Mike brought Kizuna to her house as she told him to do so. She let him into the house and allowed him to sit on the sofa. Mike kindly refused and stood all the way.
"I can see that you're very concerned for that male friend of yours." Mike said to her, "He's your friend?"
"Close friend." She replied.
"A close friend, I see." Mike nodded his head in response. Kizuna leaned against the sofa she's seating on.
"Mister, if I care deeply for this guy, and I enjoy to be with him, talking to him, but yet I can't survive without him?" She questioned.
"Then you must have liked the guy romantically." Mike replied.
"I thought so too." Kizuna realized that she had unconsciously developed feelings for Thomas. Throughout the times she had spent together with him, she found joy and happiness like never before. It can almost match up to the happiness her father gave her.
She kept telling herself that she was just excited for him to come because he is just a friend, but now it's obvious to her that she likes him. She loves to talk to him, loves to watch movies with him, and loves to be with him. Yet she can't bear to leave him alone, or live without him. He has become a big part of her life that it's hard to let go of him. She, however, had no choice. Penny had threatened her to take Thomas away from her if she ever talks to him. She couldn't bear to be fierce to him or ignore him, but she is willing to do so because she likes him. She's rather watch him from a distance than to lose him. She would do anything for Thomas.
"If there's nothing else, I shall go and check on Jason." Mike bowed before going out of the house. Kizuna sighed and buried her face in her hands.
"Thomas, I'm going to let you on a secret." Jason sighed, "Only a few know." He straightened his blazer before continuing, "Remember that time when you were in my room? And that someone had shot you with a tranquilizer gun? That was Mike."
"That creepy man?" Thomas asked, "The guy who stood outside my house?"
"Yeah, I ordered him to. Because I didn't want you to know my identity yet. But I'm convinced. The prison outbreak and the riot group made me change my mind. I need someone to help me take care of Kizuna as I'm busy dealing with people, and you are the perfect candidate."
"Wait," Thomas pointed at Jason, "So...you are really..."
"Yes, Thomas." Jason admitted, "I am what you think I am. I'm Hideki's great grandson, and I'm the current Master of this world."
Thomas was taken aback by Jason's words.
"Thomas, you should learn some manners." Jason talked, "Have you learnt privacy? Don't go into anyone's room without their permission. It's very rude. The door's closed, so all the more you shouldn't go in. But you still did, and you checked my stuff. Also, you've heard my conversation behind the kitchen wall, didn't you?"
Thomas was surprised, "How did you..."
"When Kizuna startled you, I heard your voice. That's when I know you're there listening."
"So since you're the Master," Thomas said, "Let me ask you a question. Why did you come up with that rule? That's one ridiculous rule. You made most of the world hate you for life."
Jason sat down on his chair before crunching on a cookie, "Once I'm done with eating this delicious cookie, and drinking my milk, I'll tell you."
Thomas rolled his eyes. After eating and drinking, the Master stood up and looked outside the big glass wall.
"I'll tell you about it soon, so listen to me very carefully, because I'm going to say it once." Jason explained, "I used to be a police officer. At that time, my father, who is the grandson of Hideki, was still the Master. You know how crimes were famous back then? Well..."
Ten years ago...
Jason and his police partner reloaded their gun while they sat with other police officers in the police van.
"Yo, Coleman, you think the victim gonna be alright?" His partner asked him, "I heard on this operation, there are gangsters with knives and guns. Do you think we'll be able to save the girls?"
"Pretty sure, Gabriel." Jason patted his shoulder, "We went through so much training. Surely this one is not so serious."
"Bringing down the criminals are one thing, Jason. What about saving the girls? What happens if the criminals kill them before surrendering? It'll be considered a failed mission to us."
"Why are you having such low confidence? Did you forget who we are? We are the damn police force! We have always brought the bad guys down and protected the innocent from harm. This time would be no different. We've done so many cases successfully, so this one should be a breeze."
"But..."
"No buts, ifs, ands, ors. We will definitely be able to do it. We must believe in ourselves. If we keep being frantic, we will lose focus easily. The world's counting on us."
The van then reached a warehouse. The police officers ran out of the van and reloaded their pistols before sneaking in.
Jason and Gabriel hid behind a stack of wooden boxes. They heard two men talking and muffling noises from the kidnapped victims.
"Once their fathers give us the ransom, we shall kill them and take one girl each for ourselves." One man said, "So, you'll take the short-haired girl and I'll take the long-haired girl." The girls then muffled.
"I'll be getting the long-haired one." The second one retorted, "I was the one who kidnapped her. I should have the honor to claim her."
"But I'm the one who guarded her while you went to get the other one. I deserve her."
As one of the police officers was about to shoot one of the men, many men appeared from the back and started to shoot the policemen. The policemen shot back at the men. The two men then took out their guns and stood beside the girls.
Jason pointed at one of the men, while Gabriel pointed at the other one. They both nodded their head once before standing up. Gabriel tried to shoot the second guy while Jason ran forward and fought with the first guy.
Jason kicked the first man at the stomach, making him stumble onto the boxes. The first man got up and threw some boxes at Jason, but most of them missed. Jason carried him and slammed him onto more wooden boxes.
Jason then quickly went to the long-haired girl and untied her. He also took off her gag and brought her to the police van.
"Stay here." Jason told her, "We'll be subduing the guys in no time." He then ran off to fight the first guy.
Gabriel was freeing the second woman. He had just left the ropes securing her hands together. As he was trying to untie, the second guy pushed him away and wrestled him to the ground.
Jason twisted the first guy's hand to his back and kicked the back of the latter's knees. Immediately, the first guy fell down on his knees while he screamed in pain. Some police officers went to him and handcuffed him.
Jason then turned to his left and saw Gabriel getting strangled by the second man on the floor. Enraged, Jason rammed his body against the man, sending the both of them flying towards the wall. Gabriel quickly got up and continued to untie the short-haired woman.
Jason and the man stood up and started to fight physically. The former tried to kick the latter's face, but he blocked. The man then punched Jason on the jaws twice and pushed him away. He took out a gun and aimed it at Jason.
Jason realizes this and started grabbing onto the hands of the shooter tightly. The man tried pushing Jason away once again, but he never once swayed. Jason then kicked the gun away and whacked the man on the face.
The man did a roundhouse kick on Jason and then booted the latter in the stomach. Jason got up slowly and saw the man reloading the gun. He ran towards the man and tried to snatch his gun. The man resisted and pushed Jason away. The man gripped the gun and aimed at the police officer.
Jason wasn't ready to give up, as he pounced on the man. A gunshot was then heard. Jason looked around and saw the gun was facing not towards him, but towards his left. He have a horrified expression as he turned his head to the left and saw the short-haired woman fell onto the floor. More police officers then came in and surrounded the woman and the man.
At night, Jason is sitting outside the police station, sitting on a bench. He was devastated that he did not saved both victims. He can't believe that he had been trained relentlessly, and yet he couldn't save a life.
The long-haired woman from earlier came to him and sat beside him.
"Hey, you must be Officer Jason Coleman." The woman talked, "I...just want to thank you for saving me just now. I would've died if you and the police force weren't there."
"I didn't save the other woman." Jason sighed, "It was your sister, wasn't it, Ms Pang? Aren't you supposed to be angry?"
"Angriness won't bring her back to life." She replied, "You didn't let her die on purpose. And, you saved me. Better to have one survivor than none."
"I really don't know how to make it up to you, Ms Pang." Jason looked down on the floor, "I'm really, really sorry for your sister's death."
"Well, if you're that sorry, you can take care of me for life." She suggested, "My parents are dead, and now my sister, who lives with me, is also killed. That leaves me in the house. If you were to take care of me, I'm sure my sister would rest in peace. She wouldn't be relieved if no one takes care of her little sister."
She then smiled at Jason.
Back to the present...
"...and so, I took care of Chantelle." Jason told Thomas, "Soon, I fell for her, and she did too. We got married and had a daughter. Our daughter is the cutest girl I've ever seen in my life. We spent so much time together as a family. I often took leave from my work to be with them. Sounds like a very perfect family life, doesn't it?"
"It does." Thomas responded, "But what happened to them?"
Jason stopped for a while to drink his milk, before continuing.
"I wish it was perfect all my life. Have you ever heard of the saying 'nothing lasts forever'? Well, that represents my situation..."
Eight years ago...
Jason was getting ready for work. Chantelle carried their baby daughter, Alexia, and went to him.
"Say goodbye to Daddy." Chantelle told Alexia. The baby high-fived her father. Chantelle then placed Alexia on the couch and hugged her husband.
"Be safe at work." She said to him, "I know your job is to keep this world safe, but it's also your job to keep us safe."
"I will." He then kissed her on the cheeks, "I'll see you tonight, dear." She smiled and did the same thing to Jason. He then went off for work.
In the evening, as Jason is getting ready to pack up and go home, Gabriel came to him.
"Hey, Jason!" He called out. Jason turned to him and waved his hand.
"Damn, you haven't returned for a long time." Jason said, "Where have you been?"
"Taking care of my family." Gabriel replied, "I only come on some shifts. My wife just gave birth to a baby boy a few months ago, so I took time off to take care of them. I came back here today because I told my wife I missed my police work, especially cracking jokes with you."
Both of them laughed at that.
"What case did you do today?" Jason asked him, "We're not police partners anymore, so I wouldn't know what case you had done."
"Today...a robbery case. The crimes in this world never stops, does it? Every two to three days, some crime happens."
"Yeah." Jason nodded his head, "I really wish we could like, you know, stop the crimes from happening ever again. I really want to stop it. It's good for family men like you and me."
"Speaking about family, how's yours? It's going really great, isn't it?"
"Oh, hell yeah! My daughter has grown up to be so cute and pretty, and my wife's expecting another child!"
"Congrats, my man!" Gabriel slapped his ex-partner's back, "Another child is on the way! You do that thing really well, don't you?"
"Of course! That's why she likes it."
Both of them laughed once again.
"You know, Jason, we've never seen each other for quite some time." Gabriel said, "So why not join me for a drink? Caleb, Grover, and Sean will be there too."
"But I need to spend time with my daughter and my wife." Jason reasoned.
"Jason, we haven't see each other for so long, man. You see your wife and daughter every day. I'm also sacrificing my family time to be with my friends for one night. Just one night, Jason."
"But you know I don't drink. At all."
"You can be there to talk with us. C'mon, Jason. I'm only asking for tonight. Would you join us? For old times' sake."
Jason sighed and called his wife. After a few seconds, he ended the call and nodded his head. For the next four hours, Jason and his friends talked about their lives in the pub while the latter four drank beer. They laughed and joked a lot.
After the meetup, Jason got into his car and drove away from the pub. While he was driving, his phone beeped. He checked it, and a notification popped out, stating 'Urgent alarm is raised'.
"Urgent alarm is raised?" Jason thought, "No way, it can't be..." He went to the alarm app, and sure enough, the screen is blinking red, indicating that someone broke in.
"Chantelle..." As soon as he thought about his wife, he stepped on the accelerator and drove as fast as he can back home. He then called the police to assist him.
Once he reached his house, he got out of the car and saw some policemen and two body tents outside of his house. He ran to them.
"What happened here, Ian?" Jason asked.
"Residents have reported to us that there had been some loud noises from this house." One of the policemen told him, "No one answered the door when we came. Instead, we found some dead people."
"Dead?!" Jason asked, thinking about Alexia and Chantelle, "May I take a look at them, Ian?"
"They're police evidence, Jason." Ian replied, "You know the rules. We can't let you see while you're not on duty. However, we believe the woman is either the owner or a resident of of this house."
"I'm the owner of the house." Jason said, "That may be my wife and my kid. Can I please take a look?"
Ian sighed and nodded as he led Jason into the scene. He opened the body to let Jason see the bodies. Upon looking at the then, Jason knelt down in front of them and started crying uncontrollably. It was revealed that the two are Alexia and Chantelle.
A few days later, a heartbroken Jason attended the court meeting, where he was told by the jury about the murderer of his wife and daughter. Chantelle was killed as she was running away from the killer. Her throat was slit and she had six stabs on her body. Alexia was stabbed on the head with a knife by the same guy. The jury then announced, "I shall herby declare the murderer, Lim Chong En, to be jailed for 17 years for the murder of Chantelle Pang and Alexia Coleman."
"Wait, jail term only?" Jason asked angrily.
"Is there any problem, Mr Coleman?"
"17 years? This motherfucker killed my loved ones, and all he get is a fucking jail sentence?!" He stood up and shouted furiously, "Shouldn't he get a death sentence? My wife and my daughter's fucking gone thanks to this fucking heartless cunt! Why isn't he getting the death sentence?! Why?!"
His shouting turns into crying as the guards went to Jason and brought him out of the courtroom.
Jason, unable to take the deaths lightly and the increasing number of crimes, clenched his fists and started punching the ground as he screamed in agony.
Back to the present...
"...so, as soon as I became the new Master five years ago from now, I made the new rule."
Jason said, "I can't let anyone suffer the same fate as my wife and daughter. I can never let murderers and killers run scot-free with just a jail sentence. People shouldn't lose their family like how I did."
"But because of this, many people found you unfair." Thomas replied, "There's been protests and riots about it, stating that the law is ridiculous."
"At the same time, family members of the victims are happy with it." Jason retorted, "Thomas, when you do a job like this, not everyone would be pleased with what you're doing. You can never make everyone happy. Only some."
"One more question. Why did you make Ai-chan?"
"Kizuna? Well, my daughter died, and I wanted to take care of a girl so much. I didn't want to adopt, so I went to my friend James. Unfortunately, he couldn't make humans, thus we created a robot with human features to make her look like a human. I trained her to have human emotions so that she could be like a real girl. I know it makes me sound like a bad man, saying that Kizuna is a replacement for Alexia, but I really love Kizuna a lot from the bottom of my heart. She gave me a chance to be a loving father again."
"She loves you too." Thomas said, "She told me that she has a close relationship with you."
"It's true." Jason responded, "Which is why now I can't bear to leave her alone. I don't want her to be hurt physically or mentally. That's why I'm appointing you to take care of her."
"Wait, what?" Thomas asked, "I haven't said yes yet."
"I know you will do it, seeing that you have a close friendship with her. You won't leave her in the lurch, won't you? You've got yourself beaten up to guard her earlier on, which shows you will go all out to protect her."
"Fine." Thomas sighed, "I'll do it."
"Thanks, Thomas." Jason patted his shoulder, "And don't ever tell anyone that I'm the Master. Not even Kizuna. Understood?"
Thomas nodded his head in response. Mike then went into the office and bowed down in front of Jason.
"Master, I have came back." Mike reported, "Kizuna-san is safe and sound."
"Thank you, Mike." Jason uttered, "Go and do your own stuff now." Mike bowed again and went out of the room.
"I'll add your face to the face recognition system." Jason told Thomas, "That way, you can check on Kizuna at times."
"Sure." Thomas replied.
In Garderner Street, Lucas, Simon, and Aaron gathered in Simon's house, talking about their next plan.
"So, where do we strike next?" Aaron asked, "Our aim here is to convince the Master to change rules, am I right?"
"Yes, you are." Lucas acknowledged, "So, we're going to riot at one of the most famous places in this world. The second police station. We've taken down one of the two police stations, and we need to destroy the other so that there would be no officers to stop us. And then we'll conquer the Master and force him to change."
"I agree with you." Simon added on, "The Master has made me suffer. Not only did he not find the culprits that disfigured my body, he didn't seem to care at all after that, or to find out more about it. The reason I'm in this pathetic, robotic state is thanks to him! He must suffer, then he'll understand the pain!"
Aaron switched on the television to cool the tension down, but when he switched over to the news channel, the reporter started reading out the news.
"This is an urgent announcement from the Master: Simon Costner has broken out from jail, and he can be a dangerous threat. Any citizen that sees him can call the police hotline right away. The citizen can also win a million dollars just for surrendering him to the police or called the police to talk about his location. When Simon is caught, instead of giving him the century jail sentence, he will be sentenced to death. We hope that everyone would cooperate and make this world a safer place."
"We really got to do it." Simon growled, "Quick and fast." Lucas smiled at the news, "Looks like I'll be getting my chance very soon."
