Thank you for your encouraging words as always, RandomFun. The emeralds are what they stole in that whole 'Taxi Service' job. Tamaki's past is kinda revealed in this chapter. It's...OOC, so I'm sorry.
Also, to Jazyrha, the point of the job was to get revenge against the police and get money in the meantime. They don't want to kill anyone (Kyouya's plan), but the whole fire on the car is to scare the people inside.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
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Present time
"That's so sad…" Takaoji Shirou was on the verge of tears. He could relate to the pain. Really, it was sad. "I'm sorry, I'm the weepy type." He apologized to the other two.
Renge wasn't as impressed. "Heartwarming. I'm so weepy." She looked at the police inspector with disdain.
Takaoji did not look at Renge after her remark. He stood up and left the office, leaving Kyouya and Renge behind.
"Unless you do not recall, Agent Houshakuji, I am telling you what happened after the line up. So there it is," said Kyouya.
"Come on, Ohtori. You expect me to believe that? You expect me to believe that he retired…for a woman? Lies. He was using her."
"He loved her, and that is the truth."
"The truth? Right. And I'm supposed to believe that hitting the Taxi Service wasn't his idea either, right?"
Kyouya nodded. "It was all Hikaru - and Mori."
Renge was sitting on the inspector's desk, scrutinizing Kyouya closely. She didn't want to believe him, and nor did she, but there was something about his story that didn't seem right.
"Sure, sure...," she said, pretending to think deeply. But then she looked up, and her expression was dubious. "Come on, Ohtori! Suoh was a cop for four years, who else would know about the Taxi Service?"
"Why do you keep trying to blame everything on Tamaki? It's not true. He knew what the Taxi Service was of course, but Ayame had him all turned around. I'm telling you everything."
"Well let me tell you, Ohtori. I know Suoh Tamaki. I've been investigating him for four years. The man I know is a cold-hearted beast - he can't even be considered a man! He was indicted on three charges of murder before he was kicked off the force; so don't sell me that story on how he became good. That's all lies."
"You're wrong." Kyouya's declaration was said so surely, that his personality seemed to change in front of Renge. He seemed more determined, not as dumb as before.
"Am I? Suoh was under indictment a total of seven times while he was on the force. Each time, witnesses either reversed their testimony or died before they could testify. That's not all. When he was finally sent to jail - he killed three prisoners."
Renge paused to look at Kyouya. He was impassive as if waiting for her to finish. She took a sip of coffee, deciding to take her time.
"I haven't gotten to the best part yet either. Did you know that Suoh was dead? I mean it. He died in a fire during an investigation of a witness who was going to testify against him. Two witnesses saw him enter one of his warehouses to check a gas leak. The moment he walked in, it blew up. It took all of Suoh Tamaki with it. Two months later, the two witnesses are dead."
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In the equipment room, Takaoji and the technician, Sonoda, looked at each other in shock.
Then they turned back to the speakers to keep listening.
"Six weeks ago, I get an anonymous phone call saying I can find Suoh with his lawyer at a restaurant eating lunch. Sure enough, there he is! Since he never profited from his alleged death, and because we pinned someone else for the murder, we had to let him go," Renge was saying.
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Back in the inspector's room, Renge had started to walk around in a circle. "Can you believe it? He was dead long enough for the murder rap to blow over, and then he had lunch." She laughed in a high pitch: o-ho-ho-ho-ho!
"I didn't know about that," Kyouya replied calmly. While Renge had been talking, he had seemed more interested in the bulletin board behind her. There was a lot of information there...
"I'm sure you didn't," she continued. "You say you saw Suoh die. But I think you're just covering for him, and Suoh is somewhere out there. I bet he was behind everything that went on in that harbor. I bet he's just using you because you're a dumb cripple, and you think you're friends with him. Okay, so be it. I just want to make sure he's dead before I go back to Tokyo."
It was beginning to be a bit uncomfortable for Kyouya. He frowned a bit, deciding whether to tell another side to the story; all the while, he looked at the board. Then he decided to.
"It was the lawyer! It wasn't Tamaki," he blurted out.
"What?"
There was a pause. An awkward pause at that too.
"What lawyer Ohtori?"
Kyouya looked around, trying to find some way out of this situation. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea… "I remember there was a time when I was in that classical music quartet in Kyoto. I played the--"
Renge grabbed his shirt. "You think I don't know you held out on the D.A.? What did you leave out on that testimony?" She nearly yanked him out of his seat.
"The D.A. gave me immunity," Kyouya replied.
"Not from me, you piece of shit! You don't get anything from me! You work with me here or the world you live in will become hell!" She let go of his shirt.
He fell back into his seat and sat there rather demurely, placing his hands in his lap. He looked up at Renge with quiet dignity. She gave a small 'humph!' and continued.
"Every criminal I have put in jail, every cop that owes me a favor, every scumbag that walks on the streets, will know the name of Ohtori Kyouya. You'll be the lowest sort of human being, if you can call it a human being. Talk to me, or that oh-so-coveted immunity they've seen so fit to grant you won't be worth the paper the contract put out on your life is printed on," she said.
With a look of contempt, Kyouya grumbled, "There was a lawyer. Yamamoto."
"Did he kill Suoh?"
"No. But I'm sure Tamaki's dead."
She looked into his onyx eyes. "Convince me. Tell me every last detail…"
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In the hospital, the Chinese gang member, Chou Jing-Chi, had regained his speech.
"What happened in the pier?" Hunny asked slowly.
"We were there to…buy…m-ma…" he couldn't talk anymore.
"We know that," Hunny interupted. He translated to Kasanoda, who nodded his head in agreement.
"Yeah, they were buying dope. We know that," he said.
"Okay, we want to know what this 'Kumori Wang' looks like," said Hunny. "It's okay, take your time; you don't want to overexert yourself."
After a deep breath, the gangster spoke. "H-he…ha-has..."
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Hikaru's fence was a man known as Blackpaw. He had a pretty good reputation around Hokkaido. Seemed like a good guy except for the fact that he wore a black cloak. It covered his face, so I don't know what it looked like. He also carried around a cat-puppet doll called Beelzenef. Other than that, he was pretty normal.
It was late at night in a deserted park. All five stood together in a group. A few moments later, a car drove out to where they were standing. A man, the driver, came out and ran to the other side to open the passenger door. A tall, cloaked man walked out.
He bowed to Hikaru, who returned the bow.
"How have you been?" Hikaru asked.
"Very well. Beelzenef has given me a sign that good will soon come. How are you, Mori?"
The tall man grunted.
"So do you have it?" Blackpaw asked.
Hikaru showed the briefcase. The man next to Blackpaw showed a briefcase, too.
"We've worked together long enough to trust each other, right?" Blackpaw asked, meaning that they didn't have to open the briefcases to look inside.
"Of course," Hikaru replied.
They exchanged it, and Hikaru handed the case to Haruhi.
She looked inside, and it was full of neat stacks of money. "It's good."
Then Blackpaw noticed a blond man standing nearby. "You must be Suoh Tamaki."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I totally forgot about the introductions." Hikaru hastily said. "This is Suoh Tamaki. That's Fujioka Haruhi. And that's Ohtori Kyouya."
"The man with the plan, right?" Blackpaw gave an eerie smile.
Kyouya nodded and smiled back politely.
"Are you guys interested in some more work?" Blackpaw asked.
Hikaru was about to answer, but Tamaki cut him off. "We're on vacation."
"I've got a lot of work and no good people." Blackpaw gave a sigh. "I don't have anyone like you guys. It'd really help."
"What's the job?" Hikaru asked.
Ignoring the foul look Tamaki was giving Hikaru, Blackpaw continued. "A jeweler out of Tokyo. The name's Soga Kazukiyo. He rents a suite at a hotel downtown. He does free appraisals and buys it if he likes it. Word is that he carries around a lot of cash. I figure, you'll keep the money and I'll keep the merchandise."
"How's the security?" Haruhi asked.
"Two bodyguards. Nothing you couldn't handle."
"Give us time to check it out?" Hikaru said.
"I'd expect nothing less," replied Blackpaw.
"We'll call you."
"Take your time. Hokkaido's nice at this time of year."
"Yeah. Thanks."
With his bodyguard, Blackpaw went back into the car, and it drove off into the dark night.
They stood there. Haruhi was holding the briefcase. Though it was late, it was summer, and there was nothing more than a small breeze. The park that they stood in was supposedly very beautiful during the day; however, the critics had apparently never been there at night. Somehow, it gave off an eerie aura, and this was one place where Haruhi did not want to be when there was a thunderstorm.
It was a peaceful night, she thought, a perfect night for studying. However, that perfect night was soon shattered when Tamaki turned onto Hikaru.
"What was that for? The deal was one job." He practically spat in Hikaru's face, so great was his anger.
"It's never bad, is it?" was all Tamaki heard in reply.
Then he heard laughter, Hikaru's laugh, and he heard it getting farther and farther away. Tamaki heard footsteps following. Probably Mori and Fujioka.
"Tamaki?" he heard Kyouya say, and then his footsteps, too, faded away.
He stood there for a moment, taking in the silence. I'm sorry Ayame...
Tamaki, the last person there, swore, and finally he stomped his way out, into the shadows. Into the night.
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"I don't see the problem with doing another job. It's good for all of us, right? Right?" Hikaru asked.
They were all in a rented room in a building. It was late at night, and they were probably one of the few who were still awake.
"Personally, I agree with Hikaru, too." Haruhi was sitting at a desk, reading a textbook and listening to the conversation at the same time.
Mori grunted with his agreement.
"I don't like this. Not one bit. We're supposed to lay low. This is a vacation. What happens if something goes wrong? Are we going to go through another freaking line-up?" Tamaki had taken off his jacket. His face was flushing with anger.
"This is good for all of us. Just one more! It isn't going to kill us! It's just a jeweler with two bodyguards!" Hikaru yelled back.
"No. I'm not doing this!"
"Well we are! Whether you like it or not!"
Kyouya was sitting to the side, nursing his crippled leg. In times like this, he had decided that it was best to sit back and let them at it. He had learned that rather quickly.
"We ARE going to do this!"
"No! We are going to lay low! No more jobs!"
"It ain't gonna kill us!"
"How do YOU know?"
On and on; it went like this.
Haruhi covered her ears and tried to concentrate on her law book. It looked like it was going to be a very long night.
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In the end, Hikaru won. His endless nagging had finally defeated Tamaki, who looked like he was going to have a heart attack at any moment. The next day, we were on another job.
A lean man of average height walked out the elevator followed by his two bodyguards. They were in the parking garage of an office building. The man, Soga Kazukiyo, was carrying a large aluminum briefcase. They walked past a silver Honda with its hood up. They had no way of knowing that Hikaru was hiding behind it, having hacked the hood open with a slim-jim.
Further away, a white van was waiting for its signal. Inside, Kyouya was at the wheel, with Tamaki beside him. In the back, Haruhi sat next to Mori.
The bodyguards finally noticed Hikaru behind the hood. One kept his eye on the brown-haired man, and the other watched Soga. Hikaru was pretending to fix the car's engine. He had hidden a pistol inside the grill, and kept it within reach.
At that moment, the white van drove out towards Soga and his bodyguards. It cruised over in the direction of the Mercedes car the three men were standing next to.
The guards were getting confused. Too many things were going on, and a logical mind was not part of the job description. From behind the van, they heard footsteps. They turned around.
Haruhi and Mori were dressed in sunglasses and fake mustaches, and wearing long sport coats, decades out of trend. Haruhi was squirming from the mustache, and her height contrast with the lanky Mori was almost comical.
"Get in the car, Soga-san," said one of the bodyguards, beckoning towards the Mercedes.
Behind the hood, Hikaru put on a black ski mask.
"Ah, so Mori, I was reading about this case in my law book, and it was so strange," Haruhi was saying.
"Really?"
"Yeah. This person was suing because her cat was stuck in a tree and she claimed that the experience had traumatized her and her cat…"
"Wow."
Seeing the two people closer, the bodyguards relaxed a little. They looked a bit drunk, but it was all part of the act.
The white van was approaching closer and closer.
"So, in the courtroom, the judge asks to--"
The guards were trying to understand the situation. At least Soga-san was safely in the car. He was beginning to back out of the parking spot.
"--so it was. And the lady says, 'My cat--"
Suddenly, the white van swerved in and screeched to a halt to block Soga's car. The Mercedes was confined to its parking spot.
Haruhi and Mori stopped the act. They both pulled out guns and aimed it at the guards.
"DON'T MOVE!" Haruhi said.
"Freeze," said Mori.
The guards immediately threw their hands up in the air. Haruhi and Mori grabbed them and reached into their belts to take their guns.
Tamaki, also wearing a black ski mask, jumped out of the van. He ran to the Mercedes. He yanked on the car handle, but it was locked.
Behind the door, Soga was in terror. He was trying to convince himself that this was all a dream. A very bad dream. Just a dream. But when he saw Tamaki take out his pistol and use it to smash open the window, he realized that it was not a dream. It was reality.
Oh god...
"Give me the case," Tamaki said, very surely, very suavely.
Soga reached for his case, and Tamaki aimed his pistol at his head. But Soga had reached for a gun and pointed at Tamaki. Since he had faster reflexes, Tamaki managed to sidestepp out of the way and he yanked the gun away. However, a shot went off and it hit the fender of the nearby silver Honda.
Looking surprised, Haruhi and Mori looked up from the sound of the gun. The plan was that there would be no killing.
The guards, temporarily free, saw their chance. One guard grabbed Haruhi, and the other grabbed Mori. The three men and one woman began fighting for the control over the guns.
Mori's gun, meanwhile, had fallen to the ground. Hikaru picked it up and now held one gun in each hand. He tried aiming it at the bodyguards, but all four were struggling, and Mori and Haruhi constantly fell in line with his aim.
He didn't want to shoot one of his comrades.
What to do…
They were struggling in front of the van. Kyouya had come out to help.
BANG!
Two bodies fell. The bodyguards were dead, a bullet in each head.
Hikaru gave a sigh. That was close.
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Tamaki was still aiming the gun at Soga's head.
"Give. Me. The. Case."
Soga was still holding onto the case. For some reason, he didn't want to give it up. He was terrified out of his wits, but he held firm.
Tamaki didn't want to kill the man. He kept trying to force the man to give him the case.
Sweat was beginning to form on his forehead, from the situation and from the back ski mask.
"Give me the case." It was the only sound heard in the garage. The others were standing nearby, Hikaru was helping Haruhi up.
But then a shot was heard.
Tamaki noticed that there was a bullet hole on Soga's forehead. He turned around.
"What the-"
Kyouya was holding a gun, his hands slightly shaking.
Tamaki shook himself, and reached inside the car over Soga's body for the briefcase. Both he and Kyouya began running for the van.
"What just happened?" asked Haruhi, shocked.
"Bad day. Screw it," answered Hikaru.
The elevator light came on. All five saw it.
"Hurry! We gotta get out of here!" said Tamaki.
They piled into the van and hastily drove away, with Kyouya at the wheel.
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Once safely away, the van stopped to a halt. They were all grim: the job had gone completely wrong. Three people had been killed.
Tamaki opened the briefcase. The contents caught him off guard. First he was shocked, then anger.
"Dammit," was all he could say.
Haruhi looked over. She, too, was shocked. One by one, they all looked inside. None of them could believe it.
Inside the case, a small pile of cash filled one side. On the other side, there were several clear, plastic bags with white powder in it.
And that was it.
Nobody could answer Haruhi's question: "Where are the jewels?"
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Please review!
Just a note: the white powder at the end of the chapter are drugs.
Also a question, what makes a fic rated M? I have a feeling that this fic will get worse later.
