Chapter Three:
THE FOURTH DEATH:
As Yoichi headed out the door, toward his black Prius, a very familiar bodyguard stepped in front of him. "I'm sorry, Young Lord. I have been ordered to keep you safely at home. Lord called it a lockdown."
Yoichi blinked. "What on earth is wrong?"
Machia's face was uncharacteristically grim. "The Lord is away fending off a major attack. Oh! If only I could be by his side! But of course protecting you is more important, Young Lord. I'm honored to have been granted such a prestigious task." Actual tears filled his eyes.
"An…attack? As in violence? From the government? Or did the yakuza come after his business?" Yoichi knew his brother had been threatened by organized crime in the past.
"I'm sorry, Young Lord. I can't reveal any details. But it's been deemed too dangerous to let you go outside." Out of the side of his mouth, Machia added, "I don't completely understand what's going on either, but the Lord always knows best."
Yoichi's eye twitched. His risk assessment probably wouldn't be the same as his paranoid older brother's. "For how long?"
"I don't know, Young Lord. Until the Lord has handled the situation. I'm confident that his majestic might will defeat all his enemies within a few days."
Yoichi stared. "I can't leave? For days?"
"Please, Young Lord, I couldn't bear if anything happened to you on my watch again. Please." Machia looked misty-eyed. After the shooting incident, Yoichi had spent weeks consoling his bodyguard and telling him that he hadn't failed in his duty.
Yoichi was always weak to a heartfelt plea. "Uh. I suppose my brother must have important reasons. I can miss a day or two of class."
"Thank you, Young Lord! I've been instructed to bring you anything you need from outside. I'll keep you safe and happy." Machia's chest puffed out with pride.
Two days turned into three days. Then four days. Then five days.
Yoichi was about to go out of his mind. No one would tell him why he had to stay inside the mansion walls or how long this would last. The household staff brought him his schoolwork and manga books and anything else he requested. It wasn't a hardship to stay here. But that wasn't the point. No one had asked him to stay. They'd simply barred the gate. Security guards with metahuman powers patrolled the wall at all times. A nagging voice in the back of his mind whispered, I'm a prisoner here.
The notion was ridiculous. This wasn't a jail. This was his brother's house. He wasn't a prisoner. Except for the part where he couldn't leave.
Machia was useless. He just kept repeating the same promises to keep him safe.
Not for the first time, Yoichi cornered a staff member and asked, "Where is my brother?"
The maid looked ready to sink into the floor. "I don't know. That's classified information."
"He hasn't answered any of my calls. Can you please give me another number where I can reach him?"
"I've passed along your message to my superiors, sir. I promise. That's all I can do." She sounded so scared that Yoichi declined to bother her any further.
If only Yoichi could talk to his brother, he knew that Hisashi's smooth tongue would convince him to stay inside. Then once he'd agreed to stay, he'd no longer be technically a prisoner. Why was that technicality so important to him? He wasn't sure himself.
But it bothered him very much that no one had ever given him a choice.
Sitting alone on his bed, Yoichi contemplated escaping out the window, then trying to scale the wall. Or perhaps sneaking out hiding in one of the vehicles delivering supplies. That gave him an even better idea. Hisashi owned an extremely rare and difficult to keep alive albino bonsai tree that he doted on so much that he paid Japan's most renowned bonsai artist to come and give it the plant equivalent of a doctor's checkup once a month. The elderly lady was the only person allowed into the mansion who had no idea Hisashi was anything except an enthusiastic amateur gardener, so her truck was never searched because that would seem too strange. She was due for a visit tomorrow. If he wanted to escape, he'd pick that moment.
Yoichi slapped his own cheeks again to stop this train of thought. No, no, he was being foolish. He could almost hear his brother's voice telling him that he was overreacting. What if once outside, he got shot again? Hisashi wasn't lying about the danger; past experience proved that much. If he got injured or kidnapped, his big brother would never let him live it down. It would forever be held over his head as proof of his childishness and immaturity.
More importantly, if he tried to escape and failed, then he'd truly become a prisoner. And Yoichi wasn't yet willing to face the reality that he might already be one.
On the seventh day, Hisashi finally returned to the mansion. By then, Yoichi was a bundle of nerves and rage.
Hisashi entered his bedroom holding a stack of new comic books. He smiled and opened his mouth.
But Yoichi was in no mood to be appeased by gifts. He leapt to his feet. "Where have you been? Why couldn't you answer my calls?"
"Little brother, I was in the middle of a life or death battle." Sighing, Hisashi set down the comics on the desk. "I'm sorry I worried you." He spoke in the tone of an adult coaxing a child.
Yoichi demanded, "Who were you fighting? Why?"
"There are certain aspects of my business that are confidential."
"If I'm going to be imprisoned because of your shady business, then you at least owe me an answer about why!"
Hisashi laughed. "Imprisoned? Don't you think you're being melodramatic?"
Yoichi's righteous anger faltered. He wanted to believe that he was being melodramatic. The alternative terrified him. He coughed. More coughs wracked his body.
Hisashi put an arm around him and guided him to sit on his bed. "There, there. Sit here and I'll fetch you your medicine. No wonder you're so easily upset today. You must be cranky because you're ill."
Yoichi's mind went white with fury. All color drained from his face. "How dare you. You don't have the right to force me to stay home at your whim, and you don't have the right to dismiss my perfectly normal concerns afterward! I'm not a child and you're not my parent!"
"If you're not a child, then stopped acting like one." The patronization in Hisashi's voice set Yoichi's teeth on edge. "An adult would understand reasonable safety precautions."
"How can I understand when you won't explain to me what's going on? If you haven't done anything to be ashamed of, then you wouldn't be trying to keep it secret." Shaking off his brother's hand, Yoichi leapt to his feet and grabbed a newspaper off his desk. "I found several articles about a recent gang war. Three criminal groups faced off while an organization of metahuman vigilantes desperately tried to protect civilians from getting caught up. Is this your so-called important business?"
"Of course not! You know that my business is perfectly legitimate. Even though the government sometimes tries to come after us for petty reasons simply because I'm a metahuman." Hisashi scowled, the picture of indignation.
Yoichi inhaled through his teeth. He would have tried to believe mostly legitimate, but there was no way in hell that Hisashi was running a perfectly legitimate business. Big brother was lying, but to what extent? That was harder to tell.
Watching his brother carefully, Yoichi said, "The article mentioned a metahuman leader named All for One. Have you ever heard of him?"
"I've heard the name. He's an urban legend. I'm surprised that rumor made its way into a respected news source." From Hisashi's tone, he was none too happy about it, either.
"Maybe you could ask your underworld contacts for more information about this mysterious figure." Yoichi's voice took on a sickly sweet note. "The ones who arranged for the man who shot me to fall down a flight of stairs in prison and break his neck."
Hisashi looked harried. "I keep telling you that I had nothing to do with that! Prison is a dangerous place. Why won't you believe me?"
Yoichi had no proof. But he just knew. They'd already had several arguments about that, with Hisashi denying responsibility to the bitter end. The experience had taught Yoichi a valuable lesson about being specific about the promises he extracted from his brother. Hisashi had promised to put the man in jail—he'd made no promises about what would happen afterward.
It was too late to do anything about that death, no matter how it weighed on him. Yoichi took a deep breath. "I think I should move out again."
All color drained from Hisashi's face. "This is the worst possible time! I wasn't lying to you about the danger you're in, I swear. The government knows that I have a younger brother, and they've already marked your identity for investigation. Word has largely leaked among my business associates as well, thanks to the holes in the government's shoddy security. You could be taken hostage or murdered by another lone gunman with a grudge. You're always so good at telling when I'm lying. Can't you see that I'm telling the truth right now?"
This sounded true, but Yoichi also felt fairly certain that Hisashi wasn't telling him everything. It got harder for Yoichi to use his brotherly instincts when Hisashi skirted the edges of the truth.
"I can't live my entire life restricted." Yoichi glared. "Why did my last eight dates ghost me?"
"I'm not sure why you're changing the subject."
"This is very relevant to the current topic. You promised not to interfere in my social life when I agreed to accept bodyguards."
"Ghosting is common in modern dating."
"Eight times in a row seems a little ridiculous."
"Why are you so paranoid? You always blame me for everything."
"Because I'm usually right, big brother."
"Even you have to admit that you need the bodyguards, after the shooting incident." A bit of smugness leaked into Hisashi's tone. "You can't get rid of them."
"I've been considering transferring to a university in America."
"America?" Hisashi shrieked. "That's too far away. I have no contacts or allies there. I can't possibly protect you in America."
"Ideally, you wouldn't need to protect me because I'd be far away from your enemies."
"Wouldn't you miss me?" The hurt in Hisashi's voice was sincere. "We're the only family each other has in the whole world. We've never been apart for so long. It's always been the two of us against the world, just like when we were children, remember?"
Yoichi hardened his heart against the nostalgia attack. "Maybe if I was in a foreign country instead of stuck under your thumb, you'd return my calls in a timely fashion, big brother."
Hisashi threw up his hands. "That's what this is about? Just because I had a brief, one-time period where I was too busy to immediately speak to you, you're going to punish me for it? You've always been childish, but this is a new depth of pettiness!"
"It's not like that." Yoichi worked hard to keep his tone calm and even, hoping his brother would listen to him if he retained his cool. "I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past seven days. This isn't sustainable over the long run. Your 'business' already cost me my first job. No job would ever tolerate me vanishing without warning for a week. If you tell me that it's not safe for me to go outside, and I believe you, then my only choice is to go somewhere far away from your enemies."
Hisashi said, "I can get you a job with one of my companies."
"I'm not interested in working for a shell company carrying out illegal business you won't tell me about."
"You'd abandon me, your only family member, over a blind commitment to the laws that oppress metahumans?"
"Now who's being melodramatic? It's perfectly normal for college students to study abroad. We can still visit on a regular basis. I don't agree with the current government in the slightest, but don't pretend to be a noble freedom fighter in front of me. I'm not one of your mindless sycophants. I see through your bullshit. You didn't gather metahuman criminals under your banner and start a gang war so you could fight for rights! You did it to obtain power! Is that the real reason you've been attacked by vigilantes?"
"I keep telling you that I had nothing to do that incident." Hisashi gestured at the newspaper. "Why don't you believe me?"
"Because I'm not stupid?" Yoichi glared. "You even took your name from the Three Musketeers! We used to argue about whether All for One or One for All would be a cooler superhero name when we were children." He'd asked as a test, and Hisashi had thoroughly failed.
"That's circumstantial evidence." Hisashi crossed his arms.
"I don't want to believe it." Yoichi hated how his voice shook. Part of the reason he wanted to run away to America was so that he didn't have to face what his brother might or might not be doing.
Hisashi sighed. "Be honest. You're behaving like this because you're jealous. We both wanted metahuman powers as children, but only I got one. The strongest ability, too. It's not my fault your body was too weak to handle a power, or else I would have given you one."
"I don't want a metapower from you any longer." Yoichi fought back tears. He didn't entirely mean it—letting go of his superhero dream was hard. "Not if the price would be helping you commit crimes." That much was true.
"You're acting like you're too good to work for my business because you envy my wealth and power. Even though I've never done anything except protect you and provide for you, you despise always being the weaker brother. You've been a burden on me for years, but you're petty enough to resent me for it."
Yoichi flinched. It came close enough to the truth to cut him to the bone. His older brother had hurt him, and he knew exactly how to return the favor. "I'd be embarrassed to associate with your cult. It's pathetic how you surround yourself with people who worship you and puff up your ego. Does getting sycophants to sing your praises all day fill the void left because Mommy never loved you?"
Hisashi's eyes widened. Yoichi had crossed a line with that last remark, and they both knew it.
But Yoichi was sick and tired of being called childish and weak by his brother without ever returning fire. He didn't take back his cruel words. Instead, he goaded, "What's wrong? You can dish it out, but you can't take it? I had a lousy childhood too, but you don't see me forming a personality cult to compensate!" He shouted the last words defensively.
Hisashi growled, "You always put on the pretense of being the morally upright one. But you rely on me to get my hands dirty to protect us both. When have you ever actually done anything to uphold your supposedly noble ideals? You don't have the power to do so—or maybe that's just your convenient excuse. You tend to your pure conscience the same way you spend hours every morning primping over your hair—both equally vain and pointless."
"I'm vain? Who searched around the city for a hair growth ability as soon as he started finding extra hairs in his comb? Did you think that your cultists would stop singing your praises if you developed premature baldness?"
"How'd you even find out about—you're one to talk, I could adopt my own pet tiger with what you spend on haircare products!" Hisashi's voice rose. "I've given you everything and you aren't even grateful for it."
They were both hitting each other's sore spots in the way only brothers could. Yoichi knew he ought to deescalate this, but he was too angry. "My deranged brother locked me up in his house! I should have expressed my gratitude by calling the police."
"You think this beautiful mansion where you live rent free is anything like a prison? You're so spoiled!" Hisashi ground his teeth, visibly trying to regain control of himself. "Go ahead and try to transfer to America. Try to apply for loans. If you can't obtain any money, you won't be able to go anywhere."
Hisashi left the room while Yoichi was still wondering what exactly that meant. It sure had sounded like his older brother had threatened to sabotage his college loan applications, but he couldn't do that…right?
No matter, because Yoichi was no longer comfortable fleeing to America to avoid his brother's illegal activities. He needed to do more. His brother's accusation had pricked his conscience.
Yoichi needed to know the truth about All for One. If he didn't investigate, if he kept turning a blind eye, then he'd be every bit the hypocrite that Hisashi had accused him of being. Time to break into his older brother's office.
THE FIFTH DEATH:
Yoichi got into the back of his car with a flash drive full of stolen data in his pocket.
The driver asked, "Are you feeling ill, sir?" Worried eyes peered up at his rear view mirror.
"Young Lord is ill?" Machia bellowed from the front seat. "We must return home at once! I will summon a doctor!" He reached out as if intending to carry Yoichi.
"I'm fine," Yoichi said, trying to keep his voice steady. "I've been cooped up inside too long. I could use some fresh air." He forced a laugh. It sounded like the dying gasp of a hyena.
Fortunately, the driver didn't question him any further. Yoichi's heart hammered inside his ribcage as the mansion gate opened.
He never could have imagined what he'd found in his brother's office. He'd expected that Hisashi's business would turn out to be involved in borderline illegal activities, probably money laundering for organized crime. He'd never dreamed that his older brother was the single largest crimelord in Japan.
All for One was a legendary boogeyman. He'd stolen countless abilities and then forced them on other people. Yoichi had seen pictures of victims turned into drooling coma patients after having too many metapowers stuffed inside them. Hisashi had taken chillingly detached research notes. He'd also been experimenting with exerting a subtle mental control over people who'd received abilities from him. Yoichi could only breathe a sigh of relief that his brother had always refused to give him a power.
Yoichi had believed his brother when he'd claimed to only take abilities from people who gave them willingly. For once, his lie-detecting abilities had completely failed him. Or perhaps he hadn't wanted to see. Hisashi's private records revealed that the man who'd shot Yoichi had been taking revenge after Hisashi had stolen his metahuman power. (At least Hisashi hadn't arranged the shooting—Yoichi had very nearly started to wonder about that. But he'd drugged the culprit to stop him from speaking about his motive during the trial.)
Furthermore, Hisashi had secretly forced abilities on the children of powerful people in order to obtain allies for his movement. One of them had died due to inability to control his new power. Another child had been murdered by her own bigoted parents—and Hisashi's response had been to blackmail them about it.
It had hurt most of all to realize that Hisashi's metahuman rights movement fronted as part source of stolen abilities, part whitewashing criminal funds, and part publicity stunt. Yoichi had known that Hisashi wasn't an idealist. But he'd believed his older brother was still doing good for his own selfish reasons. Instead, Hisashi had starkly laid out plans to further inflame the conflict between metahumans and the government so he could use the chaos to seize power.
Yet all of that paled in comparison to the long-term plans for a coup d'état. Hisashi seriously intended to conquer Japan over the next decade and rule it as a military dictatorship.
This was too far. Yoichi had originally intended to take whatever he found to his older brother and try to persuade him to go straight. But with Hisashi planning crimes of this magnitude, Yoichi couldn't take that chance. Too many people would get hurt if his brother didn't listen to him. Having crossed so many lines already, it seemed unlikely Hisashi would stop because his naïve little brother tossed off a few platitudes. If only Yoichi had found out sooner…was he kidding himself to believe he might have been able to make a difference?
What would happen to his brother if he turned this information over to the government? Realistically, Hisashi had probably grown too strong for them to do anything except indirectly contain him. Yoichi desperately wanted to believe that. Selfishly, he still didn't want his big brother to get hurt.
Regardless, Hisashi would never forgive Yoichi for this betrayal.
Why did you have to actually become a supervillain, big brother? It was a cute and funny dream when we were children but you're rather too old to act like a Demon King. To think you accused me of confusing fantasy with reality. Tears filled Yoichi's eyes. He rubbed them away before anyone could notice.
Machia escorted Yoichi to a restaurant where he'd claimed to be meeting with a friend. As usual, the bodyguard drew back to allow him private conversation. Yoichi went to the bathroom and escaped out the window.
Knowing how sad Machia would be about losing his charge, Yoichi felt terrible. He felt even more guilty about betraying his brother. Everything about this situation made him sick to the stomach.
He checked into a hotel using only cash. Sitting on a narrow bed, he pondered his options. He decided to email one pdf page of his stolen documents to a government tip hotline. Just enough to prove he had real, valuable information. Then he would bargain to turn over the rest.
Ideally, he would like to cut a deal to help the peaceful metahuman rights movement in exchange for his highly valuable information. The trick would be figuring out how to force the other side to keep their end of the deal. He intended to go through all the documents and delete what was too damaging to the metahuman rights movement. He would also delete anything concerning his brother's civilian identity and home address, though he had more qualms about that, because he couldn't risk the information being used to assassinate Hisashi.
Yoichi supposed he'd need to bargain to enter the witness protection program. He might never see his older brother again.
Grief overwhelmed him. He wept as he looked through the files, stopping occasionally to mop tears off his face.
Yoichi barely slept. He'd received a reply from a government agent by the time he woke up. He arranged a meeting in a public place. He was nervous, because they'd agree to all his terms too easily. Either he'd set his price far too low or they didn't intend to keep their end of the deal. But if he didn't obtain government protection quickly then his brother would find him. He had no choice but to take a risk.
At the end of the day, he was desperate. He believed that turning this information over was more important than his own safety. Even if someone put a bullet in the back of his head afterward, hopefully they'd still use what he'd found to stop his brother before he turned Japan into a battlefield.
Yoichi wished he'd left a last message for Hisashi. At the time, he'd deemed it too risky, since it could have revealed his intentions to escape early.
Before leaving, he used the hotel iron on the clothes he'd slept in and blow-dried his hair straight. A neat appearance gave him more confidence.
The restaurant door jangled as he pushed it open. He looked around for his contact, a man supposed to be carrying a red handkerchief.
Hisashi stood in front of the restaurant bar, his hands in his pockets. He wore a black pinstripe suit and no tie. Glancing over the crowd of people chattering and eating, he met Yoichi's eyes and smiled in a way that contained no warmth.
Yoichi tried to run. But his feet were frozen to the floor. A green glow leaked up from around his sneakers. A metahuman ability.
Ironically, he remembered that the ability Hisashi had stolen from the man who'd shot Yoichi had been a power to freeze the victim's legs to the floor with a glance.
Hisashi walked forward at slow pace. He said, "I've taken control of the government tip hotline already. This isn't the first time my agents there have come in handy—although I would say it's the most important one. Your message never got past my spy. I contacted you to set up this meeting."
"That explains it," Yoichi said, impressed at the calmness of his own voice.
Hisashi stopped in front of him. He reached up with the palms of his hands glowing red. Yoichi flinched away. But Hisashi only tucked a stray lock of hair behind his ear. "Time to go home, little brother."
The patronization in those words. The arrogance. The dismissal. Yoichi raised his voice and shouted, "Someone call the police! I'm being kidnapped!"
Not a single person in the restaurant looked up. The bartender deliberately polished a glass as he avoided looking at Yoichi.
Hisashi said, "Everyone in this building works for me."
Yoichi swallowed. He'd been the one to pick this location. For Hisashi to take control of a public place within the hour bespoke a terrifying level of influence.
His brother's plans had included conquering Japan. Yoichi had convinced himself that this must be a sign of madness. That perhaps he was even doing his brother a favor by turning him in before he got himself killed. Now he understood that Hisashi might very well be mad, but he had the power to turn his delusions into reality. Yoichi was terrified. Not just for himself, but for the world.
Hisashi picked him up. His touch held a paralyzing property. Yoichi found he could no longer move even his mouth. Hisashi flung his younger brother over his shoulder and walked onto the street with absolutely no fear he'd be challenged.
Machia opened the car door. "I'm glad to see everything went smoothly, Lord." There was a note of reproach in his eyes as he stared at Yoichi.
Yoichi squirmed inside and simultaneously resented that he could be made to feel guilty. He wasn't the one in the wrong here.
Hisashi barely spoke during the drive. The silence intimidated Yoichi because it was so unlike his brother not to gloat or persuade. Hisashi did not let his little brother out of his arms for the entire trip, nor when they arrived back at the mansion. He carried Yoichi upstairs.
Numerous items had been removed from his bedroom, though Yoichi couldn't move his head to make a proper catalogue. His desk had been cleared of anything sharp. The table lamp was gone and the windows had been barred.
Hisashi took off his shoes and tucked him into bed before departing.
When the bedroom door locked behind Hisashi, Yoichi thought bitterly that at least his brother wasn't pretending any longer.
OMAKE TIME!
Hisashi: Now you understand what it feels like when someone ignores your calls, baby brother.
Yoichi: The circumstances this chapter and last chapter are completely different! You called every day to prevent me from having a social life and I wanted to know why I'd been placed under house arrest!
Later, more projection from Hisashi:
Hisashi: You're such a hypocrite—you keep spouting about your morals but you never act on them.
Yoichi: Okay, I'm going to investigate your wrongdoings instead of turning a blind eye.
Hisashi: Wait, no, I didn't mean it like that! Blindness is great. I'll happily help you stay blind for the rest of your life.
Author's Note: When Hisashi didn't have his little brother in his possession, he felt compelled to constantly check up on him. But with Yoichi safely locked up, Hisashi felt free to ignore him like a toy he didn't feel like playing with at the moment. This says a whole lot about Hisashi.
During that moment when Hisashi pricked Yoichi's conscience into action, he knew full well that it wouldn't be in his own best interests to go there, but he was too angry to stop himself. He screwed up big time. Or perhaps it was inevitable. Yoichi couldn't have stayed in denial forever.