章節 16: It Gets Worse!?

I spot Mr Kiyoshi smoking a cigarette near the dingy front of Choi's Busan Bar, which he immediately snuffs under his boot when he catches my glance. "Kieu! Good to see you're out of the hospital so soon."

I glower at him, the fact that he knew I'd been in hospital meant he was clued in on what'd been happening. Maybe he'd even been the one to take Tieu as well. "Can you please drop the nice guy-shit? You act like we're buddies when you kidnapped my mom." I say, to which his expression doesn't even twitch.

"Now, now, I'm actually trying to help you out here. You really kicked the hornet's nest with that stunt of yours, you know?"

"'My' stunt? Are you seriously saying what happened is my fault? Those shitheads tried to rob us! Then fucking stabbed me when I tried to defend myself! If you wanna uphold your 'ABB rep' then you shouldn't have let those cunts off of their leash!"

Kiyoshi waves his hand in the air as if to brush away my grievances. "And they will be punished for their actions. However, conducting that business in public has smeared the ABB, not only did you get the authorities involved, but you, a boy, forced members of ours to run. I can respect why you took action, but regardless, you will need to face the consequences... You should be glad you came, instead of forcing one of ours to invite you."

An annoyed hum of reluctant assent leaves my lips, "Whatever, just tell me what you want, and where Tieu is."

"Now that's something you will have to speak with Nishihara-sama for. Just know you are not the only person being punished. Those who dared call the police after your injury have been taught their lesson already." he states, rather ominously. It only pissed me off more that the people who tried to help me after the stabbing were also facing repercussions.

Seriously, even communist China isn't so blatant, and these pieces of shit were running free in a major American city!

Letting my shoulders slump, I look at him and ask, "Is he inside then? I want to get this solved sooner than later."

"Nishihara-sama is currently meeting with some-" he pauses and reaches for a device I only just spotted in his ear. "Ah, it seems he's made time for you. How fortunate." he says with a slight upturn of his lips, as if I was missing some inside joke.

Shaking my head, I enter the bar but don't get far as I spot two individuals I'd expected to be in police custody. Kenji with stained bandages around his face and hands sat with Kazuma, who had a slightly burned bruise on the side of his head.

"You!?" Kenji exclaims as he stands, noticing my presence. "You'll pay for what you did to me you little rat!"

"Kenji," Kazuma stops him with a hand on his shoulder, nodding his head at the glaring Suda at the bar.

The angry teen grits his teeth and sits back down, though not straying his hateful eyes from me.

"I thought they got locked up?" I question as I approach Suda.

"The blue dogs know where their place is." he states, matter-of-factly.

Right, because why wouldn't the murderous Asian supremacists have an in with the cops. How stupid of me.

"He's waiting for you inside." Suda continues, gesturing a hand at the backdoor behind him.

The room had changed from last time, the chairs positioned for the central poker table had been shoved into another room out of sight, leaving Nishihara sitting in the dim lamplight with a laptop in front of him, a burned-out cigar resting in the ashtray at the side.

"Ah, Kieu, just the person I was looking for. Come, have a seat." he offers the sole chair nearby, not too close to him but not too far either, likely to stop me lunging at him with a weapon... Though, the chances of that were zero since they had Tieu...

"Just tell me what you want." I sigh as I sit. My life was in his hands already, the dance they were doing was completely unnecessary.

He smiles lightly at that, steepling his fingers, "You are mine." he bluntly states. "Your mother is safe, for now. She will be working at one of our properties to keep a roof over your head, and should you do as you're told, I'll allow Kiyoshi-san to take you to visit her. Am I clear?"

I nod.

"Subarashī." he grins, displaying yellowing teeth. "Now, for your first task, I wish for you to..." he trails off, making my mind spin to figure out what depraved shit he'd have me doing.

"Write a song."

...

I blink incredulously at him, "What?"

He chuckles lowly at me, "I wish to expand the ABB's influence in other, less known areas to me. I've seen your talent, and I wish to make use of it. You will write a 'good' song to help my subordinate get his proverbial foot in the door."

...

"I still don't understand..." the music industry made a lot of money, but I sincerely doubted that was the ABB's only goal here.

"My reasons are my own." his tone twists from conversational to authoritative, "You will write a song for this purpose, you will be compensated for your time. You have three weeks to complete this task." he says, waving me off and returning his focus to his laptop.

I don't immediately leave however, despite Suda's heavy shadow behind me, "When will I see Tieu?"

"When you're first task is done." he blandly replies, not even looking at me.

"Alright..."

-----------------------------

My legs carried my mindless form home, barely noting the giddy Takeshita who greeted me at the door... Murata had seen fit to cook me a meal in Tieu's stead, though I'm sure my permanently wrinkled brow gave him some inkling of what'd occurred.

He'd not spoken a word to Takeshita, leaving her under the impression that Tieu was simply on a trip somewhere. I wasn't sure if coddling her like this would end well though, given the world they lived in, not to mention the area. Regardless, I wasn't going to burst that particular bubble, not until Murata deemed her ready for it.

What, may you ask, was I going to do about the ABB and Tieu?

Nothing.

That's right. Nothing.

As much as it continues to pain me to admit, I was a thirteen-year-old without any personal power. All I could do was rush out a song so I could make sure Tieu was alright, and wait to see if Murata's protest would really do as he hoped.

This feeling of helplessness, weakness. I hated it.

Every night following Tieu's kidnapping my efforts in exercising increased fivefold. I was risking injury with my fervor, but with Panacea on call I'm sure I could handle it... I was tempted to ask if she could force my body to grow, or enhance my strength, but I knew she'd refuse anything like that.

Body enhancements were a wet tinker's bread and butter. If anyone discovered what she was doing to me they might just lynch her, not literally, but it was probably a better fate than ending up in the Bird Cage.

--------------------------

Three days is all it took to complete Nishihara's task, easy enough since I didn't have to sing or play. The song in question was Don't matter by Akon, a small rebellion on my part. Having the ABB goon's song be one originally written by a black guy was intentional.

The lyrics for the song resonated with my situation too... "Telling you all those lies, Just to get on your side." "And they watching everything I've been doing just to hurt you. Most of it just ain't true. And they won't show you."

I sent it over to Nishihara and not two hours later Mr Kiyoshi was at my door, telling me to get a jacket on.

The drive was quick, but as we approached he began explaining what 'business' Tieu had been working... Both to my surprise and not, the ABB's crimes didn't just extend to extortion, kidnapping, murder, child abuse... They had apparently been running brothels in the centre of their territory.

When I heard this from him my heart skipped a beat. I hadn't actually thought these fucking monsters could get any worse. These brothels were obviously not the consensual kind, and the rumours were beginning to add up with this context.

The missing people posters of young girls and women, the hushed discussion among residents of the apartment building. The dark glares sent at ABB gangsters' backs when they weren't looking.

All this, in a city supposedly protected by the PRT. An organization, through its inaction, had implicitly allowed prostitution and sex slavery to exist.

Was it too late to wish for the Leviathan to flood this stinking hellscape, and take all the ABB scum with it?

The car stops in front of a nondescript office building, black curtains covering the windows and red light leaking from the glazed door window. People of all sorts where stepping in and out of it, and I was sickened to see some of the police officers that worked the area involved in this too, with lascivious grins on their faces as they entered the establishment.

Kiyoshi gets my legs working again as he pushes me inside, a couple working girls looking over in interest at me... He continued to drag me to the reception however, where a familiar face was waiting.

"Kieu...!?" Tieu's surprised voice echoes out, sounding both happy to see me and distraught about my being in this particular building.

"Mom..." I breathe, eyes scanning her for any obvious sign of damage.

Thankfully, she looked healthy. No bags under her eyes, healthy skin, and even her hair looked nicer than usual...

"Let's us make this private." Kiyoshi says before shuffling us into a side room. One with a large bed and smelling faintly of sweat...

"You shouldn't be here, Kieu, this is not a nice place." she states, throwing a glare at Kiyoshi.

"T-they aren't hurting you, are they?" I ask, half-growled in anger at the thought.

She shakes her head, but Kiyoshi speaks up for her. "She's, currently, the receptionist." he states, as if that was subject to change depending on my actions.

"They treat me adequately... But, for others it is not the same. You, are scum." she bluntly says to Kiyoshi's face.

"That's not nice of you to say, Tieu... Now, I think you've seen what you need to. Time to go." he says, clapping his knees as he stands.

"But we only just got here." I growl.

"This is only for you to check up on her. To keep you motivated."

"Don't worry about me, Kieu. I'll be fine... Try to be good, for me?" Tieu quietly says, brushing her thumb over the back of my hand.

"I'll try." I parrot back to her before we leave.

Kiyoshi drops me back home, where I start thinking about what do to with this new information. I wanted to drop a hint at the PRT anonymously, but doing so right now would make it obvious as to who was responsible. Even more so if the ABB had someone in the PRT.

No, I'd wait a week or two before I tried that. First, I wanted to see what Amy thought about it. If there was anything New Wave could do to expedite things.

First though was to make sure my shit wasn't bugged. They broke into my place twice now, I wouldn't put it past them to wiretap my stuff to hide their secrets.

If those idiots thought I'd be anything even resembling loyal then they had another thing coming.