"Instead of joking around from the very morning" K's corners of the mouth twitched slightly as he said that "better tell me you have something interesting for me, for a change."
Gareth seemed to be exceptionally proud of himself.
"You'll be surprised, and a lot. Maybe so much to give me a promotion."
The boss looked at him, intrigued.
"Speak, please speak, I'm all ears."
"We've got a guest, a really specific one. A middle-aged man, but huge as a mountain, with scars on the face, looking as he fought something big, maybe a bear. Though, I get a feeling a bear would actually have trouble with that guy, but it's not the thing here. From the very beginning he seemed to come here not to drink. I spoke with him for a moment and he ultimately admitted he hunts demons."
"Ok, so he is a hunter" K nodded. Nowadays, there was more and more people trying their luck at this "new profession", so coming upon someone who considers himself a hunter was not out of ordinary. Despite that, the bartender seemed visibly excited, and knowing him, K felt the guy was yet again intentionally buidling tension "And? Would you care about telling me what's so extraordinary about it?"
Gareth looked around and went closer to his boss, so no one, even people from kitchen, would not eavesdrop.
"He told me he found some familiar traces in the neighborhood, and started asking people in the area about who is dealing with demon problems here. Obviously, people suggested you, that's why he came here to find you."
K shrugged indifferently.
"I don't know, what does he want? An autograph?" he joked "Gareth, I know you like to dramatize, but I've just woken up, so can you get to the point?"
"Boss, this guy claims he knows you. And he was not talking about some guy fighting demons somewhere in the back of nowhere. It's about a guy you once were. Hey, wait a sec, what are you...?"
K did not know when he did that, but he stood up and caught the bartender's arms, looking straight into his eyes. He reacted instinctively, as if he wanted to check whether Gareth, who was both his employee, and a trusted friend, was speaking the truth.
"Sorry, I got carried away" K apologized "How do you know this guy can be trusted?"
"I served him this Irish whisky with a secret ingredient. You said it was a trustworthy thing."
The boss straightened up and scratched his beard. The drink barman mentioned was something K prepared, using one of the notes hidden inside his sword's tsuka. According to the description, this liquid uncovers the lies, yet they never really had a case where they would confirm effectiveness..
"That guy, is he still here?"
"Yes, he is sitting by the bar. His name's Derrik."
K nodded and headed to the bar before Gareth managed to react in any way. Ultimately, barman waited for a short moment before following his boss.
There was already quite a high number of clients in the pub, even though the hour was still early. Apparently, introduction of the curfew by the authorities made most of the clients arrive earlier than usual to manage getting a drink.
Once K appeared in his line of sight, Derrik stood up instantly, causing his chair to fell on the floor with a loud noise. The man was indeed huge - without a doubt, he was over two meters tall given he was more than a head taller than K.
Reaction of the pub's owner was not as expressive, though the behavior of this middle-aged hunter made it easier to recognize him within the light dimmed by a thick wall of cigarettes' smoke. K stood by the bar, in front of Derrik, who spoke to him before K managed to do anything.
"Kaleb, it's me, Derrik, do you remember me?" the middle-aged man was still standing, what was catching an eye of numerous guests due to the man's height.
K was sceptical about this stranger since he already met a number of people claiming they knew him, while each of them ended up trying to trick him into getting money. After all, phonies were common in these times. Nevertheless, this name the client said, he could not tell for sure it was his, but somehow it felt familiar, despite he did not have this specific flashback as in previous cases of what K believed was regaining some memories before - no daydreaming of a kind.
"Let's not talk here" he told Derrik "I've got a better, more comfortable spot where no one's going to bother us."
K led his guest to one of additional passages leading to the back of the building, which could be used only by the owner and his employees. The area they went to was a small annex attached to the tenement, where a workshop combined with a garage was located, though it could look like some kind of a small arsenal to a bystander. Inside, there was a lot of weapons, including both guns and selection of blades. K was gathering this equipment just in case from the moment he had a place to keep it.
Derrik was looking around with an open curiosity, when K pointed at an amchair placed in front of a heavy, wooden desk - he himself sat by the desk as the owner, and the middle-aged hunter was seated opposite him.
Once both of them were seated, the guest started talking again.
"I see you settled here quite well, Kaleb. How did you manage to organize that much stuff without alarming the police?"
"Having me here is convenient for the police, but I'd rather not have some outsiders to stick their noses in, so please mind your own business" K said that bluntly "Besides, I don't think talking about my work here is the reason you came here to begin with. You call me Kaleb, but you are the first person to use that name, and I've heard people addressing me with a number of names since I woken up at a police station years ago. Who is this Kaleb person you believe me to be?"
Derrik looked straight into K's eyes, and then scratched his head, depressed.
"Your name is Kaleb, I have no doubt about that" he spoke with conviction as if he was stating a fact "I have no idea what was happening with you over all of these years, but I know it's you. How couldn't I recognize you? You are a son of a dear friend after all. I taught you how to fight, or - rather - I was one of your teachers, the first person to show you how to handle a sword."
K moved in his armchair. So far, none of the words this man spoke made him remember anything. Despite that, K somehow had a hunch Derrik can be trusted, and by no means he wanted to not take advantage of the opportunity to learn something about his past.
"Ok, so first of all, you must be aware everyone here calls me K. No one here knows who this Kaleb guy is, me included, at least right now. Still, I'm curious what can you tell me about the person you believe I am. Maybe start with explaining how in hell did I get myself in this hole, why did I wake up at a police station, and why did it take you so many years to find me?"
It was hard for K to describe what he felt this very moment. For sure, he felt some kind of hope for learning about his past, even though he remained sceptical, but K also had some weird, deeply-rooted anger and sorrow for those who knew him, but let him be on his own for so many years.
K knew that, if Derrik's words prove to be true, he would for sure be angry with the man for the fact he did not contact him until now. Of course, first of all, K had to confirm what was the truth.
"Ok, I guess you know the circumstances in which the world learned about demons, right?" it was the topic the middle-aged hunter started with and continued only after K confirmed with a nod "These fights that happened back then, you were there. Without a doubt, you were fighting demons with your teammates, with your group. I get you would like to know who were those people, but we will get there one by one. No one on our side can be sure about it, yet we assume you got yourself into one of the portals and was somehow transported to the country of your birth. Long story short here is that I have no way of knowing the details, bu the point is - such passages are based on orders, the magic and can send you to a number of places, which could explain the reason why you are specifically here. I assume you subconsciously chose this place, for whatever reason. Now, for what likely happened next. The space-time rupture is a phenomenon one can hardly overlook, so that's likely why the authorities learned about it fast and hence the presence of the police. Moving next, on the topic of the search - this one is a wider topic" more wrinkles appeared on Derrik's face when he started talking about it "You see, I'm a part of brotherhood, a group of people who for centuries worked towards maintaining balance between our and demon's worlds - brotherhood you were also a part of back then. The events in Japan hit us hard and we lost many good people. That's why we needed time to get back on feet. However, even then - due to these heavy losses - we had limited possibilities of searching for the missing comrades. Then, among those we were looking for, and managed to find, not everyone wanted to return. Due to all of that, the bosses of the brotherhood changed the approach and search for missing hunters was no longer a priorty."
K was listening carefully to Derrik's words, and once the man made a stop, the younger hunter nodded, making a face he believed should be showing the understanding of the situation, before speaking himself:
"Ok, so to sum things up: the brotherhood decided that if you find this Kaleb guy 'by chance', it would be great, but in case you don't, it would be whatever for them? No matter how I look at this, those bosses seem to be quite some assholes. I'm not surprised there are those who don't want to come back. If you believe I was one of you, didn't it make more sense to keep this kind of information to yourself?"
K pulled out a cigarette and lighted it for himself.
"Oh, sorry about that. You want one?"
Derrik shook his head, but drew a cigar, which was ideally matching the style of this middle-aged man.
"I'm sure I found the right person and that's you, Kaleb. You may have an amnesia or anything, but there are things you didn't forget. I saw the traces, and I can tell it was the same person I once taught. And that's why I don't plan to hide anything from you. The brotherhood got a really heavy blow and there was a number of bad decisions. However, everything can be still fixed, but we need good people. We need you."
The younger of the men let the smoke out of his mouth and was looking at the ceiling before looking around the workshop.
"The thing is, Derrik, that I feel comfortable here and I'm not really interested in any brotherhood. The only important thing for me right now is regaining my memory. If you believe I'm who you think I am, convince me and bring back my memories. Maybe then you will get a different answer."
Hearing these words, his guest smiled widely.
"You can count on it, boy. That was my goal from the very beginning. We were looking for you for a reason, and definitely not to give up easily."
K looked at him questioningly.
"Right, since we already clarigied this, what's about this 'we' you keep using? Are you talking about some of your buddies from this brotherhood?"
"Something like that. You will learn soon."