SEVEN'S POV
"My head if fucking pounding." I groan, rubbing the heels of my palms into my sockets for some kind of relief.
"At least a part of you got a pounding." Pugs tries to joke and I look back at him sitting in the furthest seat to the back, giving him a sour look.
"Hah!" Digger remarks, a shit eating grin on his face.
"Seven's lost his game that's for sure. Even Tixs got laid last night, didn't ya mate." Digger reaches back to pat Tixs knee who is sitting next to me in the back seat of the car. As usual, he says nothing but simply nods. I wonder if he's silent during sex too.
"How the fuck are you smiling like that at this time? Are you not hung over?" Curby asks Digger. Everyone seems hung over, even quiet Tixs but Digger seems fine.
"I don't get hang overs." Digger shrugs.
"Yeah fucking right. It's because he drinks like three beers and is done." I tease but there are slight truths to my words. He drinks fuck all compared to us. Not that that's a bad thing but it's simply not true to claims he doesn't get hang overs like the rest of us.
Everyone in the car laughs, including Tixs, at my words which causes Digger to get on the defensive.
"Yeah well at least I'm not a fucking coke fein." He directs at me. His comment makes me laugh but I don't argue it at all. I know I have a problem, fuck they all watched me roll out of bed and do a bump as soon as my eyes were open.
The car goes quiet again as Curby drives us to our job. It's an acquisition. We're taking over a new business here from a smaller local gang and from the sounds of it it's going to be quite hostile. This gang is only prevalent in this city and were our new runners and dealers of our distributions and on goings in the city. But there so called leader decided to keep our profits for himself and so as compensation we're taking over the business they do their deals from. We'll control the business and in turn we'll control the illegal activity in the city, which means we'll control them. Their foolish move of trying to rip us off has made them go from the opportunity of working with us to working for us. Which means no more little bitch gang, they'll be part of our firm. Of course there is the possibility that they'll disagree to this and refuse to join us and action will have to be taken against them, but the message is plain and simple; they either join us or be nothing.
I pick up my gun from the middle seat and check the magnum, making sure it's full before checking my four other preloaded magnums and tucking them back into my black suit jacket. I wonder what this local gang is like, how they dress and what their majority age is. I've done a few acquisitions in the past, take overs from small gangs who wear patches and are mostly full of teenage rejects with a chip on their shoulder and some point to prove. They always seem so surprised by our appearance, I suppose to them we're perceived much like if we were to walk down the Main Street - looking like some high society, functioning business man in our tailored suits. They don't realise that a gang doesn't have to be all colour and patch related to be powerful and successful. I think in some ways it intimates them, because it's something they don't entirely understand. And possibly because you could walk past us down Main Street and not consider our suits to be lined with ammunition and weapons.
We pull up outside the run down Japanese takeaway restaurant. The white walls are turning yellow and the sign painted in red has run after years of water damage. Newspaper covers the windows, one of them is even bordered up.
"This place looks like a fucking dump." Digger says what we're all thinking.
"Do you think Victor knows how run down the place is? It's not even functioning as a cover store." Pugs points out.
"I'm sure he knows. But he wants it." I don't doubt what Victor knows anymore. He's proven to me too many times that nothing gets past him. So if he wanted us to take over this business, he'd know the state it's in. Well I think so anyway.
"How many are inside? Do we know?" Digger asks and Curby shakes his head.
"No idea. But they're expecting us. They agreed to meet with Victor." Curby says.
"But instead they get us." I could laugh at the way this has been set up. Classic Victor never walking the walk, always getting someone else to do his bidding for him.
"Everyone got their guns?" Curby asks and I hear multiple guns be clocked.
"Good. Let's go then." He concludes and we pile out the car and head straight for the abandoned takeaway store. We decide silently that Curby and I will take the front, while Digger takes the left, Pugs the right and Tixs covers the back entrance. With a single glance and nod at me Curby and I both kick our legs at the front door causing it to burst open immediately as we step inside, guns cocked as we search the front space for any human activity. It's kind of dark compared to the light outside but the occupants are easily picked out.
A few stand at our intrusion but the rest stay seated around the pool table they seem to be using as a regular table. None of them raise a weapon in reply so both Curby and myself lower our guns. Maybe this will be easier than I thought.
"Victor sent you?" A lean guy asks. He's seated near the centre of the group in a white singlet. A red backwards hat sits on his head, straight jet black hair sticks out its brim.
"Yes." Curby answers.
"The mighty Victor sends two men against thirteen." He laughs and the rest of his minions stay quiet. They don't look as old as eighteen, however Japanese genetics can be very forgiving in age.
"Count again." Digger says in perfect timing as both he and Pugs and Tixs slowly walk into the room, guns raised.
"You know why we're here. So let's just get on with things." Curby suggests and the guy in the red backwards cap chuckles again.
"Yes I'm aware of what Victor's intentions were but that doesn't mean it's going to happen. After all, my boys get a choice don't they?" He asks. I gather he's their little ring leader.
"A choice?" Curby asks.
"Either they join you or they stay with me." He lifts his feet up to rest on the pool table. Kids clearly got shit messed up if he thinks those are the options.
"It doesn't work like that unfortunately." Digger answers.
"No?" The guy asks, he's making quite the show of this to his friends. I mean I don't actually think they're friends, the little minions don't speak nor do they look at any of us directly. Heck they don't even look at him, in fact they look scared of him. Do they even want to be here?
"No." Curby confirms.
"I don't think you know who you're dealing with here kid." I say truthfully. If he thinks this is some type of social visit he's in for a rude awakening.
"I don't think Victor knows who he is dealing with." He retorts and I can't help but smile at this kids confidence. I'll give him that.
"Go on and tell us then. Who are you?" I bite the line he's set out. I bet this kids been practising these next lines since he knew we were coming. I can't wait to hear them.
"I am Akio Takahashi, and I am ninkyō dantai." He stands up and his minions slightly migrate out of his way. They really are scared of this guy, something seems off.
"You're what and the what now?" Digger asks comically, but I know what young Akio means.
"Yakuza." Curby and I say at the same time. The Japanese version of us. Akio shrugs off his white singlet, revealing a huge connecting chest and back tattoo. Fucking heck. Victor never said anything about any Yakuza. This doesn't make shit so simple anymore.
"If you try take this place from me, you're taking from Yakuza. And they will not be happy." Akio says, completely smug.
"Curb what the fuck?" I hiss under my breath. Victor didn't mention this to any of us and it's a big problem. Yakuza are something else, I've heard they decapitated a guy simply for being arrested. They didn't risk whether he would snitch or not so just killed him themselves. As far as I know they're big fans of chopping off shit, like their own fingers and limbs as punishments. These guys are serious business. Although Akio seems to be part of Yakuza the guys who surround him definitely do not.
"What's the deal with these guys then?" I ask and motion to the silent minions surrounding him.
"They are also Yakuza." He claims and I frown.
"Ah, are you sure about that?" I question him.
"They definitely don't look the part." Curby agrees and for the first time the smugness falters on Akio's face as uncertainty replaces it.
"Yes. Of course they are!" He states defensively. And Curby turns to me with a smile.
"I don't know man, they don't look like it to me. What do you think?" He asks me. There's a shift happening within the room now, why do I feel as though we're about to have the upper hand...
"What do I think?" I repeat Curby's question.
"Well by the looks of their dirty clothes and the smell in this place..." I look around, taking more of the messy environment in.
"I'd say they're definitely not Yakuza. In fact I'd go as far to say I don't even think this is a gang of any kind." I patronise Akio on purpose, smirking at him as I do. Who's the smug one now?
Frustrated Akio slaps one of the men on the back of the head and speaks to him in Japanese.
"Don't just stand there! What are you doing just standing here like little mice. You want your families to die? Don't forget what I can do! I am ninkyō dantai! Look at these men in the eyes." He demands, unaware I'm able to pick up on majority of what he has said. He says a few other things in between that I don't catch nor understand. But the picture is becoming clearer to me. The dirty clothes, the thin framed bodies, the dirty abandoned store that smells of human inhabitants. The way these men look as though they are scared to do something wrong. The threat against their families. I know this circumstance very well.
"They're illegal aren't they?" I ask Akio and his head shoots to me.
"What?" He asks, but his face tells me he knows damn well what I mean.
"Your men. They're here illegally. Did you smuggle them yourself or did you have help?" I step forward and Akio laughs but I can tell he's going to break.
"What are you on about?" He deflects so I turn my attention to one of the frail men. They all look so young, maybe seventeen to my age. A perfect working age for a smuggler to exploit.
"How much did you give him to come here?" I ask in Japanese to the one who is brave enough to make eye contact with me. He seems surprised to hear his native tongue, as is Akio. He has no idea about the years I've been helping people exactly like this. The guy looks hesitant to answer me but when I give him a small nod he seems to trust me.
"Thirty thousand." He answers.
"What did he promise? A visa? Work?" I ask as Digger and the rest of the boys stare slightly confused but don't lower their guns.
"A work visa, so we could send money back home to our families." He answers his eyes dropping to the floor.
I turn to my new friend Akio with a smile as he seems too stunned to speak.
"I must say you're probably the youngest human trafficker I've ever met." I congratulate him in English.
"Human trackier?" Pugs asks.
"These men aren't Yakuza. They're illegal immigrants, smuggled in by old mate Akio here. Don't even try to deny it. I've met a lot of people like you." I smile but it's not friendly.
"So they're not a gang?" Digger asks.
"I don't even think he's actually Yakuza." I boldly say which gets a reaction out of Akio.
"Of course I am! You know nothing!" He defends.
"I know you threaten these men's families in order for them to stay subordinate. It's cleaver actually, claiming to be Yakuza with powerful connections back in Japan with their families. That's what you do right? You lie that you're some big scary guy who can have their families killed with one phone call but really your just a con artist. You promised them rich work in a new country for a fee and once they got here then what?" I ask but he stays silent as I unravel the truth of the situation.
"You were going to sell them? Auction them off, rent them out, contract them for slave labor but for your profit? Did you get low on money? Is that why you got involved with trying to smuggle drugs for us?" I conclude and walk forward, the closer I get to the men the better I can smell them. It's awful, I would compare it to a rotting corpse. Only these men are not dead, but they definitely seem broken. God knows how long they have been living like this. It's inhumane.
"What do you wanna do Seven?" Curby asks.
"Restrain him." I speak and Tixs, Digger and Pug move quickly to grab Akio, if that even is his real name. He tries to run but they grab him before he can.
"I will make some calls. Get someone from my centre to collect these men and take them there." I tell Curby.
"And do not tell Victor." I warn him and he nods as I walk out the fowl building to make the call. He does his best to try calm the men confused by the situation and no doubly scared. They probably think we are police or immigration, they usually do.
It takes some planning but someone from my centre has contacts here that can help them discreetly and will get them to my centre.
"Arigato gozaimasu." I thank them once again before hanging up and going back inside.
"What's the plan?" Curby asks as Digger and Pugs hold a flailing Akio down in the chair. Tixs walks around the place checking all the areas.
"Let me go! Let me go you piece of shits!" He battles them but they easily restrain him.
"I have people coming to take them somewhere safe." I explain.
"What do you want us to do with him?" Pugs asks.
"I'm not sure yet." I really don't know what to do with the scum. I need to think about this properly so Victor won't be bothered by a situation and then come asking questions. It will only lead to the men being found and my asylum seeker haven being destroyed.
"Listen up!" I address the men.
"I have people coming, good people who will take you out of here to some place safe and help you. We are here to help. You aren't in any danger." I emphasis to them but they just seem still in a state of shock. That or they just think I'm lying but feel powerless to object to me.
Surprisingly one of the men step forward, it is the same one who was brave enough to speak to me before.
"You must help her." He says and for a second I think I mistake the pronoun. I don't see any females here.
"Who?" I ask.
"He has been using her. Longer then we have been here. Sick, she is so sick but he would not let us help." He urges to me just as Tixs calls out.
"Seven!" Shit, I swallow. Something must be wrong for Tixs to actually use his vocal chords and speak. I leave the man and quickly walk through the building in search of where Tixs' voice came from. Curby follows hot on my heels.
In a dark back room, with the sunlight coming through the edges of a boarded up window Tixs stand next to something on the floor. The room is musty and reeks of urine and shit. Immediately I want to block my nose but don't when I spot the stained mattress Tixs stands next to. I walk over to stand next to him, my gut turning at the sight at my feet.
A women - no a girl is laying on the mattress. She looks about fifteen or so, black hair matted and sticking to her dirty face. She stinks, but it's not the worst smell in the room. She wears only a dirty, stained tshirt and underwear. Legs covered in sores, ankles and wrists burnt with chafing from the cuffs and shackles that binde her to the concrete wall. She looks barely conscious.
What the fuck.
"Is she breathing?" I ask Tixs and he shrugs. I bend down and check for any breath coming from her nose before pressing a finger into her neck for a pulse. My fingers are met with a very faint beat. She's alive but barely.
"She's alive, just." I comment as the rage begins to boil inside of me. That sick fuck, there's only one reason why she is here and what she has been used for. My fists ball at my sides as I try to control my breathing but the putrid smell of the room only intensifies the horrors of what this girl has been subjected to by that piece of shit.
"Seven." Curby warns me as I turn. He can't stop me, even if he wanted to. But deep down I know he doesn't want to. I stride back to the main room where Digger and Pugs still watch over the fucker sitting in his chair. Akio's eyes widen at the sight of me, striding with red rage towards him from his room of horrors.
"Seven what the fuck-" Digger says as I tackle Akio in his chair, causing him to fall backwards on to the floor with me on top of him. My hands latch around his neck and squeeze, hard. I don't know why it plays in my head, it's not like something like this would ever happen to her, but the image of the girl on the mattered is replaced by her. The thought of someone doing such godless acts to such an innocent has me on a level of anger I haven't been before. All I can see is her body on that mattress, soft blonde hair now matted and dirty. The way she'd sound screaming for help.
"You fucking demon!" I spit through clenched teeth and lift his head slightly before slamming it down hard against the concrete floor.
"Seven!" Pugs calls and goes to stop me but Curby intervenes, letting me continue my attack on Akio. His hands claw at my wrists but I squeeze harder as he begins to turn very red. An angry fist flies down into his face and so begins my merciless round of blows. I'm lost in the rage, lost in the thoughts of someone hurting her the way he has hurt this girl. I'm sick, beyond sick at what he's done that I don't know if I will stop, I don't want to stop. I slam his head into the concrete once again, the blood spilling from him only eggs me on.
"Seven you're going to kill him." Curby warns but his voice is so distant. And eventually, everything tunes out. My hands continue to move, I'm only vaguely aware of it. I let the nothing control me, let it take me to a place I've never let it before. I don't know how much time has passed, I don't know what will be waiting for me when I return to reality. All I know is the dangerously violent rage pulsing through me.
Eventually someone pulls me off him. My hands are covered in blood, my knuckles split and pulsing already as they swell. I'm out of breath as Curby pushes me back by my shoulders but still I try forward towards the monster laying still on the floor.
"Enough, Seven, enough!" Curby yells in my face, trying to get through to me. I glance at him and back to the scene. Digger stands over Akio, before bending down for a second. He stands back up and looks back at Curby and I.
"He's dead." He announces and I think my heart stops.
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AN:
Wow thanks so much for all the support on this wee story! We got to #2 on the Harry Styles tag and #2 on the Dark tag! Can't believe it!
Thanks for all the votes and comments they mean a lot!
Happy reading!