Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 359. Unofficial Infos and Deals

Henry’s POV

When I was sure that Kenny was deeply asleep, I bent over him with my last strength and disabled any alarm he had set, which wasn’t easy given that one of my hands was attached to an infusion.

I then took the phone and leaned back comfortably before taking his hand and nibbling on one of his fingers while checking the sites he had visited, wanting to know what he had laughed about so heartily.

When I found the pictures on the official government site of our city, I also had to hold back to keep it together.

I checked his search history and smiled. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He hadn’t even searched his own name.

But I would do it; it was the first thing that was interesting to me.

>Kennith Howard< and enter.

After some time, I found him all over the internet, just like before.

’The whole story of Kennith Howard!’

’We have the deleted video of Haruka Nanomi talking to Kennith Howard!’ I had already seen that video a thousand times before we even crossed into our first parallel world, so it was uninteresting.

I reported the site nevertheless.

’The Doppelganger Theory—Why Kenneth Howard Is Not Necessarily Innocent!’

The last link got my attention, so I opened the site, and after scrolling through some junk, I reported the site for false information, noting that KENNITH was written with an I and not with an E, together with the fact that he was naturally innocent, that this was slander, and that if Mrs. Howard were to find out about this, she would sue them even in these dire times.

While typing with both hands, the infusion was luckily long enough so that I didn’t have to move away from Kenny; I sucked on his finger before holding them again and just softly putting them between my lips.

I knew I had skipped some necessary developmental steps for becoming a healthy-minded adult because I was on drugs and alcohol when I was a teenager, but as it seemed, I had to relive even my time as a toddler, seeing that I was only pacified with Kenny’s skin between my lips.

I looked through more articles, reporting and correcting people who still hadn’t understood how his name was written, but I found that, overall, in the two years of his disappearance, and with all the new developments happening, there had been no recent news articles about him.

This was good because Kenny wouldn’t like the attention.

And I would abhor it if other people’s attention were on him.

I downloaded one of the apps leading into the darknet and searched there for Kenny’s name.

Much more was discussed there about him, and I read through it. Sadly there was no way to report sites from the darknet, and I wasn’t savvy enough to bring such sites down.

But it helped to get the overall sentiment they had about Kenny; seventy percent wavered between him being a hero and a victim of the justice system, and thirty percent were thinking the hype about him was unjust, that he was guilty and a murderer, and that the whole ’hero of the south district’ movement was just a paid whitewashing strategy from the Howard family.

After getting angry and contemplating finding the people who wrote this fuckery and killing them and then remembering that I would need their full name to teleport to them, which I didn’t know, I looked for the current hot topics on a few discussion boards on the darknet.

And there was only one highly discussed topic: the rats.

I finally deleted the app after gathering a few very interesting things that weren’t available to the masses.

After that I returned to the official web browser but didn’t find anything as interesting, so I messaged Ethan, whose phone number I had long committed to memory.

’Kenny sleeps SO QUIETLY; bring the doctor, and open the locked door to our room JUST AS QUIETLY!’

A bit later, the lock opened silently from the outside, and I put the knuckle of Kenny’s forefinger out of my mouth and just held onto it before the door opened and Ethan stood with the old doctor in the doorway.

Figured, a locked room door wasn’t that difficult to open if one had a coin.

I would have to find a proper lock for our door later.

Seeing them not entering, I raised my eyebrows, asking them with my expression if they needed an invitation.

Ethan came in first and crouched down by my side, while the doctor hesitantly looked at Kenny.

Ah, I woke up for a short time and heard Kenny threatening the doctor while half asleep. I would have forgotten that exciting memory if not for the doctor’s expression right now.

I snapped my fingers quietly to get the doctor’s attention before motioning him to come closer.

When he also crouched down to my side, I started speaking quietly.

"Kenny hadn’t eaten since forever. No blood draws on him, but get him also an infusion. If it goes after his pattern, he will sleep for days."

The old doctor nodded, and Ethan pointed at himself.

"I guess I will change both of your infusions?"

"Kenny will be sleeping, and if I stand up, I will wake him up, besides being a patient myself." I pointed out the obvious, only for Ethan to sigh.

"I thought so." He smiled a very polite smile that, however, came off somewhat offensive.

"Why are you still here? Get Kenny something equivalent to a good meal." I told the doctor, who stood up and walked out defeatedly.

"Did you get what I wanted?" I asked Ethan when the doctor was out of hearing range.

"...I did." He squirmed.

"Did you look inside?" My voice came out murderously as I took a deep look at him.

"...No. But because the city soon stopped delivering things per mail, even to the delivery boxes, I had to enter the shop myself after contacting the owner regarding your purchase... and the shop was explicit enough for me to understand its nature." He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.

"You are behaving as if my purchase was for you." My voice dripped with disgust.

"Haaaa... I put your purchase under the closet inside your room." Ethan put his glasses back on and glanced at Kenny.

"Please don’t make me do something like this again."

"What exactly did I make you do? Hmm? What. exactly. did. you. have. to. do?" I smiled.

"...Nothing."

"Then where is the problem?" My smile widened.

"There is none." Ethan stood up and opened the first button of his suit shirt, as if he were choking on something.

"I am glad we are on the same page." I watched the door, having long heard the doctor coming down the staircase.

He entered with the same equipment I was hanging on to.

"What exactly is that?" I motioned to the solution in his arms.

"It isn’t as highly dosed as yours, but it is essentially the same," the doctor whispered back.

"Can it harm him?" I just wanted to make sure, but seeing the doctor freeze, I nearly broke out laughing when again being reminded why the old man was so insecure.

"I... it won’t." He stammered.

I didn’t ask him if he would guarantee it with his life because he looked like he would easily cry, and I didn’t want his tears to dirty the mattress or worse, Kenny.

The doctor finished, and I looked in satisfaction at our mirrored infusion holders left and right on the bed.

Though it wasn’t as easy to cuddle now, it was essential for Kenny to gather his strength for the future and for my gift.

After the doctor left, I looked at Ethan.

"What are the current plans?"

"There are no plans. We have gotten you two back, which was what we worked for. This house runs on solar panels and filters water from a nearby lake, and we can use rainwater as well. Theoretically, we can stay here, and should rats or other fiends appear, we can always fight them..." He crouched down again and looked at me pointedly.

"Easy." I nodded. There was no way I would let such things enter this house and touch my master.

I looked at Kenny sleeping soundly beside me, and given that he wasn’t awake, I decided to continue the conversation here instead of sending Ethan out and communicating through text.

"Regrettably, he wouldn’t want to stay here and hide forever. What is his current status?"

Ethan chose to stop crouching down and sat sideways on the ground in what Kenny would describe as an ’especially gay’ posture.

I chuckled at the thought, urging him with my eyes to start talking, and that quietly.

"I didn’t want to mention it so soon. From his five-year sentence, two years have gone by, so theoretically, he has a bit less than three years left in which he could be imprisoned in a conventional prison," he started, and my face fell.

"However, someone from the government contacted me with an unofficial deal after the rats appeared. They said essentially, ’We know Mr. Howard isn’t under the Lawrence family’s or the center’s care, and that he is missing. If he comes forward and helps get rid of the rats, we will drop all charges.’ And they meant not only his but also yours."

Ha!

Wanting him to protect them after what they did to him?

Wanting him to do the dirty work for them?

How dare they continue to toy with his wish to finally walk as a free man?

"An unofficial deal?" I hissed; that was the next point that got me furious.

Ethan agreed.

"Yes, I also first thought of this being a scheme to find out about his whereabouts and if we had knowledge of it. Yet, if Mr. Howard is willing, and with an excellent attorney on his side, we can get the deal sealed without revealing his whereabouts first and without risking them to make a sudden drawback."

"Or we can just get rid of the government; it won’t exist much longer anyway," I said, but Ethan shook his head.

"As your attorney, I wouldn’t recommend that."

"Start the procedures of your plan." I pressed through clenched teeth.

"You think he will agree to the deal?" Ethan asked me with a tilted head.

I took Kenny’s hand that lay on my stomach and looked at his unusual palm lines.

"No, I know he will agree."

There is a chance he would hunt down the rats by himself even without them offering something because first, he would get bored with staying here in safety for some time; second, he wouldn’t want the people in his vicinity to go crazy because of destroyed links or gather superpowers they could misuse; third, I heard him talking to his friends while dozing off constantly, and they would themselves get ordered every now and then to kill rats.

He wouldn’t let his friends run around and endanger themselves without doing anything.

And now to the fourth reason, which wasn’t the last but just one of quite a few following.

If he knew that there are rumors in the darknet that two out of ten rat bites ended with rabies-like symptoms that could easily spread through body fluids like in some dull, repetitious zombie film, he wouldn’t stand still.

No wonder the government soon asked for Kenny’s assistance—even if it was a ploy to find out his whereabouts, they would surely still use him for the exact same purpose: for his powers.

So what other choice do I have than to follow my master’s wishes and protect the protector?

No choice; it isn’t even a question.