Alone Upon the Threshold, part II
TITLE: Alone Upon the Threshold, part II
RATING: PG-13 (for vague character death and swearing)
CHARACTERS: NEWS, KAT-TUN, Kanjani8
WORD COUNT: 5,012
SUMMARY: Gangs are never idle for long.
NOTES: Passages entirely in italics = flashback. Conclusion to the yakuza!verse drabbles.
It’s been quiet.
Very quiet. And Katou knows enough to know that’s not a good thing. He knows Kantou didn’t kill Kansai, so where ever they are, they’re plotting, planning. He’s constantly assured that Kantou’s complex of buildings in Saitama province, outside of Tokyo, are secure and that there’s no where else he could be safer. Katou doesn’t ask any one why he wasn’t brought here in the first place after fleeing from Kansai. Since the kidnapping and rescue, Katou has been spending a lot of time resting, mostly at Kantou’s insistence. All the event did was make Katou even more sure of his own eventual, and soon-to-be death. Kansai’s determined, and there’s something to be said for that.
Katou doesn’t believe what Kantou told him about their complex being secure - nothing is ever 100% secure. He doesn’t tell any one though, when he wakes up and there’s a note on his window, with nothing but “4.21” written. Katou’s actually impressed that whoever put it up resisted the urge to shoot him through the window. 4.21. April 21st. The day he boarded the train to Tokyo, without having told any one. The day, and its sheer terror, will be forever branded into his mind.
But Katou doesn’t tell any one about it. Because when everything has been said and done, what’s going on now is between him and Kansai. Once he’s dead, then Kantou and Kansai will have their business to see to. For now, Katou’s going to see how this plays out.
He leaves his room late in the morning - there probably won’t be any breakfast left. He rounds a corner and quickly jumps back behind it, poking his head around. Kamenashi and Nakamaru are talking to a short mean in jeans and a leather jacket and none of them look happy.
“You’re absolutely sure?” Nakamaru asks.
“Yeah. The Kansai family have all been released. Not back to full strength, but-“
“But they’re still the Kansai family.” Kamenashi sounds worried.
“They’ve left the hospital,” the man continues. “But there are no reports of them having left the Tokyo-area yet. They’re still around. Some where.”
Kamenashi frowns. “I’d hoped after the last week, they would have realized…. This won’t be solved with violence. They should have just gone back to Kansai.”
“Yeah, well.” The man rubs the back of his head. “I’d better be going. Still on duty and all…”
Nakamaru and Kamenashi nod. The man sees himself out.
Katou watches all of the main Kantou family over the course of the day, and he can pick out the exact moment Kamenashi or Nakamaru pulls them aside and tells them. Their face gets just a fraction paler and their eyes turn sad, like they’ve just been defeated some how. Once night falls, Koyama tries to convince Katou to switch rooms.
“The other one is warmer!”
“I’m fine here. I’ve got plenty of blankets.”
“But, but… Shige!” Katou’s not entirely fond of the nickname Koyama’s given him; he thinks it’s too familiar. “You’re still weak! If you get cold, you might fall ill!”
Katou knows he’s going to end up switching rooms, but he likes to give Koyama a hard time about simple things. The reason for moving Katou’s room was given to Koyama instead of any of the others - because he and Katou have the best connection. Katou’s room is near the outside of the main house, with a view of one of the gardens. But with this new information about the Kansai family, Kantou is getting more weary, more protective of Katou. Of course they’d want to move him to a safer location within the complex. Something closer to the center, harder to get too. There’s an empty room between Koki and Masuda’s rooms. Katou ends up there.
-- -- --
Kamenashi's looking at the board, an unconvinced look on his face. "I don't think it's a good idea."
"It's a great idea," Murakami says from next to the board. "It will cement us forever within the Japanese underground."
From the front, Tegoshi says quietly, "There's a lot of risk," but no one listens to him.
Yokoyama steps next to Murakami. "As long as we all do our specific job correctly, everything will work out. Every one will come back fine."
Nakamaru bites his lip, Akanishi and Yamashita share worried looks.
"Is it going to be a vote?" Yasuda asks.
"This democratic shit pisses me off," Maruyama grumbles from the table.
"If need be. But if it's approved, we all have to do it. No one can back out because they didn't vote for it. It's every one or no one."
Kamenashi frowns. Murakami's tone always worries him, because he's a natural leader. He says something, and people are suddenly in awe of him, and follow whatever he says, even if it's not in their best interests. Murakami was born several hundred years late in Kamenashi's opinion - he was made to be a general, decimating enemy samurai on the battlefield. But nowadays, there are no samurai, and there are no battlefields. Just various yakuza families and cement parking lots.
The vote comes out 10-8, not much of a majority in Kamenashi's mind, but it's every one or no one, so he goes along with it.
-- -- --
In the morning, Katou wakes up to a near panic within the complex. He pushes his way forward and through the masses of members, until he’s standing on the inside of a circle, with Yamashita, Ueda and Kamenashi looking at a small piece of paper. Koki and Akanishi are standing close by as well.
“It’s for me.”
They all turn to Katou.
“What do you mean?” Yamashita sounds serious for once.
“’4.21’, right? It’s for me.”
Kamenashi hands the paper to Katou. “Well?”
“April, 21st. The day I left Kansai. They’re not letting it go. You all defeating them has only made them that much more determined for my head.”
Koki swears. “They know where we are, it’s about time we find out where they are. I’m taking Tegoshi an-“
“No.” Nakamaru pops out of the crowd near Katou. “We can’t be hasty about this, Koki.”
“We can’t fucking do nothing! They’re mocking us! Kame!”
He frowns. “For now, doubled patrols. How the hell did they get so close? It was either Nishikido or Ohkura, none of the others could have gotten so close without giving into the temptation.”
Koki turns, the junior members moving out of his way.
“For now, Koki, stay. We don’t know where they are, and we shouldn’t risk any one.”
Koki swears again.
“I’ll go put out a watch on them.” And Ueda leaves.
The whole day is tense. The slightest sound and every one freaks out. Katou knows better - the Kansai family hates doing business during the day time - they think it steals from their mysterious and dangerous aura. For now, they’re safe, because Kansai’s calling the shots, and they’ll move once the sun is down.
It’s late at night when Katou gets up for something to drink. He’s standing in the kitchen, looking out the window, when he sees Tegoshi happily walk by, in the direction of one of the side gates. Katou gets closer to the window and tries to follow Tegoshi’s path, but the angle is too awkward. Katou goes back to his room, but his sleep is light.
Katou isn’t looking forward to seeing Tegoshi in the morning - he’s a little worried, honestly. But once he does see Tegoshi, he feels guilty for doubting the kid. Tegoshi looks awful, like he spent part of the night crying. Every one notices it, and Koyama and Masuda spend all of the day trying to cheer Tegoshi up, but nothing seems to work.
-- -- --
They're called the Honshu Black Books, which doesn't sound very dangerous, but they are. The leader is superstitious and has several priests of different faiths in his pocket, and rival leaders often come down with mysterious illnesses, where no cure is ever found. No one in their gang is especially superstitious, but Kamenashi still likes to avoid people like that.
They're all in their places, set, ready to take action. This is Murakami's job, so he's calling the shots from the safety of a van, several blocks away. He has Ohkura with him for help - Murakami only ever picks one of his own from Kansai for this job.
The job begins, and from the very beginning, Kamenashi knows something is going to go wrong. Koyama throws him a worried look from the other side of the building as they hear Tegoshi over the radio count off guards. Murakami said before they left their base - they'll all come back from this fine, but no one believes it. No one from the Kantou side does anyways.
Silenced shots go off, noises that untrained guards overlook, because it sounds like an animal, or a messed up car. But that noise means Nishikido, Shibutani and Uchi are moving closer. Koki sneaks over to Kamenashi from his guard point.
"I don't like this."
"Neither do I."
They're talking about the overall situation, but also the front team, the ones Murakami trusts to get in and out, quickly and silently, and do the job while everyone else is backup or a distraction. Shibutani and Nishikido have hair-triggers, in this situation you want some one with a calm demeanor - some one ideally like Murakami. Uchi is like an older version of Tegoshi to a lot of them - meant to be doing something with his life. He winces at the sight of blood and hates being in the point team - where he is now. They'd all seen his face when Murakami had told Uchi his place on the job.
"We just have to hope everything goes as smoothly as Murakami plans for it too."
Koki knows it won't. Kamenashi knows that too. And it worries both of them.
-- -- --
Katou is feeling idle, and since his time is short, he starts writing in the notebooks again. Koyama tells him to rest more, Katou tells him to go away. He’s been going through everything in a very systematic way. Working through each of the main members of the Kansai family and their various crimes one at a time. He keeps all the notebooks at hand, so he can reference related things back to each other. He’s gone through 57 notebooks, all in his perfect lawyer handwriting, making sure everything is legible. He started with Ohkura, the newest of the main members, and the least to write about, and then moved onto Nishikido, and currently is on Yasuda, but is only about a third through. With each member, there is more detailed needed, more information to write on. Katou dreads having to write Murakami’s - he has the greatest numbers of individual crimes and is the ringleader, so every other crime goes back to him. It’s very probable that Murakami will have more notebooks than the other six combined.
Eight days later, and eight “4.21” notes later, there’s a lot of finger pointing in the complex. Some one is putting up the notes, but no matter how many guards and look-outs there are, no one ever sees anything. Kamenashi thinks it’s too suspicious, Katou hears Akanishi mutter the word “rat” a few times. Katou knows there isn’t one. He wouldn’t be in the Kantou complex any more if there was. Kansai is toying with them, and they’re enjoying it, watching Kantou squirm and be completely powerless. They’re all fucked up in the head like that. Katou doesn’t worry about it though, he just keeps writing.
Early one morning, Katou’s enjoying his coffee on a patio in one of the gardens. The cook told him it wasn’t safe, Katou laughed a little bit and told the cook not to worry. Katou knows it’s perfectly safe. So when Katou hears rustling and noises, he doesn’t bother to look up until he’s greeted.
“Good morning, Katou-kun!”
It’s Akanishi, walking through the rock garden, pulling leaves and twigs out of his hair.
“Good morning. Are you not fond of doors and gates?”
Akanishi smiles. “We all have our reasons for doing things that seem strange to others. I can’t understand how you want to write out everything when you could type it up on a computer so much faster.”
He walks past and doesn’t wait for an answer from Katou.
“Of course I hand write it,” Katou says to no one. “Handwriting can be compared, so the forensic scientists can prove it’s my own handwriting, thereby becoming evidence in any murder trial, or any retrial. Computer files can be forged. They’re meaningless. Everything important should be written.”
-- -- --
And it doesn't go like Murakami had planned. He'd been too obsessed with the money and the weapons and the glory of fucking with Kantou Black Books that he hadn't checked all his facts. So now, every one - except for Murakami and Ohkura - are fighting for their lives, trying with everything they have to keep from getting closed off from their only escape route. The point team broke up for the sake of stealth. Nishikido's back, and Shibutani's on his way, killing as he goes. Uchi can't be picked up on the radio frequency. Nishikido wants to go back and find him. Murakami tells Nishikido exactly what he'll do with the other man's dead body if he dares break the formation.
But Uchi never comes and they're scarily close to running out of ammunition and Murakami is forced to give the order to retreat. Nishikido has to be literally dragged away from the line by Maruyama and Akanishi.
-- -- --
“They’re all cowards.”
Shibutani’s angry and ranting, stitches on his forehead, left wrist in a cast, but he’s careful as he re-wraps Maruyama’s ankle.
“They can’t even fucking kill some one. I can’t remember, did how we tolerate them?”
Murakami’s still on the other side of the room, phone to his ear. Nishikido, who has been especially quiet since the hospital discharge, and Ohkura are sitting across from each other at the table, playing cards. Yasuda’s staring out the window and Yokoyama is pretending his asleep in an arm chair.
The past two weeks haven’t been fun for them. They were summarily crushed by Kantou and had Katou taken from them. And to top it all off, paramedics were called on their behalf. It’s too much for them. They only desire Kantou’s destruction even more now.
Murakami hangs up his phone, “Relax, Shibutani. We’ve waited this long, a few more days, even weeks won’t appear as much at the end. We got too ahead of ourselves. More care is needed on all our parts. Kantou’s gotten better since the last time we fought them, and that was unexpected.”
“Waiting sucks,” Maruyama grumbles.
“Waiting and gaining victory is better than acting rashly and losing. The next move will be planned carefully as things move along. At the end of all this, everything will be evened out, and we’ll be whole again. No more empty space.”
-- -- --
Katou’s early for dinner, but he knows it’s not a big deal. He takes his place at the table - between Koyama and Tegoshi’s places - and rests for a minute. His hand hurts from writing and he has a little bit of a headache. Katou jerks when he hears a bang, a crash and a lot of yelling in different voices. He goes to the hall to take a look, and finds Koki holding Nishikido in a headlock, on the floor. They’re both yelling at each other, every one around them is yelling, and Akanishi and Tegoshi are pleading with Koki not to break Nishikido’s neck. Katou just feels incredibly awkward.
“We’re not killing any one, Koki!” Nakamaru yells.
“He’s been asking for it! They all have! How long are we supposed to deal with this?!”
Akanishi and Tegoshi both yell, “Don’t hurt Ryo-chan!”
“You all have to leave here!”
There’s shock among the small crowd and they stare at Nishikido.
“You all have to leave here. Now.”
Ueda frowns. “Why? Why should we leave our territory?”
“Because Murakami is having all the automatic weapons brought up. All of them. He’s setting up a massacre. One you all can’t defense against. You all have to leave Kantou.”
Kamenashi steps closer to Ueda. “Why should we trust you?”
Nishikido doesn’t have an answer.
Tegoshi grabs Koki’s arm and tugs. “Get off. I trust Ryo-chan.”
“Me too!” Akanishi and Yamashita say together.
Nakamaru chews on his lip. “This is all very complicated.”
“Koki, Ueda, take Nishikido down to the holding cell while we talk about this.”
Kamenashi turns and heads towards the dining room. In 10 minutes, everyone’s there, but not talking about the surprise guest in the brig. Yamashita, Akanishi and Tegoshi don’t eat anything. Kamenashi and Nakamaru agree that no one should go see Nishikido before a decision has been made.
-- -- --
"I told you it wasn't a good idea, Murakami!"
"Shut your mouth, Kamenashi, or I'll have it shut."
"We have to go get Uchi!" Nishikido shouts for the umpteenth time.
"It's not just a matter of waltzing in and taking him back, Ryo-chan," Yamashita whispers from the side, pointing to the letter on the table before Murakami.
The Kantou Black Books know who was behind the attempted robbery, but they're also not stupid - they know Kamenashi wouldn't have tried it, only Murakami had the balls too. They reprimand Murakami for his ego and that such a little family shouldn't try something so foolish as what was done the other night. For the small sum of 30 million yen, they are willing to let Uchi go. Alive. Nishikido is demanding they pay it. But to withdraw that much will send off notices to the government, which they don't want. Instead, from their personal accounts, each members needs to withdraw nearly 1.8 million of their own money.
"This whole thing was your idea. Take a little responsibility."
Murakami looks up. "And what would you have me do, Tanaka?"
"Pay it all."
Then air in the room gets thicker, every one itching to draw a gun or knife.
"Such a large withdrawal will still set off alarms, Murakami. Koki has a point. It's better for one of us to get dragged in for meaningless questioning than all of us."
"None of this matters!" Nishikido yells. "We just need to get the money and get Uchi back!"
Most of the members keep arguing, wasting time, inching closer and closer to the deadline the Black Books dictated. Nishikido is slowly going crazy, but Akanishi and Yamashita pull him aside.
"We'll go to the bank now."
"Each get 10 million."
Nishikido shakes his head, looking defeated. "It's still too much... the notices... We'll get taken in."
"Then we'll split up and go to different banks and get 7.5 million each."
They turn to the new voice, and Tegoshi is smiling at them.
"Uchi-kun matters a lot to Ryo-chan, right?"
"6 million each." Yasuda is next to Tegoshi. "But we have to hurry. Meet at Yoyogi Park, south entrance at 8pm."
They all nod and go to separate banks. Every one else is still arguing about money.
-- -- --
Kamenashi and Nakamaru must not have ever expected Katou to want to go down to the brig, because the guards are perplexed with what to do. They were told not to let any of the family in, but Katou is a weird half-family kind of person. He uses big lawyer-words and confuses the guards, who move, because they aren’t entirely sure what to do. Nishikido doesn’t seem all that shocked to see him.
“What’s going on with Kansai?”
“A lot. They’re all angry. Being defeated and left alive. It’s shameful.”
“Nishikido, how did this all start? The split-“
“You don’t need to know. You’re a lawyer. The less you know, the better - you’re the one who that to us before the trials started.”
Katou laughs. “I’m surprised you were listening.”
“You should have found a better way. To leave Kansai.” Nishikido sounds grave. “There were other ways besides running. Almost anything else we could have over looked.”
Katou leans against the wall opposite Nishikido’s cell and slides down to the floor. “Hypothetically, would my death buy Kantou time?”
“Yeah,” Nishikido nods. “It would buy a lot of time.”
Katou’s still for several minutes, before he gets up and some how, comes back with the keys and opens Nishikido’s cell. He doesn’t move out of it.
“I’ve seen a lot of death.”
“Yes. I know.”
“… It’s not easy. Killing blood that’s familiar. It’s really hard. You worked for us once. If it weren’t for you, we’d all be on death row. In a way, we all owe you our lives.”
“But I ran.”
“But you ran. Dammit, Katou. You betrayed us, and we can’t let that go. No matter how much we owe you and how painful it is to hurt familiar blood.”
“… Is this about-“
“Yes. Everything is about Uchi.”
Nishikido stands up, and the two leave out a back exit, that no one bothers to guard most of the time.
-- -- --
Kansai stares at Nishikido and Katou when they enter, like it’s a dream. Yokoyama slaps Nishikido on the back and Yasuda shoves Katou to the floor.
Murakami pulls out a gun. “No more interruptions. Get up, Katou.”
He does. “One thing.”
Murakami nods. “I’ll listen to even an enemy’s final words.”
“You must learn how to accept the past. It can’t be changed now. Hate only begets more hate. Kantou can’t be expected to put up with this forever. You have a business, a good one. I know that just as well as you. Run it with your head and not your heart. Sooner or later, you won’t cover your tracks completely and you’ll all end up under arrest again. And I won’t be around to save your sorry asses.”
Yokoyama has to visibly restrain himself. “What would you know!?”
Murakami clicks off the safety, and they all hear it.
At the same time, Nishikido and Ohkura both speak up: “Mura-“ “I don’t-“
“What?”
Nishikido bites his tongue, but Ohkura keeps going. “I don’t think Uchi would like it.”
There’s silence, every one is in shock that Ohkura, the usually quiet one, would speak up so directly to their leader.
“You’re fucking kidding!” Maruyama yells. “If it weren’t for Kantou, Uchi would still be here! And he’s one of them now!”
“Uchi wouldn’t like it! He wouldn’t approve!”
“It doesn’t matter what Uchi would think of this!”
“I agree with Ohkura,” Nishikido finally says.
“This is fucking bullshit,” Murakami utters.
“They have a point,” Yasuda says from behind the others. “Uchi was really fair, and Katou got all of us off. No one thought it was possible. But he did it. Don’t we owe him something for that?”
Shibutani steps closer to Yasuda.
Yokoyama turns and grabs Yasuda’s collar. “He betrayed us!”
“Uchi!” Nishikido yells, like the name alone carries an entire discourse on why this should be stopped.
-- -- --
Every one was at the park early, but they're still racing through streets, praying they'll make it to the warehouse on time. Nishikido is a wreck in the backseat and Akanishi has to drive, even though he's not much better. When they get to the warehouse, it's dark, and there aren't any cars around.
"They said they'd be here. They said Uchi would be here." Nishikido sounds frantic and Tegoshi stays by his side.
The two of them stay by the car, just in case, while the other three go look around. But there's nothing. Just an old, lifeless warehouse district. Yamashita looks at his watch, 9:47pm. Not even 20 minutes past the time given in the letter. The Black Books wouldn't have been that hasty... would they?
The three of them sent out to look around all find the same thing: fresh tire tracks, some leading out of the parking lot, with one lone pair going off onto a pier, and over the edge. The water is still. Yasuda gags a little and falls to his knees. Akanishi and Yamashita carry Yasuda between them back to the car. Nishikido and Yasuda fall against each other, sobbing, collapsing to the ground. The other three cry too.
-- -- --
“He’s dead!” And Murakami fires the gun.
Katou doesn’t even have time to register the sound of the gun before he’s falling backwards, landing hard on his back, a searing pain in his chest. He gasps for breath and writhes just a little.
Kansai continues arguing amongst themselves, during which, they completely ignore their surroundings. It’s strange that Katou, having been shot at almost point blank range, it still alive and moving a little bit. His chest hurts, but he can’t help but think dying isn’t as painful as he thought it was going to be. He’s staring at the ceiling, and knows he’s dying, because he’s hallucinating Tegoshi’s face in an air vent. Katou laments that being the last face he’ll ever see. Kansai is still arguing in the background.
“It’s time to forgive them!” Nishikido shouts.
“Never!” Yokoyama replies. “What’s wrong with you?! When did you get so sympathetic to the cause of our enemies?”
Katou’s still waiting to die, and he thinks it must be close, because there’s a little beeping noise, coming from his torso. He thinks it’s a strange sound for his internal organs to make.
There’s a noise from outside - like tires screeching - and Kansai starts yelling even louder, at more than just each other.
Murakami goes to a window and swears. “At least they have nothing to save this time. Kill them all. No prisoners.”
Again, smoke bombs and Katou coughs. “Seriously,” he croaks. “How long does it take to die?”
“Shige!” And Koyama’s in his face. “Shige! You’re going to be okay!”
Katou groans. “Not you…”
“It was dumb to let Nishikido out, but at least you were smart enough to put on a vest!”
Koyama helps Katou into a sitting position. “Nishikido made me put it on.”
Koyama stops, but quickly regains himself and half-drags Katou out of the building.
The room is too small for gunfire, so Kansai and Kantou pour out, into the surrounding landscape. It’s so vast though, it’s hard to follow any one, or find any one, unless you know exactly how they think and how to track them.
“Akanishi.”
He turns, gun pointed, but lowers it. “Ryo-chan….”
“I’m not over it. But I know you supported us. This is what Uchi would want.”
Akanishi smiles. “You mean-“
“I accept your apology.”
Akanishi nearly cries, and elsewhere, Nakamaru shakes hands with Ohkura, Tegoshi hugs Yasuda and Shibutani (they hadn’t really wanted to, but Tegoshi is hard to say ‘no’ to). The smoke clears, and Murakami, Maruyama and Yokoyama are gone. Even the usually skeptical Kamenashi can’t find a reason not to trust the four of them, so they all go back to Kantou’s complex.
“Murakami can’t try that massacre any more,” Ohkura says to Kamenashi. “He doesn’t have enough people whom he trusts.”
Tegoshi cries when he sees Nishikido, and there’s a subdued celebration that evening. Koyama and Katou aren’t there though - they’re at the hospital.
The doctor shakes his head. “If you want your ribs to heal, you need to stop doing such dangerous things. Two are re-bruised and another’s broken again. Please be more careful, Katou-san.”
Koyama laughs. “I’ll take good care of him! He won’t leave my sight!”
-- -- --
There's no end to the finger pointing. Murakami blames Kamenashi, and visa-versa. Those from Kansai saying Kantou doesn't care if they get hurt. Kantou saying Kansai was too hasty. It's unfortunate, but they're all to blame. Kansai doesn't want to hear it. In the morning, the seven of them are all gone.
They had all been there for the argument. Kamenashi didn't listen to Murakami and Murakami didn't listen to Kamenashi. They all just argued instead of taking action first, and then bickering about things later. But Murakami is a strong leader, and an even better speaker. He's able to convince even Nishikido and Yasuda, who went to the warehouse, that things had actually gone differently. That Kantou was completely to blame. That Uchi must be avenged. With the destruction of the Kantou Black Books and their former allies.
Every one in Kantou feels horrible. Once everything has settled, they try and send condolence messages, even apologies that things turned out so horrible, but Kansai will hear none of it. They send back the letters, burnt, ripped, spit on. Kantou keeps sending the messages, Kansai refuses them.
And then, some how, during one of their raids near Osaka, Kansai are all caught with some amazing, once-in-a-lifetime evidence. Kantou tries to help, but there's nothing they can do. They don't have the strength yet as a family. They follow every detail of the trial. From Kansai hiring on a single, recently-graduated prodigy lawyer to cover all seven of them, through said lawyer getting each of them off on some technicality or making the jury question everything they have ever known. He's cheered for brilliance and booed for lack of morals. But through the media coverage, they see the lawyer getting weaker, but only in physicality. He's pale, losing weight, unhealthy.
"It must be hard for him," Tegoshi says, looking at a newspaper.
"He's a good lawyer," Akanishi says quietly.
Kamenashi lifts his head. "We should bring him here."
"Why?"
"Kansai is different than they were when we split up. We can't figure out how they move. He'll know. Kansai has become his entire life."
They all know the meaning behind Kamenashi's words: We need to know how they move, so we can find them, so we can settle things.
Koyama sends the lawyer - Katou - a message and he responds immediately.
RATING: PG-13 (for vague character death and swearing)
CHARACTERS: NEWS, KAT-TUN, Kanjani8
WORD COUNT: 5,012
SUMMARY: Gangs are never idle for long.
NOTES: Passages entirely in italics = flashback. Conclusion to the yakuza!verse drabbles.
It’s been quiet.
Very quiet. And Katou knows enough to know that’s not a good thing. He knows Kantou didn’t kill Kansai, so where ever they are, they’re plotting, planning. He’s constantly assured that Kantou’s complex of buildings in Saitama province, outside of Tokyo, are secure and that there’s no where else he could be safer. Katou doesn’t ask any one why he wasn’t brought here in the first place after fleeing from Kansai. Since the kidnapping and rescue, Katou has been spending a lot of time resting, mostly at Kantou’s insistence. All the event did was make Katou even more sure of his own eventual, and soon-to-be death. Kansai’s determined, and there’s something to be said for that.
Katou doesn’t believe what Kantou told him about their complex being secure - nothing is ever 100% secure. He doesn’t tell any one though, when he wakes up and there’s a note on his window, with nothing but “4.21” written. Katou’s actually impressed that whoever put it up resisted the urge to shoot him through the window. 4.21. April 21st. The day he boarded the train to Tokyo, without having told any one. The day, and its sheer terror, will be forever branded into his mind.
But Katou doesn’t tell any one about it. Because when everything has been said and done, what’s going on now is between him and Kansai. Once he’s dead, then Kantou and Kansai will have their business to see to. For now, Katou’s going to see how this plays out.
He leaves his room late in the morning - there probably won’t be any breakfast left. He rounds a corner and quickly jumps back behind it, poking his head around. Kamenashi and Nakamaru are talking to a short mean in jeans and a leather jacket and none of them look happy.
“You’re absolutely sure?” Nakamaru asks.
“Yeah. The Kansai family have all been released. Not back to full strength, but-“
“But they’re still the Kansai family.” Kamenashi sounds worried.
“They’ve left the hospital,” the man continues. “But there are no reports of them having left the Tokyo-area yet. They’re still around. Some where.”
Kamenashi frowns. “I’d hoped after the last week, they would have realized…. This won’t be solved with violence. They should have just gone back to Kansai.”
“Yeah, well.” The man rubs the back of his head. “I’d better be going. Still on duty and all…”
Nakamaru and Kamenashi nod. The man sees himself out.
Katou watches all of the main Kantou family over the course of the day, and he can pick out the exact moment Kamenashi or Nakamaru pulls them aside and tells them. Their face gets just a fraction paler and their eyes turn sad, like they’ve just been defeated some how. Once night falls, Koyama tries to convince Katou to switch rooms.
“The other one is warmer!”
“I’m fine here. I’ve got plenty of blankets.”
“But, but… Shige!” Katou’s not entirely fond of the nickname Koyama’s given him; he thinks it’s too familiar. “You’re still weak! If you get cold, you might fall ill!”
Katou knows he’s going to end up switching rooms, but he likes to give Koyama a hard time about simple things. The reason for moving Katou’s room was given to Koyama instead of any of the others - because he and Katou have the best connection. Katou’s room is near the outside of the main house, with a view of one of the gardens. But with this new information about the Kansai family, Kantou is getting more weary, more protective of Katou. Of course they’d want to move him to a safer location within the complex. Something closer to the center, harder to get too. There’s an empty room between Koki and Masuda’s rooms. Katou ends up there.
-- -- --
Kamenashi's looking at the board, an unconvinced look on his face. "I don't think it's a good idea."
"It's a great idea," Murakami says from next to the board. "It will cement us forever within the Japanese underground."
From the front, Tegoshi says quietly, "There's a lot of risk," but no one listens to him.
Yokoyama steps next to Murakami. "As long as we all do our specific job correctly, everything will work out. Every one will come back fine."
Nakamaru bites his lip, Akanishi and Yamashita share worried looks.
"Is it going to be a vote?" Yasuda asks.
"This democratic shit pisses me off," Maruyama grumbles from the table.
"If need be. But if it's approved, we all have to do it. No one can back out because they didn't vote for it. It's every one or no one."
Kamenashi frowns. Murakami's tone always worries him, because he's a natural leader. He says something, and people are suddenly in awe of him, and follow whatever he says, even if it's not in their best interests. Murakami was born several hundred years late in Kamenashi's opinion - he was made to be a general, decimating enemy samurai on the battlefield. But nowadays, there are no samurai, and there are no battlefields. Just various yakuza families and cement parking lots.
The vote comes out 10-8, not much of a majority in Kamenashi's mind, but it's every one or no one, so he goes along with it.
-- -- --
In the morning, Katou wakes up to a near panic within the complex. He pushes his way forward and through the masses of members, until he’s standing on the inside of a circle, with Yamashita, Ueda and Kamenashi looking at a small piece of paper. Koki and Akanishi are standing close by as well.
“It’s for me.”
They all turn to Katou.
“What do you mean?” Yamashita sounds serious for once.
“’4.21’, right? It’s for me.”
Kamenashi hands the paper to Katou. “Well?”
“April, 21st. The day I left Kansai. They’re not letting it go. You all defeating them has only made them that much more determined for my head.”
Koki swears. “They know where we are, it’s about time we find out where they are. I’m taking Tegoshi an-“
“No.” Nakamaru pops out of the crowd near Katou. “We can’t be hasty about this, Koki.”
“We can’t fucking do nothing! They’re mocking us! Kame!”
He frowns. “For now, doubled patrols. How the hell did they get so close? It was either Nishikido or Ohkura, none of the others could have gotten so close without giving into the temptation.”
Koki turns, the junior members moving out of his way.
“For now, Koki, stay. We don’t know where they are, and we shouldn’t risk any one.”
Koki swears again.
“I’ll go put out a watch on them.” And Ueda leaves.
The whole day is tense. The slightest sound and every one freaks out. Katou knows better - the Kansai family hates doing business during the day time - they think it steals from their mysterious and dangerous aura. For now, they’re safe, because Kansai’s calling the shots, and they’ll move once the sun is down.
It’s late at night when Katou gets up for something to drink. He’s standing in the kitchen, looking out the window, when he sees Tegoshi happily walk by, in the direction of one of the side gates. Katou gets closer to the window and tries to follow Tegoshi’s path, but the angle is too awkward. Katou goes back to his room, but his sleep is light.
Katou isn’t looking forward to seeing Tegoshi in the morning - he’s a little worried, honestly. But once he does see Tegoshi, he feels guilty for doubting the kid. Tegoshi looks awful, like he spent part of the night crying. Every one notices it, and Koyama and Masuda spend all of the day trying to cheer Tegoshi up, but nothing seems to work.
-- -- --
They're called the Honshu Black Books, which doesn't sound very dangerous, but they are. The leader is superstitious and has several priests of different faiths in his pocket, and rival leaders often come down with mysterious illnesses, where no cure is ever found. No one in their gang is especially superstitious, but Kamenashi still likes to avoid people like that.
They're all in their places, set, ready to take action. This is Murakami's job, so he's calling the shots from the safety of a van, several blocks away. He has Ohkura with him for help - Murakami only ever picks one of his own from Kansai for this job.
The job begins, and from the very beginning, Kamenashi knows something is going to go wrong. Koyama throws him a worried look from the other side of the building as they hear Tegoshi over the radio count off guards. Murakami said before they left their base - they'll all come back from this fine, but no one believes it. No one from the Kantou side does anyways.
Silenced shots go off, noises that untrained guards overlook, because it sounds like an animal, or a messed up car. But that noise means Nishikido, Shibutani and Uchi are moving closer. Koki sneaks over to Kamenashi from his guard point.
"I don't like this."
"Neither do I."
They're talking about the overall situation, but also the front team, the ones Murakami trusts to get in and out, quickly and silently, and do the job while everyone else is backup or a distraction. Shibutani and Nishikido have hair-triggers, in this situation you want some one with a calm demeanor - some one ideally like Murakami. Uchi is like an older version of Tegoshi to a lot of them - meant to be doing something with his life. He winces at the sight of blood and hates being in the point team - where he is now. They'd all seen his face when Murakami had told Uchi his place on the job.
"We just have to hope everything goes as smoothly as Murakami plans for it too."
Koki knows it won't. Kamenashi knows that too. And it worries both of them.
-- -- --
Katou is feeling idle, and since his time is short, he starts writing in the notebooks again. Koyama tells him to rest more, Katou tells him to go away. He’s been going through everything in a very systematic way. Working through each of the main members of the Kansai family and their various crimes one at a time. He keeps all the notebooks at hand, so he can reference related things back to each other. He’s gone through 57 notebooks, all in his perfect lawyer handwriting, making sure everything is legible. He started with Ohkura, the newest of the main members, and the least to write about, and then moved onto Nishikido, and currently is on Yasuda, but is only about a third through. With each member, there is more detailed needed, more information to write on. Katou dreads having to write Murakami’s - he has the greatest numbers of individual crimes and is the ringleader, so every other crime goes back to him. It’s very probable that Murakami will have more notebooks than the other six combined.
Eight days later, and eight “4.21” notes later, there’s a lot of finger pointing in the complex. Some one is putting up the notes, but no matter how many guards and look-outs there are, no one ever sees anything. Kamenashi thinks it’s too suspicious, Katou hears Akanishi mutter the word “rat” a few times. Katou knows there isn’t one. He wouldn’t be in the Kantou complex any more if there was. Kansai is toying with them, and they’re enjoying it, watching Kantou squirm and be completely powerless. They’re all fucked up in the head like that. Katou doesn’t worry about it though, he just keeps writing.
Early one morning, Katou’s enjoying his coffee on a patio in one of the gardens. The cook told him it wasn’t safe, Katou laughed a little bit and told the cook not to worry. Katou knows it’s perfectly safe. So when Katou hears rustling and noises, he doesn’t bother to look up until he’s greeted.
“Good morning, Katou-kun!”
It’s Akanishi, walking through the rock garden, pulling leaves and twigs out of his hair.
“Good morning. Are you not fond of doors and gates?”
Akanishi smiles. “We all have our reasons for doing things that seem strange to others. I can’t understand how you want to write out everything when you could type it up on a computer so much faster.”
He walks past and doesn’t wait for an answer from Katou.
“Of course I hand write it,” Katou says to no one. “Handwriting can be compared, so the forensic scientists can prove it’s my own handwriting, thereby becoming evidence in any murder trial, or any retrial. Computer files can be forged. They’re meaningless. Everything important should be written.”
-- -- --
And it doesn't go like Murakami had planned. He'd been too obsessed with the money and the weapons and the glory of fucking with Kantou Black Books that he hadn't checked all his facts. So now, every one - except for Murakami and Ohkura - are fighting for their lives, trying with everything they have to keep from getting closed off from their only escape route. The point team broke up for the sake of stealth. Nishikido's back, and Shibutani's on his way, killing as he goes. Uchi can't be picked up on the radio frequency. Nishikido wants to go back and find him. Murakami tells Nishikido exactly what he'll do with the other man's dead body if he dares break the formation.
But Uchi never comes and they're scarily close to running out of ammunition and Murakami is forced to give the order to retreat. Nishikido has to be literally dragged away from the line by Maruyama and Akanishi.
-- -- --
“They’re all cowards.”
Shibutani’s angry and ranting, stitches on his forehead, left wrist in a cast, but he’s careful as he re-wraps Maruyama’s ankle.
“They can’t even fucking kill some one. I can’t remember, did how we tolerate them?”
Murakami’s still on the other side of the room, phone to his ear. Nishikido, who has been especially quiet since the hospital discharge, and Ohkura are sitting across from each other at the table, playing cards. Yasuda’s staring out the window and Yokoyama is pretending his asleep in an arm chair.
The past two weeks haven’t been fun for them. They were summarily crushed by Kantou and had Katou taken from them. And to top it all off, paramedics were called on their behalf. It’s too much for them. They only desire Kantou’s destruction even more now.
Murakami hangs up his phone, “Relax, Shibutani. We’ve waited this long, a few more days, even weeks won’t appear as much at the end. We got too ahead of ourselves. More care is needed on all our parts. Kantou’s gotten better since the last time we fought them, and that was unexpected.”
“Waiting sucks,” Maruyama grumbles.
“Waiting and gaining victory is better than acting rashly and losing. The next move will be planned carefully as things move along. At the end of all this, everything will be evened out, and we’ll be whole again. No more empty space.”
-- -- --
Katou’s early for dinner, but he knows it’s not a big deal. He takes his place at the table - between Koyama and Tegoshi’s places - and rests for a minute. His hand hurts from writing and he has a little bit of a headache. Katou jerks when he hears a bang, a crash and a lot of yelling in different voices. He goes to the hall to take a look, and finds Koki holding Nishikido in a headlock, on the floor. They’re both yelling at each other, every one around them is yelling, and Akanishi and Tegoshi are pleading with Koki not to break Nishikido’s neck. Katou just feels incredibly awkward.
“We’re not killing any one, Koki!” Nakamaru yells.
“He’s been asking for it! They all have! How long are we supposed to deal with this?!”
Akanishi and Tegoshi both yell, “Don’t hurt Ryo-chan!”
“You all have to leave here!”
There’s shock among the small crowd and they stare at Nishikido.
“You all have to leave here. Now.”
Ueda frowns. “Why? Why should we leave our territory?”
“Because Murakami is having all the automatic weapons brought up. All of them. He’s setting up a massacre. One you all can’t defense against. You all have to leave Kantou.”
Kamenashi steps closer to Ueda. “Why should we trust you?”
Nishikido doesn’t have an answer.
Tegoshi grabs Koki’s arm and tugs. “Get off. I trust Ryo-chan.”
“Me too!” Akanishi and Yamashita say together.
Nakamaru chews on his lip. “This is all very complicated.”
“Koki, Ueda, take Nishikido down to the holding cell while we talk about this.”
Kamenashi turns and heads towards the dining room. In 10 minutes, everyone’s there, but not talking about the surprise guest in the brig. Yamashita, Akanishi and Tegoshi don’t eat anything. Kamenashi and Nakamaru agree that no one should go see Nishikido before a decision has been made.
-- -- --
"I told you it wasn't a good idea, Murakami!"
"Shut your mouth, Kamenashi, or I'll have it shut."
"We have to go get Uchi!" Nishikido shouts for the umpteenth time.
"It's not just a matter of waltzing in and taking him back, Ryo-chan," Yamashita whispers from the side, pointing to the letter on the table before Murakami.
The Kantou Black Books know who was behind the attempted robbery, but they're also not stupid - they know Kamenashi wouldn't have tried it, only Murakami had the balls too. They reprimand Murakami for his ego and that such a little family shouldn't try something so foolish as what was done the other night. For the small sum of 30 million yen, they are willing to let Uchi go. Alive. Nishikido is demanding they pay it. But to withdraw that much will send off notices to the government, which they don't want. Instead, from their personal accounts, each members needs to withdraw nearly 1.8 million of their own money.
"This whole thing was your idea. Take a little responsibility."
Murakami looks up. "And what would you have me do, Tanaka?"
"Pay it all."
Then air in the room gets thicker, every one itching to draw a gun or knife.
"Such a large withdrawal will still set off alarms, Murakami. Koki has a point. It's better for one of us to get dragged in for meaningless questioning than all of us."
"None of this matters!" Nishikido yells. "We just need to get the money and get Uchi back!"
Most of the members keep arguing, wasting time, inching closer and closer to the deadline the Black Books dictated. Nishikido is slowly going crazy, but Akanishi and Yamashita pull him aside.
"We'll go to the bank now."
"Each get 10 million."
Nishikido shakes his head, looking defeated. "It's still too much... the notices... We'll get taken in."
"Then we'll split up and go to different banks and get 7.5 million each."
They turn to the new voice, and Tegoshi is smiling at them.
"Uchi-kun matters a lot to Ryo-chan, right?"
"6 million each." Yasuda is next to Tegoshi. "But we have to hurry. Meet at Yoyogi Park, south entrance at 8pm."
They all nod and go to separate banks. Every one else is still arguing about money.
-- -- --
Kamenashi and Nakamaru must not have ever expected Katou to want to go down to the brig, because the guards are perplexed with what to do. They were told not to let any of the family in, but Katou is a weird half-family kind of person. He uses big lawyer-words and confuses the guards, who move, because they aren’t entirely sure what to do. Nishikido doesn’t seem all that shocked to see him.
“What’s going on with Kansai?”
“A lot. They’re all angry. Being defeated and left alive. It’s shameful.”
“Nishikido, how did this all start? The split-“
“You don’t need to know. You’re a lawyer. The less you know, the better - you’re the one who that to us before the trials started.”
Katou laughs. “I’m surprised you were listening.”
“You should have found a better way. To leave Kansai.” Nishikido sounds grave. “There were other ways besides running. Almost anything else we could have over looked.”
Katou leans against the wall opposite Nishikido’s cell and slides down to the floor. “Hypothetically, would my death buy Kantou time?”
“Yeah,” Nishikido nods. “It would buy a lot of time.”
Katou’s still for several minutes, before he gets up and some how, comes back with the keys and opens Nishikido’s cell. He doesn’t move out of it.
“I’ve seen a lot of death.”
“Yes. I know.”
“… It’s not easy. Killing blood that’s familiar. It’s really hard. You worked for us once. If it weren’t for you, we’d all be on death row. In a way, we all owe you our lives.”
“But I ran.”
“But you ran. Dammit, Katou. You betrayed us, and we can’t let that go. No matter how much we owe you and how painful it is to hurt familiar blood.”
“… Is this about-“
“Yes. Everything is about Uchi.”
Nishikido stands up, and the two leave out a back exit, that no one bothers to guard most of the time.
-- -- --
Kansai stares at Nishikido and Katou when they enter, like it’s a dream. Yokoyama slaps Nishikido on the back and Yasuda shoves Katou to the floor.
Murakami pulls out a gun. “No more interruptions. Get up, Katou.”
He does. “One thing.”
Murakami nods. “I’ll listen to even an enemy’s final words.”
“You must learn how to accept the past. It can’t be changed now. Hate only begets more hate. Kantou can’t be expected to put up with this forever. You have a business, a good one. I know that just as well as you. Run it with your head and not your heart. Sooner or later, you won’t cover your tracks completely and you’ll all end up under arrest again. And I won’t be around to save your sorry asses.”
Yokoyama has to visibly restrain himself. “What would you know!?”
Murakami clicks off the safety, and they all hear it.
At the same time, Nishikido and Ohkura both speak up: “Mura-“ “I don’t-“
“What?”
Nishikido bites his tongue, but Ohkura keeps going. “I don’t think Uchi would like it.”
There’s silence, every one is in shock that Ohkura, the usually quiet one, would speak up so directly to their leader.
“You’re fucking kidding!” Maruyama yells. “If it weren’t for Kantou, Uchi would still be here! And he’s one of them now!”
“Uchi wouldn’t like it! He wouldn’t approve!”
“It doesn’t matter what Uchi would think of this!”
“I agree with Ohkura,” Nishikido finally says.
“This is fucking bullshit,” Murakami utters.
“They have a point,” Yasuda says from behind the others. “Uchi was really fair, and Katou got all of us off. No one thought it was possible. But he did it. Don’t we owe him something for that?”
Shibutani steps closer to Yasuda.
Yokoyama turns and grabs Yasuda’s collar. “He betrayed us!”
“Uchi!” Nishikido yells, like the name alone carries an entire discourse on why this should be stopped.
-- -- --
Every one was at the park early, but they're still racing through streets, praying they'll make it to the warehouse on time. Nishikido is a wreck in the backseat and Akanishi has to drive, even though he's not much better. When they get to the warehouse, it's dark, and there aren't any cars around.
"They said they'd be here. They said Uchi would be here." Nishikido sounds frantic and Tegoshi stays by his side.
The two of them stay by the car, just in case, while the other three go look around. But there's nothing. Just an old, lifeless warehouse district. Yamashita looks at his watch, 9:47pm. Not even 20 minutes past the time given in the letter. The Black Books wouldn't have been that hasty... would they?
The three of them sent out to look around all find the same thing: fresh tire tracks, some leading out of the parking lot, with one lone pair going off onto a pier, and over the edge. The water is still. Yasuda gags a little and falls to his knees. Akanishi and Yamashita carry Yasuda between them back to the car. Nishikido and Yasuda fall against each other, sobbing, collapsing to the ground. The other three cry too.
-- -- --
“He’s dead!” And Murakami fires the gun.
Katou doesn’t even have time to register the sound of the gun before he’s falling backwards, landing hard on his back, a searing pain in his chest. He gasps for breath and writhes just a little.
Kansai continues arguing amongst themselves, during which, they completely ignore their surroundings. It’s strange that Katou, having been shot at almost point blank range, it still alive and moving a little bit. His chest hurts, but he can’t help but think dying isn’t as painful as he thought it was going to be. He’s staring at the ceiling, and knows he’s dying, because he’s hallucinating Tegoshi’s face in an air vent. Katou laments that being the last face he’ll ever see. Kansai is still arguing in the background.
“It’s time to forgive them!” Nishikido shouts.
“Never!” Yokoyama replies. “What’s wrong with you?! When did you get so sympathetic to the cause of our enemies?”
Katou’s still waiting to die, and he thinks it must be close, because there’s a little beeping noise, coming from his torso. He thinks it’s a strange sound for his internal organs to make.
There’s a noise from outside - like tires screeching - and Kansai starts yelling even louder, at more than just each other.
Murakami goes to a window and swears. “At least they have nothing to save this time. Kill them all. No prisoners.”
Again, smoke bombs and Katou coughs. “Seriously,” he croaks. “How long does it take to die?”
“Shige!” And Koyama’s in his face. “Shige! You’re going to be okay!”
Katou groans. “Not you…”
“It was dumb to let Nishikido out, but at least you were smart enough to put on a vest!”
Koyama helps Katou into a sitting position. “Nishikido made me put it on.”
Koyama stops, but quickly regains himself and half-drags Katou out of the building.
The room is too small for gunfire, so Kansai and Kantou pour out, into the surrounding landscape. It’s so vast though, it’s hard to follow any one, or find any one, unless you know exactly how they think and how to track them.
“Akanishi.”
He turns, gun pointed, but lowers it. “Ryo-chan….”
“I’m not over it. But I know you supported us. This is what Uchi would want.”
Akanishi smiles. “You mean-“
“I accept your apology.”
Akanishi nearly cries, and elsewhere, Nakamaru shakes hands with Ohkura, Tegoshi hugs Yasuda and Shibutani (they hadn’t really wanted to, but Tegoshi is hard to say ‘no’ to). The smoke clears, and Murakami, Maruyama and Yokoyama are gone. Even the usually skeptical Kamenashi can’t find a reason not to trust the four of them, so they all go back to Kantou’s complex.
“Murakami can’t try that massacre any more,” Ohkura says to Kamenashi. “He doesn’t have enough people whom he trusts.”
Tegoshi cries when he sees Nishikido, and there’s a subdued celebration that evening. Koyama and Katou aren’t there though - they’re at the hospital.
The doctor shakes his head. “If you want your ribs to heal, you need to stop doing such dangerous things. Two are re-bruised and another’s broken again. Please be more careful, Katou-san.”
Koyama laughs. “I’ll take good care of him! He won’t leave my sight!”
-- -- --
There's no end to the finger pointing. Murakami blames Kamenashi, and visa-versa. Those from Kansai saying Kantou doesn't care if they get hurt. Kantou saying Kansai was too hasty. It's unfortunate, but they're all to blame. Kansai doesn't want to hear it. In the morning, the seven of them are all gone.
They had all been there for the argument. Kamenashi didn't listen to Murakami and Murakami didn't listen to Kamenashi. They all just argued instead of taking action first, and then bickering about things later. But Murakami is a strong leader, and an even better speaker. He's able to convince even Nishikido and Yasuda, who went to the warehouse, that things had actually gone differently. That Kantou was completely to blame. That Uchi must be avenged. With the destruction of the Kantou Black Books and their former allies.
Every one in Kantou feels horrible. Once everything has settled, they try and send condolence messages, even apologies that things turned out so horrible, but Kansai will hear none of it. They send back the letters, burnt, ripped, spit on. Kantou keeps sending the messages, Kansai refuses them.
And then, some how, during one of their raids near Osaka, Kansai are all caught with some amazing, once-in-a-lifetime evidence. Kantou tries to help, but there's nothing they can do. They don't have the strength yet as a family. They follow every detail of the trial. From Kansai hiring on a single, recently-graduated prodigy lawyer to cover all seven of them, through said lawyer getting each of them off on some technicality or making the jury question everything they have ever known. He's cheered for brilliance and booed for lack of morals. But through the media coverage, they see the lawyer getting weaker, but only in physicality. He's pale, losing weight, unhealthy.
"It must be hard for him," Tegoshi says, looking at a newspaper.
"He's a good lawyer," Akanishi says quietly.
Kamenashi lifts his head. "We should bring him here."
"Why?"
"Kansai is different than they were when we split up. We can't figure out how they move. He'll know. Kansai has become his entire life."
They all know the meaning behind Kamenashi's words: We need to know how they move, so we can find them, so we can settle things.
Koyama sends the lawyer - Katou - a message and he responds immediately.