Ohgi Act 2 Chapter 11 My Course of Action

[ Location: Dominic Household ]

[ 1:59 am ]

After easing my moped next to my parent's car on the driveway, I removed the key. The sounds of the engine falling asleep brought me a sense of relief. Finally I was home. My house was a thirty minute drive away from the Old Dominion, the auto repair shop that I loathe.

I placed my helmet and safety pads on the bike before reaching for my household key. The lights were on inside so I guess my parents are still awake? Most likely it was my mom staying up to greet me when I finally got back. However since I would always return late into the night it becamr an unhealthy habit of hers.

As much as I want to go inside, get a bath going and just faint on the floor, I paused right outside the front door. Questions racked my brain. One look from Mom would most likely have her know I got caught up in something. If she asks questions how am I going to explain it to her? What kind of plausible sounding cover story can I come up with? And then there was the question of what does my parents know about Kotori. Far as I know, they don't know I done some work for her family.

However all that wasn't the least of my concerns. The main issue at hand would be the ones who stole my precious bikes. Those bikes was 'born' from my hatred towards those loud and crude sounds from a typical motorcycle's engine. Especially if they was owmed by those physchopaths who get a kick out of revving it for no reason. About a year or two ago my dad and I invented a special prototype bike designed to be more quieter then the common commerical bikes.

However while we did succeed somewhat in making the basic sleek frames we never tested them out, and only had made three

of them. Unlike the videos however there was atleast five or six...which meant somebody got the design from somewhere and made extras....

Dad...you didn't.....my mind spiralled into a dark thought.

[ "Think straight you idiot! Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement!" ]

Heh...even though he wasn't here Zeno still found a way to scold and help me out. I took in one deep breath, and emptied my mind. Steady yourself Ohgi. Calm your emotions and start thinking about this logically

....

.....

...Are there any other possiblites?

....

....

...There is another way the enemy could have gotten my bikes. My grandparent's old junkyard way on in yonder. It was private land that we owned, but its not like we got survellieance cameras and guards patrolling the vicinity. All you gotta do is scale a tall wall and shortcircuit the electric entrance gate from the inside and boom you and your fellow thieves are in.

At any case I gotta take some time off soon and check the yard. Maybe this weekend perhaps. While it is easy to break in, that doesn't mean I won't be able to find other signs of an unauthorized entry. For right now, I can't let my mind jump to conclusions.After exiting that train of thought on the last juncture, I finally entered the house.

~~~

"I'm home." I spoke with what little vigor I had left. "Welcome back sweetie!" would be what my Mom would reply with as she comes to give me a hug, but looks like she wasn't downstairs tonight. Instead it was my Dad who was chilling in the living room enjoying a small cigar while watching the news. "Oh for fuck's sake."

I took of my shoes and laid down my backpack at the nearest table before coming up to him. "Dad!" I called out to him with a remark. His body jolted upwards as some cigar ashes spilled onto the carpet. "JESUS BOY! YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK!?"---"No, but I'm trying to make sure you don't get lung cancer!" His sudden outburst of tone quickly died down.

"The whole point of quitting an addiction is to stop buying this stuff!"

Father scratched the side of his cheek and adverted his gaze on me. Thankfully my Dad wasn't a drug addict like most of the people on the shady side of this city. However he did have a moderate tedency to start smoking. If it was left unchecked by me or Mom he would start losing self control and go to the point of no return. Which meant we would need to get him on a program to quit. A program that won't fit in our budget. This moment in particular was probably a close call.

"What have I told you about smoking inside the house? You can start a fire in here if you aren't careful!" With the way how I was addressing him along with his manner, one would think I was the dad scolding my own son. I grabbed the ash tray and extended it over to his mouth. "Come on. Hand it over."

"Yeah yeah.....I get it. Just leave me alone would you...." I calm myself as I gather together the small mess he made. All the way while glancing over my father.

My Dad was forty nine years old. He had a tall and imposing features and was well fit for someone his age. He had a thick beard that wrapped around his upper lip. Sometimes he forgets to keep it shaved. However despite his meancing look he actually was a gentle giant or "oversized teddy bear" according to my Mom.

He isn't a pushover and can get serious like a normal person, but his default emotion usually remained in neutral or happy. Tonight it was 'neutral tired'. Him and my Grandpa were the one who taught me everything I knew about vehicles and other assortment of various electral systems.

"Thanks kid. Let me handle the mess."----"Its alright. You just relax okay?"-----"If anyone needs to relax...its you."

....Did I mention that my Dad was one of the persecptive bunch? I avert my gaze and look towards a nearby mirror. My expression was written with exhuastion with a tinge of panic and suspicion. Shit.....I couldn't fake a normal demenor properly. I tried to fix it while my back was turned to him, but Dad was watching me through the mirror..... Was he on to something?

My attention turned towards the TV. Looks like it was more news reports of drive by incidents and other property damage. In fact one of the places was familar to us. A minor collections of warehouses by the city bay was looted, with bloody corspes and used ammunition littering the pavement.

It was a tragic sight, but it wasn't something that really caught our attention, until the news reporter said the name of the company. [ "Takashi Enterprise Inc," ]

"!!?"

If I had a cup of water in my mouth at this moment, our poor TV would have been soaked to the bone. Takashi....so they took a hit towards the stock they had stored away to accumlate value. Even if it was only a minor warehouse compared to the rest they heavily guarded, those items and resources they had stowed behind would serve to add as funds to fuel the next decade of their work.

Hell if you had the right connections and played your cards correctly, you could easily pocket a rough estimate of say a quick million or two.

Sure the damages was minute in the face of a multibillionare business, but they wasn't the type to tolerate any type of loss in profit. Plus if this involves affairs with any other gangs or rival affliations then this would easily stir up media and nine times out of ten they would be the next 'subject to research' by the press. In other words their higher ups were probably more worried about others trying to get a sneak peek on their private matters more so then the actual attack itself.

Funny thing is they have the wealth, and the power to sweep this whole matter under the rug. It would just require a bit of bribery to hush the major media services. At the end of the day all of this would probably just result in being an inconvient chore for them to handle.

Hell, I dare say I got money on here, saying this whole incident won't see the light of day in two days tops. Even still I chuckled slightly at the news.

"Just what they deserve..." Cold and harsh words fell of my lips.

"Alright that's enough murders to look at for one night." Father responded. The TV flickered off by the hands of the remote. He rubbed stroked his face, rubbing off some sleep off his eyes. "How was your day?"

"Decent. Got into another tussle though."----"You kick their ass?"----"I helped 'rearrange' a bone or two, yeah."----"That's my boy!" He chuckled heartily, but it eventually lead to him coughing up a small storm.

Looks like my Dad wanted to enjoy a little relaxing talk with me, however my mind still wasn't free of thoughts that racked me earlier..... if he truly did sold those bikes of ours to somebody else, then he would be partily responsible for why I almost died tonight.

I attempted to cut the converstation short by the premise of 'I need a bath and dinner' but I did have one question to ask him. "Hey Dad?" I paused in motion, my eyes nowhere near meeting his. "Whats up?"----"Do you know a person by the name of Kotori?"

A long silence befell the house. Tension rose up like low hanging fog. For a majority of that silence I didn't look at his face, but I was curious to what expression he made. After wondering what he was doing, I got curious enough to look back.

".....!?"

His manner looked a bit puzzled, even his brow was raised at the question. He replied with a simple "why?", but his eyes.....his eyes told the full story. His orange eyes pierced right through me like a single well forged knife struck me dead in my head. They was filled with caution, suspicion, and yet power. That gaze he gave off told me this....

"Whose asking?"

~~~~

Its been about one full hour after I got home. I took me a nice long bath to try help me relax from the tension. To be on the safe side I made sure to lock my bedroom and, bathroom door along with the windows and the blinds closed. I even went the long mile and hung up a black curtain on it to block out any sign of my bedroom light being on. For all I could know, someone might got a sniper trained on me.

After ensuring some sort of privacy and security I relaxed a bit. My heart was racing....

That moment with Father....that was the the first time he looked at me so intensely. The pressure from that gaze made me just want to leave. He did respond with a "why" to which I returned with a "no reason, just curious" before fleeing the scene.

Why did he glare at me like that?.....no....you're not a dense main character Ohgi. It should be obvious! Just piece together some facts and you'll understand the truth! I took a seat on my bed and let my mind wander.

All I would have to do is just recall what Kotori said about 'knowing my parents'.

My Dad, or Mom for that matter also doesn't know I have some history with their family seeing as how I worked a couple of 'jobs' for them.

Thinking of these two facts then there would only be two reasons I can come up with why he glared at me.

The first possiblity would be that my Dad does know Kotori but doesn't know I too have my own connections with her as well. That would could put him on edge, and have him addressing me with a gaze meant to understand the full picture that I was conflicted to bring up.

The second would be he does know Kotori to some degree and is aware I worked with her in the past. If that was the case then it wouldn't be surprising if he addressed me with a serious face and tone seeing as how Kotori's family is a dangerous topic to bring up. Especially when you consider the state of our household....and Takashi.

Honestly....both of these options are pretty accurate. The only problem was without any more conclusive evidence there is a high chance that all of this is just me specluating.

I rubbed my cranium and face. Tension was rising again, and a serious headache started forming. The one thing I know is that only thinking about this right now would just be pointless.

For now though I had to decide between two different course of action I should take.

Both of them have their own set of pros and cons. Tommorrow is a school day so I should be able to meet with Kotori one last time before the weekend is here. If I want to, I can go ask her what she knows of my parents. If I do this, I would be travelling down the road of what could be going behind the scenes and understand the bigger picture.

The only problem is that this option is a high risk option with a possible low return. If she decided, she can just lie straight to my face, cut the converstation short and I wouldn't have any way to prove or learn otherwise. And even if she did tell me the things I wanted to learn she would become aware that I was snooping around for information. Her caution around me would rise and if the worst case scenario happened, I probably would have ended up dead by 'natural causes'. And thats not even taking into account if my father COULD be working with her.

The other option is quite simple though highly anticlimatic. It is as follows.

"Mind your own fucking business."

Simple, short and straight to the point. That was more my speed, and in this case it would keep me alive. If I went with option A, the result would be the equivalent of a group of highschoolers trying to see if the rumored haunted full of demons....really was full of demons.

Besides even if my Dad did work with Kotori, what would be the harm? I did the same shit with her and he never peered into my personal matters. So why should I?

I'm the type of guy who rather be kept in the dark in a place where its safe, rather then sticking my head out in places where I don't belong.

"Do what your told, or need to do. Finish the work and get your reward owed. Leave and don't ask questions." Believe it or not this philsophy of mine is how I managed to stay alive this long.

I'm sure in the eyes of the other naive minded people who think the world is all rainbows filled with potential at every corner, they would see this as nothing more but as sheepish cowardice. However this is the real world folks. Reality plays no games and when it comes to the world behind the scenes, getting a reality check there is the equivalent of losing a limb....or four.