Money is the key to living a normal life, without money, everything seems impossible. Health, security, education, transport,... You can't have any of these things without money.
I'm from Neokyo, It's a small modern city in Japan. I live in a small studio with my older brother Keiichi, we both live off the money he makes from his part-time job.
We've been broke ever since, both my mother and my middle brother, Ken died. I found their bodies in an alley next to our old house. We still don't know how they died, but I feel like the police are hiding something from us.
I'm pretty sure that the people from Neokyo are the only people in this country that are used to seeing dead bodies. Neokyo is only lively during the day because at night, this city turns into a ghost town and dead bodies are found in nearly every alley.
My father has been in a psychiatric hospital because of trauma ever since mom and Ken died 4 years ago.
Going home from school in the dark I smelled blood and followed the scent, I remembered this scent from when I found mom and Ken's bodies, so i knew something was going on. I ended up in a sketchy alley with a dead end.
I found a dead body in a pool of blood, flashbacks from my mother and brother's bodies came flashing through my mind.
The dead body had a strange wound in his chest, the blood was still liquid so this accident probably happened not too long ago. It was a middle-aged man who looks like he had been killed by an animal.
Being broke, and having seen dead bodies before, I wasn't as shocked as I thought I'd be and checked the body for money.
"Rest in peace old man, I'm taking your stuff, I hope you don't mind."
Reaching for the pocket in his jacket, I found his wallet, the wallet was still in good shape despite his body being completely covered in blood.
"Let's see what we have here.. Oh, 5000 ¥! I guess we're finally eating a decent meal again today."
While taking the money out of the dead man's wallet, I noticed a shiny object around his wrist.
"Huh, what kind of funny looking watch is this? I've never seen anything like this one before, I'm taking this with me, it looks like it might be worth something"
I used some of the money to buy pizza for me and Keiichi.
"Keiichi I'm home, I got us pizza"
"Yo Katsumi, welcome home"
He saw the blood on my hands and knees. " Why are you covered in blood?"
"I found a cat who was hit by a car, it was dead, so I took him off the street and dumped it in a forest."
He seemed to believe my story, but the blood wasn't the only thing he noticed.
"Hey Katsumi, where did you get that watch?"
"I- uh.. Ren gave me this."
"Your birthday was last month though."
"Yeah, I know, I guess it's just an old watch from him that he didn't want anymore, so he just gave it to me."
My lies were obvious, and Keiichi knew that, but he knew it was something I couldn't tell him and he respected that.
"Have you heard anything from dad, Keiichi?"
"From dad? Of course, I haven't, do you really think that good-for-nothing dad cares enough about us to let us know how he's doing?"
Talking about dad easily gets Keiichi emotional, he holds a grudge against him for leaving us after our mother and brother died.
"I'm going to my room, Katsumi. After you're done eating clean everything up and turn the lights off when you're going to your room."
"Okay, Goodnight Keiichi"
"You too."