An Asian man wearing a crisp business suit walked in. He pulled out an iPhone and made a quick call.
"Yes. Yes. I have something I need to attend to." he said matter of factly. "It shouldn't take long."
The man turned around around and gestured to someone outside. "Get in here, NOW." A teenaged Asian girl gingerly walked through the door. She was very nervous, biting her fingernails and constantly touching her long, black hair. She couldn't keep her eyes still, as they jittered all over the room.
"Hello, my name is Yoshi Kagawa. This is my stepdaughter, Akari. I am here to make a simple transaction."
Mr. Kagawa pulled out a piece of paper from underneath his coat jacket. "This is a contract detailing what I am requesting and what I am willing to give."
Chesterton, not particularly pleased with someone writing a contract FOR him, looked it over. The writing was verbose and hyper=detailed. "Mr. Chesterton, pursuant to Clause 4, will fulfill the stipulation outlined with no deviations as previously outlined in Clause 3." Annoyed, and having an explicit policy about contracts from the clients' side, Chesterton ripped it up into several pieces.
"That's not how this works Mr. Kagawa" Chesterton said. "Lay out your terms, and I will create a contract for you."
Mr. Kagawa started fuming. "This is highly unprofessional." he said. "Nonetheless, you have what I need, and I have what you want, so I'll make this simple." He pulled out another piece of paper and handed it to Chesterton. It was a list of 15 names, with job titles and addresses affixed to all of them.
"Those 15 names, they need to be eliminated." Mr. Kagawa said coldly. "Differentiate the methods, but they all need to go. My business cannot function with these vermin in my path."
"You ask for a lot Mr. Kagawa, but what are you willing to offer?"
Mr. Kagawa pointed to his daughter. "Her soul."
Akari reacted in horror. "What?!?!?! Please father, don't do this-"
Mr. Kagawa swiftly walked over and slapped her hard. "Enough. You've been a parasite your entire life. It's time for you to do something useful. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a phone call to take." Mr. Kagawa stepped outside.
Chesterton looked over at the young girl and felt a strange feeling. Was it...pity? Sympathy? Chesterton wasn't sure; he never concerned himself with "their" emotions, but something just felt off.
"Are you okay Ms. Kagawa?"
"....please don't...kill me" Akari said in quiet whimpers.
Ugh. This was going to be messy. He had made it a priority in his dealings to not have any acts of violence occur inside his store. Mr. Chesterton was no squish; random people screaming and disappearing would lead to some questions he did not feel like asking. It wasn't an official rule though, and he wouldn't turn down a soul over it.
Mr. Kagawa stepped back in. "Okay, let's get this over with." he said. "How do we go about this? I can do it myself; she has nowhere to go."
"You're sure you want to sacrifice her?"
"Not my blood. Daughter from another relationship. Worthless."
"Your choice."
Mr. Chesterton pulled out a knife. "She has to be dead before her soul can be sacrificed. You handle it. Mr. Kagawa" he said with a whiff of condescension.
Akari started running, but her father quickly caught up to her. Sliding backwards on the floor, Akari pleaded to Chesterton for help. Mr. Kagawa raised his knife and thrust down. Suddenly, without thinking, Mr. Chesterton snapped his fingers. Everything froze into place.
Chesterton surveyed the situation. He had no reason not to let the situation go through to its logical endpoint, but there was that feeling again. He couldn't explain why, but he felt Akari might have further use for him down the road. With that in mind, Chesterton walked over to Mr. Kagawa, pushed him away by 10 feet, pulled the knife out of his hand, walked over to Akari and placed it in her hand. Content, Chesteron snapped his fingers again.
Mr. Kagawa thrust his arm down, but was stunned to see the knife was no longer in his hand. "What the??" He looked over at Akari, and saw the knife in her hand. "You stupid bitch." he grumbled as he ran over to her.
Akari, baffled but with adrenaline pumping in, rose to her feet and pointed the knife outwards. "Don't come near me!" she whimpered.
Mr. Kagawa looked at Chesterton indignant. "We had a deal, what the hell is this nonsense." Chestert shook his head. "No, YOU said YOU had a deal. If you finish the girl off, the deal is yours. However, I decided to even the odds a bit."
Chesterton looked over at Akari. "Ms. Kagawa...Akari is that your name? You have an opportunity here. If you kill Mr. Kagawa, you are free to go, alive and well."
Mr. Kagawa was furious. "Bastard. Fine. I'll do what I should have done 10 years ago." He slowly walked over to Akari. "Come on sweetheart, make this easy and I'll make your death quick and painless. Otherwise, I'll drag it out as long as humanly possible."
Akari started waving the knife back and forth. As Mr. Kagawa got closer, her waving became more frantic. Mr. Kagawa was about an inch away from her when he made one last plea.
"Just give me the fucking knife and--"
He never finished his sentence because Akari plunged the knife straight into his heart. He stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. Akari ran over to his body and pulled the knife out. Looking at it for half a second, Akari lost all train of thought and started stabbing her father repeatedly.
"BASTARD" she screamed as she thrust the knife into him over and over again. Chesterton took note of the absolute venomous hatred in her eyes and her lack of discomfort with holding a knife. "PIG, PIG, PIG!" After a couple of minutes, Akari was drenched in blood. She screamed at the top of her lungs, and then fell to her knees.
It was a brief glimpse, but Chesterton could see Akari had something in her, something dark that could be molded.
He had a plan.