Chapter 7 - Another shitty day (II)

*Hanzo

'The fuck… Since when did I become a fucking shisha? Did this punk just walk up here to tell me, to Thank 'Hoshi for him? What fucking balls!' I couldn't help but let my brain spiral in rage, as I processed the words and behaviour of the brat walking away.

I turned my head back to look at the reason why that brat is still breathing after pulling shit like this, every time he comes by.

I just stared coldly at Hoshi sitting on a wooden stool, close the entrance to this counter. He had his face down, mending the veins of an arcane-short sword with a touch-pen.

Seeing he didn't look up, I just said coldly "I'm going to burst that cunt's leg next time he walks up and talk to me like we are pals"

Hoshi slowed his head, meeting my eyes with his own but his were somewhat confused and dismissive.

"Let the kid be" He quietly replied, returned his gaze to the short in his head.

Those four simple words made something in me snap, my thoughts weren't really organised but my current intent was as clear as glass – I'M GOING TO FUCK THIS KID UP TODAY.

I angrily dropped the shard-filter I was cleaning, and grabbed the metal baseball bat at the right side of the counter- table.

I spun it once with my right hand, as I paced to exit this room, but Hoshi had already got up and stood in front of the door with his hands raised up to our chest-level.

"Hanzo…. Hanzo, Wai…" He pleaded, while waving his hands up repeated – gesturing me to chill and not get all violent on him.

"Get the fuck out of my way, Hoshi" I coldly said, standing in front of him.

Immediately he noticed, he gently placed his palm on my left chest and slowly reached for the bat with his left hand, repeating the phrase "Just relax and let's talk this out…"

Trying to remove the bat from my grip but quickly realised he couldn't, he strengthened his pull and repeatedly tried to desperately take the bat away but I didn't bulged.

"Do you think I'm playin' here?" I asked with vexation, as he tried to take away for the third time.

"That fucking brat walks up in here, demanding gigs like we owe him, going around uttering our names with so much disrespect when talking to our boys, using our gym-shit without paying most of the time… and I'm supposed to let all that slide, even when it makes us look bad in front of everyone watching, because you said so?!!" I flared at Hoshi.

Hoshi waving at me to tune down my outburst.

From the day we decided to deal with Evolves, Enforcers and all that right here in Sumiyoshi, there were rules Hoshi and I placed on ourselves for this business to prosper.

One of them was – No form of fighting or disagreement when anyone; no matter who is close by; we are One voice and One mind, but today, I'm breaking that rule for the stupidest of reason and that's because saying nothing about this does harm to us and our work.

Running this business isn't a walk in the park, those we call customers, partners and subordinates will drown us if our own blood if the opportunity presents itself.

"No need for the yelling… Look, this kid… Was once a 'runner' us…" Hoshi didn't put the whole sentence together, when I cut him short "… and he bailed on us, many times… That's why he doesn't work for us anymore"

Hoshi sighed with frustration.

"Right… He did, but he has grown and scraps fucking good…"

I had to cut him short again "…and we have 5 E-Evolves that are better than him, 3 of them aren't that older than him, yet they stay in line. WE make sure of that" I said, throwing my index finger to Hoshi direction and mine repetitively, for the 'WE' part in my statement.

"Don't do that… Just don't. He owes Ororo loads of coins, courtesy of his pops. He dives into Gates and manages to come back every time, and you still think he's not a good fighter." Hoshi started sounding a little pissed, continued.

"It doesn't take a genius to know the kid is probably retarded or something but with the shit he's in, why can't we go easy on him?" He still defended the brat, but at least he somewhat admitted the kid is an annoying tard.

"I call bullshit on this. Remember we aren't doing a fucking charity here, nor are we saints. What the fuck does his fucking debt have to do with us? It's not like he's the only sewer cum we know that Ororo has his boot on" I didn't yell this, this time around.

"Bro, we can't help him in that aspect, soon or later Ororo will harvest his organs to get some of his coins back. Making us fight over that brat, won't change that."

"What if we hire…"

"FUCK NO!!, I rather eat a diseased horse shit than have that cunt here again. What the fuck do we gain, getting shades from a big-time loan shark because of him? Fuck No… One day his luck will run out in those Gate, haven't we seen kid very much better than his weak ass reaching the end of their luck too?" I expressed; still subtle but no less intense as it should be.

"Are you even hearing yourself talk? There's literally nothing on that kid but bad credit, shit and premature-death." I had to question Hoshi's sanity at this point.

"The kid… isn't hurting anybody and what the issue in just being nice to him?" Hoshi asked that with a serious expression, but I could see the realization of defeat in his eyes.

Guess he's still reaching.

"No harm to anybody but our rep; the way people perceive us is mostly what keeps us alive, especially from his kind. You know for a fact that gangs with his kind filling up every hole, look down on us. To them, we are just easy kill, it's our rep that keeps them at bay and to risk puncturing that for… a mentally challenged overgrown-cum mutant?"

"Fuck me Hanzo, can't I ask you to do this for me? Why are you making it sound like being nice to just ONE kid will destroy everything? How the fuck will just one kid fuck with everything we have built for the past 16 years, do you HEAR yourself?" Hoshi lay down all that, looking at me with a cocktail of utter defeat, vexation and suspicion of hysteria.

Why the hell his he looking at me like I'm the crazy one? It's not like I said anything that isn't true or unlikely to happen.

"See… I know YOU and a lot of people in here, don't like the boy; I'm not fucking blind but can't you just ignore his attitude, should I really be begging you for that?"

I don't know at what point during this shake down did Hoshi transition from a questioning of his weird liking to that bad omen of a boy to a questioning of my friendship to him.

I helplessly sighed.

"I don't like your outrageous attachment to this kid, I don't like the kid but I will never bring this up again."

Hearing that, Hoshi eyes relaxed a bit with the realization of making me to somewhat give my word to never bring up such topic again to him. There was a touch of surprise and worry, but it quickly faded.

"Can we just talk about what really matter? That kid isn't worth all this talk" He proposed, sounding he couldn't care less about the kid, but it begs the question – If he doesn't really care, why does get very defensive about the kid?

"Hirano's coming in two days to collect our latest batch of elixirs… Found any interesting elixirs?" Hoshi asked.

"Nah… just the usual shit from E-Grades and some parts from D-Grade Aggressors" I replied, turning my face back to the counter, and drop the baseball bat before picking up shard-filter to continue my cleaning.

"So basically, nothing to pitch the next sales on?" He asked with a tiny bit of jest but why cold indifferent stare was the all he needed to know, I'm still sour because of our argument from earlier and not in the buying the weak attempt to fill the cold air of unvoiced disagreement and the unchanged notion we both have.

"What about Fushigoru?" Hoshi sharply exhaled and asked.

"His order got to him, with barely any tension… He requested for 5 more crates of arcane-blades…" I had to laugh sardonically for this part "…and arcane-guns".

"He knows we don't deal arcane-gun…"

I interjected by saying "Not just people like him anyway.

Hoshi didn't mind and continued "They draw too many eyes; both buyers and the Law".

I chuckled after the whole event flashed through my head, and decided to relay the whole thing to Hoshi.

"He literally came down here himself, last night when you were hosting 'Fight Night'…"

Hoshi interjected "He never does that… Thinks he's too big to down here and talk to us face to face".

I snickered, before I continued "He wasn't acting all high and mighty when he walked in here with his snake-skin boots dragging in mud"

"Nahh… That's way fucking out of character for that cunt" Hoshi commented, squeezing his face out of clear suspicion of Fushigoru's bizarre visit and character.

"Bro was asking about where you were at, why we don't start dealing D-Grade melee weapons with serious fire power, asking for some insanely dangerous D-Grade Aggressors' parts; stuffs that we will fucking make us stink so much, Enforcers will bust in here the fucking day if we bring shit that to shop, he even suggested in connecting us with a guy he knows to get all those things if we are interested…"

I had to really laugh out for this last part "… He even praised our gears… Not like the regular 'Nice shit'. Nahh… I'm talking a freaking poem of praise to our gear and always staying on business"

"That doesn't sound like him… The leach doesn't do match-maker, much less give praises" Hoshi came to the same conclusion as I did – Fushigory is sus as fuck.

"You think he's planning on stealing shit from us?" Hoshi asked, but sudden went silence with his eyes looking down like he was thinking of every likely reason why Fushigoru would do all that.

After a few milliseconds, Hoshi's pupils suddenly darted at me and asked very softly "…You think he was wired? You think he's a rat?"

"That felt like a fucking interrogation man, even with all the smiles. I mostly nod my head, shrugged and gave a single word reply to his questions. Even if he's as wired as an electric pole, he doesn't have shit on us"

"…But he has our gears he bought. If he is a rat, then that's a big fucking problem" Hoshi pointed out.

"Why don't we halt production a few…" Hoshi didn't get to finished, when I interrupted; shaking my head in total refusal as I spoke.

"Hell Nahh… No fucking way, we aren't closing down shop because some overgrown cum fucks with the cops"

I understand Hoshi's caution but we have quotas to fill.

I admit they aren't much and can sweet talk the clients but we can't be closing shop every time we have a strong suspicion the cops are coming around.

"Hanzo, shit has been going down in the Conquest distinct lately. It's all quiet and just started few days ago (I think) but many shops dealing with anything Aggressors' parts have been raid. Not by police, but fucking Enforcers"

I stared at him, letting that last statement he said sink in really well. The boys in blue are one thing, but Enforcers is anywhere from bad to a real fucking problem.

"…From drugs, to food, to alcohol, to weapons. Again, it just started but the only thing anyone really looking at this can think of is – all their shit from come from Gates"

"Where did you get all that from? If some drug or gun runner's factories was raided, it wouldn't be all quiet, almost certainly can't be quiet. Word would have gotten down here and flooded the streets".

I had to be as skeptic as possible, to really see if what Hoshi isn't overreacting, because the mere mention of 'Enforcers' has convinced me something might be up, but the question now – Does it concern us too?

"One of our droppers running points for us to clients in Conquest distinct was chatting about it with some our other guys here, I happened to be passing by and immediately I heard 'Enforcers are raiding', I called the kid over to tell me everything he knows. Then I talked Kanaki during the 'Fight Night' and told him what I heard. Turns out the kid wasn't capping shit." Hoshi narrated.

"How's Kanaki's boss taking it? Aren't he and his 'friends' going to rub the Enforcer's 'hands'?"

"Kanaki didn't say what his boss thinks or is doing about this situation exactly, but he implied that the Enforcers will likely not touch those top drug runners and anyone in their calibre, like his boss." Hoshi responded, slowly placing the shard-filter he was cleaning on the ground, then massaging his head with his right hand like he is having a slight migraine.

His face is all squeezed up like his mind didn't seem to want to continue cleaning the shard filter and who could blame him.

This isn't exactly good news, even if he is the one relaying it.

"They are going after small fries, and we fit the profile" Hoshi concluded.

"I get that the streets are heating up, but that doesn't mean we show just close up show" I said, after carefully weighing the options I could see.

"It takes time to weld arcane-weapons, which makes time money and if we just close down shop, many of our buyers won't be happy.

In fact, this is exactly when they will need their goods and if we fail to deliver, we lose coins, cred, and customers… We can't just chicken out"

Hoshi shook his head in disagreement, replying "…Nahh, you're taking this too lightly. We can't just continue production like our asses aren't in the wind, especially with whatever stunt Fushigoru wants to pull"

"Nah… I am not saying we shouldn't act on what you just said. I'm just saying we should handle delivery another way, like using the Fish Market"

"What about the main production?" Hoshi asked, sounding a bit convinced.

"We have shit in stocks in case of emergencies, we could crack up some of those crates" I replied, sounding more confident as the idea made more sense saying it.

I wasn't really weighting the pros and cons of the ideas, it just sounded good in my head.

"Transporting and securing a spot at the Fish Market will cost us more than a penny, but our emergency stock should robust enough till the heat dies down a bit" Hoshi pieced together the parts I didn't consider.

It is always good to hear his thought after voicing out mine.

"Alright, let's do that" Hoshi finally agreed, deliberating silence for a moment.

We talked over a few things a few more things, before going out to the 'production room' to oversee the work of our guys were cooking.

As we walked around inspecting and going over some details with the guys at work, my mind circled back to that brat from earlier.

Hoshi might have demanded me to back off, but I will get rid of anything that's bad for business.