Unwanted Ties

Tachibana and Kengo sat outside the shop, munching on sliced melon. It was juicy and crisp, just the kind of fruit he craved on hot days. This was their morning ritual. Sharing breakfast with someone you loved meant the day would be a good one, at least until work got dirty. He wore the same tattered clothes from the day before. He hadn't been able to ask for permission to use their tub, but Minamoto's wife was lovely enough to do his laundry.

Since he was a traveler lacking a permanent home, he didn't mind taking payment in the form of food and lodging. But Kengo had complaints because they didn't have enough money for new toys.

"What's he doing?" Kengo asked, pointing at Minamoto who was squatting near them with a cigarette hanging loosely in his mouth.

"Don't know. I heard something about his wife needing space, but everything after that was a bore."

"I can hear you!" Minamoto barked. Tachibana chuckled a bit, amused at the man's behavior. Tachibana was 31 years old, and Minamoto was 30. The shark-toothed man looked younger than his actual age. He appeared put together like every other high-collar guy, parading himself around like some western bureaucrat. But the facade hardly worked, and Tachibana understood that he was immature to the core.

Minamoto drew shapes on the ground with his finger. "What's it like living with an exterminator, kid?"

Kengo's eyes lit up, overjoyed to be asked something by this new person. "I get to see lots of places, and eat good food."

Minamoto stuck out his lip, pouting again. His childish behavior amused Tachibana, who was used to dealing with real children. Minamoto's eyes narrowed with disdain. "Spending all that time with your uncle...doesn't it annoy you? I'd rather live in the mountains by myself than spend another minute around this family."

"Never! I love Oji-Chan!" Kengo argued, getting emotional. Tachibana drew his arm around the boy and handed him another slice of melon. He knew he shouldn't baby the kid, who had always been so sensitive when it came to his precious 'Oji', but he had a soft spot for Kengo. If anyone wanted to put negative ideas in Kengo's head, he wouldn't allow it.

"Then, you hate this family? Your wife, too?" Tachibana asked.

"...Yeah. Don't tell her I said that," he grumbled. "She's so clingy and constantly asking me to do things for her. I don't think I'm cut out for marriage. I've never been interested in it anyway."

That was news. Yesterday, they'd seemed like a happy couple gathering enough savings to move out on their own. How could Minamoto feel this way, but hide it so well? When he looked over at Kengo, he felt a tug at his heartstrings. The boy was nodding along to Minamoto's gloomy complaints as if he understood completely. The sad, distant look in the boy's eyes reminded him of the day they met.

"Why'd you marry her if you didn't want to?"

"Our families arranged it, and I was never attracted to the bitch. We've known each other since we were kids, so I see her more as a sister than a lover."

"Ouch."

"I wanted to go to university, and at first, my family was supportive of it. They didn't want me to get distracted and find another girl, so I was forced to marry. Then they wanted me to have kids, which I have no intention of doing, so they refused to pay for my schooling. So here we are, living in this shithole because my folks won't send me a dime."

Smoke drifted from Minamoto's mouth and curled into the clear sky. Letting that girl's devotion go to waste was a shame, Tachibana thought. He couldn't imagine leading someone on for so many years. As much as he sympathised with him, it made his blood boil. A man should step up and take care of women and children, he thought. A selfish guy who'd disregard the people who care for him most was worthless in his eyes.

"Best of luck to you. I'm going to meet with some other exterminators, so if you don't mind, could you watch Kengo for me?" he asked. "He won't cause you trouble."

Minamoto and Kengo looked at each other with apprehension, neither one wanting to be alone together. Kengo tugged on Tachibana's pants. "Can't I go with you?"

"Not this time. I'm sorry."

"Hurry then! Shoo! I'm no babysitter, so you better not take too long," Minamoto huffed.

Tachibana waved goodbye and headed towards the bar he'd seen when they entered town. Leaving Kengo with near strangers always worried him, but he trusted his ability to judge character. Minamoto and his family were good people. Kengo would be fine.

The bar, like the rest of the city, was westernized by the Taisho Roman movement. He could hardly stand it, which is why he usually traveled in rural areas where he wouldn't be bothered by the rapid westernization of the country—betrayal, as he saw it.

The air in the bar was stagnant and musky. Exterminators were common as the country's 'gensing problem' grew. He was now one among hundreds, compared to years earlier when he'd been a pioneer in gensing hunting. All his contributions to the research of the creatures that infected their society, and he still couldn't be recognized in the crowd of guys swarming the bar.

This was where they all gravitated. It was the one place where exterminators could share ideas, and more importantly, get drunk.

He took a seat at the counter and started listening in. Nobody would bother a huge guy like him. He ordered a drink and started thinking back to his investigation of the shop.

Where could the gensing be hiding? Hopefully it wouldn't come out to attack while he was gone. That would be a disaster. Minamoto seemed competent enough to get Kengo away from danger, and if he weren't, he'd get one hell of a beating.

His nephew was too curious for his own good. Always trying to get in the way of his work. As cute as it was, hunting gensing was one of the most dangerous jobs a guy could have, and it wasn't a 'take your kid to work' kind of career.

"The new wave?" a guy sitting next to him asked his friend. "A few towns down, somebody said there was an effort to advance them."

"That's damn stupid if ya ask me."

Tachibana was paying attention now. "Don't know who'd try to do that. Maybe the critters realized they could come together just like we have?" the man said.

An effort to advance...a new wave...come together.

It sounded like gensing were increasing, or some plot had been made to do so. Who was it that told this man that? Some delusional conspiracy theorist? There were already enough extremist gensing hunters who thought the entire world would soon be covered in tentacles. Japan didn't need more of those guys, he thought.

He adjusted his headband as a drop of sweat fell on his nose bridge. He was already dressed lightly for the weather, with the top of his kimono undone. He could only handle so much of the heat, always trailing a thick scent that made Kengo scrunch his nose. Perhaps that was the reason he seemed to repel women?

Anyway, if there was an effort to spread the disease, that implied two things. First, that someone, human or not, had an agenda. Tachibana had never met anyone who saw gensing as a good thing. Surely someone like that existed- an outlier who wanted to see the destruction of humanity and the rise of a new dominant species.

Gensing weren't capable of joining together. For now.

Their intelligence was nowhere near comparable to that of a human. Gensing, humans infected by the mysterious sound waves that boomed silently through the air, lost themselves during the transformation. Though the disease didn't exactly kill its victim, it overwrote their brain and bodily functions to become something entirely inhuman. Including their sentience, all human psychological traits are removed and replaced with animalistic tendencies.

"You wouldn't happen to know the name of the guy who told you that?" Tachibana chimed in on their conversation with a smile.

"Oh, it wasn't a guy! She was a real rough girl. The first female exterminator I'd ever met."

Tachibana nodded. Female exterminators weren't common. It was a job that didn't suit them, as it was extremely dangerous and taxing on the body. He'd never met one either, but some of the wives of exterminators he knew would occasionally help their husbands with work.

This idea gave him an odd picture of a girl who would put herself in such a position. She must be determined to destroy gensing.

"Where did you find her?" he asked. The stranger was willing to give information. Most exterminators were like that, since it made the job easier.

"She was staying in a sanctuary. Ya know those women's retreats, the ones for the girls who lost their minds," he chuckled. "Not my type, but this guy was giving her the eye. She slapped him across the face and told him off!"

"I told you not to bring that up, dickhead," his friend slammed his drink down on the table, his face red.

Once he finished his job in the city, it would be a good idea to check out the rumors. If the girl was staying in a sanctuary, she might have been suffering from a mental condition that caused her to hallucinate, but there was always a chance she could be telling the truth. Gensing were unpredictable, so he'd learned to believe anything no matter how crazy it sounded.

The men went back to talking, and Tachibana asked for another drink. Times like these, when he was surrounded by people his age, he felt lonelier. Before Kengo entered his life two years ago, he'd been traveling on his own. He'd been a lone traveler since he was 18 and started working when he was 20.

He appreciated the company of his little friend, but there were times he wished he had a companion he could relate to. A good friend who could help him with his work. But these days, exterminators were cliquey and exclusive. They formed groups and worked for monetary gain, working at increased speed and with carelessness, so they could steal jobs from under other exterminators. So, though information was generously shared, work was sometimes hard to come by.

On the few times he'd met another solo exterminator, they were private and had no interest in speaking with him.

This was the confusion he'd suffered for many years. Torn between the desire to be near others and his fear of becoming too close to someone. Maybe that was why he chose to bring that little boy with him, because children were so accepting. He'd never have to fear being harmed or abandoned by Kengo. He was the boy's world, and that bond could not be broken.

Leaving the bar, he was overwhelmed by the busy street outside. People passed him quickly, cars nearly a flash, and underneath the blazing sun, he felt like he might pass out. He returned to the shop.

Minamoto's wife stood outside, being harassed by a few punks. Her eyes darted to him when he arrived, giving him a pleading look. "Is this how you treat a lady?" he approached them. The boys looked self-confident when they turned to him, but quickly scattered.

Beauty herself bowed to him, and her ponytail fell over her shoulder. His heart pounded. Her full lips parted as she let out a breath of relief. "Thank you. They wouldn't leave, no matter how many times I asked."

"Guys like that don't know what 'no' means," he laughed. "Where's Minamoto?"

"He took your boy somewhere, but I'm not sure where that could be."

"And the old man isn't here either, I'm guessing? Do they usually ask you to watch the shop?"

"He took my mother out to get some fresh air. It's hard to breathe in there." She smiled kindly. Tachibana was struck with jealousy as her smile penetrated his heart. Minamoto was completely uninterested in this gorgeous woman, who was so loving towards her ungrateful husband.

If he could snatch her away, he would. But he was hopeless with women to the point that he couldn't imagine himself in a romantic relationship.

"I'm going to go find them," he said. "You should go inside. I'd hate for those boys to come back."

"Yes, I think I should," she replied. He watched her push the curtain aside and disappear inside the shop. Even her hands were smooth and white, the kind of hands a man wished would caress him.

Where could Minamoto have taken Kengo? He wandered around the back of the store, where he heard noise. They had a small yard behind the building where Minamoto and Kengo were playing catch with a ball.

"Oji!" Kengo laughed, dropping the ball on the ground and running to him.

"Hey, brat! You can't quit mid-game!" Minamoto yelled and adjusted his glasses. "Do you know where the monster is now?"

"It's not that simple."

"Hmph...seems simple enough to me." He crossed his arms.

"I saw your wife out front. She was getting harassed by some young guys," Tachibana said. He watched Minamoto's expression closely, but the man didn't show an ounce of concern.

"You helped her out?"

"Of course. Only because you weren't there."

Minamoto nodded and- thwack- threw the ball at Kengo's back. He lurched forward against Tachibana's leg. "Ouch!" he flipped around and pointed at Minamoto accusingly. "Hitting isn't allowed!"

"Who says?" Minamoto sneered.

"I says..."

Tachibana shook his head and walked off with a sigh.

Even after visiting the bar, he still had no clue as to where the Gensing might be hiding. If he was going to protect Minamoto's family, he'd have to work harder.

When he entered the shop and caught sight of Minamoto's wife arranging flowers in a vase, his heart was struck with melancholy. He thought, what kind of cruel man is deserving of a beautiful woman like her? He couldn't see anything in Minamoto that could justify the blessings he'd received. Tachibana prided himself on keeping his emotions in check, but for a moment, it became hard to suppress the anger boiling inside. It was not his place to judge.

He passed her with a polite nod. For the rest of the day, he scoured scrolls and thick books on gensing looking for answers. Hunching over the small table in the guest room hurt his back awfully bad, so he had to pace the room frequently to keep the pain away.

During the four hours he spent looking for answers, half of it was spent researching the peculiar rumor he'd heard at the bar. As far as he knew, Gensing were incapable of communicating intelligently with one another. Even second-generation Gensing, pure-blooded monsters born of two Gensing-Humans mating, were not able to think on a level comparable to a human. They were inferior in every way...so what could explain the sudden rise in numbers?

"Oji?" Kengo peeked his head into the room and brought a plate of food to him. The boy peeked around his shoulder and took a seat next to him. "Ms.Minamoto said it isn't good for you to stay up here for so long, but we already ate lunch without you."

"Is that so?" he hummed, flipping a page. "That was kind of her to make food for us. Did you tell her thank you?"

"I did! She said she'd make us some to take when we leave."

"That'll be good, then I won't have to buy you a bunch of snacks," he laughed. "I'm trying to figure out how they're reproducing so quickly. I heard some crazy rumors today. Nothing in here seems to be of any help, though."

"On-The-Job-Reasearch!"

Kengo clapped his hands together and leaned against Tachibana to get a better look at the diagram in the book. "Have I ever taught you how Gensing are made?" The boy shook his head. He rarely took the time to explain things to Kengo. He assumed the boy would pick things up by listening to him speak to his clients or other exterminators. He felt uncomfortable explaining such gruesome things to a kid.

"Vibrations make them. You can feel them in the air all the time, but usually they're so soft that they can't be felt unless you focus really hard."

Kengo closed his eyes and tried to feel them, but it didn't work. Tachibana was used to feeling them all the time, as was necessary for his job. If he couldn't feel them, he wouldn't be able to tell when he was most vulnerable to mutation. "The vibrations are dangerous, and they cause humans to turn into Gensing. If you aren't careful, they'll enter your ears and transform you. The instructions that make you human will be replaced with Gensing instructions. Does that make sense?"

"Oh no!"

"Once you change, you'll no longer be human, and you can never return to normal. No matter what, you must protect yourself so the mutation process doesn't have a chance to begin."

The boy's expression darkened, and he nodded.

"You don't need to worry. I'll never let anything like that happen to you," he patted Kengo on the head. "It's important for you to know this stuff. As my assistant, someone might ask you these questions."

A scream ripped through the house loud enough to pierce ears. Tachibana jumped to his feet and was out of the room in an instant. The old lady! Something was attacking her downstairs...!