family matters, part one

It did not take long to dispose of Ketsuo's body; Zhizhu returned to find Yi still cleaning up the blood and bits of brain matter that had splattered with the gunshot. She regarded the scene coolly, her gaze lingering on the cold metal table where the yakuza lieutenant had lain. She scowled, clenching a fist, and did not notice Yi's wince at her sudden change in mood.

It was her first time torturing simply for information. She'd agreed readily to the plan, looking forward to the new experience. And yet, with the man in her clutches, it had proven disappointing. He had broken so quickly that at first she'd been convinced he was faking. She'd relished the thought of working on one with the will of a yakuza, a man who'd risen to power by stepping on the backs of others.

And yet, nothing. The experience was empty. Perhaps it was simply that the experience came on the heels of the headiness that followed breaking Yi. She'd experienced so much triumph and satisfaction from that act, it'd felt like the high of a drug. No wonder that such a simple job as Ketsuo felt like a letdown.

Suddenly, she grimaced, as if in pain. Was it that headiness, that rush of power, which led so many astray? Had she begun to set her foot upon the first step to becoming an akuma? No. A fate that one is aware of is a fate that one may avoid. Still, she thought, I understand better how the Yama Kings could have set aside their duties to Heaven.

She looked at Yi, who had paused in his cleaning and was watching her with wide eyes. When he saw her looking at him, his head snapped down and he redoubled his efforts. That heady feeling returned, and she dissected it. Triumph--it had taken weeks to grind him down, to reduce a proud, powerful man to this. Satisfaction--she had sucessfully dealt with one facet of her koa. She had taken her vengeance. And yet, that was not all.

She tried to think of Yi in the hells. He would suffer, oh yes. Probably more than any torture she could devise. And yet, his spirit would be wasted in hell. It would stay there, for eternity, as a toy for some Yama King. She thought long on the punishment she had chosen for him, and decided it was just. He had treated her as nothing more than a blow-up doll, something pretty to trot out in front of his clients and then put away until he needed to fuck something. She could only assume he'd treated his other wife the same way.

Now he was the lowly one, the one who served and had little value beyond that. He would learn about the pain he had inflicted, pain which had nothing to do with physical wounds. She felt the rightness of that, and she smiled.