Cortez flicked a hand and one of his bodyguards pulled the dying boy away from him. "No hospital," Cortez murmured to him. The boy would be taken downstairs, stripped of anything of value, and allowed to die nude, either slowly or given a mercy killing. Cortez fixed Aoi with an unfriendly eye. "My kitten is my highest earner, and my very favorite," he said, voice bored. "I am very attached to him being<i>alive</i>and<i>unscarred</i>. His docket is open tonight," he said, ever the businessman, "but I'd want an exorbitant amount and to rest easy knowing that when you gave him back he won't be sullied, dead, or unusable."<br/><br/>"I do not know what assurances you could give me of that," he said, looking at Aoi with an expression of supreme indifference, sipping his bourbon.