June 21, 4:00 pm

Kura'in International Airport.

It was just like any other day, sunny but not too hot, the perfect weather to go and walk. Plus, Kura'in is a good place to wander around all day without getting bored. This is exactly what the Wright Anything Agency were thinking as Phoenix, Trucy, Athena and Simon were walking in the street, ready for their vacation.

Apollo had invited them since he had a ton of work and couldn't afford to travel, but still he was excited to see them again.

The Wrights went to buy some snacks first, leaving Athena and Simon to join Apollo.

" Justice-dono is quite popular, huh?" commented Simon.

" I'm kinda jealous. But look! He has a cool dragon on his office's sign!" she stared at the colorful sign, she never expected to see Apollo's name all alone. Mr. Wright was very proud of him but for her it had felt so quick and weird. She still expect him to come at the Agency like every morning, pour on some coffee and maybe scream for a while, the office was so quiet since he left…

"Let's see if he's in there" Simon rang the bell, but after some minutes there was no response. He tried again and even hit the door a few times but not a single sound answered to him. As they started walking away Athena noticed that a window was broken.

Something was wrong…

Phoenix and Trucy were approaching.

" Athena, go with Trucy" said Simon, ordering more than asking.

" What? Simon, I can help!"

" I need you to watch over the young girl."

Athena felt a shiver running down her spine, what they could find inside the ruined office may not be pretty. She aproached Trucy and talked to her trying to not scare her, but Wright knew something was amiss. Simon pointed the window to him and he got close, entering the office trough it just a moment later.

The office was a complete mess, it seemed like someone had emptied all the furniture and dropped all the insides over the floor. There were glass shards from the window.

"Whoever dropped all the papers did it before the break in, the glass covers the paper" thought Phoenix, but then a small moan caught his attention. As he looked at the source of the sound he felt his entire body going cold… "Apollo!"

Apollo was slumped on his chair, right in front of a desk, his head low and his arms full of cuts hanging limply by the sides, but what made the scene horryfing was the long sword sticking right out of his chest, making his vest turn a sick deep red tone. But he looked so pale…so…dead.

Phoenix ran to him and checked his pulse by his neck. There was still a faint beat, so slow that it made Phoenix's hands shake. Apollo opened his eyes a little and looked at him, his gaze clearly pained and glassy.

" Mr…Wright…" he tried to speak but his voice was weak and he coughed, his lungs were making a rattling sound.

" Don't speak Apollo, you will be fine, just hang in there!"

Simon called an ambulance. Phoenix needed to keep Apollo alive but he couldn't think on how to stop the bleeding when the sword was still in there.

" Oh god, who could have done this?" Phoenix was talking to himself, but Apollo listened.

" Hound…"

" W-what?"

" Jour…journal…red…book…" Apollo was making his best to talk, like he needed to say something. Phoenix thought he was delirious until he looked at the desk, finding a small red notebook. "Take…it…police can't…see it…"

What could that book have? Why is so important that it made Apollo to force his body just to ensure it's care?

Phoenix didn't had the chance to ask because as soon as he took the book Apollo started to close his eyes.

"Trucy…she's…in danger" blood was now coming out of his mouth in thin stripes, his breathing hard and, finally, his eyes closed "Please…save…her"

" Apollo! No! C'mon…open your eyes!" Phoenix was scared, his trembling hands almost dropped the red book, a reckless thought made him reach for the handle of the sword to try and pull it out.

" DON'T YOU DARE WRIGHT-DONO!" yelled Blackquill "You will only make it worse, the sword is in a bad place, you can kill him just by pulling it out! Don't even touch it, we don't want your prints on—" Simon fell silent as he looked at the sword, his eyes went wide open when he realized that it wasn't an ordinary one. " Karuma…"

" Karma?"

" The sword...it's—"

Before Simon could explain a bunch of paramedics entered and checked on Apollo before taking him away, leaving behind his friends drowning in worry for him.

" Daddy! What's happening? Polly…he…"

The instant Phoenix saw his daughter he remembered the last words of Apollo, warning him. It had no case to try and hide that fact, Trucy would know immediately.

" Truce, Apollo was attacked. I need you to stay close to me at all moment, okay?"

The young girl paled.

" Polly told you?"

Phoenix flinched in alarm, how did she came to that conclusion? Did Apollo have more to tell him?

It seemed like Trucy knew more than himself right now, but they were right in front of the crime scene and the assailant could be right there, watching over them, speaking freely would be too dangerous. He didn't say a word, he just took the hand of his daughter and made a signal to Athena and Simon who followed them.

They were planning since the beggining to stay at an old friend's home (Beh'leeb In'mee offered that herself) and now that was the safest place to go. They needed to go at the hospital too so they splited up: Phoenix and Trucy went to In'mee's house and Athena and Simon to the hospital.

" Trucy, what do you know about this?"

" Sorry papa…" a painfully familiar metallic sound reached Phoenix's ears as four red psycho-locks appeared just in front of her. "I swore not to tell to anyone, I promise that it's nothing bad, bu Polly asked me to keep it a secret"

Phoenix knew how strong was the bond between Trucy and Apollo, she would never betray him so it would be impossible for him to break that locks. Instead he looked at the red book on his hands and opened it. Apollo kept track of everything in there, it was like a journal but he loved to write his adventures in a novel-like style, Athena once found one of his notes and mocked him saying that he was both Sherlock and Watson.

Phoenix found the entries for the past days, most of them just brief notes, until one that caught his attention:

" June 14.

Today Datz decided to check on Dhurke's old files and the office it's a mess. I'll deal with it later because at the moment I find myself flying to England. I wish this was a vacation, in fact I'm following the steps of my biological father; Jove Justice.

Nobody but Dhurke knew something about him, they were friends just before my father died at a fire made up to taking down a queen. Sometimes I think that it took down my entire world instead…

Dhurke was able to found out my father's true name, with that I found something else; an apartment of his in England, to be exact.

I'm going to investigate that place, if I'm lucky I may be able to know what kind of man my father was.

June 15.

The investigation was quicker than expected. My father didn't own a lot of things, mostly books, guitars and a suitcase that I took back with me to Kura'in. I'll check them out in the plane.

June 15.

Among the things I found a little book that seems to be a journal. But it's not my father's, it looks very old.

I started to read it to see why my father would have such a personal item from somebody else, according to the first pages my "somebody else's" name is Ryuunosuke Naruhodou. He's the true owner of this book. "

Then Phoenix changed the page to keep reading but at the sole sight of the paper his heart jumped; the words were shaky and almost illegible, what truly scared him was a page splattered with blood.

"JOURNAL. HOUND. KARMA. RYUUNOSUKE. SHERLOCK. BARKERVILLE"

He tried to make sense of these words but he didn't have a clue of what Apollo meant with each one. He talked about a journal and a Ryuunosuke, but Sherlock? The detective from the books? He needed to examine Apollo's office, maybe there he could find some answers.

The familiar Steel Samurai song reached his ears as his phone rang.

" Hello?"

" Wright-dono, you need to come to the hospital right now"

" What happened? Apollo…"

" He's pretty bad but still alive, but we need your presence immediately."

" I-I'm coming right away, but can you please tell me exactly what's wrong?"

"He's being arrested…"