Chapter 24
[39]
“Whaddya want Tora?” Ichiko Ohya once again stood in the office of her boss.
The veins on the balding 40 year old’s forehead bulged as he contained his anger. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking.
“Look Ohya, I know it’s been difficult for you with Kayo’s passing.” He paused and took a drag from his cigar. “But it’s been weeks, we need you out in the field again. You can’t just drink yourself to death in that damn bar. Vulture’s been brought to justice so it’s time to move on.”
Ohya contained her own anger. “Sure whatever, is that all you needed?”
“No, there’s something else.” He pressed the intercom on his desk. “Send him in.” A young man with long brown hair in a dress shirt and slacks walked in through the door.
“Ohya, this is our newest photographer. He’s fresh out of high school but frankly, after everything that’s happened, we’re understaffed and in need of the help.”
The young man held out his hand. “Hello there, I’m Goro Akechi. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Elsewhere in the city, Junya Kaneshiro, known in the underworld as Tombstone, stood in the workshop of Munehisa Iwai, aka The Tinkerer. The latter hunched over a table, soldering a circuit board while the former watched.
“Boss says yer underperformin’. That you haven’t been producin’ tech at an acceptable rate. And what you’ve been makin’ is sloppy and unreliable.”
“Yeah well, maybe if you guys didn’t constantly give me scraps to work with, I could make something more worthwhile. Not to mention the 3 hours of sleep I get a night and the fact that I have to do all of this by myself.” The inventor replied without looking up from his work.
“Kingpin ain’t in the business of rewarding failure.” The hulking grey-skinned man replied.
The Tinkerer looked up from the table and turned to Kaneshiro. “Oh yeah? How’d he feel about you handling that Kamoshida business? You sure controlled him.”
Tombstone grabbed the man by the collar of his jacket and slammed him into the nearest wall. “You think you’ve got any right tellin’ me how to do my job!?”
While most thugs would be quivering in fear, Iwai simply stared back at him coldly. “What’re you gonna do about it? Kill me? I’m sure that bald tub of lard would appreciate that.”
Kaneshiro bared his teeth and growled before releasing him and moving towards the door. “Don’t forget why you’re here.” Were his parting words.
At the same time, in a secure offshore prison, it was a stormy night. A heavily bandaged figure laid alone in the bed of the medical bay. The bandages concealed third degree burns covering the majority of his body. The man had been in and continued to be in immense pain, wavering in and out of consciousness for over a month now.
This night however, the man was fully conscious and aware of his pain. The doctors at this prison made sure to give their patients as little morphine as possible, choosing letting them suffer for their sins instead.Tears flowed out of his eyes from the stinging all across his singed skin. He glanced over at the fingers of his left hand, concealed in a cast, hung from a sling attached to the bed.
Through it all, only one feeling coursed through his body stronger than the pain. That feeling was hatred. Hatred for the people who brought him to this point, hatred for the system that put him here, and most of all, hatred for the one who did this to him. He continued to stare at his hand, concentrating.
When he got out of here, when he escaped this hell, he would come for him. He would destroy the one who destroyed him. Vengeance was the only thing that kept him alive at this point. He poured all of his focus into his fingertips, this had to work! The pain in his body throbbed even worse and tears poured out of his eyes even harder.
Finally, his labors were rewarded as a tiny spark left the tip of his pointer finger. It was tiny to the point that he wasn’t completely sure whether or not he’d imagined it, but it was enough. For the first time since his incident, he smiled, he smiled a wild and maniacal smile. The figure let out a laugh, crazy and deranged as lightning up the sky outside.
Elsewhere, Naoto Shirogane sat on the sofa of her home. In her good hand she held her smartphone, it’s glow lighting up the otherwise pitch black apartment. The screen of her phone displayed her contacts list and her phone hovered over the name of her closest friend, Rise Narukami.
Naoto tried to work up the nerve to press the call button, however she couldn’t find the strength in her to speak to her. When last they’d spoken, the two had been in a heated argument over Naoto’s decisions following Yu’s death.
In truth, Naoto didn’t regret her choice to aid Ren. He was proving to be a worthy successor and a true hero for Tokyo. Rise disapproved of Ren donning her late husband’s title, not because she felt he disgraced it, but rather out of fear for the boy’s safety. And who could blame her? Her husband died doing the same thing Ren was doing now.
While the two of them couldn’t see eye to eye on this, Naoto still wanted her friend back. But the time wasn’t right, the wounds were still too fresh. The detective put away her phone and grabbed her laptop to continue her research into Tokyo’s underground.
In the Nijima household, Makoto sat on the living room couch watching the news report covering the arrest of the Vulture from the same day of the school sponsored park cleanup. The same day a certain transfer student snuck away in a hurry.
A smirk crossed the student council president’s face. “Gotcha.”
“You say something Mako?” A male voice called from behind her.
Makoto turned around. “Oh! Uh...Nothing dad!”
“Alrighty then. Hey dinner’s nearly done, go wash up.” Akihiko Nijima called from the kitchen.
“Sure thing!”
Meanwhile, in a secluded corporate laboratory, a group of workers had just finished cutting through a safe. A man in a lab coat ran up a flight of stairs to the man overseeing the task.
“Director Shido! We’ve finally broken through! Item 17A is being extracted now!”
Masayoshi Shido let out a sneer, “About time. If we fall any further behind schedule, I’ll fire all of you!”
The director looked out over the work floor and watched as his workers carefully pulled an object from the large safe. As the item was removed it was revealed to be a shining metallic red and gold suit. The suit was unfinished, exposed wires and missing armor plates made that much clear. However, what stood out most to Shido were the 4 metallic limbs that emerged from the suit’s back.
A devious grin crossed Shido’s face. “Excellent. I see great potential here.”