Morg: Heyo! Please prepare yourselves for the next couple of chapters.

Ikuto: Why?

Amu: Don't do this to me.

Morg: Things are going to get pretty intense.

Ikuto: Oh, man.

Amu: I am asking you nicely.

Morg: You've been warned.

~Indebted~

"When they take you," Kairi said as he met Amu's gaze. "They will not be kind to you."

Amu dipped her head in a nod to avoid his intense stare without him knowing that she couldn't handle meeting his gaze. "I'm aware."

"You were drugged last time," Kairi reminded her. "I don't know if they'll extend the same courtesy to you again. They want you to suffer."

Amu swallowed hard as she met his eyes once more. She did not look down at the top of the table between her and Kairi despite wanting to. She, Kairi, and Ikuto sat at the kitchen table as they talked about their options. Midori was on her way, but they figured it was fine to start without her. "I'm the one that saw the message," she reminded him. "I know what they're threatening."

Kairi nodded once before he pressed his glasses back into place. "Then let's go over the plan."

From his spot at the table, Ikuto made a sound but didn't speak.

If they thought that she couldn't handle the situation or was showing any signs of rethinking her decision then she knew they wouldn't let her go. Amu had to be strong. She had to do this. "Midori will arrive and insert the listening device that doubles as a tracker. I will not be able to hear you but you'll be able to hear everything going on around me."

"After we're certain it's working," Ikuto said as he pressed his fingers against the top of his table. "You'll leave here and return to your flat."

"I'll act as though I've snuck out," Amu told them. She'd thought about it again and again since the night before. She had to make it look like Ikuto wasn't sending her out. "They won't know that I've left with your permission. I'll make certain they have no idea it's a trap."

"They won't be nice when they grab you," Kairi said bluntly. "They're going to molest you as they take you to their boss but it shouldn't be so bad that they do more than just touch you."

"Which is bad enough," Ikuto spit out as he clenched his fists. "I'll make certain that they're all sent to jail for touching you."

Amu nodded again. Ikuto and Kairi thought they were warning her, but Amu had thought over every possibility since she'd made her decision. There was nothing they could warn her about that she hadn't already thought of. "I understand. They'll rough me up but their leader is the one who wants to send the message so they'll bring me to him mostly untouched. That's the goal. I want to be taken in front of the leader of this organization. His confession is what we need."

"That won't be as easy as you think it might," Kairi reminded her. "We've been trying to figure out who the leader is for years. The closest we've come is catching glimpses of a shadow at some of the auctions. No name or face has ever been revealed."

"If I can get him to reveal who he is and what he does then you'll come in, right?"

Ikuto pushed his chair away from the table. He got up and paced around the kitchen for a moment before he turned back to Amu. "We'll give you ten minutes to get the information we need before we kick the door down."

"Ikuto-"

"No," he said sharply to cut her off. "If you take more time than that then we're risking him doing something absolutely horrible to you."

"It doesn't matter what he's doing," Amu argued. "If he's about to say his name or confess his crimes then you have to wait."

"No," Ikuto said again.

Amu sighed as she looked at Kairi. "If I feel like I can't handle the situation then I'll say so."

"We'll be outside the building," Ikuto argued. "We'll be too far away to get to you as quickly as you might need us to."

"He will be alerted as soon as we start making our way to you," Kairi agreed. "You'll lose your chance if we enter before he confesses. And our presence there might escalate what he's doing. He could get aggressive if he realizes it's a trap. It's not just rape and abuse you have to worry about, Amu. Your life is at risk."

Amu closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. She held it for a moment before she released it slowly. "I understand," she said quietly. "I have been thinking about this for a while and what might happen to me. I want to do this. I need to do this."

"Can you handle this situation?" Kairi asked after a moment of silence. "You've been recovering since the last time they kidnapped you. Are you sure you won't panic?"

Amu sent him a wry look. Better to look at Kairi than Ikuto. "They caught me unaware last time. I was drugged and didn't come out of it until I was here. That won't be the case this time. This will be an intense situation but I can handle it. I've been told before that I tend to talk faster than I can think when put in a difficult situation. I've always handled them just fine."

"But nothing like this," Ikuto pointed out as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his weight back against the counter. "You've never been in a situation where they've stripped you naked and are threatening you with bodily harm."

"I haven't," Amu agreed. "But I'll have a small amount of control over the situation purely because I put myself in it. I'll handle it."

"And if you can't," Ikuto reminded her. "You'll tell us."

"I will," Amu promised.

The alarm chimed in the hallway. The sound echoed through the penthouse as they fell silent once more in the kitchen. Midori had arrived at the building and was in the elevator that would bring her to the penthouse.

Amu sat quietly at the table as Kairi got up to let the doctor in. "Ikuto," she said quietly as she listened to Kairi greet Midori in the hallway. "Remember, I'm not doing this for me or you. This is for them."

Ikuto sighed as he pushed off the counter. He approached Amu and pulled out her chair before he knelt so they'd be on a similar level. He took her hand into his as he looked into her eyes. "Even for all the people who have been taken as slaves, you cannot put yourself in danger, Amu. I know why you want to do this. I know it might be selfish of me to ask this of you but please. Please, do not risk your life or sanity for anyone."

Amu shifted her hand so that she held Ikuto's in return. "I have to do it for them," she told him as Midori and Kairi came down the hall. "I don't have the courage to do it for any other reason."

"I see you're still trying to convince her to not do this," Midori said as she stopped in the doorway of the kitchen. "Good. I don't want her to go either."

Ducking her head, Amu stared down at Ikuto's hand in hers. "I have to do this."

"Then we will do what we can to help you," Ikuto told her as he squeezed her hand. He got up from where he was kneeling and moved to lean against the counter once more. "I won't let you risk yourself needlessly."

Midori shook her head as she took Ikuto's empty chair at the table. "I brought a few devices. The first one is a bracelet. The goal will be to make them think you don't know it's a tracker."

Amu took the box Midori held out to her. The bracelet inside was a delicate silver chain with a small heart dangling from it. "This is pretty."

"When they take it from you, protect it. Tell them it was a gift from Ikuto," Midori told her as she set two other boxes on the table. "The earrings will be another thing that they notice. Hopefully, they don't rip them from your ears."

"Earrings?" Amu asked as she looked at the other box. "What do they do?"

"One is a camera and the other is a microphone," Midori told her as she slid that box over. "Ikuto told me to get a few things that would be obvious so they wouldn't look for the one we don't want them to find."

The earrings looked like regular diamond earrings to Amu. They sparkled under the kitchen lights. "How much did these cost?"

"It doesn't matter," Ikuto said without concern. "Your safety is more important than any dollar amount."

Amu frowned as she fiddled with the box. "Where do you get things like this?"

Midori glanced over at Ikuto.

Kairi cleared his throat.

Ikuto sighed. "I had them made, Amu."

"What?" Amu asked as she blinked a few times in shock. "Why?"

"When my sister was taken," Ikuto said without looking at anyone in the room. "She was terrified of disappearing again without anyone being able to find her. We had a lot of different types of devices made for her. Utau said she felt safer when she knew that we knew where she was and what she was doing. She even had a panic button made that she kept in her pocket that sends an alert to my phone."

"Ikuto," Amu said quietly with her emotions choking her words. "I had no idea she was struggling so much."

"How would you know?" Ikuto asked as he looked back at her. "When you said that you wanted to do this, I asked Midori to go to Utau's and get some of the things she doesn't use anymore."

Amu nodded as she touched the boxes with more care. She felt honored to know that she would be wearing something of Utau's "What's in the third box?"

Midori sighed as she opened it. "This is the tracker we don't want them to find. It'll pick up words spoken around you up to about fifteen feet. This one isn't a piece of jewelry, Amu. It is inserted under your skin."

Staring down at the little chip, Amu swallowed hard. "Where do you want to put it?"

Midori looked at Ikuto again before she met Amu's gaze once more. "We can't put it near any major arteries because the sound of your heartbeat will interfere too much. The best place for it is most likely the outside of your hip."

Amu dropped her hand to rest against the spot that Midori had indicated. "How does it go in?"

"I'll make a tiny incision and slide it under your skin," Midori told her. "Then I'll glue the little wound closed so that it is less obvious. It'll look like a scratch or a nail mark."

"A nail mark?"

Ikuto sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Like someone was holding your hips a little too tightly," he said bluntly. "Like we're having a lot of sex."

"Oh," Amu said. She ducked her head to hide her blush for a few seconds before she nodded. "That makes sense. They'll expect me to have some marks like that."

Ikuto made a noise in his throat as he shifted his weight. "It would be better if that wasn't the only mark on you."

"What do you mean?" Amu asked as she looked over at him. The way he'd pulled her chair away from the table when he'd kneeled before her meant she didn't have to twist to look at him as he stayed by the counter. "What are you suggesting?"

The face Ikuto made conveyed his feelings about their topic. "That if the incision is really obvious, and if you allow it, I'll put a few more marks on you so that the incision blends in."

Amu narrowed her gaze. "How?"

"Well," Ikuto said ruefully. "I'm not suggesting we have sex. I just meant that I can grab your arms a little roughly. It wouldn't be difficult for me to leave bruises on you, Amu. I noticed when I carried you in that night that you bruise easily."

Amu blushed again as she slowly nodded. "Fine, but I think I'll need them on my legs and hips, not my arms."

Ikuto held her gaze for a moment before he nodded. "We'll talk about it after Midori puts in the tracker."

"Fine," Amu said before she turned back to Midori and Kairi. "So we'll use these three devices. If we're lucky, they won't notice the earrings and the footage will give you a lead. Otherwise, we'll rely on the recording of the chip."

Kairi nodded as he got up from the table. "There are things that I need to see to downstairs. Ikuto has the devices that each tracker is linked to. After they're on, check to make sure they're working correctly and that they don't interfere with one another."

"Will do," Ikuto said as he watched Kairi leave. "If anything goes wrong with them," he said as he turned to Amu. "We're calling this off."

Amu narrowed her gaze at him once more. "We'll delay it until it's fixed."

Sighing, Ikuto conceded. "Fine."

Midori watched them glare at each other for a moment before she cleared her throat. "The earrings and bracelet are easy to put on and take off if they're not working correctly. The chip is a little different. Please test it out before it goes under Amu's skin."

Ikuto held Amu's gaze for a moment longer before he looked away. Without a word, he left the kitchen.

Amu relaxed only slightly back into her chair. Ikuto's concern for her was touching, but he seemed to think the hardest part about all this would be when she was taken before that person. But it wouldn't be. No, once Amu was grabbed, everything would just happen. It was out of her control.

The hardest part about their entire plan would be walking out the door. Ikuto made her feel safe. She didn't want to leave him, but she had to. She had to. Until the organization was brought down, she wouldn't be safe. No one would be safe. People would continue to be kidnapped and sold off.

She had to go. Amu avoided Midori's pleading gaze as she looked back down at the earrings and bracelet. She had to do this. And if she succeeded, then she could come back.

Ikuto didn't exactly stomp back into the kitchen with a tablet in his hands. His steps were hard as he dug his heel into the ground firmly with each step, but he didn't stomp. He kicked Kairi's empty chair away from the table and planted one foot on it. Then he leaned his arm against the top of his thigh as he woke up the tablet. "Once you leave here, Amu, we'll be following you. I'll have two teams. Nagi and Rima will be waiting near your place. Kairi will stay here and monitor everything so Kukai agreed to come and join me."

"Have you told Tsukasa what we're doing, yet?" Amu asked as Ikuto's fingers tapped firmly against the screen in his hand. "Do the police know?"

"No," Ikuto bit out before he looked up at her. He took a second to take a deep breath to release some of his anger. "No," he said again but more gently. "They have a mole. I can't trust that they won't somehow be tipped off."

"Not even Tsukasa?" Midori asked. "You didn't even tell him?"

"I can't trust that our line is secure," Ikuto pointed out. He finished what he was doing on the tablet and set it to play the sounds the chip was picking up for them to hear. It was weird to hear his voice echo back to him. "This is already too risky. I won't put Amu in more danger recklessly."

Amu wasn't sure what she was feeling. Part of her was relieved that the chip going into her hip seemed to be working. Part of her had hoped for a delay. "It's functioning?"

Ikuto nodded as he put the tablet down on the table. He leaned further on his knee as he looked at her. "If you're ready, Midori will insert it now so we can make certain it doesn't short out after it goes in."

Slowly, Amu nodded her head. "Let's do it."

"Come with me," Midori sighed as she got up from the table. "You'll need to remove your pants so we'll do this in the bathroom."

Amu got up from her chair. Her knees felt weak but she stayed steady as she followed Midori down the hallway. "Is this going to hurt?"

"You'll feel a pinch," Midori replied as she stepped aside to allow Amu to enter the bathroom first. "I'll need to put it deep enough that the bump of it under your skin won't be obvious, but it's not going to be too painful."

Amu nodded. She avoided her own gaze in the mirror, too afraid of what she might see, as she dropped her shorts and turned so Midori would have access to the outside of her left hip. Her stance had her facing the large mirror that covered the entire wall above the sink. Instead of looking at herself, she watched Midori as the doctor cleaned the spot with alcohol.

Amu winced as Midori cut into her skin with a sharp scalpel. With a pair of teasers, she took the already disinfected chip and slipped it under the little flap of skin. Then she cleaned the blood off before dabbing a small amount of glue over the wound.

The entire process took only a couple of minutes. Amu almost couldn't believe that it was so easy to do it. How many people were chipped the way she now was without them ever knowing that it had happened?

"There," Midori said as she took her gloves off and washed her hands. "Ikuto? Can you hear us?"

"Yes," Ikuto called from the kitchen. "I can hear you clearly."

"Good," Midori told him through the device. "I'll stay here with Kairi and be on call for anything."

Amu nodded as the doctor looked at her again. "Thank you, Midori. For everything."

Midori sighed before she tugged Amu into her arms. She hugged the younger girl for a moment before she pulled back. "Be safe, Amu."

Blinking hard, Amu nodded. She followed Midori out of the bathroom, but when the doctor turned to leave the penthouse, Amu went the other way. She took her time as she returned to the kitchen. Not because she wanted to avoid Ikuto, but because the moment was coming. The moment she would have to walk out the door. And her steps slowed without her conscious thought. Her feet felt weighed down by the enormity of the situation.

She could stay. She could tell Ikuto she changed her mind and would just stay safely locked away in his penthouse. He would let her. Amu knew he'd do anything for her. He'd even be grateful that she changed her mind.

But she'd never forgive herself. Each day she'd wake up hating herself a little more than the one before.

Steeling herself, Amu stepped back into the kitchen. Her hip felt heavier though she knew it was her brain playing tricks on her. "That was easy enough."

Ikuto moved to silence the tablet so their conversation wouldn't echo in the kitchen. "I'm glad it didn't hurt."

Amu nodded as she moved around the table to be closer to him. "Are Nagi and Rima in position?"

With a sigh, Ikuto stood up. He dropped his foot back to the ground as he turned to face Amu. "They are. Kukai just arrived downstairs. He's going to wait in his car for me to join him. Everything's set."

Swallowing hard, Amu lifted her gaze to meet his eyes. "I'm going to show you the mark. I want you to decide if you need to put more on me."

"Amu?"

She shuddered as she rested her hands on her shorts. "I've never had sex, Ikuto. I don't know what those sorts of marks are supposed to look like."

Ikuto held her gaze for a moment longer before he nodded. "All right," he said as he sat in the chair behind him. "Show me."

Amu felt like hesitating, which was why she tugged her shorts down out of the way before she had the time to overthink what she was doing. Ikuto would never do anything to her that she didn't want. She didn't have to be scared of him.

Ikuto furrowed his brows as he studied her hip. "I can barely see it. I don't think it'll matter."

"Are they expecting me to have marks?"

"Depends," he said as he reached out to tug her shorts back into place. "If they ask about it you can always tell them that I like you spotless. Or I can leave some bruises and then you won't have to worry."

Amu bit her lip before she slowly nodded. "Just leave some bruises."

"Whatever you want," Ikuto told her. "But we'll need to make them look real."

"What do I need to do?"

Ikuto studied her for a moment. He must have seen the determination in her gaze because he only sighed before he got up. "Come with me."

Amu was only a little surprised when he led her into the living room rather than the bedroom.

Ikuto dropped onto the couch before he looked back at her. "Take your shorts off. You can leave your panties on. I just want to make sure that we don't have to do this more than once."

Nodding, Amu pushed her shorts down past her hips before she could think about it. She stepped out of them and left them on the floor. Ikuto kept his gaze on her, though he didn't drop his eyes down past her face. "What now?"

"Come here," he rasped.

Amu stepped closer to him. She rested her hands on top of his knees as she stood between his spread legs. "Ikuto?"

"I'm going to pull you into my lap," he told her as he stared up at her. "I want you to press your stomach against my chest. I'm going to hold onto your hips and thighs and squeeze so that I'll leave bruises. Then I'll shift my hands and dig my nails in a bit, okay?"

Amu nodded as he reached out for her. She shivered as his hands settled on her hips and guided her forward. She settled in his lap with her knees digging into the couch on either side of his hips. Her stomach and breasts pushed against his chest as he tugged her closer.

"Ready?"

Amu nodded as she stared down at him. She knew her face was turning pink. The rest of her body felt like it was heating up. She hadn't felt so hot since she'd recovered from the drugs. "Ready."

Ikuto stared up at her as his hands shifted to hold her. His fingers dug into her hips.

Amu closed her eyes as she bit her lip. No one had ever touched her like he was. She felt a moan building in the back of her throat and swallowed to keep it in. He wasn't doing this for any reason other to help her.

Ikuto's gaze drank in the sight of Amu's face as she closed her eyes. Her brows pinched slightly as he dug his fingers into her hips and ass and held her against him.

Amu choked back a whimper when he tightened his hold. She didn't realize she moved until her forehead touched his.

"Amu?" Ikuto asked quietly. "Are you okay? Hold on for just a little longer."

"I'm fine," she breathed out against his face. "Keep going."

Ikuto tightened his hold only so that he wouldn't lift his chin and cross the space between their mouths. He wanted to feel the press of her lips against his. "Amu."

She whined as he pulled her hips tighter against his stomach. "Ikuto," she moaned as she nuzzled against the side of his face.

Groaning, Ikuto turned his head to press his nose against her cheek. "Amu. Fuck. Having you like this. I don't want to let you go."

Amu shifted so she could turn her head comfortably on his shoulder. She wanted to press kisses against his jaw. She wanted to taste his skin and know what his hands felt like against other places on her body. "Will you kiss me?"

Ikuto let go of her hips. He wrapped one arm around her waist to hold her to him as his other hand slipped into her hair. He lifted her head so she could meet his gaze before he brought her mouth down to his. "You have to come back," he whispered against her lips. "I won't be able to live with just a taste."

Amu moaned as she pressed into his hold. "I'll come back," she promised. "Kiss me."

Though he wasn't sure if he'd be able to stop, Ikuto brought her lips to his. He wanted to devour her. He wanted to claim her mouth and pin her to the couch so he could show her exactly what being his felt like.

He kept the kiss chaste instead. Just a slick press of her mouth against his. Only because he knew if he didn't then he'd never let her go.

Amu blinked dazedly as she sat up. She didn't move from his lap as she cupped his cheeks with her palms. "I'm coming back," she told him again. "We'll get them and then you'll rescue me. I'll be back here with you soon."

"Amu?"

Ignoring the look he was giving her, Amu dipped her head down to press one small kiss to the corner of his lips. "Now you have to let me go."

Ikuto wasn't sure how he managed. But he did.

He let her go.

.

Morg: Ready?

Ikuto: I don't think so.

Amu: No.