(A/N: It's been a while since I last updated this fic. Been terribly busy lately with work and personal life so future updates will be intermittent. But don't worry, I won't abandon this fic as I'm committed to finishing it 'til the end. Additionally, please be informed that some of the scenes in this chapter are excerpts from the Black Dragons arc of the manga itself so for those who haven't read the manga yet, there will be spoilers for you and it's up to you if you wanna go ahead and be spoiled or just wait for the animated version to come out next year. Without further ado, here is chapter 3 below. Hoping that you'll enjoy this as much as I did when writing it).

Chapter 3

By: Aztec999

They say that when it rains, it pours.

Kazutora vaguely remembered that kind of saying somewhere…but right now it proved its point as he stared blankly at the obituary page section of the newspaper.

He doesn't show any emotion on his face but the slight tremor in his hands indicated the friction of his emotions flooding through his mind and senses.

It was Chifuyu's funeral.

The details of the funeral were indicated on the lower section of the newspaper with minimal information on the paragraph.

Suddenly he found it hard to breathe. Like the air from lungs were punched out of him. They were supposed to take their Toman back.

To save Mikey.

To defeat Kisaki.

And bring back the lost glory of Toman.

But he was just a second late and his world turned upside down again.

Chifuyu who was shot to death.

Kisaki had gotten away. Successfully.

And he's stuck with Takemichi who a wild card was now to him.

He wasn't even sure now how he reached to this kind of situation.

He felt like the other wanted to work with him.

But only because for his own reasons that would probably benefit him.

Nevertheless, did it matter to him now?

What they've currently had was a mere partnership out of a convenient situation.

Just like what he had told to him previously that he doesn't even give a shit about him and he was there to save Chifuyu and not him.

However, why the hell he felt antsy now and Takemichi continued to invade his own thoughts? He felt frustrated with himself for the lack of clear answers that his mind cannot come up with.

"Well, we can go here in Hachijō Island later this afternoon to use my vacation house as a temporary hideout." Takemichi's casual voice interrupted his soliloquies and stared at the map he placed in front of the table.

They're currently hiding in his nondescript flat in Tokyo. To which Takemichi commented bluntly on how it was shabby and lacking of any interesting features. On how his place looked like were straight out of the nine-to-five banking bureaucracy.

God, he wanted to punch the living daylights out of him sometimes.

He was beginning to regret to bail him out of the prison because of the other's high maintenance attitude and lack of tact.

Takemichi just got a taste of extravagant lifestyle and he had this kind of behavior already which made his head throbbed in annoyance.

"You sure we're safe here?" Kazutora looked at the map in askance before narrowing his eyes at him.

"I wouldn't be suggesting it if it's not." Takemichi replied nonchalantly as he plopped on the couch. "This island is one of the most remote islands here in Japan and the only way we can go there is by airplane or by ferry. Using my private jet or any other airline is out of the question as Kisaki might track us easily. So, we go for the ferry just to be safe." He added lightly.

Kazutora repeated his words inside his head, letting it sink before he took a deep breath. He didn't have anything to refute him with as what he said made sense. Also, they can't stay here for longer as there's a great possibility that Kisaki might be able to track them down soon considering on how devious and cunning that man was.

"Fine. Just let me pack my things first and we can get out of here afterwards." Kazutora finally relented and stood up.

"Oh, and make sure that your body is going to be fine once we go inside the ferry. If you're not used to travelling for almost a day through that, I suggest you take a medicine that prevents dizziness and vomiting!" Takemichi replied cheerfully.

Kazutora paused and looked at him with an arched brow. "And why is that?"

"Because the travel will be for more than 10 hours!" Takemichi replied with a wide grin on his face.

"Ah, fuck." Kazutora groaned out in defeat before shaking his head and headed inside his room to take out his backpack and put a few necessary clothes and essentials in there. "How did we even get from here?" He grumbled mostly to himself as he can still hear Takemichi's amused laughter at his wilted expression. The man really did enjoy seeing his suffering. What a sadist.

Kazutora started to pack his belongings inside his backpack, inwardly praying that there'll be no hitch or obstacles that might come their way in getting there.

Takemitchy was a bit antsy on his seat as they waited for the mole to arrive at their meeting place.

He's uncomfortable with teaming up with Kisaki and Hanma but with no other option left, he accepted it even if Chifuyu was against the idea.

They needed Kisaki's strategy and money in gaining an important information on which Taiju will be most likely alone to confront him and probably stopped Hakkai from doing something that he might regret later on.

You might be wondering what the hell happened to him in the last previous days… to which a whirlwind of events were storming back and forth that Takemitchy was closed in pulling his hair out of frustration because of the predicament that they're in.

A riffraff has happened between the Black Dragons and Toman involving Hakkai who is now an ex vice-captain of the 2nd division and his older brother, Taiju who is the current 10th generation leader of Black Dragons.

A conflict of interest that resulted in Mitsuya negotiating with Taiju to let Yuzuha go in exchange for Hakkai leaving the gang.

And how this connects to the current predicament of Takemichi you might ask?

They needed to stop Hakkai from what he was about to do with Taiju… And they needed to confront Taiju themselves without shedding any blood or having anyone die for that matter.

He knew with the current situation of the Shiba siblings, their altercation wasn't a simple case of a misunderstanding between the two brothers.

Because Taiju had been beating his younger siblings even more so with Hakkai for protecting Yuzuha, there would come a time that it might lead something more horrific or even worse…

…

Takemitchy didn't want to think about it but he remembered Hakkai in the bad future that he saw when he was one of the Toman admins.

He was far from the Hakkai that he knew now.

And he needed to prevent that from happening.

He needed to stop Hakkai from killing Taiju altogether.

Even if it required teaming up with Kisaki and Hanma to get him the results no matter how much he despised these two.

"Hanagaki would you stop fidgeting? He will be here on time. We're just early for 10 minutes." Kisaki pointed as he rolled his eyes at him.

"I'm not!" Takemitchy instantly denied. "It's just damn too loud in here." He tried not to grouch like a child but with the constant flickering of lights and the boisterous crowd on the dancefloor, he realized that bars were still his least favorite places because of how noisy it was.

"Is this too much for you Takemitchy? Would you want me to tuck you like a little kid in bed?" Hanma drawled out as he shot him a playful grin to his direction which made his hackles rose.

"Oi. Shut up. Stop picking on my partner you idiot." Chifuyu glared at Hanma which made the other grin wider at them.

Before their argument could blow out into another proportion once again, another voice popped out of nowhere and it caught their attention.

"You're all too early." He was a normal looking guy but his eyes darted to and from as if he was looking for something.

"We hate wasting time." Kisaki replied simply as he watched the guy sit down on the opposite side of them. The bundle of cash inside the envelope were peeking out from the opening as it was placed on his spot.

"Make sure nobody knows about this. Because if this gets out, I'm good as dead." The guy replied seriously.

'So, this guy's the mole…' Takemitchy thought inwardly as he observed him in silence.

"Don't worry. Nobody here's gonna rat you out. So, do you know?" Kisaki asked.

"Yeah. You wanna know the boss' movements?" The guy confirmed.

"Taiju's movements?" Chifuyu perked up at the piece of information.

"Yeah. If we wanna beat the Black Dragon, we need info on Taiju. What he does on a typical day. Where he is, what he's doing and at what time." Kisaki replied calmly.

"I'm one of the boss' assistants, so I'm familiar with most of that…" The mole replied casually.

"Oh, I see." Realization dawned on Takemitchy's face. "Knowing your enemy's moves, makes them easy to defeat right?" Takemichi was still mulling on that line of information when they heard some approaching footsteps and the familiar voice made him paused and looked up only to blink back a few times and stared out in shock.

"What's goin' on? Smells like a rat in here." He held a foxy grin and his eyes glinted sharply as he looked at the people in front of him.

"Koko-kun?!" The mole stared at him in shock and fear.

Kisaki looked annoyed while Hanma remained unruffled and still sported that infuriating smirk on his face.

"The hell? We're already busted?" A bead of sweat formed on Chifuyu's temples as he stared at Koko who had a smug expression on his face.

Takemitchy was closed to combusting and panicking as he watched the mole pleaded for his life while being dragged away by the members of the Black Dragons.

Fuck.

Did he make a wrong decision in forming a temporary truce with Kisaki and Hanma?

"For 100,000, I'll tell you bastards what you wanna know." Koko's statement jolted him out of his spiraling thoughts and stared at him in bewilderment as he accepted the bundles of cash from Kisaki.

What the fuck.

Takemitchy could only listen in shock and confusion as Koko easily handed the piece of information to them that was needed for their own mission, a slight disbelief coloring his features.

The conversation was almost over and Koko was about to leave when Takemitchy voiced out his thoughts.

"Why are you betraying Taiju-kun?"

Koko paused and glanced at him noncommittally. "I just like strong guys, that's all. If you wanna know more… That will be another 100,000." He replied with a smirk on his face before he completely left them in the room.

Takemitchy could only watch him go before he finally faced Kisaki, Hanma and Chifuyu.

He guessed that the four of them can stop Hakkai and defeat Taiju.

"Christmas night is when we'll have our decisive battle in secret." Kisaki stated.

Takemitchy's guard was still up but he needed to take the opportunity when it was presented to him.

Nevertheless, Takemitchy can't stop thinking on what Kisaki's next move was and what's he got up on his sleeve this time.

The strange lull of the ferry made Kazutora shifted slightly on his bed inside their cabin.

Takemichi was right.

This ferry was like a swing set to hell. The gentle waves of the ocean made the ferry creaked every now and then which distracted him from getting some peaceful sleep. He should've taken the pill earlier and not just now. The effects of the medicine didn't take effect on his body immediately and he'd already felt his world spinning and spinning around.

"Damn it." He cursed lowly as he took a deep breath and opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling blankly.

He didn't know how much time had passed but he knew that they weren't even nearer there if judging by the looks outside the window.

He surmised that they'll probably reach the shore late in the evening or almost midnight.

Kazutora didn't have much experienced in going outside Shibuya nor in Tokyo. But he was expecting at the very least that he'll have a vacation in the other parts of Japan normally and not in these kinds of circumstances.

Nevertheless, he shouldn't feel any regrets or any other stupid emotions now that would derail him from his goal. He needed to get to the heart of the matter and discuss his plans with Takemichi.

Whether he like it or not he was his only reliable ally. For now. And his connections and money were useful in the grand scheme of things that they were about to do.

If they wanted to defeat Kisaki and take Toman from his hands, they needed useful and convenient resources to do so.

But damn it.

The guy himself was hard to corner sometimes.

He was always going out from God knows where and he'd come back much, much later at night or even the next day.

He confronted him about it the other day and Takemichi just brushed him away with a casual laughter and remarks that if he wanted him dead, he should've betrayed him from the beginning so he didn't need to worry because he was on his side. It pacified him for a bit but it didn't help matters as they couldn't even talk properly for more than a minute without him wanting to strangle him because of how obnoxious he was sometimes.

Once they get to his damn vacation house, he would talk to him.

They needed to discuss their course of action soon before Kisaki got to them first.

It was already 2AM when they reached their destination.

Takemichi wasn't kidding when he said that his vacation house was in a secluded area of the island as they had to trek in a damn forest for almost 45 minutes with only a mini flashlight on that served as their source of light.

He's tired. He's starving. And he was tempted to throw a damn tantrum in the middle of their fucking hike.

"There better be damn food in your fridge once we get there." Kazutora groused as he felt his stomach roiling in hunger.

"Don't worry Tora-kun, there'll be more than food for you once we get there." Takemichi replied lightly as he took a few more steps and finally stopped.

"And here we are!" He intoned cheerfully as he pointed his mini flashlight in front of a 2-story house which were made with red bricks.

Kazutora paused and squinted his eyes to look at the structure in front of them.

It was a vacation house.

But with the darkness surrounding them and only a faint light giving out the features of it, Kazutora couldn't precisely described on what it really looked like except that it has windows and the bricks glistened like they were being cleaned and maintained.

"Fucking finally. Now let's get inside before I pass out from the cold and hunger." Kazutora grumbled out as he motioned for the other to resume his walking and open the door with his keys. Takemichi hummed in response and proceeded to do so before he stopped in front of the front door and fished out his keys from his pockets.

He inserted his keys inside the keyhole and turned on the knob to open. Upon getting inside, he turned on the lights to reveal the surroundings of his vacation house.

Kazutora followed suit and he couldn't help but to let out a low whistle when his eyes finally roamed around the house.

It looked damn luxurious and extravagant.

Kazutora could only dream on getting inside a house like this.

Or rather a mansion because of how big and lavish it was.

The interior was magnificent, featuring vaulted ceilings and wide picture windows overlooking the whole island. He surmised that the view will be gorgeous and picturesque during the day because they will probably be greeted with the spectacular views of the mountains and valleys of the island.

The living room was characterized by ivory marbles and tabletop with sleek interiors and a heated timber floor.

Kazutora continued walking as if he was in awe of the place. He passed by what he could only think of as the entertainment room, as he could see a huge, white flat-panel TV hanging on the wall with an impressive DVD and book library. And was that a PS4 and XBOX 360? Fuck. It was really an entertainment room as his guests won't be bored around here.

"The dining area is on the left side of the house Tora-kun. Feel free to get some food in the fridge or even cook if you want to. I'll just put my things in my room." Takemichi's voice rang out from somewhere around the house.

"Okay." He replied as he was still distracted by the beauty and extravagance of this place when his stomach roiled down again making him sigh in defeat.

"I guess I really need to eat before I explore this place." He mumbled as he ventured towards the dining area. He saw the fridge and immediately opened it which made his eyes almost bugged out of his sockets.

"Fuck. He's really loaded alright…" He breathed out as it was fully stocked with chocolates, chips, fruits, vegetables, eggs, sodas, breads, milks, meats, and beers. He could only fantasize these kinds of foods in his wildest dreams.

And most of them were imported.

Damn.

Kazutora didn't waste his time as he grabbed some loaves of bread and the jar of Nutella and placed it on the table. He also took some beers because fuck he really needed to have a breather after that exhausting travel and trek before they got here.

He was already midway in eating when he paused as felt someone's presence getting inside.

He looked up to see Takemichi standing in the doorway with a weird expression on his face.

Kazutora resisted the urge to let out a deep sigh as he watched Takemichi standing there like a statue.

He just wanted to eat in peace damn it.

"Why're you standing there Takemichi? If you're hungry then just go here and eat." He scoffed lightly.

"Kazutora-kun…?" His tone was a bit unsure and he blinked at him a few times.

Somewhere from the back of Kazutora's mind, he knew something was wrong when he heard the uncertainty in his voice and he was inwardly hoping that he won't have to deal with another problematic shit while he was still eating his damn food.