Ulterior motives

After a long and exhausting day of work, Mr. Satoshi and Hayato were drinking sake together. The former, in particular, seemed the most exhausted of the two. He was yet to explain to Hayato what had happened while he took out the trash.

"The guards came here searching for you", he was more straightforward than usual when he was drunk.

"W-What? For me? But, what did I do?" Hayato nearly dropped his sake once he heard that.

Mr. Satoshi sighed.

"You did nothing, boy. But they are not searching for you because you did something or not. As I said to you, since you are a foreigner, people tend to think badly of you, especially those who are attached to the empire. Your sole existence is enough of a crime to make others try to erase you."

Hayato pursed his lips. He was starting to feel anxious. The thought of having people coming after him was unsettling. It reminded him of his life weeks ago when he had someone hunting him down like a rabbit every single day.

"And, what will you do now? What do we do?" Hayato was lost. He barely had any perspective for his future in that new world. He was just living a normal everyday life, a monotone routine, so he wouldn't need to think about such things. He had no objectives whatsoever.

Even so, there he was, with a huge problem on his hands, not knowing what to do with that.

Mr. Satoshi didn't look at Hayato when he offered a response.

"To make things simpler for me and you, I could simply dump you. Give you some money and make sure that you would be in a faraway land by tomorrow so that you could restart your life, though alone again. Maybe, I should not do even this much; just kicking you out and having no strings attaching me to you would be enough."

He said that without remorse or hesitation. His mind was not in the right place at all.

'Or not... Mr. Satoshi had a high tolerance for alcohol, especially sake. I think that's his third or fourth cup. How come he is drunk already?'

Hayato stared at his face, which was slightly reddish but far from red enough to show that he was drunk. His eyes were serious and lucid.

'So, what he just stated were his true filtered thoughts. He meant to say it.'

Maybe it was due to his naivety or dependence, but Hayato felt pain in his chest when hearing those words, as if he had some sort of attachment to that old man. He felt betrayed when hearing it.

"However, don't worry about it", after nearly a minute in complete silence, Mr. Satoshi spoke up again. His eyes were fixed on his cup of sake. For some reason, his look was somewhat fond.

"Our life right now isn't that bad, is it? I mean, the guards appeared, I know but... having someone to drink sake with once again is more fun than I would like to admit."

Hayato took another sip of his sake while cautiously staring at Mr. Satoshi. He had the sensation that, at the slightest brusque movement, the old man would kick him out with no hesitation.

"And I remember very well that I said that people like you are game-changing pieces. I meant what I said that time. I am interested in the story you will build from now on and... and I want vengeance. Haha, of course, I would have an ulterior motive when keeping you here. Quite obvious, right? Even more when coming from such a selfish businessman like me."

"What do you mean?"

"I am interested in your story because I have the feeling that you will change the way people rule this district, like most foreigners do, for some reason. I want this because the empire took everything that once mattered to me."

The old man rolled up his shirt, showing the scar on his belly.

"I am sure you saw it before by chance and I have the feeling that you correlated it with the owner of the sushi shop. You thought I was her ex-husband, didn't you?"

"Y-Yes, I did. But, you know... Everything matched so perfectly."

Mr. Satoshi giggled a dull giggle, with no joy behind it.

"Yeah. I would have loved it if that was my story, actually. You know, it would be funnier. However, the truth is that no woman left this scar on me. The person who did it was one of these imperial guards. They hurt me with a katana when I tried to fight them off for trying to punish my wife. We had some taxes delayed and stuff like this, so they came to charge us. At the time, we weren't safe financially. Either we paid the taxes and bills or ate food two times a day.

"I remember that my wife was desperate. I think they were threatening to take me to prison and she panicked. One of the guards slapped her and ordered her to shut up. That was the last straw, I guess. So, things happened more or less as you can imagine. The guards stabbed me with the katana for beating one of them. Then, they did the same with my wife and left. I survived the bleeding until help came, she did not."

Satoshi's eyes were cloudy and serious. As if mesmerized, he stared at the sake, his mouth half opened.

Hayato could see in his expression that he was reliving that day as he told him the story.

"And all this because we did not pay some stupid taxes and bills. All this happened because of money. The empire, which holds most of our riches, worried over a random young couple who did not pay some months' worth of bills... and they took their lives for this sole reason. That's what they do, after all. That's all they do all the time, they take lives for their own benefit.

"That's why I hate them. That's my major motivation to keep you around. With you, I would be able to..."

Mr. Satoshi interrupted himself. He moved his eyes towards Hayato. The latter didn't have the best expression on his face, but he didn't seem as sad as Satoshi thought he would be.

"Well, it makes more sense than receiving me out of kindness. This world showed me many times that expecting kindness from others is a waste of time."

"...Maybe you suffered more than I thought, boy. Only people who have seen hell would have the guts to state something like this."

Hayato laughed. He laughed out loud like Satoshi never heard him do before.

A lot was passing on his mind at that moment. His dead cat, the burn mark on the back of his left hand, the scar on his face... Everything.

"Yes", he looked at Mr. Satoshi with eyes you wouldn't expect to see in the face of a sixteen-year-old boy. "I've seen hell quite a few times already. I saw even the devil himself quite frequently. Even now, I can still see them lurking in the darkness..."

He sighed, closing his eyes and getting rid of that expression. He himself got scared every time he did that. It's like it was not Hayato talking anymore.

"Anyway, even though you said all of this to me, you didn't answer my question. What do we do now?"

Mr. Satoshi didn't know whether he was relieved or just shocked when seeing Hayato's reaction.

"...As I said, I had ulterior motivations to receive you here and take care of you. However, it happens to be quite comfortable to have someone to drink sake with.

"That said, let the guards do their job. Meanwhile, we do ours. I will hide you from them as long as I can and you... well, if it's really you doing this mess with magic, keep practicing until you are confident enough to do something meaningful with it. Stick around until you can walk with your own legs."

Hayato nodded again. Finally, he was comfortable enough to finish his sake and maybe smoke a little bit.

"This seems fine to me. I still don't know what to do here. I never even considered the fact that I could go back to... to my homeland. I have many things to sort out, but soon I will find a direction. Until then, I am in your care", he bowed slightly.

Mr. Satoshi nodded. He put his cup aside, then took his pipe, filling it with unknown herbs. He lit it up, then took a long drag. Hayato seemed interested in using it as well, which nearly made the old man laugh. However, he kept his serious countenance.

"Look, boy... I will hide and protect you. However, the time will come when the guards will find out. They will find out and try to catch you. When this day comes, I need you to remember that I am doing all this for myself. I doing it for me and my wife. It's my vengeance. So, live a long life and accomplish as many things as I think you will accomplish. Run away, don't fight. Not until you are sure you can win. Got it?"

Hayato nodded, then took the pipe.

"Ok. Understood."