This Ragged, Wastrel Thing

ONE

The Rivers. A spiderweb of alleys for the drunk and destitute, weaved together from stones and shadow. Winding backstreets forking off like rotten veins plunging into every shady corner. The greasy smell of glass noodles and exhaust fumes from late night scooters. Neon blinking on every grimy surface and crooked alleys disappearing into a black and sorry night. Home.

Sonaya was always a little rough around the edges, but now The Rivers are deeper, dirtier, wilder. Not that that’s a bad thing; the Japanese way was always too rigid for my liking, and Sonaya’s got its own mad personality. But man, you walk around the Rivers at night after eleven years away and you start wondering what the hell went wrong. This is the real Sonaya right here: alleys backed up with rusted scooters, cockroaches scuttling through pancakes of vomit, shady characters leaning on uneven walls. I fit right in, and that’s not a thing to make a man feel proud.

Me and this city are one and the same. The Japanese aren’t all bad, but spend too long in Sonaya and the coat hanger across your back soon disappears. You stop bowing to people and forget the niceties. The Japanese are too damn stiff; walk and think in straight lines. Sonaya’s got a lot of flaws, but rigidity isn’t one of them. This is a city for the flexible, and I’m damn near elastic. I don’t just walk these streets; I’m bonded to their blood. Riding the plasma wave straight to the heart.

Now that I’m out I’ve got a lot of friends to see, and not all of them are waiting inside bottles. But hell, I’m in no rush. I’m a free man for now and every night ahead is young. But first I’ve got a debt to pay. There’s an old saying that states a man in debt is no more than a slave, and I don’t like to be a slave to anyone but my own joyous whims. There’s another saying that you’re a long time dead, so once I’ve paid my debt I’m gonna drink long and hard.

The girl’s name’s Jitsuko—Jiko for short. I’ve only met her once before, but I’m good with faces. Hair dyed red like a forest fire, skin like a winter moon, and upturned eyes like a fox. It doesn’t take long for old Kosuke to find her for me.

‘She’s one of those Bosozoku creatures,’ the old man told me. ‘They make an absolute racket down in the Rivers at night, that rabble.’

I smile. Bosozoku, last of the biker gangs. Their numbers increased when the city went to s**t. Just kids rebelling against nothing and everything, tearing up the streets and making a nuisance of themselves. Kosuke’s right; I can hear them long before I spot their bikes. It’s a good job half the city’s nocturnal.

I’m down near Ryusui Station at The Cross, the five-way confluence of the Rivers’ busiest streams. An old drunk with fish hook eyebrows slides along one wall, spit catching on his stubble as he screams obscenities at the holes in his leather shoes. A pair of addicts woodlouse together in a doorway and watch me pass with hungry, globular eyes. The homeless skunks wander their nightly aimless wanders, waiting for the moon to fall from the sky and crack open to cover the world in a new yolk.

All these holes are new to me. It used to be that I knew every underground bar and every kitchen that kicked rats out the back door. The blinking neon signs spell different words but the doors are as sad-looking as before; crooked basement stairs, windows dim or boarded up.

I soon find what I’m looking for: two wine bars east off The Cross, basement bars that bottle and sell the cheapest kind of grape. The apartment blocks were here long before I lost my job; their grey walls etched with rust trails bleeding from each twisted railing.

I descended the stairs to Vino Ryusui and pushed through the gnarled door. It’s dark and empty; only a few flickering candles flinging light over the red oak tables. No one’s waiting to show me to a table. Several girls perched on stools at the bar stop talking when they see me.

‘What d’ya want?’ one of them calls over. This is the hospitality of the Rivers. Another two get up and stand between me and the bar. Neither of them is Jiko.

‘Got anything from Argentina?’ I ask. ‘I’m looking for something dry, preferably from Mendoza.’

They look at each other like cartoon bodyguards and tell me to leave. The short one’s hair is dyed blonde, a bob down to her shoulders that frames her mousey cheeks and coated cherry lips. The tall one’s hair is purple, with a fringe straighter than the sharp end of a cleaver; she’s wearing so much black eyeliner it’s like she’s taken two clean punches. Together they look like an anime girl group, only with more tattoos and fewer smiles.

‘I’m looking for Jiko,’ I say. ‘Owe her some money for a favour she did me.’

‘You can just leave the money with us,’ Purple says, her face as friendly as a crowbar. ‘We’ll make sure she gets it.’

‘I’d like to see that she gets it myself.’

‘Jiko’s on a ride tonight,’ Blonde says. ‘She’s fast, but the sun usually beats her home. Come back tomorrow.’

‘I’ll be drunk tomorrow. Jiko’s money’s only safe until I find some Mendoza wine.’

Purple still looks pissed but Blonde’s face breaks into something like a smile.

‘Wow, look at that,’ I say. ‘I was starting to wonder if either of you had teeth.’

‘Try Sakura,’ Blonde says. ‘Down in the pleasure quarter. You’ll find Jiko there. Follow the screaming and you can’t go wrong.’

I throw her a wink and turn on my heels.

‘Wait,’ Blonde says. She walks over to the bar and I examine her tattoos; a mugunghwa blossom along her left arm and a tiger straddling the Korean taegukki on the small of her back. She pours something burgundy into a glass and the tiger scowls. ‘This is Sonaya,’ she says. ‘You’ll be waiting a long time for something from Argentina. You new here?’

‘Been away a while.’

She smiles and hands me the glass. I throw it down my throat like plum juice.

‘Best wine I’ve had in eleven years,’ I say, and I disappear into the night.

My first buzz as a free man. Who needs a job when you’ve got the charm of the Dag. I could sweet-talk in basement bars all night and feed on bottomless free drinks. I’ve got a nose that’s broken in two places and a gaping hole where my ear used to be, but neither makes a damn bit of difference. The government might have me down as a five on their tax records, but talk to me nose to broken nose and you’ll jot those points back up as soon as I open my mouth.

That lick of wine is tingling in my throat and I’ve got a stirring thirst for more. A Great White Shark with blood on his tongue, swimming in a sea of wounded seals. I better get this Jiko thing out of the way before I blow all of Kosuke’s cash on the destruction of my liver. Time to dive into this new Sonaya. Deep breath now.

I prowl the pulsing lanes. One step, two step, the Sonayan waltz. You don’t need a sixth sense to know where the pleasure quarter begins. Red neon blazes through the caterpillar streets, like kisses from the maroon lips of Sonaya’s w***e goddess. The girls and boys are all in heels and the flickering lights above their heads throw slick-hipped shadows across the walls.

‘Looking for some action?’ one of them asks as I pass, my eyes fixed on the shifting signs above. Japanese, Korean, English; it doesn’t matter, all of them have at least one character that’s blown its bulb and make the rest wink like a senile aunt.

Things sure have changed since my last visit to the pleasure quarter. It used to be just a few girls with short skirts and sly glances. Now there are different buildings to suit every desire. Homework Clubs and singing rooms and dark basements I don’t even want to know about. Maybe the people in this city aren’t so lonely after all.

I pick the threads of the web for a while with no sign of Sakura. There are plenty of screams for sure, but not the kind you want to hear. I stop beside a lady propped against a wall to ask for directions. She’s tall and has thick purple lips; she’s got heels that could take an eye out, and eyes that look like they’d enjoy watching it happen.

‘You’re into them young, are you?’ she says, her voice gruff, like it’s been trawled across the ocean floor.

‘I’m just looking for someone,’ I reply.

‘You all are,’ she says, her heavy eyes sliding to the right. I follow her gaze and find what I’m looking for down the next alley. Sakura. Cherry Blossom. It’s damn ugly from outside; sickly pink and peeling paint, like someone’s chewed up a bunch of cherry blossom petals and spewed all over the walls. Things don’t look much better inside; flowers and frills and pink everywhere; a small reception desk covered in plush toys, a torn and tattered chaise longue and wallpaper covered in faded hearts, all of which makes you feel like you’ve been dropped into a giant box of confetti.

The girls on the chaise longue jolt when they see me, each of them in school uniform; white shirts, black ties half-undone, navy socks up to their knees. Fifteen, sixteen, at most. It’s strictly talking only in Homework Clubs. Smiling and leering; old suits tired of nagging wives, pretending to help with homework as girls flutter eyelashes and occasionally graze a leg. The men drink hard liquor and the girls sip juice through straws. All above board, this is as innocent as it gets. But this is just the start.

‘Welcome, sir,’ the oldest girl says as she slips behind the front desk and flashes me a yellow smile. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail and secured with a white bow, her Tokyo accent lingering in the air like the sickly sweet after-taste of melted candy floss.

‘Would you like a private meeting, sir? Is there a girl you usually see?’

I look around. No screams. No flashes of red. No Jiko.

‘I’m looking for Jitsuko. She here?’

The girl tilts her head to one side and grants me a closer look at her grimy canines. ‘I’m afraid we don’t have a girl by that name, sir.’

I hear a man shouting upstairs, closely followed by the sound of a door slamming.

‘Never mind,’ I say.

I take the stairs one at a time. I’m no slouch but I’ve got a reputation to maintain. When a man loses his cool he’s lost it all, like a snake shedding its skin; there’s no going back. At the top of the stairs I see Jiko at the end of the corridor, dressed in black leather trousers and a tank top, the fiery rays of a Rising Sun tattoo spreading across her collarbone. She’s pointing a gun at a middle-aged suit with glasses and a comb-over, and he’s screaming at her like he’s trying to strip the flowers off the wall. Two girls are peeking out of an open door behind him.

‘Throw your wallet on the floor.’ Jiko orders the suit.

Her finger hovers above the trigger, eyes firmly locked on her target. If she’s seen me, then she’s not letting on. The suit swears and inches his hand inside his pocket. He removes a wallet stuffed with notes and tosses it to the floor between them. The wallet spins and slides into one of Jiko’s oversized boots and she takes one hand off the gun to retrieve it. With a solitary hand, she empties the wallet and slips the wad of notes into her pocket.

‘That didn’t hurt that much, did it?’ She throws the empty wallet back to the floor.

‘This isn’t over,’ the suit says as he moves towards his wallet. ‘I’ll have your guts, girl.’

‘Yeah, they all say that,’ Jiko answers.

She lowers the gun a second too soon. She didn’t see what I saw; the suit planting his feet on the floor, wiping his fingertips against his trousers. Jiko looks like she knows what she’s doing, but it takes years of experience to know when a crazy cat’s about to pounce. In a flash he’s grasped her gun and they’re wrestling like a pair of kittens over a ball of yarn, only this yarn might explode and send red furballs flying across the hall.

The schoolgirls in the doorway are screaming and I shove them inside and slam the door in their faces. I keep my eyes on the barrel of the gun and make sure I’m not in range as I approach the struggle. Jiko’s surprisingly strong but the man’s no mouse either. He elbows her in the face and wrestles the gun away from her as she falls to the floor with fresh bruises and blood.

Normally I wouldn’t get involved, but I’ve got a hell of a debt to repay. Gotta wipe that dust from my shoulders before I can enjoy my freedom. I reach down to my ankle and remove Old Trusty from its sheath. My beautiful Wharncliffe blade. Been with me since my days in the force. Spent the past eleven years in a box in the basement of The Heights, but it still feels like my eleventh finger; I brandish my blade as fast as another man might scratch his nose.

Time slows down in situations like these. I haven’t been a cop for years but you never lose the instincts. You see action play out like photographs, and if you’re good, you can smudge your prints all over them before you reach the end of the reel. The suit’s standing over Jiko and pointing her own gun at her. Whether or not he’s gonna shoot, I’ve no idea, but I don’t wait to find out. I slam Trusty’s handle onto the sparse scalp in front of me, and both scalp and body tumble to the floor.

‘This your first hold-up or what?’ I ask Jiko.

She pushes the suit’s limp body off her and I help her up.

‘First one today,’ she says. ‘You put me off. I saw you lurking by the stairs. How’d your tax assessment turn out?’

‘I got a five.’

‘Congratulations. Result like that must save a man a lot of money.’

‘That’s why I came to find you. I told you I would.’

Jiko looks at the suit on the floor and plants a boot in his stomach. ‘I hate these old pervs,’ she says, shouldering past me to the room with the girls inside. She opens the door and hands them a roll of notes. ‘Go home,’ she says, and closes the door.

‘Let’s get out of here.’