Nogitsune (2 page)

24 HOURS (2
4
時
間
)

Inato crime lord Kento Karahawa turned his back and looked out at the city. “To show you how merciful I am, I’ll give you ten seconds, Robert, to have my ten million dollars.”

“What?” said Robert shocked. “But Mr. Karahawa-“

Kento glared at his watch nonchalantly, not caring too much about the actual time Robert had left. “Four, three, two, one! Time’s up Robert! Where’s my money?”

“If you give me time, I promise you that I’ll get it,” Robert Martin pleaded.

Kento turned around back to a naked and shivering Robert before him. All of Robert’s men were on their knees with pistols pointed to the back of their heads as Robert tried desperately to talk his way out of the situation.

“Time is something you don’t have the luxury of. I want my ten million dollars now.”

Robert dropped to his knees and began begging for his life. “Please, Mr. Karahawa! Give me twenty four hours and I promise you I’ll have it.”

Kento smiled. “Why should I believe you? You’ve already lied to me before about when you would have my money back to me.”

Robert looked up at Kento. “Because if I don’t have it, you can kill me.”

“No, I’m afraid that’s not good enough,” said Kento. “I need to know that you’re serious in your willingness to repay your debt to me. I need to know that you’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I get my money.”

“I will! I swear on my life,” cried Robert with tears pouring from his eyes.

“Kento, just let me waste this lying sack of shit and get it over with,” said Daiki Fukai with his gun at the ready.

Kento held up his hand to calm his fiery lieutenant down.

Robert crawled towards Kento and began begging and crying at his feet. “PLEASE, MR. KARAHAWA! I CAN GET YOU THE MONEY.”

Kento looked down at Robert mercilessly, “You see…the problem and dilemma I’m facing is that for an American, you’re a bullshitter and I have a very low tolerance for bullshit. You do know that, don’t you?”

Robert nodded.

“Your words mean nothing because they lack conviction,” said Kento. “So what I need you to do is prove to me that you’re willing to do whatever it takes. Can you do that?”

Robert nodded, “I can, Kento.”

“That’s Mr. Karahawa, to you,” said Daiki.

Robert nodded again, this time more fervently. “I can, Mr. Karahawa.”

“Perfect,” said Kento. “Here’s the perfect opportunity to prove to me your conviction. Understand that you’ll only get one chance to bullshit me and you’re dead.”

Kento unzipped his pants and pulled out his gun. “Open your mouth wide and close your eyes.”

Robert looked at Kento’s crotch, immediately closing his eyes, and opened his mouth wide preparing to give Kento fellatio. Within seconds, Robert could feel Kento grab the back of his head and force a piece of metal down his throat causing him to gag, knocking out one of his teeth.

When Robert opened his eyes, Daiki Fukai was standing in front of him holding the shotgun in his mouth.

Daiki smiled. “Yeah, suck it, suck it!”

Robert sat motionless looking at Daiki.

Daiki pumped the shotgun. “I SAID SUCK IT, MUTHAFUCKA!” 

With a tear coming from the side of his eye, Robert slowly began to suck on the shotgun as if he were giving fellatio.

“Yeah! You done this before,” said Daiki with a mischievous grin on this face. “Faster!”

Robert sped up and began gagging, saliva leaking from his lips.

“Ah, yeah,” said Daiki. “Yeah, I’m about to…BAMMM!”

Daiki looked Robert directly in the eyes and pulled the trigger. With the sound of the click, Robert gasped as Kento clapped his hands and Daiki broke out in a sadistic laugh.

“You have done this before, haven’t you?” Daiki said in Japanese to Kento under sadistic laughter.

“You see this is what I’m talking about,” Kento said. “Conviction! It is the will to do anything and cross any line to get the desired result. You were willing to suck my dick in front of your men. I guess being out to sea too long, you sailors crave anything.”

Kento’s men laughed boisterously.

Kento continued. “Men who had sworn their loyalty to you. Men who would die for you and go to war just to save your pitiful ass. You think wearing a uniform makes you a warrior? You’re a coward, unfit for life.” He went to Robert’s men. “You have a choice to keep working for this miserable piece of shit that would betray you at the drop of a dime or consider working for me. Stand if you want to rule. Keep bowing if you want to be ruled.”

All of Robert’s men stood up with the exception of one: Robert’s brother, Harrison Martin.

Robert turned and looked at his brother. “HARRISON, NO!”

Kento smiled and walked to him. “Who are you?”

Harrison looked at Kento defiantly and spit in his face. “FUCK YOU!”

Kento calmly wiped the spit from his brow and smiled. “You have balls. I like that. It’s too bad your brother doesn’t have your heart or balls.”

Kento nodded and the Inato enforcer standing behind Harrison took the back of his gun and knocked him unconscious. Kento calmly walked over to Robert and grinned sinisterly. “Don’t worry, Mr. Martin! I’m going to help you out with your problem.”

The Inato soldiers quickly disrobed Harrison and brought in a toolbox.

“Hold him down,” said Kento.

“MR. KARAHAWA, PLEASE!” Robert tried to get up, but was pushed back down by an Inato guard.

Kento looked back at an Inato guard over Robert, “If he moves, kill him. Daiki, bring the pruners and knife.”

Harrison screamed in agony as Daiki put the pruners to his testicles and castrated him without flinching. As Harrison continued to scream from the pain, Kento took out his nine millimeter and shot Harrison in the temple.

“NOOOO!” Robert put his head down and screamed within, trying to keep whatever manhood he had left.

With the grisly deed done, Kento walked over to Robert and dropped Harrison’s heart and scrotum before him. “You have your brother’s heart and his balls. Now you have no excuse for not getting me my money. You have twenty-four hours, Robert, to get me my money or I promise that this will be a sweet dream compared to what I’ll do to you. And trust me! If you think about running, there’s no place in this world you can go that I won’t find you.”

Without saying another word, Kento walked out of the building. Robert owned the building thanks to what he had left on his military pension. He also had the loyalty of a number of military sailors.

None of that mattered.

Overcome with grief, Robert starred at Harrison’s mutilated body. Harrison had stood beside him when no other person would, and all Robert could do was stand idly by and watch him get slaughtered. Robert thought, if it had been him, his brother would have taken a bullet and died for him; or did something other than nothing.

****

Captain Robert Martin of the United States Navy knew he was on borrowed time and he wouldn’t be able to come up with the money.

Kento was right. Robert was a bullshitter, and thinking because he was a Captain in the United States Navy and the Japanese would see him as something honorable, he bullshitted his way into convincing one of most ruthless yakuza to let him live for another 24 hours.

For hours at home, Robert sat on the couch snorting cocaine, contemplating what he was going to do. He thought about his life living in Japan, first as a United States Sailor and afterwards his discharge because he was involved in a bribery and fraud ring with other commissioned officers. He spent the majority of his career in Japan commanding ships and working with different staffs in Yokosuka, south of Yokohama and at one point on three other bases in Atsugi, Iwakuni, and Okinawa.

After sniffing one more line as hard and fast as he could, he came up with a solution.

He was going to take his own life and die on his terms.

In almost a zombie-like fashion from the cocaine high, Robert put on his service dress uniform and walked to the roof determined to jump. As Robert looked up at the sky and the bloodshot moon radiated its light upon him, he climbed upon the ledge, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” said the voice of a woman he’d later learn was named Illicit.

Startled, Robert wheezed and turned to her. “What are you doing here?”

She said nothing.

Robert eyes gazed upon her naked body forgetting the previous question and asked. “Who are you?”

Then, after some silence, Illicit asked, “Do you know the legend of the blood moon?”

“The what?”

Not paying attention to Robert’s tension, her eyes were hypnotized by the moon and her thoughts to a different time and place; a place not known to Robert or any other human being.

“Driven mad by jealousy of Amaterasu, the goddess of light, Izanami, her stepmother and goddess of the underworld thanks to her decisions seduced Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu’s brother along with a demon god from Yomi, in order to seize control of heaven and hell.

“When the war was over, Izanami was sentenced to be banished from the heavens and cursed to live forever in the darkness of the vicissitudes of space. As Izanami lay powerless before the mercy of the gods and goddesses with her sinister beauty as her only weapon, she devised a plan that would make Amaterasu pay and suffer. She convinced the Hachiman that was madly in love with her, to kill her and hide her spirit in the darkest souls of humanity.

“This Hachiman obeyed and killed Izanami out of love, knowing this would be the only way that he would be able to be with his beloved. Then, he went after Amaterasu by brutally beating down Tsukuyomi, the god of the moon. It’s said that after the demon punished Tsukuyomi, he was so broken-hearted from losing Izanami that he hid his spirit and soul inside a lineage of warriors. In doing so, he created a spell to be cast upon the light of the crimson blood moon. In doing so, the demon’s spirit and soul would begin to emerge out of a warrior and Izanami’s soul would be resurrected into an incarnate state, until she was able to pull her spirit out of the darkest souls of men.”

After finishing her story, the spellbinding eyes of Illicit looked back at a curious Robert. “Why do you want to die, Robert Martin?”

“How do you know my name?” said Robert.

“You haven’t answered the question. Why do you want to die?”

“Does it matter?”

Illicit smiled. “Do you fear those men so much that you would end your own life?”

Robert remained silent. Clinching his fists, he shouted angrily, “You think I’m afraid of Kento or any of the Inato organization? You think I give a fuck about any of this shit? My brother, my only family left, has just died right in front of me and I could do nothing to save him. I want to die because I deserve it. I couldn’t save him.”

Illicit strolled to Robert and stared directly in his eyes, “How long will you keep lying to yourself? You didn’t give a damn about your brother dying. You’re afraid of these men. You’re afraid of dying. But I can help you.”

“How?”

“I can give you the power that you so terribly covet. I can give you the power that will topple the Inato family and bring it to its knees.”