Interlude: Details [Bonus chapter]

Yoshiki sat down on the bed with Reiko and pulled the blanket over her.

"Tomorrow is your birthday darling, have you already decided what you want?" Yoshiki said.

Reiko thought about it for a bit, she looked so cute when she pondered.

"I want to have a dog!" Reiko said.

A dog, huh?

That suited Reiko; after all, in her manner she resembled a German shepherd, maybe she could have a friend. But a dog meant a lot of work, and Yoshiki wasn't sure if Reiko could take on that much responsibility.

Surely he would have to take care of the dog alone in the end, and Reiko would just play with it.

"You know, Reiko, you have to know that in life you don't always get what you want. You also have to learn to get by without things going your way."

It was a harsh lesson, but it had to be taught; better early than late.

"Does this mean Mom won't come tomorrow?" Reiko asked, disappointed.

"Dad? Doesn't mom like me? Is that why she doesn't come?"

Those words made Yoshiki feel physical pain.

"Not at all sweetie, she loves you more than anything in the world...it's just...she's busy, so I can't promise you that she'll come tomorrow. I don't know myself to be honest."

A white lie; for Yoshiki knew that Jenny's search to find herself would not lead back to him and Reiko.

"Last year you said the same thing! How long does she have to work?" Reiko asked, pouting.

"I don't know darling, I'm sure she's thinking about you while she's working though."

"I never get what I want!" Reiko whined.

"I am trying to grant your wishes, you know. Isn't there anything else you wish for?" Yoshiki asked.

Reiko thought again, but this time with much less enthusiasm.

"Can you tell me a good night story? And I want to go to the lake with you!"

The little Yoshiki could do for his daughter, it seemed her wishes became more realistic; but unfortunately he wasn't very good at storytelling, and the lake walk would have to wait.

"Alright." Yoshiki said and kissed his daughter on the forehead.

He thought a little; he had no imagination so he had to recall a story he had read once.

"Once upon a time there was a monster called Obatzda...no...it was nameless. Yes, it was nameless. That's why it wanted a name."

Yoshiki pondered a bit more in his dusty memory.

"There was a fairy...or was there a blacksmith?"

"Dad, you really suck at telling stories!" Reiko laughed.

Her laugh was so cute his heart started to melt right away, she really was the best daughter in the world.

"The monster was hungry..."

Yoshiki tried his best to remember the end of the story, an ending was in order.

But when he finally remembered the end, Reiko was already asleep; she looked so peaceful.

He stroked her head and whispered the ending to her, "In the end, everyone was dead except the monster."

Maybe that wasn't the best bedtime story to tell a child, Yoshiki reflected.

×

The next morning, Yoshiki went to work, as he did every day; a place he didn't want to go, but had to go.

They were waiting impatiently for him when he finally arrived.

"Ah, Brutus! You kept us waiting, did you finally decide to quit?" Xie said.

Xie was slightly shorter, had a roundish head with black hair and flat ears and nose. He had relatively large hazel eyes and a small mouth; if he were an animal, he would be a honey bear.

"If you're already so late you could have at least come with some donuts for me and Romska as an apology." He added.

"I don't have any with me, can we go now?" Yoshiki asked.

"If you don't have any, then you buy some." Xie replied.

"No, and now let's go already." Yoshiki said annoyed.

His colleagues were always like that to him, letting him run errands or not wanting to call him by his name. Moreover, his sense of justice was challenged on a daily basis, but Yoshiki didn't let it bring him down; all he had to do was to think about Reiko.

He did want to change jobs; he even sent out applications, but no one wanted him.

Probably because of the assault against his superior that was in his criminal record; one moment without restraint and the whole future is doomed.

So he had to clench his teeth and take it, for Reiko's sake.

Xie and Yoshiki got into the police car - Xie in the front and Yoshiki in the back - where they then waited for Romska; sitting in the back seat like that, Yoshiki almost felt more like a criminal than a cop.

It was unusual for police officers to patrol in groups of three, but an exception was made for Yoshiki.

With a doughnut in mouth, Romska finally came running and sat down in the passenger seat.

Romska was a rather taciturn person, taller in height, had light brown hair and also brown eyes; yes, if any animal had to describe Romska, it would be an orca.

"Do you have one for me too?" Xie asked, to which Romska handed him a donut as well.

Xie stuffed the doughnut into his mouth and began to start the patrol.

Usually not too much happened on such trips, so Xie and Romska passed the time their own way.

They stopped at an old grocery store, it was quite small and there were hardly any customers, and the small store was run by an old woman alone.

"Hey you old hag! You still haven't painted the walls! You know that's against the building regulations, we can't ignore it any longer!" Xie yelled out.

Of course, there were no such regulations.

The old woman rushed over with her payment card and gave Xie the money he wanted; it was also possible to pay with one's wrist chip, but this did not allow for anonymity.

This scene played out roughly every month; with this lady and with many others.

"Only 80 ETU?! Are you kidding me?" Xie yelled out angrily.

"I'm sorry but I haven't had many customers lately. And with my back, I can't paint the walls...please, that's all I have."

"You ask us to turn a blind eye, and then you won't even compensate us for our troubles?" Xie asked.

Romska got out and was about to handcuff the woman, but then Yoshiki sparked in.

"Please! She doesn't have any more, can't we let her go for today?" Yoshiki pleaded, he was willing to trade his dignity for something like that.

"Today is your lucky day woman, but by next time I want my money!" Xie warned.

Romska let go of her and sat down in the car again.

"Thank you." Yoshiki said humbly, for moments like this he was glad to be there.

"I don't know why you care so much about these people Brutus. Now my mood is ruined." Xie said.

"They're just people struggling to make ends meet; we shouldn't make it any harder for them than it already is." Yoshiki explained.

"If we don't take the money from her then someone else will, so at least let us be the ones to benefit. This old woman is already at the end of her life; at least her donations go to a good cause." Xie justified himself.

"A donation for you to buy a new phone?"

"For my son to have a future."

Yoshiki was probably a bit too hasty, "Sorry."

"Besides, the real thieves are the politicians!" Xie added.

A big wrong didn't justify a little one, but Yoshiki kept his mouth shut.

The day went its course like this until they got a message from HQ.

"CC-INE-1337, a theft has been reported in your vicinity. Fire at will. Directing navi to location."

Finally something righteous, chasing thieves was one of the reasons Yoshiki applied for as a police officer in the first place.

Xie stepped on the pedal and followed the navi's instructions; it didn't take long for them to find the man they were looking for.

As soon as the car was slow enough, Romska got out of the car and took up the chase; like an orca on the hunt.

Meanwhile, Xie tried to cut off the thief's path; with success.

Romska pinned the thief to the ground and handcuffed him.

Xie took advantage of the moment and searched the thief's pockets.

"Nice jewelry...I'm sure it's not yours."

Half of the jewelry went into Xie's pockets and the other half he gave to Romska.

"Shoplifting will land you in jail, you know?" Xie said.

"Anything but that!" the man pleaded.

"And how are you going to compensate me?"

"I don't have anything! If I had anything I wouldn't have to steal!"

"If you were hungry then you would have stolen food, if you were cold you would have stolen clothes or blankets, but you stole jewelry!"

Xie was a bit annoyed; he searched the man's pockets and found a phone, which he promptly took.

"There you go. You should have said right away that you still had a phone." Xie said with satisfaction.

The thief was released by Xie and then he ran away; Romska just looked at Xie questioningly.

"If we can catch him again in the next few weeks, we'll get a fat bonus for him; and maybe more jewelry." Xie explained.

Romska seemed to understand what he meant by that, but Yoshiki remained in the dark.

"What kind of bonus?" Yoshiki asked.

Xie dismissed him, "You wouldn't be interested in the bonus anyway."

Yoshiki was quite discontent.

First they wanted to arrest who Yoshiki wanted free and then they let free who he wanted to arrest, but there was nothing he could do about it; he already had a reprimand.

Not much else happened that day, and Yoshiki left to go home.

Before that, however, he made a small detour.

The detour was to the local animal shelter, where Yoshiki picked up a puppy that no one wanted; it would grow up together with Reiko.

×

Finally, after a busy day and a puppy in tow, Yoshiki arrived home.

"Sweetie, I'm back!" he called into his apartment.

Light footsteps came running, "Daddy!"

That sight made it all worth it, for that sight he would endure anything the world would throw at him.

Reiko came with a radiant smile, and, seeing the puppy, the smile became that much more radiant; a smile so brilliant that Yoshiki began to glow as well.

If Reiko was happy, then so was he.

"You got me a dog after all!" she exclaimed joyfully.

"You are the best dad in the world!"

"Happy birthday my sweetie." Yoshiki said, stroking her head.

Reiko took the puppy into her arms and cuddled with it. The puppy liked Reiko too and licked her face.

"What's his name?" Reiko asked excitedly.

"I don't think he has a name yet, you can give him one."

"Really?!"

With each passing minute, Reiko's eyes lit up even brighter than he had thought was possible.

Even if he ultimately had to take care of the puppy on his own, it would still be worth it to fulfill at least this dream of Reiko's.

"Ekinu!" she squealed out.

Reiko and Ekinu were playing together while Yoshiki got to work.

His colleagues wouldn't tell him, so he would find out for himself; he sat down at his PC to search for clues.

He found what he was looking for: Haraka Burman wanted to pass a new bill that would enable the state to allow the forceful harvesting of organs not only from death row inmates, but also from normal prisoners, in order to sell them afterwards.

The public was outraged, as was Yoshiki.

For everything Yoshiki cared about, he had to stop this; it would lead to an epidemic of innocent people being arrested just so organs could be harvested and pockets filled.

Especially the people in the outer districts would be affected....

Yoshiki had been waiting for this moment all his life, he wanted to do something right, something that would make a difference.

But instead, he had spent the last few years watching his colleagues break all his principles, and not being allowed to do anything about it.

He briefly looked over to Reiko as she happily played with Ekinu.

Reiko...if he were to act, she could be put in danger.

Yoshiki was conflicted: on one side his sense of justice, on the other side Reiko; what should he do, what should he do...

Observing Reiko playing with Ekinu, Yoshiki thought about this problem for quite a while.

Then, when it got late, he put her to bed and tried to tell a story until she fell asleep.

It wasn't until Yoshiki was finally in bed himself that Yoshiki could make up his mind: as long as he wasn't found out, there was no problem; he didn't have to give up anything.

He was confident in his ability to not get caught.

The only question was how; it would have to happen before the bill was signed into law.

Yoshiki got out of bed again and checked the Internet; where would Burman be for the next few days?

There it was: Burman was planning a speech, and it was...tomorrow!

He briefly checked the location of the speech and the plan was set.

Yoshiki quickly prepared everything for the plan; he had no time to lose.

During the night in which he should have slept, he placed a whole lot of improvised wind socks at the most important key locations; and due to the sheer amount of these key locations, Yoshiki was busy setting them up for quite a while.

When he finally arrived back home it was almost morning; he could barely sleep an hour before he would have to force himself out of bed again.

×

The morning hour came and Yoshiki - after taking care of Reiko - went to work.

Though he couldn't stay there long, not if he wanted to make it to the speech in time; so he grabbed only what he needed from the police armory: the Dracors sniper rifle.

Then he made his exit feigning an emergency: "Sorry guys, my daughter is sick. I have to go take care of her!"

And before anyone could complain he was gone.

Of course, Reiko wasn't really sick, and instead of going home he got into position; one of the farthest skyscrapers that still offered a direct line of sight to the entire stage.

No one wanted to question a police officer, so he had no trouble getting to where he needed to.

He searched for one of the vacant floors of the skyscraper and picked a room with good visibility to his target.

Yoshiki set up his Dracors sniper rifle on a floor no one was using and then cut a hole in the window.

As long as Burman was not there, Yoshiki noted the wind readings of the quasi-wind socks down.

The wind seemed to be reasonably calm that day; he should have no problems delivering the perfect shot.

An hour passed and the speech began, Yoshiki had almost fallen asleep from being so tired but he held his head up.

He tried to calm his breathing so that his heart would beat more slowly.

Then Yoshiki quickly noted down the wind conditions again and corrected his aim; adding the bullet drop into the equation and...

Bang!

A shot faster than sound made its way through Burman's head; his brain became well aerated.

The bang echoed between the skyscrapers and it was done what had to be done; finally, after so many years, Yoshiki could proudly pat himself on the back for having successfully prevented a great evil.

After Yoshiki was convinced of Burman's death, he collected the bullet casing from the floor and put the piece of glass back into the window, after which he made his escape.

Even here, far away from the speech, the area immediately began to swarm with policemen; fortunately, he was one too, and so he had no trouble getting away.

Yoshiki arrived home without any trouble, made Reiko dinner in advance - so he wouldn't have to make it later - and then went straight to bed; sleep he desperately needed.

×

The weekend came and no one seemed to suspect anything.

Since Yoshiki didn't have to go to work this weekend he could spend time with Reiko.

Even before Reiko woke up, he made her a balanced breakfast, after which he went to wake Reiko up; however, she was a sound sleeper so words were not enough to wake her up.

Reiko looked so cute when she slept, and so peaceful - until Yoshiki started giving Reiko a healthy shaking.

"Rise and shine sweetie! Time to get up!" Yoshiki shouted.

That did the trick and now Reiko was awake, albeit sleepy.

"Just five more minutes." She begged.

"I'll go to the lake in a minute, but if you don't want to go..." Yoshiki said to bait her.

And the bait she took, Reiko promptly jumped out of bed, dashed to brush her teeth, and devoured breakfast; all in less than five minutes.

"Can Ekinu come too?" Reiko asked.

"Only if you carry him on the way back." Yoshiki demanded.

"I will!"

Reiko sprinted off and grabbed Ekinu, the puppy didn't see her coming.

"I have everything! Can we go now?" Reiko asked excitedly.

"Alright, let's get you dressed."

Reiko hurriedly put on her kids clothes and Yoshiki put a leash on Ekinu.

"The face mask, too." He demanded.

"Eeeehh, do I have to?" Reiko asked defiantly.

"Yes."

Yoshiki and Reiko lived very close to the lake, which made it a good place to go for a walk; so it didn't take long for them to arrive there.

Reiko happily hopped along the lake in front of Yoshiki and Ekinu; she loved spending time with her dad, and for some reason she liked spending that time at the lake the most.

The lake was of breathtaking size and stretched from the center of the city to far outside the city limits; but in it swam islands of trash piles, and in it there were lakes of oil of their own; even that spared from the oil and trash was still pretty murky.

No fish were supposed to live in there, but for some reason the government still tried to artificially maintain the fish population.

At least it gave a good view of outside the city, as you couldn't build skyscrapers on a lake; maybe that was what was so appealing to Reiko.

All that jumping around made Reiko pretty hungry, so they stopped at a food stall to take a break.

Together with Yoshiki, Reiko ordered a doner kebab; Reiko's favorite food.

"How's school going?" Yoshiki asked.

"Normal."

Yoshiki used the time on the weekend to learn all the things from Reiko that he was too tired to learn during the week.

Kids grew up so fast, before you knew it they were adults; but Yoshiki didn't want to miss any of it.

"Any exams?"

"Yeah, I was second best in math!" Reiko said proudly.

Reiko was pretty intelligent, and well-behaved, and sweet, and kind...heck...Yoshiki loved his daughter.

"If you're that good at math, you can probably figure out how much our food costs, right? A doner kebab costs 6 ETU, and we bought two. How much do we owe the kebab man?"

Reiko thought about it for a moment.

"12 ETU!" she exclaimed.

"Right! You're a smart girl!" Yoshiki said.

He patted her on the head and she laughed, proud of her answer.

"Do you want to also try paying then?"

"Okayy."

Yoshiki gave her his payment card and explained how to pay with it.

After they finished eating, they headed to the cash register, where Reiko showed off her skills with the payment card.

"I guess that's enough for today, Ekinu still needs to be fed. Will you carry him?"

"Fiiiiiine."

It didn't take long for Reiko to be exhausted though, the puppy was too heavy for her to carry for a prolonged period of time.

Maybe Yoshiki had asked a little too much of his daughter.

Thus, Yoshiki took Ekinu up into his arms; for some reason, he somehow knew it would turn out like this.

"Daddy looks! The man can't do math, he only took 8 ETU from us."

Playing with the payment card, she had probably realized the connection between the numbers on the card's display and the payment, although Yoshiki hadn't even explained that to her first.

"Then let's go back and give him back his well-deserved money."

"But Ekinu must be starving already!" Reiko protested.

"Ekinu can wait. We have to give the money back, it's not ours." Yoshiki admonished.

Reiko now went along to the food stall, but she didn't seem to fully understand the value of money.

"You know Reiko, it takes a lot of money to live, so if we take money that isn't ours we must give it back, they had to work hard for it. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Reiko said as she nodded her head obediently.

Maybe this was a good opportunity to teach her about the value of money.

The value of one ETU was fixed to about 100MJ of energy; ETU stood for Energy Transaction Unit after all.

"Even though most in the Inner Districts wouldn't even bat an eye at 4 ETU, for some it's a crucial amount that can make a big difference. So you should value each and every ETU, okay?"

"Okay."

Surely Reiko would grow up to be a wonderful young woman, Yoshiki thought to himself.

Arriving at the food stall, the kebab man thanked her sincerely; he had made a mistake when choosing the correct food item.

Returning from the walk, Yoshiki fed the puppy and Reiko turned on the TV to watch one of her shows that she liked so much, but the news was on.

...forensics suspects a politically motivated murder...

...perpetrator is believed to be an ex-military or someone with artificial...

...put a bounty on perpetrators head...

×

The beginning of the week came and Yoshiki went to work as usual, as if nothing had happened.

He reported the Dracors sniper rifle as missing; for Yoshiki already had his sights set on his next targets.

His plan was to make the city a better place and take out corrupt politicians one after another - creating a better future for Reiko.

On the way home, it suddenly started to rain, with even a little bit of thunder sounding; surely Reiko was already waiting for him, so he hurried even more.

"Sweetie, I'm home!" Yoshiki called into the apartment.

But no light footsteps came running, instead, Xie was waiting for him; he had seen him leave work earlier than usual...so that was what he was up to.

Yoshiki went on alert, keeping his hand ready on his T-Lunar pistol.

"What are you doing here?" Yoshiki asked tensely.

"Don't resent me, it's nothing personal." Xie said calmly.

"If it's any solace, Hazama, you paid for my son's higher education."

"What are you talking about?" Yoshiki yelled agitated, he had a very, very bad feeling.

"Oh come on, I saw you taking the sniper rifle from the armory that day, your pronounced dark circles under your eyes, your ‘sick daughter’. Besides, I know you are capable of that shot. And not to forget your sense of justice…it fits all too well." Xie explained.

"So what?" Yoshiki asked even more agitated; this was supposed to be his rock-solid evidence?

"That's proof enough."

Yoshiki pulled out his T-Lunar and stormed angrily into the apartment, "What did you-"

Bonk!

A blunt object was whacked on Yoshiki's head and he blacked out.

When he woke up again he found himself in an abandoned building; well, not quite abandoned.

In front of him stood a man in a gray suit next to a worrisome barrel, and on the left of the room was a man in a black suit who held Reiko and Ekinu.

"Reiko!" Yoshiki shouted.

"Dad!" Reiko cried back.

He tried to get to her but he was handcuffed and tied to a chair.

Yoshiki recognized this building, it bordered the lake and was not far from home; it was here where he often gave Reiko lessons in shooting.

The man in the gray suit began to talk: "Do you know how angry you made my boss? Because of you he lost months of profit. Now he has to find someone else to introduce the bill."

His boss? Oh...it seemed that Burman was not the driving force behind this bill.

Yoshiki should have eliminated the other party for whom the bill was beneficial, the owner of the majority of prisons: Julius Ring.

"My boss asked me to give you the extra gentle treatment; bad luck for you, no hard feelings."

You reap what you sow; Yoshiki was willing to pay the price for his actions, as long as it was just him.

"Do to me what you must but do not harm my daughter! I beg you!" Yoshiki shouted.

"Don't worry. The boss doesn't know about her, I'll take care to make it extra painless."

Tears came to Yoshiki's eyes, now he was beginning to regret his actions.

Not only had he put Reiko in danger, he hadn't even been able to stop the bill in any lasting way.

As the tears flowed down his face ceaselessly, the images of Reiko flashed through his mind, how she spoke her first word, how she hopped around along the lake, how she played with Ekinu.

"I'm sorry Reiko, your dad messed up." He sobbed.

The man in gray gave his kind of kindness: "Should we take care of your daughter first or you?"

The other man grabbed Reiko by her hair and she screamed in pain.

"Me first!" Yoshiki shouted.

Even though he didn't want to show Reiko his demise, he wanted to delay her end as long as he could; if not prevent it.

But in response to Reiko's cry of pain, Ekinu bit the other man in the black suit.

"The damn thing bit me!" the man in black cried out.

He grabbed Ekinu and threw him into the worrisome barrel; he squirmed just for a moment before sinking completely into the barrel.

"Ekinu!" Reiko yelled out.

She kicked the other man in his soft parts and, screaming, fished Ekinu out of the barrel; just before the other man came back to his senses and knocked Reiko unconscious.

This time Yoshiki yelled: "Reiko!"

But unlike Reiko, he was tied to the chair; at least Reiko didn't have to see the end of him.

However, he would not surrender without a fight; he would just need the right opportunity.

"Ready or not, here we go." The man said, untying Yoshiki from the chair.

He was still in handcuffs; but fortunately, they were handcuffs.

If he was tied up in ropes then there was little he could do, but since he was handcuffed he could try to unlock them discreetly with his master key; he was a policeman after all.

Yoshiki was led to the barrel, now he could see exactly what was so worrying; some dark red liquid. It smelled like vinegar and a bit foul.

Hopefully Reiko was alright.

The man grabbed Yoshiki by his hair and pushed his head into the liquid.

It burned terribly, worlds of pain Yoshiki had not yet known revealed themselves to him; and Reiko had dipped her arm in there willingly.

Then he was pulled out of the liquid again.

Yoshiki gasped for air and then the whole thing happened again.

What first smelled sour, now smelled like nothing at all; his vision was not spared either.

Again and again Yoshiki had to go through this ordeal; but the whole time he kept his sanity while he tried to unlock his handcuffs unnoticed.

A couple more times he went through this torture until it finally made click.

Before his face was submerged again Yoshiki threw himself against the barrel and it fell over.

"Please don't make more work for us." The man in the gray suit complained.

The man in the black suit was also approaching to help.

While Yoshiki was lying on the ground, he hid his hands behind his back.

When the man in the gray suit was close enough, Yoshiki jumped like a fish and intertwined his legs with those of the man in the gray suit.

In a flash, he threw the man to the ground, where he then stabbed him in the eyes with one hand and grabbed his gun with the other; and in one continuous motion, he aimed as best as he could with his blurry vision at the man in black before pumping him full of bullets until he was dead for sure.

While the man in the gray suit was still screaming in pain, Yoshiki turned his gun and put a few bullets into him at point blank range as well.

It all happened so fast.

Yoshiki needed a short breather, breathing was difficult for him.

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out...breathe in......breathe out...

After a short while, he went to Reiko and treated her arm.

Ekinu also looked in bad shape, but they would both make it.

Yoshiki's face was burning so badly, but he held his head up.

After administering first aid, he tried to wake Reiko up.

When she finally woke up, she screamed in pain.

Yoshiki wanted to tell her that everything would be all right, but the words did not come out of his mouth.

And the more he looked at Reiko the less she seemed to scream from pain and the more from fear.

Fear of him.

Couldn't she recognize her father anymore?

Yoshiki touched his face and nothing felt right.

His nose seemed to fall off, his eyelids were gone and his mouth was strangely fused in a jumbled way; he could barely breathe and blood was spurting through the little holes he could still breathe from.

He was sure of his impending doom; his heart was beating with heavy thumps.

Reiko grabbed Ekinu and ran to the corner of the room, terrified.

Oh how much he wanted to tell her that everything would be all right, to comfort her and take away her fear.

He had to fight with all his might against the desire to hold her in his arms one last time; he didn't want to scare her even more.

There was no price to pay for the bleak and lonely future he had inflicted on Reiko.

Yoshiki went out of the room and blocked the door from the outside, where he then texted Wolfgang to get here as soon as possible.

The Rain falling onto his skin felt so very pleasant.

He was glad, Reiko was saved...but breathing was so hard for him, and it burned so tremendously...

Before him was the solution to his problems, the cool water of the lake; even this pathetic lake could serve for such a purpose.

One step, the next step, then another step, until he stood in front of the lake...and let himself fall into it.

Ahhh, how good it felt...

And with his agony assuaged, there was only one thing left on his mind until his heart stopped beating:

Reiko.