"Two of them survived," Shiori says as she sits down, placing her coffee next to her keyboard. "The driver and the passenger. The two men in the backseat were killed immediately."

"Sounds ugly," Tatsuya replied, not glancing up from his phone. Shiori notices, but doesn't seem to mind.

"It's most likely connected to the hardware store shooting," she continues, clicking open a writing document filled with a formal written report, certainly about the shooting.

"They found Hiroki Sugimoto among the dead."

"I think I've heard that name before."

"You probably have - he's working for some bio-corps. Or, was." Shiori does that thing she does, where she taps her chin with two index fingers and leans forward on them, elbow against the desk. "No idea why he was in there, but we have Yasuo and Tamaki investigating."

"Expecting those two to get along is like waiting for snow in July."

Shiori laughs, just a little. "Could be worse - could have Tadashi along with them." She takes a pause to sip her coffee, and makes a face. "This is disgusting. Did someone switch the creamer?"

Tatsuya opens his messaging application, stealing a glance toward Shiori to ensure she's distracted by her bitter coffee, before opening the history with Naoya and quickly deleting the messages from the other day. The knot in his throat has not left him since he woke this morning and met Katsuya in their living room, the wake of his week's excursion awash over his body.

At the same time - he's rather thankful no one around the stationed has questioned his physical exhaustion. Perhaps he doesn't look at unsettled as he could be in the wake of his Thursday afternoon - or perhaps he's just that good at lying.

Whatever it is.

"How's your week been?" Shiori then asks, eyes cast down into the murky water of her coffee. "Since you came back."

"Eventful," he replies - truthful. "Running errands for people who don't want to do things themselves."

"How's your father doing?"

"Alright. He wants my brother and I there for Christmas, together."

"That's a ways away, isn't it?"

Tatsuya makes a short hum of acknowledgement. He can hear it in Shiori's breathing the she regrets bringing up his father - so he sighs, and then rests on his knuckles to look at her. "You don't have to walk on glass when you bring him up. It's not a sore spot."

"Just don't want you to think I think any less of you," she says, a weak smile trying to curl on her mouth. "I guess you already know what the rest of the force thinks."

"I'm not blind to any of it. They think I'm sensitive about having a father on corruption charges."

"I wouldn't blame them, though."

"No, I don't - it's kind of funny." Tatsuya turns his head down, looking to the notepad below him on the desk. "But I don't... hold it against anyone who does, I suppose."

Shiori keeps her smile, turning back to her own side of the desk. "You must be a very good son, Tatsuya."

"That's a new one." But still, Tatsuya won't meet her smile. "Thanks."


His work day ends early enough in the evening that he realizes that he does, in fact, have enough time to bike to Chinatown and meet with the terrible twosome he calls friends.

Upon returning to the apartment, and notably not finding Katsuya home at all, Tatsuya changed his clothing and returned to his motorcycle outside, biking through downtown and into the busy streets of lower Algonquin. Lantern lights dangle over the streets, mercifully light with traffic yet with pedestrians crossing at intersections. He scours the signs for an English subtitle that Lisa told him to meet them under, and it's one lone red light wait before he pulls to the street side parking spot and kicks the bike stand down.

Lisa Silverman and Eikichi Mishina nearly run into him with their charge. Lisa's arms are thrown over his shoulders before he can even reach for his helmet.

"Baby! Oh, baby, I missed you so much!" Lisa giggles, nuzzling the plastic of Tatsuya's helmet as he squirms beneath her iron grasp. "You didn't even call when you came back home!"

"I was busy, Lisa," Tatsuya grumbles, patting his fervent admirer on the back to coax her away from her embrace, only to be accosted by Eikichi's arm over his shoulders.

"Busy with me! I'm sorry, Ginko darling, but lovely little Tatsu-baby seems to like me more!"

"Only in your wet dreams, idiot!" Lisa thankfully yanks Eikichi off Tatsuya, who is finally allowed to remove his bike helmet in peace. "I know my Chinyan was busy, hard at work! You wouldn't know what hard work is after all."

Eikichi glares and steps towards her, but is stopped from getting in her personal space by Tatsuya's patient hand moving between them, cutting through to start walking down the street, to which both begin to follow. "I'm a big strong boy - Michel gets by! We can't all have our brick shaped asses on magazine covers! You wait, I'll be taking your place on Prattle!"

"I'm not on Prattle, you fucking cokehead!" Lisa snaps, reaching over behind Tatsuya to smack Eikichi. "I'm on Pump! Besides, that celebrity garbage is all yours - I'm way better than that!"

"You still have a brick shaped ass!"

"And you have pupils so dilated it's like I'm talking to a brain dead cat!"

Tatsuya elbows the stretched arm of Lisa, shoving her off his back and away from Eikichi. His idiot friends return to their opposite sides, pointedly ignoring the other nuisance.

"Did you have fun in Los Santos, Chinyan?" Lisa asks with a flutter to her voice, the flirtatious giggle she twists into her words whenever she talks to him, affectionate and gentle. "Bring anything back?"

"Nothing specific, no." Tatsuya removes a cigarette from its box, lighter already in hand. "I just went to see my father, Lisa. It wasn't a vacation. Where's this restaurant?"

"We're close," Lisa says, folding her arms and pressing her hands against her underarms to keep her hands to herself. "Hung Mien. Hungry?"

"Hungry enough."

"I'll make sure you're well fed, baby - you're not leaving this place 'til you're stuffed!"

"I'm ecstatic," he replies dryly, pointedly turning his head toward Eikichi and exhaling a plume of smoke into his face when Tatsuya catches him snickering.


There's a bell over the front door of Hung Mein that jingles something cute when they enter. A short woman asked the three of them for how many there would be in English, yet her expression changed to pleasant surprise when Lisa's flawless Cantonese rolled off her tongue. The settle in a table by the storefront window - a small interior makes for a more cozy experience, Tatsuya finds.

Tatsuya knows he shouldn't drink at all if he's biking home, but he limits himself to the single pint that he picks out from the alcohol menu. Eikichi orders a fruity, sweet beverage with shaved ice and light alcohol stirred in - he takes a strong sip, and then stirs the ice with his straw. It smells like strawberries.

"So, Ginko -" he starts, completely ignoring how Lisa rolls her eyes over her glass, "you haven't stuck your nose up Tatsuya's ass for a month, what have you been up to?"

"More than you've probably accomplished in your fucking life," she retorts, taking a deep swing of her beer. "I'm doing a thing for some protein mix. It's a sponsor my manager picked up for me."

"You're out of your mind if you think Michel would want to starve himself off protein powder and granola bars," Eikichi scoffs, bringing his daiquiri-shaped glass with him as he leans back in their booth. "I guess that's cool, though."

"You're probably starving yourself on worse things, idiot."

"I got a gig this week," he says with a grin. "Ran into Tatsu-baby right after, too. Isn't that right?"

"Small world," Tatsuya says, not looking up from his drink, barely touched.

"It's in that little Russian part of town - club's called Perestroika, and you two better find it in your little birdie hearts to come sing along to Gas Chamber's music."

"Isn't that a cabaret club?" Lisa asks. "Doesn't seem like the place for a metal band."

"A venue's a venue, baby!" Eikichi sips on his drink to accent his words. "Gas Chamber's gonna make all those mafia types fall oh so deep in love, we might just solve world peace!"

"Or at least stop the gang violence in Broker," Lisa says, kicking Eikichi lightly under the table. Eikichi catches the straw between his teeth when he grins, sipping the icy mound in his glass.

Tatsuya takes a moment in the silence of the two infants to take a sip of his own drink, leaning forward on the table and gazing past Eikichi to the road. A taxi rolls by, the back window open - a young woman gazes out, her hair pulled back and staring down the length of the road herself, not noticing Tatsuya has taken note of her. Her taxi seems to lull in traffic, and quietly, Tatsuya wonders where she may be going.

He'd like to pretend he recognizes her, but he doesn't. The taxi finally begins to move and she disappears out of the corner of his eye, into the city's depths.

"So do you actually use the stuff you promo, or is it just clutter?" Eikichi asks, kicking his feet out under the table, stretching and giving Lisa space.

"Of course I use the stuff. It's how sponsors work. Don't know you know this stuff?" Lisa rolls her eyes. "Or do rock stars just waste their budget on strippers and blow?"

"I'll have you know I am spoken for, thank you very much!" Eikichi shoots forward, hands on the table and frowning pointedly. "The missus knows everyone wants a piece of Michel, but Michel's only got an eye for one special lady!"

"Alright, so just blow."

"Tatsu-baby's not gonna arrest me for a little Saturday night fun, Ginko." He waves a finger in front of her face, before Lisa promptly smacks it away. "I got a lady on one arm, and some stuff on the side with the boys - what do you got? Single and protein powder that makes you gay?"

"My boyfriend is right in front of me, you asshole! And my protein powder doesn't make people gay!" Lisa shouts, kicking him under the table once more, a lot more firmly. Tatsuya lowers his face down into his hand, shaking his head and refusing to look at them.

"Really? People online say so."

"Are you stupid? Like, seriously, do you have rocks in your skull?" Lisa clenches both of her fists, pressing them down against the table. "Do you believe everything you read online? How about reading up on how to get that ribcage removed so you can go back to sucking your own dick—!"

"Lisa," Tatsuya says firmly, hand now out on her forearm. "Tone it down. He's joking."

"Chinyaaaan! Make him stop, then!"

Tatsuya casts a cold look toward Eikichi, who rolls his eyes and looks away, out the window. "Quit riling her up. You're just being annoying now."

"Whatever," Eikichi sighs, before eventually reaching for his straw and sipping quietly. "She started it."

Mercifully, Lisa doesn't respond, instead grabbing her drink and throwing it back, draining the glass in one solid chug. She brings it down on the table with a too-firm knock, and wipes her mouth on the back of her hand. She looks toward a counter farther into the restaurant, catching her eyes with the bartender, and gesturing for a refill.

Tatsuya can only assume the poor man looked petrified as he tended to her furious request, for his eyes glance down to his phone, which vibrates in his pocket.

"It's not work, is it?" Lisa asks as Tatsuya brings the phone to his ear.

"Who is this?" he asks into the receiver.

"Tatsuya, right?" The voice is too familiar, and the colour of Tatsuya's face drains when the gruff tone dawns on him. "/It's your new buddy. You doing anything tonight, Joker?"

Tatsuya instinctively stands up from the table, drawing the concern of Lisa and Eikichi. Reiji Kido continues speaking, venom practically dripping in his words.

"You should have introduced yourself earlier. I had to do a bit of digging."

"What do you mean? What do you want?" Tatsuya all but shouts into the phone, already drawing the curious eyes from patrons of the restaurant. Reiji cracks something like a laugh on the other end, but it's more of a cough.

"'Tats' is a cute nickname. I'll let Toudou know that when I get to his place."

"When-" Tatsuya's eyes shoot open, and he's practically already out the door, running from the nervous cry of "Chinyan!" from Lisa and the confused shout of "Where are you going?!" from Eikichi. Phone pressed to the shell of Tatsuya's ear, he bursts into a run toward his motorcycle, all while Reiji continues.

"Toudou thought he could try and mix me up with a cop, huh? You really think I'm that stupid, don't you, Suou?"

"Where is Naoya?!" Tatsuya shouts, already kicking off the curb and firing himself down the street, helmet barely thrown on his head as Tatsuya weaves through lulled traffic, echoing the street with furious horns. The connection between phone and earpiece is already on, and Reiji's dark voice curls all around Tatsuya's head, capturing his hearing in a cold and vicious gloat.

"Home safe and sound with his girlfriend and monkey roommate, hopefully. 'Cause I'm coming for them." Reiji's grin can be heard through the phone, sharper than any knife Tatsuya has known. "And once I'm done with them, I'm coming for you, pig. I'll teach you to never cross me again."

"Reiji- don't you dare hurt them, I can explain everything if you don't-"

"Shut the fuck up! I don't have to listen to you!" Reiji shouts over him, the crackle of the phone whipped by the wind around Tatsuya. "You're driving here, huh? Good. You're doing my job for me - I won't have to go hunting for you."

"I swear," Tatsuya all but hisses, rounding a corner and driving straight down the street to meet the first arch of the Liberty Bridge. "If you touch them, you'll never-"

Reiji hangs up. Tatsuya shouts a frustrated growl, turning off the wireless connection in his helmet with a smack against the side, and revs his bike to fire down the open stretch of highway, his desperate race begun.