The Black Swan Behind

77 Grudge

With time running out, Poppy and Emma immediately ran and hid in the warehouse area which was quite far from the Hell Gate headquarters building. Not long after that, an ambulance arrived at the scene where Roger fell.

“I’ll take my bike. Please wait here.” Emma said to Poppy. The girl nodded.

Emma walked quickly to the location where she parked her motorbike. But on her way, she saw three shiny black sedans lined up on a deserted street behind the warehouse.

“Kei?” She muttered.

The man with glasses noticed the presence of a man in a black helmet, standing still a few meters from the car he was about to get in. So, Kei was actually just pretending to be unconscious before. When no one was looking, he immediately ran away when the men from the branch headquarters had come to pick him up.

Kei gave Emma a mocking smile while placing his index and middle fingers beside his forehead and moving them outwards as a symbol of goodbye. Then casually, got into the car which then sped away as the mysterious man in the black helmet chased him like crazy.

“FUCK!!!” Emma shouted as she continued to run through the thick snow, chasing the car full of criminals. Chasing a man who had brutally murdered her best friend.

After running a few meters, Emma couldn’t help to slow down her pace, until she finally came to a complete stop, gasping for air to breathe. Of course, she couldn’t keep up with the wheels of the car with her two feet. She just felt very angry and wanted to kill the man who had taken the life of her first friend.

Emma’s tears fell again as her hands rested on her shaking knees. She felt like she was standing in the air. She could not feel the asphalt she was stepping on. Her body felt to be floating.

.....

“I.. will destroy you.. and the people like you. I will destroy the rogue gangsters and cowards who litter this city!”

Emma returned to Poppy on her black sports bike. She rode Poppy back to her house. On the way, the two of them did not speak to each other. It was only Poppy who sometimes pointed the way to her house to Emma. Each was lost in their own thoughts with raging feelings.

Leaving the body of your best friend alone after seeing him die in front of your eyes was not an easy thing. Even though you knew an ambulance would come, as a friend, at least you want to accompany him to his final rest.

Without realizing it, Emma had arrived in front of a large and luxurious house in an elite residential area. Poppy got off the motorbike. Emma saw that the girl’s face was already very puffy and her eyes were red.

“Th.. thanks.” Poppy said. Emma nodded.

Before Emma was about to leave, Poppy grabbed her arm.

“W-wait. What’s your name? Are you Roger’s friend?” Poppy asked curiously. As far as she knew, Roger never had any friends. And, this person who never showed his face had a very strange robot-like voice. Then, what’s even weirder... he was willing to fight with dozens of men just to help the two of them.

Emma was silent for a moment with her head lowered, then followed by a nod, “I’m Roger’s secret friend. My name is... Black.”

Poppy took off her hand from the arm of the mysterious man named Black. Then, the man nodded again once before hopping on his motorbike and speeding away.

***

Calvin and Troy looked at each other with serious faces. Around them, the Jita Kyoei members seemed to be deep in thought, making the atmosphere in the room quiet.

Overnight, the news of the Hell Gate’s main headquarters being ransacked had spread all over the gangster groups. Not only that. The news even got into local television news.

The news of the murder case of a university student being thrown from the sixth floor by a big man named Addo Windsor.

But either because of cooperation or indeed Hell Gate was so great at hiding all the evidence, surprisingly, the local news and the authorities did not find any traces of the gangster’s headquarters in the building where the incident occurred.

What was reported on the television was that there was a fight between two groups of thugs who broke into the frozen seafood company office building which was closed on holidays. They said the man named Addo, who was the perpetrator of the murder, was one of the employees who worked at the company as security. A riot caused by a personal grudge then turned into a big problem.

All traces of Hell Gate and the production house of the website catlanguangedictionary.com were disappeared along with the figure of Kei Matsumoto.

But out of it all, the thing that surprised Calvin and all Jita Kyoei members the most was..

“The death victim was Roger Timothy,” Calvin said as he rubbed his frustrated face. He couldn’t understand it. How could a Roger Timothy, who had been bullied, be so desperate to get involved with a group as big as Hell Gate?

“Gozu seems to have been used as a scapegoat to close this case,” said Troy Roner.

Yes, Gozu had the real name Addo Windsor. And his twin who was often called Mezu, had the real name Andrea Windsor.

“I received information that a mysterious man in a black helmet attacked them. Strangely, it was the mysterious man who seemed to be helping Roger Timothy to infiltrate Hell Gate’s headquarters.” Ian said.

Calvin exhaled in annoyance, “Why did all this escape my attention? I didn’t think that all this time they had been working on a porn site production house and exploiting many women. It turns out that their illegal boat engine transaction business is just for distraction.”

So far, as Calvin knew, the Hell Gate group got their income from the rental and illegal boat engine transactions business. They run away from taxes and were seen doing small-scale boat engine production themselves. They made fake boat engines at a low cost, but deceived buyers and sold them at high prices. They made fake products from well-known ship engine brands. They were also madly expanding their selling area.

For Calvin, the crimes committed by Hell Gate were still tolerable, rather than extortion and violence as committed by the other gangsters. Because of this, Hell Gate was one of the groups at the bottom of the list for Calvin to exterminate. But apparently, he had been deceived by the group as well.

“Now, the catlanguangedictionary.com site can’t be opened. It says that the server is down.” Martin said while looking at his cellphone screen.

“If it wasn’t because of the Poppy Castonia video that went viral, we wouldn’t have known that the website actually belonged to Hell Gate. They really are assholes!” Nicko was furious.

“Donny is still in the hospital. He has a pretty serious head injury. You can kill him when he gets out,” Frank replied by patting Nicko’s shoulder. He knew, his best friend was very sensitive to all violence against women. Moreover, in this case, there was not only violence, but sexual harassment, slavery, and defamation.

“I think it’s all related. Poppy is Donny’s girlfriend. But as for Roger.. I still can’t figure it out. Did he do it to get his revenge on Donny for always bullying him or did he and Poppy have a relationship too, I don’t know which one.” Ian added.

“That’s their personal matter. But I’m sure Kei and Sam will not standstill. They will definitely find the mysterious man and rebuild their business. As we know, they have several branch headquarters.” Troy stepped in.

Calvin nodded affirmatively, “Neither of us knew what the mystery man’s intentions are. We don’t know whether he has good or bad plans and where he came from. I haven’t seen him either.”

“So.. are we going to change targets?” Nicko asked by looking at Troy and Calvin, remembering earlier, their target was the RJC group.

Troy folded his arms across his chest as he leaned back roughly on his seat back, “Hmm.. Come to think of it, Hell Gate must be in a slump right now. Even, I heard that the martial-art studio’s boys they just recruited were also finished off by that mysterious man. Chances are, they’ll have a hard time getting new members for now.”

Calvin turned to Troy with furrowed brows, “So, you’re saying we don’t have to block Hell Gate from rebuilding their damn business? They’re going to put a lot of Handway women in danger!”

Calvin’s anger made the atmosphere tense. He felt annoyed at Troy who kept caring about his Judo thing only. In fact, there were lots of weak young people out there who needed their help. However, it seemed that in this place, it was only Calvin who had the heart to help the weak.

“Is the gold medal more important than the women’s future? Don’t you think that you guys are just like the people from the martial-art studios you talked about? For them, money is more important than achievement. And for you, the achievement is more important than humanity. ” Calvin continued.

Troy immediately rose from his chair. Quickly, all of his friends followed, not to attack Calvin, but to restrain Troy who might be offended by Calvin’s words.

Troy looked at all his friends who surrounded him in frantic faces. He grabbed Martin’s hand that was perched on his shoulder and took it down.

“Troy..”

“You want to stop me from going to the toilet?” Troy cut off Ian’s words.

“W-what?” Ian said with a confused face.

“I want to pee in the toilet. Can’t I?” Troy repeated in an even tone. Then, all his friends immediately dispersed and returned to their respective places with awkward faces.

Nicko clutched his chest, “I thought he was angry..”

Martin nodded, “Me too.”

“Hey, Calvin. Why are you getting so emotional? You’re just making a fuss.” Ian scolded. He didn’t want to imagine if Troy had actually gotten up to hit Calvin. It must be a really troublesome situation.

“Sorry. I got carried away. I was really desperate because I didn’t realize there was a group that did such a cruel thing. Plus, the number of the victims.. it made me even more disappointed in myself.” Calvin answered while massaging the bridge of his own nose.