Bewitching Smile: Death's Bride
Part One
It taken me at least a year to even walk again, hell, to learn everything all over again took me two years. But I'm alive, thanks to Fujino Shizuru, she hadn't told me how she found me and her surgeon friend just said that I was found in a puddle of blood behind an alley. I was sure as hell I wasn't, I was at the dock where Irvan shot me. That little shit is not my protégé, he's sloppy in his work and his personal life just as fucked up. But you don't fucking look a gift horse in the mouth, so I was dead to the world and the Syndicate for two long years but I doubt anyone give a damn about it. Most would dance on my grave, if I even got one that is.
For many, they sought revenge, but I was getting tired of my job. Ever since I met the woman with the bewitching smile, my view of things changed. She was patient and graceful, she helped me with my daily routine, even encouraged me to learn to walk and talk again. I was severely injured and died for at least ten minutes, which in turn damaged my brain a little. She was from out of town, yet she stayed around for two long years to help me return to normal. Normal in a sense where I can do the daily things on my own, however, I still struggled sometimes and I was told that my right hand will never regain its full range of motion because of a damaged nerve. For two years, I've come to understand the strange feelings I felt whenever that woman is around, I've come to feel pain and anguish when she isn't. If I'd known it was love, I would've walked away from my life as an Enforcer sooner, but that is only if I'd met her sooner. But I don't regret though; the path I'd walked about, the things I've done, the people I've killed, I regret none of that. I am who I am and that is all there is to it, and I will not change any of it.
"Ara, what are you thinking?" her voice cut into my train of thoughts and I looked up at her.
"How life is cheap when you watch others die, but valuable when it's your own." I replied as she sat down across from me in the kitchen of her friend's home.
"Ara, what an odd take on life, does it have anything to do with how you live your life?" she inquired and I found that I owed to her to speak the truth.
"I was…" I paused and she looked on expectantly. "…a former member of the Tokyo Syndicate, I was their Enforcer and killing people is what I do. I don't sell drugs or weapons; I kill other crime bosses and rival gangs in turf wars. Life was cheap to me, because I can take it away from them so easily. I didn't give them a chance to beg for mercy, the same when it happened to me it was sudden and that's it. The only different is that I make sure the people I killed stay dead, but it doesn't matter." I ended shaking my head to chase away the old memories of a happier time with my brother and his wife, before he becomes a narcissist.
"Ara, what will you do now? Getting revenge?" she asked after a long moment of silence between us.
"No, if they think I'm dead, then there's no reason for me to set the record straight. I just have to figure out how to live life without the drugs and violence," I answered her honestly.
"Ara, come to Kyoto with me than," she suggested as our eyes locked.
I found myself unable to tear my gaze away from hers; I was drowning within those beautiful crimson eyes. If asked whether or not I mind, I would answer that I didn't give a damn. You could say that there's a motive behind everything and this woman have a motive for staying and saving me, a thug, a gangster and a murderer and you might be right. Because your logic would be simple and I would agree, why in the hell would someone like her wasting her time on someone like me? But so what? So what if she got a motive for saving me? She saved my life, so all she had to do is say a word and I'm more than willing to give up my life for her. This isn't about being the knight in shining armor or doing the right thing, hell I'm just giving back what I owe.
"I've never been there before," I murmured more to myself than hers while I'm still lost in her eyes.
"Then it will be a nice change of scenery for you, it's fairly quiet where I live." I wondered though, her words seemed to be inviting as if she's inviting me to her home and meet her parents.
Perhaps she needed someone from the city; anyone would do to meet her parents. She seemed to be the type that has it all, maybe she wanted to use me to get out of being force into an arranged marriage. That's as far as I could think of when it comes to her motive for saving me, but maybe because I'm a simpleton or an idiot take your pick. But then why would she pick me when she could just get anyone? It gets confusing, and perhaps I am an idiot after all. My right hand might never be like it was before, and I've learned to utilize my left hand and I promise you that I can kill just as well as when my right hand wasn't fucked up. However, before I left with her to Kyoto, I made sure to pay back her surgeon friend for saving my life. Over the years, I have accumulated a good chunk of money, so I transferred most my money to fund her clinic and the remaining into her personal account.
"Ara, are you sure you're a former yakuza? You're awfully generous with Kikukawa-sensei there," she said teasingly as we boarded the train heading for Kyoto.
"She's a good person, shouldn't struggle to compete with those big hospitals that treated their patients like crap." I answered; we took really late train so there aren't many people on.
There wasn't much to talk about, and neither of us are talkers. We sat in comfort silence as the sceneries passed by in a blur, sadly it didn't last long until a group of people tore through the cart behind us and into our cart. They were all men, well-dressed but their manners aren't as much as they checked at every seat. I'm sure they're looking for someone, but by the manner they're doing it making them looking more and more like a threat to me. The problem here for me was, my gun was taken from me when I was shot and left for dead. My right hand is weak and a bit useless so even if I still have my gun I can't fucking use it anyway. On the positive note, if you can consider it to be that, I got my pocketknife on me though by the dozen of them I'm not sure how this will play out if they really become a threat.