Habara

With every association, the list of data lengthened. Encrypted channels, weapon pickup locations, contacts, all surfaced from the letter. Kanji gathered as much information as he could about them online.

All of them had one thing in common. A company called “Habara.”

Kanji played the video on the Habara site.

A mature man wearing a suit spoke in a confident voice:

“I am Ishiguro Shino, CEO of Habara Corp.”

He gestured his hand towards a screen beside him.

“Climate change has become a great risk to our modern way of life. At Habara, we accelerate natural carbon capture to rates previously thought impossible. We engineer biological systems that function like trees, but operate faster, more efficiently, and on a much larger scale…”

Nothing about him seems particularly malignant… So, why is he trying to kill me?

“This one stands out the most,” Yuki said. She pointed at an office building, significantly bigger than the rest.

“Yes. It has to be the headquarters.” Kanji said.

“Let’s head there immediately.”

Kanji gulped. He was still hesitant, yet Yuki’s haste made sense given the stated purpose of the assassination.

“The progression is an imminent event wherein new values will be created.”

“The progression has to be halted at all costs, or Japan will burn. We will become nothing but an example to the world.”

“The world as we know it will cease to exist. All that is pure will be impure, and all that is known becomes unknown.”

This contradicted everything Kanji believed. Don’t they see our society is falling apart? Don’t they see preserving our values is not the solution? So now he knew: “It’s either us or them.”

“This guy, Ishiguro Shino,” Yuki said, “we will find him at the top of the building.”

“Intuition?”

“Yes.”

“We should prepare properly this time, so we won’t be sur—”

A knock on the door.

Huh? I wasn’t expecting anyone at this hour.

Yuki cocked and aimed her revolver at the door. She glanced at Kanji.

Kanji took the hammer. He moved his feet softly, like a sneaking feline as he went to the door.

They already know I live here, did they send another assassin? He looked through the peephole. Out of focus, a woman, covered in dirt. It’s… Kanji’s eyes widened. Why is she here?

“Mom?”

Kanji returned Pinky to its place. He gestured downwards at Yuki. She put away the gun. He unlocked the door.

“What are you doing here?” he said.

“Move. I have some things here.” Kanji’s mom said, not even looking at him. Her creases folded to a frown, not the faintest trace of a smile on her face to see him. Kanji felt a pang in his chest.

“Uh, Mom?” he said.

She folded out a reusable grocery bag, and stepped into the kitchen. Clings. She started filling it with his plates, forks, and glasses. Kanji’s face went pale.

“What are you doing?” he said.

“That’s none of your business! I don’t even know how you got this stuff, so pray I don’t call the police.” she said.

Eh? Has she gone mad?

Kanji walked up to her and tried turning her by the shoulder, “Mom, are you okay?”

Her frown turned to a glare. “Don’t touch me!” She flung off his arm and started slapping at him, weak and angry hits.

“Hey, ow! What?”

She grabbed a vegetable knife, and pointed it at him. Kanji backed off, wide eyed.

“Stay away! Stay away from me!” The knife shook as she grabbed the handle with both hands, the bag dangling awkwardly on her fingertips.

“Mom! What the hell is wrong with you!” blood rose to his face.

“Stop calling me that! Go away!” she thrusted the knife angrily in the air, her missing front tooth showing as she yelled. She glared at him as if he was a robber.

Does she really… not recognize me? Kanji could not speak, a heavy pressure in his chest. Yuki stood in silence.

Kanji’s mom panted. She placed more and more stuff into the grocery bag — a plastic plant, books, pens, everything she had ever given him— until it overflowed. Sounds of unfolding tape. She used it to hold the pile together, then dragged the bag across the floor, not being able to lift it.

Kanji watched as the bag swept dust across the floor. He looked at Yuki, and Yuki stared back at him, a frown on her face.

The door creaked, left ajar. Repeated bumps and shaking plates sounded from the staircase.

Kanji started tearing up.

Why…

“We better hurry, Kanji-kun.” Yuki said.

I can’t let her go like this!

Kanji went after his mother. Quick steps down the stairs. “Mom!” he caught up to her in the middle of the staircase.

“Mom! I don’t know what’s going on, but it's me, Kanji! Kanji! Your son!”

“I have no son! Go away!”

“You do!” he quickly pulled out his phone, showing her their photo together.

She looked at the photo, then looked at him. Her eyes reflected nothing, as if she looked at a stranger. Always that empty frown. Then her brows furrowed, as if she was being ridiculed. With a scream, she lunged the knife at him. “GO AWAY! GO AWAY!”

Kanji fell on his backheels, palms on the ceramic stairs. She gave another lunge, as if almost trying to stab him, before her face went into tears, and she kept dragging the bag down in haste.

Kanji sat down on the stairs, watching her, shaking.

*****

Kanji clutched at his stomach as it turned the whole way to Tokyo. He could not piece together in the slightest what was wrong with his mother, and could not find in him an idea of what to do. But sooner than he thought, they arrived.

The sidewalk clacked with swarming steps of hurrying citizens. Car engines vroomed, and a billboard advertised the new HappyChips flavor. A tall building towered above the street. On its front, a sign with a bold, white stylized font: “Habara.”

What happened to her… it's similar to that story from the demonstration, isn’t it? Of the wife leaving the husband and daughter.

Kanji stared up at the building. According to publicly available information, it boasted 52 floors, all coated with exterior windows. On the top was an unused helicopter pad.

Whatever it was, if it has anything to do with us… the answers will be here.

Yuki stood by his side, her revolvers hidden under an ash colored trenchcoat.

“Are you ready?” she said.

He was not. But this plan had to work.

They both stepped into an alley beside the building.

Kanji extended his hand and closed his fist. Pinky appeared, and extended its spear.

They both grabbed onto it. It spread its wings, flinging the three of them into the air at top speed. The wind almost scratching. Smeared windows and offices breezed by them. Kanji felt lightheaded, and almost passed out as they floated near the top.

They looked through the glass into the room. A black carpet, on it a long oak table extended in the middle; The chairs hosted men wearing business suits.

A meeting, as Yuki predicted.

“Then, we proceed with plan A. Telegraph if anything goes wrong.” Yuki said.

“Okay.”

Here I go now, Pinky-san.

Three, two…

Pinky grabbed Kanji and tossed him into the window. Midair, Kanji swung the hammer and hit the glass.

The glass shattered. He stumbled forward onto his hands, on the carpet. Chairs rolling, the men stood up as one.

The room went silent despite the sound of Kanji moving to his feet.

“Uhm…”

He shoved glass shards off his pants.

“My name is… Okimoto Kanji. I came to…” he held his forehead, head spinning. “Negotiate.”

Guns. Pistols to assault rifles to shotguns, all pointed at Kanji. All apart from the old man at the head of the table. The man’s eyebrows raised.

Kanji trembled as he raised his hands, hammer in his right palm. Even though the protective bubble had already been pre-placed, the guns were still terrifying.

“Are you Ishiguro Shino?” Kanji said.

The man sighed. “That I am.” he said, “You’ve already come this far, Okimoto Kanji. So I assume you know of our cause. Then, what do you want?”

“I want to talk it out. There’s no need for bloodshed.”

Shino folded his arms. “You say that after shedding so much.”

Kanji gulped. “It was only in self defense.”

“Self defense, eh? Aware of it or not, by choosing to hold onto the hammer you’ve made a destructive choice. Once that affects everyone. You need to understand, Okimoto-san, what you’re hoping for is not what—”

Before he could finish, a bullet flung through his skull, knocking him off sideways. A storm of bullets from the outside, shattering the windows.

What?

He was going to cast a spell, Kanji-kun! Yuki’s voice appeared telepathically in his mind.

“Get down!” The suited men started yelling.

“Shoot them!”

“Barriers!” One yelled as a bubble appeared around him.

The room became a smudge of bullets and panic, papers flying and furniture breaking. Yuki, holding out a Katana, and Pinky with its spear, landed into the building. Yuki launched herself to the middle of the room, and quickly rerouted to cut off three of the bubbled men.

One stood with his back to Kanji. He hit the bubble. It burst, blasting the man forward, splattering on the table and falling on the other end. Pinky’s feet almost floated as he moved to pick the armed men one after another.

A decrescendo of firearms sounded as one was gone after the other.

It was not long before the room went silent. Yuki panted.

They both gathered around Ishiguro.

“I didn’t think it would end like this…” Kanji said.

“The list has to be around here.” Yuki said as she started pulling at the drawers, “Try to search him.”

Kanji nodded. He went closer to Ishiguro and searched his pocket. He found a wallet, and in it a picture of him hugging a young woman in her 20’s, along with an older woman. Inside the wallet was also a lawyer identification card. Other than the wallet, he found an opened toffy wrap, an old touch phone cracked in the top right corner, and a key.

Gunshot. Wood and splinters flew everywhere as Yuki shot open the locked drawer. She dug inside.

“There it is!” Yuki said.

Kanji hurried to his feet. It was a list containing names in Japanese, alongside a single word.

He could see right on the top of the list a few names he recognised.

Dazai Isamu : Honor

Amano Aiko: Family
Amano Kazuo: Hierarchy
Ishiguro Shino: Justice
…

Kanji flinched as he read the last line.

“J-justice?” Kanji said.

He turned around. But Ishiguro was gone.

“Where did he go?!” Kanji yelled.

“Tsk,” Yuki said, “I didn’t notice him moving at all. Let’s surround the—”

But before she could finish the sentence, the floor opened in two like a carton box.

The air blew against Kanji’s face as he accelerated downwards, much faster than gravity allows. Instead of floors, there was only an endless dark pit.

Pinky grabbed him and Yuki, and expanded his wings to try and slow the fall. The wings rattled, as if they would snap in a moment.

Oh fuck, we need something to slow down!

But the acceleration was so fast he could barely move, the wind so painful he couldn’t think. In a moment they would reach the bottom. Shit, Shit!

They slowed down to a halt, one inch from the floor.

They stood in a white spotlight, the surrounding was completely dark. Another spotlight lit in front of them. It had the internals of a court room, a podium, a witness stand, and most importantly, a judge.

It was faceless, wearing a black judge’s cloak, holding a small wooden hammer.

“And what have we here? My, my.”

A metal cage enclosed around the three of them.

“There, there. Worry not, children. For no harm will be done to the just.” Justice said, “But of course, if you’ve sinned… It is time for punishment.”