Pairings: BernardoXGian, IvanXGian, LuchinoXGian, GiulioXGian, AobaXClear, AobaXVirusXTrip, AobaXRen, AobaXKoujaku, AobaXNoiz, AobaXBakshi, VirusXTripXGian, AobaXGian
Warning: Contains minor hints of rape, violence, extreme swearing and heavy scenes of smut.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dramatical Murder or Lucky Dog 1. All rights go to the respectful owners
Chapter 25 - Sorrowful
Since the storm from last night had rolled through, parts of the streets were covered with puddles from its rainfall. Although there was a cool breeze compared to the other day before the storm, the sun made sure into heating things up quickly. Gian and Giulio had just finished talking with some of the shop owners that they had been visiting.
If anyone had seen the blue haired man, they might have been willing to talk if they waved a few bucks in their faces. But because the storm had darkened the skies that night, not even the lamps were able to shed any light at that time. In short, they had hit a bit of a wall with witnesses. Only one woman who had been working until late cleaning the shop, came forward saying she saw a dark figure run past and only caught a glimpse of the man's hair but swore that it was blue.
It was the only lead to go on but it was better than having nothing at all. Gian handed the promised money into the eager woman's hand and walked out of the store, pulling out a small pack of gum. Giulio, who had been looking around for a while now, finally focused his attention to Gian.
"Signor Gian..." His soft voice reached Gian's ears but the man did not respond and instead was busy looking up into the partly cloudy sky.
Giulio looked around again scanning the area and scoping out for any evidence left behind by Aoba. The woman had claimed the man had run past her store in a hurry and despite being so quick, she was supposedly able to make out the man's hair. But if he was running so quickly, surely something must have fallen.
"She's not totally lying...but she tried saying she was the owner just to get more pocket money." Gian suddenly spoke out. He stopped looking at the sky and then looked around like Giulio had been doing.
He walked around a bit and looked closely at the side of the curb to where the sidewalk met the pavement of the street. Most of it was lined with water from the rain while other parts were somewhat dry. It was at a part of a drain where he saw a few strands of blue hair.
One would say that such things weren't possible but for Gian Carlo, his luck had yet to prove himself wrong and that nobody could possibly be so lucky. But because his nickname was "Lucky Dog" for a reason, it was entirely possible for him.
"Oi, Giulio...look!" Gian pointed excitedly at the drain and then at a bit of skid marks that looked like it had come from the tires of a car. It was past the shop but it was obvious that somebody had came and picked him up.
Despite the streets being wet, it did not stop the car from making its tracks if even for a tiny bit. It was faint but it was there. Gian Carlo smiled widely and picked up the wet and blue strands of hair that they had found. "That's that! Let's head home for the day, Giulio."
The body guard who was an underling and a soldier working under Giulio, had been standing and waiting against a fancy black car that would take them back to their hotel. Gian got in after the man opened the car door followed closely by Giulio.
Still smiling triumphantly over their discovery, Gian wrapped the hair around his finger. "Signor Gian, if you ask me to, I can go and find them and end this now." Giulio said quietly.
Giulio's nickname among the other gangs of Daivan were also not just for show but because he truly was a "Mad Dog". He was unfortunately a man who liked to kill a little too much and for that reason, Gian had usually accompanied the man so that he would not go too overboard with the murders.
For one reason or another, Giulio had listened to everything he said and never disobeyed him since as long as he had known him for and it did not have anything to do with him being the next boss. "We can't. It might show the G.D. aggression and obviously we can't have that, can we?" Gian was not a hundred percent sure that the G.D. would really see this as an act of aggression but he did not want to take any chances.
He left that sort of thing to Bernardo and Luchino as they had the most experience with the G.D. and their way of thinking. Ivan too, knew the way they worked and how they thought when it came to dealing with other gangs as he used to be a part of them at once upon a time.
Besides, Giulio already had a bad rep with the enemy gangs and was pretty much feared throughout the city which was why Gian couldn't see any reason for letting him run wild. He was however, hoping to find a member of the G.D. who would be scared enough to spill what he knew about their newest Yankees.
They had gotten intel from Noiz and Aoba about the men but they did not know how exactly deep in the Mafia they had been versed in. "Signor Gian?" Giulio had noticed that he had been in deep thought. Gian snapped himself out of thinking and reassured the man with another smile.
"I'm fine, I'm fine! Just thinking some more about our special guest. Or I guess the right term would be 'guests'. When we get back, Giulio, we'll drop this evidence off and pick up the new guy. He helped you before, right?" At first, Giulio looked like he was confused about who he could be talking about and then had a look of remembering something.
Giulio nodded. "Yes. He was with me in taking a portion of our territory back just a few days ago." His facial expression changed back to that of being confused.
"But, Signor Gian...I thought that guests were not supposed to be caught up in our mess?" Giulio asked him.
"True. But this is partially their fault we're fighting roughly again with them so they should partake in this problem. They look like they can fight, don't ya think, Giulio?" Gian took his gum that he was chewing, out of his mouth and stuck it inside of an ashtray that was built into the car door.
The car soon pulled up to the hotel driveway and both the men got out on either side of the car, opening their doors almost in unison. Greeting them with a somewhat happy look were Ivan and Luchino along with Clear and Koujaku.
Ivan seemed to have been shooting a glare in Giulio's direction but Gian thought that he must have been seeing things and bounced up to the man with a happy stride disregarding the stares from both Giulio and Luchino. "Mister Fiore~! We've returned!" To hear Gian saying 'Mister' to him in front of everyone made his face turn beet red.
"S-S-Stupid! I'm younger than you!" Ivan expressed as Gian left his side to go up to Koujaku and held up his index finger and thumb.
He was pinching what looked to be like hair but under the ray of sunlight, was a twinge of blue. "Master's!" Clear recognized the strand as Aoba's right away while Koujaku looked like he was still processing the view.
"I'm surprised that even his hair can fall out..."Koujaku said as Gian unwrapped the strands and carefully placed them into Koujaku's hands.
"A memento for until we get him back." Clear balled his hands into fists. All of them watched as Koujaku held onto the hairs without saying anything in return. Not even a thanks.
"Hey. Come here." Luchino and Giulio had to watch as Ivan began to treat Gian as if he were a woman who had returned from a long day at work.
"Hm? You got a fever or something, you're face is red." Gian stated and went back up to Ivan, searching the man's eyes like he had caught the man lying about something.
Ivan didn't say anything and instead looked from both Giulio to Luchino and then back down at Gian. He hated being watched by the other guys when trying to do something private between him and Gian.
"I think it's because Bernardo told him not to go any farther than his regular work hours. He thinks the G.D. might be planning to use this new opportunity to claim some of our land." Luchino came to Ivan's aid and helped in to distracting Gian's mind.
Gian pulled out a cigarette from the cigarette pack in his pocket and lit it up, walking between the small group. He led the rest of them back inside despite Ivan's protests on how he wanted to speak with him about something. As they went inside the hotel, a teen girl that looked to be around 14-15 came running up to them without a care. Her long brown hair that had been braided on either side of her head, flapped behind her as she ran toward them, aiming for Gian Carlo.
The girl laughed happily while catching them off guard since she came out of nowhere. She hugged the man tightly, stopping him from walking any further. "Ah. I also forgot to mention...Cavalli's granddaughter stopped by for a visit. We did try to tell her you were both busy but..." Luchino stopped talking as the little girl hugged both Gian and then Ivan shortly after.
By 'both', Luchino had been talking about Ivan and Gian as they were the only ones she seemed quite attached to when it came to greeting them. Seeing that the CR-5 was her grandfather's home, she usually stopped by before or after her school hours to visit Ivan but later on, grew into her visiting Gian as well.
"R-Rosalie?" Gian quickly put his cigarette out by snapping it in half and tried to crumple it in his hand while Ivan began to tug at the girl as she held onto Gian with a strong force.
"Hey! You're supposed to be at school by now!" Ivan expressed his anger by pulling Rosalie's shoulder but the girl wasn't budging from the spot.
"Welcome back, Mr. Gian!" The girl finally let go and then held Ivan's hand.
"Come, Giulio. We should let the odd couple be and show these two to their room." Luchino chuckled and left the men behind with the girl as Koujaku and Clear followed them back to the room.
Ivan's shouting could be heard through out the lower floor.
Once they arrived to the floor, Clear dashed out of the elevator first and raced to the room's door. Koujaku slumped his shoulders as though he had just got beaten at a game. It had only been part of the morning since Aoba was last seen leaving the hotel last night and both Clear and Koujaku were having a hard time coming to accept the fact that he was not there.
"I will report our finding to Bernardo." Giulio stated and naturally left the group to visit the man in his study. Luchino and Koujaku watched as Clear entered the room as though it were haunted, watching him cautiously step in.
The room, despite the morning light shining through the window, was darkened by most of the shadows. Ren, who had still been fast asleep during most of the morning, had only woken up to eat in bed. Luchino stayed on the outside of the room while Clear was busy tracing the bottom frame of the bed at the end where Ren's feet were.
Koujaku also went in and sat down at the table, opening his hand that still held the strands of hair. Beni, who had been resting his eyes in a sort of sleep state, came alive when he felt something touch his back. Koujaku had stroked him to wake up and to let him know he had come back.
"That's..." Beni said as he saw what his owner was holding in his hand. The man could only nod in response.
Beni flapped himself up into the air and flew quickly to the floor. Koujaku's cloth-wrapped sword had been resting up against the rim where the wall and floor met and had been there since last night.
The bird tugged at the cloth indicating that he should put the hairs in the cloth somehow. Koujaku got up from the chair and pulled out an empty cigarette pack from his robes. He had not smoked since leaving the island and at times he was fighting the urge to have one what with being around the other men who did smoke.
He stuck the hairs inside the box and then placed the box next to his sword, wrapping the cloth over both his sword and the box itself as tight as he could make it but not too tight to crush it.
"Bernardo's told us to lay low for a few days until we get a few leads. We still don't know where their location is but we do have eyes and ears almost everywhere. Shouldn't take that long." As though to rise their spirits, Luchino gave them somewhat good news.
Koujaku stood up, lifting his pet allmate off the floor and then put Beni to his left shoulder. "If what Noiz said is true, then they might not do anything rash just yet. From our last experience, they might just want the old one back to continue what they were researching." Koujaku explained.
Although Luchino did not know what the man meant by 'old one', he understood the context regardless. "Well, try to get some rest or something in the mean time. Bernardo will keep us updated when something else should pop up."
Koujaku nodded to show his understanding of the matter and conversation and went back to sitting at the table in the room. There really wasn't much for them to do as they had pretty much lost the only connection to finding the twins quickly. Hearing the idea from Noiz, Koujaku had thought it to be a brilliant plan.
To use the tracking device in Aoba's system to trace it back to the original controllers. But now that Aoba had run off, it wasn't as possible and with Noiz not being there, made things more difficult for him as he knew how to handle both Mink and Noiz but he had no idea how to handle Clear despite having fought alongside him.
Luchino soon left the room to give them some time alone and probably was a bit too busy to be sticking around the guests to make sure they had everything and so on.
Clear was still busy dragging his index finger across the surface of the frame while humming so softly that one would have needed to be next to him just to hear his voice. Ren squinted his eyes but he didn't wake up and still remained asleep as Clear decided to sit down on the bed beside Ren as gently as he could so he would not wake him.
"Wait, huh..." Koujaku said to himself and found he was spacing out with Beni pecking his cheek softly.
The bird got his attention finally and said what was on his mind. "You could always let me loose in this place. I am a bird too, you know. I doubt that other feather-brain could do it since he's too big for this place." Beni explained.
The other bird, Tori, was certainly much bigger than he was and would probably be spotted before he could even begin scouting out for Aoba. In the end it did make more sense to send Beni out while having Noiz co-operate with Beni in terms of using his computer skills.
"But you saw what happened to one of his allmates. It got swallowed by that snake. What if you run into it?" Koujaku asked him. Beni puffed up his chest.
"They still can't fly. As long as I stick to flying over their stupid heads, they can't touch me. I might even be able to make them turn on each other." Koujaku let out a small laugh. He was able to picture Beni going in as he would during a battle and seeing the snake and the lion circling each other made him a bit more cheerful.
"Maybe in the near future, Beni. But I'm sticking with the current plan for now. Until this 'Bernardo' tells us what's going on, we can't really make a move. Can't exactly go in unprepared..." He then looked over his shoulder to Clear.
"And this one wouldn't know when to quit." Koujaku smiled at him after meeting Clear's eyes, noticing that the man heard him.
"Eh?" Ren stirred in his sleep and was sitting up just as Clear said that. The man rubbed his eyes and because his movements were moving the bed a little, Clear could feel the vibrations.
When he looked back, he was face-to-face with Ren which caused him to jump off the bed quickly. "S-Sorry, did we wake you up?" Ren slowly shook his head.
"You don't look well enough but you look better than you did before. You feel like eating something?" Koujaku asked him. But Ren didn't say anything and instead, tried to get out of bed.
When Clear pushed him back from trying to get up, Koujaku went over to help Ren. "I'm pretty sure Aoba wouldn't want you moving so soon but...if you want to get moving then we can't stop you." Koujaku held Ren's left arm while Clear held onto his other. Together, they picked him up and helped the man to stand on his feet.
"Honestly, what's this dumb dog without us around?" Beni chirped. Koujaku and Clear both laughed despite having a gloomy expression earlier.
A/N: OK, so cause of real life, I was constantly doing shopping and I mean literally every day or every second day, was spent shopping for necessities so I didn't have as much time as I thought I could because I did get tired of it lol.
Also, I've been busy working on both this AND my photoshop styles that I'm currently working on on top of entering an art contest about a day or so ago so I've been a busy bee!
But if you liked this chapter then keep reading and waiting for the rest of the chapters that I'll be making. The next one, I promise we will get to see Mink and Noiz on a farm...together...yeah...so hope to see you guys in the next one, and if you have questions just ask. My info is on my profile (well duh i guess lol) And thanks so much for reading this long!