Tokyo Ink (Gay SF Erotica)

his eyes, his body lightly swaying as he spoke. “ Kakaru toki sakoso inochi no oshikarame kanete nakimi to omoishirazub .”
    Gabe dropped his head, his gaze meeting his father’s. Magnus offered a blank stare, his brows rising in disinterest or annoyance -- Tetsu couldn’t tell which.
    Gabe translated for Magnus. “‘Had I not known that I was dead already, I would have mourned the loss of my life.’ It’s a death poem, from the same period as the sword. But, tonight, it’s your death poem, too,” Gabe finished, thrusting the sword into Valnyk’s stomach.
    “But I can’t die.” The words bubbled out. Magnus looked down at the sword as it twisted in his gut. “I have an empire to run.”
    “It’s all right, father, I’ll run it for you.” Gabe drew the sword up through Valnyk’s stomach, into the rib cage. “It will be a kinder ValCo.” He released the sword, watched Magnus fall forward. “…a gentler ValCo.”
    “Stand up.” Tetsu removed his knee from Jerry’s crotch and backed away from the couch. Tetsu waited until the man was standing, then asked, “Just business, right?”
    Jerry nodded.
    “Well, this,” he said, tilting his head toward Gabe, “is your new boss.”
    Gesturing toward the door, Tetsu lowered the barrel of the gun and motioned for Jerry to leave. Before the guard was halfway across the room, he stopped him again. “Out of curiosity, what was the kill bounty?”
    “It was an entry hit,” Jerry mumbled.
    Tetsu laughed. “A freebie just to get in the door with ValCo?”
    “Yeah, but, I don’t care who the head of ValCo is, yanno?” Jerry looked sideways at the door. “I mean, I still want to work for ValCo…no hard feelings?”
    “No, we don’t hold grudges,” Tetsu answered, a hard smile tugging at his mouth as he pulled the trigger and Jerry’s dead body dropped to the floor, “against the dead.”
    “You’re a bit of a sick bastard,” Gabe laughed, the sound dry in his throat.
    Tetsu turned to find him clutching his stomach, his skin pale beneath the artificially bronzed skin.
    “I mean, letting him think he had a chance to leave.”
    “Not really,” Tetsu answered, grabbing the second glove and moving to Magnus’s desk. He tossed the gun on the floor. He shrugged his way out of the coat and forced the limp arms of ValCo's former CEO through the sleeves. Next the gloves went on before he grabbed the sword and ran it through Valnyk again so that the jacket had holes that matched those in Valnyk's back. “We’ll claim your father shot him while aiming at you -- the stippling and powder residue has to match up with that story.” Retrieving the laptop from the couch, he executed a run program to remove the ValCo server’s vulnerability to the pending attack.
    “And this?” Gabe gestured at his father’s body.
    “Right… we’ll say it was an act of self-defense, disarming him when it was clear he intended to try to shoot you again.”
    “The police won’t--”
    “No keisatsu ,” Tetsu interrupted, marveling at how naïve Gabe could sometimes be. “It’s internal security and the ValCo board you have to convince.”
    Putting the computer down, he led Gabe to the tinted window and its view of Tokyo Bay. A few hours remained before the attack on Shimuzu, and he could still see a dim shell of light surrounding the pyramid and spreading out over the black water. “Tomorrow, no one will have time to worry about how Magnus Valnyk met his end.”
    Gabe turned in his arms, the way his body trembled and the fragile need thrilling Tetsu.
    “What’s our next move?” Gabe asked.
    * * *
    In the end, there was little to do in dealing with the death of Magnus Valnyk. Tetsu placed a direct call to ValCo’s head of security, explaining what had just happened between the old boss and the new boss. From there, corporate counsel and the Vice President of Public Relations were roused from their comfortable beds. A courtesy call was made to the Nu Edo Chief of Police and an interview date a week out was set. Then ValCo security began handling the scene, recording it and bagging the bodies. Gabe and Tetsu were escorted to the VIP suite shortly before the attacks on Iyashii’s network and facilities began appearing on the news services and across the bay.
    Freshly showered, Gabe stood at the tinted bedroom window, naked but for the towel around his waist. He had his palms pressed against the glass, leaning on it. Fires burned in the city and out on the