Chapter 7 - Pain in a Dragon's Heart
Sol approached the tree. He glanced around. Kimiko remained motionless but a cough gave her away. "WHOAH! Kimiko! Jeez, you scared the hell out a me!" "Sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't know if you wanted to be alone." He shook his head. "Nah, nah. I don't mind the company." he said breathing hard. "I just couldn't sleep." "Me neither." He looked at her. "Something on your mind?" "Yeah." "Care to talk about it?" "I don't know." she replied trying to figure out the best way to approach the subject delicately. "Why don't you ever talk about your parents?" "I told you-" he said with a little anger but paused when she looked him in the eyes. "I'm sorry. You don't deserve that." He began to walk on the path leading out of the temple. "If you'd like to hear, come with me." They walked out of the temple and into a large field next to the mountains. The air was a little chilly but welcome in the hot summer. Sol let out a long, tired sigh.
"My dad was a scientist. He would work in the lab we had in our house for hours a day. I'd always go with him and learn things. How to channel a current, create a circuit, that sort a thing. My mom owned a small gadget store where you could find just about anything. That's how I became profiecient in things of that nature." "And this was in Tokyo?" Kimiko asked. "No. At this point, I was living in California. Anyway, one day my mom and me are making dinner, when my dad comes in all excited. It was pretty hard to understand him but we could pick up that he said he figured out how to make a reliable fusion power plant." he paused for a moment. "A cheap fusion plant would mean limitless, virtually free energy, for the whole world. That was my dad's dream, ya know. A place where it wouldn't cost money to turn on a light switch." he paused again. He seemed to be having trouble telling her this. "So he came to us and says the only thing holding him back would be money." "How much did he need?" "To see if his theory worked, he needed ten million US dollars." "Why didn't he any country to fund him?" "He always said politics and test tubes never mixed."
Sol stretched his arms and continued. "He needed an investor, so he went looking for one. Eventually he got to Tokyo and found a man that would fund him. Ichiwa Kaga. Kaga said that he would help if he had exclusive production rights to the reactors for the first five years. Then after that, the reactors would be given to poorer nations for pennies on the dollar. My dad thought this was great, so he took the ten million and set up a lab in Tokyo. He also hired a few scientists to help out. That's when we moved."
"For the first year or so, Kaga was behind my dad but as the years went on, he became more and more impatient. At one point my dad reached a block. He got stuck. Kaga freaked out. He said that my dad owed him. My dad simply said that's how investing is. You win some. You lose some." He stopped again. Kimiko looked at him. There were tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Sol. I don't want to pry-" "No, it's all right. I'd like to tell someone."
He continued. "I was walking home one day and saw some black vans outside. There were men running into and out of my house taking my dad's stuff. Research, papers, whatever they could find. Then I see Kaga there, by his limo looking over this as it's happening. I ran over and screamed 'What the hell are you doing?'. He just smiled and pulled a pistol as I was about 15 feet away. He shot and hit me." Kimiko gasped. "That where I got this." He said pulling the collar of his shirt down. There was a scar of a bullet a an inch below his collar bone. "I was knocked down and I guess he thought he killed me. The vans and his limo sped off. I got back up and as fast as I could, ran to my house bleeding everywhere." he stopped walking. They had stopped in a beautiful field. Tall grass wisped around them.
"The door was...broken down. I ran in screaming for my parents. I couldn't find them. I ran down to find his basement lab wrecked. Whatever Kaga didn't steal, he smashed. Then I...found my parents." he rubbed his face with his hands. "They were both sitting there in a pool of blood." "Oh my god, I'm so sorry." She saw Sol's face silhouetted against the moon. Tears ran down and left his face. "I guess they both tried to stop Kaga and he shot them both in the chest. So I ran over to them and my mom was still alive. She was embracing my dad when I came over. She smiled and said, 'Be strong ,son, for us. Be strong. We love you.' She died in my arms." Kimiko had tears in her eyes aswell. She didn't know what to say. She hugged him. "I'm so sorry." They seperated and continued walking.
"What happened to Kaga? Did they catch him?" "No." he bitterly said. "They ruled the case as a simply robbery and double homicide. They didn't find any connections to the stolen fusion plans. They pursued the culprits for a while and even questioned Kaga, but his pockets were too deep. He got off scotch free. Meanwhile, my mom's sister married a Tokyo business man and moved to Japan aswell. She was the only family I had, so she took me in. She's a good woman." "So what are you going to do?" she asked. His face changed. It wasn't sad or angry anymore. It was merely indifferent. "When I find him, I'll execute him." Kimiko was chilled by the ice in his voice. He was no longer the happy, lovable, dragon she once knew. He became a different person. Kimiko didn't know what else to say. "Thanks for listening." "Any time. That's what friends are for." They hugged and went back to their rooms.