Masa held out his hand with three onigiri stacked on top of one another. Then he crammed the entire stack into his mouth and started chewing.
“I don’t fucking believe it,” Pura said.
“Hold up, he’s got to swallow it too, remember?” Satoshi said.
Masa contorted his face as he tried to chew around the wad of rice and seaweed in his mouth. His cheeks bulged outward, a look of intense concentration on his face. Finally, after much mashing of teeth and some painful-looking swallowing, he managed to gulp it all down.
“Unbelievable,” Satoshi said, taking out two bills. He slapped them into Masa’s outstretched hand. “Un-fucking-believable.”
Satoshi smiled. He remembered that day.
He walked past the memories standing by the door and into the building. He ambled down the grimy hallway to the elevator at the end and pressed the button. When he did, the door lurched open a few inches, then stopped. The elevator began buzzing and its light blinking as the door tried to close itself. Hmm, still broken, Satoshi thought to himself. You’d think in ten years’ time they’d be able to get that fixed.
He was about to go over to the familiar staircase to head up when he heard voices from inside the elevator car. He peered inside to see Masa and him sitting in there shooting the shit. His younger self was smoking a joint, which he offered to Masa. Masa declined and continued telling his story.
Satoshi turned away and walked up the stairs. Masa was here too.
“I don’t know if I can do it anymore.”
A dejected Masa was sprawled out across the stairs. Satoshi’s younger self sat several stairs up, watching him.
“Your father?” he had asked then.
Masa nodded.
“So why don’t you move out? You’re probably making enough to support you and your little brother.”
“Yeah, but I can’t raise him. I can barely take care of myself. Besides, no landlord is going to rent to a sixteen-year-old dropout. They’ll guess right away that I’m on the Path.”
“So have one of the older guys rent the place for you. Or act as your cosigner or something. Kenta looks legit. He’s not too tatted up yet.”
“Maybe you’re right. I’ve got to look into it. His drinking’s getting worse.”
Satoshi shook his head, in the exact same way his younger self had. “You’ve got to get Nori out of there. He’s just going to keep hurting you two if you don’t.”
Satoshi walked by the visions from his past and further up the stairs. When he came to the fourth floor, he walked down the hallway. It was darker up here. Fewer of the old tenants left, he figured. The door had a realtor’s key box hanging from the doorknob, indicating that the apartment was empty. Satoshi removed the key Masa had given him years ago from his pocket. It slid into place and unlocked the door with only some slight resistance from the rust in the hinges. Satoshi was only half-surprised to see that this ten-year-old key still worked.
He looked around the empty room. The memories here were even thicker, more painful. He had to breathe deeply just to avoid having his emotions overtake him. Which was hard, because the musty, cloying odor in the room made it difficult to breathe. He pulled his respirator back into place to block out the smell. Then he began walking through the empty rooms.
The entryway led into a hallway, with rooms branching off it. Satoshi ducked into the first room on the right, which Masa and Nori had shared. The frayed tatami mats of the floor rustled softly under his feet. The stained walls made it look like shadows were everywhere.
He heard the sounds of crying coming from the corner. He looked over to see Masa trying to comfort Nori that time their dad had backhanded him into the doorknob in a drunken rage. Masa shushed him while holding a bag of frozen gyoza over his bawling brother’s swelling forehead. He looked over to the far corner, where his younger self sat watching Masa sooth and calm his crying brother. Young Satoshi was rocking back and forth, squeezing his hand open and shut convulsively, practically quaking with rage.
“It’ll be alright,” Masa said to his younger brother. But he was looking at Satoshi when he said it.
Satoshi walked back into the hallway and down to the end, to the living room. He had a lot of memories from this room, too. Almost none of them good. Even now, he heard shouting coming from that direction. He walked out into the room to witness a scene he had already seen before playing out again.
Over in the corner he saw Masa, barely able to stand as blood poured from a gash in his forehead. On the other side of the room stood Masa’s father. He was clearly drunk, but no less fearsome for it. Even when completely wasted, the man was frightening, fully capable of inflicting a good deal of damage. Before he had discovered booze, Masa’s father had been a construction worker. He looked wiry and small, but Satoshi and Masa both knew from experience that he threw a mean punch. And when he was brandishing a lamp like he was now, he was a force to be reckoned with.
Satoshi saw himself as he was back then. He was standing between Masa and his father, a look of pure hatred in his eyes as he stared the older man down. He was maybe seventeen when this had happened. Older than Masa and a bit bigger. He had always been taller, but now he was more solid. Big enough to stand up to Masa’s drunk father as he swung the lamp at him. He caught it in midair as it came down in a big arc towards him, then head-butted Masa’s father hard in the nose. The older man went down wailing.
“Now knock this shit off!” he yelled at the old man.
“You fuck off! He’s my son and I’ll diss-plin him however I want!” the old man shrieked back, unsteadily rising to his feet again. “You fuck off or you’ll be sorry!”
Satoshi stood his ground. A look of angry defiance blazed in his narrowed eyes.
“You hit Masa again and I’ll make you sorry!”
That set him off. Masa’s father threw the lamp at Satoshi, aiming for the center of his chest. Satoshi dodged, yet it still clipped him, sending him off-balance. The old man charged, but Satoshi dug in and caught him with his shoulder.
“I’ll fucking kill you, Masa! You and your fucking friend!”
Satoshi pushed him off enough to get in a few shots, that last one of which was a hard hook to the man’s temple, which dropped him to the floor and left him writhing.
“Come on,” Satoshi said to Masa.
Satoshi held out his hand and pulled Masa to his feet. Then he grabbed the half-empty bottle of shochu from the coffee table, then the half-empty bottle of whiskey from the kitchen. He threw some ice from the freezer into a plastic bag and wrapped it in a kitchen towel, which he handed to Masa. The two headed for the door. Masa gave his dad a hard kick on the way out, sending the man down again.
Satoshi followed the two of them out the door and upstairs. He watched them head out the door to the roof. The door opened inward, so they had fashioned a chain to the front that looped around a hook they had drilled into the brick wall next to the door. Several seconds later, he heard Masa’s dad bellowing on the other side, yanking as hard as he could. The chain would only budge an inch or two at most, leaving him screaming in vain on the other side.
Young Satoshi and Masa watched the door. Then they looked at each other, and Masa shook his head. They walked to the edge, where they had set up folding chairs. Satoshi took a swig of the whiskey, then handed the bottle to Masa. He declined. They settled into their chairs and looked at the bright lights of the skyscrapers of Shinjuku off in the distance. Back then you could still see the sky more often than not. Sometimes even a few stars shone through the bright lights of Tokyo.
“Thanks for helping me,” Masa said.
Satoshi took another slug off the bottle. He waved Masa’s comment away, then motioned for him to put the ice on his forehead, which Masa did.
“I mean it. If you hadn’t shown up, I think he might have done some real damage this time.”
“Look, let me ask Taichi, or Yoshizawa or someone about cosigning for a place for you. You and Nori need to get out of here
, before he kills one of you.”
As if to emphasize the point, the chain rattled behind them as Masa’s father yanked on the door. He shouted curses at them, promising them all manner of bodily harm.
“Yeah, do that,” Masa said with a sigh. “They’ll probably do it if you ask them.” He looked out at the skyscrapers beyond. “I’m so sick of this shit.”
“Hey, come on, you can put it behind you.” As he said this, the chain rattled louder as Masa’s father shouted abuse at them. “Soon, anyway.”
“I’m just so fucking tired of this. Taichi and those guys on the Path give me shit, call me a runt and joke about how I’m a fuckup. Then I come home to a dad who just abuses me and demands I fork over half of what I make so he doesn’t have to work. What the fuck? Am I just going to be everyone’s doormat forever?”
“Those guys … they do that with everyone,” Satoshi said. “Don’t take it personal. They know it bugs you, that’s why they keep at it. You’ve just got to let it roll off you.”
“Easy for you to say. They don’t go after you like they do me. They think I’m weak.”
“You haven’t been on the Path as long as I have. Believe me, I got the same shit starting out. It takes time to win them over.” Satoshi remembered the lie. He was trying to make Masa feel better. The teasing Masa got was worse and went on longer than anything Satoshi had been subjected to.
“But I do everything right! I work as hard as you do, I’m moving packages as fast as you, my corners don’t have any problems—”
“You’ve been getting into fights, though. I heard you started some shit with those Ichigaya boys.”
“They started shit with me! I was just responding.”
“Yeah, and you caused some problems for Taichi. The bosses don’t like that. They don’t want you sending messages or anything. They just want you to run things quiet and smooth. No waves.”
“I guess. Yeah, you’re right. I’ll try to be … quieter. Not get in any more fights.”
Satoshi nodded, just the way his younger self did in the memory.
“Just do what it takes to fit in now. It’s the guys who do what they’re told that climb the ladder. You follow orders and do a good job, you move up, become a boss. That’s what we need to do. Before long, we’ll be running this city. You and me!”
Masa grinned and set the ice down. “Yeah, you and me! Running things! How awesome would that be? You the brains and me the muscle! Two sides of the same coin!”
Satoshi smiled and nodded. Masa held out his hand and Satoshi grasped it with his own hand. Two against the world.
Satoshi remembered that night well. They stayed there on the roof until morning. When they went downstairs, Masa’s father was passed out drunk against the door. Masa told him later that his father didn’t remember why he was up there when he woke up, or anything else about that night. He usually didn’t.
Satoshi walked back inside and down the stairs. There was nothing for him here. The visit had left him with nothing more than a feeling of regret eating him from the inside out. The weight of what he had to do hung heavy on his shoulders. But he didn’t know if he could go through with it anymore. It had been two against the world for so long. How could he turn on his oldest friend so easily?
But then thoughts of what Masa had become surfaced, leaving him conflicted. Knowing what Masa was now, part of him couldn’t help but think that Masa should be put down. He hated himself for thinking that way, but that didn’t change the fact that things had changed since those days spent on the roof of Masa’s building. Masa had changed. Satoshi had changed.
His footfalls rang heavy in the narrow staircase as he trudged down. The place was still the same. It could still suck the life out of him, even across all these years. He turned a corner after one of the landings and collided full-on with a tenant coming the other way.
“I’m so sorry,” Satoshi started before he recognized the man. “Nobuyuki?”
The man flinched without even looking up. “I’m sorry, I don’t know you. Must be some mistake, I’m just … wait, Satoshi?”
Nobuyuki was a kid that used to be friends with Masa, back in the day. Before Masa took the Path, and the Path changed him. Satoshi had heard somewhere along the way that he had turned to drugs. Now that he saw the man Nobuyuki had become, he could tell the rumor was true. And the drugs had taken their toll on the man. He looked at least ten years older than he actually was, with rotted teeth and thinning hair.
“How, uh, how are you, Nobuyuki?” Satoshi asked.
“Oh, you know, same old, same old. Still living with Mom. Oh, at her insistence, of course. Would love to move out if I could.”
“Uh-huh. Been a long time, glad to see you’re … um, doing so well.”
“Well, you know, keeping it together, I guess. What brings you back here? Looking for a new place?”
“Me? No, actually, I’ve been looking for Masa lately. Can’t seem to find him. You seen him around here at all?”
Nobuyuki flinched unconsciously. He began nodding. But it looked more like a nervous twitch.
“He was around recently. With one of his old gang buddies.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Not someone from the neighborhood. I think his name was Otsu? Or Ozawa?”
“Ozu? Hajime Ozu?”
“Yeah, that sounds about right. Weaselly guy. Looks like a goon, like he’s up to no good.”
“They say anything?”
“You know Masa, he never liked me much. He made a crack to his buddy about me. We had a strained conversation about nothing much. He ‘jokingly’ threatened to beat me up, like in the old days. Not very funny if you ask me.”
“Well, that’s Masa for you.”
Nobuyuki shook his head. “He wasn’t always like that.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Satoshi agreed.
“But you were always good to me, Satoshi,” he said with a gormless grin. “Always helping me out. Giving me a freebie or two so I could fix up. I always liked you.”
“Well, glad to help,” Satoshi said. He felt uncomfortable all of a sudden.
“Anyway, I’m going to cook up. But you take care.” After he said this, Nobuyuki patted him on the shoulder and began walking up the stairs.
“You too,” Satoshi said.
He watched the ghost of a man walk upstairs and out of sight. Satoshi shook his head.
It was almost as if nobody made it out of this place alive.
Chapter Fifteen
“Anything?” Mei asked.
“Nothing so far,” Watanabe said. “But the APB only went out late last night, so too early to tell.”
“Alright, what other angles do we have to work?”
“I think that Ozu character I talked to yesterday might know more than he let on,” Kato said. “I’d like to get him into an interrogation room and see what he remembers under pressure.”
“What leverage do we have there?” Mei asked.
“Guy’s a tweaker, so we can dangle that over him. And if that doesn’t scare him into cooperating, then we just plop him in lockup for a night or two. See if withdrawal makes him more cooperative.”
Mei’s phone vibrated against her leg. It was a text from Vasili telling her to come to his club immediately. It left her rattled momentarily.
“Detective Kimura?”
“Uh, yeah, that sounds good. I want you and Ina on that. I need to make a stop, but I’ll catch up with you later. Sorry, Watanabe, but I need you to man the phones in case anything comes in on the APB.”
“No problem by me.”
“Now you let me in your club,” Mei said as she was ushered to the bar, where Vasili was reading a newspaper. She spoke in Japanese, as she felt more comfortable in her native tongue.
“Do not be cute with me,” Vasili responded in English. “Not after you go behind my back to put out APB. I want that called off immediately.”
The conversation proceeded in a mix of English and Japanese between
the two of them.
“I didn’t know I had to clear every move with you first.”
“No, but you are supposed to be working together with my team. You kept this from us.”
“The DNA match only came in yesterday,” Mei lied.
“No, it came in two days ago. You just kept it from Kameko.”
“How did you know that?”
“I have been working the police longer than you have been working for them. I know more about what goes on there than you ever will. And I am telling you, you are wasting your time with Masa.”
Mei’s mind was racing all of a sudden. The thought that her team had an informant once again reared its ugly head.
“How do I know you’re not stalling me?”
“Because I want this guy caught more than you do. Believe that. Now no more withholding intel from me. Police and yakuza in this country have always been … how you say? Friends with benefits.”
She switched to English here. “Well, I feel like you’re fucking me on this investigation. But I’m not getting any benefit from it.”
“Clever. But we agreed we were partners, remember?”
“We’re not partners. Shit, we’re not even on the same side.”
“Side of what?”
Mei huffed. “There is a line that separates people like me from people like you. And that line is the law.”
“Yes, but this line you talk of is not carved in stone. Is sketched in sand. And it gets erased and moved and redrawn as often as the tide comes in.” Vasili scoffed. “The law. Honestly, there has never been a dumber lie than that.”
“It’s the only thing keeping us from total anarchy. But I suppose you want some savage free-for-all. Every man for himself and let the strong eat the weak. Is that it?”
“Of course I do not want that. And I am man who would win in such situation. Eh, how to explain? Is like, line is more fluid than you imagine.”
“Said the guy who kills people for money.”
“Prove it. You really think there are different sides in this? The Japanese government has relied on yakuza to fix its messes since forever. We should have our own fucking ministry building by now.”
Tokyo Noir: The Complete First Season Page 26