"Hendricks eh? That makes sense. I ruined his life." I looked toward the featureless creature to my left, tilting my head to the image shown before me. "I ain't gonna pretend I was a good man - I was muscle for awhile, then a loan shark, but this fucker. I could see why he hated me more then anyone. Took a small loan, eight grand - needed it to pay his girls fancy high school tuition. Week later, lost his job and I sent my boys. Every week it was the same thing, I can't pay, I just need a job."
I reach into my left hand jacket pocket, producing a lighter and a cigarette. I motion the pack toward the featureless horror proceeding my recently departed existence, and to my surprise it takes one. I light both our cigarettes and continue my story this creature likely already knows.
"I let his daughter graduate high school, I'm a nice guy, see? But three years is too long to wait for a debt, and the interest has brought the cost to 80k. He can't ever pay it, and my own boss is getting on me for it. So what choice I got? I go to his place, personally. He ain't home, and hasn't been for two months. Working on an fishing boat - perfect chance. His wife is pretty, and his daughter is old enough now. They work for my buddy Satou at a soapland, thats a fancy way to say brothel. He comes back six months later, finds out his beloved wife and daughter are whoring to pay his debts."
I exhale for a long time, the smoke billowing from lungs. It is a strange sensation, as in reality I do not need to breathe anymore. The creature sets it hands into the image, speeding it through and showing me all the horrible things those girls had to do, I don't flinch. I've lived in the underworld since I was a kid, mom was a soapland girl herself. I lead a little biker gang when I was a teen, fell into the Yakuza after I failed High School entrance exams - me and my boys worked our way up, carrying our name on our backs. I don't regret it.
"Yeah, yeah. If you expectin me to repent, it ain't happin'. Girls got let go when they were done, ain't my fault the mother got addicted to drugs during the job and the daughter liked gettin fucked and became a AV idol. Hendricks came at me a few times, but he was weak. Brought a gun once, but was too pussy to fire it. So that's my story, we done here? Send me off to whatever afterlife I got."
The horror smiles at me, or at least I think it does, its featureless face so hard to read. It flips the image suddenly, and on that side I see a girl I ain't ever seen before. Fifteen? Sixteen maybe. Ideal Japanese beauty, long silky black hair, dignified expression with beautiful features. A real looker. Her school uniform is dirty, and she is surrounded by three punks wear leather jackets - they ain't gonna hurt her, I can tell by their expression. They just want her number, a minute of her time, to feel like they got a chance. I used to do that same shit all the time.
"Who is this?" I ask, waving my right hand at the image before me. The horror puts a finger over where its mouth should be, as if telling me to be quiet. I scoff at the creature, tilting my head to the left with an annoyed expression. Standard intimidation, but I quickly realize I can't exactly scare a featureless horror.
The image keeps playing.
"Come onnnn, beautiful. Just come with us to karaoke, I promise you a good time." The main thug says, leaning close to the girl. The others chuckle and she looks equal parts annoyed and disinterested, not shocking. A girl with her looks probably gets this a lot, especially considering I recognize the neighborhood. Near my old haunt, teen gangs run rampant in the area and the Yakuza use it as a recruiting party, pitting small time groups against each other to gauge which ones are worth recruiting.
The image pans, and I get a look at the images on the back of their jackets. Jokers Owls it says over the top in English, with a cackling stylized anime owl in the middle and then a set of Kanji at the bottom, designating their division in the Owl's. My crew clashed with them frequently, I was a Hyena, me and just five others turned this whole neighborhood into our stomping ground, starting with the Owls, then taking out Busou, and finally Kita High and Ita Industrial, the two big delinquent high schools of the area. It was this that graduated us to Yakuza, and in many ways started me down the wrong path.
"Oi, leave the girl alone." I know that voice.
The punks turn, and there I am, forty years younger sitting on my bike and staring down three Owls alone. I look pretty different from how I do now, I'm fit for one thing, and my head is shaved like a monk. I'm wearing tight fitting motorcycle jeans, with a pair of tall black boots and a white leather jacket. I step off the bike, and the Owls turn their attention to me. I crush them easily, my fighting style being best described as controlled chaos.
"Be careful around here, Yui High. You private school girls shouldn't be in this snake den. If you want, I can walk you home?" The girl nods, we talk casually and it seems we are really hitting it off. Then my phone rings, and its my best friend Yuuto, the Owls just hit our clubhouse - they retaliate quick. I remember these times fondly, I didn't make the Hyena's to be a thug, the shop owners liked me, liked my crew. We were respectful, kids who grew up on these streets and wouldn't be a tool of the Yakuza, so we didn't join any established teams.
"Sorry, Hiyori-chan. I won't be able to walk you home, here." I infrared her my number, and I'm off.
The image speeds up a few days, and there is Hiyori in her room with a poster of my crews symbol in her hands. She hangs it on the wall, and with a smile she sends me a text. I for the life of me can't understand why I don't know this girl, but whatever it is I can tell we were close. The image keeps changing, showing me times we spent together, how she stood by me after Yuuto got hospitalized by Kita High, it even showed me some lewd things I'd rather not share with you.
It suddenly advances to a place I know all too well, my office. I hear a commotion, the door busts open, and two shots. I never see the shooter, at least not when I was alive. But I see it now, Hiyori.
"Wait? I don't understand. Why did she shoot me? We looked like were in love." I scratch my head confused, looking to the horror for understanding. Its featureless face splits horrifically, and a voice echoes out.
"The first was Kitagawa Hendricks, the man who most loved you. He hated his family life, he hated working everyday for their entitled desires. He never loved his wife, he married her because he was supposed too. His daughter was uppity, self centered and frankly just like her mother. He was planning to kill himself, but by forcing them away you freed him. He thinks of you as a savior."
Well, I didn't expect that.
"Yumisa Hiyori is the one who most hates you. You dated for six months, and your passion burned hot. Until she got raped by kids from Ita Industrial, and you abandoned her as your 'weakness'. She followed you for years, like a stalker. Hoping you'd change, that you told her that to free her from the danger. But you became just like the men you claimed to hate, and in the end forgot about her entirely. Just one of hundreds of girls you exploited for their bodies, in your mind. So she killed you, and then herself."
Tch. I remember that, Ita grabbed her and threatened me. I ran over without thinking, got beat down and forced to watch. Blocked it out, probably a bit too traumatic for poor old me. Well whatever, I got what I deserved.
"We done here?"
"Yes." The horror smiles, and I realize all too late as the image of Hiyori begins to play once more, from the beginning.
This is my hell.