Ch. 2: Land of the Lost
(Miki's POV) I heard screaming, gunfire, and chaos. That's Arturo's plan, I guess. I hope he comes soon because I am sticking out like a sore thumb in this place. I feel, from where I am standing, like this a trap to be made. But it never happened; as Arturo is already distracting the police, surprisingly, the people are ignoring me. They saw him being chased by a line of police cars and go back to their business. Do they not care or are they desensitized? I see kids running without a care in the world and right next to them is a shrine surrounding a rotting decapitated head. I have heard about these stories from Arturo when he asked for help. Neither did I expect this or know this. I thought Mexico was like any other nation, but this feels different. I do not know why but I see in these souls around me begging for something miraculous in their lives. For the first time after becoming the Onryo Runner, I had the time to see what makes these people join the chaos. Also, before I was killed, I remembered the chaos that swept my city and radicalized normal people into savages from Satan and the incident at the stadium.
I saw a little kid selling little trinkets ranging from yellow squash-like cups to cutesy decorated flamingos. I went up to this kid and asked her what makes these people here indifferent. I looked into her soul and accidentally I looked at everybody's soul around me. Hundreds of people did unspeakable things: from the elderly to the police to even little children, including the little girl. Yet their souls do not show anything evil about it rather it was survival of the fittest. The mentality for these people are driven to be is that there is no opportunity here, corruption is rampant, and people don't care. There is no unity, no care, and no humanity; there was absolutely nothing. When people are born here, they know from the beginning that they just got unlucky.
My god, this is the land of the lost. I went back to the little girl and asked her again what makes these people do these insufferable actions. First I asked her name: she was Pandora and she also asked mine's. Pandora's only answer was that there is nothing to lose here. For example, she pointed at a well-groomed button-up businessman with a briefcase on the roof of a café. He looked rich but was in serious distress. According to her, the man was shouting something about life not being perfect while carrying a knife but his tone had no remorse. A cat walks across the man and quickly he picks up the cat and eats it before he slashes his throat. The body tumbles down the metallic roof before crashing down on a park bench. The briefcase opens upon impact and papers fly across the street and viaduct. A paper landed on my feet and I picked it up. I asked Pandora to translate this paper and she says that the businessman was laid off because for no reason. Next to the fallen papers are newspapers describing and detailing the life and death of a victim killed by gangs, police, or whatnot. Again, the people did not bother to cry for help and simply carried on. The morgue stood by on sight just in case if there was any "rubbish" left. Then she pointed the crowd walking below, not looking up. What I saw in front of me wasn't that people are just inherently evil rather they are just driven towards it. They do not need some leader or god to drive them into madness; they need themselves to do that.
The gangs she told me were brutal but play a little role in making people evil. Survival is the main culprit in making people evil. Pandora even told me upfront about one incident that involved her brutally beating up her sibling. She had no remorse when she talked about it but given that everyone was poor around her, she had this mentality that since they are going to live and die poor, she might as well need something to satisfy this dim situation.
I could have punished everyone in this radius including Pandora the one I talked to but I could not do it because everyone is for himself or herself. Is it wrong or right to punish them? I thought that everyone was evil for a reason but what happens when everyone around them is evil but are forced to by their own will. For the first time since my death and resurrection, I cried. I lost my balance when I started to cry and gave the girl some pesos before I left. I grabbed a chair and sat down in a dark alley, crying, pondering, and questioning who or what could do to these people. This plan did not need to be conducted by Satan or some corrupt government; this was humanity at its lowest. When my head was on a pike, my soul cried and my eyes looked towards Akira-kun. I saw his tears pouring down for me, Furoda, Wamu, and other innocents caught in the fray. There was something that needed to be done.
Pandora came back and said if I was OK. I was shocked by her kindness and even more stunned when she gave me the money back. She said to me that for the first time in her life, she finally thought about how precious life is and feels sorry for her sibling she beat up. She then said that my soul was something to be reckoned with and that I can change something in this land for better not only for her but everyone around here. When we talked, I looked into her soul and heard her say, "Imagine millions of people here waking up one day and notice something extraordinary good, something not bad, not corrupt, not evil; just something good. I want to see happiness and confidence here." Yeah, I wish for something like that.
I was touched by that Pandora's statement and before I could give her thanks she already was gone. I don't know who she is but after meeting her, there was something that needed to be reckoned with. Maybe instead of punishing people based on their deeds and avoid people repeating the same mistakes from the past, maybe we can change something that people can look up to. Give them hope. I am glad I was offered the opportunity to meet Arturo otherwise I am stuck here punishing people always assuming that they're evil after looking into their souls.
"Miki," a voice whispered.
"Who's that?" said as she wandered through the open-air market.
"Miki." The voice said again.
"Who are you?"
"I am you."
"Can't be," she grabbed a butcher knife from the meat stall, "You're not real. Physically and mentally." She holds tight of the butcher knife.
"We know. But let me ask you this: is this your conclusion?"
"Conclusion? No, no, no, no, no! This is not 'we'-"
"Yes we are! Stop ignoring yourself!"
"What do you want?" she screamed before hiding herself away from the crowd behind the shadow of the stalls.
"I do not want anything. I want you to recognize yourself." The voice faded away.
"Hello? Hello? Fuck!" she said before throwing the knife at a wall. Makimura slid down against the beer crates, crying and panting heavily. She was lost in the market of thoughts, screams, and food. What the hell happened to me, she said to herself. Realizing that she was alone, she walked out of the market before squinting her eyes at the hot browned sun. She looked left and right before going away from this place and the girl. "Makimura, where are you?" Arturo said with the sirens blaring behind the background.
"Sorry?"
"¿Dónde estás? Where are you?"
"At the -uh," she looked around and looked at the sign, "at the Mercado del Libre."
"¡Mierda! I told you to wait at the hotel! OK, stay there I'm coming!" The motorcycle revving sound faded away before the call went out. She waited outside at the market waiting for Arturo to get her.
The little girl looks at Makimura from the distance before hiding herself away in some burnt out building. It was a former school that was destroyed by a gang-related arson attack. She ran through the former hallways before reaching the auditorium. The auditorium is packed full of armed gangsters, corrupt federal, municipal, and city police officers, and some marines and Special Forces soldiers in the mix. She looks left and runs towards the stage in the middle. On the stage, there was a man in the chair hidden behind the burnt vermillion curtains with the heading that says, "Learn to think and act for themselves and be free." She passes through the army of men in black, kneels one knee down and says to the man in the chair. She spoke, "Señor, I have brought you a gift for you like I promised."
"What gift you speak of?"
"It's a woman."
"¿Una mujer?" (A woman?)
"Sí, una mujer."
"¿Su nombre?"
"Makimura."
"Gracias, my little girl. You can leave now and I will give you money and food as I promised. Come here once a week and so you can reap your reward. It's my promise to you, Pandora." The man snapped his fingers and a man in black gave the little girl two backpacks: one was filled with a month's supply of food, the other was filled with the money of twenty years salary for a Mexican worker. She grabbed the backpacks and run away.
"Señor," said the man in black, "why did you need this girl, Pandora?"
"Because this little girl can help us later on to find Akira. His girlfriend, Makimura, is here and others like her friends and family are out there, plotting to kill me," the man continued with a sarcastic tone, "It's not like death will be inevitable."
"I see," the man in black said, "Why death? You're not dead."
The man comes out of the shadow, with his white bowl cut haircut, black suit, and a white tie, and a cane with the numbers, 666. He finishes it off, "Death is something I cannot live to repeat again for countless of times."
The man in the chair spoke again, "I understand that you're confused, but you don't know death yet."
The man in black left the scene. There was silence in the room and the man stood up and spoke in a loud volume to a crowd in front of him, "Find Makimura and tell her that Satan is here for you." Satan left the stage and went to his white Bentley parked outside of the burnt building, "Coming for you Devilman, especially you Makimura-san." He drove away.
She left the auditorium before returning to outside. Carrying her two backpacks, she walked with tears in her eyes and uttered in shame, I am sorry.