Chasing Debts

Saturday, 6th July
14:35
 

Thrusting with all he had, heavy breath merged into the sound of neighbours arguing and the broken spin-washer throwing a fit against the brick wall. The woman on the floor had her head pressed into the futon with one hand. The owner of the body squashing her brought a cigarette to his lips with his other hand.

"When you keep screeching, I have to do this." The fingers of his right hand tangled in her hair. His weight on the back of her skull and torso, he jabbed the end of his vice towards her eye in threat before travelling down. "Maybe here..." The embers sizzled the woman's shoulder and the familiar stink of charred meat filled their noses. Head back, he cackled his way through another wave of euphoria, his thrusts picking up speed.

The bedroom door slid open a slit and his line of sight met those of a young child. Narrowing his eyes, the shabbily tattooed man lurched forward and snatched the first thing his hand landed on. Lobbing the item, the strappy high heel hit the kid on the forehead.

"Fuck off. I don't want to see you." Ragging the woman's hair back, he hissed at her ear. "Didn't I tell you I hate kids; drown it already."

Adjusting his weight, falling on top of the woman sprawled beneath him, he hiked up her thigh and reset his rhythm with heavy slams. The sound of wet skin connecting repeatedly filled the apartment. The agonized cries from earlier had dried into almost inaudible huffs, and that was only down to the air being knocked out of her lungs by force.

Three raps at the front door were quickly followed by a sweet voice. "E-excuse me, I'm sorry for calling, but I brought the money I owe for Yanagi San."

Mid-thrust, the man shot to his feet. Pulling the front of his underwear up but not quite catching everything dangling at the front, the shabbily tattooed man hobbled down the dark, narrow hallway stacked with trash on either side. Tripping over cartons, he hit to the doorway with his face and shoulder as the umpteenth hit he'd taken spun his very being through the wringer on a hard tumble. Out of habit, he slid the security chain shut before opening the barrier.

"Yes?" He asked, his voice groggy and breathing laboured.

A wooden bat lodged through the gap between the plank and the frame of the already trashed barrier. The man's eyes went wide. Slowly but surely, his body betraying him, he half-remembered the eyes staring back at him through the gap.

"Avon calling."

The grain in the caller's voice was not that of the promised. The sight of what was in front of him registered and it was most definitely not a cute, prissy girl with free money.

"F-fuck!"

The man reached out for the handle of the door in order to pull the barrier closed and the bat smashed down into his wrist. Falling back into the foyer howling in pain, the victim flopped and flailed over rubbish bags and old newspapers accentuated with take-out cartons and used hypodermic needles. A crowbar popped the chain straight off the rotten wood support and fell to the floor with a clank. The door opened to full capacity and the midday sun silhouetted the three figures stood on the communal walkway shading the threshold of apartment A13.

Watching the target fall over his feet and scamper into the living room at the end of the apartment on his hands and knees, the female pulled a cigarette out of the packet in her trouser pocket. Lighting the end, the two men she was with entered the decrepit space. In no time at all, the clatter of furniture being overturned and the yelling of the man who answered the door broke out into the humid summer air. Venturing inside the dim apartment filled with the stench of must and spoiled food, and the overbearing wretch of vomit and burnt heroin, the state of the place made her mind wander back to a place she wished she could forget. No matter how desperate people get, she could never understand how people could live in such filth.

Making it to the end of the cramped hallway which widened to the main sitting and dining area, the blonde took in the sights of junkies on a Saturday bender. She recognized the passed out woman laid flat on her stomach - naked, bruised, and burn blisters forming on tanned skin just a yard away on the scrunched up futon - from the two small tattoos she had on either shoulder blade. Neither of them meant anything good. The fact one had been attempted to be removed by crudely burning it away made both exponentially worse, considering they were basically dog tags certain gangs used to keep track of who owned what. Still, Akito was not there to take some runaway, drug-addicted whore back to where she 'rightfully' belonged. She was there because she was the one being run away from. She was the one who was chasing debt.

Stood in the opening to the sitting room, Akito glanced about the pigsty, her cigarette on her lips and sweat racing down her forehead. "I guess it's two-for-one day; lucky me."

Butt naked, the man tried his best to fight against Kyohei, who was double his mass, ragging his tattered boxers off his ankles. "I told you I'd p-p-"

"Why is Yanagi San naked and bleeding, but there is no money on her counter? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the point of a whore was to be paid for sex?"

Cupping his genitals to protect his non-existent dignity, the man hunched as he yelled to Akito. "Th-that bitch shaded me last night so I came to collect what she owed me."

"And you decided to take a free ride for the Hell of it?" Akito looked down on the woman with an array of small circular burns covering her back, his cigarette end smouldering in the overflowing ashtray. That kind of mark was more than familiar to her eyes. Crouching down, she cupped the woman's chin. "Is that right, Yanagi San?" When she got no answer from the dismal woman bar a shallow wheeze, her face puffed and split, her tanned skin marbled green and purple and blistering white and scarlet, Akito let go of the practically unconscious woman as she rose to full height. "Ya know, fuckin' a woman when she's unconscious is against the law, Kato."

"She was awake when I started."

Akito's eyes slid away from the secondary debtor. She licked the inside of her teeth and stood up. "Burning people usually does shut down the senses, especially when it's a repeated action. Trauma and all that." Jerking her head, the men who had accompanied her caught her signal. Grabbing either of Kato's arms and forcing the human trash-bag face down onto the scuffed tatami mats, the 'muscle' who usually seemed detached by such tasks took on a sense of pride for what they were doing. "I wonder...how long it will take before you pass out, Kato? Because I can tell you this: these guys really prefer the days when they get to hurt pieces of shit like you over chasing old ladies who like Pachinko a little too much."

Eyes wild, Kato jut and jerked his head as he kicked his feet in the vice grip of the two employees. "E-eh! What?"

Just watching him, Akito was quite surprised how he didn't make a fire caused by the friction of his ragged jaw on the straw floor, the way his head was going back and forth, side to side. It was almost like a nodding dog on the dashboard of a truck which frequented cross-country.

Stood a few inches from his face, Akito crouched down. Elbows atop of her thighs, she repeated the action of taking his jaw in her grasp to stare him in the eye. "She was supposed to pay me, and you stopped her from doing that."

Wiping the sweat from her brow with her free hand holding her vice, the female shoved his head away roughly before standing up. Dropping down on a wonky wooden chair by the balcony, the bleach-blonde with dark eye make-up coughed to clear her throat. It did nothing to make her seem less like she matched the heavy-set body she resided in.

"Causing a debtor to miss their payments makes for the causer to pay the debt."

Her words drawled the all-important information, almost like she'd had to remind many a person of this fact before today. The look on her face, dreary eyes and downwards curled lips - that deep frown line a little off to the left between her brows - showing she'd already told him prior, too. Licking her lips, the woman crossed one leg over the other, black slacks threatening the seams.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Fighting with the struggling man, Reo and Kyohei ragged him still with the threat of popping his shoulderblades from their sockets. "MRGH-"

The ex-host jabbed him in the ribs with the pointed toe of his boot. "Speak properly."

"You know the drill: If a debtor can't pay, I take it from the next best thing. You both co-signed each other's contracts. Are you both stupid? Don't answer that. How many times do I have to say this before people start to listen?" Inhaling a long breath on her vice and then regretting it when all she got was the putrid air of the apartment, the woman closed her eyes for a couple of seconds. "Considering you're way too ugly to pay off the kind of weight Yanagi San owes by slumming it in The Red, you're gonna have to do it another way. Taking into account you already owe me way more than I find acceptable by reputable clients, Kato, what is there left to do?"

"No!" Flopping and flailing, the man thrashed violently. "No, noh-Sai San, don't; please do-n't."

"You know, lots of public servants give their lives in the line of duty every single day and are then ignored when it comes to medical help in order to save civilians. Young children are dying from organ failure, every day-"

Half realizing what she was getting at, Kato's panic reached a new peak. "Pl-ple...Saion...ji San..." Blood and half of a tooth spilt from his mouth when the heel of an Italian leather boot popped it from his skull. "I pwomise I'wl pay yuh bwack..."

"Oh, yeah?" Glaring down on the mess spreading by the second, the blonde raised her brow. "You couldn't even begin to pay for your sins if you were reincarnated a hundred times over, let alone your debts, you waste of space. What makes you think you can pay me my money?"

She reached out and took hold of a wire clothes hanger swinging on a cord on the open balcony. Before her other hand could get a hold of it with the intention to form it into one of her favourite tools for the job, her phone buzzed in her trouser pocket.

"Excuse me." She turned away and stepped out onto the small concrete balcony. Recognizing the number, she pulled the glass door shut behind her. "Yes, Saionji here." Leaning her elbow on the rough ledge, the woman looked out of the cityscape hazy with pollution and poverty, the wire hanger tapping on the corner in time with a song from the neighbour's ridiculously loud music forcing its way onto her.

"Are you busy, my dear?" The caller cooed despite their long relationship being nothing but professional.

Glancing over her shoulder and gauging the scene going on behind her, the woman adjusted her language for the man on the other end of the line. "I can call around later."

"I need you to look around for a certain someone."

"Name?"

"Ishikawa Tomoko."

"Funny. She's on my list for today. Am I bringing her in, or holding her for you?"

"There's nothing funny about it at all. She's been missing for three days. Nobody has seen her." The voice on the other end of the line was clearly much older than her and spoke using traditionally polite phrasing. "Kiryū San is concerned beca-"

"-I don't need to know why." She cut him off before he could tell her something she really didn't want to know. "I'll finish up here and g-"

"-Don't bother. Kiryū San wants you here right now."

"I have three million on the line, and it's fuckin' junkies-"

"-You know what he's like."

"Then you send someone here to get what I need, considering I'm doing a job you want done; I'm not his lapdog - I have my own stuff to deal with, you know, Saito San?"

"I'm just the kinder of a dozen messengers, Akito Kun. Before the hour is over I wouldn't be surprised if he has the entire city out looking for you. It's better if you just come here on your own volition."

"That doesn't get me any closer to getting my money back." The blonde leaned half over the balcony support, her lungs and gut scrunched as she pinched the device to her ear. "I don't need to reiterate my relationship with Kiryu, do I? It should work both ways."

"Send me the address, and I'll direct some young men very eager to impress the infamous Saionji Akito."

"Don't make fun of me when I'm doing you a favour." Flicking her dimp over the ledge, the woman half hissed-half sucked the excess acid from behind her lower lip. "All I want is what is owed to me."

"Of course you do. In all the years I've known you, you've been the most faithful woman I've known of: to time, to habit, to your sense of duty." Akito could tell the man on the other end of the call was smiling and despite their amicable relationship, it irked her. "I'll send some guys as soon as you give me the address."

Ending the call, the woman returned to the sitting room. Tossing her phone into the hands of the man to the left, she scowled off at the peeling walls. "Send this address to the last number which called."

"Boss-"

"-The meeting has been moved up and it seems I'm the guest of honour."

"What are we doing with him?"

"Hold him until the others get here."

Kyohei stamped his foot on the side of the floored man's face when he reached for the metal hanger that had been dropped on the floor. "Do you have friends who will help you?"

Eye a smear of purple and black, plump and bloated shut, the tattooed debtor choked on his own bloodied tongue. "S-st-op hitti...ing me..." Mangled fingers and cracked nails scratched the stained tatami mat in an attempt to crawl away. "Pul-le-s-"

"Do we look like a joke to you, asshole? Pay your debts instead of living in hiding and raping druggies, you fucking waster." Tutting, the suited man kicked the hand away from the woman as she passed.

Turning around, the woman's eyes locked with those hiding behind the half-shut screen door which led to the bedroom. Walking down the narrow hallway, she paused to glare down at the angry eyes staring her out.

"Don't be sad or pissed off at what happens here. Find a way to make something of it." Taking a deep drag on the stale air, she had to put more effort into keeping her head up than usual. "We're not here for you. Nobody I work with will hurt you, so don't be so scared and don't make a scene." Untucking her hair from her collar, Akito was halted before she could make it to the front door.

 The edge of her top was plucked. Small, malnourished body streaked with marks matching the unconscious woman's, a boy who couldn't be any older than eight or nine scowled up at the tall blonde who had invaded his home.

"Does my mother deserve all of this?"

"All of it? I couldn't say." Tilting her head, the woman's brows furrowed. "She made promises she knew she couldn't keep and it got her into trouble. That's why I'm here."

"Can't you stop both of them?"

Looking over her shoulder, smoky eyes watched Reo stand on the cheaply tattooed man's back as Kyohei pulled his arm in towards his ribs before slowly teasing the joint with a dangerous injury when he gave rhythmic pulls.

Looking to the boy who was barely chest height, Akito let out an obnoxious snort-sniffle. "It's always going to be hard to live when you're surrounded by people like that - parents and those who pretend to be - but at the end of the day, they either end up killing each other, or one of them nuts up and does the world a favour." The woman stared down on the bruised kid in underwear too small and a repeatedly stained tank top. "Bear with it just a little longer. Be stronger than them. Most definitely, don't give in to what makes them...them." Fingertips delved into trouser pockets and quickly emerged with a small pouch. "Don't waste your life loving or hating people who will only use and make entertainment out of hurting you." Grasping what she was after, she handed over the small paper packet. "I don't like the blackcurrant ones; they make me sick. Have them." Shoving the crinkled packet into small hands, she exited the rotten apartment.

"Onee San-"

Akito glanced back with a scoff. "Don't call me so familiarly."

Pulling a slip of paper from inside of the packet, the little boy held out the cash honestly. "There is a ten thousand yen note in here."

"It's not mine." Shaking her head, the woman turned her nose up. "But I guess you should hide it and spend it sensibly."

Holding the note and candies close to his chest, the child bowed his head to the back both of them knew he should despise.

Closing the metal door just before it could naturally click onto the lock, Akito hopped down the flight of outer metal steps. Two thick soles hit dried dirt in unison when she hopped off the second to last step. "Uch, I'm getting on," she grumbled under her breath to herself when her right knee almost buckled. Watching the scene of two residents spatting as she made it out into the humid air, Akito called out to the platinum midget struggling with her shopping bags. "Obaa San, do you need a hand?"

Huffing and puffing, the four-foot woman in her mid-eighties spat. "Oh, the kids around here have no respect."

"Like you should let them hold your goods anyway." Akito kicked the toes of her boots against the dusty ground as she eyed the boisterous group of teens with delinquent hair and punkish clothing. "They'd probably rob you blind given half the chance."

The old woman chuckled and let the younger female help her. "I'm already halfway there."

One of the boys in his late teens overheard her words and threw a growl at the female. "Hah, d'ya have something to say?"

The blonde halted her pace to stare right back at the group of 'new wave delinquents'. "Get back into your hole." She remembered when groups would wear jackets, or at least patches to designate where a person's loyalty and back-up lay. Not not. Now, they just dressed like homeless who had jacked a passing White-Collar on their night out and paired it with whatever shit they found in a charity-bin: Their hair was greasy, their colours didn't match, and their tattoos sucked. No, really, their ink was really bad.

Dropping the shopping down at the old woman's doorstep raised the right corner of her lips. "'Ya got a problem?"

"Your accent's a little strange, Kiddo." The old greyed woman more than a foot and a half shorter than Akito hobbled inside her ground floor apartment, dragging her left leg. "Where are you from?"

"Ah, you're the first person in a long time 'oov've caught me." Akito grinned as she hoisted the bags onto her shoulder and followed the woman into her foyer, kicking her boots off as she went.

"My eyes are failing, but my ears are as good as when I was seventeen." Shuffling inside and sliding her feet into her indoor slippers, the homeowner beckoned the younger female inside. "I was going to be famous for playing the violin when I was younger due to my ears, but then I met an idiot of a man with a handsome face." She snorted a brief laugh as if she could still see his face the same as it had been six decades ago.

"I spent a lot of time in Eastern Hiroshima when I was growing up."

"Ahhh, I knew I recognized it." Continuing to potter, the old woman hummed. "My husband, only son, and sister were all sent to prisons in Yamaguchi. Like a fool, I followed them."

"I see." Akito scouted the space out of habit. The entire shoebox-size space was filled with photographs of the old lady's revered ancestors in frames, stacks upon stacks of incense, and more newspaper cut-outs than should be humanly possible.

"What was it for? Family member? A lover? You sound young."

"I did time in Iwakuni thanks to both and more."

"Argh, that's a rough deal for a cock." Nodding to herself, the old woman huffed, completely disregarding her coarse wording which did not correspond with her age. "My sister did nine months in the Iwakuni detention out there and she almost lost her mind." Putting the kettle on the hob, the homeowner lit the flame. "What did you get? Det for reoccurring speeding tickets, gambling debt, cheque forging? Sex work?" A childish chuckle from the not-so-feeble minded lady punctuated the questions.

The sound of a car pulling up, its doors opening and shutting quickly, caught the younger woman's attention. Looking out of the window, Akito held her hand up out of habit, regardless of her company's lack of sight. "I'm sorry, but I'm still on the clock." Seeing four suited men advance for the metal steps which led up to the second floor, she made a significant distance between herself and the old woman's open door.

In no time at all, the suited men were within reaching distance. The one she had seen a handful of times before and two men barely into their twenties ascended the metal steps without a word. "Leave the kid out of it." Akito glowered up at the one who stopped three steps up.

"You can go now."

Instantly irritated by the attitude, Akito scowled. Teeth gnashing and coal-lined eyes narrowed, the unusually tall woman jutted her jaw with her answer. "I'm waiting for my guys; I'll go when I fuckin' feel like it-"

"-Boss-" The tone she was used to prompted her to look up past the green bean trying to move her along as if she was some kind of groupie. Both of her employees were skipping down the flimsy rusted steps, one clearly more enthusiastic than the other. "You don't have to call everybody out."

Clicking her tongue off her teeth, Akito scrunched her face and turned away. "Don't tell me what to do."

Prancing over to her side, Reo wriggled his fingers by female's shoulders. "We're right behind you, boss~"

Wiping the sweat and stray hairs back off her face, the woman tried to drag in a decent breath which wasn't laden with dust and pollen. "Drop me off at Kiryū's."

"Kiddo-" The old woman hobbled out to her open sliding doors and called out, her hand up in reach.

Halting from her employee's direction, the blonde looked over her shoulder. "What is it, Obaa San?"

"It wasn't gambling or forgery, was it?"

Grinning at the blunt talk she wasn't used to receiving any more, Akito held her hand up in farewell. "Whoever said all senior citizens are senile clearly haven't met you."

"I have no right to ask, I know this, but please," She hobbled out onto the dusty ground barefoot. "Don't leave that child with that stupid woman any longer."

Making sure not to look up at the first-floor apartment where she had previously been, the blonde craned her neck to the left and hitched her shoulder on the same side up, causing her bones to crack. "I try to be as good of a person as often as I can, but that isn't my job."

"I can't see what you can, but I can hear what comes from that apartment above me. Even I can tell that he's neither happy nor healthy."

"Then call child services." Inclining her head, Akito plucked a cigarette from her trouser pocket as Reo held the back passenger door of the car open for her. "Take care, Obaa San. Ja ne." Sliding onto the champagne-coloured leather seat, the door was shut behind her. Another wave of yelling broke out of the first-floor apartment and into the humid air. Despite the commotion caused, the weave of pain and angry shouting were contained by the buildings enclosed in close proximity which formed the squared-off U-shape of the decrepit, five-storey apartment blocks.

Kyohei started the ignition and Reo dashed into his own seat on the front passenger side. Fastening his belt, the ex-host stared out of the window with a pensive look on his face. "Why do people even bother having kids when they end up treating them like that?" Pretty eyes framed by long dark lashes watched the local kids messing in slushy mud caused by a broken water pipe spraying three into the air.

"Because sex brings in easy money, and abortions are expensive when compared to all of the other things you can buy." Lighting the end of her vice, Akito put the window down to prevent it from getting stuffy.

"That's cold, boss."

"It's a fact of life." Resting her elbow on the door frame, the woman watched the rabbles of young children play in the dirt and make their own fun out of dead sticks and a half-deflated ball as she passed. "Why are you so bothered, anyway? I thought your upbringing was pretty cushy."

"It was. I can't complain about anything from when I was a kid in hindsight; I was sent to school, got medication if I was sick, and my parents did genuinely try to take time out of their days to spend with me and my older sister even though they both worked long hours." Looking out over the rough communal housing surrounding them - that was all there was for a long while - Reo held a strange smile. "I was a little shit in my teens up to my late twenties because I thought I knew better than everyone, but they stuck by me even through all of the fighting, the racked up debts, the 3am calls from jails, and the shame I brought them for my bad behaviour..."

"Then what's your problem?"

"What do you mean?" The younger of the two men sat in front furrowed his brows as he watched the woman's reflection in the rear-view mirror. "It's sad to see kids having to live like that."

"It is?"

Reo turned in his seat to see the woman with her attention out of the window beside her. "I know you like to put on the hard-ass act, Saionji San, but even you can't say you don't care."

"I never said I didn't care. In fact," glancing to the passenger in the front of the luxury vehicle, Akito gave an expression he was sure he'd never seen before. "I have more interest in people who grow up like that than anyone else. They can stay stuck in their slums, wallowing in their own self-pity, growing into the trash people call them before they can understand those harsh words, and end up causing misery for themselves and everyone around them; or they can turn their situation around - it really can go either way. And you know how much I enjoy a good bet on the underdog." Eyes now focused on the driver's face through the reflection of the rear-view mirror, Akito snorted a brief laugh. "Anyone who ends up making something from nothing off their own back is somebody to be taken seriously, right, Kyohei?"

The driver met the woman's line of sight for a split second before his attention went back to where he was driving. "More as a danger, in your case."

Even after working for the woman for just over three years, after all of the odd situations he'd found himself in due to his connection with the female, Reo hardly knew anything personal about Saionji Akito. He knew very little of her, or Onaga Kyohei for that matter - even though he spent more time with the older man than any other person in his life. The only thing Reo did know, besides the well-known reality that both Akito and Kyohei came from a cesspool just like the one they were driving away from, he knew Kyohei hated pickled ginger and that he drove better than himself. Reo knew the woman had previously had a work partner she teamed up with in high school, but the details frayed like the branches of a family tree belonging to a Lothario with no conscience for where he spread his seed. That's not to say Reo didn't hear some very unsavoury rumours concerning the pair, he had worked in the entertainment business for even longer than he'd been chasing the ever-expanding money flow which was brought about by his employer. After all, you could hear just about anything when you gave rich housewives of the higher echelons of public servants the hope of getting laid by a man who looked like him. However, if you tried to pull the same shit with battle-torn yakuza, you were bound to lose at least the one thing which had previously been your biggest asset. Reo was not for that, even in jest. He was way, way, way, away from testing that line even if it did turn up a wacky or embarrassing anecdote about the pair in question.

His boss and colleague - Saionji Akito and Onaga Kyohei - had always kept pretty shtum about their respective pasts but he wasn't dumb enough not to catch the regular inside jokes and the looks they shared with the same spasticated expressions every time something went comically tits-up. Kyohei had brought the woman an expensive bottle of Western booze and whole squids which they would grill in the office at the same time of year for the entirety of the time Reo had worked there. Akito would give the older man four days in a row off - this being an impossible feat for any of the temporary bodies he'd seen come and go over the duration, at the beginning of every month with an envelope he had never managed to read the front of. And on the 2nd of August every year, the pair of them would close the shop - a mythical happening even if the woman was almost dead on her feet - turn their phones off, and leave town together for a whole twenty-four hours and then return as if nothing had happened. No matter who or how you looked at it, they did care about each other and no matter what anyone said, their relationship did surpass that of a long-term friendship. Reo, having a little sense about him, couldn't quite find anything twisted about the relationship like the majority of people who loved to indulge in the subject of gossip did. It was almost innocent, like siblings, which grated on Reo even more than the filth and horridity which circulated them did.

In the end, he hadn't wanted to find a gap in the woman's personal life, but he had. He'd done just that. She hadn't had a single boyfriend since she was seventeen. He didn't recall ever overhearing them talk about the time they had shared before he arrived in the picture. Reo was curious. In reality, the thought of that lazy bum in need of a haircut having half a chance at banging his boss kinda pissed him off. He had gotten over the fact that nothing was going to happen between them a long time ago, and he now knew that nothing had gone on with her and that dolt who always snatched the car keys before he could blink, but still. Words hurt when it concerned a man's pride.

"Don't hurt yourself." The driver mocked the spaced-out expression of his partner.

Reo snapped back to reality and bit at the humid air between himself and the driver. "Keep your trap shut, you fucking octopus." Remembering the female was still sitting behind them, he held his hand up and inclined his head. "Sorry about the language, b-"

"Why are you apologizing to her? Every other word to leave her mouth is either seduction or a curse." Kyohei clicked his tongue as he flicked the indicator and turned onto the motorway. "She could probably recite the entire thesaurus of swear words back and forth, and in several languages."

Akito pressed her knee into the back of the driver's seat. "What of it, Octopus~" Her rough tone was drawn out and made comical as she mocked Reo's trademark insult for the man that had come about due to Kyohei's hair. The man in question was not one to fuss over his appearance and often went months without having a haircut until inevitable blindness was dangerously afoot. The actual non-style reached just past his shoulders and curled up at the ends while the rest was wily, making him look like there was an octopus making nest on his cranium.

The trio laughed at the break in seriousness but the driver suddenly stilled when his eyes landed on his wing mirror. "Who the fuck is this up my ass?"

"I knew you were all for it, Kyo, but at least make him pay for dinner first."

"Shut it." Glancing to the woman on the back seat, Kyohei nodded upwards. "Put your belt on and shut your window, Akito."

Reo waved his arms at the seriousness, wanting to continue the light banter after such a job with Kato and Yanagi. "What are you sayi-"

"You sit back down properly, too, you moron."

"Don't wind me up, Kyohei." The woman's knuckles turned white as she clung to the strap over her torso after the lock clicked into its slot.

"I saw that car around the corner of Yanagi's apartment block." The driver informed.

"Let them pass." Gripping the insides of the two seats in front, the blonde hung her head. "Pull over, I'll be late; I don't care."

The back of Kyohei's shoulder blade rubbed the woman's knuckles vice grip of his seat. "I'll turn down the side road."

"Why, they're not going that fast."

Both of the other occupants ignored the front passenger. Reo could easily see that this was not a regular false alarm, or a bit, by the woman's features turned pallid and her frame tensed to steel. Reo wasn't quite sure what was going on, but if his companions were anything to go by, then they should hurry the fuck up.


 

Updated: 12th January 2020 - 19:02