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Markus rushed in with his fists raised as Sakai quickly raised up his arms in an instant to protect his face. Markus then proceeded to continue as if he was going to punch Sakai in the face, causing the man to keep his arms raised. But he feinted at the last second and aimed a punch for his guts instead.
Sakai gasped he instinctively bent forward over allowing Markus to raise his knee up to knee him in the face. Before he delivered a jab to his right cheek, sending him scrambling away from him. As Sakai dodged another one of Markus punch and rolled over to grab an iron pipe as a weapon scowling at him.
Markus kept his distance as Sakai roared and tried to swing the iron pipe at Markus, but he calmly dodged or kept out of distance of each attempted hit on his person, while positioning his feet to keep himself stable and light.
But at the same time he was maneuvering his position to somewhere Sakai wasn't paying attention to.
As Sakai attempted to hit Markus again with the iron pipe, he dodged and Sakai instantly hit a support structure, as his eyes widened in surprise. Then Markus rushed in with a nasty punch to Sakai's face, as he destroyed his nose and knocked him back as he lost his grip on his iron pipe.
But Sakai started wildly swinging his arms at Markus in an attempt to avoid getting hit by him. But Markus stayed out of distance until Sakai overextended himself once again. And then Markus grabbed Sakai's arm and twisted it and send him smashing against the wall as Sakai stumbled at the blow.
As he was right now, Markus rushed in and swept his leg at Sakai's legs, knocking him over. Before he jumped him and started repeatedly punching his face over and over again with a look of pure coldness, as he continued to keep punching him in until his face was a bloody mess.
As Sakai's face was bloodied all over, Markus raised his bloody fist one last time and then rushed to punch him in as Sakai closed his eyes reflexively fearing another punch.
"Please stop!" Tatsuo called out desperately to Markus as he watched in shock as how Markus tore Sakai apart.
And it was lucky that Markus had extremely good reflexes since he stopped his punch one inch away from Sakai. "You're begging for his life now?" Markus questioned. "You do realize that this guy killed a man already and tried to kill you too." He pointed out to him.
"I know that, and I get that you might have your own reason for wanting him in agony, but wouldn't it benefit you more if he was well enough to answer?" Tatsuo pointed out to him. "You wanted info about the Nagoya Family, he's your best shot at getting it." He said.
Markus was silent and as much as someone like Sakai pissed him off, Tatsuo had a point. So with a scowl he got off of him and lifted him up. "You better thank Tatsuo for saving you." He said as he pointed him to Tatsuo. "Since he was your former teammate or whatever, you can ask him what you need to ask first." Markus said.
Tatsuo nodded and turned to Sakai with a look of pity on his face as Markus did not go easy on him. "Sakai, just why did you do all of this? What was the point of it all?" He pleaded with his old teammate.
Sakai was silent before he answered. "Back then when you got called up, you were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. You were the only one on the team who didn't know, so it was convenient." Sakai said as everyone had their own reactions.
Markus was still not happy, the balding man looked appalled, while the fancy thug guy looked upset for some reason.
"We did you wrong." Sakai admitted. "But not once have I ever regretted sacrificing you for a second." He said as Tatsuo looked confused. "We threw you to the wolves for the sake of Nagoya."
"The fuck?" Markus cursed out as he tightened his grip on Sakai. "So fucking over this guy was for some stupid Greater Good Cause, is that what you're going to go with now?!" Markus said angrily shaking Sakai.
"Answer me damn you!" Markus swore.
Sakai looked hesitant but said one thing. "That Baseball Scandal is how the Tojo and Omi were forced out of Nagoya." He revealed as Markus paused at that as did everyone else. "You wouldn't know it, but back then...the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance were ruthless and were basically fighting for control of Nagoya back then, but no one was willing to challenge them." Sakai said.
"What does this have to do with Baseball?" Markus questioned.
"Everything, the Tojo and Omi…" Sakai said as he drifted off and looked up and his eyes widened in panic as he headbutted Markus in the face, forcing him to let go from the recoil. As Sakai ran towards Tatsuo and pushed him out of the way, before suddenly something heavy fell and crushed him to death.
"Sakai!" Tatsuo cried out as he rushed to the crushed man as everyone else rushed to him and Markus knelt down and checked the pulse and closed his eyes in frustration. "Hey is he still breathing?!" Tatsuo said desperately.
"No dice, he's dead." Markus sighed as he looked down on the man, he was a piece of shit who killed a man, but at the same time, he saved one man's life as well. So giving him one last respect, he closed his eyes for him. "I don't know what's with this guy, one moment he's trying to kill someone and kills someone and next he tries to save the guy he's trying to kill?" Markus said as he turned up to face Tatsuo.
"What is it?" he asked in confusion. "Because if you're here for money, I ain't paying." He said quickly, causing Markus to sigh.
"No I'm not, I'm here to get information about the Nagoya Family." Markus said to them as they widened their eyes. "Why I'm looking for Intel on them is a bit personal, but I will say this." Markus said to them. "They're connected to someone that I am after and I need that Intel." He said.
The three guys looked among each other and had a silent talk, but eventually Tatsuo nodded and turned to Markus. "Then let's get out of here, we don't want to be here at a crime scene." Tatsuo said as Markus nodded at that and the four men left.
Markus had to raise an eyebrow as he entered, what was apparently, Tatsuo's current residence. "This is rather quaint." Markus noted as he saw the mess that was inside Tatsuo's home as Tatsuo looked kind of embarrassed and started to clean up some of the mess he had in his room. "So who are you two?" He then asked the two guys with Tatsuo.
"Ah." The balding guy spoke up first. "I am Uno, I am an acupuncturist." Uno introduced himself as the other guy went up next.
"Name's Koichi Takasugiand I'm this guy's." Takasugi said pointing to Tatsuo. "Loan Shark and he owes me a shit ton of money." He said as Markus blinked at that.
As he had to admit, that this was kind of a pretty weird group of people to be hanging out together.
"Right then." Markus said to them. "I must admit, I haven't even been here for a day yet and I found myself in some kind of some kind of chaos." Markus said as he turned to them all. "And I must admit, I didn't expect you three to be in deep enough to get someone to try and kill you at least three times." He added in as Tatsuo finished cleaning up.
Tatsuo looked sheepish as Takasugi replied. "And I didn't expect a foreign guy to come out searching for Intel on the Nagoya Family, normally I wouldn't ask, but I get the feeling that someone like you won't share so easily." He said before he sighed. "And to think this all began because of some Baseball Scandal." He muttered.
"Oh yeah, Baseball...apparently the reason why the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance were forced to pack up and leave Nagoya." Markus commented, remembering that tidbit of Intel.
"I don't get it, what does Baseball and my scandal have to do with the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance leaving Nagoya?" Tatsuo said in annoyance. "Why does everything have to go back to that one moment in my life where I was up to bat and lost everything in an instant!?" He snapped angrily as he slammed the wall.
Markus didn't know much about what Tatsuo went through; but at the same time he couldn't help but feel for him, as he could understand losing everything important. "Life's not fair." He soon sighed out as he dropped himself onto a cushion as Tatsuo turned to him. "If life was fair then people would be getting what they deserve, for good or for ill. But Life's not Fair no matter how much we want it to be, all we can do is just work with what we got." He said to him.
"...Shit that's pretty deep." Tatsuo said in surprise before focusing on something else. "So you're hunting down for information on the Nagoya Family huh?" Tatsuo said. "Got any thing that we can work with or use? Since we're both after information, and it just so happens that the Nagoya Family is involved why not work together?" He offered.
"That seems fair." Markus agreed as he took out the photo of the Kidnapper that Kashiwagi managed to get a picture of and gave it to the three gentlemen to see. "He's the reason why I'm here." Markus explained. "I don't know much about this guy or even who he is, but all I know is that he was spotted here in this city and has connections to the Yakuza." He said as all three men turned to him in surprise.
"Seriously?" Uno said as he looked closer at the man in question. "Can't say I have ever seen anyone in my place before or any of the usual spots that I typically go to." Uno said with a frown.
"Don't you mainly spent most of your free time looking at hostess and masseuse clubs?" Takasugi said dryly as Uno chuckled with a perverted tone to it, causing both him and Markus to sigh in exasperation.
"Hey there's nothing wrong with going to those places, do you have any idea how amazing some of those masseuse clubs can be?" Tatsuo said in defense of his friend.
'Yeah, considering the guy that I'm after is a Terminator, I highly doubt he has any interest in any of the carnal delights.' Markus thought dryly to himself but turned to Takasugi. "Well what about you, you ever seen this guy before?" He asked as Takasugi looked close at the photo.
"Can't say I ever have." Takasugi admitted. "But I might know some people who might have seen him, I'm a Loan Shark after all, and I doubt that someone with the Yakuza is going to interact with someone like me, but I think someone like him might have been seen around." Takasugi said as he returned the photo back to Markus.
"Well it was a long shot." Markus shrugged. "But you know Tatsuo." He said getting the ex baseball player's attention. "That guy you know as Sakai, mentioned that your ban was the for the sake of Nagoya and essential to dealing with Omi and Tojo out, right?" He asked.
Tatsuo nodded. "Yeah, what about it?" He asked.
"A while ago, my contact mentioned that Nagoya was once a turf war zone between Omi and Tojo, however he also mentioned something about a scandal that forced the police to get involved." He said as he let Tatsuo piece it together...as Tatsuo's eyes went wide at the implications.
"Wait, you don't think that the Tojo and Omi were involved with the reason I got banned back in Nagoya did you?!" Tatsuo cried out.
"Think about it, Baseball is an important sport in Japan, if someone was discovered fixing matches or cheating like you were accused of, there would have been a police involvement. Involvement that neither Yakuza Families would have wanted to deal with." Markus astutely pointed out. "Think about what Sakai said." He stressed out.
"He did say that you were the only one on the team not in the know about it." Uno said with a frown. "But that would mean that everyone else was dirty." He said in shock.
"This is all theory, we don't have any actual evidence, and who's your contact for this information?" Tatsuo said in protest before questioning Markus.
"I can't say." Markus said to him as Tatsuo looked annoyed at him. "My contact is not relevant right now Tatsuo." Markus said to him. "Right now, you're apparently in enough trouble that this Nagoya Family, or at least one of their many proxies are trying to kill you, which I think is more important." He pointed out to him.
"Actually when you came across us, Tatsuo almost died in a series of accidents." Takasugi added in as Markus blinked at that.
"Are you serious?" He asked as Takasugi nodded as Markus turned to Tatsuo. "Seems like they're serious." Markus said to him before turning back to Takasugi. "Also don't refer to them as accidents." He said, causing him to look confused.
"Why not?" Uno asked in confusion.
"Because accidents implies that there's nobody to blame, which is clearly not the case here with Tatsuo." Markus explained to them as the three men all went nodding in agreement before Tatsuo remembered his issue.
"Then why can't you tell us about your contact then?Is he someone suspicious as well? Maybe someone hoping to lead you elsewhere not here?" Tatsuo questioned.
"Again, not relevant." Markus said as he tried to move on.
But Tatsuo was having none of it. "It's relevant to me!" Tatsuo shouted at Markus. "I found out that everything I worked for was undone in a single moment of what should have been my greatest triumph on the field. And now I learn that there's some kind of conspiracy behind it?! I'm sick and tired of all the secrets around me. So you will tell me who your contact is or I swear I will fight you myself!" He swore at Markus.
Markus was silent, as he contemplated his options of either telling Tatsuo or not telling him. Both options had their merits and demerits to work with, which would inevitably make things harder for him.
The first option was not to tell Tatsuo at all, and then he beats up Tatsuo enough to leave and start trying to find his man on his own. Meaning he retains control of who his contact is, and that means less people would be aware around him, allowing him to gather Intel more effectively.
On the other hand, that meant that Tatsuo would no doubt track him down and as a native of this city, he would no doubt have better contacts with the locals over him. Meaning they would be able to track down his position. And with how relentless and reckless Tatsuo seemed to him, he doesn't care about what kind of trouble he gets. Meaning that there was a chance for the Nagoya Family to set up an ambush for him.
His second option was to reveal his cards of Kashiwagi being his contact. Meaning that Tatsuo would be in the know about him, which would mean that Tatsuo would not try to cause a commotion of some kind trying to find him. Or be up about it in his face about his secrets.
The downside is that he would possibly lose trust, and reveal that his contact is a Yakuza. Markus was used to playing rigged games against him. And Markus decided to gamble on this choice believing that Tatsuo would ultimately choose to pursue answers.
"The name of my contact is Kashiwagi." Markus revealed to a surprised Tatsuo. "He's a Patriarch within the Tojo Clan." He added in as the three men recoiled in shock. "And before you ask, circumstances had forced me to team up with him. I rather not work with Yakuza if I can help it, but at the same time, I needed his support." He said sternly as he gave them a look.
"You're working with the Tojo Clan though!" Uno said in indignation. "How do we know that you're not going to sell out information to them in exchange for control of the city for profit or something like that?" He questioned.
Markus simply glared at him. "Because if I had cared about profit or anything else, why would I go out of my way to not only save you three, but then inform you about my contact when I knew for a fact it would only make cooperation even more difficult?" Markus said before he turned to Tatsuo. "Contrary to what you might think, not all of us are simply in it for the sport scandal you seem to be involved in." He said as Tatsuo looked indignant at that.
"Oh come on! Everything seems to go back to that match I had!" Tatsuo said as he stomped towards Markus only to started choking as Markus grabbed him by the crook of his shirt and shoved him against the wall.
"Already two people have died so far since I met you. And right now that someone that I am looking for is connected to the Nagoya Family. And he's interested in putting people I cherished in danger for whatever mission or goal he's trying to accomplish. I get where you're coming from, but I swear that I am only here for myself. Not for the Tojo Clan." He swore to Tatsuo.
Then Markus dropped Tatsuo. "Sorry about that." Markus apologized as he helped Tatsuo up.
"No, I get it, people are dead and my obsession with Baseball would be annoying, and I'm assuming you don't care for the sport either." Tatsuo gasped out.
"I don't care." Markus confirmed. "My only goal is to find that guy and nothing else." He confirmed to Tatsuo. "But let's move on." He said wanting to move the discussion to the next point.
"Maybe we should." Takasugi agreed as well. "So the Nagoya Family seems to be at the centerpiece for the conspiracy behind Tatsuo's scandal and for your guy as well." Takasugi said as he hummed thoughtfully trying to figure it out. "Sakai said that the Team was in on it, meaning that the Nagoya Wyverns may all be dirty." He said as Tatsuo looked angry at that.
"Tatsuo, Takasugi may have a point." Uno said reluctantly as he put his hand on Tatsuo's shoulder. "Sakai said that the whole team was dirty, and I doubt he would have implicated the rest of them so easily. At the very least we have to assume that they aren't reliable anymore."
"Are you for real Uno? They were our teammates, our comrades on the field?" Tatsuo asked sadly.
Uno nodded. "Remember when I found that phone and how I eventually got kicked out? It may be quite serious Tatsuo, we can't afford to be careless at this point. Especially since you nearly died multiple times." He said.
Tatsuo looked down. "I hate that you make so much sense, but it's really hard to believe that the team is dirty, then what does that mean for the coach then? He also took a fall with me." He added in.
"Oi, you mean that Fujita guy right?" Takasugi spoke up as both men turned to him as Markus raised an eyebrow. "You have heard and remembered that he's now the Manager for the Gigants." He said as both men's eyes went wide at that.
"Question." Markus spoke up. "Can I have context for what does it mean for this Fujita to become the Manager for the Gigants?" He questioned.
Tatsuo nodded. "Right, you wouldn't know, but the scandal I was in was against the Gigants and Fujita took a fall with me, but now that he's the Manager for the Gigants, that doesn't make sense since the ban is pretty strict and harsh." He said.
"So he may be in on it as well?" Markus said as Uno and Tatsuo nodded reluctantly. "Well that's just wonderful." He sighed.
"Never did say it was going to be easy." Takasugi pointed out as Markus nodded.
"Right then, so you guys are finally cool with working with me then?" He then asked as the three men gave each others silent looks.
"Well at this point, it's all hands on deck, so welcome aboard." Uno shrugged as the other two nodded.
"Nice to be working with ya." Markus nodded back to them.
"Now that's that over, mind telling us about yourself Markus?" Tatsuo soon spoke up as he blinked at them. "You know about us to an extent, but we hardly know anything about you. So if we're going to be working together long term. Wouldn't it make sense to get to know one another?" Tatsuo pointed out as Markus hummed thoughtfully at that.
"Well I suppose some bare basics wouldn't hurt too much." Markus said eventually as Tatsuo looked genuinely interested while the other two were actually curious. "So what exactly do you want to know about me?" Markus then asked the men.
"What do you do for a living?" Tatsuo asked curiously. "You got to be some kind of fighter like a Boxer or a Mixed Martial Artist Fighter of some kind right? You're really good at fighting from what I can tell with the way you basically dominated over that fight with Sakai." Tatsuo pointed out to him.
Markus chuckled at that and shook his head. "Not a fighter." He said. 'For the most part nowadays.' He added in internally in his head. "Most of the time I'm actually a repairman of sorts." He revealed causing the three to blink in surprise at that. "Repairing and fixing stuff comes rather easily to me, helps I had some good teachers and it's good solid work." Markus said.
"You're a repair guy?" Uno said in disbelief at Markus. "But you're built better than some athletes I've seen and work with!" He said protest.
"People come in all shapes and sizes Uno." Markus shrugged at him. "Variety is the spice of life as they say."
"So why do you know how to defend yourself?" Takasugi asked curiously.
"Circumstances forced me to learn, that's all I'm willing to say." Markus said as he looked at Tatsuo. "So what do you do these days?" He asked curiously and awkwardly.
Tatsuo looked happy and proud of himself. "I'm a man that reports the happiness of men everywhere so they know the joys of love and life!" He declared proudly as Markus blinked at that.
That was...strange all things considered. "So are you a journalist then of some kind?" He asked curiously as Tatsuo nodded happily at that.
Uno scoffed. "Don't listen to him Markus, he's just a sleazy pervert that try to sneakily and slyly try to get some freebies with the girls at the local masseuses places for good publicity on his articles. Which is mainly about him going on about his fetishes and filled to the brim with a variety of mistakes and issues." Uno said as Tatsuo looked put out and Markus just gained a deadpanned look.
"So the both of you are old perverted men huh?" Markus sighed as both baseball members tried to deny it. One thing's for sure, he was never going to let Kai-Ming hear about how he met two anime Stereotypes.
She would never let him hear the end of this.
"Are you okay Ai?" Miyako spoke up to Ai as Ai blinked and looked to her manager as Miyako looked concerned for her. "You've been spacing out a bit lately." She said in worry for her as Ai quickly put a smile back on.
"Sorry about that, was just thinking about my life and my future." Ai apologized as Miyako then raised an eyebrow at her. "I was just thinking of some ideas of what I may or may do if I decided that being an Idol is enough. Because I may not want to be an Idol forever you know~?" Ai said playfully with a wink.
Miyako snorted at that. "If you decided to retire from being an Idol, then Ichigo is going to have a heart attack." She retorted as Ai giggled at that before Miyako turned to her seriously. "But Ai, it's not about that, you're missing Markus aren't you?" She said as a question but from the way it sounded, it was more of a statement as Ai's smile slowly faded away.
"How did you know that?" She asked softly as Miyako smiled kindly and patted her on the shoulder.
"I may be a bit older and I certainly have no kids of my own, but I know the look of a woman in love missing her loved one." She said wisely as Ai looked to Miyako with a curious look. "That's the same kind of look I got when I have to separate from Ichigo for long periods of time when I was younger." She pointed out.
Ai was silent. "So how did you deal with it then?" She asked.
"It took some time, but mainly you simply need adjustment." Miyako admitted. "At first you're going to enjoy every time you spend together, but eventually you need to give each other space." She explained to Ai as she nodded and then Ai and Miyako blinked as they heard ringing from somewhere.
And Ai realized it was from her phone and she quickly went to pick it up and was confused to see it was from Haruka of all people and answered it. "Ah Haruka, good to hear from you, might I ask what are you calling me for?" She asked curiously.
"Say Ai." Haruka spoke nervously. "Say if you think that your boss is doing something wrong and leaving someone out to dry, would should you do?" She asked as Ai blinked at that.
"Well Haruka." Ai said carefully as Miyako simply kept her silence and simply observed them. "It depends on the seriousness of what said boss has done. If it's something like say, criminal charges, then it's best to turn in on said boss, because the police may rule you as an accomplice for example." She said.
"Ah no, it's nothing like that." Haruka said quickly, causing Ai to feel some relief at hearing that. "It's just…" She continued before trailing off. "What would you do if it's someone you've worked with and due to a loophole in a contract they're being fired and denied even severance pay?" She asked.
"A loophole in a contract? Could you explain that?" Ai asked as she remembered hearing plenty of bad rumors about Dyna Chair's President, and in this kind of environment, consistent bad rumors can greatly affect your ability to network with other people, which is important.
"..Say for example this person your boss has working for, was ordered to make a goal set within a certain timeline. But then constantly shortens that timeline. And then covertly alters that agreement shortly before and said person signs it, knowing of the alteration but wasn't told or read the fine print for it, meaning they can get fired and thrown away." Haruka asked in worry.
Ai closed her eyes at that thinking about how cutthroat the entertainment industry was. On one hand it was to be expected and a given. But on the other hand, she could never condone it, and neither would Markus stand by for it either.
"...Legally what said boss did is not in the wrong, since in our line of work, this is a rather cutthroat industry, thus people will attempt to cheat one another out." Ai started off with as she heard Haruka slumping a bit. "However, it's not something that you should simply accept either." Ai said to Haruka a bit more firmly, using that motherly tone she gained when either Aqua or Ruby did something particularly silly.
"Then...what should I do?" Haruka asked, finally cutting out the theoretical.
"You're the main Idol and the biggest star Dyna Chair has, Haruka, even your President will listen to you properly if you make your issues clear. Some issues aren't cleared until you're willing to take the first step." Ai said kindly to her.
Yes, she had to take the first step to understanding herself, Markus gave her the push, but she took the first step to understanding her own feelings, her own failings, and then choosing to work on them.
"Thank you Ai." Haruka said gratefully. "Also is Ichigo Productions looking for a Dance Instructor right now?" She then asked.
Ai turned to Miyako. "Are you okay with hiring another Dance Instructor?" She asked as Miyako raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a so and so gesture.
"We still need to interview the instructor, we do things by the books. Nothing that can be seen as legally gray, we lose trust with people that way, and garner bad rumors." Miyako replied.
Ai nodded. "We sill have to interview him, but if he does well, he will be hired." Ai said as she heard a relieved sigh and then heard some noises on the phone, muffled talking and thankful words of some kind. "Haruka?" She asked.
"Ah yes, sorry was sending my old Dance Instructor to you, he's really grateful for the opportunity, thank you for hearing me out Ai." Haruka said gratefully.
Ai simply smiled. "It's no issue, Haruka." Ai said warmly.