Danny stared into his reflection in the coffee table. His black ponytail, which looks emmaculate most of the time, was now drenched in sweat; he was sweating inside his sharp black suit, and the rare cologne that he wore this day, the sweat had overpowered its fragrance.
He was sweating because of the old man on the other side of the room.
Koichi Kumegava, the old man, had called him up here. The old thing was facing the window, staring at the horizon from the 18th-floor window of Kumegava Estate. It had been 20 mins, and he had not said a word. And with each passing minute, Danny was getting nervous.
And the silence was terrifying the fuck out of him.
"Dhanny," The old man said, butchering his name, "Do you know.. Why I called you here?"
"Um." He was not sure, "Is it something related to the latest intel?" He asked. They have recently uncovered some broken drones from the California desert. Their intelligence department thinks that those autonomous drones were shot while they were chasing those Red Hawks bastards.
"No," The old man said in Japanese. "I have called you here, you tell a little story,"
The old man finally turned around and faced him. At the age of 80, the old man only had an implant for his heart, yet he was still standing straight as a tree. He was frail, wrinkly and bald, but he was still standing tall as the King of District 21 should.
"My father.." The old man said as he made his way to the couch opposite him, "He was a very wise and strict man. When I was a kid, my older brother took my data pad and broke it. I fought with my brother; in the end, my friend and I were badly beaten by my brother and his people. I ran crying to my father." The old man took a seat. "And you know what he did?"
Danny simply shook his head. Then the old man added, "He beat the shit out of me as well."
So he was a great father, Danny wanted to say, but didnt dare to open his mouth.
The old man continued, "He taught me this, sometimes.. Blood relations are just a formality. The real relations, loyal relations.. There is always a possibility that you can have someone's loyalty, even if they dont share any blood with you at all."
The old man then stared him with sructinzing gaze. "Um.." Danny mumbled, he still didnt know what to say.
"You know why I am telling you this Dhanny?"
Danny hesitated, "Because Hiroshi and me.. Share the same bond as your friend did?"
Hiroshi Kumegava was the eldest of the Kumegava family and the next head of District 21. He and Danny have been friends since childhood. It was safe to say that he was Hiroshi's right-hand man.
"Correct." The old man said, "But.. Dhanny… You are family. You may not have any blood relations with Hiroshi or me. But you have shown loyalty to the family, over and over again,"
What the fuck are you cooking there, old man? The Kumegavas have indeed brought him up. And indeed, Danny did owe them his life. But never has he heard the old man praise him.
"Koichi-sama.." Danny said in fluent Japanese, "What is going on?" He was having a very bad feeling.
It was then that the door of the office swung open, and a woman walked in. She was Riku Kumegava, the youngest. She was one dangerous woman, evident by the fact that she was always in a black tactical uniform and always had a lot of throwing knives stuck to her utility belt.
"You are late," The old man said.
"Well, I was getting a haircut," She said in a snarky tone, showing her new bob cut.
The old man stood up, "Why did you cut your hair?" And with him, Danny also jumped up from his seat.
"The desert," she said, "I was getting all sweaty. And with the skirmishes from the Scavengers group… My skin needs some breathing,"
She looked around and asked, "Where is ni-san?" referring to her elder brother.
"Come up with me." The old man said. "Both of you,"
They both silently followed the old man through hallaway outside his office, towards the lift. Riku, who was walking beside Danny, mouthed a question, "Hiroshi," Her lips said.
He simply shrugged, he didnt know where the man was.
They took the elevator down to the Sub Basement 5, a place where their servers were located. As they exited the elevator, they were greeted with a very bad smell of urine and faeces. In the desk outside the server room, instead of one of their soldier were two people that Danny had never seen.
There was a man, sleeping with his head one desk. With platinum blond hair and a hulking figure and red mechanical arms, Danny had a feeling that he knew who the man was. On the other chair was a this middle-eastern girl, in a tactical army suit, polishing her nails.
"We are up," The girl said as he stood up. The man didnt budge, which made the girl slap the back of his head, making the hulking man stand up in stupor.
"Really, V?" the man said while yawning.
"Come on, it's time," the girl said as she went inside.
"Father," This Riku asked, "Who are these people?"
The old man gestured towards the man, "You might have heard of him. He is Axion. Axion Redhand,"
Without a thought, Danny immediately unhooked the safety lock of his gun holster. He had heard of him and his group. They were one of the top mercenaries to hire in the world. And the man before him is a legend. He is in the same ranks as Anageline De Santa and Grego Bullet. In the past, Danny had the fortune of coming across both those legends, and the scars he got from those days still remind him of why legends, became legends.
"Old man Kumegava," Axion said and then gestured for them to go inwards. The old man started walking, and they followed behind.
"Father," Riku said in Japanese, "We were handling it. Why did you need to call the outsiders to our mess? We could have handled it."
"Shut up," the old man said, "Riku… You let Kumegava trucks get attacked in our own territory. Do you really believe that I would trust you from now onwards?"
That was Riku's biggest failure. She is responsible for maintaining peace in the district and at the same time protecting it from outsiders. The convoy that was hit, it was supposed to be under her protection.
"Father," She snarled.
"ENOUGH!" The old man said, making her quiet, "We will discuss this later."
The old man Kumegava took them through a hallway away from the servers. And as they got closer, the smell of urine became stronger. And finally, they reached a small room in the corner, which was not only smelling of defecation treatment plant, but also had a distinct smell of old blood mixed in it.
When they entered the room, the girl from earlier was there. In the middle of the room was a table, lying on which was a man. His bionic implants had been removed; only the ones keeping him alive were still attached to his body. Beside the man on the table, there were two more people tied to a chair, at the other end of the room.
One of the chairs was a naked man, who had gone through hell based on his bruised skin. On the other chair was a naked woman; she was not in a very bad shape compared to the others, but she was in bad shape nevertheless.
"You can start," the old man said, and the girl nodded.
The girl named V went and whispered something in the ear of the man at the table. And he started speaking.
"The plan was.. To fool grandfather," the man said. The man's words made a chill run down Danny's spine because he knew the voice. It belonged to Hiroshi's son, Takeshi.
Takeshi then further added, ".. We planned to make it seem that the enemy was able to take our EMP missile. But in reality, within the boxes were the nuclear cores. We had planned to sell them to the highest bidder."
"Father," Riku said, but the old man raised his hand, silencing her.
Takeshi then continued, ".. Father stole the key from Grandfather's office. He had planned to blame the theft on Uncle Danny. When the EMP missiles were about to be transported, at the last moment, he changed the containers with nuclear material. And… That is it… Can I die now?"
The girl smiled and whispered something in Takeshi's ear, making him go silent once again.
"Dhanny," the old man said, and he stepped up. The old man then twisted his cane and brought out a thin, long sword. He handed the sword to him, "This is the blade, from which I cut down my older brother and his family when they got in my way… My own son had betrayed me. My hands are old now, and I dont want to get more of my kin's blood on my hands. Kill them all,"
He took the sword, which felt very heavy for some reason. He looked at Takeshi, lying on the table with no eyes or hope to live. Creating a resolve, he raised his hands to kill the boy whom he had known since childhood.
For a time in his life, Danny's hands started shaking. He was afraid to kill. His body refused to follow his command, and he stood there like a statue.
"I.." He mumbled, "I cannot… They.."
"Is this your resolve?" The old man asked in a neutral tone, in Japanese, "You cannot kill traitors with your hands?"
There was only one thing that was going through Danny's head at that moment. What kind of man would I be if I went through this? I am..
His thoughts broke when the old man said, "Riku,"
The woman pushed him aside and grabbed the sword still in his hand. With one smooth motion, she cut the skull of his nephew in half. And then went on to decapitate the heads of Hiroshi and his wife…