Chapter Twenty Three
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. - Psalm 23:4
* * * *
A bell tinkled somewhere in Starlight’s Hall as Yuri pushed the door opened, entering the bar.
As it was mid-afternoon, the bar wasn’t open yet, but Yuri, Tohya and Ren often popped by Starlight’s Hall then, and Mizuki was used to it by now. Apart from Yuri and her friends, there was hardly anyone before its opening hours.
As such, Yuri was surprised when she saw a middle aged man dressed in a semi-casual outfit sitting on one of the swivel chairs at the bar counter, a black jacket draped on the chair beside him, a martini in front of him. The man also wore a pair of frameless glasses on his nose, and he looked like one of the businessmen that Yuri sees everyday on the streets.
Mizuki gave a smile when he saw Yuri, and waved as the girl slipped into one of the chairs at the bar counter. “It’s been some time since I’ve seen you, Yuri,” he said. “Alone this time?”
Yuri nodded. “Ren and Tohya are…busy,” she said warily, glancing at the man sitting two chairs away from her.
How could she say that they were both recuperating from their latest mission in front of both Mizuki and some unknown man? It is already bad enough that Mizuki knew about them, but for reasons unknown, both Riou and the Elder didn’t seem to have any objections that Mizuki knew so much about them.
“I see,” said Mizuki with a smile, and the man glanced at Yuri curiously. “I’ll introduce you. Yuri, this is Tendo Amachi-san, a professor at Tokyo University.” Yuri inclined her head politely to the man, and this gesture was returned. “Amachi-san, this is Yuri. Yuri Yagami. She is one of my regular visitors here.”
Tendo almost choked on his drink at this, and he turned his head so quickly to face Yuri that the girl could have sworn that she almost saw him crick his neck.
“Did you just say ‘Yagami’?” Tendo stared at Yuri with a strange look, and Yuri was rather taken aback.
Sure, there are some people who knew what the Yagami name actually represents in the underworld, but there are only a mere handful of those who knew. And yet, this man seems to know the name ‘Yagami’. And he doesn’t even seem to be of the underworld. Though Yuri knew that looks could be deceiving.
“Y-Yeah?” Mizuki asked uneasily. “This is Yuri Yagami. Is there something wrong, Amachi-san?”
“N-Nothing,” said Tendo, still not taking his eyes off Yuri, and he seemed to be studying every detail of her face, something which made Yuri uneasy. Is he some kind of pervert? “My apologies. But do you know Hitomi Yagami?”
It was those words that caught Yuri’s attention, and this time, she was the one to stare.
“H-How do you know my mother’s name?” asked Yuri with both surprise and shock.
Tendo blinked. “Your mother?” he uttered. He then smiled. “I see. So you’re Hitomi-san’s daughter. I’m sorry for startling you like that, but I was a classmate of your parents when we were in Tokyo University.”
“My parents?” Yuri muttered. She then looked at Tendo with something akin to hope in her eyes. “Can…you tell me more about them?”
“Certainly,” said Tendo with a nod. He then chuckled. “And then again, there really isn’t that much to tell. Both your parents met in college, and they got on like a house on fire.”
“I’ve heard about it a little from my uncle,” muttered Yuri.
“Your uncle?” Tendo muttered before his face brightened. “Oh. Kenji-san? Yeah, I suppose that he would have told you that. Hitomi-san told me that she and her brother never really spoke much during her high school days, but they patched things up when she was in college. And when she introduced your father to Kenji-san, your uncle seemed not to like your father for reasons unknown. Kenji-san had never said why as well.” Tendo looked at Yuri with an odd look. “Don’t you know anything about your parents?”
Yuri shook her head. “My uncle died a few years ago,” she said, not feeling very comfortable saying these things to a complete stranger. “He always had a really angry and sad look on his face whenever I’d asked him about my parents, so I stopped asking completely.”
“I see,” said Tendo with a nod. “Wait a minute.” He then fumbled about in his pocket before withdrawing his wallet and opening it. He then took out a slip of crumpled paper from his wallet and handed it to Yuri. “On it is the address of your mother’s old apartment, she lived there when she was in college. If you want to know more about your parents, you’d best go there. The answer that you’re searching for…is probably there.”
* * * *
Apartment Complex
Aoyama, Tokyo
“Yagami?” grunted the wizened old man who was the landlord of the apartment complex in Aoyama that Tendo had given Yuri the address of, and where she had gone to. “Oh. Hitomi-san? It has been years since anyone has mentioned her.” The old man then studied Yuri intently. “So you’re her daughter? You do look a lot like her.”
“Can I go and take a look at the room that my mother had rented?” Yuri asked politely. “I’ll just be in there for a few minutes. I promise.”
The old man gave a wizened grin which showed off several of his missing teeth, and he then reached into his pocket before handing a silver key with a red tag attached to it to Yuri. “Take as long as you need,” he said. “The room that Hitomi-san had rented is number 406. This building had been slated to be torn down several months after she had moved out, but the government has never gotten around to doing it. Several of her things should still be there. Take as long as you would like.”
Yuri bowed to the old man politely. “Thank you very much.”
Yuri soon found room 406, as the building wasn’t very large to begin with, and Yuri had a rather good sense of direction. She could always find her way about a place even if she had only been to that place once.
The green paint was peeling from the front door of room 406, and the shoe rack placed against the wall beside the door was dusty, like it hadn’t been used in years, which was probably true. Yuri inserted the key that the landlord had given her into the lock of the front door before turning it, and pushing the door open.
Thick layers of dust were everywhere in this one-room apartment which was quite bare to begin with. Apart from the bed in a corner, a coffee table, and a desk set in a corner of the room, there wasn’t much of anything else in here.
Yuri coughed as she entered the apartment, not bothering to take her shoes off as it would have little use anyway, seeing as how even the floor itself had a thick layer of dust covering it. To prevent herself from suffocating in the room, Yuri kept the front door open to allow some fresh air in as she took a quick glance around the room, trying to find anything worthwhile that would tell her more about her parents.
Stolen story; please report.
A photo frame lying face down on the desk in the corner caught Yuri’s attention, and she immediately picked up the photo, dusting away the surface with the sleeve of her coat. A photograph of what seemed to be her mother during her college days was within the frame. A handsome looking man stood next to her mother, his arm around her shoulders, and both were beaming at the camera.
Yuri raised a brow. ‘Is that…my father?’ she wondered. Hitomi Yagami had never kept any photos of her father around the house when she was little, and neither did Kenji. Thus, Yuri had never known what her father had looked like. She then frowned as she studied the picture of her father. ‘He looks strangely familiar…’
Yuri then removed the photo from within the frame before slipping it into her pocket. She glanced around to see if her mother had left anything else behind, and frowning, she tried pulling out the drawer of the desk. The drawer was stiff, due to long years of dis-use, but Yuri managed to open the drawer, only to reveal a bunch of papers along with a few pens and pencils, as well as a metal box.
Yuri frowned as she picked up the metal box. It seems to be one of those boxes that were used as biscuit tins. Yuri then lifted the lid of the box with some difficulty, especially since the box was rusty.
Several envelopes lay in the box, with some of the letters bearing unmarked postages, and some with marked postages. With a quick glance over the writing on those envelopes, Yuri recognised it as her mother’s handwriting.
She then frowned as the blue envelope lying atop all the other envelopes had her name written on it, and it bore a postage stamp that dated back almost ten years. The address on the envelope was that of the dormitory at Hati. Yuri picked up the envelope and turned it over, blowing off the dust that remained on the back of the envelope, and her sharp eyes caught minuscule writing on the back: Niisan, when the time comes, please let Yuri read this.
Yuri frowned before she slipped opened the envelope and drew out the letter within it carefully, unfolding it. The paper had turned a little yellow with age, and the ink had also smudged a little, but it was still legible.
Yuri,
By the time you read this letter, I will probably not be around anymore. Regarding Jessica Kwok and her mother, you have to know the truth and the circumstances surrounding them. Before your father had married me, he was dating Jessica’s mother, and he got her pregnant by mistake.
I was unable to accept that. Perhaps, I was angry that I wasn’t the only woman in his life.
Forgive me for this, Yuri. For not being able to give you a complete family.
The next paragraph of the letter had the ink smudged, making it barely legible, and thus, Yuri moved onto the next paragraph of the letter. Some parts of the letter suggested that her mother had been crying when she penned this letter.
…I was a fool. For generations, the Yagami family had been deeply involved with an underworld secret organisation that exists to protect the order of the world and the peace surrounding it. That organisation is otherwise known as Hati, and it is even rumoured that Hati had been around ever since the founding of Japan.
My father, your grandfather, often told me and your uncle the stories behind Hati’s founding. There were several political strifes back during the founding of Japan, and many political figures were making use of the confusion in order to get more power. But still, those were just tales that have been passed down throughout the ages, so who is to say which is truth, and which is myth?
But still, Hati was formed because of all these problems. Their purpose was to get rid of the ‘diseases’ residing in the world, and to bring peace back to the country. They are an organisation that targets people who couldn’t be punished by the law. To make it short, Hati is an assassination organisation whose existence is kept deeply secret. In the end, Hati isn’t supposed to exist. Only the top ranking government officials of each country were aware of Hati’s existence.
And yet, Japan and the world needed Hati as they kept peace and order in the world.
Your uncle is the last member of the Yagami family to be in Hati. Ever since the Meiji Restoration, and it could even be longer than that, the Yagami family have always been in Hati. Ever since your uncle and I were children, my father had always told us stories about Hati and the jobs that the assassins do there.
I had never liked the idea of people taking the lives of others, but I knew that there will come a time when either I or your uncle would have to reside in Hati as an assassin. But when I was a little girl, that day seemed to be so far off. But when your uncle turned ten, your grandfather enlisted him as an assassin of Hati.
I didn’t want to accept it. That my kind hearted and gentle big brother had became someone who takes the lives of others for a living. The close relationship between myself and your uncle weakened to almost nothing after he had joined Hati. Not long after I entered middle school, my father died.
Your grandmother died when I was barely a year old. And thus, with your grandfather’s death, it fell upon your uncle’s shoulders to bring me up. I was only a child at that time, and I didn’t realise the sacrifices that your uncle made in order to make sure that I grew up in a normal household environment. Or at least, as normal as it could be, with an older brother who was an assassin.
We argued a lot. Your uncle and I. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t just leave Hati and that life. He had never really given me a reason why. It is only now that I understood. The stigma of being a killer will always stay with him.
Once a killer, always a killer.
Furthermore, the Yagami name is relatively well-known among the underworld circle. That is probably the reason why your uncle had never truly left that life. He did it to protect me.
But at that time, I didn’t understand his reasons in doing so.
Then, when I graduated from high school with honours, I moved out. I secured a position in Tokyo University which is where I had met your father. Then, upon graduation, he proposed to me, and we got married not long after that. It wasn’t long after our marriage when we went to Singapore together.
The next few words had ink smudges, making it barely legible, and Yuri moved onto the next legible words of the letter, her hands shaking slightly because of the contents of it.
…I was a fool. I should have listened to your uncle when he tried to warn me about your father. I didn’t listen to his advice. I ignored him. In the end, Big Brother is always right, huh?
In this world, power is everything.
The rest of the contents of the letter had ink smudges, making it barely legible, and Yuri folded the letter up and placed it into her pocket. She then glanced at the metal box and noticed another blue envelope that was addressed to her uncle that was lying atop all the other envelopes, and it bore a postage stamp which had the same date on the envelope as the one that had contained her mother’s letter to her.
Yuri quickly slipped the letter out from the envelope and unfolded it. The first few paragraphs were too smudged to read, and Yuri moved onto the legible parts which wasn’t a lot. The words of the legible parts of the letter practically leapt out at her.
‘…niisan, I’ve made the greatest mistake of my entire life…’
‘…please, niisan. Take it as a plea from me. If Yuri ever go to you, please protect her from him. Even if you have to turn her into something that I’ve hated most, please do it. Please. Please protect her, no matter what.’
Yuri then froze as she read the last legible paragraph of the letter, reading and re-reading what her mother had written to her uncle, hoping that she had read it wrong. Yuri then closed her eyes in despair, the letter slipping from her fingers and falling lightly to the dust covered floor.
Yuri clenched both her hands into fists by her sides, trembling slightly as she did so, the last contents of her mother’s letter to her uncle replaying itself in her head over and over again like a video on fast rewind.
‘Kaa-san, you’ve just created the worst monster that the world has ever seen.’
* * * *
October soon passed into November, and because of the cold weather, every member of Hati had heaters in their dorm rooms to keep warm. It would not be long before they’ll be seeing winter arrive on their doorstep, and Yuri was not looking forward to the bitterly cold weather that winter in Japan always brings.
Raven’s Gate had also been quite quiet ever since the death of Selina’s best friend, and this meant Hati had to be on standby mode, not knowing just what that organisation was up to this time. Ren had also been busy working overtime on his computer on the days when he wasn’t assigned a mission, trying to figure just which company was the financial backer for the Raven’s Gate organisation.
As such, it was on a cold Saturday morning that Yuri roamed about in the streets of Shibuya, both hands stuffed into the pockets of her coat to try to warm herself. Despite wearing a coat, and a jacket beneath it, Yuri was still feeling the bitter cold.
Yuri paused in her step as she passed by a bookstore in the streets of Shibuya, and she turned to look at the shop window of the bookstore. There were several books and novels on display in the shop window, but none of that caught her eye. The book that had actually caught her eye was one that had a photo of the pediment structure of the Old Supreme Court Building of Singapore as the front cover.
Yuri stared at the front cover of the book without moving for several moments.
The pediment structure of the Old Supreme Court of Singapore showed a picture of the Lady Justice or Justitia, the Roman Goddess of Justice whose statue can be found in the courthouses of countries all over the world, besides Singapore’s.
Lady Justice is always depicted with three symbols: a sword symbolising the court’s coercive power, which symbolises the power of Reason and Justice; a set of weighing scales that represents how she weighs the competing claims of each case’s support and opposition; and a blindfold tied around her eyes that indicates impartiality – to indicate that Justice is meted out objectively.
Yuri pinched the bridge of her nose to lessen her headache. Seeing the photo of the pediment structure of the Old Supreme Court of Singapore brought forth some unwanted memories for her.
When Yuri was a child, Hitomi Yagami often took her to the Old Supreme Court building in Singapore just to look at the pediment structure that depicted Lady Justice herself. As a child, Yuri never used to understand why. Why did her mother always take her to this place where criminals are judged for their crimes just to look at the pediment structure that depicted the Lady Justice?
It was only several years later after Yuri had became a Phantom in Hati that she finally understood her mother’s reasoning.
Every single time when Yuri and her mother visited the Old Supreme Court, Hitomi Yagami had always said the same thing to her without fail. She might have phrased it differently back then because Yuri was only a child, but it always came down to the same thing.
Listen Yuri, that statue there is the sculpture of Lady Justice, the embodiment of Justice itself. People may do wrong, but no one has the right to judge them for their sins. Only Lady Justice and those that represents her can do that. Remember this, Yuri. No one can run from the judgment of Lady Justice. Your uncle may not understand that, but at the very least, I want you to understand it.
It was only years later when Yuri had finally understood that her mother repeated this explanation because she didn’t want her to follow her uncle’s path as an assassin. The path of Hati. But back then, unfortunately, she didn’t understand it.
Yuri stared at the book cover showing the Old Supreme Court of Singapore. She had asked her mother back then, “If there truly is Justice, then why do so many criminals still run free?”
Hitomi Yagami had closed her eyes and replied, “Even Justice isn’t infallible.”
And when Yuri had asked what isn’t infallible, her mother had answered her with one word only.
“God.”
Yuri closed her eyes briefly. ‘You’re wrong, kaa-san,’ she thought, not taking her eyes off of the book cover. ‘You’re wrong. Who are they trying to fool when they told us about Justice? This world…there is no Justice in this world! If there truly is a God…then where is He?’