Jewels - The Butterfly Effect Arc

Counter slowly made his way up the rickety staircase that lined up the left and back walls of the building. The old, brick delipidated structure that the Survivalists called a ‘building’ used to be an old, abandoned warehouse, that was long bordered up with rotten, wooden planks. No one had ever touched it in over ten years, minus any members of the Survivalists themselves. The stairs creaked under Counter’s weight as he trudged up the staircase. Dust fell from the ceiling, which was about three stories high, and landed on the young man’s head. He simply pulled it off by scratching his head. It was nothing he hadn’t dealt with before.

The only set of stairs led to the Leader’s office, which Counter despised. He hated the idea of people being looked down on, especially by this particular man. As he reached the top of the stairs, he noted the long, wide building that he had been calling home for over seven years. New walls were put up to indicate infirmary, bathrooms (which were just stolen porta potties) and dorms. The ground was disgusting, crawling with dirt, dust and insects. The lighting was almost non-existent, so much so that he could only see out past the dorms if he squinted his eyes hard.

Not that there was much there anyway. Just an empty floor plan. There was almost no place for privacy. At this moment, Counter was just grateful that he had a car. For thinking, space and...other activities.

He wiped the imaginary sweat from his forehead, and without knocking, burst into the office.

“Jewels! My old pal! How are you doing on this wonderful dayyyy?!” Counter yodeled, bursting into song.

“Don’t bullshit me, Counter! Sit! Now!” the old, bald man shouted at his underling, who took the chair facing his desk, spun it around, and sat in the chair the wrong way, legs spread wide.

“Jeez, Baldy, who pissed in your tea this morning? The missus? Is she not touching your family Jewels, if you get what I mean?” he winked at the Leader of the Survivalists, who was only becoming more and more red by the second.

Jewels was the code name for the leader of the Survivalists. He was an old man with no facial hair, or any hair, for that matter. He was slightly overweight, and his attire was dull and uninspiring. Grey trousers, a dark, grey suit jacket, a bright white shirt, and a stripy, grey tie.

“This old fart always dresses so boring. If ‘old fart’ was in the dictionary, there would just be a picture of Jewels, with no description,” Counter thought to himself, beginning to laugh.

“Come on Baldy, why don't you tell me? You may be old, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with your wife! Wait, do you have a wife? Knowing you, she’s probably boring and bland like you.”

“Shut the hell up, Counter!” Jewels screamed loudly, slamming his fist on the desk, a thick, golden ring rattling on the index finger of his right hand. “You know why you’re here, don’t you?”

“Nope, duhhhhh, no clue at all. Why?” Counter hummed, pretending to be dumb.

“You brought another child back to the Survivalists?! Are you shitting me?! We are running low on resources as it is! We can’t be taking more people in! I told you that!” Jewels yelled, falling for Counter’s goofy jokes.

“Relax, Baldy-”

“Call me Jewels, Counter!”

“Well, Jewels Counter, if you must know, our truce with the Menders is still strong, so we have time to rebuild. Also, that isn’t just any child. It’s Sensei’s boy...”

Jewels put his chin on his hands as he held them together, his elbows digging into the wooden desk he so proudly sat at every day. The office was very empty, only having a small desk, a couple of chairs, and all the walls were surrounded by windows, so that Jewels could view the complex. The walls were just sheets of metal, so the room echoed very loudly.

“I see, so Sensei didn’t make it?”

“Correct. Of course, we lost contact with him today. He told us that he would come around this afternoon, but he never did. I knew something was wrong. So, I dashed over as fast as I could. Toxicity got him, according to the boy.” Counter stood up, pushing the chair aside, before firmly putting both his palms on the desk. “We have to keep going after them!”

Jewels looked at Counter’s bruised and bloody knuckles, and slowly looked up at him, a smirk on his face.

“Are you angry, Counter?”

At that moment, Counter’s personality did a complete one eighty. His eyes dropped, and his voice became low and distorted. The pupils of his eyes told a story of pain and agony.

“Don’t you dare test me, Jewels,” he growled at him. “I cared about Sensei more than anyone. He was a father to all of us, not just Katsu. That man has done more for the Survivalists than you ever had.”

“That fraud was chasing a fool’s dream! Toxicity is too big for us to stop. I’m glad he’s gone. The man got too big for his own boots! Now get his child out of here...now, Counter.”

“Jewels...”

“That’s an orde-”

Jewels didn’t have time to comprehend the situation, before a gun was between his eyes. The man looked down the barrel of the gun, not moving a muscle, and with no signs of flinching.

“You may order and demand others, but you don’t order me. Stop talking about Sensei like that. Don’t forget, I’m the reason there are only two main gangs in Tokyo now,” Counter hissed. “Don’t mess with me, Jewels. I mean it.”

“You can joke around all you want, but you can’t take it? Talk about a buzzkill,” Jewels laughed, a slight menace in his voice. “Very well, the kid can stay. But he’s your responsibility. I ain’t wasting good people to go save him if he gets in trouble.”

“Good, I’m all the people he needs,” Counter grumbled, putting his gun back in his holster. “We can schedule the funeral for a week from now. I’m taking Sushi and Bento with me to retrieve his body. It’s the least he deserves, don’t you think?”

“Fine, I know you would do it anyway,” Jewels retorted, slightly annoyed. “Just do it quickly. And you are organising it yourself. Don’t come to me for help, Counter.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Counter hissed, leaving the office and slamming the door loudly behind him.