Fukusha Model Eight – Chapter 5

The crowd screams and surges to their feet as a fighter falls to the mats, his face a bloodied pulp, and his opponent struts around the ring, pounding his chest. I jump and scream along with them, pumping my fist in the air. That’s right! Yes!

“Victory is sweet,” I say, shaking my hips in a little dance. I bet on the right man this round, and an extra eighty credits will grace my virtual pocket in no time. What am I going to do with my windfall? I do owe a certain dog some tasty chow.

Saki and I laugh, raising our bottles of booze to each other and clinking them together. After our shift was over, I took Ninjin back to the flophouse the long way, grabbed my tablet and bag, and tiptoed out of the building. Haku wasn’t in his apartment, probably out pushing drugs on the street and pimping his latest girls, so I got lucky not running into him. I won’t be able to avoid him forever, though, and I don’t want to. What I want to do is have him ‘taken care of.’ And he knows I can. My life, once again, teeters just on the safe side of the disaster line.

We both look at my tablet as it lights up with a notification that I’ve been transferred my eighty credits. Across the ring, the bookie makes eye contact with me, winking and giving me a quick salute.

Saki leans close to my ear. “He likes you,” she teases.

“I don’t give a shit.”

She snorts in laughter and turns to boo the loser as he gets dragged off the mats. She’s on fire tonight, boisterous and talking up a storm to anyone who’ll listen. I’ll never forget the first time I came to a fight with her. She reminded me of Kazuo, of all people. Man, I miss him. I wonder where he is.

“But seriously, I hear he doesn’t sleep around. Probably even disease-free.” Her smirk is satisfied. “I bet he’d be a good lay and then you wouldn’t have to be so stinking celibate.”

I chug from my bottle of alcohol and relish the sweet taste of citrus and shochu. I bought the bottle myself from a convenience store before showing up here. I’m too paranoid to drink anything from the makeshift bar in this place. Who knows what they put in those drinks? I don’t want to wake up in some alley not knowing what happened to my life ten hours after having a dodgy cocktail.

“Speaking of celibacy, when was the last time you got laid?” I ask, elbowing her.

“Touché, Yumi.” She sighs dramatically, throwing her arms in the air and growling. “I don’t need a man in my life. What I need is a bank full of credits and a beach vacation.” We amble away from the ring to the bleachers.

Well, I can’t argue with her about a vacation. Though I’m pretty certain Saki isn’t gay, I’m not surprised she doesn’t need a man. Come to think of it, I’m not really sure who she’s interested in because I’ve never seen her flirt with anybody but Koro.

“Well, you’ve already won two fights, and if you win the next one, you get the pot. How much is it tonight?” I ask, sitting down. My legs ache from a day spent hiking and standing.

“Three hundred and sixty credits,” she says, rubbing her hands together. Her knuckles are red, and she’s taped up a finger, but otherwise, you’d never know she already kicked two burly women and one idiot man to the mats.

I whistle, impressed with the pot tonight. “That’s a lot of money. Did they change the buy-in?”

“Yeah, but no big deal. I can afford it.” She takes another sip of her drink before recognizing someone in the crowd. “Hey, I’ll be right back. I see someone from one of my other jobs.”

I wave to her as she heads off, leaning back in my corner bleacher spot. Normally, I like to sit right at the front for the whole night, but with an annoyed Haku on my case and the possibility that Rin may show up here, I figured I should try to stay out of the thick of the crowd.

This corner of the warehouse is absolutely disgusting, and I make sure none of my naked skin touches anything. Down below my spot, two people make out against the supports, their hands everywhere, and a graveyard of drug paraphernalia and empty bottles litter the surrounding ground.

I am never going down there.

Every time the bleachers shift, my heart jumps, confident the damned things will come crashing down. I miss the reliability and cleanliness of Shin-Osaka, before the androids burnt everything to the ground.

Will I see Rin tonight? I checked our usual text thread in the forum, and there was still nothing there from him. His silence is nerve-racking. Rin is the responsible type. If he’s going to show up here, he’d have given me advanced notice, especially if he’s been in town for more than a day. I could understand him showing up unannounced if something went wrong, but not if he’s eating Italian dinners and chatting with a local waitress like Saki.

I close my eyes for a minute and remember his promise to me when we separated, “You are my number one priority. I’m going to find Shiroi Nami for you so we can go.” Back home to Orihimé. He wanted to go there with me.

He did, right? The time he confessed that to me in his apartment is fading from memory. Perhaps it was a dream.

I sigh as I try to grasp the memory. Why do I feel like I’ll never make it home alive? There must be an easier way to get what I need.

I open my eyes and glance at the crowd, Saki’s description of Rin in my head. Ugh. This is not right.

When we first landed on Hikari, I promised myself I would trust my instincts. My instincts are a big, red, blinking do-not-enter sign. My gut is in revolt. It’s telling me that my three months here are about to come to an abrupt end.

I turn my bottle around and around in my hands while I think of all my options.

One, in an emergency, I can leave Kitakyushu the way I came in. I pack up my measly belongings, buy a crate for Ninjin, and get on a ship out of here. But that is the last thing I want to do. First of all, the trip here was absolute torture. Ninjin did a whole lot better than I did. He must’ve been a sailor in a previous life. I was sick almost the entire time, and I landed at the docks at least five kilos lighter than usual. And then I went through hell trying to get a foothold here. I don’t want to give up that advantage now. Returning to the Northern Continent would put me in a lot more trouble than I’m already in. I’m sure Narumi Ogawa, the head of Aoi Uma, is looking for me and deserting my post will get me killed.

Two, I say screw you to Atsumi, and I appeal to Yori Okamoto through the emergency contact boards we designated before I left on this mission. Technically, Atsumi is supposed to handle my well-being, even though she’s done a shit job of it so far. Case in point, when I asked for a small apartment, I didn’t think she’d put me where I am now. Sometimes, I get the feeling she’s trying to kill me, and I’m afraid to ask for anything else. But it could take days or even weeks for Okamoto to get back to me, and it’s possible my life is in danger right now.

Three, I stay put and ride out anything that comes my way.

I can’t dally. I need to find a weapon and determine a safe place for me to stay should everything turn to shit. I have to consider Ninjin in all of this as well because I love that silly dog. He’s like family to me now, and I can’t let anything bad happen to him. My eyes tear up as I imagine him getting hurt or having to leave him behind. But if I had to, I could leave him with Saki’s landlord. The old lady loves it when I show up with Ninjin, and Ninjin adores her too since she feeds him dog biscuits she makes herself.

I sniff up and drag the palm of my hand up my face as I notice someone walking towards me. The bookie’s kid brother is sauntering my way. Great. I can’t let him see me cry. He’ll just try to extract more money out of me if he sees me weak and weepy.

I’ll have to distract him, and there’s only one way to do that. Do I want to make a crack about his cowboy boots and rockabilly hair? Yep, I definitely do.

“New boots, Hiroto? Thinking about wrestling up some cattle later?”

His face hardens. I’ve hit a sore spot. “There’s a reason why they call these shit-kickers, Yumi. Wouldn’t want to get on the business end of these, now, would you?”

I stare at him for a long moment before raising my eyebrows. “Tough night?” I ask, holding up my hands. “Usually you’re up for some good jokes.”

“Not tonight,” he says, pulling his small tablet from the back pocket of his pants. “Yakuza just arrived, and the boss is pissed. He’s already paid them to turn a blind eye, and they’re threatening to renege on the contract.”

“Shit,” I whisper, looking around. I don’t see anyone I recognize… Yet.

“Anyway, boss wants to know if you’re interested in bidding on the next fights. He could use the extra work right now.”

“Yeah, fine.” On the projection hovering over my quarter of the bleachers, the list of upcoming fighters and their odds shifts to the last two bouts. This is the only way I see tōsha projections now, as signs for other businesses. I have to admit that I miss falling asleep amongst the stars. I miss falling asleep next to Rin, listening to his breathing, feeling the heat of his skin. I used to sleep soundly in bed with him. Now my nights are spent either staring at the ceiling or clutching my kitchen knife to my chest as I drift in and out of anxious dreams. “I’ll put forty credits on fighter number two in the next match. And eighty credits on Saki, of course.”

He sighs as he enters in my bid. “Of course. Doesn’t she always win? She should throw a match now and then, or the boss’ll stop letting her participate.”

I lean back to grab my tablet so we can pair up, and I can give him my credits. “I’m sure you can fool enough virgins into bidding against her.”

“Oh right, that reminds me,” he says, putting his tablet away and smoothing out his hair. I forgot to make a crack about his hair. “The boss is ready and willing to take your virginity whenever you’re ready.”

“Oh ouch. That one hurt,” I whine in mock pain. “Tell your boss I’m unavailable. As usual.”

I sigh as he walks off. Maybe the brown hair is more flattering than I originally gave it credit for.

“It looks like you’re not going to have any problem paying me back.”

Shit. Haku sits right next to me, and everyone else in the area gets up and walks away. No witnesses, right? My body shifts from relaxed and joking to straight-up tense.

Play it off, Yumi.

I stand up and dust my pants off. “I was just heading to the bar. Want anything?”

“Sit the fuck down,” he says, pointing at the bleacher seat. I cautiously sit, being sure to put more distance between us without being too obvious about it.

“You are a giant pain in my ass. Did you know that?”

I open my mouth, but he raises his hand.

“It was a rhetorical question.”

I’m surprised he even knows what rhetorical means.

“Before you came along, I did what I wanted, when I wanted to, and for however long I felt like it. When I cut the power in the building, that means it’s out. That does not mean you come along and tell me to turn it back on. I’ll turn it back on when I fucking feel like it. I’m sick of you interfering with it.”

“Your building is already inhumane and disgusting, and you want to make it more so?”

Bad move, Yumi. That was the alcohol talking, and it should’ve kept its mouth shut.

Haku’s face could stop a speeding truck. “It’s none of your business how I handle my building.”

Do I care about pissing him off? I’m not sure I do at this point. It’s been three months of living in his hellhole, dealing with his bullshit, and I have nothing to show for it. My mission could be over any day now. I should blow him off and get the hell out of town. But Ninjin is back at his building, and I don’t want to jeopardize his safety. Funny that I care more about my dog than I do about myself.

“How much do I owe you?” I grit out between clenched teeth.

He leans back, satisfied with my capitulation. “Two hundred credits to start —”

“To start?” I jump up.

“Don’t interrupt me.” He waits while I fume. “Yes, to start. I’m raising your rent.” He shrugs his shoulders. “I’ve got a guy who’s good at disappearing people, and he paid off Kiiroi Yama. They didn’t give a shit about you, anyway. Sold you off without a second thought.”

My knees shake as I register his words. Sold me off?

“The deed is already done. Hours ago. You just went poof.” He blows on his fingers, opening them like he’s spreading the last dust of my life to the wind. “Now you’ll start working for me because I own your ass.”

He pulls a mini-tablet out of his jacket pocket and shows me my profile, the same profile I last looked at when I arrived in Kitakyushu. I don’t need to look at it here. It doesn’t pop up often like it did in Shin-Osaka. But now, it looks much different. Owned by Haku Atago. Debt? 850,000 credits.

Oh shit. Sweat drips down my back as I consider a new angle on my life.

What if everything has been a gigantic lie? What if Kiiroi Yama and Atsumi sent me here to get rid of me? They could have easily stolen all the data off the data device — the one we brought from Orihimé, the only valuable thing I have — and then spent the last three months cracking the protected files. There were times when the data device was not with me. Rin and I left it behind in the house we stayed in after leaving Shin-Osaka several times to go grocery shopping or on dates. I trusted them not to steal from me, and my brain is fuzzy with alcohol and memory loss enough to not remember other times I left the device unprotected.

Plus, Atsumi has never liked me. Sure, we came to a shaky truce before I left on this mission, and she acknowledged that Rin and I made a good team. But something could have changed.

I bet something did.

“You’re not much to look at, but you’ll bring some money in turning tricks when you’re not at that miserable noodle shop. Oh, and I spoke to your boss there, too. All your wages will come to me from now on.”

My vision swims, fear and adrenaline pushing me closer to an anxiety attack.

Maybe he’s lying. He must be. I never trusted him before. Why would I trust him to tell me the truth now?

“You can’t do that,” I whisper. I look down the bleachers and across the ring to locate Saki. She’s watching the current fight, cheering on some poor underdog and talking to a tall man next to her wearing a baseball cap. She has no idea what I’m dealing with right now.

“I can and I will. I don’t take orders from anyone. Not you, not your friend, not Kiiroi Yama.” He gestures to my rear where two tattooed men wait behind us. “You better get to work. I’m sure you can find some guys looking for cheap sex here. These two will make sure you bring someone new home tonight.”

My stomach drops. Losing these two guys will not be easy. I’ll have to come up with something.

Haku stands up. “Chop chop, Yumi. Don’t keep me waiting for your credits.” He points his finger at me before walking away. “I don’t wait for anybody.”