Chereads / Inner Core (Book 2) / Chapter 14 - Chapter 14 *How the Rich Man isn't Rich*

Chapter 14 - Chapter 14 *How the Rich Man isn't Rich*

*Some scenes may be sensitive to certain audience, please be advised*

Mr. Clone: "Everything is going good so far Mr. Boss."

Kazu: "You don't need to call me boss, I already told you this."

Mr. Clone: "Well technically you are my boss, so I think I will haha."

Kazu: "Haha, ok Toshi."

(Reo and Selene walked downstairs together.)

Selene: "Hey, Kazu. So how is it on that money we owe that one guy."

Kazu: "Oh uh, not too good. It looks like I don't have enough money to pay him all at once."

Reo: "Ha, I thought you were rich."

Kazu: "Well I am, sort of. Things have been kind of hard lately. I mean sure we've been getting lots of crime to get paid for, but I've been busy with more than just money."

Reo: "Like?"

Kazu: "Paying for that beach."

Selene: "Oh, how much was it?"

Kazu: "Well usually for one person to go it's not too much, but all of us was around 800,000 yen."

Reo: "You just had to go to that beach."

Kazu: "I Was trying to help morale. I didn't know you guys would attack him and cover yourself in tanning lotion."

Taku: "I don't know how much to put on."

(Taku walked in with a towel on and wet hair. He was still pretty tan.)

Taku: "I thought the more lotion the better the tan."

Reo: "And where did that get you,"

Taku: "Oh, shut up damn it! Can't you see I'm busy trying to wash off this fake tan. Not everyone is lucky with a tan like yours."

Reo: "This is my skin tone idiot."

Taku: "Oh, well still."

Kazu: "Taku, calm down. Just go upstairs and try to wash it off again."

Taku: "Fine! I'll go take my fifth shower of the day."

(Taku stomped upstairs.)

Mr.Clone: "Woah, that outburst wasn't very manly."

Kazu: "Yeah, there's not a lot of manly people here."

(Kazu pulled out his phone and looked through his finances.)

Kazu: *sigh* "So let's see, if we all work really hard this week we can get 100,000 yen. So if we do that for about two or so months we'll pay him off."

Selene: "And be out of debt?"

Kazu: "Uh, no. We would still be in debt, but if we kept on working like that for 3 more months afterwards, we would be out of debt."

Reo: "Ugh, can't we think of something else."

Selene: "Reo's right. There has to be a faster way to get this money."

Dai: "I have an idea."

(Dai walked into the room smiling.)

Kazu: "Yeah? What do you got Dai?"

Dai: "Well you might love me for this one, but what about… a bake sale."

Reo; "Huh?"

Dai: "A bake sale. We all make tasty treats and then people pay us for them."

(Yui walked in looking very tired holding a cup of coffee.)

Dai: "Yui could bake. Right Yui?"

Yui: "Ow, Please lower your voice. My head is throbbing."

(She walked over to the couch and put a pillow over her head.)

Dai: "Ok? Well when she feels better those baked goods will be all over the place."

Reo: "Can we think of something cooler? I don't wanna save someone and they ask if I know how to make some cookies."

Kazu: "Yeah, I mean we'll think about it Dai."

Dai: "Hmph, you got any better ideas."

Reo: "Well, how about we set up a villain meet and have the biggest and worst villains all show up at once. Then we take them all out quickly and get paid more that week. We'll get paid so much for taking down villain bosses, we'll have the money this Friday.'

Kazu: "Uh, how do we get the villains to believe it's a real thing?"

Reo: "Uh, it's a work in progress damn it."

Selene: "oooh, i got a plan."

Kazu: "What is it?"

Selene: "We go to the bank. Then we ask them for a loan.

(They all looked at her for a second. Taku yelled from upstairs.)

Taku: "Booorrriiinnnnggg!!!"

Kazu: "Um, yeah I don't know about that one."

Selene: "Why not?"

(Taku ran down stairs in a towel again. Is skin still tan, but slightly lighter.)

Taku: "Cuz it's boring."

Kazu: "No, cuz we'll just be in more debt than we were before. We need to think of a plan with no strings attached. Good idea though"

Selene: "Oh ok, that makes sense."

Taku: "In other words it's boring."

Selene: "Ok Taku, do you have a plan?"

Taku: "Uh duh. We get all the girls on our team and make a little show for all the guys of the city. So we'll-"

Kazu: "I'm gonna stop you right there, Taku."

Taku; "What? I didn't get to the good part."

Kazu: "Nope."

(Ruri and Sara walked in.)

Sara: "What's going on?"

Reo: "Thinking of plans to get money for Kazu. He's broke."

Kazu: "I'm not broke, I just don't have any money."

Reo: "That's the definition of broke."

Ruri: "Oh, what about a bake sale."

Dai: "Right. Two votes for bake sale."

Kazu: "This isn't a voting system. We just need a good plan that will work and get us money fast."

Dai: "Like a bake sale."

Kazu; "Ugh, we are not doing a bake sale, Dai."

Dai; "Pfft, fine."

Reo: "Well Kazu, do you have any good ideas?"

Kazu: "No, that's why I've been asking you guys."

???: "I might be able to help."

Kazu: "Huh?"

(Kazu looked over to see a guy in black clothing come over. He had on a black cloak with the hood down. He had black hair that covered one eye. He flipped the hair out of the way so you could see both of his bright emerald eyes.)

Kazu: "Who are…?"

Mr. Clone: "Oh sorry Kazu. This is Shai, call him Protector. He's been a hero for a while, just hasn't gotten noticed much. He's been working with me for a while now."

Kazu: "Oh, well what's your idea then?"

Protector: "Well we can put on a show."

Reo: "A show? That's worse than the bake sale."

Dai: "Hey!"

Reo: "Calm down. I technically complicated you, four eyes."

Protector: "Not just any show. A show where we battle. A show where we show our strengths, taking all competitors. Not just a show, a tournament."

Selene: "A tournament?"

Reo: "Hmm, I kind of like the sound of that."

Mr. Clone: "What a manly idea, Shai!"

(Mr. Clone gave Protector a pat on the back that was a little too hard.)

Kazu: "Hmmm, that is a good idea. We can make people off the street pay to come in and we'll have competitors come and show their abilities. I can even maybe sign a few of them up for our team. Yeah, this is a great idea."

Dai: "Uh, last chance for the bake sale."

Reo: "No one's doing your stupid bake sale."

Ruri: "I liked the id-."

Selene: "Please don't make him yell at you too."

Taku; "So we're doing a tournament?"

Kazu: "It seems so."

Sara: "I'm down for that."

Selene: "Me too."

Reo: Hopefully I get a challenge."

Kazu: "Hopefully, and hopefully we get some money."

(Jiko was on the roof with his father again. Another night patrolling, and Jiko having to run from building to building. He's gotten fast though, so at least that's good. Jiko has been practicing fighting for as long as he could remember, he felt worthless not having a usable core. His dad made him feel even more useless.)

Firearm: "Jiko!"

Jiko: "AHHHHHHH!"

(Firearm threw his hand over Jiko's mouth.)

Firearm: "Shut up, damn it. I was talking to you and you didn't answer me."

Jiko: "Mmhmmhmmhmmhmh."

Firearm: "Huh? Oh."

(Firearm took his hand off of Jiko's mouth.)

Jiko: "What were you trying to tell me?"

Firearm: "I'm going to the next building. Get ready to run."

Jiko: "O-oh ok."

(Firearm propelled himself over a bunch of buildings. He was trying to give Jiko a walk. Jiko climbed down the building and started walking. It was a far walk, but he was used to it. He assumed his father was doing it to make him stronger, but it was probably just to toture him. Jiko was looking at the sky while he was walking. He was thinking about if he should run away or not. He was 25 years old so it wouldn't technically be running away, but it felt like it. He wasn't even paying attention to where he was walking, he ran right into someone walking the opposite way of him.)

Stranger: "Watch it."

(The man was wearing a black hoodie and some dark jeans. He had on sneakers, it looked like he was going to steal something. Jiko looked down on the ground. It looked like the guy dropped something. Jiko picked it up without even looking at it.)

Jiko: "Mister, you dro-"

(Jiko got a close look at it. A pocket knife. For some reason Jiko froze. He felt as if he committed a crime for holding a totally legal pocket knife. Jiko looked forward and the guy was gone. Guess he wouldn't miss it. It didn't look expensive, it was pretty light. He probably didn't even notice it fell out. Without even knowing how, Jiko accidentally opened it.)

Jiko: "Woah."

(The blade came out fast, it scared Jiko a tiny bit. Jiko moved his finger along the blade. It felt sharp, sharp enough to pierce the skin. This could kill someone, so easily.)

Firearm: "Jiko, stop screwing around!"

(He was on the building right above him and he didn't even notice. Maybe he saw the knife. Jiko closed and tucked the blade into his pocket. He climbed up the building and sat behind his dad. Firearm looked around the city, totally ignoring Jiko.)

Firearm: "God you're useless."

Jiko: "Huh?"

Firearm: "You're useless!"

(This caught Jiko by surprise. Usually his dad would say this all the time, but this time just surprised him.)

Firearm: "I can't trust you to walk from building to building without stumbling upon something."

(Jiko looked down at where he hid the knife. He put his hand into the pocket it was in. He gripped it tight as if it would save him from another beating. Firearm looked at the pocket he had his hand in.)

Firearm: "Is that where you put it?"

Jiko: "Put what?"

(Maybe if Jiko played dumb he would forget all about it.)

Firearm: "The knife you idiot."

(Firearm stood up and started to walk over to Jiko. His heart was racing. He was trying to prepare for what kind of hit he was going to throw. It could be hard, fast you never know. Firearm raised his hand for a quick backhand to Jiko's face. A tear rolled down his face from the pain.)

Firearm: "You're gonna cry from that you little baby?!"

(Jiko looked up with him with pitiful eyes. This seemed to just make Firearms more angry. He kicked jiko right in the chest. The air flew out of Jiko lungs as he did it.)

Firearm: "You're weak."

Jiko: "I-I'm *gasp* n-not *gasp* weak."

(Jiko held onto his knife this entire time in his pocket. Firearm finally noticed this.)

Firearm: "Give it here."

(He's always made Jiko give things that he found. Once a nickel, a broken action figure, and the worse a cool magazine. All those times he gave it back after the 2nd hit, but this time things were different.)

Jiko: "No."

Firearm: "What!?"

Jiko: "I said no."

(Jiko tried to stand up, but Firearm pushed him back down.)

Firearm: "I said. Give. me. The. Knife."

Jiko: "And I said n-"

(Firearm gave him a good right hook to the gut. Then he grabbed for the knife. He pulled it out of his pocket, but Jiko grabbed onto it and pulled it back. They were in a match of tug of war with the pocket knife. Jiko shoved Firearm back and he let go of the knife, but Firearm charged forward again. The knife came undone and Jiko shoved it towards Firearm without thinking. It went right into his chest. Firearm looked at the blade stuck in his chest. He looked shocked, and Jiko was just as shocked.)

Firearm: "Y-y-yo-"

(He couldn't even spit out his words. Blood was dripping down his chest as he walked backwards out of shock. He didn't even notice that he was closing the edge of the building. He walked right off backwards falling to the ground. He slammed against the concrete hard. Blood slowly spilling onto the ground. Jiko climbed down and ran to him out of fear. He killed his own father, it was an accident, or was it? Jiko stood over him looking down at his twitchy body. He was still alive, barely. Firearm looked up at his son slowly. Blood dripped out of his mouth. He couldn't say a word, it could've been because of the amount of pain he was in or the amount or shock he was in. Jiko was thinking of the last words he could say to his dad. A few words that will show how his treatment to his son was so messed up, that he deserved this. He didn't have time to think about it, but these words came out of his mouth. )

Jiko: "See ya, Firearm."

(Jiko yanked the knife out of his chest, which was the final blow. A tear fell down Firearm's cheek as his eyes rolled back into his head. His eyelids fell down to a close. His breathing stopped. He stopped twitching. He was dead. Jiko's breathing was heavy, he was freaking out. He just killed someone, and not anyone, his hero father. He barely had time to think before a misty gas went into his lungs. It felt like a colder air filling his lungs. Jiko coughed a bit, but it wasn't that bad. He felt like he gained something, then he looked at his right arm, and just like his father's, fire covered it.)