The phone rang, Tsukasa took one one glance at it and it was immediately removed from his mind. Like hell, if that old hag thought he was going to be picking up her calls. After the stunt she'd pulled with him three months ago, he needed some serious space from that woman he called mother because of social decorum.

Which was why he was here, debauching and pillaging in Hong Kong, while his friend artfully managed their businesses on this side of the East China Sea. While he took a well-deserved vacation doing fuck all just because he could, so why not? "Is everything okay?" Candy of the week whispered into sweetly his ear, her fingers trailing the inside of his thigh, trying to entice him with her round brown eyes. This little Canto girl had crawled into his lap the moment he'd set foot in the lounge last Tuesday. And what a delightful little addition she'd been to their circle in the time he'd been here. He'd never seen a girl make Soujiro so uncomfortable before.

"Yeah, if he looks wound don't worry it's not your fault. Tsukasa is naturally a tightly wrapped wire waiting to whip out and injure someone." Said best friend answered on his behalf, looking at Tsukasa almost in an irritated fashion. There was a time in the not so far past that Soujiro had been the one who had women raining into his life effortlessly but in recent years since he'd gotten richer and his friend's fortunes had been little less than promising the tables had turned. And this girl was beyond beautiful, she inspired an awe like observance of her features…the type of face that would have launched an Empress of the past into a fit of jealousy, or the type to inspire an army of soldiers to willingly commit suicide on her behalf.

Thankfully in this day and age, all she could do was inspire a bit of jealousy between friends.

Tsukasa pondered that Soujiro's look of disdain was probably further enhanced by the fact that Tsukasa had addressed his own mental issues and gone to therapy for his anger, and Soujiro was still a fucked up sex addict at the end of the day but like hell he'd tell the womanizer his theory. He wasn't in the mood for Soujiro's more than powerful right hooks. "What's your name again?" She was beautiful yes, but she wasn't worth pissing Soujiro off that much. He might let her go tonight.

"Jolin." Akira couldn't help but remark if any man but Tsukasa had the gall to say this to the beauty before them she would have lost interest, perhaps even thrown a bit of a hissy fit but she only smiled ever more acqueisingly, he could see why Soujiro would be displeased with the way Tsukasa had transformed in the past two years since Shigeru left him. To Soujiro, women were sport, trophies to be flashed around to be cherished and treated tenderly and then thrown away when they least suspected it.

Soujiro must have thought it entirely unfair that Tsukasa often got to treat these types as crap from the start…but Akira thought it was even more hilarious that these women let him. That was probably the reason he never stuck around to see any of them longer than a week. "Nah, nah, let's just relax. Tsukasa whose call was that? Rui? He did say he'd come later because his meeting with a Chinese investor was running late."

"It's not important."

"So your mom then?" Tsukasa glowered at Akira, who was far too intuitive for his own good. "You know…at one point one of us will leave Tsukasa. We can't escape here forever."

"Be my guest, at any point in this evening feel free to take your leave and I'll see you when I see you." Sometimes Akira thought it was a good thing his friend got therapy, then other times he saw this guy. This was a guy Tsukasa never was when he was younger. He'd become cold, like whatever anger had fizzled out of him had taken his sensation to feel anything at all. "Now are you guys going to be little bitches or are we going to pour some drinks?"

The girl at his side immediately busied herself with the scotch in front of them and Soujiro furrowed his eyebrows in distaste when she handed him his drink.

"Don't you think you deserve better?" He spoke in Shanghainese, a dialect he knew for a fact both the other men didn't understand. A dialect he'd seen her speak to her mother on the phone when she walked away from their table for three minutes at midnight exactly every time they came here.

"Please don't pretend to understand…you won't…because you can't see that he is the best in this room from all of you." She responded with ease as she grinned widely handing Akira his drink. "He's honest." Then she got up from her seat on the couch, sat down in Tsukasa's lap which he took as an indication to bury his face in her neck. "KANPAI!" She cheered loudly giggling as she felt Tsukasa's now familiar lips trailing their way down her neck.

The men could only scoff and raise their hands half-heartedly.

When Rui walked into their spacious four room loft at 4:30 in the morning, he wasn't surprised to see Jolin and Tsukasa sprawled on the carpet covered in scant much…Soujiro and Akira being much more considerate of his eyes had gone upstairs to their bedrooms and shut the doors.

The men could afford everything they wanted, and if they wanted spacious apartments to themselves they could afford that too, but in Hong Kong where space was scarce and where their bonds of brotherhood always deepened they ended up living here in Lotus towers where they always spent almost inordinate amounts of time together.

He was just about to head up the stairs when Tsukasa's phone started ringing annoyingly. He saw Jolin move in her sleep, her face scrunching as she tried to cover her ears. Tsukasa beside her snored away unaware, he'd always been an extremely heavy sleeper. Rui was jealous of him, always had been but especially so since Shizuka had married another man last year. It was almost entirely too easy for Tsukasa to get a restful night's sleep.

Deciding to help her out he picked up the phone from its place on the breakfast counter and shook his friend slightly. "It's your mom," He muttered.

"You never fucking came."

To the same freak show I see every night where you guys pick up girls? No thank you. Despite his thoughts, he kept his mouth shut and saw Tsukasa blearily nod and speak something even he couldn't understand.

A moment passed, and then another and then he hung up growling. "So-"

"So I'm on the next plane to Tokyo. Tickets booked and everything-" Sleep left his eyes and Tsukasa slowly rose from the floor, thankfully still in his boxers as he walked to the bathroom rubbing his face. "I'm out on the 8AM."

Rui snickered behind his hand which was not met kindly by his friends glare. "What does she need you to do?"

"What else Rui?" He sighed splashing his face with water. "I'm going to take down another innocent company for the good of the company. You should be thankful you never became a lawyer."

Rui scoffed. "And I'm surprised your brain turned out to be good for something other than coming up with 'Red cards'"

"Fuck off!" Tsukasa burst out laughing hitting his friend playfully on his shoulder. "Get to bed, tell the guys I'll see them back home."

Rui nodded. He wrapped his arms around his best friend patting him on the back. Rui was his rock, Rui was his wall. Rui was where he fell when everything went to shit. "Till Tokyo Tsukasa." Tsukasa's eyebrows perked up, the last time Rui he had said that they were standing at the entrance of the church that would be holding Shizuka's wedding.

Tsukasa still kind of hated her for it…only because he knew Rui couldn't. "Till Tokyo."

Tsukushi woke up like she always did. Irritated with her back, when had she gotten so old?

Oh right, when she found out that some big company was trying to take over her family's fledgling company and drive it into the ground…and like hell if she was going to let them do that. She'd invested every bit of spare income she'd had after finishing law school and hell if she was going to let some corporate asshole come in and take her parents for all the money they were worth.

She'd been planning on quitting eventually at her firm, the glisten and gloss being a lawyer had held for so long was starting to wear off the longer she did it…she'd been planning on growing the business with her parents and this would just speed up the proceedings.

They'd done well for themselves, from living in a tiny room together tightly hugging each other as they slept, they now had a modest sized house in suburban Tokyo, they had a central office that employed 25 people, and 5 coastal resort properties.

Six years ago if you'd told Tsukushi both her and her family would be financial independent within the next half-decade she would have laughed in their face, but being in the right place at the right time helped a lot. Celebrities from all over started visiting the tiny town of Tsuken in Okinawa and their business blew up. They renovated three times in their first year and managed to keep the cash flow strong enough that by the end of the year, they'd opened their second slightly more upscale hotel in the competitive Shimoda market at the edge of the Shizuoka prefecture.

As she turned on the water in her sink to brush her teeth the slightly more horrific part of their recent success story began to play in her mind. On the eve of their largest opening yet, in Kyoto they were shut down. Unexpectedly, with no warning the individual with who they were supposed to close their land deal with backed out and offered no explanation.

Tsukushi had been furious and ready to take him to court but her boss would not let her take her family's case pro bono and to be honest she could understand why.

"Tsukushi…" Yuki yawned from the couch. Oh that's right, Yuki had slept over yesterday after her shift at the bar she worked at. "Tsukushi, take a breath…you're pink." She spat out her toothpaste, wincing at the hint of red that tainted it. God she'd brushed so hard she'd bled.

"No, GOD Yuki where do they come off thinking they can do this-" And Tsukushi barged into another rampage gargling. To be honest she almost pitied her friend, almost. Yuki had spent much of last night after she came home at 4:30, supplying an ever supportive shoulder to her friend's furious tears that tumbled out in a wine induced haze.

"I love you but- you need to take a breath, because if you sound like this in front of Domyouji Zaibatsu, there's no way you'll walk out of there a winner and you know it." Makino huffed feeling her friend's hands rub her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down. "Now what are you going to do again today?"

"I'm going to tell them to fuck off."

"Right," Yuki had not wanted that answer so hugged her friend and patted her back comfortingly like an aunt that was berating an imbecile of a niece. "And how are you going to do it?"

"With class, and sass and a legal cut to their throats."

"You forgot ass! That's also great by the way, pick a dress that works with that!"

Tsukasa managed to resist the urge to yawn as he entered the Domyouji head office. "Brief," Tsukasa muttered under his breath and his assistant beside him immediately launched into the brief that she'd been trying to give him for the past three hours since he'd landed but refused to listen to.

He got the gist of the case, of course he did. He'd handled countless cases like this for his mother before. There was that natural beverages company that actually showed promise he'd driven that into the ground to save her soda and alternative beverage empire. The bed sheet company that used real cotton and managed to gain enough of a foothold in her heart market- the list was endless.

"Takeover is for Makino Resorts and Spa, founded by the entire Makino family but currently helmed by Haruo Makino. This hotel chain has grown so rapidly, many insiders have been looking to invest in their hotel/vacation concept that has literally zero expenses to the client and gives them endless perks such as access to key local events, partner travels and even matchmaking services."

Tsukasa almost spat out his coffee. "You can't possibly be serious…"

"Entirely…and the business is booming, they've married three couples and have countless others offering testimonials of the best time of their lives. The market is responding positively with more and more people taking trips alone to connect with someone-" Sakurako coughed as he looked at her doubtfully. It sounded like she'd been on a trip herself. "The truth is sir, Domyouji Zaibatsu just can't compete with such a define unique and well catered solution…we're a mass solver sir, not an individualized experience."

"So my mother would like to buy it out and drive this idea to the ground. Got the gist. Thanks Sakurako." He threw her a soft smile and saw his assistant jump and smile bowing.

"My pleasure, will you need me to accompany you in the room?"

"No I can handle this alone, did you say the daughter would be representing them?"

"Yes Makino Tsukushi, stellar lawyer. She's actually responsible for putting away Oribe Junpei for his incorrectly filed kidnapping case…."

"And she's probably saved countless murderers and made sure they walk so long as they promise never to do it again." He rolled his eyes closing the file folder in his hands. "Great, I get to work with a criminal lawyer. That's new. That'll be all Sakurako, you'll be needed again in- say 14 minutes? I'll have her signing the paperwork by then I'm sure. Until then, go get us both coffees okay?" He handed her a bill of 5,000 yen each.

"You and Miss Makino sir?"

"You and me Sakurako." He winked at her enjoying the way the red splattered on her cheeks as she smiled and went on her way. He missed Jolin and Sakurako would do nicely while he was still in Tokyo.

He stood outside conference room 618. This room was exclusively his and exclusively for this purpose. Business owners didn't know it when they came in here but they were signing away their right to an opinion other than his because Tsukasa didn't lose and unfortunately his win was often defined by other measures out of his control.

"Tsukasa Domyouji, so they're not playing around are they?" He turned to look behind him to see a mousy little female behind him, her bangs covering the edge of her eyebrows, her voice holding a tone resounding of restraint in this lobby of his. "That's right, I did my research. The son of the big woman up there, man she must really want me to shut up."

"Makino Tsukushi?" She didn't come off like a criminal lawyer, she didn't wear boring suits and clack around on righteousness and justice. No Makino Tsukushi was dressed in a beautiful wine colored figure hugging, body flattering turtleneck dress that was doing wonders for her surprisingly small features all over. Did she do this on purpose? Stashing away some personal grey suit she normally wore to work?

"From what I understand, my name is probably all you know about me so far, and you're probably thinking to yourself that you're going to go in that room and have me done in 14 minutes but let me tell you something -"

"You overheard my conversation?"

"Oh sorry, no I was walking by and you were being a little overconfident, I think you're trying to overcompensate but meh what do I know?" Was she making an indication on- oh how dare-

But he couldn't finish his thought because Makino was far from finished hers. "I'm going to do you one better." She glanced at her wrist. "We'll be done in the next thirty seconds, you know how I know that? It's because I walked in here to take a look at my competition. Oh and there's no way we're settling with your company right now and pushing your agenda as it currently exists because trust me would be against your best interests. We know you've been going behind our backs and speaking privately with our investors to try to get them to reduce their investment in the past six months to diminish our value so when you try to buy us, we'll sell for cheap. We will sue you for obstruction to us operating our hotels, and libel within the industry. Additionally you'll find here, a list of terms and conditions we would require you to alter from your standing proposal and new ones you'd need to add for us to even consider looking at this again."

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh I'm sorry, was I talking too fast? In criminal, we don't have as much time to waste. Let me put it a bit more succinctly." She walked straight up to him, pushing her face in his. He was sure it was supposed to serve as an intimidation tactic but all it made him do was feel like he should have asked Sakurako for a tall, tall glass of water. "Get your shit together, or Domyouji Zaibatsu's little prince is going to finally fuck up a deal. And god wouldn't that be a great day?" Pushing the new folder in his hands she turned around, her hair flipping and her heels clacked away on the marble lobby and she left the building.

For the first time in years, Tsukasa felt a bubble of anger free itself from his carefully compartmentalized feelings.

Tsukushi Makino, she'd known exactly what she'd been doing, exactly how she'd catch him off guard and that…little…bitch.

The hell he wasn't going to take her down.

A/N: And that's about all the exposition I can take. I promise the next chapter will be more exciting! But I had to set up starting points for all our characters so it took me a little bit of text!