A Phoenix's Bargain

The passing of time turning from hours into days really did force the new reality into me, but even 3 days of desperately holding onto our lives, the horrors outside does seem to die down ever so slightly.

All four of us were in disbelief, feeling like a house worth of bricks weighing our bodies down…. But while we were stuck inside our minds about what had happened, there was one who was powering through all of it.

The sound of the door of our house opening filled me with a sense of dread, instinctively making me reach out to my loaded sidearm. I was only able to breathe once I saw her appearing and closing the door behind her, leaning on it to be extra sure that no one else would come through.

“How are you feeling?” she looked calm and collected, but I’ve known her long enough to sense the panic in her eyes

“Not any better”

She averted my eyes, as if her ruse was falling apart

“Figures”

A moment of silence and motionlessness followed, with only the clattering of the rain outside keeping us company.

“You think the others…” but she knew what I was going to say

“I wish I knew how to answer that-” she stepped closer to me, and sat beside me “But no matter what I say, it’s just going to make all of us feel worse”

“Sacchan, Tadashi….. Why would they do this?”

Her silence and wordless stammers showed how she was skating on thin ice…. Fearing the consequences of saying the wrong things as much as she feared the chaos outside our doors.

“We were going to have a surprise afterparty at my place after we were done here. A welcome-back for Tadashi and…. Getting the old band back together after all this time…. And I was going to suggest that we start anew-” I straightened my back after hours of hunching and looked at the roof above me “The old Zero coming back together… standing at the peak of the new CG right out of the gate…… but I never expected this”.

“It’s still not too late you know-” I turned to face her as she said that “Even back then, we never knew what was around the corner for us. Who would leave us, who would fill those shoes…. But no matter what happened, we still made it work. Time to do it all over again”

“Yeah, but how?!” My tone raised slightly “Akio’s dead and god knows where Hayato and Yukari are, and Tadashi….. Oh god” My mind was barely keeping up with what I was saying

“We don’t know that yet…. Look, let's just all think that this is a huge meta change… We just have to adapt to it, that’s all”

I knew that she was trying to lift my spirit up but her words just did the very opposite

“I thought you said this wasn’t a game anymore, Misha”

“I did say that, but saying otherwise is the only thing that is stopping me from going insane-” she started twiddling her thumbs “The things I’ve seen out there, I can’t accept that as reality…. Hiding behind the lie that this is still a game is the only way that I-”

I furiously got up and interrupted her “So you expect us to adapt? You want us to be murderers? How could I…..how could we even live with ourselves knowing that our lives cost others?”

“You think I don’t know that?...... I still see his face after what I did. I tell myself that it was to save Meguru but how does that make it any better?....... What else are we supposed to do Jun? Run away from what we have to do even if it costs us our lives?..... The sooner you realize that, the better chance we will have to get out of here alive”

She got off her seat and stormed off towards the stairs, but I started to wonder if I had gone a bit too far.

“Misha wait-” I called out to her and she stopped in her tracks “I’m sorry ... .I'm….. I didn’t mean that. It’s just-” I started to trail off, turning this lame apology into a worse one

“I know, Jun……. Just, try to help those two out for now will ya? I’ll be fine”

.

.

.

. (Evening, 5 days later)

.

.

The rain that barraged us for the past few days had finally let up, and so did my reluctance to sit around doing nothing…. I hated that Misha was taking it all upon herself to fend for us until we feel better…. the least I could do is have the house in order.

I climbed the stairs to the second floor and found out that all my efforts in comforting my sisters had paid off slightly. While the doors to their rooms were still shut tight without even a whisper through them, at least the trays outside their door have been emptied out.

Finding the smallest amount of satisfaction in that, I move through the corridor and collect their trays. They were getting there, and it was best not to force it.

My hands still shook at the thought of leaving to the world outside, so much more than it did while I was doing the dishes. Eventhough I was able to grasp my hands and force it to stop, I was at the mercy of the thoughts in my head…Where it demanded answers from me about the road ahead of me, and about whether things will ever go back to the ways they used to be. I was only spared by the sound of a sudden thud on our door, as it opened slowly not a second later.

“Misha?!” I dropped what I was doing and ran to catch her, I made it in time just as she almost fell onto her knee. She was battered and bruised; sleeves torn with blood dripping all over the floor I cleaned earlier today…. And she looked exhausted, almost as if she barely escaped with her life.

“I’m back” She said, cracking a faint grin as if everything was alright.

“You moron? What the hell happened to you?” I lent her my shoulder as a support and made her sit down on the table. I referred to my party menu and noticed that her health bar was down to half and wasn’t healing back up.

“Before you ask, I might have…. run out of health potions during my excursion? My bad” she knocks herself in the head with her uninjured hand, being her usual self. But I knew her too well….well enough to the point that I knew she was acting like this to not make me worry.

“I thought you said you were not going to get yourself into unnecessary trouble, Sakuragi”

“Last name basis…. Either you are mad at me, or messing with me-” Is she even taking this seriously

“Care to guess which one I am right now?” I asked, intending to break her false positivity.

She paused for a second “Look, I didn’t go looking for trouble…. Rather, trouble came looking for me”

“You got jumped?”

She took another moment of silence “Yeah”

“That’s it, you are not doing this alone anymore-”

“No…. Ack… Shit” She tried to cut me off but her sudden jolt of movement irritated one of her injuries. In hindsight, it looked like a broken rib.

“Not yet, Jun….. Not yet” she emptied the HP potion I handed her

“What the hell do you mean not yet?”

“Mai-chan and Meguru-chan…. They need you, Jun.”

“Yeah but so do you…… It’s like this now, but what about the next time, and after that-”

“I can take care of myself!” He tone raised, overriding my authority over the situation for the moment “Look, as much as I would love to take it easy, at least one of us has to keep this group afloat. You are their brother, the least you can do is back them up when they mostly need it.” She got off the table and pulled herself a chair to lean back on

“But what about you? They are as close to you as they are to me…. Just because you are not related to us, doesn’t mean you are not family. It makes no difference to me, and definitely not to them…”

I noticed the shiver in her hands that showed itself suddenly. “But it does to me….” And that shiver extended to her voice as well “I can’t face either of them…. I just keep remembering how they looked at me that day….. After I” She covered her mouth and looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

I immediately crouched down to her level “Hey, hey, hey…. Look at me. It’s okay…… none of us will ever judge you for that. You did what you did to save all of us.”

“He haunts me every night, Jun…. I try to keep myself busy and away from sleep but then he stalks me in real life….I scared away the guys who jumped me and…. He was just standing there….Like he was asking me why did they get to go free, and not him”

She dropped her head down to my shoulder and started breaking down into tears, and I was in the state I hated to be in…..speechless and unable to help her.

.

.

. If I only knew how close she was to breaking at the time.

.

.

The next couple of weeks has been nothing but a stress test for all of us. But one thing that we all learned from the world outside our door, was that the more days pass, the more sinister it becomes…. This place, and the people that inhabited it.

It was nothing but a process of selection…..people were forced out of their corners and out through the gates of the city, motivated by empty stomachs and desperation. Countless fell everyday to the dangers they were forced to face…. Both outside the walls,and within them.

Defending ourselves after a hard day of questing became a day today activity, but even against the group that has been dead set on harassing us for a while now, we still stuck to the one rule we all agreed on……

“Mai-chan…. Are you okay?” Misha ran to us where I was tending to Mai’s almost severed arm

Mai’s eyes were leaking tears, but she didn’t cry. She was in agony even with the pain reduction, as she was gripping her sister’s hand tightly…. Even so, she tried to sneak in her usual cheery demeanor in, eventhough it was nigh impossible in her current state.

“She’s healing, but she needs to rest. We have to call it a day” I suggested

Misha nodded and Meguru had her eyes shut tight, as she didn’t want to catch a glimpse of her sister’s wound.

“Alright, you two help her out…. I’ll take point and keep the assholes away from ya”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” I asked

“Worry about her first and then me last….”

“Okay-” I faced towards the youngest in the group “Meguru, I’ll take her wounded side, you take the other…. But I’ll need you to open your eyes.”

“….But”

“I understand it’s hard, but do it for your sister….Please”

She opened her eyes slowly but she didn’t look my way. Meguru was always slower to adapt compared to Mai, and while she mustered up the courage to leave the house and help us, she still seems to be haunted by that day.

“We have to hurry guys, the more we stay out here, the more attention we bring upon ourselves” Misha reminded us

But before we could make any progress on moving Mai out of the secluded road, the assailant that lied on the ground in front of us and behind Misha spoke

“Your luck is starting to run out….. after all this time, we finally managed to weaken you. All of you are on borrowed time, and there is nothing you can do to stop us”

“Shut up” Misha replied, not giving him any mind

“You think this will be enough to keep us down. This is a new beginning for all of us…. And our beginning doesn't include you in it.”

This time, none of us replied….

“None of you have what it takes to be true survivors, to be one of the strong….. Not Misha Sakuragi, and definitely not her pet Junichi Kanie”

After hearing them call us by name, we were forced to take them seriously….. Misha slowly turned towards the man she planted on the floor mere moments ago.

“We know who you all are, and we will not rest until all of you are nothing but a forgotten memory in this wretched place. You will not keep us down forever! You will all perish by our hands, Scarlet Knights”

But what alarmed me the most was how Misha was closing the gap on him….slowly, one step at a time…. I could only see her back, but considering how she was closing in on him with her arms frozen stiff in place, it was like a predator stalking her prey.

“Misha?” But she didn’t heed to my call

She closed in on him and had her retracted shield in her hands, and crushed his hand, slamming the metal onto it with all her strength which caused him to scream. She didn’t say a single word, and I managed to get a glimpse of intense stare right at the man on the ground

“You think that pain scares us…. You think that more of what this place doles out daily is enough to keep us from slaughtering you all. There is only one way that this ends, but you all are too weak to do it. And that is why, you will lose”

“Misha….nee” Mai who was sweating up a storm and barely keeping a straight face called out to her weakly.

“Misha…. Don’t listen to him.” But she remained unfazed

“That is why, we are not afraid, because we know that no matter what you all do, you will never cross that line”

Misha took out her sidearm just as he said that and pointed it at his head, holding him down by his throat

“MISHA! NO!”

“Do it, Sakuragi…. That’s right, you can’t. The look on your eyes….. the eyes of a killer who is held down by the weight of her past actions.”

I wanted so badly to run over and knock that bastard unconscious, but I couldn’t risk hurting Mai anymore than she already is.

Goddamnit…..

“Misha! Listen to me….. He’s just trying to get into your head. We avoid taking lives unless we have no choice….. You have a choice here”

“A group of nobodies held back by their pathetic rules. Make me all the more wanting to give you all a slow and painful death”

“He’s just going to keep coming after us” she muttered

“They’ll have to stop sooner or later…. We just have to keep-” but my words afterwards were silenced by the sound of a pulse round firing. Forcing the whole area into an uncomfortable silence.

There was no echo of a bullet casing hitting the ground, further cementing the fact that it was fired by the one person among all of us who was using pulse ammo…. I couldn’t see his face from where I stood, but with all the pooling blood and the fact that there was not even a twitch from him anymore, confirmed it

This time, it was different. There was not a single shred of fear in her eyes, not a shred of regret. Instead, she just looked at us to see how we’d react.

She looked back away from us

“Just go”

But all three of us were frozen in disbelief, until I broke the silence a moment later

“What did you do?”

“I SAID….JUST GO!”

.

.

.

.
I remember that I blamed myself for what happened that day. That I failed to talk her out of shooting him that day….. that all she did after that was on me and I failed to save her…. It’s the only explanation that made sense to me at the time.

But what really is the point of trying to save someone that was already too far gone?

.

.

.(Present day, Pre-dawn)

.

.

.

I looked out the window and I could see the glowing blaze even from the top of the tracks, and so could all the people with me on the L-Train. I wasn’t expecting to do this today, but the sooner I finish this, the better.

Once I left the train, I left the remnants of my sorrow and anger behind on that carriage…..as I couldn’t risk even showing a single weakness that he could use against me….Even I knew that it was a lie I was telling myself as my color perception was still gone, and my hands were still trickling my own blood. But I felt light, like nothing mattered anymore, and that I could do anything I wanted to.

I’ve only seen Helios at this time of day once before, but last time, there were a lot less people, with the only ones out at night the ones that will try to gut you just for looking their way….. Wonder what’s changed?

“Oi, Kyle…. Hurry the hell up will you, we miss this train, we’d miss out on the raids” said a guy in a visibly geared group

“I’m running as fast as I can, give me a break will you?”

“You can take a break after we are outside the raid gate…. We won’t be able to get a head start like today after the Night Rules are implemented”

Night rules? Oh….right

I followed the main road and into the secluded street. The road was empty but I had a slight suspicion that I was being shadowed. It has to be one of them

“I was already on my way to see your boss, looks like he has grown impatient”

No, wait a minute. His people never reveal themselves until they are right beside you, hidden in plain sight…. Which means

I turned around as they revealed themselves, and as I looked back, I was brought to the realization I was surrounded.

“We meet again, Jun-san…. I hope you do remember us” said the one who approached from behind me in a casual tone

At a glance, I didn’t recall who they were, forcing a response of silence from me

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Why don’t you try getting down on your knees and begging again?” His words were followed by a chuckle out of the two others who were blocking my escape routes.

His words also refreshed my memory….. These were the guys who attacked Mai and Meguru that day at the Guildhouse….. I also remember there being more of them.

“I don’t have time for this” I tried to shrug them off and walk away, but the guy in front of me just moved closer, making it clear that he won’t let me through

“What’s the rush, Jun-san? All we’ve been doing is running ever since we were trapped here…. Why not slow down for a bit?”

I slowly observed around me to assess what I am up against….. Three men, all roughly the same build as me… But they didn’t have their weapons in hand.

“You know…. I was really hoping to take my time with you but guess that really isn’t an option anymore is it….. Fucking Guardian Clans and their damn Night Rules ruining all the fun.”

“Why don’t quit stalling and tell me what you want from me?” I demanded

“Oh we don’t want anything from you…. You see… you’ve been a bit of a black cat to us. Ever since you crossed our path, our luck has been down in the dumps….. And down here, when a black cat crosses your path, you beat the shit out of it until it’s barely clinging for life”

Haven’t I’ve seen these kinds of people before more times that I can count… Unable to blame themselves for their failure, so they keep digging until they can shift it to someone else.

“Oh don’t you worry, Jun-san. We won’t kill you just yet…. We are just going to break your arms, and then your legs. And drag you all the way to your home in the Decadence District-”

After those last few words, I couldn’t ignore them anymore

“-and you’ll get to see us burning it down, with those two brats and your other two friends with it” As he said that, the other two were laughing at me while my rage built up once again

“Roland will not be here this time to save you this time, and just like last time, you will helplessly watch your friends as they scream in pain, begging us to let them out”

Even if it was an empty threat, it was enough for me to feel my anger boiling over. However, my impulses were not to rush at them blindly, instead… I felt calm…..very calm, as if my emotions just shut down.

How will I be any different from Misha and Senpai if I just outright kill them right now? How would I go about this?

Their talkative one was stepping close to me this whole time and now he was in front of my face

“What, you think we are going to take it easy on you just because you are frozen solid, you four-eyed prick?” And he connected his bat directly onto my face, trying to get me to react…. However, my glasses took the brunt force of his strike and shattered on my face, leaving a cut on my nose.

But he was already too late.

While they were all focused on getting a reaction out of me, what none of them realized was that I covertly unholstered my sidearm as I recoiled from his first strike. The moment he charged up to swing once again, I let loose a shot into his shin bone.

He fell to the ground immediately and started screaming in agony, and his comrades froze for a moment as they didn’t expect both the ear shattering sound of my sidearm or for their friend to hit the deck.

“It’s a shame that you guys caught me all alone today-” I took my broken glasses off and threw them onto the ground “-that just means there will be no one to save you from me”

They both rushed me at the same time, but one was closer to me than the other. The closer assailant swung at me but I sidestepped his attack, his bat hit the ground and I slid past and behind him to discourage his rushing friend from striking, and just as expected…he did.

I kicked the first attacker towards his friend and they were trying to regain their footing, but I took this chance to fire another couple of shots to the back of the first assailant’s knee, forcing him to lower his stance while holding onto his friend.

I readjusted my aim fast and put four precise shots into the last assailants collar bones while walking closer to them. The first assailant who was now immobile, tried to force himself to his feet and get in a cheap shot but I saw through it. I evaded his punch and grabbed it…but his arm over my shoulder and snapped it from the elbow. He fell back down to a crouch but his injured knee was now stretched out, which allowed me to stomp his leg, snapping it just like his arm and forcing him onto the ground, overwhelmed by the intense pain.

I then switched my attention to his grounded friend who was trying to aim his gun at me, but was unable to take aim due to his shattered collar bones. He looked at me the same way Senpai’s victims looked at him….. That expression of fear and desperation.

I stomped the bullet wounds on his collar bone, forcing him to jolt and inflict more pain on himself. I kept my foot on his injury and put shots into each of his kneecaps until my gun ran out of bullets.

“STOP!” The voice of the group had propped himself up by his arm and was pointing his gun at me, but his hand was shuddering. “L…..leave….leave my friends alone….. I’ll kill you!”

“Kill me?” I took my foot off his injured friend and walked towards him slowly. “Look at yourself, you think you are tough ganging up on people…… you think you are untouchable since you are backed up by a clan of hundreds. But that’s all you all are, aren’t you?..... You haven’t even killed anyone before, have you?”

He was frozen solid, with his gun trained on me. I could see the strain on his face where he is trying to pull the trigger but he can’t

“If you are as strong as you think you are, I should be dead right now with a bullet in my head…. But I am not, am I?”

I crouched down to his level and leaned my forehead into his gun barrel “Here…. So you don’t miss….. Go on, pull the trigger”

He looked like he was almost about to cry….. The mouth of the group had no words left. Instead, he was just frozen. Until his arm lost strength, and he lowered his gun.

“Taking a life even to save your own isn’t that easy, isn’t it?

I however, had my sidearm pointed right at his injured leg, and I dug the gun barrel right into his gunshot wound, causing him more pain which he tried to grit through…. And I grabbed him by the collar

“Taking a round to the shin is still a world of hurt even with all the reduced pain. And I’ll be more than happy to show how many other ways that I cause agony, but I might feel generous today and leave you all here to take in the fact that you got your ass handed to you by someone who put his head under your foot before….. You want me to feel generous?”

He didn’t speak, rather he replied with a subtle nod with approval.

“In that case, here’s what’s going to happen from now on….. You know where I live, you know who my friends are… You ever try to mess with us again. You won’t even be able to imagine what’s in store for you”

I let go and he fell flat onto the floor…. And I attempted to continue to my original goal, leaving them in my tailwind.

“You damn monster” said one of the others while I was walking away

I stopped in my tracks after I heard that “A monster would never give you a choice….. but I did” I said without facing them, and then started walking again.

I was aware of what I did….. That I might’ve irreparably destroyed all their morale and self-confidence with that display.

But why should I care?

I reached the end of the street while loading a fresh mag into my sidearm where another voice presented itself

“The boss requests your presence” said a hooded figure right around the corner.

Considering how he literally just snuck up to me without alerting me in any way was all the confirmation I needed that he was one of his.

“I was already on my way” I replied

“Unfortunately, the boss wants to conduct this meeting elsewhere…. And he instructed me to guide you to him”

I stood silent as I took a quick glimpse at my interface

“He also instructed me to inform you that you will be back with your group by sunrise”

Even without him being here, The Broker reminded me how much a scary son of a bitch he really is.

I followed his lackey well away from his base of operations, and into a secluded and open area with little to no cover…. So much so that I was able to see the Broker’s ugly mug from a mile away.

As we got closer and my attention diverted towards the head honcho, my guide seemed to have disappeared into thin air

“Are you aware of the concept of a Phoenix, Mr. Kanie?” said the Devil himself while showing his back to me

“You throw a riddle at me at this time of day, I’m gonna scrape off that clump of hair around your mouth on the pavement”.

He turned to face me and let out a chuckle “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh…. It’s just, you reminded me of one of my similarly hot-headed customers. I remember that I did mention her to you in the tavern that day?”

“Are you going to waste more of my time or are you going to get to the point?”

But he kept his relaxed pace “Very well…. The Phoenix…. A bird that dies in a fiery blaze and then comes back to life anew. Sound familiar to you?”

I held my silence hoping that he would just get to the point already

“It should….. Emerging out of a blooming red flower, the bird came out anew. He only used to see the good in people and now he sees the world in gray-” The Broker started to move closer to me “And in the trail of seeing the Phoenix’s rebirth, the fox had one question in his mind-” And he was inches away from my ear “What did he see in there?”

I calmly took a few steps back from him, and he didn’t advance any further “But even through his rebirth, the fox was one step ahead….. He was bound to an agreement…. That followed him even through his rebirth. And now the fox has brought in the majestic bird, to collect what he’s owed”

“I got nothing…. Everything and anything I saw in that precinct, I made sure it turned into ash.” I replied

“Tsk, tsk,tsk…. Do you remember how much I adore math, Mr. Kanie? And do you know why? It’s because it’s the only thing in the world that cannot lie to you. Science lies to you, using the limitations of technology as an excuse, History lies to you by saying it’s lost in time ... .but Math…. The solutions it gives are definite. It gives no excuses, and is unfazed by lies. However, just like you can find a solution to a problem…you can also do it the other way around.”

He takes a few steps back “And you know what the math is telling me right now, Mr. Kanie? It’s telling me that whatever you saw in there shook your core beliefs, so much so that you might’ve salvaged whatever it was… just to save yourself from regretting your actions later”

That forced a chuckle out of me

“You love deductions so much, so here’s another one for the mix. Considering how much you pride on being the one who knows everything and everyone, you knew about those guys laying in wait to ambush me….What happened between me and them was weeks ago, so I could believe that they might’ve tailed me or the others back to our house…..but, how did they know there were four others?”

The subtle smirk on the Broker’s face added more weight to my suspicion “We only dragged Akio back not even half a day ago…. Where would they find a source of information that would know something that recent.”

“Who could say?” and for once, I brought an equal balance to the conversation against the Broker.

“You sold me out” I hit him with my conclusion

“All I see is that I just did my job. They paid, I provided…. Just like I did to Misha Sakuragi”

“So much for valuing your clients” I kept the pressure on him

“You misunderstand me, Mr. Kanie….. My principle is that I don’t offer information on clients that have done business with me in the past. You, however, still haven’t managed to cross that line…. You first brought me a question about Tadashi Chifuyu…. I wasn’t able to answer. You then asked me about Chifuyu’s and Nakamura’s advance into Typhon which was inaccurate-“ He started closing the distance on me

“It’s pretty much clear that until we put the seal on this deal, we really haven’t transacted now, have we?”

I was forced into a silence as The Broker’s words were incontestable.

I let out a sigh of defeat, and showed him the carrot he was looking for, taking it out of my inventory.

“And what is that supposed to be?” he asked me.

“It’s what you wanted… Yamori-senpai’s hard drive. You wanted to know what I saw in there? It’s all in this”

I noticed the Broker’s form loosening a bit, it was almost as he was trying to keep himself from drooling

“All his case files, all his personal profiles, audio logs…. And his side projects. A gold mine of information that you don’t have”

“I’ll need to verify it” he iterated

“Fine by me”

He snapped his fingers and pointed at me, and one of his guards came to relieve me of my possession. But I pulled it back as he was reaching for it

“Uh,uh,uh,uh….. My business was with The Ghost Broker…. Not his goons”

The guard looked back at his boss

“It’s fine…Prepare the mainframe console” he instructed his lackeys

He stepped towards me at a steady pace, until he was right in front of me again…slowly reached his arm out to me and gripped the drive. But I didn’t let go just yet

“After this, we done?”

“Depends if this drive is legit.”

I let go, letting him have my trump card.

The Broker walked back to where he was the most safe and plugged in the drive onto a computer that his lackeys brought in. He started tapping away on the keyboard on a compact PC that looked like a relic from the last century.

Suddenly, a scoff and a smile escaped the Broker’s mouth.

“So, we done?” I reiterated

“Yes, and you have done an admirable job”

He brought up his interface and took something out of his inventory, and he threw it at me underarm. I caught it and took a look at what it was….looked like a coin with a custom imprint on it

“That’s a broker’s mark…. A token that cements you….Junichi Kanie, as being under my client confidentiality from this moment on”

I said not a word more and hoped that I didn’t have to, as I turned around and started to walk away…. Pocketing the token while I told myself it was finally over.

“What? What is this? What’s happening?” So I thought

I didn’t have to face the Broker to realize what was happening, as his reactions of panic and confusion painted a new picture to me of who he really was.

“I knew it” I said, stopping in my tracks

“What is this? ANSWER ME KANIE!”

I turned around “Oh that…let me guess. There is a worm running on that drive right now that is running rampant through your entire system, deleting everything on it...along with anything else on your system. And I’m guessing considering you said the word ‘mainframe’ before, that’s a direct terminal into all your hard work throughout these past couple of months.”

“You….you tricked me!” The Broker’s tone turned drastically to the more serious side/

“As a matter of fact, I did no such thing. It’s you who the failed the test….my test”

“What?”

“Senpai had a failsafe in place in his data drives…. If some files were opened on any system outside his own PC, it would wipe his whole drive, along with the system that read it. So before I pulled the drive from his system, I did some rearranging….. You wanted to expand the range of what information you can sell to the highest bidder so all the information you asked for, that you requested, were in the first two folders. If that was the only thing you were looking for, you would’ve easily spotted the program in either of those two folders to kill the worm entirely from the drive. But you chose poorly”

“You do realize you have just made yourself a powerful enemy?” He said, looking up at me slowly from the screen in front of him

“That drive was a test on whether you can be trusted, because it seems that people I know don’t think twice about manipulating me for their own twisted causes. I’m done only seeing the good in people, I’m done being a tool who gets thrown away after being used…”

“KANIE!” The broker immediately pointed his gun at me, but didn’t pull the trigger “KILL HIM! SHOOT HIM NOW!”

But his goons didn’t obey

“WHAT ARE IDIOTS DOING?!” he said, looking around him as no one else raised their weapon at me

“For someone who thinks he got the whole world figured out, you really don’t know anything do you?”

“Huh!?”

I showed him the token he gave me “They all saw me holding my end of the bargain. They saw you give your word. And it would have anyone thinking…. What would happen to their employer’s credibility if he gunned down someone who was under his immunity. Of course, considering you didn’t fire your gun…. You are even greener than the guys who attacked me. Never mind taking a life, you haven’t even hurt anyone yet.”

“You think that token means shit anymore, after what you have done?” So this is how you get him to talk without spurting out illusive riddles

“The problem about information is that it’s very difficult to contain the spread. I die here, all your guys here and anyone of your operatives in the shadows will witness it. Their employer breaks his ironclad code, and that spreads ... .little by little and it reaches your competition. What ends up happening to you after that? You are a crafty weasel, Broker ... .you'll rebuild all you have lost in due time…. But what does all that matter if no one ever comes to you for help anymore, knowing that the guarantee of safety they will get, is a lie?”

The Broker was left speechless as the tables were effectively turned against him. Forcing him to slam his gun on his mainframe terminal

“Since your love for math is almost unparalleled, I’ll let you in on a fact about it. The answers you get might be indisputable truth-“ I put him in my shadow “but there’s no stopping anyone from tampering with problem and leading you to the answer that’s not what you are looking for”

The silence on his side, remained

“Pleasure doing business with you….Broker”

I said all I had to say to him and walked away. Tying up the last loose end.

“THIS IS FAR FROM OVER….. I WON’T FORGET THIS DAY…. YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE……KANIE!!”