Disclaimer: Not my story, not my characters, you know the drill. This is a fanwork for fan purposes only, please support the original release.
This chapter is brought to you by PhD writer's block. Can whomever placed the curse on me, please, give me a reprieve so I don't feel like a useless pos getting into the weekend?
Takarada Lori did not shout.
Takarada Lori did not lose his temper.
He was easy-going and reliable, and he did right by his talents, which is why he could run the company he did without resorting to any despotic behavior. It was part of the deal and people were more than happy to accept it.
Which was why his staff - sans Jelly Woods - scattered like flies when his voice rang all over the top floor.
"DAMN IT, KUU, YOU TOLD ME YOU TRUSTED HER!"
Kyoko, coming up from the stairs, had to flatten herself against the wall to avoid the stampede. Her heart was in her throat - from the climb, from the news, from nerves and worry - and, had it not been her determination to see the President, she would have turned around and ran with everyone else.
Even now, listening to her boss launch into a diatribe from the other side of the corridor, she wanted to make herself as small as possible, to disappear. But the thought kept knocking around her head, over and over and over again.
Hizuri Kuon was on the Black Jack set. Hizuri Kuon is back with his parents. Hizuri Kuon…
She clutched her mobile phone harder, before flipping open the screen to take one more look at the photo. It hadn't changed. The features were still the same.
Hizuri Kuon.
Ren.
She pushed herself off the wall, and, on shaky legs, started walking towards Lori's office.
"Boss, I swear to God, I don't know how this happened!"
In other circumstances, it would have been funny. Even now, papers would have paid good money to see Kuu - Kuu the unflappable, Black-Hole Stomach Kuu - sound like a flustered debutante. But the President was not in a laughing mood. Every phone in the building was ringing, and he had a mess on his hands.
And why? Because Julie couldn't wait one more day for her precious baby to be home again.
"She told me she was in the hospital all day," Kuu went on. From the other side of the line, there were signs of pacing, someone going back and forth into a very small room. "The nurses were supposed to follow her everywhere. I didn't know she'd left the building, let alone that she was giving exclusives to a reporter."
"Paparazzi weren't invented yesterday. You and Julie know that well enough to be on your guard," Lori snapped.
Shameful silence. Because, really, there was no answer to that. Letting your guard down, flapping your mouth - it was the sort of thing you would expect from a newbie, not two of the most successful people he had ever worked with.
"What I want to know," Lori went on, when Kuu didn't speak, "Is why she felt like she had to blow his cover. Why, after so many years, did she suddenly start talking about his projects?"
"Boss…" Kuu groaned. "Boss, I don't know. I honestly don't."
More silence. "I read the article, though. She didn't say he was Tsuruga Ren. Just that he was on the set of that movie - and he was in triple disguise then."
"Right, because it's not like we had a reason to do that, too."
"He wanted to make a career for himself," Kuu said. "He wanted to make us proud without relying on our names and reputation. He wouldn't even come see us until he was sure he was a good enough actor to stand on his own ground. Julie always thought that…"
"That what? He would shrug off the disguise as soon as he achieved those goals? That he would build up a life, only to discard it and run back? She knows better, Kuu. So do you."
A long, drawn out sigh. Lori wondered where Ren was - if he had access to the news at all, in this remote clinic for the rich and famous - and if he did, what sorts of things was he going through. "Does he know?" Lori asked.
"He's seen the original article," Kuu said, slowly. "He was annoyed with his mother, but they were prepping her for surgery, and it didn't seem like the time to argue. He… he doesn't know the news has reached Japan. Neither did I, until you called."
"Well, it's here now, and my phones are already blowing up." They'd done their best in creating Cain Heel, with his fictional background and fictional sister, but the hotel room had been paid through LME, as had the expenses, makeup, and repair costs (after Ren's tussles with Murasame on set). Had it been any other movie - any other circumstance, Kuu would have been correct to assume the news wouldn't travel past their own American circle of friends, and whatever the tabloid's circulation had been. But when the Japanese papers had caught wind that Kuon - who had the reputation of being a mediocre actor at best - had starred in a major local production, that had gotten the questions going.
And wasn't Black Jack also that set where they kept breaking up fights between the actors?
And wasn't one of those actors accused of possession?
And didn't it turn out that another actor had set him up?
Well.
There was your perfect storm in the making.
"Boss," Kuu said, "Boss, I'm so sorry. I thought… Julie said all the secrecy would be bad, that it tied everyone's hands. She thought Kuon wasn't allowed to speak for himself, and that playing so many roles would end up badly for him. I never assumed she would actually undertake something like that."
Lori sighed. The truly sad part was, Julie was right, but her actions had come too late - by the time she'd had her interview, Kyoko had returned and had leveraged her own Kyoko magic for Ren's benefit - getting him out of trouble and back on track to finish the production in time. All for the sake of his return home. Had she just been a little more patient, all of this could have been avoided.
"You need to tell him everything," Lori said, at length. "And then all of you - and I mean it, all of you - need to lay low. Put away the electronics, stay away from the windows, meditate, count sheep - whatever you do, do not make any statements before we figure out how to handle this."
There was a knock on the door. Lori turned to tell off whomever had come in, then stopped as soon as he recognized Kyoko. She looked pale as death - he didn't need to know why she was here.
The sight made him even more furious - and he didn't even realize this was possible.
Kuu was talking again - something about Ren not liking this. Well, it was a shame - the younger Hizuri would have to find a way to deal with his temper tantrum all by himself.
"I don't care what you have to do to make it happen," Lori said, his voice cold. "But you both need to step it up. This is not just about your family, Kuu." And then he added, in a lower tone. "Not anymore."
They were gathered in less than an hour - her boss, her friends, and Kyoko. Kyoko, who, aside from asking if it was true, hadn't uttered a word since her arrival.
She didn't know what she expected to happen - maybe that Lori would reassure her everything was alright, that it was all a giant misunderstanding - but of all the times she'd wished she had been wrong, this was the nightmare that had to turn out to be true.
Lori had looked miserable when he'd confirmed her fears - and then, in a voice so gentle, it broke her heart, said: "Mogami-san… I'm sorry to drive you away from your duties, but I will need you to stay with me for a while."
As if she could go to work, ask people to "love her!" after what she'd just learned.
Numbly, she'd handed him her phone. Then the two had sat in silence, watching as the minutes ticked by, lost in their own private world of misery.
Only once more did Takarada speak in their time alone together. Only once.
"You and Ren. You became intimate recently, did you not?"
Kyoko had opened her mouth to answer, and found it difficult to breathe. Hanging her head in shame, she prepared to receive a scolding. But all Lori had done was say, gently, "I suspected as much." Then, "I'm sorry, Mogami-san. I'm so sorry."
She'd wanted to say that she was the one who was sorry - that it was all her fault, her and her stupid new confidence, but the stupid lump in her throat didn't let her. And then the others had started to arrive, and she had to put all her energy into not breaking down.
At least they didn't send her off home, or to another anonymous hotel.
She would not have lived down that humiliation.
Yashiro was there first, phone at his ear and his address book out. As soon as she saw him, she wanted to scream - his presence surely being an indicator that someone else had connected Kuon with Ren - but to her shock, he was busy rearranging her schedule, not his own. Box-R, Dark Moon promotion interviews, that new movie she'd gotten the call for, even Bo - he was canceling her gigs one after the other and telling anybody who had an issue where to go.
"Mogami-san is very sorry to have to miss this," Yashiro was saying, "and she hopes you will accept her apologies. But you know yourself that people get sick. Yes. Goodbye." He paused and gave her a wan smile. "You are now officially laid out with a strip throat. If anybody asks, just pretend you can't speak, okay?"
She liked the sound of that. She could imagine it very easily.
Kanae and Chiori were in next, their own day having been freed up under the pretense of a "Love Me!" emergency meeting, courtesy of the President. For his part, Lori had gone over the entire floor, disconnecting the stationary phones and ordering the entire company to go on a "no comment" answering mode if anybody so much as breathed the word "Hizuri". Jelly Woods had come in briefly to give her a hug, before heading off for supplies - being the least conspicuous of the lot, she was the one who had been charged with the supermarket run.
Kyoko thought that was all of the troops gathered, but then Kato-san had come through the door. "You know," he'd said, looking around the room, "for a company trying to contain a PR leak, you're doing a very good job of showing you have everything to hide."
Yashiro, who was drinking water at the time, did a spit take worthy of the movies. Takarada, Chiori, and Kanae had given him the same murderous look.
Kato-san ignored them and went straight to Kyoko. She welcomed him stiffly, and then, not knowing where the impulse had come from, had also reached out and given him a hug.
"I'm sorry that you're dealing with this," he said, sounding a little bit choked up. "Let's see what can be done about it, shall we?"
"There is very little that can be done," Kanae replied, her voice low and menacing. Kyoko turned to tell her it was alright, that Kato-san had been very helpful in the past, but her friend wasn't speaking to him. She was speaking to Takarada. "After all, we can only react, can't we? Until the papers start asking questions, anything we say can backfire on us."
"Silence can backfire, too," Chiori said. "If we wait for too long, they can come up with any story they like to fill the vacuum."
"For now, they don't have much," Yashiro said, wiping his mouth and coughing one last time before picking up his phone again. The little device was flashing ominously, even with his gloves on. "They've guessed Kuon is Cain Heel, and that he had taken up the disguise to avoid any charges of nepotism. Director Konoe has agreed to withhold comment until we're ready, but you can tell, he's not happy about this publicity."
"Neither are we, but we'll make do," Takarada said. "What about the cast? Can we trust that they'll be discreet?"
"He vouched for all of them."
"Not for Murasame," Kyoko said. She hated how weak she sounded. Everyone turned to face her, and she almost broke down in tears again. "He was fired for what he did. The reporters will be talking to him."
"Murasame has gang affiliations. Moreover, he tried to frame someone for possession just because he didn't like them. He has all the credibility of a blowfly," Lori said.
"A blowfly can cause a great deal of damage in the right place," Kato-san interjected. Kyoko was still holding onto his hand. "What sort of drug did he try to plant, if I may ask?"
"What difference does that make?" Yashiro asked. Ren's manager (former manager? Kyoko didn't even know anymore) was looking at Kato-san as if he didn't know whether to welcome or strangle him. "Drugs are drugs, they're equally bad."
Kato-san was undeterred. "Was it weed? Crystal meth? Molly?"
Her head spun with each word - both because of the thing itself, and how easily her "accountant" said each.
"Cocaine," Takarada said. "Enough for the police to consider charging him with intent to distribute."
"Ah, I see. I can work with that."
Chiori looked like she might keel over in shock. Yashiro nearly did. But it was Kanae who asked: "Okay, what is this about and how does it help this situation at all?"
Kato-san looked around. Kyoko asked if he could sit down. Only when he was comfortable did he say, "It's true, drugs are equally bad to the police in Japan. But some substances are under stricter control than others. The Yakuza clans have agreements among themselves - no encroaching on each other's territory, and no mainlining of hard drugs - cocaine, heroine - under any circumstances." He looked around the room, as if surprised nobody else knew that information. "Surely, in showbiz, you've had to deal with something like this?"
"Not with hard drugs," Lori admitted. "And it doesn't happen very often."
"You are lucky indeed, for your talents to be so happy," Kato-san said, bowing slightly. "I hope my less fortunate experience is of use. There is a reason why the Yakuza stay away from the hard drugs - they attract too much attention. Too much persecutory zeal from police and politicians - it isn't good for business. This Murasame fellow, he brags about being in a gang - I don't suppose he's been stupid enough to mention their names to anybody?"
As it happened, he had - Kyoko had overheard him on the Black Jack set. Kato-san noted down the name, then got his own phone out.
Lori found his voice in time to ask what he was planning to do.
The "accountant" let out a rare smile. "Hard drugs aren't easy to come by, even in small quantities. He planted enough to raise alarms with the police - not just possession, but also intent to distribute. Someone, somewhere is going against the grain, and their bosses will want to know who that is. My take is that Murasame-kun will soon be too busy to talk to any reporters - if he isn't already."
Across the ocean, many time zones away, two men sat. And waited.
Both were blond and well-built. Both had shockingly blue eyes. And, despite the efforts made to cheer the room up - make it look chic and polished for their clientele - they were both markedly uncomfortable.
Every now and again, the older man glanced up, opening his mouth to speak. Every time, the look on Kuon's face made him stop.
What could he say? What could he possibly say to make this better?
I'm sorry seemed weak. This will pass sounded insincere and patronizing - even if he was his father.
You will see her soon, would have probably helped, but it wasn't a promise he could make, and it seemed cruel to bring it up unless he could absolutely guarantee it.
Finally, he settled on, "You've changed."
Then he immediately regretted it. Of course he'd changed - they all changed. Of all the stupid, asinine…
"In what way?"
His voice. His son's voice. He was so glad to see it coming out of his mouth - and not that of some stranger. Kuu never wanted to admit it, but looking at Tsuruga Ren was a little vertigo-inducing. He sounded like Kuon, walked and stood like Kuon, but his face was all wrong, and his expressions were as cold as the Arctic.
Yet, he didn't behave like Kuon, and that was what had started this conversation in the first place.
"You're here," Kuu said at length. "You're doing what Boss asked us to do."
He'd learned patience. No - Kuu corrected himself, noticing how his son's fists clenched - no, not patience, necessarily, but restraint.
It's not just about your family, not anymore.
Lori's parting words made him burn with shame. Of course, it wasn't just about them. There was another person in Kuon's life, another person who made him want to reign in his emotions far more effectively than his mother and father combined.
"She'll be alright," Kuu said.
"The best specialists in the country are operating on her," came the reply. "She has better chances than nearly any other woman in her condition."
"My Julie is a fighter," he acknowledged. "But I wasn't talking about her this time."
Kuon seemed to deflate. His big, strong boy suddenly seemed two feet tall.
"Kyoko has survived a lot," Kuu went on. "She's intelligent and resilient, and she has Boss and everyone else looking out for her. "Even if someone figures out that the two of you are together, she's not going to let the press browbeat her."
That only seemed to depress him further. Kuu scrambled for foothold.
"Listen, you're both adults. You could be married if you wanted to. She's beautiful and talented and strong and she already calls me Otou-san. There is nothing stopping you from being happy aside when all of this is finished."
"That's the thing," Kuon admitted. "I don't know if there will be an us left after this is finished."
"Don't be ridiculous," Kuu said. "You treat her like a lady, don't you? You take her on dates and hold her hand and make sure she's happy and comfortable and…" He paused dramatically, "Please don't tell me you were selfish in bed."
That got him an indignant look. Unfortunately, it was ruined when Kuon blushed like a tomato. "Of course I wasn't selfish. I would never… I wouldn't. Not with her." Then he hung his head again. "But…"
"But?"
"But I don't know if she will have me after all of this was sprung on her like that. It finally felt like she was accepting me - accepting we're on equal footing - and then this happened."
Kuu sighed, and wondered what a wiser father would say in a case like this. He'd met Julie when both of them were on top of their respective careers - which had come with complications of their own, but there was never any doubt that the two were equals. His son and Kyoko - both pathologically self-effacing, believing they did not deserve happiness - were about to enter a hellscape where every media outlet screamed their worst fears at them.
"Listen, I know it's tough to think about," he said, even though he didn't know anything. "But you need to remember, she accepted you. You were happy together. Hold onto that, if nothing else, and let it carry you through."
Kuon hung his head. "I don't know if she will accept me," he said.
"She already has."
"No." He stood and paced the room. "I… I didn't tell her everything."
Kuu went still. "Which parts of 'everything' did you not tell her?" he asked, even though he knew, in his heart of hearts, what that was. He knew his son, after all. He knew him all too well.
Kuon knew too, and the shame just rolled off him as he said, "She didn't know my true name. Or who you are."
Kuu sat back, hands on knees. And said, "Son… that was stupid indeed."
A/N Kato-san's knowledge of the Yakuza comes from my reading of crime novels set in Japan, and therefore is most likely not very accurate. I don't know how reliable a source Steve Bein is so please don't take any of this as actual fact.
On the flipside I needed the release of writing this chapter. If you can redirect any thoughts encouraging my PhD to progress... please and thank you.