Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 284: A Friend of Justice (10)

Dragon Raja 3

“When you’re a child, everyone wants to be a friend of justice,” Chisei said quietly.

“Are you mocking me for still being a child?” Caesar gave Chisei a push, causing him to spin slightly on the rope.

“The ‘friend of justice’ line comes from Ultraman—a kid’s cartoon.”

“Ultraman?”

“A superhuman who came to Earth from space to help humans fight off alien monsters. I doubt the heir to the Gattuso family watched anything like that. But all of us did when we were kids. We’d argue about which Ultraman was stronger and save up our lunch money to buy plastic Ultraman models.”

“That’s called a figure!” Caesar suddenly remembered. Lu Mingfei had taught him the term, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit smug saying it out loud.

“Yeah, a figure. When you bought an Ultraman figure, it felt like you had a friend in Ultraman. Mine was Hikari Ultraman—his name means ‘light.’ His design was a beautiful blue, different from the usual red. His strongest weapon was the Knight’s Lightsaber—super cool. Ultraman would say they were friends of justice, and since we were Ultraman’s friends, we were friends of justice too. No matter how strong the monsters were, justice always won. Every episode ended that way, and kids believed it with all their hearts,” Chisei said wistfully. “One year, during a school performance, I went on stage and sang the Ultraman Tiga theme song. I still remember the tune…”

He started to hum the melody softly, his voice echoing eerily in the elevator shaft:

“Monsters are everywhere,

Look behind you, slave beasts flood the streets,

They’re on your left and right.

…

Can’t fight enough, can’t fight enough,

One kick knocks three down, don’t think you can fly away.

Who fights for freedom across the universe? Who defends the people?

It’s you, the friend of justice!”

The scene was surreal—a Yakuza patriarch, the one and only Emperor, hanging mid-air and singing the theme song of Ultraman Tiga, while Caesar Gattuso, heir of the Gattuso family, and A+ ranked Hybrid Chu Zihang served as his audience. It felt as absurd as if the leaders of the G8 summit gathered at Camp David and started singing folk songs. Everyone should’ve burst out laughing, but no one did. The childhood song echoed in the dark elevator shaft, as if a boy from long ago was singing it across time, standing proudly on stage, believing wholeheartedly that he was a friend of justice.

When the song ended, Caesar gave a slow clap.

“But I didn’t become a friend of justice. I became a villain,” Chisei said softly. “All my friends are villains—Yasha was a street thug, Crow was the brains behind a loan shark organization, and Sakura is a killer. The things I’ve done are far worse than you think. That night when we went to help in the shop, it looked like the Execution Bureau did a good deed, but most of the time, when the Bureau steps in, it ends in blood. That’s how the Yakuza works. In this line of work, only violence speaks. The more power you have, the louder your voice. That’s the survival law of the underworld. We live by doing evil. We belong to a family, and we must be loyal to it. For the sake of the family, we might have to harm innocents. For the sake of the family, we could sacrifice comrades, even ourselves. Everyone can be sacrificed, so more people can live better lives. This world is cruel like that. I’m no Hikari Ultraman. I’m nothing special. I can’t save everyone. If doing evil can give my people a better life, then I’m willing to be the bad guy.”

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s. Bad people can become good, but bad deeds can never be made right,” Caesar said.

Chisei lifted his head with effort and looked at Caesar. “To be able to say something like that at your age… I envy you, Gattuso.”

“Is this another Japanese-style insult?” Caesar asked.

“No. To be able to believe in justice so firmly… that’s what makes you fortunate,” Chisei said softly.

Caesar was silent for a long time before raising an eyebrow and saying, “That was a bit sentimental. But I don’t have time to hear your sob story. I hear footsteps approaching. Is that your team coming?”

“Well then, goodbye. Safe travels,” Chisei said.

“Next time we meet, we’ll be enemies again. Can’t you say something a bit more heartfelt as a parting word?” Caesar asked.

“Don’t get involved in this. If you can, leave Japan. This is something you can’t handle.”

“That kind of nonsense is worse than just saying sayonara.”

“Sayonara,” Chisei whispered.

“Sayonara,” Caesar replied. “We could have been friends, but here we are. The world isn’t just cruel; it’s a joke.”

Caesar’s footsteps faded away, and the sounds of Sakura and Crow approaching grew nearer. Chisei took one last deep drag from his cigarette and let the butt drop into the darkness below. The glowing red ember tumbled down and rolled across the gray-blue scales of the dead serpentine corpses piled in the elevator shaft.

“We found this place while searching the building for you,” Crow said, blocking Chisei’s way before they entered. “What’s inside is… pretty bad. Normally, when you’re this weak, we wouldn’t have brought you here. But what’s in there is too important to hide.”

“When did you become so long-winded?” Chisei frowned.

He was still in rough shape, but with Sakura’s help, he could walk. A doctor had briefly treated his wounds, and Crow had been cryptically hinting at something important they needed to see. After reaching the same underground level as the Iron Dome, they took another elevator Chisei hadn’t known about, descending further until they reached a rusted iron door. Chisei already had an idea of what was behind it. The floor was covered in slime, undoubtedly left behind by the Death Servitors slithering along this path. Behind that iron door was likely the nest of the Death Servitors. He had originally thought the creatures had swum in through the sewers, but the guards in the docks had reported nothing unusual except a stray shark. The only remaining possibility was that the nest was right here, inside the building.

“We’re just here to report what we found to you, boss. We don’t understand the big picture of you high-level folks,” Crow said.

“Move aside!” Chisei pushed the door open.

Even though he had mentally prepared himself, seeing it with his own eyes still made his scalp tingle. He shuddered slightly. The room was filled with tools—rusted iron operating tables, sharp instruments, bone saws, and hooks hanging from the ceiling. The stench of blood filled the air. It looked like a slaughterhouse. What was even more shocking was the glass-bricked wall at the far end, which had collapsed, allowing tens of thousands of gallons of water to spill out, leaving a half-foot-deep pool on the floor. Small, snake-like creatures writhed in the water. They had just started to grow their white scales but already had sharp, bony claws and sinewy muscles. As suspected, the second-generation Death Servitors had even stronger bodies than the first generation, although these young ones hadn’t yet had time to fully mature.