Chapter 81

For several hours, Seiya had been pacing restlessly in his office at the harbor. He had informed Haruka about the drastic discovery on his way, and she arrived shortly after him. She immediately took over the coordination of the container search, while Seiya monitored the controls of the air and land routes from his office. Yaten's precautionary measures were now in effect, and Tokyo's supply was completely cut off. Only civilians could enter or leave Tokyo.

Seiya ran a stressed hand through his loose strands of hair, leaning his head against the cool window with his eyes closed, pondering intensely what someone could possibly want with the explosives. He had never triggered such a drastic emergency plan before, and he was very surprised that it actually worked smoothly. At least something, he thought to himself. However, he couldn't shake off the nagging feeling that Kenji had ordered the explosives, yet Yaten was right. Without evidence, it was hard to prove anything against him. But what did Kenji intend to do with such a large quantity? He could easily level a large part of Tokyo to the ground.

A loud clearing of the throat made Seiya turn around; Haruka was leaning casually against his desk. "Two more containers with the same paperwork error, also loaded with explosives, and in a regular one without errors, there was a small amount, but it was manageable," she informed Seiya with an expressionless face.

"In one of the trucks, we also hit the jackpot, CL-20, an explosive with even higher explosive power than TNT. Only the air route seems to be clear," Seiya replied monotonously, sinking into his chair. He grabbed a pen and noted down in bullet points everything they now knew. But there was something here that simply didn't make sense to him, he overlooked something. Then it caught his eye.

"You also think Kenji is the recipient. Why don't we confront him?" Haruka voiced his thoughts, and Seiya lifted his head.

"Yeah, somehow, but take a look at this," the black-haired man replied, pushing his notes over to her, then pointing with his finger at the roughly sketched table. "Here, with these containers, paperwork errors everywhere, all the same... except for one, and here with the truck, there was a similar discrepancy. It was almost as if someone wanted us to find the explosives. Kenji would never make such mistakes, and if one of his employees made such a mistake, the responsible person would have been gone a long time ago. One mistake like this might be possible, but four times, Ruka? No, there's more to it than that."

Haruka furrowed her brow and examined Seiya's scribbled notes. "You're right, it's kind of strange. But why would someone hand over such quantities of this substance to us? Did Yaten contact you again?"

Seiya shook his head. "No, nothing, and since he has no reception, he's probably in his basement interrogating someone. I just hope he's successful in what he's doing."

"I hope so too. But on another note, Seiya, what do we do with all the explosives? We can't leave them lying around down in the warehouse; if someone gets wrong ideas, everything within several kilometers could explode," Haruka pointed out.

"Damn," Seiya cursed quietly to himself. He hadn't thought about storage yet. But Haruka was right, leaving it here was too dangerous. "Do you have any ideas?" he now wanted to know from the blonde.

"Of course, I'll just take everything with me so no one can lay their hands on it," she said sarcastically.

"That's not funny, Ruka," Seiya snorted and rose from his chair again. He paced restlessly through his office for a few turns. "We still have an empty freighter in the dockyard; repairs on it were supposed to be completed yesterday. Check if that's been done, and then load everything on board. Sail it out far enough that there's no danger from the cargo. I'm sure Yaten will assign three or four of his men to guard it. None of our people will stay on board. We need to find out what's going on here first, and if we have to get rid of the stuff, a controlled detonation at sea is the way to go anyway."

Haruka briefly reconsidered the instructions. "Yes, probably the best idea. I'll let you know as soon as I find out everything. Are you organizing the delivery of the truck?"

Seiya nodded briefly and pulled out his phone again.

Yaten, get back to me when you read this. We're storing the explosives at sea for now. - Seiya

It didn't take long for a response to come, but not from Yaten as hoped.

What explosives? Can't I leave you alone for a few hours? - Taiki

Long story, we suspect Kenji is behind it. Almost under control. - Seiya

Almost under control? Where are you guys? I'm coming over. - Taiki

Ruka and I are at the harbor, and Yaten, I have no idea. - Seiya

Explosives? Please be careful, I still need you. - Usagi

I'm the one getting answers while you've been whiling away your time. Meet us in an hour at Blackmoon. - Yaten

Yaten casually tossed his phone back onto the table and descended the stairs. Slowly, he entered the room and then scrutinized the man in front of him, brought to him by his people. Fear was clearly written on the blond's face, and Yaten enjoyed wielding his power. Calmly, he wiped the last traces of blood from his hands with a white cloth and scrutinized him intently. "So, I hope for your sake that you're more talkative than your colleague earlier. We have about half an hour together, and I'll warn you now: I'm not the most patient... So, you were involved in the goods receiving and transportation of the explosives," Yaten spoke in his usual cool manner.

The man, whose limbs were bound to a chair, nodded eagerly, and the sweat of fear on his forehead increased significantly. Yaten drew a scalpel and ran the blade along his visitor's forearm, but without applying pressure. Yaten knew that once his nerves were on edge, he would talk. This man here in front of him was obviously not an agent or a specialist like Zoisite. He gave the impression of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wasn't a serious opponent, yet he had information they needed.

"Very well. Let's continue. Who is your employer?" Yaten now whispered to him. The man swallowed, his eyes darting anxiously around the torture chamber. "I... I don't know," he stammered fearfully, looking at his tormentor more closely. "That's a shame for you. If you can't provide me with any information, you're absolutely useless to me. I'll give you one last chance: Tell me everything you know. Maybe then I'll let you go with your miserable life... Besides, a quick resolution of these matters surely also serves your own interest. You must have a family here in Tokyo, and you weren't aware that a bomb of this size would have blown up at least half of our capital if it had exploded. Just like that. Boom, and everything would be gone. Tokyo in ruins," said Yaten as he menacingly paced around the room.

His gaze wandered over the heavy equipment and then over to the unassuming cabinet where he kept his poisons. He carefully considered his next move. Killing innocent civilians was out of the question, and if this man didn't talk, he still had his colleague in the next room who hadn't been interrogated yet. However, time was somewhat pressing on him because Seiya couldn't keep Tokyo sealed off indefinitely.

"I'll tell you everything I know, but please spare me and my family. My children are still so young, and who will take care of them if I'm not here anymore," the man pleaded, and Yaten slowly turned back to him. Patiently, he leaned against the work surface and waited for further explanations. "We're just employees of this freight forwarding company. We load the delivery and then take it to where it needs to go. We had no idea we were loading explosives. It wasn't until we got to the inspection and noticed that there was no recipient listed, just an address, that we got suspicious... and also, the number of crates didn't match," he began, recounting all the events.

"To what address was the whole thing supposed to go? Where did you load it, and who signed your order?" Yaten now tried to redirect him to the important things, as he carefully took a large pair of pliers from the wall and turned them challengingly in his fingers. "I don't remember exactly. It was an address in one of the upscale neighborhoods of Tokyo. The original delivery note is still in the truck's glove compartment. We panicked and then forged one for the inspection, but in our haste, we forgot about the stamp, so our goods were thoroughly checked," the bound man replied in a panic.

With a smirk, Yaten set the pliers aside and then reached for his radio. It buzzed a few times before a familiar voice answered on the other end. "Are you still in the truck... yes, that's right, it's supposed to go to the harbor, but take a look in the glove compartment. The original delivery note must be in there somewhere. What I have here is a forgery. Send me a picture of it immediately," Yaten whispered, then ended the connection.

Without paying any further attention to his visitor, Yaten dashed out of the room; he needed his phone. He hoped to receive the evidence soon that Kenji or Rubeus were the recipients of the explosives. The screams of the bound man echoed faintly in the distance, but Yaten didn't have time for that now. He easily ascended the stairs, and the heavy metal door finally silenced the screams. His nerves were stretched to the limit as he grabbed his phone and flew out of the office door behind him. Finally, the reassuring vibration of his phone came.

Within seconds, he had unlocked the display and called up the incoming image. He zoomed in to read it better, hastily scanning the lines. Then the silver-haired man froze in his movement. This couldn't be true. His eyes scanned the lines unbelievingly, then fixed on the beginning again. He got stuck on the signature once more. The messy lines were hardly decipherable, yet Yaten was pretty sure who had signed here. He had often seen that scrawl in front of his eyes as a teenager; he would recognize it at any time. His grip on his phone tightened. He calmed himself down and forwarded the image to someone from his special team, along with a message: - Requesting identification of the signature. - Even though he didn't actually need confirmation, he knew he needed evidence to support everything. Taiki and Seiya wouldn't believe it without them.

"Boss? Is everything okay, or do we need to take further precautions?" suddenly a voice came from the other side of the door. Yaten briefly snapped out of his trance and stood up. "I don't know yet. Stay here and remain on standby until I give the all-clear... and take care of the two men downstairs. The first one was talkative, I need to go urgently. I haven't talked to the second one yet. Drill it into them that they must keep their mouths shut, or they'll see us again... and get someone to clean up. This whole damn house needs to be clean," he gave brief instructions, only to then rush past his colleague.

As soon as he was in his car, he lit a cigarette, shifted into gear, and squealed away. Panic spread across his face as he glanced at the clock. The address the truck was supposed to go to was the Kou Tower, where Minako was. For Yaten, it was clear that despite his precautions, Minako wasn't safe there. He wouldn't leave her side until everything was cleared up, and he would take his sister-in-law with him directly. They were just as deeply involved in this matter as he and his brothers. His foot pressed the accelerator harder, and then he dialed Minako's number.