Chapter Seventeen: Dark Times.

Kimiko ran for her dear life through the pouring rain as she could hear the black mobster following her at a fast pace. This was not planned.

Why?
Why had he been so dumb to fall in love with her?

She had to leave the city immediately - or better - the country. The longer she stayed here, the more chances the black-market-auctioneers had to catch her. They had the money, fame and enough men to initiate a search operation. It wouldn't take long, now that popularity rose.

"Well played, guys." She thought as she ran around a corner into a dark alley.

She needed to disappear and the first thing was to get rid of the phone and the pager they had given her. Hastily the black haired woman pulled out the micros SD of her phone before she hastily put it on the floor together with the pager. With a determined kick she stomped both to little pieces after storing the micro SD into the little hidden pocket inside of her bag. The guys had been prepared for these circumstances; she was sure. And then it hit her like a slap across the face. The painting that Ota had made could be used against her, the blood sample Luke had taken also… NO!

"Stop it Kim. You're getting paranoid. That's just because the C is fading… Calm down."

But that feeling began to creep up again. The same feeling, she had a week before. Something was going on. Something was wrong. Kimiko suddenly felt wobbly and after a few more steps, she had to slow down. Not now, she couldn't stop now! Soryu was still on her tracks, she could hear the heavy steps approaching her in a fast pace. Kimiko needed to steady herself by leaning onto the wall, heavily breathing. Her heart began to beat faster and faster by every second and a numbing pain began to spread in her body and suddenly she could feel a lump in her throat that was making her feel sick. The steps began to louden in her ears as Soryu came close. But those steps…that wasn't the mobster. And it was no one she knew but she had heard these heavy steps before.
Before she could turn around to see who this person was or if she was just imagining things, but her lights were blown out before she hit the wet ground.

Shit!

Waking up after being high has never been a pleasant feeling in Kimiko's eyes but it was something she normally could bear with. But this time it was hard. Hasty voices echoed through her head, speaking as if in a hurry. It was unnaturally cold around her body but not like she was currently outside; more the feeling of lying on something freezing as actually being outside. What was the last thing she remembered?

"Come on girl, remember…"

The more she tried to listen to the voice in her head, the more she could hear the voices surrounding her. Two people, maybe more but they weren't talking in English, German, Japanese or Italian. But it sounded similar… at least a bit. Maybe it was another Romanesque language.

"Must be."

Kimiko wasn't really able to think straight. She needed some time to finally open her eyelids. There was a great, dull pain in her brain which turned into a piercing sting as she slowly blinked a few times. A light, similar to a stroboscope blinded her and increased the pain in her head, forcing a pained groan out of her mouth. Again, she tried to open her eyes while listening to the voice.

"I'm getting in touch with you in a couple of hours again."

This was clearly someone speaking Spanish. A woman.

"Oh look who's finally waking up. Feeling bad?"

The voice was ringing so loud in her head as it came closer that Kimiko let out another groan. Instinctively she tried to hold her head but she realized her hands were tied up behind her back so that was useless.

"Ugh!"

"Sorry, have I been too loud for you?"

Teasingly the woman crouched down next to her ear and was now whispering which didn't make it any better.

"Good!"

The yell made Kimiko finally open her eyes even though the light still blinded her but it got better the more she blinked. Slowly her eyes customized. The woman who had crouched next to her stood up again with a sick laughter.

"Took you quite a while, puta! Caused a change of plans. Wasn't nice at all."

Yeah, that woman was clearly speaking Spanish but with an accent Kimiko couldn't yet allocate with the dizzy feeling in her head. No matter how hard she tried to speak, she wasn't able to get out more than a painful groan.
Slowly, her vision became clear despite the bright light around her. Now she was able to see her surroundings.

"No way!"

She recognized this woman. Long brown hair, olive skin tone, in her mid-30's … it was the same woman she had seen talking to the arrogant maid.

What the fuck was going on?
Trying to imprint everything her eyes quickly began to scan the location she was in.
A bedraggled apartment, crumbling walls and the windows were covered with curtains while a lot of garbage was scattered all over the floor. It smelled awfully like gasoline but she couldn't see any cans. There was a lean and wiry guy sitting on a dirty, stained mattress which was lying on the floor. The clothes he wore looked shabby almost as if he had worn them for days and under it, she could clearly see some typical tattoos; Three dots on his hands in between his thump and his forefinger, a spider web on his elbow, EWMN on the knuckles of his right hand with which he held a bayonet or better with which he played with a bayonet. Along with several other tattoos on his face and neck including a typical tear drop in the corner of his eye.
There must be a photo of him in cyclopedia next to the word 'gang member', she was sure. He was constantly mumbling something in Spanish with an accent that was so strong that Kimiko doubted he understood himself but maybe that was because of the cigarette that hung in the corner of his mouth. On a stool next to the table sat the middle-aged man that she had seen at the hotel along the woman.
He was staring at her, constantly sipping from the bottle of beer in his right hand before turning over to the 'gang member' and murmuring something under his 'Selleck-Mustache' and laughing dirtily. Suddenly the room filled with an awful smell and when she turned her head, she could see another guy with a couple of tattoos stepping out of a nasty looking and even worse smelling toilet. Okay, his face would be the one in the cyclopedia! With his head shaved and a Zappa-Mustache he totally would be chosen for any prison scene in Hollywood. He wore some sneakers, grey sweat pants along a white muscle shirt.

"Wait! Why isn't he freezing?"

That made Kimiko take a glimpse of herself.
Lying on the dusty, crumbled floor just wearing her underwear, it was a shame. As if the guy had followed her gaze, she could hear him making kissing sounds to gain her attention. When she instinctively turned, Kimiko could see him smirking nastily, licking and biting his lips before he grabbed for his crotch. Disgusting. If she would have been able to roll her eyes without being in pain, she definitely would have done that.

He murmured something but she could clearly hear him say "Do you like what you see, bitch?"

No, to be honest she didn't.

"Miguel! Stop it! You know exactly what will happen if you touch her. Do you really want to lose another finger for touching what's not yours?"

Now that the woman mentioned, she could see that his left had only had three fingers left. He complained in Spanish, yelling at her that she maybe was a better cunt but she's still nothing more and that the boss wouldn't notice if he had a little fun. At that point the middle-aged guy cut in, telling him that their boss knew everything at some point and that it wouldn't be a finger this time. The longer she concentrated on the whole situation, the clearer she got. There was some blood on the floor right under her head, not enough to seriously worry about, but enough to explain the throbbing pain in her head.

Suddenly she could hear the rustle of turning heads.

"Oh, Mr. Perez Garcia mentioned you could probably understand some Spanish. Is that true?"

Slowly the lady approached her while speaking with a snickering undertone overlaid with a coo as if she tried to gain her trust.

As if her trust was that cheap.

"I talked to you, puta!"

Since Kimiko hadn't showed any reaction the brown haired lady yanked her head around with such a force, it made her anyways aching brain numb for a short time.

All of her young life Kimiko had learned that showing herself vulnerable actually would make her vulnerable. Instead of showing the pain on her face it went completely blank as she starred into the face of the woman. Hell, she was a damn of a beauty with clear, brown eyes like they were made of chocolate and perfectly defined full lips. Bending down towards her face, the sound in her voice was back to cooing.

"Don't you know that it's not polite to not pay attention when someone talks to you?"

Patting Kimiko's black, blood sticky hair, she realized how rotten that lady truly was.
She had never been someone to find pleasure in torturing her victims before feeling so generous to actually end their lives. But that woman... she was sickening enjoying this, knowing exactly that the patting was painful.

"My boss saw you and he knew that he wanted to have you. You have been so rude and turned his request down by disappearing all of the sudden. And when we found you, you were already turning your attention towards another man. Mr. Perez Garcia is a very passionate man and as such he does whatever it takes to get what he wants but he doesn't like it when someone is getting in between. Fortunately, you have a thing for being a little careless, right Miss? Didn't you wonder why the cocaine you and your new friend took had such an extreme impact? You did, right? Well, my boss has… let's just say … a pretty good access to that stuff so…it wasn't that hard to create something even better. See, you're special to him; something precious. And still, you have played around for too long with others and that's considered very rude. Mr. Perez Garcia is also a very impatient man… so, we should hurry don't you think?"

As if she expected Kimiko to answer, she looked deeply into her eyes where she couldn't find anything else but emptiness. With every little piece of will power Kimiko had left in her, she tried to focus on something good. But no matter how hard she tried to there was only one thing in her mind.

"Mr. Perez Garcia is waiting."

And with that, she finally stood up and turned around towards the men in the room.

"We'll meet in hell, bitch!"

Kimiko managed to rasp out what she thought even if she knew about the consequences. But she couldn't care less.

"Well, when I think about it, maybe he can wait a bit longer. Guys, teach her some manners."

Kimiko could see the men laughing deviously while getting up from their seats before the first punch landed on her face. Next in her stomach. One of them yanked her up on her hair so that she was weakly leaning up before another hard punch landed on her temple making her sight go blurry again followed by more punches and even kicks everywhere on her body. Those were clearly beating her up so much that, at some point she could feel the blood that drippled out of her nose mixing with the blood the spitted. But that didn't matter to her anymore. Maybe it would be the best to not wake up after that. Not going easy on her she could hear the crack of one of her rips before her lights were finally blown out again.

"…I understand. What about Roppongi? ... I didn't ask how far you went! ... No! That's not from interest right now, either! He's…"

Slowly his gaze fell onto the man's beat form before it turned back towards the window, still holding the phone to his ear.

"… No, just hand that phone to him, I'm sick of talking someone so pussified like you!… Yeah. Hey, make sure that I never have to talk to this puppy again, understood?! So… what about Ginza? Shibuya? …call me immediately when you find something!" And with that he hung up.

A sigh left his lips as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Slowly the young CEO turned around and walked towards his arm chair facing his long year friend. Even though the mobster had a stern and cold expression as ever he could clearly see how beat his friend truly was. Therefor he knew him too long. It was unbelievable how this whole situation had a hold on him. Usually the black haired man was known for be emotionless, cold and rational but now… he was sitting on the couch, blankly gazing on the destroyed phone and beeper on the glass table in front of him.

"How can you bear with the stupidity of Inui? I mean, I really doubt that he can tie his shoes by himself…" Eisuke began, with his usual arrogance and annoyance to get Soryu back to life.

"I should be outside with them…."

"No, you shouldn't. Oh, you have been searching for the woman since 48 hours without any sleep. Your judgment is miserable and your look is even worse. She knew that she wasn't allowed to leave and that woman did it anyways but we're going to find her no matter what. She can't leave Tokyo by ship, train or plane and it's only a matter of time until we will find her. The media knows her face and there are enough people out there that can find her."

It was painful to see this strong man so beat but Eisuke couldn't show that on his face nor could he let that cloud his own judgment.

"I…thank you."

Soryu's voice didn't even sound deep and manly like usual; it was like she had taken his personality with her as she had fled out of his apartment. His behavior was so out of character it was even scarier than his usual personality.

"It's not like I'm doing that for you. That's something personal! She's causing trouble wherever she goes so we need to find her before other people do so. Besides that, she knows too much to run around freely. When she's selling everything she knows to the police, we're ruined. But I have my ways to deal with that…"

The coldness in his voice standing out a mile as he leaned forward in his chair to make his point clear. But he wasn't fooling the mobster. Of course, he was right with everything he said but seeing his friend so beat was clearly fueling his eagerness.

The ringing sound of opening elevator doors made them turn their heads.
Ota stepped out of it and walked straight over to the others and placed himself on one of the couches.

"I've installed the cameras in my atelier as you wanted, Boss. But only there… besides, I doubt she's going to show up there. Even she is that clever."

The sound of his voice was making the blood of the mobster boil but he kept quiet.

"Might be but it doesn't matter to me what you think, Kisaki. Besides that, I said cameras in all rooms. And I said that, without a question mark so it wasn't a request. It was an order. I'm not interested in watching you having one of your little escapades like last time."

"No, after what happened last time, I think I'm going to have a break."

After the mobster and his little troublemaker had left two nights before, the condition of the artist had worsened suddenly. So extreme, that he had spent almost the whole night with his head hanging over the toilet.
Not really something exciting to watch or to listen to.

"You're going to get those cameras installed immediately!"

Now the CEO was beaming loudly again, before he pushed himself up from the arm chair and again walked over towards the window front of the lounge.

"I called Baba, two hours ago and told him to finish his job. He's going to come back in about a week." While speaking, he crossed wrists behind his back.

"I've also decided we're not going to hold the I.V.C next week."

The other men looked stared at his broad back, clothed in his usual suit.
The way he breathed was steady as ever and his voice didn't waver or anything. Even if he was pissed about that and the situation troubled him, he would never show that to the others. Eisuke always kept a cool head no matter what happened and that wouldn't change just because such a little rebound. There had been problems before and there would be problems after that and worrying over something was not his style.

"We can't call the I.V.C off, Eisuke. That would cost you a mint! She won't…" Soryu began, back to his earnest, cold voice but immediately, the blonde artist cut him in.

"What, Oh? He's right. Even if this will cost all of us a fortune, it's better to cancel the next I.V.C. Take off your rose-coloured glasses and think straight! She ran away, she left you and she's going to sell us if she has the chance so get your act together! We don't know if anything she told us about her was true and obviously you don't know anything about her, or otherwise she wouldn't have left."

That was too much. Soryu's blood was boiling anyways but now the angelic artist had taken a step to far. Jumping up from his seat Soryu hurried towards the other couch and forcefully grabbed for the collar of his white long sleeve shirt with one hand while his other grabbed for the gun that was usually hidden in the inner side of his jacket. Pressing it onto the artists head he began to scream at him so loud that Ota actually flinched.

"SAY THAT AGAIN KISAKI!"

Indeed, it was difficult with only one hand on the young man's collar but with all the anger spilling out, Soryu managed to strangle him with the cold steal still resting.
Obviously, Ota tried to say something but not even a rasp was coming out of his throat anymore as his face drew from read to purple.

"Let him down! He isn't worth it!"

Now it was Eisuke who yelled but not even nearly as furious as his black haired friend. Soryu didn't budge.

"NOW!"

When the CEO yelled once again, Soryu gave one last push before dropping the blonde man onto the floor. Like a sack of rice he fell down and slumped, gasping for air.
The black haired mobster looked down onto the pathetic mess on the floor and tried to suppress everything that he wanted to do. Shoot him, beat him up, scream at him but instead he looked into the scared caramel of Ota's eyes before turning around and walking towards the elevator.

"I need some air!"

The growl he sent towards Eisuke seemed to bounce off him as he just closed his eyes when his old friend walked by. For a short while the lounge that was usually beaming with life was deadly silent.

The last two days had drained strength from all of them for different reasons. While the young CEO tried his best to manage the search without attracting any medial or political attention next to control potential damage by dispersing some of the evidences, Ota successfully recovered from his extreme high and Soryu...well the mobster was doing everything to find the woman. Next to shooing all of his men through the whole city, he himself was constantly searching in all the bars, the parks and wherever she could be.

"He's gone mad! That bastard, he's going to regret that!"

A rasp came out of the angelic artists throat but now there wasn't anything that resembled an angel. Obviously still in pain, he rubbed his throat to ease the feeling of pushing hands around it. He was still constantly muttering under his breath as Eisuke turned his gaze with raised eyebrows.

"… just because of that damn bitch! I should have…"

"Watch what you say Kisaki."

The snapping of the CEO made the artist look up puzzled as if he wouldn't trust his ears but the intense gaze made him realize that this was real.

"If you say something like that again, prepare to take the consequences. I won't save your ass next time. And now, fuck off and get those cameras installed!"


Authors Note:

I'm back, little mad folks.
I need to apologize since I haven't updated this story for a long time but I want to finish it for all of you. Also, I want to thank everyone, who's still following.
To make it up, at least a little, I'm going to post two more chapters in the next days.