Kaiba let Yami out of the limo on the street near his penthouse suite and received a sweet kiss on the cheek.
He watched Yami climb out and wave to him, so he waved back, trying not to feel weird about it. Then he leaned back to pull out his phone to text him immediately.
A news headline briefly caught his eye, and he read it without meaning to.
"Quadruple shootout between gang members at downtown nightclub…"
Yeah, nope.
He sent Yami a text, "plans for today?" and held his phone in his hand, waiting for the reply.
Yami was climbing the stairs into the building, not even halfway up when he got the message, so he replied while his thighs burned, "workout, trying to stay alive in my next meetings, dealing with the lawyer, getting him set up to STUDY instead of fuck around …then…relax. Your plans?"
Long day.
He reached the 48th floor after jogging up the last few flights of stairs and controlled his breathing while shoving the stairwell door open, walking down the hallway while texting Dartz.
"I'm at the penthouse, where are you?" and he sent it, eyeing the doorbell camera glinting at him from the end of the hallway.
The door opened to reveal Dartz, looking tired and annoyed.
He pulled it back to let Atem in and led the assassin up to the top floor where the boxes of dildos, breast attachments and stripper poles were laid out across the floor, with furniture being moved out of the way to make room for the immense piles of drugs.
Yami nodded approvingly and felt a headache coming on.
Drugs were an area he wanted to avoid.
He'd always been asked to make hit after hit on drug heads and new ones kept popping up. It was the head of a snake that just kept growing back–a waste of everyone's time.
"Honda Hiroto, that's the young man's name," Dartz began, eyeing the spikes in Yami's hair as he talked. "Says he knows who to pass this on to, but is afraid to make the delivery because he fears for his life. The incident at the club made headlines today."
"Good," Yami had hoped for that.
Everyone needed to know he was here.
"Good?" Dartz repeated, flabbergasted at the killer's carefree attitude. "You want to lay low, or is that not what you're doing?! …Atem?!"
"I'm laying low, after everyone knows not to touch me, or you, or Seto Kaiba," Yami announced, his voice echoing in the spacious room. "I have plans for these drugs and Honda shouldn't deliver them anywhere. Where is he?"
"...Napping on this floor, next room over," Dartz began nervously, wondering if he'd messed up by bringing Honda here. "What is your plan? No more deaths, please, Atem."
"Can't promise that," Yami replied flatly, already pulling his phone out to reply to Kaiba's message. "Wake him up. He's delivering a message, not drugs. I need to take this."
And he turned away to answer Kaiba's message.
"Holy fuk good thing you left the club before this '4AM shootout' ?!
[img]
that part of downtown is always disgusting.
We were in bed together by midnight like old people haha"
Yami read the screenshot, noting the blurred images of dead bodies on the ground, and he replied, " told you it was a drug den. And yet somehow, I still don't feel rested. Guess I am old."
"Stop skipping meals. Eat breakfast," came Seto's reply, and Yami's heart warmed.
He heard Dartz whispering to the gangster behind him, their voices carrying through all the rooms since none of the doors were closed.
"...Atem is here. You want to ask him what to do, now is the time!" Dartz hissed.
"Bro, I just don't wanna die, okay?!" Honda whined, itching for a smoke. "Can I smoke? Do all lawyers live like you, because damn…"
Yami sighed and made sure to write, " okay meetings starting. Won't be able to reply but thinking of you, " and he put his phone away, walking back into the room with the boxes of sex attachments to look both Dartz and Honda in the eye.
"Who is the highest ranking boss you know?" Yami asked Honda, and the man shrugged, avoiding eye contact as he talked to the ground.
"The guy you killed yesterday. And his wife."
"Then call his wife and get to the person above him," Yami instructed. "Tell them 'Atem wants to meet the emperor'."
Honda gave him a funny look.
"No, bro, we don't roll like that," Honda replied bluntly. "Japan's emperor is not open for visiting hours, y'know? Unless you're a diplomat? Or a president of something?"
Dartz pinched his brow.
It was going to be a long day.
"I mean, I want to meet the king behind all your prefectures," Yami tried again. "The chief. The highest boss. Not your underbosses or lieutenants. Clan God. Godfather. Am I being clear?"
"Yeah. You don't speak Japanese, I got it," Honda muttered rudely under his breath.
Yami let that go and he smiled thinly. "Do it now."
Honda blinked and stared. Now?! Like now, now?!
"Pick up the phone…" I need a gun, Yami thought deliriously as he clenched and unclenched his teeth. "Because I'm out of patience. Please. I would like to get this done before noon . "
Honda grumbled and dug his phone out of his pocket, wincing at the 34 missed calls, and said, "...some unknown number called me 800 times."
"Call it back ," Yami said with a light smile, and Dartz felt a chill go down his spine.
Atem was about to kill someone.
Supremely uncomfortable, Honda sat down on the ground and sighed, calling the number back and pressing it to his ear, listening to the rings and hearing someone pick up, " Hiroto? Were you at Club Trophy last night?"
"Uhhhhhhh… Who is this?" Honda saw Atem flatten his palm and press a single finger down into it, so he pulled the phone away from his ear to put it on speaker phone. "I dunno who you are…I j-just woke up man. W-Why, wut happened?"
"Everyone in ops got into a fight, but the circumstances were suspicious," the man on the other end said. "You were the only soldier there and you are the only one…alive. Why?"
Yami raised his eyebrows and that made Honda stammer into the receiver, "be-because uh, I'm being made to send a message. Yeah. A dude named Atem says he wants to see the emperor."
There was a long silence.
"Say the name again," the man on the other end demanded, and Honda inched his face closer to his phone to enunciate. "Ah..tem..u…. Atemu. Atem. Uh, Ah-Te….em?"
The person hung up, and Dartz had to sit down too but there was nowhere to sit, so he sank down into a sitting position on the floor, wondering if his life would ever look up again.
Right now, his morning started with sleep deprivation, babysitting a gangster, with a roomful of drugs hidden in sex toys.
Another silence dragged on, and Honda felt his palm sweat. So….
What now?
Honda's phone rang again, so he picked it up hastily, glad for something to do.
"Yo! It's Hirot–"
"The man named Atem, you are in contact with him?" A grating voice on the other end echoed in the room, so Yami snatched the phone up out of Honda's hands to memorize the number, and then spoke.
"I have your entire supply from the club. And a useless member from your lower ranks. Come get them."
Honda inhaled frantically and hugged his knees to his chest.
HOLY FUCK he was NOT living to see tomorrow!
"Nice to meet you…King of Darkness as we call you over here," the man on the other end said silkily, his voice almost drowned out by loud metallic banging in the background. "What do you want?"
"A face-to-face, to talk terms, because I have business in Japan, and you need to stay out of it," Yami said with equal calmness. "I'll come to you."
The man on the other end paused, and then replied, "docks, container 178-A84. You're welcome in my territory as long as you stop killing my enforcers."
"See you there," Yami hung up and tossed the phone back to Honda who caught it clumsily and gave him a wide-eyed stare.
So what now? Was he allowed to go home and sleep in his bed without fearing for his life?
"Let's go, all three of us," Yami turned on his heel and decided to eat something like Seto suggested.
Kaiba scrolled aimlessly on his home page, hating how he kept seeing people talk about the downtown murders. Gangs were always up to no good, why were people surprised?
Even his secretary wanted to talk about it, saying how, " Domino usually feels safe! I can't believe that happened at Trophy! I used to go there in my twenties!"
I'm in my twenties and I don't fucking go there , Kaiba thought as he remembered the way Yami had set his clothes aside on top of a towel.
That summarized his feelings about nightclubs exactly.
More articles were coming out about the incident, mentioning 'Kaiba tech' so Kaiba kept getting notifications for it, hating how it was only because the club didn't use his cameras or his security systems.
Totally un-newsworthy.
Pure annoyances.
He picked up his phone to send Yami another message, " if i hear anyone say anything more about the nightclub, i'm going to lose it. " and he sent it.
Given Yami's rough language, he figured Yami was a laid-back type of person when discussing current events. He'd find out.
Hovering his fingers over the keyboard, he tried not to vainly hope that Yami would come visit him in the middle of the day for sex. If Yami did, then he'd consider tying Yami to his bed with a really long leash and hope he'd want to stay that way for the weekend. If Yami didn't…
Don't think about it, Kaiba told himself as he stared at his screen until his eyes burned.
Yami stood by a small metal chair with his arms raised while two men patted him down.
Dartz and Honda were getting the same treatment, more afraid of the men holding guns at the mouth of the container than being touched between the legs.
A man with a freshly shaven bald head and dark eyeliner sat across from them with a crate as a makeshift table. Yami was finally allowed to sit, so he crossed his legs to get comfortable.
"Atem, and…friends," the bald man grinned, and Yami couldn't help but think they were a bit alike. He used to be bald too, and…he could understand the scary eyeliner. Looked cool.
"This is Dartz Paradius of Paradius Esquire, my criminal defense lawyer," Yami introduced them with names first, intending on keeping them protected. "And Honda Hiroto. My messenger. Kill him and lose me as a contact. Kill the lawyer and your entire regime dies."
W-Wow… Dartz broke out into a cold sweat.
His life was worth that much to Atem, huh? Nice to know. And Honda?
Honda wasn't paying attention.
He was chewing his thumb and eyeing his cigarettes which they'd left on the ground by the mouth of the container.
"Atemmm…my…king," the bald man across the way gave him a gallant bow while seated. "You may call me Strings, for I am the puppetmaster. No need to make those threats here. You and I both know problems won't be easily solved by killing each other. My men and your adoring fans will war across countries and borders. Let's not."
Yami narrowed his eyes. Sure. Sounded like this man followed his activities through the fan forums on the darknet.
"They're not threats. They are my conditions for leaving your men and your operations alone," Yami said calmly, keeping his hands folded in his lap, aware of the tension in the room. "The Kaiba family and their campuses are also under my protection. Blanket policy for any Kaiba employee–bodyguard, accountant, secretary….all mine."
Strings blinked and nodded once, drumming his fingertips on the crate in front of him while he hummed, "Now you lost me a lot of money. How will you make it up to me?"
"I'll deliver your drugs back here," Yami shrugged, ready to get up and leave, but the man thumped his fist down and hissed, " ...no. Your little stunt at the club will affect my business. You owe me for that."
Yami narrowed his eyes and didn't react.
"I'm offering you several things," Yami said slowly, hoping his Japanese was clear enough. "One," he pressed one finger down onto the wooden crate. "Contact with me, through this man here," Yami tilted his head over at Honda, "when I could easily disappear and leave everything fucked up behind me. Two," he forced a smile on his face and stuck out another finger to make a finger gun down into the crate. "I am returning your shipment out of goodwill instead of using it for my purposes. Three," he rested a third finger out beside the other two. "I promise not to hunt and kill you during my stay here."
Strings bared his teeth in retaliation. "I have contact with you now and I demand that you pay for the poor reputation the club has acquired from your careless violence. To make sure you'd pay up, I've alerted our country's terrorism division. They now know it was you."
"Really," Yami scoffed and felt a laugh climbing up his chest. "Then I suppose I can call them back to give them your entire shipment."
There was a tense silence and Yami tapped his foot against the ground, comfortable in it.
His leverage wasn't just the roomful of stolen drugs, but the meeting was going poorly.
Strings grit his teeth and chose his next words carefully. "You're a bigger target than me. I could easily hand you over to them and it would benefit me."
"Do it then," Yami challenged, knowing that would never happen. He'd do it first.
Strings had much to benefit from their coexistence.
He'd done his research on the mafia boss.
Drugs, human trafficking and firearms smuggling. The crime trifecta.
People like Strings hired people like himself to keep the balance when jobs went wrong.
"I can't give you all three of your unrealistic requests," Strings said finally, crossing his arms and looking firm on it. "I won't promise a hands-off policy on your crime lawyer or this low-ranking scum. He's the scapegoat for the mess at the club."
Honda gripped his knees so hard, his fingertips ached. Yo… He didn't wake up today preparing to die after grazing death yesterday. He glanced over at Atem and tried to read his expression, but he didn't have one.
He wasn't smiling or frowning. S-Scary.
"Then Seto Kaiba dies when I leave the country, and half your clients leave the city because the tech landscape changed. Good talk," Yami slowly rose to his feet, and felt a hot hand clamp down on his shoulder, trying to make him sit back down while Strings leaned forward to hiss at him, "...your request to keep hands-off the CEO is also unrealistic. I can't stop people from trying to attempt his life."
Yami slowly sat back down and smirked. "I'm not asking you to babysit the man. You keep your heads in line, eyes up, for anyone from the outside who will try. Lose Seto Kaiba, you lose money and clients. I lose a wallet too. We all lose."
Yami paused to make sure everyone agreed before he added, "I'm keeping him alive under my protection, and you won't work against me. This is my team," he tilted his head at Honda who was shaking with nicotine withdrawal beside him, "I've chosen a low-ranking nobody for a messenger, you should be thankful. The crime lawyer can take cases to get some of your men out of jail. How's that as payment for the club's reputation?"
Hey now… Dartz curled his fingertips over his knees until his palms sweat.
Strings leveled his gaze with the lawyer and saw the man lower his head respectfully.
Atem's lawyer…huh? Must be good then, since Atem was clearly still a 'free man' walking around, smiling and murdering.
"He can take 2 cases. Make them count, because he's studying for another exam," Yami made sure to put a limit on it. "All others, you pay him or I take favors. Agreed?"
Strings nodded and glared at Honda while he muttered, "I've still reported that body as the fall-guy for the club, but since you're taking him onto your side as a messenger, that's your problem then. Yes?"
Damn it , Yami grit his teeth in fury.
"Then I'm keeping your club drugs for that inconvenience," Yami said nastily, seeing Strings tense and clench his fist.
The silence was long and heavy.
Dartz shifted uncomfortably while Honda chewed his thumb.
Finally, Yami broke the silence with a calm question, "Who did you specifically report me to?" secretly glad he was unarmed because the urge to lash out was strong.
"Head of our country's terrorism task force. A woman," Strings gave him a leery grin. "Mazaki Anzu. She's really good. You'll see. Welcome to Japan, King Atem. She's going to be a big pain in your tiny little asshole for the rest of your life."
"Thank you so much," Yami rolled his eyes, now itching to leave. "Glad we worked the terms out. Hands off my team, my lawyer, the Kaiba family, properties and affiliates, and I keep my hands off your drugs, your girls, your weapon shipments, and your men."
"Good, good understanding," Strings nodded and nodded again, unwilling to shake Atem's hand, thinking if he touched the man, all the things he'd read about this man contact-poisoning his enemies would happen to him. "Leave now."
Yami gave the man a polite nod and stood up, making sure Honda and Dartz were not touched or tagged with anything when they followed him out of the container.
Honda wanted to pick up his cigarettes but Atem read his mind and called out, "leave it!" so he had to straighten up, glare at the guy with the gun who stepped on the box to crush it, and then he hurried after Atem's slender silhouette up ahead.
Dartz matched Atem's quick strides and whispered, "you're really just selling me out, aren't you? Me and my services?"
Atem turned to give him a dark, unblinking stare to reply emotionlessly, "I own you. So, yes."
Shocked and furious, Dartz curled his fists at his sides and heard Honda catch up to them and ask while panting for breath, "you own me…too? You…spiky-haired freak?"
"Yes," Atem answered him with the same, cold tone. "I saved both of your lives and then bought you both life insurance. So even if I die, you're both still fine."
"How?!" Dartz cried, and Honda shouted the same thing at the same time, their voices echoing up and down the empty aisles of shipping containers.
Yami turned to give them an irritated glare and pointed at Dartz first. "You will exonerate some big brothers for the mafia! They'll value you after that. And you …" he pointed at Honda, "will be under the protection of this country's terrorism department–they'll give you a new identity for merely associating with me. Just say, ' Atem is out to kill me ' and those are your magic words to a nice new life, with a new job under a new name! For free!"
Speechless, Dartz merely stood there and realized…Atem was right. He'd been advertised to the mafia, which had been his goal from the very start when approaching gangsters at the hot spring…but this future assignment had higher stakes than he'd prepared for.
Honda swayed on the spot and called out, "...but you're not really gonna, right? Kill me? Or anything like that…? Cuz I like being alive and stuff."
Atem threw them a friendly smile over his shoulder, looking extremely disarming for a moment when he replied, "of course not. I don't kill my friends."
Dartz let his breath out in a delirious huff. Friends.
If this was Atem's definition of friends, the man needed a new dictionary.
"Bro, he can call me whatever he wants if I get to live," Honda nodded aggressively, shoving his hands into his pockets to get out of the shipping container jungle. This place was always hellish, and it wasn't helping his life trajectory.
Dartz followed the gangster and glanced at his broad shoulders, taking a deep breath to say, "alright. Let's get you to the station." He had an argument prepared.
Honda skidded to a halt and blinked. WHAT?!
"Uh, are you deaf, lawyer-man?! I'm the fall guy! You heard him!" Honda felt a tightness in his chest that felt like real cardiac arrest. "You're taking me to the station to get me fucked over–...nah, man. Nah! Fuck that noise."
"You must go in willingly!" Dartz shot his arm out to grab Honda by the elbow to give him a shake, familiar with this kind of pushback from his clients. "To show you are not guilty. What kind of man turns himself in after allegedly shooting up the club's basement?"
"Guys like ATEM!" Honda almost shouted at the top of his lungs, and Dartz hissed at him to shut up.
"Don't shout for him. He'll come running–"
Yami skidded around the corner of the container breathlessly, thinking someone was in trouble, but only saw the lawyer and the gangster nose-to-nose arguing. God…dammit.
"What? Don't call for me unless you're dying," Yami said gruffly, and Honda pointed accusingly at Dartz.
"He wants to turn me in! You all heard Strings say I'm the club's fall guy and this guy wants me to walk right in and say 'me'!" Honda exclaimed, his ears turning redder and redder. "I'm on the up-and-up. I'm not…taking the fall for-for-f-f-for your murders! I need a smoke!"
"No, you idiot!" Dartz bit the inside of his cheek and reminded himself to stay kind. "You will say you are a witness, and there are no other witnesses. I was your alibi last night. We also have the drugs, which we can use to your advantage in the future for your role as a 'good intel rat' . Atem will allow it, yes?"
"No I was planning on shoving it all up my own nose," Yami crossed his arms with a smirk, receiving a withering glare from the lawyer so he hastily sobered up and nodded. "Yes, take the drugs. I don't give a shit either way."
Honda let out a whining groan and hung his head. "When will I get my life back?"
"What was your life before?" Yami asked blithely. "Nothing's stopping you. You're untouchable aside from being an informant for the police, and me. Live it up. Oh, and Dartz?"
The lawyer glanced up at him with a haggard frown, his cheeks hollow from the stress. What.
"Fix your hair before going in. You look like shit," Yami said with a happy smile on his face. "See you later. I'm going dark. My phone won't be reachable. Say your last goodbyes to me now."
Dartz and Honda blinked at him incredulously.
"But…what if I need to…but what if…" Honda struggled to put it into words.
What if he needed the real fall guy?! Because he wasn't the killer!
"Yes, what if!" Dartz snarled, hating how Atem was going into ghost-mode now that he'd sufficiently ruined their lives. "And what about the high-rise you made me sign for?"
"Yes, enjoy the penthouse full of drugs," Atem replied with half-lidded eyes, already looking uninterested. "I bought it for you. Study hard. I'll check in on you in a year. Maybe."
Honda gaped at Atem and then the lawyer. The…fancy suite-high-rise-apartment was a gift?! Who did he have to kill to get that property?!
Dartz narrowed his eyes and dared to suggest an alternative. "I want a face-time check in every 6 months, and suggestions on where to plant the drugs. I won't allow you to run away after leaving us to deal with the terrorist agency."
"What are you, a baby?" Yami scoffed, but Dartz raged at him.
"I want to know you aren't going to run off to some white-sand shore while leaving me knee-deep in the Japanese mafia! Along with this fool here!"
Honda shot him an affronted look, but Dartz ignored it.
Yami rolled his eyes and waved over his shoulder, walking away from the two troublesome annoyances.
"Yes, yes, you have my word. I'm staying in Japan, I will be nearby, I will make sure you and your future loved ones don't die, and I'll text you fun locations on where to stash drugs," Yami droned, walking to the end of the container and turning to give them a nod. "But I plan to be out for good. See you in a year Honda, and Dartz, let's make that two. Remember to email your updated CV to Kaiba Seto every year on his birthday!"
With that, Yami disappeared around the corner of the container, smiling to himself.
Now, it was really time to relax.
He was just in time for that afternoon fuck Kaiba was asking for.
Author's note:
this sounds like the end, but wait, there's more :O (will update next week!)