(20 Years ago)
Learning how to live only after dying, Kenji cherished this new life very much and grew up with a mature mindset. His parents were never disappointed in him due to his behavior, and Kenji, for the first time in two lifetimes, felt the joy of making those important to him happy.
But as someone wise had said, a good act doesn't wash out the bad, nor a bad to the good. Some karma from his wrongdoings followed him into this life.
At the age of four, his family faced bankruptcy. His father, under huge debt to the bank lost his job and had nothing left to support his family. Taking the dangerous step of ending it all at once rather than suffering for long, he made a dangerous decision.
Kenji still remembered that night clearly—his mother and father right before him. Both first embraced him in a long hug and then handed him a handful of pills while holding some themselves.
Kenji knew what they were about to do, but he was unable to do anything, stunned on the spot as he watched them swallow the pills.
He was stunned—stunned because he had done something similar to a family who couldn't pay back the loan they owed to the gang he was in.
"Please...Please let our son go...he is not guilty of his parent's crimes...please we beg you...
The father and mother had pleaded for him to kill them and let their child go, but his remarks to them.
"Hahaha you old farts should be grateful that I'm letting your family reunite in the afterlife...why leave your poor son without the care of his parents...this world is too dark for him anyway...he's better off dead...
He then force fed the family of three the pills, staging it as a suicide.
That night, as he watched his parents die slowly before him, even someone like him—with an adult mind—was overcome with self-blame.
Believing it was his past which had ruined another family, he tried to swallow the pills in his hands to end his suffering once and for all.
"Thud!!"
But at the last moment, his father—the man who had handed him the pills in the first place—mustered up his last bit of remaining strength to snatch them from his hand and swallow them himself.
His words before taking his last breath: "You are smart, Kenji… I know you understand why I did this, but never ever be like me. Live… live a life of control over your destiny… live on your own terms and never bow down before anyone… never be forced like me to do something you don't want to…"
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"I shouldn't have left my cozy room after all."
Muttered Kenji while gazing at the entrance door before him, unable to see outside. The door seemed high-tech as well, having functions like blocking vision from outside to inside and vice versa.
Taking another deep breath, Kenji stepped toward the door. The sensors worked immediately, the door sliding open, and what greeted Kenji was a clear night's view—no one outside aware of the events that had taken place in the building.
He also spotted two vans right before the entrance, but not a single person inside them. Kenji, not caring about their presence, headed toward the parking lot. A few minutes later, a Toyota HiAce drove out of the parking lot.
On his way toward the nearest turn that would put him on the road to his company, Kenji spotted numerous Toyota Crowns, police cars, armored vehicles, and even helicopters flying by, all heading in the direction of Shinsei Security.
It took Kenji half an hour to reach his company. Parking the borrowed company car in the lot, he went inside and, without giving an explanation, clocked out—knowing they would know the whole story by tomorrow anyway.
Driving his Toyota GT86, Kenji headed home, and due to heavy traffic, it nearly took him half an hour to cover the seven kilometers to his apartment.
Just as Kenji, after arriving, parked his car in his allotted parking spot, his eyes widened as a panel notification appeared before his eyes.
New Main Task: (Survive the pursuit of Takamura Group and Shinsei Security for at least seven days. They are hunting you down for being one of the prime suspects behind the gassing and attempted kidnapping of Takamura Ren.
Kenji sat in the car with eyes wide, stuck on the panel. The news that the mission revealed completely caught him off guard. Utter disbelief showed on his face, and even the everlasting lazy and troubled look in his eyes was replaced slightly by some anger.