Not even a week after the last incident, Yamazaki got the call for a new mission from Kain. It came alongside the money for babysitting Rock, who looked distressingly a lot like Geese Howard but thrice as vulnerable. Not at all mentally in tune with himself. On the way to the Heinlein hellhole, Yamazaki thought of the wolf brat, thought of the red scratch marks he had put on himself on his way to becoming a shell of a person.

It was a waste of time and energy to be pondering over the mental issues of some random git belonging to another random, annoying git. But that git was here no more so his pet git had been left alone on the path to self-destruction. And it made Yamazaki think – although he should not. But that side of him, that tiny piece of his mind having some affinity for people in similar situations like him to the point of dragging them home and letting them sleep on his couch began to rear its ugly head again.

Or maybe it was just because he couldn't fucking stand Kain Heinlein.

The guy was an insincere, arrogant, maudlin, melodramatic, hypocritical asshole. Compared to Geese, who was at least open and honest about being a cunt. He also knew what fucking fun was. Kain did not and really, there was no point in bringing it up to him because the dumb motherfucker would just talk about how it was all part of his vision.

If Yamazaki bothered to think about it, maybe he could see the sense in it but still disagree rather than just get frustrated and not care to know about it. Fuck it, he thought and went back to think about Rock again because that made him less irritated.

When he'd quit, he wouldn't.

Or hell, maybe he could take the kid with him on the way out. Give cause for some rebellion. It wasn't like Rock believed his uncle's ramblings anyway. If Terry wasn't here to watch over the kid, then Yamazaki could just as well slide in and make an underling out of him. He could take all his severe issues and put them into some good ol' fashioned violence. And that required getting acquainted.

For now, Yamazaki would hear what Kain had for him.

Into the office, he walked with that blonde cunt sitting behind his massive desk much in the same way as Geese. The one difference was that Kain had a pet oaf. What was his name again? Should anyone even give a shit? Naturally, Rock was here too and per usual, looked particularly miserable. He didn't claw at his wrist, but he did hold onto it, standing there all closed off and gloomy.

Shadows pained dark crescents under his red eyes, and he had a blank look on his face much like he did whenever he stood here. At some point, it must have occurred to him that he was being stared at, so he blearily turned his head and scowled then looked at Kain again.

Right.

"We have lured a target into a weapons deal," Kain began, folding his hands over the desk. "I'll need you to handle the process, Yamazaki. Keep them occupied with a weapon's test. And my dear nephew, don't forget to entertain."

Rock was quiet but his breath visibly caught in his throat before he swallowed hard and nodded.

Noticing it, Yamazaki raised his brow a bit and Kain got the message – the wrong message. "I'll pay the deposit now and the rest when the mission is done."

Well, money talked so…

"Think I might go on vacation after this," Yamazaki mused.

"Oh?" Kain tilted his head a bit. "Going back to Geese now?"

"Fuck that," Yamazaki spat and caught Rock flinching in the corner of his eye. "I'm not his bitch."

He had to stop himself from hurling a slur at Kain.

"I suppose your history with him is…suggestive at least. But you might have to be cautious of allying yourself with him again if you go back to business on the mainland. He may have won the last gang war but there are always sharks in the water," the cocksucker explained.

"Yeah well, I'm not about to swim with the lot of you."

Kain leaned back in his chair. "Very well. I'll double your pay. That way, you'll be on the right side for a little longer."

Sure…until Yamazaki would just dip from this stupid island. It wasn't a matter of if anymore but when. This last job would be it.

The trade was to happen a few days after that meeting. The plan was to stall and let the dealers stay for a little while as Kain's men snuck in and kept them all hostage until they surrendered and joined him – or got killed. Sounded promising but Yamazaki had learned the hard way that disappointment was a guarantee when dealing with Kain Heinlein.

So he didn't have high hopes as he drove alone without a convoy on the highway. He wasn't entirely on his own during the drive with Rock sunken in on himself across the console of the car. But the kid could just as well have been a ghost with how much of a wallflower he was, staring blankly out the window into absolute darkness.

Resigned to his fate. So mind-numbly nihilistic to the point where it failed to be believably tragic. And in the middle of it was a puzzle piece that begged the question of why. Fuck it, Yamazaki had to admit that he had grown curious. Not so much about the bloody scratches around his wrists but just everything about him in general. It was crazy how much he looked like Geese. Were they related or something?

Maybe that was why he was here, drawn to illegality. Yamazaki had a feeling that out of the South Town Heroes, Rock had the biggest potential to turn to the dark side. He had to be if he willingly threw himself into the underbelly of crime – ignoring how much it absolutely hurt the poor idiot.

Well, one would have to wait and see how long that internal conflict lasted. One could only imagine what cruelties and moral dubiousness would do to Rock after prolonged exposure. Maybe he'd come to understand that life was nothing but a formless shape of gray with no heroes or villains. Just people on the spectrum of values with the constant drive to survive. Something he lacked in spades.

Eventually, they reached their destination as it rolled to a stop outside a large warehouse. He hopped out with Rock in tow and circled the vehicle for a briefcase in the trunk filled with money for the weapons. They passed black vans and armored jeeps before they entered the warehouse; a dingy building with nothing but dust and grime in it. This place was the spot to be for those wanting to do illegal business; drugs, broking, planning, or doing a murder, what have you.

Already present were a lot of small-time crooks, some gang leaders, and one actual criminal. Laurence Blood, a lackey for Wolfgang Krauser before the Earl lost his marbles and disappeared – as the rumor said. Yamazaki had been in Asia for most of the time but the underworld of crime was like a gossiping forum and he never did business with either Krauser or Blood. Didn't say great things when the latter was here in South Town of all places, dealing with Kain Heinlein.

If anything, it wasn't White. God dammit, only bad things would occur when he was involved. But at the very least, he did deliver when Yamazaki had to do business with him. Far more unsettling was the tall burly man with a blue beard, white face paint, and a scar surrounding his head. An unfamiliar face he was; he and his army of followers all wearing the same paint.

"Ah, Yamazaki. I see you brought the money?" Blood asked, playing around with his sword like it was a toy. Here was to hoping he stabbed himself with it.

"As long as you got the product," Yamazaki gestured with the suitcase. Blood snapped his fingers and some of his goons pushed a few crates forward, using a crowbar to prop one of them open. Indeed, there was a brand-new AMR next to the newest Heckler & Koch. Prime German firearms that anyone would pay a pretty penny for.

In the meantime, the mysterious bearded fellow kept staring at Rock like a dog would stare at its owner's meal. A frown formed on Rock's face as it hit him what he was about to do. He sighed quietly and slowly shuffled his way to the weirdo and his band of creeps.

Watching it from the corner of his eye, Blood gestured to the group with a dismissive roll of his wrist. "Oh, where's my manners? This gentleman is Xanadu. He's a friend of mine and he's been meaning to expand his business."

That didn't sound right. Blood was a moron so that he was smart enough to gather shouldn't be possible. But then again, this Xanadu fellow was a character with a screw loose possibly. Yamazaki had a weird feeling upon looking at him and he wasn't keen on watching Rock get surrounded by aliens with white face paint that guided him down a nearby staircase. That pesky humanity was beginning to rear its ugly head again.

Yamazaki stoved it away and put the briefcase on one of the crates, opening it to reveal Kain's cash, watching how Blood's eyes grew wide. A smart person would outright state that the bull abuser was underselling himself considering experienced dealers would also set a price that covered shipping and smuggling on top of the weapons' value. But then again, Yamazaki was just a courier and he was not about to give financial advice to Laurence fucking Blood.

"Let me have a test run," he offered instead and took one of the AMRs. One goon came to hold the briefcase like a coat hanger. A tall bald fucker with a look of resigned unhappiness on his face. Who was this guy anyway? Didn't he used to be a boxer?

"We do have the ammo. It was with the order," Blood nodded, proud of himself for some reason while Yamazaki aimed at a nearby wall and fired off a few rounds.

Discussions were then had about the gun, its best use, its range, and its scope. It became quite clear that Blood had no idea what he was dealing with although he tried, God bless him, by bullshitting his way everything brought up while Yamazaki began to pine for Heinlein's goons to get their heads out of their asses and get going. Under the incessant chirping in his ear, he listened to noises from the basement and heard nothing.

Momentarily, he made the mistake of closing his eyes and saw it. Saw Rock's body all twisted and broken and violated and bloody and stomach sliced open, fucking dead. Fucked dead. For a moment, Yamazaki's legs felt like jelly. Briefly, his humanity moved about until it was time to test the weight of the firearm.

Fuck. He ought to stop thinking like that.

Blood got curious and took another firearm, taking aim at the wall and firing off a few shots that sent his entire body jiggling from the recoil. What an absolute noob. A complete and utter embarrassment. He proudly proclaimed his accuracy when noises outside stopped him mid-sentence.

One moment passed, then two, then three and a half before a storm of bullets came raining through the high-wall windows. Men swinging in with ropes, guns ablaze. Narrowly avoiding getting hit in the thigh, Yamazaki dived out of the way towards the bald bitch with the briefcase as he was taken out by a bullet between the eyes. He dropped like a crumbling tower, first on his knees then face down with the briefcase trapped under his terrible flesh.

Yamazaki had to pull it out from underneath him while gangbangers and crooks scrambled for guns to fight against Kain's men. And Blood…well the slimy fucker just ran away through the entrance of the warehouse and slipped into the dead of night.

With the briefcase under his arm, Yamazaki sprinted downstairs, nearly jumping the entire length of the stairs and rolling upon impact. He sprang to his feet and saw Xanadu on the floor cradling a still Rock while the rest of his cult knelt around them. Chaos was spiraling upstairs, yet it was as if it didn't face them. But it sure as fuck faced Yamazaki and he wasn't in the mood to stay and watch whatever the hell this was.

He stormed over to the circle, kicking and smacking a few weirdos in the face with the briefcase. Xanadu lifted his head, then tilted it like a child but he wasn't entirely stupid as he realized what was happening. He clenched Rock into his body like the poor kid was like a bag of diamonds, nearly smothering him.

Then opened his big dumb mouth. "He is-"

"Shut the fuck up," Yamazaki spat and grabbed Rock by the arm, pulling him like a ragdoll. With a jitter, he came out of whatever trance he was in and began to flail, twisting and wringing his way to freedom.

He stumbled backward, trying to gain his bearings, shaking his head as he became moderately more aware of his surroundings again. He looked unharmed, just mildly ruffled from getting treated like a pillow. He lifted his head, then stared upwards at Yamazaki, eyes stretched wide as they darted upstairs to the gunfight but never pulled his arm back.

"Listen up, kid," Yamazaki had to raise his voice over the gunfire. "You're coming with me. You're not gonna get used by Heinlein anymore. So you can pay me later."

Something akin to life sparked in Rock's eyes like each word filled his soul with a zest for life. Just for a moment, there was something reminiscent of Terry before it was gone again under a veil of uncertainty.

And despite the chaos upstairs, Xanadu stood up slowly like a massive water buffalo. He kept his head titled, eyes stretched wide in an unrelenting stare that contrasted the calmness of his voice as he spoke. "Protection. I see. A fluctuating current that breeds growth. Repulsion. It sends your heart through a journey, through a flux. Peace in an equilibrium with life. Impossible unless we live in relativity. I am taken by this."

A shiver, just a tiny bit of it, an iota of discomfort, ran down Yamazaki's spine. Just for a blink, just enough for him to identify. It. And he bristled.

"The fuck are you on about, huh?" he jeered, then turned to Rock, tugging him along past the litter of Xanadu's lambs. "Get a load of this asshole."

"I don't think you should mock him. He's not…right," Rock uttered, eyes kept up the strange weirdo as they walked past him. Damn straight, Xanadu wasn't right but what the hell was the issue with mockery?

Yamazaki would get his answer in the worst way.

Footsteps sounded behind him and as he turned around, he saw a mass of a man lunge at him, knocking him to the ground with massive hands pounding on him like a war drum. Xanadu pinned him to the floor under his massive weight. The briefcase went flying across the floor in the chaos as Yamazaki raised his arm to keep his skull intact from the barrage of punches raining over him. If he had but a second, he could reach down to his pocket and stab this ugly motherfucker.

"Eureka!" Xanadu screamed at the top of his lungs, then opened his mouth to scream again when something out of his peripheral caught his attention and he briefly turned his head – seconds before Rock rushed forward and punched him right in the jaw with a glowing fist that sent him flying.

Wasn't that one of Terry's moves?

Some of the peons began to rise from the earlier beating, trying to circle Rock, moments away from jumping him. He raised his arms to the ceiling, then slammed them on the floor with a giant purple geyser of energy surrounding him, spreading like waves as they hit and connected with everything nearby. Yamazaki moved out of range, just narrowly avoiding the tips of it…whatever it was while it went slashing against the walls, creating gashes into the concrete.

He had seen it used by Geese on occasion but never bothered to remember what it even was called. Whatever it was, it winded Rock so much that he nearly fell to his knees, clutching his wrist, the one he tended to scratch at as a purple aura surrounded his hand. Jumping to his feet, Yamazaki snatched the briefcase from the floor, snatched Rock by the arm, and dragged him further into the basement.

Warehouses like these had an emergency exit and with the plan of Yamazaki's hastily set into motion, leaving through the main door was not an option. He had never been the strategic type so what he was doing was quite risky, he came to understand. They stood in front of a set of barred doors by the end of the long, dim hallway. It took a few kicks to break the thing open and they fled into the night.

With nothing but guesswork, they scoured through the darkness until they reached the car that stood parked away from the carnage. Luckily, Kain and his goons had settled for the parking areas by nearby warehouses probably not to arouse suspicion. Yamazaki never stopped to think of what happened to Blood but he didn't give a rip either, unlocking the car and tossing the briefcase onto the backseat.

With the gunfight showing no signs of ending, he ignited the engine, not waiting for Rock to put on his seatbelt. He put the vehicle in reverse and sped off, putting the pedal to the metal. The wheels screeched under the car and the bullet storm ever so slowly faded into echoes in the dark.

After a few miles that were nothing but silence, nothing but adrenaline slowly making its way out of Yamazaki. He let out a faint sigh and did nothing to stop the involuntary smile crossing his face.

"We did it. We fuckin' did it," he snickered. Around six million bucks richer too.

"Did what?" Rock asked like the world was moments away from ending. His voice was shaking and a brief glance at him made him look quite untethered as if he had lost his one lifeline. "What are we gonna do now?"

"…You latched onto the we pretty quickly. I'm a cooler uncle than Kain, right?"

"Don't be a jerk," Rock scoffed and folded into himself on the seat. "…But I must admit though that I…I'd like to forget myself and fly away from it all. Maybe this is it."

Yamazaki skipped right past that sentimental jargon in his answer. "Yeah, well. You can do that now. You can be my right-hand man which is even better. I could use someone to carry my coat."

If it was possible for Rock to physically fold himself like a piece of paper, he would have. Instead, he just held himself together by his arms, looking small and sunken in on himself. It was no wonder his response came out weak and scoffing without a single hint of bite.

"Go fuck yourself and your coat. But…thanks for saving me."

Good thing, he never asked why.