Chapter 35: Puppet Master
A beautiful, middle-aged woman with drenched, long brown hair and dark-rimmed glasses stared silently into the distance as she stood at the edge of the roof of a Tokyo-based law firm.
She drew in another breath from the cigarette she held, just as the light went out in the rain.
Her eyes narrowed as she glanced at it with an annoyed expression before she snickered and tossed it away.
She looked up in dissatisfaction at the dark, stormy clouds that blocked out the sky.
The rain had been going on for hours now, showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.
Lightning flashed through the thick clouds occasionally, briefly illuminating the rooftop.
"Is it really too hard to ask for clear skies, even on my last day on this stupid planet?" she muttered in anger.
The woman glanced forward, her fingers pushing aside the wet hair sticking to her face in clumps and making it difficult for her to see. "...What an ugly city," she muttered, chuckling to herself.
The woman, Fumiko, was having what she considered the worst day of her life.
"Those buffoons. After everything I've done for them. How could they turn their backs on me so easily?"
"Me, of all people!?"
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Fumiko flinched, steadying herself after almost falling from the sudden knocking.
Her expression darkened considerably as her gaze turned toward the locked roof door.
"Especially you... Naomi!"
BAM! BAM! BAM!
She ignored the voices screaming at her from the other side of the door as she began ranting.
"If it weren't for me, you'd be nothing but a poor bitch working a low-end job at a supermarket. And yet, you choose that trash Kenji over me? Your best friend!?"
"Fumiko! Please open the door and let's talk about this! I'm worried about you!" a high-pitched voice shouted from the other side of the iron door.
Fumiko glared at the door as she gritted her teeth in rage.
Her eyes suddenly widened as she realized she was letting her emotions get the best of her. That was something she'd sworn never to do.
Fumiko Iekami was a very complicated woman.
Even when she was just a child who didn't know much about the world, she had always been certain of one thing that she desired and loved.
Control.
The intoxicating feeling of having complete control over something. Whether it was something as small and nonsensical as when and where she'd use the toilet, or down to the minute she would fall asleep.
She always found her peers lacking in this aspect, which often disgusted her. As a child, her 'friends'' inability to control basic things like their emotions, bodily functions, or even their attention spans made her feel like she was a completely different species from them.
And as she grew older, her control only grew better and better, until the point it frightened her parents enough to take her to a doctor.
When she was diagnosed as a sociopath by a doctor who had no idea what he was saying, she understood she wasn't supposed to show others just how exceptional her control was. She realized she was supposed to put on a mask and pretend to be just as insane as everyone else to fit in. So she did.
But it only made her realize that it wasn't just herself she felt like controlling.
She wanted to control the lives of others, as well.
At first, she went about it by taking up tasks society found acceptable. Like being a group leader or a class head. Every time things she planned out went exactly as intended, she felt a rush of emotions she couldn't describe. All she knew was that she wanted more of it.
And then, her life changed forever in high school after she had planned and orchestrated the death of a classmate she disliked without even having to lift a finger.
She simply used others to mess with the girl mentally and emotionally, until she couldn't take it anymore and tossed herself off the school rooftop.
In that moment, when she stood on the other side of the police tape and stared at the body of her old friend turned enemy, covered in a cloth, Fumiko finally understood the feeling she had always felt.
Power. It was the power to completely control the lives of others like mere puppets on a string. Their happiness, sadness, hatred, love, and even death, all depending on her whims. It made her feel like a god.
And she couldn't get enough of it.
After that, she graduated and got into Keio University, her life continuing on as normal.
There, she met a girl named Naomi who reminded her of her old friend with how naive she was, and decided to befriend her.
She was quite talented and studious, so Fumiko got along with her very well. Unlike everyone else she'd ever met, Naomi came closest to her in her obsession over control of everything in her life. It made Fumiko feel like she'd found a kindred spirit, even if she wasn't exactly like her.
Fumiko found her interesting and easy to manipulate. She even went as far as to isolate Naomi and make her completely reliant on her.
After University, Fumiko got a job at the law firm she was currently standing on, hoping to one day run it. She made sure Naomi was hired here too, unwilling to let go of her favourite puppet.
It didn't take long for her to become one of the best lawyers in the entire firm, winning almost a hundred cases given to her by using every means necessary.
Two years after she joined the company, she'd already blackmailed every one of her bosses with truths and scandals they would rather keep buried, placing all of them in her back pocket.
After just five years, she became the unofficial boss of the firm, with several big names and organisations in the city backing her. She achieved her dream of control to a higher level than ever before. It still wasn't enough for her, but she'd been satisfied with her position for the time being.
Everything had gone well for her for so long. And then, Kenji entered the picture. He was just a simple nobody who began working at the firm less than six months ago. Fumiko didn't pay much attention to him at first, not seeing the need or having the time to observe the lives of every person she worked with.
That was until Kenji and Naomi had suddenly fallen madly in love with each other out of nowhere.
When she found out, it had infuriated her greatly for reasons she couldn't understand. Eventually, though, she decided to ignore it, not seeing any reason to keep Naomi as isolated as before, since she now had so much power over more people.
But it seemed Kenji didn't feel the same. For some reason, he had decided to investigate more about Fumiko after finding out just how much his girlfriend depended on her.
Fumiko had discovered she was being watched rather quickly by a private detective, driving him out of town by threatening his friends and family.
Unfortunately, she had never discovered who hired him, no matter how much she tried to make him talk. At least, not until today, when she arrived at work to see Kenji in her office with several police officers.
She'd barged into the room, demanding to know what they wanted from her. Kenji simply smiled as he presented files containing evidence of her multiple crimes, such as blackmailing, bribery, tampering with evidence, and even the murders she enjoyed hiring others to carry out for her. Her world had collapsed right in front of her eyes. She had no idea how Kenji had managed to acquire all the evidence, but as a lawyer, she knew it was too overwhelming to ignore.
The only explanation was that those she thought she had complete control of had turned on her after seeing the opportunity to get rid of her. It was all over.
The entire office had began to gather, including Naomi, whom Kenji had rushed to and explained what was happening. The look of disbelief and terror in Naomi's eyes was the last straw for Fumiko.
She immediately ran upstairs to the rooftop as fast as she could before the police officers could cuff her, and locked herself in here.
And now she was all alone in the rain, her life flashing through her mind.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Fumiko scowled as she heard the irritating voice of Kenji from behind the door while the cops kept trying to break it down. "Fumiko! Open the door and face justice for your crimes! There's nowhere for you to run anymore. You can't escape!"
Even now, Naomi stood by his side instead of hers, despite everything they'd been through. Fumiko couldn't accept that. But there was nothing she could do.
Even if she managed to somehow avoid prison, her image had forever been tainted. She would never achieve her dream of controlling the country like a god.
A small laugh escaped her lips. "To think, after everything I've done, that I would be doomed by such a terrible thing like love," she muttered through gritted teeth. "What is love anyway? It seems so fake, so uncontrollable, so flimsy."
"It's so... disgusting."
Boom!
Just then, the police officers finally managed to break down the door as they rushed onto the rain-soaked rooftop with Naomi and Kenji right behind them.
All of their eyes widened in shock as they caught sight of the person jumping off the edge.
"My life will not be controlled by anyone but me..."
"And the same... goes for my Death!" she shouted in the rain as she fell.
The only thing she could think about before the end was the tearful expression she'd seen on Naomi's face. She didn't understand why it affected her so much.
'You must be laughing your ass off wherever you are... Kotone,' Fumiko thought with tears in her eyes, remembering her very first victim.
A few moments later, Fumiko Iekami's first life came to an end.