestimate me at every turn, Wu-San.”
Lady Shiva took a single step forward towards Taro, her eyes never straying from his. “The fact that you can speak this fluidly and remain highly cognizant of your surroundings despite being bound and drugged multiple times in a 24hour circle, instead of being paralyzed from the crown of your hair to your soles as well as being semi-comatosed with barely any of your nerves functioning, clearly shows that you still remain a threat and a high risk factor despite being bound in chains and locked in a cell.”
Behind Lady Shiva, Slade and Talia shifted away from their relaxed stances into something more accessing. Lady Shiva’s words reminded them that the man currently bound in chains shouldn’t even be able to breath loudly, or even twitch his eyelids, talk less of mentioning holding a casual conversation and having enough mental resilience to play nervous.
The dosage that was being administered to him daily was enough to kill a normal person ten times over by completely destroying all their nerve endings or instantly turning them into a vegetable.
“That reminds me Wu-San, what is that paralytic agent? I don’t think it’s something I’ve ever come across.”
Slade’s hands went to his blade in an instant. There was something about the way the older man bound in chains remained casual and curious when he shouldn’t even be blinking rattled him.
He felt as if he was being snuck on, but the one who made him feel that way was bound in chains in a way that Slade himself knew he wouldn’t be able to break out of.
He looked at Talia and could tell that she felt the same thing he did, but somehow managed to make herself half-relaxed in front of their prisoner. He chalked it up to them being familiar.
Hearing Taro’s curious inquiry, Talia stepped forward, standing half a foot behind Lady Shiva.
“It was a gift I received from a woman I once lent aid to in the past. Poison Ivy’s creations are one of a kind, and this one was a special case. I know about your unusual resilience to toxins, old teacher, so I had to bring something I knew you wouldn’t have a strong enough defence against.”
Taro looked at her and smiled. “So the student finally walks their own path? Good job on using pre-existing information to build up an even stronger trump card. Excellent execution as well.”
In the face of his praise, Talia remained impassive, having already accepted a long time ago that his words no longer meant anything worthwhile to her. But still she listened.
“On the off chance that I resisted your killing stroke, what would you have done then?” Taro asked her.
“Your hypotheticals holds no weight. It is simply a matter of planning better than your opponent. I planned better, that is why you are currently bound in iron and chained to the cell.” Talia replied with an air of assured confidence that only those who were familiar with the trials of success had.
Taro sighed tiredly. “At least something never changes. You still edge everything in a single killing strike.”
He turned away from facing Talia to look back at Lady Shiva – more like moving his eyes between them – and chuckled sheepishly upon finding that her eyes still haven’t left him for even a second.
“Would you mind answering a simple question, Wu-San?”
“Ask away. I’ll decide if it warrants an answer.” She replied.
“Where is she?” He simply asked. In the most plain and empty voice any of them had even heard.
Slade’s hands wrapped calmly around the hilt of his sword, Talia’s went for the two curved daggers on her waist. Lady Shiva remained the only one who didn’t react to Taro’s simple question.
And it was a simple question really.
“She’s kept in another room and currently out of consciousness and she’ll remain that way until we arrive.”
“And why the special attention to her?” Taro asked inquisitively.
“The Demon Head has expressed an interest in her. Whatever he decides for her will become her new destiny.”
TWANG!
The chains around Taro’s hands instantly split apart with a sharp clang and fell to the ground with a heavy bang, but the man himself never moved. Not even a muscle.
He just kept staring hard at Lady Shiva, not even noticing that Slade’s blade hung threateningly at the base of his neck.
“Are those the only questions you want to ask?” Lady Shiva asked while she remained staring unblinking at Taro, her face wearing the impassiveness of a calm lake, never reacting to anything he did, not even to the chains around his hands snapping off.
“Yes. Nothing else comes to mind. Unless you want me to ask about dinner rations.”
“You will not be fed food or water until we arrive.”
At this point what else could he do? He couldn’t even say he was surprised. And yet people think he acts out being scared of her when she was always this cold and heartless.
“I’ll be taking my leave now, Sakamoto-dono. If nothing changes and you remain in your cell, then the next time we’ll meet is when I come to take you to Ra’s.”
Taro finally closed his eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep. “You make it sound like.... I have a choice.”
Seeing that he was finally asleep, Lady Shiva retrieved a dosage of the paralytic agent and injected the sleeping Taro.
“Always have someone watching this cell. And under no condition should anyone step inside this cell other than to administer the dosage, regardless of whatever they might hear.”
Slade had a frown on his face with his hands crossed over his chest. Seeing Lady Shiva’s retreating figure, he couldn’t help but speak out his suspicious thoughts.
“You make it sound like he’ll try to escape before we get to the island.”
Her steps halted by the door frame but she never turned around.
“He left on his own one day and never looked back. I doubt he will silently accept us forcefully taking him back.”
“Then shouldn’t you be the one to remain here to beat him back into his cell in case he does try to escape?”
“Mr. Wilson.” Damn it! He hates it when she calls his name like that. “Sakamoto-dono has no interest in fighting us, not even me.”
“And that means?” He asked impatiently, wondering where she was going with this.
“His only interest is in the girl and that’s where I’ll be. The fact that he sees her as more important than himself conversely makes her more important to Ra’s than Sakamoto-dono himself.”
She didn’t speak any more than that as she retreated back to her quarters, the same place where she kept Raven hostage.
.
........
.
Every minute Taro spent expunging the paralysis drug they were stuffing him was one that drew him to that island. To the life he had left behind. To a conversation he didn’t want to have.
This new drug however was terrifying with how the residue clung stubbornly to every part of his body even as he tried to process them out of his sweat pores.
‘Are you sure you’ll be fine? The amount they injected you with was worrying.’ Raven hovered around him in an incorporeal form, having left her drugged physical body behind in Lady Shiva’s room.
‘Don’t worry. If I can’t push all of them out then I’ll just concentrate the bulk of it and store them somewhere where they won’t affect the rest of my body.’
‘And what will you do with the pool of poison stored in your body?’ Raven asked slowly, her put-on nonchalance giving way to good old scepticism.
‘I’ll cut it out when we get out of here.’ He said easily as if that perfectly explained the ridiculousness of what he was doing.
What kind of control would one need to have on their own body to be able to isolate poison inside their own body and store it somewhere inside said body in order to retrieve it anytime it felt convenient?
She was almost tempted to ask him who taught him all the ridiculous things he knew how to do but forcefully abated her curiosity for a setting where they weren’t kidnapped and drugged.
Taro’s eyes opened softly behind his cracked glasses.
Raven couldn’t even bring herself to be impressed when she saw that his hare-brained plan had worked.
‘Now how are you going to get out of those chains without alerting the six assassin-guards outside?’
Raven had to shut her non-existent mouth up when she saw his skin folding in on each other. He was slowly losing weight in front of her eyes – going from pudgy and ‘half step obese’ to kinda chubby and ‘near, but not quite there’.
‘This will be enough. No need to go all the way.’ He spoke mentally as he slowly released his joints and flexed them before fully stepping out of the now-loosened chains.
‘That wicked woman.’ He thought as he cracked his neck sideways. ‘What kind of heavy chains are those?’
Under Raven’s silently-yet-hardly shocked eyes, his body fat that had been compressed and contracted started loosening up until he was back to his normal fat bod.
‘Those doors are sealed shut and can only be opened from the outside. How are you going to open....them? I guess that also works.’
This man who was her....guardian, helper...benefactor? This damned fat old man who definitely might or might not mean something to her kicked open a steel trapped door and it buckled.
Another kick as the door flew off its hinges and fell on three of the unfortunate guards that stood outside.
The remaining three guards distanced themselves from him with backflips and drew out their tanto–
Spit flew out of the mouth of the first guard as Taro drove a palm strike into his unguarded stomach that knocked him out.
The other two jumped away to opposite sides, leaving him in their middle, and threw shurikens at him which he easily caught between his fingers and then threw them all at the guard behind him before instantly closing the distance between him and the other guard and drove his heel to the guard’s chin, knocking his lights off.
A back hand smack put an end to the last one who tried creeping up on him.
“Where’s Wu-San’s room?”
Raven pointed in the general direction and sat back as she got to experience Taro freely fighting.
