Chapter 1: A Bowling Center?
"Nooooo-"
"Please don't leave me-"
Various sounds filled the hallway as a boy in a white T-shirt and pants stood up and left.
"He's leaving so quickly?"
"Doesn't he have any feelings? That cold hearted boy-"
"That's the only son of the deceased, isn't it?"
"Oh my oh my, will anyone be taking him under?"
"I heard he will drop out of school to continue the family business-"
"THAT business??"
The boy turned his head slightly in the direction of a woman's voice as he slowed down and stopped.
"SHH, not so loud!!" A woman in a dark dress and fasinator hat hushed at the lady beside her.
The boy crinkled his eyebrows and turned away from them, heading towards the end of the corridor.
It was raining as if even the heavens mourn the loss of his beautiful, kind-hearted mother. The boy stood at the window lost in his thoughts, as he watched the water droplets fall to the ground, splashing into puddles.
The woman who raised him single-handedly since his father had passed, for over nine years. Who kept the high and mighty Kogetsu family's name unsullied, despite it being but a shell of it's former glory.
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["Noooo... Akio-" Cried an elderly woman with graying hair as she knelt beside the coffin bawling her eyes out.
"At least your boy will be resting in peace now," Said a younger woman with curly brown hair in heels, as she sauntered over and took off her sunglasses, revealing a sympathetic expression underneath.
"Yes, yes, yes." the elderly woman nodded her head and wiped her tears with a dainty handkerchief the younger woman had offered.
"If it wasn't for Akira, I would have beaten that wrench to deat-"
"Ahhh mother, mother, please, watch what you say, you have to uphold your noble image afterall," The young woman pleaded as she pouted.
"You are right. It would be very unbecoming of me, especially in front of so many people. Rubian is a 'good' mother after all." The younger woman fanned her face with a glove that hide her smirk at the older woman's words.
"Rubian is a very good daughter-in-law isn't she, too bad she didn't inherit the skills of her clan, or else Akio would still be around.. If it was up to me, I would have died with him that night so that he wouldn't be lonely!!"
"Indeed, I should not have to lose face after that woman caused Akio's death!! Martha, if only Akio would have listened to me and had chosen you. You would have had been my perfect daughter-in-law." The elderly woman cried out as the younger woman hugged and patted her back. Unable to see the latter's evil smile.]
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At that time, Akira was still a little too young to understand what was going on. He was the firstborn and grandson of the Kogetsu family, who carried the weight of his grandmother Gaia's high expectations. Gaia had disapproved of the union between her only son Akio and Akira's mother, Rubian Kageyuki, as the Kageyuki clan was known to be a shadow clan. A dark clan who accepted all sorts of jobs, often doing the dirty work for the upper-class families, which lead to them getting nicknamed as 'The Cleaners'. Gaia had always regarded her own Kogetsu lineage as too noble, to be sullied be the likes of someone from the Kageyuki clan. It was therefore no surprise that she highly disapproved of their marriage. However before anything could be done, Akira, an heir had been born, and thus Gaia grudgingly allowed Rubian into the family.
She cursed the incompetence of Rubian as a Kageyuki, and sought to make life as hard as possible for her daughter-in-law when her only son Akio, was murdered. A death which little Akira had to witness firsthand.
It was a seemingly usual winter night. Akira had awoken to the howling winds. Frightened, Akira ran to his parents room only to find it empty. A loud scream had Akira running to the living room, only to see a man in a leather jacket. He saw little Akira and smirked at him, licking the blood off the long hunting knife. A loud cry drew his attention to the body at his boots, and the sobbing wreck of a woman beside it on the floor. His mother had her nightdress torn and pressed onto a dark patch slowly spreading on the white of his father's flannel shirt.
The man just smiled at Akira as he tossed the knife into the air. With a lunge forward, he caught the knife and beheaded his father just as his mother drew out a dagger and plunged it into the surprised man, slicing him into half, dragging it from his crotch to his throat. She was fast, leaving a smooth cut which exposed his organs and the man collapsed, with naught a sound to ever be made. Akira had never seen his kind and soft mother act in such a way. That night, she was cold-hearted, swift and ruthless. The lightning had lit up the sky as Akira stood rooted to the spot, watching as his mother collapsed on her knees crying as the first droplets began to fall, as if the sky felt her sorrow.
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"Akira is the only thing that woman has ever done right." A sweet malicious voice broke through his memories from behind.
"Martha, you could have had an heir as well, if only that witch didn't steal Akio away-"
Akira closed his eyes, numb to the slander of his mother, to which he had already gotten used to over the years. He took a deep breath and gazed into the rain.
"Mother please, it's her funeral, it won't be nice-"
"What do you know? She can't hear us anyway, she's already dead! At last too!! I should thank whoever it is that murdered her, and finally I won't have to see that witch again-"
"Mother,"
"Tsk, alright Martha, I'll listen to you, only because I like you better."
'Sigh…'
"When is this rain going to stop?" Akira murmured to himself.
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"Mother had always told me that my name Akira, represents the 'light from the sun', and that she hopes one day I'll illuminate the darkness in the Kageyuki clan. The Kageyuki needs a leader, someone to shine the hope on them that's been lost for generations ever since they had become a shadow clan. But really, I know nothing as mother forbade me from asking about them. Kageyuki means 'snowing in the shadow'... how does the sun light up the shadows? More importantly, what has that got to do with a bowling center??"
Akira was starting to get a headache from his thoughts. He rolled his eyes as he stood in the doorway of a seemingly old, abandoned bowling center.
"Did Inami even give me the right address? It would not be the first time that prankster would decided to send me on a wild goose chase…" Akira frowned as he looked through the letter again. He was surprised to find it on his desk, after the funerals. It was sent by his best friend, the Kogetsu family lawyer.
[Dear Akira,
Do forgive me for using casual language with you, but I'm writing to you about your inheritance from your mother. She left behind a will stating that you were to be given the deed to a… bowling center(no I am being serious). *snicker* I'm not quite sure what you would like to do with it, but I hope you will let me know accordingly by the end of this month. In your mother's will, she has stated that you and only you, are to be given the ownership of the bowling center. All I can say is, I've been there and the condition is less than... humane... I should probably refrain from saying anymore...
Address:
Arrow Straight Street 18
PianoClove
Fieldman 213239
The entire Pianoclove building is yours, but the bowling center she talked about is in the basement. Also she said she used to bring you there when you were little to help out, though you probably don't remember it anymore, do you?
Well anyway, I wish you the best of luck!!
P's: I hope you have an iron stomach~
Sincerely(with love),
Inami Tan
Kogetsu Family Lawyer
Your Best Friend Who Accomplished More in Life Than You(obviously)]
Akira looked up from the letter and sighed again as he observed his surroundings, hesitant as he couldn't see beyond the doorway. There was a lighter coloured rectangle above the doorway, signifying that it used to have a signboard, but now all Akira saw were rusted nails.
Peering through the doorway, Akira took a step forward and stepped into the bowling center before he felt soft fabric on his face and he stumbled backwards, surprised, landing on the cold concrete floor with a yelp.
"Is that a new customer, Rande? Go help him up before he freaks out and leaves like the last one!!" A voice called out just as a bespectacled dark head popped through the darkness peering at him.
"Welcome!! Are you here for bowling? You're at the right place then-" The boy chatted on and on as Akira sat on the floor stupefied.
"You are-?" Akira asked the young man, in his early twenties, as he stepped out from the dark midnight curtains and cleaned his hands on his bright red yellow checked trousers.
"I'm Rande Sheng! Call me Rande!" He said enthusiastically as he pushed his glasses up further on his nose, before he continued-"I'm an employee here at this bowling center, which is currently unnamed!! Boss says the owner will be coming around soon and he will be the one to name it!!" Rande grinned as he reached his hand out to Akira.
"We have it all here!! We sell drinks, we have an arcade nearby, pool table, training room-"
"Training room..?"
"Yea!! For the Assassins-"
"RANDE IF YOU ARE NOT GONNA BRING THE CUSTOMER IN PLEASE COME BACK AND HELP WAIT THE TABLES AT THE CAFE-" A loud voice roared, interrupting Rande as he shivered and grinned at Akira.
"Well uh, do you wanna come in and take a look?" Rande asked sheepishly as Akira grabbed his out-reached hand.
"Sure, I never knew we had a cafe here."
"RANNNNNDDDDEEEEE-"
"That's our cue- I mean MY cue-" Rande stuttered as Akira nodded.
"Let's go then," Akira gestured as he stepped forward and pushed the curtains aside as the blinding light caught him off guard.