Hunting Akuma (Book Two of The Yakuza Series) (✔️)

二十二 (Twenty-Two)

(Aria's POV)

While they went for Genkei, I headed to the storage unit that Ryu has. Juliet offered to go with me, but I told that I wanted to do it alone so she stayed at the hotel with Stefano.

As I walked down the sidewalk, I pulled out my phone and dialed a number.

It rang and rang and rang.

"You've reached my voicemail. If I didn't answer then either I don't like you or I'm busy. Leave your name and I might call you back. Probably not though."

I had to hear his voice. It soothed me a tiny bit.

I got the storage unit and took the key off from around my neck. I didn't know what I'd find so I prepared myself.

I used the flashlight on my phone to find the light switch. Once it came on I saw that the room was partially filled. In Ryu style, it was very neat and organized.

I shut the door halfway and started poking around. I didn't recognize a lot of the things I found, but I kept searching.

I was sitting on the floor going through some stuff when I stumbled upon a box of tapes. They were labeled and numbered.

There was an old tv with a video player set on a desk, so I popped in one of the videos. It took me about ten seconds to figure out what I was watching.

They were tapes of Ryu's father training him.

The camera was set up in the corner of the room. I could see everything in the room.

I couldn't stand to watch but five minutes of it. The way his father treated him.... I couldn't watch it.

I took the tape out and put it back in the box. I quickly scanned the rest of the labels and stopped on the last one. The writing was different. It was Ryu's hand writing.

Day One

I put the tape in and practically glued my eyes to the screen. It took me two seconds to understand what I was seeing.

I turned up the volume and watched.

"Try it again! You're enemies and targets won't give you a second chance!" His dad yelled.

Ryu took up and got back into position. He wore a pair of shorts and that's it. His hair was a mess and he look beat. Literally. He had a giant bruise on the side of his body and little bruises scatted about the rest of him. The tattoo on his neck was slightly visible. I also noticed that there every time he stepped, he left two bloody footprints. He also had blood on his face. I couldn't tell where it came from though.

He turned enough for me to see his back and I covered my mouth with my hand.

He had bruises in the shape of a kali stick. They were all over his back. Almost black in color. Some were fresher than others.

His dad quickly attacked him again and knocked Ryu to the ground. It wasn't his fault though. He was obviously exhausted and he looked malnourished.

"Get off the ground! Spit your blood and bare your teeth! Go down savage, go down fighting!" His father screamed.

Ryu looked up at his father through his hair and he was on his hands and knees.

"You're pathetic! You will never survive this way! All these years of training will be wasted! You are a weapon! You are a machine!"

That's when he snapped. I saw it before it happened. His body tensed. His hands balled into fists. He cracked his neck. His jaw began to tick.

He moved with lightning speed and rammed his shoulder into his father's stomach. His father went down on his back with Ryu on top of him.

Ryu started punching him in the face repeatedly. Soon his father was bleeding from his nose and mouth. He used his feet to kick Ryu off of him. He jumped up and shoved Ryu, causing him to stumble into the corner.

Once cornered, he grabbed his kali stick and swung at Ryu with all his strength. It made a sucking cracking sound as it made impact.

Ryu didn't move. He didn't flinch. He remained in his spot.

The kali stick broke in half on the impact of Ryu's stomach and side.

Ryu lunged at his father and got him on the ground again. He pinned his father down with his legs and knees, his father couldn't get up. I then watched as Ryu seemingly pulled a knife out of thin air.

He stabbed his father in the stomach and didn't stop. Repeatedly, he brought the knife up and down. Blood started coming from his fathers mouth as Ryu continued.

"Th....That's m-my boy." His father sputtered as blood came out of his mouth.

Ryu didn't stop. He didn't stop until his father was unrecognizable. He stabbed him everywhere he could. When he got done, he was also covered in blood.

He stood up, the knife still in his hand, and spat on his fathers dead body. He then turned towards the camera and threw the knife. With deadly accuracy, the knife landed in the lens and the screen went black.

I realized after that why he titled the tape Day One. That was the day his hunt started. The day he started hunting down Yakuza members. The day Akuma first really came out to play.

~~~~~

I eventually figure out that a lot of the stuff in the storage unit was from Ryu's childhood. It was stuff he put away after he killed his father....before he burnt the house down...with his father's body still inside.

I started crying when I saw a box that looked familiar. It was buried underneath some other boxes, but I easily recognized it.

I pulled out the box and opened it as tears rolled down my cheeks.

It was a box filled with stuff relating to me. Some of it was stuff from my house like pictures, old diaries, etc.

What really got me was the cards, pictures, and gifts I had gotten for him. He had the first valentine card I got for him and little stuffed dragon. I gave it to him before the detention thing, so it was when he did his best to ignore me. I thought he threw them out. I had no idea he kept them.

I rummaged through everything as memories came flooding back. Every emotion connected to those memories came flooding back as well. It was uncontrollable. I was defenseless against them.

It made my head and my heart pound. Made my heart ache. Made me cry more.

I was rereading the cards I gave him when my phone rang. It was Aimoto.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Just calling to tell you that we are seconds away from pulling up in front of Genkei's house."

"Are you going in?" I asked, sitting on the small loveseat that was in the storage unit.

"You know me, Ari. I'm more of a behind the scenes kind of guy. I'm going to stay in the car. I'm going to see if they have cameras I can hack into. Try to get an eye on the inside."

"Okay. Let me know when you have him."

"I will. We're going to get him, Ari. For you and for Ryu."