thebigfella
B all N all
TAK & HIACHI
SCENE:
Being Broke 101 (Pre-Arc 3)
LOCATION:
West District, Hiachi's Apartment
PARTICIPANTS:
Tak, Hiachi (
miki
)
miki
)BEING BROKE 101
“When you’re so low to the ground, you start to really understand how things work.”
The recognizable tone and timbre of a brute opened the scene, the perspective slowly moving down from its position up high of Hiachi’s apartment complex to finally reach the ground level, finally ending to show the pair standing on the sidewalk.
With his hands in his pocket, casual as ever, Tak looked at the smaller Hiachi with a laid-back look and a lack of life in his dull eyes.
“Think of stuff that lives on the ground. Worms, snails, turtles, babies. They’re pretty damn slow, aren’t they?” Tak asked the question towards Hiachi, leaning in closer as his eyes widened for emphasis.
Hiachi still had no idea what the hell this man was going on about. He started off sounding like he would make sense—but then he started listing organisms and he had completely lost her. She didn’t know what was going on—in fact, she didn’t even know what his name was.
But now he was waiting for an answer, and they were getting nowhere if she just remained silent. “...I guess? But what does that have to do with me having no money…?”
“Point being, Hibachi, you’re like a slug. A beady-eyed, gooey, slimy black slug. And slugs like you can’t eat trash all day and be happy! You need stuff like… lettuce and such. Do you feel me!?” He exclaimed, leaning in closer to the point their foreheads were nearly mashed against each other.
“My name is Hiachi…” She mumbled.
“Anyway,” Tak began, ignoring what Hiachi said as he leaned backward, briefly closing his eyes in thought. “If you’re gonna be crawling around all day, you gotta learn how to do it without feelin’ like a slug, even if you are one. It’s all about the mindset.”
Sliding a hand out of his pocket and raising a hand beside his face, his eyes snapped open as his hands spread to splay 5 fingers wide.
“In the lifestyle of being broke, there are 5 main lessons you must follow if you hope to live a fulfilling life covered in dirt! Each lesson follows one of the five tenets of brokenness! Brought to you by Professor Tak!” So he preached, showing enthusiasm he hadn’t displayed since smashing into her door, visible black streaks appearing in the air as he shouted.
Turning away from Hiachi, his track jacket flowed delayed against his motion, floating behind him like a brilliant cape as he glanced at Hiachi over his shoulder, a gleam tracing over his eye. His surroundings became black, and he was engrossed in a cloudy blue.
Unlike before, words left his lips in sage-like resonance, like tea leaves flowing down a river of pink petals. “Come with me, and I shall show you your first lesson.”
Hiachi stood awkwardly on the edge of the sidewalk, pupils moving side to side to avoid looking directly at him. This way, she could see everything around him. The strangers on the sidewalk simply moved around him, unwilling to give him a fraction of their attention. Hiachi didn’t want to be clumped in with the weird man crouching in the middle of a walking path, but she had chosen this. And he had done her the favor of not killing her. So she gave him a vague nod of the head.
With that, Tak walked forward…
Only a few steps, stopping in front of his scooter and bringing one leg over to hop on top of it. He quickly grabbed the helmet in front of him, bringing it up and holding it above his head before slamming it down with a *pop*, swallowing his messy hair entirely. Despite how intimidating he looked before, he looked like a total dork with his helmet on.
With a turn towards Hiachi, he patted the back of his seat, surprisingly friendly and polite. “Come on, hop on,” he invited her. Considering how brash he had been up to now, it was a change of pace. Plus, it seemed he cared enough for motor safety to wear a helmet. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all?
That said, Hiachi had never ridden any sort of motor vehicle. She approached it cautiously, standing awkwardly stagnant as she squinted at the scooter.
In return for her squint at his moped, Tak cocked his eyes at her in return, confused by her behavior.
“What the hell are you starin’ at it all weird for! Are you afraid it’s gonna fall apart or something? I just took it to the mechanic last year, so don’t worry!” Tak assured her, patting his scooter to punctuate his point.
The slight jostle was enough to cause one of his mirrors to snap loose, falling onto the ground and shattering.
“...Anyway, just get on and hold onto something. Just make sure you don’t let go, whatever it is.” Tak ignored what happened, shifting to look forward as he expected Hiachi to board his raggedy scooter, “Once you do, we can get started.”
She didn’t like being scolded, so Hiachi lifted her leg over the back of the scooter and hopped up on the seat. She wasn’t very concerned about the broken mirror—her dad insisted on driving a car with busted rear lights longer than she had been alive.
She herself didn’t have a helmet, but she wasn’t really thinking about that either. It wasn’t like it was a sports motorcycle, right? She doubted they would be going that fast.
What was it that he said? Hold onto something? There wasn’t really anything to hold onto, other than the man in front of her, and she didn’t feel comfortable grabbing onto a stranger.
Though, there was one thing that gave her a twinge of concern. This really didn’t feel like the same man who had just busted in her door, and to Hiachi, that was a problem. She couldn’t place why it bothered her, but a feeling struck her saying it should.
Feeling the slight bounce on the back of his scooter as his new student finally got aboard his ride, Tak reached up to grab the goggles resting above the bill of his helmet, bringing it down over his eyes as the thick protective acrylic hid his eyes.
“Listen up!” He hollered, making sure Hiachi’s attention was on him as he reached ahead and grabbed onto the handles of his scooter, pulling on the triggers to let the engine roar to life, tiny puffs of gas coming out the exhaust.
“When you’re down to your last cent, there’s one thing you gotta always keep in mind whatever you’re doing! It’s the first tenant of Broke 101!”
A black paint streak splashed across the screen as text slammed down on top of it.
“TIME IS MONEY!”
“Wait, what——!”
With a twist of Tak’s hands, the wheels skidded against the road, rubber burning from the heat of the friction and kicking up smoke and pebbles, before the acceleration pushed the scooter out from its parking spot in a burst of speed, soaring down the residential road as the colors blurred together and wind rippled the eardrums.
Wind flowed through the openings of Tak’s clothing, his white shirt scrunching in the wind while his track jacket flapped around wildly. His focus was kept forward on the road, his body leaning forward as he put all his weight into the ride ahead.
“EVERY SECOND COUNTS IN THIS BUSINESS! IF YOU GOT SOMETHIN’ TO DO YOU GOTTA DO IT FAST! EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST IN YOUR WAYYYYYY!”
Tak shouted his lesson above the constant windforce as the pair sharply turned a corner, the momentum carrying them ahead as the whole scooter tipped sideways, almost like it was about to crash, just for it to straighten back out, leaving a trail of dust behind.
All the previous assumptions Hiachi had made were proving to be one of the worst mistakes she had ever made. She had nearly fallen off the bike from the force of the startup, and was now only balancing from the sheer speed they were going. Her stomach had dropped into a state of dread and anxiety, and her head was buzzing with panicked static. To keep herself from flying off the bike, she abandoned her preconceived notions about personal space and locked her arms around his abdomen.
She started screaming at the top of her lungs. “WHY ARE WE GOING SO FAST!? WE’RE GONNA DIE.”
“DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME!? TIME IS MONEY! IF YOU AREN’T PREPARED TO SPEED THROUGH LIFE IT’S JUST GONNA PASS YOU BY! I READ THAT ON THE BACK OF A KID’S MENU!”
“THIS IS NOT WHAT THAT MEANT!”
The street ahead continued downhill, extra speed being found in the assistance of gravity as the wheels moved around in a constant motion. At the end of the road was a four-way intersection with a streetlight to guide traffic, the bright red bulb pointed directly at the two as cars rode past.
“Traffic already! Damn! Wasn’t expecting to have to get serious this early!” Tak growled about the oncoming cars, leaning forward more as his eyes narrowed behind his goggles, a toothy grin spreading across his features. “Guess I’m gonna have to go right through it!”
“WHAT——!”
Hiachi should have known. This was the same man who had reduced her front door to pieces mere moments ago.
HE IS INSANE.
She couldn’t get off, because the force with which she would be stopping would probably kill her. Asking him to stop was futile. All she could do was pray today wasn’t the day she would die in a motor accident.
“ORRRAAAHHHHH!” Tak bellowed his roar of confidence as he twisted on the handles of his scooter, turning up the heat as the engine shot out a cloud of smoke. It accelerated faster and faster as it approached the intersection, the blur of cars ahead.
Time seemed to slow as the pair grew closer, showing a close-up shot of Tak’s crazed smile and Hiachi’s terrified expression before showing the perspective above as the scooter sped towards the intersection.
In one smooth motion, without stopping, it blazed through the middle. Appearing as segments across the visuals were the different expressions of the drivers, each realizing what was going on and looking shocked in unison as they promptly slammed on the brakes.
Screeching tires and burnt rubber kept Tak and Hiachi from splattering across the pavement in a mess of metal, flesh, and bones as the scooter flew forward and left the chaos behind.
“Heh! I was almost worried there for a second!” Tak gloated about his success with a grin. Then, back to smooth sailing and even ground, Tak cruised through the residential streets. His eyes lit up in realization for a moment, realizing he felt a weird pressure around his waist, almost like he had a seatbelt.
He glanced down to see Hiachi’s arms wrapped tightly around him, “Oi, oi! You’re holdin’ on pretty tight there! I didn’t scare the piss outta ya, did I? Because if so, you’re cleaning it up!” Tak questioned Hiachi’s status, at least having the sense to keep his eyes on the road as he did.
Hiachi was too stunned to speak. What the hell is he talking about? He just ran right through traffic—who WOULDN’t be scared!?
Him, apparently.
“I can’t feel my heartbeat anymore.”
“Well, don’t worry too much. We’re almost there because I’m aboutta take a shortcut,” Tak divulged his plan, snapping a finger before pointing forward. The only problem was that there was no road ahead. Instead, a wide-open gate led directly into a skate park!
He wasn’t gearing up to turn, so that either meant Hiachi was about to experience the sharpest turn of her life, or they were headed straight for a skate park. You know, ones with people in them.
“No. No. No. No. No.” Hiachi mindlessly repeated the phrase, her tone becoming more and more panicked with every second he wasn’t turning.
“Calm down Hibachi! You're in safe hands! I’ve only gotten into 10 crashes in the past year!”
Unstopping, Tak sped through the gate into the skate park, blazing a trail as he watched the surprised skaters dodge out of the way of being hit, watching in shock.
His expression didn’t change as they dipped into one of the bowls, the momentum of going down then soaring upward, causing the scooter to hop up in the air and slam back onto the solid ground.
“Man, I don’t get how people enjoy stuff like this,” Tak sounded completely uninterested as he drove the scooter up a pair of stairs, causing it to shake and vibrate as the wheels kept moving up and down until they finally reached the top of a ramp. Then, everything went silent as he loosened his grip on the handles, allowing the contrasting peacefulness of the surroundings to take over. Birds were chirping as a gentle breeze flew past, but the impending doom of the massive ramp ahead of them was prominent.
Hiachi looked around wildly, unable to take in any of the serenity. This was it—it was over. She couldn’t ever breathe correctly anymore.
Reduced to tears, Hiachi started banging her head on Tak’s back. She hated having to actually fear for her life.
Even as he felt the impacts on his back, he didn’t bother to turn around and address it, his empty eyes blinking as he stared forward. “Looks like there’s a bit of turbulence.”
Without care, Tak turned the handle to send the scooter forward; it quickly built up speed and careened down the massive ramp, leaving a streak of rubber in its wake as it finally reached the end and took off, flying across the air like Santa’s sleigh.
And just like that, Hiachi was in a state of shock. She sat without saying anything. The dread sat in her throat, but no reaction ever came. She watched the world go by, overcome with anxiety and a sense of understanding. What did she understand? She didn’t know. But it was certainly a horrible and clarifying feeling.
And then gravity happened.
“…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”
The scooter came crashing down as if it had been shot out from the sky, the rushing air blowing everything upward as it was pulled down to the surface. It seemed like they were prepared to crash and burn, as if Tak had decided to clip his wings, slam into the pavement, and bring Hiachi along with him.
A sudden abrupt slam shook the scooter and caused both of them to pop off the seat slightly as the force traveled through the wheels to the scooter. They had once again hit something solid, but from how high they had flown, it couldn’t have been a road, couldn’t it?
The sound of wood cracking under the weight of the scooter spoiled it before Hiachi even got a chance to realize she wasn’t dead and look around; wooden shingles getting tossed and splintered under the wheels of Tak’s scooter as he drove across someone’s roof.
“Ehhhh!?” Maybe Hiachi shouldn’t have been confused at this point, but it was too damn ridiculous to ignore. “Why are we on a ROOF.”
He rose up one side and dove down another to leap across to the next roof that moved down the slope, sending debris that landed on the sidewalk and cracked windows as the scooter jumped rooftop to rooftop like some kind of video game. This continued for 3 blocks, and, with trained accuracy, Tak committed numerous property damage that would cause any homeowners association to implode.
After a long continuous journey of breaking numerous street laws and going against all conventions, Tak drove the scooter off one roof to careen back down onto the solid ground with a slight bounce, moving only a short distance to park the scooter on a dead patch of grass, letting go of the handles and reaching up to take off his helmet.
“We’re here,” He stated, turning over to look at what their apparent destination was.
Hiachi almost fell off the scooter. There was a considerable part of her that wanted nothing more than to fall to the floor and merge with it—and never rise from the ground again. But she had made it this far, and her pride refused to let her vegetate in the middle of a public space. She turned her head in the direction that Tak was facing.
It was a two-story apartment complex placed awkwardly between the numerous rows of standard residential housing. Its lawn was nonexistent, replaced with sand and dead grass that was only decorated by a gravel path that led to the pair of rusted green steps toward the second floor. Some doors had bullet holes, and others had faded numbers and rusted door knobs. Spiderwebs hung to every crevice you could imagine, and the bricks had become stained by numerous graffiti marks.
“My apartment.”
Hiachi’s mouth was a straight line. She didn’t mean to be judgemental, but she was starting to understand why Tak claimed to be such an expert on being broke. It looked abandoned. There was certainly no one around to maintain the building.
But Hiachi didn’t have anything nice to say, and she wasn’t about to pretend she did. She looked back and forth between Tak and the building without saying anything. Not showing negativity or positivity, rather just exhausted by how stress-inducing the last minutes of her life had been.
Crossing his arms with a neutral frown, Tak glanced back at Hiachi, “I bet you’re wondering why I brought you here. But don’t worry, it will all be revealed soon.”
His head turned back towards his apartment, his expression intensifying with deep shading and a sheen over his eyes as he scowled.
“The intense lesson 2 is about to begin! This one’s the most dangerous, so get prepared!”
Once again, like someone dragged an over-saturated brush across the screen, it appeared as a blotch, bold font popping on top of it.
“SAVE FOR THE FUTURE!”
After Tak’s enthusiastic shout and introduction to the apparent second part of this ongoing curriculum, the perspective swapped to one of the apartment doors, snappily zooming in on its cracking veneer and chipping paint, before it abruptly slammed open.
“STOP ALL THE SHOUTING OUT HERE, YOU FILTHY MUTT!”
Hiachi physically jumped at the noise before turning 180º to look in the direction of the sound. Blaring with irritation toward Tak as soon as she opened the door, her eyes already bloodshot without even having looked at him was an elderly lady with her graying black hair tied up in a knot, a large mole on the side of her face accompanied her loose wrinkly skin, and dried lips that were only moisturized slightly by the purple lipstick she wore. Wearing a white robe with slippers and a still lit cigarette between his fingers, it's clear she had just been interrupted in the middle of her leisure time.
“HOOOOH!? YOU STILL HAVEN’T KICKED THE BUCKET YET, YOU OLD HAG!?”
Tak responded to the direct vexation with his own malice, the color gone from his eyes as his teeth went jagged like a demon as he dragged himself off his scooter, stomping over towards the elderly lady with the same gait and posture as if facing off against a powerful foe.
“HUHHH!?” The woman wasn’t deterred by his approach, sporting her own riled expression as she had gone completely blind with anger as well, the ashes falling from her cigarette as she began to walk towards him fearlessly. “I’M SURPRISED YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY BEEN SHOT AND LEFT TO DIE IN ALLEY, YOU DAMN LEECH!”
Their heads reeled back in unison, just to fly forward and slam into each other's forehead, mashing against each other in equal force as they raged at each other like two rabid dogs.
“WHO THE HELL YA CALLIN’ A LEECH!?”
Tak tried to dominate the scenario, pushing his head forward to gain a bit of momentum, only for a second before the old bag responded back with her own force, her loud rebuttal dwarfing his size.
“THE IDIOT WHO STILL OWES ME THREE MONTHS WORTH A RENT, THAT’S WHO! YOU’RE LUCKY I HAVEN’T TOSSED YOUR ASS TO THE CURB YET!”
Tak gritted his teeth at the landlady as she verbally trampled all over him, his left eyebrow twitching as she shouted, but as soon as she stopped speaking he spat back his own venom, his head growing in size to show his upper-hand.
“I TOLD YOU I’LL GET IT TO YOU DAMNIT! IT’S NOT AS IF YOU COULD TOSS ME OUT ANYWAY! WHO THE HELL WOULD WANT TO LIVE A TRASH HEAP LIKE THIS ANYWAY!?”
To a bystander, the scenario must have looked insane—Hiachi knew this because she was currently bystanding and almost considered if she had died on the ride there and was now stuck in purgatory. Using her basic self-preservation skills, she stood awkwardly on the sidelines, eyeing the duo as they continued bickering.
Tak’s superiority only lasted a small minute, before the landlady matched his same energy, both of them going back to being equally matched as visible sparks shot off between their eyes.
“YOU'RE THE ONE LIVING IN THE TRASH, SO WHAT DOES THAT MAKE YOU!? A POSSUM? A RAT? OR A ROACH!? SOMEONE AS USELESS AS YOU DESERVES TO LIVE HERE!”
“USELESS? BIG TALK FROM A LADY WHO’S OVARIES DRIED UP A CENTURY AGO!”
It was those words that when they left Tak’s mouth that the atmosphere suddenly changed, the surroundings visibly grew darker.
Tak took a cautious step back, watching first hand a vicious dark aura began to emanate from the landlady’s body, a red glow flashed into her eyes as she hunched over, his fists clenched as she brought them in towards her body, before raising her head upward as her neck muscles strained.
“DAIIISSSYYYYYYYY!”
With a roar she called out a cutesy name, one that Tak immediately realized and caused him to defensively raise an arm in front of him, a wavy, nervous smile on his face as his right eye twitched.
From the shadows of the landlady’s door, a pair of deep crimson eyes sparked to life near the ground, a rumbling growl accompanying them. before a ferocious dog burst out from her apartment, the spiked collar it wore and muscular frame completely contrasting its cute name.
Tak immediately turned on his heel, taking off like a sprint as he dashed away, blitzing past Hiachi, only leaving behind a gust of wind.
“RUNNNNN!” Tak shouted behind him, as Daisy charged right towards Hiachi, drool pooling out from its sharp teeth as it barked and leaped towards her with its mouth wide open.
Fun fact about Hiachi—even though she’s a HP, she’s got the physicality of a twig. She’s fast, sure; but useless without a quick reaction time, and still weak. While a normal HP might be able to take a tackle from a dog, Hiachi can’t. So it’s safe to say she half expected it when she was fully knocked over; but the other half let out a shriek before hitting the ground.
The only thing saving her from being mauled was an adrenaline induced instinct to lunge her hand at the dog’s mouth and attempt to clamp its jaw shut. Was it effective? Barely. But barely effective was enough for Hiachi to take her attention off the rabid dog to shout:
“HEY! GET BACK HERE!” Hiachi’s heart leapt out of her chest as Daisy’s jaws clamped open for a second, her bark echoing before the snarl she kept as her mouth was forced shut. “AND HELP ME!!”
Hiachi’s shrill cry for assistance caused Tak to look back over his shoulder, not at all slowing down as he had already begun to open his mouth and spout some excuse for why he couldn’t help Hiachi.
“HELP YOURSELF! IT’S SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST OUT HERE THAT’S LESSON 3!” He screamed towards her, completely ready to ditch her and let her be a chew toy for the dog, but just as he prepared to turn around, his eyes widened in realization, blinking before a smirk crawled across his face, incredibly diabolical as a shadow covered the half of his face, sharp jagged teeth accompanying his grin on the other half.
“CHANCE!”
Suddenly, Tak ran back, skidding to a stop as he kicked up dust to overdramatically point at the current scene going on, rather than helping Hiachi.
“Oi! Your rabid mutt is attacking her!” Tak stated clearly, before bringing his hands up to his mouth like a megaphone, “Witnesses!? Witnesses!? Does anybody else see this!?” He shouted as he spun around, making sure all eyes were on him, just before reaching out and pulling his phone out and snapping a bunch of pictures as he moved around left and right, bending his knees up and down as he did, the numerous flashes of his camera blasting Hiachi and Daisy as she was still being attacked.
The camera flashes only aggravated the dog even more. Every time Hiachi tried to push her off, she would double down with her claws.
“TAK!”
“Oh, man! This is really bad news! I think I see some blood! We might need to take her to the hospital! She might need stitches! Think of the emotional distress!” Tak continued to nail the point home as he continued to take pictures, just to calmly slide his phone away and--
“GET LOST YA MANGY MUTT!”
Abruptly swung his foot forward to slam right into Daisy’s side, the force causing the dog’s chest to compress and push out on the other side as the air around visibly vibrated, before momentum caught up and sent it flying through the air back towards its owner.
“DAISY!” The landlady screamed out in surprise, raising a hand in front of her mouth in shock as she watched her beloved dog fly through the air, and come crashing towards the ground, only for the dog’s eyes to suddenly open wide, spinning around midair like an experienced acrobat and landing on all four legs like a cat.
Seeing her precious pet was okay, her attention immediately turned to Tak, fury returning to her expression as cross-sectioned cartoonish veins appeared beside her head.
“Hey! Just what the hell do you think you’re doing attacking someone else’s pet!?” She fumed at Tak, but unlike last time when Tak met her anger with his own, instead, he stood there casually with his hands in his pockets, a disgustingly cocky grin on his face.
“Oi, oi. You sure you’re in a place to talk to me like that, hag?” Tak rhetorically questioned, taking one hand out of his pocket to run it through his messy hair, “After all…”
He suddenly held his phone in front of his face, its position in the scene covering half of his arrogant simper as a slideshow of the various angles of Hiachi getting attacked played by, “I got all of this evidence of your rabid dog trying to attack a poor innocent girl, after all!” He spoke with clear snark, his tone dripping with a vicious taste of conceit, “Hmm! I wonder what a judge would think of these pictures…”
The cigarette that was still between the old woman’s fingers fell to the ground as her expression went slightly pale, nervous sweat starting to form at her brow as she realized the situation at hand, “Now, now, there’s no need to get hasty…” She tried to calm the situation down, her aggressiveness leaving suddenly like she was a sweet old lady.
“Yeah, you’re right…” Tak let his overzealous vanity disappear from his expression as he nodded his head in agreement, looking at his landlord with a deadpan expression as he still held his phone in front of his face, “...I’ll delete a picture for every month of rent you let me not pay for,” he bluntly extorted with no remorse.
“Wha-- that’s basically robbery!” She quickly tried to argue against such a bold demand.
“Ohhh! Damn! I wanted to go ahead and delete the picture but instead, my fingers slipped to the “share” button! My fingers are just so sweaty from being around such a dangerous animal! I’m so damn nervous!” Tak continued to lay on the pressure, leaning backward as he dragged his finger across the screen.
“Fine! Fine! I get it! Just don’t share those pictureeeeesss!” The landlady submitted, reaching her hand out towards Tak as she pleaded for forgiveness. Immediately, Tak stopped what he was doing, sliding his phone into his pocket like nothing had happened.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” He said, giving a curt nod like a gentleman before walking back over toward Hiachi, leaving the old lady to drop her head and slump weakly as her dog nudged against her leg.
Tak didn’t even bother looking at Hiachi as he walked past, only acknowledging her with words. “C’mon, let’s move, there’s still a bunch more I gotta teach you.”
Hiachi swung her upper body off the dirt, pulse racing from the attack she just faced. She stared daggers into his back as he walked away.
What is wrong with him!?
But Hiachi didn’t end up saying anything. She just got up and dusted off the dirt she had accumulated on her clothes. She had to admit she was curious—what the hell was his plan!?
His plan? Well, that would be something Hiachi learned quickly that usually didn't exist, as the next few hours of her life would be ripe with the chaos of being dragged around to utter insanity.
As the focus panned to Hiachi’s face, watching her intrigue but also bewilderment, the scene would suddenly change.
Tak and Hiachi had shoved themselves underneath a pair of vending machines, their strained hands stretching out in unison to grab the last shimmering coin under the darkness.
“C’MON HIBACHI! YOU REALLY GOTTA REACH FOR IT! LIKE IT’S THE LAST COIN YOU NEED TO PAY FOR THE WASHING CYCLE IN A LAUNDROMAT!” Tak shouted enthusiastically towards Hiachi as his face smashed against the cold metal of the vending machine, shoving his arm far deep into the abyss as he could to try and get the last coin.
But Hiachi could see the coin within the darkness that was beneath the vending machine, and knew that there was no rational way she was getting to it. She rationally knew how ridiculous she looked. However, now she was committed to the silly mission, so she looked around for a stick she could use to poke the coin within grabbing distance.
She grabbed a long-ish stick and jammed it underneath the machine. It took a bit of angling, but eventually the coin skidded out from underneath the vending machine and glinted in the light. She walked to the other side to pick it up. Upon picking it up, the corners of her mouth tugged upwards as she brandished it like a kid. Of course, she almost instantly looked at the ground with a bit of shame before quickly tucking it in her pocket.
“Uh. I did it.”
Pulling himself out from the vending machine himself, Tak gave Hiachi an enthusiastic slap on the back, nearly knocking her forward. “Knew you had it in ya!”
With a large bundle of copper wire lifted above their heads, Hiachi and Tak were frozen in time in the middle of running away from a construction site, a whole drove of angered construction workers chasing behind them.
“Get back here you bastards!” One of the voices shouted out among the cacophony of angered shouts.
“Keep it movin’ Hibachi! Copper wire sells second-hand like crazy!” Tak explained the reason behind his crazy plan he had forced Hiachi in as the furious blue-collar workers were on their tail.
Hiachi kept looking forward and backwards repeatedly, trying to keep track of the distance between them and their pursuers. They had a good distance, but that was the lesser of Hiachi’s concerns. “How many of these involve running!?”
“As many times as we get caught! Keep those shrimp legs movin’!” Tak responded back, not making any attempt to reassure her as they pressed on.
Now the pair sat on a street corner, both wearing sunglasses and holding canes as if they were blind, a single plastic cup filled with coins and bills sitting in front of them as people moved past them and threw in their spare pocket change.
Tak placed a hand up to slightly tip down his sunglasses, glancing over toward Hiachi from the corner of his eye, “Keep the act up Hibachi! At this rate, we’ll be able to make a killing at the arcade!”
Hiachi adjusted the sunglasses as she felt a sweat drop form at her forehead. “Isn’t this… immoral? I feel like I’m stealing from actual blind people…”
“Don’t be an idiot!” Tak shot down her worry immediately, pressing his glasses back up as he crossed his arms, “Actual blind people get support from the government! We’re basically worse off than them!” He stated, clearly not worried about the moral issues.
After running around the West all day, dealing with Tak’s antics and numerous haphazard plans, the sun had finally set, the moon taking its place up high in the sky.
Tak gazed up at the sky without a care in the world, his hands in his pocket as usual as he strolled along a dimly lit alley, despite all he had been through his track jacket or white shirt wasn’t any more dirty than it had been when they started.
On the contrary, Hiachi looked more roughed up than she had in the morning. It’s not as if she started the day looking particularly nice, but it was now clear that she had been run through the dirt—quite literally. Her hair stuck up in a few places, and a few tiny scratches littered her skin. She kept her hands shoved in her pockets as she ambled next to him.
“Man, that sure was a lot. Things are a lot different when you’re doing it with someone else, we got a lot done today,” Tak boasted about their success with a slight smirk, before finally turning his attention downward to look over his shoulder at his partner in crime, “How you holdin’ up, Hibachi?”
“Never better thanks for asking,” Hiachi lied, all in one breath. She held a shaky thumbs up, even though it was clear that she was exhausted. Yes, she had just spent a week cocooned up in her room; But this was the most physical activity she had done in years. Her chest rose soft and slow, her exhaustion trying to lull her to sleep.
But she had a question, and not a forced one to fill the silence. She considered if it was impolite, and then promptly decided that she was too tired to argue with herself about social laws.
“You do this… every day?”
“Every day? Nah, how would I fit in naptime if I did all that shit all the time? I just did it to give ya some ideas,” The messy-haired ruffian explained, raising a hand to scratch through his scalp as he stopped walking, pausing as he closed his eyes and bore a disgruntled frown, almost as if he didn’t want to say what was gonna come out of his mouth.
“There’s gonna be times in between jobs where you ain’t got much money comin’ in, hell you’re gonna even have to take jobs that are crazier than what we did today and make even less, but it’s all part of the deal when you're a Tiger,” What seemed like genuine advice and consideration came from Tak’s mouth as he opened his eyes, “I just wanted to prepare you for what it’s like, in my own way, just from one rookie to another.”
“Oh.” Hiachi hadn’t really considered it before—you know, given that she had nearly died on multiple occasions—but he had gone out of his way to help her, hadn’t he? It was a nice sentiment, she supposed. But it soured with the notion that he was right, in a lot of ways. She felt as unprepared as she likely was. The last thing she had wanted was to be involved with the Tigers—but she ended up there anyway.
Tak let his hand drop from his head back down to his side, he let out a yawn, even though he didn’t show it, the number of things they had done seemed to affect him as well as he smacked his lips.
“Anyway, I’m gettin’ hungry, so let’s get a bite to eat. This will be your last lesson, and the most important one, so pay attention,” Tak warned her as he started walking once again.
Hiachi’s head fell like a ten ton weight fell on her neck. Another lesson didn’t sound nice. She felt like she could pass out at any second. But she was about to go three days without eating anything, so it would have been stupid to deny.
It wasn’t much of a saunter through the narrow and dimly lit alleys, walking past weeds that had formed out of the cracks of concrete and stray litter until finally, something had broken up the monotony of brick walls. Like an oasis in the distance, a brightly colorful lantern hung outside of a small hole-in-the-wall building, its design made up of numerous patterns and shapes, paper threads hanging from the bottom of the lantern as they shifted slightly in the wind.
Tak walked up to the door like he had been there many times before, not even bothering to look up at the old wooden sign propped above the sliding door that read “Zeyar Curry” in mudded and fading paint, the sound of it rolling across its rails accompanied the shifting perspective to show the door opening from the interior, slamming as it reached the end of the rail and Tak stepped in with his hands in his pockets.
The aroma of spices and savory broth flowed along with the warmer air that flowed outside. The slightly dirtied white tiles of the floor were covered with a welcome mat at its entrance, remnants of dead leaves and dried dirt matted through its fabric.
A small walkway split between both seating areas, a pair of wooden tables and chairs on his right, and the counter with bar stools, paintings of bright flowers adorned the walls, while a statue of the Buddha sat on the middle table.
In the middle of the restaurant was a tall man with white hair, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his lip as he held a broom in his hand, while sweeping up a small pile of dust before noticing the new entrants into his restaurant.
“Oh?” He perked up, leisurely raising himself off from his slouching position as he looked toward the door with a soft grin. “Well if it isn’t the neighborhood freeloader. Welcome.” He greeted Tak aloofly, as he let go of the broom to dust off his apron.
“Yeah, don’t act like you’re surprised to see me again,” Tak responded to the man’s jab, but for once his words didn’t hold any form of malice or bitterness.
Hiachi’s eyes were everywhere but right in front of her. She took in the warm interior design, out of a habit she made of absorbing her surroundings. The second she caught the smell of smoke and seasonings, she felt her mouth water.
Upon seeing the shorter girl follow Tak inside, the older man brought a hand to his chin, a minor amount of surprise dripping onto his face, “Hooh. Did you bring a chick with you? Been ages since the last time you did that, you finally gettin’ back in the game, huh? She’s different from your usual type,” He didn’t attempt to hide the snark in his tone as he watched Tak walk over to the counter and plop himself onto one of the wooden stools.
“Shut up. You know I got better taste than that.” Tak scoffed at the notion, resting his arms on top of the white-painted countertop, focusing his attention on the kitchen and the large steel pot bubbling on the stove, steam rising from its top as the flames bristled below. “Just give us both a bowl of the good stuff already,” Tak demanded.
“Let me guess,” The other man began, leaning on the handle of his broom as he returned to a casual simper, “You ain’t got any money to pay?”
“Course I don’t! Hurry up and start pouring some curry! I’m starving over here!” Tak snapped, glaring from out of the corner of his eye. Despite the hostile response, the white-haired man only chuckled in response, “Once a roach always a roach, huh? Comin’ right up,” he relented, pushing himself off his broom to walk into the kitchen.
Hiachi narrowed her eyes at Tak. Even if the atmosphere was relatively calm, Hiachi couldn’t get through the rest of the night without more bullshit.
And yet she sat, because she felt physically incapable of doing the impolite thing. She lightly swung her legs as she reflected on the day. Once she did, she felt as if she had come to her senses. This is ridiculous. Why am I here with a man who can’t stop himself from insulting me every two seconds? How did I get here?
Hiachi didn’t like thinking about that, so she decided to shift her focus to something else. She twiddled with her thumbs in her lap as she looked around again. She hadn’t been to a restaurant in a long, long time. It was a solemn memory, actually. The last one she had been in was the one where her father worked. The last time she saw him, or her mom, or her sister. It had the same latent life within its cracks and furniture.
Not such a great thought, either.
It didn’t register with Hiachi how deep in her mind she had gone, or how long it had been with only the machinery buzzing in the background.
There was a certain serenity at the moment, as Hiachi was occupied with her thoughts, and Tak wasn’t occupied with any, at least it seemed that way. He absentmindedly stared forward into the kitchen, watching as the food was prepared, the sound of the ladle stirring around in the pot before it was lifted out, the slightly red liquid being spooned into a black bowl.
“You gonna have your socks blown off by this shit,” Tak commented, turning to look at Hiachi as he leaned forward on the counter towards her, unintentionally breaking her out of her thoughts, “There ain’t no better curry in the country.”
“Don’t let him get your hopes too high little lady, Roach over there only says that because it's the only curry he’s ever had, he can’t afford anything else.” The white-haired man joked in the background as he loomed over the huge pot on the stove, the sounds of clattering utensils out of frame as his shoulders moved.
Hiachi couldn’t say anything to that—she was essentially in the same spot. So she nodded to acknowledge she heard him, but part of her remained lost within herself.
Tak clicked his teeth, crossing his arms as he sat back up straight on the stool, “It was always your old man who said it was the best in the country, Arkar,” he reminisced, seemingly soured by the fact Arkar wasn’t carrying on the tradition.
Arkar didn’t immediately respond, instead focusing on picking up the two bowls in front of him over to the counter, “I know, that’s why I don’t call it the best curry in the country. I still haven’t been able to figure out how to make it as good as him,” he explained, before placing the steaming bowls in front of them as the spoons dragged across the rim, “Even if it ain’t the best curry in the country, I hope you enjoy it.”
The curry had a bright orange color, and the smell of ginger, turmeric, and coriander was the most prominent among the numerous notes that emanated from the meal. Large chunks of chicken were piled in the center, garnished with scallions and fried shallots.
Tak immediately titled his head down toward the bowl and had begun to shovel the curry in his mouth, loudly slurping it up.
“Damn! It’s hot! It’s burning the fuck outta my tongue! But it’s so goddamn good I can’t stop!” He shouted, barely getting his words in between spoonfuls as he sent small splashes of broth everywhere.
Hiachi instinctively shielded away from the splashing. But she would be lying if she said she didn’t feel the same way on the inside. Her eyes were wide as she shoveled food in her mouth, losing the edge of her manners with every bite. The burn of the spices and temperature hurt fantastically.
In less than a minute, most of the solid food was gone. Hiachi lifted the bowl to her mouth and downed the broth like it was water, and she was one of the kids who forgot to bring a water bottle on field day.
She slammed down the bowl, shaking a bit. It was practically empty.
Watching Hiachi gobble down the bowl of curry even faster than Tak certainly was a surprise, Arkar’s mouth hung open as his cigarette threatened to drop out of his mouth, “Y-You musta been real hungry, huh…?” He weakly acknowledged Hiachi’s gluttony, then shook his head and snapped out of shock.
“So,” Arkar leaned against a nearby wall, pulling the cigarette out from his mouth to blow a puff of smoke as he held the cig between his fingers, “Why is someone like you hanging out with such a pain in the ass? He doesn’t just bring anyone here,” Arkar questioned, putting his cigarette back into his mouth.
Hiachi avoided his gaze. The one thing she failed to consider was covering up her affiliations.
“Uh…” Hiachi cringed at herself. “Uh. It all started when he broke my front door.”
Hiachi, out of habit, was incapable of telling full lies without preparation. If she got any detail wrong, she’d be finished. So it was best to start with something that was true. She wouldn’t blame Arkar if he didn’t believe it—but he probably would, considering he knew Tak long before she did.
“There’s no need to beat around the bush with him, Hibachi,” Tak abruptly forced his way into the conversation, looking at both of them from his position currently inside the bowl of curry, he stared at Hiachi for a pause, before moving his attention over to Arkar.
“That guy…he’s an ex-Tiger.”
Hiachi turned her head at a breakneck pace to face the man in question. She was glad she hadn’t fully lied, but still—she didn’t want to interact with even more Tigers if she could help it.
But that prefix, though. Ex. There was a way out of this?
“Man, can’t keep anything secret around you, huh?” Arkar quipped, giving a carefree shrug, then crossing his arms as he tilted his head forward in Hiachi’s direction, “Guess that means you're part of the Tigers? Hate to see a young girl like you gettin’ dragged into that mess.”
He leaned forward, bringing a hand up to shield his mouth from Tak’s view, but barely spoke above a whisper so he could easily hear it. “Too bad you ended up workin’ with Roach over there, huh? He’s a real pain.”
“I can hear you, bastard,” Tak growled at Arkar, wiping his mouth with his sleeve as he leered at the older man, Arkar only chuckled in response, standing back up straight, “Your lucky that you didn’t meet him 2 years ago, he probably woulda ripped your head off by now.”
Hiachi shuddered at the thought of her head being torn from her body, but she couldn’t really imagine the man in front of her doing it.
Hiachi tilted her head at the man, of whom looked as carefree as ever. “Ex-Tiger? How… did you leave?”
Hiachi's question caused Arkar to rub the back of his neck, his usual laid-back sneer disappearing as his mood visibly down turned, he was silent for a moment as he went to look up at the ceiling.
“I got lucky…” He began, blowing out a plume of smoke from his lips as the end of his cigarette sparked alive again, “I was one of the idiots who joined willingly by paying my way in. Wanted to be a big man, and make some real money instead of carrying on the family business, and almost got myself pulled into that “Spiral”, when you start wanting more and more that you’re takin’ more than you’re giving, losing more than you’re gainin’. By the time you’re at that point, it’s usually too late,” Arkar reminisced, hesitating to continue for a moment as he mulled over what to say next, glancing over at Tak “and by that point, you start to drag other people down into it with you.”
Tak averted his gaze from meeting Arkar’s, he seemed more intent to stare down into his lap, hands gripping tightly, clenched at the fabric of his pants, gritting his teeth. He kept himself from responding, even if he wanted to, a rare moment of humility for him.
The words weren’t hers to bear, but Hiachi felt the weight regardless. Her greatest fear at any given moment was death, but her deepest fear was dragging her family down with her. It haunted her—the idea that even three years of distance couldn’t save them from drowning if she sank.
Arkar watched Tak with a slight frown, sighing and closing his eye before continuing, “The only reason I got out when I did was just the perfect storm. I ended up taking a job that caused me to lose my eye…then my old man died a few days later,” Arkar opened his view up to the world once more, looking at both Tak and Hiachi before continuing, “I’ll spare you the sob story, but it was those two things that woke me up and helped me remember what was important. I got off easy because I had already lost enough as it is, the Tigers I worked for weren’t intent on letting a broken man keep workin’ for them, so long as I paid my debts.”
Taking his cigarette out of his mouth, and snuffing it into the ashtray on the counter, his white hair covered his eyes as he spoke again, “I don’t know what situation got you in the Tigers…but just make sure you avoid the “Spiral” at all costs,” he raised his head, the smoke from his recently snuffed cigarette floating above his face as he bore into Hiachi’s eyes.
“Never forget what’s important to you, little lady.”
And she wanted to take his advice—she wanted to follow this instruction to a T, and never face having to involve her family with her mess. But she just didn’t know. She wasn’t a Tiger by choice, and the risk was bigger and greedier. Unless she paid it off herself, her debt would spread like a disease. Hiachi was worth less dead than alive.
“Right. I… I’ll try.”
Before she could ask anything more, she was interrupted.
“And that ends the class!”
Tak abruptly interjected, suddenly standing behind Hiachi, placing both of his hands on her shoulders, “I didn’t think ya had it in you, but you passed Hibachi! If I carried around stickers, I’d give you a gold star!” Tak enthusiastically continued to pat her shoulders, to the point he was almost beginning to mash her into the stool.
She jumped up like a cat before being pushed back down on her seat. Then pushed again. Again. Hiachi’s face went startlingly pale from the shock of being slammed on the shoulders over and over.
“Ow…!”
Curbing his excitement, Tak stepped back and slid his hands into his pockets, a sly smirk on his face, “Man, can’t believe we got to this point from me debating on caving in your face and calling it a day. Goes to show ya never know where life will lead you, or somethin’ like that! Broke 101 was a great success!” Tak crowed about the success of his curriculum, casually skirting by his violent statement, starting to laugh as he placed his hands on his hips.
Arkar stood there entirely confused about what was going on, blinking as he tried to piece together what Tak was talking about, “Broke…101?” He reiterated, before slowly turning his gaze to Hiachi, “What’s he talkin’ about?”
Hiachi returned the blank stare back at Arkar. Right. What was he talking about anyway? A saga where she was taught the ins and outs of being… broke.
“Ahahaha.” Hiachi started to laugh. “Hahahaha!”
She slapped her knees; it wasn’t really that funny.
“AHAHA! Haha… Haah…”
And Hiachi’s unconscious head hit the counter with a thunk!
Tak’s guffawing stopped immediately as Hiachi’s skull cracked against the counter, his head snapping over to look at her with eyes as big as saucers.
“Hibachi!?”
He quickly rushed over to her, attempting to shake her.
“Hibachi! HiBACHI!” He continued to jostle her, but received no response, she was gone.
“HIBACHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”
Arkar looked on with a nervous sweat going down the side of his face, a half-smirk as he watched the scene play out.
“I don’t think that’s her name…”
The final perspective showed the outside of the restaurant, before everything faded to black.
“When you’re so low to the ground, you start to really understand how things work.”
The recognizable tone and timbre of a brute opened the scene, the perspective slowly moving down from its position up high of Hiachi’s apartment complex to finally reach the ground level, finally ending to show the pair standing on the sidewalk.
With his hands in his pocket, casual as ever, Tak looked at the smaller Hiachi with a laid-back look and a lack of life in his dull eyes.
“Think of stuff that lives on the ground. Worms, snails, turtles, babies. They’re pretty damn slow, aren’t they?” Tak asked the question towards Hiachi, leaning in closer as his eyes widened for emphasis.
Hiachi still had no idea what the hell this man was going on about. He started off sounding like he would make sense—but then he started listing organisms and he had completely lost her. She didn’t know what was going on—in fact, she didn’t even know what his name was.
But now he was waiting for an answer, and they were getting nowhere if she just remained silent. “...I guess? But what does that have to do with me having no money…?”
“Point being, Hibachi, you’re like a slug. A beady-eyed, gooey, slimy black slug. And slugs like you can’t eat trash all day and be happy! You need stuff like… lettuce and such. Do you feel me!?” He exclaimed, leaning in closer to the point their foreheads were nearly mashed against each other.
“My name is Hiachi…” She mumbled.
“Anyway,” Tak began, ignoring what Hiachi said as he leaned backward, briefly closing his eyes in thought. “If you’re gonna be crawling around all day, you gotta learn how to do it without feelin’ like a slug, even if you are one. It’s all about the mindset.”
Sliding a hand out of his pocket and raising a hand beside his face, his eyes snapped open as his hands spread to splay 5 fingers wide.
“In the lifestyle of being broke, there are 5 main lessons you must follow if you hope to live a fulfilling life covered in dirt! Each lesson follows one of the five tenets of brokenness! Brought to you by Professor Tak!” So he preached, showing enthusiasm he hadn’t displayed since smashing into her door, visible black streaks appearing in the air as he shouted.
Turning away from Hiachi, his track jacket flowed delayed against his motion, floating behind him like a brilliant cape as he glanced at Hiachi over his shoulder, a gleam tracing over his eye. His surroundings became black, and he was engrossed in a cloudy blue.
Unlike before, words left his lips in sage-like resonance, like tea leaves flowing down a river of pink petals. “Come with me, and I shall show you your first lesson.”
Hiachi stood awkwardly on the edge of the sidewalk, pupils moving side to side to avoid looking directly at him. This way, she could see everything around him. The strangers on the sidewalk simply moved around him, unwilling to give him a fraction of their attention. Hiachi didn’t want to be clumped in with the weird man crouching in the middle of a walking path, but she had chosen this. And he had done her the favor of not killing her. So she gave him a vague nod of the head.
With that, Tak walked forward…
Only a few steps, stopping in front of his scooter and bringing one leg over to hop on top of it. He quickly grabbed the helmet in front of him, bringing it up and holding it above his head before slamming it down with a *pop*, swallowing his messy hair entirely. Despite how intimidating he looked before, he looked like a total dork with his helmet on.
With a turn towards Hiachi, he patted the back of his seat, surprisingly friendly and polite. “Come on, hop on,” he invited her. Considering how brash he had been up to now, it was a change of pace. Plus, it seemed he cared enough for motor safety to wear a helmet. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all?
That said, Hiachi had never ridden any sort of motor vehicle. She approached it cautiously, standing awkwardly stagnant as she squinted at the scooter.
In return for her squint at his moped, Tak cocked his eyes at her in return, confused by her behavior.
“What the hell are you starin’ at it all weird for! Are you afraid it’s gonna fall apart or something? I just took it to the mechanic last year, so don’t worry!” Tak assured her, patting his scooter to punctuate his point.
The slight jostle was enough to cause one of his mirrors to snap loose, falling onto the ground and shattering.
“...Anyway, just get on and hold onto something. Just make sure you don’t let go, whatever it is.” Tak ignored what happened, shifting to look forward as he expected Hiachi to board his raggedy scooter, “Once you do, we can get started.”
She didn’t like being scolded, so Hiachi lifted her leg over the back of the scooter and hopped up on the seat. She wasn’t very concerned about the broken mirror—her dad insisted on driving a car with busted rear lights longer than she had been alive.
She herself didn’t have a helmet, but she wasn’t really thinking about that either. It wasn’t like it was a sports motorcycle, right? She doubted they would be going that fast.
What was it that he said? Hold onto something? There wasn’t really anything to hold onto, other than the man in front of her, and she didn’t feel comfortable grabbing onto a stranger.
Though, there was one thing that gave her a twinge of concern. This really didn’t feel like the same man who had just busted in her door, and to Hiachi, that was a problem. She couldn’t place why it bothered her, but a feeling struck her saying it should.
Feeling the slight bounce on the back of his scooter as his new student finally got aboard his ride, Tak reached up to grab the goggles resting above the bill of his helmet, bringing it down over his eyes as the thick protective acrylic hid his eyes.
“Listen up!” He hollered, making sure Hiachi’s attention was on him as he reached ahead and grabbed onto the handles of his scooter, pulling on the triggers to let the engine roar to life, tiny puffs of gas coming out the exhaust.
“When you’re down to your last cent, there’s one thing you gotta always keep in mind whatever you’re doing! It’s the first tenant of Broke 101!”
A black paint streak splashed across the screen as text slammed down on top of it.
“TIME IS MONEY!”
“Wait, what——!”
With a twist of Tak’s hands, the wheels skidded against the road, rubber burning from the heat of the friction and kicking up smoke and pebbles, before the acceleration pushed the scooter out from its parking spot in a burst of speed, soaring down the residential road as the colors blurred together and wind rippled the eardrums.
Wind flowed through the openings of Tak’s clothing, his white shirt scrunching in the wind while his track jacket flapped around wildly. His focus was kept forward on the road, his body leaning forward as he put all his weight into the ride ahead.
“EVERY SECOND COUNTS IN THIS BUSINESS! IF YOU GOT SOMETHIN’ TO DO YOU GOTTA DO IT FAST! EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST IN YOUR WAYYYYYY!”
Tak shouted his lesson above the constant windforce as the pair sharply turned a corner, the momentum carrying them ahead as the whole scooter tipped sideways, almost like it was about to crash, just for it to straighten back out, leaving a trail of dust behind.
All the previous assumptions Hiachi had made were proving to be one of the worst mistakes she had ever made. She had nearly fallen off the bike from the force of the startup, and was now only balancing from the sheer speed they were going. Her stomach had dropped into a state of dread and anxiety, and her head was buzzing with panicked static. To keep herself from flying off the bike, she abandoned her preconceived notions about personal space and locked her arms around his abdomen.
She started screaming at the top of her lungs. “WHY ARE WE GOING SO FAST!? WE’RE GONNA DIE.”
“DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME!? TIME IS MONEY! IF YOU AREN’T PREPARED TO SPEED THROUGH LIFE IT’S JUST GONNA PASS YOU BY! I READ THAT ON THE BACK OF A KID’S MENU!”
“THIS IS NOT WHAT THAT MEANT!”
The street ahead continued downhill, extra speed being found in the assistance of gravity as the wheels moved around in a constant motion. At the end of the road was a four-way intersection with a streetlight to guide traffic, the bright red bulb pointed directly at the two as cars rode past.
“Traffic already! Damn! Wasn’t expecting to have to get serious this early!” Tak growled about the oncoming cars, leaning forward more as his eyes narrowed behind his goggles, a toothy grin spreading across his features. “Guess I’m gonna have to go right through it!”
“WHAT——!”
Hiachi should have known. This was the same man who had reduced her front door to pieces mere moments ago.
HE IS INSANE.
She couldn’t get off, because the force with which she would be stopping would probably kill her. Asking him to stop was futile. All she could do was pray today wasn’t the day she would die in a motor accident.
“ORRRAAAHHHHH!” Tak bellowed his roar of confidence as he twisted on the handles of his scooter, turning up the heat as the engine shot out a cloud of smoke. It accelerated faster and faster as it approached the intersection, the blur of cars ahead.
Time seemed to slow as the pair grew closer, showing a close-up shot of Tak’s crazed smile and Hiachi’s terrified expression before showing the perspective above as the scooter sped towards the intersection.
In one smooth motion, without stopping, it blazed through the middle. Appearing as segments across the visuals were the different expressions of the drivers, each realizing what was going on and looking shocked in unison as they promptly slammed on the brakes.
Screeching tires and burnt rubber kept Tak and Hiachi from splattering across the pavement in a mess of metal, flesh, and bones as the scooter flew forward and left the chaos behind.
“Heh! I was almost worried there for a second!” Tak gloated about his success with a grin. Then, back to smooth sailing and even ground, Tak cruised through the residential streets. His eyes lit up in realization for a moment, realizing he felt a weird pressure around his waist, almost like he had a seatbelt.
He glanced down to see Hiachi’s arms wrapped tightly around him, “Oi, oi! You’re holdin’ on pretty tight there! I didn’t scare the piss outta ya, did I? Because if so, you’re cleaning it up!” Tak questioned Hiachi’s status, at least having the sense to keep his eyes on the road as he did.
Hiachi was too stunned to speak. What the hell is he talking about? He just ran right through traffic—who WOULDN’t be scared!?
Him, apparently.
“I can’t feel my heartbeat anymore.”
“Well, don’t worry too much. We’re almost there because I’m aboutta take a shortcut,” Tak divulged his plan, snapping a finger before pointing forward. The only problem was that there was no road ahead. Instead, a wide-open gate led directly into a skate park!
He wasn’t gearing up to turn, so that either meant Hiachi was about to experience the sharpest turn of her life, or they were headed straight for a skate park. You know, ones with people in them.
“No. No. No. No. No.” Hiachi mindlessly repeated the phrase, her tone becoming more and more panicked with every second he wasn’t turning.
“Calm down Hibachi! You're in safe hands! I’ve only gotten into 10 crashes in the past year!”
Unstopping, Tak sped through the gate into the skate park, blazing a trail as he watched the surprised skaters dodge out of the way of being hit, watching in shock.
His expression didn’t change as they dipped into one of the bowls, the momentum of going down then soaring upward, causing the scooter to hop up in the air and slam back onto the solid ground.
“Man, I don’t get how people enjoy stuff like this,” Tak sounded completely uninterested as he drove the scooter up a pair of stairs, causing it to shake and vibrate as the wheels kept moving up and down until they finally reached the top of a ramp. Then, everything went silent as he loosened his grip on the handles, allowing the contrasting peacefulness of the surroundings to take over. Birds were chirping as a gentle breeze flew past, but the impending doom of the massive ramp ahead of them was prominent.
Hiachi looked around wildly, unable to take in any of the serenity. This was it—it was over. She couldn’t ever breathe correctly anymore.
Reduced to tears, Hiachi started banging her head on Tak’s back. She hated having to actually fear for her life.
Even as he felt the impacts on his back, he didn’t bother to turn around and address it, his empty eyes blinking as he stared forward. “Looks like there’s a bit of turbulence.”
Without care, Tak turned the handle to send the scooter forward; it quickly built up speed and careened down the massive ramp, leaving a streak of rubber in its wake as it finally reached the end and took off, flying across the air like Santa’s sleigh.
And just like that, Hiachi was in a state of shock. She sat without saying anything. The dread sat in her throat, but no reaction ever came. She watched the world go by, overcome with anxiety and a sense of understanding. What did she understand? She didn’t know. But it was certainly a horrible and clarifying feeling.
And then gravity happened.
“…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”
The scooter came crashing down as if it had been shot out from the sky, the rushing air blowing everything upward as it was pulled down to the surface. It seemed like they were prepared to crash and burn, as if Tak had decided to clip his wings, slam into the pavement, and bring Hiachi along with him.
A sudden abrupt slam shook the scooter and caused both of them to pop off the seat slightly as the force traveled through the wheels to the scooter. They had once again hit something solid, but from how high they had flown, it couldn’t have been a road, couldn’t it?
The sound of wood cracking under the weight of the scooter spoiled it before Hiachi even got a chance to realize she wasn’t dead and look around; wooden shingles getting tossed and splintered under the wheels of Tak’s scooter as he drove across someone’s roof.
“Ehhhh!?” Maybe Hiachi shouldn’t have been confused at this point, but it was too damn ridiculous to ignore. “Why are we on a ROOF.”
He rose up one side and dove down another to leap across to the next roof that moved down the slope, sending debris that landed on the sidewalk and cracked windows as the scooter jumped rooftop to rooftop like some kind of video game. This continued for 3 blocks, and, with trained accuracy, Tak committed numerous property damage that would cause any homeowners association to implode.
After a long continuous journey of breaking numerous street laws and going against all conventions, Tak drove the scooter off one roof to careen back down onto the solid ground with a slight bounce, moving only a short distance to park the scooter on a dead patch of grass, letting go of the handles and reaching up to take off his helmet.
“We’re here,” He stated, turning over to look at what their apparent destination was.
Hiachi almost fell off the scooter. There was a considerable part of her that wanted nothing more than to fall to the floor and merge with it—and never rise from the ground again. But she had made it this far, and her pride refused to let her vegetate in the middle of a public space. She turned her head in the direction that Tak was facing.
It was a two-story apartment complex placed awkwardly between the numerous rows of standard residential housing. Its lawn was nonexistent, replaced with sand and dead grass that was only decorated by a gravel path that led to the pair of rusted green steps toward the second floor. Some doors had bullet holes, and others had faded numbers and rusted door knobs. Spiderwebs hung to every crevice you could imagine, and the bricks had become stained by numerous graffiti marks.
“My apartment.”
Hiachi’s mouth was a straight line. She didn’t mean to be judgemental, but she was starting to understand why Tak claimed to be such an expert on being broke. It looked abandoned. There was certainly no one around to maintain the building.
But Hiachi didn’t have anything nice to say, and she wasn’t about to pretend she did. She looked back and forth between Tak and the building without saying anything. Not showing negativity or positivity, rather just exhausted by how stress-inducing the last minutes of her life had been.
Crossing his arms with a neutral frown, Tak glanced back at Hiachi, “I bet you’re wondering why I brought you here. But don’t worry, it will all be revealed soon.”
His head turned back towards his apartment, his expression intensifying with deep shading and a sheen over his eyes as he scowled.
“The intense lesson 2 is about to begin! This one’s the most dangerous, so get prepared!”
Once again, like someone dragged an over-saturated brush across the screen, it appeared as a blotch, bold font popping on top of it.
“SAVE FOR THE FUTURE!”
After Tak’s enthusiastic shout and introduction to the apparent second part of this ongoing curriculum, the perspective swapped to one of the apartment doors, snappily zooming in on its cracking veneer and chipping paint, before it abruptly slammed open.
“STOP ALL THE SHOUTING OUT HERE, YOU FILTHY MUTT!”
Hiachi physically jumped at the noise before turning 180º to look in the direction of the sound. Blaring with irritation toward Tak as soon as she opened the door, her eyes already bloodshot without even having looked at him was an elderly lady with her graying black hair tied up in a knot, a large mole on the side of her face accompanied her loose wrinkly skin, and dried lips that were only moisturized slightly by the purple lipstick she wore. Wearing a white robe with slippers and a still lit cigarette between his fingers, it's clear she had just been interrupted in the middle of her leisure time.
“HOOOOH!? YOU STILL HAVEN’T KICKED THE BUCKET YET, YOU OLD HAG!?”
Tak responded to the direct vexation with his own malice, the color gone from his eyes as his teeth went jagged like a demon as he dragged himself off his scooter, stomping over towards the elderly lady with the same gait and posture as if facing off against a powerful foe.
“HUHHH!?” The woman wasn’t deterred by his approach, sporting her own riled expression as she had gone completely blind with anger as well, the ashes falling from her cigarette as she began to walk towards him fearlessly. “I’M SURPRISED YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY BEEN SHOT AND LEFT TO DIE IN ALLEY, YOU DAMN LEECH!”
Their heads reeled back in unison, just to fly forward and slam into each other's forehead, mashing against each other in equal force as they raged at each other like two rabid dogs.
“WHO THE HELL YA CALLIN’ A LEECH!?”
Tak tried to dominate the scenario, pushing his head forward to gain a bit of momentum, only for a second before the old bag responded back with her own force, her loud rebuttal dwarfing his size.
“THE IDIOT WHO STILL OWES ME THREE MONTHS WORTH A RENT, THAT’S WHO! YOU’RE LUCKY I HAVEN’T TOSSED YOUR ASS TO THE CURB YET!”
Tak gritted his teeth at the landlady as she verbally trampled all over him, his left eyebrow twitching as she shouted, but as soon as she stopped speaking he spat back his own venom, his head growing in size to show his upper-hand.
“I TOLD YOU I’LL GET IT TO YOU DAMNIT! IT’S NOT AS IF YOU COULD TOSS ME OUT ANYWAY! WHO THE HELL WOULD WANT TO LIVE A TRASH HEAP LIKE THIS ANYWAY!?”
To a bystander, the scenario must have looked insane—Hiachi knew this because she was currently bystanding and almost considered if she had died on the ride there and was now stuck in purgatory. Using her basic self-preservation skills, she stood awkwardly on the sidelines, eyeing the duo as they continued bickering.
Tak’s superiority only lasted a small minute, before the landlady matched his same energy, both of them going back to being equally matched as visible sparks shot off between their eyes.
“YOU'RE THE ONE LIVING IN THE TRASH, SO WHAT DOES THAT MAKE YOU!? A POSSUM? A RAT? OR A ROACH!? SOMEONE AS USELESS AS YOU DESERVES TO LIVE HERE!”
“USELESS? BIG TALK FROM A LADY WHO’S OVARIES DRIED UP A CENTURY AGO!”
It was those words that when they left Tak’s mouth that the atmosphere suddenly changed, the surroundings visibly grew darker.
Tak took a cautious step back, watching first hand a vicious dark aura began to emanate from the landlady’s body, a red glow flashed into her eyes as she hunched over, his fists clenched as she brought them in towards her body, before raising her head upward as her neck muscles strained.
“DAIIISSSYYYYYYYY!”
With a roar she called out a cutesy name, one that Tak immediately realized and caused him to defensively raise an arm in front of him, a wavy, nervous smile on his face as his right eye twitched.
From the shadows of the landlady’s door, a pair of deep crimson eyes sparked to life near the ground, a rumbling growl accompanying them. before a ferocious dog burst out from her apartment, the spiked collar it wore and muscular frame completely contrasting its cute name.
Tak immediately turned on his heel, taking off like a sprint as he dashed away, blitzing past Hiachi, only leaving behind a gust of wind.
“RUNNNNN!” Tak shouted behind him, as Daisy charged right towards Hiachi, drool pooling out from its sharp teeth as it barked and leaped towards her with its mouth wide open.
Fun fact about Hiachi—even though she’s a HP, she’s got the physicality of a twig. She’s fast, sure; but useless without a quick reaction time, and still weak. While a normal HP might be able to take a tackle from a dog, Hiachi can’t. So it’s safe to say she half expected it when she was fully knocked over; but the other half let out a shriek before hitting the ground.
The only thing saving her from being mauled was an adrenaline induced instinct to lunge her hand at the dog’s mouth and attempt to clamp its jaw shut. Was it effective? Barely. But barely effective was enough for Hiachi to take her attention off the rabid dog to shout:
“HEY! GET BACK HERE!” Hiachi’s heart leapt out of her chest as Daisy’s jaws clamped open for a second, her bark echoing before the snarl she kept as her mouth was forced shut. “AND HELP ME!!”
Hiachi’s shrill cry for assistance caused Tak to look back over his shoulder, not at all slowing down as he had already begun to open his mouth and spout some excuse for why he couldn’t help Hiachi.
“HELP YOURSELF! IT’S SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST OUT HERE THAT’S LESSON 3!” He screamed towards her, completely ready to ditch her and let her be a chew toy for the dog, but just as he prepared to turn around, his eyes widened in realization, blinking before a smirk crawled across his face, incredibly diabolical as a shadow covered the half of his face, sharp jagged teeth accompanying his grin on the other half.
“CHANCE!”
Suddenly, Tak ran back, skidding to a stop as he kicked up dust to overdramatically point at the current scene going on, rather than helping Hiachi.
“Oi! Your rabid mutt is attacking her!” Tak stated clearly, before bringing his hands up to his mouth like a megaphone, “Witnesses!? Witnesses!? Does anybody else see this!?” He shouted as he spun around, making sure all eyes were on him, just before reaching out and pulling his phone out and snapping a bunch of pictures as he moved around left and right, bending his knees up and down as he did, the numerous flashes of his camera blasting Hiachi and Daisy as she was still being attacked.
The camera flashes only aggravated the dog even more. Every time Hiachi tried to push her off, she would double down with her claws.
“TAK!”
“Oh, man! This is really bad news! I think I see some blood! We might need to take her to the hospital! She might need stitches! Think of the emotional distress!” Tak continued to nail the point home as he continued to take pictures, just to calmly slide his phone away and--
“GET LOST YA MANGY MUTT!”
Abruptly swung his foot forward to slam right into Daisy’s side, the force causing the dog’s chest to compress and push out on the other side as the air around visibly vibrated, before momentum caught up and sent it flying through the air back towards its owner.
“DAISY!” The landlady screamed out in surprise, raising a hand in front of her mouth in shock as she watched her beloved dog fly through the air, and come crashing towards the ground, only for the dog’s eyes to suddenly open wide, spinning around midair like an experienced acrobat and landing on all four legs like a cat.
Seeing her precious pet was okay, her attention immediately turned to Tak, fury returning to her expression as cross-sectioned cartoonish veins appeared beside her head.
“Hey! Just what the hell do you think you’re doing attacking someone else’s pet!?” She fumed at Tak, but unlike last time when Tak met her anger with his own, instead, he stood there casually with his hands in his pockets, a disgustingly cocky grin on his face.
“Oi, oi. You sure you’re in a place to talk to me like that, hag?” Tak rhetorically questioned, taking one hand out of his pocket to run it through his messy hair, “After all…”
He suddenly held his phone in front of his face, its position in the scene covering half of his arrogant simper as a slideshow of the various angles of Hiachi getting attacked played by, “I got all of this evidence of your rabid dog trying to attack a poor innocent girl, after all!” He spoke with clear snark, his tone dripping with a vicious taste of conceit, “Hmm! I wonder what a judge would think of these pictures…”
The cigarette that was still between the old woman’s fingers fell to the ground as her expression went slightly pale, nervous sweat starting to form at her brow as she realized the situation at hand, “Now, now, there’s no need to get hasty…” She tried to calm the situation down, her aggressiveness leaving suddenly like she was a sweet old lady.
“Yeah, you’re right…” Tak let his overzealous vanity disappear from his expression as he nodded his head in agreement, looking at his landlord with a deadpan expression as he still held his phone in front of his face, “...I’ll delete a picture for every month of rent you let me not pay for,” he bluntly extorted with no remorse.
“Wha-- that’s basically robbery!” She quickly tried to argue against such a bold demand.
“Ohhh! Damn! I wanted to go ahead and delete the picture but instead, my fingers slipped to the “share” button! My fingers are just so sweaty from being around such a dangerous animal! I’m so damn nervous!” Tak continued to lay on the pressure, leaning backward as he dragged his finger across the screen.
“Fine! Fine! I get it! Just don’t share those pictureeeeesss!” The landlady submitted, reaching her hand out towards Tak as she pleaded for forgiveness. Immediately, Tak stopped what he was doing, sliding his phone into his pocket like nothing had happened.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” He said, giving a curt nod like a gentleman before walking back over toward Hiachi, leaving the old lady to drop her head and slump weakly as her dog nudged against her leg.
Tak didn’t even bother looking at Hiachi as he walked past, only acknowledging her with words. “C’mon, let’s move, there’s still a bunch more I gotta teach you.”
Hiachi swung her upper body off the dirt, pulse racing from the attack she just faced. She stared daggers into his back as he walked away.
What is wrong with him!?
But Hiachi didn’t end up saying anything. She just got up and dusted off the dirt she had accumulated on her clothes. She had to admit she was curious—what the hell was his plan!?
His plan? Well, that would be something Hiachi learned quickly that usually didn't exist, as the next few hours of her life would be ripe with the chaos of being dragged around to utter insanity.
As the focus panned to Hiachi’s face, watching her intrigue but also bewilderment, the scene would suddenly change.
Tak and Hiachi had shoved themselves underneath a pair of vending machines, their strained hands stretching out in unison to grab the last shimmering coin under the darkness.
“C’MON HIBACHI! YOU REALLY GOTTA REACH FOR IT! LIKE IT’S THE LAST COIN YOU NEED TO PAY FOR THE WASHING CYCLE IN A LAUNDROMAT!” Tak shouted enthusiastically towards Hiachi as his face smashed against the cold metal of the vending machine, shoving his arm far deep into the abyss as he could to try and get the last coin.
But Hiachi could see the coin within the darkness that was beneath the vending machine, and knew that there was no rational way she was getting to it. She rationally knew how ridiculous she looked. However, now she was committed to the silly mission, so she looked around for a stick she could use to poke the coin within grabbing distance.
She grabbed a long-ish stick and jammed it underneath the machine. It took a bit of angling, but eventually the coin skidded out from underneath the vending machine and glinted in the light. She walked to the other side to pick it up. Upon picking it up, the corners of her mouth tugged upwards as she brandished it like a kid. Of course, she almost instantly looked at the ground with a bit of shame before quickly tucking it in her pocket.
“Uh. I did it.”
Pulling himself out from the vending machine himself, Tak gave Hiachi an enthusiastic slap on the back, nearly knocking her forward. “Knew you had it in ya!”
With a large bundle of copper wire lifted above their heads, Hiachi and Tak were frozen in time in the middle of running away from a construction site, a whole drove of angered construction workers chasing behind them.
“Get back here you bastards!” One of the voices shouted out among the cacophony of angered shouts.
“Keep it movin’ Hibachi! Copper wire sells second-hand like crazy!” Tak explained the reason behind his crazy plan he had forced Hiachi in as the furious blue-collar workers were on their tail.
Hiachi kept looking forward and backwards repeatedly, trying to keep track of the distance between them and their pursuers. They had a good distance, but that was the lesser of Hiachi’s concerns. “How many of these involve running!?”
“As many times as we get caught! Keep those shrimp legs movin’!” Tak responded back, not making any attempt to reassure her as they pressed on.
Now the pair sat on a street corner, both wearing sunglasses and holding canes as if they were blind, a single plastic cup filled with coins and bills sitting in front of them as people moved past them and threw in their spare pocket change.
Tak placed a hand up to slightly tip down his sunglasses, glancing over toward Hiachi from the corner of his eye, “Keep the act up Hibachi! At this rate, we’ll be able to make a killing at the arcade!”
Hiachi adjusted the sunglasses as she felt a sweat drop form at her forehead. “Isn’t this… immoral? I feel like I’m stealing from actual blind people…”
“Don’t be an idiot!” Tak shot down her worry immediately, pressing his glasses back up as he crossed his arms, “Actual blind people get support from the government! We’re basically worse off than them!” He stated, clearly not worried about the moral issues.
After running around the West all day, dealing with Tak’s antics and numerous haphazard plans, the sun had finally set, the moon taking its place up high in the sky.
Tak gazed up at the sky without a care in the world, his hands in his pocket as usual as he strolled along a dimly lit alley, despite all he had been through his track jacket or white shirt wasn’t any more dirty than it had been when they started.
On the contrary, Hiachi looked more roughed up than she had in the morning. It’s not as if she started the day looking particularly nice, but it was now clear that she had been run through the dirt—quite literally. Her hair stuck up in a few places, and a few tiny scratches littered her skin. She kept her hands shoved in her pockets as she ambled next to him.
“Man, that sure was a lot. Things are a lot different when you’re doing it with someone else, we got a lot done today,” Tak boasted about their success with a slight smirk, before finally turning his attention downward to look over his shoulder at his partner in crime, “How you holdin’ up, Hibachi?”
“Never better thanks for asking,” Hiachi lied, all in one breath. She held a shaky thumbs up, even though it was clear that she was exhausted. Yes, she had just spent a week cocooned up in her room; But this was the most physical activity she had done in years. Her chest rose soft and slow, her exhaustion trying to lull her to sleep.
But she had a question, and not a forced one to fill the silence. She considered if it was impolite, and then promptly decided that she was too tired to argue with herself about social laws.
“You do this… every day?”
“Every day? Nah, how would I fit in naptime if I did all that shit all the time? I just did it to give ya some ideas,” The messy-haired ruffian explained, raising a hand to scratch through his scalp as he stopped walking, pausing as he closed his eyes and bore a disgruntled frown, almost as if he didn’t want to say what was gonna come out of his mouth.
“There’s gonna be times in between jobs where you ain’t got much money comin’ in, hell you’re gonna even have to take jobs that are crazier than what we did today and make even less, but it’s all part of the deal when you're a Tiger,” What seemed like genuine advice and consideration came from Tak’s mouth as he opened his eyes, “I just wanted to prepare you for what it’s like, in my own way, just from one rookie to another.”
“Oh.” Hiachi hadn’t really considered it before—you know, given that she had nearly died on multiple occasions—but he had gone out of his way to help her, hadn’t he? It was a nice sentiment, she supposed. But it soured with the notion that he was right, in a lot of ways. She felt as unprepared as she likely was. The last thing she had wanted was to be involved with the Tigers—but she ended up there anyway.
Tak let his hand drop from his head back down to his side, he let out a yawn, even though he didn’t show it, the number of things they had done seemed to affect him as well as he smacked his lips.
“Anyway, I’m gettin’ hungry, so let’s get a bite to eat. This will be your last lesson, and the most important one, so pay attention,” Tak warned her as he started walking once again.
Hiachi’s head fell like a ten ton weight fell on her neck. Another lesson didn’t sound nice. She felt like she could pass out at any second. But she was about to go three days without eating anything, so it would have been stupid to deny.
It wasn’t much of a saunter through the narrow and dimly lit alleys, walking past weeds that had formed out of the cracks of concrete and stray litter until finally, something had broken up the monotony of brick walls. Like an oasis in the distance, a brightly colorful lantern hung outside of a small hole-in-the-wall building, its design made up of numerous patterns and shapes, paper threads hanging from the bottom of the lantern as they shifted slightly in the wind.
Tak walked up to the door like he had been there many times before, not even bothering to look up at the old wooden sign propped above the sliding door that read “Zeyar Curry” in mudded and fading paint, the sound of it rolling across its rails accompanied the shifting perspective to show the door opening from the interior, slamming as it reached the end of the rail and Tak stepped in with his hands in his pockets.
The aroma of spices and savory broth flowed along with the warmer air that flowed outside. The slightly dirtied white tiles of the floor were covered with a welcome mat at its entrance, remnants of dead leaves and dried dirt matted through its fabric.
A small walkway split between both seating areas, a pair of wooden tables and chairs on his right, and the counter with bar stools, paintings of bright flowers adorned the walls, while a statue of the Buddha sat on the middle table.
In the middle of the restaurant was a tall man with white hair, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his lip as he held a broom in his hand, while sweeping up a small pile of dust before noticing the new entrants into his restaurant.
“Oh?” He perked up, leisurely raising himself off from his slouching position as he looked toward the door with a soft grin. “Well if it isn’t the neighborhood freeloader. Welcome.” He greeted Tak aloofly, as he let go of the broom to dust off his apron.
“Yeah, don’t act like you’re surprised to see me again,” Tak responded to the man’s jab, but for once his words didn’t hold any form of malice or bitterness.
Hiachi’s eyes were everywhere but right in front of her. She took in the warm interior design, out of a habit she made of absorbing her surroundings. The second she caught the smell of smoke and seasonings, she felt her mouth water.
Upon seeing the shorter girl follow Tak inside, the older man brought a hand to his chin, a minor amount of surprise dripping onto his face, “Hooh. Did you bring a chick with you? Been ages since the last time you did that, you finally gettin’ back in the game, huh? She’s different from your usual type,” He didn’t attempt to hide the snark in his tone as he watched Tak walk over to the counter and plop himself onto one of the wooden stools.
“Shut up. You know I got better taste than that.” Tak scoffed at the notion, resting his arms on top of the white-painted countertop, focusing his attention on the kitchen and the large steel pot bubbling on the stove, steam rising from its top as the flames bristled below. “Just give us both a bowl of the good stuff already,” Tak demanded.
“Let me guess,” The other man began, leaning on the handle of his broom as he returned to a casual simper, “You ain’t got any money to pay?”
“Course I don’t! Hurry up and start pouring some curry! I’m starving over here!” Tak snapped, glaring from out of the corner of his eye. Despite the hostile response, the white-haired man only chuckled in response, “Once a roach always a roach, huh? Comin’ right up,” he relented, pushing himself off his broom to walk into the kitchen.
Hiachi narrowed her eyes at Tak. Even if the atmosphere was relatively calm, Hiachi couldn’t get through the rest of the night without more bullshit.
And yet she sat, because she felt physically incapable of doing the impolite thing. She lightly swung her legs as she reflected on the day. Once she did, she felt as if she had come to her senses. This is ridiculous. Why am I here with a man who can’t stop himself from insulting me every two seconds? How did I get here?
Hiachi didn’t like thinking about that, so she decided to shift her focus to something else. She twiddled with her thumbs in her lap as she looked around again. She hadn’t been to a restaurant in a long, long time. It was a solemn memory, actually. The last one she had been in was the one where her father worked. The last time she saw him, or her mom, or her sister. It had the same latent life within its cracks and furniture.
Not such a great thought, either.
It didn’t register with Hiachi how deep in her mind she had gone, or how long it had been with only the machinery buzzing in the background.
There was a certain serenity at the moment, as Hiachi was occupied with her thoughts, and Tak wasn’t occupied with any, at least it seemed that way. He absentmindedly stared forward into the kitchen, watching as the food was prepared, the sound of the ladle stirring around in the pot before it was lifted out, the slightly red liquid being spooned into a black bowl.
“You gonna have your socks blown off by this shit,” Tak commented, turning to look at Hiachi as he leaned forward on the counter towards her, unintentionally breaking her out of her thoughts, “There ain’t no better curry in the country.”
“Don’t let him get your hopes too high little lady, Roach over there only says that because it's the only curry he’s ever had, he can’t afford anything else.” The white-haired man joked in the background as he loomed over the huge pot on the stove, the sounds of clattering utensils out of frame as his shoulders moved.
Hiachi couldn’t say anything to that—she was essentially in the same spot. So she nodded to acknowledge she heard him, but part of her remained lost within herself.
Tak clicked his teeth, crossing his arms as he sat back up straight on the stool, “It was always your old man who said it was the best in the country, Arkar,” he reminisced, seemingly soured by the fact Arkar wasn’t carrying on the tradition.
Arkar didn’t immediately respond, instead focusing on picking up the two bowls in front of him over to the counter, “I know, that’s why I don’t call it the best curry in the country. I still haven’t been able to figure out how to make it as good as him,” he explained, before placing the steaming bowls in front of them as the spoons dragged across the rim, “Even if it ain’t the best curry in the country, I hope you enjoy it.”
The curry had a bright orange color, and the smell of ginger, turmeric, and coriander was the most prominent among the numerous notes that emanated from the meal. Large chunks of chicken were piled in the center, garnished with scallions and fried shallots.
Tak immediately titled his head down toward the bowl and had begun to shovel the curry in his mouth, loudly slurping it up.
“Damn! It’s hot! It’s burning the fuck outta my tongue! But it’s so goddamn good I can’t stop!” He shouted, barely getting his words in between spoonfuls as he sent small splashes of broth everywhere.
Hiachi instinctively shielded away from the splashing. But she would be lying if she said she didn’t feel the same way on the inside. Her eyes were wide as she shoveled food in her mouth, losing the edge of her manners with every bite. The burn of the spices and temperature hurt fantastically.
In less than a minute, most of the solid food was gone. Hiachi lifted the bowl to her mouth and downed the broth like it was water, and she was one of the kids who forgot to bring a water bottle on field day.
She slammed down the bowl, shaking a bit. It was practically empty.
Watching Hiachi gobble down the bowl of curry even faster than Tak certainly was a surprise, Arkar’s mouth hung open as his cigarette threatened to drop out of his mouth, “Y-You musta been real hungry, huh…?” He weakly acknowledged Hiachi’s gluttony, then shook his head and snapped out of shock.
“So,” Arkar leaned against a nearby wall, pulling the cigarette out from his mouth to blow a puff of smoke as he held the cig between his fingers, “Why is someone like you hanging out with such a pain in the ass? He doesn’t just bring anyone here,” Arkar questioned, putting his cigarette back into his mouth.
Hiachi avoided his gaze. The one thing she failed to consider was covering up her affiliations.
“Uh…” Hiachi cringed at herself. “Uh. It all started when he broke my front door.”
Hiachi, out of habit, was incapable of telling full lies without preparation. If she got any detail wrong, she’d be finished. So it was best to start with something that was true. She wouldn’t blame Arkar if he didn’t believe it—but he probably would, considering he knew Tak long before she did.
“There’s no need to beat around the bush with him, Hibachi,” Tak abruptly forced his way into the conversation, looking at both of them from his position currently inside the bowl of curry, he stared at Hiachi for a pause, before moving his attention over to Arkar.
“That guy…he’s an ex-Tiger.”
Hiachi turned her head at a breakneck pace to face the man in question. She was glad she hadn’t fully lied, but still—she didn’t want to interact with even more Tigers if she could help it.
But that prefix, though. Ex. There was a way out of this?
“Man, can’t keep anything secret around you, huh?” Arkar quipped, giving a carefree shrug, then crossing his arms as he tilted his head forward in Hiachi’s direction, “Guess that means you're part of the Tigers? Hate to see a young girl like you gettin’ dragged into that mess.”
He leaned forward, bringing a hand up to shield his mouth from Tak’s view, but barely spoke above a whisper so he could easily hear it. “Too bad you ended up workin’ with Roach over there, huh? He’s a real pain.”
“I can hear you, bastard,” Tak growled at Arkar, wiping his mouth with his sleeve as he leered at the older man, Arkar only chuckled in response, standing back up straight, “Your lucky that you didn’t meet him 2 years ago, he probably woulda ripped your head off by now.”
Hiachi shuddered at the thought of her head being torn from her body, but she couldn’t really imagine the man in front of her doing it.
Hiachi tilted her head at the man, of whom looked as carefree as ever. “Ex-Tiger? How… did you leave?”
Hiachi's question caused Arkar to rub the back of his neck, his usual laid-back sneer disappearing as his mood visibly down turned, he was silent for a moment as he went to look up at the ceiling.
“I got lucky…” He began, blowing out a plume of smoke from his lips as the end of his cigarette sparked alive again, “I was one of the idiots who joined willingly by paying my way in. Wanted to be a big man, and make some real money instead of carrying on the family business, and almost got myself pulled into that “Spiral”, when you start wanting more and more that you’re takin’ more than you’re giving, losing more than you’re gainin’. By the time you’re at that point, it’s usually too late,” Arkar reminisced, hesitating to continue for a moment as he mulled over what to say next, glancing over at Tak “and by that point, you start to drag other people down into it with you.”
Tak averted his gaze from meeting Arkar’s, he seemed more intent to stare down into his lap, hands gripping tightly, clenched at the fabric of his pants, gritting his teeth. He kept himself from responding, even if he wanted to, a rare moment of humility for him.
The words weren’t hers to bear, but Hiachi felt the weight regardless. Her greatest fear at any given moment was death, but her deepest fear was dragging her family down with her. It haunted her—the idea that even three years of distance couldn’t save them from drowning if she sank.
Arkar watched Tak with a slight frown, sighing and closing his eye before continuing, “The only reason I got out when I did was just the perfect storm. I ended up taking a job that caused me to lose my eye…then my old man died a few days later,” Arkar opened his view up to the world once more, looking at both Tak and Hiachi before continuing, “I’ll spare you the sob story, but it was those two things that woke me up and helped me remember what was important. I got off easy because I had already lost enough as it is, the Tigers I worked for weren’t intent on letting a broken man keep workin’ for them, so long as I paid my debts.”
Taking his cigarette out of his mouth, and snuffing it into the ashtray on the counter, his white hair covered his eyes as he spoke again, “I don’t know what situation got you in the Tigers…but just make sure you avoid the “Spiral” at all costs,” he raised his head, the smoke from his recently snuffed cigarette floating above his face as he bore into Hiachi’s eyes.
“Never forget what’s important to you, little lady.”
And she wanted to take his advice—she wanted to follow this instruction to a T, and never face having to involve her family with her mess. But she just didn’t know. She wasn’t a Tiger by choice, and the risk was bigger and greedier. Unless she paid it off herself, her debt would spread like a disease. Hiachi was worth less dead than alive.
“Right. I… I’ll try.”
Before she could ask anything more, she was interrupted.
“And that ends the class!”
Tak abruptly interjected, suddenly standing behind Hiachi, placing both of his hands on her shoulders, “I didn’t think ya had it in you, but you passed Hibachi! If I carried around stickers, I’d give you a gold star!” Tak enthusiastically continued to pat her shoulders, to the point he was almost beginning to mash her into the stool.
She jumped up like a cat before being pushed back down on her seat. Then pushed again. Again. Hiachi’s face went startlingly pale from the shock of being slammed on the shoulders over and over.
“Ow…!”
Curbing his excitement, Tak stepped back and slid his hands into his pockets, a sly smirk on his face, “Man, can’t believe we got to this point from me debating on caving in your face and calling it a day. Goes to show ya never know where life will lead you, or somethin’ like that! Broke 101 was a great success!” Tak crowed about the success of his curriculum, casually skirting by his violent statement, starting to laugh as he placed his hands on his hips.
Arkar stood there entirely confused about what was going on, blinking as he tried to piece together what Tak was talking about, “Broke…101?” He reiterated, before slowly turning his gaze to Hiachi, “What’s he talkin’ about?”
Hiachi returned the blank stare back at Arkar. Right. What was he talking about anyway? A saga where she was taught the ins and outs of being… broke.
“Ahahaha.” Hiachi started to laugh. “Hahahaha!”
She slapped her knees; it wasn’t really that funny.
“AHAHA! Haha… Haah…”
And Hiachi’s unconscious head hit the counter with a thunk!
Tak’s guffawing stopped immediately as Hiachi’s skull cracked against the counter, his head snapping over to look at her with eyes as big as saucers.
“Hibachi!?”
He quickly rushed over to her, attempting to shake her.
“Hibachi! HiBACHI!” He continued to jostle her, but received no response, she was gone.
“HIBACHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”
Arkar looked on with a nervous sweat going down the side of his face, a half-smirk as he watched the scene play out.
“I don’t think that’s her name…”
The final perspective showed the outside of the restaurant, before everything faded to black.
