Sooo... the usual: Cardcaptor Sakura is not mine and please excuse my grammar. Although I did say that I'm going to finish Love Song as soon as I can... I ended up straying away and not completing the chapter. When I get back to writing, I started to forget the important events and the bad guys' name. Haha! Anyway, please enjoy the story and tell me what you think of it.

Love Song

Chapter 25: Not Gonna Get Us

I swallowed, trying to process what was happening to us — what is Judge Ariawase doing here? Why is he pointing a gun towards us? What does Martin means when he shouted that Judge Ariawase is not who we think he is? But before I could figure out anything, Judge Ariawase signaled the men to seize us and take us back into that vacant room. There are a lot of cussing and yelling going on. Mostly, they came from Syaoran. Syaoran and I put up a little fight to escape them before the judge fired his gun, causing us to stiffen in place.

A few minutes later, I found myself back in the vacant room with my hand tied behind me. Syaoran and Martin faced the same thing as I did. I watched Syaoran and caught his expression. It was a mixed of surprise and frustration. Surprised to watch Judge Ariawase treating us like this and frustrated as we didn't know what really was going on. I turned to Martin and wonder if he knew anything. I'm sure he knew something, or else, he wouldn't warn us like he did. He was too weak to do anything. He must have sense some danger to gather his strength and warn us like that. In that moment, I wonder how long have he been locked up here. I turned to Martin and saw him in his comatose form.

Judge Ariawase cursed as his eyes met with mine. He turned to the men and gave them a hard knock to their head. "This wouldn't have happen if you watched them carefully. And I told you to be extra careful with the girl!"

"Why are you doing this?" I asked the moment I could find my voice.

The judge turned to me and smiled. His smile was wicked. "Well, well, Miss Special Enforcement. I wasn't expecting to see you when I told these morons to kidnap Syaoran. You weren't supposed to be here in the first place. But now that you're here, I'm sure you have tons of questions you wanted to ask me," his glance shifted to Syaoran. "Especially you. Very well." He turned to the men and signaled a few of them to leave before returning his gaze towards us. "I'll entertain you for a moment. After all, it's not like you're going to be able to report me to the others."

I exchanged my glance with Syaoran and something registered in my head. He's planning to kill us. I was sure of it. I cast a glance and saw that there were only two men guarding us with Judge Ariawase now. My hand fumbled slowly to untie the rope on my hand. Things would be much easier if only I could reach to the knife in my pocket.

Judge Ariawase sat down on the boxes of heroin we found out earlier and stared at Syaoran. "None of these would happen if only you listened to my warning. If only you didn't snoop around my business. You're should start to learn listening to advice when someone offered you to. But you're just too stubborn and curious. Just like your father."

Syaoran shoot him a menacing glare. "What happen to my father? Were you—were you the one who murdered him?"

I gritted my teeth and balled my hand into a fist. It was devastating to hear Syaoran's tone as he uttered the question. I suspect that the thought of the judge was the one who killed his father had crossed his mind. What's upset him more was that his father and the judge used to be best friend.

The judge gave Syaoran a long stare. "He was a good friend, your father."

"Did you kill my father?" Syaoran's voice trembled.

"No."

Syaoran expression softened when Judge Ariawase denied. I could tell how Syaoran wanted to believe him. But I know for sure that Judge Ariawase was the one who murdered his father. Or maybe he was connected to the murder. After all, why would Judge Ariawase warn Syaoran not to investigate the murder if he wasn't in any way connected to it?

"I didn't murder him. That was an accident," the judge added.

"That was no accident," Syaoran snapped. "I saw the early police reports and photographs. That was no accident!"

"Ah," Judge Ariawase nodded. "Chris Chen is it? That man was a real tough cookie."

"You murdered both my father and Chen," Syaoran accused.

"I didn't kill your father," Judge Ariawase spat. "I could never kill him. He was a very dear friend of mine. He wasn't supposed to die. That was supposed to be an accident."

Syaoran was taken aback with the new information. "What?"

"Da Wei found out about the drug smuggling," Judge Ariawase continued. "I wanted to scare him a bit so that he wouldn't report me to the authorities. I work so hard to get to this position, and I cannot allow him to ruin that for me."

"So you murdered him?" Syaoran said in distaste. "You're supposed to be my father's best friend. How could you do that to him?"

"I said that it was an accident!" Judge Ariawase's voice rose. "I tried to save him in the car crash when I got to the scene. But once I found that file of evidence against me in his car, I got panic. He was going to report me to the police after I begged him not to. I was scared that the police might find that evidence. So I took that file and escaped."

"And you leave my father to die?" Syaoran's voice was bitter. He struggled to fumble with the rope tied around his wrist and spat. "You unbelievable bastard! How could you do that? And now what? You're trying to kill me too when I started to investigate my father's death?"

"I couldn't risk having anyone to learn anything on Da Wei's accident," Judge Ariawase said with a shrug.

"Stop saying that it's an accident, you murder!" Syaoran spat.

In that moment, some things came to make sense to me. How Syaoran was attacked during Judge Ariawase's birthday party. The judge must have allowed one of his men to do that.

"What about Tsukishiro Yukito?" I asked after a few minutes of listening to them. "Did you murder him to because he had found out about your activities?"

Judge Ariawase leaned back and shifted his gaze towards me. "That wasn't me. That was Matsushita. That man got scared once Tsukishiro know that Matsushita was involved in the smuggling. He told me that he could get away from any suspicion because he had tons of connection. But he was stupid to let the reporter go."

I instantly thought of Mizuki. I was so sure that he meant her. Mizuki used to be Yukito's informer before he was shot. After all these years, I finally found out who the murder was. I was angry to the point that I wasn't sure what to think anymore. My hands continued to fumble against the tight rope. I need to get out from here once I take down Judge Ariawase and his guards. Although, that might be hard as the guards had a gun with them.

"You despicable bastard," Martin said with a heavy panting. "My men would know what you did to me if I disappeared. And they will make sure to send you to the authorities."

Judge Ariawase glaced to Martin and laughed. "I doubt that that will happen. After all, didn't your informer always give you the wrong information? I bet I could make them to help me to steer your men away from my business."

A few of Judge Ariawase men reappeared and one of them whispered something to his ear. The judge then gave them a nodded of approval before three of them headed toward us. One of them took me by the arm and dragged us out of the room.

It was still dark when we got outside. I wonder how long we have been held Judge Ariawase's hostage? Suspicion crept into me when I saw that same white van they used to kidnap me and Syaoran. I was sure that they are going to transport us somewhere else. "Where are you taking us?"

"You'll know when we get there," the man who was dragging me replied before they shove is into the van. Syaoran went in first followed by me and Martin. I guess they allow Martin to have the seat next to the door because he was too weak to try to escape.

The engine roared and Martin leaned on my shoulder when the vehicle started to move. It was hard to listen to anything because of the loud engine. But I could hear everything Martin had whispered to me: try to escape once the vehicle reached the destination and call for back up.

Syaoran was worried with the plan when I relay him the message from Martin. But I assure him that things should be fine. Martin had told me that he will try to be a distraction to them. But of course, I have to consider the situation before I tried anything. Syaoran's safety was still my top priority.

The vehicle entered the woods and after a half an hour journey, the driver pulled to stop at an old house. I scanned the surrounding and saw that there is no one there. It was an abandoned house with broken windows. I wondered if this was a haunted house. The thought of it made my hair stand on the back of my neck. I never like ghost, haunted house or anything like it. The last time Syaoran took me to a haunted house to tease me I ended up injuring one of their employees.

Judge Ariawase's men slide the door open and pulled Martin out, followed by me and Syaoran. I watched the men and plan on my escapees. There were two men guarding us and one driver. I could probably knock one of them out and take Syaoran to escape towards the woods and head out of the woods before the guys found us. That was the best solution I could think of with my hand both tied behind me.

I gave Syaoran and Martin a signal to run when one of them kept their eyes off us to load something out from the trunk. I signaled them with a quick nod and knocked down one of the guards.

"Run!" I shouted. I let Syaoran escaped and trailed him. Another man blocked my path and went down when Martin tackled him down.

"Go! Now!" Martin yelled.

I did as I was told. But it was kinda hard to run with my hand tied behind me. I turned around for a brief second and saw Martin, shifting his weight and tried to get up and the other guards started to chase after us. The man I tackled earlier reached up for his gun. "Syaoran! Run! Faster!"

A gunshot and a loud groan was heard just as Syaoran sneaked into the forest and hide into the bush. I turned around and saw Martin lying down on the ground. I knew that he has taken a bullet. I momentarily paused in shock, but quickly composed myself once I saw the guards were aiming their guns towards me.

We'll run away, keep everything simple,
Night will come down, our guardian angel,
We rush ahead, the crossroads are empty,
Our spirits rise, they're not gonna get us,
- t.A.T.u, Not Gonna Get Us

There was a few more gunshot as I sneaked into the forest. I caught up with Syaoran and told him that we should run as deep as we could or the guards would catch up with us. I wonder if Judge Ariawase would be able to get us when Not Gonna Get Us by t.A.T.u played inside in my head.

- End of Chapter 25: Not Gonna Get Us -

So, did any of you guess earlier that Judge Ariawase was responsible for the events? Did you guess why he did all that? Writing a crime fiction is a hard work. There are lots of research and all that. I shall never do this again in the future. Haha... Anyway, please leave me your review!

Insert Song: Taken from t.A.T.u's Not Gonna Get Us. I really need to update my playlist!