18. Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Andy
We’ve been planning on waiting a week to go to Japan. It’s enough time, I think, for Chi’s brother and mother to become complacent in their routine and forget about Chi’s threat, but not enough time for someone else to make an attempt on her life.
I know I’ll need to see Oxy, so I make plans to meet with her later in the day. It’s a long drive, and Chi worries the entire time, wondering what she’ll be like in person.
“She’s like this tiny, crazy firecracker of biting sarcasm. It’s funny because she looks way more intimidating than she actually is. Her bark is… okay; sometimes her bark is as bad as her bite. But you have nothing to worry about. You’ll be with me.”
She smiles at me in appreciation but continues asking a thousand questions. “So you’ve known her for a while?”
I shrug. “Yeah. She’s been working with us for years.”
I sense Chi studying me. When I glance over at her, I know immediately what’s beneath her critical gaze. “No, we never fucked. I think she might bat for the other team.”
Chi gives me one more hard stare and then trains her unconcerned gaze out the window. “Sometimes people bat for both.”
I look back out the windshield and bite my lip thoughtfully. “Maybe, but although she loves me deep down, she outwardly hates me a little too much to actually like me. Maybe Cas, though. Girls love that enormous muscle man thing.”
Chi nods her head. “Yeah, but only because he could squash a man’s head with his bare hands.”
Now I look at Chi critically. The past three minutes play out in parallel symmetry as the thoughtful smirk on Chi’s face ignites a small fire of jealousy inside of me. She senses my gaze and looks up innocently. “What?”
“You like the muscles, too.”
She scoffs. “What? No.”
“Chi,” I say in a testy voice.
She rolls her eyes. “Okay, okay. But it’s not like I actually like him , Andy. I… I just liked his, ah, upper body strength.”
I knew she was either going to have to lie or admit it, but I grit my teeth in anger anyway. “Ugh, gross. I can’t believe you ever…” I grimace, disgusted with this entire conversation.
Chi just rolls her eyes at me and laughs, which makes me even angrier. “Okay, stop, Andy. I hadn’t even met you yet. It was for, like, ten minutes before he told me he was in love with Mara. Anyway, I didn’t want him like I want you. I didn’t want to marry him or anything.”
Those words send a shock through me, and I accidentally step on the brake, jolting us forward. Thank God we’re driving on a deserted upstate New York highway.
Chi’s eyes go wide — I see them out of the corner of my eye as I stare out the windshield, stopped now.
“I mean…” She clears her throat and swallows for what feels like hours. “I just, um… I had sex with lots of guys, ya know?”
Now I’m really confused, feeling frozen but angry and jealous at the same time. “Not fucking helping, Chi.”
“Andy, I… I just mean that I care about you . I never… I don’t know if I could care about someone this way ever again. I didn’t think I ever would.”
I finally face her head-on. “Do you mean that?”
She tries to address this whole situation, including effectively admitting she would like to marry me, with as much grace as possible. “I don’t exactly believe in love and marriage and a perfect family. For me — for my level of society — it’s usually just part of the game, you know? But… but if I ever could have what those lucky normal American citizens have, I’d…” her gaze drops, and she looks so sad suddenly that I feel terrible that she’s forcing this out. “I’d choose you.”
My heart stops beating in my chest. I don’t know if these whispered confessions actually make things better or worse. In the end, our lives will be exactly the same. We will continue to live the way we are living now, and neither of us will try to change a goddamn thing. This is just… the way things are.
I wonder, though, if maybe the way we live is actually lacking some integral piece that so many others get to experience. But we can’t experience it. If there is anything that could get her to break from that path her father set for her, I don’t know what it is. It’s her biggest, most precious responsibility, and I certainly won’t be the reason she turns away from it, knowing how tortured she’ll be if she does.
We spend the rest of the drive to Oxy’s apartment in relative silence. It’s not uncomfortable. Chi listens to the radio and hums along with her favorite songs, with a sweet, high-pitched vibrato that apparently comes from a lot of singing lessons from when she was younger and wanting to try something “girly.”
Once we arrive, it is right down to business, as always. Oxy throws a handheld device at me that she ensures can pick up information from shared drives and also acts like a high-tech flash drive if we ever get close enough to plug it into a computer. Unfortunately, the meeting doesn’t end there; I have a lot of business to discuss with Oxy as well.
Chi stays behind me while Oxy scopes her out, sizing her up with her usual critical stare. “You’re shorter than I thought you’d be. And you look even more like you’re twelve here in person than on the computer screen.”
“Oxy, fuck off. She looks older than you . The black hair dye isn’t fooling anyone.”
“It’s fine, Andy, I think I can take care of myself.” Chi steps forward, exuding far more self-confidence than she showed me in the car earlier. “I’m okay with looking younger. It just means I’ll age more gracefully.”
“Okay, cool. Just be careful out in public with Andy. No PDA, or he’ll end up in jail.”
Chi’s face doesn’t change. “You look like a discount Tonks. From Harry Potter. But your hair isn’t even as cool.” I have no idea who she’s talking about, but Oxy winces slightly at the end of her last sentence, and it seems that the words must have cut pretty deep. I’m pretty certain she takes a lot of pride in her hair. I think she goes out to get it cut, and it might be the only thing she leaves the apartment for.
Oxy scrunches her eyes slightly, staring daggers into Chi’s face without blinking, while Chi crosses her arms and stares back. Finally, Oxy’s gaze moves to mine, and I see in my peripheral vision that Chi slackens with a small expelled breath of relief.
“I don’t hate her.” Oxy says with a quirk of her lip. From her, this is high praise. Now it’s my turn to slacken with relief. I wouldn’t have ever told Chi this, but when Oxy doesn’t like someone, she can make life extremely difficult for them. And me, while she’s at it. Things will go smoother if she’s on board.
“I gave you the device you wanted. Why are you still here?” she asks flatly.
“We have to go to Japan in a few days. We’re preparing to leave, but we need some things from you before we go.”
“Like what?” Oxy turns back to her computer and, in typical fashion, seems to be completely ignoring us while actually listening to every word we say and somehow processing it in seconds, typing a mile a minute at the same time.
“Phone numbers and addresses. I’ve texted you a list of people we need to scope out while we’re there. I want you to find out if there are any events going on, parties we can crash — that sort of thing.”
“K,” is her only reply.
“I also need you to get every last bit of info from Akihito’s visit. Look into Botan Murata. He was one of Akio’s associates. I’m sure his own cameras have been wiped by whoever Akihito was working with, but if you can find out anything from last night, I want to know about it.”
“Gotcha.” Oxy seems really into what she’s doing on one of the three screens, with little spaceship-looking things flying around. I wonder what the hell kind of strange hacking she’s doing there before there’s an explosion, and she exclaims, “Fuck!” and throws her hands up, turning back to us, a sour expression on her face.
“What happened? Was that… did you just…?”
“It’s Galaga , Andy,” Chi says with a laugh.
“Who the fuck is Galaga ?”
Oxy’s expression is unchanged as she says, “It’s a fixed shooter arcade game that came out in the early 80s. I think we’re safe.” She sighs and scrubs her hand down her face. “Okay, find out everything I can about Akihito’s visit and extracurricular activities. Find out about upcoming rich people events in Osaka, Japan. Anything else? You want me to get you all of Akio’s favorite pickup lines?”
Oxy has a hard time during social interactions knowing what to say and how to say it. Right now feels like one of those times. Not just because Akio is still a sore subject for Chi, but I don’t want Oxy to bring this up for other reasons. I’m not sure what to say to stop it, though.
Chi wraps her arms around herself but seems interested in the topic. A gentle smile grazes her lips. “Did he have a lot of women?”
Oxy laughs. I think I know what’s coming, and I want to say something but have no idea what.
“No, just Daiki.”
Chi and I freeze at the same time, but for what I’m certain are very different reasons.
“What?” Chi breathes.
Oxy’s gaze flicks to hers. “Yeah, I know — you’d think Daiki would be used to it, but he still had to proposition him every time. Such lazy lines to get him into his wing of the house, too.” I study Chi, taking in her growing shock, while Oxy seems entirely oblivious. “Asking him to go over papers in his bedroom? I mean, who does that? But he got him there every time. Guess Daiki wasn’t too opposed—”
“What the fuck—what the fuck are you talking about?” Chi whispers, cutting into Oxy’s little declaration. I had already guessed there was something more going on between Akio and Daiki, but what a billionaire does behind closed doors is none of my business.
Oxy finally reads the fucking room and realizes Chi is having an internal crisis. In typical Oxy fashion, she has no idea how to handle intense human emotion and looks like a deer in headlights.
“Ah… babe… your dad and Daiki were totally fucking each other. How’d you not know? I mean, just the way Daiki spoke to him, took his hand sometimes; your father even kissed him once. It was in the corner of the room and I just had the back of Daiki’s head in the shot, but I’m sure that was it. Your dad did the whole hand behind the neck hold. He must’ve thought I couldn’t see them in the corner there, that sneaky asshole—”
“Shut up , Oxy,” I say, finally putting a stop to her ranting and pulling Chi’s face to mine to make sure she’s okay.
“He did that a lot too,” Oxy says, quieter this time, motioning to my hand under Chi’s chin with a mischievous little tip of her lip.
Chi is already crying. “Hey, Chee-chee. You okay?”
“Fuck,” she says, reaching up to push the tears off her face. “I hate these things.” She closes her eyes to try and stop the torrent, but they keep coming anyway. I take over the job and wipe them for her.
“Didn’t you ever wonder, Chi?” I ask.
“No,” she says brokenly. “No, I never wondered. He lied to me. For all those years, he lied .”
I sweep her hair out of her face and put her head on my shoulder. “You never asked, baby. He never asked about your life, either. He was private, Chi. He needed to be; he probably thought he’d be ruined if it ever came out.”
She sobs harder. “But not by me ! I wouldn’t have ruined him! And he was gay all this time and didn’t even tell me!”
“Okay, Miss Chichi Yano. Are you serious?” Oxy cuts in, and I think I shoot her a severe ‘I’ll kill you if you continue’ look, but as usual, she just steamrolls right through it. “Your father was head of the fucking Yakuza. Do you know how many strings he probably had to pull just to get them to accept you as his heir in any way, shape, or form? What do you think they would have said about him being gay, little princess? What do you think the world would have said?”
She shakes her head and crosses her arms over her chest. “He needed everyone to think something about him that wasn’t true, and the best way to do that was to deny himself the life he probably wanted. And guess who he did it for? His sweet little Chichi-chan, who cried and stuck her face into her protector’s comforting shoulder when she learned he was gay after his death. You gotta be kidding.”
Chi gathers in all of her breath, as if Oxy has just slapped her across the face. Her tears have dried over the course of Oxy’s inadvisable tirade, and she turns slowly to face her with the look of a dreaded tyrant, about to order her head on a fucking platter. She steps closer to Oxy, and there they are: two tiny, five-foot-nothing girls, facing off with each other like they’re about to fight to the death.
“No, I’m not fucking kidding.” Chi says, her mouth a straight line, her eyes spitting dark fire. “I couldn’t care less that he was gay. It’s that he didn’t trust me enough to tell me, even after grooming me and getting me ready for this life from when I was young. He didn’t tell me why he and my mother were estranged. This explains so much — so much that I wanted to know throughout my life and that he told me wasn’t for my ears. Didn’t matter, because it would never be the way I wanted it to be. We would never be a perfect little family, and I needed to let that go.”
She takes a breath, but she’s not done yet. “And Daiki. Daiki was like the soft side of my father. It makes so much sense now, but I never even got to see them together. I don’t even know what it was like for the two main male role models of my life to have been sweet with each other. They kept that side away from me so well that I never even questioned it. He could have let me in on that. I would have loved to see him… happy.”
Her voice breaks. “He was always so unhappy. Always so stern and unyielding. To see him let someone in… it would have been…” she trails off to let out a small, quiet sob, but recovers quickly.
“And you !” She takes another step toward Oxy, who wears a look of what I can only describe as satisfaction on her face, and stabs her in the chest with her pointer finger. “ You think you can step in and judge my feelings about my father? About this whole situation? Are you insane? Do you want me to fucking kill you? Because I will end you right now.”
Oxy lets the smile she’s been holding in come, and she gently — or as gently as she ever does anything — removes Chi’s hand from her chest. “Usually no one touches me, but I’ll let it slide this time, babe. I’m glad you’re not the spoiled asshole I thought you were.”
Her face doesn’t change, but her tone does, ever so slightly. “Chi… your father had to keep this a secret, even from you. Do you think he told you everything about his life? Think about how much he shared with you and how much you shared with him. It’s not like you had long chats over Monday breakfast after you spent all weekend in the club.”
Chi is still wary of Oxy’s explanation, but her gaze travels away slowly, thinking. Oxy continues. “Your father did so many things to try and protect you. To try and make your life easier. Unfortunately, he just didn’t include you in them, and you didn’t push to be included because… well, probably because your entire culture screams that you’re not supposed to do that. Either way, your father and Daiki were there for you the way parents would have been. So who gives a shit about the rest of it?”
Chi’s eyes fall, and she allows some sorrow to creep into her words. “Well, I still give a shit about it. I do wish I had gotten to see them together.”
“No one got to see them together,” Oxy declares. “I doubt your father even knew I saw everything I saw. I widened the scope of some of the lenses… it was pretty obvious that he was always trying to hide out in the corners.” Oxy chuckles. “Wish I had talked to him more. Every time he called me, it was to lament that I was a woman instead of a man, and to tell me what a subpar job I was doing.”
Chi finally laughs, although it ends in a sob. “Sounds like classic Akio Yano.” She wipes at her eyes and shakes her head, sniffling. “Not that I should be making light of his sexist remarks, but… I still loved him.”
Oxy seems to have reached the end of her peopling skills for the day, and she backs off to let me try and pick up Chi’s little pieces. I take her again and hug her fiercely. “Of course you did, baby. And he loved you too. He was stuck in an impossible position. But he did what he thought was best for you. That’s what matters.”
Oxy turns her back to us and starts tapping away on her keyboard, and suddenly she’s talking again, as if the heartfelt conversation we just had is nothing. “So. Japan, huh? We are pretty close with them. As a country and in Cas’s organization.” She reaches into one of the three open bags near her desk and pulls a handful of chips out. “We have access to some of their satellites. I can see if I can hack into a few of their big government systems. But I can’t promise the world.”
She shoves chips into her mouth while her other hand continues typing and keeps speaking with her mouth full as she crunches down. “I’ve got a lot of people who want to know who I am and where I am, and not to send me fucking roses, either. And I’m not going to one of those jacked-up safehouses again, so there’s no way I’m putting my—” She takes a huge sip of the Taco Bell soda sitting next to the keyboard and then continues speaking as if there was no break in her sentence at all. “—ass on the line just so you can feel safe moving around a foreign country whose laws crack down, like, even harder on this shit than ours do.”
I’ve had a lot of experience unpacking Oxy’s bitchfests, so I pick out the parts of her monologue that I want to discuss. “Okay, so what do you think you’ll be able to do? Are street cameras on the table? Individual houses?”
Oxy shrugs. “Most side-of-the-road businesses use cheap security that’s easy to hack into, so I should be able to follow you pretty easily in big hubs. But in more rural areas, it all depends on the system the houses use. It’s similar to how it is here, but in America, I can pretty much hack anything. I’m not as used to the Japanese mainframes as the ones here. So, if it’s a Ring camera or something, I can hack it in seconds. If it’s a big name Japanese company or an area protected by government satellites and shit, it might take a while. Basically, what I’m saying is, advance requests are appreciated.”
Oxy steamrolls all of this right out of her mouth in under a minute, staring intensely at her screen the entire time, at a page of scrolling letters that I assume is code for another project she’s working on. Probably not a video game this time. “I’m going to assume that the big mansions on the cliffs near where Chi’s mom and brother live are out, then?”
Oxy shrugs with her back still turned to us. “Do you have any knowledge of their systems over there? Either of you?”
Chi and I exchange a glance, and we both sigh and shake our heads simultaneously.
“I didn’t think so. Akio was mad secretive; he didn’t spill anything to me about it, either. I snooped around a little, but he paid me a shitload of money, so I didn’t want him finding out I was attempting to spy on him.”
She thinks for another moment before shrugging. “So if we have no knowledge of the system there, it’ll be tough to get in and stay in. They have some serious protections up over there.”
“Wait, so you can’t hack into the Japan mansion while we’re there? We’ll be effectively on our own?” asks Chi.
Oxy looks at Chi with a snarky little curl of the lip. “It’s like the wards up all over Hogwarts, sweetie. It’s pretty hard to get in.” At least I know that Hogwarts has something to do with Harry Potter, so I make the connection to magic in my head and laugh inwardly.
Chi ignores the quip. “And elsewhere, too. I mean, the only people I know there are rich people. They’re not going to be putting up cameras from Best Buy. They’re going to use the highest tech shit, like I do. And we’re definitely going to have to go out and explore, Andy. We’re going to have meetings and parties and shit like that. So it’s just going to be you and me?”
I put a hand out on her shoulder to calm her down a little, because it looks like she’s really worrying over this. I knew there was some risk in going to Japan, and I have to allay her fears a bit. “We’re just going to have to be extra careful, Chi. Watch our backs a little more than usual. We’ll take some men with us, and it’s not like Oxy won’t be helping, she just won’t be as on top of things. There might be some black spots, but she is pretty quick.”
“Pretty quick?” Oxy scoffs at me before turning to Chi. “My brain is a fucking Hewlett-Packard Z8 G4 with 56 cores and three full terabytes of RAM.”
I barely understand half of the words that just came out of Oxy’s mouth, but Chi’s brows fly up. “Think pretty highly of yourself, don’t you? And there’s no way any HP holds 56 fucking cores.”
“It does! I’m getting one shipped here next week.” Oxy pulls one of several phones from her back pocket and scrolls for a moment before shoving it in Chi’s face. “See? Suck it.”
Chi stares at the phone for a second, at what I assume is a purchase order of some sort, before a small smile breaks out over her face. “Okay, fine.”
“Ha!” Oxy gives a rare full smile. “Listen, babe, I got your back, okay? I’m the best; trust me. Way better than that asshole.” Oxy quirks her finger at me and smiles at Chi, and I decide to end this encounter before I get more irrationally jealous than I already am.
“Okay Chee-chee. I think it’s time to go.” I look back at Oxy as I hustle Chi out the door. “I’ll be in touch. Get me that info.”