“Enta, calm down,” said Kazuki. “It’s okay, there’s still time!” He left out the fact that there were only six hours left. There was still a chance that they could change things. “I’m going to save you, Enta. We’re going to get those Wishing Plates back!”
“Kazukiiii… Uh, but…” Enta, who was splayed out on his belly, glanced up at Kazuki. He then promptly hid his face. “I’m reaping the consequences of my own actions, you know. This isn’t really your problem to take care of.”
Enta understood, really. His jealousy drove him to steal the plates, which was why Toi left. Then he had a big fight with Kazuki and got shot by those strange men. It was divine retribution.
“It absolutely is my problem to take care of!” For a moment, Enta almost thought he was having another one of his delusions, but he was wrong. Kazuki’s strong hands wrapped around him, lifting him so that the two were at eye level. “We’re the Golden Duo, aren’t we?” The Kazuki smiling in front of him now was the very same one that had found him hiding in the corner of the schoolyard all those years ago.
“K-Kazukiii! Kazuki, Kazuki, Kazukiii!”
“Ehehe.”
Kappa-Enta threw his arms around Kazuki. Secretly, he felt like he could at least die happy now. He wouldn’t say that to Kazuki, though. Kazuki wouldn’t find it funny. And really, Enta wasn’t good at giving up. He wanted to live. He wanted to hear Kazuki call the two of them a Golden Duo again—and again and again!
Whether this is fate or not, I’m not going to let go of my desires anymore!
Scene 4
CHIKAI AND TOI were at a small plaza by the Takeshiba Pier, where Masa was giving them what they needed to make their trip.
“This ticket will take you to the island. From there, you’ll have to take a different ship.”
“Yeah. Sorry for all the trouble I put ya through,” said Chikai.
They’d used relatively legal means to travel so far, but after this, they’d be living mostly outside the law. Money and trust meant everything in the underworld. That was the world Toi would now be stepping into.
“Nah, this is no big deal! Bro, go on and take care of yourself. You too, Toi-san, glad to have met ya!” Masa smiled over at him.
Toi was sure they would never see the man again. With that in mind, he figured he could at least be nice since this was goodbye. “Thanks.”
BANG!
For a split second, light flashed over Masa’s face. An empty ammunition shell fell right in front of Toi.
“Bro…?” That was the last word Masa spoke. His body slumped to the ground and stopped moving.
“Let’s go. The boat’s gonna leave.” Without missing a beat, Chikai turned his back and started to walk off.
What just happened?
Why was this happening?
Brother… Brother…
“Wait!” Toi seized Chikai’s hand as he headed up the stairwell. “Why do you have a gun?! Why did you shoot him?!”
Chikai didn’t even look at him as he responded, “Masa’s not the kinda guy that can survive in this world. So I killed him. That’s all.” His brother shook him off.
Toi’s arm fell limply to his side. A countless number of ‘whys’ and ‘how could yous’ surged inside his chest like a tsunami.
Chikai left his motionless little brother behind and made it to the top of the stairwell. He sounded thoroughly annoyed as he spat out, “Tch, now a real pain in the neck is here.”
“Bro… I was getting tired of waiting for you.” Through the darkness, the white light of a nearby ferry carved the outline of a thin man who was seated there, sunglasses over his eyes. Two of his underlings were positioned beside him. Chikai could see that they were all armed, and the barrels of three Berettas stared him down.
“Taka,” Chikai called back to him, “how’d you know I’d be here?”
The man, Taka, wore a thin smile as he responded coldly, “You’ve got so many enemies, it was easy getting information on you.”
“Hah, you don’t say! And after all I did for you.” Taka had been Chikai’s right-hand man when he was in SHIKOTAMA. Chikai reached into his jacket’s inner pocket, where he’d stashed his weapon.
“You used that gun to kill Masa, didn’t you? You’ll even kill your allies just to save your own hide. How very like you.”
Toi was still in the stairwell, motionless. All he could do was stand there and listen—to a conversation between his brother and some man he couldn’t even see. Apparently, this Taka hadn’t realized Toi was there yet.
“I’m the type who likes to play all my cards early. After all, if I don’t, traitorous bastards like you come slinking up outta nowhere.”
Toi could only see half of his brother’s face from here. Chikai was grinning boldly, but Toi’s view of him began to blur.
“This is the last time I have to suffer your backtalk. Whether we kill you or the cops catch you, all that awaits you is hell.”
BANG!
“Gah!” The underling right beside Taka took a bullet to the head and went tumbling over the railing behind him.
Chikai held out his Tokarev and snarled, “Doesn’t matter. I’ll kill every last one of you!”
Dry, earsplitting blasts rippled through the darkness of the pier. Chikai’s odds would have been better if it was just two on one. Alas, as they traded fire from behind shrubs, HIS Tokarev TT-33 gave an empty click to indicate it was out of bullets.
“Tch…”
He tossed it aside and reached around his back. Having realized the situation, the other remaining underling quickly stood, intending to storm him while he was vulnerable.
But then—
BANG!
A bullet fired at the man from a direction he hadn’t anticipated, blasting right through his shoulder. “Gwahh!! Aaaah!”
Chikai popped his head out from the bush. What he saw made him doubt his eyes. “Huh? You…”
Toi was standing there, firing a gun. The weapon in question was the Tokarev from four years ago that Chikai thought they threw away.
Toi glanced over at him and shouted, “Run!”
An unusual silhouette appeared atop Azuma Bridge.
“The two of us are a couple~! ♪ The best couple~! ♪ Woohoo!”
Reo held wine in one hand and a cake box in the other as he sang and danced. Unlike the one they performed for Desire Extraction, this dance was genuinely carefree. Reo’s joy was too massive to contain, so he was expressing his exultation the best he could.
By the time he reached the police box, the sun had completely set.
“Hey, sorry I’m late! But I did get your favorite pancakes and takeout so… Hm?”
It was dead silent inside. On the desk was a polite notice that said the police box was currently unattended, with some alternative contact information. Had Mabu gone out to buy something? Reo could go look for him, but he had no idea where Mabu might be. With no other recourse, he decided to just wait for his partner’s return.
When he glanced at the interior of the police box, though, he noticed that the door to the break room had been left slightly ajar.
“Mabu…?”
No one responded.
A sticky sense of anxiety clung to him as he tightened his grip around the wine bottle and stepped through the door. Instead of a normal break room, the doorway connected him to Asakusa Metro’s number eight exit. The otter mascot on the sign in front of him almost seemed to be mocking him.
A grating noise could be heard from down inside the underground shopping district.
“That looks otterly painful, Mabu…”
Reo knew it. The otter was involved.
He flew down the stairs. When he reached the bottom, he saw a shop in front of him. The shutters were drawn, cutting off his way inside. The words Otter Bar had been painted on them. From the other side, he could hear Mabu’s frenzied voice.
“Aah… Don’t go. You have to watch me…”
“Odd-er. Heh heh heh, as you wish…”
What was happening there on the other side of those shutters? Reo flipped up the post slot and peered in.
Red blossomed like a flower amidst the darkness. It was Mabu’s heart, a sight that Reo was accustomed to seeing. The hand dragging it out of his chest, however, did not belong to Mabu.
The shadow otter yanked the pulsing mechanism close. Its upturned lips parted as it stuck its tongue out, taking a big, messy lick at the organ in its grasp. Mabu’s bare shoulders jerked at the sensation.
In that moment, the hatred that was boiling in the pit of Reo’s stomach came bubbling to the surface. He slammed his hand as hard as he could against the shutter. “Get away from Mabu!”
“Reo…?” Mabu sounded dazed, like a lost child.
“You bastard, keep your filthy hands off of him!” Reo furiously hauled open the shutter, intent on shining outside light onto the otter and its misdeeds. What the light revealed to him instead was…
“That’s…me?” For a moment, he almost wondered if there was a mirror in front of him. If it was a mirror, then he certainly had a repulsive look on his face.
“Otterly untrue. I am an otter. However, I am also you.”
“What are you talking about?!”
The otter had taken Reo’s form as it embraced a naked Mabu. There was amusement in the creature’s voice as it said, “We otters exist in this world as a concept. We’re mirrors that reflect the desires within you.”
“Stop…” Reo said. He didn’t want to hear any more. Not another word.
“You’re the one who wants to control Mabu, Reo. It is you who desires to kiss his otterly fake mechanical heart…” As if to drive its point home, the otter (still wearing Reo’s shape) drew its moist tongue over the organ still in its hand.
“I said stop!” Reo had smothered those desires for so long. He didn’t want to listen as the otter exposed them now.
“The two of you are merely controlled by your own desires—controlled by us otters. Now, Mabu, what is it that’s most precious to you?” asked the otter.
Mabu just lingered there in the creature’s grasp, slowly blinking.
“Is it me? Or him?” the otter whispered, his lips close enough to brush the pale skin of Mabu’s neck. “Tell me, what am I to you?”
No more. Reo didn’t want to hear any more.
“Right now, what I need is you…” Mabu’s voice was so distant, like bubbles rising up from the deepest parts of the ocean.
The sound of glass shattering drowned out his words as Reo smashed his bottle of wine against the wall. The white paint was now covered in a splatter of red.