I have to admit, the structure of human societies still confused me. I learned from one of their books ‘Utopia’ that humans had long considered various ways in which their society could be made better, without suffering or poverty, starvation or disease, without want or people lording cruelly over others. Of course the word Utopia means ‘Nowhere’ so whether or not the author believed his vision was impossible, or whether he just meant his story was fictional, I couldn’t say.

Part of why this confused me is because most of the Universe was pretty quiet. There was no interstellar warfare at least. And because there was no need for ships of war, some civilizations expanded peacefully beyond their own worlds, colonizing moons, planets, even large asteroids. They even colonized space itself with roving fleets that grew over time, but which were completely unarmed save for sufficient protection against random stellar debris.

Thus more peaceful societies could create these more ‘utopian’ visions of existence with no need for a military force beyond keeping order at home.

This didn’t mean they were all ideal, some planets became dictatorial and oppressive nightmares, I’d visited a number of those, scouting before taking out a target.

Those societies all had one thing in common, bloated military budgets, they enriched the soldiers and despised the rest, and that was that.

I took pleasure in my work, removing life from those who decided one world was not enough, and more than once I wished we could target those who didn’t have galactic war ambitions. But that was against the rules, as long as it stayed to their own world, we would not interfere. They could trade, they could bargain, but if a blaster left their planet, their leadership would die. Thus most dictatorships secured themselves by limiting their ambitions.

What made human want distinct is their general disunity as a species, and the tendency toward a more stratified society. So the idea that a ‘few’ members of the community could be left starving while everybody else ate, was strange to me. So strange that it didn’t occur to me that the one doing my laundry right about now, might be left without enough to eat.

I still hadn’t forgiven him for what he did to Jin. But as I sat and watched the credits roll, I couldn’t help but think, ‘He’s making more sense, now.’

Asahi returned right around when I expected, though he was still wiping away a bloody nose, so I looked at him with a smirk and said simply, “Hentai.”

Asahi’s face turned red again but all he said was, “Uh, the laundry is done.”

“Good, just toss the bag in there and then…” I looked over the end of the couch at the clutter on the table in the kitchen, “Yeah, you’ll need to clear that off and then take out the trash.” I said, and then checked my phone.

“Right…” He mumbled, I could see he wasn’t happy about this, the way he hung his head, but he sullenly did as I said. Which was good, because not two minutes after he was returning from disposing of my trash, the pizzas arrived.

He stared dumb and wide eyed at the four square boxes and the three long boxes on top of that which held the side items I wanted. The two delivery boys gave polite little half bows as I accepted the stack and carried them to the table.

“Right, so, Asahi, you hungry or what?” I asked, and his stomach growled again.

“Wait, you’re… I can’t pay for this…” He looked with eyes like dinner plates at the feast, and he deeply inhaled to catch the scent of it all.

I shrugged. “You’re here, I have food. I may be what you call ‘gaijin’ but that doesn’t mean I’ve got no manners. You did what you needed to do and now it’s time to eat. I’m not going to shove pizza in your face hole,” I said and tapped the top box several times with the palm of my hand to beckon him over while putting my other hand on my hip, “but if you want to eat, get a paper plate, sit down, and eat.”

I opened the side dishes, mostly wings, bread sticks, cheesy things… then opened the pizza boxes.

Since I’d ordered from two places I had quite a variety, and far more than I needed. I said I felt guilty about maybe being hard on a hungry kid, even if I still think he sort of deserved it. But even so, kicking people while they’re down just isn’t my style.

I wouldn’t apologize, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make it up to him, at least a little.

Asahi moved faster than I thought once his decision was made and he’d given in to his hunger, “As much as I want? Or…?” I nodded.

“I guess my eyes were bigger than my stomach on this one.” I smiled a little, “I ordered way too much. What we don’t finish, why don’t you take home?”

“Waght… far youf ferious?” He had a slice of pizza halfway into his face hole when he said that, so it came out very muffled and he tore a piece free, chewed, swallowed, and repeated himself.

“Are you serious?” He asked, his eyes had gone almost wild, like a hungry dog. “Like… you’re not making fun of me? You’re not going to like, make me beg or anything?”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

I chewed my cheesy stick that I’d coated in marinara sauce and glowered over top of it at him until I could finish chewing and swallowing as well, then answered him. “What do I look like, a devil?”

“No… no, I guess not, but…” Asahi, “I just… you said you knew what I did to Jin, so I figured you’d want to get even.”

“I already did.” I answered. Of course I meant giving him a sound thrashing. But he probably thought I meant having him clean up my place and do my laundry.

But that was just a bonus on account of I hate chores.

“So, why’d you do it, anyway?” I asked. I had no hesitation about ‘painting’, but I won’t pretend I was never curious about people who did or wanted to do terrible things to guiltless people.

He tapped his hand on the pizza box. “Money for food. For laundry. For the public baths, for me, my cousins, and my parents, of course. A few punches and we’re covered for a few days.”

“Why not get a job?” I asked.

Asahi looked down at the plate. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean, you can’t?” I asked.

“What I said.” His hands were on the table and formed into angry fists, he glared down at the half eaten slice of pizza like it had insulted his mother.

“Your legs work. We know your hands work. Your brain works. So, what’s the problem?” I demanded, “Why’d you go and try to steal, or smack around a nice kid like Jin, or anyone else to get money, instead of getting real work?”

Maybe it was because he felt some actual guilt over the stuff he did, maybe it was because I implied he was even worse than he was, maybe he was just angry.

But whatever the reason, he snapped.

“We’re not allowed to have after school jobs unless it’s a family business! My dad’s got no business, my mom is sick all the time, and my cousins are… are different. They live with us because their parents are dead… accident… now they’re… simple. I have to mind them or they’ll get in trouble… there’s not enough to go around…” He glared at me, “Do you think I like that?! Alright, sure, it feels good to have some power and feel stronger than everybody else! But damn it, who can feel proud of having nothing but problems?! I can’t get a job or I get expelled! Dad spends his time… away, and mom barely gets out of bed! I hate my life! I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! What else is there for me to do?! Beg?! Isn’t it better to be a wolf than a leech?! At least I can have some pride in being kind of strong… now I’ve got nothing! I hate it all!” He screamed and smashed his fists on my table again and again and again.

“At least Jin gets to eat! He’s not going to starve because he actually has a store! He’s got a business! His mom is…”

“Dying.” I said, cutting him off.

He shut up.

I doubted he’d let any of that loose on purpose and I very much doubt he’d ever intended to. I’d normally credit my natural swapper charisma for that, but really I think it’s more that he just never got privacy to let any of it out and once he started? Well he’s a kid still, he didn’t know how to hold it back.

But hearing that his target’s mother was sick seemed to have brought him up short.

“She’s… really? You’re not kidding?” He asked, and I shook my head. “So… I smacked around a kid with one dead parent and one dying one…?” His lower lip began to quiver.

“Why am I such shit?!” He began to blubber at the table as the enormity of what he’d done began to settle in over him, “Why? I didn’t know… I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry. I’m sorry, okay?”

I got the distinct feeling he was underselling his own mother’s condition and probably what his own father was doing for ‘work’.

“I’m not the one you did anything to.” I pointed out. “Listen, maybe she won’t die, things can turn around in an instant, you know? And alright, so…” I picked up another slice and began to devour the rich, greasy deliciousness, I especially loved the little spicy red flakes. They added a stellar kick to the food, and when I’d finished the slice down to the curved crust I leveled the bread at him while I said…

“Listen, tell you what, you layoff picking on anyone or stealing, and do some stuff for me. It won’t technically be a job. You just ‘happen’ to do my laundry when you’re doing yours. You just ‘happen’ to take away my leftovers after clearing out my kitchen. And of course when you’re cleaning up, if you ‘happen’ to just find money in the couch cushions, finders keepers. Sound fair?”

“You’d… do that?” Asahi asked, sniffling a little as he little by little gained some control over himself again.

“Yeah,” I gave a flippant wave, “why not. I hate chores. With the burning fire of a thousand suns do I hate them. Plus I always end up ordering more food than I mean to, it’d be a shame to let it go to waste.”

“I… yeah, yeah I’ll do it. I’ll come by every day, I swear!” Asahi said with a rapidfire nod of his head.

“Good, so… go ahead and eat whatever else you want, then take the rest with you. Except for my chicken wings, I will murder you if you try to take my chicken wings.” I said and brought that one box close to my chest as if I were protecting a baby.

I cracked a smile, just a little, and he managed to let out a feeble laugh. “Use the bathroom to wash your face before you go. And I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After he was gone I made a mental note to take money out of the ATM in the store. I'd need to start making a habit of ‘losing’ money in the couch after all.