7

"To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness."

Robert Muller

Z

Tokyo was famous for its bright and random culture. Its streets were always teaming with different types of people. The younger people in Tokyo were always displaying their creative fashion choices that would put Lady Gaga to shame. The people who were office workers could always be seen hurrying off to whatever job they had next in their conservative suits. Even a few older women could be seen still wearing kimonos.

But even in the mass amounts of people, it was still possible to pick out who was Yakuza. They always dressed in expensive suits and sunglasses or extremely tacky sweat suits. They carried themselves through the crowd with an air of authority and self-importance that made people step aside.

The further you got into their territory, the more obvious it got. Normal people wouldn't dare venture into this part of town. The Yakuza got a little careless with letting their tattoos be seen. They were usually very open with who they were in the daytime, but in the night in this part of town it was a whole different side of them. The mafia didn't hide here. They had no reason to; they owned the city.

"Up on the right." I directed Sean. He pulled up to the curb and turned off the engine.

We were in post-apocalyptic, boarded up section of Tokyo where Kamata's guys thrived. There were a couple of sketchy looking people floating around between buildings, but apart from that there was nothing. The street lights flicked on around us as the sun sank behind the buildings. They were dim and didn't help illuminate the streets at all.

I chose this place on purpose. We were on the very edges. Sean got a peek of the other side, but he didn't get the full on view. He needed to be aware of what was going on, but he didn't need to know everything. He'd do something stupid to get me out if he knew how bad things really were.

"See the light down that street?" I pointed down the street perpendicular to us where an alley was obviously brightly lit up.

"Yeah. Han showed me where they stayed."

"No, he showed you the street Kamata's club was on. This is the red light district." He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Kamata told me I owed him my uncle's dead and I had to work it off. The trick he pulled on me, is pulled on thousands of girls every day. A lot of them wind up there." I pointed down the street where a couple of men had just turned into the alley from another part of the street. "Some get tricked into coming because they think they have honest jobs lined up. Doesn't matter. It all ends the same."

My cynical tone caught Sean's attention. His lips pursed together and forehead started to scrunch up in thought.

"Why do you help these people? If they to do this to people, why work for them? You're just as bad."

My burning anger had slacked off. I was exhausted and didn't have the energy to be angry anymore. I got annoyed at Sean's comments like that, but at least I didn't feel like I was going to reach across the car and deck him.

"I've struggled with that for a long time, but the truth is I'm in the same boat as those girls. If he ever gets really angry with me, he'll turn me into one of those girls or he'll kill me, and honestly I hope he kills me. Come on. We've got a few more places to go."

I took him to every drug store house, chop shop, and Yakuza alley I could without being spotted. I was absolutely terrified of being followed, but I never saw any sign of a tail. There was always a chance someone would recognize my car, so I had Sean pull up as far away as possible.

Despite only showing him glimpses of Kamata's world, he started to look more freaked out after every stop. By the time we pulled into our last stop, I knew he believed there was no way in hell I took this job willingly. Though to keep him convinced, I made a mental note to not show him my apartment for a while; it would be hard to call myself a victim in my two bed room lavish apartment while Sean was sleeping in his dad's closet.

When Sean parked at the waterfront I immediately stepped out of the car. I was dizzy and had to lean on the fender for a second, but I managed to walk out by the water. The fresh air coming over the water kept me from throwing up, but the nausea was still overwhelming. Sean warily came to stand beside me. He stopped a good distance away from me, but that didn't hide how white his face was.

"Is this the part where you whack me?" He asked nervously. I snorted quietly.

"No, you're family; even if it's not blood." A cold breeze hit me carrying the scent of fish and saltwater. I pulled my arms into my chest and hoped the wind would slack off.

"You weren't running this time." Sean stated.

"Not yet, anyway. I'm getting out of here. It might take a while, but when I get a chance, I'm gone."

"Now you sound like the Ellie I know." His twang was closer then I was expecting. I stiffened when he pulled me into a hug.

"I've been half dead since I got to Tokyo. I just now snapped out of it." I started to shiver from the cold wind. I had forgotten my coat at Kamata's.

"What made you snap out of it?" He asked quietly. I looked away from the water to glance at him.

"Han has been trying to get me away from Kamata. Twinkie has been trying to get me away from DK. It eventually started working. They both seem to think that Han is watching me for them, but they have no idea he's helping me get ready to leave entirely."

"DK? You were with him?" Sean leaned down so I he could look me dead in the eye.

"Not like that!" I sputtered quickly. "His uncle was thoroughly convinced I was going to do something incredibly stupid, so he pushed me into his nephew's little crew so they could keep an eye on me."

"What are you doing for his uncle?" Sean asked me.

"What you do for Han, but with drugs or huge sums of money. One of his guys is always with me on a run to make sure I don't try to skip town. I don't know why everyone is convinced I'm going to take off. I always came back before."

Sean started laughing. "Yeah, with a purse full of other people's wallets, the keys to some fancy car you grabbed out of a pocket-"

"Okay, you've made your point. Can you blame me, though? Our family was nuts. It was good to get away for a while. You used to do the same thing." I countered with a red face. It didn't do much to keep me warm.

"No, I definitely didn't."

"How many times has your mama had to move towns because you have a lead foot and a quick temper?" He didn't answer." That's what I thought." I added victoriously.

"At least I didn't join the mafia! That's the dumbest thing you could have done in Japan."

"I always thought the dumbest thing was Morimoto, but that's close second." He chuckled at my corny joke.

"Come on. Let's go home; you're freezing and delirious."

"I brought you out here to make a very important point, but I'm so tired I can't remember what it is. It was something hugely dramatic that referenced the Godfather." I shrugged and turned to walk back to the car with him.

"I don't know either." He chuckled and opened the passenger side door for me. I ignored it and got in the driver's side.

"No. You have a concussion."

"Come on, chicken." I taunted as I started the engine and patted the passenger seat. The evil grin on my face made him stop for a second to consider his options. He finally got in.

Z

Half an hour later Sean was seriously regretting that choice. I had taken the mountain road that Han had shown me the day I had a meltdown after the police raid. I was shooting up the mountain with a happy, evil grin stuck on my face, which probably looked demonic because of my injuries and slightly blood covered face. Sean was white faced and kept looking like he was going to bail out the second he got the chance.

Apparently Sean had never been in the car with someone while they drifted. Of course, not that many people took the turns quite as aggressively as I did. I started chuckling to myself when I saw his terrified expression. He glared at me and pointed at the windshield, telling me to watch the road.

"How'd you learn how to drift?" He asked shakily.

"Shi taught me. Outside of Rock Hill there was an old air base and Cessna graveyard that we turned into a track. We drifted around the planes and drag raced on the runways." I smiled at the memories of smoking my friends a million times on that homemade track.

Shi was a member of my dad's team that was ex Triad. He spent a lot of time sleeping off a hangover on our couch. He was an amazing driver, but he always reminded me of a dirty trial lawyer.

"Wow. Suburbville, Arizona heard of drifting before I did." He commented dryly. Rock Hill was the worst town on the planet. It was filled with snooty, white picket fenced neighborhoods where almost everyone had the 2.5 kids, a golden retriever, and membership to the country club. It was in the middle of the desert and had no reason to be so stuck up, but it was.

My friends were mostly the kids that didn't fit in with the stick thin blonde girls and broad shouldered football jocks. Dad stuck me in the town's private school the first chance he got. The public school was not bad at all; the only reason it really differed were the kids there had a little less money. He swore it was so I would be challenged more and quit doing things out of boredom. All he did was paint a target on my back for being the kid of a mechanic amid all the perfect children of doctors and lawyers.

"No, just its outcasts." I quipped.

"Don't you mean gaijin?" I rolled my eyes.

"I threw a wrench at Morimoto for calling me that." Sean started laughing. "Han was standing there and couldn't quit laughing."

"You spend a lot of time with Han?"

"He was my third friend besides Neela and Twinkie. Neela and I don't get to hang out a lot because either I'm busy, or DK's being possessive. Twinkie drags me to the garage every chance he gets."

"Twinkie was my first friend. He tried to sell me something during lunch, and I went with him to the races that night." I started laughing. "What?"

"Twinkie and I met when he tried to sell me something." I smiled at the happy memory of spending over an hour talking to Twinkie over lunch about everything under the sun.

"How'd you meet Han?" Sean glanced over to see my reaction.

"DK sent him to get me ready for a race. I literally bumped into him a week later after a bad run."

"Like, this run bad?" He pointed at my bruised cheek.

"No. What I was doing kind of hit me. I had to stop by DK's storage closet to drop my car off because it needed some body work. I hadn't told him or Twinkie that I was working for Kamata, but DK did it for me. Han took me drifting afterwards. I was kind of surprised, actually; usually people don't handle finding that out well."

"Is he working for Kamata too?"

"He works for himself. He just occasionally consults DK and pays Kamata his cut." I answered.

I came to the top of the mountain and turned around. Sean protested when I started driving back down again, but there was no way in hell I was letting him drift in my car.

I got us back to Han's in one piece, but my night of driving and sleeping on the lumpy old couch was finally catching up to me. I had to force my legs to pull me out of the car. I looked up at the loft to see Twinkie flying down the stairs. He gave Sean a quick once over, then started looking at me. He hadn't gotten a very good luck at my injuries when he had gotten back from school.

"Damn, girl." He said as touched my hairline near my stitches. "How did you not get killed?"

"There was someone else with me. If it wasn't for him, I would have been." I answered truthfully. I pulled my head away from Twinkie's hand and gave Sean a quick hug goodbye before he made his way over to his Evo. "I gotta go. I really need to get a shower and some sleep." I muttered.

"I'll drive you." Twinkie said as I hugged him goodbye too. "There is no way I'm letting you go by yourself like this."

"I'm fine. I drove back here by myself. I can make it home" That might have been convincing if I hadn't been using Twinkie as a prop.

"Don't let her go." Sean yelled from his place under the hood of his Evo. Of course, go back to your car. It's much more important than your concussed best friend who needs a ride home.

"Come on." Twinkie smiled at me as he pulled me to the Hulkmobile.

I laid my swollen face against the cold window as Twinkie pulled out onto the street. His furry seat covers were comfortable and inviting as I snuggled into them and started to doze off. I was vaguely aware of Twinkie turning his music down so I could sleep.

I was exhausted but for once I was happy. Han was right; this was my chance to get my life back. I was going to find a way out from under Kamata's thumb. Sean and I were back together. For the first time in a long time, I didn't feel alone. Things could only get better from here.

AN: So I just realized some of the new snippets I added to my earlier chapters didn't save. Oops. There are some new parts to the next chapter to make up for it.

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