Kenji is a ticking time bomb. Suoh knows this. He also knows that Kenji is a damn good enforcer and an honest man.
The fact of the matter is he'd seen men who'd face tragic events such as his either to themselves or loved ones become unrecognizable. Most would have the worst of themselves be magnified and twisted beyond any semblance of their previous selves. Along with a path of destruction following their wake where the line in the sand is forever wipe out by the ebb and flow of compounded misery. Those who survived, becomes fortified by the experience, learn to build stronger walls and set harsher boundaries to prevent feeling again.
Yet, there are a rare few…like a specific young man who has the ability to redraw that line in the sand time and time again no matter how many times the tides came to shore. He'd witness firsthand the effects of said person on the most jaded of men like Asami Ryuichi and Liu Fei Long. This young man had the capability to impel such stubborn men to act on his behalf without seeking any gain, merely to acquiesce at his behest to do what was right.
Suoh knows the odds. It was a gamble to place Takaba Akihito within Kenji's reach. He trusts that he won't be counting Kenji's tick marks for long.
During the short trip towards their destination, Suoh drove while he had Kenji place two phone calls: the first, to relay their time table to Kirishima and the second, to acquire the status of Toyo Ueno.
Unfortunately, the man had passed away on the operation table, not long after Suoh and Kenji had arrived at the morgue. Fujimiya Mamoru, the only living witness stayed with him to the end. It was he who dutifully gave his guilt-laden testimonial on speakerphone as the enforcer listened on with his face set in stone.
Suoh didn't pry nor offer any condolences, but is attentive to the Q&A he requested Kenji to review beforehand.
"You said Toyo said something to you before he lost consciousness, what was it?" asked Kenji as he tried to keep his voice even.
"I—it didn't make any sense….h—he kept rambling on and on… something about his mom and…and seeing his dad in hell soon….saying something about a demon's out to get him… The look on his face… he was so scared—"
Kenji was quick to interrupt Mamoru's downward spiral again.
"Yeah, he never forgave his dad for running off with the mistress, been taking care of his mother since he was thirteen. I'll drop by and give her the news myself after we take care of the bastard who did this to them."
"Be careful, Kenji. There's something ain't right about that guy! Th—that look he had… with the cold eyes and crazed grin… and all that blood… like it was fun! I thought I'd seen them all. All those weird ass rich folks with their kinks but this… he's a cold blooded killer… a—a monster! …. still I shouldn't have frozen up like that! I was there for fuck sake! I could've done something!"
They could hear sobbing on the other end. Kenji's eyes were hard stones focusing on the night horizon even as his shoulders tense even further. Though he schooled his face well, anger rung clear in his voice, "You could've died, Mamoru. That monster is twisted enough that he let you live because of some fucked up game he made the rules to. He wanted to gloat; to leave a witness; to scare you shitless; what-the-fuck-ever. And you did do something. You gave Toyo a chance to survive. Don't beat yourself up on this, man. They wouldn't want you to. Don't go doing something stupid either, you hear me? Help me take care of Toyo's mother and Ucchi's little brother. "
On the other end, they could hear Mamoru sniffling quietly before he gave a meek promise in accepting Kenji's unspoken lifeline thinly veiled behind a threat, "I… I… I will."
There was a long pause and they could see their men a block away. Kenji waited another beat then asked the next question on his mental list.
"Did that fucker said anything to you?"
"No man. He'd just….he started to whistle… this creepy tune… its stuck in my head now…a children song for Kami sake! Walked right by me and wink, with his bloody hands in his pocket like he just hadn't murder my colleagues…fuck—"
Kenji interrupted again, "I don't want to make it worse for you, but we need to know. Now, I know you couldn't see what happened, Mamoru, but did you hear anything out of place or notice anything odd?"
"I… I don't know…it's like what I told'ya. I heard gunfire and…and some struggling… there was this slicing sound! I didn't think he had a weapon…. didn't see on him… Kami! That monster carved them up— "
Kenji gritted his teeth at the reminder but caught Suoh's pointed look. Details, right. Despite his boiling anger, the enforcer complied if only to distract Mamoru further.
"That twisted fuck. Try not to think about that, Mamoru. Is there anything else? Like, did something explode when the gun ricochet? Like a gas main, maybe?"
"…..no. No explosions."
Lastly, Kenji force himself to wrap things up.
"Was there anything else? Any details you might have forgotten?"
After a brief pause, Mamoru said quietly, "….that song. I…it was an old folksong…. about a trapped dog or something… ugh! It's stuck in my head. I'm sorry, I can't think of anything else."
The car stopped and Suoh gave the nod to end the call. Kenji thanked Mamoru, made his excuses and promised to visit before he follows his superior to meet the rest of their quartet. Suoh didn't comment on the tautness of the enforcer's clenched fists or the tension in his jaw. He had taken the precaution to confiscate Kenji's .45 Glock and hunting knife however.
Unmarked parked cars with headlights blaring created a blockade at the mouth of the alley while men in black suits secured the perimeter. Three others stood out clear as day among the people gathered.
"How is he?" said Suoh without preamble upon his arrival on the scene.
"Young, handsome and apparently a bloody murder," responded the crouching bald monk dressed in a dark grey hakama-pant set beside Takaba's slump form against the wall of a warehouse.
Unmoved, Suoh's blank stare remain stalwart.
After releasing a put upon sigh, the monk stands up and began stretching in exaggeration, "You're no fun. The kid's out cold."
At his peripheral, Suoh kept aware of Kenji's position even as he address the more reliable partner of his associate, "What got to him?"
With a sneer of disgust, the more refine of the pair dressed in a two-piece entirely black suit with matching shirt and tie, sniffs behind a white handkerchief at the remainder of their party, "That street punk with the bad dye job said this young man just collapsed like a puppet with his strings cut off."
Finally given something to do, Kenji advanced on the interloper like a viperous snake, "Him, with the trousers undone?"
The aforementioned target backs up and raises both hands as if to make himself look harmless. Unfortunately, the monk crowed at his expense, "Saw that did yah? Seesh, kids these days. You would think they'd called for help or the police if they saw a shirtless man with blood on them during the middle of winter. But no, let's rape him instead."
Upon hearing that accusation, the punk step up and sputtered, "Man! That's not it! I told'ya, I ain't rape no guy! I was stealing from him, okay!"
Kenji took one look at him up and down, before sneering, "Yeah, like what? His underwear?"
"Like hell!"
Then the monk chimed in, "No, I think it was his virtue."
The accused gave the monk a dirty look before yelling, "Fuck you!"
"I thought it was fuck him?" responded the monk with a leer.
Suoh was neither annoyed nor disgusted as he let their ruse play on and kept his position between Kenji and his true prey.
The street punk at this point became fed up enough to speak beyond what he's been parroting to the others, "Naw man! It ain't like that! I was taking his pants! His pants!"
"Is that the new slang for it now, Tori-sensei?" His other associate sniff behind his white handkerchief in disgust.
Beyond irate now, the punk stepped around Kenji and gestured with a sweep of his hands, "Fuck all y 'all! It's Gucci! The tags dope. He look my size."
Kenji was quick to press, "You rob dead guys often?"
"He ain't dead yo! I checked."
"What did you see? Tell me," Suoh finally stepped in, having heard enough to understand the interloper's part in this.
Whether it was out of fear for Suoh or not, the punk took an uneasy swallow upon being addressed directly by the largest guy present and answered without any bluster for the first time, "Look man, like I said before. The guy was whistling some fucking creepy tune and then just collapsed like Pinocchio, you know, like that old foreign anime…"
"Then what happen?" encouraged Suoh.
"Then I came over and check him out—" the punk responded uneasily.
"Sure," the monk singsong.
This time it wasn't only the punk who glared at the monk but almost everyone else as well, "Shut up! For an old monk you sure have a dirty mind! I check the bloody fucker to see he's okay. For the record, the blood ain't his! Then I saw his digs and wanted some."
"Some action, right?"
Suoh drew the banter to a standstill with just one word, "Tori-sensei."
So it was with a huff that the monk stalks off and sits on the hood of Suoh's car to sulk.
He then gestures for the interloper to continue, "Then what?"
"Then those MIBs with that priest reject showed up. That's all I know, man. Can I go now?"
It was a long minute of Suoh staring unnervingly into the punk's eyes before he gave a curt nod and a strict reprimand, "For the record, people who rob others don't usually take off their own clothes first."
Then Suoh dismissed the punk with the blooming red face entirely and went to pick up Takaba like precious cargo. While doing so, he ignored Kenji's heated glare on his back as well as Tori-sensei's crowing potshot at the retreating steps of their interloper, "Yeah, that's what I thought!"
