Akuma Unleashed (Book Three of The Yakuza Series) (✔️)

十七 (Seventeen)

(Aria's POV)

I stood outside wondering if I should go in. I'd never been inside. We'd visited twice before and he forbid me from going in.

It was his childhood house. The same house his father trained him in. He still owned it and has contemplated having it demolished several times.

I took a deep breath and walked inside. I didn't hear or see anything that stuck out except the basement door open. The padlock that had been on it was in the floor.

Slowly, I opened the door and started down the steps. The noises I heard would be ingrained in my head forever.

The sickening crunch of bones being broken, the cries for help, and the screams of pain. 

I stepped off to the side and slide down to floor with my back against the wall. 

I'd seen Ryu, Akuma, do a lot of things to a lot of people. I thought nothing would surprise me. I was wrong.

First thing I noticed?

The three men had been blinded.

How could I tell?

An empty bottle of sulfuric acid sat on the floor and their eyes....

"Please." Guy 2 begged.

Guy 3 was dead. He laid off to the side with his eyes burned out, his fingers broken, dozens of stab wounds, and what appeared to be busted kneecaps. It was also apparent that he had been burned by the fire.

"Let us go. Please. We're sorry!"

The man standing in front of them wasn't Ryu. I wasn't even sure that he was Akuma, at least not the Akuma everyone talked about. He seemed more.....sinister and angry.

Knowing that there was nothing I could at that moment and that he didn't know I was there, I just sat against the wall and watched silently.

I only saw his back, so I didn't know 100% if he had been injured or not. He was breathing though and for the time being that was enough for me.

He grabbed Guy 2 by the throat, leaned in close, and whispered something. Whatever it was made the guy pale and start begging.

His friend, Guy 1, was knocked out on the floor. This guy was tied to a chair.....exactly how I had been.

I watched as Ryu killed Guy 2 the same way he had done Guy 3.

Compared to his usual....methods, this didn't seem that bad. But I knew he was saving the worst for last. Saving the worst for the one in charge, the one who broke my nose.

As he threw Guy 2 with Guy 3, he noticed me and it caused him to freeze for just a second. I didn't make any movements or say anything. I simply stared at him with tears in my eyes.

He grabbed the reaming guy and threw him into the chair. He was still knocked out so Ryu woke him up with a splash of sulfuric acid to the face. He jolted awake with a scream.

The...events that happened next....I-we would never forget.

~~~~~~~~~~
(Ryu's POV)

The man in front of me jolted awake with a scream. P*ssy.

I thought back to the video footage and recalled which hand he punched Aria with. That's the hand I went for first.

I dipped my knife into the bottle of acid before driving it through the center of his hand. Next, I soaked his hand in gasoline. His screams were like music to my ears.

I picked up the blowtorch off the small table against the wall. It was the same blowtorch my father used on me a time or two.

From his wrist to his fingertips. That's the part I burned. I didn't stop until it was well past a fourth degree burn. His other hand was treated the same.

He eventually passed out from the pain. I turned to grab something else only to come face to face with Ari. She was standing inches away from me.

I know she saw the look in my eyes, the monster inside. I also knew that she didn't care.

Her eyes scanned me from top to bottom and I smirked. She was looking for my injuries. I turned my back towards her only when a groan came from the man in the chair. He woke back up.

"Watch him." I grumbled before walking out. I needed something from my father's old shed.

When I got back down to the basement.....my mind couldn't fully comprehend what I was seeing. Not until I was fully inside the room.

Ari was covered in blood with a knife in one hand and the blow torch in the other. I was surprised because the knife she held was the one that I had tucked into my waistband. I didn't even feel her take it.

She had stabbed him repeatedly in the face and chest. I couldn't tell whether it was before or after she torched his face with the blowtorch.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes and her bottom lip trembling.

"I.....He....."

Whatever she was trying to say, I didn't let her finish. I took three steps her way, grabbed the back of her neck, and claimed her lips with mine. I was careful not to worsen her injuries or cause her pain, but she didn't seem to care about the pain or injuries. Dropping the knife and blowtorch by our feet, she reached up and grabbed my face in her hands. She kissed me harder, pouring every feeling she had into that kiss.

She pulled away and everything came spilling out as she held onto me tighter.

"He...They.....attacked Aimoto. They hurt my friend. They k-killed Yori. They hurt me. They.....hurt you." She cried. "They made me lose you. Made you go back into that state of mind. We lost our peace. We are in this house with the memories....."

She was listing everything that upset her, everything that made her angry.

"They have a boss and that means he's after you too. It's not over. It'll never be over. We won't-"

"Baby, it is over." I said cutting her off.

"What?"

I nodded over to Guy 3. "He pussied out and told me everything. I know who they work for. I know where he is. I'm going to end it today. You didn't lose me. I am right here."

"But you....Vince said that your eyes...."

I smirked and shrugged. "I gave them what they wanted. I just gave them the....updated version."

"You're going to get them? You're going to end everything?"

I nodded. "I promise you. I'm going to end it once and for all."