The Day the Music Died

Chapter 2: To Kill the Mockingbird

The hammering sound from the rain outside echoed into the cozy speakeasy while Sango and the rest of her family continued cleaning up the place. Her brother spent most of his time stacking the chairs upside down on the tables. As she finished placing the last glass on the shelf, her father came up and placed the empty cash drawer back into the register, “That Tanaka fellow’s going to find himself in a world of hurt if he keeps sniffing around here.”

“Let the stupid fool get himself iced,” was all she could say in response, “Maybe he’ll learn the hard way and keep us from blowing our cover.”

“Ah, he groped you again, didn’t he?” These types of responses only came from her mouth when she found herself on the receiving end of a good grab. With a blazing fire in her eyes, she seethed, “Yes!”

Sighing, her father grabbed a towel and began wiping down the bar, “Just be careful and try not to converse with him too much.”

“If he didn’t quit stalking me I wouldn’t converse with him at all.”

“Just let Kohaku deal with him when he comes,” the elderly man said with a smile. The family exchanged loving glances to one another before her father finished up and tossed the towel in the laundry bin on the floor. “I’m going to head in the back real quick to restock the front.” Exiting to perform the quick chore, Sango paid no mind to her father’s leave as she came around the front of the bar to finally help Kohaku with the rest of the tables.

“You know sis,” feeling a bit brave, Kohaku was curious to satiate a question festering in his head for a while, “That Tanaka guy has been coming a lot since he’s seen you perform. I think he really has a crush on you or something.”

Great, this was exactly what she didn’t want to talk about, “Ugh, men like him make me ill. He’s not interested in me he just wants a quick lay.” Her brother seemed a little confounded by the answer so she felt compelled to explain further, “Ever hear the saying ‘the thrill of the chase is more exciting than the taste of its spoils?’”

The chair he was lifting made a padded thump on the table as he slightly nodded in acknowledgement, “Yeah, I guess.”

“It’s the same thing with men. They always want what they can’t have, but as soon as they get it they don’t want it anymore.” Her expression turned dour as she slammed a chair onto the table with more force, “Womanizers like that Tanaka shouldn’t be allowed to marry anyone. They should be sex starved for all eternity for treating girls like me as though we were dispensable chattel!”

Now she was freaking him out a little, “Sango I-“

She turned to him fervently and stared into his eyes with much intent, “Kohaku, promise me that you will treat the girl you like with kindness and respect. Like her for who she is, not what she looks like. You’re a much better person than Tanaka and you’ll grow up to be more of a man than he could ever hope to fathom.” By now she was grappling his hands and it kind of scared him, but he understood and gave her an affirmative nod. The expression was not to last, however, as his eyes caught sight of movement from behind. “S-Sango!” Kohaku’s body reacted as the shadow multiplied and one of them had pulled out a gun. Not even caring about how the intruders got in, he pushed her aside as the loud blast of the gun rang against the cold brick walls.

Sango hardly had time to react as she called for her brother after a cry of pain came from the small boy. Everything felt like it was going into slow motion as she saw Kohaku clutch near his chest and fall back against one of the tables. Turning felt like it was taking an eternity, and when her eyes focused on the perpetrator that was standing behind her, all that could be seen was a flash of red cloth before blunt force struck her in the face. The elbow that brought her down hit with such precision that Sango blacked out and hit the floor instantaneously. From there her subconscious registered any outside noises that her mind may have heard. The last sentence echoing in her brain was, “Don’t do this!”

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It took a little while before the distinct peat-spice scent of a Double Maduro cigar tickled her senses and roused her to awaken. The smoke was like a toxic cloud to her, and while she didn’t particularly mind the smell of cigars, this one in particular was deadly to breathe. She coughed and sputtered in her disorientation as the smog burned at her lungs unapologetically when she tried to sit herself up. This scent was a signature to only one man, and her eyes met fiercely with the figure that towered over her in a white zoot suit and matching fedora. They spoke no words between each other for a moment; instead he placed the chubby blunt between his teeth and suckled on it a bit more before exhaling a miasma of more smoke in her direction. Eventually the silence was broken with, “Looks like you’ve been hit pretty hard.”

“Naraku…” Sango hissed a bit uncontrollably as she still hadn’t registered everything that had transpired. Hopefully her family had utilized the escape routes and gotten out of here. While she was disheartened to see she had been left behind, at least she was alive.

Scoffing, he reached into his coat pocket, “Please-,” his tone jovial and almost mocking but still stern enough to get his point across, “You need to watch that tongue when you properly address me.” His hand produced a white handkerchief and with a quick flick of the fingers the linen cloth fluttered down in front of her. “Make yourself presentable at least when you’re in front of me.”

What she would have preferred to do is put a bullet through his brain, but there wasn’t a gun in sight that she could grab. He sauntered casually around the room as she used the kerchief to dab the blood from her face. The broken glass and wood bits crunched beneath his feet, he tsked a few times as he kicked around any remnants of bloodied body parts. “I don’t see the brat around here, maybe he was the lucky one who got away.”

Regaining her senses a bit, her voice whispered, “Kohaku,” in fear before her eyes decided to skim around the room and see what the ambush left behind. When she finally processed the aftermath the feeling of her heart jumping into her throat was amplified and her body felt like it was on fire. Indeed the place had been utterly destroyed and among the debris and shattered furniture lay the bloodied and disemboweled corpses of what she could only assume were her family. Words had escaped her grasp and as tears welled up in her eyes she mustered the strength to pull herself back on to her feet. Emotions were fleeting and fluctuating all at one time. The heat radiating from her body as pure rage and misery boiled up inside of her. Grabbing a broken piece of glass, her mind blanked and her body reacted hastily as she ran at Naraku in full force.

Her movements couldn’t have been clumsier, for despite her wrath she had been too disoriented still to be swift enough to hit her target. Naraku reached out and caught the wrist belonging to the hand intent on slaying him, and as he twisted it behind her back, his foot kicked out and forced Sango to drop back onto the floor. She sputtered as the wind was almost knocked out of her from the fall, and soon her hands felt the piercing pain of treading the glass unprotected. This time his voice was soothing but she still felt some twinge of delight in his voice, “My dear lady, you think it was me who did this?”

“Why else would you be here a day early.”

“Can’t I come pay an early visit to my favorite establishment? Angelo’s makes good business for me. What motive would I have to ice your entire family and cut off my profits, eh?” Despite the rhetorical questions he was spouting that made it seem like he was at a disturbing loss, there was almost a casual light-heartedness to how he worded things. But then there was a pause, and another wave of smoke before the ‘jovial’ tone went away. “One of my boys says that you might be chatting a little too much with that piss-ant of a PI who calls himself by the phony name of Tanaka.”

“He’s just a stupid groper.”

Naraku gave out a small chuckle, “A stupid groper…” he mimicked back, taking another drag from his cigar before rushing down to kneel over her, “He’s a fucking PI you idiotic tart! In case you haven’t been doing your homework on him lately, that stupid groper is under the employ of that dog InuYasha.”

Bewilderment struck her a little but now she was mentally kicking herself for being so stupid. “Even the cops are dirty.”

“Good rationalization skills you’ve got there, toots,” he replied sarcastically before standing back up again and taking another look around, “This InuYasha prick has been sniffing around looking for the Shikon Jewel so he can declare himself the new Cappo di Crimini of all Chicago. He mows down anything and anyone who gets in his way about it. H leaves a fucking mess all over the place like an animal tracking mud into a house.” Naraku seemed disgusted by just mentioning the guy’s name, and after he scoped the place out one last time, he nodded, “Damn place has his signature all over.” Stopping, he glanced over casually to see the trembling figure force herself back up on her feet again. “Oh? Feeling a little better are we?”

“Hardly,” she said coldly as she wiped her eyes with what was remaining of the kerchief before releasing it from her grasp and letting it fall to the ground. “I’ll avenge my family by killing that bastard InuYasha and then eviscerate that perverted fraud for this!” She didn’t entirely get a good look at him when she was ambushed, just a flash of a red suit with about three other people behind him in the distance. It burned her up that the man could be such a coward when he struck, and then be so vicious when slaughtering her family.

Things were playing out just as Naraku had planned. A sly grin etched itself just below the surface of a serious external appearance. This whole scenario would play out to kill two birds with one stone. But if not, he had a back-up plan that would guarantee him victory. Flicking the butt of the cigar on the floor, his foot stamped it out as he headed for the dilapidated doorway that had once been so ominous to everyone. “Allow me to make the arrangements. That dog is known for returning to the scene of the crime on occasion when he feels he’s forgotten something. Follow me.”

While he was giving her instructions, he knew she had walked elsewhere to go and retrieve something from the office. Upon her opening up the door, a cream colored tabby cat made its way out and began weaving its body in between her legs while mewing. Sango’s voice had gone soft again as she reached to her personal safe and unlocked the small steel vault to retrieve something, “I know, Kirara. I’m sorry you were locked up in there for such a long time.”

Naraku didn’t stay around long enough to wait for her. It wasn’t until she made her way outside into the early morning rays of sunlight where he was using a guillotine cigar cutter to crop himself another smoke. Now he was forcing to make her wait as he wet the blunt object between his lips before lighting a match and hovering in front of the tip. With deep, rhythmic sucking he eventually managed to light the thing up. “Are vee dane veing zymfatetic?” His words were slurred through balancing the cigar and talking. It took her a few moments to answer, but eventually she nodded and Naraku gave an approving glance before looking back over to the speakeasy. Taking out the cigar with his free hand, he replied, “Good. Then let’s get their attention,” and with a flick of the fingers one last time, he tossed the nearly spent match into a pool of broken liquor bottles that were lying around the doorway entrance. The tiny flame went from a spark to a puddle of blazing inferno within a matter of seconds. Everything Sango ever loved was in that building, burning away. Her heart sank into the depths of despair while Kirara followed from behind fretting over her master’s heartache.

“Come,” Naraku finally commanded of them once the brick-walled building started catching fire from within, “You have work to do.”