Title: Piacere
Author: ofphenwa
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Violence, mentions of paedophilia X(
Summary: Piacere - I am pleased to meet you.
Piacere
At the very same moment, the culprit roughly slammed his hand down on the wooden bar-top with a curse. The middle-aged, balding bartender glanced at the television above him curiously and commented;
"Was it your apartment?" His customer merely gave him a blank look from behind his orange-tinted glasses. He then snorted and reached for his half-full glass of red wine. He wryly spoke;
"Not quite…it was the address of an old friend. I don't know whether I should be pissed off or worried. Heh, my friend's always forgetting to keep in touch." The bartender's eyes widened in understanding.
"Oh, that's certainly quite a difficult situation. How are you going to find your friend then?"
"That's an excellent question. No, I don't have any idea." The customer grimaced. Resting his head on his left hand, he continued to sip his wine as he pondered his next course of action.
"Say, if I approach the landlord of the Berugu Estate, would he be able to give me the new address of his previous occupant?" He held out his empty glass to the bartender who took it back for washing. The bartender's face creased into a friendly smile.
"It just might. It's worth trying."
"Arigato. Here's your tip." The bartender's young customer flashed a polite smile as he passed a few thousand yen across the bar-top to the flabbergasted man.
"That's too much, I can't take it, sir!" But he was too late. With a sigh, the middle-aged bartender gave the pile of yen dollars a considering look before he reluctantly took it for his pay. Some extra money wouldn't hurt.
At 11 in the morning, the odiously obese landlord was rudely woken by a loud explosion that rocked his luxurious penthouse studio. Rolling his huge mass out of bed with difficulty, the irate Mr. Kikuchi waddled towards the main room as fast as he could, barely pausing to throw on a robe for cover.
"I'm going to kill whoever had the mind to disturb my beauty-oh my GOD!" Mr. Kikuchi flung his hands up in aghast horror at the utter wreckage of the front doors and main room. The doors had been blasted open and the resulting shrapnel had destroyed much of the main room.
The expensive leather couch was generously spiked all over like a medieval torture instrument. His precious 30-inch plasma LCD TV was shattered into innumerable pieces all over the marble floor. The persian carpet was stained with soot and torn by wooden shards. As he took it all in, the crystal chandler creaked ominously as the cable frayed. The opulent chandler fell in the center of the room with an ugly loud clatter and tinkling of broken crystals.
"About time you woke up, Mr. Kikuchi." With a speed one would not have suspected from the large Mr. Kikuchi, he spun to face the intruder with a shaking finger pointed at him. Turning red in the face, he yelled at the silver-haired man.
"YOU! YOU DESTROYED MY HOME AND MY BEAUTY SLEEP! I'M GOING TO CALL THE POLICE!"
The intruder's lips curved into a smirk and he revealed a length of rope. Before Mr Kikuchi could process what was happening, he was assaulted and quickly trussed up like a pig. Squeaking indignantly, Mr. Kikuchi rolled on the floor like a worm, trying to escape before the intruder quickly stopped his wriggling by firmly stepping on his stomach.
"Now, Mr Kikuchi, I'm really sorry about your home but I need answers. Please kindly cooperate with me or things are going to get real unpleasant." Bending down, his assailant took out a photograph and showed it to Mr. Kikuchi. He also took hold of Mr Kikuchi's wrist for his pulse.
"Do you know where this man is?" Mr. Kikuchi quickly replied in a high voice, "No, I don't know who this man is!" His pulse jumped.
"You're lying." The sharp crack of Mr Kikuchi's right wrist dislocating resonated. The assailant coolly watched him writhe in agony. He asked again,
"Do you know where he is?"
Sobbing in pain and fear, Mr. Kikuchi answered in a pitiful voice, "Sawada Tsunayoshi was indeed a resident of Berugu Estates but he was evicted a month ago. I don't know where he is now!"
"Not good enough." Mr Kikuchi howled in pain as his entire right arm was roughly pulled from its socket. The acrid stench of urine and the wetness that covered the front of his robe informed him that he'd lost control of his bladder in fear. He finally replied in an almost inaudible voice,
"You can probably find his new address if you contact his relatives. The contact details are in the files on the computer in the study behind me! The username is Kikuchi and the password is momo."
"Thank you." The last thing Mr. Kikuchi saw, was a gloved fist rushing towards his face.
"Urgh." Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Gokudera Hayato wiped his hand on his pants as he got up from the comatose body of Mr. Kikuchi. Mr Kikuchi's mouth was grossly open with a trail of saliva dribbling down his chin. A dark stain was forming on the silk carpet beneath him and the ammonia stench hit his nostrils.
"Double URGH!" Hayato muttered under his breath as he tiptoed round the corpulent mass to get to the study. Finding the room easily, he paused in gape-jawed shock at the sheer revolting opulence of the study.
"My god, even some of the filthiest rich people I know, don't even go to such lengths..." Shaking his head, Hayato homed in on the iMac on the table. His covered fingers flew across the white keyboard as Hayato hunted for the data records of Sawada Tsunayoshi. Within moments, a window-screen rapidly opened and he found himself seeing a photo of Sawada Tsunayoshi along with his contact details. He smiled in satisfaction.
Bingo.
He quickly copied the information into a notepad, fearing that the forensics might detect the use of an external device on the computer. He was about to shut the computer down when a notice beeped on the computer. Raising a curious eyebrow, Hayato read the notice and felt extremely vindicated in his earlier actions. Why, Mr Kikuchi was into child pornography! Disgusted by Mr. Kikuchi, Hayato searched through the computer files for incriminating evidence for the police to see when they arrived.
His mission completed, Gokudera Hayato gave one last scrutiny of Mr Kikuchi's home with a disdainful expression as he moved toward the gutted doors. Seeing nothing amiss aside from the destruction, he bade the unconscious man farewell,
"Buona notte e sogni d'oro."
Sitting at a table in a small bistro that afforded him the view of the bustling streets of Tokyo and privacy, Hayato flipped open a sleek grey handphone and dialled in the numbers of his target's work contact number in rapid succession. He sipped the overly-too-sweet coffee and patiently waited for the other person to pick up the call. He didn't expect to hear a feminine voice though. He briefly entertained the notion that his target was actually a woman instead of a man...
Ridiculous!
"Yes? How may I assist you?"
"Ah, is this the right number? I was informed that Mr. Sawada Tsunayoshi could be contacted through this line."
The woman laughed and it was exactly like the nature of his coffee. Too saccharrine. She replied,
"Oh no, it's definitely the right number! But Sawada Tsunayoshi can no longer be reached here because he's been fired."
"Fired? I see...but this is a matter of utmost importance so I would greatly appreciate it if you could give me Mr. Sawada's contact number and address." Hayato eyed the watery brown liquid with distaste; he really missed the genuine freshly-brewed italian coffee. He could hear the rustling of paper and keyboard tapping on the phone as the woman searched for the information. She finally answered,
"Mr. Sawada Tsunayoshi can be contacted at this number..." The woman rattled off a string of numbers in rapid japanese, nearly causing Hayato to tear the paper with his furious scribbling. She paused and lowered her voice in a conspirational whisper.
"You're lucky that you asked for someone who isn't very competent and not well-liked either. If you had asked for someone else like me, there was no chance you would get it. Hehehe." Her high-pitched giggles gave Hayato a headache. Not wishing to court her clumsy and unwanted flirtations, he curtly thanked her and closed the connection. He sipped at his drink and shuddered at the taste. It just wasn''t his worth while.
It was now about three days since the first attempt and Gokudera Hayato was increasingly becoming annoyed by Sawada Tsunayoshi's elusiveness. The landlord's information had been outdated and the giggly clerk's was another dead end. ("Sorry, the line has been terminated.") Either he was just unlucky or his target was actually very wily and had been preparing for assassins coming for him. Hayato suspected that it was the latter.
"Shit! How am I supposed to find just one person in the middle of Tokyo!?" Hayato yelled in english at the blue sky in the empty park. Brushing back his silvery-grey hair from his forehead, he exhaled deeply to calm himself down. He had to be professional. He sat down heavily on the bench behind him and gazed at the artificial river beyond the railing. Hayato didn't want to spend more time than neccessary on this assignment. The longer it went on, the pre-calculated risks would change unpredictably and increase exponentially.
Sighing, he rubbed his face with his hands as the cool evening wind blew. It was almost autumn. Wistfully, he recalled the beautiful nature surrounding his childhood home, Casa de Amaranta. Located deep within the mountainous region of Lombard near the border of Switzerland, the green forests would turn fiery red in autumn and shed their leaves in the gentle breeze like rain onto the young boy he used to be. But...that place and time was no longer his.
"What's a young man like you doing out here in the cold all by yourself?" A friendly voice distracted Hayato from his thoughts. To his startlement, the sun was already setting! He bolted to his feet as he berated himself mentally for his lack of attention. Remembering the japanese customs, Hayato quickly bowed to the person, sneaking a quick cursory examination from behind his fringe. The stranger was just an ordinary middle-aged woman approaching her fifties, judging from the fine wrinkles that lined her smiling face. However, there was something about her that was strangely familiar.
"Ah, no you don't need to do that! I'm sorry if I disturbed you." The lady waved her hand in a negative response. She then groaned as the weight of her burden pulled at her shoulder. Ever the gentleman, Hayato quickly relieved the shopping bag from the lady. Smiling ruefully, the lady rubbed at her shoulder and commented,
"Well, my age's really catching up with me! Oh, you must be a foreigner, aren't you? Especially with your exotic colouring." Not knowing how to respond to her friendliness, Hayato slowly nodded as he held the bag. He sneaked a peek into the bag; your typical groceries of a normal housewife. Returning his attention to the lady who had continued to speak to him,
"...Do you currently have a place to stay in?"
"Pardon? Could you repeat that again?" The lady pursed her lips and spoke slowly in english this time, concentrating hard on the words. She also gestured to better illustrate her words.
"You, have place to stay...sleep at?" Hayato inwardly smiled at her genuine effort and kindness and he replied in fluent japanese.
"Not at the moment, Madam. Thank you for your kind effort." The lady gasped in surprise at his excellent grasp of the language but she soon recovered her composure.
"Oh! I didn't know you could understand japanese! You speak very good japanese for a foreigner. Ah, why don't you come over to my place for dinner? My son is busy and will be late tonight. I'm sure he wouldn't mind having one more for company."
"Oh, I can't impose on you..."
"Nonsense. It's already fairly late and it will be hard for you to get accommodations at this time. You may as well stay over for the night." She was firm in her decision and Hayato had to admit that she was right. He didn't enough money on him at the moment to rent a room. He reluctantly agreed,
"I. Well, thank you very much for your generous hospitality. Is there anyway I can repay you?" Answering with a bright smile that niggled at the back of his mind with its familiarity, the lady responded cheerfully,
"You can help me carry the shopping bag back home! Oh by the way, I'm Sawada Nana, nice to meet you." She didn't notice the way Hayato suddenly stilled at her name, his eyes widening fractionally in shock.
...Sawada? She couldn't be...?
fin
Buona notte e sogni d'oro - Good night & sweet dreams
