[JE] [JEF #3] Photographic Memories 5/8
Title: JE Fleet III: Photographic Memories ch. 5/8
Series: JE Fleet
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame (though others are mentioned)
Rating: PG-13? Maybe occasionally bordering on R?
Total word count: Approx. 37,550
Genre: AU, sci-fi, crack
Disclaimer: Not mine, dammit.
Summary: Mere hours away from Earth, the crew of the JE Fleet ship KAT-TUN have their leave cut short as Commodore Yamashita sends Captains Akanishi and Kamenashi on a top secret mission to Venus. But when Kame's past as the tactical advisor for the Fahngarlians catches up with him, the planet of love becomes the planet of war...
Chapter 5
"I still don't think you should be here," Taguchi tried again. He didn't really expect to succeed, but at least if Ueda suddenly collapsed, no one could accuse him of not trying to talk his injured friend out of going clubbing.
Ueda's response hadn't changed since Taguchi's first protest, a good twenty minutes ago, when the blond man had objected to him hailing a cab and insisting on joining in the night's activities. "I'm not going to sit around in our inn, nice though it is, when I could be...dancing." With the cab driver present, he couldn't mention their mission, so he'd been forced to substitute various alternative verbs.
"But Koki and Nakamaru are already going - shouldn't we be on standby or something?"
Taguchi's idea of 'standby' meant playing guard dog to his captains while improving his virtual golf handicap.
"They'll be fine. *All* of them," Ueda stated.
Having made an escape from the Eros City Emergency Room, he'd been spending a quiet evening in the inn, under instructions to rest and let his body recover from the trauma. Ueda hadn't bothered informing his well-intentioned doctor that his body was perfectly used to taking damage - one didn't become the number one boxer in the entire JE Fleet by shying away from pain, after all - but it irritated him, just a little, that Taguchi would try to insist that he remain in their room.
As if he could wait around after the phone call he'd received from Jin.
"Anyway, it's not like the shot will slow me down - much. It's just a flesh wound." Ueda's full, sensuous lips parted in a gleeful grin. "I've always wanted to say that!"
Taguchi returned the smile a trifle uneasily. "I think they just meant for Koki and Nakamaru to go."
"And *I* think we're supposed to do whatever we think is best. If the guy who shot me's still in the club, I want to find him."
"And if he finds it weird that the guy he shot earlier is going to a nightclub? It's not like he'll have forgotten your face since this afternoon."
Ueda paid the driver - as the senior member of the team, he had control of their finances - and stepped gracefully from the cab. "Therapy," he told Taguchi firmly. "Anyway, it'll be dark in there, and I'll be wearing these."
He donned a pair of black-rimmed glasses, so powerful they allowed him to spot the near-swoon they caused in a girl halfway down the street, and even the driver peeked at him surreptitiously before driving off again.
Taguchi wasn't completely convinced, but a glasses-wearing Ueda was a force to be reckoned with - even more so than usual - and as the commander had proven earlier, being scraped by a bullet in no way impeded his aim...or the power of his fists.
Assuming nobody blew up the entire club, they were probably safe. And really, what were the odds of that happening? Worse than those of Kame winning the Neo-Turner Art Prize.
"You're probably right," he agreed, glancing quickly at his phone to doublecheck their quarry. Kame had mailed them both a picture, apparently a copy of one he'd taken with his datapad, that was, itself, of a photograph. The woman's face, they already knew, and Jin had positively identified the light-haired man as Ikuta Toma. The dark-haired man, nobody had a clue about. They were on the lookout for all three.
For now, they didn't have much to go on. Jin was the only one of the KAT-TUN command crew who'd ever had any dealings with Ikuta, back when he and Yamapi both worked for old man Kitagawa, and they hadn't seen each other in over a decade. All he'd been able to tell them was that Ikuta was - or had been - a pretty nice guy, and funny too, but deadly competent. That notwithstanding, the old man had kept him on a short leash, not letting him loose on anything major, and he'd had a hard time concealing his frustration.
With no way of accessing information from outside Eros City, they couldn't get anything more up-to-date on Ikuta, and it wasn't likely they'd be able to turn up anything locally.
"Can't we go to the station and try to contact the commodore for details?" Taguchi had asked, and Ueda had pointed out the futility of that idea: the Pin wasn't due to land at Eros City spaceport until tomorrow.
They were on their own.
-----
"Didn't Kame say on the phone that this was supposed to be a nightclub?" Nakamaru murmured to Koki as the two of them were shown to a small, round table near the stage. "Looks more like a jazz club."
Koki took in the wailing saxaphone, the artificially-generated smoky atmosphere and the low-cut-but-high-class dame singing her heart out on the piano, and wished he was wearing a fedora instead of a hood.
"Everyone in this place looks suspicious," he complained after they'd sat down with drinks. "Including us."
"Especially us," Nakamaru corrected him. "We're the only ones not trying to look down the singer's dress."
Koki grinned. "Everyone else is here with a broken heart, or so the sign outside says. Nothing wrong with mine."
Nakamaru clinked glasses with him and laughed. "Mine's in good condition too."
The Heartbreak Club wasn't a bad place to spend an evening, if you were looking to drown your sorrows in soulful jazz and imported Earth wines. You could lose yourself in the eyes and arms of a complete stranger, maybe the sad-eyed girl sitting next to you, or the man across the room who's been watching you since you walked in. You didn't have to care.
And if that was all you wanted, one quick roll in the hay to get it out of your system - or perhaps a slow, lazy lay in a bed of feathers - then there were rooms for that. The club catered for all kinds.
It didn't take long for the two KAT-TUN crew members to figure this out, not once they saw couples being shown out back by the staff, and money changing hands.
"Easiest way to check the rest of the club without arousing suspicion," Koki said, and Nakamaru agreed with him.
There was no sign of Ikuta or the girl in the lounge, and the men's room had been empty as well. With the aid of a long blonde wig and a pair of high heels, Koki had infiltrated the ladies' room and emerged looking totally stupefied. It had taken Nakamaru five minutes to get any sense out of him.
"How much do you think they charge?" Koki wondered.
Nakamaru finished his drink and waved the empty glass offhandedly. "Probably too much. I don't think you have to leave a tip, though."
"I could leave them a tip on how-" Koki stopped midsentence as his rented cellphone buzzed in his pocket, making him jump. He didn't like it much. Datbands made much cooler-looking personal communication accessories, and when they were on the KAT-TUN, all they needed was their comm badges.
"Message from Kame?" Nakamaru guessed.
"Taguchi. He's here with Ueda. They're outside."
Nakamaru groaned. "Shouldn't he be taking it easy?"
"You know how hardworking Taguchi is."
"I meant Ueda."
After the shooting, they'd gone over to help Ueda, not thinking that it might be better to keep their distance. They'd gone with the medics, but left after seeing Ueda safely delivered to the emergency room, and despite their best efforts, they hadn't managed to catch up with Captains Akanishi and Kamenashi.
If they had, perhaps Jin wouldn't have got himself stunned.
"If Ueda says he's okay, he's okay."
"Or he's lying to make us all feel better," Nakamaru pointed out. "You know how good he is at that."
"I know *I* feel better with them both here." Koki began to jab away frantically at his phone's keypad. "I'm telling them to split up and cover the front and rear doors. Shame we don't have any trainees with us."
"They'd all be traumatised for life in here," Nakamaru assured him. "Complete waste of money."
Koki flipped his phone shut, not bothering to wait for confirmation. "Okay, let's go. That waitress is giving us strange looks."
"She probably thinks you're here to rob the place. Better look lovingly into my eyes for a minute and convince them we're legit."
Twenty seconds later, both of them were biting their lips to keep from laughing out loud. The effort required to maintain a straight face was enormous.
Nakamaru swallowed his laughter with difficulty. "What part of 'lovingly' involves pulling faces at me?" he gasped.
"Don't talk like you weren't doing the same thing," Koki retorted, and the two of them shared a grin that was entirely too happy for their surroundings before making their way to the back of the lounge.
Nakamaru was right about the price.
-----
When they got the message, Ueda was sorely tempted to pull rank on Koki. But that would be unforgivable, because the KAT-TUN crew just didn't do that to each other - except on the odd occasions when Jin attempted to commandeer the last slice of cake for himself, anyway - and really, he didn't have any cause for complaint. The weather was fairly mild, and the only reason he was even wearing a jacket with a fur-trimmed hood was to conceal his air gun.
(Because it looked good, as well, but that went without saying.)
So waiting outside the club in case anyone made a break for it wasn't a completely unappealing prospect, particularly since Ueda got the choice of location.
"Front or back?" Taguchi asked.
"I'll take- are those girls waving at us?"
"That's not an option," Taguchi replied automatically, but looked round anyway to discover that Ueda was right. A trio of flashy-looking Venusian girls were approaching them. He returned the wave in his usual cheerful style.
Ueda elbowed him with his good arm. "You're supposed to be with me, remember?"
"Yeah, but don't you think this hair makes me look like the playboy type?"
With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, the same one he always got when Jin told him no, of course it won't be dangerous, Ueda waited for the girls to catch up to them. One day, Taguchi's exuberant, outgoing nature was going to get them all into trouble, and Ueda just hoped it wasn't going to be *that* day.
Not that the girls seemed to be armed, or anything. It wasn't like they had anywhere to stash a weapon.
"Please don't think we're being rude," the one in front began, "but we've been standing over there for five minutes trying to figure out where you're from."
She was addressing Taguchi, and all three girls were staring at his hair.
Ueda buried his amusement in the fur of his hood.
"We're from Japan, Earth," Taguchi said, running a hand self-consciously through the bright blond strands. "You girls are locals?"
"That's right," the second one said, switching to Japanese. "I'm Athena, that's Artemis, and the little one is Aphrodite. Stage names, of course."
"Of course," Ueda murmured politely.
"What about you guys?" Aphrodite asked.
Taguchi launched into his usual introductory phrase: unfortunately, halfway through he remembered he was supposed to be incognito and tried to make amends. The results were mixed.
"Iriguchi...uh...taguchi deguchi desu!"
"Deguchi?" Athena repeated, wrinkling her pretty little nose. "Exit?"
Ueda stepped in before things could get any worse. "He means, 'DeGucci'. You know, the Italian fashion house that set up shop over on Jupiter a couple of years ago? He was adopted into the family as a baby, after his Japanese mother and Swedish father were killed in an accident. Please forgive him, his sense of humour is very bad."
His cellphone trilled before anyone had time to fully digest this explanation, and Ueda excused himself, retreating to the relative privacy of a streetlamp.
It was Kame.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?" Ueda was puzzled. "What've you done?"
"I haven't done anything - except lend you some hair dye that almost got you killed because the shooter mistook you for me." Kame sounded unusually stressed. "I am so, so sorry."
Ueda didn't know what to say to cheer him up except, "It's not your fault."
The case of mistaken identity, true, was not Kame's fault. The fact that a good many people (most of them families and friends of those killed during the war with the Fahngarlians) would have reason to want Kame dead was indeed his fault. And that, they all knew, was something he was going to have to deal with now that he was no longer confined to the KAT-TUN.
"Look, Kame," Ueda tried again when it became obvious that the other man was determined to wallow in guilt on the other end of the line, "I can take a bullet for a friend, all right? It happened, and there's nothing either of us can do to change that, so stop apologising and let me get back to finding the person responsible."
"You're at the club?"
"Yeah. Koki and Nakamaru are inside: Taguchi and I are covering the exits. Will be covering the exits," he corrected himself, "just as soon as I can pry him away from three Greek goddesses."
"From what?"
"Never mind. I'll let you know what happens. Are you guys okay?"
Kame sighed. "Jin's trying to remember as much about Ikuta Toma as he can, but it's a very slow process. Being stunned isn't good for his brain cells. He's still pretty unsteady on his feet, too, so I don't really want to leave him by himself and sneak out to join you guys. I have visions of getting back to find he's accidentally cracked his head open on the furniture or something."
"We'll handle it," Ueda promised. "Just leave it to us."
By the time he cut the call, the girls had disappeared. Fortunately, Taguchi hadn't.
"You're taking the front," Ueda told him shortly, "and if anybody tries to talk to you, tell them you've taken a vow of silence."
The last thing Ueda heard as he crept round to the back of the club was Communications Officer Taguchi's incredulous protest that he didn't know sign language.
-----
Inside the Heartbreak Club, things weren't progressing any better.
"At least the bed's soft?" Koki offered, trying to look on the bright side.
Nakamaru, who was peering through a crack in the door, remained unmoved by this. "I think the couples in the rooms either side of us are legitimate," he whispered. "Kind of strange, but legitimate. But the room opposite us hasn't opened the door at all, and nobody's been by to knock, either."
In the ten minutes since they'd been led through a series of beaded curtains and down a narrow hallway, they'd discovered that if they genuinely had been paying for privacy, they'd have been severely shortchanged. Club personnel frequented the hall, as it led to the staff-only section by the back door, and it wasn't uncommon for them to be called in at a customer's request.
Consequently, all snooping was on hold until such time as Koki and Nakamaru could make it out of their room unobserved.
"I think we're going to have to go for the 'staggering drunk' ploy," Nakamaru decided. "Mess yourself up a bit, look completely plastered, and stumble over to that door. I'll come chasing after you and pretend to try to bring you back. At least we'll know what's in there."
"Why do I have to play drunk?"
"Because I thought of it first," Nakamaru said smugly.
He helped Koki get himself into a state of artful disarray, ably assisted by a tube of hair gel and a compact of glittery eye shadow they'd found next to the bed, and pushed him out the door.
Suddenly adrift in the hallway, Koki fixed a stupid smile on his face and did his best to look utterly soused. It wasn't hard - he based his performance on Commodore Yamashita.
He waited until the hindquarters of one last waiter vanished into the sea of curtains before venturing a few stumbling steps, but ensuring he looked like he was trying to walk in a straight line and thus prove his sobriety. He'd just managed to get his fingers round the door handle and push down enough to check that the room definitely wasn't locked when the door opened from the inside.
Koki didn't recognise the man who stood in the doorway, wearing a pale green bathrobe. He did, however, recognise the familiar white handle of the stunner that protruded from the robe's bulging pocket.
Instinct took over and he dropped to the ground, sweeping a wide arc to kick the man's legs out from under him. Nakamaru, alarmed by the sudden movement, reached for his weapon but thought better of it when the door on his left began to creak open. He barged into the room, past Koki and the robed man, and backed the door closed.
For all his struggling, the man hadn't been able to find his feet again, not with Koki keeping him pinned. Koki didn't have Jin's weight or Ueda's speed when it came to a fight, but he consoled himself with the fact that he had infinitely more street cred.
"Who are you?" was the first thing Nakamaru demanded. With the door closed, he felt secure in drawing his gun, and that proved sufficient to quell the man's fighting spirit - if only physically.
"Who are *you*?" he spat furiously. "Military?" He looked doubtfully at their attire and Nakamaru's weapon and tried again. "Mercenaries? Circus clowns? Is this another one of my aunt's birthday surprises?"
Koki plucked the stunner from his pocket, then loomed over him and took a good, hard look at his face. It certainly wasn't Ikuta or the girl, but it wasn't the other man in the photograph either. Just how many people in Eros City were carrying weapons, anyway?
"It doesn't matter who we are," Nakamaru snapped back. "You're outnumbered and outgunned, and that's all you need to know."
"Are you *sure* my aunt didn't send you?"
While Nakamaru resisted the urge to shoot the guy just for being irritating, Koki checked out the room. The high-powered rifle, freshly-cleaned, packed neatly away in a box and stored in a hidden compartment in the end of the bed, proved to be an interesting find.
As was the ID card, in the name of 'Kazama Shunsuke'.
They knew better than to take the ID with them - the cards could be tracked, given the proper equipment - but Koki took a few pictures with his cellphone. He sent one to Jin, and seconds later, he received a frantic text message in response.
Kazama had worked with Ikuta under Kitagawa - along with another guy named Hasegawa Jun. They'd worked as a quartet with Yamapi, and then as a trio after Kitagawa had decided his talents were better employed elsewhere. Jin didn't know what had happened to them after he'd gone independent, though.
"You still working for Kitagawa?" Koki asked.
Surprise flickered across Kazama's face for a fraction of a second, before he went into lockdown and refused to let anything show. "I'm not working *for* anyone."
Nakamaru exchanged an anxious look with Koki. "It'll take all night to get answers out of him and we can't stay here."
"Then we'll make this quick. Where's the photograph?"
"Huh?" Kazama didn't hide his surprise nearly so well this time. "What photograph?"
"The one the girl was carrying around with her."
"Who, Maki?" Kazama shrugged, then flinched as Nakamaru's finger edged closer to the trigger. "If she's carrying a picture, I guess that's her business. I don't know anything about it."
"Where is she?" Nakamaru asked.
"Not here, obviously."
"With Ikuta?"
"Maybe. Could be they're out seeing the sights. There's a lot to see and do in Eros City, you know."
"I don't, but you'd know, wouldn't you? How long have you lived here, Kazama? Since before the killings three years ago? Is that why you and you pals have such a nice weapons stash, all things brought in from your days working from Kitagawa?"
Nakamaru wasn't sure which holovid actor Koki was copying but the sneer was really working for him.
"You obviously know all about me," Kazama sulked. "How about we skip the questions and get right to the part where HaseJun blows you both away?"
"Huh?" was all Nakamaru managed to get out before he felt the cold, hard circle of a blaster barrel against the back of his head.
"Put your weapon on the ground."
Slowly, Nakamaru lowered his gun, signalling frantically with his eyes to Koki not to make any sudden moves, because he really, really didn't think that having half his head blown off would do much for his looks. Koki signalled back not to worry.
They did, after all, have a couple of aces up their sleeves. Or rather, Koki's gun under his hooded sweatshirt, and Ueda and Taguchi waiting outside.
That didn't do much to stop the sweat beading uncomfortably round Nakamaru's neck and trickling down his spine. Seven years ago, he'd been in the same position: helpless, forced to give up his weapon...but the man holding the blaster had been Akanishi Jin.
"Good," Hasegawa said. "Now kneel. Sit on your hands. You too, baldy."
The appellation was somewhat unfair, as Koki's hair had been growing back at a startling rate since the last time he'd shaved his head, but he was in no position to argue. He backed up against the bed and knelt facing Hasegawa, waiting for the chance to slip a hand free to draw his gun. If only they'd heard Hasegawa open the door! But Koki had been so busy with his sneering speculation that he'd been completely oblivious.
Kazama regained his feet and picked up Nakamaru's gun, staring at it curiously. "What kind of weapon is this?" he wanted to know. "Where'd you get it?"
Hasegawa gave him a despairing look. "We don't have time for that! Toma's already mad at you for taking a shot at Kamenashi in public and coming back here, and there's another one of these guys waiting out front. We have to go before we start drawing attention from Security."
Koki figured it was Taguchi who'd been spotted. It wasn't such a surprise - not with hair bright enough to light up the entire Sol System if the sun ever had a power cut - and he thought Ueda would probably do a better job of keeping himself concealed.
"There's one out the front too? Did he notice you?" Kazama sounded worried.
"He was too busy trying to chat up a couple in sign language," Hasegawa assured him. "I saw him earlier with the guy you shot - and these two. They went to the hospital together."
Kazama scowled. "If you were in the square the whole time you could've helped me!"
"Helped you do what? Spoil everything? Because you were doing a great job by yourself, no need for me to step in."
While their captors were arguing, Koki began to edge one hand slowly round to his waistband and the gun hidden there.
Hasegawa shook his head in warning. "Don't even think about it. I don't want to shoot either of you, even if you *are* with Kamenashi, but move one more inch and I won't hesitate."
Koki swallowed hard and concentrated on keeping absolutely still. Hasegawa didn't seem like he was joking, and Nakamaru's head was first in the line of fire.
"I didn't spoil anything," Kazama sulked. "I lost Kamenashi at the station, found him later when he was out and about, and figured I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Nobody saw me take the shot, and I know no one followed me back here!"
Hasegawa indicated Koki and Nakamaru. "If no one followed you, then why are these guys in your bedroom?"
Kazama shrugged. "Don't know. Maki came by earlier, maybe they followed her? She hasn't been doing a very good job of keeping herself hidden since she landed."
The other man appeared to consider this for a moment. "Maybe. I stunned a guy out back earlier - I saw him sneaking around by the window when I arrived. He might've been following her. Who knows how many guys Kamenashi brought with him? Toma figured there'd probably only be a couple, but he's been wrong before."
"I didn't see anyone outside," Kazama said. "He's not still there, is he?"
"I hope not. I got him from behind, he sort of fell out of sight so I figured it was safe enough to leave him there to sleep it off. But I thought it was just a trespasser, so I didn't check him out."
Nakamaru sent up a silent prayer to whatever guardian angel Jin had keeping him safe that Hasegawa hadn't thought to take a closer look at his victim. If he'd gotten a glimpse of another one of Kitagawa's runaways, the next shot might have been from something more deadly than a stunner.
Koki was dying to know why these guys were so intent on killing Kame - though not so much that he'd actually consider dying for the answer. Could he ask? If he did, would they even bother to give him a reply?
The question died stillborn on his lips when Kazama, at his cohort's request, stuck his head round the door and called out for a couple of pairs of handcuffs. Evidently, the order was nothing unusual - a strangled female voice yelled back an affirmative and the clacking of her high heels grew louder, eventually stopping just outside.
"Shall I come in and put them on for you?"
Kazama's face darkened until it was roughly the same shade as a tomato, and he stammered out, "No, thank you."
He opened the door a crack, just enough to stick one hand through for the cuffs, and let out a squawk as one snicked closed round his wrist.
"Wha-"
The door opened the rest of the way to reveal a leggy blonde waitress, holding a pair of handcuffs in one hand and a gun in the other. She was beaming brightly at them...but then, one could almost say that was Taguchi's natural expression.
Nakamaru felt the blaster go slack against his head: Hasegawa was momentarily stunned by Taguchi's unexpected appearance, there was never going to be a better opportunity to free himself. He lunged to the side, elbowing the other man in the ribs and winding him enough to make him lose his grip on the gun.
A brief tussle ensued, fists, feet and firearms flying everywhere, and when the dust settled, Hasegawa was lying on the floor, oblivious to everything but the pain in his head. He'd been unlucky enough to get shot twice by Nakamaru's weapon, and thus had a headache the likes of which only attendees at Admiral Takki and President Tsubasa's wedding reception had previously experienced.
Koki was only prepared to take half the blame for it: in wresting Nakamaru's gun away from Kazama, both of them had been responsible for squeezing the trigger, and it was unfortunate for Hasegawa that he'd been in the way at the time.
Twice.
"He'll be incoherent for the rest of the night," Nakamaru complained. "Now what do we do with him?"
Taguchi, who was sitting on Kazama with his bestockinged legs daintily crossed at the knee, waved the other pair of handcuffs as a possible solution.
"I don't even want to know where you got that outfit."
"I saw him," Taguchi pointed to Hasegawa, "trying to check me out, and his jacket slipped open enough for me to see the gun. Security don't carry concealed, so I knew he was up to no good. Followed him in, borrowed the outfit so I could get into the back rooms, and it's just lucky I overheard the conversation and came in time to save you guys."
"And the handcuffs?"
"Oh, I found those in the skirt pocket. These outfits are practical as well as cute."
Koki took the cuffs, ensured both men were secured at the wrists, and puzzled over what to do next. "You think if we carry them out to a cab, make like they're drunk, we can get away with stashing them back in our hotel room?"
"Worth a try - at least for tonight. We can't let them run around loose." As an afterthought, Nakamaru added, "And in *our* hotel, no one will notice. Someone should stay, though, in case Ikuta and the girl come back."
"They won't." Kazama's voice was muffled, since he was facedown on the floor, but the scorn came through loud and clear. "They'll know the club is compromised by now. Toma will make sure nobody comes here."
"Nobody? How many of you guys are there?" Koki wanted to know.
"Enough to accomplish our mission."
The three KAT-TUN crew members exchanged glances. "Since when has killing Kame been anyone's mission?" Nakamaru asked.
"Since that cold-blooded sadist wiped out Titan Colony," Kazama snarled; no matter how much they questioned him, he refused to say anything further.
Koki shot Kazama with his own stunner, using the lightest setting to keep him dazed long enough to get him safely to the hotel, while Taguchi filled Ueda in and hailed a cab. He didn't have much trouble - the maid's outfit had a very short skirt and Venusian cabbies were partial to blondes - though he did get some strange looks when he helped carry two semi-conscious men (one wearing a bathrobe, one moaning in pain, and both in handcuffs) from the club.
"Rough night?" the driver asked, and Nakamaru shrugged and gave him a 'what can you do?' look. Clearly, none of them were going to make it out of Eros City with their dignity intact, and it didn't provide the slightest bit of consolation that the commodore wasn't there to witness any of it.
Back at Koki and Nakamaru's hotel, the task of telling their captains the news was left to Nakamaru and as he was the slowest to come up with an excuse, he couldn't refuse. While the others tried to bring Kazama round for further questioning, he phoned what was currently passing for the KAT-TUN's bridge: the hot tub in Room 369, Cupid's Gate hotel.
"We're out of the bath, all right?" Kame said testily when Nakamaru enquired if perhaps he should phone back when they were less waterlogged. "Jin started falling asleep in there."
"Then why can I still hear running water?"
"He's watching a holovid documentary about Niagara Falls to keep himself awake." Kame lowered his voice. "And to cover any sensitive conversations we might have. We didn't find any bugs, but..."
"I don't think these guys know where you're staying. One of them followed you from the station but lost you before you got to the hotel, didn't pick up your trail till later." Nakamaru declined to mention that Kazama had been responsible for shooting Ueda as well.
"This is going to be a long story, isn't it?"
"I hope your bed's more comfortable than mine..."
It took a while to fill Kame in on the details, and longer to deal with Jin's interruptions, but everything went smoothly until Nakamaru reached Kazama's final words.
"They want to kill you as revenge for Titan Colony," he said as gently as he could.
The line went dead.
Series: JE Fleet
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame (though others are mentioned)
Rating: PG-13? Maybe occasionally bordering on R?
Total word count: Approx. 37,550
Genre: AU, sci-fi, crack
Disclaimer: Not mine, dammit.
Summary: Mere hours away from Earth, the crew of the JE Fleet ship KAT-TUN have their leave cut short as Commodore Yamashita sends Captains Akanishi and Kamenashi on a top secret mission to Venus. But when Kame's past as the tactical advisor for the Fahngarlians catches up with him, the planet of love becomes the planet of war...
Chapter 5
"I still don't think you should be here," Taguchi tried again. He didn't really expect to succeed, but at least if Ueda suddenly collapsed, no one could accuse him of not trying to talk his injured friend out of going clubbing.
Ueda's response hadn't changed since Taguchi's first protest, a good twenty minutes ago, when the blond man had objected to him hailing a cab and insisting on joining in the night's activities. "I'm not going to sit around in our inn, nice though it is, when I could be...dancing." With the cab driver present, he couldn't mention their mission, so he'd been forced to substitute various alternative verbs.
"But Koki and Nakamaru are already going - shouldn't we be on standby or something?"
Taguchi's idea of 'standby' meant playing guard dog to his captains while improving his virtual golf handicap.
"They'll be fine. *All* of them," Ueda stated.
Having made an escape from the Eros City Emergency Room, he'd been spending a quiet evening in the inn, under instructions to rest and let his body recover from the trauma. Ueda hadn't bothered informing his well-intentioned doctor that his body was perfectly used to taking damage - one didn't become the number one boxer in the entire JE Fleet by shying away from pain, after all - but it irritated him, just a little, that Taguchi would try to insist that he remain in their room.
As if he could wait around after the phone call he'd received from Jin.
"Anyway, it's not like the shot will slow me down - much. It's just a flesh wound." Ueda's full, sensuous lips parted in a gleeful grin. "I've always wanted to say that!"
Taguchi returned the smile a trifle uneasily. "I think they just meant for Koki and Nakamaru to go."
"And *I* think we're supposed to do whatever we think is best. If the guy who shot me's still in the club, I want to find him."
"And if he finds it weird that the guy he shot earlier is going to a nightclub? It's not like he'll have forgotten your face since this afternoon."
Ueda paid the driver - as the senior member of the team, he had control of their finances - and stepped gracefully from the cab. "Therapy," he told Taguchi firmly. "Anyway, it'll be dark in there, and I'll be wearing these."
He donned a pair of black-rimmed glasses, so powerful they allowed him to spot the near-swoon they caused in a girl halfway down the street, and even the driver peeked at him surreptitiously before driving off again.
Taguchi wasn't completely convinced, but a glasses-wearing Ueda was a force to be reckoned with - even more so than usual - and as the commander had proven earlier, being scraped by a bullet in no way impeded his aim...or the power of his fists.
Assuming nobody blew up the entire club, they were probably safe. And really, what were the odds of that happening? Worse than those of Kame winning the Neo-Turner Art Prize.
"You're probably right," he agreed, glancing quickly at his phone to doublecheck their quarry. Kame had mailed them both a picture, apparently a copy of one he'd taken with his datapad, that was, itself, of a photograph. The woman's face, they already knew, and Jin had positively identified the light-haired man as Ikuta Toma. The dark-haired man, nobody had a clue about. They were on the lookout for all three.
For now, they didn't have much to go on. Jin was the only one of the KAT-TUN command crew who'd ever had any dealings with Ikuta, back when he and Yamapi both worked for old man Kitagawa, and they hadn't seen each other in over a decade. All he'd been able to tell them was that Ikuta was - or had been - a pretty nice guy, and funny too, but deadly competent. That notwithstanding, the old man had kept him on a short leash, not letting him loose on anything major, and he'd had a hard time concealing his frustration.
With no way of accessing information from outside Eros City, they couldn't get anything more up-to-date on Ikuta, and it wasn't likely they'd be able to turn up anything locally.
"Can't we go to the station and try to contact the commodore for details?" Taguchi had asked, and Ueda had pointed out the futility of that idea: the Pin wasn't due to land at Eros City spaceport until tomorrow.
They were on their own.
-----
"Didn't Kame say on the phone that this was supposed to be a nightclub?" Nakamaru murmured to Koki as the two of them were shown to a small, round table near the stage. "Looks more like a jazz club."
Koki took in the wailing saxaphone, the artificially-generated smoky atmosphere and the low-cut-but-high-class dame singing her heart out on the piano, and wished he was wearing a fedora instead of a hood.
"Everyone in this place looks suspicious," he complained after they'd sat down with drinks. "Including us."
"Especially us," Nakamaru corrected him. "We're the only ones not trying to look down the singer's dress."
Koki grinned. "Everyone else is here with a broken heart, or so the sign outside says. Nothing wrong with mine."
Nakamaru clinked glasses with him and laughed. "Mine's in good condition too."
The Heartbreak Club wasn't a bad place to spend an evening, if you were looking to drown your sorrows in soulful jazz and imported Earth wines. You could lose yourself in the eyes and arms of a complete stranger, maybe the sad-eyed girl sitting next to you, or the man across the room who's been watching you since you walked in. You didn't have to care.
And if that was all you wanted, one quick roll in the hay to get it out of your system - or perhaps a slow, lazy lay in a bed of feathers - then there were rooms for that. The club catered for all kinds.
It didn't take long for the two KAT-TUN crew members to figure this out, not once they saw couples being shown out back by the staff, and money changing hands.
"Easiest way to check the rest of the club without arousing suspicion," Koki said, and Nakamaru agreed with him.
There was no sign of Ikuta or the girl in the lounge, and the men's room had been empty as well. With the aid of a long blonde wig and a pair of high heels, Koki had infiltrated the ladies' room and emerged looking totally stupefied. It had taken Nakamaru five minutes to get any sense out of him.
"How much do you think they charge?" Koki wondered.
Nakamaru finished his drink and waved the empty glass offhandedly. "Probably too much. I don't think you have to leave a tip, though."
"I could leave them a tip on how-" Koki stopped midsentence as his rented cellphone buzzed in his pocket, making him jump. He didn't like it much. Datbands made much cooler-looking personal communication accessories, and when they were on the KAT-TUN, all they needed was their comm badges.
"Message from Kame?" Nakamaru guessed.
"Taguchi. He's here with Ueda. They're outside."
Nakamaru groaned. "Shouldn't he be taking it easy?"
"You know how hardworking Taguchi is."
"I meant Ueda."
After the shooting, they'd gone over to help Ueda, not thinking that it might be better to keep their distance. They'd gone with the medics, but left after seeing Ueda safely delivered to the emergency room, and despite their best efforts, they hadn't managed to catch up with Captains Akanishi and Kamenashi.
If they had, perhaps Jin wouldn't have got himself stunned.
"If Ueda says he's okay, he's okay."
"Or he's lying to make us all feel better," Nakamaru pointed out. "You know how good he is at that."
"I know *I* feel better with them both here." Koki began to jab away frantically at his phone's keypad. "I'm telling them to split up and cover the front and rear doors. Shame we don't have any trainees with us."
"They'd all be traumatised for life in here," Nakamaru assured him. "Complete waste of money."
Koki flipped his phone shut, not bothering to wait for confirmation. "Okay, let's go. That waitress is giving us strange looks."
"She probably thinks you're here to rob the place. Better look lovingly into my eyes for a minute and convince them we're legit."
Twenty seconds later, both of them were biting their lips to keep from laughing out loud. The effort required to maintain a straight face was enormous.
Nakamaru swallowed his laughter with difficulty. "What part of 'lovingly' involves pulling faces at me?" he gasped.
"Don't talk like you weren't doing the same thing," Koki retorted, and the two of them shared a grin that was entirely too happy for their surroundings before making their way to the back of the lounge.
Nakamaru was right about the price.
-----
When they got the message, Ueda was sorely tempted to pull rank on Koki. But that would be unforgivable, because the KAT-TUN crew just didn't do that to each other - except on the odd occasions when Jin attempted to commandeer the last slice of cake for himself, anyway - and really, he didn't have any cause for complaint. The weather was fairly mild, and the only reason he was even wearing a jacket with a fur-trimmed hood was to conceal his air gun.
(Because it looked good, as well, but that went without saying.)
So waiting outside the club in case anyone made a break for it wasn't a completely unappealing prospect, particularly since Ueda got the choice of location.
"Front or back?" Taguchi asked.
"I'll take- are those girls waving at us?"
"That's not an option," Taguchi replied automatically, but looked round anyway to discover that Ueda was right. A trio of flashy-looking Venusian girls were approaching them. He returned the wave in his usual cheerful style.
Ueda elbowed him with his good arm. "You're supposed to be with me, remember?"
"Yeah, but don't you think this hair makes me look like the playboy type?"
With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, the same one he always got when Jin told him no, of course it won't be dangerous, Ueda waited for the girls to catch up to them. One day, Taguchi's exuberant, outgoing nature was going to get them all into trouble, and Ueda just hoped it wasn't going to be *that* day.
Not that the girls seemed to be armed, or anything. It wasn't like they had anywhere to stash a weapon.
"Please don't think we're being rude," the one in front began, "but we've been standing over there for five minutes trying to figure out where you're from."
She was addressing Taguchi, and all three girls were staring at his hair.
Ueda buried his amusement in the fur of his hood.
"We're from Japan, Earth," Taguchi said, running a hand self-consciously through the bright blond strands. "You girls are locals?"
"That's right," the second one said, switching to Japanese. "I'm Athena, that's Artemis, and the little one is Aphrodite. Stage names, of course."
"Of course," Ueda murmured politely.
"What about you guys?" Aphrodite asked.
Taguchi launched into his usual introductory phrase: unfortunately, halfway through he remembered he was supposed to be incognito and tried to make amends. The results were mixed.
"Iriguchi...uh...taguchi deguchi desu!"
"Deguchi?" Athena repeated, wrinkling her pretty little nose. "Exit?"
Ueda stepped in before things could get any worse. "He means, 'DeGucci'. You know, the Italian fashion house that set up shop over on Jupiter a couple of years ago? He was adopted into the family as a baby, after his Japanese mother and Swedish father were killed in an accident. Please forgive him, his sense of humour is very bad."
His cellphone trilled before anyone had time to fully digest this explanation, and Ueda excused himself, retreating to the relative privacy of a streetlamp.
It was Kame.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?" Ueda was puzzled. "What've you done?"
"I haven't done anything - except lend you some hair dye that almost got you killed because the shooter mistook you for me." Kame sounded unusually stressed. "I am so, so sorry."
Ueda didn't know what to say to cheer him up except, "It's not your fault."
The case of mistaken identity, true, was not Kame's fault. The fact that a good many people (most of them families and friends of those killed during the war with the Fahngarlians) would have reason to want Kame dead was indeed his fault. And that, they all knew, was something he was going to have to deal with now that he was no longer confined to the KAT-TUN.
"Look, Kame," Ueda tried again when it became obvious that the other man was determined to wallow in guilt on the other end of the line, "I can take a bullet for a friend, all right? It happened, and there's nothing either of us can do to change that, so stop apologising and let me get back to finding the person responsible."
"You're at the club?"
"Yeah. Koki and Nakamaru are inside: Taguchi and I are covering the exits. Will be covering the exits," he corrected himself, "just as soon as I can pry him away from three Greek goddesses."
"From what?"
"Never mind. I'll let you know what happens. Are you guys okay?"
Kame sighed. "Jin's trying to remember as much about Ikuta Toma as he can, but it's a very slow process. Being stunned isn't good for his brain cells. He's still pretty unsteady on his feet, too, so I don't really want to leave him by himself and sneak out to join you guys. I have visions of getting back to find he's accidentally cracked his head open on the furniture or something."
"We'll handle it," Ueda promised. "Just leave it to us."
By the time he cut the call, the girls had disappeared. Fortunately, Taguchi hadn't.
"You're taking the front," Ueda told him shortly, "and if anybody tries to talk to you, tell them you've taken a vow of silence."
The last thing Ueda heard as he crept round to the back of the club was Communications Officer Taguchi's incredulous protest that he didn't know sign language.
-----
Inside the Heartbreak Club, things weren't progressing any better.
"At least the bed's soft?" Koki offered, trying to look on the bright side.
Nakamaru, who was peering through a crack in the door, remained unmoved by this. "I think the couples in the rooms either side of us are legitimate," he whispered. "Kind of strange, but legitimate. But the room opposite us hasn't opened the door at all, and nobody's been by to knock, either."
In the ten minutes since they'd been led through a series of beaded curtains and down a narrow hallway, they'd discovered that if they genuinely had been paying for privacy, they'd have been severely shortchanged. Club personnel frequented the hall, as it led to the staff-only section by the back door, and it wasn't uncommon for them to be called in at a customer's request.
Consequently, all snooping was on hold until such time as Koki and Nakamaru could make it out of their room unobserved.
"I think we're going to have to go for the 'staggering drunk' ploy," Nakamaru decided. "Mess yourself up a bit, look completely plastered, and stumble over to that door. I'll come chasing after you and pretend to try to bring you back. At least we'll know what's in there."
"Why do I have to play drunk?"
"Because I thought of it first," Nakamaru said smugly.
He helped Koki get himself into a state of artful disarray, ably assisted by a tube of hair gel and a compact of glittery eye shadow they'd found next to the bed, and pushed him out the door.
Suddenly adrift in the hallway, Koki fixed a stupid smile on his face and did his best to look utterly soused. It wasn't hard - he based his performance on Commodore Yamashita.
He waited until the hindquarters of one last waiter vanished into the sea of curtains before venturing a few stumbling steps, but ensuring he looked like he was trying to walk in a straight line and thus prove his sobriety. He'd just managed to get his fingers round the door handle and push down enough to check that the room definitely wasn't locked when the door opened from the inside.
Koki didn't recognise the man who stood in the doorway, wearing a pale green bathrobe. He did, however, recognise the familiar white handle of the stunner that protruded from the robe's bulging pocket.
Instinct took over and he dropped to the ground, sweeping a wide arc to kick the man's legs out from under him. Nakamaru, alarmed by the sudden movement, reached for his weapon but thought better of it when the door on his left began to creak open. He barged into the room, past Koki and the robed man, and backed the door closed.
For all his struggling, the man hadn't been able to find his feet again, not with Koki keeping him pinned. Koki didn't have Jin's weight or Ueda's speed when it came to a fight, but he consoled himself with the fact that he had infinitely more street cred.
"Who are you?" was the first thing Nakamaru demanded. With the door closed, he felt secure in drawing his gun, and that proved sufficient to quell the man's fighting spirit - if only physically.
"Who are *you*?" he spat furiously. "Military?" He looked doubtfully at their attire and Nakamaru's weapon and tried again. "Mercenaries? Circus clowns? Is this another one of my aunt's birthday surprises?"
Koki plucked the stunner from his pocket, then loomed over him and took a good, hard look at his face. It certainly wasn't Ikuta or the girl, but it wasn't the other man in the photograph either. Just how many people in Eros City were carrying weapons, anyway?
"It doesn't matter who we are," Nakamaru snapped back. "You're outnumbered and outgunned, and that's all you need to know."
"Are you *sure* my aunt didn't send you?"
While Nakamaru resisted the urge to shoot the guy just for being irritating, Koki checked out the room. The high-powered rifle, freshly-cleaned, packed neatly away in a box and stored in a hidden compartment in the end of the bed, proved to be an interesting find.
As was the ID card, in the name of 'Kazama Shunsuke'.
They knew better than to take the ID with them - the cards could be tracked, given the proper equipment - but Koki took a few pictures with his cellphone. He sent one to Jin, and seconds later, he received a frantic text message in response.
Kazama had worked with Ikuta under Kitagawa - along with another guy named Hasegawa Jun. They'd worked as a quartet with Yamapi, and then as a trio after Kitagawa had decided his talents were better employed elsewhere. Jin didn't know what had happened to them after he'd gone independent, though.
"You still working for Kitagawa?" Koki asked.
Surprise flickered across Kazama's face for a fraction of a second, before he went into lockdown and refused to let anything show. "I'm not working *for* anyone."
Nakamaru exchanged an anxious look with Koki. "It'll take all night to get answers out of him and we can't stay here."
"Then we'll make this quick. Where's the photograph?"
"Huh?" Kazama didn't hide his surprise nearly so well this time. "What photograph?"
"The one the girl was carrying around with her."
"Who, Maki?" Kazama shrugged, then flinched as Nakamaru's finger edged closer to the trigger. "If she's carrying a picture, I guess that's her business. I don't know anything about it."
"Where is she?" Nakamaru asked.
"Not here, obviously."
"With Ikuta?"
"Maybe. Could be they're out seeing the sights. There's a lot to see and do in Eros City, you know."
"I don't, but you'd know, wouldn't you? How long have you lived here, Kazama? Since before the killings three years ago? Is that why you and you pals have such a nice weapons stash, all things brought in from your days working from Kitagawa?"
Nakamaru wasn't sure which holovid actor Koki was copying but the sneer was really working for him.
"You obviously know all about me," Kazama sulked. "How about we skip the questions and get right to the part where HaseJun blows you both away?"
"Huh?" was all Nakamaru managed to get out before he felt the cold, hard circle of a blaster barrel against the back of his head.
"Put your weapon on the ground."
Slowly, Nakamaru lowered his gun, signalling frantically with his eyes to Koki not to make any sudden moves, because he really, really didn't think that having half his head blown off would do much for his looks. Koki signalled back not to worry.
They did, after all, have a couple of aces up their sleeves. Or rather, Koki's gun under his hooded sweatshirt, and Ueda and Taguchi waiting outside.
That didn't do much to stop the sweat beading uncomfortably round Nakamaru's neck and trickling down his spine. Seven years ago, he'd been in the same position: helpless, forced to give up his weapon...but the man holding the blaster had been Akanishi Jin.
"Good," Hasegawa said. "Now kneel. Sit on your hands. You too, baldy."
The appellation was somewhat unfair, as Koki's hair had been growing back at a startling rate since the last time he'd shaved his head, but he was in no position to argue. He backed up against the bed and knelt facing Hasegawa, waiting for the chance to slip a hand free to draw his gun. If only they'd heard Hasegawa open the door! But Koki had been so busy with his sneering speculation that he'd been completely oblivious.
Kazama regained his feet and picked up Nakamaru's gun, staring at it curiously. "What kind of weapon is this?" he wanted to know. "Where'd you get it?"
Hasegawa gave him a despairing look. "We don't have time for that! Toma's already mad at you for taking a shot at Kamenashi in public and coming back here, and there's another one of these guys waiting out front. We have to go before we start drawing attention from Security."
Koki figured it was Taguchi who'd been spotted. It wasn't such a surprise - not with hair bright enough to light up the entire Sol System if the sun ever had a power cut - and he thought Ueda would probably do a better job of keeping himself concealed.
"There's one out the front too? Did he notice you?" Kazama sounded worried.
"He was too busy trying to chat up a couple in sign language," Hasegawa assured him. "I saw him earlier with the guy you shot - and these two. They went to the hospital together."
Kazama scowled. "If you were in the square the whole time you could've helped me!"
"Helped you do what? Spoil everything? Because you were doing a great job by yourself, no need for me to step in."
While their captors were arguing, Koki began to edge one hand slowly round to his waistband and the gun hidden there.
Hasegawa shook his head in warning. "Don't even think about it. I don't want to shoot either of you, even if you *are* with Kamenashi, but move one more inch and I won't hesitate."
Koki swallowed hard and concentrated on keeping absolutely still. Hasegawa didn't seem like he was joking, and Nakamaru's head was first in the line of fire.
"I didn't spoil anything," Kazama sulked. "I lost Kamenashi at the station, found him later when he was out and about, and figured I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Nobody saw me take the shot, and I know no one followed me back here!"
Hasegawa indicated Koki and Nakamaru. "If no one followed you, then why are these guys in your bedroom?"
Kazama shrugged. "Don't know. Maki came by earlier, maybe they followed her? She hasn't been doing a very good job of keeping herself hidden since she landed."
The other man appeared to consider this for a moment. "Maybe. I stunned a guy out back earlier - I saw him sneaking around by the window when I arrived. He might've been following her. Who knows how many guys Kamenashi brought with him? Toma figured there'd probably only be a couple, but he's been wrong before."
"I didn't see anyone outside," Kazama said. "He's not still there, is he?"
"I hope not. I got him from behind, he sort of fell out of sight so I figured it was safe enough to leave him there to sleep it off. But I thought it was just a trespasser, so I didn't check him out."
Nakamaru sent up a silent prayer to whatever guardian angel Jin had keeping him safe that Hasegawa hadn't thought to take a closer look at his victim. If he'd gotten a glimpse of another one of Kitagawa's runaways, the next shot might have been from something more deadly than a stunner.
Koki was dying to know why these guys were so intent on killing Kame - though not so much that he'd actually consider dying for the answer. Could he ask? If he did, would they even bother to give him a reply?
The question died stillborn on his lips when Kazama, at his cohort's request, stuck his head round the door and called out for a couple of pairs of handcuffs. Evidently, the order was nothing unusual - a strangled female voice yelled back an affirmative and the clacking of her high heels grew louder, eventually stopping just outside.
"Shall I come in and put them on for you?"
Kazama's face darkened until it was roughly the same shade as a tomato, and he stammered out, "No, thank you."
He opened the door a crack, just enough to stick one hand through for the cuffs, and let out a squawk as one snicked closed round his wrist.
"Wha-"
The door opened the rest of the way to reveal a leggy blonde waitress, holding a pair of handcuffs in one hand and a gun in the other. She was beaming brightly at them...but then, one could almost say that was Taguchi's natural expression.
Nakamaru felt the blaster go slack against his head: Hasegawa was momentarily stunned by Taguchi's unexpected appearance, there was never going to be a better opportunity to free himself. He lunged to the side, elbowing the other man in the ribs and winding him enough to make him lose his grip on the gun.
A brief tussle ensued, fists, feet and firearms flying everywhere, and when the dust settled, Hasegawa was lying on the floor, oblivious to everything but the pain in his head. He'd been unlucky enough to get shot twice by Nakamaru's weapon, and thus had a headache the likes of which only attendees at Admiral Takki and President Tsubasa's wedding reception had previously experienced.
Koki was only prepared to take half the blame for it: in wresting Nakamaru's gun away from Kazama, both of them had been responsible for squeezing the trigger, and it was unfortunate for Hasegawa that he'd been in the way at the time.
Twice.
"He'll be incoherent for the rest of the night," Nakamaru complained. "Now what do we do with him?"
Taguchi, who was sitting on Kazama with his bestockinged legs daintily crossed at the knee, waved the other pair of handcuffs as a possible solution.
"I don't even want to know where you got that outfit."
"I saw him," Taguchi pointed to Hasegawa, "trying to check me out, and his jacket slipped open enough for me to see the gun. Security don't carry concealed, so I knew he was up to no good. Followed him in, borrowed the outfit so I could get into the back rooms, and it's just lucky I overheard the conversation and came in time to save you guys."
"And the handcuffs?"
"Oh, I found those in the skirt pocket. These outfits are practical as well as cute."
Koki took the cuffs, ensured both men were secured at the wrists, and puzzled over what to do next. "You think if we carry them out to a cab, make like they're drunk, we can get away with stashing them back in our hotel room?"
"Worth a try - at least for tonight. We can't let them run around loose." As an afterthought, Nakamaru added, "And in *our* hotel, no one will notice. Someone should stay, though, in case Ikuta and the girl come back."
"They won't." Kazama's voice was muffled, since he was facedown on the floor, but the scorn came through loud and clear. "They'll know the club is compromised by now. Toma will make sure nobody comes here."
"Nobody? How many of you guys are there?" Koki wanted to know.
"Enough to accomplish our mission."
The three KAT-TUN crew members exchanged glances. "Since when has killing Kame been anyone's mission?" Nakamaru asked.
"Since that cold-blooded sadist wiped out Titan Colony," Kazama snarled; no matter how much they questioned him, he refused to say anything further.
Koki shot Kazama with his own stunner, using the lightest setting to keep him dazed long enough to get him safely to the hotel, while Taguchi filled Ueda in and hailed a cab. He didn't have much trouble - the maid's outfit had a very short skirt and Venusian cabbies were partial to blondes - though he did get some strange looks when he helped carry two semi-conscious men (one wearing a bathrobe, one moaning in pain, and both in handcuffs) from the club.
"Rough night?" the driver asked, and Nakamaru shrugged and gave him a 'what can you do?' look. Clearly, none of them were going to make it out of Eros City with their dignity intact, and it didn't provide the slightest bit of consolation that the commodore wasn't there to witness any of it.
Back at Koki and Nakamaru's hotel, the task of telling their captains the news was left to Nakamaru and as he was the slowest to come up with an excuse, he couldn't refuse. While the others tried to bring Kazama round for further questioning, he phoned what was currently passing for the KAT-TUN's bridge: the hot tub in Room 369, Cupid's Gate hotel.
"We're out of the bath, all right?" Kame said testily when Nakamaru enquired if perhaps he should phone back when they were less waterlogged. "Jin started falling asleep in there."
"Then why can I still hear running water?"
"He's watching a holovid documentary about Niagara Falls to keep himself awake." Kame lowered his voice. "And to cover any sensitive conversations we might have. We didn't find any bugs, but..."
"I don't think these guys know where you're staying. One of them followed you from the station but lost you before you got to the hotel, didn't pick up your trail till later." Nakamaru declined to mention that Kazama had been responsible for shooting Ueda as well.
"This is going to be a long story, isn't it?"
"I hope your bed's more comfortable than mine..."
It took a while to fill Kame in on the details, and longer to deal with Jin's interruptions, but everything went smoothly until Nakamaru reached Kazama's final words.
"They want to kill you as revenge for Titan Colony," he said as gently as he could.
The line went dead.