Hello,

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Enjoy... :)

Warnings: Swearing.

}xXx{

As Atakura and Suuchou make their way out of the club, with 4 security guards lingering behind them cracking their knuckles and generally looking badass, Atakura smiles a confident smile to himself.

'Tch, this is just one of the ways that we can have leverage on that asshole Asami. Hold that little shit Takaba for ransom, a third - no half of Asami's Japanese holdings in exchange. Hell that kingpin took on Fei Long for this brat he must think him quite valuable. Or at least his ass must be quite tasty...Hmm.'

He ponders on that slender body for a second, he'd only caught glimpses of the boy before but 'fuck yeah, if I get my hands on him I'll definitely tap that.'

}xXx{

Also that morning although Miles away from the chaos of down town Shinjuku, a young man is running along a deserted, somewhat worn dirt track panting as he goes and hopping over the occasional puddle and tree trunk. The faded blue, slightly worn rucksack containing his most precious camera is jostling against his back.

As the boy runs, his mop of hazel blond hair is swaying with the vigorous movement and from the strong breeze telling of an upcoming storm.

As a person he strives to live freely, untamed and constantly moving – always on the look out for the next big scoop - (and being able to move at all today is thanks to the painkillers he had been popping all this morning after a - he thinks for a second - 5 hour session with that GORGEOUS! But overbearing, snobby club owning, drug dealing - ('probably, I never did get evidence') - gun toting bastard!

Right now Akihito is chasing - literally - a trail trying to investigate the disappearance of Yakasa Chisa, a club Draceana employee and close friend of Momohara Ai who he had gotten to know well after an incident a few months ago involving a nut job with a stolen gun.

Momohara had phoned him yesterday saying that Yakasa had phoned her on the way to her parents - having fled Tokyo after apparently embezzling money from Asami. Momohara was assured by Yakasa that she would phone when she arrived at the parents home, that call however never came even during the full day after their last contact together, so that is when worries grew and Momohara wasted no time in calling Takaba with this desperate plea to travel to Chiba this morning and hopefully find the hostess unharmed.

Having turned up to the parent's house first, Akihito had heard the unfortunate news of a girl's body being found on a dirt track early this morning by a dog walker. Mr and Mrs Yakasa, having been assured by Momohara that Takaba is trustworthy, accepted his offer of help. He obtained the location of the crime scene and a photo of the girl, really hoping he wouldn't even need to use it; he starts to make his way to the woods...

Back to now and the caution tape in the distance gives away the location as Akihito slightly slows up his pace; the breath catching in his throat when he eventually comes upon the scene. A white sheet is covering what is obviously the body of a young woman and what looks like the elderly local doctor and a couple of police constables are working delicately around her, marking the odd boot print here and there. The face and hair of the girl is partially covered by the sheet and Akihito curses himself inwardly for not being able to at least identify her, and that for the second where he hopes it turns out not to be her at all, because regardless of whom – someone has been murdered in cold blood and it's unforgivable.

His eyes travel slowly down the corpse with a morbid kind of fascination and he sees that an arm is uncovered; he is immediately unnerved by the emaciated, discoloured flesh but cannot tear his gaze away. He starts to tremble and pales visibly having to close his eyes briefly at the sudden surge of intense sorrow and anxiety he feels.

'There's no way Asami would have done this? Right?...Either way the police are gonna ask questions 'cus she worked for him…shit I need to know if it's her or not…'

He wants so much right now to ring Asami to gain some reassurance and gets so far as to pull his phone from his pocket before stopping short, thumb hovering over the call button thinking. 'Am I crazy?! The amount of times he's warned me about sticking my nose in...He'll go fucking spare!...'

'Anyway I'll take some photo's until they kick me outta here then I'll follow the body to the morgue.'

}xXx{

By the time Akihito arrives at the clinic, out of breath and rubbing a stitch in his side it's raining heavily and the body has already been taken into the examination room with the local Mortician. The area is so rural and murder is so unheard of here that there really aren't the facilities to deal with this case. The parents though are already there it seems as Akihito approaches the girl's mother, who is huddled on a waiting room seat, holding a handkerchief to her face.

He softly lays a hand on her shoulder and says, "I'm so sorry, is there really no way it isn't your daughter?" She looks up at his kind expression with red, streaming eyes and replies.

"...My hu..husband is in there...identifying the-the body."

She then sobs and once again buries her face in the handkerchief. Akihito gives her shoulder a reassuring squeeze and thinks 'no, there's no way Asami would do this, he wouldn't be so cruel.' They stay still in the silence of the waiting room with bated breath and gradually tears start to spill from Takaba's eyes also.

Sometime later a door is heard opening and Akihito and Mrs Yakasa look up to see the Mortician and Mr Yakasa approaching. The latter of the two is looking pale and at first he struggles to look up from the ground, understandably still in shock from what he has just seen and heard. Both he and the mortician had agreed to talk through the less gruesome details about the death by strangulation at the dump site approximately three nights ago. The night she fled Tokyo after being AWOL from Draceana for a week.

Takaba wracks his brains upon hearing this news, the police in Tokyo will be notified and all Takaba can think is that Asami is going get implicated in this - innocent or not. 'What the hell can I do?...'

He excuses himself from the room and once again, he takes out his phone though this time he's scrolling down to the contacts under the letter M.

}xXx{

Camera aimed and Poised, ready to capture the perfect frame and tension in his muscles thick (because he's squatting in an awkward as hell position on a fire escape 70 metres above ground, as he stakes out a whore house that's currently holding the latest celebrity he's been hired to name and shame.)

It's huge news concerning Japan's latest teenage male heart-throb and feeling smug having Beaten Takaba to the punch for once he had arrived on the scene 7 hours ago to capture the shots of the decade…The target should be coming out any sec-

*RIIIIIIING*

"For fucks sake."

Cover blown already from the obnoxious ringing of his mobile, judging by how the club's bouncer just jumped out of his skin and started to shout profanities upwards towards the source of the noise. The investigative journalist sighs and moves to sit on his ass, tosses his camera in the general direction of his bag and answers his phone...

"Mitarai, What the hell 'ya want?"

"Haha, hey dude." Takaba greets with his usual spunk. "How you doin'?" - "Fine" Mitarai replies (not really fine at all, he's got a severe case of pins and needles from sitting in that earlier position for so damn long!)

As he wiggles his toes, he asks "so what's up Takaba, why the hell 'ya botherin' me?"

Takaba pauses for a second before he starts to speak.

"Alright I'll get straight to it, Can you get a number for me? Its the district attorney dude Kuroda, he did 'gimme his business card when I met him a while ago but I kinda doodled on it and ripped it up 'cus he's kind of a dick. Anyway, it's unlisted so I can't get it from where I am. Pleease duuuuuude?"

Matarai does let a chuckle escape then as he imagines a childlike Takaba with his brows furrowed and biting his tongue in concentration, as he scribbles furiously on the card with his hand fisted around a crayon, like the brat he is.

"Hrmph, 'kay, I'm heading back to the office now so I'll grab it and text it to 'ya."

They end the call then and Akihito feels a little of the weight shift off his shoulders and some of his fears melt away, although almost immediately some new worries take their place.

He runs a hand through his hair before checking his watch and making a swift decision to book a BnB close by and stay in Chiba the night, there's no way he wants to face Asami, who will without fail find out (through some sort of perverted torture techniques) everything Akihito did today, and in turn will get super pissed at Akihito for once again, being a nosy little shit. '

Yep, I'll stay here and just phone Asami tonight, my ass can't take anymore right now...'

}xXx{

When, finally, Akihito's phone beeps with a new message from Mitarai, he grabs it and rolls on the bed to lay on his stomach and reluctantly dial 'that specky bastard' kuroda's number. After 3 and a bit rings the man efficiently Answers...

"This is Kuroda..."

…Well. This is a new feeling for Takaba, maybe for the first time in his life he is actually at a loss for words.

Takaba lays there and brain farts for a bit before he stutters out a "Uh h-hi Kuroda-san, uh Ta-Takaba Akihito here." He smiles and congratulates himself silently on taking this first excruciating step, shuddering at the respectful 'San' he appropriately but grudgingly added to 'that specky bastard's' name!

On the other end of the line Kuroda is certainly surprised to hear from Asami's pet as they are hardly acquainted with each other, only ever having a short exchange of terse words after they bumped into each other a while ago. Kuroda struggles to see just what the hell Ryuichi sees in this boy, he's hardly the cunning, successful and dignified older lovers Asami has taken in the past. Kuroda however - is curious and decides to cooperate for the moment, he drops his fountain pen onto the contract he was proof reading and leans back on his chair.

"Good afternoon Takaba-kun, how can I help?"

Takaba groans inwardly, and definitely from pure irritation and not from arousal as he briefly closes his eyes, breathing deeply. He regroups by saying again to himself 'come on Akihito, you gotta finish what you started man!' And he launches into what he hopes is a coherent explanation of why he called.

"Kuroda-san, I know it's weird I'm calling you but I - need uh, your help."

Kuroda's eyebrows are in danger of disappearing into his hairline as he encourages Takaba to go on.

"Yeah, so what it is, uh-is, um I'm in Chiba right now, I've been looking into the missing girl Yakasa Chisa and I traced her here. The problem is, she's dead. Well - murdered and I'm worried..."

Takaba comes to clutch his phone with both hands as he rises into a sitting position.

"...I'm worried that Asami is gonna get dragged into this 'cus she worked for him. What I've heard from Momohara is that the girl swore she didn't have anything to do with the money going missing but she knew who did it. I, know we haven't got on Kuroda-san. But I wanna ask you to help me find out who is responsible before Asami gets framed or something."

Now it's Kuroda's eyelids that are in danger of breaking off from over-use as he blinks through the confusion created in that proposal. He is utterly baffled by this concern for Asami.

'Why isn't this journalist just doing his job and following the story, this would undoubtedly make his career.'

He feels that something is off; there isn't a person alive that wouldn't take all they can get, when they get the opportunity.

'Did this boy actually just admit a level of concern, over Ryuichi?!'

Trusting his Bullshit reader, Kuroda proposes driving out to meet that night at Takaba's BnB and once arranged, Kuroda snaps his phone shut and contemplates the young man his elder step-brother Ryuichi, is so obsessed with.

He's looking forward to exposing the brat for what he really is.