Changing Masks

by Nicholas Metelsky

  'Hold on,' the head stopped him by raising his hand, 'What's with the guns? I thought a juvenile needed a parent’s permission for that? How did he swindle that one?'

  'There is a loophole in our legislation. If a child has lived alone for over three years, they can acquire permission from any official state representative. In this case, he convinced his classroom teacher to help him.'

  'Hmm, interesting. Go on.'

  'We asked around his friends from the middle school, and they all say that sometimes they get a ‘whiff of creepiness’ from him that terrifies everyone.'

  'Yaki?'

  'That's what I thought too. His advisory teacher who has the Disciple rank in fencing confirmed it. Apparently, he learned to use Yaki when dealing with his peers and trying to avoid fights. One of the teachers from his elementary school said that he was often bullied there, and once was even beaten up. To avoid that once and for all, he must have taken up martial arts and learned about the Lust for Murder. Yaki suits his non-contentious personality. At the same time, it's hard to say that he is a faint-hearted nerd. Everyone we talked to claims that he has a very strong personality.

  He didn't have friends in middle school, only acquaintances. He worked at the nightclub The Swallow for some time, but we couldn't get any information beyond that. His position there is unknown, but it's obvious that he wasn't a waiter or a bartender. The club once had a bad reputation but after local gangs redistributed power, the establishment was left alone. The owner Atsushi Honda fell on hard times. As I understand it, the gang, using the building for their own needs, did not allow the club to develop and make a profit, but it did not let it fall apart either. After the gang stepped aside, nobody wanted the establishment. Sakurai-Kun came around during that time. I don't know how he earned the owner's trust, but major changes started happening after that. They changed the overall brand image, made a new design, billboards, advertising. They hired guards and ran the rumor that The Swallow is a great place. Honda makes a deal with the new protection racket about payments, and the first customers become regulars, while being relatives— siblings— of the children in Sakurai-kun's middle school. It all speaks of the extraordinary intelligence and breakthrough abilities of this young man.'

  'And also his independence.'

  'That's right, sir. Rumor has it that he's a co-owner of the club. The percentage is hardly high. Also, being a regular visitor to the club, he has many acquaintances. Visitors of The Swallow are people who are well-off. There are many aristocrats, both imperial and from clans. I doubt that his connections are great, but he does have them. I am positive about that.'

  'You say that the club had a rough patch? Indeed, a very interesting young man. Is that all?'

  'No. That is not the most important thing.'

  'Oh, that sounds intriguing.'

  'I think Iuidah-kun can be let go, my lord, he certainly has things to do.'

  'You may go.' He bowed and slowly walked towards the exit from the garden. Receiving a sign from the head of the clan, Kato continued.

  'You already know from your son, that Sakurai-kun is a neighbor of the Koyama family, but I also found out that he literally lives next door to the head of the clan.'

  'Is that right?' Dai cut in, but then paused and nodded, 'Go on.'

  'After asking around in the Koyama neighborhood, we managed to find out that the only neighborhood resident with the last name Sakurai, is Bunja Rafu, the youngest son of Bunja Daisuke, who took his wife's family name.'

  'Stop.' Closing his eyes, the head of one of the most powerful clans in Japan was caught up in his thoughts. 'What a story. And he doesn't even belong to the clan. Interesting... Given the story with his parents, he does not belong to either the family or the clan. But why didn't the old man take him back to the clan? The parents basically rejected him. Stop, stop again. You said, he lives on his parents' money? Con artists!' the man exclaimed. 'Nobody gets it! What about his parents?'

  'Their whereabouts are unknown.'

  'The old man Bunja was right when he cried that the nasty plebeian woman was not good for anything. Anyway, what was their purpose in abandoning but not giving up their son for adoption? Hmm, one stupid decision left him without a family and a clan,' he fell silent and started watching the clouds floating in the sky. 'Bunya had a strong ancestral ability, however.'

  'That's right, sir. Bunja's 'Kamontoku' wouldn't hurt to have in our clan.'

  'I believe I must meet my son's new friend and speak to him about the debauchery of modern youth.'

  * * *

  Shina woke up and instantly froze. She carefully fidgeted in bed, sighed with relief and stretched.

  'My mother never ceases to amaze me—among other great things, she can make a butt that is sore from spanking, feel better. I had to go to sleep on my stomach last night thanks to that filthy little toad. Yeah, she took it out on him, so what? He could have said it to her face. Why does he have to tell on her? Yesterday she almost got into a fight with her best friend. All because of him. Kino is right. He's a weak, poor man who lives on the clan's territory and gets clan protection for doing nothing. It doesn't matter that it's not his fault. That's how it is. That just made her blood boil. As a result, she got spanked in addition to everything. Who gets a spanking at 17? Wonderful.

  How could her parents suggest she apologize to him! To him! To that weak tattletale! No way! He is a snitch for not facing her. How is she supposed to treat him after that? She might have crossed the line by calling him a freeloader. She might even have apologized over time. But due to her butt being on fire now, she rejected the idea of ever apologizing to him. The only problem was if her parents found out... and they might since he likes to complain so much. That means she’d have to. However, it needed to be done in a special way so that he immediately understood what was up and tried not to be so rude. Then she'd go for a run and have a sparring session! She’d show him today what happens to those who like to blab. She had got up early that morning on purpose.

  Shina stretched out, threw the blanket aside, and jumped out of bed. Thoughts of sparring charged her with vivacity and anticipation. Too bad she couldn’t spank the crap out of him—that would be totally over the top.

  The girl went down to the first floor. The most wonderful smells were coming up from the kitchen. She had the best mom, after all. The men in the family were not even up yet, but she was already tinkering in the kitchen. How does she find time for everything? However, she has her privileges too. She was allowed much more than anyone else. Needless to say, she held the right to be the Koyama heir’s only wife. Yes, her mother was a beast; she kept all these rough men on a short leash.

  'Not just the men,' Shina thought to herself and touched her sore butt. 'Yeah, she helped me afterwards, but the conversation with her was almost as scary as it would have been with her grandpa.

  After taking a shower and changing into a tracksuit, she walked into the kitchen, hoping to grab something delicious. Breakfast would be done in a while.

  'Good morning, mom.'

  'Morning, Shina. I see you're going for a run,' Kagami greeted her daughter without turning around.

  'Yeah, it's been a while since I ran.'

  'You could have slept longer.'

  'I want to ask Shinji... to come with me.'

  'Oh yeah?' her mother finally turned around. 'Then I'd like to remind you: business first, fun second.'

  Shina realized that her mom was implying that she must apologize.

  'I going to work out, what fun are you talking about?'

  'I'm talking about sparring, girly,' Kagami said, turning back to the stove. She stirred the pot and turned around, laying vegetables on the table.

  Shina rejoiced at that moment—her mother appeared to be on her side and was almost officially giving her permission to give Shinji a good thwack. For that opportunity, she could even apologize like a good girl.

  'All right, Mom, I'll keep that in mind!'

  'One more thing, Shina
. If I see that our neighbor has bruises, I'm going to get mad,' she said holding a tomato in one hand and twisting a knife in the other. 'You don't want me to get mad, do you?'

  Shina shook her head anxiously.

  'No, I don't.'

  'Well, great,' she fixed her hair with the back of her hand and went back to cutting vegetables.

  'But, mom, how do you spar without getting bruised?' Shina didn't want to give up just yet.

  'You're gonna try.' Her voice was so full of insinuation that Shina decided to forget about sparring. After all, this was not going to last forever, and she could wait a week for her parents to settle down. Even a few weeks. Or she could think of something else.

  'Where is the fun part then...' Shina grumbled. Her mother heard her.

  'There is more than one purpose of sparring, Shina, and you, being a girl, should know that.'

  'Am I not a girl if I don't know?' Shina thought resentfully. As if feeling something, Kagami looked up and gazed into her eyes.

  'What?'

  'Oh, daughter, you do lose your wits when it comes to Shinji,' Kagami said, swinging her head from side to side. 'I wish I knew why' she grinned, looking at her daughter's indignant face.

  'I'm gonna go,' grumbled the Koyama clan genius, leaving without taking a bite. 'Time is passing, and Shinji is still sleeping.'

  * * *

  Shina heaved a deep sigh. The level of irritation that had already accumulated even before the day had really begun, beat her personal record. She couldn't even take it out on anyone. School was not the place where it'd fly. Publicly demonstrating feelings was unbecoming of a Koyama clan member.

  'Bloody Shinji!' Shina thought furiously, punching her fist on the toilet door. 'Kino is a pain in the butt too! Did she have to open her mouth? I understand where she's coming from, but for God's sake, I'm not announcing her flaws to others! No matter what Shinji was like, it was no concern of hers.' Tossing a strand of black hair away with an impetuous movement, Shina walked up to the mirror and looked into the eyes of her own reflection.

  'Regardless, Shinji has crossed all acceptable boundaries! The little one embarrassed me in front of my friend! If it wasn’t for my parents, I'd make a hamburger out of him! He wouldn't get away with just a few bruises!' she thought, imagining Shinji's smashed up face with the anticipation of a sadist. 'Unfortunately, that's just a dream. Grandfather is completely on the tattleteller's side. Mom, too... at best, she'll tear off my ears if she sees even one bruise on him! At least in the next week.'

  Shina could hear the sounds of a door opening and girls' voices. The girls were clearly brightening up their time doing their favorite thing— gossiping. And perhaps, Shina wouldn't have paid any attention to someone else's chatter, if it hadn't been for one small detail. Kino was one of the gossiping girls and they were discussing Shinji.

  Using her advantage of two and a half seconds—Kino and she had once estimated that this was exactly how much time it took to slip from the front door to the stalls—Shina disappeared into one of the stalls.

  '...can you believe what that freeloader said?' 'By all means, trying not to stoop down to your level!' Kino impersonated Shinji. 'Can you imagine such a thing from a stray! Such disrespect! Ok, he says it to me, but Shina-san was there too! How dare he speak like that to a descendant of the very family that takes care of him?!' she exclaimed full of indignation.

  'What are you going to do about it?' at the same time, she could hear the sound of running water in the sink.

  'I'm not gonna let it slide! Most of all for Shina's sake! I can't allow that loser to taint her reputation.'

  'What is she up to? That's all we need! I am the only one who has the right to beat the crap out of Shinji. Well, perhaps Mizuki, too.'Shina thought.

  'Haven't they known each other since childhood?'

  'These are insignificant details.'

  'What a witch,' Shina thought with involuntary admiration. 'It seems like somebody is seriously going to get it now.'

  'Well, if you say so...'

  'Absolutely. Even Shina-san, for all her kindness, will stop communicating with him, if he is publicly beaten and humiliated. A man must be able to stand up for himself! And if you can arrange it, Shina-san will only despise him and stop all communication with him.'

  'Why me though?'

  'If anything happens, I can cover up for you with Shina-san, but you can't.'

  'Fine. What should I do then?'

  'Kino knows how to select executors,' Shina thought, shaking her head.

  'Poor thing. Don't you see? You're a beautiful girl. Take advantage of it!'

  'Well…'

  'I see. Okay, you finished? Let's go then, this is not a conversation for the bathroom.'

  'Crap!' Shina was irritated, leaving her shelter. 'What am I going to do now? I can't let them follow through with the plan. Or can I? On the one hand, Shinji will finally realize how weak he is. On the other hand, that will give me the upper hand with one of the schoolgirls. But do I really need it with her? She is doing it for me, after all but Kino is a whole different story. Lately, she has been far too blatant and thinks that she can do anything she wants just because we are friends. I feel bad for Shinji, of course, but it's all for his own sake. I should stop by tonight and act cool; otherwise, he'll get too relaxed.'

  Chapter 5

  Oh my. How many times have I promised myself that I’ll stop sleeping on these sofas! I looked at the clock. It was half-past one. I had only got five hours sleep. Tara left at sixish, and I decided not to go home, a decision I was now paying for. I had time for a rinse, but that meant going to the bathroom. It would be better to go straight to Funtik where I could take a shower. I yawned, got up off the sofa, stretched, got dressed and headed to the door. I stepped out into the empty hall and looked around. It was nice and quiet. There was a certain charm, manifesting through the calmness, in the hall when it was empty.

  Both Vasyas were sitting at the bar counter. They lived close by, so whenever they had nothing to do, they were usually here. I waved at both of them.

  'Sakurai-san,' Japanese Vasya called my name. 'There is a note for you here.'

  'Last night was awesome. Next time, it's on me. Rydon.' I wonder what he's gonna come up with. Oh, I wish I made friends as easily with the entire class. That'd be nice.

  Funtik wasn't there. He was probably looking for random spare parts from everything again. What's amazing is that the old man manages to make good money from it. Although this was more of a by-product; I doubted he had spent his share of the banking business.

  I took a shower and changed. I’ve got to upgrade my wardrobe here. Then I pondered what to do next. Should I have breakfast and then contact Akemi or vice versa? Perhaps, I should get in touch with her first as the kitchen is on the other side of the building. I picked up a TracFone with a different sim-card and dialed her number.

  'Hello, Tokyo Police Department on the line...'

  'Hello, Sakurai-San.' That must have been Lee. 'Do you want to talk to Akemi-san?'

  'Tell her to join a video chat. My laptop is already on.'

  'My apologies, Sakurai-San, but that is not possible at the moment as we are pretty far away from the computer.'

  'Is she available now?'

  'Now, yes.'

  'Okay, give her the phone.' I heard fussing sounds and an indistinct murmur coming from the phone.

  'Hi Shin-chan!' He was taken aback by the yelling on the phone. Well, they're clearly not at the library.

  'Greetings. How's the child?'

  'He's fine. Just standing here, looking for trouble.'

  'Hehe! Okay, I got an idea, and we gotta meet.'

  'It’'ll have to be in the evening. Let's do 6 p.m., my place.'

  The new trend of guilds was to rent out the entire floor of somewhere like a hotel in a skyscraper. The more expensive, the better. Akemi was no different from all the others. Reputation was everything. It was better for me that way because my visits could be more
discreet. In a public place that is always crowded, it's hardly likely that anyone would pay attention to a teenager. I could use my 'distraction maneuver' on the surrounding people, and the security guards would not notice it on the cameras. Nobody was ever on her floor. With minimal cameras, their location was very favorable for me. However, from the point of view of security, it was not a good fashion, but that was their problem.

  'Sounds good. I'll be there at six.'

  'Just don't mess with my people. I don't want to lose my voice yelling at those lazybones again.'

  'Now you know how inconvenient it is to have to defend yourself in a place like this.'

  'Yeah, yeah. It's just that there are so few thieves of the same level as you in the whole country. None of them is a Veteran, except for the Tabata clan.' I should say that the Tabata clan aren't regular thieves. They're more like Ninjas, and intelligence service is their specialty. 'Plus, you knocked down regular fighters.'

  'I knocked them out because they were in my way of sneaking in unnoticed. There's a big difference.'

  'Noted. Either way, don't do it. Put on your mask and walk quietly through.'

  'Okay, you got it. I'll be there at six.'

  'See ya then.'

  'Later,' I hung up and tossed the phone back on the shelf. It was time for breakfast. It was going to be a late one.

  The kitchen was empty. The girls who worked there would only arrive in the evening, and now there was only aunt Natasha, another Russian soul, adopted by me in Tokyo. There weren't many Russians in Japan. Germany had a lot more, but I think they're drawn to me like magnets.

  Auntie Natasha came here in search of her missing husband who stopped writing or calling her. She saved enough money and came to rescue her beloved. She was certain that if he had stopped contacting her, it was because he had got into trouble. Anyway, she found her husband. He had been taken by one of the clan's military bases as a slave. It turned out that he fell for one of the girls who sent the man to his doom. The girl didn't belong to any clan, but that's what she was after and tried winning a favor by sending a proxy. As a result, the Russian was captured, and she failed. Meanwhile, the Russian wife was left wandering around a foreign country without work or money, and no idea what to do next.