"After all this time I never once thought about if you were capable of swimming," Yuka replied back simply as her greeting, taking a seat on a bar stool next to Eiji, "but I guess you do have that capability after all."
Eiji chuckled softly at that, "and I thought you didn't have the capability of keeping me alive, but here we are speaking with each other right now."
She almost forgot about how that day at the river when she was supposed to kill Eiji where he stood per Manzo's orders- and per her own desires. Although, she only shot him in the shoulder and sent him into the river. She remembered how pitiful he looked that day and seeing him now only made that feeling blossom again.
He appeared as if he hasn't eaten or bathed in some days, but he kept that same demeanor he normally had back when he held all the power in the District. Seeing how that hasn't faded despite his current situation swiftly changed her pity into guilt.
"I wondered why you would bother leaving me in such a convenient place such as Ashtown after I discovered myself being washed up on its shores." Eiji started, tapping the tip of his cigarette with his slim finger so that the ash fell into the gaping hole of a plastic cup. "It was after a few drinks and a long walk later that I realized you left me here to stop procrastinating and finish my mission." He swiped his hand around the small bar as if he were displaying it to a crowd of onlookers.
"I believe I told you once about what I planned on doing for this town, but I believe you were too busy focusing on that burning hatred for me to fully grasped what I meant by it-" He continued on before getting interrupted abruptly by Yuka.
"I understood what you meant by it completely. The only thing I was focusing on back then after that conversation was thinking about how sorry you looked." She defended, spinning herself in her bar stool to face him. "Don't try to think of me as nothing more than a brooding teenager."
"I wasn't trying to make you out as such," his voice became quieter and she swore her mind was playing tricks on her when he said: "I'm sorry."
Her old enemy, her old boss, Mr. Propaganda was apologizing to her over something so simple. It made her want to laugh. Except she simply waved off his apology and motioned for him to continue on his psychological tirade.
"I always thought that this town needed someone of political value to help them- to save them from whatever hell they've been living in this entire time. But after spending the past two years here and living amongst them once more did I realize that they didn't need any political influence. They just needed someone willing to lend them a hand in their journey to saving themselves." Eiji smeared the edge of the plastic cup with his finished cigarette and only stared into the chipping wood of the bar as if his inner demons stared right back at him.
"Why are you telling me this?" Was all Yuka replied with. What else could she have replied with?
He glanced back up at Yuka with surprised eyes and chuckled softly to himself, "sorry. It's just been a while since I was able to talk about things like this."
"Couldn't you have talked to any of those you are helping?"
"No. I wasn't about to subject any of them to that. None of them would have understood and some might've even saw me as some sort of monster."
"Yet you subjected me to it."
"Only because I know you would understand. I did tell you about my childhood back then when you told me yours."
He turned himself around in his bar stool to come face to face with Yuka and sighed deeply. "We are like two lines that parallel each other- going in the same direction but never meeting."
----------
"How was school today, Eiji?" His father asked his eight year old son, who stood in the molding doorframe that led into one of the shipping containers they called home. He was pouting and didn't reply back to his father. Instead he stomped off to the other side of the container and laid in his cot that sat just above the floor.
His father sighed and followed his son and sat on the edge of the cot, Eiji's back facing him. "Are the children at school making fun of you again?" He simply asked, not daring to place a soothing hand on Eiji's back.
Eiji didn't reply for a time before his body began to quiver and the sounds of sniffling filled the deathly quiet shipping container. His father murmured for him to come to him and Eiji was met with open arms that embraced him into a tight hug. They sat in silence as Eiji cried his heart out into his father's dark blue sweater vest that had holes all over.
Once the crying stop did Eiji spoke, "they're always saying how poor we are. They always rub it in my face."
His father only nodded and stood up from the cot with Eiji in his arms. He carried him outside their home to be met with the slight breeze coming off the water from the river. It was a clear evening with no clouds in the orange and purple hued sky. The Neon District stood off into the distance with its neon lights just starting to flicker to life for the the awaiting night.
"Life isn't always going to treat you nicely, Eiji." His father told him softly as they watched light after light flicker on in the distance- illuminating the stone and glass buildings. "But then it is your choice on how you want to live your life despite all the hardships you will face. I want you to live the life you want despite what other's may think of it."
"What about you? Can't I do anything for you?" Eiji asked softly as he watched the dark waves of water crash against the garbage heaped shoreline.
"All that I ask of you is to find the good opportunities in life and be happy. Don't worry about me or any of us until you are proud of the way you're living. It is our own jobs to find our own opportunities." His father replied with, his voice hiccupping near the end as if he were about to cry, too. He reached out his free arm and pointed it towards the tall buildings of the Neon District, his son's gaze following where he pointed. "Opportunities lie just ahead of you, Eiji. I'll love you no matter what choices you make."
----------
It was a grueling eight years of working three jobs but Eiji promised himself that it was all worth it when he stepped into the classroom of one of his college classes for the first time. The rows upon rows of lecture style tables and chairs already had students crowding the room and he braced for the impact of the stares and cruel comments.
But none of them came. Heck, nobody even paid him any attention. He released the breath that was caught in his throat for past few minutes and found himself a seat near the back of the room that nearly touched the high ceiling. He surveyed the room of all the well dressed students and compared it to his clothes. He worked enough that he was able to buy clothing mostly everyone else wore. But he still prayed to God that nobody sat next to him.
He was too busy worrying about what others thought of him that he didn't notice a woman about his age maybe younger has taken the seat next to him. Eiji glanced up to be met with her bright grey eyes and her perfect smile. He nearly had a heart attack as she looked at him, but she never veered her eyes over his body- not once.
"What's your name?" She asked sweetly, folding her hands neatly atop the table before them.
His voice caught as he tried introducing himself and he swore he was about to die of embarrassment when he finally spoke, "Eiji Okamoto..."
The woman simply smiled brighter, "nice to meet you, Eiji. I'm Sayuri Taniguchi."
----------
He hasn't seen his father in over ten years so he figured he better pay him a visit considering it was Eiji's twenty-eighth birthday. He had just finished college too, so there was that other good news he was excited to share with his father.
He hoped that his father would be proud of his accomplishments so far considering all the trouble he went through to get enough money to even go to school, let alone finish it. He wasn't worried about it all that much, though. He knew his father would be proud because he was doing something that he wanted to do. Although, once he stepped foot in the familiar shipping container that felt smaller than since the last time he was here- those thoughts disappeared.
His father was lying down on the low rising cot in the corner and stared at him with tired, blood shot eyes. His skin was paler than the fresh snow fall with his veins popping out of his skin like a network of wires along his wrinkling skin. Despite all the hacking and sneezing that left dribbles of blood on the musty cot, his father still gave his son one of his warm smiles.
"Are you alright?" Eiji asked frantically as he hurried to his father's side and laid a hand on his shoulder. It quivered slightly from the touch as if his hand was made of ice. But it was almost twenty-seven degrees Celsius outside in the dead of summer. "How long have you been sick?"
His father stared at him dead in the eyes and muttered softly, "years."
That single word shot through his heart like a bullet. Years. He has been sick for years and he, his own son, never knew about it. He was too busy being concerned about himself and Sayuri that he forgot about the most important man in his life. And to see that he now laid on his death bed...
"I'm sorry," Eiji muttered back, his voice quivering, "I should have done more for this place. If I did than maybe you wouldn't have gotten sick-" He continued on but got interrupted by his father.
"Did you want to help us- this place...?" The question echoed throughout Eiji's brain and he wanted to tell him that he did, but his father would know right away that that was a lie. His father seemed to have noticed the struggle going on in his son's mind that he answered for him. "Help us only if you want to. I don't want this place to be a burden on you any longer. Do what makes you happy, Eiji."
It was the words he told him all the time as a kid, but he never realized how much it weighed down on shoulders. He continued to think of them and his father even after the funeral.
It wasn't the most beautiful funeral as it was something only the people of Ashtown could muster up. Heck, if he didn't pitch in what he had at the time his father wouldn't even have been laid to rest in a legitimate cemetery.
He was angry at the world but more so at the government for not doing anything to help his neighbors- the people of Ashtown. He was angry that he wasn't there to help his father and it was his choices that led to his death. He wanted to help them all and save them from the hell they are living in, but he didn't know if he actually wanted to do it. Nor did he have the power to do so.
At least, that is what he initially thought before he found himself in the Neon District, staring up at a bright billboard of blues and yellows. It was a billboard announcing the upcoming elections and the registration for campaigning has officially opened up.
He never wanted to do any of the things that he would do next. But he felt like he had to. If not for the Neon District, but for Ashtown.
----------
Eiji and Yuka stood in front of a small community garden full of blooming plants such as fruits an vegetables. There were children screaming and laughing as they ran around adults picking at weeds or watering the plants with their small watering cans. Some even came up to Eiji and praised him for all the things he has done for the town.
None of them gave him secretive glances or snide remarks like they would back in the city. Instead, he was given smiles and words of endearment. Here he was a savior while in the city he was still considered missing by the public. By Manzo- a dead man.
"So you're wanting me to join the Syndicate, essentially?" He questioned as he took a puff from his cigarette. He gave a long glance down at Yuka who stood at his side, who was busy staring out at the community garden and its people.
"I wouldn't call it that, but basically everyone in on the plan was from the Syndicate. So, essentially, yes I am asking you that." She explained, giving him a long look back through the corner of her eyes. She swore she heard a quiet sigh come out of him. "You'll be doing this town wonders if you did agree to the plan." She quickly added after-the-fact.
Eiji cocked his head to the side and considered for a moment without saying a word. She was starting to believe he would never answer until he let out a low chuckle and spoke. "To think I am joining the gang that I once swore to exterminate."
"When have you ever sworn to that?" Yuka replied, letting out a quick exhale.
"Who knows." He started, taking another puff from his half done cigarette, "maybe in some other timeline I've said that."
----------
"What the hell is he doing here?" Veila swore when Yuka and Eiji entered her apartment a few days later. Abby sat at the dining room table with a crutch balanced on her leg, Jonah stood off in the kitchen and gawked as he took in that he was in Mr. Propaganda's presence. And then there was Veila who stood in the entry way pointing an accusing finger at Eiji, her face contorted into pure rage.
"Wither you like it or not he is a part of our team now. He is needed for this plan to succeed." Yuka snapped and slapped down Veila's finger. Veila didn't so much as glance back in his general direction as she huffed and took her spot next to Jonah.
"What is his part of the plan, then? Why is he needed so badly?" She asked, bracing her arms on the dark laminate counter top. "How do you even plan on taking down Manzo to begin with?"
"Once the public knows that Eiji has been found safe and sound then Manzo would of course have to address it publicly. How we get that to happen is that Eiji would appear on the evening news and accuse Manzo of setting him up and ordering an assassin on him. Of course, all of this did happen and that is why Manzo would have no choice but to address it. He would be too scared not to." Yuka started as she slowly entered the room a bit more.
"That is when we'll have Abby hack into the evenings news' website and begin sending out articles of half truths. Just enough for the public to speculate and form their own opinions of the government and its mayor. This would be done after he addresses the allegations Eiji had posed against him. Manzo would have no choice but to address all of these articles again and it will eventually lead him down a never ending hallway. He is already giving up, so this will be the final push he needs to resign."
"What if he tries to kill Eiji after he sends out his statements?" Abby questioned as she examined some invisible dirt beneath her finger nails.
"If he does try to pull anything then that would mean that everything Eiji alleged would be true. But Manzo is too smart to do that, so we have to count on he wouldn't try to kill him." Yuka clarified for her.
"Nice to know that I am live bait." Eiji cooed, nobody answered back.
"Manzo knows about the computer room the Syndicate has. He no doubt has it guarded up pretty tightly. It would be suicide to try and break into it." Abby said, still examining her fingernails.
"That is where Veila, Jonah, and Zoo come in." Yuka answered, whipping her head towards the couple in the kitchen.
"But Zoo is still in prison, so how do you expect us-"
"I got that covered, too. We just have to go meet him in an hour if things go according to plan on his end."
"Are you saying he is breaking himself out of prison?"
"Not without some outside influence he isn't."