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Episode 7: 24 UNMASKED! (finally)
"Approximately 20 minutes ago I was disturbed from a much needed rest by a call from the president asking me to come in to work today, or more precisely, right now." K fumed as he paced impatiently. "Now, this upsets me - and do you want to know why this upsets me?"
Hiro rolled his eyes, which were - lucky for him - safely hidden behind dark sunglasses. His manager's drama was annoying. "Do tell."
He, Suguru, Sakano, and K were inside one of NG's lounges, waiting for the president to show up. Each had received a similar call asking them to come in immediately, and neither had the foggiest idea why, except for Hiro that is. He wondered if this had anything to do with Shuichi being missing. No one was bothered by being called in on their day off as they weren't doing anything important anyway. That is, everyone except K. He was looking extremely pissed.
"This upsets me because TODAY WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY DAY OFF! If that damn call had come from ANYONE other than the president himself, I would NOT have shown up."
"Well maybe that's why my cousin called you himself. Of course if you really don't want to be here, than take it out on Seguchi-san - not us. We can't do a thing about it, and your bitching and moaning is really beginning to annoy me."
Sakano's jaw literally dropped to the floor, and everyone else froze when Suguru finished his sentence. Never before had anyone displayed such audacity towards their gun-totin' American manager, and especially not right to his face... or within point-blank range of his weapons. Sakano panicked and clamped his hands over his ears, shakingly waiting for the impending shot to be fired. He was not disappointed.
A deafening bang and a thin wisp of smoke emitted from the barrel of K's firearm. A newly made hole materialized only centimeters from the keyboardist's arm.
Suguru hadn't even flinched.
"Sorry K-san. Your little gun games may work on a certain vocalist, but not on me. If you really want to intimidate me, you'll have to discover my deepest fear and threaten me with it. Unfortunately for you though, I don't have any fears. So you can quit trying to boss me around. And you, Sakano-san," he turned towards the paleing producer and pointed at the wall, "might want to patch up that little hole before my cousin gets here."
With that, Suguru tossed his head and made his way towards a water fountain in the next room. Nobody stood in his way. K only raised an eyebrow.
"Hmm, seems like I'm gonna have to learn his deepest fear. Now, what could Suguru Fujisaki possibly be afraid of?..."
Just then Tohma Seguchi walked into the room. He took one glance at everyone present, "Where is my cousin?"
"Oh, mister president sir, he just left to the next room to get some water. He should be right back."
Tohma stared curiously at Sakano, who had just spoken, "Why Sakano-san, you seem a little shaken. Did something happen just now?"
Everyone was saved from answering as Suguru walked back into the room - a bored expression on his face.
"Alright everyone; please take a seat." Tohma walked to the window at the head of the coffee table around where everyone was sitting. Now then - to business. It seems that Bad Luck's vocalist, Shuichi Shindou-kun has been missing for several hours now. Normally that wouldn't be a problem - assuming that he wasn't missing during work hours - but my brother in law, Eiri-san, says that he has reason to believe that Shindou-kun has been kidnapped."
Hiro gasped, K raised an eyebrow, Suguru frowned, and Sakano fainted.
So that's why he sounded so frantic when I spoke with him earlier, but I never imagined it was this bad, thought Hiro.
"He promised to explain everything, but until then, we need to -"
Just then the door burst open, and a panting, exhausted looking Eiri Yuki stumbled in. Tohma rushed over to him to help steady him, "Oh my god Eiri-san! What are you doing here? How did you manage to get here? Should you even be out of bed in your condition?!
Eiri continued to pant as he sat down. Several minutes and two glasses of water later, Eiri had finally recovered enough to speak.
"I need to explain - something I should have done from the very beginning." He paused, and Tohma gestured for him to continue, "It started a few months ago. I had received anonymous phone calls and letters, all threatening me to quit my career... or else. I ignored them of course; the reason being that odd letters and such are pretty much guaranteed in my line of work. Not only that, but they'd all come through public lines - information anyone could access. I didn't pay them any heed until I started receiving them on my private phone and email. By that time, the bastard finally identified himself by signing every message he sent me with a '24' - if you can really call that identifying. Anywa-" He stopped midword when he noticed K's and Hiro's expressions. K had shifted uncomfortably and Hiro's eyes had widened.
"...Yuki-san," Hiro began slowly, "Did you just say that he called himself... '24'?"
Eiri eyed him wearily, "Yes I did, Nakano."
"Did he write them out with words or numbers?"
"...Numbers. What is this leading up to?"
K and Hiro exchanged worried glances, and then K spoke up. "I take it you haven't been keeping up with the news, otherwise you would've heard. A few months ago a patient at the North Hill Asylum in Shinjuku had escaped. Of course, being that all their patients are violent, any escape would make headline news, but this particular person is more dangerous than the rest. The bastard, a Russian known as Rafael Bashkir, was admitted to that facility about five years ago after he was charged with numerous murders. The bitch of it is how he committed them; by skinning all his victims - alive. The victims consisted of men, women, and children, neither of which had any ties to each other, and all were of a varied backgrounds - no connections whatsoever.They were just random murders. This man showed absolutely no remorse for his actions, nor did he deny doing them. He was sentenced to life in North Hill - instead of the electric chair - due to some shit about an insanity plea from his defense attorney. Damn bastard, of COURSE you have to be insane to even think about doing shit like that. Anyway, how he escaped is still unknown. Since his escape, there haven't been any more victims - that we know of - but that's no guarantee that he won't kill again. His aliases include 'skinner', 'blade', and his most widely used... '24'."
A hush fell over the room as the information sunk into all its occupants.
Eiri was silent as he clenched his jaw. He could not believe what he'd just heard. Was it possible that this 24 was the 24? And if so, why was he so obsessed with ending his career? Why did he want to hurt him? He'd never even heard of the bastard before now, and if his suspicions were correct, had he actually kidnapped Shuichi?
"Oh god... my Shuichi is in the hands of that son-of-a-bitch monster?!" Eiri's normally composed voice cracked with emotion. Emotion he hadn't felt in such a long time...
Tohma put a comforting hand on Eiri's shoulder, "Please calm down, Eiri-san. We don't even know for certain that 24 really has him. For all we know Shindou-kun may actually be safe somewhere, oblivious to all this."
"But can we risk it?" The question came from Suguru, who was still trying to get the appalling images of skinned people out of his mind. "If this bastard really does have Shindou, than there is no telling what he'll do to him - especially if he knows how important he is to Yuki-san. No, we can't afford to assume he's safe. Not yet at least."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"But how do we start looking?" Hiro inquired, "We've already contacted everyone who knows Shu, and Seguchi-san even ordered an all-points bulletin for him, so he'll be spotted if he tries to leave the city."
"H-how about calling hospitals and police stations?" Sakano asked, twisting his hands nervously.
"Already done." answered K.
"Clubs? Bars?" suggested Hiro.
"Done that too."
"Okay, let's suppose that 24 has actually kidnapped Shindou-kun. Why did he do it? Yes, I know its purpose is to provoke Eiri-san, but what exactly will he do with him? Will he force Eiri to quit by threatening to hurt Shindou-kun if he doesn't comply? Will he demand a ransom?" Tohma put a finger to his chin in an effort to think up any more reasons. He sighed when he couldn't think of any more. "We've done all we can right now. All there is to do is formally report him missing to the police, but that can't be done until he's been missing for 24 hours - and if Eiri-san is correct with his suspicions - than it may be too late then. Unfortunately, I think the only thing left to do - is wait."
Hey, Ive got a question, said Suguru, who was now feeling slightly nauseous. I can understand blade and skinner as appropriate labels for this guy considering what his crimes were, but why 24? Is that number a reference of some kind, or just something random?
K answered in a serious tone. This has never been confirmed, but rumor has it that 24 is the number of times he stabbed his wife his first victim - before skinning her.
How could that have not been confirmed?
They never found her skin.
Poor Suguru couldnt take it anymore. He jumped up from his chair and ran to the bathroom gagging and covering his mouth.
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END EPISODE 7
(In the next episode of "More Precious than Gold": So now it's a waiting game our characters are gonna have to play; a long, tiring, and frustrating game - especially for poor Eiri. Also, 24 will finally make semi-live contact with Eiri. What will they talk about? If you wanna know, than you'll have to play a little waiting game of your own... until episode 8 anyways.)
Author's Notes:
Another real short chapter... but don't worry, cuz the next one is gonna be really long. Oh and btw... after much studying and taking tests, I am FINALLY DONE WITH HIGHSCHOOL!! Oh squee I'm so excited! Now I can spend more time on writing :) Well, a bit more, cuz I have some reviewing to do for the ACT and SAT tests...
CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2008!! :)
