A/N: Sorry for the major delay! Had a bit of writer's block going into this chapter...to the point I ended up making it a little bit short. Next chapter will be a bit longer. Hopefully.

I might or might not post next week...it all depends how the writing goes. But don't worry, I will try my best. See you next time.

27 / Corpse-explaining

Yugiri was a bit concerned upon noticing Sakura's clothes dripping wet and her makeup all but gone from her pretty face; her concern doubled upon seeing the stranger upon Genji's shoulder. Standing next to the courtesan, grumbling to herself, was Saki, who was already slapping her forehead with one of her hands.

"Sakura...what the fuck…?"

Sakura shrugged. "He was drowning…"

"Only because of you," Genji commented before unceremoniously dropping Renoir to the floor. Junko and Lily flinched at the small thud sound the young man made upon impact.

"Genji!"

"What? He's fine. He's not going to die from that."

Yugiri moved a bit towards Sakura, glancing at the young man. Ah. She recognized him. It was that boy that had headbutted that annoying young man. "Oh, did it happen again?" Genji looked at her for a few seconds, chuckled and nodded.

"He did. We lost our groceries. Had a run around the same street for ten minutes. Fell into a canal. Oh, and he thought Sakura was drowning and that's how we got into this mess in the first place." Yugiri nodded.

Poor boy. His noble actions had caused him quite the scare.

"Wait, wait…" Ai began, raising a hand, "Did he...did he see you losing your makeup!?" Nearby, Tae was kneeling over Renoir, staring at him for a few seconds before beginning to poke him on the stomach.

"...yeah…"

Everyone was silent as Tae kept on poking the unconscious body by their feet.

Sakura sighed and shook her head. "I guess...I guess we should just tell him…" Saki was in front of her, already glaring.

"No way in hell, girl! Your bro here is the exception. If you thinkー"

"We can't just go on pretending this didn't happen," Sakura interrupts. "You want him to go crazy the next time he sees me? He saw Number One falling into a canal and then, he saw a corpse. You think he'll just chalk it up as a dream?" Saki crossed her arms.

"That other asshole hasn't come calling...so why's this moron any different!?"

"Because that other asshole," Sakura said, her eyes resolute, "didn't get a chance to see his handiwork before Yugiri hit him and Kotaro knocked him out." Genji raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing as Saki groaned louder. Ai sighed next to her, seeing Sakura's logic.

"She's...she's got a point...It's possible that the next time he sees Sakura as an idol...he'll flip. We have gotten lucky the last few times…"

"Wait…" Genji intervene, looking from Ai to Sakura, "People have seen you?"

On the ground, Tae had began to poke the unconscious Renoir in the face.

Yugiri nodded. "Accidents, I assure you...but they always witness our decayed state."

"They only catch you without your makeup, huh?" Genji asks, directing the question to Sakura who sighs. "I'm surprised you haven't tripped any of your friends into canals." His sister just shrugs.

"There's not a lot of rocks for me to trip on," she says.

"Hmm…" Genji turned to the others. "Still...this is your call…but be quick about it. He's gonna wake up soon and probably run off the moment he sees the extra six corpses."

Saki lets out a loud sigh, shakes her head and glares at the unconscious Renoir; Tae still poking him in the face. The leader turns to Sakura and nods begrudgingly, "Let's get this over with…"

/…..

Renoir's head began hurting as soon as he opened his eyes; a headache was coming, he was sure. He could already hear ringing in his ears, could feel the palpitations, everything. He felt like he had taken an all-nighter and then dunked his head on cold water to stay awake. He was shaking a bit, clothes sticking to his body like he had been sweating a storm. Renoir cursed internally. Of course, he was going to get sick now.

He blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness. Renoir blinked again. What the..? That's weird. When did he get home…? He remembers going out to get a coffee and then...Renoir's eyes slowly widened as the day's events flooded his mind: the cafe, running into One and her older brother, running into those thugs, falling into a canal...seeing the corpse...seeing One...seeing a corpse...a corpse that was staring straight at him!

Renoir almost screamed when he noticed the decaying body approaching him. Her skin was blue, a bandage on her arm, and a bit on her legs, a few scars on them as well, but it was the scar on her forehead that caught his attention the most. It looked about ready to split her head open and reveal her brains.

"Renoir," the corpse began, but Renoir wasn't having it. He tried to get up, only to feel someone holding unto his collar and then, he opened his mouth to scream. Someone whacked on the back of the head for his trouble. He turned and a pair of blue eyes glared back of him.

"Shut up."

"Genji," the corpse said. "Please don't hurt him. He's scared."

"Of a little girl," Genji retorted, glancing at the terrified Renoir, who was becoming more confused by the minute. The corpse sighed and kneeled by Renoir's feet, making absolutely sure to not make contact as she did so. She smiled, hoping to comfort him in some way or so Renoir thought. He gulped. The corpse sighed again before scratching the back of her head with her bandaged arm.

"Umm...I know you must be a little confused…"

"A little!?" Renoir suddenly interrupted, eyes wide. "A little!? What the…? What is this…!?" He closed his eyes and covered them with his hands for good measure before whispering, "...just a dream...just a bad dream...will be waking up any second nowー" He felt someone remove his hands from his eyes and daring a look, stared at the blue eyes of Genji, who stared back, looking rather bored.

"Sorry to break it to you, pal...this is not a dream, and you'll do well to listen," he nodded towards the corpse, who sighed.

"Renoir…" she said again, but Renoir was shaking his head.

"You...you...are...you're One, right? What the..!? What the heck!?" He tried to drag himself up but Genji held him firm by the collar.

The corpse, One, smiled a bit. Her nervous smile almost looked innocent. Almost.

"It's...ah, well...it's not really a long story," One seemed to think about something before she shook her head. "Well, it's...you might have noticed...I'm...a zombie."

"A zombie!?"

"No, an idol." Genji said, rolling his eyes while One sent him an annoyed look before turning towards Renoir whose jaw was about to literally hit the floor.

"My...my real name is Sakura Minamoto," One, no, Sakura, introduced herself. "And I died eleven years ago."

"What? Hah! If you think I'm going to help you again, think again, Okoba!"

"Uhm...did something happen...?"

"You bet something fucking happened!"

Okoba flinched slightly, moving the phone away from his ear for a few seconds before holding it close again. "Wh-what happened, Yoshi?" Sitting in front of him, Aoi gave the man and his phone an unimpressed look while Takeo tried to make himself smaller on his seat, playing a bit with his food with his chopsticks, unsure of whether to eat or not.

"That's the last time I ever help you, you hear me!?" the man, Yoshi, replied, sounding absolutely livid. "I almost got canned!"

"Bu-but how!? You'll always provided information so why…?"

"It was that new system they installed a few months ago!" Yoshi growled. "Tells the officers if a copy of the reports were printed or emailed...and guess what!? Guess fucking what!? They found out I've been giving a reporter info about a pair of dead kids! If it hadn't been for that detective asshole I wouldn't be in this mess...in fact, I probably shouldn't have listened to you at all!"

"Wait...detective?"

"Some asshole that took interest in a cold case! Fuck him! And fuck you!"

"Yoshi...listen, I…"

"No, Okoba, you listen!" the man yelled, forcing Okoba to flinched again due to the volume. "You're on your own for the rest of the freakin' year! Get it! Hire some other moron!"

"Yoshi...ah, Yoshi…! At least, do you think you can send me to someone else to talk to, this is very important…!"

"Talk to my ass!" And with that, the man on the other end hangs up.

Aoi clears her throat as Okoba sighs and places his phone on the table. "I'm thinking his little snark at the end there won't be of much help in the long run." Takeo makes a great effort to not chuckle at that remark as Okoba shakes his head.

"Yoshi will cool down...this has happened before…" Okoba told her. "But...it can make things really difficult…I figured with Kirishima in the system it would be easy to find an address…"

"Nothing says she's still living there, though," Aoi pointed out. Okoba nodded.

"True...but it can give me an estimate...Kirishima is probably still living in Saga...but where, that is the question."

"What makes you think she's still in Saga?" Takeo asked him, leaning a bit.

"There was a rumor about Dorami making a comeback...I found that out from a blog a few days into my investigation." Okoba explained. "Dorami had been spotted around Karatsu...they had a dispute with another gang...I'm guessing that it was that Korosuke gang...but...something interesting happen." Okoba leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "A bike was found on the foot of Mt. Kagamiyama...destroyed. Someone had jumped off that cliff, there's damage to prove it...but that bike, that bike has no explanation. And apparently, that bike is related to Dorami suddenly disappearing and Korosuke stopping their dispute with the members...at least, according to the blog...I didn't bother to look too much into those little troublemakers…"

Aoi seemed to think about something for a few seconds. "Are you thinking that Nikaido had a run-in with her old gang?" Okoba looked at her, suddenly confused. "You think she might her repeated her little stunt to protect that new Dorami?"

"Umm...what gave you that idea?" the reporter asks her and Aoi shrugs.

"Just throwing a few things out there...no one knows who that bike belongs to?"

Okoba shook his head. "No one. It doesn't have any records. Someone probably bought it off from a scrapyard, did a few modifications here and there. If there's any records, it's probably from its original owner before throwing it away." He sighed again. "Either way...it doesn't get us any closer to Kirishima...but...it gives us a clue…"

"Better than that ass-talk, I'm guessing," Aoi remarked dryly. Takeo chuckled. Okoba sighed and shook his head despite the small smile on his face.

"Well...she's the last piece of this puzzle...if anyone knows Saki...it's her…"