It was Netflix night at the Higashi home. Alan and Yulianna sat on the couch while Alan's childhood friend Piker Teruya sat on the large rattan chair.
Teddy, who is Alan's lab retriever, lay on the floor at the foot of his owner. The Stephen King-inspired television show just got off to its great beginning when Teddy sat up and let out two loud barks before letting himself out through his doggy door. Everyone knew that this was not just the random bark of a dog who wanted to go for a walk, something was wrong. Alan and Piker grabbed their kodachi swords while Yulianna retrieved her jeweled blade when the three of them walked out of the garage, they saw Teddy sitting in front of the neighbor's garage across the street. The house belonged to Old man Inazuma who worked for the city and county all his life. He was retired now and lived with his wife Harue, who was no longer in the spring of her life but suffering from a bad case of pneumonia. The old man refused to take his wife to the doctors as it was her personal wish that should anything happen to her, she would like to die at home. Teddy's frame vibrated with the deep growl that came from within him, even before Alan could ask the lab about what the matter might be, he ran and jumped over the fence of old man Inazuma's yard and attacked someone who happened to be coming out through the front gate. The yard was well lit enough that the three could see that Teddy had someone's arm in his jaws, and he wasn't about to let go. It wasn't anyone they recognized, but his face was bloodied, bruised, and swollen, in his free hand he had a knife which he had raised above his head. He was about to stab Teddy with it when suddenly the lab retriever took the form of a massively sized Hawaiian man who grabbed the stranger by his shirt and slammed him up against the thick trunk of the mango tree in old man Inazuma's yard. The stranger never knew what hit him, with his face badly beaten up, they could only assume that whatever it was that must have happened to him, it must have occurred in the house. Alan and Piker went to check the house while Yulianna called the police. She and Teddy waited outside for their arrival, Teddy, of course, had already resumed his animal form.
............
Alan turned the lights on in the living room, the front window screen was askew, and the window was halfway opened. "Somebody broke in," Alan observed.
"Probably that guy Teddy attacked," Piker nodded. Putting his finger out, he jumped slightly the way he always did when some thought struck him unaware. "Hey, let me get our swords back to the house before the cops get here."
Collecting their Kodachi along with Yulianna's blade, Piker took off back to Alan's place and sheathed the weapons in their own scabbards. When Piker got back to the old man Inazuma's house, he saw Alas sitting on the floor just on the other side of an end table. There was blood on the floor in front of him, Piker walked around and saw it. It was old man Inazuma in his Bermuda shorts and watercress boots; he lay in half fetal position. He wasn't just stabbed to death, he was cut open and bled out, Piker put his palms together and repeated a Buddhist sutra to himself three times, "Nam-Myo-ho-renge-kyo, nam-myo-ho-renge-kyo, nam-myo-ho-renge-kyo."
"I'm gonna go check on Mrs. Inazuma," Alan said while he got up on his feet. "I'll be right out."
"Okay," Piker nodded as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'll wait outside with Yulianna and Teddy."
Laying on a hospital bed in a humble bedroom with old black white pictures of their wedding and various other phases of their life together was Harue Inazuma. Her mouth was wide open, and her eyes were closed tight. She was dead, she more than likely passed before the intrusion or as it was happening. "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Inazuma, I pray for your repose and peace in your next life.....nam-myo-ho-renge-kyo."
.............
HPD LOCK UP
Corey Medeiros' father left when he was nine years old, leaving his mother to raise and dote over him. Unfortunately, his mother passed away the year after he graduated from high school, with no real skills to speak of, Corey fell into the wrong crowd and became addicted to drugs. The need for a fix was so bad that he broke into his own grandfather's house one night to steal money from his secret stash in an old Folger's coffee can. Already high after smoking a crack pipe from an hour before, Corey didn't realize that he broke into the wrong house and was caught by its owner, Mr. Henry Inazuma.
After being arrested for murder and taken down to the main stations to be processed, he was put in his cell, stripped of everything he came with, and was left in nothing but a pair of blue scrubs. The cell door slowly peeled back, and three Hawaiian men in dark suits and ties stepped in, one tall, one short and stalky, and the last one younger than the other two. They stood there staring at Corey until a plainclothes officer walked in with a fold-out chair that he opened and sat on. The officer was tall too, but he was thickly built with huge hands, he was handed something by the short thick man and whatever the item was, it was shoved into Corey's mouth, and he was forced to swallow it. Less than a second later, Corey found himself on the toilet while the four men excused themselves until he was done.
............
LATER
Sitting on the uncomfortable bench and soaked in sweat, Corey suddenly realized that his 'high' was gone. "What the fuck was that shit?"
"It's something that cleans all that crud out of your system," the officer replied. "Besides, it's better that you're clear-minded and sober for this."
"For what?" Corey asked. "And who are those guys?"
Ignoring him, the officer continued with what he had to say, "from what we put together after you broke into that old man's house, he caught you red-handed and beat the shit out of you. I bet you didn't know that that old man was a golden gloves boxing champion in his plantation camp? Of course, you didn't......I will also venture to bet that you didn't know that that same old man you killed tonight was our boxing coach at one time or another, except for that tall man over there. He and that old man fought in the war together, and they got history probably deeper than the one that my friend and I got. Now legally, because of all the touchy-feely laws we got, I can't do anything to you. However, these nice men posted your bail, and since you got no family, you're remanded to their custody.......and you thought crack was a mind-bending high? You ain't seen nothing yet!"
............to be continued
Whoa!
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