Gratitude System: From Class F To a God

Chapter 7

It was raining hard Monday morning. The kind that hits the window and doesn't stop easily. It was pouring down heavily.

It was six am that morning. Renji Kuroda opened his eyes before the alarm went off. His body just knew.

The room was small. A bed. A desk. A closet. Nothing on the walls. No pictures. Not even his own face anywhere in there. The staff brought in a plant once. It was gone before noon. He liked it empty.

He had his bath and got dressed. Tied the tie the way his father taught him when he was twelve. Takumi Kuroda. Kazuo's younger brother. He had kind eyes and a soft voice. He was tall like Renji but gentler in the face. Everyone said Renji looked just like him.

Takumi used to laugh when the knot came out wrong.

"What did you do this time boy? Come here. You'll get it, just keep at it." Always smiling when he said it. "You have good hands."

Renji looked at his hands. Still good hands. They'd done things his father wouldn't recognize.

He walked to the kitchen. A long cold hallway. Old paintings on both sides the whole way. Men in stiff suits and women in old dresses walked past him. He stopped looking at them years ago. It's a normal thing in Kuroda mansion.

The kitchen smelled like fish and eggs. Nobody looked up.

Mrs Mitsuko put the tray on the corner table without being told. Rice. Fish. Miso soup. Tea. She was in her forties with tired eyes and some gray hair coming in. Ten years in this house. She knew his routine better than he did.

He sat down and picked up his chopsticks.

The fish was off. The soup was too salty.

He slammed his fist on the table. Cups rattled.

"What the hell is this? Are you people trying to give me high blood pressure or just finish me off? Which one?"

Miss Chie came rushing over. Young, mid twenties maybe. Nervous hands. Always looking at the floor. Six months in and still scared of him. His size. His silence. Both of them maybe.

Mrs Mitsuko was already taking the tray away. She came back fast with scrambled eggs and toast.

"I'm so sorry sir. Won't happen again." Chie's voice was shaking.

"It better not." Said it low. His fist still on the table. He picked up the bread and took a bite. That was the end of it. They went back to the kitchen.

He pulled the rice toward him and chewed slowly. The memory came like it always did in the morning.

Takumi picked him up from school that Tuesday. Raining just like today. 

They drove home and his father didn't say a word the whole way. He'd been like that for weeks. 

Some kind of heavy quiet sitting on him. Renji noticed but didn't ask. He was sixteen. You don't push your father at sixteen.

The car pulled into the garage. Takumi turned off the engine and just sat there.

"Renji. I need to tell you something."

His hands were shaking on the wheel.

"I'm going to leave this family. Your uncle and I don't see things the same way anymore. I can't stay."

Renji didn't know what to say. He didn't fully understand what leaving the family meant. He just saw that his father was scared. More scared than he'd ever seen him.

"When?" Renji asked.

"Tomorrow. Already made arrangements."

That night his father was dead. Carbon monoxide. Police called it an accident. The garage door broke and the car ran all night. Takumi fell asleep and didn't wake up.

Renji stood at the funeral in a black suit that didn't fit him. His mother was crying in the corner. Kazuo stood at the front. Silver hair. Smooth face. Nothing behind his eyes.

After the service Kazuo came over and put a hand on his shoulder. His grip was tight.

"You'll live with me now. You'll be my son."

Renji nodded. Nothing else to do.

"Do you understand what happened to your father?"

Renji understood. Even at sixteen he understood. Takumi wanted out. Kazuo couldn't allow it. The Kuroda family didn't let people leave.

"Yes, Uncle."

Kazuo smiled. Not a real one. The kind a man makes when he gets exactly what he was looking for.

"Good. You're a smart boy. You'll go far."

Renji finished eating. Left the cold soup alone since he didn't like it.

He pushed back the chair. Chie came to clear the table. Neither of them looked at the other.

He walked to Kazuo's office but he stopped outside the door. It was a dark wood and gold handle. 

There were voices inside. Kazuo and someone. The fixer probably. He didn't knock. He learned not to. You stand and wait. That's it.

Hands behind his back. Spine straight. Face empty. He'd worn that face so long it didn't feel like a choice anymore.

Footsteps came toward the door.

Mr Yamashita stepped out. The fixer. He was thin and looked pale. Gray hair and eyes that never stayed anywhere too long. Twenty years handling Kazuo's dirty work. He nodded at Renji. Renji didn't nod back.

"Come in, Renji."

He walked in.

Kazuo’s office was big. Bookshelves on every wall, a large desk in the middle and a wide window behind Kazuo showing the city gray and wet. Kazuo sat with his hands folded on the desk. Calm. Always calm.

Renji stopped in front of the desk. He stayed standing. You don't sit unless Kazuo says so.

"Close the door."

He closed it. The latch clicked too loud.

Kazuo looked at him the slow way he always did. Eyes going over his face, his shoulders, his hands. Then he picked up a file.

"The boy. Hiroshi Tanaka. What do you know about him?"

"Student at the university. Interned in IT. He was dating Hana."

"Dating Hana." He said it like something bitter. 

"Yes. I know."

He leaned back. The chair creaked.

"The boy paid his debt. Three million credits. Less than a week. How does a broke student with a dying mother do that?"

Renji didn't answer. Wasn't his question to answer.

Kazuo got up and walked to the window. He looked down at the wet city below.

"He's becoming a problem. Not big yet. But he wasn't supposed to get this far." He turned. "I want you to watch him. His friends. His routine. What he cares about. What he's afraid of. Find his weakness. And I need to know where that money came from."

"Yes, Uncle."

Kazuo walked closer and stopped right in front of him. Close enough for Renji to smell the cologne.

"Your father had a weakness," he said, voice dropping. "He thought he could walk away from this family and start fresh somewhere else. He was wrong."

Renji kept still. Kept his breathing even.

"I don't want you making that same mistake. You hear me?"

He held his uncle's eyes. For just a second he thought about letting something show on his face. 

Anything.

But he didn't.

"I understand, Uncle."

Same smile from the funeral all those years ago.

"Good. Now go. Find out what that boy is hiding."

Renji turned and walked out.

He didn't look back.

The door shut behind him. Rain was still going outside.