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Hiroyuki didn’t know what to say. He tried to say something, anything, but nothing came to mind.

I have to stop Akagi,

was the only thing his mind could repeat. There was nothing else. He probably looked pathetic considering how Akagi laughed at his silence.

“Would you even try a cure if there was one?” He asked after the two had somehow started to talk, well, Akagi was doing all the talking at first.

“Even if there was a cure, what is gone is gone, like cutting an arm.”

“I am not cutting my arm.” Hiroyuki wondered what was with Akagi and arms, if he wasn’t so worried trying to come up with an idea to stop Akagi from killing himself, Hiroyuki would be scared of Akagi, after all, the man had asked Hiroyuki for his arm mere moments ago.

“Hehe, how boring.” Akagi was, definitely, no sane man.

Ten had said they should let him die while he was still Akagi but… if he could continue to be Akagi? Then what? Would he have the right to stop Akagi?

Was there something that could even help Akagi? It wasn’t like the cure for Alzheimer’s was on his hands.

“Ah!” Hiroyuki exclaimed, making Akagi curious about what he was going to say.

That was right! He didn’t have a cure on his hands but maybe…

“Hey, if I give you something that could… cure you, would you take it?”

“Oh?” Akagi drank from his glass. Hiroyuki wondered how much alcohol Akagi had drunk during the night, “well, if you tell me it’s going to cure me in the next hour then why not? I agreed on what Soga asked me to do,” although he wasn’t sure what it had been anymore.

The idea was stupid. Hiroyuki knew it was stupid. His job sucked just like the things he sold. They didn’t really work, Hiroyuki knew that very well but the product he was given the day before was different. It hadn’t gone on sale yet, apparently his company wanted people to try it for free as a way to promote it. Hiroyuki was given five pills to give around when people bought something from him, one pill was said to rejuvenate the body and brain so maybe three or even the five could do something, right? He knew it was stupid to think like that but he wanted to have some sort of hope no matter how small it was.

“It is a promise! Don’t forget it!” Hiroyuki exclaimed and stood from his seat.

“I don’t promise anything.”

“Akagi!”

“Hehe, sorry.” Maybe he shouldn’t try the idea.

He shook his head, “I’ll be back in a minute!” Hiroyuki didn’t wait for an answer, it was a good thing he brought his case with him, he had the pills there.

He ran back to where the others were.

“Is it my turn?” Ten asked him.

“No, I came for my case.”

“Why the fuck do you need that?” Harada seemed annoyed at him or maybe it was because his plan of trying to kidnap Akagi failed.

“You’re not the only one with a plan,” Hiroyuki replied, took the case and went back to Akagi.

Once he was back with Akagi, he opened the case, some flyers fell to the floor, Akagi read the big letters on some of them, “no wonder why you don’t enjoy life.”

“Here,” Hiroyuki ignored what Akagi said, Akagi had made his point clear before and Hiroyuki understood. He shouldn’t be afraid of failure as long as he tried… that was exactly what he was doing by making Akagi take the pills, “take these.”

“What are these?” Akagi asked, he put his glass down on the table next to him to take the small transparent bottle.

“Pills that rejuvenate your body and brain.”

“Are you an idiot?”

“What?”

“How did you fall for things like this?”

“I…” Hiroyuki did fall at first, he couldn’t deny that but considering he couldn’t find any other job (and he didn’t have the energy to look for one) he just continued selling whatever he was given, “you said you were gonna take them!”

“I did? Oh well,” not looking convinced, Akagi opened the bottle, took the five pills and, without anything to drink, swallowed them like nothing, “happy?”

Hiroyuki felt like crying again, what exactly did he expect to happen? He couldn’t stop Akagi from ending his life. He looked down at the floor defeated, while holding back his tears, he picked all the flyers that fell just moments ago.

“You shouldn’t feel bad Hiro,” Akagi said to him, “some things are out of our hands and we have to accept that.”

He left the room and returned back with the rest once again. Ten wasn’t sure if it was his turn or Hiro had just forgotten something again.

“You can go now,” Hiroyuki said to him once he sat down. His glasses were covered in tears and he couldn’t see anything so he took them off. How Harada and Ken could still wear theirs was something he couldn’t understand. Well, Harada probably didn’t want anyone to see him crying considering his reputation but Ken?

His thoughts were interrupted by the screams of Ten.

“Did Akagi press the button?” Harada wondered out loud before running towards the room Akagi was in  and the rest in the room followed soon after.

“What’s wro- what the fuck?” Harada stood at the entrance making it impossible for the others to look inside.

“I don’t know!” Ten replied, “he suddenly said his head was hurting and next thing I knew… Hiroyuki!” Ten sounded worried and Hiroyuki’s soul fell to the ground. Did he do something? Did the pills kill Akagi? Oh… maybe that was why he was told to give one per person…

Harada turned around and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him inside the room, “what the hell did you give Akagi?”

Hiroyuki didn’t reply, he just looked at the chair where Akagi should be. But he wasn’t there anymore. No… that wasn’t entirely true.

A young version of Akagi was there. A very, very young version. Hiroyuki covered his mouth.

That shit worked? It worked way too much for his liking.

“Well,” how was he supposed to explain what happened?

The young Akagi seemed to be sleeping at the moment, “why don’t we disconnect the machine first?” He asked.

“Done,” Ten said at the same time he ripped the needle from Akagi’s arm, he regretted it the very next second. Why did he do that? Now there was blood coming out!

It was just a tiny bit, the usual amount caused by a needle exiting your body, it was just enough to make Ten feel bad. He didn’t really have anything to put to stop the blood so he used his thumb, then he turned to face Hiroyuki as if nothing happened, “now explain.”

“Well… have you ever heard of mlm?”

“Huh?” Both Ten and Harada seemed confused, the others have also entered the room and were confused at what they were seeing.

“He had a son?” Everyone ignored Soga for the time being.

“What do you mean emelem?” Ten asked trying to remain calm. He was trying really hard.

“Have you ever heard of Mera-”

“No one gives a fuck about that, explain the situation with Akagi!” Unlike Ten, Harada wasn’t trying to be calm at all. The man seemed like he wanted to kill Hiroyuki.

“That’s what I’m trying to do!” Hiroyuki cried, “I was given some pills that supposedly rejuvenate the body and brain and-”

“No wonder you look so depressed, you fell for that?”

Hiroyuki decided to ignore Ken, “and I gave them to Akagi thinking it might do something,” he continued, “and well… guess it did work?”

“You idiot!” Harada was definitely pissed, “what if you killed Akagi.”

“He was planning on dying anyway,” Asai Ginji said, mostly to himself but it was obvious everyone heard him, Harada turned to face him, if looks could kill, he would be dead already.

Harada would have said something if it wasn’t because a laugh interrupted him.

Everyone there turned to face the now young Akagi laughing at them, completely ignoring how they were feeling at the moment.

“Akagi!” All of them exclaimed at the same time, surrounding him in no time. Looking at Akagi, he looked like a young teenager, he looked smaller than he actually was thanks to his clothes not shrinking with him.

“Hmm?” He said to all of them.

“How are you feeling? Does your head still hurt?” Ten asked him, almost screaming in Akagi's ear.

“Don’t get so close,” Akagi replied, he was surprised by his voice, it sounded different than usual, “my head and entire body was hurting but not anymore. Stop acting like I came back from the dead.”

He had done something similar considering he was one button away from killing himself. Maybe he should pretend to press it to see how everyone would react. He chuckled at the idea, he looked over at the button, why was it so far away? Nevermind that, was it him or everyone looked bigger than they should?

That was weird. Maybe he has just drunk too much. Speaking of alcohol, Akagi reached for his glass and…

“Oh?” Akagi said, mostly to himself, he looked at his hands, they were small and without wrinkles. He looked over at Hiroyuki and said, “It wasn't a fraud?” 
 hopefully I’ll update weekly since I have the next 3 chapters complete

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

After Hiroyuki left the room Akagi sat alone waiting for the next person to arrive, he wondered what kind of tactic Ten was going to use, his favorite so far had to be Harada, he chuckled remembering the shock on the man’s face when Akagi told him he was going to bite his tongue and die. He would totally do it again if the opportunity was given to him.

His head was starting to hurt but didn’t pay much attention to it, he was going to die soon anyway, the machine would put him to sleep so he wouldn’t feel any headache in his last moments.

The door opened like it had opened many times before during the night, ah, that was probably going to be the last time he saw the outside of the room, a shame Ten was blocking part of the view. Akagi couldn’t even watch the sky because of Ten’s damn hair, he looked like that character from a manga, what was his name again? Go… go kart? That was definitely not the name.

Ten sat on the chair next to him like the previous men but he hadn’t said that much when Akagi stopped paying attention. It wasn’t only his head hurting anymore but his entire body. The pain made Akagi freeze in place, he closed his eyes and held his breath without being conscious of it. He really wasn’t like when he was young, if he was still young, he wouldn’t be closing his eyes for some pain. Ah, he wished Ten would stop yelling, he couldn’t even understand what Ten was saying. Akagi couldn’t believe he was going to die with his last thought being which character had his hair up like Ten.

Ten’s voice was slowly being replaced by a high beep sound, with that sound, the pain increased more and more until it disappeared.

There was nothing and for a moment Akagi wondered if he had somehow pressed the button that was supposed to end his life unintentionally. If that was the case he was going to haunt the people advertising the painless dead. It had hurt. A lot. But the pain was gone now.

How long until he stopped thinking?

The machine really sucked if he was stuck in a sort of limbo. He should have bitten his tongue.

Wait… why was he hearing things again?

What was that? Akagi tried to focus on the noise. Was that… a voice?

He had heard about following a light but a voice? And it wasn’t only one, he could hear two or three of them.

He paid more attention to them. It sounded like a fight.

Besides the voices he could make up some sort of light.

Ah, so there it is,

he thought, thinking about all the times he had read about people close to death seeing a light. He was surprised he hadn’t woken up in that sort of bottom of the ocean like so many years ago when he momentarily died in his match against Washizu.

Oh, that was something he hadn’t thought about in quite a while.

He didn’t want to think about Washizu in his last moments so Akagi tried to focus on the light and voices.

He tried to move but his body felt a bit weird. Next, he tried to open his eyes. It took him some seconds and a few blinks before he could open his eyes completely.

Was that Hiroyuki? Harada too? Fucking bullshit of a machine.

That machine was seriously a waste of money. It didn’t kill him. Akagi suffered for nothing! And when did he press the button anyway? Alzheimer’s was really a bitch if Akagi couldn’t even remember that.

He tried to move again, only his neck, the room seemed bigger than he remembered and everyone was looking at Hiroyuki, even Ten, so Akagi turned to face him as well without saying anything.

“… and I gave them to Akagi thinking it might do something” Hiroyuki exclaimed, speaking faster than he usually did, he sounded anxious, “and well… guess it did work?” The poor thing sounded so scared. It was fun to watch.

Well, Akagi didn’t blame him considering how mad Harada looked at the moment. It looked like a vein on Harada’s forehead or neck was about to explode.

Akagi didn’t say anything, he tried to stay still so no one would notice he was awake. Listening to  the conversation he could conclude they were discussing because of him, Harada and the others must have assumed Akagi had died because of Hiroyuki.

“He was planning on dying anyway,” Akagi couldn’t help his laugh when he heard Ginji speak. Out of everything, he had to go and say that? The man looked regretful as soon as the words left him.

Everyone turned to look at Akagi. The live soap opera was over. What a shame.

Maybe it was because they had surrounded him, but everyone looked bigger than they should be.

“Hmm?” Akagi said, enjoying how shocked all of them looked, he wished he could photograph their faces to laugh later. He would laugh more if his throat didn’t feel so dry.

“How are you feeling? Does your head still hurt?” Ten asked him, almost screaming in Akagi's ear.

“Don’t get so close,” Akagi said, he had never liked people invading his personal space. Wait, his voice sounded different, didn’t it? It sounded like when he was way younger, like when he was a pre teen. Nah, it was probably his imagination. Maybe Alzheimer’s also affected the hearing, maybe it did but he forgot.

It would make sense if he didn’t remember being told something like that. That was the whole point of the stupid illness after all.

Akagi explained he didn’t feel any pain anymore and moved to reach his glass, he needed to drink something.

Was that his arm? Why were his clothes so big on him? And his hand..  “oh,” it clicked on him. The room and everyone looking bigger, his hands being smaller and without wrinkles, his clothes, the pills Hiroyuki gave him, “it wasn’t a fraud?” Despite the tone, it wasn’t a question at all.

“You’re alive!” Soga said, “how?”

“I guess Hiro didn’t fall for a scheme after all,” Akagi replied, “in any case,” he looked over at Kanemitsu, “sorry to bother you but is there some clothes I could borrow?”

The man looked puzzled, like he still wasn’t sure what was going on, “is it really you?”

Akagi laughed, “do I look that different?” He asked, he thought he hadn’t changed that much during his years.

“Ah, no,” Kanemitsu said, still shocked at the turn of events, “it’s just… you look like a child.”

“Well, I was giving some rejuvenating pills after all.” He was enjoying the situation more than he should.

That was not how those types of pills worked.

“Akagi!” Ten yelled in his ear again, “do you know what day it is?”

“Sunday,” he said, “the twenty- sixth if I’m not wrong,” oh, his memory felt refreshed.

Akagi tried to think of other things as well. Mahjong. How was that played? He remembered that, yaku, yakuhai, yakuman, pon, kan, chi, riichi, furiten… he remembered how to play mahjong…

He, Shigeru Akagi, remembered. It wasn’t only mahjong, he remembered other things as well, things he had forgotten.

Wait.

Did he win against Soga even when he didn’t know what he was doing earlier in the night?

He laughed out loud at the memory. Soga must have felt terrible after that, oh, Akagi was happy to remember that.

He loved to see the look of defeat in his opponents.

“Hiro,” Akagi said, trying to stop his laugh, “did that boss of yours create the cure for Alzheimer’s accidentally?”

“Well,” Hiroyuki was crying, it wasn’t just him, now that Akagi paid attention, the rest was also crying, “is not like he made the pills, it was the laboratory, I don’t think he knows this,” Hiroyuki pointed at Akagi, “is possible.”

“Well, my memory feels like I never got Alzheimer’s,” Akagi said, then he turned to face Ginji, luckily for Akagi, everyone had moved some steps back so he could see everyone without problem, “what do you say Ginji, maybe this can cure your cancer as well.”

“This was only supposed to rejuvenate though,” Hiroyuki interrupted, “I don’t know if it can cure illnesses.”

“Are you stupid?” Akagi turned to look at him again, how many times has Hiroyuki been called stupid during the night? “I don’t think those pills were supposed to do this. Kanemitsu, do you really have nothing for me to borrow?” He really wanted to stretch but he couldn’t stand with his clothes not fitting him anymore.

“Oh, right,” Kanemitsu said, “I’m sorry but no.”

“Hey!” Harada yelled at the top of his lungs, Hiroyuki and Ken next to him jumped away, a moment later, two men working for Harada appeared at the door, “go buy some clothes for kids,” he said to his men.

The two men were confused, they had been in the room earlier and seen the people staying and there were no kids.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Harada screamed.

Well, there was a kid now, “a baby?” One of them asked, it’s not like they could just go buy clothes for a kid without knowing the age.

“A size S for teens will work,” the voice of a kid said to them, they looked over where the voice came from.

“Holly sh- mister Akagi had a son?”

The kid made a disgusted face at that.

“Go!” Right, Harada. The two men ran away.

This time, the one who laughed wasn’t Akagi but Ten, “why do you look so disgusted at the idea of having kids? It’s not like you never had sex, right?”

Akagi glared at him but didn’t answer, he just moved to take his glass still containing some alcohol, before he could drink, the glass was taken away from his hand.

“Kids shouldn’t drink,” Ten told him.

Akagi glared at him again, “I’m still older than you.”

“That’s right but… I think you should get a medical check-up.”

“Why?”

“Why you ask? We don’t know what happened to your body!”

“I’m young again, what else is there to explain,” Akagi replied, “besides, I’m technically dead so I don’t have anything to prove who I am anymore.”

Oh shit, that was right. Akagi was dead to the world. He was dead to everyone but the ones in the room. It wasn’t like Akagi or Kanemitsu had planned for Akagi to live after the night ended. Kanemitsu had only planned the funeral and what to do with the body afterwards.

“Ah!” Kanemitsu exclaimed, he needed to get a body! What was he going to do when the funeral home went to pick the coffin, “what do we do, Akagi?”

“About what?” Akagi asked.

“You’re supposed to be dead by the morning! The funeral home is going to come for your body at five in the morning.”

Akagi looked over at the button and smiled, “guess I kill myself now.”

“No!” Everyone exclaimed, forgetting Ten had ripped off the needle from Akagi’s arm. Akagi pressed the button and nothing happened, obviously, “what’s wrong with you!”

Akagi wasn’t sure who said that but he laughed anyway, “just said someone stole my body to harvest organs, is not like they will believe I’m a fucking teenager.”

“Who the hell would harvest organs of an old smoker man?” Harada said, “if I were to harvest organs, which I’m totally not doing, I would choose someone like…” he looked around, everyone smoked, drank alcohol regularly or both, “none of you.”

“My brain would be good for studies,” Akagi protested.

“You had Alzheimer until ten minutes ago, shut up,” Harada told him.

Where was the respect? Damn, one suddenly becomes young again and people don’t respect you anymore.

“In any case,” Akagi said, “I’ve been drinking since I was young and I won’t stop.”

“Maybe this is why you got Alzheimer’s,” Ten told him, “don’t you know the words self care?”

He did. He just didn’t give a fuck, “life is too short to be careful. Who disconnected the machine anyway?”

Everyone groaned at that answer, even if Akagi was young, it seemed it would be hard to keep him alive considering he pressed the button to kill himself just because.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Akagi wasn’t sure how long it had been since he became young again but he was growing tired of just sitting there unable to leave because of his clothes, “isn’t anyone hungry?” He asked, it had been a few hours since he last ate and considering he should have been dead by now, it is not like he had planned for food, he didn’t have money with himself.

The rest looked at him puzzled, Kanemitsu was still trying to figure out what to do with the funeral services alongside Ginji and Washio, Hiroyuki and Harada seemed to be going through an existential crisis, the only ones who looked calm were Ken and Ten. Soga looked just mad.

“Are you really hungry in this situation?” Washio asked him.

“I wouldn’t be if I was dead, but I am not,” Akagi gave a small chuckle, he really didn’t understand why everyone was acting like that, shouldn’t they be happy?

They have been going on and on about how he shouldn’t kill himself and now everyone is confused!

Before anyone could reply, they all turned to face the door as the sound of footsteps approached fast, “we are back!” It was the two men working for Harada, it seemed like they ran all the way back there, one of them seemed like he was about to puke, “we got the clothes,” the one who seemed more composed said, handing a bag towards Harada.

“Took you long enough,” Harada said, completely ignoring the fact that it was, what? Midnight now? Harada took the bag and handed it over to Akagi.

“Finally,” Akagi said, he took the shirt out of the bag and, “what the hell is this?” A white shirt with a print on the front of Doraemon, “do I look like a child?”

Yes. Yes, he did.

“It was on the kids section and th-”

“White shirts and black pants are for middle schoolers, everyone knows that. This type is for pre-schoolers or even elementary but not middle.”

No. No one in that room had ever heard that.

“Right, Ten?” However if Akagi said it with so much confidence, it made the rest doubt themselves, maybe it was just them that didn’t know but the rest of the world did.

“Y-yeah, that’s right,” Ten lied.

The thing is, that was just Akagi’s way of thinking, it was not something everyone knew. There was probably no one but Akagi who thought that way.

Harada turned to face his men again, he was not going to admit he didn’t know what Akagi was talking about, “how come none of you knew such a basic thing? Go again and tell the others to get something to eat!”

“But boss! Everything is closed!”

“Then force a store to open,” they had knives with them and they were yakuza. Harada even had a gun with him. The two men could do nothing but go for new clothes again.

Akagi looked at the rest of the things on the bag. Black pants, that was good, shoes, they seemed a little too big but good enough, the men had even gotten socks and underwear for him. Well, Akagi wasn’t going to sit and wait for them to come back.

“Can everyone get out?” He asked, if he folded the sleeves on his shirt and put it inside his pants then he could go outside without an issue.

“Why?” Soga asked.

“I wanna change, what? You wanna see me? I’m a kid now, you know?” There was a smirk on Akagi’s face that grew bigger at seeing Soga get mad at what he just said, Akagi loved to see him getting mad, it was funny. His face always got red and, because he was practically bald, you could see even the top of his head getting red too.

Soga decided to not reply and simply leave the room.

The other old men in the room left alongside Ken who seemed to not know what to do at the moment.

“If we leave, you are not using the machine, are you?” Hiroyuki asked Akagi.

“Hehe, well… now that you give me the idea…”

“We are taking the machine, Ten, help me,”  Harada said. He was not taking any risk. If it was for him, he would also take away the belt Akagi was wearing but decided against it, there was nothing Akagi could use to hang himself.

In any case it was better to not give Akagi ideas, no one wanted to dare Akagi on whether or not he could kill himself with something there.

So Ten and Harada took the machine away, Hiroyuki was the last to leave, looking hesitant to do so, “we are gonna be nearby,” he said and then closed the door.

Now Akagi could finally move around, the first thing he did was take off his suit, he unbuttoned his shirt, there was something he just needed to confirm, “oh, it is gone too,” the scar on one of his shoulders was completely gone, like it never happened. If it wasn’t for his memories it was as if he traveled back in time. Truly amazing considering he had just taken the pills so Hiroyuki would give up on trying to

save

him.

He guessed he would need to fake some identification again. He had done it before, he knew his name and his age but that was all, he didn’t know where or when he was born or the name of any relatives so he just made that up to get an id, mostly because it was annoying whenever the police had stopped him in his younger days. Having an id made life easier, “it will probably be harder this time, though.”

He decided to change into his new clothes (with the exception of the Doraemon shirt) and go take a walk, maybe he could get some money from gambling and get some food as well.

Just as he thought, the shoes were a bit big for him but he could still use them so he didn’t mind.

This was probably the second craziest night of his life, he really needed a drink.

Akagi looked around, Ten had taken away his glass but since Harada made him help with the machine, the glass was still in the room, next to where Ten had been sitting.

Akagi took the glass and filled it, he drank it in one go and left the room.

Everyone was just around the corner so Akagi couldn’t leave without them noticing, just his luck.

“Akagi,” everyone called him.

“Are you going somewhere?” Ken asked him.

“For food,” he replied, he started to walk towards the exit of the building but Harada stopped him, grabbing him by the shoulder.

There was something none of them knew about Akagi, he absolutely hated being grabbed like that, he could handle being stopped and touched, but being grabbed like that? Absolutely no. There was no one and nothing that could stop him but if someone tried, well, Akagi would just make sure they never did it again.

“My men are gonna bring food so go sit and wait,” Harada told him.

Akagi also hated being talked to like that, even if his body was that of a kid, he was older than Harada. He was not going to accept anyone talking to him that way.

“If I wait for them then I’m going to die of old age,” Akagi replied, “so if you excuse me.”

Harada did not let go of Akagi and Akagi glared at him, he was getting annoyed.

“You don’t even have money with you.”

Akagi smiled, “do you have a gun?”

“Huh?”

“Do you have a gun? What, you’re so old that you can’t hear me?”

If someone annoyed Akagi, he would either annoy them back or bit the shit out of them, both were equally fun to him.

Harada bit his tongue and tried to remain calm, “I have one, why?”

“Give it to me.”

“I’m not giving you my g-”

“Don’t be a pussy and give me the gun, sheesh, people these days aren’t funny.”

“What the hell did you just say?!” Ten, Hiroyuki and Ken had to hurry to grab Harada before he could punch Akagi.

Harada couldn’t remain calm. Akagi just had the power to annoy anyone he wanted.

Once Harada calmed down a bit and the other three let go of him, Harada handed his gun to Akagi.

Akagi took it, opened it and took off all the bullets except for one, spinned the cylinder and closed it again. He pointed at Harada with a smile, “I think you have heard about russian roulette.”

“What the-” Harada realized, he should have not given the gun to Akagi.

“Was he always like this?” Ken asked in a whisper to Kanemitsu.

“No, I met him a few years ago and never saw him act like this.” Kanemitsu told him.

“Me neither,” Ginji added.

“I heard rumors,” Soga said behind them, he was in his wheelchair again, “apparently he pointed a gun at Ichikawa, a blind man who was a legend in mahjong. Apparently he did things like this when he was younger,” he wasn’t sure how much of the rumors he heard were true, especially because Akagi always looked calm and serious.

“So… his mind is also back to when he was young?” Ken asked.

“I hope not, because the things I heard about Akagi were crazy.” Soga replied.

While they had their own conversation, Harada was trying to come up with a plan to not play Russian roulette, he wasn’t feeling like dying at the moment.

“If you die then we wouldn’t need to worry about a corpse, same if I die,” Akagi said.

“You just want money, right?” Harada asked Akagi, he would rather give him the money.

“Hmm? I guess getting some money would be good too.”

At that, everyone wondered how exactly Akagi managed to live until his fifties.

“Alright!” Ten clapped his hands, “I know a ramen store that is open until around three in the morning, let’s go!” He tried to take the gun away from Akagi however Akagi was faster to put it in his pants.

“Try and take it if you want,” Akagi said, he knew that wouldn’t happen. It seemed the comment he gave to Soga had worked on everyone.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Akagi, can you

stop,”

Ken emphasized on that last word, “trying to get away from us!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he knew. Ever since they left the place where his funeral had been, Akagi had tried to get away from the group and just disappear from their view but so far he had had no luck.

“If you try that one more time,” Harada got on Akagi’s face, “I’m gonna put a leash on you like a fucking dog.”

“Kinky, but I’m a child, good luck explaining that to the police,” Akagi had realized very fast that, now that he was a child again, there were a lot of things people would probably not do, like putting a leash on him. It wasn’t like he was going to call the police on Harada, but he enjoyed how easy it was to make the man mad.

“Let’s just go,” Harada said as he started to walk right behind Akagi, “if you try to get away again I’m just gonna carry you like a potato sack.” If the police were to stop them for some reason, carrying a young child like that would probably be easier to explain than having said kid on a leash, or at least Harada hoped for so.

“Biting my tongue is still on the table,” Akagi said, Harada was only looking at his back yet he knew Akagi was smiling as he said that.

Harada turned to face Hiroyuki, “your pills fucked up his brain.”

At the end, Harada, Ten, Hiroyuki and Ken had to walk around Akagi so he wouldn’t try to escape, it was like keeping an eye on a female kitten that hadn't been spayed and was trying to escape home while in heat. It was a pain in the ass.

All of them were glad to arrive at the place Ten had mentioned. It was a small place and it seemed that the owner was getting ready to close but still allowed them in under the condition they wouldn’t stay for longer than an hour after being served.

“You go in the center,” Ten said to Akagi.

“It’s not like I’m gonna leave without eating.”

None of them believed him.

Washio, Soga, Ginji and Kanemitsu had decided to stay behind. Soga because of his health, the other three because they still needed to figure out what to do with the lack of a dead body. They also decided it was for the best to not be near Akagi if he were to solve the situation and find a dead body. They were old and didn’t want to spend the last years of their lives in jail for being accessory to murder.

Harada and Ten sat on each side of Akagi with Ken and Hiroyuki sitting in front of them, the owner quickly gave each one a menu and left, probably to prepare things ahead such as plates. Everyone but Akagi took a look at the menu.

Akagi was more focused on how to get away from these men, if he were to go to the toilet one of them would probably go with him, walking away without saying anything hadn’t worked the last five times and he guessed it wouldn’t work if he were to try again. He also didn’t feel like running at the moment.

“Aren’t you gonna order?” Hiroyuki asked Akagi.

“You do it for me.”

“But I don’t know what you like.”

Akagi looked at Hiroyuki directly in the eyes, “there’s only one thing you could eat in a situation like this, what do you think it is?”

No clue. Hiroyuki didn’t even know what situation Akagi was talking about, but when he said this to Akagi he was called an idiot.

“It’s obvious what I’m talking about, right, Ten?”

“Uh…” Ten was the same as Hiroyuki, he had no clue what Akagi was talking about, “not killing yourself?”

“I am going to kill myself with that kind of answer,” Akagi turned to face Harada, “what about you?”

“No idea, I’m convinced your brain works differently than that of a normal person.”

“Just say you’re a dumbass.” Akagi sighed, how come no one could understand what he meant, it wasn’t hard, “alright, Ken.” Akagi completely ignored Harada insulting him, he treated the man as background noise and nothing more.

“Being cured of Alzheimer’s?” There was doubt in his voice and Akagi could notice it without an issue.

“Finally some brain, I thought everyone here had a worse brain than me a few hours ago.”

Would it be so bad to hit Akagi? Harada felt like his hair was going to become as white as Akagi’s if he spent more time with him.

“So,” Akagi turned to face Hiroyuki, “in a situation where you find yourself young and without Alzheimer’s, what would you eat?”

Why was Akagi asking such a question as if the situation was a daily thing like taking a shit. Maybe there were some parts of his brain that didn’t recover from Alzheimer’s. Did the disease affect common sense?

“I guess I would eat something my mom used to cook for me, to remember my youth.”

Why did he ask Hiroyuki? He wasn’t going to get a good answer from him, “you’re really something,” was all Akagi could say to that answer, “ramen! You eat ramen.”

“If you wanted me to order you ramen you could have said so!”

“It was the only acceptable answer.”

“There are three different types of ramen here, which one do you want?”

“That’s your job to figure out.”

At that moment, Hiroyuki decided to never have kids.

“In any case,” Ten spoke, trying to move the conversation away from wherever it was going, “what do you plan to do now, Akagi?”

“Play mahjong, gamble, live as I was living,” the moment he could he would get away from them, get some cigarettes and travel around the country like he did in the past.

“I guessed you would say that,” Ten replied, “but you see, if the police sees you, they’re gonna stop you and ask why aren’t you in the school, they’re gonna ask for your parents-”

“The police won’t stop a kid,” he really wanted to smoke, “since when do they care.” The police had stopped Akagi in his youth but that was when he was in his twenties and he was wandering on the streets past midnight since he was always alone, the police always said he looked suspicious, but they never paid any mind to him when he was a teenager.

“Maybe they didn’t in your days,” Ken said, the way he said those words made Akagi want to kick him, “but they do now.”

“Then I’ll just say I’m on my way to school.” Why were they asking so many questions.

“And about your parents?” Ten asked.

“I’m an orphan, I live alone.”

“Yeah, that won’t do.” Ken and Ten said at the same moment.

Hiroyuki was still trying to decide which ramen he should order for Akagi.

“Just come live with me, we can say you had a child no one knew about and that you are under my care now.” Ten told him. At the mention of pretending to be his own son, Akagi made a face of disgust. “What?” Ten asked, “it is the second time you make that face if we mention you having a son, it is not like you never had sex.”

Akagi stared at Ten, “I don’t see the point in such pointless activity, that’s all.”

“What?” Harada decided to join in the conversation, “you’re telling me you never saw a woman and decided to get some action?”

“I don’t pay any mind to women, they are just unneeded filler in life,” those words shocked all the men at the table.

Did that mean that Akagi was…

“Akagi, are you an homosexual?”

“Excuse me,” just as Ken asked that question, the owner of the restaurant appeared on his side, “I just wanted to ask if you were ready to order,” the owner said.

Ken felt like dying of embarrassment.

“I also brought this,” the owner said, passing a book to Akagi, “in case the food takes too long, you can read this to pass the time.”

Akagi decided to take the book, maybe if he pretended to read no one would ask him more stupid questions.

Ten, Harada and Ken ordered their food, Hiroyuki still looked to be in a predicament, “just hurry, it isn’t that hard to know the answer,” Akagi told him.

“Last time you asked me something about food you called me an idiot.”

Akagi said something worse than that honestly, but he was surprised Hiroyuki remembered such a comment from when they first met.

“Miso ramen,” Akagi said. Hiroyuki sighed, how was he supposed to know?

“Shoyu ramen for me,” Hiroyuki said, closing the menu and sighing. Akagi still acted like his usual self and that was good but was he always like this in restaurants? He guessed a man like Akagi could give himself the privilege to do so thanks to his talent, if Hiroyuki himself were to try to imitate he would probably get punched like a sack of sand.

“Oh,” Akagi opened the book he was given the moment the owner left, it was a manga, a smile appeared on his face, “I knew your hair reminded me of a character,” he said, pointing at the character on the page, “your hair is like Goku’s,” he said to Ten.

Ten wondered if this was a sign to cut his hair like his wives have told him to do.

Harada laughing out loud didn’t help him.

“I didn’t know you read manga,” Ken said.

“It's not like I’m a fan, but sometimes there wasn’t anything else to read.” Akagi replied, the answer was vague but they knew if they were to ask Akagi more about it he would not answer.

“In any case,” Ten replied, “like we were saying, it would be for the best if you came to live with me for the time being, at least until you get some sort of ID. I’ll say you are my nephew so people don’t think you had sex since you seem to hate it so much.”

“Which I don’t understand,” Ken said, “not even men?”

Akagi looked at him, “like I said, unnecessary activity.”

“I knew you were something else but this…” Ken didn’t know what to say. “In any case, he doesn’t look like you at all, Ten,” he decided to drop the topic for the time being, “people won’t believe he is your nephew.”

“Now that you mentioned,” Ten turned to face Akagi, “I thought your hair was white because you were old but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“I was born in Nagasaki the day of the bombing.”

Silence.

Complete silence and shock.

Was there something they could say? His hair was white due to radiation?

“Hehe, just kidding,” Akagi said after minutes where no one dared to speak.

Harada punched the table and stood from his seat, “what is wrong with you?”

Akagi moved his hand to grab the gun on him, he didn’t point it at Harada, he just wanted to remind the man about it since it seemed he had forgotten.

“Sheesh, none of you have a sense of humor.”

There was definitely something wrong with Akagi.

Harada looked at Hiroyuki.

“Don’t blame the pills I gave him for that comment!” Hiroyuki said before Harada could say something.

“I’m gonna smoke, I'll be back in a minute.”

“Give me one,” Akagi said.

“Fuck you.” Harada left and Akagi wondered if it would be bad to shoot at the man from behind.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

There was a bit of chaos after leaving the restaurant. Harada had received a call from his men asking if something happened as they arrived with food and new clothes but he wasn’t there anymore. The poor man called at the wrong time, Harada had yelled at him all the insults he didn’t dare say to Akagi.

Harada and Ken decided to go back to the funeral place and join the old men there. Harada seemed to be ready to get a dead body himself even if that meant killing someone, Hiroyuki was surprised Ken went along with Harada without fearing for his life. Harada told them to wait around, he was gonna send one of his men with a card so Ten could take Akagi to his house, considering Ten didn’t live nearby and trains weren’t working anymore, he agreed.

That left Ten and Hiroyuki alone with Akagi. Not enough people to control Akagi.

Maybe the idea of a leash wasn’t bad, Ten thought but he didn’t have anything around so there was nothing he could do.

“My wives are probably sleeping already,” Ten said to Akagi, “Hiro, do you wanna stay with me as well?”

Hiroyuki was terrified of having to sleep in the same place as Akagi who still had a gun on him. He refused to give it back to Harada, “

I’ll give it back if you play a little game with me,”

Akagi told Harada and the man was smart enough to say no.

“I actually have to go back to the funeral place as well,” Hiroyuki excused himself, “I forgot my case there.”

“We are gonna meet for dinner,” Ten told him, “I have Kanemitsu’s number, I’ll call him and ask him to bring it, come on, stay at my place.” While the two were having this small conversation, Ten was holding Akagi so he wouldn’t think of walking away.

For anyone it just looked like Ten was hugging Akagi but he was just holding Akagi in place, he really didn’t want to stay alone with Akagi. He wasn’t the one with a dying wish.

“Then, I’m counting on you,” Hiroyuki replied, not so happy. Who would be happy? He admired Akagi as much as he was starting to fear him.

“You two are gonna love my wives,” Ten commented as they waited for the car to arrive, it was a bit uncomfortable to stay still with how he was holding Akagi, especially with Akagi trying to get away. He really hated being touched, let alone hugged.

“What are their names?”

Ten stopped breathing, “what?” He asked Akagi, the question confused him.

“Your wives,” Akagi explained, looking up at Ten, “what are their names?”

“You don’t know their names?” He asked back. Akagi stepped on one of his feet with all the strength he could, “fuck!” Ten let go of him, “why did you do that?”

“I don’t like being touched.”

“Do you know what words are?”

“You wouldn’t have let go.”

That was true. He didn’t trust Akagi would just go along with them, “in my defense,” Ten said, “you kept trying to get away.”

“Give me a cigarette and I’ll stay.”

“I don’t have any on me,” he was supposed to be in a funeral, why would he take cigarettes with him.

“I do.” Ten turned to face Hiroyuki, “what?”

“Since when do you smoke?”

“Try to play mahjong in a room full of smokers without picking the damn habit.”

That was one reason. His coworkers were also smokers. That and depression made him pick up smoking. Hiroyuki handed a cigarette to Akagi, “I hope we don’t find any police man,” he said.

“Why?” Akagi asked, “it’s not like it is illegal to smoke.” He put the cigarette on his mouth and waited for Hiroyuki to lit it for him,

“Because you look like a child.”

Ah, yeah, that was right. Akagi forgot.

In his defense, he was offered beer like nothing when he was actually thirteen. For a moment Akagi wondered what had happened to Yasuoka… oh, well, it didn’t really matter. He got his cigarette.

“You’re gonna damage your lungs,” Ten told Akagi, “we still need to check if your organs are… you know.”

“Fucked up?” Akagi chuckled, “I don’t think that’s the case,” his scar had disappeared after all. There was also the fact that he was cured from Alzheimer’s which meant his brain had also gotten back to how it was when he was young.

“Still, shouldn’t you take better care of your body now that you were given a second chance to live?”

Akagi looked at him, “what if I take care of you?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Means we still need a body before five in the morning.”

Did… did Akagi just threaten him?

“I have plenty of cigarettes and alcohol at home,” Ten decided that was the best answer for the time being.

Maybe if were to stop smoking and drinking he could inspire Akagi and Hiroyuki since he was still young. Ah, that made him sound like he was the older of the three.

“How far away is your house?” Akagi asked, he was almost done with his smoke and was getting annoyed at having to wait for a car. Usually it was him making people wait, not the other way around.

“Around an hour considering there won’t be any traffic.”

Akagi sighed. He decided to sit on the side of the street while he finished the cigarette, “I swear, you guys are making me wait like never in my life.” A turtle was probably faster than whoever was supposed to pick them up.

“Look at the bright side-” Hiroyuki was quickly interrupted by Akagi.

“It is fucking dark out here.”

Hiroyuki wondered if Akagi got grumpy whenever he needed to wait, he knew better than to point that out, “you have a new life ahead of yourself.” He continued talking like he was never interrupted.

Akagi glared at him. He stood up and stomped on the cigarette. What if he killed himself? Not so much of a life ahead in that case, huh. He chuckled at that.

The chuckle made Hiroyuki take a step back.

Luckily for him, a car stopped next to them, a man in the copilot seat got out of the car,  “mister Harada sent us to-”

“Finally, did you stop to hunt for the bigfoot on your way here?” Akagi asked, walking towards the back door. The man hurried to open the door for him.

“Bigfoot isn’t real,” the man said to Akagi as he was about to get inside.

It made Akagi stop and look at the man, “looks like your brain isn’t real either,” he got inside the car without waiting to see if the man had something to say.

He didn’t. The man was just confused, “who the fuck is that kid?” He asked in a low voice to Ten and Hiroyuki.

“What did Harada tell you?” Ten asked, if the man didn’t know about Akagi then maybe it was for the best to not say anything. The less people knew about Akagi the better.

“That we needed to come here to pick you, Hiroyuki and Akagi, but I don’t understand,” the man said, “before, our boss was talking about kidnapping Akagi so I know he is alive… somehow but I don’t see him.”

Ten laughed and pointed at the inside of the car, “that kid is Akagi.”

The man got pale. He looked inside the car, “either all of you get inside the car right now or I kill the driver and leave alone.” Akagi said, that made everyone hurry up.

Two men had arrived to pick them up, one was the driver that had stayed inside the car all the time and the other was the man who was now trembling in the copilot seat. “Mister Akagi,” he said, “I apologize for what I said, I beg you to not say anything to my boss, I’ll do anything!” He wasn’t looking at Akagi but he still bowed his head, he hit his head with the dashboard.

Akagi smiled, “anything?”

“Anything!”

Ten and Hiroyuki felt sorry for the man.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Ten’s wives were asleep just as he predicted. He got two futons ready and let Hiroyuki and Akagi sleep in the guest room. Hiroyuki was a little anxious at the idea of sleeping in the same room as someone with a gun. His anxiety didn’t last long though, as soon as Akagi lied down he closed his eyes and told Hiroyuki to turn off the light. “You’re just gonna sleep?” Hiroyuki asked.“What else do you want me to do? Read you a story? I’m not doing that.”“I don’t need that!”“Good, now go to sleep.” Hiroyuki still didn’t turn off the light, “hey, Akagi?”It seemed Akagi was not going to get much sleep, “what?”“Do you think I should quit my job?”Akagi opened his eyes and sat up, “what?”“My job,” Hiroyuki repeated, “it’s just that-”“It doesn’t matter what I think. At the end of the day, it’s your life.” Akagi told him, “I’m no one to dictate what you do or don’t do.” Akagi wasn’t someone who would do something because he was told, he based his life on what would bring him more joy and excitement. “If you are asking me this it’s because you want to leave your job but aren’t sure about it.”“Yeah,” Hiroyuki confessed, “I mean, besides the pills you took, everything else it’s a scam…” at least as far as he was aware, “I thought I should do something that actually brings me joy.”“There’s your answer then,” Akagi told him and lied down again, “don’t let others decide for yourself. Now turn off the light or I’m shooting at it.”Hiroyuki hurried to turn it off and went to lie down as well. “Good night, Akagi.” He said. He didn’t get a reply back. He hoped Akagi wouldn’t leave in the middle of the night. The moment his head hit the pillow Hiroyuki realized just how tired he was. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep.Hiroyuki woke up thanks to the sun entering the room, it took him a moment to remember where he was and why he was there. Still can’t believe those pills worked like that, he wondered if his boss would even believe what happened. He would probably be institutionalized if he were to tell someone an old man with Alzheimer’s was now a kid. He was better not saying anything. To his surprise, Akagi was still sleeping, or at least he thought so. It seemed Akagi had covered himself from head to toe so there was no way of knowing if it was actually Akagi. Hiroyuki hesitated for a moment before shaking him, “Akagi?” He could hear voices outside the room meaning Ten and his wives were already awake. It was probably close to midday if he were to guess. He was glad Akagi was still in the room and hadn’t run away while everyone was sleeping. He shook Akagi again but didn’t get any reaction so he decided to try again, a bit harder this time, “Akagi, you have to wake up.” He was alive, right? Akagi did not kill himself during the night… Hiroyuki hurried to take the blanket out of Akagi. Akagi was soon pointing the gun at Hiroyuki. “Who exactly are you?” Akagi asked him.That question alone scared Hiroyuki more than the gun on his face.“W-what do you mean? It’s me! Hiroyuki!” He said, was Akagi not cured? Fucking bullshit of pills. Fuck those pills. Fuck his company. “Hehe, gotcha.” Akagi laughed. He saw the fear in Hiroyuki’s face and he laughed. Hiroyuki started to cry. “Guess that wasn’t a fun joke, huh?” Akagi said, he put the gun down and patted Hiroyuki on the head, “my bad.”“Don’t do that! I thought your Alzheimer’s wasn’t cured!” Hiroyuki wouldn’t stop crying.“You’re so full of energy,” Akagi just said whatever crossed his mind, “youth is really amazing,” he chuckled, maybe that energy is what made him prank Hiroyuki in the first place. His reactions weren’t as funny as Soga’s or Harada’s though. “So? Why did you wake me up?” Akagi asked, maybe if he changed the topic Hiroyuki would stop crying.“Ten is awake so I thought we should get up and eat,” those words made Akagi smile.“You’re right,” he said, he stood up and put the gun on his pants, “we should let him introduce us to his wives.” The smile grew bigger as he said those words. Akagi fixed his bed hair and walked outside the room following the voices of Ten and his wives, Hiroyuki was right behind him. Ten was making out with the two of his wives. Akagi wondered if he could call the police on Ten for indecent exposure. This was definitely not the way he planned on meeting Ten’s wives. He cleared his throat, luckily for his eyes one of the women saw him. The poor woman got as red as a tomato… no, even more than a tomato. “Ah!” She screamed and hurried to put her shirt back on, the other woman did just the same. Ten seemed shocked to see Akagi and Hiroyuki there.“Can you put your dick away if you don’t want me to shoot at it?” Akagi asked Ten. Ten did as he was told. Everyone but Akagi was completely red and wanted to die of embarrassment. “Did you forget we were here?” Akagi asked Ten once everyone in the room was completely dressed and sitting down. “Of course not!” He did. Ten totally forgot about Hiroyuki and Akagi. “I’ll pretend I believe you,” Akagi told him, “you can thank Hiro here for waking me up.”Hiroyuki regretted his decision. In his defense… he didn’t expect to see that kind of scenario in the middle of the day. “It’s just that…” Ten tried to excuse himself, “the funeral was yesterday so my wives tried to cheer me up.”“Hmmm,” Akagi looked at the two women sitting at each side of Ten, “why don’t you introduce us?”“Ah! You’re right,” Ten was happy the topic had changed, “ladies, you already know Hiro. This boy is Aka-” could he say Akagi’s real name? After all his wives knew Akagi had died so to introduce a kid with the same was definitely weird. “I’m Shigeru Akagi.” Akagi said after seeing Ten wasn’t saying anything.“Isn’t that the name of the man who died?” One of the women asked, “are you related to him?”“Not at all, my father was just really obsessed with him, he should come today to pick me up.” Hiroyuki and Ten were confused. What was Akagi talking about? The only ones visiting Ten’s house later the day were the ones who had assisted Akagi’s funeral. “Hmmm,” the woman seemed confused but didn’t ask more questions.“Ten,” Akagi called, “aren’t you going to tell me the name of your wives?”Ten started to sweat. Cold sweat. He was no longer glad the topic had changed. “What do you mean?” He asked knowing damn well what Akagi wanted. “Come on, I can’t continue to refer to them as just your wives.” He totally could, Ten wished he would do so. Ten let out a nervous laugh. He could feel his wives looking at him expecting to say their names. “I told you their names, don’t you remember?”“I only met you yesterday night,” Akagi turned to face Hiroyuki, “right?”Hiroyuki knew better than to contradict Akagi, “that’s right.” He apologized internally to Ten. “W-well…” Ten wanted to cry. Now that his wives thought about it… when was the last time Ten called them by their names?“Come on, Ten,” his wife on the left spoke, “just tell the kid our names.”Ten looked at her, “of course… darling.”“Do you know my name?”Ten was a dead man.“I’m waiting.”Ten did the best he could do at the moment. Fake a heart attack. “This is why Erika left!” His wife on the right yelled before standing and leaving the house. His other wife soon followed. Akagi couldn’t hold back his laugh.Hiroyuki was shocked. Maybe his pills did fuck up Akagi’s brain. “Do you,” Hiroyuki started but paused, how can Ten be married to two women he doesn’t know their names? “do you really don’t know their names?”“It’s not my fault!” Ten cried, face on the floor, “I always call them pet names so their names just vanished.”“Maybe it’s because of all the times you got hit,” Akagi told him, “you got some nasty scars so I wouldn’t be surprised.” “I’ll go look for them.”“Wait,” Ten looked at Akagi, “what about the food?”“I’ll let you two cook whatever you want, the others will come for dinner.” “Alright Hiro,” Hiroyuki cried internally as Akagi called his name, “you got a chance to redeem yourself from the ramen fiasco.”“I can’t cook,” he confessed. Both heard the door close as Ten left the house. Akagi sighed, “I expected that answer. Come on, I’ll cook you something as an apology for scaring you earlier.”Hiroyuki hesitated, “you won’t… poison me, will you?”“What kind of monster do you take me for?” Akagi sounded offended. Like he hadn’t terrorized everyone since last night. “Are you really asking that?”“Oh, come on! I do things that are fun. Not dangerous!”“You pressed the button to kill yourself just because!”“Hehe, yeah I did that, didn’t I?”Hiroyuki felt like crying again. He hoped Ten would return soon. Akagi was really just planning on making something easy and then wait around for dinner, he really wasn’t planning on poisoning Hiroyuki but now that the idea crossed his mind… maybe Ten had hot sauce around the kitchen. There was rice already made and he found eggs, “hope you like omurice, Hiro,” instead of ketchup one was going to have hot sauce. It would be a small game to test Hiroyuki’s luck. It didn’t take him long to serve the plates in front of Hiroyuki who looked like he was about to cry out of happiness. Akagi didn’t understand him at all. Hiroyuki seemed to cry for everything. “Before you eat,” he told Hiroyuki when he moved to take one plate, “one has ketchup the other one has really hot sauce,” he smiled as he said that. “Why?”“Why not?”Hiroyuki sighed, “do you find amusement in torturing people?”“This is nothing compared to the things I did when I was actually young.”Hiroyuki saw an opportunity to learn more about Akagi and he wasn’t letting that go, “what did you use to do?”“Terrorize old men and ruin their lives.”Hiroyuki regretted asking. “But why?”“Why not?” He was an idiot for thinking he was going to learn something about Akagi. “In any case,” Akagi changed the topic, “choose your plate wisely.” Hiroyuki thought for a moment, “why don’t you choose first?”“How stupid are you?”“What?”“I made the food, I know which one is safe!”Maybe Hiroyuki was really an idiot.“Left one, but you eat first!”“Fine,” Akagi took the remaining plate and took a bite, “I’ll go get some water.” Hiroyuki smiled, he won against Akagi! He was safe! He decided to eat his food. He started to cough and as he was coughing and crying he heard Akagi laugh. “Hehehe, you really believed me,” Akagi appeared on his side, handing a glass full of water to Hiroyuki, “never believe your opponents in a gamble.” Hiroyuki drank the entire glass in a matter of seconds, “just how much sauce did you use?”“All of it.” “Why?”“Wh-”“You better not answer with a damn why not again!”Akagi’s smile disappeared and didn’t answer. “Is that what you were going to say? Seriously?”Akagi shuddered, “it’s not that spicy,” he changed the plates, “see?” He took a bite. He chewed and swallowed like it was nothing, “you were overreacting.”“You are a demon.”“Thank you.”“That wasn’t a compliment. I think there is something wrong with you.”“Thank you.”“Akagi!”Akagi continued eating like nothing, “It’s actually not spicy,” he said, “maybe you just got unlucky. Try again,” he took a bit of rice and the egg with the spoon and moved it towards Hiroyuki. Hiroyuki hesitated but opened his mouth and tried it again. Big mistake. “Hehe, I told you not to believe your opponents!”  As he said those words, tears started to fall from Akagi’s eyes. Using almost the entire bottle wasn’t the best thing he could have done. “How were you eating this?”“I will do whatever to trick my opponents.”“Seriously, what is wrong with you?”Akagi simply smiled but didn’t say anything. “I’ll go make another one for me, you can eat the safe one.”Hiroyuki hoped the night would fall soon.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

It took a few hours for Ten to arrive back with his wives, the two women seemed angry but not as much as when they had left.

“Yo,” Akagi greeted them when they entered the living room. He and Hiroyuki had spent the afternoon there. Hiroyuki was actually glad to no longer be alone with Akagi. Akagi had just lied without moving at all for hours, not talking, not reading or watching anything, it was creeping Hiroyuki a lot, “so do you know their names now?”

The two women scoffed, “as long as he doesn’t remember he isn’t having any se-” one of them started to say but stopped, “this is an adult’s problem.”

“Hmm…” Akagi looked over at Hiroyuki, “despite his looks, Hiroyuki knows about the topic, at least the theory.”

“Akagi!” Hiroyuki was definitely not having any kid of his own. He was not taking any risk of having an asshole as a child.

Ten laughed at Akagi’s comment, “and you do?”

“Do you need to hug a cactus to know you won’t like doing so?”

Ten didn’t have anything to say to that.

“Oh, that’s right,” the same woman as before spoke, “why are you wearing a shirt so big for you?”

The question was obviously directed to Akagi yet the ones who got nervous were Ten and Hiroyuki.

“My dad dropped beer on me last night and this was the only thing he found for me.”

Hiroyuki and Ten were really curious about who exactly was supposed to be Akagi’s dad.

“So he does that and then leaves you with two strangers? Where is your mom?”

“A few feet underground.”

Complete and absolutely silent. No one could do anything but stare at Akagi who decided to just stand up and go look for something to drink.

“There’s definitely something wrong with him,” Hiroyuki muttered to himself but it seemed he was a little too loud as Ten’s wives scolded him.

“He obviously has a bad home life,” one of them said, “how do you think that comment would make him feel?”

Hiroyuki knew Akagi wouldn’t care. He would just laugh. He couldn’t say that though, “I’m not wrong.”

“He is a child that obviously wants attention and that’s why he acts up.”

Somehow Ten’s wives had gotten the wrong impression of Akagi.

Moments later Akagi returned to the living room with a glass full of what seemed like water in hand.

“Shi-chan,” Akagi had to fight the urge to point his gun at the woman, that

nickname

sounded way too close to the name of an anime, “you can drink juice or tea if you want instead of just water.”

Akagi drank from his glass, “Akagi is fine,” he said. He looked over at Ten, “this isn’t water anyway.”

“Eh?”

“Ten told me there was plenty of alcohol and cigarettes for me to take,” he explained, “so I just served myself a little vodka.”

Ten was soon hit on the back by the wife who was still on his side, “what’s wrong with you?”

The two women stormed out again.

Ten cried.

Akagi laughed.

Hiroyuki was happy the target for Akagi’s amusement had drifted away from him.

Ten couldn’t even say anything because Akagi was right.

“I’ll go talk to them,” Ten left again.

By the time Ten arrived with his wives again, Soga, Kanemitsu, Washio and Ginji were there and Akagi was talking to them in a very calm way. It was like seeing a completely different Akagi compared to how he had acted since the previous night.

As if being surrounded by old men awoke the old man inside of him as well.

The five of them and Hiroyuki were eating ramen as they spoke about whatever.

“We will go stay in our room so you can spend time with your friends,” one of his wives told Ten, “do you know their names or do you also just call them by pet names?”

Ten knew it was better not to answer that question, instead he kissed both of his wives.

He really needed to find a way to remember their names, it wasn’t like he could go to a neighbor and ask, "

Hey, do you know the names of my wives by any chance?

”

He would think about that later, in the meantime, he went to sit with the ones already there, it felt good to not be the oldest looking.

“Ten!” Kanemitsu made a small bow at him, “Harada and Ken should be here in a few minutes with more food.”

Ten looked around, there were a few dirty dishes and cans of beer around, “did Akagi have something to drink?” He asked.

“He drank almost everything,” Washio replied, “it’s like he is still planning on dying by the end of the month,” everyone looked at Akagi who was simply smiling like he was an innocent angel.

“Well no more beer for him.”

“Why not?” Akagi asked Ten directly.

“Because you almost got me some divorce papers!”

Akagi shrugged, “if you don’t wanna divorce then don’t get married.”

Ten decided not to say anything.

It took around fifteen minutes for Harada and Ken to arrive with more food, some sushi, pizza and ramen. Who the fuck thought about mixing those three things Ten didn’t know, but he ate the ramen happily.

Compared to everyone, Ken was the only one who didn’t look happy. If something, he looked traumatized.

“Did something happen?” Hiroyuki asked Ken as he sat next to him and away from Akagi who seemed to have fun getting the ones next to him to drink as much as possible. Kanemitsu and Washio were completely wasted and Soga wasn’t so far behind, Akagi still looked sober despite being the one who had drank the most.

“He got it,” was the only answer Ken gave him.

“What? Who got what?” Hiroyuki didn't understand anything, maybe Ken was also drunk.

“He got the body dude.”

“Huh?”

“Harada man! He was so pissed off last night and he got the body,” Ken started to cry. Hiroyuki slowly turned to face Harada who was sitting next to Ten eating pizza like nothing.

“Do you mean he…”

“He killed three men dude.”

“Three?” There was only one body needed!

Ken cried louder.

Hiroyuki handed him a beer and walked away. It was better if he didn’t know anything else. He already knew too much for his liking. Sitting next to Akagi was much better.

He looked around the living room, “where’s Akagi?”

Everyone stopped breathing.

How the fuck did he vanish?

The ones who were still conscious quickly stood up and started to look around the house.

Nothing.

Akagi wasn’t there.

“Maybe he is still nearby!” Ten said and hurried to the entrance. Ken, Harada and Hiroyuki quickly followed, not even caring to put on the shoes.

Unaware of their predicament, Akagi was outside the house talking with a man. Hiroyuki recognized the man as one of the two who brought them to Ten’s house, the one who had offered to do whatever if Akagi didn’t mention to Harada how he accidentally spoke without any respect towards Akagi.

“What the fuck are you doing with one of my men?” Harada yelled as he approached the two.

“Sheesh, no need to get jealous,” Akagi said like nothing, “I won’t steal your man. He was just telling me your breath smells like shit because your cigarettes are horrible,” without even looking at the man or Harada, Akagi went inside Ten’s house again, “I still need a fake ID so I won’t leave just yet,” Akagi made sure only Ten and Hiroyuki heard him say that.

They didn’t know if they should be happy or not about it though.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Maybe the fear of thinking Akagi had somehow left without them noticing made Ten, Hiroyuki, Ken and Harada sober. The old men were already too wasted and sleeping so it was just the five of them awake. None of them dared to blink for the fear of Akagi somehow vanishing within seconds.

“You know I don’t have powers to do that?” Akagi tried to make the men stop staring at him but it was in vain.

“For all I know you could be related to Houdini or some shit.” Harada told him.

“Damn the yakuza is really falling, can’t believe such a dumbass is a leader.”

“You motherf-” Ten had to stop Harada from punching Akagi.

“Is because you react like this that he keeps bullying you!”

Akagi laughed at that. Did Ten consider that bullying? He hadn’t seen anything if that was the case.

Harada was yelling so much that it made Ten’s wives curious as to what was going on and decided to leave the room they were in and go to the living room to join the men.

The first thing they asked was who Akagi's father was.

Ten and Hiroyuki had completely forgotten about that. Ken and Harada were confused.

“Oh, that’s right,” Akagi said as he moved to sit next to Harada, “this is Harada,” he faced said man and smiled, “my dad.”

“I’m not your fucking dad!”

Ten’s wives were shocked. Poor Akagi not only lost his mom, his dad also hated him?

“How can you be so cruel to your own son?”

“I’m telling you,” Harada looked at the two women, “he isn’t my son! I would have told my wife to abort him if that was the case.”

Akagi looked down, pretending to be sad. He could very well win an Oscar if he wanted, “isn’t that why you left mom? Because she refused an abortion?”

“Can you shut the fuck up?”

“It’s fine, I understand,” Akagi looked up at Ten’s wives with a sad look on his face, “you could say my mom was… the other woman.”

Harada couldn’t stand it anymore and he punched Akaga right on the face.

Hell exploded.

As soon as he hit Akagi a high heel hit him on the side of the head.

Ten went pale.

“Do not dare punch your son!”

Ten was happy his wives were such good people but did they really need to pick a fight with a yakuza? Sure they didn’t know about Harada being one but who throws a shoe like that?

“Don’t worry,” Akagi tried to calm them down, “I’m used to this kind of treatment.”

“Can you stop,” Harada yelled, “making me sound like a criminal?”

“Then what the fuck are you?”

“Not a criminal!”

“You are a yakuza!”

Ken wished he had popcorn with him, he was probably the only one besides Akagi enjoying the chaos. However he made the mistake of laughing a little too loud.

“You better shut the hell up if you don’t wanna end like the men of yesterday.” Harada yelled at him and that was enough to make Ken cry. He was trying so hard to forget what he saw.

“Did you bring a Yakuza to our house?” Ten was sure he was going to be served divorce papers before the year ended.

“It’s not like that-”

“You said you were going to stop associating yourself with dangerous people!”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Akagi got Ten’s wives’ attention, “my dad is a pussy, he wouldn’t do anything.”

Ken would like to differ on that. Not only because he saw Harada kill people but also because of the scar on his hand. Harada was crazy. He didn’t dare to say anything though.

One of Ten’s wives hurried to hug Akagi, “you poor child,” she said, “it’s okay, you don’t have to defend your dad to get his approval.”

Harada was sure he was seen as a demon now.

“Alright, enough,” he said. He stood from where he was and pulled Akagi away from Ten’s wife, “we are leaving.” He ignored all the protests and walked away with Akagi.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” He asked Akagi once the two had left the house.

One of his men hurried to open the car’s door for him and Akagi.

“What? You wanted to kidnap me and now you complain about me?”

“I hate you as much as I respect you. Get inside the damn car.”

Harada was glad Akagi decided to simply sit in silence during the entire ride, maybe he decided he had had enough fun for the day or maybe it was all the beer finally kicking in. Akagi had drunk at least five people and Harada wondered how Akagi was not drunk at all.

He was going to ask though, it was better to let Akagi stay in silence and just enjoy the peace.

“Can you get me some fake ID?”

Harada said goodbye to his peace.

“Why?”

“Are you really that dumb?” Akagi asked him, “look at me!”

That was a good point.

“I have some connections so it wouldn’t be hard to get you one.”

“Good.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“So you really are kidnapping me, huh?”

“I’m not.”

“Give me a cigarette.”

“I’m not giving you a-”

“Not you,” Akagi extended his hand and one of Harada’s men, the one that was talking alone with Akagi before, gave him a cigarette and a lighter, “you took me from Ten’s house,” Akagi told Harada as he lighted his cigarette, “got me inside your car and now you are taking me who knows where.”

“Alright, maybe I am kidnapping you.”

Akagi laughed.

“Still, I won’t get you an ID until you ask nicely for it.”

Akagi looked at him with disgust. Somehow Harada didn’t like that look.

“If you say,

sir Harada, please help me get an ID,

I’ll do it.”

“What if I cut your dick while you sleep.”

Harada was sure that wasn’t a bluff however he wasn’t going to back out, “guess you won’t get an ID then.”

“We will see about that.”

Harada was scared to know what that phrase could mean but he pretended not to care.

Once they arrived at Harada house, he got Akagi into a guest room and made sure to lock him, just in case he tried to escape.

“Don’t complain if I pee on your walls then.”

Harada decided to not lock Akagi.

“You’re coming to my office with me tomorrow.”

“Sounds like fun,” Akagi told him, “guess I’m gonna get some money by gambling with your men.”

Akagi was good at making Harada mad, “don’t underestimate my men.”
  
Once the sun was up Harada went to see Akagi and gave him new clothes, he was sure Akagi hadn’t shower the day before. He just told Akagi to get ready soon. He didn’t want to entertain Akagi first thing in the morning and ruin his mood.

As soon as they got to Harada’s office he gave Akagi a mahjong set, if his men dared to lose he would punish them. In any case Harada prefered his men to be suffering rather than himself.

Game after game Akagi continued to win and take money away from Harada’s men, it was sad to see. It wasn’t like they didn’t know how to play, they knew but maybe Harada had overestimated how good they were because they sucked.

On their defense, everyone seemed to be bad at mahjong while playing against Akagi.

Harada ignored the curses and complaints and just focused on his work.

Or at least he tried to, until someone knocked the door of his office and face too familiar for him appeared there.

“Kyousuke? What are you doing here?”

“You called me.”

Harada was sure he wasn’t the one with Alzheimer’s to forget about calling his son to his office.

“I didn’t call you.”

Kyousuke pointed at one of Harada’s men, “he called saying you needed me here.” It was once again, the man that had been talking to Akagi alone. That man was begging to be beaten by Harada so much.

“Oh!” Akagi stood from his seat and walked towards Kyousuke. Harada didn’t like that one bit, “so you’re my big brother.”

“Get away from my son,” Harada hit his desk.

“So you had another family?” His son asked him, “mom will be sad.”

“He isn’t my son.”

Kyousuke ignored him and turned to face Akagi, “did he give you his last name.”

Akagi shook his head.

“Of course I won’t give my last name to someone who isn’t my son!”

“So you’re saying I’m not your son?”

Harada realized he fucked up.

“That’s not what I mean. I told you it’s better if people don’t know about your relation with me so you can be safe.”

“He tried to make my mom get an abortion,” Akagi told Kyousuke who didn’t look surprised to hear that.

Kyousuke looked at Harada, “well, if you didn’t call me I’ll go get some ice cream with my little brother,” he put an arm around Akagi and surprisingly Akagi didn’t do anything.

“He is

not

your brother.”

“Yeah, whatever. We'll be back in a few hours.”

Harada wondered what wrong he has done to deserve this.

Outside his office, Kyousuke and Akagi walked away.

“So,” Kyousuke started, “who are you really?”

“Like I said, your little brother.”

“My dad can be a yakuza but not a cheater.”

“My name’s Akagi.”

Kyousuke stopped walking, “like the dead man?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you… him?”

“Oh? You’re quite smart, guess you took that from your mom.”

Kyousuke was not sure what exactly was going on or how an old man became a teenager but he also didn’t really care, “so why are you with my dad.”

“I need an ID.”

That didn’t really explain a lot however Kyousuke had the feeling he wouldn’t get more answers even if he asked, “I see, I don’t have money for ice cream, sorry about that.”

“I have enough, your dad has some dumb people working for him.”

“Mahjong?”

Akagi nodded.

Kyousuke made a mental note to ask Akagi for a game later, it would be nice to play against such legend, for the time being, he was going to play along with Akagi and call him a little brother in front of Harada.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

It was close to midnight when Akagi and Kyousuke arrived back at Harada’s office. Harada had sent men to look for them but no matter where they looked they just didn’t find them and now the two were back as if nothing. Akagi even had blood on his shirt, at least Kyousuke didn’t look injured.

“Where the fuck have you two been?” Harada couldn’t help but scream.

“At a mahjong parlor,” Kyousuke told him, going to sit down at one of the sofas at the office.

“I had my men looking for the two so I do not believe you.”

“You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to buy them,” this time it was Akagi the one who spoke, he walked towards Harada, “I ran out of bullets so I don’t need this anymore.”

Harada didn’t know whether to feel happy or stressed about having his gun back, “what did you do?”

Instead of answering him, Akagi just chuckled and went to sit down next to Kyousuke.

Harada was definitely getting the bastard an ID first thing in the morning.

Wait a minute…

“Fuck you mean you bought my men?” That part had only now registered in his brain.

“We got a lot of money,” Kyousuke told him, “if someone didn’t want to pay, then he,” he pointed at Akagi, “shot them on the foot.”

Harada had learned his lesson. Never in his life was he going to have a gun near Akagi ever again. At least it was only mahjong.

“Russian roulette is a pretty fun game.”

Russian… what? Did Kyousuke say what Harada thought he said?

“You didn’t make my son play that, did you?” Surprisingly Harada didn’t scream, on the contrary his voice was almost like a whisper however his face was as red as a tomato.

“Stop treating my brother like he isn’t your son too.”

“He is not your brother!” Harada was back at screaming. He took a deep breath to try and calm down. He was getting that damn ID now. “You two stay here, I’ll get someone to take you home.”

He left before he could get a reply.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Akagi and Kyousuke started to laugh.

“You were right,” Kyousuke said while catching his breath, “it is easy to make him angry.”

Akagi had told Kyousuke to keep the brother act for Harada to see how the man acted, it sounded like fun so Kyousuke didn’t really see a reason to say no. Harada was always keeping himself at line, not letting his emotions get the best of him and almost acting like a damn robot, it was funny seeing him unable to keep that act.

“I can bet all the money I got tonight that I’ll have my ID tomorrow,” Akagi said, he had gotten around three hundred dollars just with mahjong alone. They hadn’t really played Russian roulette, mostly because everyone refused. Fucking pussies. Oh no, I might die. That was just the worst case scenario! People always overreacted to the damn game.

“Or you could use it to get new clothes.”

“Oh yeah, can’t use this one since it got blood on it,” he also hadn’t shot at anyone. The reason why had blood on him was because someone tried to get his money back by force and so Akagi used force as well. It was a shame no one but Kyousuke was there to witness a twenty something year old man being manhandled by a kid. He did nothing but laugh as it didn’t seem Akagi needed help. The man was probably dead but it wasn’t his problem. If the police investigated his fingerprints would not be at the scene or on the body.

The door opened and Harada entered the room once again.

“Akagi come here.”

“Don’t want to.”

“Come here if you want your damn ID!”

Harada decided that Kyousuke would be an only child, he could not deal with a kid that could potentially turn out like Akagi.

Akagi walked towards him, “see? Told you I wouldn’t need to ask for it nicely.”

“Say one more thing and I’m cutting your tongue.”

“Do it,” Akagi stuck his tongue out. Harada wondered if it would be bad to just beat him to death. The worst part is that he still felt admiration towards Akagi, if it had been anyone else getting on his nerves then he would have killed the person already.

He showed a small camera, “just stay still.”

He took the photo and left once again.

Harada managed to get a fake ID in record time. Did he have to threaten the man’s life? Yes. But who hadn’t done that? It was pretty normal so whatever. 
Was the man crying during the entire process? Yes. The man was a coward. A pussy in Akagi’s words. Did Harada yell at the man the more the man cried which did not help at all? Also yes. But he got the ID!

He could get such bad influence away from his son!

Hopefully.

The sun was already starting to come out by the time he left for his house. Akagi wasn’t in the room that had been prepared for him and Harada could think of two options as to why. One, Akagi had left without the ID. Highly unlikely but he wouldn’t complain. Two, he was with Kyousuke. Very likely to be the case, his anger issues weren’t a fan of it.

He decided to check his son’s room. He opened the door silently just to be greeted by Akagi sitting on the floor facing the door with his eyes wide open. There was definitely something wrong with Akagi. Harada got scared at such a sight, seriously, how long had Akagi been sitting there like that? That was not normal!

“What is wrong you!” Harada wanted to scream but Kyousuke seemed to still be asleep so he just whispered.

“Got my ID?”

Harada threw the damn thing at Akagi, “what is wrong with you?”

“Nothing and everything at the same time.”

Harada closed the door. He was not dealing with Akagi. He wanted to catch some sleep before his day officially started.

“What do you mean he left?” Harada got the phone away from his ear as he heard Ten, his wives and Hiroyuki yell.

“I got him an ID and he left!” Harada didn’t want to admit it but he had been an idiot at thinking Akagi would stay once he had his ID. In his defense, he was tired and his brain wasn’t working properly.

“Do you know where he went?”

“No.”

“How dare you let your son leave!” One of Ten’s wives grabbed the phone to yell at him, “that poor child…” Harada put the phone down and let the woman talk.

Once there was a moment of silence he grabbed the phone and asked one single thing, “so, does your husband remember your name now?”

That was enough to get the anger redirected away from him. Yep. He could hear a fight start at the other end of the line. He ended the call.

He should be happy no one was getting on his nerves anymore yet Harada couldn’t help but wonder if he should have really kidnapped Akagi.