[Satori Effect] The Ballad of Shinju and Lucrezia

(Hmm? What's this? Oh! Well then, I suppose I'll begin the tale in Osamu's stead. Hello! It's Shinju Miyakawa speaking! Soon after Kagutsuchi left to live life on her own, Osamu and his wives went back to Hokkaido. However, they did say they intended to make their old house here in the neighborhood their permanent home once they start having children.)

(Obviously, they'll need to be within the vicinity of a hospital, apply for insurance, sign the kids up for school, and all the other parenthood chaos. It's been three months since they left. As for me, I've just been keeping my promise to Osamu. I've been keeping this neighborhood clean and free of trouble. Hah, well, usually, this 'trouble' is often low grade. I've rescued cats, helped the elderly carry in their things, and cleaned up any unsightly messes in this empty little neighborhood of ours.)

The warmth of summer was quickly giving way to the chill of autumn. The leaves of the trees around the neighborhood had all turned golden-yellow. An impenetrable cloak of grey clouds ruled over the skies, bringing chilling breezes with them. Shinju's cat, Mimi, strolled down the street with his tail slinking upwards. He made his way back home, where Shinju waited for him. She opened the door and let him back inside, where'd he'd be safe and warm.

(Osamu wants to keep himself out of trouble so he can focus on his family, and I applaud him for that. We talked over the phone almost every night since he left. In fact, he was telling me about how he and Yoko were planning to conceive their first child.

(Oh, and Kagutsuchi? She doesn't live too far, so we see each other often. She's doing well for herself and works as an artist for the local magazine. People love her comic strips, so she's been considering being a mangaka, or perhaps start commissioning her art. Basically, all is going well.)

Soon after letting Mimi back inside, Shinju put her slippers on and stepped outside to make her rounds across town. When she got downtown, where all the skyscrapers, traffic, and crowded sidewalks were, Shinju saw a little girl in a yellow dress crossing the street at a red light. She immediately sprang into action and pulled the little girl off of the street before she could hit by any cars. The girl's mother picked her up and held her close.

"Oh my god, thank you so much! I'm so sorry for the trouble, she likes to run off by herself!" the mother said.

Shinju smiled. "Oh, no! It's fine, really! You two stay safe, all right?"

"Thank you very much." the mother said, bowing.

"Thank you, Miss!" the little girl sang.

"No problem, little one!" Shinju said.

Shinju continued her walk downtown and saw a crowd of high-school boys in an alleyway making a rather shady transaction. Shinju took cover by the wall and peeked over the corner like a detective on the brink of making a massive drug bust.

(What could it be? Drugs? Are there juvenile drug dealers in my city?!)

Upon closer inspection, Shinju could see the boys were dealing dirty magazines.

(‘Big Tittied Cock Sluts’)

Shinju walked into the alley, standing behind the group of boys for a good minute before they even noticed her. She snatched away one of the magazines from the giggle boys and read it for herself.

"H-hey! Give that back, bitch!" one of the boys roared.

Shinju erupted with laughter.. "'Big, Husky, Muscly Men'?! Hahahaha! Kid, that's so gay!"

"Wait, you had a gay magazine on you? Really?" the second boy recoiled.

"Is it hot?" the third boy asked.

"Ah man, I can't wait to tell all the girls in school that you like dicks!" laughed the fourth boy.

"Shut the hell up! I was just holding it for someone!" the first boy stammered.

"Ewww, the pages are stuck together." Shinju gagged. "Why don't you use a tissue like a normal human being?"

The boy snatched the magazine back and ran away with his crew, their embarrassed shouts and cries disappearing down the street. Shinju couldn't help but laugh to herself. Of all the things that get dealt in alleyways, she never expected she'd ever encounter porn magazine dealers, especially not in the age of the internet.

"Not even worth following." Shinju snickered. "Hehe...he's gonna tell all the girls that kid likes...pfffttthahahaha! Dicks! Hahaha!"

Shinju's phone suddenly vibrated in her poncho pocket. She took it out and checked the name.

"Oh, it's Boss!"

She leaned against the wall as she answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Ah, Shinju." Lucrezia said. "We need to meet. Now. It's about Amatsuki. I have a plan and I'd like you to hear me out."

"Well, all right. I was patrolling around downtown. Where do you want to meet?"

"I hope it's not too much trouble, but we should convene at the bowling alley."

"No trouble at all. I'll be there shortly.

(Truthfully, it is trouble, but Amatsuki is far more important than porn mags. I'm curious to see what Lucrezia's come up with.)

Shinju returned the neighborhood and ventured inside the bowling alley, finding Lucrezia sitting just in front of the row of stained glass. The light from the glass was dulled, since it was cloudy outside. Instead, their multicolored light had turned more into a multicolored shade draping itself over Lucrezia and softly reflecting off of the strewn about bowling balls and shining, wooden floor.

Lucrezia stood up, holding a green bowling ball in her hands. "There you are. I was beginning to worry you were being mugged or something."

"No, but I did come across some porn mag dealers."

"What?"

"...Never mind." Shinju sighed. "So, what's going on with Amatsuki?"

Lucrezia stepped up to the middle lane, the pins already set up. "Take out your phone and check the broadcast on the NHK."

Puzzled, Shinju did as she was told. She tuned into the broadcast and was immediately stunned by what she was seeing. Lucrezia was on T.V., delivering a public statement about Satori on behalf of the Exorcist Program. She stood at a podium armed with over a dozen mics as dizzying camera flashes beamed around her.

"Earlier today, a top official of the Exorcist Program announced that Satori Sentani, former exorcist and arms manufacturing mogul, was killed in an operation she personally led." the announcer explained.

"On top of dealing with the traitor, I've taken measures that will allow the Exorcist Program to legally and temporarily seize Satori's assets left behind in the wake of his death." Lucrezia explained in the broadcast. "We understand that the death of such a powerful and wealthy individual will spark a legal bloodbath over his legacy, as he had no remaining family members. My organization shall act as a third party trustee until further notice."

"Holy shit..." Shinju gasped. "Lucrezia, what the hell were you thinking?! You just made yourself a huge target!"

"I know." Lucrezia said, tossing the bowling ball down the lane and landing a perfect strike. "That was the point. This is how we lure Amatsuki out."

"I...what?" Shinju stammered, baffled.

Lucrezia turned to face her. "What the world doesn't know is that Satori, in fact, does have a living relative, Amatsuki. When Satori and I drafted our plan together, we spent days carefully considering everything that would occur after his death. One thing he anticipated is that his sister would claim his legacy. In fact, to ensure that she had a legal right to it, he wrote his will and left all of his assets to her. However, she was to receive his assets after a holding period in which I would control the assets as a third party trustee. When I said that my organization would control the assets, I was in fact referring to myself."

"What? So...does that mean you're a billionaire now?!"

Lucrezia smiled “Yes. I imagine Amatsuki is fuming over this revelation right about now."

"No kidding! You've basically stolen her brother's legacy." Shinju said.

"Yes, indeed. By doing this, we've cornered her."

"I don't understand. How have we cornered her besides pissing her off and taking what's hers?"

"Oh, come on. Use your noggin a little bit." Lucrezia giggled. "Don't forget. Amatsuki is yakuza. If she had taken control of Satori's legacy, she would've found herself in charge of tens of billions of yen in cash. On top of that, Satori had billions in assets. The corporate buildings for his oil business, his offshore rigs, his arms manufacturing plants and warehouses, she would've inherited all of it. There's no doubt that kind of money would've catapulted her clan to the very top of the yakuza food chain. She and all of her boys would become gods in the yakuza world. All of that has been put on hold."

"I see...so we're using that to lure her out and force a confrontation. There's something I don't get, though." Shinju said. "You announced Satori's death like it was yesterday. He died well over three months ago."

"Yes, that was calculated as well." Lucrezia said. "Of course, we know that Satori died months ago, but waiting three months to announce his death as well as the three month holding period is to our advantage. That was three months that his assets weren't within the holding period. Three months where his legacy was up for grabs without anyone knowing about it. And since his sister didn’t claim it…”

"...You didn't!" Shinju gasped.

“Not only was I the trustee during the holding period, but I also claimed it for myself. So, Satori’s legacy is legally mine now. While there's still billions in total assets, I did take my reward. I liquidized some assets of the European branch of his oil company.

“Of course, because of the large amount being moved, it's being doled out in pieces into an escrow account between myself and the government of Switzerland. I already have about two billion in that account cleared for usage. Originally, I wanted to use half of that to strike a deal with Amatsuki. A billion yen for the return of the skeletal remains Himushi handed her. There's two problems with that, however.”

"It's a huge financial transfer that would garner way too much attention and result in Himushi taking back the remains?" Shinju asked.

"That is one of the reasons, yes." Lucrezia said. "The other is that even if we successfully pull that off, there's two issues remaining. One, the yakuza will most likely kill us all once the deal is made. It's very unlikely they'd just let us off the hook like that. Two, we'd be betraying Satori's last wishes. We need to find a way to pull Amatsuki out of the yakuza and bring her back to normal, civilian life. So, I revised the plan. I had Cyanide leak the information about Satori's death to his source inside her clan."

"Wait, so she knows that Satori had died? Why do that?"

“To buy us just enough time to ensure that her clan was well aware that Satori's legacy would be theirs. Or at least, enough time to assume so.” Lucrezia explained. "They would've already conducted meetings about the legacy, what to do with the money and assets, and how the clan will proceed moving forward. A lot of people, including her superiors, were expecting Amatsuki to receive that legacy. Now, they're realizing they're in trouble.

“This is going to place her under a world of stress to obtain the legacy. Three months also gives enough time for some of the more ambitious members of the yakuza to make their own plans. I suspect that even some of her closest allies will start plotting against her."

“If you die and Amatsuki comes forward as Satori’s relative, she gets the legacy. If she were to die right after that…”

"Yes. They'd descend upon the money like vultures. Amatsuki will be forced to take action now that she's on a time limit, but it'll also put her in danger of being done in by one of her own clan. We'll force a confrontation and then use that opportunity to pull another ruse, this time to trick the yakuza. At the same time, I'll use some of the money I've gained from Satori's assets to purchase the remains off of the forensic anthropologist. We'll have rescued Amatsuki and gotten the skeleton away from both Himushi and the yakuza at the same time."

"Lucrezia..." Shinju began. "You scare me sometimes."

Lucrezia snickered. "I've been pulling tricks and ruses all my life, Shinju. I've gotten pretty good at it now. Let's put our best into this, shall we?"

(It's true. I've known Lucrezia for more than fifteen years, and she's always been this way. She always has a plan and an answer for something. She thinks things through several steps in advance. Well then, I guess this is how we'll handle Amatsuki. Without further ado, let us put the story back into Osamu's hands, shall we?)

In the early evening, Osamu suddenly came home and shut the door in a panic. His breathing was heavy and his body was drenched in sweat. He swept his hand through his thick, curly lion's mane of hair as he slouched to the floor. He wore a white suit a striped tie, unbuttoning the shirt to give his chest breathing space. The faint, evening sun shined through the window next to the front door as he tried to walk, only to lose his balance and be forced to hug the wall.

Tsukiakari came downstairs to greet her husband. "Welcome home, you big, fat, sack of....uhm....are you okay?"

"Gekko? Is that you?" Osamu asked.

"What happened to you?! You look like you ran all the way home or something!" Tsukiakari cried, running over to Osamu.

"I was...drinking with Rei and Aika...and then one of them pulled out these little, colorful patches...Rei told me it would make the alcohol taste better, but then I started seeing all sorts of crazy shit!"

"Hmm? Colorful...patches...haha....hahahaha! Oh my god!" Tsukiakari laughed. "Osamu, did you take LSD? How did you fall for that?"

"That's not funny, Gekko! You have idea what I saw! There was this giant, solar eclipse above me, following me as I ran home! The world was burning and everyone was getting killed! And then there were harpies! Harpies in tutus! They kept singing, 'Osamu, Osamu, why haven't you read any baby books?'! It was awful! It was pure anarchy!"

"God, you're so stupid. Come with me. I'll wash you off and get you hydrated."

Osamu was still shivering, shaken from his bad trip as they went upstairs and into the bathroom. They both stripped off their clothes and sunk themselves in the hot tub filled with bubbles from their rose-scented bath bomb.

"You know, you get into some crazy situations sometimes." Tsukiakari said, stroking Osamu's hair to calm him.

"Yeah. I'll never take LSD again....hey, Gekko, are Yoko and Izanami still out?"

"Yeah, Yoko should be home soon though. She's not pregnant yet, huh?"

"Well, no, but that's because we haven't done it in the past few days. I've just been really busy."

"Come on, you have three, hot wives all to yourself and you still manage to go days without sex? Why didn't you just tell me?"

Tsukiakari cuddled up to Osamu in the bath, dangling his Male symbol necklace with her fingers. "Osamu, we should never go that long without properly loving each other. Letting work get in the way of family time is a terrible thing, you know? That's not what Yoko or Izanami wanted when they agreed to be here and marry you."

"Yeah, I guess you're right..."

"We've got enough money, so there's not even any need to work so hard. It makes me think something is on your mind."

"Maybe...I'm just feeling kind of empty. I don't know...after being through so much, I guess I got used to it. I almost wanted to get into trouble and have those kinds of adventures."

"Well, there's a difference between a heroic sacrifice and just slowly killing yourself. You just need some time to get used to a peaceful, adult life, you know?"

"Yeah, you're right."

Tsukiakari and Osamu got out of the tub and dried off. They put on some clothes and went back into the master bedroom, where an unexpected surprise was awaiting them. Yoko lied on the bed, naked and covered in whipped cream with a strawberry in her mouth. She ate the strawberry and smiled.

"Oh my, I didn't realize you were home, Osamu. My apologies, it must be shameful to see your wife like this." Yoko teased.

"Os...Osamu...." Tsukiakari stammered.

"Y-yeah?"

Tsukiakari locked eyes with Osamu. "Let's double up on her..."

"Yeah...yeah, that sounds good. All right, Yoko. You're on!"

Meanwhile, back in Kyoto, Shinju returned home after her meeting with Lucrezia. Just when she thought she could rest for the day, she remembered that she had invited Kagutsuchi over for tea. Kagutsuchi arrived that evening, dressed in tight, red jeans and a white, knit sweater and red beanie. Kagutsuchi looked so normal now that the average person wouldn't be able to even tell that she's a goddess.

The two on the couch in the living room, a white, fur rug warming their bare feet as they sipped away at chamomile tea sweetened with honey.

"Ugh, thank you for this tea, Shinju. I really needed it." Kagutsuchi sighed.

"Yeah, no problem. I have a lot of it piled up since I don't have company anymore. Besides for you, of course." Shinju said.

"I'm sorry, I should drop by more often."

Kagutsuchi turned her eyes to the tall, black bookcase beside Shinju's flatscreen television. "If you don't mind my asking, were you reading something earlier?"

"Ah, yes! I was. I've recently developed more of a hunger for Classical Western literature and philosophy. I've been reading Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, mainly all the Greek and Hellenistic philosophers. Specifically, I was reading up on their position on the concept of the human soul and heroic sacrifice..."

"Heh?! They sacrificed heroes?!" Kagutsuchi recoiled, misunderstanding.

Shinju laughed. "My bad, I think the better expression is heroic self-sacrifice. It's the concept of making a decision for the greater good when the stakes are high, and your life is on the line. Socrates make's such a beautiful distinction between that concept and suicide. Suicide is deemed an unlawful act, and a betrayal against god. If the heavens bestow a soul its own body, then we as humans have a duty to live our lives until it pleases god to release us. Kagu, if you had a farm, and on that farm, you had animals such as cows and donkeys, wouldn't you be upset if one of your cows or donkeys drowned themselves?"

"Hmm...yeah, I suppose I would. I would've lost a valuable resource."

"Exactly. It's the same kind of connection between humans and deities. Heroic sacrifice is not the intention to die, but the intention to prioritize the greater good, even it means you might have to die. There is a purpose behind self-sacrifice, born out of selflessness and responsibility. Suicide, in contrast, is an inherently selfish act, no matter the justification."

"I guess I can't argue against that, but...shouldn't we feel more sympathy towards those who have been driven so low that they want to end their lives? I've been there before. Although I couldn't die, was the desire to die selfish? I felt dying would spare anyone else from being cursed because of me. I felt it was the better solution."

"Well, you had the problem of not being able to die. In your case...I believe your heart was acting selflessly, but the solution you came to was selfish. Wouldn't giving up on love have been a heroic-sacrifice?"

Kagutsuchi's eyebrows raised, as that was exactly what she was forced to do, in the end. "I...guess you're right. That way, no one gets hurt, and I wouldn't even die if I could. But still, going through life without love seems like such a heavy burden."

"That's what a true hero is, Kagu. One who carries a heavy burden to protect others. People like Osamu..."

"Yeah, you're right! Speaking of which, how is he?"

"He's doing just fine. He's going to conceive a baby with Yoko soon."

"He's going to be a father?! I have to call him when I get home! That's so wonderful!" Kagutsuchi sang.

Shinju put her hands on top of her head and leaned back on the couch. "Everyone's finding their way, and I'm just sort of...here. Osamu's focusing on family, you've found your passion in drawing...even though I'm 'Heaven's Police Officer', I'm still a human woman. Maybe, some day, I'll want a family of my own."

Mimi jumped on Shinju's lap and curled up into a black ball of fur, purring as both Shinju and Kagu petted him.

"Well, you're a bit of an oddball, but I guess we all are, aren't we? I'm sure the right things will come to you at the right time." Kagutsuchi said.

"I hope you're right, Kagu." Shinju said, smiling.

Later that night, when it was time to leave, Shinju saw Kagutsuchi off at the front door. Shinju waved to the goddess as she walked down the street, guided by the dim street lights along the sidewalk. In the darkness of the street, a lone, black car was parked some distance away from Shinju's house. Inside the car was a man with a shaven head, wearing sunglasses and a black suit. He watched Shinju through a pair of binoculars and had his phone on speaker.

"I've found her. She lives on 246 Umeboshi Avenue. It's a big, orange house with a gate. A visitor just left." the man said. "I can enter the house and deal with her, now."

The voice of another man replied through the phone. "No, wait. The boss just told us she wants to deal with this herself, her way. We'll wait. Pull out and return to base."

"Understood."

The car pulled away from the sidewalk and turned around, leaving the neighborhood. Shinju barely heard the purr of the engine, but did catch an eyeful of the headlights as she stood on her front porch.

"Hmm? That's odd...cars don't usually pass by here all that often, especially not this late..."