“Isn’t this wonderful!?” Saburo asked Emiko as she led the little girl into her home. “You get to spend everyday with me and Grandpa!”

 

            “What about Papa?” Emiko asked, her big eyes full of worry. “I’ll see Papa again, right?”

 

            “That demon?” Saburo frowned. “Heavens no! He’s been nothing but bad for you! We saved you from him!”

 

            “But I love Papa!” Emiko protested.

 

            “Nonsense!” Saburo grabbed Emiko’s wrist and drug her into the house. “You’ll be much happier here, now come on, Grandma bought you some nice dresses.”

 

            The dresses looked nice, but they itched and restricted Emiko’s movement. Emiko didn’t like the dresses, but she knew better than to voice this opinion. Grandma spanked her for being ‘ungrateful’ the last time she had done such a thing. Saburo had shown Emiko her new room, her new toys, and her new life. The toys were nice, but they weren’t the kind Emiko wanted. She wasn’t interested in dress up dolls, she would have rather had animal plushies and a football.

 

            There were some picture books in her new room, Emiko immediately went over to them, looking desperately for something by ‘Dr. Seuss’ or a book like ‘The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish’ or even ‘Goodnight Moon’. Saburo had filled the bookshelf with titles like ‘Barbie’s First Job’ and other simple, yet stupid and generic titles. The pictures were simple and the colors were boring. Emiko put the books away, disappointed.

 

            “Which one do you want to read?” Saburo asked her granddaughter after the girl had gone through every book on the shelf.

 

            “…I don’t want to read right now.” Emiko admitted. “…I want to go to the park.”

 

            “You went through all the books and you don’t want to read?” Saburo was confused.

 

            “I wanted to see what there was.” Emiko answered truthfully.

 

            “Nothing there is good enough?” Saburo frowned, not liking how this situation was developing.

 

            “No!” Emiko cried, cringing away from the hit she thought was coming. “I just saw all the pictures!”

 

            “…I see.” Saburo gave Emiko a distasteful look, but made no move to physically discipline the trembling child.

 

            “I-I’ll go play with my new dollies.” Emiko announced, crawling away from her grandmother to pick up the nearest doll. She held it in her hands, flipping it over and upside down, committing every inch of the doll to memory. The doll was plastic, baby-shaped, and was currently dressed in a pink dress. The doll wasn’t one of those with blinking blue eyes, it had them painted permanently open instead. It was a blond haired child and had very western looking features.

 

            Emiko could feel Saburo’s critical gaze on her back. Carefully, she held up the doll by its arm pits and looked at it’s frozen neutral expression.

 

            “You need a name.” Emiko told the doll, feeling really ridiculous.

 

            “…Do you like ‘Ting’?” Emiko asked the doll as she made it shake side to side. “Because I like ‘Ting’.”

 

            “Her name is Candy.” Saburo informed her granddaughter, using the western name that must have belonged to the western product.

 

            “Candy then.” Emiko nodded. “Do all of them have names already?”

 

            “Why yes!” Saburo sat down and told Emiko the names of all her dolls.

 

            Now Emiko really didn’t want to play with them, they were not just overly-realistic looking dolls, they had nothing about them in common with Emiko. The more her Grandmother showed her, the more Emiko felt that her life was under someone else’s control.

 

            “Now I’m going to make dinner, why don’t you go wash up?” It wasn’t a request even through Saburo made it sound like one. Obligingly, Emiko went into the nearby bathroom and washed her hands with the Hello Kitty soap that made them feel dry. Emiko used the pink towel with her name embroidered on it and hoped that her Grandma wouldn’t get mad about it. Last time she came here, using the wrong towel resulted in spanking.

 

            Almost everything at Grandma’s house resulted in spanking sooner or later.

 

            Emiko sighed and steeled herself for a long meal.

 

            “I want Papa….” Emiko muttered mournfully, upset she wasn’t going to see her father again.

 

-With Hiruma, at his apartment-

 

            Back in high school and college he had called it the ‘Devil’s Handbook’. Chizue had called it ‘Overkill’, ‘Unfair’, or ‘Unnecessary’ depending on the occasion of use. Others had called it ‘Hiruma’s Book’ or ‘Threat Notebook’ depending on their relation to the book’s use. Some people were so afraid of the book, they’d scream in fear and piss their pants at the sight of it.

 

            The contents of the book were simple enough, they were people’s personal secrets often with photo evidence. Hiruma had had more than one occasion in which he had to hide himself and the book to protect them both from mob bosses. Having the book in his possession usually gave him an edge over others, allowing him to manipulate them with ease. All in all, Hiruma had gotten more than his money’s worth out of the book.

 

            Of course the one time using the book had gotten him into real trouble had been the last time he had used it. Apparently blackmailing the cop was a bad choice, because the man had chosen to beat Hiruma senseless, then maul him with a bat and claim it had been done by some drunks he had arrested earlier that evening.

 

            Since it had taken Hiruma two days to wake up from the concussion, no one had made any moves to contradict the cop. Somehow the notebook had not fallen out of his possession, but Hiruma was sure the cop had a good look inside it during the two days he was unconscious. Chizue had been there when he woke, six months pregnant and pissed.

 

            “You are such an idiot!” Chizue hissed at him, glaring.

 

            “Ungh?” Hiruma’s body was one big bruise, talking wasn’t an easy task at this time.

 

            “You’re about to become a father, Youichi!” Chizue was almost crying, pointing at her swollen belly. “You should think of the baby!”

 

            “Baby?” Hiruma blinked tiredly. “Aren’t we putting it up for adoption?”

 

            “That doesn’t mean our child should be living with your enemies!” Chizue snapped. “This baby doesn’t deserve a life tied up in all the shit you’ve gotten yourself into, Youichi!”

 

            At the time Hiruma had not been able to respond with words, instead he responded with actions. Chizue was the only witness to the final closing of the Devil’s Handbook. Hiruma stopped talking to his slaves and carrying the book on his person. Chizue had approved of this and often reminded him how happy it had made her.

 

            ‘She knew she was going to die,’ Hiruma recalled to himself as he fingered the book, ‘and she knew I would want to take care of Emiko once she was born. Fucking mothers always know.’

 

            Hiruma had decided he’d use the book if that’s what he had to do to get his daughter back, but his promise to Chizue made him hesitate. Fucking hesitation only got you into trouble during a game, Hiruma should have opened the book two minutes ago.

 

            A small whimper made the man stand up in his chair, full of adrenaline. Carefully looking around for the source of the noise, Hiruma found the small puppy he had purchased a few days ago. It was a brown dog, with big brown eyes. Upon his impulsive decision to enter the pet shop, Hiruma had felt the dog’s knowing gaze on his back. The same knowing gaze Chizue would give him then say nothing whether or not Hiruma had been trying to hide anything. Hiruma had walked over to the dog to give it a better inspection. The dog’s eyes reminded him of Chizue. When Hiruma had stuck his hand in the cage to let the dog sniff it, she had just walked up and licked his hand once, not unlike the small comfort Chizue would give him without asking.

 

            Hiruma found himself the owner of a puppy that he named after his dead wife.

 

            To justify buying said dog, Hiruma had planned to give it to Emiko after the trial was over, since his daughter had repetitively expressed being lonely when he was not around. Having an animal companion should help with that. Besides, Hiruma had had a dog growing up and there was no reason Emiko shouldn’t either. In order to keep the dog a surprise for his daughter, Hiruma had arranged with the owner of the pet shop to have the owner keep the dog for a little while longer, so that Hiruma could pick it up after the trail and have it as a surprise for when Emiko came home from school.

 

            But with the way the trail went, Emiko would not be coming home from school ever again.

 

            “You’re hungry.” Hiruma remarked dryly, giving the dog an annoyed look. “At least you don’t piddle on the floor.”

 

            With a sigh, Hiruma lifted himself from the chair and proceeded to pour the basic dog food into a dish for the puppy. Chizue was a very well behaved dog, despite the fact she had been purchased at a pet shop. Hiruma knelt down next to the dog as she ate and petted her back slightly.

 

            “If you really were Chizue, I bet you would be telling me to come up with a more creative solution about now.” Hiruma sighed, recalling Chizue’s frown. The two of them had an understanding and honestly wanted what was best for their daughter.

 

            Hiruma stood up and started working on the neglected dishes. He did not hum nor did he smile. At this point dishes were a chore and nothing more. There was no longer an Emiko beside him to play with the bubbles. There was no longer the pitter-patter of feet as a little girl made herself busy around the kitchen as she cleaned the table or told him how her day was.

 

            The apartment was empty and lonely, all the happiness inside it having left with Emiko.

 

            “Fucking hag!” Hiruma hissed, glaring at an imaginary Saburo. He relaxed his gaze and found himself staring at the flower wrapping paper he had purchased a year ago. Hiruma had gotten it out two weeks ago to remind himself to wrap the birthday present he had gotten for his daughter.

 

            “…Birthday present?” Hiruma muttered his tactical mind spinning up new ideas.

 

            “The law says nothing about a father visiting his daughter at school to give her a birthday present, does it?” Hiruma smirked, his mind already coming up with even more ideas.

 

            No, he did not have to open the book.

 

            Not yet anyways.