[center][h2][color=BFBFBF]Zenkichi Hasegawa[/color][/h2]
Esaka, The Tiered City
Lvl 9 [color=BFBFBF]Zenkichi[/color] (75/90) +4 Collab XP -> Lvl 9 (81/90) 
Word count: 933 words[/center]


As the pair wandered the High Tier, Zenkichi couldn’t help but be reminded of Tokyo and Kyoto. The blend of Japanese aesthetic and more modern styles was exactly what he remembered from the cities, and it helped him feel just a little more at home, though that was a strange feeling mixed with a tinge of melancholy as well. When they finally came upon a food truck (something the pair could both afford in the ritzy High Tier), they stopped to get some grub. 

As Band picked a hot dog, classic American fare, Zenkichi went for more familiar chicken skewers. While they weren’t quite Yakitori, they still hit the detective with the same kind of nostalgia that he’d been feeling all day. Things like this, lean meats with a nice sauce to build their flavor profile, were a godsend when he was out all day and didn’t have time to sit down at a restaurant. When Band mentioned that he wasn’t technically a detective anymore and began explaining his story. How he became a cyborg, why he was a hero. Swallowing the last piece from one of his skewers and tossing the stick into a nearby trash can, Zenkichi told his own tale.

[color=BFBFBF]”Huh, we’re not too different, then. I mean, I didn’t get…basically killed by my fellow cops, and to be fair, they were literally brainwashed, but I got the absolute crap kicked out of me for standing up for the kids. Uh, the Phantom Thieves. Joker, Skull, Panther, Queen, them. They were the prime suspects in a wave of Change of Heart cases, a sort of…you could call it a brainwashing-induced mental breakdown, that had been sweeping across the country. They were a vigilante group that helped take down a corrupt politician not long before that, and Public Security figured they’d finally turned their powers to evil, not that they had any idea how they were doing it.”[/color]

[color=BFBFBF]”But I wasn’t convinced. I was ordered to tail them, but I cut a deal with Joker instead: they work with me to find whoever or whatever [i]was[/i] behind this new wave, and I’d protect them from the people looking to arrest them. I, uh…ended up biting off more than I could chew. Orders came down from on high and they sent a tactical team to arrest them. I warned them in time for them to run, but…police in Japan aren’t known for being kind to criminals. And since I’d just helped some get away…yeah.”[/color] He sighed at the memory before shaking his head. 

[color=BFBFBF]”But, to try to make a long story short, they ended up helping me uncover a pretty big conspiracy, and it went a lot further than just the brainwashing case. You see, my wife was killed in a drunk driving accident a few years before all this…and the driver was an influential politician. He covered up her death and threatened my daughter’s life if I kept looking into it. So, I stopped. I buried my head in the sand and convinced myself that I was doing the right thing in protecting her.”[/color] The shame on Zenkichi’s face was painfully evident, but he didn’t shy away from telling the story.

[color=BFBFBF]”Meanwhile, he was working with a technology company to slowly take control of the country, though he was only ever a tool for the real mastermind. That man, Konoe, was planning to brainwash the entire world through the use of a phone app. We ended up fighting him and taking him down. I put him in handcuffs personally. And Galeem, sick sense of humor that he has, put him right in my path again. Only this time, one of the Consuls, C, used some kind of illusion powers when we fought him in Midgar. And we ended up killing him. Konoe wasn’t…he wasn’t evil, not truly. He had a warped sense of justice, and he believed that if he could rid people of evil desires, that he could create a utopia. He didn’t deserve to die. Knowing what we do now, he’s just…going to be stuck in an endless loop of despair. Trapped inside his own mind, his own twisted jail of pain and self-assurance that he knows what’s right, and that only he can make the world a better place.”[/color]

Shaking his head, Zenkichi looked around them. [color=BFBFBF]”That’s part of why Galeem bothers me so much, why this place drives me crazy. It robbed everybody of their growth. Their ability to change. Sure, people can still change here, to a degree, but…with just ten years, they get sent right back to the way they were before. When they were taken. And me? I was some weird, screwed-up fusion of how I was before I met the Phantom Thieves, but with power I didn’t deserve. Valjean isn’t just some power-up, it’s a psychic representation of the commitment to justice that I had abandoned before I met the kids. They, and my daughter, helped remind me that seeking justice is dangerous. It’s always going to be, but that’s just the risk that comes with the job. Evil doesn’t stop because we bury our heads in the sand, and just accepting that it’s always going to exist only lets it grow.”[/color] He looked up towards the Top Tier, once again looking at the Four Towers, or at least the ones he could see.

[color=BFBFBF]”That’s my story. I’m just a guy trying to do the right thing. To make up for all the time I wasted hiding from the painful truth. I got lucky and made some great friends along the way, too.”[/color]