Author's note: here is the last chapter! Thanks again to Sparda4 for everything especially this ending (sorry if it isn't exactly how you want it), and thanks to everyone if you're still reading. On with the story!
Austin's POV
It's too late. It's been a week since we were at Kenji's house. He didn't kill John, but Hiro probably did. After Hiro left his house, we followed him all the way to the airport. But instead of leaving for Japan, he simply stayed in the hotel airport. At first, we were confused. We spent a day investigating his presence. We were distracted for 24 hours, and that was enough for Kenji. He kidnapped John, then he called Hiro. Instead of killing John himself, Kenji handed John over to his boss, who drove away in a truck.
We called the police immediately when we found out all of this, but they still haven't found Hiro. I don't think they will. But Kenji is still somewhere here in Miami. We also fired him, which he took rather nicely, but now we don't know where he is. Jimmy is also questioning the disappearance of his assistant.
"Austin, I know we're all disappointed." Ally says, walking into the practice room where I'm sitting.
"I just can't believe we failed." I say. "Life isn't a fairytale, and this time it wasn't a happy ending. But I can't believe they got John. We should never have hired Kenji."
"I know. I'm sorry, Austin." she says. "But there's still a chance that police will find him. After we turned in the recordings, the Florida police have alerted all national police forces, as well as the ones in Canada and Mexico. Sergei's guys are looking for Hiro, too."
"Ally, you and I both know that they're never going to catch him." I say.
"I know," she replies, "but I don't think we should lose hope just yet. Plus, they can still find Kenji. He should be easier to find. He hasn't been in his house recently, though. At least not that we know of."
"Guys, I figured something out." Dez says as he walks into the room. "John's not dead, at least not yet, and Hiro's driving around the country."
"How do you know that?" I ask.
"Well, remember that tracker I put on John? He still has it, and it has a heat sensor, too. It's detecting way too much heat for him to be dead yet, and it tracks that he's going around the country. I don't think he escaped from Hiro, so he's probably driving around the country."
"Wouldn't that make it easier for someone to find him, though?" Ally asks. "The national police are on the lookout for him."
"That's the thing," Dez replies, "they don't know where to look so by driving aimlessly it's more confusing. I think we need to show this to the police."
"Okay, I'll go with you." Ally says, and they walk out together.
I sigh and get up after they leave the room. It's not fair, how the bad guys have to win. Shouldn't the good guys win in the end? There's still hope, but I don't think the police will ever find Hiro. He's probably done this thousands of times before. The only thing we can do is find Kenji.
I walk downstairs and exit Sonic Boom. It's dark outside, it's nighttime, but I walk to the beach. Lately, I go there a lot to calm myself down, but it never works. Tonight, though, I decide to walk a little further along the coast. I walk all the way to the cliff on the far side, to the point where I can no longer see our beach. I wander a little bit, and to my surprise, I see Kenji.
"Kenji, how could you?" I exclaim.
"How could I what?" he asks.
"You kidnapped John and gave him to Hiro to kill! Killing's wrong! And the bad guys never win!" I exclaim. "I'm calling the police."
"Wait!" he exclaims. "Austin, let me explain. There's a reasonable explanation."
"Okay, you've got a minute, then I call the police." I tell him angrily.
"Look, Austin, for my whole life, I've worked for Hiro. My boss. And I served him loyally. I never didn't complete a mission, even if it seemed wrong to me. Believe me, there were times when I really didn't want to do something. Killing, especially. I know you don't believe me, but it's true. But I couldn't say no to Hiro. He trusted me, but I knew I would have to leave him eventually. So I moved to America, saying I was just learning independence and I would always serve him. In reality, I was getting away from him. But he kept coming back. He would stop contacting me, even if we were across the world from each other."
"So did you believe him when he said that John was not to be trusted?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "At first I didn't. I didn't tell him that, I acted like I didn't trust John, or Kong, whatever, but I didn't see anything wrong with him. To be honest, I empathized a lot with him. He wanted to get away from Hiro and Japan, so did I. We both moved to America for that purpose. I had to get away from Hiro, though. I didn't think there was any other choice than to obey him one last time."
"So you agreed to kill John just so that you could get away from Hiro? There's got to be a better way!" I exclaim.
"Okay, Austin." he says. "I understand. I'm not a good guy. I'm not like you, I'm not like Dez or Ally or Trish. But I'm not a psychopath. I knew I couldn't just kill John because Hiro asked me to. I had to find another way. But how? I decided to do some research. I know you don't believe me, but it's true. And then I realized that John only worked for Hiro for a month or so, then he bolted. He wasn't a high-ranked member or anything. In fact, not a single high-ranked member of the yakuza even know who he is. I didn't know, no one else knew."
"But Hiro said that everyone was mad at him! No one knew him?" I say, bewildered.
"No. Hiro lied to me as an excuse for me to go kill John." he replies.
"But what's the point? Why did Hiro want John dead?" I ask.
"John was Hiro's biggest enemy." he replies. "He worked for the Japanese police and came close to foiling Hiro's plans many times. But the rest of the police were suspicious about him spending so much time worrying about the yakuza. It was almost as if he was a part of them. So he was no longer trusted by the police. Or the criminals. So he went to America. He didn't know anyone so he could be trusted by anyone. When Hiro came, John had to pretend he wasn't his biggest enemy. But he was scared."
"Yeah, Ally noticed." I say. "But you were still going to kill him! Why? You know it's wrong!"
"Austin, you don't understand." he says. "John wasn't loyal to the police. He wasn't loyal to the yakuza. He was an independent spy in Japan trying to find out something wrong about both groups and expose them. He wanted to make everyone believe that the government was corrupted and the criminals were out to get them."
"But why?" I repeat. "He seemed like such a nice guy!"
"Of course he seemed nice, he had to get a job and seem normal. But he already had enough information to expose Hiro, the yakuza, and even the police. He came to America to carry out his plans in peace. So to me, he was a bad guy."
"But was he really? How do you know all of this? What if you're wrong?" I demand. "For all we know, an innocent man's just been killed by your boss!"
We stand in silence for a while until Kenji speaks again. "Austin, I know you were there the night when Hiro was at my house. You saw him leave, did you not? His leaving also meant that I may never speak to him again. And his last words to me were 'get to know yourself, get to know the world, and become strong'."
"Okay, so what? That doesn't help anything." I reply, irritated.
"The more I thought about his words, the more I realized how much I've changed since I started working for you. When I started, I was still Hiro's protégé, aggressive and impulsive. You saw that. But the more I worked for you, the more independent I became from Hiro and everyone else back home. I realized that although I will always be a part of them, I will never truly be exactly like them. Do you understand that?"
"Yeah," I reply, "like how I'm a high school kid but I'm never going to be a normal high school kid."
"Okay, kind of like that." he replies. "So my heart will never be good. But I can at least try. I've learned a lot from Hiro, but I've learned a lot from you, too. And now that I'm free from working for Hiro, I'm going to become independent. I don't know what I'll do, but I'll always be part Kenji, part Gavin. Kenji, the impulsive, aggressive, and often violent, and Gavin, the more logical and controlled."
Suddenly, his phone starts ringing. He picks it up. I hear a muffled voice on the other end, strangely familiar, but I don't know what it is. After a while of the voice on the other end, Kenji replies.
"I thought you didn't need me because of what happened with Hiro, but I'm on my way. Boss."
Author's note: if you got this far, thanks for reading and I hope you liked it! Thanks again so much to Sparda4 for this whole thing and I'm sorry if it didn't exactly go as you wanted it, but I hope it was okay.