Kai Hiwatari - Hell is where I rest
Spring '17
Where hangs the smoke of hate burns a fiercer fire called fear. Kai loathed Voltaire with all his heart but every thread of that hatred was simply a cloak for the fact that the boy was absolutely terrified of his grandfather. But if fear was fire then the Hiwataris were fire crossers. They were at their strongest when surrounded by tall flames. The deep-rooted criminal organization known as Yakuza with its claws stretching far and wide across the country was an opponent too big for Kai. Once they found out who he was he wouldn't be able to take control of the situation anymore. A number of things could happen. Either they would inform Bryan's uncle of his identity in exchange for more arms or they would contact him personally and cut him down where he stood or they would reach out to his grandfather first. In all cases, Soichiro would find out. Once the Yakuza knew, the situation would most likely be out of Kai's hands.
Ozuma would not keep his mouth shut for long. He needed to act quickly. Kai felt under the weather the day after he received the call from the lowly leader of one of the outermost rings of Yakuza. Even the sight of a crushed Wyatt at the breakfast table couldn't lift his spirits. His mother noticed of course. She never missed things like that. Like the lack of polish in his cheekbones and the slightly dark half-moons under his eyes from having drunk heavily and lost sleep the night before. He'd left the hotel suite early, before the other boys had risen and had the chance to speak to him. He needed time to process. To think. He wasn't in the mood to talk or for anything else.
But Mera failed to have gotten the memo when she followed him to his bedroom shortly after breakfast.
He had been on his bed looking at college brochures when he heard the click of the door opening behind him.
"Do you mind if I come in, darling?" she asked softly, hanging by the doorway.
He turned to look at her face then turned back again to his brochures wordlessly.
Taking his silence as assent she shut the door behind her and came to sit beside him.
"I noticed you didn't eat much this morning. Are you not feeling hungry?" His mother's gentle presence had a tranquilizing effect on him, everything around him seeming to soften and dull in intensity. "Are you stressed about college?" she asked when he didn't respond, his gaze on the undergraduate courses offered by Oxford university. "Your report card came day before yesterday. You did really well in all the subjects. I'm very proud of you. You don't need to worry about college applications, Kai, you can get into any one you want."
"I know" said Kai, hoping she would stop talking about his academics and get the hint that that wasn't what was troubling him. His tone was abrupt and Mera picked up on it, falling quiet for a moment.
"What is it then?" she prodded in a whisper, studying his expression. "I know," she continued after a minute, "that we haven't had many chances to talk recently, what with you being busy with school and your friends, and me focusing more on the Foundation…" The Hiwatari Foundation for children and single mothers was a charity organization started a few months ago by Soichiro to help clean his image and better his standing in society and he'd put Mera in charge of the institution. His mother was actively helping to improve his grandfather's reputation. The mention of the Foundation irked Kai. "But Kai I'm here for you," she said. "I'm always here for you."
"And how has that helped me?" he asked, fingers tightening on the brochure. "What did you ever do for me?"
"What kind of a question is that?" exclaimed Mera, outraged. "Everything I do. I do for you and this family."
Kai stood up, finally turning to face her. "I'm your only son and you failed to protect me from your monster of a father-in-law."
Mera reared back in shock. "Your grandfather may not be a saint, but he never did anything to hurt you. I'm sorry for what you had to witness as a child. It was a horrible thing. No child should ever go through that. But you have to know he never meant to cause you harm. He always protected you. He always wants only the best for you."
"You think- you think that's all he did?" Kai sputtered. "What he put me through? What he put us through?" He threw the brochure on the bed. "He burned my hand, mother. Every single day. He burned my hand and gave me skin grafts so no one would see." He held out the palm he had the seared the skin off last night in front of her face. "You see this? This is what he used to do to me. Every day." Mera stared at the mutilated hand in horror. "Over and over and over because he believed it would make me stronger. A better man. But guess what? All it did was turn me into a masochist."
Tears sprung out of his mother's eyes as she trembled before him. Kai paused, lowering his arm and curling his hand into a fist as he watched her process his words and drown in guilt and pain.
"You have no idea what it was like for us in that summer camp you sent us to. The man you're trying so hard to protect deserves nothing but suffering," he said, looking at her face, then he bent down so he could be level with her eyes when he said the next words: "And I will personally make sure that he gets his."
His ominous words rang between them as he silently rose up. Mera's fingers shook where they hovered near her lips, terrified to move an inch. Her breath escaped in short staccato gasps as he turned away from her and faced the windows overlooking a large rolling expanse of green. He knew his mother was struggling to wrap her head around it. She was finally confronting the true consequences of her ignorance and cowardice.
Some part of him ached to hear her distress. The anguish of his mother. He closed his heart against her cries.
"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?" Mera asked a few minutes later.
"I didn't think it'd do me any good," he replied, facing her once more, his hands folded behind his back. "Telling you about the children he was abusing didn't get me very far, did it?"
She dropped her gaze, gulping as she was unable to meet his eyes. "Why tell me now?"
He wasn't sure why himself. He almost lifted his shoulder in a clueless shrug. May be he wanted her to hurt. May be he wanted her to feel sorry for him. May be he simply wanted her to know the truth. But he didn't say any of that, instead he said, "So you know who to blame when I bring this house down upon our heads." He felt hollow. He walked to the window and looked out at the lawn. "The great House of Fire." Acres upon acres of stone and wood. Opulence and magnificence. One of the most treasured architecture in the country. "The Dom Ognya burnt to ashes." Simply saying the words aloud felt like relief. "You can point your finger at your daddy-in-law when it happens." The mental image was sharp as a knife as he drummed his own fingers on the window sill.
He expected his mother to say something like 'I know you won't do it' in response, make him feel silly, but she was quiet for a long time. She didn't think he was being silly.
"At least put some ointment on it," she said in a tender whisper after a while.
"I did," he said, his back turned to her. "I'm not a fucking idiot."
He was warming to her concern when she asked him again, "Do you want me to patch it up for you?" Honey in her voice. She was concerned for him, a little too concerned. Almost like she was trying to ingratiate herself. His mother, always taking the winning side, wasn't she?
"Get out," he said, quietly, calmly, burning inside. "Get out of my room."
When she left, he pulled out his cell phone and dialled Yuriy. He picked up on the second try. "What?" he barked into his ear, voice hoarse from sleep. "It is way too early in the day for me to be dealing with you."
Kai bit back a retort that rose up his throat and asked if he was alone instead.
"Yeah" he grunted, sobering up a little. "Why?"
"Where are you?"
"I'm in my...room." His voice grew distant for a second like he was shifting around. "What's going on?" he asked, this time perfectly serious.
"I got a call from Ozuma last night," said Kai. "He knows it was us."
There was a beat of silence from Tala's side.
"He's threatening to talk to his superiors," continued Kai. "Apparently they're looking around."
"'Looking around?'" Tala echoed. "The tatted members of the Yakuza are looking around for us? You?" His tone grew more glacial with each second that passed. "What does he want? If he's threatening to talk then he must want something from us. What is it?"
"It doesn't matter what he wants," Kai said adamantly. "We're not going to give him anything."
"Now's not the time to be proud, Kai. If those fuckers find out you killed their men, they'll want your head. May be all of our heads, you owe them four lives."
"May be. May be they'll want to talk first."
"We don't know anything about them...other than the obvious. We can't make deals with rabid dogs."
"They're not rabid dogs-"
"They're never going to give a seventeen year old rich boy a chance."
"We'll see if they won't. But first we need to find out more about them. Yuriy, listen to me. I want you to do something for me. I need you to find out where they live. Ozuma and his men. Can you do that?"
Yuriy's silence was telling. Reluctant. Kai continued to push on regardless, knowing he would do it anyway. "They're constantly seen around our school. They ambushed me once near my home. They are seen around the Ozone a lot too. My guess is the gang's spread around a couple of areas, but all within quick reach of the Ozone, with the exception of the school neighbourhood."
Chances of the Yakuza giving Kai a chance to open his mouth seemed low but he had to at least have a solid guess of what would happen if things were to get out of his hands. He needed a contingency plan and he couldn't come up with one if he had no idea who he was dealing with.
Tala had connections. He liked to know about people, keep tabs on them, it was his way of exercising control in his chaotic world and if Kai was going to figure out the whereabouts of Ozuma and his little gang he needed his help.
In the end Yuriy said, "Give me some time. I'll find out."
Kai and Tala sat in a rental car parked a block away from the three story building they were scoping out.
"They're all living in the same building?" Tala wondered out loud. "What happens when the cops come?"
There were no streetlights around but the moon hung full and bright in the sky, lighting the place up enough. Everyone seemed to be inside at the moment, however. It was 01:47 am.
Kai lowered his binoculars. "The cops are probably working with them."
"These guys?" Tala scoffed, peering out the windshield at the gang's poorly maintained residence.
"No" Kai drawled. "Their bosses. They probably have some deal in place."
All it took was a couple of calls and a map of the city. The boys lived in rich neighbourhoods so for the gang to have made contact with them near Kai's home, a nightclub ten miles away and at the Ozone without losing a lot of gas in the process meant they had to live somewhere in the triangle that joined those three locations. Since the poorer side of the city in the triangle was smaller than the richer one and closer to the Ozone it didn't leave them many options. Finding their location wasn't the hard part. It was waiting for the right moment.
Kai drummed his fingers on the side of the car through the rolled down window, eyes lazily scanning the street.
A lone plastic bag drifted along the road.
"What are we doing for our birthday?" Tala suddenly mused aloud.
"Hmm?"
"Our 17th birthday. We should go big."
Like that was possible. Kai wanted to laugh. "Going to have to reschedule. Move it to next year."
"Why?"
Kai shot him a look. "We're in deep shit and you're asking why?"
Tala tsked. "I don't know. Our moms are going to ask questions. They're probably expecting us to go feral."
Kai gave a light chuckle, gaze falling on the peeling car paint under his fingertips. He picked at it. "Moms" he muttered to himself, then said, "I fought with my mom today." He winced in a breath through his teeth, relaxing against the head rest. "But when do I not?"
"Yeah? What about?"
"Same old shit." Recalling that morning's argument brought his attention back to his hand. There was a bandage wrapped around it now. Tala noticed when he followed his gaze.
"What happened to your hand?"
"Had an accident at the gym."
Tala chuckled. "You drop a weight on yourself or something?"
"Something like that."
01:58 a.m. now. He didn't even have to check the clock on the dash to make sure. He was counting the seconds in his head.
"It's the way she's both blind and aware of everything that goes on around her. Like she's living in this alternate version of reality where everything is perfect and according to her little plan. I showed up with bags under my eyes today morning and the first thing she wondered was if I'm stressed about college. And not if her son was on his way to alcoholism."
"You're not," said Tala.
"I'm not" Kai looked out the window. "But she doesn't know that." The air was slightly humid like it was going to rain soon. "Those are the questions she should be asking. You know? 'Why were you out so late?' 'What were you doing?' Not 'Are you worried about college?' Who do you think you're talking to?
"Gets me mad." He pinched the bridge of his nose and glanced at the clock. It was 02:02.
How long were they going to have to wait?
Just as he wondered this, there was a movement on the backside of the graffitied building. There were no fences around. Just a lot of free space on all sides. There was a closed cafeteria on the ground floor. A littering of flashy bikes and cars parked nearby.
A guy stepped out through one of the backdoors, alone, and stood on the pavement, lighting up a cigarette.
He'd come out for a smoke.
"That's our guy," said Kai, tapping Tala on the arm. "Drive."
"What? Him?"
"Yeah, drive."
The car slunk around the property quietly, staying out of the guy's sightlines as much as possible. But once they were near, sped up to him, screeched to a stop and Kai gagged the man before he had a chance to bring out his gun. Knocking him out with a hard punch to his jaw, confiscating his gun and loading him up in the back of the car.
"Those skills can never be useless," Kai said as he climbed back into the passenger seat, taking a dig at Tala for not joining him in the fighting ring for the umpteenth time and pulling the door shut.
"Keep running your mouth like that and you'll find out how," Tala muttered irked as he drove them away.
The man woke up slowly, drifting back to consciousness, then all at once. He seemed to be in his early twenties, his skin dark and his head clean shaved. He wore clothes that looked like they'd been lived in for a while. Kai had tied his hands behind his back with a zip tie and thrown him on his ass in a building that was under construction.
"Tell us what we need to know and I won't hurt you," said Kai, calling the man's attention to him. He began struggling against his ties then.
"Who the fuck are you kids and what do you want with me?" he asked, looking around the place, noticing Tala leaning against a pole a few feet away, watching as Kai interrogated him.
"Like I said, we have a few questions about your bosses," said Kai, voice even. "Just tell us what you know and we won't hurt you."
"Why would I tell you two pussies anything?" he spat, sneering at them brazenly.
Kai brought out the gun he'd took from the guy and pointed it at him then.
"Do you even know how to use that, pretty boy?"
The hammer clicked as he drew the safety back and lowered the gun till it was aiming at the guy's crotch. "Want to find out?" he asked softly.
He stiffened, tendrils of fear entering his eyes as he finally dropped his tough guy act. "Look, I don't know shit."
"You can make this easy or hard for yourself," said Kai, cutting him off, a warning in his note, then asked again. "Tell us what you know about the men you and Ozuma work for."
"I don't know them like that, man."
Kai knelt down so he was squatting in front of him. "Don't make me hurt you," he said looking into the man's eyes. "I don't want to hurt you. Don't make me." He was being honest if nothing else with that statement.
His pupils shook as he looked at Kai, then glanced over at Tala. "I'm telling you. I don't know anything about our suppliers. You got the wrong guy." Kai stood up and turned away frustrated. The man raised his voice. "It's a tier system, man. It's on need-to-know basis," he said, appealing to Tala that he was speaking the truth. "I'm so far down on their list I've never even seen those guys."
The guy was fretting. He was probably telling the truth. Kai exchanged a look with Tala. He seemed to think the same.
"What about your boss?" asked Kai. "Ozuma. Has he seen them?"
"Yeah. He's the only one who gets to sit in on their meetings."
Kai nodded. "Good. You'll give us him."
"What?"
"You'll help us get your boss and we'll let you go."
The guy appeared to think it through, considering their demand carefully. "It's not going to be easy."
"But you'll do it," said Tala.
The man glanced at him again. He seemed more at ease talking to Tala than with Kai. "Yeah. I'll help you."
"We have your word?"
He nodded. "You have my word."
"How do we know we can trust you?" asked Kai. He lowered to one knee to see the man's face again. "We'll make a plan together," he said slowly. "But if you try something funny. You try anything, I'll pick you right off the street and cave your head in for lying to me. Do you understand?"
The threats worked on the gang banger like magic yet Ozuma wasn't a low-ranked rookie and Kai was no hardened criminal. At the end of the day he felt everything he did. But he was scared and in order to come out on top he was willing to do everything necessary.
In two days, the boys would be celebrating their seventeenth birthday. To make sure it didn't turn into a complete shit show he had to find a way to keep Ozuma's mouth shut tight.
"Ha ha ha!" His laughter echoed eerily in the building. The wind howling through the holes for door and windows didn't help either.
They'd tried everything. Ozuma was as immovable as a wall. Trying to negotiate with him was pointless. He kept goading and jeering and laughing in their faces. At their clothes, at their watches, at their too young and too smooth faces.
Kai leaned next to a wall and observed with silent stormy eyes as Bryan attempted to shake the dude down. He was the best at getting under people's skin. If he couldn't do it...
Tala was pointing a blade at Ozuma. Right beneath his eye, threatening to cut it out. Empty threats. Empty threats were all they were making and Ozuma could see through them.
"Stop" Kai called out when they'd spent hours on this man and gotten nowhere.
"Yeah, listen to your daddy," Ozuma sneered at Tala which earned him a sharp back handed slap across his face.
"Say that again," he hissed.
Sergei grabbed Tala's arm, tugging. "Come on. Leave him be. He's not worth it."
Kai was standing in the balcony adjacent to the room they were keeping Ozuma in, feeling something hard and solid settle within him.
"Just kill the fucker," Tala snarled as he and the boys joined him in the open air. "I've had enough of his shit. Just kill him. Get it over with."
"They won't find out," said Bryan. "He hasn't told anyone yet so if we shack him no one will know."
"Don't say shack," piped Ian.
"No one except the wiener who helped us."
"He's scared shitless of us," said Tala. "He won't talk unless he wants to be next. Kai." A touch at his shoulder. "Get rid of him."
"I will" Kai promised. "But not yet. I need answers. I need to find out more about them. He's more good to us alive than dead right now."
"He is not going to talk to you. Just kill the fucker. Do you want me to do it?"
"No, I'll do it. Give me time till morning." He turned to face the boys. "You guys should head home. It's getting late."
Yuriy's gaze lingered on him observantly as the others shrugged and began to leave. "You'll be okay?" he asked quietly.
Kai gave a nod. "I'll be okay."
Tala put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed before taking the stairs leading to the ground floor as well.
2 DAYS LATER
The garden was filled with people who were dancing, drinking and conversing. Julia's laughter reached Kai's ears as he took another swig of his bottle. Their entire batch was present for the boys' seventeenth birthday. Going big and hardcore in the Valkov summer home on their private island (a wedding gift from Tala's dad to his mom.)
Kai sat on a bench, right in the very middle of the garden and drank booze like it was water.
"Going to have to reschedule."
"You have to kill him."
"I will."
Ozuma was very much alive and the Yakuza wasn't knocking his door down.
They never would.
Kai had solved the problem.
He'd solved the problem and that was all that mattered.
"Can I get a clean glass of water with ice in it? Thank you," Tala said to one of the servers and bent down so he was looking at Kai's face. "I've been watching you for hours and a bottle hasn't left your mouth for longer than five minutes. Do we have a problem?"
Kai ignored him.
Tala took a seat next to him with a sigh.
"You have the gall to side-eye me when I'm smoking and then go do this…" he said, trailing off before clicking his tongue and leaning close to Kai. "What are you trying to forget?" he asked in a furious whisper. "You and I both know you're trying to drink something away. What happened that night between you two?"
"Let it go."
"Ozuma is one tough son of a bitch. There's no way he broke under a few threats. What did you do?"
"It's none of your business."
"It is if I'm going to lose my brother over it."
"I'm not your brother."
Kai stood up and walked away from the bench, towards the house. Tala was hot on his heels. He'd made it two-thirds up the stairs when a hand grabbed his elbow.
"Cheap tricks like that are not going to work on me. You're going to have to come up something worse if you want to be rid of me."
"Let go" said Kai, settling two smouldering eyes on Tala. "I won't ask again."
There was confusion in Yuriy's face. His grip loosened on him. "Tell me what happened," he said quietly, his blue eyes almost pleading. He blinked it away when a girl brushed past them on her way down. "Just talk to me," he said, sterner this time, sliding nearer to Kai so others won't hear.
"There's nothing to talk about." Kai glanced at the contents of his bottle. It was nearly empty. "I'm barely drunk."
"They talk behind your back you know. We all do. Trying to guess what you did to make Ozuma spill. Bitch couldn't keep his mug straight when we were in there with him. Kept goading us for ages. What did you do?"
Kai looked into Tala's clear irises for a moment then handed him the bottle silently and turned on his heel to climb the rest of the way up.
The balcony was cool. Decorated with orchids and chrysanthemums. Scented vines on the trellis below. Kai buried his hands in his hair and inhaled it all. The night air. The pretty flowers.
He felt a hole in his chest for the first time that night. A deep ache for something unknown. And fleeting.
A tap of fingernails on the doorjamb alerted him to the presence of his scorned friend.
He was determined to get it out of him. The events that unfolded a couple days ago.
"Did you hit him?" asked Yuriy. "Beat him up? I don't think that would be very effective on a gangster. You did worse."
"What if I simply talked to him?" Kai brought his face out of his elbows to face the moon, sarcasm on his tongue.
"Impossible. He's too unreasonable to bargain with words."
Kai blinked repeatedly. There was moisture in the breeze. Spring blooms around him. "There was a working generator left on the site," he said, voice low, tone detached. "Cables for setting up supply. I used a couple of those cables and a few hundred volts on him." He touched his thumb to the scab on his palm.
He felt Yuriy fall silent behind him.
A few hundred volts. He could hear his own words repeating in his head, cold, inhumane.
What did you do to him?
I did something worse than killing him. I broke him.
The tattoo artist had a lot of people flocking her in the living room. Kai watched her work from a distance, yet another drink in his hand. This one coloured red and sweetly flavoured and served in a crystal tumbler. Not much alcohol in it. He was going to kill Ian for listening to Tala and bringing him this when he specifically asked for something strong and hard hitting.
"Do you want one?" she paused to ask as she was collecting her things and getting ready to leave.
"No"
"You've been...standing there for a while," she said and smiled, a dimple appearing in her right cheek.
Kai gave her a nod. "I like your work. I might drop by your shop one day."
"But not tonight?"
"Not tonight."
The artist chuckled, lifting her bag onto her shoulder. "See you later then." She handed him her business card.
"See you"
When she was gone he looked at the card and read the address at the bottom before tucking it into his pocket.
He was perched on a table, an electric rod lying on the wood by his side.
"Was that all?"
"I swear" His 's's slurred worse then, having accidentally bitten down on his tongue and caused his mouth to fill with blood.
"You swear..." The blood was making Kai nauseous. The sight of him was making him nauseous. And there was a smell in the air. A slightly singed smell of skin. He'd know that scent anywhere.
His plan was never to get his hands dirty. He wanted to keep it as clean and hassle-free as possible. It was torture, yes. But with minimal damage.
He wrinkled his nose. "Swallow it, will you? You're not bleeding because of me. You bit down on your own tongue, you dumb fuck."
Kai didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for Ozuma. What he predominantly felt now was relief. No one would be finding out about the guns he stole or the men he killed now. Especially not his grandfather. His head had been about ready to blow up with the rampant panicked thoughts running around in his skull before he managed to get Ozuma in a room. And got him to talk. He may have been sacrificing a part of his humanity for it, but better Ozuma suffer than him. Gangbangers were soulless pricks anyway. They deserved to get some of the shit they threw on other people thrown back at them.
"Don't get any on your shirt. You're going to be walking back to your place from here and I'm not going to buy you a clean one."
He thought Ozuma would spit something spiteful towards him again but by that point he'd run out of bravado. He was drained and hanging on by a thread. He did what Kai asked.
When he let him go, he did it with a promise spoken into his ear. "Talk to your bosses about me and I will dig a hole in the ground outside just for you and lock you in there. And you won't be dying for a long, long time." He ripped his ties free then. "I'll make sure of it."
Ozuma swore to keep his mouth shut.
"Why did Voltaire call you today morning?" asked Tala, lazily moving his legs in the water as Kai lounged at the side of the jacuzzi with his face tilted up to the sun. "What did he want?"
"To talk about Harvard," he said.
Julia went 'oh', her lips sealed around a straw, sipping on a custom cocktail made by Ian.
Tala frowned. "None of us are getting into Harvard," he muttered. "Except you."
"I might not get in."
"Why not?"
"He's tanking in extracurriculars," Julia said helpfully. "You're going to need to land high-demand internships and attend seminars and shit the next two years if you want to get in."
"He'll work his butt off," said Bryan, joining them with a drink of his own. "Won't you, Kai?"
"I'm not aiming for Harvard." He righted his head, opening his eyes and looking around. He spotted a full glass of shiny liquid in Bryan's hand and grabbed it. "Why would I listen to that hag?"
Tala's stormy expression cleared. "You're thinking of attending local universities then?"
Bryan snatched the drink from him before he emptied it. Kai leaned back against the edge of the jacuzzi and gave Tala a wan smile. "Something like that."
"I bumped into Drac today," said Tala with renewed energy. "On my way back from the grocery store."
Julia looked clueless. She'd only started hanging out with them recently after sharing the same residence forced her and Tala into calling a truce. "Who's Drac?"
"Boris" said Tala. "Boris, the son of a bitch who-" he cut himself off before he went too far, throwing Kai a glance. "We used to go to his summer camp a few years ago and we hate him. That's all you need to know."
"He's also my grandfather's cousin," added Kai. "Voltaire uses Boris to spy on us."
"That's what the fucker's doing on this island. Goddamn, who allowed him?"
"Where's he staying?" asked Kai.
"In that yellow house a few blocks down," said Tala.
"At least not straight opposite," said Bryan. "He's learned his lesson from last year after I showed him my bits."
"Your...bits?" asked Julia, dainty nose bridge wrinkling.
Bryan stuck a hand in the water and gripped himself through his shorts. "My boys."
"Uugh" Julia gagged.
"Have some decorum," said Sergei as he walked up to them with Ian. "There's a lady in our midst."
"Puke coloured house for a puke-faced bitch," said Ian, sitting down. "Appropriate."
"Close your curtains at night, Jules," said Bryan. "The perv might peek in."
"You're working out?" Tala eyed Kai on the bench press and sighed. "On a holiday. Way to make the rest of us feel like slackers."
He'd heard the argument. Kai had been up since four, having not gotten much sleep and been in the gym since. Julia and Tala had woken around fifteen minutes ago and they'd already had a go at it in the kitchen. It was loud and annoying. Kai had been tempted to throw a dumbbell at their heads.
He knew the question was coming and right on cue, Tala asked, "Why are we hanging out with Julia again?"
"Tone down the jealousy, Yuriy," said Kai, lowering the weight towards himself. "It's not healthy."
"Like you didn't gun down a bunch of men over me."
Tala was in the mood for a fight. Kai wasn't. He rolled his jaw and let the comment slide over him. He sought for a different topic. "You brought a tattooist for our party, remember?"
He was met with silence but he knew he was listening.
"I visited her shop. Turns out Youya is a friend of hers. He set up a meeting for me with his boss. I've agreed to fight in his place for a year."
"Wait-"
"For fifty million dollars. An open-ended agreement."
"What the fuck?" Tala strode over and made Kai put the weight down. "Stop working out for a minute and explain this shit to me. You went where and met whom?"
A phoenix. He wanted a phoenix because every time they burnt down to ashes they rose back up again. Reborn stronger.
Kai got it on the back of his hand. The head of a phoenix. And in delicate Russian lettering along his wrist underneath the creature's figure: Nothing will triumph over me.
It took about a week and he went there every night and two of those times he met Youya there. He was a regular costumer and surprisingly nice off the ring. Youya mentioned to Kai that his former boss didn't let the same person fight for him in the ring once they lost and was looking for a new fighter. When Kai showed his interest he agreed to set up a meeting between the two.
Youya's former boss and Ozuma's top nightmare (if Kai hadn't replaced him) was named the Prison Warden. Prison Warden was a cool guy however. No nonsense and straight to the point. He offered Kai a deal. Fifty-fifty partners not employee and boss. Kai would fight whenever and wherever and against whomever no questions asked. They would both reap the benefits if Kai won and if he managed to win every match conducted over the course of one full year, he'd make upwards of fifty million US dollars.
It was a sweet deal, high stress and risk of death aside. With that amount of money their futures would be secure. He could wriggle free of Soichiro's clutches and rescue his parents out of that house. It was possible. It was all starting to seem possible.
A/N: Um, hi? Is anyone still reading this story? I have a bunch of things to say. Um, there has been...I. Made. A. Huge. Mistake. With Tyson and Kai's ages. Feck. I hadn't calculated their ages taking the Japanese education system into mind at first and so...they're supposed to be 20 and 21 respectively currently. Yeah. So, no one's a teen. They're 20 and 21. And as far as we're all concerned that mistake was never made, am I right? Heh.
Right
What else? The next couple of chapters won't be very crisp with the time. As you can see from this chapter, the scenes are kind of blurred together. That's because my boy's going through a lot. And he's also drinking a lot so...memories are not very sharp for him from that time. That was just a little thing I wanted to point out.
What's more? I haven't seen you guys in a while. If anyone's still reading, don't be shy to say hello. I love getting love and support for my work. Who doesn't? That being said, I can never write unless I really want to. Not until the words are practically begging to be written onto a page/screen. I am blabbing a lot. I actually want to finish Warrior as well. I want to write but I don't have enough energy for it these days. That's the reason why I have been AWOL as well for so long. Couldn't write. Had no passion whatsoever for writing. But for some reason, I have been more creative the last two days so that's great. This is a fun thing to do. looking forward to your reviews! and for future updates as well. Here's hoping I keep finding more passion to write in the upcoming days/weeks. Love you guys. Love you lots. Stay healthy and hydrated. And sexy! MMwah! Bye. See you soon (let's pray)
