Who pulls the strings (story) (Patreon)

"One day, this entire empire will be yours" said Patrick, a wealthy man of Italo-irish origin man who is a businessman by day and a powerful warlord in the world of crime by night, to Tenshi, a young Japanese woman in love with Patrick who serves him as his secretary and as his accountant, thanks to the education he paid her when he met her years ago. Patrick, bored with the family businesses in America, and discriminated against by some of his relatives for his outlandish way of dressing in brightly colored suits, decided to start a new business when he was young and went to the Far East to become a moneylender in Korea and Japan, eventually becoming a powerful crime lord in just two years rivaling the yakuza and triads in Japan, Korea, China and Southeast Asia, owning brothels, bars and casinos throughout East Asia as well as having a significant share in the prostitution business.

On the other hand, Tenshi, a red-haired woman who lost her father, an English diplomat when it disappeared after a trip to England and never came back, and that also lost her mother, a Japanese scientist after she committed suicide. She ended up being an orphan and working from a very young age at 18 as a waitress in one of Patrick's bars, until he recognized her beauty and offered her education, money and his entire empire for when he died, which unfortunately, has lung problems and intermittent bleeding in the mouth, which makes it uncertain for Patrick how long he will live, although his doctors say that at the moment it is nothing so serious, he knows that even so, anyway, the world of the crime is uncertain and that one day he may end up killed in a conflict between mafias, so he plans to inherit Tenshi's entire legal part of the empire, especially the casinos, bars and brothels, when he dies.

Patrick and Tenshi talk about it over a glass of wine and talk about their lives. Patrick tells Tenshi that there are two types of people, those who are puppets and those who are puppeteers, and that he will teach her all the arts of manipulation so she can be the puppeteer, while Tenshi listens carefully. On the other hand, Patrick also tells her about other women he had relationships on other occasions, like that girl from Korea who refused to pay a large debt she had with him, or that other brown-haired woman who was his girlfriend when they were young in America, even though she was a few years older than him. That girlfriend was a government agent and he paid for her education too, but she cheated on him with a co-worker of her when she was trying to get away from Patrick when she found out that he was the son of a famous and powerful criminal, but one day she mysteriously disappeared after a psychotic breakdown in which she ran out naked, but Patrick defends himself by saying that he had nothing to do with her disappearance, and that they stopped seeing each other when she left him and that was one of the things that determined his moving to Korea, and that he never thought of taking revenge on her even after she broke his heart for his family's criminal history and for leaving him to join a married man with a comatose wife,

On the other hand, he accepts that he had to make that Korean girl pay her huge debt “by other means” for trying to scam him after achieving her fame as a Korean pop singer, and that is why he decided to change his headquarters from Korea to Japan, where he lives now, to forget those bitter memories of betrayal. Patrick, disappointed with his life and reproaching her while getting drunk with fine wine, he says that despite only knowing how to live through crime, he is an honest man who has only dedicated himself in his free time to looking for a woman who accepts his help and who accompanies him while he strives to see them shine like stars in the sky, but unfortunately once they become or believe they become unattainable, all those women turn their backs on him, but Patrick, who begins to see Tenshi worried, tells her that she should not to be afraid, since he knows that she is not like the others

[Drawing 1]

Some months later, while Tenshi has learned from Patrick's advice and guidance all this time, Unfortunately, she has not been able to control her increasingly aggressive ambition for power. She just wants to be the puppeteer as soon as possible, so Tenshi couldn't help but reveal some of Patrick's secrets to the yakuza as they began plotting behind her back to get rid of Patrick and take over his criminal empire using Tenshi as an intermediary. However, Tenshi underestimated that old sea dog that Patrick was, so it didn't take him long to find out what was happening, and, once again, feeling betrayed, one Saturday night, the day there would be a big show. For the most illustrious members of Patrick's mafia, he himself decided to make a last-minute change of plans and give a big function for his guests.

Earlier that day, Tenshi arrived at the casino where that big show will be given for the distinguished members of the mafia. However, for some unusual reason, Patrick was waiting for her, when he was supposed to arrive later. Tenshi, surprised, asks Patrick why he has come so early, to which he replies that now there has been a change of plans, and asks her to go to the dressing room, since the singer who was going to sing that night hurt her ankle and that she will have to replace her. Confused, Tenshi tells Patrick that she doesn't know how to sing, but Patrick tells her that there's no problem, that there will be another type of act and that he will help her a little to give the function when the time comes. And that she only has to go and wear the dress that is already there. Tenshi wasn't sure what was going on, but she followed orders. Then, when Tenshi goes and enters the dressing room where she is going to prepare for the performance, closing the door, Tenshi begins to see how a strange cloud of fuchsia smoke goes through the ventilation. The first thing she tries to do is get out of that place quickly, but that's when she discovers that the door is locked from the outside. Tenshi, trying to avoid breathing that fuchsia smoke as much as possible, finally and inevitably inhales deeply, passing out instantly from breathing said gas.

[Drawing 2]

Finally, later a blinding light wakes Tenshi up. Suddenly she had thick ribbons of her tying her arms, legs and hips. she moves as much as she can, she can't do anything to avoid her new destiny, as Patrick moves the levers and the strings that go to Tenshi's body act accordingly, as she wears a cute and elegant black dress with red and stockings. white, perfect for a puppet. "Did you think i wouldn't find out?" Patrick asks , while Tenshi, teary-eyed and scared, screams  that she doesn't want to be the puppet, but the puppeteer. Patrick thinks that maybe it's too late for her to aspire to that, especially because of her lack of patience.

[Drawing 3]

Finally, after hours of exhaustive work and traumatizing suffering for Tenshi, who was losing parts of her dress as the night progressed, and which went to all the illustrious mob members a delight, lies hanging from slats with empty eyes. A short time later, Patrick detaches her from the slats himself and carries her away, carrying her on her shoulder behind the scenes. Patrick plans to give her a new life without ambitions or worries that would poison Tenshi again, like a puppet for the rest of her life, laying a Tenshi without will on the desk due to the traumatizing episode she has just suffered and injecting her with a concentration of that famous fuchsia liquid on the neck, while Tenshi's eyes begin to lose themselves in the endless sea of ​​ecstasy.

[Drawing 4]

Over time, Patrick died of lung cancer, his nephew inheriting his business and criminal empire, since he had always been very close to him and his way of thinking, while everyone talks about the legend of the supposed origin of the beautiful puppet that use to give shows in the casino, incorruptible as a saint and lasting through the years, born of a betrayal, while arrives see a bit of madness in those empty eyes, at the same time that when Patrick died, being the only one who knew that the puppet was once a person, now nobody knows that she was human, and for everyone she is just a tragic puppet with an interesting story behind it, presenting the same function once and again for eternity.

[Drawing 5]