He was on his way home, walking the 25 minute
trip back through town from the hospital, past the Family Mart he’d stop at
after school some times and pick up a hot can of coffee, past the post office
where he’d pick up the daily newspaper and any other mail that wasn’t picked up
by his mother that day. Hisoka
normally took this trip in good spirits, but after several odd occurrences
happening directly to himself or to someone close to him, this walk home turned
into something far beyond that of ease to one of sheer confusion and chaos.
He stopped into the Family Mart, the tiny
little convenient store on the right side of the road about 10 minutes away
from his house. He entered through
the automatic sliding door, turned immediately to the right down the isle, and
over to the row of refrigerated beverages.
When he couldn’t find what he wanted, a light went off in his head.
“Ah.
What am I doing?” he said to himself. “I came for coffee not tea…”
The hot drinks were kept near the cash register
at the front of the store not in the back with the rest of the drinks. He made his way back to the front of the
store. A friend from one of his
classes usually worked around this time, and as he approached the counter, his
friend greeted him, “Hey, Hisoka.
What brings ya around here?
School’s been out for a while now.
You don’t normally come out this way just to see me.”
Hisoka opened the little door to the container
holding the hot drinks and took out a small can of Boss coffee. He looked up at his friend. He was an ugly boy, a fellow outcast
like himself but for other obvious reasons. The boy’s hair was dirt brown and looked
dirty without even being dirty. His
face was broken out all over the place, and his eyes were just as dirty brown
as his hair. Whenever someone
stepped near him, a strange odor would engulf over that person, not really a
repulsive stench but it certainly wasn’t pleasant. But with all his faults, Hisoka didn’t
see a reason not to talk to him. He
didn’t have much of a reputation to hold up to anyway.
“Yeah, I… I was just on my way home from
visiting a friend in the hospital,” he said.
Picking up the can Hisoka sat on the counter, the boy scanned the price and said, “Really? Anyone I know?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Huh, that’s a shame. What happened?”
Hisoka seemed to be slowly drifting off to some
other world with just the thought of his friend in the hospital. The boy at the cash register simply
stared at him, waiting for an answer that didn’t come all too quickly. “We—she was nearly hit by a car. She seems to be fine, but… she hasn’t
regained consciousness yet.”
“Wow, that’s kinda
weird. But I’m sure she’ll be okay,”
the boy said with a reassuring smile.
“Yeah,” Hisoka said, handing the boy the exact
change without being told the total.
He did this far too often. “Thanks,
man. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem. You know, my mom was in the hospital not
too long ago. Yeah, see, she fell
down those steps over by the train station when it was real icy and stuff,
broke her leg. She didn’t look like
she was in pain, but I knew she was.
She’s a real tough one, that girl.
I only wish I was half as tough as her.”
Hisoka nodded. “Yeah, well I guess I just have to be
positive right?” He flipped the top
to open the can and took a sip. “Thanks. I’ll catch ya around.”
“No problem. You should come out this way more
often. I mean, since school’s out and stuff, it’d kinda
be nice to see a familiar face in here every now and then. Gets kinda lonely.”
“Yeah,” Hisoka grinned. “I’ll be sure to remember that. Take care.”
“Later, dude.”
Stepping out of the convenient store, Hisoka
stood along the sidewalk for a moment and took in a deep breath. This town was always so dead around this
time of night. No wonder his friend
was happy to see somebody he knew if it was only to talk for a few
minutes. He probably never got that
chance with anyone else, people simply avoided all
contact with him as though he were inflicted with some contagious disease. Hisoka couldn’t believe how horribly
some people could treat others, and was determined to at least make somebody’s
day a little brighter, even if it cost a little bit of his own reputation. He figured that it would all work out in
the end anyway.
He took another sip of his coffee and continued
on his way home.
An hour before…
He
left the hospital in a controlled rage, a plan beginning to solidify in his
mind. Kataki knew exactly what he
had to do, how to do it, and he knew it would work out exactly as he saw that
it did in his mind. All of his
problems would be solved, he would finally be free and
set his sister free as well.
He
talked to no one on the way home.
He turned off his cell phone, ignored anyone he met along the streets,
snickering at the beautiful plan that was now perfectly set straight, step by
step, motion by motion. First
things first, he would only have about an hour to finish step one before he
could move onto step two, from which he would go further onto the final step
3. The utter enjoyment that these
acts would increase ten fold with each step, the last being the one thing he
wanted to do more than anything else in the world. And that enjoyment
would be all his for the taking, this night. At last.
Just
as he turned the last corner on his way home, he thought of poor Sakura back in
the hospital, showing no signs of ever waking up. This was his strongest incentive for
what he knew he must do. He would
not only do this for himself, but for Sakura as well. With a grin plastered on his face, he
effortlessly strode through his front yard and on into the house.
The
font porch light was, of course, off.
It was only on when guests were expected or when Sakura phoned in to
tell them she would be in a little later from school. They would never leave the light on if
it was only Kataki that was out late.
They couldn’t care less about him.
He blindly but easily found his way to the front door and walked in,
somehow maneuvering his way past several pairs of shoes and books left all
around the front door that would have tripped anyone else. Without taking off his shoes, he stepped
up into the living room without turning on any lights, stood for a moment to
take in a deep breath. Yes, he was
certainly ready. He lovingly
caressed his left arm and proceeded into the adjacent kitchen, from which he
could hear the voices of his parents coming from the family room
downstairs. He was fully prepared
for what his father would say when he first saw him again.
Kataki
stepped down the flight of stairs and casually walked into the green-carpeted
family room, standing in the middle of the room without a word.
“What
the hell are you doing?” his father said, sitting on the gray sofa pushed up
against the wall. He looked down
and saw that Kataki didn’t bother to take off his shoes in the house. “And it seems you forgot again that we
don’t wear shoes in the house.”
The perfect way to start a fight. Kataki looked down at his feet and saw
that yes, he had forgotten to take off his shoes, intentionally. “Oh, lookie there.
Hi, shosies.”
His
father jumped to his feet. “Are you
mocking me? You had better damn
well not mock me in my own goddamn house, you hear me?”
Kataki
raised his head coolly to stare darkly into his father’s eyes. “Or else you’ll do what? Spank me?”
His
mother this time rose to her feet and stood in between the two men. Without saying a single word to her
husband, she only glared at Kataki and said, “You better be quiet if you know
what’s good for you. Straining your
father like this isn’t good for his health.”
“And
I’m supposed to be concerned about something like that,” he replied.
His
mother didn’t have anything else to say and neither did his father, although he
remained standing while his mother started to walk away.
Kataki
looked at his mother, almost felt sorry for her and flexed his left arm. “I’ll make it easy for you at least,” he
said. Just as she was turning back
around to better hear what he was going to say, Kataki severed her head from
the rest of her body with only a small flick of his wrist. What couldn’t be seen before was
now. Almost the entire length of
his left arm was artificial, a shiny silver metal weapon. It was still in the shape and form of
any other person’s arm, but this cyber arm had tremendous power. He could have cut her head from her
shoulders like a sword, but he wanted to test something that the engineers programmed
into cybernetic arm. It was close
to what he would have termed magic, how it really worked, he’d never know. But with that slight flick of the wrist,
he sent a hundred sharp waves of air slashing down on his mother’s neck, which
immediately gave way. It was a
quick and painless death for her, and a rather fun
experiment for him. Now, only his
father stood in his way.
He
turned to his father, who still stood where he had beside the sofa. “Alas, mortal flesh is so easily soiled.” He raised his left arm in front of his
face to catch the light of the two lamps on either end of the sofa.
“You’re
mad. You’re fucking mad. What the hell is that thing?”
“Oh this?”
Kataki stroked his metal arm with his fleshy right. “It’s just a little therapy I had
done. I figured you wouldn’t help
me regain my former physical stature I had before Sakuba,
so I went and grabbed it all on my own.
This is my future, the key to everything I desire.”
“So what? You
get some fake arm and you think that gives you the right to kill your mother?”
“No,”
Kataki said, shaking his head. “Of course not.
It gives me the right to kill you.”
He took one small step toward his father, who cowardly fell back on to
the sofa.
“So what? You’re-you’re
just going to murder me here? What-why? What
did I ever do to you?”
“You
fuckin’ disgust me. As if you don’t know.”
“I
don’t! Honest, I don’t! Please just tell me, maybe we can make
things right, ok? Just don’t wave
that hand again, please!”
Kataki
laughed. “This is rich. You’re begging me to spare your
life. Before, you were about to,
what? Slap me? Beat me? But mom had to step in and spare
you. You know what I was going to
do just then, before she got in the way?
Yeah, I kinda felt like testing this thing’s
special powers on you, the same kind that sent her head a’rollin’. But, I changed my mind. I just had that much more respect for
her than I do for you. So, now what
should I do? I’m kinda at a loss.”
“W-what
do you mean? Are you going to kill
me?” he said, shivering cowardly, his back biting into the corner of the sofa.
Kataki
grabbed a hold of his father’s neck with his right hand and forced him to
stand. Raising his left hand, he
let his father feel the cool steel of his hand against his cheek. “Oh yeah. I’m definitely going to kill you. But… I’m not
quite sure how yet.” He glanced at
the time on the clock that hung on the wall above the sofa. “But since I’m running on a tight
schedule, I’m afraid I can’t dilly-dally here for too long. So this is your good-bye.”
“No,
wait—” his father pleaded.
But it was too late. Kataki, like a cat, slashed his hand
across his father’s chest and down almost reaching the top part of his left
leg. If he had hit any harder, he
would have completely cut through his body to the other side. His father let out a gurglly
sound and slumped to the floor.
With the same cool face, Kataki reached down and used a clean part of
his father’s clothing to wipe off the blood on his arm. Step one complete, he made his way
upstairs and out of the house as though nothing happened at all.
**********
Walking
down the streets as though it was the first day of spring, his spirits never
higher, Kataki stepped up to the front door of Hisoka’s house. He knocked once softly and when no one
came, he knocked again a little louder.
If no one was home, the rest of his plans would be of no use. He would have to think of something else
that would inevitably lead up to the same end. But just as he was about to leave,
someone answered the door.
It
was Hisoka’s mother.
“Hello? May I… help you?” she said, looking as
though she was shocked to find someone come to her house at this time of night.
Kataki
smiled and kept his arm crossed behind his back. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but-uh, I’m
looking for Hisoka.”
“Oh,
he’s not here right now, he should be back soon, though. Are you a friend of his from school?”
He
kept his cool smile on his face, hiding any sort of animosity from her
eyes. “Yes, I was just passing
through this part of town and I knew he lived around here, so I thought to say ‘hi.’”
“Oh
isn’t that nice? Here, come on
in. He shouldn’t be much longer.” She held open the door for him, inviting
him into the house.
“Ah,
thank you,” he smiled again.
As
Kataki entered the living room, the adjacent area to the front door, Aiko took a look out front. She came straight home after the taking
care of her friend at the Festival of the Golden Dragon, but she left quite a
long time after Hisoka left for home.
She could only wonder what was keeping him, if something might have
happened.
Closing
the door, she turned to Kataki and motioned for him to step into the
kitchen. “Here, let me get you a
drink.”
“No,”
Kataki said, almost shocked, “it’s alright, really. I don’t plan to stay long anyway.”
“Oh,
it’s no problem at all.” Aiko opened the fridge and took out a cold can of green
tea. “I’m sorry, but this is all we
have right now.” She handed the can
to him.
“Thank
you.”
“Here,
please have a seat,” Aiko pulled out one of the four
chairs at the kitchen table for Kataki to sit. She didn’t wait to see if he actually
did sit or not, but turned toward the kitchen counter that was littered with
dirty dishes and empty tea cans. “I’m
sorry for the mess,” she said. “I
wasn’t expecting any company tonight.”
Kataki
shook his head. “No, it’s alright,
really.”
“I
try to tell Hisoka to clean up after himself, but I guess he either forgets or
just gets side-tracked. But, I don’t
really mind.” Her eyes seemed to
wander, to look past the marble counter top that she was cleaning with a white
rag. Then she looked back to
Kataki. “Have you known my son for
very long? I’m afraid I don’t even
know your name.”
“Kataki,”
he said, smiling. “Ijiwaru Kataki.”
Kataki…
she knew that name from somewhere, but she had never seen this boy before. She stood for a moment, with her back
resting against the side of the counter, but still couldn’t think of how she
knew that name.
“I
was the one with Hisoka at the Sakuba peek,” he
seemed to answer her unspoken question.
The
incident at Sakuba! Was this the boy that also fell from
that peek with Hisoka? She didn’t
know quite what to say, but she felt that she needed to say something, to
somehow show her sympathy for what he must have gone through, knowing how hard
it was for Hisoka to recover from the ordeal.
“I
didn’t know… I’m so sorry. I don’t know why Hisoka never introduced
you to me before. You two must be
close friends.”
“Not
exactly, but I’ve put what happened back then behind me.”
“I
see,” she said. “I’m very
glad. I remember hearing that the
other boy that fell from the cliff was crippled…” The moment the words came from her
mouth, she regretted ever saying them.
“I’m sorry…”
“No,
don’t worry about it. I was “crippled”
for a long, long time; until recently, actually. I found an excellent therapist and
finally regained full use of my left arm and leg. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to take up
sports again.”
“Wow,
that’s unbelievable. I’m really
happy for you,” she smiled and took a seat opposite him at the table.
Kataki
nodded but said nothing. He was
still running on a tight schedule and he had to be precisely on time. Glancing at the watch around his right
wrist, he made a mental note of the time.
Aiko saw Kataki look at his watch and wondered if he had to
leave even before Hisoka came back.
“Are you in a hurry? If
Hisoka doesn’t come back soon, you’re welcome to leave him a message.”
Kataki
raised his eyes to meet with her and said, “I’m right on time, but I think I
will leave a message for him. All
the while he had kept his left arm down out of sight and under the table. He used only his right hand to take a
few sips of the tea, but now the time was right. This time he reached for the can of
green tea with his left hand, all metallic and shiny under the bright light
that hung down over the table from the ceiling. His hand made a clicking sound when
metal hit metal as he picked up the can and raised it to his mouth. Aiko simply
stared at his arm, uncertain if she should say anything at all. But as Kataki placed the can back on the
table, he met her eyes again and answered her question without being asked.
“It’s
a cybernetic arm, to replace my old, dysfunctional one before. It’s really just a prototype, but so
far, it’s worked exactly as my doctors said that it should. Thanks to them and their ingenious
invention, I have full motion of my arm back. And same with my leg. It doesn’t have as much cybernetic
implants as my arm does—actually my arm is close to being 95% robotic.”
“Unbelievable,”
Aiko said.
“Yes,
it is.”
“I’m
happy for you, Kataki, but aren’t you a little afraid?”
“Afraid? What do I have to be afraid of?”
“Afraid of somehow losing a bit of what makes you human.”
What
the hell was that supposed to mean? Kataki wondered. Just because he had a new arm didn’t
make him any less human than what he was before. In fact, it probably made him more human
than what he used to be. He was
weak before the procedure, weak and useless. But now with a new arm and leg, he could
do everything that he wanted to do, things that he wanted to do for many, many
years; ever since the fall from Sakuba.
“Don’t
let these improvements fool you,” he said.
“They may be rather unprecedented but not unheard of. Times are changing. Why should I have been left to my fate
with that wounded body? I shouldn’t
have to live the rest of my life that way.
Would you have wanted to live like that? To stumble on your own wobbling leg, to
have to rely on a freakin’ cane when you should have
been out on the green field, kicking some balls, swinging a bat, shooting some
hoops?”
“Of
course not,” Aiko said. “I can’t imagine how horrible that must
have been for you. You were an
athlete?”
Kataki
nodded, losing track of time. “I
was, ever since I could walk.”
“Well,
maybe you will be again soon!”
It
was a part of his life that he wanted back more than anything. He wanted to be back on those green
fields, he wanted to hear those screams from the grand stands, he wanted to kick that winning goal, slide into home base at
the tail end of the 9th inning.
He wanted to be the hero again, to be respected and looked up to. He wanted to show his dead parents that
he could regain his lost title as the best athlete in school, in the entire
area, the country, world…
Then
suddenly, in the middle of his reverie, the watch on his wrist started to
beep. It was the alarm he set just incase, to stay right on time. It was
“Do
you have to go?” Aiko asked.
“Hm?” he said, getting his train of thought back on
track. “No, I just forgot to turn the
alarm off earlier.”
“Oh. Well, anyway,” she said, standing and
moving back toward the dirty counter where she picked up a few dishes and put
into the dish washer. “If Hisoka doesn’t
come back in the next ten minutes, I really don’t want to keep you if you need
to go.”
Before
she could say anything else, Kataki shoved the can of tea off of the table
where it crashed to the floor, spilling the green tea all over the floor. Aiko saw the
whole thing, the gentle face of Kataki snap and change almost completely. His bright eyes from before now looked
cold and dark like he was having some kind of nightmare or daydream. She grabbed the white rag that she had
used to clean the counter top and moved over to where the tea had spilt,
sopping up the mess. Then Kataki
got to his feet and stood above Aiko who was kneeling
down on the floor.
“I
really hate to do this. You seem
like such a very nice person, but what’s done is done, and there is no turning
back,” Kataki said, holding out his left arm to help her stand. She was reluctant to take his hand, but
took it anyway. She too was a firm
believer of fate. “But your time on
this planet is just about up.
Good-bye.” Her eyes were
wide open, he could smell the reek of fear dripping
from her eyes. He took his hand,
made a fan with his fingers, and used his entire arm like a gigantic arrow or
spear and sunk it deep through the center of her abdomen, right between her
lungs. His arm pierced clear
through and punctured the other side of her back. He held her close for a few seconds,
stroking her hair with his other hand as her head slowly, weakly rested against
his neck. “It’ll all be over soon.” Removing his arm from her body, he
gently pushed her away and guided her down to the floor, where she collapsed
into a growing pool of blood. Her
eyes were still open and he knew she was still very much conscious, but she
wouldn’t be for long. He kneeled
beside her and touched her face with his bloody hand.
Tears began to fall from her big eyes. She must have figured by now why he was
waiting for Hisoka. The two were
not friends, he admitted, so why else would he seek out Hisoka after so many
years since the accident at Sakuba? Unless his new “improvements”
gave him a sort of power that he could use to overcome his obstacles, even if
one of those obstacles was Hisoka himself.
“Close your eyes,” he said,
putting his hand over her face and sliding closed her tired eyes that tears
still bubbled up from. “You’ll be
together with him soon.”
**********
There
was a trashcan and a separate bin for cans along the road a few houses down
from his house. Hisoka dropped the
empty can into the same red bin that he always did whenever he stopped at the
Family Mart on the way home. He
never saw anyone else put anything into these bins, but every time he dropped a
can into the bin, it always sounded full.
Maybe he drank more coffee than he knew.
He
stepped through the small gate at the front of his driveway and walked up toward
the house. He could see a couple
lights on in the kitchen through the big window in the living room, but there
were no other lights on anywhere else.
Normally, his mother would be upstairs watching the evening news or reading
a book, but he figured she was getting a bite to eat or something. He stepped up to the front door, opened
it, and came inside, taking off his shoes before he stepped up into the living
room. Almost forgetting to close
the door, he turned back toward the door and peered out through the window in
the door. The weather was doing
weird things. It was the end of
January, but it hardly ever snowed in these parts, and it was certainly coming
down. It started just as he was
walking up to his house, which he was grateful for. He hated walking through the snow, cold
and wet. Hisoka closed and locked
the door then stepped into the kitchen.
Nothing
could have prepared him for what he saw.
He fell backwards, kicking the ground with his
feet like a little kid trying to get away from a ghost or something else that
scared the crap out of them. But
this was no trick of the eyes, he knew it, but didn’t want to believe it. He felt his chest tighten and he couldn’t
breathe. Somehow he managed to
regain somewhat of his composure and crawled slowly to his mothers
side, glaring at the hole in her chest.
Her eyes were closed and he could see that she was crying not too long
ago as her face was still wet from the tears. There was so much blood, so much that he
couldn’t avoid keeping his hands and knees clean as he crouched closer to his
mother. He looked at his hands,
colored red with his mother’s blood.
He looked back down at her and noticed that she was still breathing,
slow and shallow, but she was still breathing.
“Mom,”
he said. “Mom! Please, hold on,” he cried, tears
rolling down his face. “I’m gonna
go get help.”
But
she grabbed his hand and stopped him from leaving. Her eyes opened, her head slowly tilting
toward her son. She opened her
mouth to say something but nothing but a rasp came out, her voice and strength
all but gone.
“D-don’t
say anything, I’m going to get help,” Hisoka insisted. He tried to stand again, but her grip on
his hand tightened. There was
something that she had to tell him whether or not she had the strength to tell
him. Hisoka leaned down
closer. He knew she must be
suffering so much, but she wouldn’t let her pain show. He wanted to grab her, to sew that hole
closed, to mop up all the blood and make everything go away. He felt some kind of serge of heat come
over him as Aiko took her last breath. Whatever she was trying to say would
remain unknown for all time.
“Mom? Mom?” Her eyes
closed, her head fell against her left shoulder. “Mom, wake up. Wake up!” Hisoka grabbed her shoulders
and attempted to shake her as though she simply fell asleep. When she didn’t come to, he let her go, and moved backwards, hitting his head against one of the
table chairs. He looked to his
hands again, the red blood dripping down his wrists as he held them up. It was so disgusting,
he had to get it off! He tried to smear
it on a clean part of the floor, but it wouldn’t come off, would never be truly
clean after this day.
“Isn’t
that a pity, that someone would break into somebody’s
house, and murder such a nice lady.”
Hisoka’s
head reeled toward the voice. “Who’s
there?” He couldn’t see anyone, but
the voice seemed like it was coming from the hallway behind him. “Show yourself!”
“If you insist.”
Stepping
from the shadows, Kataki emerged with a great grin on his face.
“Kataki! H-how— Did you do
this?”
“What
do you think? How could a cripple
do something like this?”
Hisoka,
still sitting on the floor, shook his head.
“Don’t
think a cripple could do this, do you?” Kataki added, taking a few steps closer
to him. “You’re absolutely
right. A cripple couldn’t have
possibly done something as hideous as this. Maybe it was an angel in the night that
did it. Maybe it was called here to
make things right. That would make
him an agent of god, wouldn’t it? Because
isn’t god all for justice and shit?
Yeah, I think that’s how it goes,” Kataki said, flexing his left
hand. “So, my friend, the angel has
come for the demon’s head.” He
twirled his wrist similarly to what he had done to rip his own mother’s head
off, only this time it only forced Hisoka to stand, completely
involuntarily. Kataki reached out
and grabbed a hold of Hisoka’s neck just the same way as he had done with his
father, his grip around his neck tightening. Hisoka gasped but didn’t try to break
free, he was still in shock. “I
will mount your head on my wall like a trophy, dear Hisoka.” Kataki squeezed his neck more with the
inhumanly strength of his left arm, picked him up off his feet and tossed him
through the living room and crashing out through the huge glass window to land
out in the front yard, covered with snow.
Blood
dripping from a cut on his cheek, Hisoka felt something sharp piercing his
side, felt for what it was. It was
a long piece of broken glass from the window that sunk deep into his side. He gasped as he tried to move to sit up,
but moving just a little bit sent pain shredding through his entire body. The shard had to be removed though, he
knew that. He looked back at the
house and didn’t see Kataki anywhere, but he wouldn’t have much time before
Kataki reappeared. Hisoka rolled on
his back and raised his head to get a better look at the cut in his side. He touched the area and noticed how his
already blood-stained hands were being re-dyed with his own blood.
The sight of the wound and a sharp object
piercing out of it reminded him of his nightmare and the dagger that the “demon”
stabbed him with. He couldn’t be
bogged down by stupid memories of a dream.
This wasn’t a dream any longer, and if he delayed for too long, Kataki
would pounce on him again before he was ready to do anything. Looking away and trying to ignore
memories of the nightmare, he gripped the shard of glass and wrenched it free,
cutting the inside of his hand in the process. He tried to cover the wound with his
left or to at least put some pressure on it to help it stop bleeding, but all
he could feel was the sensation of his hot blood spilling over and down his
hand. He had to get up, he had to make a decision: he could either try to run or
stay and fight, either way he could possibly survive.