Breathe Again 2/3 Part 2
“Here’s the list up for those arrested with the possession of a gun within a year of Odagiri’s case,” Ryo grumbled, pushing the list of papers into Jin’s chest and sitting back down. He yawned a little. It had taken him an overnighter to compile the list, so Jin better appreciate his hard work.
“Thank Officer Tsuchiya. It seems that he started cracking down on gun dealers and illegal gun possessions since Odagiri’s case.” Ryo figured that maybe that was his way of settling scores for his friends, trying to book the person that gave Hayato a gun in the first place. As soon as he had found the one who had sold the gun to Hayato, Hikaru had turned in his resignation to the police force.
“Does it match up with any of the cases that Odagiri handled in the past?” Jin asked, flipping through the said list himself. The list was quite long and he knew it would be impossible for them to check up on all of them when they were investigating with only four members in between other investigations.
“The thing is most of the criminals that Ryu threw into jail are still in jail. He didn’t handle much petty crimes.” Ryo had to admit, the crimes that Ryu had handled once arriving at Joto Station were amazing. If he hadn’t refused to move jurisdictions, he probably would’ve been on top at the main branch and in line to replace his father as the Commissioner. Yet, he threw all chances of promotion aside even though he was already set on a golden path as a police officer all for one man. What a sweet love story.
“What about grudges in his personal life?” Tomohisa questioned, from what he had heard it didn’t seem like Ryu had much of a life asides from Hayato but assumptions were fatal in investigation. They couldn’t throw a possibility out based on assumptions alone.
“What personal life?” Jin mocked. “The only person with a grudge against him was probably his wife for being an awful husband.” Needless to say, Jin had already investigated Kazuya’s mother on his own knowing that Kazuya would be upset with him for suspecting her, even if it was just routine investigation to check the background and alibis of those involved with the case. Jin was pretty sure himself that Kazuya’s caring and cheerful mother would never be able to pull off a lurid act such as killing her husband.
“Thank you for taking such good care of my son,” she said, smiling gently while placing a cup of tea in front of him. “Kazuya told me a lot about you. That you were a very capable and respectable police officer who acted tough and unyielding at times, but was actually quite compassionate and caring. Oh, and also that you were a very good kisser,” she chuckled, noticing the faint blush on her guest cheeks.
“Just because your ex-girlfriend hates your guts for ditching her at a fancy five-star restaurant to blow out birthday candles alone, doesn’t mean that all policemen have horrible relationships,” Tomohisa countered. “Keiko and I are doing just fine and she’s had to walk four miles from the beach to the nearest train station because I was called in on my day off.”
Tomohisa had promised his longtime girlfriend, Kitagawa Keiko, that he would take her to the beach last summer. He had hoped for a romantic getaway with a private barbeque and fireworks, but had been called in the moment they arrived to the secluded beach. The coincidental timing made Tomohisa suspect that they were on 24-hour surveillance somehow, which prevented officers from actually having a life out of work.
“You can go,” Keiko smiled encouragingly as he got off the phone. “You don’t have to worry about me. I can find the way home by myself. I’m a big girl now.” She opened the car door and jumped out of the car, flashing a wide grin and a peace sign.
“Keiko-” he stopped, leaning to her side of the car.
“Hurry up and go!” she ushered away with her hands playfully. “I’m fine! I’m planning to marry a police officer, I know my responsibilities.”
Apologizing to her one last time, Tomohisa had furiously driven back to the police station. Later on that day, he had found out that there was no train station in that countryside and that the nearest one was at least four miles away. Keiko didn’t mention any of this to him, not even a single complaint. Of course, Tomohisa had immediately sent her a bouquet of sunflowers as an apology gift feeling awfully guilty, to which Keiko snapped a picture of herself holding with her pretty smile and thanked him for.
“You’re childhood friends,” Jin reasoned. “You’ve dated the girl since high school!” Hell, Keiko was currently studying in an American college in behavioral science to become a police officer herself. Her dream is to become a forensic profiler and work in the Joto Station Criminal Investigation Department with her boyfriend, which was a complete waste of her superior intellect if you asked him, but this was Keiko he was talking about and her life pretty much centered around her boyfriend.
“Maybe you should’ve settled down instead of partying your ass off in high school,” Tomohisa mentioned offhandedly.
“You mean middle school...” Jin corrected. “I was busy locking myself in the library to find a girl in high school.”
Since deciding to become a police officer, Jin had his parents hire tutors and attended cram school so that he could enroll in a privileged high school with the opportunity to study abroad. Upon miraculously passing the entrance exam, he had studied in New York for a semester and was pretty proficient with his English skills even with the horrible Bronx accent that he couldn’t quite fix. Even then, asides from touring local police stations and famous crimes sites in New York, he was usually at the library studying so that he could pass the Type 1 National Civil Service exam once he returned to Japan. Thankfully, his painstaking studying had paid off and he was set on an elite course as a cop, starting his career from the Lieutenant position.
“What’s wrong with smart girls with glasses?” Tomohisa countered, his girlfriend looked hot in glasses and he loved when she talked all smart and literal although it honestly sounded like riddles sometimes. It was hot, kind of like she was speaking a foreign language to him.
“Nothing, except that they’re not into guys,” Jin shrugged as if to say that he’s been there and done that. “I was called filthy when I tried to kiss this cute nerdy girl. She slapped me across the face, and nerds are strong when cornered!” that Noriko girl had one hell of a slap on her. She hit any bad intentions right out of him, and he had returned to studying nursing a throbbing cheek.
“You’re unbelievable,” Ryo complained, shaking his head in disapproval and Tomohisa nodded in agreement. “Hopeless,” he added on while meticulously comparing list ups in hopes of finding the invisible link between Ryu’s past cases and his murder.
-
“Jesus, is there anyone that Ryu and Hayato didn’t piss off?” Jin tossed the list ups on the coffee table angrily. He had been skimming through the list for hours and he wasn’t even halfway done, and Jin thought he was a troublemaker when he was younger. He wished he could have introduced Hayato to his teachers.
“Hayato,” Ryu called, swiftly punching the guy in front of him in the face. His back was facing his lover’s therefore he had no reason to turn around. He knew that Hayato had his back, literally. “When we finish cleaning up this mess, you owe me a damned drink,” he complained.
“Roger that,” Hayato replied, his voice rough at the end when he slugged the guy lunging at him. “How’s a romantic dinner and some passionate love making session too?” he winked playfully though Ryu couldn’t see him, if he could he just might have smacked him. Ryu could hear the smile in Hayato’s voice as he kicked another guy in the stomach, and rolled his eyes. “You mean Denny’s, and five rounds of sex at your place.”
“My father wasn’t the short tempered one. He only backed Hayato-san up because he loved him. He was just romantic,” Kazuya reminded him, a fond smile on his lips. “And it’s not like you were a saint either,” he added in afterthought, grinning mischievously.
“Just because you act innocent doesn’t mean you are,” Jin retorted. His hand weaved into Kazuya’s soft hair and pulled him in for a quick peck on the lips. Kazuya leaned in towards his boyfriend, not satisfied with the simple kiss. Kazuya could taste the smirk on his boyfriend’s lip as he playfully nipped at his plump bottom lip, licking teasingly over the bites. When Jin parted his lips, he dated his tongue in his mouth to explore his hot cavern. Slowly stroking the back of his teeth and his sensitive tongue, and sucking softly and sensually. Pulling away with a small kissy sound, Kazuya then kissed the older man up his neck leaving angry red marks in the process. “I’m not acting,” he whispered lustfully into his boyfriend’s ear, and suddenly pulled away.
Reaching to the coffee table for the list that Jin had thrown, he skimmed through the list of names as if nothing had happened. A triumphant smirk playing on his lips, satisfied with the shocked and disappointed look on Jin’s face. The bulge in Jin’s pants was obvious through his tight jeans, but Kazuya pretended not to notice. “Why don’t we start with this guy?” he said innocently.
-
“I got into fights with Yabuki and Odagiri, but that was back in high school. I was young and full of blood then,” Shibuya Hideyuki said kind of nostalgically, taking a long drag on his cigarette. “I wouldn’t kill them.”
“Hell, if anything it pissed me the fuck off to find out that they kicked the bucket,” he growled angrily, throwing his cigarette on the ground and snuffing it out with the bottom of his shoes. Seeing Jin quirk an eyebrow, he cleared his throat and picked the cigarette butt back up.
“Yabuki and Odagiri were the invincible pair, the ones no one could touch. I wanted them to remain that way,” he rationalized. The two were a reminder of his magnificent high school days when they were still young and immature, bursting with more liveliness than they knew what to do with, troubled and frustrated with just about anything. They had always been bored and restless, searching for an enjoyable way to waste time, but those were good old days. Now Hideyuki was stuck at a stuffy office kissing ass to his asshole of a boss to feed the money-sucking leech that he knocked up and the bratty son that he was beginning to suspect wasn’t his. If you asked him, his life was more fucked up now than back then.
“You said you wouldn’t kill them, know anyone who would?” Kazuya questioned sharply with piercing eyes. Hideyuki couldn’t help but smirk. That calculating expression on Kazuya’s face was the same one Ryu bore, and one that he knew well. Back in their high school days, that knowing expression and his defiant eyes had constantly pissed him off. It was as if Ryu looked down upon them. Now that he thought about it, he was probably intimidated by that burning gaze. That was why he would desperately try to get that annoying look off his face.
“No,” Hideyuki answered, quite calmly. “No one dared to fuck with them after that little incident they caused.”
“What incident?” Jin pushed.
“I don’t know the details. It was near graduation season.” Though being delinquents they had no hopes for a bright future, even they knew that throwing three years of ignorant teachers and limelight from fellow students out the door would be stupid. After all, they only had a week before they were finally free of that crappy joint.
“Just that they got into it with a gang member and caused a police incident,” he added on what he had heard and remembered. Their district was a tough one and even as high school delinquents, none of them dared to instigate a fight with local gangs. No one was crazy enough. So when rumors spread that Kurogin’s golden pair had been reckless enough to start a fight and that they had survived, the other students backed off not wanting to be a part of that chaos.
“You should ask the Yabuki’s pack. I heard that the gang member was originally a Kurogin student,” Hideyuki said before glancing at his wristwatch. “I have to get back,” he announced.
“Hey,” Jin called after him. Hideyuki looked back at him. “Thanks for the info,” he said genuinely.
Hideyuki grinned, it was truly a shame that Kurogin’s Golden Pair had died in such an unfortunate way. He would’ve liked to have a beer with them, he thought while reminiscing the good old days on his way back to the office.
-
“What can I get for you?” Hikaru asked while wiping empty glasses sparkly clean. “Don’t worry, it’s on the house,” he assured with a friendly smile. Hikaru was happy enough knowing that Ryu and Hayato’s sons were alive and well, and buying them drinks occasionally would be his pleasure. As long as they’d visit from time to time.
“Cassis Orange, please,” the younger one ordered without hesitation.
“Beers fine with me,” Jin ordered. He glanced sideward at Kazuya, “And orange juice for him.” Hikaru stopped, almost having filled the order. He had automatically assumed that since Ryu and Hayato drank from the time they were in middle school, their sons would too. He had forgotten that Jin was a police man, though he somehow doubted Jin had waited until he was legal to drink. It was a detective’s instinct. Kazuya shrugged as if to say it was worth a shot, and accepted the orange juice handed to him.
“How’s the investigation going?” Hikaru solicited, curious himself.
“About that, we wanted to ask you about Kudo,” Jin said, sipping on his beer.
Hikaru seemed genuinely surprised to hear that name from Jin’s lips. “Kudo Hiroki was our senior when we entered Kurogin Gakuen. Kudo sort of had an obsession with Ryu and persistently pursued him,” he explained. He snuck a glance over at Kazuya as if Hikaru didn’t want him to find out that his father was being sexually harassed by another man.
“When you say pursue...” Kazuya clarified.
“Ryu hated worrying others so he never talked to us about it, but that bastard had his hands all over him,” he growled angrily, remembering how Hiroki would take advantage of the fact that he was their senior and put his arms around Ryu’s shoulders and pat him on the ass. “Then Kudo was expelled for petty crimes shortly after, and we thought that Ryu was finally free from his harassment.”
“When we became seniors, Kudo started hanging out with a local gang and causing trouble. He came back to look for Ryu. Of course, Hayato was dating Ryu by then and didn’t keep quiet seeing him sexually harassed. He punched Kudo and told him off, and well, I guess Kudo thought that if he couldn’t have Ryu then no one should. He almost killed him. Hayato managed to get him out of there in time for Yankumi, our teacher at the time, to save us. He was thrown into jail after that incident,” he recounted. He frowned a little, “But why are you looking up Kudo?”
“I thought he might have something to do with the case,” Jin replied, trusting Hikaru to keep the information to himself.
Hikaru shook his head, “He couldn’t have.”
“How can you be so sure?” Kazuya pressed, pouting his lips in disapproval.
“Kudo’s dead,” Hikaru informed. “He was killed the same day Ryu and Hayato died. I don’t know the details though. It was out of our jurisdiction. Don’t know if it’s still the same, but we weren’t on the best terms with Fukagawa Station.”
“Yeah, it’s still the same,” Fukagawa Police Station still hated their guts. It was ridiculous, on the same par as high school rivalry only with police stations and grown adults involved.
“The only information I got out of them was that it was a gang quarrel and that he wasn’t in possession of a gun.” If Kudo Hiroki was discovered one street over, he would have been in their jurisdiction but he wasn’t. Furthermore, they were unable to request records to be sent over without reasonable grounds to believe the two cases were connected, in which case Fukagawa Station would join their investigation. Fukagawa Station hated Ryu who was kind of like the unofficial leader of their station, and the last thing Hikaru wanted was for them to be snooping around his personal life trying to exploit him after his death.
“Now that I think about it, Yankumi might know something. I think Hayato might have been confiding in her, he was meeting her a lot since Kudo came back.”
-
“I thought we were visiting Yamaguchi-sensei?” Kazuya reconfirmed, quirking an eyebrow at the old-fashioned Japanese manor in front of them. He wasn’t sure if it was the daunting gates or the overall atmosphere that made shivers go down his back, but there was just something about the house that set red signals off in his head.
“This is her address,” Jin deadpanned, checking the address for the fifth time. He wondered if Yamaguchi Kumiko had moved or the database had the wrong address. “This... is a yakuza household, huh? Damn it, I should’ve run her record,” he cursed inwardly at being so careless. He didn’t think he’d need to run a check on a teacher of all things, but the big wooden sign that read Oedo Family wasn’t exactly welcoming.
“What kind of cop is scared of the yakuza?” Kazuya smirked, seeing Jin fidgeting nervously. It wasn’t every day you got to see Jin so uneasy. Then again, it wasn’t everyday that you visited a yakuza’s household in search for a high school teacher. Though now that Kazuya thought about it, it was no wonder that their fathers’ teacher was someone intimidating enough to tame even them.
“Huh? Who said I was scared?” the detective snarled, glaring challengingly at Kazuya. Jin was so not afraid of the yakuza. He just wasn’t that fond of making enemies out of them. It didn’t help that if something happened, he wasn’t sure he could protect himself let alone Kazuya and he wasn’t about to let anything happen to Kazuya.
“You folks have some business to settle with us?” a deep and thunderous voice threatened. Jin jumped in his skin and looked back to see an older man glaring deathly daggers at him, and if looks could kill Jin would be served on a plate with a piece of ham.
“We’re here to see Yamaguchi-sensei,” Kazuya spoke on the detective’s behalf, figuring it would ease the tense atmosphere. Perhaps yakuzas could sense that Jin was a cop. The man was glaring quite heatedly at his boyfriend. “I’m her former student, Odagiri Ryu’s son,” he clarified.
“Odagiri...” the intimidating man whispered, carefully inspecting the younger man. His mouth opened slightly, recognizing the resemblance. He then studied Jin, who now upon careful inspection had an uncanny resemblance to the young Yabuki Hayato. “Ojyou!” he yelled excitedly, running inside the house.
“Ojyou?” the two stared at each other, not quite liking the sound of that. Jin was slightly distressed, now sure that he had brought Kazuya to a dangerous place he had no business being and that some scary yakuza lady, one that was more menacing than that brutish man, was going to come out.
Instead of the horrendously burly woman with scars on her face that Jin was imagining, the woman that had come out was a charming older lady who was quite petite and smiled goofily at Kazuya. “Kazuya-kun was it?” she grinned childishly upon seeing the young man. She remembered the young boy from Ryu’s funeral, and it was like looking at Ryu himself except Kazuya actually smiled. Not only their features, but their atmosphere was also similar. Kazuya was unassuming, but had those strong defiant eyes that broke to no one just like his father. He was also blessed with that air of poise and fortitude that Ryu carried, the characteristics that she felt were really important in life.
Kumiko glanced at the other man, wondering who it could be when her mouth dropped open. She gaped at a loss for words. “You... Are you Yabuki’s child?” she finally spoke, her eyes shimmering of tears.
“Yes, my name is Akanishi Jin,” Jin replied.
“Is that so?” she said, wiping her tears and sniffling. “That Yabuki... Seems like he did what he had to do before he died,” she grinned at said student’s offspring.
“What kind of teacher encourages their students to knock someone up?” Jin grumbled under his breath. Then again, said teacher was part of the yakuza and most likely the leader of the clan so perhaps he was at fault for putting her in the same category as normal teachers.
“Cheeky, aren’t you? Just like your father,” she teased. “Come on in,” she invited, or more like, dragged into the house eagerly. And damn, did she have a grip on her.
“Would you like some sake?” Tetsu offered once they were both settled on a zabuton, fidgeting uncomfortably for different reasons. Jin’s household was completely westernized and he had never had the reason to sit on a tatami mat, let alone in such an awkward and torturing position on a skimpy seat cushion. He had cursed inwardly at having copied his boyfriend when sitting down. Kazuya, on the other hand, grew up in a more traditional family, even learning the art of flowers and tea as a teenager, and was used to sitting on a tatami. He was fidgeting because of the circle of intimidating men surrounding the tea table.
“No, thank you. Kazuya’s still underage,” Jin refused immediately, wondering if it was normal to offer sake like it was tea in a yakuza household. Kumiko scolded the man by the name of Tetsu, and he hurriedly brought barley tea for the two and sat down along with the rest of his clan members.
“What brings you here?” she asked friendlily.
“We were investigating the death of our father and heard that you might know something about Kudo.”
She nodded in understanding. “Yabuki confided in me about Kudo. It seems Kudo had a strange fascination for Odagiri. I guess Yabuki caught him feeling up on Odagiri while he was asleep. So when Kudo appeared before them, he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to protect him from Kudo and his rowdy gang. He asked for me to protect Odagiri in case something should happen to him.”
“Kudo...” she sighed, “He started to send suggestive photos of himself along with scandalizing pictures of Odagiri and Yabuki to his house and even to the school. The pictures of the two were scribbled on, and all threatened for them to break up. Luckily, I got the ones sent to Kurogin. I confronted Odagiri about them, and he confessed that he was being stalked by Kudo. He had almost been raped on the way home, but since then he had started walking home with Yabuki.”
“That was around the time that Yabuki punched Kudo. Kudo was furious and had his whole gang beat up on the two. Yabuki managed to save Odagiri from being killed by Kudo, and I stopped him from chasing after them and called the police. Kudo and his gang had robbed a jewelry store and had framed Yabuki and Odagiri before assaulting them. They were all immediately taken away by the police. If I remember correctly, Kudo was charged for armed assault, battery, and robbery and was sentenced to a lot of jail time. He was released a month before Yabuki and Odagiri had passed away.”
“Tsuchiya thought that maybe Kudo was the one behind their death so I had Shin do a little research,” she pointed at her husband, who was sitting wordlessly beside her. She would have done it herself but her husband and the Oedo family’s fourth generation leader, Sawada Shin, had insisted that he would do the research and Kumiko had trusted him since he was a very smart man.
“After his release, Kudo had started selling foreign drugs on the Kumagai clan’s territory. Needless to say, they didn’t take a kid selling that stuff on their territory well and were furious. They started hunting for Kudo and his whole gang. Seto Koji, the formal leader of the gang Kudo was in cut a deal with the late Kumagai pops. He promised to take care of their own trash in exchange for their forgiveness. The next morning, Seto had turned himself in for stabbing Kudo to death and Kumagai kept his end of the bargain to lay off the rest of his gang.”
“The thing is, Kudo was killed at around the same time as Yabuki and Odagiri and no guns were found at the scene of the crime. We searched the area with our men as soon as the cops cleared the area, but there was nothing.”
“Yankumi, I’m going out with Ryu,” Hayato said after taking a deep breath. “And I mean that in the holding hands and kissing sort of way,” he added on, deciding that it would be better if Kumiko didn’t know about the other things they did behind closed doors. She’d probably blush, demand that he takes responsibility and marries Ryu, lecture him about the proper use of condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancy or just punch him, most likely both.
“No damn boundary is worth losing Ryu, that’s what I thought when he confessed to me,” Hayato said, remembering his initial shock when Ryu came out that he was in love with him after avoiding him for a whole damned week. He realized that though Ryu didn’t say it, if he turned Ryu down he would probably never see him again. “If that meant giving up girls and being lovers with Ryu, then so be it. I probably just didn’t realize it then, but I was already in love with Ryu. I really love him.”
“Is that so?” she smiled. “I’m happy for you both. You’ve got yourself quite a keeper.”
“No matter what anyone says, Yabuki didn’t do it. I believe them and their love for one another. You should too,” and when Kumiko said this in a solemn voice with her eyes burning of passion and conviction, Jin felt for the first time that she truly was a yakuza head albeit unofficially.
-
“Mizushima Hiro?” Jin narrowed his eyes. “I thought we were looking for Misawa Hiro. The only thing you got right is his initials and first name,” he said sarcastically. He was about to crumble the piece of paper and throw it in the trash but Kazuya saved it from his wrath, figuring that Tomohisa wouldn’t give them random information.
“Mizushima Hiro’s parents got a divorce within a month from Odagiri’s case. Mizushima chose to be removed from his father’s records and took his mother’s maiden name, Mizushima. It seems his father was unemployed and had drinking and gambling problems.” Tomohisa sighed. He was thankful that Kazuya had saved the important information from ending up in the trash can or he probably would have smacked Jin upside his head because that information had taken a lot of research to find and this was with Ryo’s help. The reason it had taken so long to track Hiro down were because of his name change and because he had become a host at Ikebukuro and had started to live with his girlfriend. He was a gigolo so to speak, and nothing was under his name but hers.
“I guess this is it,” Jin said, stopping in front of a shabby two-story apartment complex. Right as they were about to go upstairs to find apartment room 206, the man they were searching for came strolling down the stairs.
Mizushima Hiro stopped dead in his track upon seeing them. “Ryu... Hayato...” he said in a soft voice, his face slightly pale as if he were seeing ghost.
“My name is Akanishi Jin, and I’m here from Joto Police Station,” he introduced. “I have a few questions in regards to Odagiri Ryu and Yabuki Hayato.”
“Are you-”
“Yes, Yabuki Hayato was my father,” he acknowledged with a nod. “And the same goes for Kazuya, he’s Odagiri Ryu’s son.”
“I attended Kurogin Gakuen with Ryu and Hayato. We were high school friends.” Ryu and Hayato had been the leaders of their class and the paramount of their admiration. Hayato was a strong fighter, very manly, and yet comical and charismatic. He was always the mood-maker of the class. Ryu was demure and unassuming, but he was just as strong as Hayato and the only one Hayato trusted his back to, the only one who could keep up with Hayato. He was also the smartest in the class and was cool and calculating, often applying his wits to defend Hayato, himself and 3-D. So it came to no surprise to those in 3-D when Hayato announced that they were officially dating. All of them gave the new couple warm wishes, and no one held any prejudice or intolerance to their relationship or to them being gay. It was only natural. As far as they were concerned, only Ryu was able to stand beside Hayato. So it had come to a surprise when the Golden Pair had broken up.
“Hayato started hanging out at the bar that I worked at after he broke up with Ryu. The bar was notorious for all sorts of drugs and illegal activity. Ryu had asked me to keep an eye on Hayato and inform him of any problems. So I called him every time Hayato got into nasty fights or bought dangerous drug,” Hiro explained. “It was the same that day, when Hayato had acquired a handgun. I called Ryu.”
“Where is he?” the unofficial leader of 3-D asked with a grave expression. He pointed to the old abandoned warehouse with the door wide open, “He went into that warehouse.”
“Wait here,” Ryu said. His voice was resolute and didn’t give him the chance to oppose. He walked over to the warehouse, determined to stop Hayato.
“It’s my fault...” Hiro said, on the verge of tears remembering that day. “If only I went with him.” Surely, he could have helped Ryu stop Hayato. His heart still ached to know that his friends had died when he could’ve stopped them. If only...
“Then you would’ve been shot with them,” Kazuya comforted, patting the older man on his shoulder with a gentle smile. “There’s newly found evidence that proves that Hayato-san wasn’t the one that shot my father. If you had been there, the real culprit would have killed you too.” Hiro wondered how this young man was able to comfort him and make the guilt that had been eating at him for eight years wash away just like that.
“What... are you planning to do with that?” he questioned in a low voice, eyeing the handgun that Hayato had in his hand with uneasiness.
“I’m going staking my life...” Hayato smiled forlornly. “I never faced him, even once. When Ryu told me he was getting married and that he wanted to break up with me, I just let him walk away from me. This time, I’m going to put myself on the line. No matter how much it hurts, no matter what he says to me, whether he punches me or kicks me, I’m going to fight for him.”
“I think Hayato just wanted Ryu’s attention. He kept waiting... for Ryu to stop him, and tell him that it was okay because he would be with him from now on,” his heart ached tenderly remembering Hayato’s last words to him. Hiro had reflected on Hayato’s words over and over, desperately wanting to figure out what Hayato was thinking. He thinks he finally has. It was childish, yes, but that was the only way Hayato knew to gain Ryu’s attention and to lure him out of the shadows. This was the only way for him to tell Ryu that he still loved him and that he had never stopped loving him. That he wanted to be together with Ryu, no matter what he had to sacrifice.
“But he couldn’t... so he watched over him from the shadows instead. It was all because of me,” Kazuya finished, tears surfacing in his beautiful sad eyes. “I kept him from Hayato-san,” he murmured. What hurts him the most was the realization that Ryu had sacrificed the one thing he really wanted for him, and he took him for granted. The tears he had been holding back fell on his cheeks.
Jin held Kazuya tightly, rubbing soothingly on his back as he sobbed in his chest. He shook his head, “No, Kazuya... He just loved you that much.”
-
Jin marked up the map of Koto Prefecture with a red marker, starting with an X where Hayato and Ryu were discovered dead and another X where Kudo Hiroki was murdered. He connected the two Xs with a single line. “Kudo was killed in the vicinity of the warehouse, he could’ve killed Ryu and-”
“And what? The gun walked off on its own?” the young forensic scientist said sarcastically. “He may have been in the vicinity of the warehouse, but he was also in the vicinity of his own house. Kudo could’ve been walking home for all we know. No hard evidence, no case, Jin.”
“Why was he killed anyways?” Ryo butted in.
“A gang member in his crew disposed of him because he was running wild. I guess he was starting to sell drugs on a yakuza’s territory, and the others were afraid that if Kudo kept up they’d be on gunpoint as well. Seto Koji cut a deal with the yakuza saying that he’ll take care of their own trash if that’ll settle the dispute among them. He figured that jail was nothing compared to being killed in cold blood by yakuza for something Kudo did on his own.”
“You’ve got to admit, Seto has guts,” Tomohisa complimented, not many would put their life on the line for their gang buddies let alone have the balls to strike up a deal with the yakuza.
“Jeez, no matter how you slice the cake Kudo would’ve been killed. He turned his own gang and a yakuza clan against him,” Ryo complained. “What a fucking idiot!”
“On the bright side, Ryo dug out Kudo’s belongings from Fukagawa Station’s storage room. He figured Kudo’s belongings weren’t thoroughly inspected since he was the victim of a stabbing, and no one thought he had anything to do with a murder,” Tomohisa informed. Ryo grinned triumphantly at even having thought of that. He was an absolute genius!
“How the hell did you manage that?” Jin asked in surprise.
“I guess I forgot to tell you, I’m originally from Fukagawa Station,” he said sheepishly.
Ryo had requested a transfer when his mother was hospitalized from fatigue and overworking herself. He figured that if he moved back in with her at home, he could help out with the family’s restaurant on his days off. Sure, his gorgeous and killer girlfriend, quite literally since she was part of the SIT squad, Igarashi Aya, helped out when she could but even Ryo knew that forcing his mother on her wasn’t fair. Especially when he could only see her about two times a week due to conflicting work schedules.
Ryo honestly didn’t know how their relationship worked out seeing as Aya saw his mother more than him. Then again, Aya had always appreciated just being able to see him from time to time, him being the first lover that she’s had since she’s been in the squad. SIT doesn’t exactly give you the freedom you want in relationships, and neither did his job.
“Ryo, I have a confession to make...” Aya said one day, as they were walking home from their date. “I’m part of SIT.” His eyes widened in horror. It wasn’t that he didn’t know. He knew all along, having noticed that Aya was no longer in the police database as an active officer.
“Aya, why... did you tell me that?” he scolded, gathering the girl he was in love with in his rather toned arms. “You idiot!” he mumbled in her ear, and he would have cried if he could.
SIT members were sworn to secrecy and revealing their identity was punishable by law. “If I can’t trust the man that I’m spending the rest of my life with, then who can I trust?” she murmured softly, and this was her ultimate form of trust. She was trusting Ryo with her life. “I love you, Ryo.”
All in all, Ryo thought that transferring to Joto had been nothing but good news for him. He was able to spend a little more time with his mother and Aya, and was now friends with the Joto officers who weren’t as bad as he thought they’d be. Though he never forgot his roots, and still kept in touch with the Fukagawa gang.
“Yokoyama Yu, the boss over there, is my old drinking buddy, and my childhood friend, Uchi Hiroki, is in charge of the records department,” he explained. Murakami Shingo, the warden at Joto, and Shibutani Subaru, the head of the forensic department, were also former Fukagawa members, both having their individual reasons for transferring here.
“I know who to go to if I need information from Fukagawa,” Jin snorted. To think that all this time he could have just asked Ryo for information instead of filling out painstakingly long paperwork to formally request information only to have it rejected about three times just to piss him off.
“Find anything interesting?” Ryo asked, peeking over at the paperwork that Tomohisa had in his hand. If the smug smirk on his lips weren’t enough of an indication, he probably did.
“His clothes had evidence of gunshot residue on them, and his shoes had traces of metal. I analyzed it, and it was the same type of metal that was produced in that old warehouse once upon a time,” he reported, handing the paperwork over to Jin and Ryo to look over. “The possibility of Kudo being the culprit is high.”
“If only we can find that gun. We’d have decisive proof,” Ryo sighed. “How can it simply disappear?”
Jin stared at the map blankly, lost in thoughts. He suddenly stood up, surprising the rest of the gang. “I think I have a vague idea where it is,” he announced, running out the door.
“Thank Officer Tsuchiya. It seems that he started cracking down on gun dealers and illegal gun possessions since Odagiri’s case.” Ryo figured that maybe that was his way of settling scores for his friends, trying to book the person that gave Hayato a gun in the first place. As soon as he had found the one who had sold the gun to Hayato, Hikaru had turned in his resignation to the police force.
“Does it match up with any of the cases that Odagiri handled in the past?” Jin asked, flipping through the said list himself. The list was quite long and he knew it would be impossible for them to check up on all of them when they were investigating with only four members in between other investigations.
“The thing is most of the criminals that Ryu threw into jail are still in jail. He didn’t handle much petty crimes.” Ryo had to admit, the crimes that Ryu had handled once arriving at Joto Station were amazing. If he hadn’t refused to move jurisdictions, he probably would’ve been on top at the main branch and in line to replace his father as the Commissioner. Yet, he threw all chances of promotion aside even though he was already set on a golden path as a police officer all for one man. What a sweet love story.
“What about grudges in his personal life?” Tomohisa questioned, from what he had heard it didn’t seem like Ryu had much of a life asides from Hayato but assumptions were fatal in investigation. They couldn’t throw a possibility out based on assumptions alone.
“What personal life?” Jin mocked. “The only person with a grudge against him was probably his wife for being an awful husband.” Needless to say, Jin had already investigated Kazuya’s mother on his own knowing that Kazuya would be upset with him for suspecting her, even if it was just routine investigation to check the background and alibis of those involved with the case. Jin was pretty sure himself that Kazuya’s caring and cheerful mother would never be able to pull off a lurid act such as killing her husband.
“Thank you for taking such good care of my son,” she said, smiling gently while placing a cup of tea in front of him. “Kazuya told me a lot about you. That you were a very capable and respectable police officer who acted tough and unyielding at times, but was actually quite compassionate and caring. Oh, and also that you were a very good kisser,” she chuckled, noticing the faint blush on her guest cheeks.
“Just because your ex-girlfriend hates your guts for ditching her at a fancy five-star restaurant to blow out birthday candles alone, doesn’t mean that all policemen have horrible relationships,” Tomohisa countered. “Keiko and I are doing just fine and she’s had to walk four miles from the beach to the nearest train station because I was called in on my day off.”
Tomohisa had promised his longtime girlfriend, Kitagawa Keiko, that he would take her to the beach last summer. He had hoped for a romantic getaway with a private barbeque and fireworks, but had been called in the moment they arrived to the secluded beach. The coincidental timing made Tomohisa suspect that they were on 24-hour surveillance somehow, which prevented officers from actually having a life out of work.
“You can go,” Keiko smiled encouragingly as he got off the phone. “You don’t have to worry about me. I can find the way home by myself. I’m a big girl now.” She opened the car door and jumped out of the car, flashing a wide grin and a peace sign.
“Keiko-” he stopped, leaning to her side of the car.
“Hurry up and go!” she ushered away with her hands playfully. “I’m fine! I’m planning to marry a police officer, I know my responsibilities.”
Apologizing to her one last time, Tomohisa had furiously driven back to the police station. Later on that day, he had found out that there was no train station in that countryside and that the nearest one was at least four miles away. Keiko didn’t mention any of this to him, not even a single complaint. Of course, Tomohisa had immediately sent her a bouquet of sunflowers as an apology gift feeling awfully guilty, to which Keiko snapped a picture of herself holding with her pretty smile and thanked him for.
“You’re childhood friends,” Jin reasoned. “You’ve dated the girl since high school!” Hell, Keiko was currently studying in an American college in behavioral science to become a police officer herself. Her dream is to become a forensic profiler and work in the Joto Station Criminal Investigation Department with her boyfriend, which was a complete waste of her superior intellect if you asked him, but this was Keiko he was talking about and her life pretty much centered around her boyfriend.
“Maybe you should’ve settled down instead of partying your ass off in high school,” Tomohisa mentioned offhandedly.
“You mean middle school...” Jin corrected. “I was busy locking myself in the library to find a girl in high school.”
Since deciding to become a police officer, Jin had his parents hire tutors and attended cram school so that he could enroll in a privileged high school with the opportunity to study abroad. Upon miraculously passing the entrance exam, he had studied in New York for a semester and was pretty proficient with his English skills even with the horrible Bronx accent that he couldn’t quite fix. Even then, asides from touring local police stations and famous crimes sites in New York, he was usually at the library studying so that he could pass the Type 1 National Civil Service exam once he returned to Japan. Thankfully, his painstaking studying had paid off and he was set on an elite course as a cop, starting his career from the Lieutenant position.
“What’s wrong with smart girls with glasses?” Tomohisa countered, his girlfriend looked hot in glasses and he loved when she talked all smart and literal although it honestly sounded like riddles sometimes. It was hot, kind of like she was speaking a foreign language to him.
“Nothing, except that they’re not into guys,” Jin shrugged as if to say that he’s been there and done that. “I was called filthy when I tried to kiss this cute nerdy girl. She slapped me across the face, and nerds are strong when cornered!” that Noriko girl had one hell of a slap on her. She hit any bad intentions right out of him, and he had returned to studying nursing a throbbing cheek.
“You’re unbelievable,” Ryo complained, shaking his head in disapproval and Tomohisa nodded in agreement. “Hopeless,” he added on while meticulously comparing list ups in hopes of finding the invisible link between Ryu’s past cases and his murder.
-
“Jesus, is there anyone that Ryu and Hayato didn’t piss off?” Jin tossed the list ups on the coffee table angrily. He had been skimming through the list for hours and he wasn’t even halfway done, and Jin thought he was a troublemaker when he was younger. He wished he could have introduced Hayato to his teachers.
“Hayato,” Ryu called, swiftly punching the guy in front of him in the face. His back was facing his lover’s therefore he had no reason to turn around. He knew that Hayato had his back, literally. “When we finish cleaning up this mess, you owe me a damned drink,” he complained.
“Roger that,” Hayato replied, his voice rough at the end when he slugged the guy lunging at him. “How’s a romantic dinner and some passionate love making session too?” he winked playfully though Ryu couldn’t see him, if he could he just might have smacked him. Ryu could hear the smile in Hayato’s voice as he kicked another guy in the stomach, and rolled his eyes. “You mean Denny’s, and five rounds of sex at your place.”
“My father wasn’t the short tempered one. He only backed Hayato-san up because he loved him. He was just romantic,” Kazuya reminded him, a fond smile on his lips. “And it’s not like you were a saint either,” he added in afterthought, grinning mischievously.
“Just because you act innocent doesn’t mean you are,” Jin retorted. His hand weaved into Kazuya’s soft hair and pulled him in for a quick peck on the lips. Kazuya leaned in towards his boyfriend, not satisfied with the simple kiss. Kazuya could taste the smirk on his boyfriend’s lip as he playfully nipped at his plump bottom lip, licking teasingly over the bites. When Jin parted his lips, he dated his tongue in his mouth to explore his hot cavern. Slowly stroking the back of his teeth and his sensitive tongue, and sucking softly and sensually. Pulling away with a small kissy sound, Kazuya then kissed the older man up his neck leaving angry red marks in the process. “I’m not acting,” he whispered lustfully into his boyfriend’s ear, and suddenly pulled away.
Reaching to the coffee table for the list that Jin had thrown, he skimmed through the list of names as if nothing had happened. A triumphant smirk playing on his lips, satisfied with the shocked and disappointed look on Jin’s face. The bulge in Jin’s pants was obvious through his tight jeans, but Kazuya pretended not to notice. “Why don’t we start with this guy?” he said innocently.
-
“I got into fights with Yabuki and Odagiri, but that was back in high school. I was young and full of blood then,” Shibuya Hideyuki said kind of nostalgically, taking a long drag on his cigarette. “I wouldn’t kill them.”
“Hell, if anything it pissed me the fuck off to find out that they kicked the bucket,” he growled angrily, throwing his cigarette on the ground and snuffing it out with the bottom of his shoes. Seeing Jin quirk an eyebrow, he cleared his throat and picked the cigarette butt back up.
“Yabuki and Odagiri were the invincible pair, the ones no one could touch. I wanted them to remain that way,” he rationalized. The two were a reminder of his magnificent high school days when they were still young and immature, bursting with more liveliness than they knew what to do with, troubled and frustrated with just about anything. They had always been bored and restless, searching for an enjoyable way to waste time, but those were good old days. Now Hideyuki was stuck at a stuffy office kissing ass to his asshole of a boss to feed the money-sucking leech that he knocked up and the bratty son that he was beginning to suspect wasn’t his. If you asked him, his life was more fucked up now than back then.
“You said you wouldn’t kill them, know anyone who would?” Kazuya questioned sharply with piercing eyes. Hideyuki couldn’t help but smirk. That calculating expression on Kazuya’s face was the same one Ryu bore, and one that he knew well. Back in their high school days, that knowing expression and his defiant eyes had constantly pissed him off. It was as if Ryu looked down upon them. Now that he thought about it, he was probably intimidated by that burning gaze. That was why he would desperately try to get that annoying look off his face.
“No,” Hideyuki answered, quite calmly. “No one dared to fuck with them after that little incident they caused.”
“What incident?” Jin pushed.
“I don’t know the details. It was near graduation season.” Though being delinquents they had no hopes for a bright future, even they knew that throwing three years of ignorant teachers and limelight from fellow students out the door would be stupid. After all, they only had a week before they were finally free of that crappy joint.
“Just that they got into it with a gang member and caused a police incident,” he added on what he had heard and remembered. Their district was a tough one and even as high school delinquents, none of them dared to instigate a fight with local gangs. No one was crazy enough. So when rumors spread that Kurogin’s golden pair had been reckless enough to start a fight and that they had survived, the other students backed off not wanting to be a part of that chaos.
“You should ask the Yabuki’s pack. I heard that the gang member was originally a Kurogin student,” Hideyuki said before glancing at his wristwatch. “I have to get back,” he announced.
“Hey,” Jin called after him. Hideyuki looked back at him. “Thanks for the info,” he said genuinely.
Hideyuki grinned, it was truly a shame that Kurogin’s Golden Pair had died in such an unfortunate way. He would’ve liked to have a beer with them, he thought while reminiscing the good old days on his way back to the office.
-
“What can I get for you?” Hikaru asked while wiping empty glasses sparkly clean. “Don’t worry, it’s on the house,” he assured with a friendly smile. Hikaru was happy enough knowing that Ryu and Hayato’s sons were alive and well, and buying them drinks occasionally would be his pleasure. As long as they’d visit from time to time.
“Cassis Orange, please,” the younger one ordered without hesitation.
“Beers fine with me,” Jin ordered. He glanced sideward at Kazuya, “And orange juice for him.” Hikaru stopped, almost having filled the order. He had automatically assumed that since Ryu and Hayato drank from the time they were in middle school, their sons would too. He had forgotten that Jin was a police man, though he somehow doubted Jin had waited until he was legal to drink. It was a detective’s instinct. Kazuya shrugged as if to say it was worth a shot, and accepted the orange juice handed to him.
“How’s the investigation going?” Hikaru solicited, curious himself.
“About that, we wanted to ask you about Kudo,” Jin said, sipping on his beer.
Hikaru seemed genuinely surprised to hear that name from Jin’s lips. “Kudo Hiroki was our senior when we entered Kurogin Gakuen. Kudo sort of had an obsession with Ryu and persistently pursued him,” he explained. He snuck a glance over at Kazuya as if Hikaru didn’t want him to find out that his father was being sexually harassed by another man.
“When you say pursue...” Kazuya clarified.
“Ryu hated worrying others so he never talked to us about it, but that bastard had his hands all over him,” he growled angrily, remembering how Hiroki would take advantage of the fact that he was their senior and put his arms around Ryu’s shoulders and pat him on the ass. “Then Kudo was expelled for petty crimes shortly after, and we thought that Ryu was finally free from his harassment.”
“When we became seniors, Kudo started hanging out with a local gang and causing trouble. He came back to look for Ryu. Of course, Hayato was dating Ryu by then and didn’t keep quiet seeing him sexually harassed. He punched Kudo and told him off, and well, I guess Kudo thought that if he couldn’t have Ryu then no one should. He almost killed him. Hayato managed to get him out of there in time for Yankumi, our teacher at the time, to save us. He was thrown into jail after that incident,” he recounted. He frowned a little, “But why are you looking up Kudo?”
“I thought he might have something to do with the case,” Jin replied, trusting Hikaru to keep the information to himself.
Hikaru shook his head, “He couldn’t have.”
“How can you be so sure?” Kazuya pressed, pouting his lips in disapproval.
“Kudo’s dead,” Hikaru informed. “He was killed the same day Ryu and Hayato died. I don’t know the details though. It was out of our jurisdiction. Don’t know if it’s still the same, but we weren’t on the best terms with Fukagawa Station.”
“Yeah, it’s still the same,” Fukagawa Police Station still hated their guts. It was ridiculous, on the same par as high school rivalry only with police stations and grown adults involved.
“The only information I got out of them was that it was a gang quarrel and that he wasn’t in possession of a gun.” If Kudo Hiroki was discovered one street over, he would have been in their jurisdiction but he wasn’t. Furthermore, they were unable to request records to be sent over without reasonable grounds to believe the two cases were connected, in which case Fukagawa Station would join their investigation. Fukagawa Station hated Ryu who was kind of like the unofficial leader of their station, and the last thing Hikaru wanted was for them to be snooping around his personal life trying to exploit him after his death.
“Now that I think about it, Yankumi might know something. I think Hayato might have been confiding in her, he was meeting her a lot since Kudo came back.”
-
“I thought we were visiting Yamaguchi-sensei?” Kazuya reconfirmed, quirking an eyebrow at the old-fashioned Japanese manor in front of them. He wasn’t sure if it was the daunting gates or the overall atmosphere that made shivers go down his back, but there was just something about the house that set red signals off in his head.
“This is her address,” Jin deadpanned, checking the address for the fifth time. He wondered if Yamaguchi Kumiko had moved or the database had the wrong address. “This... is a yakuza household, huh? Damn it, I should’ve run her record,” he cursed inwardly at being so careless. He didn’t think he’d need to run a check on a teacher of all things, but the big wooden sign that read Oedo Family wasn’t exactly welcoming.
“What kind of cop is scared of the yakuza?” Kazuya smirked, seeing Jin fidgeting nervously. It wasn’t every day you got to see Jin so uneasy. Then again, it wasn’t everyday that you visited a yakuza’s household in search for a high school teacher. Though now that Kazuya thought about it, it was no wonder that their fathers’ teacher was someone intimidating enough to tame even them.
“Huh? Who said I was scared?” the detective snarled, glaring challengingly at Kazuya. Jin was so not afraid of the yakuza. He just wasn’t that fond of making enemies out of them. It didn’t help that if something happened, he wasn’t sure he could protect himself let alone Kazuya and he wasn’t about to let anything happen to Kazuya.
“You folks have some business to settle with us?” a deep and thunderous voice threatened. Jin jumped in his skin and looked back to see an older man glaring deathly daggers at him, and if looks could kill Jin would be served on a plate with a piece of ham.
“We’re here to see Yamaguchi-sensei,” Kazuya spoke on the detective’s behalf, figuring it would ease the tense atmosphere. Perhaps yakuzas could sense that Jin was a cop. The man was glaring quite heatedly at his boyfriend. “I’m her former student, Odagiri Ryu’s son,” he clarified.
“Odagiri...” the intimidating man whispered, carefully inspecting the younger man. His mouth opened slightly, recognizing the resemblance. He then studied Jin, who now upon careful inspection had an uncanny resemblance to the young Yabuki Hayato. “Ojyou!” he yelled excitedly, running inside the house.
“Ojyou?” the two stared at each other, not quite liking the sound of that. Jin was slightly distressed, now sure that he had brought Kazuya to a dangerous place he had no business being and that some scary yakuza lady, one that was more menacing than that brutish man, was going to come out.
Instead of the horrendously burly woman with scars on her face that Jin was imagining, the woman that had come out was a charming older lady who was quite petite and smiled goofily at Kazuya. “Kazuya-kun was it?” she grinned childishly upon seeing the young man. She remembered the young boy from Ryu’s funeral, and it was like looking at Ryu himself except Kazuya actually smiled. Not only their features, but their atmosphere was also similar. Kazuya was unassuming, but had those strong defiant eyes that broke to no one just like his father. He was also blessed with that air of poise and fortitude that Ryu carried, the characteristics that she felt were really important in life.
Kumiko glanced at the other man, wondering who it could be when her mouth dropped open. She gaped at a loss for words. “You... Are you Yabuki’s child?” she finally spoke, her eyes shimmering of tears.
“Yes, my name is Akanishi Jin,” Jin replied.
“Is that so?” she said, wiping her tears and sniffling. “That Yabuki... Seems like he did what he had to do before he died,” she grinned at said student’s offspring.
“What kind of teacher encourages their students to knock someone up?” Jin grumbled under his breath. Then again, said teacher was part of the yakuza and most likely the leader of the clan so perhaps he was at fault for putting her in the same category as normal teachers.
“Cheeky, aren’t you? Just like your father,” she teased. “Come on in,” she invited, or more like, dragged into the house eagerly. And damn, did she have a grip on her.
“Would you like some sake?” Tetsu offered once they were both settled on a zabuton, fidgeting uncomfortably for different reasons. Jin’s household was completely westernized and he had never had the reason to sit on a tatami mat, let alone in such an awkward and torturing position on a skimpy seat cushion. He had cursed inwardly at having copied his boyfriend when sitting down. Kazuya, on the other hand, grew up in a more traditional family, even learning the art of flowers and tea as a teenager, and was used to sitting on a tatami. He was fidgeting because of the circle of intimidating men surrounding the tea table.
“No, thank you. Kazuya’s still underage,” Jin refused immediately, wondering if it was normal to offer sake like it was tea in a yakuza household. Kumiko scolded the man by the name of Tetsu, and he hurriedly brought barley tea for the two and sat down along with the rest of his clan members.
“What brings you here?” she asked friendlily.
“We were investigating the death of our father and heard that you might know something about Kudo.”
She nodded in understanding. “Yabuki confided in me about Kudo. It seems Kudo had a strange fascination for Odagiri. I guess Yabuki caught him feeling up on Odagiri while he was asleep. So when Kudo appeared before them, he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to protect him from Kudo and his rowdy gang. He asked for me to protect Odagiri in case something should happen to him.”
“Kudo...” she sighed, “He started to send suggestive photos of himself along with scandalizing pictures of Odagiri and Yabuki to his house and even to the school. The pictures of the two were scribbled on, and all threatened for them to break up. Luckily, I got the ones sent to Kurogin. I confronted Odagiri about them, and he confessed that he was being stalked by Kudo. He had almost been raped on the way home, but since then he had started walking home with Yabuki.”
“That was around the time that Yabuki punched Kudo. Kudo was furious and had his whole gang beat up on the two. Yabuki managed to save Odagiri from being killed by Kudo, and I stopped him from chasing after them and called the police. Kudo and his gang had robbed a jewelry store and had framed Yabuki and Odagiri before assaulting them. They were all immediately taken away by the police. If I remember correctly, Kudo was charged for armed assault, battery, and robbery and was sentenced to a lot of jail time. He was released a month before Yabuki and Odagiri had passed away.”
“Tsuchiya thought that maybe Kudo was the one behind their death so I had Shin do a little research,” she pointed at her husband, who was sitting wordlessly beside her. She would have done it herself but her husband and the Oedo family’s fourth generation leader, Sawada Shin, had insisted that he would do the research and Kumiko had trusted him since he was a very smart man.
“After his release, Kudo had started selling foreign drugs on the Kumagai clan’s territory. Needless to say, they didn’t take a kid selling that stuff on their territory well and were furious. They started hunting for Kudo and his whole gang. Seto Koji, the formal leader of the gang Kudo was in cut a deal with the late Kumagai pops. He promised to take care of their own trash in exchange for their forgiveness. The next morning, Seto had turned himself in for stabbing Kudo to death and Kumagai kept his end of the bargain to lay off the rest of his gang.”
“The thing is, Kudo was killed at around the same time as Yabuki and Odagiri and no guns were found at the scene of the crime. We searched the area with our men as soon as the cops cleared the area, but there was nothing.”
“Yankumi, I’m going out with Ryu,” Hayato said after taking a deep breath. “And I mean that in the holding hands and kissing sort of way,” he added on, deciding that it would be better if Kumiko didn’t know about the other things they did behind closed doors. She’d probably blush, demand that he takes responsibility and marries Ryu, lecture him about the proper use of condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancy or just punch him, most likely both.
“No damn boundary is worth losing Ryu, that’s what I thought when he confessed to me,” Hayato said, remembering his initial shock when Ryu came out that he was in love with him after avoiding him for a whole damned week. He realized that though Ryu didn’t say it, if he turned Ryu down he would probably never see him again. “If that meant giving up girls and being lovers with Ryu, then so be it. I probably just didn’t realize it then, but I was already in love with Ryu. I really love him.”
“Is that so?” she smiled. “I’m happy for you both. You’ve got yourself quite a keeper.”
“No matter what anyone says, Yabuki didn’t do it. I believe them and their love for one another. You should too,” and when Kumiko said this in a solemn voice with her eyes burning of passion and conviction, Jin felt for the first time that she truly was a yakuza head albeit unofficially.
-
“Mizushima Hiro?” Jin narrowed his eyes. “I thought we were looking for Misawa Hiro. The only thing you got right is his initials and first name,” he said sarcastically. He was about to crumble the piece of paper and throw it in the trash but Kazuya saved it from his wrath, figuring that Tomohisa wouldn’t give them random information.
“Mizushima Hiro’s parents got a divorce within a month from Odagiri’s case. Mizushima chose to be removed from his father’s records and took his mother’s maiden name, Mizushima. It seems his father was unemployed and had drinking and gambling problems.” Tomohisa sighed. He was thankful that Kazuya had saved the important information from ending up in the trash can or he probably would have smacked Jin upside his head because that information had taken a lot of research to find and this was with Ryo’s help. The reason it had taken so long to track Hiro down were because of his name change and because he had become a host at Ikebukuro and had started to live with his girlfriend. He was a gigolo so to speak, and nothing was under his name but hers.
“I guess this is it,” Jin said, stopping in front of a shabby two-story apartment complex. Right as they were about to go upstairs to find apartment room 206, the man they were searching for came strolling down the stairs.
Mizushima Hiro stopped dead in his track upon seeing them. “Ryu... Hayato...” he said in a soft voice, his face slightly pale as if he were seeing ghost.
“My name is Akanishi Jin, and I’m here from Joto Police Station,” he introduced. “I have a few questions in regards to Odagiri Ryu and Yabuki Hayato.”
“Are you-”
“Yes, Yabuki Hayato was my father,” he acknowledged with a nod. “And the same goes for Kazuya, he’s Odagiri Ryu’s son.”
“I attended Kurogin Gakuen with Ryu and Hayato. We were high school friends.” Ryu and Hayato had been the leaders of their class and the paramount of their admiration. Hayato was a strong fighter, very manly, and yet comical and charismatic. He was always the mood-maker of the class. Ryu was demure and unassuming, but he was just as strong as Hayato and the only one Hayato trusted his back to, the only one who could keep up with Hayato. He was also the smartest in the class and was cool and calculating, often applying his wits to defend Hayato, himself and 3-D. So it came to no surprise to those in 3-D when Hayato announced that they were officially dating. All of them gave the new couple warm wishes, and no one held any prejudice or intolerance to their relationship or to them being gay. It was only natural. As far as they were concerned, only Ryu was able to stand beside Hayato. So it had come to a surprise when the Golden Pair had broken up.
“Hayato started hanging out at the bar that I worked at after he broke up with Ryu. The bar was notorious for all sorts of drugs and illegal activity. Ryu had asked me to keep an eye on Hayato and inform him of any problems. So I called him every time Hayato got into nasty fights or bought dangerous drug,” Hiro explained. “It was the same that day, when Hayato had acquired a handgun. I called Ryu.”
“Where is he?” the unofficial leader of 3-D asked with a grave expression. He pointed to the old abandoned warehouse with the door wide open, “He went into that warehouse.”
“Wait here,” Ryu said. His voice was resolute and didn’t give him the chance to oppose. He walked over to the warehouse, determined to stop Hayato.
“It’s my fault...” Hiro said, on the verge of tears remembering that day. “If only I went with him.” Surely, he could have helped Ryu stop Hayato. His heart still ached to know that his friends had died when he could’ve stopped them. If only...
“Then you would’ve been shot with them,” Kazuya comforted, patting the older man on his shoulder with a gentle smile. “There’s newly found evidence that proves that Hayato-san wasn’t the one that shot my father. If you had been there, the real culprit would have killed you too.” Hiro wondered how this young man was able to comfort him and make the guilt that had been eating at him for eight years wash away just like that.
“What... are you planning to do with that?” he questioned in a low voice, eyeing the handgun that Hayato had in his hand with uneasiness.
“I’m going staking my life...” Hayato smiled forlornly. “I never faced him, even once. When Ryu told me he was getting married and that he wanted to break up with me, I just let him walk away from me. This time, I’m going to put myself on the line. No matter how much it hurts, no matter what he says to me, whether he punches me or kicks me, I’m going to fight for him.”
“I think Hayato just wanted Ryu’s attention. He kept waiting... for Ryu to stop him, and tell him that it was okay because he would be with him from now on,” his heart ached tenderly remembering Hayato’s last words to him. Hiro had reflected on Hayato’s words over and over, desperately wanting to figure out what Hayato was thinking. He thinks he finally has. It was childish, yes, but that was the only way Hayato knew to gain Ryu’s attention and to lure him out of the shadows. This was the only way for him to tell Ryu that he still loved him and that he had never stopped loving him. That he wanted to be together with Ryu, no matter what he had to sacrifice.
“But he couldn’t... so he watched over him from the shadows instead. It was all because of me,” Kazuya finished, tears surfacing in his beautiful sad eyes. “I kept him from Hayato-san,” he murmured. What hurts him the most was the realization that Ryu had sacrificed the one thing he really wanted for him, and he took him for granted. The tears he had been holding back fell on his cheeks.
Jin held Kazuya tightly, rubbing soothingly on his back as he sobbed in his chest. He shook his head, “No, Kazuya... He just loved you that much.”
-
Jin marked up the map of Koto Prefecture with a red marker, starting with an X where Hayato and Ryu were discovered dead and another X where Kudo Hiroki was murdered. He connected the two Xs with a single line. “Kudo was killed in the vicinity of the warehouse, he could’ve killed Ryu and-”
“And what? The gun walked off on its own?” the young forensic scientist said sarcastically. “He may have been in the vicinity of the warehouse, but he was also in the vicinity of his own house. Kudo could’ve been walking home for all we know. No hard evidence, no case, Jin.”
“Why was he killed anyways?” Ryo butted in.
“A gang member in his crew disposed of him because he was running wild. I guess he was starting to sell drugs on a yakuza’s territory, and the others were afraid that if Kudo kept up they’d be on gunpoint as well. Seto Koji cut a deal with the yakuza saying that he’ll take care of their own trash if that’ll settle the dispute among them. He figured that jail was nothing compared to being killed in cold blood by yakuza for something Kudo did on his own.”
“You’ve got to admit, Seto has guts,” Tomohisa complimented, not many would put their life on the line for their gang buddies let alone have the balls to strike up a deal with the yakuza.
“Jeez, no matter how you slice the cake Kudo would’ve been killed. He turned his own gang and a yakuza clan against him,” Ryo complained. “What a fucking idiot!”
“On the bright side, Ryo dug out Kudo’s belongings from Fukagawa Station’s storage room. He figured Kudo’s belongings weren’t thoroughly inspected since he was the victim of a stabbing, and no one thought he had anything to do with a murder,” Tomohisa informed. Ryo grinned triumphantly at even having thought of that. He was an absolute genius!
“How the hell did you manage that?” Jin asked in surprise.
“I guess I forgot to tell you, I’m originally from Fukagawa Station,” he said sheepishly.
Ryo had requested a transfer when his mother was hospitalized from fatigue and overworking herself. He figured that if he moved back in with her at home, he could help out with the family’s restaurant on his days off. Sure, his gorgeous and killer girlfriend, quite literally since she was part of the SIT squad, Igarashi Aya, helped out when she could but even Ryo knew that forcing his mother on her wasn’t fair. Especially when he could only see her about two times a week due to conflicting work schedules.
Ryo honestly didn’t know how their relationship worked out seeing as Aya saw his mother more than him. Then again, Aya had always appreciated just being able to see him from time to time, him being the first lover that she’s had since she’s been in the squad. SIT doesn’t exactly give you the freedom you want in relationships, and neither did his job.
“Ryo, I have a confession to make...” Aya said one day, as they were walking home from their date. “I’m part of SIT.” His eyes widened in horror. It wasn’t that he didn’t know. He knew all along, having noticed that Aya was no longer in the police database as an active officer.
“Aya, why... did you tell me that?” he scolded, gathering the girl he was in love with in his rather toned arms. “You idiot!” he mumbled in her ear, and he would have cried if he could.
SIT members were sworn to secrecy and revealing their identity was punishable by law. “If I can’t trust the man that I’m spending the rest of my life with, then who can I trust?” she murmured softly, and this was her ultimate form of trust. She was trusting Ryo with her life. “I love you, Ryo.”
All in all, Ryo thought that transferring to Joto had been nothing but good news for him. He was able to spend a little more time with his mother and Aya, and was now friends with the Joto officers who weren’t as bad as he thought they’d be. Though he never forgot his roots, and still kept in touch with the Fukagawa gang.
“Yokoyama Yu, the boss over there, is my old drinking buddy, and my childhood friend, Uchi Hiroki, is in charge of the records department,” he explained. Murakami Shingo, the warden at Joto, and Shibutani Subaru, the head of the forensic department, were also former Fukagawa members, both having their individual reasons for transferring here.
“I know who to go to if I need information from Fukagawa,” Jin snorted. To think that all this time he could have just asked Ryo for information instead of filling out painstakingly long paperwork to formally request information only to have it rejected about three times just to piss him off.
“Find anything interesting?” Ryo asked, peeking over at the paperwork that Tomohisa had in his hand. If the smug smirk on his lips weren’t enough of an indication, he probably did.
“His clothes had evidence of gunshot residue on them, and his shoes had traces of metal. I analyzed it, and it was the same type of metal that was produced in that old warehouse once upon a time,” he reported, handing the paperwork over to Jin and Ryo to look over. “The possibility of Kudo being the culprit is high.”
“If only we can find that gun. We’d have decisive proof,” Ryo sighed. “How can it simply disappear?”
Jin stared at the map blankly, lost in thoughts. He suddenly stood up, surprising the rest of the gang. “I think I have a vague idea where it is,” he announced, running out the door.