Polynya

He smooths his trembling hands down the front of his suit and makes sure his shirt is still tucked in out of habit. He looks left to see Sarah slouched forward on the bar; a splatter of blood on the wall near her head tells the story of her final moments.

“They got Sarah?” he asks, his throat suddenly constricted.

“One of the hostesses that was shot, yes.”

“Damn.” Kodai slips around the table, steadies himself, and turns to Tesla who stands behind a Japanese man with long hair, the muzzle of her gun pressed into the back of his head. The man defiantly spits blood as Kodai approaches.

“Give me,” Kodai tells Tesla.

“Your fingerprints,” she reminds him.

“Right. Good.” He clears his throat, steadies his gaze on the defiant man whose suit is slowly becoming saturated with blood. “I’ll make this unbelievably quick,” Kodai grits.

Fuck if he doesn’t want to kill the man himself, especially since he was clearly the target, not to mention they attacked him at his favorite hostess bar and killed his gaijin fuckbuddy along with several others.

And he’s already, in the time it took him to walk over to the man, calculated just how much this would cost. Damage control alone is going to be a bitch, and once other hostesses get word of this, it could definitely cause some distress and high turnover.

“I’m not saying anything.” The man bares his red teeth at Kodai contumaciously.

“I figured as much. Is he going to die soon?”

Tesla’s eyes flash black as she scans him. “The authorities will be here before then.”

“And if I try to disable you permanently, you’ll just become a cyborg and will remain a thorn in my side.” Kodai shakes his head. “No, no, that’s not going to do. Any ideas, Tesla?”

She lowers her gun so it now points at his back. Tesla shoots her hand out, touches his temple with her other hand, and smiles. “Got it.”

She fires the first shot into the man’s back and another into the back of his head.

Before Kodai can say anything, Tesla explains her actions. “Since he was shot, his life chip was put in a distress mode, which can be accessed by any humandroid who may arrive on the scene without his verbal or digital approval. His name is Itachi Uchiha, and his known associate is Gintoki Sakata, the owner of the pink salon that you had me put out of business earlier today. I believe this was retaliation.”

A moving image of Tesla entering N-Cats and taking out the humandroids comes to him. Gintoki Sakata acted fast. I should have been ready, Kodai thinks as he surveys the damage again.

“Is there any way for the authorities to trace that you accessed his chip?”

She shakes her head. “Everything I do is masked. All MercSecure agents are fashioned in this way.”

“Good. Please kill anyone else that is alive and delete all surveillance that links you and me to the scene. I will meet you on the rooftop.”

“Understood.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

“Two minutes, tops.” She points her gun at Kodai’s thug, Yagami, who’s pressed against an overturned table and breathing heavily. One headshot later and he’s done for good. With a quick swivel, she does the same for anyone in the room that is still alive.

“Ready?”

She nods, and they head to the kitchen.

“Anyone in here?”

Tesla does a quick scan of the room. “Clear. Let’s check the freezer.”

Kodai opens the freezer door and the chef runs out wielding a knife. Bang! He’s dead before he can take two steps back into the kitchen.

“There will be other witnesses,” Tesla says. “You will likely appear on their feeds, but I don’t believe there will be anything incriminating in them.”

“Anyone who exits through the front or back and isn’t an authorized employee has their feed wiped.”

Tesla turns her head to him as they exit. “Wiped completely?”

“No live feeds allowed in the hostess bar. This is common in these types of establishments; it prevents someone from coming here and reliving or sharing what they experienced at a later date.”

The door of his aeroSUV opens on its own and Kodai gets in the back. Tesla gets in the front and speaks to the vehicle for a moment, instructing its auto-drive functions.

“Where to?” she asks.

“Our plans have not changed,” Kodai says bitterly as the vehicle lifts into the air. “Ryuk’s place.”

Chapter 27: Get Woke

Ryuk is beside himself as his mind jumps from Tamana standing over him with her blade, to his doppelgänger looming over her shoulder.

It was Kodai all along.

“Your brother is the twat running around parading as you? Fick me, Marbles!” Hiccup throws his hands into the air. “What in the actual fick is going on here!?”

Zaena harrumphs.

“Sorry, Princess, like any normal mitherficker, I’m just a bit shocked by this sudden revelation.”

“Craziness!” FeeTwix says. “So that means … ” His eyes flash blue. “Your brother has something to do with NPCs coming to our world.”

Empress Thun stands from her throne.