Cleaning Up the Sushi Mess

"Beeep! Beeep! Beeep!"

Hal Arkov opened his eyes. He blinks for a few seconds, realizing that it was already morning. With a yawn, he sat upon his bed and scratched the back of his head.

"Christ Almighty..." he muttered while looking at his mobile phone.

The time was now 7 in the morning.

He picked up the gadget and pushed the small screen. A hologram opened in front of him with an envelope icon hovering above his monitor.

"3000 messages. Fuck." the bald man sighed.

He instantly threw the device on the side of his bed and slowly stood up. The mirror instantly reflected his aging body. He's already 27 years old, but he is still in good form. He then looked at the mirror and cocked one eyebrow.

"Good morning, you handsome bastard you." he grinned.

He then turned around. The mirror reflected the huge tattoo that showed on his back. It was the tattoo of a black dragon-like creature that was swallowing the moon whole. Hal immediately pulled a white shirt and wore it at once as he walked outside his room and towards the kitchen.

After eating his breakfast in minutes, Hal Arkov went out from his small apartment complex.

To his surprise though, he saw a black limousine parked right in front of him.

"What the fuck." he muttered. The driver's seat opened and an old man in his fifties came out, wearing a black formal business suit.

"Good morning Mr. Arkov. I trust that you've received my master's messages during the weekend?" the old man politely said with a small bow.

"Yeahhhhh and I also absolutely and explicitly said that I will be the one to go to him..." Hal whispered to the old man, huddling towards him.

"Your master is not making it easy for me to work with him. And I do not like people who are hard to work with."

"I am terribly sorry Master Arkov, but it's just that my master is an impatient man. Especially during these troubled times..." the old man apologized.

However, Hal just grabbed the old man's shoulder and shoved him back towards the limo.

"Well, thanks to the 500 emails I got from your boss, I've decided that he's an old prick and that I'm done meeting him. Sayonara, goodbye, fuck off." Hal said with a small wave of goodbye while turning left.

However, the old man immediately rushed back in front of him and then knelt on all fours.

"DUDE! What?" Hal yelled.

"PLEASE! PLEASE SAVE HER!" the old man bellowed, his face close to the ground. The people in the neighborhood began to notice the commotion; Hal was now sweating while looking to and fro.

"You are the only one who can save her! Please! I beg of you!"

Hal sighed while crouching in front of the old man. He then remembers the messages that he read just a few minutes ago while he was eating breakfast.

"Come on old man, get up!" he said while pulling the old man up.

The limo driver stood up while Hal carefully removed the dust and dirt from his uniform. He quickly removed the small tears coming from his eyes. Something to which Hal noticed.

"Alright. Take me to your shitty boss," he grunted. "I'll hear him out. For your sake."

An hour and a half later, Hal Arkov arrived in a huge compound filled with men all dressed in black formal suits. He peered through the window of the limousine, his eyes scanning one area to the next.

"This area never changes," he muttered. "It's still the same shithole that it used to be."

"We are here, sir." the old driver announced. He stood up, ran towards the back of the car, and opened the door for Hal. The bald man simply walked out of the vehicle and looked around.

"This way, sir." the old man bowed as he beckoned Hal to follow him. While the two were walking down towards the main building. Hal can feel the angry stares coming from the men who were all lined neatly outside.

"Look, there he is..."

"This fucking clown is him?"

"What's the Boss thinking about sending this idiot?"

Hal Arkov just sneered as he walked past the angry mob. At the entrance of the main building though stood an old man with grey hair and a wide frame. He had a very serious look on his face while being accompanied by a younger and handsome gentleman.

"Well, well, it's nice to see you again Boss Shinzo Amaki of the Amaki clan. And this must be one of your cursed progeny, pretty boy Shujin Amaki, your son." Hal cheerfully greeted both men.

"You bastard! Show some respect!" one of the men who stood in line yelled while rushing towards Hal.

But before he can grab the man, Hal easily dodged him and knocked him down on his feet.

Before the goon could stand up, Hal broke his nose with a strong punch. The move shocked the rest of the mob. While others wanted to move in and attack while Hal's back was turned, they suddenly couldn't move when Hal suddenly gave them a blood-curdling stare.

"E-Enough!" Shujin Amaki yelled. "Stop with this foolishness at once!"

"But Young Master!"

"One more word from all of you and I will have you all expelled from the family!" Shujin roared. "This Hal Arkov is our esteemed guest. How dare you attack him?"

The rest of the men all hung their heads in shame.

"All of you, out! Get out!" Shujin yelled again. To which the guards immediately obeyed.

Hal simply snorted as he stood up and walked towards Shujin and his father. Even while he meant no harm, Shujin could only gulp in fear as Hal felt like he was some sort of monster or demon.

Hal gave a toothy grin.

"Thanks for calming down your goon squad Shujin. But seriously, you need to give them some serious house training. They really need to chill the fuck down." he laughed.

Shujin sighed. "Same as always, Mr. Arkov. A jokester and a fool."

"Oh yeah? Well, this fool did your little family too many favors now, so why don't you just give me the details now so that I can be on my way?" Hal replied in irritation.

"The situation was already explained to you in the messages I sent. What more could I tell you?" Shujin asked.

"Maybe the whole fucking thing? Because I for one know that this clean-up job is not about extracting some VIP from a fucked up gang war situation." Hal said while looking at the old limo driver.

Shujin's eyes widened as he realized what happened.

"Goddamit Kobayashi-san, kyō wa untenshu ni naranai yō ni itta! (I told you to not be the limo driver today)" Shujin stammered.

"Mōshiwakearimasen shujin-sama. (My apologies, master.)" Kobayashi, the driver, replied while shaking.

"Yeah, that's right. No way some limo driver is going to bend down on all fours just to save some relative of yours, Amaki-san." Hal grinned while looking at Boss Shinzo.

"So why don't you cut the crap and tell me the whole fucking truth, huh?"

The old man just stared at him in defiance. A few seconds later, he sighed as he looked at Kobayashi and then at Shujin.

"Kobayashi-san's daughter, Himeko, was kidnapped by some local gangsters. These are young men who no longer have any respect for our family. They know that I treat her like my daughter, that's why they took her. They demanded that I pay the ransom." Shinzo explained with a raspy voice.

"Huh. Local gangsters." Hal muttered. "Which one?"

"34k Street," Shujin replied.

Hal Arkov didn't reply. He simply looked at old man Kobayashi. The old limo driver gave a small bow; a sign of a desperate plea from a father that wanted to save her daughter.

"You could've told your soldiers to erase those idiots, you know. You still do have authority over 34k Street." the bald man said while taking out a cigarette to smoke. Just as he was about to take out his lighter, Boss Amaki stood in front of him and took out his own lighter.

"You know that we can't do that." the old man said as he flipped the lighter open. A small flame popped out and Hal lit his cigarette with it.

"34k Street also serves the Black Turbans, which is one of the members of the Brotherhood of Guan. It'd mean total war out in the streets if we attacked them."

Hal sucked on the cigarette for a few seconds and blew the smoke out of his mouth.

"So that's why you turn to me. A Janitor. You want me to clean up your mess."

"Yes," Shujin replied.

"Please, Arkov-san. We don't have much, but we will gladly give you what little money we remain...if only it'd bring my baby sister back to us."

Hal gave a long sigh. He shook his head while throwing down his cigarette.

"Fuck this shit. And fuck you Amakis for being such cheapskates," he growled.

"Ugh. Fine. I'm gonna go and get myself a broom."

Another hour passed and the streets of Colon, Cebu were wet with the pouring rain.

Hal Arkov is seen walking through a dark alley when he reached a small store. The store was filled with huge bare-chested men with black tattoos all over their bodies. They were all sitting down in different chairs and were drinking beer and the local wine, tuba.

"Hello, gentlemen. Is Manang inside?" Hal smiled.

"Oh! It's you Hal! How've you been boss?" one of the big guys yelled as he gave Hal a high-five.

"I'm good Anton. I need to see Manang. I need a broom." Hal replied.

Anton's face went from jolly to serious. He then signaled Hal to follow him inside the house. Both men started to navigate the intricately small maze woven inside already small metal shack that adorned the cramped residential areas of Colon, Cebu.

"Oh? Too soon Hal?" the muscular man queried.

"Yeah. Worst job ever, believe me. You don't want to know."

"Got it. Well, Manang is not here so I'm gonna be the one to give you your broom." Anton explained.

When both men finally reached their destination, Anton opened what seemed like an impossibly small room. But when both men went inside, the room wasn't small at all.

In fact, it was wide, spacious, and filled with guns of all sizes and types.

"Well...what kind of broom do you need?" Anton asked as he turned on the rest of the lights inside the room.

"I'm going to take care of the 34k Street gang. I'm gonna need a fucking mop." Hal said.

"Wait, what? The 34k Street gang? Are you fucking for real?" Anton asked.

"Yep. I'm not joking. Give me a decent mop." Hal replied.

"Fine," Anton said as he looked at the rifle section. "Ohh, then here's your fucking mop," he said as he handed a rifle towards Hal.

"UDMC PVAR Rifle. Doesn't overheat, has no carbon build-up, it's cleaner and cooler than your standard AR 15 rifle. This baby will fuck up those 34k Street wannabes, solid." Anton smiled as he crossed his big shoulders.

Hal looked at the weapon with a smile. "Looks good. Now, how about a good scrubbing pad and some detergent?" he asked. Anton immediately turned around and started searching around the armory.

"Scrubbing pad and some detergent...ah, here!" Anton exclaimed while taking out a handgun and some throwing knives.

"Here's the good old Rock Island Armory 1911 series and some nice throwing knives for the maximum clean-up effort."

"Nice. Thanks Anton." Hal replied.

"You sure you need no back-up?" Anton asked. "I mean, I could help you out, you know..."

"Thanks for the offer Anton. But cleaning up is a messy business. And it's always just a one-man job at all times." Hal chuckled.