I don't want to delay your reading any further by adding long author's notes like I did last week, so a short disclaimer and then on with it! "Good artists copy; great artists steal." This quote is the best thing ever to come from Apple, and yet, it itself was stolen from many artists before him, and likewise stolen by me. :)
Haruna, Emi was beautiful in the wind. Totsuka noticed this as he snuck a photo behind her back on his phone. That was the first time he had thought such a thing about a living being instead of trees, mountains, or night-time cityscapes. Comparing her to the things he freely called beautiful on a daily basis made him chuckle just slightly. She turned away from the pier to face him, cheeks rosy from the wind that was just a little bit colder than either of them expected. Her beauty was far greater than any of those lifeless things after all.
Truthfully, even though the air was a bit nippy right there on the beach, it was somewhat of a warm day. For the first time all week the sun was shining, and it had melted away what little snow remained in small piles. It felt like the beginning of spring; even though, any real hopes for hotter temperatures were way in the future. Because it seemed like spring, though, Emi wanted to be outside. They had heard the migration of humpback whales would be closer to shore this year than normal, so—knowing well enough that she would only see them by going out on a boat—Emi declared that she wanted to walk along the pier just in case.
The pier was in a part of town that was full of tourists. Little kids smeared their fingerprints all over the lenses of pay-per-use binoculars. Ice cream was three times as expensive as it should be—not that they would buy that this time of year. Gift shops lined the streets, overflowing with t-shirts proudly proclaiming, "I Shizume City." Obviously, it was written in English for all the Americans who wanted to take it home for their niece or nephew. First, they had to ask in their broken, textbook Japanese, "What size is this? Is ¥3000 a good price?"
Totsuka did not often come to the area any more than did most other locals. Still, it nearly felt like the right place for a date on the warmest cold day that week. Plus, with the large number of people around, they would be more difficult to follow. Several times he had readjusted the hat he had borrowed from Kusanagi again, nervously hoping it would conceal his face better this time. Of course it wouldn't, since it hadn't before. If they were after him, they would find him anyhow.
Worrying about such things had caught Emi's eye at some point, so he cast that fear aside for her enjoyment. What were the chances that today would be the day anyways? At the far tip of the boardwalk, Emi kept leaning out over the railing as far as she could. Instead of looking for whales, though, she watched the sky, awed by the seagulls that soared below the few, fluffy, white clouds. Then, she would stop, turn, and face him like she was doing now. Sometimes it was to make sure he was nearby, others to see if he was enjoying himself.
This time she saw his guilty smile after taking the picture and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
At the time, he had been thinking quite a bit, hadn't he? Looking at her through the screen of his phone, he noticed that her pale brown coat made the color of her hair even brighter. The blue sky behind her was so bold he couldn't remember it ever being that way before. Sliding his phone into his pocket, he smiled.
"Even though there are a ton of people here, it feels like it's just the two of us, doesn't it?" He responded cheerfully.
Finding no objections to his comment, she agreed. Then, she added, "I'm getting a little cold. Do you want to go check out one of the gift shops?"
He could picture her holding ridiculous souvenirs up to herself, quietly imitating other shoppers. Since that sounded fun, he didn't refuse. Between them and the main street, however, stood a threatening man in a suit too colorful to be a businessman. The top buttons of his shirt were undone in a rebellious way. A hat shaded his facial features, and—even though he didn't prevent anyone from passing—his stance declared he was blocking the way.
This was not the first time that day when Totsuka had been moved by paranoia to believe someone on the busy streets was there to attack them. Well aware that his impression of this man was also likely exaggerated, Totsuka still made sure to keep himself between him and Emi. She was on his left, and so he made a point to walk towards the left of the man without appearing on edge. If the mobster in the suit really was just some ordinary tourist, there would be no harm caused. He didn't want Emi to be afraid if it was nothing.
As they came closer to the man, his eyes met Totsuka's. Intimidated, the boy instantly looked away, pointing out a whole class of elementary school students wearing matching coats for his girlfriend to see. He tried to glance back to the man without being noticed and found that there was now a fiberglass baton in his hand, extended by his side at the ready. He knew for sure then that this man was one of the ones he had been warned against.
Not sure what he could really do about it, having left all his friends with real fighting skills back at the bar, Totsuka started to draw what little powers he had into the closed fist of his right hand. He had better be prepared to use it whether he could manage to muster something useful or not. Just maybe he could break free enough to run.
One thing that he was certain of was that they were being targeted. It was too late to keep the secret from Emi.
"Whatever happens, stay behind me," he whispered, "and run if I say so." Somehow, his voice kept its light attitude while his heart was racing. His right hand was getting warm, but not likely to the point of being able to cause substantial damage.
Emi almost asked why. Then, she remembered the night she met his friends and how obvious it had been that they were a gang. Since then, she had always somewhat expected a day like this to come. The guy with the baton definitely looked like a part of the yakuza. Mostly what she wondered was what her Totsuka—the one who couldn't even eat spicy salsa—would do about it.
The man didn't so much as move until the young couple was directly beside him. Then, faster than the blink of an eye, he swung his baton from above. If Totsuka hadn't been anticipating it, his skull would have been crushed for sure. As it was, he had no real plan to protect himself, simply hiding behind his own arm. The sound of impact reached his ears, yet he felt no pain. Between them was a thin, round film floating in the air like a shield that was glowing lightly. Did I do that? Totsuka wondered.
He had heard of it before, the field of concentrated energy that could thwart dangers with no physical barrier, but will alone. He had seen it done before when the blue clan's sabers could be stopped by fire and bullets could be lightly tossed away. Never before that day had Totsuka thought himself capable of the feat. Apparently, the mobster had also not expected it. For a moment, they both stared at the intangible, red shield as if it had changed both of their worlds. Such astonishment was broken, however, when the barrier began to give way.
Widening his eyes, Totsuka ordered, "Run!" They had to take their chance before the man swung at them again. When he fled but Emi hadn't reacted yet, he ended up dragging her along with him. There was no way he would let go of her hand until they were safe. First, he ran towards the left, since it was the fastest way to create distance between them and their attacker. About 50 feet down the road, though, two more unvirtuous men appeared amongst the crowd. They also were dressed nicely but their menacing demeanor betrayed who they really were.
Instantly, Totsuka skid to a stop, pulling Emi instead to run the other direction. The men shot at them. Neither one actually looked back to see the guns, but the sound was clear enough, as were the screams of people as the crowd scattered. The couple managed to lose themselves within the panicked sea of tourists and, thus, gained a lead on the yakuza. Realizing this, the mobsters stopped shooting and focused on their pursuit.
Totsuka really had no idea where he was headed. The direction they had been guided to run was definitely away from the neighborhood he was familiar with. At every intersection they passed, neither right nor left seemed more appealing than the other. Sometimes he chose at random; sometimes he at least tried to pay attention to the street names. When the three men started to catch up to them, he ducked into an alleyway with Emi. At first glance, that seemed like a bad idea. He had only thought, being younger—and therefore, more slender—they might be able to slow down adults with broad shoulders in a small space.
The alley opened up on the other side to an empty shipyard. Containers the size of semi-truck trailers and train cars were stacked in towers on every side. The ground was wet, covered with salt-water puddles. They both stopped, panting while they glanced in each direction. No one else was here. Neither witnesses nor helpers would be found in a place like this. Totsuka had a vague memory that they had crossed the border into the green clan's territory. Even that would make no difference if they weren't currently in the area.
"Maybe, if one of these is open, we can hide inside and let them pass us by," Emi suggested, trying to figure out how to open one of the containers. That was no use. They were all held closed with padlocks.
"There's a building over there," Totsuka mentioned, and they headed towards it to try there also. Their pace remained quick but not as hurried as before.
Detouring from the narrow pathway, the yakuza easily found another way into the shipyard. The three men were once again in front of the couple, blocking their path. In a protective stance, Totsuka stepped in front of Emi, even though his internal confidence was wavering. His right hand was fully charged with every ounce of fire power he had to drill tiny holes and make flying butterflies. What good would either of those do now? Nothing could stop the men from just shooting them.
Looking around for anything that could buy them some time, Totsuka remembered they had passed a 50 gallon drum of used oil. Still with Emi's hand in his, he grabbed his phone in his pocket in the other and slowly began to transfer his heat to it as they retreated. When they reached the metal barrel again, the boy let go of his girlfriend's hand to knock the drum over.
As old, grimy oil spilled out onto the ground, Totsuka told her to keep running. She hesitated to obey when it looked like he was going to stay behind. The smile on his face was so sad. He insisted, though, so she continued their flight without him. Totsuka simply stood there, hands in his pockets, smiling at the approaching mobsters.
"If you turn around now, we won't hurt you," he warned, a strange threat considering to this point he had done nothing but run.
They just laughed and kept coming.
"Look, you're going about this all the wrong way. We don't even know what you want from us." They didn't seem moved by his light-hearted persuasion. "King can be a reasonable guy, you know. If you have a message to send him, why don't you try texting? It's the modern world, after all."
Obviously, they were dead set on carrying this through to the end. Maybe they were working for someone else, and these were just their orders. It wasn't like Totsuka expected he would talk them out of it. He was just filling up time while he waited for them to get close enough for his plan. They nearly were within range of the spilled oil, and he backed up just a couple of feet to draw them further.
As soon as the first man stepped foot in the oil, not even noticing it was there, Totsuka chucked his molten phone at the ground near the barrel. Flame flared up, far bigger than anything he could have conjured alone, and it filled the entire gap between the two rows of shipping containers. With them burning, or at least pushed back, Totsuka turned to run. His vision swirled, blackening on the edges. Heavy footed and weak limbed, he tripped over the first step, falling to his knees.
I've overdone it, haven't I? He wondered when he tried to stand and couldn't get his feet underneath him.
Whereas one of the three yakuza had been severely scorched, the others managed to mostly avoid the explosion. Once the initial amplitude of the fire had calmed to an ordinary flame, those two crossed over it without difficulty. If Totsuka tried to run now, he wouldn't even be able to stand.
Emi hadn't gone far. At the end of the row, she hid behind a container to watch what would happen. She gasped when she saw Totsuka fall—she could only guess from the power of the explosion. Fear seized her body when the mobster in the hat grabbed him by the back of his shirt and shoved him into a metal door. They were looking her way. They would come for her now.
Suddenly, an idea came to her: the police. The police would be able to save them. She scolded herself for not having thought of that since the beginning. With trembling hands, she began to search her pockets for her phone. Where had she put it? Finally, she remembered it was in her purse.
The men were walking towards her now, dragging her boyfriend's unmoving body along by his upper arm. Frantically, Emi just dumped all the contents out of her bag, letting them fall to the ground. Taking her wallet, she stuffed it in a pocket and then grabbed her phone and ran. Nothing else that she kept in her purse was worth risking her life over.
It was almost impossible to remember the three digit number for emergency police calls, much less make her paralyzed fingers dial them. When she heard the repetitive beeping sound of a call going out, she actually wondered for a moment if dispatch would even pick up. That was something ridiculous to doubt, yet she felt a relief when a lady's voice came on the other end.
"Three men are chasing me," Emi explained, trying to be as fast as possible in case they caught up to her before she could finish. "I think they killed my boyfriend. We're at the docks."
The dispatcher had a few more questions for her and then, as always, asked her to remain on the line as long as possible. At that point, she reached the building she and Totsuka were trying to hide in and felt a little sadness creep into her adrenaline rush. What if he really didn't make it? There was really no hope for her at all if she couldn't hide here.
Extending a hand to the doorknob, she was actually surprised that it turned, granting her entrance. She stepped into the old, dirty warehouse and closed the door behind her. Forklifts and broken pallets were scattered throughout the main room wherever they would not be in the way of any conveyor belts. Uncertain, she glanced around, trying to find a good place to conceal herself so that if the men decided to search the building, they still wouldn't see her.
Her choice was a disorderly pile of pallets that were leaning against one another, forming nooks in the shape of tents. She climbed inside one, hardly caring at all that the cranny might be full of cobwebs that would normally gross her out. Once she was settled in, her breath sounds echoed in the tight space, growing louder the harder she tried to be quiet. That was, however, an illusion magnified by her nerves.
She told the dispatcher then, "I'm in some sort of warehouse in the far corner."
The dispatcher acknowledged the location and then assured, "The police are on the way. Just hang on a little longer."
News like that was about the only thing that could put a girl at ease in the situation Emi was in. Such relief did not last long. Soon she could hear the voices of the men outside the building. She heard also the sounds of a car engine and the opening and closing of doors. There were no sirens. That meant this car belonged to the yakuza. They had brought in a new, third member to replace the one who had been burnt, and this one had the getaway car.
Urgently, Emi whispered into her phone, "They found me. They found the building."
The dispatcher responded calmly, "Stay as quiet as possible. I'll be right here with you."
With a clang that resounded throughout the whole building, the door to the warehouse swung open. There was a sound of something heavy sliding across concrete, and through the gaps in the pallet she could barely glimpse its source. Her boyfriend's body—Totsuka's body—was lying in the middle of the floor. She couldn't help but let out a small whimper. Then, she covered her mouth and closed her eyes. She had to remain perfectly still and completely quiet.
The three men in suits began kicking things over, searching high and low for the young lady. It would only be a matter of time before they found her; she knew that. Time could be just what she needed for the police to arrive. That was something to hope for. Slowly but surely they drew ever closer to the pile she was hidden in. Apparently, they were good at this task, methodically combing the whole building in a way that no matter how she tried to sneak out, they would see her from every angle.
She waited, therefore, for the inevitable end to come like a sheep in the slaughter-house, with her fingers crossed and her eyes pressed tightly closed. It was the new man who found her. She didn't recognize him with his bony face and nose that had been broken quite a few times already. He held her on her feet in a way that prevented her from moving her arms at all. The rough way he had pulled her from the hiding place had knocked the phone from her hand, leaving it under the overturned pile of pallets.
She tried to break free; she wanted to run to Totsuka's side. The man prevented it, however, hardly making it look difficult to restrain her at all. He smiled. It wasn't the warm, reassuring smile Totsuka would give, but rather something evil, creepy. Nothing stood between her and the fate they reserved for her any longer. Desperate, she planted her feet and shouted when they tried to force her to leave the building. Her protests were to no avail but to delay what was coming. Three men could easily force a young lady to do whatever they pleased. Later, maybe, she would be grateful that all they wanted from her was that she get into their car.
Still, she did her best to make the task difficult for them, even raising her voice a little to insist, "Let me go!" The results for her efforts were bruises where his fingers gripped her arms and some ripped out hair.
The mobster in the hat took his seat behind the wheel, and the car drove away with Emi squished between the other two in the backseat long before the police ever arrived to find Totsuka alone in the warehouse.