Chasing Debts

Chapter 2
Chasing Debts
 

Saturday, 6th July
14:35


Thrusting with all he had, heavy breath merged into the sound of neighbours arguing and a broken spin-washer throwing a fit against the brick wall the next apartment along. The woman on the floor had her head pressed into the futon with one hand. The owner of the body squashing her brought a cigarette to his lips with his other hand. “When you keep screeching, I have to do this.” The fingers of his right hand tangled in her hair. His weight on the back of her skull and torso, he jabbed the end of his vice towards her eye in threat. “Maybe here…” The embers sizzled the woman’s shoulder and the familiar stink of charred meat filled their noses. Head back, he cackled his way through another wave of euphoria, his thrusts picking up speed.

The bedroom door slid open a split and his line of sight met those of a young child. Narrowing his eyes, the shabbily tattooed man lurched forward and snatched the first thing his hand landed on. Lobbing the item, the strappy high heel hit the kid on the forehead. “Fuck off. I don’t want to see you.” Ragging the woman’s hair back, he hissed at her ear. “Didn’t I tell you I hate kids; drown it already.” Adjusting his weight, falling on top of the woman sprawled beneath him, he hiked up her thigh and reset his rhythm with heavy slams. The sound of wet skin connecting repeatedly filled the apartment. The cries from earlier had dried into almost inaudible sobs.

Three raps at the front door were quickly followed by a sweet voice, “e-excuse me, I’m sorry for calling, but I have the money I owe for Yanagi San.”

Mid-thrust, the man shot to his feet. Pulling the front of his underwear up but not quite catching everything dangling at the front, the tattooed man hobbled down the dark narrow hallway stacked with trash. Tripping over cartons, he hit the doorway with his face and shoulder as the umpteenth hit he’d taken spun his very being. Out of habit, he slid the security chain shut before opening the barrier. “Yeah?” A wooden bat lodged through the gap between the plank and the frame. The man’s eyes went wide. Slowly but surely, his body betraying him, he half-remembered the distinct eyes staring back at him through the gap.

“Avon calling.” The grain in the caller’s voice was not that of feminine promise.

The sight registered and it was most definitely not a cute girl with free money. “F-fuck!” The man reached out for the handle in order to pull the barrier closed but the bat smashed down onto his wrist. Falling back into the foyer howling in pain, the victim flopped and flailed over rubbish bags and old newspapers stacked up either side of him.

A crowbar popped the chain straight off the wooden support and fell to the floor with a clank. The door opened to full capacity and three figures stood on the communal walkway, shading the threshold. Watching her target fall over his feet and scamper into the living room at the end of the apartment, the female pulled a cigarette out of the packet in her trouser pocket. Lighting the end, the two men she was with entered the decrepit space. In no time at all, the clatter of furniture being overturned and the yelling of the man who answered the door broke out into the humid summer air. Venturing inside the dim apartment filled with the stench of must and spoiled food, the state of the place made her mind wander back to a place she wished she could forget. No matter how desperate people get, she could never understand how people could live in such filth.

Making it to the end of the cramped hallway, the blonde took in the sights of junkies on a Saturday bender. She recognized the passed-out woman on her stomach - naked, bruised and burn blisters forming just a yard away on the scrunched up futon. “I guess it’s two-for-one day; lucky me.”

Now butt naked, the man tried his best to fight against Kyohei, who was double his mass, ragging his tattered boxers off his ankles. “I told you I’d p-p-”

“Why is Yanagi San naked and bleeding, but there is no money on the side?”

Cupping his genitals to protect his non-existent dignity, the man hunched as he yelled to Akito, “th-that bitch shaded me last night so I came to collect.”

“And you decided to take a free ride for the Hell of it while you were at it?” Akito looked down on the woman with an array of small circular burns covering her back. That kind of mark was more than familiar. Crouching down, she cupped the woman’s chin. “Is that so?” When she got no answer from the dismal woman, her face puffed and split, her tanned skin marbled green and purple, Akito let go of the unconscious woman. “Ya know, fuckin’ a woman when she’s unconscious is against the law, Kato.”

“She was awake when I started.”

Akito’s eyes slid away from the secondary debtor who she hadn't planned on seeing that day. She licked the inside of her teeth and stood up. “Burning people usually does shut down the senses, especially when it’s a repeated action. Trauma and all that.” Jerking her head, the men who had accompanied her grabbed either of his arms and forced the human trash bag face down onto the scuffed tatami mats. “I wonder how long it will take before you pass out?”

Eyes wild, Kato jut and jerked his head as he kicked his feet in the vice grip of the two employees. “E-eh! What?” Just watching him, Akito was quite surprised by how he didn’t make a fire caused by the friction of his chin on the straw floor, the way his head was going back and forth, side to side. It was almost like a nodding dog on the dashboard of a truck which frequented cross-country.

Stood a few inches from his face, Akito crouched down and repeated the action of taking his jaw in her grasp to stare him in the eye. “She was supposed to pay me, and you stopped her from doing that.” Wiping the sweat from her brow with her free hand, the female shoved his head away roughly before standing up. Dropping down on a pulled out chair by the balcony, the bleach blonde with dark eye makeup coughed to clear her throat but it did nothing to make her seem like she matched the heavy-set body she resided in. “Causing a debtor to miss their payments makes for the causer to pay the debt.” Licking her lips, the woman crossed one leg over the other, black slacks threatening the seams. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Fighting with the struggling man, Reo and Kyohei ragged him still with the threat of popping his shoulder blades from their sockets. “MRGH-”

The ex-host jabbed him in the ribs with the pointed toe of his boots. “Speak properly.”

“You know the drill; if a debtor can’t pay, I take it from the next best thing. Considering you’re way too ugly to pay off the kind of weight Yanagi San owes by slumming it in a sex den, you’re gonna have to do it another way. Taking into account you already owe me, Kato, what is there left to do?”

“No!” Flopping and flailing, the man thrashed violently. “No, noh-Sai San, don’t; please do-n’t.”

“You know, lots of public servants give their lives in the line of duty and are then ignored when it comes to medical help in order to save civilians. Young children are dying from organ failure-”

Half realizing what she was getting at, Kato’s panic reached a new peak. “Pl-ple…Saion…ji San…” Blood and half of a tooth spilt from his mouth as he begged. “I promise I’ll pay you back.”

“Oh, yeah?” Glaring down at the mess spreading by the second, the blonde narrowed her eyes. “You couldn’t even pay for your sins if you were reincarnated a hundred times over, you waste of space. What makes you think you can pay me my money?”

She reached out and took hold of a wire clothes hanger swinging on a cord on the open balcony. Before her other hand could get a hold of it, her phone buzzed in her trouser pocket. “Excuse me.” She turned away and stepped out onto the small concrete balcony. Recognizing the number, she pulled the glass door shut behind her. “Yes, Saionji here.” Leaning her elbow on the concrete ledge, the woman looked out of the cityscape hazy with pollution and poverty, the searing air causing the buildings in the distance to look like they were shuddering.

“Are you busy, my dear?” The caller cooed despite their long relationship being nothing but professional.

Glancing over her shoulder, the woman adjusted her language for the man on the other end of the line. “I can call around later.”

“I need you to look around for a certain someone.”

“Name?”

“Ishikawa Tomoko.”

“Funny. She’s on my list for today. Am I bringing her in, or holding her for you?”

“It’s not funny at all. She’s been missing for three days. Nobody has seen her.” The voice on the other end of the line was clearly much older than her and spoke using polite phrasing. “The boss is concerned beca-”

“-I don’t need to know why.” She cut him off before he could tell her something she didn’t want to know. “I’ll finish up here and g-”

“-Don’t bother. Kiryu San wants you here now.”

“I have three mil on the line today, and it’s the worst kind-”

“-You know what he’s like.”

“Then you send someone here to get what I need, considering I’m doing your job.”

“Send me the address, and I’ll direct some young men very eager to impress the infamous Saionji Akito.”

“Don’t make fun of me when I’m doing you a favour.” Flicking her dimp over the ledge, the woman half hissed-half sucked the excess acid from behind her lower lip. “All I want is what is owed to me.”

“Of course you do. You haven’t changed in all the years I’ve known you.” Akito could tell the man on the other end of the call was smiling and despite their amicable relationship, it irked her. “I’ll send some guys as soon as you give me the address.”

Ending the call, the woman returned to the sitting room. Tossing her phone into the hands of the man to the left, she scowled off. “Send this address to the last number that called.”

“Boss?”

“The meeting has been moved up and it seems I’m the guest of honour.”

Kyohei stamped his foot on the side of the floored man’s face as he grabbed the metal hanger which had been dropped on the floor. “Do you have friends who will help you?”

Eye a smear of purple and black, plump and bloated shut, the tattooed debtor choked on his own blood. “S-st-op hitti...ing me…” Mangled fingers and cracked nails scratched the stained tatami mat in an attempt to crawl away. “Pul-le-s-”

“Do we look like a joke to you, asshole? Pay your debts instead of living in hiding and raping druggies, you fucking waste of space.” Tutting, the suited man kicked the hand away from the woman as she passed.

Turning around, the woman’s eyes locked with those hiding half behind the screen door. Walking down the narrow hallway, she paused to glare down at the angry eyes staring her out. “Don’t be sad or pissed off at what happens here. Find a way to make something of it, right?” Taking a deep drag on the stale air, she had to put more effort into keeping her head up than usual. “We’re not here for you. Nobody I work with will hurt you, so don’t be so scared.” Untucking her hair from her collar, Akito was halted before she could make it to the front door by the edge of her top being plucked.

Small, malnourished body streaked with marks matching the unconscious woman’s, a boy who couldn’t be any older than seven scowled up at the tall blonde who had invaded his home. “Does my mother deserve all of this?”

“All of it? I couldn’t say.” Tilting her head, the woman furrowed her brows. “She made promises she knew she couldn’t keep and it got her into trouble. That’s why I’m here.”

“Can’t you stop both of them?”

Looking over her shoulder, smoky eyes watched Reo stand on the cheaply tattooed man’s back as Kyohei pulled his arm in towards his ribs before slowly teasing the joint with a dangerous injury when he gave rhythmic pulls.

“It’s always going to be hard to live when you’re surrounded by people like that - parents and those who pretend to be - but at the end of the day, they either end up killing each other, or one of them nuts up and does the world a favour.” The woman stared down at the bruised kid in underwear too small and a repeatedly stained tank top. “Bear with it just a little longer. Be stronger than them.” Fingertips delved into trouser pockets and quickly emerged with a small pouch. “Don’t waste your life loving or hating people like them.” Grasping what she was after, she handed over the small paper packet. “I don’t like the blackcurrent ones; they make me sick. Have them.” Shoving the crinkled packet into small hands, she exited the rotten apartment.

“Onee San-”

Akito glanced back with a scoff, “don’t call me so familiarly.”

Pulling a slip of paper from inside of the packet, the little boy held out the cash honestly, “there is a ten thousand yen note in here.”

“It’s not mine.” Shaking her head, the woman turned her nose up. “But I guess you should hide it and spend it sensibly.”

Holding the note and candies close to his chest, the child bowed his head to the back he knew he should despise.

Closing the metal door just before it could naturally click onto the lock, Akito hopped down the flight of metal steps. Two thick soles hit dried dirt in unison when she hopped off the second to last step. “Uch, I’m getting on.” She grumbled under her breath to herself when her right knee almost buckled. Watching the scene of two residents spatting as she made it out into the humid air, Akito called out to the platinum midget struggling with her shopping bags. “Obaa San, do you need a hand?”

Huffing and puffing, the four-foot-tall woman in her mid-eighties spat. “Oh, the kids around here have no respect.”

“Like you should let them hold your goods anyway.” Akito kicked the toes of her boots against the dusty ground as she eyed the boisterous group of teens with delinquent hair and punkish clothing. “They’d probably rob you blind given half the chance.”

The old woman chuckled. “I’m already halfway there.”

One of the boys in his late teens overheard her words and threw a growl at the female. “Hah, d’ya have something to say?”

“’Ya got a problem?” The blonde stared right back as she raised the right corner of her lips and called out to the teens scowling at her, her voice even as she hoisted up the old woman’s groceries. The bunch backed off at the quick rebuttal.
 
“You’re accent’s a little strange, Kiddo.” The old, greyed woman more than a foot and a half shorter than Akito hobbled inside her ground-floor apartment, dragging her left leg. “Where are you from?”

“Ah, you’re the first person in a long time ‘oov’ve caught me.” Akito grinned as she hoisted the bags onto her shoulder and followed the woman into her foyer.

“My eyes are failing, but my ears are as good as when I was seventeen.” Pottering inside and sliding her feet out of her sandals, the homeowner beckoned the younger female inside. “I was going to be famous for playing the violin when I was younger due to my ears, but then I met an idiot of a man with a handsome face.” She snorted a brief laugh.

“I spent a lot of time in Eastern Hiroshima as I was growing up.”

“Ahhh, I knew I recognized it.” Continuing to pour tea, the old woman hummed. “My husband and sister were both sent to prisons in Yamaguchi. Like a fool, I followed them.”

“I see.” Akito scouted the space out of habit. The entire shoebox size space was filled with the old lady’s revered ancestor photo frames, stacks upon stacks of incense, and more newspaper cut-outs than should be humanly possible.

“What was it for you? Family member? A lover? You sound young.”

“I did time in Iwakuni thanks to both and more.”

“Argh, that’s a rough deal for a cock.” Nodding to herself, the old woman huffed, completely disregarding her coarse wording which did not correspond with her age. “My sister did nine months in the Iwakuni detention out there and she almost lost her mind.” Putting the kettle on the hob, the homeowner lit the flame. “What did you get? Det for a reoccurring speeding tickets, cheque forging? Sex work?” A childish chuckle from the not-so-feeble-minded lady punctuated the questions.

The sound of a car pulling up, its doors opening and shutting quickly, caught the younger woman’s attention. Looking out of the open patio doors, Akito held her hand up out of habit, regardless of her company’s lack of sight. “I’m sorry, but I’m still on the clock.” Seeing four suited men advance, she made significant distance between herself and the old woman’s open sun doors.

In no time at all, the suited men were within reaching distance. The one she had seen a handful of times before and two men barely into their twenties ascended the metal steps without a word. “Leave the kid out of it,” Akito glowered up at the one who stopped three steps up.

“You can go now.”

Instantly irritated by the attitude, Akito scowled. Teeth gnashing and coal-lined eyes narrowed, the unusually tall woman jutted her jaw with her answer, “I’m waiting for my guys; I’ll go when I fuckin’ feel like it-”

“-Boss,” the tone she was used to caused her to look up, past the green bean trying to move her along as if she was some kind of groupie. Both of her employees were skipping down the flimsy rusted steps, one clearly more enthusiastic than the other, “you don’t have to call everybody out.”

Clicking her tongue off her teeth, Akito scrunched her face and turned away, “don’t tell me what to do.”

Prancing over to her side, Reo wriggled his fingers by the female’s shoulders, “we’re right behind you, boss~”

Wiping the sweat and stray hairs back off her face, the woman tried to drag in a decent breath which wasn’t laden with dust and pollen. “Drop me off at Kiryu’s.”

“Kiddo-” The old woman called out, her hand up in reach.

Halting from her employee’s direction, the blonde looked over her shoulder. “What is it, Obaa San?”

“It wasn’t speeding or forgery, was it?”

Grinning at the blunt talk she wasn’t used to receiving any more, Akito held her hand up in farewell. “Whoever said all senior citizens are senile clearly haven’t met you.”

“I have no right to ask, I know this but please,” She hobbled out onto the dusty ground barefoot. “Don’t leave that child with that stupid woman any longer.”

Making sure not to look up at the first-floor apartment where she had previously been, the blonde craned her neck to the left and hitched her shoulder on the same side up, causing her bones to crack. “I try to be a good person as often as I can, but that isn’t my job.”

“I can’t see what you can, but even I can tell that he’s neither happy nor healthy.”

“Then call child services.” Inclining her head, Akito plucked a cigarette from her trouser pocket as Reo held the back passenger door open for her. “Take care, Obaa San. Ja ne.” Sliding onto the champagne-coloured leather seat, the door was shut behind her. Another wave of yelling broke out of the first-floor apartment and into the humid air. Despite the commotion caused, the weave of pain and angry shouting were contained by the buildings enclosed in close proximity which formed the L-shape of the decrepit, two-storey apartment blocks.

Kyohei started the ignition and Reo dashed into his own seat on the front passenger side. Fastening his belt, the ex-host stared out of the window with a pensive look on his face. “Why do people even bother having kids when they end up treating them like that?” Pretty eyes framed by long dark lashes watched the local kids messing in slushy mud caused by a broken water pipe.

“Because sex brings in easy money, and abortions are expensive when compared to all of the other things you can buy.” Lighting the end of her vice, Akito put the window down to prevent it from getting stuffy.

“That’s cold, boss.”

“It’s a fact of life.” Resting her elbow on the door frame, the woman watched the rabbles of young children play in the dirt and make their own fun out of dead sticks and a half-deflated ball as she passed. “Why are you so bothered, anyway? I thought your upbringing was pretty decent.”

“It was. I can’t complain about anything from when I was a kid in hindsight; I was sent to school, got medication if I was sick, and my parents did genuinely try to take time out of their days to spend with me and my older sister even though they both worked.” Looking out over the rough communal housing surrounding them - that was all there was for a long while - Reo held a strange smile. “I was a little shit in my teens up to my late twenties because I thought I knew better than everyone, but they stuck by me even through all of the fighting, the racked-up debts, the 3am calls from jails, and the shame I brought them for my bad behaviour…”

“Then what’s your problem?”

“What do you mean?” The younger of the two men sat in front furrowed his brows as he watched the woman’s reflection in the rear-view mirror. “It’s sad to see kids having to live like that.”

“It is?”

Reo turned in his seat to see the woman with her attention out of the window beside her. “I know you like to put on the hard-ass act, Saionji San, but even you can’t say you don’t care.”

“I never said I didn’t care. In fact,” glancing at the passenger in the front of the luxury vehicle, Akito gave an expression he was sure he’d never seen before. “I have more interest in people who grow up like that than anyone else. They can stay stuck in their slums, wallowing in their own self-pity, growing into the trash people call them before they can understand those harsh words, and end up causing misery for themselves and everyone around them; or they can turn their situation around - it really can go either way. And you know how much I enjoy a good bet on the underdog.” Eyes now focused on the driver’s face through the reflection of the rear-view mirror, Akito snorted a brief laugh. “Anyone who ends up making something from nothing off their own back is somebody to be taken seriously, right, Kyohei?”

The driver met the woman’s line of sight for a split second before his attention went back to where he was driving. “More like a danger, in your case.”

Even after working for the woman for just over three years, after all of the odd situations he’d found himself in due to his connection with the female, Reo hardly knew anything about Saionji Akito, or Onaga Kyohei for that matter, besides the well-known reality that they came from a cesspool just like the one they were driving away from. He knew the woman had previously had a work partner she teamed up with in high school, but the details frayed like the branches of a family tree belonging to a Lothario with no conscience for where he spread his seed. That’s not to say Reo didn’t hear some very unsavoury rumours concerning the pair, he had worked in the entertainment business for even longer than he’d been chasing the ever-expanding money flow which was brought about by his employer. After all, you could hear just about anything when you gave rich housewives of higher echelons of public servants the hope of getting laid by a man who looked like him. However, if you tried to pull the same shit with battle-torn yakuza, you were bound to lose at least the one thing which had previously been your biggest asset. Reo was not for that, even in jest. He was way, way, way, away from testing that line even if it did turn up a wacky or embarrassing anecdote about the pair in question.

His boss and colleague - Saionji Akito and Onaga Kyohei - had always kept pretty shtum about their respective pasts but he wasn’t dumb enough not to catch the regular inside jokes and the looks they shared with the same spasticated expressions every time something went comically tits-up. Kyohei had brought the woman an expensive bottle of Western booze and whole squids which they would grill in the office at the same time of year for the entirety of the time Reo had worked with them. Akito would give the older man four days in a row off - this being an impossible feat for any of the temporary bodies he’d seen come and go over the duration, at the beginning of every month with an envelope he had never managed to read the front of. And on the 2nd of August every year, the pair of them would close the shop - a mythical happening even if the woman was almost dead on her feet - turn their phones off, leave town together for a whole twenty-four hours and then return as if nothing had been amiss. No matter who or how you looked at it, they did care about each other past the regular boss/employee standard no matter what anyone said. Reo, having a little sense about him, couldn’t quite find anything twisted about the relationship like the majority of people who love to indulge in the subject of gossip did. It was almost innocent, like siblings, which grated on Reo even more than the filth and horridity which circulated them.

In the end, he hadn’t wanted to find a gap in the woman’s personal life, but he had. He’d done just that. She hadn’t had a single boyfriend since she was seventeen. He didn’t recall ever overhearing them talk about the time they had shared before he arrived in the picture. Reo was curious. In reality, the thought of that lazy bum in need of a haircut having half a chance at banging his boss kinda pissed him off. He had gotten over the fact that nothing was going to happen between either of them a long time ago, and he now knew that nothing had gone on with her and that dolt who always snatched the car keys before he could blink, but still. Words hurt when it concerns a man’s pride.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” the driver mocked the spaced-out expression of his partner.

Reo snapped back to reality and bit at the air between himself and the driver. “Keep your trap shut, you fucking octopus.” Remembering the female was still sitting behind them, he held his hand up and inclined his head. “Sorry about the language, b-”

“Why are you apologizing to her? Every other word to leave her mouth is either a seduction or a curse,” Kyohei clicked his tongue as he flicked the indicator and turned onto the motorway. “She could probably recite the entire thesaurus of swear words.”

Akito pressed her knee into the back of the driver’s seat, “what of it, Octopus~” Her rough tone was drawn out and made comical as she mocked Reo’s insult.

The trio laughed at the break in seriousness but the driver suddenly stilled when his eyes landed on his wing mirror. “Who the fuck is this up my ass?”

“I knew you were all for it, Kyo, but at least make him pay for dinner first.”

“Shut it.” Glancing at the woman on the back seat, Kyohei nodded upwards. “Put your belt on and shut the window, Akito.”

Reo waved his arms at the seriousness, “What are you sayi-”

“You sit back down properly, too, you moron.”

“Don’t wind me up, Kyohei.” The woman’s knuckles turned white as she clung to the strap over her torso.

“I saw that car around the corner of Yanagi’s apartment block.” The driver informed.

“Let them pass.” Gripping the insides of the two seats in front, the blonde hung her head. “Pull over, I’ll be late; I don’t care.”

The back of Kyohei’s shoulder blade rubbed the woman’s knuckles vice gripping of his seat. “I’ll turn down the side road.”

“Why, they’re not going that fast?”

Both of the other occupants ignored the front passenger. Reo could easily see that this was not a regular false alarm. And if the reaction of the female was anything to go by, then they should hurry the fuck up.
 

Written: 1st April 2019 - 12:10
Posted: 25th March 2023 - 17:11