Tokyo is a huge city. Millions of people moving in waves from one direction to another, a myriad of lights defying the darkness of night under the Tokyo sky... so many stories hosted under that cloak of city rust and smog... But tonight, I’ll tell you the story of two kids... two young boys trying to make some sense of a world that has lost it long ago...

Episode 1: ~ The Hooker and the Pauper ~

Tetsu rubbed his bare hands against each other and blew on them an soft, warm, intermittent breath interrupted by dry little coughs. The diminutive and delicate hands of a 13 year-old; reddened by the harsh weather, the frozen wind and the snow gathering on his rag-clad small self. The cold crept up relentlessly through the cracks and holes in the layers of his soiled clothes, reaching his sore and beaten frail body with every icy gust.

Sitting at the exit of a big mall, Tetsu observed in silence the fashionably dressed feet of the customers that went in and out without really noticing him there. They wouldn’t have noticed his absence either. They just didn’t seem to see him. They were busy. Tetsu knew that, and waited patiently watching the sun set behind the Tokyo skyline.

That night would be Christmas, and the season’s spirit was tangible in the air, making everyone in the city strip their wallets and credit cards off without any further thought.

T’was the time to be holy... and spend thoughtlessly. Tetsu leaned forwards now and then moving the small cardboard box to make some noise with the few coins in it and wake the merry shoppers up from their dissipate dream... well... he just wanted a couple coins, to be honest.

Far echoes of children voices chanting Christmas carols waned and faded into the general buzz and the rustling of heavy coats and shoes on the cold marble floor at the mall exit. "Come back soon"... the notice above Tetsu’s head level read in big green and red typeface.

Tetsu stared smiling at the oblivious faces that ignored him... hoping for a charity that never came.

"Do you think Tomio will love these kidskin gloves?" A young lady with a happiness-tinted, ear-piercing voice asked another.

"Bah, he won’t wear these either. He has a pair in mocha-brown he hasn’t worn once." The second lady answered burying her nose behind the furry collar of her coat.

For a second, Tetsu thought about how much he would appreciate to have any type of gloves at that particular moment in which he could barely feel his fingers anymore.

But none of the customers did even cast a look on him.

A boy, sitting at the exit of a city mall with a dirty cardboard box where a handful of coins rested together with some snow flakes... Why would they look and have the cheerful day ruined by the view? Christmas is a time for happiness. There is no point in wasting time by worrying about a beggar boy, after all, right?

People walked by, carrying that phrase imprinted like an invisible subtitling of their soul. And Tetsu watched in silence, without bitterness. His eyes full of supplication and hope.

He didn’t dream of a feast... only of gathering some more coins, enough for a cup of ramen; and thenm while savoring it, watching the fireworks that the new American mall in Shibuya was going to put up that night.

Tetsu observed the mass of people oscillating and moving in regular waves. He didn’t hate anyone. His eyes, wet from the irritation the cold wind caused, only sparkled of hope, or dimmed in resignation. He would move a foot now and then, struggling against its numbness, in order to make some noise with the scarce coins in his box; and then he would blow a little more warm breath on his freeze-anaesthetized hands.

Hyde walked hastily under the icy wind, hiding his cold-reddened nose under a white scarf that was, by all means, too large for him. He extended his gloved-hand a couple centimeters away from his body with an irritated look on his face and took a glance at his childish-patterned wristwatch.

"Dammit..." He cursed under his breath and hurried his pace. Five blocks to get to the point of rendezvous. Christmas was the worst time to get a cab.

He kicked a heap of snow gathering near the curb with some fury, and kept on angrily elbowing his way through the merry crowd.

His small figure of delicate build moved briskly among the mob. He was almost hidden under an expensive white coat with a matching fur neckband. His tiny hands sunk deep in his pockets, and covered by childlike gloves in gaudy colors, they emerged now and then to let him check his like-themed wristwatch as if seeking to call attention on his juvenile condition.

The cozy elegant clothes that weren’t totally his protected him only from the outside weather roughness. The frost that had long ago settled on his soul had coated his heart with a thick layer of ice putting his infancy away, in a decorative frame, like the kind of picture one shows proudly, trying to hold on to a moment that will never come back.

At the age of 13, Hyde, with his bright black shoes, his English wool scarf, his furry coat and his childish garments cast the shadow of an old man, if anyone had cared to look beyond appearances.

Constant Service. 24/7. His occupation didn’t know of holidays or golden weeks... That was just the faded memory of a far age... An echo of the childhood he had been prematurely stolen of too long ago.

Cruelly. Like everything that is taken from someone who can’t fight to keep it. Wrenchingly, like every time an innocent soul is pushed to a sordid and undeserved kind of life.

Hyde walked with an expression of alert abstraction. A detachment that was buried in his soul since longer than he was willing to remember. He raised his head with fake pride. He had long stopped considering if the price for the fur coat could have been too high...

Tetsu got up with a little difficulty. His knees hurt, lashed by the piercing pain the cold arose in them. He leaned against the wall and pressing his knuckles on the cold surface, he slowly rose. He took his almost empty box and shook the snow off his shoulders.

The few coins that seemed to have fallen in the damp, mousy container by mere accident weren’t enough for a bowl of ramen.

It was late. The mall was closing. In a couple hours it’d be midnight. Tetsu had been begging since that morning... Since months, in truth.

Almost everyone had already moved towards the rich restaurants in Shibuya, and Tetsu decided to head over there, with the hope of gathering some more coins, enough to be able to buy his coveted cup of ramen before the last fast-food street shops closed.

He dragged his feet with effort; the cold had rendered them numb. He hugged his box and his shivering little body and walked slowly towards the fashionable Tokyo district. He would have liked to hurry, but his legs didn’t quite obey him anymore. The riddled shoes let the cold climb up his body and reach his bones. The skin of his feet only guarded by two nylon bags over his dirty socks according to the advice an old beggar in a park had given him some time ago... before dying of cold and abandonment on a frozen bench.

Warm days were behind. Christmas by the hearth fire eating the cake dad had bought on his way back home was behind. Today, there was only cold left. A relentless cold that raided his soul and a screaming hunger that made his legs shake even more than the freeze.

Hyde took an impatient look at his watch. If that old fart had stood him in this cold, he better forgot his services in the future. He would have killed for a cigarette at that moment, but there was still a chance his client would show up... and it wasn’t acceptable in a kid to smell of tobacco.

Hyde entertained himself for a few minutes by kicking heaps of snow as if they were soccer balls.

"Hey, brat! Stop kicking snow at people!" The accusing dry voice urged him in irritation. Hyde shrugged and started kicking in a different direction.

"Damned old fart... I bet he chickened out..." Hyde mumbled visibly upset. "Why the hell couldn’t he come to pick me up at my apartment? Fucking old fart..."

Suddenly a heavy hand dropping on his shoulder startled him.

"Haido-kun?" The deep voice stroke without much inflection.

"Hai... Anata?" Hyde answered after turning to look at the body those hands were attached to. (DH’s note: uh... yeah, this is not a zombie story, sorry, those hands were attached to a body...)

"Shimori desu. Sorry for the wait." The hand owner said leering lewdly, and showed Hyde a signed plastic card with the boy’s name.

"Un. Yokatta. Ikimashou, ne?" Hyde answered smiling. "Osoi!" He thought to himself.

"Mochiron." The man in his late forties rounded Hyde by the boy’s narrow shoulders and pulled him against himself. Hyde’s small frame became even more evident against the heavy build of the man over-towering him.

"Kawaii na... just like in the picture." The client commented smiling lasciviously upon looking at Hyde. The words "barely legal... if legal at all" seemed to be etched on the boy’s forehead.

"Ah... Have you seen my pictures in the catalogue?" Hyde asked posing a pretended innocence. "Do I look good?" He knew damned well how he looked.

"Gorgeous, Haido-kun."

"Yokatta! Have you seen the pic where I’m hugging my white teddy bear? I love that teddy bear!" Hyde had only had that teddy bear for that picture.

"That’s exactly the pic that made me choose you. You are an adorable kid, just what I was looking for. An adorable kid to spoil on this lonely Christmas..."

"Great! I love being spoiled and..." Hyde smiled widely, in a lavishly rehearsed cute way.

"My car is over there..." The man interrupted pointing vaguely towards a parking lot at the east.

"Ah... I love car-drives!" Hyde commented keeping his well-known act. "But I’d like to know where we’ll be going first... You see... I gotta inform my boss."

"Your boss knows." The client snapped furrowing his eyebrows.

"Ah... Funny. He didn’t mention it. Well, are we gonna stay there overnight?"

"Yes."

"I suppose you have already arranged everything with my boss beforehand, right?"

"Sou da."

"I see. It’s not like I don’t trust you, but I have to confirm everything before going... otherwise my boss will get mad at me... you know... they always say children shouldn’t get into strangers’ cars... hehehe..."

"OK..." The man answered rather annoyed.

"It’s just a couple of seconds..." Hyde commented smiling and took a cell phone from his pocket. He turned it on and took his right glove off in order to dial.

"Come on, kachou... answer..." Hyde whispered inaudibly. "Stop chugging booze and fucking. I need a confirmation, dammit..."

Suddenly a dry click on the other side of the phone interrupted Hyde’s thoughts.

"Kachou? Haido desu."

"Haido."

Hyde walked a little apart from his client and shielded the mouthpiece with his hand. "Subject located. File me on him."

"Shimori Akira, 45 years old, regular client, archived address. Already paid. Type B client... rather kinky. He will provide the toys. You can proceed. Come tomorrow to pick your share."

"Wakatta." Hyde mumbled and hanged up. "Ja... ikimashou, ne?" He said to the client smiling cutely.

"Mochiron."

Tetsu waited patiently for the traffic lights in order to cross the street. He felt very small surrounded by so many people, but for a moment, he also felt he could melt in the happy crowd. He raised his eyes smiling towards the starless sky and thought of the fireworks.

"Soon it’s gonna be Christmas. A miracle will happen for sure and I’m gonna watch the fireworks tonight while eating a hot bowl of ramen." He thought while a confident smile spread slowly across his face.

The crowd began to move and Tetsu stayed a little behind watching the laconic dance of the floating snowflakes... White snowflakes like cotton, dancing smoothly like suspended on the air, shining iridescent under the neon lights almost like stars descending upon earth and taking thousands of whimsical shapes... Suddenly the night became silence around Tetsu, and the small boy felt as if he were the only living being in that place, watching in awe the immaculate beauty of the snow swirling in the air. Colorful snow... almost like melting the cold away.

"Su-sugoi..." his lips whispered right before his weary body fell limply in the middle of the street fainting from hunger and cold. Too numb to hear the screeching sound of brakes or to feel the collision that sent him over a meter forward in his dark starvation-induced dream.

"Shit! Fuck!" Shimori-san exclaimed and got out of the car to see what he had hit. A squashed box under the left front wheel and a handful of coins scattered on the pavement trailed the way towards the small body curled still about a meter and a half in front of the mudguard of his car.

"What happened?" Hyde screamed in alarm from inside the car.

"You stay there!" Shimori shouted at Hyde.

"A stray doggy?"

"Yeah... a doggy."

Hyde cursed under his breath. "Damned dog... bitch of a way to die, and on top of it, it fucks with my job..."

"Oh... poor little doggy..." Hyde commented in a mocked childish voice.

"Stay in the car!" The client ordered, kicking the body to a side of the street.

"A boy... bah, only a beggar..." He thought.

Hyde turned on the car headlights suspecting the bulk was too big to be just a dog.

He had been busy giving his client a preview of his services while the man drove and he hadn’t been able to see what they had hit.

"Shit! That ain’t no dog!" Hyde screamed alarmed. The childish voice abandoned him completely.

"Stay in the fucking car, you stupid whore!"

"Fuck the car!" Hyde got out screaming and slamming the door. "That’s a person!"

"It’s nothing but a beggar!"

"A beggar is still a person, you old, rich fart!" Hyde screamed in anger and ran towards the body lying near the curb. A group of people slowly gathered to watch the accident.

"Damn you, stupid brat... Fuck you! I’m gonna ask your boss for a refund! You are a jerk!"

"Do as you wish, old fart! You have just killed a boy! I’m gonna tell the police!"

Shimori hurried towards the car, he engaged reverse and sped away towards the intersection, then changed to first gear and disappeared into the pitch-black night; the accusing hush of the crowed as a curtain of sound blazing his departure. He didn’t hear much, anyway... and they didn’t do much more than that, either...

"Son of a bitch... killed a boy..." Hyde mumbled gritting his teeth and examining the frail body on the road, then he tried to drag him to the sidewalk.

"What the fuck are you looking at, jerks? Help me!" He screamed in despair, watching the cowardly crowd retreating into the darkness.

"No... I’m not dead..." Tetsu whispered trying with too much effort to understand what was going on.

"Shit! Dead-boy spoke!" Hyde screamed in fear and released Tetsu, causing him to drop again onto the pavement.

"No... I’m not dead... just... a little sore..." Tetsu said sitting up and rubbing his head.

"You alive?" Hyde asked retreating in fear.

"I’d swear I am..."

"That son of a bitch of my client knocked you down with the car! I’m gonna tell the police!" Hyde exclaimed speaking fast and raising his arms in anger and fearful excitement.

"Uh... Say what? What happened?"

"Dunno very well... he knocked you down... I was giving him a... uh... wait... now that we mention it, I can’t tell the police... I’ll get into trouble with my boss..."

"Uh? I don’t... understand..." Tetsu said trying to get up.

"Saa, never mind. You are an asshole, dead-boy. You made me lose a good client. Fuck you." Hyde spat angrily.

"Hmm... Nani?"

"What are you doing here? Dressed like that and... Kyahh~~!! You smell like shit..." Hyde said after approaching Tetsu.

"I... hmm... I was actually going to Shibuya--"

"In those rags?!"

"There are lots of people there with pockets full of money." Tetsu started, straightening his raggedy clothes. "Tonight is Christmas and I’m sure they will give me some coins..." He said distractedly while looking around. "...enough for a bowl of ramen... a bowl of ramen while I watch... the... fireworks... tonight... Oh! No!"

Hyde stared at Tetsu with curiosity.

"Oh, no! My coins!" Tetsu wailed kneeling down to collect the few coins he could find scattered on the street.

"Where do you live, dead-boy?" Hyde asked rather annoyed and pulled Tetsu towards the sidewalk by an arm.

"My coins... what am I gonna do...?" Tetsu wailed again almost about to cry.

"Why aren’t you at home?" Hyde insisted.

"...What am I gonna eat now?!"

"Hey! Dead-boy! I asked a question!"

"Hmm...? Ja... actually, anywhere I can find some sort of shelter is fine by me. I’m not picky. Shit... there goes my bowl of ramen..."

"You are a beggar, right? Admit it."

"Well... yeah... I never said I wasn’t..."

"I see. How old are you?"

"Thirteen. You?"

"Almost fourteen." Hyde snapped. "Your parents make you beg?"

"Eh... No... No parents. I’m on my own. Hey, thanks for helping me up, sempai..." Tetsu answered smiling broadly and straightening his rags.

"No problemo, dead-boy. Go to hospital to get checked... you might have inner wounds or something like that..." Hyde commented watching Tetsu.

"No... it’s OK. I’m fine."

"Hey, it’s cold here..." Hyde started awkwardly. "...you shouldn’t be here alone in the cold. You’re gonna get ill."

"I’m strong, don’t’ worry."

"Yeah, right... some strong shit you are, dead-bo-..."

"My name is Tetsu."

"Ah, Tetsu... the dead-boy. I’m Haido."

"Haido..."

"The easy-boy."

"Eh?"

"Yeah... and since you seem to have nowhere to go, and I have nothing to do, come over to my place for a bowl of ramen..." Hyde said hastily. "I’m gonna play fucking Santa for ya."

"Oh... I wouldn’t want to bother your family..."

"No such thing as bothering my family. They have nothing to do with this. Didn’t you say you wanted to watch the fireworks? Well, come on... It’s on me."

"But... why would you...?"

Hyde shrugged. "Dunno, dead-bo-uh... Tetsu. Cuz you look lonely and fucked-up beyond anything I’ve ever seen. And I am lonely too... it’s always better to watch fireworks with someone else, isn’t it?"

"Well, yeah..." Tetsu raised his eyes and nodded. "I guess you are right..."

"Then, come on, de-de-Uh... Tetsu..." Hyde said and pulled from Tetsu’s arm.

"But..."

"You can also take a shower at my place... and get rid of that rotting-away-dog smell you have..."

"But I..."

"Come on. You have something better to do? You a busy man? Huh?" Hyde bullied Tetsu pushing him lightly. "I’m freezing my butt out here, you made me lose my client, at least please me by keeping me company..." Hyde said motioning to walk.

"Your client?" Tetsu asked a little confused upon following Hyde.

"Yeah. Told’ya. I’m the easy boy." Hyde said and chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"I’m a whore."

---

Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Episode 9 | Episode 10 | Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Episode 13 | Episode 14 | Episode 15 | Episode 16 | Episode 17 | Episode 18 | Episode 19 | Episode 20 | Episode 21 | Episode 22 | Episode 23 | Episode 24

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