23. Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Andy
I feel super high. It reminds me of the interrogations. Not just the ones the enemies put us through; honestly, the ones from our own unit were worse. There were drugs and lots of different types of torture. I’ve had a high threshold for pain since I was a child, but now there’s no limit at all. Which might be why I got shot and barely even felt it until I…
Chi . I passed out while I was with Chi doing… something really fucking dangerous.
I fight through the grip these potent drugs have on me, which probably isn’t as hard as it should be since pain meds just juice me up like the fucking Hulk. There’s definitely some kind of barbiturate in the mix as well, but I can fight the effects a bit now that I’m conscious.
The first thing that greets me as I sit up is a picture of Chi sobbing as her brother locks her arms to her sides with his. I’m immediately on the defensive; it looks like a coercive embrace, and I’m up immediately, heedless of the tubes and wires connected to me. I’ve already gotten a hold of Akihito’s neck and am pulling his annoyingly calm face to mine when I hear Chi’s voice somewhere in the background of my rage.
“Andy, stop, stop! It’s okay! I’m fine!” Her words process a second later, but I don’t budge, so she continues. “Fuck! He pulled his stitches anyway, Akihito! I told you that you shouldn’t have sedated him.”
“Fucking barbiturates; I knew it,” I say directly into his face, feeling the slight spray of saliva from the slur of my words. “You drugged me, you little shit.”
Although I’m squeezing his neck pretty hard, his voice is barely affected. “Ah. You must be among the 25% of the population that has an atypical response to narcotics. You’re awake hours before expected and the strength you’re exhibiting while on the dosage of sedatives you’ve been given—”
“You’re gonna need to shut the fuck up,” I say, spitting in his face again. It’s not on purpose, but I certainly don’t mind. It’s his own fucking fault.
Chi grabs my arm, but she doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. As I stop for a minute and become more aware of my situation, I realize that I am, in fact, bleeding through multiple bandages, and she’s probably afraid of injuring me further. It might be a better idea to slow down and listen to what she has to say.
Chi’s fingers grip into my forearm and her eyes lock on mine as I look over to her. “He saved you, Andy. He saved both of us. And he tried to stop you from ripping your stitches, but that was an epic fail.”
I go to drop Akihito back into his chair, but he’s stronger than I thought and doesn’t even stumble as I push him down. He straightens and smooths down his shirt, studying me with the same detached interest as he’s always shown. “I’ve never seen anyone shake off our drugs this effectively before,” he says, and I think I might hear a hint of intrigue in his voice.
My only answer is an arrogant grunt.
“Andy…” Chi approaches me like I’m a wounded animal. I grab her face and inspect her gaze for any indication that they’ve drugged or coerced her in some way, but I see nothing. She just lets me, eyeing me warily, and in the haze of my addled thoughts, I think we probably look a bit like King Kong and Ann Darrow. I grunt again, this time in the form of a laugh, while wondering how a month of watching movies with Chi has left such an impression on me.
She grabs my hands, which have now fallen to her neck as I inspect her body, and she threads her fingers through mine. “I’m okay, Andy. I’m okay. But you are bleeding through your bandages now, and we need to get you stitched up again.”
I eye Akihito warily. “I don’t think I want his minions touching me before he tells me what the fuck is going on.”
Akihito doesn’t seem concerned in the slightest. “I have a lot to discuss with the both of you. But Chi can assure you that I’m not trying to hurt anyone. In fact, the doctor is one of the team that just surgically removed the bullet fragments from your iliac crest.”
“The fuck did you just say to me?” I ask, feeling very perturbed.
“Andy, they surgically removed the bullet fragments from your body. They saved us from the Kantoku-sha . They’re not trying to hurt you.”
I catch a small, red, puckered mark on her upper arm. “Hey, what happened to you? I know what this is.”
“It’s fine. I um…” she trails off, giving her brother a side-long glance.
“We used tranq guns because we needed to move you both quickly. We couldn’t have her struggling against us.”
I know what he’s saying is the only logical thing he could have done, but this admission burns through me, stoking the embers of my simmering anger. I have to deny the immediate urge to strangle the fuck out of him until his trachea cracks under my fingers, but it’s still a struggle to keep my hands to myself. A sound like a low growl from a possessive dog comes from between my gritted teeth, and I clutch Chi tighter.
“Ow, Andy, easy,” she whispers. Using extreme restraint, I ease up my grip and try to impale her brother with my gaze.
“So you always drug people before you take them back here?” I ask scornfully.
“We often use tranqs in situations where we want to interrogate subjects. We have found detaining subjects this way to be just as effective as using a gun. Actually, more useful 92% of the time. We figured we might be able to grab a wayward employee near the building to interrogate, along with the two of you.”
This pisses me off all over again. “Ah, so you wanted even more out of that little mission, huh?”
“We are having what I would describe as a… serious problem with the Kantoku-sha . We are quite certain that someone from their organization killed Akio and Daiki.”
“Yes, the men who Andy tortured all but confirmed that. Who are they?” Chi asks, pushing me down onto my bed. I let her because, to be honest, although I don’t even feel a twinge of pain, my body is practically screaming at me to rest. But I still have a lot of fucking questions.
“There isn’t much known about them, but I’ve gotten bits and pieces of information from Daiki over the years. Akio and Daiki were affiliated with them for a long time. From what limited information I have been able to gather on my own, I know that they were once like a branch of the Yakuza. Somewhat like… the American government of checks and balances. They were the judges.”
Akihito sits gracefully down on one of the chairs next to my bed and motions for Chi to do the same. “They made the decisions about how the organizations in the country, and thus the country itself, would move forward. But like most organizations, especially the ones that are tangential to government and not as well run, they began to fall to greed and the corruption within the corruption. I believe Akio and Daiki were headed in a different direction from them, which is one reason why they were targeted. I also know that many months ago, there was an attempt by an Italian mafia boss to kill him. The boss who attempted the hit was part of this group. It was rumored that he was having a difficult time with one of the bosses there.”
I know exactly who he’s talking about, and as I meet Chi’s eyes, I can see that she does as well. She doesn’t say it, so I do. “Giardi.”
Akihito nods. “We sent one of our men to interrogate him in prison. He got a lot of information before he had to kill him. He told us that part of the reason he sent men to our father’s mansion was because he had to kill him. He had a price on his head. Someone in the Kantoku-sha wanted him dead, but even he didn’t know who. Giardi was so fucked on multiple fronts, to be honest. I don’t know how he even stayed alive for as long as he did.”
“But the intruders said they wanted Mara,” Chi says.
“Maybe they wanted Mara and your father,” I point out. “Maybe they were trying to kill two birds with one stone.” Chi winces at my phrasing, and then I do a moment later when I realize why. “Sorry, I mean… maybe they wanted to…”
“It’s okay,” Chi whispers, giving me a reassuring squeeze.
Akihito continues, as unmoved as ever. “Apparently, the Kantoku-sha still passes down judgment, mainly of who lives or dies. Unfortunately, those who don’t buy into them, don’t give them information they want, or just won’t pay the extravagant dues, are the ones who end up being killed.”
I have to admit, I am more than a little discombobulated. “Like a… mafia for the mafia?”
“Precisely,” Akihito says. “You know you’ve really made it when the Kantoku-sha comes after you. But they have the power to demand it.”
“Who knew that Japan was housing all of these enormous superpowers?”
Akihito smiles. “We are taught to be the epitome of modesty, honor, and respect, while housing the most cunning, scheming of intellects. Consider the ninjas and samurais — this is what they always strived for. It is embedded into our culture.”
“Americans just don’t get it,” Chi says, with that little coy look she always gives me. “They are all ‘I want, I want, I want.’ They don’t realize that there is so much more power in denying what you want, showing that you are worthy of it to yourself and others, and then finally getting it.”
“I think you’re talking about yourself,” I say, cocking a sluggish eyebrow.
She purses her lips together. “I make sure to consider the pros and cons of everything before I make a decision. Before I just steamroll over everything.”
“I don’t steamroll over everything,” I say, immediately regretting the childish need to make sure she doesn’t think of me that way.
I’m not too upset about it, though, when she says, “Of course you don’t. Otherwise, I wouldn’t love you.” She slides her fingers through my hair and gives me a harsh kiss, which I return with fervor.
“Pardon the intrusion, but I believe Andy needs to get his stitches taken care of and then heal so that we can make a plan to mutilate the fuckers who killed our father and Daiki.”
Chi moves from me to her brother, giving him a fierce hug. “ Watashitachi wa karera ni hokori o motte moraimasu, aniki, ” she says. We will make them proud, brother.
“I think we have a good possibility of doing so,” her brother says, hugging her back.
I’ve had to recover from near-mortal wounds too many times for my own good. I think of all the times I’ve been shot, bombed, or poisoned and wonder how I’m still alive. Even with my near lack of ability to feel pain, it doesn’t feel good at all.
There are great things about being unable to feel pain. You can keep pushing and pushing past most people’s physical limits. The systems in your body don’t malfunction. I can be tortured over and over again and feel only a general sense of extreme discomfort, with the anxiety of possibly dying hanging over my head. Compared to what others feel while being tortured, that’s nothing.
But there are some pretty bad things about not feeling pain, also. It’s the same issue many run into when they’re prescribed too much pain medication and feel like a superhero for a few days, during which time they live the same life they always have instead of taking it easy like the doctor says. When they go without the pain medication for a day, suddenly they are completely drained and still not healed, since they didn’t give their body a chance to rest. I don’t feel much of the pain and care little about the discomfort, so I don’t always notice a problem until I’ve ripped a stitch and feel the blood, or I’m literally half passed out in Akihito’s training room.
“You’re like a robot,” Chi says with wonder a little over a week later, while helping me to the infirmary after I try to figure out Akihito’s nunchucks for hours. She nearly falls onto bed with me as I sit down heavily. “Must learn nunchucks. Beep boop. Must continue practicing. Boop bop beep. Battery low… shutting downnnn.” I roll my eyes at her childish little display, but I’m sure I can’t hide that I actually love it all.
“You have to rest, Andy. If you don’t, you are going to really hurt yourself. And worst of all, we need to discuss the next move with Akihito, and he won’t even consider doing it until you’re back at 100%.”
I shrug. “I feel fine, Chi.”
“But you’re not fine. It’s like you could be half dead and not even know it.”
“I’d know it. I’m not that immune to pain.” I lie back on the bed and stretch out, feeling a stitch pull and lowering my arm so I don’t rip them open for the third time. “I mean, a few weeks ago, I definitely wasn’t feeling great with that punctured lung.”
She raises her eyebrow. “You were awake the next day, and your buddy had to force you to stay in bed.”
I shrug again. “I healed quickly.”
“You didn’t have a ninja rec room to play with, either.”
I don’t really feel like arguing, so I just smile and grab her, pulling her to me roughly. “Like I said, I feel just fine.”
Her mouth drops when she feels my erection jutting into her. “None of that. Shop’s closed for at least,” she thinks about it for a moment, “a couple more days. The doctor here said nothing at all for two weeks.”
“Ugh,” I say, lying back. “I’m bored already.”
Akihito comes strolling into the room with his usual apathy to everything people related, and Chi sits up like a pupil, ready to learn. I’m no longer on medication, but my brows scrunch together in an angry gaze anyway. I hate it when he commands the room I’m in, especially when Chi is in it with me.
“We should really discuss what we found on that little gadget you brought with you the other day. The one that your computer tech gave you. There was a lot to decode, and we have nothing definitive, but perhaps if we talk it over, we can figure out what more of it means.”
“So it didn’t tell us who hired the killers then?” Chi asks in disappointment.
Akihito nearly smiles, and I swear the look in his eyes reminds me of the affection an older brother has for an overly idealistic younger sibling. “No, not quite. But we will get there. Your tech guru also said there was a party coming up in three days time for someone associated with the organization. We are invited, and although it has been a while since we’ve attended such an event, we can certainly make an appearance if we choose.”
Chi considers it for a moment. “I think it would make sense to announce that I’m here with a bang. It’s sort of my MO. Andy can be my hot American bodyguard. If he ever lets himself heal, that is.” She looks at me with a devilish little smirk. “If he doesn’t, I guess I’ll just have to ride solo.”
“Yeah, fuck that,” I say, grabbing her possessively around the waist and pulling her down next to me. “For now, let’s talk about what you’ve found; then we can talk about some stupid fucking party.”
Akihito nods and goes back to his stoicism as he explains what he found on the device. “There were some files that were too encrypted to unlock, but Oxy managed to crack into quite a few. Names are few and far between, but we did find something about our father and Daiki.”
I look at Chi’s face to make sure she’s going to be okay with whatever new information comes from Akihito. She has her lips pursed and takes a deep breath in, holding it to brace for whatever is coming. To my surprise, Akihito waits, and when I look back at his face, I notice that he’s making sure she’s okay the same way I am.
I still need to make sure. “Are you sure you want to hear this, Chi? Are you sure you can handle this right now?”
She lets go of all the breath she was holding and looks at me angrily. “I was getting myself prepared, and you ruined it. She huffs again, but then her face softens a bit. “It doesn’t matter whether I can handle it well or not. It won’t kill me, and that’s all that matters. I need to hear what the plan is and how to find the fuckers who killed them, Andy. So yes, I’m as ready as I can be, because I want Akihito to tell me.”
Akihito waits with a bored look to be given the green light to speak. I sigh and nod at him, and he continues. “Andy is right to worry, Chichi. The fact is that father and Daiki were known to this organization, of course, and worked in parallel with it just like all of the Yakuza leaders that had come before. But there was some sort of breakdown in communication, it seems. A rift that started years ago and seems to have only gotten worse. You see, their names are mentioned because they are not and never have been part of the society. You work with them, but only individuals work for them. Their mission is an unknown secret. Yes — power, money, greed — I’m sure it all comes into play, just like it did with Father and just like it does with every other billionaire.”
“Our father wasn’t… he wasn’t greedy …” Chi looks between us as we both give her a dubious glance. She sighs. “I mean, that just makes him sound so… bad. He wasn’t really hurting anyone.”
Akihito gives her a tight, patronizing smile, and she winces at the gesture, likely knowing how na?ve she sounds. She doesn’t know what to say, though. She wants to defend him and knows she can’t.
“I’m sure our father had many honorable attributes, Chi. But philanthropy was not one of them.”
Chi sighs again. “Okay. So he got on this organization’s bad side. In what way? Why?”
“Well… we think it has something to do with you. It began around the time that you were announced to his closest associates as his heir, right after your 16 th birthday. He tried to keep it quiet, but word got around. And I had been out of the picture for a long, long time by then.”
“So… you think it’s because he chose me to be his heir?” She’s sounding panicked, like she can’t get a solid breath. Akihito sees her anxiety, but likely having little experience with a grieving young woman, he stalls for his next words.
Chi fills the silence with her own words, and unfortunately, they’re all the ones I wish she wasn’t thinking. “I’m the reason?” she asks voicelessly. “I’m the reason they’re dead ?”
“Chi, stop,” I say, grabbing at her to pull her in for a hug.
She pushes me away, and I lean back so I don’t accidentally rip a stitch. “No! You’re not going to tell me that it’s all just fine! You’re not going to pretend that this is all okay! I should have known , Andy. I should done something. Instead, I just let them protect me, like I always did. But this time they—they—”
I grab her just before she starts bawling her eyes out, and although she struggles a bit, I think it’s more against herself than me. She wants me hugging her — she knows she needs me right now to keep herself together — but I fear that she’s beginning to hate herself a little bit.
I don’t want her to take the blame when really, if anyone is to blame, it’s her father and brother. They should have never put this burden so heavily on her shoulders without ensuring that she had all of the tools necessary to see it through. Her brother should have taken better care of her — should have pushed further into her life and made a bigger role for himself. He should have fucking insisted, especially if he’s some well-rounded ninja superhero.
“It’s not your fault,” I say, gripping the back of her neck tight in the crook of my arm and grating the words out in a harsh whisper against her ear. “It’s not your fault that your father and Akihito made the choices they made and didn’t tell you about the dangers. It’s not your fault that they’re dead, Chi. It fucking sucks, but it’s not your fault.”
She can’t stop crying, but I hope she’s heard me. I hope she can hear some of what I’m saying. But she’s worked up in a way that she hasn’t been in days, possibly even weeks. And just like back then, I don’t know how to make it better.
I pull her into my bed and wave Akihito off. We’re going to have to finish this conversation later… or never, as far as I’m concerned. Chi thinks she can take on the whole world and welcomes it… until she can’t do it anymore. Until she just breaks and gives up, swallowed by a pit of despair until it spits her back out again. Then she pretends she’s fine, and the entire cycle starts all over again. But something has to give with her. She can’t continue on with all of this on her shoulders, but I can’t fathom what she could do to ease it.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to find any answers to the dilemma tonight, and we won’t be able to learn anything new either, with Chi the way she is. She gets so upset that I’m afraid she’s going to give herself a panic attack. The doctor comes in to check her over as she cries, but she pushes everything we try to do for her away. So, I lie with her on my own bed and hug her until she falls asleep. Just like I’ve done over and over again, and just like I’ll do as many times as she needs.