Neon District: Redux

Part 3 Chapter 10

       "What do you mean by that?" Manzo snarled from Yuka's question. The gun he had pointed towards Eiji's chin jabbed slightly more into his skin along with his feet shuffling closer to the edge of the shattered window. If Manzo shuffled backwards any more then they would both be sent hurtling to their deaths on the pavement below.

Yuka simply said, "look," without making any movements with her arms. Manzo glanced over his shoulder anyway as if he knew what she wanted him to see. Far below in the square was still the mass of citizens pushing their way through the indestructible wall of both Watch officers and the tall metal walls. He can hear the screams and the shouts of the citizens pleas for help and for change, he watched as his own citizens got beaten to the floor by the officers he paid under the table. He only saw his failures of the District he had wanted.

"This wasn't what you had wanted, right?" She asked, stating the obvious. No, this wasn't what Manzo wanted at all. He wanted.... What did he want? He tried to think long and hard about it and even mulled it over for the past couple of years, but he always ended up at the same conclusion. He never wanted to admit it was true, but now he was here having to.

Everything he had done wasn't for the District, but his selfish desire for revenge against the district that caused him so much pain. He wanted to control the district from the inside out, but in the end, it was the district, it self, that was controlling him.

"There is still a way to fix this," Yuka started, "you just have to let us help you. Stop this fighting and killing and we'll do it, you have my word on that."

"The thing is..." Manzo began, his eyes peeling themselves off the the crowd and back at a bloodied Yuka on the floor, "I don't know how you could help me, I mean, I don't want you to help me. I have done too much that wasn't any of your faults and it would be unfair of me to place the burden on all of you. This is my problem to fix."

Eiji gave out a low groan before speaking, "Perhaps what Miss Hara is trying to say.... is that this district isn't needing to be fixed by us, specifically... but what we could do to help start the healing process is removing ourselves from the situation entirely... We always were at each other's throats over everything and disagreed with anything we had in mind for the district, so it may be in everyone's best interests if we let someone entirely new fix things. It's selfish of us, but at this point, nobody would listen to any of us considering both our plans failed us in the end, failed them."

"The district deserves someone unremarkable." He ended off.

Manzo chuckled and gave out a shaky sigh before releasing his grip on Eiji, who keeled over onto the shattered glass. He managed to get himself away from the glass before it done him any more harm, but a loud thunk next to him startled him enough to stop his advances.

The gun Manzo held Eiji hostage with laid atop the shattered glass with its handle pointed towards Yuka as if it welcomed her to snatch it. Except, none of them went for it and it continued to be left discarded on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Eiji said slowly with his eyes not leaving the gun.

Manzo sighed again and glanced over his shoulder to the crowd below, "you're right, Eiji; none of us should fix things, but what would the citizens do in the mean time? None of them would be satisfied if we just up and left without a moments notice, only to be replaced with someone entirely new." He gulped, "what they need is someone to satisfy them and I plan on being the person to do so."

Yuka's eyes shifted towards the gun laid out on the floor before her like a silver plater- her own feast to dig in to. She inched closer to the gun and wrapped her bloody hands around its handle and pointed it towards Manzo, who made no effort to plead for her forgiveness.

"You already figured it out." He simply said to her. His eyes shifted down to Eiji and he gave him a grim smile before giving the same one to Yuka, "I hope you all fulfill your promises..."

Yuka's hand shook as she tried to steady her arm at Manzo's chest, but she couldn't fight it. She wanted to cry, but she had no tears left to cry for someone so pitiful as Manzo- not leaving the burden on us, my ass. She didn't want to shoot him, she didn't want to give him that satisfaction of being able to get away, but the only thing she saw when she stared into his dull eyes was: remorse.

Remorse for all the people he has hurt, for all the people he has murdered. Miss Farrow, Kindy, Sam, Isao, Sayuri, everybody. Remorse for himself.

From the corner of her eye she could see Eiji standing up and limping over towards the back corner of the room, no doubt where Sayuri's body is. He didn't look back at Manzo, not even once. Eiji may never forgive Manzo for what he has done to him, but he may never give Manzo the chance to forgive him in return. Just as well, somethings were meant to be unsaid, anyway.

Her hand steadied themselves and Yuka muttered to Manzo as she released the safety on the weapon, "we can continue our lovely conversations later when we meet each other again in Hell." Manzo only chuckled at that as if in agreement.

Yuka fired twice at Manzo; once in the chest, the other in the shoulder- the wounds Chris had. Manzo gasped with blood spewing from his mouth as he took a hesitant step back. His feet caught the ledge of the shattered window frame and it slipped from under him, causing his body to soar out the window and fall twelve stories below. Yuka didn't hear a sound after the two loud bangs of the pistol- not even the screams of the crowd that no doubt is seeing Manzo's mangled body laid limp in front of them.

She didn't check to see if he indeed had himself all over the concrete- she didn't have the stomach for it anymore. Instead, he searched for Eiji near the fire exit where he held Sayuri's body in his arms. He wasn't weeping like he was before, but his eyes told her enough to know that he wouldn't be finished grieving for quite some time.

Yuka placed a shaky hand on his shaking body as she told him, "let's go fulfill those promises."