Dying was not as bad as Yuta had heard. Sure being shot through the abdomen was incredibly painful but in the end, dying brings on a gradual kind of fatigue that just makes you want to fall asleep.
He knew the old Hawaiian man was still waiting for an answer and he couldn't just die without informing him of his choice. It would be incredibly unfair.
"I realized something just now old man," Yuta's voice was a mere whisper now.
"Hurry Yuta, time is running out," the old Hawaiian man demanded.
"There was never a Tanomoshi. How could there be when you're not even Japanese?" Yuta scoffed. "It's my fault...I was really young and really greedy."
"What is your choice Yuta?" The old Hawaiian scolded him now as if he were his own child.
"If I live, Joy and my boys die; no matter what happens after that, if I remarry and have more kids or I don't, you'll just keep coming to collect. Even though you say you'll collect later you're actually collecting right there and then. It will never end, you'll just keep collecting and more terrible things will happen. You'll just keep collecting on my misery. You're the devil......so I choose to die." Yuta looked the old Hawaiian man in the eye with defiance and contempt.
"Alright," the old Hawaiian man nodded. He removed Yuta's sidearm from his holster and placed it in Yuta's palm and wrapped his fingers around it. "End it now, so that Joy doesn't have to kill your sons and commit suicide on herself. Just hold your weapon up against your temple and squeeze the trigger and Joy will live a long happy life."
Yuta smiled at the old Hawaiian man and chuckled, "You do it."
"No, you've made your choice so you have to do it. Just think of Joy's happiness," the old Hawaiian man smiled back at Yuta.
"You know that suicide is a mortal sin, but you can't make me kill myself, I have to," Yuta showed no fear at the moment when the old Hawaiian man morphed into a younger more beautiful Hawaiian man who was dressed in a black coat and tie. Two sharpened black horns jutted out from his forehead and his eyes were glowing orbs of blue and red light. The fighting raged around them but the tableau was void of any noise. "I'll just lay here and die a hero, Joy will understand and she and my sons will be proud of me."
The young Hawaiian man threw his head back and let out a terrifying roar which no one could hear.
.............
MORNING
Yuta felt a nudge under his hip, and he opened his eyes to find himself lying on the pavement just inside the cemetery gate in Mo'ili'ili, where a house stood. Standing above him was an older Japanese man. "No drunkards in here, get out!"
"Sorry," Yuta was very bewildered. The mango tree was gone and last night there was no house. "I'm Mori, Yuta."
"Morimoto, Tasaka," the older Japanese man replied. "Look, I not going call the cops. I giving you chance you understand?"
"Yes, thank you! I'm going, sorry!" Walking along Waiaka street he could have sworn that the night before there were no houses in the cemetery. The only noticeable thing was the oversized mango tree with the park benches beneath it..........and the old Hawaiian man. Yuta suddenly turned around and walked back to the cemetery entrance, Mister Morimoto was still there.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but get Tanomoshi group in this place?"
"Get, but you have to have money for Tanomoshi, and you don't look like you get money," Tasaka replied in a strict tone.
"My parents fulfill their contract but me, all I know is plantation style. I have no more contracts, so I would like to leave now. I work hard and I no complain Mr. Morimoto. If you get the job, I can save money and make Tanomoshi. Not easy for one man like me to come to beg for job but I really like change my life,"
Yuta Mori spoke from the bottom of his heart for the first time, and Tasaka Morimoto heard him.
"You get one chance, you understand?" Mr. Morimoto made no bones about his expectations, and Yuta was determined to never let him down.
"I understand Mr. Morimoto," Yuta nodded. "I understand."
PAU
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