Chapter 91 - Epilogue Volume VI - The 13th Step
Of course, when the gang went their own ways from my house after the announcement of the new bill, Matiro was pretty excited to get his hands dirty. I wonder what other kinds of alcohol these guys have..., he couldn't help but thinking to himself. "I can't believe it... We're actually... free!", he said in excitement. "Dad, now what do we do?!", Karito asked, wearing a look of concern on her face. Matiro wore a look of concentration, trying to think of where his life, as well as Karito's, should go. He hadn't planned this out before, at all, but now he had to. He had a kid he had to feed, after all.
"I... I'm going to be honest... I don't know...", Matiro said with a shrug, beginning to walk in the street. "W-Wait, so... we're just wandering around with no way to go now?!", Karito asked, catching up to him. "*sigh... I don't know, sweetheart. I'm sure someone will help us find something to do...", he replied, waving to all the onlookers gazing at him in awe. "...How long are we going to be walking?", Karito asked, looking at the people staring at them. "It'll be long enough, dear... Long enough...", Matiro replied, shoving his hands in his pockets, walking side-by-side with his daughter.
They walked for about two hours, wandering the city, with Matiro looking for anyone like him, who might like him. Suddenly, he heard a bunch of loud noises coming from around the corner, causing both him and Karito to flinch. *VRRRRRRROOOM* *VRROOOOMM* "What is that, Dad?!", Karito yelled at Matiro over the loud noises. Matiro quickly ran around the corner, finding out what the problem was. There was a bar one building down from where he was, where a large amount of bikers had parked, with some leaving. Matiro gasped at what he saw. He thought they kind of looked... really cool, with their bikes, shades, jackets, and cigarettes. Maybe these guys can help us out..., Matiro thought to himself.
Karito soon caught up to him as he began walking towards the biker gang. "What are you doing?!", she yelled, grabbing some of the biker's attentions. As Matiro walked up to them, the bikers wore expressions of confusion and surprise, seeing two large bunnies walk up to them. Eventually, Matiro approached one, and simply asked: "Hey, you got any smokes?" The biker stood there, facing Matiro with his sunglasses on, for about 10 seconds, trying to absorb what was happening. He looked over to the other bikers, to find them all staring at him, wondering if he was actually going to give cigarettes to an animal. Then, he reached into his front pocket, pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, before handing them to Matiro. Karito watched with a worried look as Matiro said, "Thanks...", before pulling out a cigarette from the pack, sticking it in between his lips, before tossing the lighter aside, snapping his fingers to create a small flame on his right index finger, and using that flame to light the cigarette.
The bikers completely froze up, dropping whatever they were holding on to, trying to let the sight of this bunny smoking a cigarette into their heads. "D-Dad... we should go!", Karito told Matiro, tugging onto his pant leg. "W-Wait a second...", one of the bikers said to Matiro, grabbing his attention. "So... Is that... is that your first... cig?", he asked. Matiro smiled and shrugged his shoulders, replying, "Well... I guess it kinda is. I just saw you guys doing it and thought, 'Hey those guys look cool!'" The biker walked up next to Matiro, wrapping him in a headlock. Karito gasped, thinking for a second that they were attacking Matiro. "This guy right here, brothers! Come on, let's get you something nice and cold...", the biker said, walking Matiro into the bar, with the other bikers following them. Karito breathed a sigh of frustration, before walking into the bar.
After that day, Matiro had quickly gained notoriety in the biker's gang, becoming the frontman in less than a month as he traveled around, sleeping in motels, drinking in bars, and watching football games. You know, biker-type activities. He always stood away from drugs, although, the exact opposite happened when it came to alcohol and tobacco. Matiro often smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, with seemingly no effect on him as time went on. His drinking also gradually escalated, with him first enjoying a cold one every few days, before shortening the timespan, until he had 2 cans a day. Later on, he actually got his hands on his own sweet motorcycle, riding it around with the rest of his biker gang.
Karito always stuck around with her dad. Sure, she wanted to move apart, but she never knew where she would go if she could move along her own ways. Being Matiro's daughter, she also became very well-known in the biker gang, which she still thought was disgusting, but at least she had a place to sleep, food to eat, and protection. She wanted to move along, but she never really knew what she wanted to do... until she got a push in the right direction.
Everything went well for him, until the day Giko disappeared. After discussing with Remi, Matiro stood up from the bar, walking back over to the biker gang. Karito looked back at her father, who was going back to drinking as if nothing ever even happened. This is it, she thought. I can't stand to be around them anymore... She began walking towards the bar doors, opening them as she left the bar. Luckily, Matiro was able to catch a glimpse from the corner of his eye, quickly running out of the bar. "...Oh, boy... Mati's gone off the wagon again!", one of the bikers laughed.
As Matiro opened the bar door, you could hear the drunkards behind him, laughing their lungs out at the most unfunny thing they've heard in their lives. Matiro looked all around, finding Karito down the street, waiting at a crosswalk. "Karito! W-Wait!", He shouted, running over to her. After giving a quick look behind her back, turning back quickly as she realized that it was Matiro running after her. As the crosswalk sign turned white, allowing her to cross, she hastily took the opprutunity, running as fast as she could across the road, forming tears in her eyes as this might be the last time she would ever see Matiro again.
"KARITOO!", Matiro yelled at the top of his lungs, trying to catch up to Karito with all the energy he had, but it was no use. As he watched Karito disappear into the crowd of people, he began to cry, wondering if she'll ever return. Eventually, he slowed his pace to a stop, falling onto his knees as he struggled to conquer this feeling of... desperation. He felt as if his heart had been ripped in two, as the last person who truly loved him was gone... for seemingly forever. As he wept in the street, he suddenly felt a hand on his left shoulder, causing him to flinch. "You know... we... we have an open mic night... tonight. If that would cheer you up, Mati...", he heard the bartender say to him. Matiro stood up, turning around to find the sympathetic bartender comforting him. "Open... mike... night?", Matiro asked, as the bar never hosted an open mic night before since he was there.
Later that night, many people came up on stage and did whatever - Sing kareoke, Dance on stage, perform Magic Tricks... But there was one thing that people did that he didn't know existed, despite him doing this kind of thing all the time: The comedy acts. People walked up onto the stage, telling the worst lines you could ever hope to hear as they were either drunk or directly quoting famous movie jokes. But Matiro was entranced... This was something he felt like he could do, but before, he was always yelled at whenever he told a joke, so he learned to stop himself over time. It took a long while to finally crack Matiro's joke receptors, causing him to stand up from his table, walking up to the stage and taking the microphone. After gulping, he looked at the crowd, who seemed to stare a hole in his brain. "Uh...", he stuttered, thinking of a joke, before getting the right vibe.
"...You know, one day I attended a Costume party wearing nothing but my pants. Many of these guys looked at me all weird or whatever, until one of them asked me what costume I was wearing. I explained to them, 'Oh, I'm a premature ejaculation'" A couple people in the crowd chuckled at the joke, letting Matiro to keep going. "They looked at each other all weird-like, until they asked, 'But why aren't you wearing a shirt? Or shoes? Or... anything else?!' I looked at the dude who asked me that question, and told them, 'I just came in my pants!'", Matiro said into the mic, wearing a smile. As a result of the joke, almost everyone laughed at the joke, thinking it was really funny. Matiro began to form tears in his eyes yet again, as he found something to replace Karito, at least, mostly. Now he found his new way of living his life.
He broke up from the biker gang, taking his bike around New York City, looking for places he could go to tell his jokes. Due to countless stand-up sessions, he very quickly grew popular in New York City, with him gaining enough money to travel around the country, visiting other big cites to tell his jokes. He grew a following rather impressively, with cell-phone videos of his acts generated millions of online views, further increasing his popularity. Teaming up with Iremiya on his off-time, they were able to record several of his sessions using professional equipment, such as expensive camera or microphones, with him appearing on Television, making DVDs, and eacning more money amongst the other rabbits in his family.
It wasn't until he grabbed his hands on a spot on SNL that he decided to stop drinking and smoking, deciding that he had enough of that kind of lifestyle. He put forward the 12-step program with several of his therapists and doctors, and over the course of a year they were able to completely conclude that Matiro was now a sober, drug-free man. Of course, this did very little to his attitude, which was why people liked him so much, anyway. The news of his breakthrough made headlines, as he was the first of his kind to conquer alcohol addiction and tobacco.
To celebrate, he decided to do what any other, sober person would do: He decided to take a walk to the park in NYC the next time he visited. When he reached the park from his fancy hotel room, he found a bench, sitting down as he looked up at the sky, thinking about his daughter. Suddenly, he heard in the distance, someone who sounded quite... familiar... "Dad?! Daad!?" He turned around to see Karito running towards him several hundred meters away. He felt his body become as light as a feather as he stood up, running over to Karito.
You're... you're back..., Matiro thought, forming tears of happiness in his eyes.