Fate Through the Viewfinder

Chapter 02 - Rei Tanaka

Darkness... Nothing but darkness surrounds him. A man walks through the thick lack mist of nothingness. He almost trips over something, staying up only through sheer strength. He looks back but only sees blackness. He faces forward, if he can call it that, a small light begins to flicker far beyond. It gets closer and closer, illuminating the area as it moves. Until it stops at the man's feet. He looks down, RED. A red ground is beneath his feet. He takes another step forward and plunges into a deep sea of blood. Bodies upon bodies submerged along with him. Some faceless, some with holes in them, some amputated and many uncountable others.

Another light flickers, approaching slowly, dissipating the blood bath and bodies all together. Everything turned WHITE. Not a spec of dust, pure white surrounds the now still man, facing what lies in front of him. A sleeping young man, peaceful in his sleep. A pure white cloth drapes around him, covering some of his nakedness. BLACK feathers begin to rain down. Tainting the once pure white. The feathers stop, all is still again. A second view brings a new outlook, a pure contrast exist among the pure white and the pure black. Two opposites in perfect unity in perfect harmony. The man moves forward, towards the young man. Silent tears began to drip from the young man's closed eyes. The man moves forward, ready to wipe the tear away, just as he reaches it, a strong light shines, blinding him...

He reaches out only to be met with air, slowly his eyes begin to open, and quickly shuts again. A strong sunlight has seeped in through an opening in the thick black curtains. Covering his eyes from the sunlight, he closes his eyes, Remembering the last memories of the dream, it was the first time he saw the young man at the end, always ending at the blood bath since it started about a year ago. He visualizes the sleeping young man, his peacefulness, partly sexy nakedness and his silent tears. Was he dreaming too? With the memory now instilled in his mind, he opens his eyes, turned away from the sunlight and got up from the king sized bed. He was ready to take control of the world again today.

"Asami-sama, new problems have arisen within the Takayama group." Kirishima hated mornings, the time before heading to work was always too short for his boss. Waking up, taking a quick shower, dressing and finally having a smoke while listening to the mornings report. That was it.

Asami looks up from the morning newspaper. His old friend's face has gotten weary over the years, time is one thing no one can win against.

"Why am I not surprised. Tell them I am coming within the hour, there will be hell to pay for being incapable."

"Hai, Asami-sama"

___

In an abandoned warehouse by the harbor. A young man was crouched between two crates, his lenses on his target.

Two men were making a trade. One side, belonging to the man with red hair checked the money in the suitcases while the other side belonging to the black haired man, Takayama, checked the goods in the boxes. After approval from each side, Takayama signaled one of his men by the van. He opened the door and carried over a young girl looking about 7 years old. She was dressed in a light blue dress with deep blue eyes and blond hair. Her expression showed nothing, as if she was a doll, broken and without any emotions.

The young man took the photos he needed, using all his strength to control his anger and keep his body still. Such a young girl... Human traffickers are scums. He couldn't help thinking, but he needed to get those photos to press and put Takayama in jail where he can rot for the rest of his life.

The girl turns slightly, now completely in the viewfinder. The young man shivered, his control crumbling, her eyes weren't dead, they held fire that burned brighter than the lights above their heads. It wasn't too late.

He tightened his grip on his camera, took that last photograph of her and slowly prepared to back up. He would need to create a distraction.

"Hey, what are you doing there!" He got found.

He jumps up, barely avoiding the hand about to grab him. Everyone's attention now on him, he runs around the warehouse, shots are fired hitting the crates and boxes he hides behind.

"Stop firing! The goods are being damaged!." Takayama, now red in the face with anger takes out his own gun and shoots one of his men who didn't stop firing.

"I said stop, catch that RAT"

"Hai" All 5 bodyguards run after him.

Ducking, hitting, biting, the young man does everything not to get caught. Another man, the one who found him cuts off his route, dives towards him and misses by a hair as the young man dodges to the left. He regains his footing and about to sprint forward, when boxes fall above him, knocking him out.

When he regains conscious, he is being carried and forced to kneel in front of Takayama.

"What is your name 'Rat'. Why don't you kindly hand over that camera." Looking towards his men he barks his order "check him".

"Rei Tanaka, what a common name you have rat, so... You're a criminal photographer. A scrawny thing like you, HA." Takayama and his men begin to laugh, that such a young man with a common name tried to bring them down.

Takayama takes out his gun "I will give you a quick, painless death. In honor of your youth and bravery" With a smirk that made Rei want to throw up, the gun is pointed to his head...

"Takayama-Sama, there is an emergency!" He hands him the phone.

"What is it? I'm busy playing with a rat!"

"Takayama-Sama, Asami-Sama is headed this way, he said he will be here within the hour. It seems he found out about the dealings."

"Shit! Get rid of anything about the dealings, I'm coming back."

"Hai"

Rei couldn't hear what the other person on the phone was saying. Angry and panicked, Takayama removes the gun from his head, pointing it around and giving orders to move. The other side moved forward to take the girl, it was now or never.

Rei jumped up, kicking one bodyguard and elbowed the other who was holding him down. Before Takayama could react and blow his head out, he threw his camera at him, hitting hi nose hard making him drop his gun. Rei leaps forward and grabs the gun, turns and jumps forward grabbing the girls hand and ran.

Shooting a few shots to slow the bodyguards down, they ran out the warehouse, jumped into a prepared car as the driver got out to signal his boss, and drove away.

As they got closer to the city, they dumped the car, and headed to the closest station by foot.