DISCLAIMER: I do not own Digimon, any of its characters or its ideas. This is a non-profit work of fiction written purely for entertainment purposes.
CHAOS
By TheApex
CHAPTER SIX
Morals
Daniel stepped into his apartment, took his trench coat off and hung it on the hook by the door. He placed his keys down on the coffee table in his living room and pulled his suit jacket off, hanging it on one of the wooden chairs that were neatly assembled around a small dining table. He carefully removed his black tie, folding it twice and placing it on the dining table in front of the suit jacket. He ran his hand over it, flattening it down and removing any lingering creases. He unbuttoned the top three buttons of his plain white shirt and un-tucked it, and then proceeded to remove the cufflinks he had on. He placed them just in front of his tie and rolled his sleeves up.
He ran his hand through his jet black hair as he headed towards his office, and to the wall of pictures and information. It was hard for him to believe that months of research could fit on just one wall for it seemed such a small space. He picked up the permanent marker off the desk, removed the lid and crossed off face number two.
"It's all falling into place," he whispered to himself. "Slowly, but surely. That's what you get for selling Sarah drugs."
He put the lid back on the marker and tossed it back on the desk. He perused his 'investigation' for a moment. There were still a lot of faces to get to, a lot of justice to be served. A lot of people to be killed. And until it was complete, he could not rest.
His thoughts turned to the events of earlier that evening. It had been simple enough. He hadn't needed Chaos' assistance, and yet he was glad the boy had turned up. Although he hadn't seen Chaos' face, he was sure he was just a boy, no older than twenty he guessed. His tone, the words he used, the way he held himself, all of those things reminded Daniel of the guys he knew in high school before his arrest.
He could tell Chaos was shocked by the climax of their little adventure. The boy had not expected him to kill the drug dealer, and was clearly shaken by the experience. In hindsight, Daniel could see that it probably wasn't a good idea to throw Chaos in at the deep end. But on the other hand, the boy was not his responsibility, and he would not mother him through the experience. They were not playing a game and if the boy could not handle it, then he would tell the boy to stay away.
Despite silently vowing not to be the proverbial shoulder to cry on for Chaos, Daniel knew he would need to discuss the issue with the younger man. He decided he would lay the rules down once and once only, and would give the boy a choice. He could continue to fight crime as his partner, or he could get out of the whole thing before he gets in too deep. Chaos had good intentions, but Daniel was unsure whether his heart would allow him to continue.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He went into his call log and dialled the last and only number he received a call for on his new phone. It was now just after ten o'clock in the evening, an hour and a half since he'd left Chaos standing in the wake of their devastation. He was sure the boy would be in a decent enough state of mind to talk. Or at least he hoped he would be.
"Hello?" came the younger man's voice.
"Chaos," Daniel greeted. "I trust you escaped before the authorities arrived, as you're answering your phone."
"I uh, yeah…"
"Good. Listen, I'm going to keep this short and simple. Meet me tomorrow at three o'clock in the afternoon. I'll text you the address."
"Wait!" Chaos cried. "I…I need to talk to you about earlier-"
"Don't say another word," Daniel warned. "It's safer to talk about that face to face. You never know who may be listening. Meet me tomorrow and we'll talk."
"We're just going to talk, right?"
"That is correct. Remember, be punctual. I will not wait for you."
"I-"
Daniel swiftly ended the call. He was sure Chaos would turn up, despite his reservations. He would come if only to get some answers to his questions and to make his opinions known. Daniel quickly typed the address into his phone and texted it to Chaos. He placed his phone onto the desk and headed into the kitchen for a well-deserved meal and a drink to end the day.
As Rika pulled up outside her home, she had to remind herself to wipe the slight smile off her face. She had enjoyed her day with Takato, and her time with the boy had come with a few surprises. Firstly she was surprised she had been so open with somebody she hardly knew. She rarely talked about her past, and even less so about her father. Secondly she was surprised that she felt a sense of commonality with Takato. She had lost her father, and Takato had lost both of his parents. They shared a common pain which most others had not experienced at such a young age, and as such she felt a strange connection with Takato, albeit a sad and painful connection.
And yet she felt happy despite all the memories and hearing about the tragedy that ended with the Matsuki murders. She finally found a human connection that she wasn't scared of or felt was a waste of her time. Granted she was still guarded towards him. After all, she could not be sure that the clumsily amusing young man would stick around for very long, and so she reminded herself not to get too attached to him.
She got out of her car and locked it before entering her home. She briefly greeted her grandmother and explained that she and Takato had eaten a meal at a fast food restaurant, and so dinner wouldn't be necessary. It wasn't entirely true, she had just gone for a burger by herself, but she figured her grandmother need not know the finer details.
She slipped her shoes off and headed for her room. She quickly got changed into some comfortable shorts and a baggy top, and sat down at her desk. She was surprisingly tired and intended only to check her emails before heading off to sleep. Her inbox was full of the usual spam, and Rika deleted several emails offering her Viagra and breast implants.
'Yeah, like I'd ever need breast implants. They're big enough already!' she thought to herself, half moaning about her ample breast size and half satisfied that on the plus side, she didn't feel the need to get implants.
She went on her Google homepage and paused a moment. She knew she probably shouldn't, but her curiosity got the better of her. She began to type and when she clicked the Enter key, she began her search into 'Takato Matsuki'.
"Aw, come on!" Takato whined as he heard the tone go dead.
Daniel had ended the call, he concluded, and so he put the phone back in his pocket and collapsed on to a chair in his living room. He slowly removed the various safety pads he wore as part of his Chaos outfit and placed them on the floor in front of him. He stared out the window at the night sky. The stars sparkled and the ever reliable moon reflected the sun's light back onto the Earth. The skies were clear, and there was no rain or wind. It was a very calm night, much in contrast to the way Takato felt.
The day's events were also in contrast. His day had been excellent, and he'd really enjoyed spending time with Rika, who he now considered to be his friend. However his evening had been a disaster. He had not expected to become an accessory to murder when he'd woken up that morning. His heart raced as he replayed images of the drug dealer's body falling to street level, and the cries of citizens passing by were embedded into his mind.
He grabbed the TV remote by his side and switched the TV on, hoping to find something to take his mind off the evening's events. Instead, he was greeted with the news, and he had tuned in at exactly the wrong time.
"Breaking news this evening; approximately three hours ago a man fell to his death from the second floor of a building in North Shinjuku. The man, who fell into the path of oncoming traffic, has just been identified by police as twenty-nine year old Jeiku Toreishii, who had been arrested several times by police on illegal drug offences. He was released from prison last year after serving a six month prison sentence for illegal possession of cocaine."
"Please let that be the end of the news," Takato pleaded to nobody in particular. "I don't want to make the news twice in one week!"
"Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding Mr Toreishii's death. Moments ago they released CCTV images of two men caught entering the building shortly before the incident and exiting the building moments after the incident. Take a look at these images."
The news broadcaster paused as blurred images of Daniel and Takato appeared on the screen. They both had their backs to the camera, with Daniel's trench coat blowing in the wind to reveal his suit as he walked away from the building, and Takato's outfit in full view of the camera, although blurred.
"Police would like to talk to these two men regarding tonight's incident. If anybody knows who these men are, they are asked to please contact the police and inform them. Any information given will be in the strictest confidence and police assure us they will investigate any tips they receive."
Takato turned the television off and placed the remote down on the side table beside him. He leaned forward and buried his head in his hands. He couldn't believe what was happening. He had expected Daniel to scare the drug dealer into a career change and then keep an eye on him, or something along those lines. Never had he anticipated that Daniel would kill him!
He jumped up, unable to stay seated, and began to pace up and down the living room, running his hands through his hair as he tried to organise his thoughts.
'Okay Takato, calm down. It's not like you actually killed anybody. Daniel killed him, not you,' he rationalised to himself. 'He was a drug dealer. He was a bad person. He hurt people and the drugs he sold probably destroyed lots of people's lives…he deserved to die…didn't he?'
He couldn't answer his question. Who was he to decide who gets to live and who gets to die? He didn't know how the recently deceased got into dealing drugs. He may have had a tough life and been forced to deal drugs in order to survive or he may have been forced by someone to sell drugs for them. Lots of scenarios began to flood into Takato's mind as he considered the moral aspects of murdering people that society would label as being bad.
'I can't do this,' he thought. 'I can't be a part of murder. I don't want to be that kind of person. A murderer killed my parents, and I will not murder someone else's parents, sons, or daughters, no matter how bad I may think they are.'
Takato had made his decision. He would meet Daniel the following day and tell him that he could not be a part of Daniel's murders. He still wanted to clean up the city, but he would just have to find another way to do so, a way he could live with.
Henry Wong was awoken the next day by his alarm clock at half past six in the morning. He reached over and turned the alarm off before climbing quickly out of bed and heading for the shower. Today was going to be a very special day. Today was his first day at work for Hypnos, and he was determined to make a good impression. His new boss Mitsuo Yamaki had said that he could start on Monday, as today was Friday and he would then have the weekend off anyway, but Henry decided to go in regardless.
He wanted to get stuck in straight away. After a quick shower he dried himself and raided the wardrobe. His usual orange sleeveless jacket and brown jeans would simply not do. He was now officially an employee of the Japanese government, and he was going to dress like one. He dug out the black suit he wore for graduation and laid it down on his bed. He put his socks and boxers on, followed by his suit trousers. He looked them over for creases briefly, and then put his plain white shirt on. He buttoned it up to the top and tucked the bottom into his trousers. He slipped his shoes on before turning the shirt collar up and putting his scarlet tie on, and then turning the collar down.
He walked into the kitchen and quickly gathered a bowl, a spoon, some cereal and a carton of milk. He poured some cereal into the bowl, followed quickly by some milk, and he placed the spoon in the bowl. He swirled the spoon around, ensuring all the cereal was covered by milk. He put the milk back in the fridge and sat down at the dining table. He hurriedly ate the cereal while also being careful not to spill any on his shirt.
When he was finished, he placed the bowl and spoon in the kitchen sink and went back into his room. He picked up and put on his suit jacket. He buttoned one of the two buttons on the jacket and briefly looked at himself in the mirror. He had to admit to himself in a slightly vain moment that he looked rather good. He slipped his phone in his pocket, grabbed his keys and headed for the door.
He arrived at Hypnos headquarters sooner than he'd expected. He'd never walked directly to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building before, and was surprised at how close he was to it. The walk had only taken just over half an hour and he arrived at twenty minutes past eight, ten minutes early. The receptionist at the front desk handed him his new pass, which he clipped to his jacket pocket, and he headed upstairs in the elevator. He arrived in the dome shaped room once more and inside he saw Yamaki waiting for him at the desk.
"Good morning Henry," he greeted. "Welcome to Hypnos once again."
"Thank you sir," Henry replied.
"Please, take a seat beside me," Yamaki invited.
Henry walked over and pulled the swivel chair out from under the desk next to Yamaki and sat down. Yamaki handed him a sheet of paper, which he looked over intently.
"This is your login username and password. There are also some basic instructions that will help you get used to the Hypnos system interface. It'll take a little getting used to, but I'm sure a capable young man such as you will master it very shortly," Yamaki explained.
Henry typed in his login information and the Hypnos interface appeared. A few symbols presented themselves to him, which he recognised from the piece of paper he'd just finished reading.
"Right then," Yamaki said. "Let's get to work."
Takato had awoken with similar thoughts on his mind as the night before. Sleep came with difficulty, and when it did come it was not long before he woke again with sweat pouring down his face and his heart racing. He finally got up at nine in the morning, feeling even more exhausted than he did the night before.
He spent the next five hours going through the motions. He had some breakfast, had a shower, and watched a movie. If he hadn't seen it before, he wouldn't have been able to tell anyone what the film was about, as his attention was far from the television screen. When it reached two o'clock, he got dressed in his Chaos outfit and headed for the roof once more. He took a last look at the address Daniel had given him, and jumped from rooftop to rooftop to get there.
He arrived on the roof of an eight storey building to find Daniel waiting on the roof for him. He was surprised to see the man waiting for him there and not on the ground floor as they met last time, but quickly dismissed it. It was irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
"Hello Chaos. You're a little early and I was hoping to have this sorted before you arrived…" Daniel said with a tinge of annoyance in his tone.
"Uh…have what sorted?" Takato asked.
"To cut a long story short, the drug dealer we visited yesterday has a boss. He's a particularly paranoid man, and he likes to conduct his deals on the roof of the building opposite," he paused, gesturing towards the five story building in front of them. "He usually meets his suppliers at two-thirty every Friday, giving him enough time to circulate the drugs to his dealers for Friday night and the weekend. However, he appears to be late today, and the suppliers have been waiting around for a little while. I do hate it when people are late."
"Oh…right," Takato said. "So…why haven't you, you know, gone over there and taken the drugs?
Daniel scoffed and pointed towards the suppliers. Takato looked and saw three very pale, skinny men pacing around with six briefcases that he assumed were full of drugs.
"Look at them," Daniel instructed. "Those suppliers are your typical middle class degree educated chemists looking to make some money on the side. Once they hear their boss is out of action, so to speak, they'll soon go back to their day jobs and never even think about drugs ever again."
He paused, raising his left wrist up to glance at the time, before letting his arm fall once again.
"No, I want the main man. Today he's only getting the drugs he's selling in Shinjuku. He does deals like this every day of the week, all over Tokyo. This guy is the kingpin for drugs in this city. Whatever you want, this guy will sell it. Once I take him out, drugs will become a lot harder to come by around here."
Takato was about to ask whether killing the man was necessary, but decided against it. Instead he raised another point.
"But won't somebody else just take over and become the new kingpin?" he asked.
"No doubt," Daniel replied calmly. "But they'll soon get the message once they all start to die."
"You're going to-"
"He's here," Daniel interrupted.
The two men crouched down and watched as the so called kingpin burst onto the roof in a hurry. He was a short, round man dressed in a white suit and adorned with gold rings and necklaces. Flanking him were two bodyguards, dressed in black suits and both considerably taller than him, and they looked like they could certainly handle themselves in a fight.
The suppliers exchanged briefcases with the bodyguards and both parties checked the contents of the cases. With both parties satisfied, the suppliers headed towards the stairs and disappeared from view. The kingpin didn't head for the exit straight away, pausing to make a phone call.
"I think it's time we introduced ourselves," Daniel said.
Despite the crouched position he was in, Daniel managed to bend his knees even more, before bursting up and jumping high into the air before falling to the roof below, his trench coat flowing above him as he did so.
"Damn it," Takato cursed to himself.
He followed closely behind Daniel, following the same motions. The two bodyguards, who had noticed the two figures in the sky, began to run towards them. Daniel landed on his feet, allowing his knees to bend and he rolled forward over his head and back onto his feet in a crouching position, before bursting forward towards the oncoming men. He threw his fist towards them, catching the nearest bodyguard in the face. As he flew back, Daniel's fist continued on and crashed into the second bodyguards face.
As Takato landed on the roof, so too did both the now unconscious bodyguards, although they landed in a rather more sickening fashion. The kingpin dropped his phone and headed for the exit, forgetting all about the briefcases he had come to collect. Daniel grabbed his collar and threw him to the floor, knocking the wind out of the fat man, while Takato ran over and checked the two bodyguards were still breathing.
"They'll be fine," Daniel said indifferently.
"They're still breathing," Takato confirmed.
"Shame that," Daniel commented as he punched the kingpin in the gut and getting a groan of pain in response. "Hello Ren Chitose. You've been a bad boy."
"Fuck you!" Ren shouted, earning a back handed slap in return. "You know my name so you must know who I am! I'll have you killed! I'll have your family killed! And just because you got my suit dirty, I'll have your friends killed too, motherfucker!"
"Whoa there! Did your mother never teach you any manners?" Daniel mocked. "Either way, dead men can't order deaths, so I'm not intimidated."
"You're going to kill him?" Takato asked, dismayed at the idea.
"Yes, I am," Daniel replied. "It is quite obvious you don't like the idea, so I don't expect you to take part."
Daniel grabbed Ren by his suit jacket with both hands and dragged him to the edge of the roof, looking over. Ren had picked a clever spot to do his drug deals, as there were few people around and even fewer cars. Unfortunately for him, he also picked a spot that was high enough to kill anybody who fell from it.
"Wait!" Takato cried as he began to run forward towards the edge
Daniel threw Ren over the edge, and the tubby man howled as he fell through the air. Takato could only watch as Ren fell to his death. He seemed to hang in the air for an eternity before the inevitable splat of flesh and bone on concrete.
"Chaos, listen to me," Daniel ordered. "Remember what I told you about Chitose. He was a career criminal who made a living off the suffering of innocent people. He deserved to die."
Takato's eyes were fixed on the body of Ren Chitose. He had now witnessed two murders, and he couldn't take any more. He had decided the night before that he didn't want this, and the sight of Ren's dead body reinforced his decision.
"I…I can't do this!" He choked. "I-It's too much! I don't want to kill people…I want to make this city better, I really do! But not like this…"
"Fair enough," Daniel said coolly. "You're a good kid Chaos, and I respect your decision. Your heart is too pure right now, but in time you'll realise that if you want to make a real difference, you've got to get your hands a little dirty."
"I don't believe that. There has to be another way…"
"Well, if you find another way, you let me know. But for now, it's time for you to leave," Daniel said. "Go home Chaos. Make a difference in your own way, and in your own time."
Takato nodded, and with one final look at Ren, and then at Daniel, he jumped back onto the opposite building's roof, and then back the way he came, silently vowing along the way to never use his powers to kill anyone if he could avoid it.
Daniel watched as Chaos disappeared from sight. He waited a minute, before taking out an envelope from his trench coat's inner pocket. He opened it and removed the two CCTV pictures that were broadcast of him and Chaos the night before. He took out a marker pen and wrote Chaos on the picture of Takato, and on the back of the picture of himself, he wrote;
For far too long, we have put up with scum that have spread their disease and tainted our great city. I refuse to allow this to continue. Chaos is out of the game, but I will continue the work we started together. Those who would bring harm to innocents will feel my WRATH.
He put the two pictures back in the envelope and sealed it shut. On the front, he wrote 'TOKYO POLICE DEPARTMENT' before putting the pen back in his pocket. He jumped down and landed next to the still-warm corpse. He picked up one of Ren's hands and placed the envelope underneath it, before disappearing down a dark alleyway and out of sight.
A/N: So, I'm back! I know it's been a while since my last update, and I'm sure those of you who followed this fic probably thought I'd never get round to finishing it. But here I am, here to continue! I have finished all my exams, and I have a completely free schedule until mid-September time, so I am determined to finish this fic. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter!
Let me know what you thought via the medium of reviews! Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, and what you think is going to happen in the future. Constructive criticism is also welcome, as long as it is constructive! Thanks ladies and gentlemen!
