Kazin

Kala and I manage to drag Baku into the lift as Ganzama press the button for ‘B1’. The elevator makes a couple of stops on the way down, but each time, Kala and Ganzama intimidate the potential passengers with a look and a wave of their hand. I stand meekly in the corner, trying my best to conceal Baku’s body with my own.

When we arrive at the basement, four of Ganzama’s soldiers and four of ours are already waiting for us. They haul Baku off the floor, where Ganzama leads us through the dark corridor into a small room at the end. When we shuffle inside, I see that the walls are of wavy polycarbonate—soundproofed—and I am assailed by flashbacks to my time with Baku and Taiki. Nausea overwhelms my senses, but I try my best to tame it. I don’t want to appear weak before Ganzama and Kala, especially on my first assignment with them.

Kala remains without and takes one of her soldiers aside. “Tell the others to get inside. Bar the doors. No one comes in. No one leaves.”

The soldier nods and bolts away to carry out her command. When Kala has entered the room, I close the door.

Kala wakes Baku with a blast of electricity to his chest with her crackler.

“Wake up, Kargu bitch,” Kala says. She adds a slap to his face for good measure.

Baku wakes up, vomits to the side, and lifts his gaze at Kala. He smiles, then spits into her face. She slaps him on the other cheek for the insolence. Deep down, I know he probably likes it, because I remember that he needs everything to be symmetrical.

“Well, looks like you’ve bested me,” Baku groans with a chuckle. “I’m beat. You can leave now. Leave me to my woes.”

Ganzama limps to Kala’s side. “Where’s Riko?”

Baku looks up at Ganzama, his eyes wells of contempt. His augmented eye is still blinking weakly from the aftershocks of Kala’s crackler strike. “That’s the problem with you Yamda. You care too much about your people.”

“They’re our affiliated businesses,” Kala says. “Of course, we care about their wellbeing.”

“Oh, Ganzama here cared for more than their wellbeing,” Baku says. When Kala looks at him, her expression one of bafflement, Baku roars in laughter. “Oh, you don’t know! Ganzama, you were doing all that behind the clan’s back?”

Kala rounds on Ganzama. “What’s he mean?”

Ganzama returns Kala’s anger with an unflinching gaze. “I gave my businesses a discount on protection fees.” There is not a hint of guilt in his tone.

“Why?”

“The Kargu were demanding payment from them as well,” Ganzama says, grimacing. “They were destroying property, leaving workers beaten when they were off our territories, threatening them at their homes. Our businesses had no means to pay both clans, especially because of the new taxes levied on VR by Vermeta Corporation.”

Kala crosses her arms. I can sense the anger simmering in the undertones of her voice. “You should have gone to the Commander with your concerns, rather than taking matters into your own hands.”

“I didn’t want to risk all-out war,” Ganzama says. “Our protection meant shit-all for how much the Kargu were riling things up. I thought it better we give them a discount, and offer what protection we could."

"Yes, but then we look weak," Kala seethes. "We've already lost so much territory to the Kargu in recent years—we can't give them leeway with the holdings we have. If the Kargu were encroaching in such ways, those are reasons for war."

Ganzama scowls. "The constables are lenient to the Kargu, hard on our members. They’re never there when the Kargu are causing a scene, but they show up in minutes when we take action. I could do nothing. Even the Commander could do nothing, even if he so wished."

Kala rubs her forehead. “Alright. We have officially declared war, so the Constabulary should remain out of our conflict henceforth. The Commander made sure. We will fix this tonight.”

I look at Ganzama with renewed perspective. He was not keeping secrets from us during the meeting, as I had suspected—rather, it was his reluctance to appear weak before our one hundred Joryoku for showing a kindness he shouldn’t have.

Baku smirks, regaining our attention.

“Tell us where you took Riko,” Kala says to Baku. “And we’ll let you live.” I have a feeling that's a lie.

Baku spits on the ground. “Screw that. I’m not scared of dying. You have no idea.”

Kala leans in close. “Maybe we’ll let Kazin here get his first notch. Would you like that?”

Baku scowls at me, but then gives me a cruel smile. “That’s poetic. Let the kid have me. I’ll tell his dad hello for him.”

A hot rage boils in my veins. I take a step closer to Baku, then falter. I am not like him. I do not, will not, kill in cold blood.

Suddenly there is a frantic knock at the door. We all turn. When one of our soldiers opens it, we find one of Ganzama’s men outside. His cheek is bruised, his eye a pulp, and he is leaning against the wall.

“Captain, we got company,” he groans, clutching his side. Blood trickles down his face in many branches and drips onto the floor.

“So now it begins!” Baku screams at the top of his lungs. “Goodbye, Yamda. It’s time you scram from Tobashinta District!”

“Where?” Ganzama says, limping forward.

“They hit us from the rear entrance,” the man rasps. “Damn Kargu had a key.”

Kala curses. “How many?”

“Maybe fifty. It’s a strike team. I think they’re here to save him.” The man nods weakly towards Baku.

“You eight stay here,” Ganzama commands the soldiers. He beckons to Kala and me. “We’re going up.”

Kala and I run to the lift as Ganzama limps after us, and we hurriedly press the buttons. When the doors ding on the first floor and then open, it is a scene of chaos. There are hostesses crying and cringing in the corner. The more heroic hosts are on their knees, attempting to shield their coworkers from the violence—others are whimpering behind pieces of furniture. Kargu and Yamda are fighting to kill. Lights flash and blink throughout the grounds as bioCharged blows smash walls and shatter glass. Screams fill the air, spiced with curses and cries of anguish.

Ganzama smashes his fists and bellows into the air as he limps out of the lift.

“With me, Kazin!” Kala tosses me a flameSword. She reaches behind her neck and presses into a panel there. “Inhibitors off! Show me what you got!”

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I don’t have much time to think. I mimic Kala and press into my spinalChip to turn off my inhibitor. I flip the switch of the flameSword hilt. The golden blade roars from it like a writhing dragon called to wrath. I step over bodies that are littering the lobby. Some are moving, some are dismembered, others will never rise again. A Kargu rushes at me, his fist flashing red. I swing up and sever his arm at the elbow. Blood sprays from a stump of muscle and wiring. He tries one last time to take me down with a backfist with his remaining hand—I duck and cut in a sideways arc to make sure he won’t swing at me again.

Kala is something mad with her twin cracklers. Kargu are smoldering left and right. Five of them pounce at her simultaneously from all directions—Kala takes two out before they reach her. The other three are nearing, but I have bioEnhancements too.

I charge my legs and vault forward. I slice my blade against one of their chests—it doesn’t cut fully, but it cuts deep enough into his bioEnhanced chest to pass through the metal to make him bleed. One of the Kargu takes Kala down in a tackle. I whirl around and swing blindly at the remaining one, and I leave him with a smoldering hole where he used to have a glowing green eye. He stumbles back screaming, his hand over his face. I hammer down onto the back of his head with a charged hammerfist, and smash the bastard’s face and send it plunging towards the ground to decorate the marble flooring.

I am now a vessel to my bloodlust and adrenaline. The first few victories have left me feeling invincible. I spot Kala struggling with the remaining Kargu fighter. He is on top of her, trying to get at her throat with a plasmaKnife. I drop my flameSword, haul him to his feet, and throw him up with all the charge I can muster in my arms. He smashes into the ceiling, and the cracks spiderweb around him and his surprised face. Before he falls, I leap up with all I have and sink my fists into his chest. I feel the plates and bones give way. He releases a torrent of bloody vomit, and we both fall to the ground—him on his face, me on my feet.

“Well hot damn, grunt,” Kala groans as she climbs onto her feet. “They gave you quite the augmentation, didn’t they?”

I look around me. The lobby is mostly taken care of. Bodies are tangled all across the grounds, but the ones who remain standing are our members of Yamda.

A chorus of screams echoes from the grand atrium beyond the lobby.

“Let’s go,” Kala says. She looks for Ganzama but finds that he is already limping towards the door. His arms are bare, streaked with blood that isn’t his.

I pick up my flameSword, and Kala and I rush into the atrium. The scene is absolute chaos. The Yamda have the upper hand—barely.

The Kargu are strong. They are strong, and they are cruel. The ones who have photonBlasters are shooting at our guys with green beamShot. Of course they don’t care. They have Commissioner Akato on their side. He’ll make sure they are not investigated for weaponsHacking. He’ll probably pin it on the Yamda.

I feel the adrenaline coming down. I begin to feel scared again. Weak. Remorse begins to eat at me for what I did to the Kargu back in the lobby. But again, I don’t have too much time to think. Kargu soldiers rush at us left and right. These soldiers are dressed plainly in polycarbonate armor. It shows that they came here with the intent to battle. They have flameSwords and cracklers in hand. Kala takes some on, as do I. Ganzama has picked up a dead Kargu’s flameSword and flashes the blue blade this way and that, but he is struggling. I make my way to him, and we stand back-to-back, deflecting blows, trying to take out the Kargu soldiers who dare to approach us. I’m starting to feel the pressure of combat.

One fighter swings at me with his flameSword in a blue arc. I parry, then counter. He takes a step back, and that's all the opportunity I need. I sink my blade through his side. I don't have time to finish him off, however. Another Kargu swings at my head with a crackler. I can hear the angry sparks of electricity snapping in my ears as I duck below it. I unsheathe my blade from the first fighter’s side and charge my legs to vault into my second attacker’s stomach with my shoulder. We sprawl over fifteen feet from where we were standing before. I stand to face my opponent. Before I can finish him off, red beamShot takes him at the temple and bursts his eyes from his head.

As he crumples to the ground, I turn back to where Ganzama is standing. He is surrounded by four enemies, and he is quickly losing ground, due to his bad leg. I hurl my flameSword with a charged throw, and my blade impales one of the Kargu's legs. I rush towards them, snatching up a crackler on the way. I switch it on, my arm trembles from the gathering energy, and the power of blue lightning feels as if it is a part of me.

Suddenly there is a shout from the stairs, and we are reinforced by Kala’s soldiers who were clearing out the back and side entrances of the remaining Kargu. The battle is quick work after that. And as suddenly as it had begun, the brawl is over.

The Kargu prisoners are led against the corner, while their dead are piled into a heap. Our soldiers are escorting the weeping hosts and hostesses to their rooms. Traumatized guests cower in corners, afraid of anything Joryoku, understandably. Eleven Kargu were killed, and twenty of our members. I am shocked at the disparity, though we had the upper hand in numbers. Kala reminds me that the Kargu were using green beamShot.

She leaves me soon after to coordinate medEvacs for our wounded, back to the warehouse we had come from, where healers and technicians are waiting.

I find myself sitting against the wall, attempting to stomach what had happened. My adrenaline rush has dissipated. It has left exhaustion in its wake, leaving me in a state where I feel like I am knocking on death’s door. I am not even trying to mentally process what I just forged through. It would be too much for me to handle. I only want to remain in the silence offered by buring my head in my arms.

Ganzama sinks down beside me. He places a heavy hand on my shoulder.

“Well done, kid.”

I nod in thanks. I make a sound akin to a burp, but it is actually nausea working its way up my throat.

Ganzama draws a bottle of water from his pocket and hands it to me. I drink it wolfishly.

“That usually happens after the first fight,” Ganzama says. “You’ll get used to it.”

I nod. “What,” I splutter. “What about Riko?”

“We’ll find him,” Ganzama says, scowling. “We’ll interrogate some of these prisoners, and we’ll find out. The problem now is keeping the Constabulary off our asses. Not for the Joryoku dead—we've already alerted them of our war—but from any potential repercussions due to civilians. We might have to pay some bribes out to these customers and workers in return for their silence.” He runs a hand through his frazzled hair. "Not to mention property damage, and Riko's in a tough enough spot as it is."

"Right," I say, and drink the water again.

Ganzama glances over at me. “You make any kills, kid?”

I swallow, feeling sick to my stomach. “Maybe one.”

Ganzama staggers onto his feet, and forces me to stand as well. “Come on. Let me show you something.”

Kala watches the both of us leave as she speaks to one of her lieutenants.

Ganzama leads me to the Kargu fighter that I smashed against the ceiling. I nearly vomit while looking upon his mangled face and body. Did I do that? I gaze at his face. I don’t even recognize it—it looks barely human. I did that to someone I had no connection to, someone who was not deserving of my anger. He is not Sangsum. He is not Akato. He is not Gato. What was he? My head starts spinning because it feels so light. Ganzama takes me by the shoulder to steady me.

“I heard you were curious about these notches,” Ganzama says, pointing to his collarbone.

I gulp. “Yeah.”

He kneels, and gently pulls me down with him. “This is how you get these.” He flips the Kargu over onto his face. That makes it a little easier for me. There is a steel plate on the back of his neck near the top of the spine. Ganzama smashes it with a bioCharged punch and cracks the metal open. When he removes the pieces, there is a bright, white chip within, different in appearance from my spinalChip. He pulls it out and hands it to me.

“Put it into your own collarbone plate,” he instructs me.

I stare at him, aghast. “You’re kidding.”

He shakes his head. “For each clanmember we take, we add their nerveChip to our bodies. We do not take lives lightly. It signifies the weight that we now carry. To some it may be an emblem of pride, a testament to their strength. What it means to you, is up to you to decide.”

I am not sure what it means to me, but I realize now it means that Ganzama has sent over one hundred Joryoku members to the grave.

When I hesitate to do it myself, Ganzama takes the chip from me and presses it into a small slot on my collarbone plate. I feel a torrent of shame and sadness, but on top of that, to my surprise, perhaps I feel a bit of strength and pride. I feel as if I have become a full, accepted member of the Joryoku. It is as if I have shed the skin of the old Kazin, and that I am finally treading the path towards my end goal of destroying the Shampai Group.

Kala runs over to us. “Congratulations, Kazin. Enjoying your older brother moment there, Ganzama?”

“Gah!” Ganzama grunts as he stands. He extends his hand to me, however, and he helps me to my feet. I look away from the man I have just taken the nerveChip from, and I attempt to catch my breath.

“Sorry to break your little heartfelt moment, but we’re needed in the basement,” Kala says. She beckons, and we follow. “They say Baku’s ready to talk.”