"Not much money left," Akizuki murmured quietly to himself. It had been two days since he escaped from the dreadful building he woke from, and felt weaker than ever. His stomach growled. No, he would save what he had left...
Akizuki sank down on a street corner bench, at a bus stop, though no knowledge as to what a bus even was. He felt perfectly miserable. And cold. He longed for Kusaka and his warm hands, lips...
"That's him!" a cry from a vaguely familiar voice rang. Akizuki turned his head, and felt his blood run cold. It was the man he ran into the other day.
"Shit," he uttered, rising from the bench. He started backing away. If he ran, he'd look suspicious, and he certainly would not find any strength left in him to combat any of them. But they were approaching fast as well. Heart racing, he pushed himself to run, however slowly. His insides burned, and his stomach felt queasy. He darted around, trying to make sharp turns and lose them in the crowd, but only to find they split up. It was hopeless--
"Ugh!" he clenched his eyes shut on the impact. He looked up. A man in uniform looked back at him. A badge pinned to his side said Tokyo Police Department.
"Sir, are you okay?" the officer said, looking him over carefully.
"Actually..." Akizuki hesitated, remembering the government officials coming after him on that dreaded day. But this was not the Tokyo he knew, and what choice did he have?
"I am being chased by a street gang," he continued. "I ran into one the other day and he assaulted me. Luckily, I could fend him off."
The officer nodded. "There is a building just two blocks away that says Law Enforcement Center. Go there, they will make sure no one harms you."
Akizuki nodded.
"Go! I will take care of these punks," and the officer gave him a nudge, urging him along. Akizuki turned to watch him, pulling out a gun much like the one he found at the belt of his assaulter two days ago. And he ran quickly to the building, slowly getting closer in sight.
He went inside quickly, swinging open the doors, and looked all about him. Lights were coming from the ceiling like the white prison, and some furniture were along the walls. There was also a staircase and metal doors like the ones that led him to that strange travelling box.
"Can we help you?" a man at the front desk called out to him. Akizuki looked up, remembering himself.
"Um," he said clumsily, still looking around him, and outside... "I am being chased by gang members. A man in uniform told me to go here."
"I see," the man said, but his eyes were on some papers in front of him. "Here, I'll take you to one of our officers. They'll have to ask you some questions about your situation. Don't worry, you're safe here." He smiled, and led him down a corridor. He knocked on a door, and asked for Aiko Hisashi.
"Wait a moment," the man said, and entered the room, closing the door. Akizuki couldn't make out any of the sounds, but waited patiently, and in mild confusion.
"Come in, and sit down," the man said again, reopening the door. He exited.
Akizuki watched him leave, and entered the room, closing the door behind him. He sat in a chair in front of a desk, where a dark looking man sat.
"So you've run into a bit of trouble, I hear?" he asked with a sigh.
Akizuki scanned the room uncomfortably. "Er, yes."
"Care to expand on that?"
"Oh, right, of course," he stammered. "Well, two days ago I became a bit lost and stumbled to an empty alley way to recollect my thoughts. I suppose that wasn't such a good idea either, since I soon had company. A man—well, he looked no older than twenty—approached and before I knew it, he was on top of me. I felt a bit sick that day, so I was weak, but luckily I managed to give him a good hit in the face. Which only resulted in him trying to fight me back, and he threatened to send other members of his gang on me. Without realizing my own strength I managed to knock him to the ground, and ran away. Two days later I was sitting on a street corner minding my own business, and I hear this voice a block away. It was the man from before, only he had back up. Luckily I managed to run into a man in uniform, and here I am."
"Hmm," Hisashi nodded, a finger at his chin in contemplation. "You aren't affiliated with any gangs yourself, are you?"
"Oh, no, no, not at all," Akizuki shook his head firmly. "I hate violence."
"I see. Well, you--"
Hisashi was interrupted by the door opening, yet again. This time it was the officer Akizuki first ran into.
"Good news, you two," he said with a smile on is face and cigarette between thin lips. "All those men chasing after you? I called for back up, and they are all spending their sweet time behind bars now."
"Excellent. Saves me lots of trouble," Hisashi sighed. "Here," he turned to Akizuki. "A reward."
Akizuki took the money, fifty dollars. He nodded in thanks.
"Hey," the other officer said. "If you still don't feel safe, feel free to stick around here for a while."
"Thank you," Akizuki said.
"How about you walk with me for a while?"
Akizuki looked over at Hisashi, who nodded at him. "Okay," he rose from his seat, exiting the office.
"My name is Uzumaki Isao," the officer said firmly.
"Keiichirou Akizuki."
"It isn't uncommon for gangs to interfere with civillians, but you must have beaten one of their guys good to have all those men chasing after you."
"I guess. Two days ago one of them encountered me. When he tried assaulting me I knocked him to the ground."
"Serves him right," the officer growled. "My little brother was lost to a gang."
Akizuki paused awkwardly, watching the floor. "I'm sorry."
"No need. It was... a long time ago." He turned, opening a door to what looked like a meeting room. "Sit down. You can listen in if you want," he nodded. Three other men were already in the room, chatting amongst themselves.
"Hey Isao—who's this?"
"A friend of mine," he said as he took a seat. "With his help, I just caught six thugs."
"Then he's welcome here," one of them said, and the men introduced themselves.
After everyone settled in their seats, a man and woman, both wearing suits with stern faces and dark spectacles, walked in. "Good evening, men," the man said.
"As we all here know quite well, gang violence in Tokyo lately has gotten progressively worse," the woman said. "Normally the gangs keep disputes just between themselves, but throughout the years attacks on civilians have been increasingly more common, and is now in fact expected. Even with more laws and more of our men patrolling, gangsters have found their way to continue to be a disturbance and growing concern, even causing riots. We will have no more of that. Today we will discuss a plan to protect our sector of Tokyo without having to go through the trouble of trying to pass any more bills or waste any time."
The man turned off the lights and set a laptop down on the table. A power point appeared on the wall. Akizuki gasped, amazed.
"Something wrong?" Isao whispered to him.
"No, I'm fine," Akizuki replied quietly.
The man then said, "This, of course, is a satellite image of our sector of Tokyo. The red circles indicate where all the officers are stationed.
"Now, all the yellow dots are the locations in which reported gang violence of some sort occurred in the past three years. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them. The coloured triangles represent our guess of where various gangs tend to meet often. The normal procedure is to simply patrol those areas often, but the gang members look like ordinary civilians and have their own secret ways of communicating with each other, even with our trained knowledge in gang signs, signals, and slang.
"I will make this brief, it is supposed to be a short meeting after all. Extending our connections and educating the public tend to be the most effective ways to inhibit gang violence, but even then they seem unstoppable.
"We have a few brave volunteers who are undercover in a few gangs, and report to us about their whereabouts and plans. According to men we have on the inside, there will be an attack on a government building in a month. It is still uncertain exactly when on what day. We have warned the officials at that building, but we all agreed not to close it down out of fear that the gang will find out we know about their planned attack. In order to secure the area we will have a large number of officers, some undercover and some not, in and around the building for the next four months, and some more surrounding the area. Thankfully, most gangsters here are not very organized in their efforts, so we have the upper hand. Plus, many civilians we have contacted are on our side, acting as our eyes and ears for this operation. Understood?"
All the men grunted and nodded affirmatives. Akizuki remained silent.
"Good. I want you all to keep your eyes open now more than ever to crack down on this before it gets any worse. Now, if anyone has any suggestions or questions..."
"Um," Akizuki spoke up. "You mentioned you have men working undercover... Since gangs are unorganized criminals, can't you get the men on the inside to create a situation in which dispute arises within the gang and they fight amongst themselves?"
"Wait, who is this?"
Isao rose from his seat. "He was the reason I was just able to arrest six street gang members," he said.
"...Very well."
Isao sat down, and nodded at Akizuki.
"Well, it would certainly be a dangerous task. Most men we have on the inside would not be willing to do it, and we have too few that will. Not to mention it can be hard to be accepted as one of them, and it's quite risky. Besides, how do you think we would pull such a rash thing off anyway?" the woman said.
"If we know all the signs and codes, I don't see why not," Akizuki replied. "I doubt it would be too hard. Send enough of us in but subtly, and if we pretend to fight one another we could easily start a riot within the gang. It's risky, it's not a very structured plan, but that's what being in a gang is all about, right?"
The man watched him carefully. "Fine. Any volunteers?"
Isao raised his hand. Akizuki copied. Reluctantly, two others rose their hands as well.
"Good. I will discuss this with the officers on the other side of the sector. But remember not to say a word of this to anyone, you hear?"
The man stepped in again, "One more thing. What is your name?" He pointed at Akizuki.
"...Keiichirou Akizuki," Akizuki blurted, confused.
"I see. I usually don't do this, but I am putting you at head of your undercover mission. But remember, if you betray us, you will experience a hell worse than anything. I trust Isao to keep a very close eye on you."
"Right. Now then, we must go," he said finally, and left them.