Chapter 27: Puppet master
A beautiful middle-aged woman with damp long hair and dark rimmed glasses stood silently at the edge of a Tokyo-based law firm as she stared into the distance.
After a few moments, she blew out the final puff of smoke she'd managed to take before her cigarette went out due to the heavy rain.
Then, she looked up in dissatisfaction at the dark stormy clouds that blocked out the sky.
The rain had been going on for hours now, showing no signs of coming to an end.
Lightning flashed occasionally through the thick clouds, briefly illuminating the rooftop.
"Is it too hard to ask for clear skies? even when it's my last day on this stupid planet?" She muttered in anger.
Her wet hair stuck to her face in clumps, making it difficult for her to see.
The woman, Fumiko, was having what she considered the worst day of her life.
"Those buffoons. After everything I've done for them. How could they betray me like this!?"
"Me, of all people!?" She shouted.
Her expression darkened considerably as her gaze turned toward the locked roof door.
"Especially you... Naomi!"
BAM! BAM! BAM!
She could hear the loud banging sounds coming from the other side of the door.
She began ranting, unbothered by it.
"If not for me, you'd be nothing but a poor bitch working a low-end job at a supermarket!"
"I gave you your life!"
"And yet, you betrayed me, your best friend! For a guy! For that trash Kenji!"
Fumiko clenched her fists, doing her best to regain her composure.
She couldn't lose control of herself, just because of her sure situation.
Yes, she had to maintain control.
Soon enough, she found her thoughts drifting to memories of her life up until now.
Fumiko Iekami had always been a very complicated woman.
Even when she was just a child who didn't know much about the world, she had always been certain of one thing that she enjoyed greatly.
The feeling of being in control.
She'd always found her peers lacking in this aspect, which often disgusted her.
Whether it be their emotions, bodily functions, attention, or anything else.
When she grew old enough, she had learned to control both her mind, body and emotions to a degree that frightened even her parents.
Eventually though, she realised she wasn't satisfied with just controlling her life.
She wanted to control that of others, as well.
She'd begun that task by becoming a leader to her peers every time the opportunity presented itself.
She felt a rush of emotions she couldn't possibly bring herself to describe whenever events, activities and scenarios she'd planned out ended up being executed flawlessly.
Soon enough, she had dedicated her life to chasing that ecstatic feeling – no matter what it took.
At one point, just being a leader wasn't enough to satisfy her anymore.
She needed more.
That was when she had done something that had forever changed her.
She had planned and orchestrated the death of a classmate she disliked intently – without even having to lift a finger.
She had simply used others to mess with her mentally and emotionally, until she'd thrown herself off the school rooftop.
In that moment, Fumiko had finally understand the feeling she felt whenever she was fully in control.
It made her feel like a god.
A god among puppets moving to her will.
After that, she'd met a girl in college who she'd liked for her talent and meek attitude.
That girl was Naomi, her best friend.
Fumiko had found her amusing and easy to manipulate, so she'd made sure to keep her around at all times.
Even going as far as to make Naomi completely reliant on her by destroying her confidence and undermining her subtly.
After college, she'd taken a job at this law firm for the sole purpose of one day running it.
It was supposed to be the first step in her grand plan of becoming the first female prime minister of Japan.
She'd even gotten Naomi hired as well, to keep her favourite puppet close by, naturally.
Fumiko had done so much already.
She'd won almost a hundred cases given to her, using every means necessary.
She'd secretly blackmailed her bosses with truths they'd rather keep hidden, having them be more favorable toward her in certain situations.
Almost all her peers in the firm basically answered to her already, considering she'd also gathered evidence from their past cases to levy against them.
Lawyers often had a lot they wanted to keep buried, after all.
Everything had gone well for her for so long.
That was at least, until Kenji had entered the picture.
He was a simple nobody in a department different from hers, so she hadn't paid much attention to him at first.
That was until Kenji and Naomi had fallen madly in love with each other out of nowhere.
Due to that, Kenji had paid more attention to Naomi's life.
When he realised how much it revolved around Fumiko, he'd felt troubled and no doubt inferior.
Which was why he had began to secretly investigate Fumiko, gathering evidence that she wasn't who she appeared to be.
He'd even went as far as to discover the fact that some of her clients were simply people that Fumiko had convinced to commit murders in the first place.
Today, Fumiko had been met with a nasty surprise when she arrived to work.
Her office was filled with police officers going through her things along side Kenji and Naomi.
When they noticed her, she immediately ran, ultimately finding herself on this rooftop and locking it shut.
BAM! BAM BAM!
She could hear the irritating voice of Kenji coming from behind the officers trying to break the door down.
"Fumiko! open the door and face justice for your crimes! There's nowhere for you to run anymore. You can't escape!"
Naomi stood just behind Kenji, her expression filled with a complicated mix of emotions as she worried for her friend.
Fumiko turned her gaze back to the sprawling city below.
She knew it was over.
Even if she managed to somehow avoid prison, her image had forever been tainted.
She would never achieve her dream.
She would never control this country.
A small laugh escaped her lips.
"To think, after everything I've done, that I would be doomed by such a cliche thing like love." She muttered through gritted teeth.
"What is love anyway? It seems so fake, so uncontrollable, so flimsy."
"It's so... disgusting."
Boom!
Just then, the police officers managed to finally break the roof door down as they rushed onto the rain-soaked rooftop with Naomi and Kenji right behind them.
Their eyes widened in shock as they barely caught a glimpse of the person falling from the edge.
Fumiko had lept off the moment they had appeared.
"My life will not be controlled by anyone but me!"
"The same... goes for my Death!" She shouted through the rain.
She could feel the wind around her whipping her hair about violently.
The expression she'd seen on Naomi's face before she jumped had hurt her more than she had expected it would.
A few moments later, Fumiko Iekami's life, came to an end.