It Began on the Streets

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Part 18

Tezuka and Fuji walked towards him but stopped as Ryoma pointed a gun in their direction…and fired…

"Stay where you are."

Tezuka and Fuji paused, stunned at Ryoma's actions.

"He's right you know," Ryoma said then turned his head towards them, his face holding a sad smile, "I wasn't supposed to leave witnesses. Back then I didn't know why I didn't kill you but now I do. Abarashi told me to kill him. He said it was for the best. He told me not to kill you. We knew you were watching. I was going to get rid of you even if I promised him I wouldn't but… When I saw you I couldn't. I only realized why a month later. You both should wait here; Monkey King is coming to pick you up. Yuki-chan and your belongings have been moved to his mansion where you'll be staying until your house is rebuilt."

Ryoma placed the weapon in his pocket and turned away.

"I'm sorry… Tezuka-buchou, Fuji-sempai…"

Ryoma started running out before disappearing in a flash like in the fight a few moments ago. The rest were nowhere to be seen.

Tezuka remained impassive as he was digesting the new information. He couldn't believe his ears. Surely he would've…

He was snapped out of his thoughts as Fuji rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Tezuka…" Fuji began but didn't continue when Tezuka turned away from him. He knew it must be hard for the information to sink in. Fuji then glanced elsewhere when he saw Atobe's limo pop into view. "C'mon Tezuka. We better go." Fuji carefully guided Tezuka to the car and sat across sitting next to Atobe.

"What happened to you guys?" he asked. Fuji placed a finger to his lips.

"I'll tell you later," he said and glanced worriedly at Tezuka who was still out of it staring out the window.

-X-

"Your plane leaves in a week. Get your stuffed packed and you two will be taking a vacation," Ryoma told Kaori and Satoshi as he handed them their passports and tickets. They had a feeling that this was going to happen. It may seem like a good thing going on a vacation and taking a break, but it wasn't, especially to them. It was more of a punishment fabricating the resentment against them.

"Are you mad at us boss?" Kaori asked. She really didn't want to leave him to fend for himself. Although he could take care of himself, there were the unpredictable bouts of crazy fits that no one can handle. He turned around and walked back to the balcony. Taking a puff of his cig, he continued watching the outside.

"You deserve it." He just said.

Kaori looked worried. For the past week, Ryoma had been sitting outside on the balcony smoking one stick after another. She worried. He'd already gone through at least forty packs. That wasn't healthy. She had a week. A week is all she'll need. Now to make a few phone calls.

-X-

Ryoma did feel Kaori's worry. It wasn't in a manner of staying alive, no; it was because of his mental health. He shouldn't feel miserable to the point of wanting to be nonexistent. That damn other personality will take over and put things way out of proportion. If the personality did know what made him think miserable thoughts would mostly likely kill the object or person causing it. He might kill…

Ryoma shook his head. It wouldn't be a possibility. He'd make sure it didn't happen.

As much as he tried to forget what had happened the month before, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Maybe he should've gotten addicted to alcohol. It is easier to replace a liver than lungs even if your chances are slim. He'd been smoking almost non-stop. It was bad for him but he was too confused and unstable that he didn't think straight. Shaking himself from his thoughts, he went back inside and lied down on the bed. He lied on his side, facing the wall and shut his eyes.

A few seconds later he opened his eyes… Sleep didn't come easy.

-X-

Fuji was worried. Well, he wasn't usually but this calls for his attention.

Tezuka had been absentminded lately. Fuji did make sure that he went over Tezuka's decisions regarding the company so he wouldn't make mistakes he'd regret later on. The whole week since Ryoma vanished, Tezuka had been emotionally depressed and drained. Yuki did keep mentioning that she wanted 'Ryoma-san'. It was hard telling lies to the little girl. Fuji already had trouble with that. He could take Yuki to the mansion of the gang but he doubted they were there at all. Or they would make it like the house was invisible or something like that. They're very good at fabrication.

Fuji sighed as he looked at the clock. Tezuka was overworking himself again. Atobe had already made it back. Fuji didn't really mind dragging Tezuka out of work. He'd already done it for the past few days. He told Tezuka that overworking himself wasn't going to help but Tezuka responded that it would…a little… He sighed. Looking around he spotted the car keys. He didn't want to disturb the limo drivers at this hour. As he was about to leave the phone rang. He picked it up.

"Hello?"

-X-

Tezuka didn't bother looking at the clock. He was sure Fuji would come over and drag him away. He placed the paper down as he finally realized it was useless to read. He had been reading over the same paper since an hour ago. He hadn't gotten anything done. He leaned back on the chair and sighed.

Fuji was right. Overworking himself wasn't going to help. It only made things worst. He couldn't get the events out of his mind from a week ago. Despite what he had learned, the feeling of it going away was heartbreaking. It felt like twelve years ago when Ryoma was reported dead. Why Ryoma didn't seek them out? He didn't know back then but he did now.

He knew that it was a possibility that this would happen. He did prepare himself for it. It was obvious, when Ryoma got his memory back, that he wanted nothing to do with them. Holding them at gunpoint wasn't really a pleasant way to express dislike. He was sure that if either Fuji or him did follow they would've been shot to keep them down. Or maybe there was another reason why Ryoma didn't even contact them if he remembered.

Then, there was the problem with Yuki. She would always ask for Ryoma at the most inconvenient of times, which was every minute of the day. He had trouble finding excuses. The one he'd come up with so far was that Ryoma went on a vacation. More like a permanent vacation.

He looked at the clock. It was too late. Maybe he should just sleep. So he closed his eyes. It'd only be for a while.

-X-

"Boss! Boss!"

Ryoma groaned at the damn morning wake up calls. Kaori should be reincarnated as a rooster. Scratch that, a mute. He thought to himself. He placed the pillow over his head to drown out her calls. He wasn't in the mood to wake up when he had only gotten to sleep two hours ago. He heard the door open.

"Boss! Someone's here to see you," Kaori said walking over to the bed.

"Tell them later or I'll extend your vacation to a month," Ryoma threatened.

He sighed in relief as he heard Kaori leave. He didn't want to deal with anything at the moment. Of course he tried to go back to sleep but it didn't work. He mentally cursed. Getting up he went to change. When he finished he walked back out to the balcony to smoke. He really should've tried being addicted to alcohol. He leaned against the railing looking out at the garden. He hated being bored. It always got him thinking.

He inhaled and exhaled. He froze as a hand grasped his left and took the cigarette away. He turned around.

"I didn't think she wanted you to get addicted."

Ryoma was surprised as he saw Tatsuha standing behind him smoking his cigarette. He huffed before turning around to look back at the garden.

"What do you want?" Ryoma asked.

"Ah, I can't just come and chat with my nephew?" Tatsuha teased. Ryoma frowned.

"I'm not your nephew."

"How many times have you called my sister your mother?" Tatsuha chuckled a little. "I do have to thank that other personality of yours of giving me this lasting scar on my chest."

"You deserve it."

"I guess I did. But you know, you can't blame me. She told me to kill her…" Tatsuha said. Ryoma looked at him unconvinced. "She was dying of an illness. She said I'd rather kill her than some 'stupid' illness. Since that night when you were assigned that mission, everything I have done was all staged. She wanted me to continue teaching you. I see you've already mastered everything that you need to be taught."

"What do you mean staged?"

"Everything. Everything was staged. She ordered me to do it as her last dying wish. She gave me the 'look', I couldn't resist. She told me to tell you the truth when you were older." Ryoma let this information sink in. All this time… It was just a plan? "Actually, everything didn't go as planned. When you were knocked out in the park I didn't count on your memory loss. I guess it did work out in your favor, ne?"

Ryoma stayed silent.

"But this isn't why I came," Tatsuha said, joining him at the railing. "I need your help." Ryoma looked at him confused. "It seems some other rising competitor in the corporate world is trying to imitate father's tactic of taking over companies. I want you to erase all files they have on my company."

"Can't you do it?"

"That would be cheating wouldn't it? I own a company myself. I could only demote my 'minions' to mere bodyguards. I'm out of the gang business nowadays. Besides, I did promise her I'd take care of you. You do happen to find yourself forgetting a few things after a bump on the head."

Ryoma glared at him.

"Are you done?"

"You don't like my company?" Tatsuha teased before handing Ryoma a disk. "This contains the blue prints of the company where the files are being stored. It's a simple infiltrate and erase. It shouldn't be too much trouble unless they figured out something I haven't."

"Get out." Tatsuha ruffled his hair and Ryoma growled in annoyance.

"There's a time limit. I want this done by tomorrow at sunset."

"Is that your favorite time of the day?"

"No, it's hers."

-X-

It was a simple infiltration. Sure it was…

Ryoma found that getting out of the company was harder. All of the fastest routes were heavily guarded. He knew he should've listened to Tatsuha's advice in taking backup. But no… He wanted to get it done quickly.

So much for quickly…

Ryoma hid in the shadows as a group of five guards passed him. He sighed. The blueprints were very accurate but it was hard even following it. Besides he still hadn't gotten the information erased yet. He clutched the laptop secured in his bag. It was easy to erase with another computer and faster. Transferring from the end and erasing at the middle is double time.

He went back out in the corridor and managed to make it to the main computer room. He hooked up the laptop to the computer and began pressing some buttons. It shouldn't take long, maybe five minutes. He checked to see if his gun was loaded incase of unplanned attacks. He then looked at the files being erased and transferred. It was only about three minutes left. He wished it would hurry up.

Three minutes later it finally finished. Ryoma quickly packed up his things and lit a bottle filled with alcohol throwing it at the computer. Can't leave evidence for the police to investigate. Fires scorch next to nothing. He ran out as the fire alarms sounded and the emergency sprinklers went on. The fire was too great for the water to put out anyways.

Ryoma quickly ran through the halls knowing his escape routes. He heard faint footsteps in the distance.

"There he is!"

Shit… Ryoma mentally cursed before running faster to avoid getting shot. He clutched his side as he felt a bullet go through it. He knew it missed vital organs, luckily. That meant he had to use flash-steps to get out of here. He skidded to a stop, pulled out his gun, and began firing at the goons intending on following him. He ran up, catching them by surprise because he was practically invisible to them. He was able to knock out the small twenty groups of people.

He continued running to get out. He did run into another batch. He got more injuries despite what expert skills he had. He was suffering a bullet wound on his right arm and a stab wound on his right shoulder. Damn Tatsuha, he said it was going to be easy. Ryoma thought to himself.

Well, luckily for him he planted bombs before even erasing the systems memory. They should go off right about…

BOOM!

Ryoma smirked as he heard screaming in the background. The goons got a bit of a surprise.

After what seemed like an eternity, he made it out of the building. Unfortunately, there were about fifty goons waiting for him and ready to attack. He groaned in annoyance. Oh well, it was going to be easy anyway, even with a bullet and stab wound.

TBC---------------

BLK Angel of Destruction: There's chapter 18! I'm trying to end this quickly since I still keep feeling that I'm dragging it! Anyways thanks for your reviews! I really appreciate them!

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