Jayus Theory
The One about the Gun
01
I really like my after school job, though I suppose anyone would like to get paid for essentially doing nothing. I stock shelves that never come close to emptying and then do homework behind the counter for the following hours, occasionally looking up to help a stray customer who somehow managed to wander into the little shop.
The books are old titles, we rarely sell them. In fact, I rarely do more than one transaction a day. If I cared more, I might try to ask my boss how she managed to stay open without selling any inventory. But that idea is probably more troublesome than it's worth. If something fishy was going on, I'd probably be better off staying out of it. Still, gotta wonder.
"Rin-chan!" Suzuki Kowami, my boss and owner of Kowami's Books. She's pretty… eccentric, to say the least. "I brought you something today!"
"Good evening, Suzuki-san." Suzuki Kowami is a tall willowy woman with heavy makeup and hoop earrings. I can always tell when she's about to walk in because her perfume wafts in well before she does. It's one of those heavy flowery smells that reminds me of old ladies and is pretty unmistakable. Because of this, I always know when to put my schoolwork away and pretend to be working. The system hasn't failed yet, but I worry that maybe one day Kowami will forget to wear her perfume and catch me off guard.
"Oh, honey, I told you to call me Kowami." The older woman scolds, setting a plastic bag on the counter in front of her, "Open your present."
"Kowami-san." I parrot back obediently, reaching my hand into the offered plastic bag. "It's… lipstick?"
"Lip gloss." The woman chortles, "I saw it just now when I was on my way down and thought it would suit you perfectly."
Kowami buys stuff for me all the time. Mostly it's make-up, sometimes clothes, but it's always something that is too young for her to pull off. I suspect that she's trying to live vicariously through me, but the sentiment is nice enough to ignore that. Plus I get free stuff, right?
"Thanks, Kowami-san." I muster up a smile for her to show my appreciation despite the fact that I rarely wear more makeup than concealer and mascara.
"Oh, you're so welcome, dear. You know how I live to spoil." She waves me off, already losing interest in our conversation. Kowami is an odd woman, but she's nice enough that her weirdness doesn't bother me too much. In fact, I like her most of the time when she isn't chatting my ear off about zodiac signs and crystals. Apparently I'm a scorpio. Whatever that means.
Kowami showing up means it's almost time to close. She never comes much earlier, though I guess if I had the option of hiring people to run my store I'd rarely come in either. If she had the option, I don't think she'd come in at all, but I'm only sixteen so I'm not allowed to lock up at the end of the night.
I quickly busy myself with my end of shift tasks, like sweeping behind the counter and counting out the drawer while Kowami heads back to the office to do… Kowami things I'm sure. Nobody ever comes this late at night, so we usually walk out right at nine when Kowami shuts the security door over the front of the shop.
That's why it was so confusing when a group of men walked in fifteen minutes to close and I could already tell that they were not your average customers. They were in suits, with hard eyes. Just their presence alone was a little unnerving.
"Oi, little girl. Go get the old bag, we need to have some words with her." He barks. Little girl? Rude. I want to tell him to take his nasty attitude and shove it up his-
I don't say anything, I just turn around and walk into the backroom to Kowami's office. I knock politely before opening the door. These men are bad news, I can tell. It would be better to get an adult anyway.
Kowami is tapping away at her laptop, a cigarette dangling loosely from her lipstick covered mouth. She looks bothered by something, but I have more pressing matters so I just cut to the chase, "Kowami-san, some men are here looking for you."
She looks surprised, and not in a good way.
"Shut the door." She says after a moment of pause and I obediently step into the little room and shut the door behind me, locking it. "What did they look like?"
"Big. Suits. Not friendly." I report.
"Shit." Kowami never curses. Immediately that sense that something bad was going to happen turns into a sense of impending doom. "I thought I'd have more time."
"Should we call the police?" I can feel my brows furrowing. I'm really glad I didn't say anything to those guys.
"No, no. We can't call the police." She grabs her purse, one of those massive leather Louis Vuitton bags with the checked pattern on the side before pulling out her phone.
Someone bangs on the door, we both jump and she starts dialing.
"I know you're in there, Suzuki. Come out right now, we need to talk." One of the men yells from behind the door, "You know I'll break this door down if I have to."
"Oh, thank heaven you picked up." Kowami sighs into her cell as whoever she called answers, "I need you to come to the store-"
I can't hear the person on the other line clearly enough to make out their words over the yelling of the thugs behind the door but they seem irritated and Kowami is becoming more distressed.
"Because- because they're asking about you!" Kowami lies in a move of clear desperation. Can't blame her, I'd probably do the same thing if I were the one being threatened by four men twice my size.
"Yes! They're trying to get information out of me, somehow they found out I know you."
A few seconds go by and we're both waiting with baited breath. She hangs up the phone.
"Who was that?" I whisper. I can't really feel my legs anymore, I realize. Why didn't they put a backdoor on this place?
"Listen to me, Rin-chan." Kowami stands, putting her hands on my shoulders and leaning down so she's eye level with me. I fold my hands together and try my best to look unafraid. I can tell from her expression that it isn't working. "I'm going to go out there and distract them until my friend gets here to help us, okay? As soon as I walk out the door and close it, I want you to lock the door and wait till I tell you that it's okay, alright?"
I nod.
"I can wait all day, Suzuki!" Heavier banging on the door follows the man's threat.
"It's going to be okay, Rin-chan." She finishes before letting go of my shoulders and walking over to the door, "I'm coming, I'm coming, hang on!"
She lied.
XX
I locked the door and slowly sunk down to the floor in front of it after Kowami hit the light and shut the door. My legs were practically jelly, my hands were shaking. Would Kowami really be okay outside with those men? She seemed so scared, how could that really be okay?
They'd walked back to the front of the store after Kowami had left the office and seemingly forgotten that I was there at all. I focused all of my energy on listening to their conversation, but could only hear small snippets of angry dialogue. From what I could gather, Kowami seemed to owe them a lot of money and Kowami didn't have it. The arguing was getting louder and easier to hear as the seconds ticked by.
"Crazy bitch!"
"I need you to leave! I'll get you your money but you're making a scene!"
"Do you see this gun, lady?" Gun? They have guns? "I'll blow your fucking brains out! Do you really want to-"
It sounded like a firework. I knew it wasn't.
"You shot the old bag!"
"It was an accident! My finger slipped!"
I waited for Kowami to yell. I wanted Kowami to yell so badly in that moment, even if it was just a yelp of surprise or pain.
She didn't speak again.
The tears stung my eyes. The sound of my heartbeat was thundering in my ears. I was going to die. Sixteen pathetic, boring years and this is how I'm going to get snuffed out. Executed in the office of my after school job at a bookstore that never sold any goddamn books.
I waited. And waited. They'd stopped yelling.
Nobody came. They must have completely forgotten about the little girl working the front of the store in the chaos of accidentally shooting Kowami. My legs shook when I stood, my knees knocking into each other as I clumsily turned around and quietly unlocked the door. Kowami had told me to stay inside until she said it was okay, but if they'd shot Kowami then she needed medical attention as soon as possible. I needed to get my phone from my bag under the counter and call an ambulance.
When I walked into the front, the men were gone and Kowami didn't need medical attention.
I don't think I could forget it if I tried. She hadn't gotten very far, just around the outsides of the counter, crumpled in a puddle of sticky red liquid. When I pulled her up, her eyes were open, glassy and empty. The overwhelming smell of iron and flowery perfume.
"Kowami-san… you… you..." I knew it already, but I didn't want it. I didn't want to accept this reality. Kowami had always been nice to me and even though she was weird and made mistakes she didn't deserve to die.
The security door shuddered as someone banged something against it and I jumped, instantly recoiling back against the far wall. They must have remembered me. They must have come back to finish the job. My instincts were screaming to run, but I couldn't bring myself to lift myself onto my feet. My legs were moldless lead jelly, too heavy to move.
"Suzuki-san!" Called an exasperated voice from behind the door, "If you're gonna call me all the way out here, you could at least leave the fuckin' door open!"
I held my breath. If they couldn't get the door back open, I was safe, right?
A glowing red light appeared at the side of the door and fingers appeared through the metal as a horrific sizzle filled the silence. The glowing stopped and the hand pulled the door open from it's make-shift melted handle.
My vision was getting fuzzy, it was getting harder and harder to think. I hallucinated that right?
"Shit." A boy not much older than myself appeared in the opening and in an instant his expression changed from annoyance to surprised. The skateboard he held clattered to the ground. He didn't appear to notice me yet, cowering slightly behind the counter behind the body as he ran up to Kowami with his wrist up. Was he talking to his watch? "Rikio- yeah, the old lady's dead. He fucking got her too."
"Fuck." Rikio replied, his disembodied voice sounding despaired, "We'll be right there."
The boy tapped his watch and the call ended before throwing his hands up behind his head with an aggravated sounding sigh. He noticed me then, frozen against the wall, his predatory looking eyes widening as we made eye contact.
"Oi!" He ran up to me, kneeling only a foot from me, "You alright? What happened?"
I opened my mouth to tell him, but nothing came out. Who were these people? Is this the 'friend' that Kowami had called before she died?
"Yata, where you at?" The voice from the watch came from the doorway.
"There's somebody else here!" The boy called back, "Get over here!"
A bigger man came in, covered in thick gold chains. He joined the boy, standing behind him as the boy continued to survey me with investigative eyes.
"She looks rough. She must be in shock." The bigger man observed. Yes, shocked would be a word I would use for how I was feeling. Traumatized, scarred and disturbed were also strong contenders. "I don't think that blood is hers."
"Who… did…. this?" The boy said slowly, enunciating each word as if I was incapable of understanding him.
"Yata, stop, you're scaring her." I noticed then that I was trembling. I just wanted this to be over. I swear to the gods that I'm never going to wish for excitement ever again. I just want to go home to my mom and try to pretend that this never happened.
"Well, we gotta fuckin' ask her! She probably saw the asshole who did this, maybe she has some clues!" The boy yelled at his companion. He pressed his hand against his face, rolling his head back angrily, "Fine, have the rest run the perimeter and find anyone that looks even slightly suspicious. That guy might still be in the area."
"Wouldn't it be faster if you did that?" The standing man replied, eyebrow quicked inquisitively, "You're the one with the board, Yatagarasu."
"I'm gonna take the witness back to the bar for Kusanagi-san. He'll know what to do with her." He stood, revealing the enormous height difference between the two. The boy was tiny compared to the burly man. "Now go."
"Alright, you're in charge, I guess." The man nodded, folding his arms as he walked back to the front of the store.
The boy remained, surveying me once again. "Can you stand?"
I tried, my knees knocking together as I used the wall to support myself before slumping back down to the floor in defeat. I shook my head, staring down at the floor. I didn't want to go to a bar. I wanted to go home.
"Okay, okay…" The boy paced to the other end of the room and back, rubbing his face. His cheeks were pink, "I'm gonna… I'm gonna carry you, alright? You're pretty small, you should be light."
I shook my head.
"No?"
I scrambled against the wall, pulling myself up. I didn't want the strange boy to touch me, I didn't want to go with him. I ran.
"Oi!" He caught the back of my shirt as I clumsily tried to escape to the door. I fell backwards, directly into the arms of the stranger I was attempting to escape from.
"St- stop!" I yelled weakly as he looped his arm around my midsection. I struggled against his grip, clawing my fingers into his forearm as he restrained me against him.
"Knock it off! I ain't gonna hurt ya, 'kay?" He shouted back as I flailed my legs and arms around, trying to hit him or throw him off his feet, "I just need to ask you some questions!"
I stopped, chest heaving. I didn't have any stamina. Even if I did manage to throw him off, he'd just catch me again. Think, Rin, think. I slumped.
"Thank you." He sighed, "We gotta go before someone else comes here."
He looped his fingers around my wrist, squeezing like a vice and narrowing his eyes at me, "Don't try anything else. I'll just catch you again."
He walked back to the security door, stooping to pick up his discarded skateboard and pulling me along behind him. It wasn't until we made it back out onto the street above that I realized I had left my bag back in the store.
"I need my-" I tried, but he silenced me with a glance. He dropped the board to the pavement before placing his foot on the grip tape. He was crazy! No way could we both fit on that thing! He yanked me forward, crouching down as I stumbled into him. He grabbed the backs of my knees and pulled me up, onto his back. "Wait, stop!" I yelped, pushing away from his back as he stood.
"You need to hang on, stupid." He instructed, "I won't fall, trust me."
"But I-" He didn't give me a chance to answer before he kicked off the ground. I yelped in surprise and grabbed around his neck out of instinct. I pressed my eyes closed. The wind whipped my hair back, lashing it around behind us and making me shiver. The boy's back was warm by comparison.
He held my legs tightly, deftly using the ground to propel himself forward and crouching when he leaned into the turns.
I opened my eyes.
Shizume City raced by us as the boy skirted around obstacles and people with fluid grace. It didn't seem real. It seemed almost like the skateboard functioned as an extension of his body as we glided down the street. A red glow radiated from the wheels as he dodged traffic, moving faster than the cars we weaved around.
It was like magic, watching the streetlamps and windows streak past us like meteors in the night sky.
It couldn't be real.
XX
(a/n):
alright, a bit of a tone change from the prologue. jayus, btw is a indonesion word meaning "a joke that is so unfunny one can't help but laugh."
quarantine's got me going a bit stir crazy. kinda feels like summer vacation, i can just sit around and read, watch anime and overall chill out. and i got vodka now too. pretty lit. wash your hands or whatever.