READER'S DISCRETION ADVISED
THIS STORY CONTAINS MAN ON MAN, WOMAN ON WOMAN, GRAPHIC SCENES, RAPE, GORE, SMUT, STRONG LANGUAGE, RACISM, AND USAGE OF DRUGS.
DISCLAIMER
I DO NOT OWN THE FINDER SERIES OR SOME OF THE CHARACTERS.
ALSO
SOME OF THE SCENES AND PLOT WAS INSPIRED BY Business As Usual by Kadzuki Fuchoin. TO WHICH SHE HAS GIVEN ME HER PERMISSION TO USE.
Gone; the saddest word in any language.
^anonymous
"Keep going Aki, you're doing good." Tori says.
The photographer sighs with a bit of frustration. "Honestly, what use is there for me to learn English?"
"Well career opportunities for one," Tori points out. "Also if you get English speaking clients you'll know when they're talking shit. Now come on, from the top."
The two are at Hama Rikyū, sitting on an unoccupied stone bench.
It's a large and attractive traditional styled garden in central Tokyo that stands stark in contrast to the skyscrapers of the adjacent Shiodome district. Because the landscape is near Tokyo Bay the ponds contain seawater that change level with the tides. Even though the foliage is not as famous as some of the other gardens around Tokyo, it offers plenty of maple and ginkgo and other trees that make the scenery attractive in any season.
Tori begins to strum her acoustic guitar; a gorgeous instrument with a solid spruce top, mahogany neck, and rosewood bridge and fretboard. It has a natural satin finish and laser Henna Paradise design.
The song Akihito is kind of being forced to learn is I Know Places by Ryan Adams. He does good, but trips on some of the words. Mainly those containing the letter L since it doesn't exist in the Japanese language. And no matter how many times Tori attempts to correct him his thick accent makes it sound as if he is saying R. Seriously it's as if Scooby-Doo himself is singing, and Tori holds a tight smile as she resists to giggle like a hyena.
"Takaba-sama," Kobe says when they reach the first pre-chorus. "It is time we leave for your next job."
It is then that Tori realizes that the day has come to an end.
The last vestiges of the setting sun have disappeared over the horizon. Copper hues give way to a dusty purple scattered with the occasional glitter of faraway stars. The distant skyline stands in a silhouette against the velvety sky.
Tori whistles for Ebony, and everyone makes their way to their vehicles. After giving her cousin a hug goodbye Akihito and his bodyguard get in the car, then drive off. Tori turns to look for Ebony and finds the marten sitting on her bike all ready to go. She takes notice of her mouth clamped firmly around a limp squirrel, and grins as she mounts her bike.
Back at the hotel suite, Tori decides to sit out on the balcony. She lays on the lounge chair with her guitar while Ebony settles on the small glass table next to her and nibbles on the corpse of her kill. Tori plays some music on her phone, setting the volume low enough to become background. Her fingers dance along the strings as she plays along to the song playing, and she becomes lost in her thoughts.
I don't react kindly to those who take my things without permission….
That damn Ryuichi, he's clearly no different from the men Tori grew up around. Thinking that they own the rights to whatever they piss on. But because Akihito likes the guy and as long as the yakuza treats him right, Tori will not interfere with their relationship. Even though she doesn't approve of it.
A person of your status ought to know the risk of having such valuable things around….
Another reason why Tori doesn't like Asami, is he's a selfish bastard. Tori knows his type well, and can safely say that he only kept pursuing Akihito in the first place for the thrill of the hunt. Just out of determination to control the photographer's wild spirit. But… Tori can't help but feel that maybe the yakuza actually cares for Akihito. Maybe even as much as she does. And if that's true, then she hopes Asami never suffers the consequence of caring for someone in such a way.
Not the way she did….
"Ling," Tori moaned softly.
Her body felt like it was on fire as her lover straddled her. She massaged Ling's ass through her qipao as she slowly and intimately twisted her hips while also assaulting her neck with kisses, bites, and sucks. She enjoyed every second of this intense bliss.
Ling's tongue leaves a wet trail as she licked up along the edge of Tori's jawline, chin, then to her lips. The blonde granted her entrance and as their tongues entwined together she worked on undoing the buttons of her tight dress. Ling also untied the lace-up front of Tori's black leather corset tank top and slipped her hands inside. The feel of her cool fingers brushing up and down her heated torso sent shivers down the assassin's spine. Ling always knew where to touch Tori to make her feel loved.
Ling broke the kiss to let out a gasp as Tori suddenly rolled them over, now she straddled her.
Tori breathlessly licked her lips as she took in the woman below her. Ling was stunningly beautiful with her almond-shaped brown eyes, short raven black hair, and fair skin. Tori moved down and kissed her full lips again, then undoes the last two buttons at the waist and hip of her qipao. She opened the body-hugging dress and began planting soft kisses as she went down. She stopped at her flat stomach and dipped her tongue into her navel, causing her lover to shiver.
Tori moved back up, leaving behind a wet trail with her tongue. She looked up at Ling as she freed her from her bra, releasing her full breasts. As they bounce erotically Ling's cheeks flushed a light shade of pink. Tori smirked, amused at how after six months of being together the Master of Arms was still a bit shy.
Tori moved down again, but stopped halfway when the phone began to ring. Ling pushed herself up onto her elbows and reached for it.
"Ignore it," Tori said as she tried to gently push the woman back down.
"I can't, it's Xin," Ling said as she picked up the phone from the nightstand and brought it over. "It might be important."
Tori sits up and makes a bit of a pouty face, not exactly pleased with the fact that a phone call was chosen over sex.
"Hello?" Ling answered. "What is it?"
Tori slid her hands up over her lover's torso and to her exposed breast, kneading it.
Ling's breath hitched and she placed a hand over Tori's to make her stop. "Didn't I tell you there was something shady about that damn clown."
Tori moved down again and latched her lips onto Ling's breast. Her tongue skimmed over the creamy skin, circling around the pink areola. When the nipple perked up she nipped the stiff pearl gently. Ling stifled a moan as she quickly lifted her hand to Tori's head, entwining her fingers through her blonde locks and tugged on them. Tori smirked and began to suckle as she began to knead the other breast.
"W- we're on our way now." Ling hung up the phone then pushed the horny blonde off as she sat up. "Come on, we have to go."
"What's up?"
"It's that damn Zhong." Ling said as she got off the bed. "You remember him right?"
"How can I not," Tori giggled.
"Yeah, well Leslie had gotten another shipment from him but I guess something was wrong with it. So of course some caps are gonna get busted." As Ling spoke she had walked over to the dresser and brushed her disheveled hair.
"Okay, but can we at least… you know, finish up real quick?" Tori said.
Ling gives her a look in the mirror, which gave the blonde her answer.
Tori put her hands up in surrender and tightened her tank-top as she got out of the bed. After tying the laces she picked up her torn blue jeans from the floor and slipped them on. As the two walked out of the bedroom and through the living room the faint ringing of a small bell can be heard. Ebony climbed up onto the back of the couch, her favorite toy in her mouth. Tori scratched the marten under her furry chin as she walked by.
At the door the two slipped on their shoes, then exited the apartment suite.
The warehouse was eerily quiet.
Even though there are ten armed men they were all too afraid to even move from their designated spot, in case their boss got irritated with their movements and shoot them for disrupting his train of thought. It's clear that he's highly and utterly displeased. And he has every right to be; it had been discovered that the drug supply from China had been laced with white powder.
Tori checked her smartwatch. Son of a bitch is twenty-three minutes late.
She then sneaked a side glance at the triad leader and her long-time friend, Leslie Chow. She's honestly not used to him being this silent. In all the years she's known him he's always loud and flamboyant.
"Xin," Leslie's voice shattered the piercing silence.
From amongst the men on the triad leader's right a young man of nineteen steps forward.
"How long have we been working with the Kit Jai?" Leslie asked.
Xin cleared his throat before speaking. "A little over four months, sir. I believe this is the second shipment we received from them."
"Were there any problems with the first one?"
"No," the young subordinate answered. "Everything was in order."
"Chow-laoban, if I may," Ling interjected as she moved from Tori's side over to the boss's. "The Kit Jai group-"
Ling's statement was halted by the sound of metal doors opening. The guards slid their hands into their black coats and closed their hands around their guns, awaiting orders. Soon the boss of Kit Jai moseyed on in, holding a cigar in his hand.
Zhong Fai donned a floral shirt of rainbow colors, black dress pants and leather shoes. As if that wasn't bad enough, the short, stocky man dyed his crew cut hair gold and wore a huge gold chain around his neck. Tori recalled counting at least six rings on his fingers since their last encounter, but now it seemed the number tripled. When Zhong flashed a smile the edge of Tori's lips twitched a bit as she tried so hard to keep from giggling at the sight of his diamond-studded grillz. And his men were equally unsightly; all five had almost the same ugly pattern on their shirts with the worst set of teeth she had ever seen.
"Chow!" Fai greeted as he extended his hand.
"Mr. Zhong," Leslie greeted coolly as he stood up from his seat, ignoring the other mafia boss's handshake.
Zhong withdrew his hand as though nothing had happened, then threw his head back and laughed heartily. "You're still dressing stylishly as always,"
Apposed to Zhong's wardrobe Leslie's attire was more tasteful; he wore a beige pleather blazer over a black shirt, a thin gold chain, white pants, and snakeskin boots.
"I didn't fly you here for some idle talk, Mr. Zhong," Leslie said in a clear, commanding tone.
Again, Tori isn't really used to seeing Leslie's stoic demeanor.
Zhong stopped laughing and narrowed his eyes. "I'll cut to the chase then. Those are some serious accusations you're throwing at Kit Jai, Chow."
Leslie slid his hand into his blazer. The triad leader's gesture warranted all five Kit Jai members to pull out their guns to point at Leslie. His men, even Tori and Ling, did the same of whipping out their weapons and directed them straight at the Chinese mafia.
Calmly, Leslie took out a small packet from his blazer and threw it at Zhong. The guards of Kit Jai lowered their guns upon their boss's instructions while Leslie nodded at Xin who in turn signaled his guards to do the same.
"What is this?" Zhong took the packet and sniffed it.
"A small sample from your shipment," Leslie replied as he walked to the table with a wooden box and rested a hand on it. "You've been in business for a number of years now, Mr. Zhong. So I don't need to tell you that the packet you're sniffing is heroin."
Zhong stopped smelling and looked at Leslie. "What about it?"
"The heroin isn't pure! My men had it checked and the box contains nearly 30% of white powder in every packet that you sent."
Zhong took a step forward and growled. "Chow, are you implying that I am cheating you?" The stocky man threw the packet on the floor, resulting white powder to be strewn around the concrete. "How dare you throw those accusations at me! I checked everything myself before sending the shipment!"
Leslie's eyes darkened. "My men inspected the goods upon arrival and found all packets have been contaminated, even the ones from the previous shipment and yet you have the audacity to stand here and say that I accused you falsely!?"
"Do you have proof? Your men could have said anything!"
"You want proof?" Leslie signaled Xin over.
He walked over to his boss and retrieved his pocket knife. At Leslie's nod, Xin took a packet of heroin from the box and stabbed at it. After tearing it open he emptied the contents on the floor.
"The proof is here, Zhong!" Leslie said in a dangerous voice. "I trust your eyes haven't gone bad, the packet opened just now had two colors- heroin is supposed to be pure white. You mixed it with baby laxative."
Zhong remained composed as he defended his name. "How would I know if you hadn't repackaged the heroin just to frame me? The goods have reached America for days now, you could have done anything. What you showed me wasn't concrete enough!"
"As a matter of fact, I do have something else to show you," Leslie said calmly, but everyone in the warehouse knew that his temper was threading at a thin line. He took his smartphone out of his pocket, after pushing a few buttons he then passed it to Zhong. "Remember him? He was one of the boys you sent to guard the shipment."
Zhong gripped the phone hard and gritted his teeth as he recognized one of his own men sitting motionless on a chair in a similar warehouse this meeting was in. The man's eyes were opened wide as he stared downward at his blown apart mouth.
Leslie chuckled sadistically. "Hell of a way to go, don't you think? Of course, before that, I managed to extract some very important information from him." Leslie reached over and pressed the play button on the phone.
A sobbing man's voice rang out. Crying and pleading in his native language, he screamed and shouted for nearly a minute before finally revealing that the heroine has been contaminated, as per Zhong's orders. A gunshot was then heard and the man stopped pleading.
"You bastard, you dare kill one of my men!" Zhong's voice was trembling with rage.
His men whipped their guns out to point at Leslie but Xin was quicker. In two strides, he was next to the Chinese boss, a gun on his head. The other guards scattered around the five Kit Jia guards, guns out and ready.
Leslie took his phone back and slid it back into his pocket.
As expected from the Chinese mafia, he was still calm despite the tension. "What do you want?"
"My money and a replacement of the heroin," Leslie growled.
Zhong cursed a long line of Cantonese profanities. He thought long and hard before breaking a smile. "What if I don't agree? You and I both know that it is impossible to kill me. I am a citizen of China and the Chinese government will not close an eye if some of their own are killed on American soil."
Ignoring Xin's gun on his forehead, he walked a step closer to Leslie. "Not to mention my brother will definitely avenge my death. We, the Kit Jia, are powerful in China Chow."
Zhong slid his hands in his pants and mocked. "So, do you still think you have the rights to negotiate with me? You are ten years too early Chow!" Zhong laughed before he continued, "And yes, I purposely added the white powder into the heroin packets, what are you going to do?"
Leslie growled furiously and quickly cross-drew his guns. Then a loud BANG sounded and almost immediately Xin jolted to his side- dropping his gun and fell to the ground. He'd been shot in the forearm.
All of a sudden the whole warehouse erupted in automatic weapon fire. While bullets were flying in every direction Ling rushed and pulled Xin behind a thick crate, using it as cover. Tori rushed next to her lover and returned fire against the targets on the warehouse floor. When rounds pinged off the crate from above she then realized that there's a lot more than five Kit Jia guys. There were more of them on the catwalk which served as severe height advantage for them.
"Damn it, sis I'm fine!" Xin growled.
Ling ignored him and continued to tie her black and blue bandanna around his wound. After doing so the two then popped out of cover and fired their guns.
"Damn you, Zhong!" Leslie yelled over the gunfire. "You think you can just fuck on me and get away!"
"The clown is making a break for it!" Tori yelled. "Xin, cover me!"
"Help yourself!" Xin responded as he quickly rushed over to aid some of his other fellow cohorts.
"Don't worry babe, I gotcha!" Ling yelled.
With trained accuracy and precision the Master of Arms. fired at two gunmen on the catwalk, and they drop like a bag of bricks. She quickly reloaded her gun as she ran after Tori. Zhong ran down the hallway with the two women hot on his tail. When he reached the end he found the entrance leading to the upper floor was sealed up tight by a chained iron door.
"Zhong!" Tori yelled. "Come here and fight like a man!"
Zhong suddenly whipped around and fired at her. The blonde clenched her teeth when she felt a sharp pain in her leg and dropped to her knee. As Ling quickly went to aid her Zhong took advantage of the diversion and shot the lock and chains off the door.
Despite the pain Tori held it together and got to her feet. "I'm fine- I'm fine, come on!"
The two ran through the metal doors and up the stairs. They followed Zhong across the catwalk that leads to an empty room. He stopped at the railing of a balcony and frantically looked around.
"Shit- where the fuck are they!" The Chinese mafia cursed to himself.
He quickly turned around and faced his pursuers as they neared him. He then drew another gun and began firing like a madman. Tori and Ling quickly ducked behind some crates.
"Damnit!" Ling yelled.
Zhong's gun began to click- the sign of a empty chamber.
Ling quickly jumped out from behind her cover and Tori stood while taking aim at Zhong. He had reloaded and fired a shot at Ling, only to miss. But Tori didn't as she fired and got him right in the chest. His body jerked back but he quickly attempted to take aim again, this time aiming at Tori. But the young assassin is quicker and this time shot the gun out of his hand.
A smile grazed Ling's face as the man double-over in pain and took aim.
Suddenly the sharp noise of blades whirring in the air sounded and a strong gust of wind blew in from the open balcony. A bright light illuminated a silhouette hanging onto the copter ladder behind Zhong. Before Tori could take aim the subordinate shot at the Master of Arms, and she began to fall forward towards the ground.
"LING!" The word was unconsciously wrenched from her throat as she ran to her.
She watched as Zhong grabbed hold of the helicopter ladder and lifted into the air. And soon the only sound was the gunfires and shouts coming from the warehouse floor below.
Tori dropped to her knees next to Ling who was laying on her side, a pool of blood forming beneath her. Tori cradled the woman in her arms and found where the bullet had embedded in her, knowing her anatomy she can safely say her liver.
No- no- no- no!
"Tori," Ling said weakly.
She looked at her and could see her struggling to stay conscious.
"P- please… watch over Xin," she said.
"No- no, Ling you're gonna be alright. You hear me- you're gonna make it. You're strong." Though the words felt hollow to her. Tori knew that there was no way she'd survive. But she refused to give up on some possibility that there was some way to save her. "We- we just need to…."
Tori desperately looked around for something- anything. But the room was filled with nothing but crates from another shipment. Her chest becames tight and a large sloppy tear fell from her eye and onto her cheek as she looked back down at her dying lover.
"Ling," she said with an imperceptible shake in her voice. "What do I do?"
She said it almost like a prayer. Hoping that she'd have the answer. She had to.
Ling was fading more steadily now, and it was getting harder for her to breathe. She issued a weak, warm smile and lifted her hand towards the blonde's face. Though she didn't have enough strength to lift it all the way, so Tori leaned her head down and pressed her cheek against it… it felt cold. With her thumb did Ling wipe away her tear, and used the remainder of her strength to utter one word.
"Live…."
Tori is suddenly brought back to the present when a few knocks sound at the door. She ignores it and just keeps playing her guitar. When a few more knocks sound she lets out a sigh and goes inside, setting the guitar down by the foot of the bed. She looks out the peephole, but sees no one. She then opens the door and looks down the hall, there's no one in sight.
Real funny,she thought to herself apathetically.
She closes the door and while doing so she notices a piece of white paper on the floor. She picks it up and finds that it has some writing;
Yong Tori,
You have been invited to a private dinner with the hotel owner, Ryuichi Asami, at 10:00 pm.
BRIEF WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
And that concludes this chapter.
I know I know I keep saying that I am gonna wait a while to post these chapters but I have been on such a roll that I just felt terrible keeping them from you guys haha. Especially from those of you who have dealt with my madness in the past- but hey, old habits die hard lol.
And the usual question of what is to come next? What's the reason for Asami's little invite? And more importantly, will Aki become bilingual in the future?
Only one way to find out.
Until next time loves, stay awesome!:)
HOW ORIGINAL… NOT
Yes, Leslie Chow is the Leslie Chow from The Hangover Franchise. I just loved the guy so much and felt that he's the type of person Tori herself would hang around, haha. If you guys liked him too you'll see more of his fun side in later chapters:)
Also if any of you guys are gamers like me then you should recognize Ling (Master of Arms) and her brother Xin from GTA.
SHOUTOUT TO
Kadzuki Fuchoin
As said in the disclaimer above some scenes in the chapter will be borrowed from Business As Usual by Kadzuki Fuchoin, who again has given me permission. In fact some of the plot from her work is more of a kickstarter and also a great inspiration, as in the whole story won't have the exact same plot but something very similar. Also be sure to go check Kadzuki-sensei's account and some of her works:)
