Vol 4 Chapter 1.2 (1/2)
This is a continuation of PART A.
* * *
”Nezumi!” Inukas.h.i.+ yelled, stomping on the blanket. ”This isn't what you promised. What the h.e.l.l were you doing?”
”Hush, stop barking.” Nezumi rummaged through the coat of the man he had just tied up, and extracted a leather pouch out of one of its pockets. ”Take a cue from your dogs, Inukas.h.i.+. Lie down and shut up.”
”Stop s.h.i.+tting me,” Inukas.h.i.+ snarled. ”Why didn't you come out sooner?”
”I forgot my line, so I was re-reading my script,” Nezumi replied mildly. ”Sorry about that.”
”You must be kidding me. f.u.c.king. Kidding. Me. You half-a.s.sed fraud, you third-rate actor. You're more cunning than a fox, and more shameless than a pig. I'm never gonna trust you again. I hope you get bitten by fleas, and get all the blood sucked out of you so you wither and die.”
”Stop yapping already, will you? It's not even something to get that angry about. Alright, I was two, three minutes late coming out. That's it.”
”And in those two, three minutes I got licked on the neck and molested on my leg.”
Nezumi flashed a gentle, wry smile, like one of a mother directed toward her whining child.
”Inukas.h.i.+, it's the benefit of the experience. You've just had the precious experience of getting your neck licked by a high official of No. 6. You can store it away as a good memory.”
Inukas.h.i.+'s clenched fist trembled. His black eyes glittered in his tan face.
”Besides,” he said, ”why me? Why couldn't you have done it instead?”
”Why do I have to do it?”
”Because you'd make the perfect prost.i.tute. You lure men in, and make them completely weak and helplessly infatuated. A liar, a wanton, with a nasty personality to boot. You wouldn't even have to put on an act.”
It was then that s.h.i.+on finally spoke to Inukas.h.i.+. Until now, he had been watching everything unfold in a daze, unable to keep up.
”Inukas.h.i.+, that's going too far. Don't say any more.”
”Same goes for you, s.h.i.+on,” Inukas.h.i.+ turned on him next. ”Why didn't you come rus.h.i.+ng out the moment that man sat on the bed? That was how we planned it, right?”
”Yeah, but―” He was right. In their briefing before the event, they had agreed to wait until Fura, the high official from the Central Administration Bureau, had been brought in by Rikiga. When he sat on the bed, they were to burst out from behind the part.i.tion and apprehend him. That was the plan, and s.h.i.+on had intended to act on it.
But Nezumi had stopped him. He had grabbed him by the shoulder as if to say, ”don't burst out yet.” The bed was creaking unpleasantly. The man had inched closer to Inukas.h.i.+. s.h.i.+on could almost feel Inukas.h.i.+'s panic as if it were his own. But Nezumi still did not move. He remained crouched in the darkness, so silent that not even his breathing could be heard.
”I'm going home. Get out of the way!”
The man's hand drew something out of his pocket. And in the same soundless way, Nezumi's body glided forward. s.h.i.+on was not able to sense Nezumi's movements at all. Although he had been squatting right beside him, he had not even been able to sense the air around him move as he s.h.i.+fted.
”Why don't you hang out with us a little longer? We'd give you such a good time, you'd melt on the spot.”
Once he heard Nezumi's voice pierce through the mult.i.tude of layered wind-whistles, s.h.i.+on finally stepped out from behind the part.i.tion and stood beside Inukas.h.i.+. By this time, the man was already groaning quietly on the floor.
Inukas.h.i.+ clicked his teeth, with his nose wrinkled in a menacing scowl.
”'Yeah but'? 'Yeah but' what, huh? Is taking care of dogs all you're good for? You useless, airheaded idiot!”
s.h.i.+on couldn't talk back. He was well aware of how unskilled and useless he was, once he had been cornered. Nothing was quite as painful as an insult that hit the mark with its grain of truth.
Nezumi bent down and picked the handgun off the floor. He moved it around on his palm as if to check its weight.
”It's a self-defense gun, latest model. It's pretty small, but if you got hit point-blank, it would be fatal. I just thought it'd be more trouble if we risked letting him swing this thing around.”
”And that's why you decided to take your sweet time, and wait until this pervert took out his gun.”
”It reduces the risk of danger.”
”Risk? Why, isn't that just splendid,” Inukas.h.i.+ said sarcastically. ”While I was dealing with this perverted b.a.s.t.a.r.d over here, you two were busily discussing the risks. Guess great minds are just different from us, huh? I almost want to ask you to give a special lecture to my dogs, next time.”
”Don't be sarcastic. Here, look.”
Nezumi turned the leather pouch upside-down, and shook it lightly. Five golden coins spilled out onto the table.
”Five golds, huh. Loaded himself down quite a bit for just one night of fun, didn't he, old man.”
”Actually, not really,” Rikiga opened his mouth. His voice was heavy and hoa.r.s.e, a startling difference from his earlier cavalier tone.
”I told him I had a woman that was unusual, different from the prost.i.tutes he usually has. I had to charge him considerably more than usual, or else he'd be suspicious. He's a cautious one.”
”I see.”
Nezumi plucked a gold coin up.
”Here, Inukas.h.i.+. Your share.”
The coin was tossed into the air, bounced off Inukas.h.i.+'s fingers as he s.n.a.t.c.hed at it, and fell on the floor at s.h.i.+on's feet. s.h.i.+on picked it up and handed it to Inukas.h.i.+. His tan fingers were trembling.
”Inukas.h.i.+?”
His lips were pursed, and he looked like he was about to cry at any minute. s.h.i.+on had never seen this expression on him before. His shoulders and arms were shaking slightly as well.
He must've been really scared.
Inukas.h.i.+, who had several dozen dogs at his command, lived in ruins, and with fierceness and strength survived each day, was not able to restrain his shaking body. s.h.i.+on tried to imagine just how much fear and humiliation he had gone through.
s.h.i.+on didn't know how old Inukas.h.i.+ was. Inukas.h.i.+ himself probably didn't know either. Most of the West Block's residents were not certain of their age, parents, birthplace, nor whether they had a life to live tomorrow. But he could imagine that Inukas.h.i.+ was very young, much younger than himself at sixteen years. He knew that Inukas.h.i.+ engaged in fraudulent activities, theft, and even extortion without batting an eyelash. Inukas.h.i.+ was seldom bothered by being railed at or having insults hurled his way. But he had not been able to bear playing the bait in this farce, staged on the bed in a dimly-lit room.
He was still that young.
Inukas.h.i.+'s angry bellows and profanities were but the other side of the fear he really felt.
”I'm sorry,” s.h.i.+on found himself saying softly. ”I've done a horrible thing to you. I'm really, really sorry, Inukas.h.i.+.”
Inukas.h.i.+'s brown eyes blinked. Their rims were red. His lips moved soundlessly. s.h.i.+on placed a hand on his bony shoulder. He didn't think the gesture was nearly enough to soothe the other boy's anger or confusion. He knew he would not be forgiven. But he had remembered one thing. When he was still young, his mother Karan would often put a hand on his shoulder like this. He had remembered the comforting warmth that soaked into his body from that gentle hand, wordlessly placed. That was all.
Inukas.h.i.+ didn't resist. He s.h.i.+fted a little, and pressed his forehead against s.h.i.+on's arm.
”b.a.s.t.a.r.ds... I hate you all.”
”Mm-hmm,” s.h.i.+on murmured.
”I hated... hated it, so much...”
”I know.”
”I tried so hard not to scream ― scream for you guys, ask why you weren't coming out... I tried as―as hard as I could, you know.”
Sorry, s.h.i.+on murmured again, and gripped his shoulder firmly.
Huh?
Agitation raced through him. He had felt in his fingertips, a softness of the flesh he had not expected at all. The shoulder was thin and bony, but soft. It was not hard, taut and bulging with muscle, but soft and rounded in a curve.
It reminded him of Safu's shoulders in the few times they had touched his own.
Could it be ― but how ―
At almost the same time that s.h.i.+on gazed at Inukas.h.i.+, Inukas.h.i.+ detached himself from s.h.i.+on's arm, and Nezumi tossed another gold coin. This time, Inukas.h.i.+'s hand securely s.n.a.t.c.hed it.
”Bonus allowance.”
”How nice. Most honourable of you, Nezumi.”
”You haven't done the work for free. You agreed to be the bait in exchange for money.”
”No need to tell me, I already know.”
”Then don't go yammering on about it now. Two gold coins for less than ten minutes of work. Can't find a job like this just anywhere.”
”I told you, I know!” Inukas.h.i.+ repeated loudly. ”But you can count me out of any future roles like this. You can step in for me, or this airheaded young master here.”
”There won't be a next time.”
Nezumi shoved the rest of the three gold coins in Rikiga's direction. ”The rest is for the old man's taking.”
”How about you guys?”
”Don't need it.”
”Modest in your desires, aren't you?”
”You can say that.”
”Or are you saying that because money's gonna be useless from here on anyway?”
”Probably will be.”
”I see...”
Nezumi's grey eyes studied Rikiga's alcohol-flushed face.
”What's wrong?” he said. ”Why the grave face?”
Rikiga didn't answer.
”Gold coins, old man. Your favourite. Why aren't you accepting them? Not like they're smeared with poison, at least I don't think so.”
”Probably not smeared with poison. We've got something much more troublesome.”
The brown liquid sloshed around in his gla.s.s. The sharp smell of alcohol drifted into the air and a.s.saulted the nose. Rikiga took another swig of the cheap liquor, and coughed weakly.