The Dark Side of the Shadow

Miyako didn’t have an easy answer for him, even though she knew what he wanted to hear. ‘He’s holding up the information on a technicality…’ Weight from her body pressed down on her hands. It felt too heavy. “What does it matter? You know my past.”

“And there are few that don’t know the name of Eighty Deaths around here. But is the name so cheap that you can use it whenever things get tough?”

Hideo tried to belittle her name. She pounded her fists against his desk. “Never! Don’t you dare speak ill of me.”

“So you’re Eighty Deaths now,” questioned Hideo, peeking up his eyebrow. Any amount of violence that she threatened against him made no impact on his mood. His face became more serious, dropping the playful smirk. It was no longer about jokes or teasing.

“There a problem with that?”

“And before you’re the high school girl? And after that you’re what?”

Slamming her fists down again, she was getting tired of him harping on the same point. ‘I’ll become Eighty Deaths again if it means protecting them…’ She leaned forward only a few centimeters away. “Who I am is my business, not yours.”

“If you want my help it is.” Hideo could tell how far he was getting with Miyako. She was easily provoked and quick to violence. None of that had changed in dropping her position. It wasn’t as though that was a surprise. But she still missed the point. “You think you can just step in and out whenever you please. This world doesn’t work like that. You’re either all in or all out. You left and abandoned everything. That’s what happens when one leaves, you give up claim to everything. You can’t just pick it back up whenever you please like it’s an old shirt.”

“My life is mine to do with as I please! None of you have any right to determine how I act!” Miyako pulled away, annoyed with looking at his face. She walked over to the shelves, needing something that was not his smug face to look at. “It was people like you that dragged me into this world to begin with. I merely found a way to survive. So what right do you have to say how I live it? I never bent to any of your pressure in the past. What makes you think I will now?”

“You view this lifestyle as boys playing pretend, as though we’re just playing house. You belittle our way of life. This world is not the sort of fake world you are led to believe. You’ve been allowed to stay blissfully ignorant.”

Miyako tilted her head back over to Hideo. “Ignorant?!” She took partial offense to his choice of words, but was more surprised by how keenly aware of her opinion of their world he actually was. It was never something she voiced to anyone. “Who the hell do you think you are, Hideo?”

“The Gatekeeper.”

Chapter 306 – The Dark Side of the Shadow

“What?!” That was one word she had heard mentioned in hushed whispers during her time. ‘The Gatekeeper? I always heard the boys talk like it was some myth or legend. I completely dismissed it as just them playing around. The Gatekeeper, someone that protects the more simple and innocent gangs from the true dark underbelly of the real world. It can’t be true.’ She had trouble holding back her surprise now.

Hideo turned around in his chair. He slowly stood up working his way to Miyako. “Even someone like you, that’s completely ignored the politics and inner workings of the world knows that name.” Coming to stop in front of her, he managed to look a meter taller than her somehow. “It is how we designed it. There are two sides to everything. Light and dark, even when you thought you were standing in the dark, that was merely the light you deluded yourself into thinking was the dark. You have no idea what the real darkness is in this world.”

“Trying to scare me now?” Bravado was about all that Miyako had left in her. She had never seen Hideo act like this in any of their past meetings. He looked genuinely ready to crush her without a second thought. She felt like a bug under his heel.

The initial intent seemed to have been reached. Hideo let up a little on his intensity. It was rare for him to use such a presence when not dealing with someone from that side. “I’m trying to get you to understand the position you’re in.”

“Position?”

“Yes, position. You’ve left, while you’re on the other side such things are simple. It’s your gang, you do with it as you please. Like you said, you make your own destiny. However, you want to step back in, that is something you can’t do.”

“The hell?” Her face twisted a little not understanding him anymore than before when he was trying to make the point. “You try to scare me with a boogeyman in the shadows. I haven’t listened to any of your rules in the past, what makes you think I care what you think now?”

“Because one can’t just jump in and out. You can’t have both. You must pick one. Especially, when the information you seek lies in the dark.”

‘The dark…’ She knew what he was implying. It only made her hesitate for a moment. The fear that he instilled in her had already evaporated. She was tired of being talked down to and dictated to. Miyako grabbed Hideo’s tie and pulled on him. “You think I give one single damn about your worlds or sides? Rules, be damned to hell! Eighty Deaths or the high school girl. You want an answer on who I am? I’m myself! And I make my own destiny without any of your hands telling me what I can or can’t do! I can’t be Eighty Death anymore or the high school girl. Fine! I am Miyako Ibuka! I protect those that matter to me! So screw your rules and your pompous light and dark. I don’t care about any of it! Because someone crossed Miyako Ibuka and they won’t be allowed to step away without pay back!”

Laughter, that was what she heard. It actually surprised her to hear him laughing. She released his tie, not sure what was wrong. Had he gone nuts or just planning some other game? Miyako didn’t know anymore. “What’s so funny?”

Hideo fell back against his shelves needing support. It was the least expected answer for him. “You. So you plan to become something different from your past and present? This should be very interesting.”

She still didn’t know what he was getting at. It made her want to step away a little. The crazy shouldn’t really be bothered. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’ll give you the information you want.”

‘Not what I was expecting…’ she remarked, as her only comment. She had arrived at the location that Hideo gave her. This was where the Black Gate gang headquarters was positioned. However, it was nothing that she thought. She knew the area roughly, though never ever actually visited.

It was in the middle of the business district. She thought there was perhaps some ruined building that they were built out of or a construction site, as they had done. It just looked like an ordinary business, if that ordinary business ran out of a skyscraper and had employees in suits walking in and out. ‘Are they a real business? Hideo said that things weren’t going to be what I was thinking that they were…’

‘You can find the Black Gate in the business district at the address I just gave you. Just remember though, the real world is nothing like what you think it is. All those playing house ideas you have, get them out of your head now. What you face now is going to be nothing like what you’ve dealt with before. So show me the strength of your resolve to be Miyako Ibuka.’

Flexing her hands a little to get the tension out of her body, which built up from the uncertainty of what she faced, Miyako pushed his voice out of her mind. ‘Shut up, bastard. I’ll show you I create my own path!’

Walking inside to the lobby, she only drew a few odd looks. She had changed her uniform, even though she still looked like a high school student. Miyako made sure to leave her jacket behind, so they could not identify her school. This was a fight for her alone, no one else needed to be dragged into it.

Using the password with the receptionist, they led her to a private elevator off to the side. It was surprisingly easy to get inside. ‘Is this all the security that they have?’ It gave her false confidence as she entered the elevator. The ride took her up to the designated floor. ‘Hidden almost in plain sight…is this how his world works? It’s a little unsettling knowing that they were, but I never would have figured this out. I never would have thought to check in a place like this, not to mention I couldn’t have fought my way through a public area. I would have been arrested before setting foot in here…’

The elevator chimed in reaching its destination. As the doors slid open, three guards in suits turned to look at who had arrived. The sight of a girl had them all looking between each other a little confused.

“You order a girl?”

“Of course not! I wouldn’t bring her here anyway!”

“Is she one of the heads’ daughters or something?”

“She doesn’t look like any of them.”

While they argued about what it meant for Miyako to be in the elevator, she stepped forward within range of them. Her face quickly turned serious and they were too slow to react when they realized what was up. All three laid on the floor of the elevator unable to move.

She looked down both sides of the hallway trying to figure out where to go. ‘He didn’t give me any more directions than this. But I suppose he wouldn’t know.’ Unfortunately, her delaying caused two more guards to come running out, likely already alerted to her presence. She charged for them only to be caught off guard by an oppressively loud bang that rang in her ears. It paralyzed her. ‘A gun?!’

The first only seemed to be a warning shot fired at her. Miyako paused, finding that she was staring down the barrel of two pistols from the guards. ‘Is this the dark side of things? This isn’t a fair fight at all!’

“You’ve made a big mistake walking into here attacking us,” one said. “We have ways for dealing with intruders like yourself.”

Caught up in the front, she didn’t see the two more guards that snuck up behind her and grabbed her. Her arms couldn’t even move in the locked position the large man pinned her with great ease. They had her down on the floor already tied up before she knew what was happening. She could do nothing to them. ‘They’re skilled and experienced, nothing like all those pretenders…dammit…’

Brought before the boss, he was a tough and battle hardened man in his middle ages. The man had a severe expression that gave up no sign of emotion or mercy. It felt like a single glance could actually kill. He had mastered the death stare that she merely adopted. “Who is this girl?”

“Someone we caught breaking in and attacking our men, boss.”

“Is that so?” He lowered his sight down to Miyako, forced to knelt before the man. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

Not even bravado was going to be enough against him. She could feel her body shaking as she had never known. The only time she felt afraid was in the presence of her aunt when she was younger. This completely eclipsed that memory threefold. “Y-Yes.”

He narrowed his eyes further. “So you knowingly stepped into our territory and attacked my men.”

“Yes.”

“What a foolish girl. Who is this girl?”

No one had an answer for the boss. He continued to stare at her as though he was actually trying to kill her with sight alone. In the silence, he only seemed to get more intense. “You attacked me,” she responded, almost as though she had to reply. It didn’t make any sense to her. But the silence seemed to force it out of her.

“What?” The boss turned up his gaze to the men and his lieutenants. “What is this?”

“We don’t know her, boss. She’s lying. Maybe she’s one of the boys’ girls.”

“The hell I am!” she roared, finally finding her footing. Miyako wasn’t going to be ignored or forgotten. She found her leg strength and forced herself to her feet. The men tried to get her to bend, but she refused them.

One of the men came by and whacked her across the face with the butt of his pistol. Miyako fell to the floor bleeding from her cheek and lip. They pinned her back down forcing her to eat the tile.

“Enough, I want to hear what she has to say.” It seemed that he found something intriguing in her. He waved off the enforced guards.

Miyako stood back up, released from her confinement. “Your men attacked my friends and killed one of them. Then they came to finish the job with me.”

He had trouble believing what she said. “Your eyes don’t seem to be lying, but you’re not telling the whole truth. Why would they attack any of you?”

“Because we tried to stop your men from senselessly beating up someone that could not even defend themselves.”

“So you interfered in our business.”

“I tried to protect someone!”

“I understand now.”

He might have seemed harsh, but Miyako felt there was something honest about him. Even in the dark there had to be someone that was still in the light. ‘Now I just need to find out who were the ones that attacked the boys.’

“Lock her up!” he ordered, motioning to the men to take her away.

“What?!” she shouted incredulously. “I thought you understood!”

“I do. You interfered in Black Gate affairs. Punishment to those that interfere is only to be expected. Do a background check on the girl. Find out everything about her. I’ll arrange for a suitable punishment.”