The Itawanabe Initiative
Chapter Five
By Ryan Bodle

A/N: This chapter took longer to write than I anticipated. Not happy with how some of the scenes came out, but subsequent re-writes were even worse. Clearly I'm losing sense of my own plot, my own characters and the borrowed characters alike. Hopefully the next one will be less taxing and have a little more flow. In any case, I hope you enjoy!

"What's the address?" Sailor Moon asked. Rosa handed her a slip of paper.

"I suggest we go there tonight, once the sun is down," Rosa said. "It'll be easier to spot security."

"Guards? We're not in the business of hurting people," Moon replied looking at the paper.

"I don't think anyone will be there," Rosa responded. "Honestly, I expect to find nothing but dust."

"Explain," Moon ordered.

"Its a single office in a run down business district," Rosa explained. "It screams shell company, used for hiding behind. I don't expect we'll find anyone linked to who was paying into these bank accounts. In all likelihood, the company will be registered to somebody already dead. Or another nameless holding company."

"Hiro-san knew about these bank accounts, they may even be his. I hope you're not suggesting he had dealings with these people," Mercury spoke from behind her friend. Rosa didn't answer and kept a neutral face.

"Please don't coddle or think us stupid, detective," Moon said quietly. "Do you believe Detective Koshiro was taking money from this company and the people behind it?"

"I'm almost certain he was," Rosa responded coldly. "I'm not just investigating Koshiro's death. I'm investigating him. I'm from Internal Investigations and looking into ties between Koshiro and something called the Itawanabe Initiative."

"Go on," Moon urged.

"The Initiative is a ring of police officers throughout Tokyo responsible for creating a slush fund to be given to retired police officers with little or no pension as well as taking care of the families of officers who died in the course of duty."

"Sounds like noble work," Mercury argued.

"It would be, if they weren't stealing confiscated riches and items for auction to generate these funds. Everyone involved with the Initiative is guilty of embezzlement and defrauding the state."

"Why are you telling us this?" Mercury asked.

"I don't know," Rosa shook his head to himself. "Maybe because you'd see right through any lie I make up at this point. Maybe because I want you to see Koshiro for everything he is. Great cop, caring, old man. Even went beyond the law to take care of his own, but for all his intentions, his actions became truly corrupt."

"This Initiative hardly sound like the devil-," Sailor Moon cut in.

"Our latest intelligence suggests that Yakuza infiltrated the Initiative years ago and began using it as leverage on anyone involved. Detectives, officers, senior staff, even judges," Rosa talked over her. "We had an inside source that identified Koshiro as one of the Initiative's founders and was being pushed on hard by Yakuza to work for them. Obviously, he resisted and they killed him for it." He turned away from the two girls and pulled a cigarette from a pack inside his coat. He turned and leaned on a pillar before lighting it. "So, you want to go through the criminal underworld piece by piece and find your killer?"

"Don't joke with us," Moon spoke back. She was getting more and more infuriated with Rosa. He was rude and he was upsetting Mercury with every word.

"Since working with that old man," Rosa began reminiscing. "He was always trying to teach me something about being a police officer. About protecting people. I always hated how he acted like he knew better." A pause. "Since this case began, I've been thinking about justice a lot. Like, when I was a junior prosecutor, justice was always such a black and white concept.

Then I transferred to the force and got recruited into Internal. And seeing how this force for protecting the public was being twisted. Well, my self-righteous sense of justice went into overkill and I wanted to take them all down. All these people who thought they could abuse their power.

And then I got the Koshiro assignment and my world flipped on its head. Koshiro had the perfect record. Loved by the community. Respected by everyone in the force. And a hero. Awarded for valour and courage by the Prime Minister. When I saw what he was a part of. Made me think there were no heroes anymore. Until I met you girls, of course."

Sailor Moon let her stance soften. Was Rosa unloading his soul on them? Didn't he have anyone else to talk to?

"So here's my question. Where's the justice here?" He continued to smoke. "Koshiro gets taken out by Yakuza but we'll never tie them to his murder. Especially since they used some demon to kill him, and an innocent albeit troubled and homeless former doctor got butchered in the process. And even if we do, nobody but us will know the details. So do we just avenge his death. Does he want that? He wasn't a man of violence. I hate this three dimensional view of the world he gave me. Seeing things in black and white was just so much easier."

"You miss him," Sailor Moon said suddenly realising. Rosa huffed a small chuckle.

"Yeah, I guess I do. Son of a bitch," he cursed at no one in particular. "He was a good man. I hate that he had this shadow hanging over him."

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know, I don't know if I see a resolution here. Except shutting down the Initiative."

"Can we do that alone?" Moon asked.

Rosa shook his head. "It'd take an interdepartmental investigation and effort. We'd have to put so much pressure on the Initiative that the Yakuza see no value in maintaining it and shut it down."

"And there's no way we can do it by ourselves?"

"We'd have to get lucky, find a place that ties Koshiro to a holding company with named and known Yakuza operations base or manager."

"Detective?" Moon asked. He looked up at her after he had been trailing off in thought. "Don't you think a man as clever as Hiro-san would have thought of that?"

Rosa thought a moment. "Its worth a shot."

"Then lets go investigate this office," Mercury said hopefully.

"I suggest we meet at the address in an hour, the sun should be down by then," Rosa instructed. "Do you need directions?"

Mercury shook her head. "I know the way."

Chiyu took a deep sigh and gave up on the idea he would chance across senshi. Now that he thought about it, happening upon them in such an open area seemed laughable, but not nearly as ridiculous as the sense of disappointment he felt right now.

He'd lost count how many times his new found interest in the senshi made no sense to him. He had no interest in the urban legends of girls with indescribable powers that protected Tokyo from evils and aliens that were drawn to the city. Even saying it in his head sounded absurd. He dismissed the news, the tv, the papers. All of them transfixed by the guardians. Fools. All of them. And still, seeing them through that video playback from his job. Just seeing them, those uniforms. Something in him awoke, and with that an undying quench to find them, to hunt them down.

Involuntarily, he kicked at the clay path beneath his feet as he walked. A futile act. His own frustrations still existed and they gnawed at him.

His route took him by the boathouse. He picked up his pace to work and dug his hands into his coat pockets. As he came by the entrance he bumped into someone leaving but didn't see who. He whirled round to apologise.

To Sailor Moon.

"Sailor Moon," he whispered as his eyes and jaws dropped. Just like that, she was standing in front of him trying hard to shrink into the shadows of the wooden hut behind her. A man stood behind her and quickly tried to impose himself between Chiyu and the soldier of love and justice.

"Sorry, this is police business," the man said as a glint of badge came from an inside pocket.

Chiyu lunged with his hand outstretched. "Please," he begged. " I just need to ask you something." He insisted. His hand clasped her bare upper arm.

Instantly a chill of power run up his hand and through his arm. He told his hand to let go but it didn't listen.

"Alright! That's enough!" The apparent policeman told him and tried to yank them apart. They were stuck together.

Sailor Moon began to shake and tremble. "What are you-." Her sentence cut off by a sharp intake of breath.

Sailor Mercury stepped in and grabbed Chiyu by the wrist, trying to wrest the two apart. Even with her enhanced strength, they remained fused. It was then she felt the air starting to vibrate around them.

"What's happening?" Rosa asked. Somehow, his gun was in his hand.

Mercury had her visor out and was already scanning. An energy source was starting to create forces around them, making the air whip about them. She heard Sailor Moon let out a strained grunt. The energy was coming from the stranger she had just bumped into, but she was unable to explain how.

Without warning, both Rosa and Mercury were thrown back inside the boathouse leaving Sailor Moon and Chiyu bonded. Rosa collapsed as he fell against the wall. Mercury steadied herself and watched the two of them. Sailor Moon looked in pain, her face drawn tight. Chiyu otherwise looked shocked at what was happening. There was a flash of light and both were thrown from each other. The newcomer looked like a puppet tossed away casually.

Sailor Moon had fallen on her rear, arms outstretched behind. Her breathing was deep and heavy. She looked ready to pass out, instead her senshi uniform wilted away and Tsukino Usagi was left in her place.

Chiyu's unconscious form was tied to a bed as he was wheeled into the back of an ambulance. A supervising medic turned round. "And you say he just collapsed?" He asked.

Rosa nodded in response. "He was jogging towards the west exit and just hit the floor."

The medic screwed his face in confusion. "Doesn't look like a jogger, if anything, I'd say he's wearing a uniform."

"Late for work, perhaps?" Rosa offered. "I can't tell you where he was going, just that he's here and unconscious."

The medic shrugged. "I guess only he knows. We'll get him back to the hospital and keep an eye on him."

Rosa nodded and left the scene. He walked from the park and across the road, continuing for another block. He stopped at an alleyway where the shadow grew increasingly darker under the setting sun. Sailor Mercury was waiting for him there along with a tall and dark stranger dressed in a tuxedo, of all things, he bent over a girl with blonde hair, his cape masking her. The girl that was Sailor Moon.

"Is he OK?" Mercury asked as he approached.

Rosa shrugged whilst shaking his head. "Hell if I know, we don't even know what happened to him. How about Sailor Moon?"

"She's still having trouble standing," Tuxedo Mask answered not taking his eyes off her. "Detective," he greeted without taking his eyes off her. "She seems weakened but not hurt, I should take somewhere she can rest."

Before the other two could get a word in, he swooped Usagi in arms and jumped the building in a single bound and disappeared. Mercury returned her attention to Rosa. He seemed to take it in his stride, less and less surprised him about the senshi now.

"Are those two?" He asked lingering whilst raising his pinky finger.

Mercury swatted it away playfully but otherwise nodded and smiled.

"Look, I know your friend is hurt or whatever, but these things are time sensitive. Do you want to join me at the address we have here?" Rosa proposed.

"Sailor Moon is in good hands," Mercury answered. "I'll meet you there."

Rosa turned and felt the rush of air that told him Sailor Mercury had performed a single feat of acrobatics he had just witnessed Tuxedo Mask complete. He went looking for his car.

Tuxedo Mask landed gracefully on the balcony of his apartment with Usagi in his arms. His disguise melted away until he just wore his green jacket, plain, grey pants and neat black shirt. "Figures you'd get here before us," he said without breaking his eyesight from his beloved.

"I have my own tricks," Luna snorted in reply. "How is she?"

"She fell asleep on the way over here," Mamoru answered as he set her down on the couch.

"I wish Usagi kept her bedroom the way you maintain this place," Luna chipped. She took a place on the couch by Usagi's side denying Mamoru the chance to sit by her. Instead he stood over the two.

"She's holding something," he said, noticing both of Usagi's hands clasped over something. A thin, leather cord lay around her midsection. He hadn't noticed it until now. Gently, he removed it from her grasp. A stone pendant hung from the cord. It was around three inches across and diamond shape. On its front, a curious symbol was etched into it. It almost looked like a question mark except the point was a larger circle and sat inside the tail which was drawn longer to snake around. "Do you recognise this symbol?"

Mamoru showed the pendant to Luna. Her brow furrowed. "I do," she answered uncertainly. "At least I think I do. I haven't seen it in a long time."

"What does it represent?" Mamoru asked. "I feel like I've seen it before, but I don't where."

"We should get to that hospital," Luna said suddenly. "Before that young man hurts someone."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you on the way, we need to go," she ordered.

"I can't leave Usagi," Mamoru protested.

"Is she in danger?"

"Well no, she just passed out."

"People will get hurt unless we go now," Luna explained. "So I need you to trust me and get in your car. Bring the crest."

Rosa rounded the street corner one last time. He had only made three passes and used different routes, but had made sure there were no sentries watching the building. Despite the night sky, he had seen no Yakuza lookouts. He entered a tenement block and walked upstairs one floor. Sailor Mercury was waiting by a window that overlooked the office they had come to investigate. Her visor was out and her computer was scanning outside.

"I don't see anyone watching the building," he commented.

"I've used infrared to scan the area. No heat signatures in the building and I also can't see any lookouts," her visor closed. "It looks safe to go in."

"You realise I don't have a warrant to enter and search the building," Rosa warned.

"Its not like you said it out loud, but I think we all knew arrests would never be the conclusion of this investigation," Mercury answered. She turned and led the way. "Do you have a means of getting inside? I don't really want to give away our presence by breaking in."

"In a manner of speaking," Rosa replied as her turned and walked alongside her. "How are you holding up?"

"With what?" Mercury played dumb.

"With the old man's death," he threw out there. "It sounds like you cared for him."

Sailor Mercury looked down for a brief moment. "I'd rather not talk about it right now," she said, her voice softening.

"I guess you have actual friends for that," Rosa reasoned.

Sailor Mercury stopped just underneath the door frame that was the building exit. She looked at him and cocked an eyebrow.

"What?" Rosa asked. "You consider us friends?"

"You don't?"

"Maybe work partners," he answered. "I thought friends took more time than this. Besides, I've been an ass this entire time. You can't say you actually like me."

Mercury chuckled under her breath. "I've known people harder to get along with," she answered, smiling earnestly. "And I was friends with them from the moment we met."

She turned and carried on walking, not giving Rosa a chance to answer. He took a moment to consider her words. "I'm friends with a senshi," he told himself and followed her across the street.

The office entrance didn't exist at the front of the building. It was on the first floor, but the door was on the outside of the building. A metal, staircase from the neighbouring alleyway led up to it. Both walked calmly up it. Mercury continued to scan the door for alarms or traps, but detected none. Rosa removed a pouch from the inside of his coat and knelt down to the lock. He removed two thin bars from it and applied them to the keyhole. Seconds later, a satisfying turning of metal sounded and the door swung ajar.

Rosa stood up and removed a pen-torch. "Ready for this?" He asked as he stepped into the breach. Both entered silently.

The room inside looked like the room time forgot. Pale moonlight cast through the windows to give them some visibility and Rosa's torch gave them some focused light. A handful of desks, two stacks of boxes and a metal filing cabinet that stood four feet tall from the floor decorated the room. Otherwise, dust blanketed all around the floor and surfaces about them.

"Nobody has been here in a while," Rosa commented as he looked about. "Our footprints are the only thing that's been here in a few weeks at least."

Mercury scanned the floor. "I can see other prints from men's boots but they're several months old." She added. She walked further in the room. "These boxes appear empty, let's check the filing cabinet."

The two walked over to the cabinet. Rosa quickly relieved the lock of its need to protect the insides anymore and slid the top door open. A single file lay there, he retrieved it and opened it up on of the nearby desks. He focused he torch light on the documents within.

"Just as I thought," he said aloud as he leafed through. "This is a shell company to run dirty money through."

"Can we track the money or even the owners of the company?" Mercury asked. "Look at these receipts and transactions," she pointed out.

"I don't know," Rosa answered. "These sums of money probably never existed, just there to make it look like this place has an annual turnover. The names and companies mentioned may not even exist. It's making ones and zeros for the sake of show, all part of the laundering process."

He stopped on one page. "Oh, this might help."

"What is it?"

"This guy right here," he pointed to the paper in from of him. "Taki Shuya, he's a person of interest. Arrested on suspicion of theft, grand theft auto, ABH and GHB."

"He sounds horrible," Mercury commented. "Has he never been arrested?"

"Several times."

"Then how is he not in jail?"

"Lawyers," Rosa sniped. "Got let off his first two charges for insufficient evidence. Taki is one hell of a mean drunk, though. He got convicted for actual-bodily harm and grievous bodily harm for an incident outside a nightclub. He was ordered to pay medical bills and got a 90 day jail term."

"He's Yakuza?"

"Almost definitely, the ABH and GBH should have got him eighteen months, not 90 days, somebody got him some easy time and bought their way out of trouble," Rosa commented. "He's also dumber than I gave him credit for if he signed the lease on this place in his own name. It means he has a tie to defrauding the state and embezzlement."

Rosa closed the file and rolled it up, he placed it in the inside pocket of his coat. "Koshiro gave us one more link to follow but I doubt there's anything else here."

Sailor Mercury nodded at him then snapped her attention to the window facing the street. "There's someone here," she stated. Rosa's hand instinctively reached for his gun. Mercury held out a hand to keep him from doing so. There was the sound of several feet scratching along the pavement. It stopped. Then there was a click followed by small flames licking at fuel. Something that popped lightly as air escaped as the fire burned away the physical base.

A rock came flying through the window, smashing the glass. Followed closely by a green canister that wretched of petroleum. It must have been cracked already because it spilled flammable liquid all around. In quick succession, a vodka bottle followed, this one had a towel in it with flames greedily growing on it. A molotov cocktail, it smashed when it hit the floor. Flames burst right across the front of the office as the gas caught fire. "Get out!" Mercury roared.

She turned to the door they came through. Two more molotovs smashed against the door frame and floor, covering their only exit. In seconds, the entire office was covered in flames and billowing smoke began to fill the air. They were trapped.

Mamoru exited the hospital main entrance and walked directly along the building line. He was in a foul mood. He really disliked the idea of being torn away from Usagi during a time like this. 'Whatever Luna was afraid of, it better be worth rushing over here and leaving Usa-chan alone,' he thought to himself.

He found Luna waiting for him in the bushes that decorated the front. "He's in observation on the second floor," he told here. "Do you need help getting up there?"

Luna shook her head. "Do you know which room?"

"Third on the left from the stairs on the east side. Which should make it the fourth window, counting the one in the stairwell."

"Then I'll see you in there," Luna answered. "Make sure you have that crest with you."

"Who is this guy?" Mamoru asked.

"Someone from the past," Luna told him. "Someone with interesting and dangerous powers." She took off towards the fire escape.

Mamoru shrugged and headed back for the hospital entrance. He stuck his right hand back in his pocket, clasping the crest.

Moments later he walked into the room where Matusi Chiyu lay peaceful. Luna sat on a window sill outside. Mamoru slid it open to let her in. "Is he a friend?" Mamoru asked.

"Possibly," Luna said as she tentatively approached his bed and hopped up. "I never dealt with him in the old days."

As Luna got closer, the half crescent moon on her head began to glow. "Luna?" Mamoru asked. She rolled her eyes up at her forehead.

"I'm not doing that," she explained with worry creeping into her voice.

Mamoru felt the crest begin to vibrate in his pocket. The bed and the cabinet beside it began to shake. Fearing the worst, Mamoru summoned a rose and readied it. There was a sudden out bust from Chiyu and he was slammed against the wall, losing his projectile. Luna hit the wall next to him and slumped unconscious. Now transformed, Tuxedo Mask stood up right and saw Chiyu was sitting up in his bed with his head slumped forward and eyes closed. A blue aura glowed about him. He raised his head to look level, eyes still closed yet focused on Tuxedo Mask.

Without warning, Tuxedo Mask was thrown against the neighbouring wall where the open window stood. He grimaced as he impacted with great force. He didn't feel anything break. He tried to stand up but something was pinning him down. Like gravity was intensified all about him. Chiyu still sat on the bed, motionless. He carried on staring at the wall where Tuxedo Mask was.

Invisible, a burst of energy emitted from Chiyu impacting everything around him. The door to the ward rattled against its frame. Cracks began to form where the structure was weakest. Tuxedo Mask was pinned to the wall and floor he occupied. He felt the weight of himself being intensified and he was being crushed by an invisible wall. He couldn't move and couldn't breath.