As Masao sped down the freeway, he tried to remember the last time he’s had a night to himself and he was coming up empty. New problems in the organization were rising up every day now and he, as well as all of his captains, were spending every minute they had putting out fires. Now he was being called into Akihabara in the wee hours of the morning for a meeting. At this rate it was only a matter of time before everything went to hell. Though in hindsight he didn’t really have that much to lose. All he had to his name was the organization he’d unwillingly inherited from his late boss and everyone in it was afraid of him. All he had waiting for him at home was a shitty fake plant that he swore was wilting out of spite. He had no real family, no real friends and definitely no girlfriend thanks to his mean mug that was set in a permanent glare. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he felt the touch of a woman that he didn’t have to pay for first. But it was still more than he thought he would ever have in his lifetime.
After his folks walked out of him when he was still in middle school he started acting out and fell in with the school delinquents. They got into so many fights and all it did was fuck his face up even more. Not long after that, his temper and behavior got so volatile he got himself booted out of school and his foster home. Once he was back out on the street and had no where to go, he ended up doing odd jobs for the local yakuza and worked his way up to the very top where he had no trouble scaring his men into line and his enemies into submission.
Even with money and power act his fingertips, a proverbial army at his disposal, Masao still wasn’t happy. There were many lonely nights where he wished in vain that things had turned out differently, but he was in so deep that he could only imagine what he could’ve been in another life. He didn’t know why he bothered thinking about it at all, it wouldn’t change anything. For now he had to focus on the problem at hand.
Masao had been informed that there was a rat in his syndicate. No one wanted to believe there could be a traitor amongst them, they hadn’t had a rat problem since Masao took the reigns, but after all of the shit that had gone down recently, they finally had to accept it. But it wasn’t the feds who the rat was selling them out to, which is why they hadn’t gone completely underground yet.This betrayal was of one family to another. All of their actions were being leaked to their racial yakuza and men were losing their lives because of it.
Tonight, they were going to lure the rat out, Masao himself would be running the operation. A false operations had been set up in Akihabara to look like money laundering for an electronics shop. The boss himself would be bringing the money and if things went they way they had been, someone would be there to intercept it. Only a handful of people knew about the front plan, even fewer knew the real plan, and only two people knew Masao was going to be there, including Masao himself. Captains were monitoring their underlings for leaks and Masao’s inner circle was monitoring the captains. Anybody seen speaking to to outsiders or engaging in suspicious phone activity would be reported. Though it was difficult to decipher what was abnormally suspicious versus his men being the average scumbags they always were. If nothing came of their plot tonight, it was back to the drawing board while more people were mercilessly gunned down.
When he arrived at his impromptu front, he saw one of his captains, Yuta, waiting with half a dozen of his men right out in front of the damn building. Masao huffed and got out of the car, slamming the door behind him as he stormed up to the idiot.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped, shoving Yuta. “Could you make it any more obvious what we’re doing here?”
“We could be walking into an ambush,” Masao said, backing away quickly. “We need the backup, we have no idea what could go down.”
“If you want backup so bad, then scatter them and tell them to stay hidden until we need them. If this job has been compromised we don’t want them getting scared off before we can nail their sorry asses.”
Not to mention it was causing a scene, several early morning passersby and neighboring shops were stopping to stare and whisper. Yuta wasn’t the sharpest guy in his ranks but he was never this dumb. With how on edge everyone had been lately, he supposed he couldn’t blame him for being a little twitchy.
“…yeah,” Yuta sighed and straightened his tie. “You’re right. You’re always right.”
Masao clapped him on the shoulder.
“Just keep your head on straight and get ready,” he said. “The drop is coming soon, we need to get inside.”
The men took their order to scatter before Masao turned his anger to them next.
“Do you think anything is going to happen?”
“We can only hope for it at this point. I just want this headache to be over with so we can get business back on track. If they don’t take the bait then drinks are on me after.”
Yuta forced a smile and followed Masao back to his care to grab the bags of cash in his trunk before walking into the computer parts store. There were only two other people in the shop, a girl behind the cash register and a young man looking at keyboards near the entrance. Neither would look at the two men as sweat collected on their brows. Masao gave his bags to Yuta and calmly walked up to the counter. Not use in scaring the poor kid more than she already was.
“W-welcome in,” she strammered, not looking up from the spot on the floor she’d fixated on in fear of fixating on Masao’s unnerving face.
“It’s alright,” Masao assured her. “Just take some deep breaths and try to relax.”
The girl nodded and did as she was told.
“Good. Better now?”
She nodded again.
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“So can you let your manager know that were here to discuss a business arrangement with him.”
Now the girl finally looked up at him, confused.
“But one of your men is already back there with him.:
No one but Masao and Yuta were supposed to be there right now and they hadn’t sent out any word to change the plan. He turned to back to Yuta.
“This isn’t right,” he said, lowly. “Call back your guys, we need to get-”
From behind the employees only for behind the counter, Masao could hear muffled click of a gun being cocked.
“Get down!” he shouted and dropped to the ground as shots were fired straight through the door and into the shop. Behind him, Yuta was struck twice in the chest, but still he managed to draw his piece and return fire. The boy dropped down beside him and took off his sweatshirt to press against his wounds as blood oozed out.
“Take him outside!” Masao shouted at the buoyant stayed crouched as he went around the counter.
As suddenly as it started, the gun fire came to a halt and Masao could hear several sets of footsteps running away. Drawing his own gun, he motioned for the cashier to crawl out, but she was too scared to move. Her trembling was so violent that Masao doubted she could get her legs to hold her up, which only put her in the way. Instead, Masao pushed her down to lay flat on the floor to lower her chances of catching a bullet if all of the gunmen hadn’t run.
Slowly, he stood up with his back pressed against the wall and listened closely for any movement. Through the shouting outside and the girl’s frightened whimpers there was a faint shuffling followed by a sharp slick of a magazine reloading. Before it could click into place, Masao kicked the door open and fired at the lone suited man in the managers office, striking him right between the eyes and sending him down next to the now cold body of the stores manager. Behind him, the cashier shrieked and abruptly backed into him. Masao whipped around to yell at her to calm down, but was met by four more armed men that had lined up in front of the shattered store windows. Had it been knives or fists, Masao may have stood a chance, but with a hand gun against rifles, he new his outlook was bleak.
He kept his gun raised, determined to fight it out until the bitter end, but paused when he realized the cashier girl hadn’t moved out of the way yet. It was as if the world were moving in slow motion. Masao dropped his gun, grabbed the girl by the shoulders, turned them both around, hunched over her and held her close to him as a barrage of bullets filled his back. The pain was unbearable as he felt each one lodge itself into his muscle and bone, puncturing his organs until one finally struck his spine and he felt nothing at all. His entire body gave out, falling on top of the girl. She was stone still and he couldn’t see if she had been hit. His vision was blurring and getting dark around the edges, he couldn’t see much of anything now.
Holy shit, I’m really dying aren’t I?
He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting about death or what dying would be like. Every now and then, he thought about what would kill him. and in the back of his mind he knew it would end up being related to work. Either that or chain smoking, but it wasn’t like that matter now that he was choking on his own blood.
As the worlds went dark around him he could hear the girl talking, but it was like everything was under water. He was sinking, being pulled lower and lower, unable to gasp for air. Masao wasn’t afraid to die, he wasn’t afraid of anything, but the lower he sank eh could feel himself beginning to sweat as he imagined he was being pulled down into hell. Gradually, the sinking slowed to a stop and he began floating. He still couldn’t see but the feeling was coming back to his body, an odd tingle like static electricity was crackling through his fingers and toes and soon through the rest of himself it was squishing gum so tight it was starting to hurt. A bright light suddenly surrounded him, blinding him, and he felt himself being lifted up with ease. It took a minute for all of his senses to return, meanwhile he was being manhandled this way and that as he was being wiped down with a warm towel.
“Take it easy he yelled as he tried to twist his still weak limbs away form who he supposed were doctors in the ER. “I’m still sore!”
But he couldn’t make the words come out.
Masao’s stomach dropped to the soles of his feet as he remembered the bullet that hit his spinel. For all he knew he was paralyze from the neck down because of it. How would he defend himself? Whoever tried to kill him before would try again and he was going to be a sitting duck! The frustration boiling inside of his chest became overwhelming and Masao’s normal composure failed him, leading to him screaming out his anguish and anger about this raw deal he’d been given. For the first time in over forty years he was crying and he couldn’t stop himself.
The rough hands from before lifted him again, covering him with the towel and passed him off to someone with a much gentler touch. It was then, with much slower movements, that Masao felt just how large those hands were. Just one was enough to cover his whole back. He was placed on something soft, warm and sweet smelling and a gentle kiss was pressed to the top of his head.
…
Huh?
Masao stopped struggling and managed to open his eyes, allowing his diml lit surroundings to come into focus. An older woman in a white dress and a large bearded man dressed in humongous furs and gold stared at him intently. The looked like giants! They were speaking breathlessly in a language that sounded like english but their accents were so thick he had a hard time understanding what they were saying. A new rush of adrenaline pulsed through him and have him the force he needed to pull his hand free and try to push himself up. Underneath his face and hand, the cushion he thought he was laying on was undeniably warm and sweaty flesh. He looked up as far as his weakened neck would take him and found a beautiful woman with golden hair smiling down at him, she looked beyond exhausted but her deep blue eyes were full of what he could only describe as pure adoration.
“Hello, my sweet little prince,” she rasped and stroked his cheek.
Confused and exhausted, Masao didn’t appreciate being touched at the moment, no matter how beautiful the lady was, and reached up to pull he hand away, but he could only manage to wrap his hand around one finger. He couldn’t figure out who these people were or why they were so goddamn big until he saw his hand wrapped around the woman’s finger. Stubby little fingers with barely any nails on them and pink as a newborn’s.
The word newborn echoed through Masao’s mind as it momentarily went blank and his ears started ringing again. All of the pieces were connecting in his now decluttered brain at last. He really did die back in Akihabara, but he’d been brought back in the most unbelievable way possible. He had no idea what he’d done to deserve a second chance, but he’d been reborn…
“Isn’t he beautiful,” Millicet asked as he baby suckled sleepily at her breast, his small eyes squeezed tightly shut. She’s been worried he wouldn’t latch at first, he was so fussy and made both of his parents concerned for his health. His brother and sister before him were so docile when they were born, this one was turning out to be a spitfire already. Even now his face was pinched and red.
“He’s perfect,” Vesamir said and climbed into bed with his wife. “Ours have grown so fast, I’d forgotten how small babies can be.”
He and his wife hadn’t planned on having more children after their twins, so their new son was quite the surprise and that made him all the more special to them.
“Yole Lauden,” Vesamir continued. “Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“Yole? After my father?”
“I think it suits him. He certainly has his scowl.”
“He’s only a few hours old! He can’t scowl yet.”
Vesamir laughed and pet his sons head.
“I saw that look he made when you were changing him. See, our son already has the glare of a warrior!”
Yole had stirred from their talking and now glared up at his parents, his red cheeks puffed out like he was pouting. It was incredible how sharply expressive he was and yet his face was still so soft. They hoped that mean he’d grow fast and become strong like their twins.
“Have you thought about how he will grow up?”Vesamir asked, taking the baby from his wife and began to rock him to sleep. “What kind of man he will be?”
“I think for now we should focus on what kind of boy he will be,” Millicet laughed. “We didn’t think I could have children anymore, so we made no plans for a third.”
Millicet and Vesamir looked down at their dozing son and tried to find the right words to say that they had no true “place” for their son in the castle, at least not compared to his brother and sister. After they were born their paths had been set in stone in their parents eyes as well as the rest of the kingdom. In ten years nothing had needed to change up until seven months ago, nothing was laid out for Yole and his parents couldn’t deny the guilt they felt.
“We have time, my love,” Vesamir said, getting up and placing the baby in the cradle next to the bed. He rubbed the small belly as he started to rouse until his son was sound asleep. “Yole surprised us already, maybe he’ll surprise us again. Our son is a blessing and I’m sure he’s meant for great things. All we can do now is help him grown big and strong so he can accomplish it.”