Neon District: Redux

Part 3 Chapter 9

       Eiji stared up at Manzo, who towered over him with the pistol between his fingers. However, Manzo didn't point the gun at Eiji's head, but the floor. Manzo's eyes playfully glanced Eiji up and down as if he didn't find Eiji as a threat to him at all.

Eiji's head was spinning with his hands still clenching Sayuri's body, her bloody face buried against his bloodied shirt. His hands trembled at the sight of Manzo, and at the weapon he used to end her life, and he wanted nothing more than to dismember the hand he used to hold it.

"It truly is too bad about Miss Taniguchi, I liked her just as much as you did-" Manzo told him softly, but Eiji cut him off.

"Oh dare you!? How dare you compare us!? How dare you even believe you are on the same level as me, you arrogant swine!" Eiji screamed at him, the effort of it made his body shake uncontrollably. Enough so that he gently set Sayuri on the floor beside him and launched himself at Manzo's abdomen. He wrapped his arms around his wide sides (including his arms) and pounded him into the floor a few several feet away. They both struggled on the floor- squirming to keep the man pinned to the floor, and the latter, to get the man off of him. 

Manzo managed to to rotate his gun-wielding hand around and fired a bullet into Eiji's shoulder. Eiji yelped back, releasing Manzo from his arm prison. Manzo scrambled off the floor and booted Eiji in the side, causing him to fall onto his back and grip his gushing shoulder. Manzo planted his foot on Eiji's chest and used the other to violently kick at him in the sides and head- Eiji yelping out in pain after each swing.

"How ironic of you to be calling me an arrogant swine considering you were like this only a few years ago." Manzo cooed, pausing his kicking tirade to tell him this, "But, maybe you still act like this now, no? I find it quite arrogant of you to believe that you might of actually saved Miss Taniguchi... But look where your efforts left her in.... Such a shame." He explained further before continuing his kicking tirade. 

Eiji's head was pounding so violently with blood covering his eyes and face that he can no longer hear or see Manzo at all- only the pain that came from each kick. 'Kick' to the side, 'kick' to his chest, 'kick' to his head, over and over again. He questioned why he wasn't just getting killed on the spot, but he knows that Manzo was relishing in inflicting pain on him. He was too angry to think straight anyway- his heart screamed at him to get up and fight back, but his mind was whispering at him to stay down and give up. For once, he listened to his brain.

Maybe it was a good idea to have this be his resting place, anyway. Sayuri wasn't too far away from him, so he guesses he has something to look forward to in the afterlife- if he ever made it to heaven, he doubted he could, though. Plus, considering that Manzo was here means that Yuka probably wasn't any better than he is right now; she most likely has a bullet hole in her, too.

He felt himself slowly shutting his eyes and admitting defeat and soon after the kicking stopped. 

"Finally going to kick the can, eh?" Manzo asked him rhetorically, the amusement in his voice fading away after each word he spoke, "I guess this is the end of the line for you, Mr. Propaganda."

He felt the gun trained to his forehead, but the world quickly faded into darkness, so to him, it didn't matter what came next.

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       Her head was pounding and sticky with blood as Yuka's vision quickly returned back to her. She practically leapt off the floor, but she winced in pain when she forgot the ball point pen still stuck into her arm. She ripped it out but still kept it on hand as she took in her surroundings: It only seemed like a few minutes has passed since she was knocked unconscious, and that Manzo was no where to be found in his office.

A gunshot rang out and her head jerked towards the open office door to the rest of the floor. Without thinking, she bolted out of the office and secretary offices to see through the wide open glass doors into the office spaces beyond. Near the fire exit, she could see Sayuri and Eiji bleeding on the floor with Manzo violently kicking at him. Then she saw the pistol pointed at his head. She sprung into action and dashed right into Manzo before he could fire the shot.

They both tumbled into the wall; leaving a gaping hole in the dry wall, before scrambling onto their feet. Yuka slammed the ball point pen into Manzo's side with him screaming out in pain. She tried reaching for his gun but he quickly swiped it away and kicked her back and into some cubicles. The cubicle walls fell like a house of cards beneath her back with her trying to catch whatever air she could from the impact.

She rushed for him again and managed to connect her fist with the side of his head with him crashing onto the floor beside Eiji. She didn't leave him any room to retaliate with her already on top of him and punching his face and throat multiple times. Manzo pushed her off of him with his free hand and fumbled with the pistol as he shot her in the hand. She cursed and gripped her bleeding hand before ducking for cover behind some still standing cubicles. She panted and tried to catch her breath from overexerting herself when Manzo spoke up.

"You just cornered yourself, you rat!" Manzo yelled out to the vast room, his voice booming off of the large floor to ceiling windows that laid before her. She couldn't see him from the position she was in, so she carefully listened to his heavy foot steps on the floor, "what would Mr. Farrow think if I killed this rat in such an anticlimactic manner?! I bet he would hate you even more than he already did!" 

Yuka's breath caught from hearing Sam's name. Memories from that night two years ago came rushing back to her, with Sam screaming at her over how much he hated her. She remembers the happiest moment of her life at the District festival with her, Sam, and Kindy eating that salty potato snack. She remembered spending countless nights at Sam's apartment just existing beside each other as they stared into one another's eyes in silence. She remembers Kindy's body, Sam's words there after. She felt it when Sam's body crushed into hers with blood pouring from his head- fatally. 

"He would still hate me," Yuka piped up, her voice cracking, "no matter how I die tonight or how we finish this; he'll still forever hate me for what I did to him, his family." Tears prickled in her eyes after every word she spoke and she resisted the urge to wipe them away.

She heard shuffling coming from behind her followed by Manzo's booming voice, "And you're just okay with that? Look how much of your effort is going to waste from you sulking in that cubicle! He would be very disappointed in you."

This time, tears streamed down her cheeks in heavy waves, "I deserve to be hated by him, he deserves to hate me for as long as likes  and I'll be fine with that... He deserves that closure." She let out a shaky breath, "and if I die tonight, then so be... But I wish it would've been two years ago... if I had to choose who had to die that night... I would have chosen myself. Sam had everything and I took all of that away from him by getting him involved..."

"Are you willing to make that same decision right now...?" She heard Manzo say cautiously, his footsteps now right in front of her. She slowly peered up and saw Manzo standing not too far way from her with Eiji unconscious in his arms. His pistol pointed towards the window where he shattered the glass by firing at it, then he held the gun at Eiji's chin and glared down at her with contempt. The cold breeze coming from outside along with the cries of the riots below didn't fill her ears, but the sounds only filled her soul, unusually. 

Eiji's eyes slowly flickered open with his eyes covered by his own blood that still dripped down his face from his head, his entire body was battered and she wondered if Manzo was what was stopping him from keeling over onto the floor. His eyes took in the gun but there was no emotion in them, as if he has given up.

"I said..." Manzo repeated slowly, "are you willing to make that same decision again right now?"

Her mouth went dry as she watched Manzo inching closer to the shattered window with Eiji in his arms, limply. The crunch of the shattered bits of window beneath his feet making her wince. She didn't have an answer for him, instead she asked him a different question.

"Would you sacrifice yourself for the sake of the District?"