"Please help me! I'm begging you!" Was the first thing I heard after opening the door after the doorbell had rang for an excruciatingly long 13 minutes.
"What do you want, Calvin?" I asked the kneeling guy outside the door. "Believe it or not, people actually need this thing called sleep and most of them are usually angry when woken up."
"Please, help me! They took her!" He looked at me, desperation evident on his face. I don't know what to do, you're the only one tha…"
"Look, I really don't care about your car getting taken, so fuck off." I interrupted. "By the way, how did you get my address?"
"It's Maria! They took her!"
"What? Did you guys mortgage your sister, or something? That's cold even for you." I acted surprised. "Although I know of no banks that take people as collateral, so that means… Yakudza? Bratva? Triad maybe? Well, either way, not my problem." I began closing the door.
"No! Wait! It was grandma, she borrowed a huge sum from them with high interest, hoping to salvage our situation somehow, and, after our family was ruined, they took Maria as a hostage." Calvin pleaded, trying to stop the door." They said that they'd send fingers, if we didn't come up with the money!" He put his hand in the way of the closing door to stop it.
"Send fingers? How courteous of them, but, ultimately, none of my business, the hag was the one that took out the money, so why are you pestering me?" I kept closing the door until the gap barely fitted Calvin's fingers, then stopped for a second. "Move your hand." I said. "Or I'll crush it."
"I won't! I won't until you hel-" A scream could be heard as I slammed the door shut. I looked down at the edge of the door, four fingers were sticking out, blood oozing. I pulled the mangled chunks of flesh free, hearing more screams and cursing, and pushed them out through the mail slit.
"You should get to a hospital ASAP." I calmly said through the door. "You never know, they might still be reattached." Then began walking away.
Knocking. Lowd, infuriating knocking could be heard from the other side of the door. Is he going to complain about the fingers? I thought and turned on the TV to drown out the noise.
"Please! Please, help her, she's just a kid, she's innocent in all this, if you want to punish someone, if you need to punish someone, let it be us - adults." Calvin continued to beg, while I increased the volume of the reality show I was watching.
Time passed, but the knocking continued and I continued to ignore it. Then it stopped. I thought that the fool had given up and went to get stitches, but, to my surprise, half an hour, or so later, when Liz woke up, she remembered that there was something that she simply had to buy.
She dressed up and opened the door, then screamed in fear. I rushed to her, thinking that something had happened, just to see a pathetic bug lying in a pool of blood, unconscious.
"W-what happened here?" Elizabeth asked, her eyes glued to the unmoving body. Then she looked at me. "Did you…"
"Technically - yes." I answered. "But he's not dead. I think." Then I leaned in closer and felt around for a pulse, then sighed. "See, feel for yourself, I'd never kill someone… For no reason."
Let's take him in and have Alpha take a look." Elizabeth said. "He looks weak, he will die if we don't help."
"Fine, I'll take him to the hospital, I don't want any blood stains on the carpet. I've heard that those are hard to clean." I picked the poor sap up, threw him over my shoulder, got into a low, running start and dashed down the fire exit. A few minutes later, Calvin was lying on the curb in front of the nearest hospital with his severed fingers in his pocket and I was home enjoying a cold beer.
"Will he be fine? What did the doctors say?" A worried cat girl asked.
"The doctors said that there's no real threat to life and that his fingers are almost guaranteed to be stitched back perfectly." I lied as easily as I breathed.
"Good, I was scared." Liz sighed with relief. "Did you manage to find out what he wanted?"
"I'll give him a visit tomorrow. His actions earned him at least that much."
The next day I did something unheard of by waking up before noon out of my own free will and went to the hospital Calvin was being treated in. The guy was just out of surgery, had lost a lot of blood and wasn't allowed visitors, but money is a strange power that can not only corrode the heart, but bend or even break those, so called, laws that humanity is so proud of.
Not even five minutes after entering the hospital, I was already sitting in Calvin's room. I looked him up and down, noticing that he was missing fingers. I guess it was too late… I thought, then noticing that the guy was still sleeping, I stood up, walked to the windowsill that had a small bouquet of flowers and a few 'get better soon' cards, picked up the vase with flowers and began to judge the amount of force needed to wake him up, but to not split his head in half.
I lifted the vase above Calvin's head ready to strike, but a sudden sound gave me a better idea. That sound being water clunking around inside the vase. You lucky dog, getting to keep your life one day and your skull the next? Just how lucky are you? I thought, positioned the vase a bit lower from his head and slowly turned the vase upside down.
The water flowed like a gentle stream from somewhere high in the mountains - so clear and so cold. Just as the water touched Calvin's groin, he woke up with a jolt and a scream. "What? What's happening here?" He muttered, then locked eyes with me. I kept pouring the water.
"It seems that you pissed yourself." I exclaimed after finishing the last drops of water and gently throwing the vase to the floor, shattering it in the process. "Really, how old are you? Do you perhaps need a diaper, or something?"
Calvin gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, but didn't say anything at first. He simply lowered his eyes and, after a moment, asked me. "Please, I know I have no right to ask you, but please help me. I will do…"
"OK."
"NO! Don't reject me before I have said…" Calvin stopped for a moment, then looked at me.
"..."
"Is it the medicine, or did you actually agree to help?" He asked.
"You showed your strength and resolve, who am I to refuse?"
"But what changed?" He asked. "I didn't beat you, we didn't even fight, so how did I show my strength and resolve?"
"What I call strength isn't your actual strength or your ability to fight, it's your will and determination to do whatever it takes to reach your goal. Even if you have to sacrifice your life to do it." I answered. "Tell me, would you say that martial arts is your life?"
Calvin thought for a moment. "I never thought about that, but martial arts is the first thing that I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before going to sleep, so I guess."
I gave a knowing smile. "You have lost your fingers - one of the most important parts in martial arts and instead of doing everything in order to reattach them as soon as possible, you lost them for ever and even put your pathetic, miserable life in danger just to grasp at the small chance that I might be magnanimous enough to help you."
Calvin looked down at his hand and finally noticed the missing fingers. I continued. "By sacrificing all that was important to you to protect the one that you care about, you have earned my respect and help, so tell me everything."
"Okay… I'll get straight to the point. I, no we need 37 million to ransom Maria and we have until tomorrow noon to do so, or they begin cutting. Please, lend me that much and I'll return…"
"No."
"But you said that you'd help!" Calvin protested. "You even gave that whole stupid speech about how I gained your respect and how you'd help me and now you're going back on your word?! Who does that?"
"I said that I'd help, but paying ransom is not my way of doing things."
"Then what?" Calvin sounded panicked. "They said that, if we called the police, they'd kill Maria." I simply shook my head at that. His eyes widened. "Don't tell me… Are you saying that you'll go to them and fight? They aren't some street kids or punks that can be dealt with with pure strength and skill!"
"This is the Chinese Triad we're talking about!" Calvin continued. "Those guys are dangerous, merciless and, worst of all, armed to the teeth. You are strong, I'll give you that, far stronger than me or anyone that I know, but do you really believe that you would stand a chance against a group of armed gangsters?"
"Sure, seems easy." I answered. "As long as I know where they are, I'll get the little brat out safe and sound. Trust me on this."
Calvin slumped down on the bed. "You're a lunatic." He said after sighing deeply. "I don't mind you risking your own life, but I will never allow you to risk the life of my little sis. I know that she doesn't like you and I know that you don't like her in return, but can you please take it seriously?"
I thought for a second, then picked up the bed Calvin was using with one hand keeping it steady in the air.
"What… What are you doing?" He panicked.
"You seem to not understand two things." I said. "Number one is just how serious I currently am and number two - just how strong I am. If I wish it, none will stand in my way, if I wish it, all will kneel, if I wish it - all will die." I let go of the bed and it crashed to the floor with a loud bang, then I continued. "Saving a little brat? Destroying a mere band of crooks? Is there anything easier than that in the world? Tell me where and watch the fireworks."
Calvin hesitated, then asked. "You aren't joking are you?" I shook my head. He sighed. "Okay, I'll trust you with this one, but…" He grabbed my collar with his only good hand and pulled me closer. "If anything happens to her, I'll never forgive you. I'll do everything in this life to ruin you, taking everything you love and care for and even as a ghost, I'll haunt you, do you understand?"
I nodded, Calvin continued. "I don't know where they took her, but I know where they usually gather. You should go there and get information first. Since you're not going to use money, I presume that violence is your preferred mode of conduct, so I warn you again - no matter just how strong you are and no matter how good your martial arts are - bullets will still kill you."
"I know that you're smart, it was painfully obvious since we were little and I envied and bullied you for that, so formulate a plan of action, take one of them when the rest aren't looking, beat and question, don't go in - guns blazing and die in there, okay?"
I smiled. "Trust me, kid, I have a bit more experience in these things than you. You just sit back and turn on the news, soon, very, very soon, there will be some excitement."
Join me on patreon at patreon.com/BonsaiCat for early access to new chapters or buy my book 'How to rule a fantasy world' on Amazon. It's the same stuff that you read here, but I fucked up with the naming and the book is already out, so fuck it, let's go with this name for the book. I appreciate all of your support and your forgiveness for my utter incompetence. Best regards, BonsaiCat.