The hazy silhouette of Sezan Fuma cornered Ryo within the streets, standing still and mercilessly staring as if they were in an invisible trapped corridor. Sezan's redefined mature face didn't withdraw from his occasional delinquent and pugnacious demeanor. His face mimicked popular movie stars from typical Japanese gangster films, which Ryo honestly loathed after being subjected to being a pawn in his nihilistic game. His impish smirk indicated that he had nothing to lose after years of endless scuffles, endless torture, and endless carnage. Ryo could sense the malevolent aura emanating from his stance in the darkened neighborhood streets as luminous streetlights enveloped his back from a distance.
Ryo didn't want to waste any time; in this situation, his mind raced as quick as a galloping horse. With a hostile and monotone mentality, Ryo wanted to know the truth. "What the hell are you doing here?" He imperatively asked with a firm stance on the pavement.
"That's not a very nice way to greet your brother after all these years, Ryo," Sez chuckled while approaching Ryo with his hands in his dark black suit pants. "And here I thought we were supposed to be brothers for life," He gently placed his hand on Ryo's shoulder. "You promised-"
"I didn't promise shit," Ryo denied, bashfully swiping Sez's hand off of his shoulder. He placed his right foot back to steady his balance, too on edge to control his emotions properly. "Answer the damn question. Why are you here? How did you find - wait... you used Chiaki... didn't you?"
"Clever," Sez laughed, admitting the solution. "He was always fond of you, Ryo. It was way too easy for us to find you after I mentioned your name. To be fair, that's all he was ever known for, isn't that right?"
Chiaki Sasaku was a self-proclaimed nerdy prodigy and a technophile in the Asahikawa Yakuza, deeming Ryo as his righteous teacher, or "senpai." When Ryo was still in middle school, Chiaki was a year younger than him. His uncle was a wealthy arriviste, prioritizing his wealth to fund the Yakuza's underground technology and deals while Chiaki slowly crept into his daily life as the youngest member of the Yakuza. His off-putting feminine appearance, despite being male, was something that his comrades knew him for. When he was teased for such a difficulty, Ryo stepped in and took matters into his own hands, protecting him from the verbal chaos. It was from this protection that Chiaki failed to envision a future without his teacher's defense. Their relationship made them a viable target; one that was easily taken advantage of.
"You used Chiaki the same way you used me." Ryo fiercely stated. "How does that make you feel, Sez? Are you satisfied?"
"Actually, as a matter of fact, I am," Sez downright admitted. "As Yakuza, it always feels good to step on the weak. You and I both know how that feels, after all. But not this time. Here and now, I will take back my future, as I promised in middle school. And so will you."
Ryo's lowered his eyebrows in confusion. "What are you talking about?" He asked.
"Oh, you don't remember, do you?" Sez spun around Ryo with a veracious expression, smirking into his brother's dear old eyes with a peevish glare. With a swift sweep, Sez pointed his finger into the floating continent of Aries, twinkling in the night sky like a gleaming diamond. "We... are going to Aries, and we are going to steal something worth millions. Just like I promised, just like old times. And I need you-"
"You act as if you need me, but in all honesty, you just want some meat shield to be in your position to soak up all the damage," Ryo rejected his dreams of grandeur back when they were children. The shackles upon Ryo's heart had been freed the moment he escaped from home and spent nine years in isolation, "Just like the time when you ruined my life by wanting me to kill Ash."
Sez's concentrated eyes and irritated visage revealed themselves, failing to recognize the individual Ryo was referencing. "Who?" He pitilessly asked.
Sez's contempt for Ryo's biggest childhood traumatic memory fueled his inner rage. The idea that Sez failed to acknowledge the crisis that caused his regression only damaged and impaired him to undeniable heights. "ASH!" Ryo howled as his eyes penetrated Sez's mind with intangible fury. After retaining his sangfroid mindset for nine years, his blood boiled and pounded his heart in unrelenting agony. "That's her name, and don't you EVER fucking forget it. Because she was innocent and she wasn't involved in any of this mess that you started. But since day one, you made it seem like it was, and you pushed it all on me!"
Sez chuckled, placing the back of his palm against his mouth in amusement. "Oh, Ryo. Have you forgotten? She was no girl-"
"She WAS!" Ryo rejected, spitting copious amounts of saliva on the pavement below. The crickets failed to drown out his rambunctious tendencies. "And now, I have to live the rest of my life in guilt because of your countless selfish requests. Because you did all this by pushing your ideas on me. You forced me to bend the rules, and you USED me! And I will never forgive you for that."
Sez scoffed in a humoristic manner, swiping his auburn hair back with the same mannerisms as he did in the past. With a honeyed deep voice and menacing dark eyes, Ryo assumed even Sez could sense his culpability embedded within his heart."Fine," He began, stepping close to Ryo's flustered face and shoving it against him. "You're right, Ryo. But don't come crying to me just because you accepted this new form of life. Don't forget the fact that I created you. I made you be the person you are today. Hell, you wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me."
Ryo's skin shuddered at the thought of him being the creation and marionette for Sez's puppet show, tangled in his webs of predetermined fate. "Yeah, you're right. I'd be in a much better spot without you," He admitted. "It's been nine years. I still don't need you."
After scratching his scruffy hair with his left hand still residing in his jeans pocket, he slouched forward like a lout. "Man, you've gotten to be one stubborn jackass, haven't you?" He expressed through his hoarse voice. "You're a fool to think that I used you. We both had the same goals, Ryo. We were meant to be a team, and I needed you this entire time because we were useful to the public cause. You threw yourself out with that perseverance and tenacity. And you pushed it out to unbearable heights that even I could not reach. To be honest, I was completely jealous of that fire in you."
Ryo suddenly remembered his adolescent antics of having a fiery spirit. The corny and cheesiness of his newly obtained attitude exploding at his family for believing such an atrocious statement was all just a sententious predicament forced by Sez's future aspirations. He was illustrious for all the wrong reasons. The more Sez spoke of such agony, the more Ryo wanted to drown out his past. But he had no ways of doing so after tonight's case.
"Yes... I remember now," Sez continued, wagging his finger adjacent to his face pondering about the past. "I remember you training vigorously day and night because you wanted to be stronger. But I gave you that choice to step out above all the rest by asking you to kill that bitch, but you couldn't keep yourself to push the boundaries. So you don't seem to understand," With the utmost conspicuous glare, Sez shoved his face into Ryo's again without direct contact, indicating that his request couldn't be gainsaid. "Because this is all on you."
Ryo shoved Sez's shoulder back, gaining a meter's worth of distance from his pompous and insidious aura. "You think you can blame me for that? You're a fucking monster, Sez," He asserted. With the final haunting memories of Ash's injured and mangled throat, Ryo remembered how Sez's voice corrupted his dogmatic mind. The illusion of Sez's figure, lambasting Ryo like a broken record to murder Ash returned and clouded his mind in a sea of violence. "You asked for so much more from me that I couldn't keep up with you. And that's not strength. You said it yourself, strength is supposed to be from the bonds you make from family, not murder! All of that is your fault. The only reason I attacked her was that I saw your face was on hers. I would have killed her if I hadn't lost my self-control."
Sez's lips puckered as he chuckled acrimoniously. "Saw my face on hers, was that it? Man, you are one weird motherfucker," He commented, casually downgrading the situation. "See it as you may, and whine all you want, but I've had enough of this charade and this pointless small talk. You are coming with me right now, and we are going to Aries to get millions off of this heist. I'll be able to pay off my family's debts, and you can walk away free like a bird for the rest of your life."
"Free? Now that you're here, I'll never be free," Ryo scorned with vitriolic contempt at Sez's ridiculous and falsified declaration. His shackles were also unbound the moment he encountered Sumire, and now that he has a sibling to fight and protect, his newly acquired passionate spirit was unbreakable. "And you really expect me to believe that? I'm not going with you, because I'm not stupid."
Sez rolled his eyes in response to Ryo's defiance. He shoved his right hand into his pocket, grasping a hold of a folded object tucked neatly within. "Fine." He sighed, approaching Ryo with his hands still concealed from the light. Sez's mouth suddenly puckered inwards as he yanked out a pair of carbon steel handcuffs, attaching it to Ryo's left arm to seize his control. In another swift movement, Sez attached the opposing side to his right arm.
Ryo, failing to understand the consequences of his actions, panicked by attempting to yank his hand out of Sez's control. Sumire was the first image to flash in his vision, realizing that he wouldn't be able to see her, now that he was a thrall for Sez's selfish case again. "What the fuck are you doing?!" He cried, clenching his teeth in bitter rage.
While Ryo desperately attempted to free himself, Sez stood his ground and shrugged his shoulders as if he was the victim propelled into this situation. "I'm sorry, Ryo," He poorly and mockingly apologized with a villainous grin. "But you left me no choice. Now... either you can cut your arm off, slowly bleed to death, but be free from all this in the gates of hell. Or... you can stay, be a good boy, and join us on this final heist. Your choice."
Ryo realized that the handcuffs represented his past tying in with his present. The consequences of his wrongdoings and undermined faults resurfaced once again to prevent him from obtaining redemption for his actions. "You never gave me a choice, to begin with." He muttered in undeniable regret.
"Oh, thank you," Sez sarcastically quipped, placing his left hand on his heart to mimic a tender and sarcastic gesture. "I thought you'd make the right decision. Oh, and by the way..." He stared into Ryo's eyes again with another menacing glare. "If you even try to leave, we will stop you by any means necessary. Do we have a deal?"
"Kiss my ass." Ryo insulted.
"How feisty. We always were fucking monsters after all. Deal with it," Sez chuckled, reaching for a smartphone in his pocket to call for backup. Sez observed as Ryo released his strength from tugging on his handcuffs, nearly dropping to his knees in aberrated fatigue. "You're clear," Sez commanded on his smartphone with an undertone. He dialed out before smirking at Ryo with a sadistic grin. "Can't wait to meet some old friends now, can you?"
After nine years, Ryo returning to the past that he once loathed made him anemic and fatigued. It was incredulous to experience his chaotic demons pursuing and catching him after his attempt at a secret redemption. Yet he could only impute his fate with his past that it was impossible to escape. As a jet-black minivan steered into Sumire's neighborhood, the frontal headlines blinded Ryo's vision. Ryo suddenly collapsed on the ground, sensing the ethereal faint strains and tugs against his arms and legs as the Yakuza took him away, back into the fray.
Sumire... I'm sorry.
***
The sensation of the carbon steel handcuffs squeezing Ryo's wrists dissipated gradually as he struggled to regain control over his consciousness. Muffled distortions of the black minivan's engine propelled Ryo's ears to be cautious of his immediate surroundings. His remorseful and veiled eyes filled with grit as formally dressed Yakuza members amongst the likes Ryo had never seen before surrounded the leather backseat exterior. Two burly barrel-chested suit-wearing Yakuza had Ryo squished in between their muscular pressure to secure him tightly. Sez, who was in the passenger seat, remained quiet while their driver stormed through a neon-lit tunnel that resembled a vibrant vortex of spatial colors during the midnight. This colorful presentation of the tunnel was one Ryo was immediately accustomed to, for the tunnel was the main entrance to the underground dungeons where the Yakuza inhabited throughout the night. Spray-paint and graffiti resembling Japanese characters chastised the aliens for their worldwide existence, no doubt soiled and spread by the Yakuza's intolerance for nonhuman life.
The black minivan exited towards a restricted section of the tunnel's passageways, crossing through a "Do Not Enter" and "Trespassing" sign. Droplets of musty dew and rainwater soaked and seeped through the ceilings of their passageway, greeting them with slightly unexpected precipitation. After several minutes of cruising through the unknown sector, the vehicle pulled over to the side of a narrow passageway leading into a turquoise-lit entrance to the underground.
A tattoo-riddled Yakuza gatekeeper tossed his premium rolled cigarette to the littered concrete floors, stepping on it to extinguish its pungent stench. With an intimidating mohawk-typed hairstyle and a beaming smile, the gatekeeper placed his hands on the minivan's door handle and yanked it open.
"Oh, haha..." The gatekeeper sinisterly chuckled, focusing his attention on a mesmerized Ryo. "Looks like we've caught ourselves a rebel, don't we? Always nice seeing familiar faces, don't we, Boss?"
Sez and the bodyguards exited the vehicle, shoving aside the gatekeeper's shoulder aside as if he was a lowlife pawn. One of the bodyguards grasped hold of Ryo's collar behind his neck, tugging on it as they ascended a lengthy flight of stairs stained in grease and filth. Walls were stained with fresh urine, human feces, and rancid alcohol from spilled and cracked glass bottles. Sharp glass shards stained with dried blood riddled across the floors. Ryo's feet dragged across the girders of the stairs, still struggling to maintain a steady balance as the burly guard recklessly advanced him forward. With his eyes still flickering and feeble, Ryo's undermined consciousness returned to him as soon as Sez slapped the back of his head to awaken him.
"You're going to love this, Ryo," Sez jokingly chuckled at the sight of a beryl-green armor-plated door. His bodyguards led the pack and escorted Sez and Ryo towards it, pushing it open to make the screeching sound of metal grinding against one another. "Welcome to our new home."
After withstanding the rude awakening from the exterior, Sez greeted Ryo into an unknown new testing ground that had never existed before; a miniature barrack and laboratory facility padded with silver and ivory-white walls. The facility was also a proving ground, where scientists wearing white lab coats were placing carbon-fiber tactical armor suits on mannequins and Yakuza soldiers. The pale scent of freshly trimmed leather and adhesive compounds filled Ryo's nostrils with the smell of military. Once as a regular gangster to obtain influence in the underground, Ryo never expected these nine years to evolve them as militaristic soldiers.
Ryo's presence in the center of the facility made eyes scour him from all angles. Yakuza members, some old, some new, were bewildered over his unexpected appearance. Sez shoved Ryo to the center of the facility, leaving him dazed over what would happen next.
"Get Chiaki." Sez snapped his fingers, ordering his muscular bodyguards to do his bidding.
"Don't tell me you're going to force him in this too," Ryo spat in defiance. "He doesn't have the skills to be out there. This isn't the right thing to do."
"The last thing I'd want from you is to tell me what's right or wrong," Sez retorted. "We'll be making history tonight, whether you like it or not. Am I right, BOYS?!" He rallied the Yakuza soldiers around the facility with a powerful shout of encouragement and approbation. The others howled back in response to his morale boost, huddling in a massive circle located in the center of the room. Sez dragged Ryo backward, using the sole of his boots to step on a yellow round button. "Take a look at this, Ryo..."
The girders in the center of the room slid open while Sez maintained his standing position next to Ryo. The other Yakuza soldiers observed a spherical navy-blue hologram rising from the slid-open girders. Underneath its translucent features was an interactive touchscreen map of the continent of Aries, completely and accurately charted of its most recent layout via satellite communication. Sez stepped forward, letting his face bask against the turquoise light source from the bottom of the interactive three-dimensional map.
"Surprised, Ryo?" Sez chuckled, zooming into their target's destination with his fingers. "The years you spent jerking off in no man's land were the same years I've been accumulating power and control over the Yakuza. Our frequent heists struck big time when we were given an opportunity to seize control of our entire world. No doubt the people Aries did something about that. But I'll just have to leave you hanging and show you this instead..."
Sez approached Ryo with a cocky grin, snapping his left fingers to call upon a scientist. Upon his request, the arduous scientist carried over a slim titanium and carbon fiber gauntlet, attaching it onto Sez's left hand to bolster his protection. In the center of the gauntlet was a spherical Fuschia-colored indentation emanating white pulsating light from within. Sez gently placed his palm in the center of his chest, activating the gauntlet's capabilities with a light push. Myriads of microscopic dark carbon-fiber nanomachines generated across Sez's physique, covering him with a slender suit of tactical armor. An opaque maroon-colored visor and helmet covered Sez's head, leaving his identity masqueraded.
"What the fuck is this...?" Ryo inconceivably whispered to himself.
One of Sez's loyal bodyguards returned, tossing Chiaki over to Ryo like a golf ball being put. His battered and broken-down appearances replaced flamboyant and cheerful personality; no doubt mentally and physically scarred by Sez and the Asahikawa Yakuza's torturous and forceful requests. Tufts of his light crimson hair had been snagged by his torturers, and his grazed skin marked endless blows and punches that survived through a devastation. Chiaki's feeble hazelnut eyes opened, leaning forward and gently touching Ryo's arm.
"I'm sorry, Senpai..." Chiaki's weakened light voice depicted his feminine appearance as he shook Ryo's arm. "They forced me to... I just..."
"Don't talk," Ryo warned. "I understand-"
"Chiaki," Sez pressed against his visor, revealing his delinquent face underneath his helmet. "Why don't you educate Ryo on what exactly this is, considering how you scored us this big time? After all, you were the one that made us interested in the first place. Your uncle is such a nice person, offering a hand." He advised.
"I..." Chiaki weakly whispered, refusing to even look at Ryo in his eyes. "They forced me to do that too. I had no choice-"
One of Sez's burly bodyguards sped forward, snatching the back of Chiaki's torn collar. He impertinently yanked Chiaki back in defiance, slamming him against the interactive map, leaving him battered and injured. With a hesitating and passive-aggressive glare to Sez, Chiaki reluctantly revealed the details of their newly acquired primitive technology. "Nanosuits..." He whispered, sinking his pressured fingers deep into the hologram's lights.
"Yeah... and? Keep going..." Sez rotated his hand in a circle, pressuring Chiaki to reveal more.
"Tactical combat armor designed to enhance physical strength, with durability to repel and block projectile damage..." Chiaki continued, pouring unfathomable amounts of regret into each of his words as his feeble voice cracked in agony. "Individual nanomachines make up pieces of the suit and repair tore muscle fibers. With all of this... we could be-"
"Virtually unstoppable," Sez interrupted, gesturing to his bodyguard to toss Chiaki along with Ryo. He lazily shoved the bottom of his foot against the edge of the interactive map, gladly indulging in his luxurious nanosuit with overloaded pride. "You see, Ryo... over the last nine years you spent your life jacking off endlessly to nothing, I spent accumulating in power. Power in numbers, and power in tech. If you stayed, you could have acquired all of this, free of charge. Why didn't you? Aries is now in our grasp, and I'm not gonna let some precious afterimage like you run away from our dreams."
"Why? Why now?" Ryo rejected, refusing to believe in Sez's materialistic acquirements. "This dream you're chasing shouldn't exist. A dream where aliens and humans can't coexist with one another, a world where we're always at war won't have peace. Chiaki knows it, and so do you. You won't find happiness-"
"Oh, SHUT UP, RYO!" Sez spat, stomping on the ground in defiance. The Asahikawa Yakuza soldiers were partially stunned by his bitter and unexpected outrage, as the only one who was ever able to phase his dark heart was Ryo. "If only you stayed, then you wouldn't be in this mess! The only person who's sinking this ship is you. You don't turn your back from the Yakuza, Ryo. If you thought you could start a new free life, then you're an even bigger fool than I had ever realized," He turned his back against Ryo and Chiaki, facing his crowd of Yakuza soldiers with an intrepid panoramic gaze. "After tonight's heist, we'll gain unimaginable riches ones that not even those lesser rival gangs could acquire. We've worked hard to achieve this goal of ours, and not a single shitbag's going to tell us how to live our lives! How about it? Have you all ever felt so alive before? I WANT TO HEAR IT!"
Chaotically, the Yakuza hounded and cheered at an incomprehensible volume as Ryo and Chiaki stuck together. As the centerpiece of Sez's achievement, Ryo only imagined that he refused to release him because of his intense physical prowess and past dedication to the alien cause. Sez would be forcing him yet again into the fray without a single choice. It was as if Sez had failed to realize that people change over time, and Ryo couldn't stand that weakness from him. While he pondered about the size of the situation, Ryo creaked his neck to the side, watching Chiaki's morale crush itself by the second with his chin rested against the cold girders. The light of his bejeweled eyes escaped his soul, and the war had been lost within him. Underneath his breath, Ryo knew that the Chiaki he knew, the compassionate and restive ally, remained. Yet Sez transformed him into a ruthless amorphous aberration and one who was sapped of their freedom permanently.
"So... without further ado... let's get started, shall we?" Sez smirked after rallying his allies. "I need four squads of six. Ryo and I will be in one, while Chiaki will stay here where he can hope we succeed. With these nanosuits, we won't be stopped as easily. After all these years, we finally will be entering Genesis Laboratories, the place that we've scoped out. Our mission is to infiltrate the lab and steal whatever we can. And none of us will back down now, AM I RIGHT?"
Once again, the Yakuza cheered in response to Sez's morale-boosting speech. Sez spun around, chuckling at Chiaki's weakened state. "So, thank you so much for volunteering to be on this heist, Chiaki. Don't worry. You're going to have a lot of fun, I guarantee it..."
Ryo despised Sez's perfidy, summoning his strength to repel his opinion. "Chiaki isn't going to do anything for you-"
"STAND UP!" Sez roared as one of his bodyguards yanked Ryo off of the ground. He was shoved towards Sez, who cupped his cheeks with a single hand while his face's benevolent cockiness was protruding with a fake sympathetic outlook. "What's the matter, Ryo? Afraid of dipping your toes with us again? Are you worried about poor little Chiaki?" He chuckled. "You're going on this heist because you're the best of the best. That little voice inside your head saying there's still a life worth living outside of the gang you sunk your attention into when we were children is lying. You belong here and now until the end of your time."
"Is this what you want?" Ryo's disgust for Sez's dogmatic beliefs was immeasurable. "Because this isn't about you getting what you dreamed of. This is about ruining my life and the lives of others who followed your footsteps."
"We'll see about that," Sez released his grip on Ryo's cheek, then gestured at his scientists with his fingers. "Come on, now. Let's get this man the best nanosuit we've got. He needs to be geared up if he wants to make a grand impression on this final heist. Let's get this show on the road, shall we...?"
The lab-coat wearing scientists seized Ryo's arms, dragging him into one of the suit stalls where experimentation and augmentation took place. Their mangled fingers and hands handled Ryo's outward appearance savagely, shoving aside tufts of his hair to place a communication earpiece, forcefully undressing his white hoodie, and slamming individual pieces of the nanosuit padding onto his body parts. Another scientist, who had delicately held a chrome-colored briefcase, approached Ryo. As it opened, Ryo met his slit eyes at a custom-designed folded nanosuit, appearing slightly different than Sez's from its fiber-like material feeling smoother to the touch.
The scientists grabbed Ryo's arms and legs, stretching them aside for the nanosuit to fit and integrate on his body. Once placed, Ryo's body clenched tightly as the tiny machines clamped onto his figure, adapting to his stature and physique. Once primed, the suit relaxed upon Ryo's muscles as if it had a specialized mind of its own that knew Ryo's exact body type. Chiaki watched as Ryo's nanosuit gauntlets attached themselves automatically from the briefcase, soaring towards his body at full speed. His left gauntlet had Sez's glowing Fuschia-shaded orb in the center of his palm, still unknown of its current use.
"Don't worry. You'll be handled very carefully..." One of the final scientists attached Ryo's tactical visor onto his head. Located on the top of his helmet, a double-horned neon-lit laser ornament protruded outwards, depicting a feather-like crest embedded on top. The outward appearance of Ryo's visor was goldenrod. Inside, Ryo's eyes were obscured by multiple interfaces jammed into his peripheral vision. As the suit continued tightening in his uncontrollable grasp, Ryo could sense the suit taking control of his brain as it inexorably tingled his senses.
"Just remember this, Ryo... you know what will happen if you or Chiaki decide to run away from this," Sez commented on the sidelines as his soldiers began organizing the heist by packing weapons and gadgets stolen from Aries. "Who knows? If you survive, maybe I'll give your family a little visit."
The final heist of Ryo's life had begun. Sadly, Ryo knew this was not the case. His freedom was impossible, and the light at the end of the tunnel began to fade.