After that day, our relationship had become strained, she would act normally around me but I could tell that she was acting more than normal. Like, when I would ask her about her and my sis talked about, she would get nervous and try and change the subject, but when she didn't, she made several different excuses.

This only made me worry about us more and Sis was no hope either as she wouldn't say what they talked about… I was at my wit's end when Haru invited me to Leblanc.

I was reluctant to go, seeing as that was where Akira worked and lived there, but despite her stature, Haru had a very strong grip.

As soon as we entered Leblanc, Sojiro was behind the bar and Akira was nowhere in sight.

"Is Akira here Boss?" Haru said when she stopped opposite him.

"Akira?" He said as he didn't take his eyes off the newspaper. "She hasn't come back yet, so no."

"Has she said anything to you about what happened?"

He then looked over to us and judging by the sigh he let out; he didn't know anything. "What has that kid done know?"

Whilst I told him about what happened, Sojiro set about making Harus' and I's coffee and when I was done, it was clear that he wasn't happy with what Akira was doing.

"I swear, that kid is more trouble than her worth. Listen, Makoto, I'll have a word with her whenever she gets back and I try and find out what's going on."

"Thank you, Sojiro." It was hard to put into words how happy I was that I had friends like these.

With a clap of her hands, Haru had her sweet but deadly smile showing. "So, what's your next move against Eiko and that host?"

Right… that problem. "Well after Akiras replied to Tsukasa-san, the number of texts from him did drop…"

"But?"

"But the other day Eiko came up to me asking if I could lend her some money." I said as I put a couple of spoons of sugar into my cup.

"Well, that doesn't sound too bad."

"It didn't till I asked her what the money was for."

"What was the money for?"

"She said that Tsukasa-san had dropped a very expensive bottle of alcohol and she was helping him pay for it by requesting him."

"So, the reason you didn't loan her the money was that it didn't sit right with you?"

"Yes, correct. I don't think Eiko should have to help pay for his mistakes, especially seeing as they haven't been together all that long."

"So, what's our next move?" Haru said taking a small sip of coffee.

"I plan on going to Shinjuku tomorrow after school to find out if Tsukasa-san has done anything like this before." I said with determination.

"And will Akira be joining us on this outing?" She said and I couldn't help but falter slightly.

"Erm… I was thinking about asking her to join us, but after everything… I don't know anymore."

And I didn't, I honestly didn't know what to do about Akira. I didn't what our relationship to end like this, not with the first person that I've ever loved.

It was Haru clearing her throat that brought me out of my thoughts. "I say we invite her along, after all, she does know Shinjuku better than us."

I wanted to facepalm so hard at how right she was at that.

I was surprised that Akira was willing to come with us, but she did say that she was going to see this through to the end.

After a change of clothing, that was how Haru and I ended up waiting for her outside of a place called Crossroads.

"Why do you think she told us to meet her here?" Haru said and I had been wondering that myself.

"I wouldn't know, I remember her telling me that she had a job in Shinjuku, but she never told me where." I said as I looked around for her, to which, I could not see her.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard Akira speak up from behind me. "You're doing a good job looking for me, Mako."

Turning around, I punch her lightly. "You know I don't like that sort of thing."

"I know, Mako." She looks to my left. "It's nice to see you again, Haru."

"Likewise. So, where have you been?"

She gestures behind her. "I stopped off at my place of work because I wanted to talk to a patron there about today."

"Wait, you work at that place?" "I thought that students couldn't work at places like that?" Haru and I said at the same time, which earned to chuckle from Akira.

"Yes and yes. Owning and looking after a motorbike doesn't come cheap, you know. And under circumstances, I can."

"Understandable."

"Like what?"

"Like I'm not allowed to serve any alcohol to any customers." Akira said in a deadpan tone.

"Huh, fair point… so who were you meeting?"

"A reporter by the name of Ichiko Ohya, she knows a lot about Shinjuku and its people, so I thought it was best to ask her about our problem."

"Very proactive of you." Haru said with a nudge to me.

"Yes, it is, thank you, what did she say?"

Before she spoke, she started to walk. "She gave the names of few hosts that might be willing to talk."

And sure enough, we spoke to several hosts that gave us some information about Tsukasa-san but not enough about whether or not he has done this sort of thing before. I was getting tired after the fifth host had told us that Tsukasa-san, when with a client, had broken something and had to pay for it, so when we found the sixth host, I was happy when he gave me the information I need.

It was funny as we were walking along and the host called out to Akira before running over.

"It's great to see you again." He said with a smile, he didn't look as bad as Tsukasa-san, his hair was slick back and he looked to be in his late twenties.

Akira looked at me before looking back. "I'm sorry, but, do I know you?"

The host laughs briefly. "No, you probably don't. My mane is Ryo and I was there that day you fought that asshole Tsukasa."

"Oh!? I'm surprised that you remembered me seeing as it has been several months since then." She said with a pleasant smile.

"Wait, I'm sorry but what happen?" Haru said to me left and I forgot that I never told that.

"You should have seen it, Miss, Tsukasa-san had grabbed his arm and was shouting nonsense and all this guy does is just stand there with a helmet in hand listening to Tsukasa-san till he turned blue in the face."

"Then what happened?" Haru asked in a way too enthusiastic way and I could see that Akira was looking embarrassed.

"This is my favourite part. When Tsukasa-san was finished, this guy just looked at him for a couple of seconds before asking Tsukasa-san to let him go and Tsukasa-san being the idiot that he is, refused to. So, this guy puts his helmet on with one hand in seconds before headbutting Tsukasa-san."

I know that Akira told me the ruff version of that altercation, but I have to say that hearing what actually happened, I am sure that Akira is a force to be reckoned with when she gets angry.

"I will say that I've never seen anyone fall flat on their ass as fast as Tsukasa did."

The energy that I could feel from Haru was somewhat terrifying. "Then what?"

"Heh, not a lot after that really, there's not a lot of hosts around here that like that guy, so when he was screaming for someone to call the police, no one did as it was only a matter of time that something like this was going to happen. Tsukasa hightailed it out of here trailing a lot of blood." Ryo said scratching the back of his head.

"I broke his nose doing that." Akira said even though she looked uncomfortable.

"Really!?" Haru said and I didn't even have to look at her to know that she was nearly bouncing.

"Yeah, I've had few falls in my time to know what it sounds like." Akira said and was weird to see her act like how other Haru said.

'I'll ask her about it later.' I thought as I looked back to Ryo-san.

"Ryo-san, I hope you don't mind asking some questions I've got?"

"Sure, I don't mind at all."

"Thank you," I bowed slightly. "firstly, do you know if Tsukasa-san has done anything that a host shouldn't have done?"

There was a brief silence as he looks between me and Haru before he runs a hand down his face. "That ass is still doing that bottle scam? I'm sorry that you and your friend have fallen victim to it… ugh, how much do you two owe?"

"Thank you for offering, but neither of us has fallen for this scam, but I believe a friend of mine has… which leads me onto my next question. Has anyone fallen victim to this before and did they pay it off?"

Ryo looks side to side before motioning us to follow him away from the crowd. "Look, you didn't hear this from me, but there has been a couple of teenage girls that have fallen to that scam and to my knowledge, very ended up selling themselves just to pay…"

The silence that followed spoke more words than what was just said. If what Ryo said was true and I could get some sort of evidence of it, then we could get a dangerous person off the streets… feeling Akira's hand grasping mine did wonders to calm me down.

"Lastly, is there… is there any proof of this?"

"…No, there's not. The reason is, is due to that those incidents happened months apart."

"Damn it…" I was starting to under if we would be able to get any physical evidence of his crimes and it was starting to look like I wasn't.

I heard some rustling sound near me before hearing Haru speak up. "It's almost time, Mako-chan."

"Thank you." I said with a quick glance at her and then back at Ryo-san. "Thank you Ryo-san, with what you have given us, we might be able to stop it from happening again."

"I hope you guys can." He said before the three of us walked off.

"What's the plan now then?" I heard Akira say as she matched my pace.

"The only thing we can do," I brushed some hair behind my ear. "we try and convince Eiko what Tsukasa-san is doing."

"Just leave my fight with him out of it please."

As we stood outside of the "Salon", Haru was asking Akira more about her fight, like how does she train, what is she trained in, that sort of stuff, whilst I tried to keep an eye out for Eiko… I couldn't help be smile at their antics before an idea popped into my head and I pull my phone out of my pocket.

To my surprise, it didn't take long for Eiko to walk out of the "Salon."

When she saw the three of us standing there, her expression turned a full one-eighty as she walked towards us.

"…What do you want?" There was a coldness in her voice that was justified.

I took a few moments to collect myself before speaking. "Eiko… Your "boyfriend" is infamous around here tricking girls into debt, and then forcing them to sell themselves. Moreover, he's probably doing it in conjunction with a criminal gang. You need to stop seeing him!"

I watch Eiko place her hands on her hips. "You seriously came all the way here to tell me that? Ugh, get out here, Makoto! I've had enough of your lying bullshit!"

"I have the testimony from one of the hosts in the area and Akira and Haru can back me up on that. You're not the first girl that Tsukasa has lied to about a "broken sake bottle. Please, reconsider this relationship."

Before she could respond, Tsukasa walked around the corner. "Yo! Did I make ya wait, babe? I came a little late after seein' your text, but I guess you're already here…" He then notices us standing there. "…Hey, I know you two."

Eiko looked a little confused for a second before closing the gap between them. "They were saying some bad stuff about you, honey. Like how you get girls into debt and then force 'em to sell themselves… They're lying to me, right?"

It would have been hard to notice, but after living with a public prosecutor and knowing a detective has taught me how to notice little details, like the fact that Tsukasa looked a bit panicked just then. Of course, he regained his composure fast enough.

"Listen to me, nothing like that happenin' here. I'd never lie to you, princess."

And there it was, after talking with Eiko, there was one thing that stuck out the most and that was that he never says her name and I had come up with two possibilities. The first was that he had forgotten her name and was calling her princess to cover it. And the second was that he truly loved Eiko and was calling her princess because he was willing to treat her like one… my guess was the former.

"It's always "princess" with you. Why don't you ever call her by her real name Tsukasa? Or are there too many princesses in your life to remember?"

The silences spoke enough for me.

"Tsukasa?" Eiko said with a worried look.

And all Tsukasa could do was laugh briefly. "What're you freakin' out for? You just texted me, remember? I could never forget you, Makoto."

And that was the last nail in his coffin… I could feel an ominous aura coming from Akira and who could blame her.

"I didn't text you though." Eiko said and I swear I could see the colour drain from him.

"I'm the one who texted you. "I'll b 5 mins late 2day, bb." I even added tons of emojis at the end to make sure it seemed like Eiko. Admit it. Every girl you get money from is your princess, right? You can't even remember the name anymore." I couldn't help but speak in a demanding tone as Tsukasa was starting to piss me off. "Don't you see, Eiko? This is who your "boyfriend" really is!"

"B-But… you tricked him!" Eiko said as she turned to look at me. "What would you know about true love, huh? Tsukasa's all I have! Just… just leave me alone, you bitch!"

I couldn't but internally sigh.

'This girl really isn't going to get it…'

I took a threw steps towards her before slapping her around the face.

The noise was enough to gain the interest of passes byers, but I didn't care, I just didn't want to see my friend get tricked.

I watched as Eiko brought her hand up to her cheek. "Wha…"

"Makoto, was that necessary?" Haru said in a concerned manner.

I was going to get it through her thick head one way or another. "Wake up! You already know the truth; you just don't want to believe it! So stop lying to yourself!"

Eiko looked back at Tsukasa before looking down at the ground. "B-but… Tsukasa is the only one who cares about me…" It's then that she starts to cry. "Nobody else asks me about my day, or how work is going…"

I pull her into a hug and let her continue to cry and spoke in a soft tone. "Hey, aren't you forgetting about me? I ask you whenever we talk, don't I?"

She nods her head.

"You see? I've only been doing this because I don't want to my friend's life ruined." I looked over to Tsukasa, who looked like he wanted to get out of here. "And as for you, apologize to Eiko! And stay away from her from now on!"

I was surprised that he was able to find some sort of resolve as the scowl he was sporting would have probably scared most people.

"You're really startin' to annoy me with this shit, you bitch! Don't think I'll go easy on you 'cuase you're a chick. I'm gonna teach you a lesson you won't forget."

If Eiko wasn't crying on my shoulder then I would have loved to have given him a piece of my mind, but unlucky for him, Akira and Haru were here and judging from the aura I was getting from Akira, she wanted a fight, proven by the fact that she moved to stand in front of me.

"So, it seems like you have forgotten that time that I broke that nose of yours." She said and the look on Tsukasa's face was priceless, a mix between confusion and horror.

"That-that was you!?"

"It was." I began. "And I come from a long line of police officers. If you really want to start something, be my guest."

"I'll remember this, Dammit!" Tsukasa said before sprinting off.

"I-I think I wanna go home." Eiko said as she pushed herself off me. "I'll speak to you tomorrow, Makoto."

"Sure." I said as we watched her leave and by the looks of things, the rest of the crowd that was watching had started to clear out.

"Well, it looks like it's sorted now." Haru said and for once, I hope that she was right.

After that, we left to head back to Leblanc and I thanked Akira for stepping in many times on our way back. over the next few days, I made sure to talk to Eiko as much as possible and I was able to find out that Tsukasa hadn't tried to contact her at all and she was happy that I was looking out for her. I couldn't help but smile when she showed up at Leblanc one day with a smile and was like a tornado again.

Authors Notes

I hope everyone's Christmas and New Year's were good and I hope none of you was too merry over the holidays either.

With Persona 5 Royal out on everything now, I am streaming it on Twitch (under the name, Tiny94), and it's been fun playing the game for the first time.

For those of you who somewhat care and want to ask stuff, I have Twitter (Under the same name,) so come say hi.

If you do like my work and you have an idea for a story that you want to write, then please, feel free to comment/review and I'll see about writing it at some point.

Walk Tall and Be Fierce, my Friends.