Chapter 9

All night the wind and rain rattled the siding. Lightning pierced the darkness. Thunder shook the entire building. Narihisago and Hondomachi spent it in abject misery as she huddled against his chest, their breaths captured beneath their bowed heads offering a shred more heat. But their sodden clothing caught the chill wind. Every time they started to nod off, a nearby thunderclap would startle them awake. Keeping his dread to himself, Narihisago silently fretted about being chained to a metal support beam in a metal paneled building with the close by lightning strikes. Once the storm abated, the hours filled with something else. In a chorus both of their bellies relentlessly growled. After last night they had burned through precious reserves. He assumed that had been the idea.

In the morning light, when she lifted her head Hondomachi's eyes had dark bags beneath them making the blackened one more pronounced. She sniffled, her tangled hair catching on his shoulder as she moved. Her stomach complained loud enough that she curled in tighter. But she didn't utter a single word. Not one.

Narihisago's stomach answered just as loud in a keening cry. He didn't move, he kept staring out at the droplets of collected rainwater falling one after the other in the streaming morning light. He could only imagine what a wreck he looked like now. If it was as bad as he felt he wasn't fit to be viewed by the public. At least in the slightly warming air, and the rays of sunlight peering through the gaps they weren't shivering anymore. A small blessing … something to cling to.

She murmured, "We're both still breathing … so, I guess we didn't freeze."

"When I told Momoki that I kinda missed the outside world this wasn't what I had in mind."

Looking down she swallowed. "Don't tell anyone about this … how we … "

"What? Kept each other from hypothermia?" He nudged her with his scruffy chin, which by now the typical stubble must have grown quite a bit. "Who could I possibly tell?"

Carefully, Hondomachi shuffled backward, working her way off his lap and back down onto the grating. "I dunno … "

The more he thought about it, the more her awkwardness made sense—after all, he figured he was easily old enough to be her father.

She sniffled, drawing her knees up to her chest again. She was only half awake. "I just … "

"Deep breath. We're gonna make it through this." He didn't believe it. When his voice cracked, he hid it with a forced cough. "Think of what we're used to doing. We've faced some pretty tough situations, just in the wells alone. Sandstorms in an endless desert, sharks swimming in blood. Keep your head. We'll find a way."

She turned a somber smile on him, the scarred hole visible beneath her scraggly hair. "You don't have to lie."

He bowed his head a bit deeper. Of course she'd seen right through him.

At length she started to talk idly, about nothing at all. A reflex, a simple distraction. He knew she wasn't talking to him. Much like when the other prisoners in his cell block succumbed to the same device, he tuned her out, polite chit chat not being his strong point. The main reason he'd been largely silent down there for so long.

"Narihisago?"

His name pulled him out of his lack of thoughts. But he didn't make a sound.

Softly, but with intent, she went on, "I don't even know how to put this, I've never been able to. You know when I mentioned my mother?" She shuffled her knees tighter to her chest. "This is going to sound so stupid … but I imagine that much of my life feels like prison."

He huffed a breath through his nose.

In a rush she blurted, "I don't mean it as an insult! Really. Sometimes people make ridiculous comparisons. Maybe I just did, I'm so sorry!"

"It's ok, I didn't take offense. You just confirmed an assumption is all." He glanced at her as she tucked into herself. "You wanna hear the rest of it?"

"You've … you've profiled me?" She squirmed a bit, but settled into a firm stare with one normal and one bruised eye.

Taking that as a yes, he laid his head back against the metal. "There had to be some explanation for your energetic outbursts. They seem like an ingrained subconscious scream for attention." She wilted a bit. "Hold on, I'm not done yet. That's merely embedded from a lifetime of being overlooked, which was not for you lack of trying. Someone important, or possibly someones, never noticed how hard you were scrapping for their attention."

Hondomachi broke the stare, looking anywhere but toward him.

"What that built in you was an exceptional drive toward your goal into a hardy officer who doesn't pass out when things get grim. Hondomachi, you are truly unprecedented."

Her voice when she spoke held a lower timber. "Neither of my parents had the time of day for me. The only way I could get their attention was to be loud, then they would tell me to shut up. At least it was attention, though. I wasn't the eldest. I wasn't conforming like my sisters were, fostering crushes on one guy after another. I couldn't be like them. I just wanted to be myself, but it wasn't enough. They were pretty and stylish, they were delicate flowers. The boys were always interested in them. It seemed so silly to me, how they vainly changed themselves to turn the eye—makeup, clothing, behaving different depending on who they were with. They lost themselves in the chase. All I wanted to be—was myself."

He kept watching her out of the corner of his eye, listening to the barely concealed pain in her voice.

"The only chasing after boys I ever did was in a game of tag. A rare one … "

"You didn't have many friends."

It was delayed, but she shook her head. "I didn't. I spent a lot of my time on my own. If I wasn't going to be a demure little twig of a girl … I wasn't … " She didn't finish that thought aloud. "When I tried to tell my mom what was happening she interrupted me a handful of words in and had me fetch a pin for my sister's date. If even she didn't give a shit … I didn't think anyone would ever notice me. I didn't think anyone in the world cared at all.

"But then one day, something happened. It was during one of my first years of elementary school. Every day walking to and from school was a dreadful experience. The other kids either shoved me or completely ignored me.

"Near a crosswalk a group of my classmates bustled by, tripped me and burst out laughing. I stumbled and skinned my knee on the asphalt. My mom was going to be mad at me, there was blood on the cuff of my sock. I got up and scrambled away, dragging my backpack behind me, I hid in the bushes, sobbing. I didn't know what I would do.

"Something tugged the backpack curiously. A moment later, the bushes parted. I had missed him, he must have been on the other side of the crosswalk. But above me stood an officer. The bright badge shining on his chest, staring at me from under the brim of his cap." The corners of her eyes twitched. "He reached down, picked me up, and brushed me off. Full focus on me, asked me if I was alright. I couldn't even answer him at first. I just burst into fresh tears. No one ever asked me if I was alright. Not even my teachers. But this perfect stranger used his water bottle to calmly wash the scrape and the offensive stain off my sock and sat with me for a while until I stopped crying. He listened when I told him what had been happening, how if the other kids even noticed me at all … they did nothing but tease me."

"That was nice of him." While listening to her Narihisago watched the collected rain from the roof drip down one drop at a time in a shaft of sunlight. More shades of the outside world he had been denied all this time. There was some vague beauty to it in this sad structure.

She gave a short laugh. "When I told him I was worthless, he put a finger to my chin lifting up my face, making me look at him and he said, 'The scenery is awfully boring ..."

Narihisago's eyes widened, even before she completed the sentence his own brain dredged up the rest, … if you only look at the ground. Who cares what anyone else thinks about you, as long as you're true to yourself.

With a warm smile Hondomachi continued, "Those words helped me. He helped me. And I wanted to help others just like he did. Ever since that day all I ever wanted was a badge like his. I wanted to be a hero just like him." She stared at him. "And you know what, I just realized his eyes looked a lot like yours, only they were brighter."

Narihisago turned away. There's a reason. That was me! During the week after the Stitcher case, when Chief Tominaga had us busted back to uniformed patrol for that stupid drunken night. That little girl, I never realized … her name had been Koharu! Koharu Hondomachi!

"I mean it seems silly, but I don't know if I ever would have gotten out of that bush that day on my own. I might have kept hiding, and I certainly wouldn't have found the guts to tell others to stuff it. Anyway, what made you want to become an officer."

Distractedly, he muttered, "The first mystery novel I read. When I realized I could follow the clues to a resolution." He had inspired her … to become a detective … without that … she wouldn't be here now. Take responsibility for your reactions. He had to make certain at least she made it out alive, back to the Kura … he owed her that much. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he shook it off. "Hondomachi, you and I do have an advantage. We both are extremely perceptive. Pay attention to them, help me get a solid read. Anything you can pick up, even the smallest detail."

"You're not going to … "

He bowed his head. "If I have to—but it won't be for them."

~ID~

Narihisago had to blink to convince himself this wasn't a rerun. But it couldn't be, even though Konya stood in the exact same place, exact same stance as the day before, he wore a different colored tie then before. A cloud pattern with a coiled flying dragon in reds and golds. The man was impeccably dressed, not a wrinkle in his suit. Not a spot on his crisp white shirt. Dress shoes shined to a gleaming finish. Probably had servants for that.

Or lackeys. The image of Orochi and Tsuyoshi shoving each other for the honor of delivering a spit polish to their boss brought a slight grin to Narihisago. He hoped that was unnerving as Tsuyoshi stood glaring over Konya's shoulder. The thug looked a bit nervous to begin with.

But something was off for the morning visitation. One thug was missing. Where was Orochi?

Konya drummed his fingers on the back of his hand. "Well, Narihisago, I hear you had a rough night. My sympathies. Are you ready to comply?" He nodded toward Izanagi, who by now barely reacted. The poor man had broken in the night like a beaten dog.

Narihisago took a deep breath and let it out. Nothing more.

With a strangled squeal, Tsuyoshi clamped his hands over his own mouth, tucking back away from Konya's distracted field of vision. When he lowered his hands, he wore a broad smile, reaching beneath his shirt and fingering a hilt of a large knife.

Well now, that's curious.

Konya sighed and gestured to Tsuyoshi. "Have you heard from Orochi yet?"

"Yes sir. He'll be here shortly."

"Accompanied, I presume?"

"Yeah. He was as excited about this development as we all were."

"Patience. If you tip our hand the idiot may smell a rat and make this all the more difficult on our part. I prefer this to go off without a hitch. I have already been inconvenienced by being made to wait."

"And him?" Tsuyoshi pointed with a thumb to Narihisago.

"One thing at a time. I am working on arrangements for the both of them." He gestured toward Narihisago and Hondomachi. "You have your orders."

Hondomachi nudged Narihisago, her brow quirked. He delivered a subtle shrug. They weren't the only ones who had made plans.

The overhead door opened below. Gas fumes rose up before the engine cut. A car door slammed followed by footsteps rising up the stairs. Two sets. A bulky man in a hooded jacket strode up beside Orochi. Motion in the open loft caught Narihisago's attention. Kenta and Ryota stood blocking the view of Izanagi from the stairs.

The hooded man stood before Konya and went down into a bow of full subjugation, staying that way while Konya stared over his head. Tsuyoshi and Orochi exchanged grins. At last he snapped his fingers and the man rose. "I trust that you are pleased with my payment to you?"

Narihisago's breath caught in his chest, almost as painful as when Orochi held his head beneath the water. He knew that voice. He could never forget that cocksure tone. He'd heard it too many times!

At Konya's signal, he tugged down his hood. "Sorry, sir."

Tsutomu Itoh! The replacement head of the Kura's security after the incident.

Before Itoh started to turn around at Konya's gesture, the flash fire was already blazing in Narihisago's chest, decimating his reason. His fists clenched, rattling the cuffs in a growing crescendo.

Rage can be calm and disquieting, like my voice when I give killers a subtle push on their way out of this world. Rage can drive a powerless being to injure the one thing still within their power, themselves. Rage can come through clenched teeth, or tear a primal scream from the throat. Or—rage surfaces as if someone left a kettle on a stove with the knob turned to high and wrenched clean off.

Itoh was about get a front row seat of the latter and there was nothing I could do about it. Nor did I want to.

By the expression of complete pant-shitting shock on his face, it was clear that Itoh hadn't expected Narihisago to launch from the wall in a crazed, albeit awkward, dash toward him. His right ankle refused to support any weight, but that was only a minor detail. His knee would! Screaming bloody murder in a wordless cry, in a rapid uneven gait he shot toward the singular target, the source of their current captivity.

Clearly no one was expecting this, after all Narihisago had been fairly shiftless this entire time. Even Konya flinched back, breaking his usual calm demeanor. Orochi and Tsuyoshi's jaws both hung slack a moment as they moved to evade even the remote possibility of a collision, despite the fact they were well out of range.

But Narihisago aimed for one thing, and one thing only. Itoh! In the midst of a full charge the end of the chain wrenched him backward, the momentum carried his feet up into the air before throwing him to the ground mercilessly. It left him flailing and ranting at the end of the taut chain. "Itoh, you fucking low-life traitor! How could you! You've endangered everyone, how could you sell me out like this?"

It took Itoh a moment to remember to breathe before he picked himself up off the floor. His voice a bit pinched at first. "You have no idea … how much I savored getting rid of you once I realized how valuable you are."

Narihisago growled and even still lying on his side managed to lunge toward the man. "Valuable? I'm a human being, not livestock for barter, you asshole!"

Itoh flinched backward, beads of sweat on his forehead. When the chain held fast, a bold smile grew on his face. "A human being? Not even close. You're a deranged psycho. But as much of a pain in the ass as you were to handle, that shit about you … it was all true. I didn't believe a word of it until I saw it for myself. The face of that moron director when he realized what you'd done—again. Talking some poor sad sap to death. Haha! Fuck, that was unreal. The man who can kill with words. You're a veritable gold mine."

Growling, Narihisago trembled with fury. The cuffs dug into his left wrist as he thrashed anew. "The only moron is you! You had a duty. A job! And you couldn't even do that!"

"What?" He grinned, stepping a bit closer. "My job was to control the prisoners in Kura's cell blocks."

"That doesn't include restraining and indiscriminately beating them, you bastard!"

"No one told me I'd be managing a bunch of deranged fucks like you. Why they kept any of you alive I have to question."

"That's not your call! Not anyone else's call, either!"

"Do you realize how ludicrous that is coming from the mouth of a serial killer?" He scoffed. "Why do you, of all people get to decide?"

Barely reining it in, Narihisago huffed a few breaths, eyes still narrowed dead on target. Nothing else mattered more than reaching him. Throwing his weight around, he managed to get onto his knees, his chain hung behind him with just a bit of slack. He answered acidically "I don't decide shit. You're an ignorant fool, Itoh. You'll pay for your stupidity."

He shrugged, a smarmy grin on his face. "Oh, but that's the deal. You see, you're paying for me. I owed these fine men a bit of cash, you see. You can't possibly imagine how thrilled I was to learn a few days ahead of time they were going to send you outside of Kura. Sure made an impossible task easy as pie. I didn't have to find a way to sneak you out. I realized that a skill like yours would be invaluable to the yakuza, and once you were no longer part of the Kura—you were no longer my problem. I'd never have to deal with that troublesome temper of yours again." He bent down close, rubbing it in. "Two birds—one stone."

The trembling fury infused Narihisago's body, the rage swirled into a maelstrom. There either had to be a release or the pent up frustration might end up killing him in a burst artery! "Fuck your stone!" In a swift motion, Narihisago drew his head back and slammed his forehead into Itoh's with a solid crack! It was enough force to send the man crumpling backward into a sobbing heap. Blinding lights flashed in front of Narihisago's eyes as he toppled to the floor. His breathing became infected with low laughter. In that moment, he realized the reasons for the thug's exchanged grins, and it was irresistibly ironic.

"What are you doing? Get your hands off me!" Itoh wailed out.

Narihisago couldn't even see Itoh as he felt the trickle of blood down his own forehead, but he didn't need to see anything. He knew what was happening. "Time's up, prick. Now the fucked one—is you!"

~ID~

Hondomachi remained backed against the wall precisely as Narihisago had asked her, watching everything with a hawk's eye. She hadn't known Itoh personally, having only seen him in uniform in the halls maybe once or twice. It took everything she had not to join Narihisago in the outrage. This man's voice was the one who had suggested taking her. She had no doubt.

But someone had to keep a level head, and right now that had to be her. She'd never expected Narihisago's reaction, not the degree of savagery he displayed. How much did it take to flat out ignore the crippling pain in his left leg? And now facing this it all made sense, the stories about him … the fear … and even the hatred of some of the guards. It was obvious, even though he had his reasons, Narihisago was frighteningly beyond control.

After the skull-cracking headbutt, Narihisago lay neglected, curled on the floor snickering like a maniac as Orochi and Tsuyoshi bound Itoh's wrists and ankles together with a single chain. They held him up before Konya.

Whining and crying out, Itoh wriggled in their grasp, he blinked repeatedly apparently trying to clear his vision. "Sir, please, what have I done? I fulfilled my obligation!"

Konya stared down his nose. In response he waved a hand. The burly thugs cleared the way revealing Izanagi still breathing.

Like a caterpillar trying to break free from a cocoon, he gyrated in the thugs' hold. "Oh God, but … how … he should have by now … No! This can't be happening! Gaacck!"

Tsuyoshi rammed his gun into Itoh's neck, silencing him. Sweat mingled with the blood from his forehead, thinning it and carrying it faster.

Doing nothing to stop his henchmen from harassing him, Konya explained blandly, "You owed me a debt. It is now well past due."

"But I paid you!"

He glanced to Narihisago who was now glaring toward Itoh. "Insufficient, as you can see. He fails to live up to your words."

"He just needs a bit of motivation." Itoh thrashed. It did him little good. "Let me go, I have the day off, if I don't show up for work tomorrow they will become suspicious. I'll be ruined."

Konya cocked an eyebrow. "My boys have motivated him to the degree that if he were capable of your tall tale, he would have done it. I will not be lied to. And I could not care less about your work troubles. All I wanted was my money, or something worth its value. You failed to deliver on time as stated in our contract."

"Please! This is a misunderstanding! I need more time!"

"A deadline is a deadline." Konya smirked. "I find it interesting how readily you whine. This entire time we have held Narihisago not once has he begged. Nor has the girl."

Hondomachi held her reaction in check. The fact was that was true, and in a strange way that was a complement.

Itoh threw a panicked look at Narihisago. "Well I … that's cause … sir I … " renewing his struggle he gave Konya a wide-eyed stare. "I don't understand why he didn't do it!"

Narihisago scowled and snapped, "You never understood a damn thing about how it worked, it's conditional you moron!"

Sliding a slow gaze over to Narihisago, the hint of a grin crossed Konya's sly features. "Oh … so the stories are indeed true, you can do it. I should like to know what those conditions are."

Flinching, Narihisago closed his eyes. "Fuck!"

"No matter. You and I shall conclude our business after I am done closing my contract with him."

"Sir," Itoh's voice rose in a panic. "I beg of you! Give me a way out of this!"

Orochi started to cackle. "There's a way out, buddy. You'll see."

"I regret we cannot conclude our business during daylight hours. Gentlemen, please make our guest comfortable until my appointment with him. I will return tomorrow morning two hours before dawn."

They dragged Itoh to the railing and ran the rest of the hauling chain around his chest, crossing alternatively over his shoulder and under the armpits, locking him tight against the rail as they patted his head. Tsuyoshi grinned. "You were warned, rat." He hauled his fist back and struck him hard across the face.

"I paid my debt! It's not my fault!" He wailed and thrashed, tears ran down his red cheeks as he tried to break free. "Please! Don't do this! I can pay you, I'll find a way! For heaven's sake don't leave me like this! I'm a human being!"

Kenta grabbed the now silent Narihisago and hauled him back against the wall, dropping him onto his side. As the thug departed with the others, Narihisago lay there, heaving each breath and trembling, his eyes unfocused around the blood trickling from his forehead.

"You just hurt yourself. Why did you do that?" Hondomachi whispered.

"I trick I learned … in prison … out of desperation … to keep myself from doing something far worse." His bitter smile sent a shiver down her spine, not wanting to know what that something was.