Chapter 8

Ready For Revolution

The morning light broke through the splintered windows with aggression that had only been felt previously by humans. For the first time in a long time, the sleep that was granted was more than enough.

Robotic whirring woke both Griffin and Axel in a hurry, with Axel relaxing first. Sitting in front of him was a large metal dog. Red irises stared into his green ones and he let out a quick huff of breath.

“You scared the living hell out of me.”

He only received an animatronic nod in response.

“What is that thing?”

Griffin speaks up, curiosity peaked.

“That’s my dog, Enforcer, Enfo for short.”

“First of all, that isn’t a real pet, that’s a robot. Second.. Enfo?”

“He’s been the only company I’ve got and I couldn’t decide on a name. He collects information for me, sue me why don’t you.”

Griffin let out a small chuckle at his brother’s frustration, but then found himself asking a question that he should’ve known the answer to.

“Did mom give you that?”

“No, I actually built him.”

If there was one thing people forgot about more than anything, it was Axel’s intelligence. No, he didn’t have the brute strength that his brother had. He didn’t have the manipulative charm that his mother had. He didn’t have the stone-wall of loyalty that his father had.

Axel had the intelligence he needed to survive on his own and he knew how to adapt to necessary changes.

“He and I have seen a lot.”

“I bet so.”

“When you first left I started working on him, I originally made him as a tracking device to find you,”

He started, smiling to himself as he looked over to his brother sitting on the far left of the broken down room.

“As we see that didn’t work out too well in my favor. But hey, we’re here now, aren’t we?”

Griffin didn’t want to admit that he felt the guilt ripping at his chest. He didn’t want to tell his brother about all the nights that he tried to match his wits, the nights he stayed up making weapons that would never reach the same level of intricate work that his brother made.

Enforcer rolled to his side playfully as he tried to lighten the tense, painful mood that was set, a common theme between the two as they tried to reconnect and make up for lost time.

“Yeah, we’re here now. I’m glad we are, even if I wanted to take your head off just a few hours ago, I missed you a lot kid..”

“Well, when the sun rises, so do our spirits I guess. For the record, I missed you too if it wasn’t obvious.”

Enforcer walked over to Griffin and laid his head in the man’s lap, whirring slightly as his mechanisms warmed up.

“Is your dog heating itself up?”

“Had to keep warm during the winter somehow.”

“Fair enough.”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not everyday did the brother’s find themselves stumbling through the ruins of their villages. With each passing sign they found removed or vandalized, they found themselves closer to their truths. The breeze that passed between them was colder than the ice that they used to skate on as children if the lake allowed it, but they kept trekking through.

After a long period of silence, Axel found himself fidgeting with the anklet that he risked so much to find, steal, and nearly die for.

The basic gold band decorated with blue jewels seemed to be taunting him as he stared at them.

There was nothing fancy about the item, just a gleam of energy that felt too evil to explain in words. Maybe it was the fact that it meant more to their mother than her children that made him hate it even more.

“I don’t understand why a piece of jewelry is more important than us. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I want to break it- I want to throw it into the ocean and never look at it again.”

As Axel let himself rant and ramble, Griffin kept walking ahead of him, glancing to the sides to ensure they weren’t being followed. His being alone for years taught him to always watch the shadows. ‘If you aren’t watching out, there may not be time to save yourself.’ He would remind himself. He knew where they were headed, which meant he also knew the dangers they were going to face to get there.

“You know, we could take the anklet, find out what it is really used for, determine if it is of use to us or not, then make a run for it. Just us, maybe that stupid thing, your dog, and a new life across the ocean that we may have dropped it into.”

Griffin suggests. Such hopeful words coming from such a serious man weren't expected in a moment like this, Axel couldn’t help himself to a laugh.

“While I do think that it would be nice to drop everything and run, We know that it would never be that easy. Especially with that masked psycho behind us. Who knows how long it will take before they find us again.”

Griffin nods his head slowly, remembering that the juggernauting down the streets peacefully as if they were walking down memory lane would come to an end at some point.

“We’re definitely going to have to prepare ourselves to see more of him soon, especially if we want answers about that anklet.”

“How do you know that?”

“You said she wanted the anklet, he was after the anklet, ergo, they’re probably working together.”

“Oh, right.”

Axel, having an IQ of 149 scolds himself for not putting two and two together. He had his moments where too much was on his plate and he forgets to look at the little things too.

“Luckily for us, I’ve got the perfect solution for the preparation.”

As if he had queued it, the wind blew the window to the shack they walked to wide open. There was nothing fancy about it, nothing flashy and nothing that anyone would see as out of the ordinary, but Axel knew Griffin too well, there was more to the building than what he was originally seeing.

“Check your left.”

“If something attacks me-”

“Told you to check.”

Griffin laughed as one of the makeshift traps he set launched itself into action, trapping Axel under a large bookshelf.

“I hate your guts.”

“Sure you do kid, sure you do.”

Griffin helped his brother up and worked quickly to step over the fallen shelves, pages of scattered books and what looked like glass.

“Are you ready to see my prized possessions?”

“I doubt it if they are anywhere near as half-assed as your traps.”

Axel jeered at the taller man, happy that they could at least joke around a little during this time.

“They’re better, don’t worry. My possessions in here are better than my trapping skills out there.”

“You must be quite the trip on hunting adventures.”

Griffin let out a fake scoff and rolled his eyes.

“Just open the door.”

“Holy shit.”

Across the walls and floors were weapon after weapon, things Axel didn’t even know existed and yet it made so much sense that Griffin would have them.

Bows and arrows, swords that jutted two ways that looked like they would snap like the jaws of a beast if caught between them, whips that disguised themselves as belts and clipped to themselves.

“You could say I’m ready for revolution.”

Social Issues that Help with Understanding Buddy Daddies

Here are some political, social, and cultural aspects of Japanese culture that I think is important to keep in mind when watching Buddy Daddies. Please note: this is a super long post, with lots of pictures.

1. Human Trafficking - Slave Labor

In Episode One, we learn that Miri’s birth father was involved in labor based human trafficking involving Southeast Asian individuals. This is currently a very big issue in Japan, since Southeast Asian immigrants (among others) are viewed as a cheap labor option and usually experience slave labor like conditions.

From The United States Department of State website:

Men, women, and children from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and Africa travel to Japan for employment or fraudulent marriage and are subjected to sex trafficking. Traffickers use fraudulent marriages between foreign women and Japanese men to facilitate the entry of women into Japan for sex trafficking in bars, clubs, brothels, and massage parlors. Traffickers keep victims in forced labor or commercial sex using debt-based coercion, threats of violence or deportation, blackmail, confiscation of passports and other documents, and other psychologically coercive methods.

2. Drugs in Japan

When I was living and working as an ALT in Japan, two ALTs (in a different district, but within the same company of my own), got caught with drugs. It was a big deal and ended up in the newspapers. The company I worked for had to do a lot of PR work with the elementary and junior high schools that they had contracts with, to ensure that the contracts would remain. As for me and the other ALTs? We had to sit through like five separate meetings within like two months about drugs and drug laws in Japan.

The barebones takeaway is that, in Japan, weed is viewed as being on the same level as hardcore drugs. Charges can be steep and strict. Even just knowing that someone has drugs, and you don’t say anything to law enforcement about it, can get you in trouble. There is a grey area with drugs, which is stuff like bath salts and the like. Since the selling of things like that cannot be prohibited, so they are easily accessible to the public.

Japan still has a very “90′s D.A.R.E.” approach to drugs. It’s catchphrase is 「ダメ。ゼッタイ。」or “No! Never.”

(Image from a Web Magazine called Nagasaki Press.)

When celebrities are caught with (what’s usually) weed, it can basically be the end of their careers, since recreational drug use of any kind (excluding alcohol, of course), is still negatively looked down upon in Japanese society. This is why it is still heavily left in the hands of the yakuza and drug kingpins, etc. Though there has been a recent increase in protests and ideology surrounding the idea of legalizing weed. Still, not much acceptance for recreational use is likely to come yet. However…

There may soon be some revision to the laws, which will allow for medical use:

Legislation changes scheduled for 2023

In 2021, the MHLW established an expert committee to review the Cannabis Control Act, and it is expected revisions will be proposed in a bill to be submitted in 2023. This will most likely allow for the use of medical cannabis. 2022/12/02

From: Euromonitor

So, something to keep in mind when Kazuki talks about a drug kingpin here is that this drug kingpin is likely not just dealing with super, hardcore drugs, but also softer ones too, like weed.

3. Child Protection Squad

There is this misconception in Japan that really young kids, like Miri’s age, can just roam free all around Japan and no one will find it odd. In Episode 1, we do see Miri roaming around the city without anyone really taking notice, but she also wasn’t in an area where there would be people that are trained to take notice.

In the above image she is at a park, which is likely close to a school somewhere. The man that approaches her here has a band around his jacket sleeve that says こども見守り隊 (kodomo mimamori-tai), which gets translated to “Child Protection Squad.” Basically, these are like crossing guards, in a way, because they do play a similar role to that, but they also do more than that as well:

(Image from the Japanese website: Nice Senior).

This people basically ensure that kids stay on the right paths on their way to school. Most of the time, when elementary school children head off to school, they will go in groups (with the 5th or 6th graders being the leaders) and there will often be older people outside their houses on their way in, keeping an eye on the children to make sure they get to school okay.

And that’s talking about elementary school aged kids. For ones that are around Miri’s age, usually the parents (mostly mothers) will bring them by bike:

Or they will get picked up by a bus:

This one looks pretty boring in comparison to some others you might see though, like these:

(Image from the Hiyoshidai School Website)

Sometimes the daycare workers will also take them on little excursions outside using big strollers for the kids to travel around in:

(The image is obviously from a stock photo site called fotostock, but yeah, I’ve seen these before when I lived in Japan).

But a little toddler just sitting on her own at a mostly empty park with just a guy sitting at a park bench nearby watching her? That would raise attention and an eyebrow from someone who is essentially a crossing guard and whose job is to ensure the safety of kids as they travel to and from school.

The rest is under a Read More.

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artsyxabbyx

3 years ago