On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

One Hundred And Twenty-Three

I had spent quite a bit of time sorting out all of the details at Shirohebizumi shrine, but at least everything was about to start. Running into Kana-chan was a bit of a surprise, but at least she liked her present. Shaeula insisted we got gifts for pretty much everyone she knows, and not cheap ones at that. Still… considering that a good chunk of our winnings, plus most of our luck all came from her, it really would have been churlish to refuse. Besides… It does feel good to make people smile, especially cute girls. Cute girls...

I let out a long sigh, thinking of Eri and the conversation I was going to have to have with my father later, about her. The train journey back to Nishimorioka from Tokyo was an annoying one, with changes and slow local trains through the mountains, so they shouldn’t be home yet, but still… I looked at my watch and guessed I would have some time. I do want to go to the Boundary and support Shaeula, but if I miss my father’s inevitable call… Yeah, that didn’t bear thinking about.

Might as well keep on with the gift-giving then. I remembered the couple of bottles of very expensive whiskey I had bought for Karen-chan, since she enjoyed the last bottle I had, and as I reached my apartment, the run barely tiring me at all, I opened my door. Shaeula was still lying there, motionless, and it made me feel uncomfortable… somehow. After all, since I completed the Throne of Heroes weeks ago, we had always been in the Boundary together and returned together, so I had never seen her Material body… like this.

Moving closer, I placed my head very close to her face, ear turned to her mouth. I couldn’t feel or hear any breath. Taking her wrist I also couldn’t feel a pulse. It was like an empty shell, honestly creepy. Patting her head gently I made sure she was still covered with a blanket. Even empty, that’s still Shaeula’s precious body. My eyes were drawn to my posters and figurines, and a bad thought occurred to me. Damn, I bet there’d be a real market for … perfect sex dolls… I felt nauseous, and obviously would never demean her so, but if another Astral Emperor-candidate could use a Throne to grant pretty spirits Material bodies, then sent them back to the Boundary… shit, that’s fucking sick, but the world is fucked up enough for someone to think of it, I bet that the owner of Casino El Diablo would go for it…

The laws of the world as they stood would not be able to keep up with the changes. Hopefully most candidates would be reasonable, but… the shrines have influence, but do they have enough to reach the lawmakers and politicians of the country, and convince them of the need for laws covering this new paradigm? I could certainly prove such powers existed now with ease, but I didn’t want to be the first man out of the trenches, so to speak. My position was still too weak, in terms of Territory, finances and potential weaknesses. If someone was to go after my family, or Eri, when I’m not about to protect them…

I would always put my loved ones above strangers, so the issue would have to be put on hold for now. Spotting the nice decorative bag containing the booze, I grabbed it. Since Hashimoto-san had told me that Karen-chan had been off work, she was probably in need of cheering up, and should be in. I went out of my apartment and over to her door, knocking politely. I waited, the still evening air crisp yet still warm. And waited. And waited…

Maybe she’s asleep? I probably shouldn’t wake her, but… I decided to try once more and if there was no response I’d come back another day. Rapping on her door a bit more forcefully I was greeted by the sound of something heavy hitting the door, which trembled under the impact, flecks of paint knocked free from the cheaply painted wood. It was followed by a snarling, muffled voice, full of anger and other heavy emotions. “Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off! I told you, I quit, I’m never coming back you fucker! If you don’t stop hassling me…” I heard a choked sob, the thin door barely muffling it. “.. I’ll go to the police, I will! I’ll fucking sue you, scumbag!”

Uhh… what? I rapidly considered the situation, but all my pointlessly efficient stats could give me was that Karen-chan sounded really bad, and the sobs were now full-on tears. Yeah, no way I can let this go, not after I set her off. Something terrible must have happened at work, since she says she quit…

Knocking on the door again I spoke loudly. “Karen-chan, it’s me, Akio. Don’t worry, it isn’t your work. I came to see if you needed some cheering up, but… I could come back later if you want? Though by the sounds of it you could really use my company and what I’m carrying.” I kept my voice kind, as if I was talking to a child, aware I was being patronising, as Karen-chan was probably a bit older than me. Though I’m not a big enough fool to question a woman’s age.

For a long moment there was nothing I could do but listen to her crying. I was about to walk away, when I started to hear motion through the thin walls and door. I heard the drawing of a metal bolt, squealing shrilly, and then the door opened a crack, her face peeking out from behind it.

Gods, you look awful. I wasn’t stupid enough to air that thought out loud, but it wasn’t wrong. From what little I could see she was a mess, her face pale, her eyes red raw from crying, her hair unkempt and tangled. It was not her usual stylish appearance at all.

“Well, I brought you a gift… from Las Vegas.” I held up the bag lamely. “It’s really good, and you look like you could use a stiff drink, and maybe someone to talk to?” I offered. “I can wait if you want to take a shower or something though. I might have caught you at a bad time.”

She looked at me for a while, and then, biting her lip, anxiety plain, she opened the door some more. “Akio-kun…” she managed, choking out some words. Furiously she rubbed at her face with her hands, as if to wipe away evidence of her tears, if that was possible. I noticed the clothes she was wearing were just an old t-shirt and sweatpants, and they were… well, sweaty. Just how long has she been sitting there? For days?

“Sorry… about my behaviour. I’m sorry you had to hear that. I… I…” she started to tear up again, before looking down, defeated, her face deathly pale. “… maybe you should go… or… I…”

She seemed confused, not sure of what she wanted. Still, it was a good sign that she had at least opened the door. Although… God, the smell. It hasn’t been aired in days, and the summer heat still hasn’t died off yet. The place wasn’t clean either, clothes and other items tossed everywhere, alongside empty beer cans and bottles of water. No food packages though… with my high Alacrity I could quickly identify everything in an area. Including things I shouldn’t, like her underwear lying tossed in the corner. I’d better not say anything.

“No, seeing you like this, how could I just leave you? Shaeula would be super mad at me if I did. It’s a shame she’s at work now, or she could have kept you company too. Still, why don’t we take a seat?” I shut the door behind me and turned on the light, since the blinds were drawn. The room looked little better illuminated, and she looked away, eyes dark and lifeless. So, my first time in her room, and it’s in this state… anyway, I can’t really just leave her like this. She’s an acquaintance, and a neighbour, and Shaeula considers her a friend, and any friend of Shaeula’s is important to me too.

My mind made up I asked her to take a seat, going to her kitchen area and retrieving two glasses. Rinsing them out I brought out the first bottle of whiskey, the American brand, a smooth bourbon that came highly recommended, and filled the glasses with two generous measures. “Sounds like you’ve had it tough while I was away. Why not have a drink and tell me about it? I might be able to help.”

She looked up at me from the ground where she sat on a cushion by her low table. Seeing the bright amber liquid in the glass and the label on the bottle she licked her cracked lips involuntarily, fists clenching. Gingerly she reached out, and I passed her a glass, not missing how her hand flinched when it came close to mine. Still, she took a long gulp of the precious liquid, and let out a sigh as the warmth hit her, the flavours soothing yet fiery.

I took a sip myself, deciding that my father would like his share, since I got him a few bottles as well. “So, sorry for barging in like this, but… it sounds like you’ve had to quit your job, and it didn’t go so well. You said harassment, so… have they been coming around? You know, I never asked you what you did for a living, my bad.”

She didn’t answer me immediately, instead taking another long gulp. Wordlessly I refilled her glass and waited, trying not to pressure her. When she finally spoke, it was with great difficultly, the words like hot coals she just had to spit out. “I work… hah, worked… for a black company, one you’ve probably never heard of. It wasn’t like I could have a good job, living in this crappy shithole, is it?” Her language was brutal, quite unlike the Karen-chan I’d shared a few pleasant hours with previously. “Still, I made the mistake of joining them after I left University. The job market is hard right now, after all, isn’t that why you are a freelancer?”

I nodded along with her, careful not to upset her further.

“So anyway…” she sighed. “I’m just a secretary, slaving away for little pay. Even so, it was bearable, but recently my direct superior has been going through some… home troubles. His wife is divorcing him, the pig.” She spat out the epithet venomously. “I always had to put up with some… well, office banter and casual harassment, that’s just the way of being a woman in a black company, right? But it started getting worse. He’d… well he’d…” her face screwed up in anger, hand white around her glass.

“You don’t have to talk to me, I think I get it.” I said gently. “Bastards like that are everywhere.”

“No, no…” she said with a sigh. “I think I need to tell someone, someone who listens.” She looked down at her glass, before putting it down on her table.

“It was just touching at first, maybe my thigh, or my back. Plus lewd comments and suggestions that we should ‘get together’ if I wanted to progress or a pay rise. I could just about handle it, but… after that, the fucker kept escalating it. he’d grab my ass, and when we went out for drinks with the others, he’d joke that I was going to sleep my way up, and everyone would pick on me. He’d even grab my chest or… one time… he tried to put his hand down … below.” Tears glimmered at the corner of her eyes. “That was just before the time I drank with you and Shaeula. Thanks for that. I needed… needed some time to get over it, you know. Something else to think about other than how crappy everything was.”

I was starting to get extremely angry, but I managed to keep a poker-face. Fuck, I hate this guy already. I may appreciate a fine woman with my eyes a bit too much, which I really should stop now I’m an engaged man, but I hate scum who would force themselves on women more than anything. If anyone tried that to Eri, or my sis, or Shaeula, or hell, any of the other girls I know… well, they’d find out just how deadly I can get…

“The women in the office started calling me a slut, spreading rumours I was a whore, sleeping with all the guys. Now pretty much everyone was harassing me, and my boss was demanding more overtime alone with him or more drinks after work.” She sounded heartbroken. “Then he exposed himself to me one night, tried to make me … service him, with.. you know. With my mouth.”

She shook her head sadly. “I was going to quit then, but after I fought out of his grasp he said that if I did he’d slander me with all the other businesses in the area and I’d never get a reference that didn’t make me out to be shit, a thief or similar. Besides he told me something true. Quitters never get hired anywhere good, do they? It’s the golden rule.”

“Want me to kill him? What’s his name?” I asked, and she managed a dry chuckle.

“That’s a good one. I wish you could. Still…” she shrugged. “I did consider it hard. I stayed off work, and you and Shaeula took me shopping with you. it was fun, to see the pair of you being colleagues who didn’t hate each other.”

I’m fucking serious. I absolutely could kill this guy… I doubt I’d ever get caught if I used elemental wind or flame…

“Oh, don’t look like that, Akio-kun. It makes me feel worse.” She said, seeing my facial expression, that had escaped my control.  “So… I went back to work. What else could I do? Then finally… after refusing him long enough…”

You didn’t, did you? Oh come on, please tell me that you didn’t give in… if you did, I’m going to mince his dick before I kill him, like Shaeula did to that thug…

“I can see what you’re thinking, but I’m no blushing schoolgirl. I’ve been around a while. I knew if I gave in then it wouldn’t be a one-time thing, I’d just be his toy. And the others, they’d just…” she slammed her fist down, nearly spilling her drink, but I caught the toppling glass deftly, securing it.

“… Still, there was an ultimatum. He cornered me, and said if I didn’t sleep with him, he’d frame me for gross misconduct and have me ruined. So I told him to get fucked. Then he…” she took a long deep breath to steady herself. “… then he tried to… tried to rape me.” She shuddered, crying again. “Luckily he’s out of shape and older, so I managed to fight him off. I did knee him rather hard in his fat guts. So I fled the office and quit, and I’ve been hiding at home ever since. I’m fucked now though. No reference, no job, no savings. No future. A couple of times he’s called me up to say if I go crawling back and …. become his mistress officially he’ll let me work again, but… I have my pride. My dignity. I’d rather die here in this shithole than give in. Then when you knocked on my door, I thought it might have been him or some of the other bastards. Sorry about that.” She shot me a wan smile, terribly fake.

Okay that was heavy stuff indeed. That’s it, I’ve decided. Again, what good is power if I can’t make those around me happy? I’m not going to try and help everyone in the world, but those within my sight who have been good to me, Shaeula, or any of my precious people…

At my silent thought, Karen-chan spoke weakly. “I bet I disgust you, don’t I? I’m pathetic. Some woman guys think they can abuse and play with who won’t be able to fight back.  Pride, dignity, it’s all a sop in the end, maybe I’d have been happier as his toy, at least for a while… gods, it isn’t like anyone else cares about me anyway. I just… I hate to give in. Why the fuck should I?” At that the tears came again, and this time they were a great cascade, great heaving sobs that shook her whole frail body. Yeah, you’ve not been eating, have you? Well, I’ve made up my mind.

As I stood she suddenly flinched back. Dropping to my knees before her, looking into her bloodshot eyes I smiled. “Right, that’s it. I’m taking you out to dinner. No refusing. On me of course.”

She leaned backwards, her face twisting into a mix of wariness and rage. “Oh, so you hear my story and you think I’m easy, down on my luck and ready to fuck too, do you? Well, unlike my boss and the worms I worked with, you may be hot, but I’m not so cheap.” She threw out the words to hurt me, gain some satisfaction that she had been denied against her ex-colleagues, but I wasn’t stupid enough to bite. I merely continued to smile gently while I pulled out my phone and opened up an image. She watched me, wary, confused and at her last tether.

“See here? Look.” I showed her a picture of me and Eri, photographed in the Strat, engagement ring on her finger, us tight together, looking overjoyed.

“What…?” Karen-chan said, puzzled at the direction this was going.

“I got engaged in Las Vegas. To my long-time childhood friend. That’s Eri. She’s gorgeous isn’t she? So I’m sorry but I’m off the market. No way I’d cheat on her. Besides, you are a good looking woman normally, but right now… sorry, but I think you need to look in a mirror.”

“Congratulations?” she answered instinctively. Then her thoughts caught up and she squawked indignantly. “What, are you saying I’m not good enough for you? Not even when I’m down on my luck and vulnerable? Bastard…”

“I think your pride is getting angry at the wrong things.” I chided her gently. “Seriously though, isn’t she gorgeous?” I bragged about Eri, this time as a fiancée, not a childhood friend like I used to. “I don’t mean to rub it in, but if you think I’d put that at risk for a quick bout of pity sex with you, you don’t think much of my intelligence or faithfulness, do you?”

As she was unable to protest, I pointed to her bathroom. “Seriously, you are a friend of mine, a neighbour, and Shaeula often brags about the times we’ve been drinking. My work is going well, so let me get you a meal at least. You’ve not been eating, I can tell. And while we are out, you can tell me about the name of the man I need to kill…”

She smiled then, a genuine one for the first time since I had entered. Dashing away her tears she sniffled, snot running down her face and soaking her clothes. “I think… I wouldn’t want you to go to prison for me, and I definitely wouldn’t want to make your fiancée sad.” She sighed, heavy feelings leaving her. “Seriously, congratulations. I’m glad at least one of us in this shitty apartment is a winner at life. Maybe it isn’t too late for me yet.”

“Just go and clean yourself up. Do your hair and makeup, put on your best dress. While you are doing that, I’ll tidy up this shitty mess, if you’ll pardon my swearing, and make a reservation somewhere decent. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t steal your underwear or look at things I shouldn’t.”

The only thing I had to wait for was a call from my parents, so I could take that here or at the restaurant if necessary…

“Pfft, hahahahaa. I don’t think you need my underwear if you are marrying a girl like that.” She laughed, her gloom receding, at least a little. “Still though, no peeking while I’m in the tub, okay? Else I’ll make sure she finds out.”

“As if a gentleman such as I would do that. Now, go, and you’ll feel better for it.”