Work Text:
This was supposed to be a quick and easy job.
A random video store on Sixth Street, appropriately named Random Play—pretty popular. I’ve spotted some famous people go there, so business must be good. The owners are a brother-and-sister duo; nothing remarkable about them, and they don’t seem particularly strong, so taking one of them for ransom isn’t particularly hard.
So I did. Got a van and a signal jammer so nobody could check their location, and waited until one of them was alone in a secluded place. I managed to catch the sister while she was getting new tapes. Only took a syringe and some sedatives, and it knocked her right out. The only thing left was taking her to an abandoned warehouse near the port—a little cliché, but still reliable.
I slapped her awake.
“Wuh? Where am I?” she asked, confused, with a hint of fear in her voice.
“Shut up,” I told her. “I’ve kidnapped you, and if you want to get out of here alive, you’ll do everything I say.”
She looked at me, trying to make sense of it all. I could notice some discomfort in her face, probably because of the slap. I wanted her to truly understand her situation, so I didn’t disturb her as she was making sense of it all—and a few minutes later, she talked.
“Please go easy on him,” she pleaded.
“You should be more concerned about yourself, not your brother, since if he wants to see you again, he’ll pay me five million dennies.”
I suddenly felt a hand grab my neck and squeeze hard. I felt the hard squeeze force the air out of me while I heard a voice filled with hate and disgust:
“You better choose your next words carefully, because if they aren’t please forgive my sorry existence for committing an unforgivable crime, I don’t deserve to live, then I’ll show you a level of suffering so devastating…” she squeezed my neck harder, “…you’ll wish to have killed yourself every day of your sorry life.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see a young girl with lilac hair, wearing a dress and heels. You would never imagine this strength—or those words—coming out of her. But I couldn’t think about that too much since I was starting to lose consciousness.
“Vivian, I told you to go easy on him. I don’t want anyone dead,” the manager told the girl.
“Sorry, Lord Phaethon. I’m truly holding back from erasing this parasite from the world,” she answered.
I felt her grip loosen, and I dropped to the ground coughing and catching my breath. The girl tied me up before I could even register it and went to untie the video store manager.
“Thank you, Vivian!” she said happily.
“Anything for you, Lord Phaethon,” she answered, almost melting at the praise.
“Now…” the manager said, looking at me, “in her rage, Vivian probably forgot to call PUBSEC, so we’ll keep you company while I call them and wait for them here.”
“Actually, Master,” said a female robotic voice, “Officer Zhu Yuan and Officer Quinyi are already on the way. I contacted every agent we have worked with—Vivian was the one that was closest to this location.”
The manager took out her phone. “Thanks, Fairy! I forgot that was something you could do.”
It wasn’t long before PUBSEC arrived and took me for interrogation. I confessed—I wasn’t going to get away with this—and got put into holding. A few days later, I got to talk to the lawyer I was appointed.
“You’ll be spending the rest of your life in jail,” my lawyer said.
My eyes widened. “WHAT?” I answered in disbelief.
“Yeah. For some reason, a lot of important people—like the Hoshimi family, the mayor’s office, fucking Porcelumex, and the Yunkui Summit—are pressing for you to get the maximum sentence. Which is surprising, since you’re a nobody, but they’re really disgusted. So yeah, expect to be 30 years in jail. Hell, I heard they’re even pushing to extend the maximum sentence just for this incident.”
I was in shock, and tears started streaming down my eyes. I knew the risk, but how was this happening to me?
After that, I was sentenced to 50 years in a maximum-security prison. They managed to make the sentence longer for this type of crime.
The only moral I can see is: don’t do crimes. Everything will be against you in the end.