Chapter One

Voices of men inside the dimly-lit room fell silent after Kwan slammed open the entrance to it. When the slick-haired man waltzed inside dressed in his white suit, he met with the faces of the three men that expected his presence from the comfort of their seats.

A distinct stench of tobacco filled the room, and the smell reached as far away as the entrance to the building. Kwan coughed and nearly gagged from the overwhelmingly large cloud of cigarette smoke that entered through his nostrils; inhaling that irritating and stinging smoke of such an amount was like developing stage four lung cancer on the spot.

The three men had their attention fixed on Kwan, glaring at him intensely as he took a seat on the opposite side of the table. While Shihiro puffed out more smoke from his cigarette and Saiga relaxed his legs up on the table, Ryuchi sat between them with his two muscular arms crossed. All of their faces were barely visible, concealed by the shadows.

The lack of noise inside the room persisted for some time until Ryuchi broke that silence.

"So, Kwan… Would you mind explainin' what's so god-damned important that we had to meet up today?" Ryuchi asked. "Y'know, it's pretty damn rude to call up somebody to come over for a meetin' on the other side of Japan. And on a Saturday, when their favorite show is on, too."

Their disinterested expressions on their faces had already told him that none of them wanted to be there in the first place before he even sat down with them.

Of course, Kwan expected this would be the case and knew how to proceed with it.

"Missing your favorite show because of a meeting is the last thing you're going to be worrying about…" Kwan placed a photo on the table for them to see, "…because there's something else you've got to worry about now."

Saiga put his legs down from the table, wanting a closer look at it. The other two were already giving it a stern look. In the photo, there was a man. Tall, young-looking, pink-haired, and donning a white overcoat.

This grasped the three men's attention. However, they remained somewhat skeptical on the importance of the meeting, although still wanting to hear what else he had to say.

"And this guy is…" Shihiro paused for a moment as he puffed out another thick cloud of cigarette smoke. The man's face seemed familiar to him, but he did not recognize it. "Who the hell's this guy supposed to be?"

"The guy in the picture here is Kachito Kanaya. He's the CEO of this company you might know that calls itself the Corten Group, and he's trying to go after our project," Kwan explained. "And you're probably wondering why some random guy like him is going after our project."

Saiga leaned closer to Ryuchi and whispered, "Uh, you know who that is?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Ryuchi barked.

"Apparently, something sour happened between Kachito and some of my men about a week ago. They got into a fight with him, got beat up by him, got arrested, and then for some reason ratted out our deal."

"What?" The three men's eyes widened.

"Now, he's coming after us with some help from the Kanhama PD."

The room fell silent once again, the three men's frowns intensified. To put it bluntly, Saiga, Ryuchi, and Shihiro were not very pleased to hear the news come out of Kwan's mouth. Mainly Shihiro, who clenched his fist so tight that his nails dug into his hardened skin, enough so for blood to appear.

With nobody having said another word for a solid moment after Kwan finished his sentence, Ryuchi was up to the task of being the one to break the silence again.

"What you're tellin' us is that yer guys messed up and ya called us all the way from Osaka to Kanhama to help clean yer shit?"

"Yes," he said with a faint grin on his face. "After all, it still involves all of you in it, and the consequences of not doing anything will only catch up to you as well."

"The hell's he talking about?" Saiga muttered to Ryuchi, puzzled by Kwan's way of speaking and what he meant by that, requiring some help. Ryuchi simply responded with a shrug.

"Basically, what I need is your assistance in trying to take him out and keep our project safe from him and the cops. Seems simple, doesn't it? But this guy here is more than enough to take out even the most expensive hitman in all of Asia. Not to mention that he's one hell of a Hado user, so I doubt I'd be able to take him on by myself or with my men right now."

Ryuchi raised his eyebrow, interested in knowing who this Kachito Kanaya was. For him, "More than enough to take out even the most expensive hitman in all of Asia" seemed like an overstatement, as he would've already heard about somebody like that. He, however, still considered Kwan's statement as a possibility either way.

"Are you guys up for it?"

Ryuchi rolled his eyes and reluctantly agreed, "Fine. Let's just get over with this before shit hits the fan."

Saiga followed Ryuchi's response with a nod. Shihiro, on the other hand, stared at his fellow peers in utter disbelief by their responses. After all, why would they be so calm after hearing the news? Especially about something that could ruin several years of progress and put their careers at risk.

"You guys high on something? This shithead's letting his guys ruin our shit, and you're sitting here as if you've heard him say that for the tenth fucking time!" he berated, outraged by their lack of reactions.

Fairly obvious he wasn't done, he turned his attention to Kwan and spat, "An incompetent shit like you needs to realize that you want us to help you fix the problem that is entirely your responsibility that you should deal with yourself.

"It's your fault that you couldn't put your guys on a proper leash before they decided to make the dumbest decision in their lives. The only person that's gonna have consequences catching up to them for not doing anything is you!"

It was very apparent that he wasn't interested in any way to clean up Kwan's mess.

"Oh, fine by me!" Kwan smirked, his tone turning sarcastic. "I see that you're fine with somebody that is supposedly 'incompetent' to try to figure out how to unfuck this situation and most likely only worsen it. Your idea is the finest I've ever heard that I think you deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for the most retarded piece of an idea ever!"

Shihiro lost his patience. He clenched his fists and muttered, "We put this shit together for five fucking years. We gave all the stuff to you, you promised us that you'll get the shit done without any kind of problem happening…"

Then, he rapidly rose from his seat and slammed on the table, pointing with the cigarette. "You think that you can just brush it away like losing a hundred yen coin in a storm drain, you dickwad?!"

Through all of this, Kwan maintained his composure with his smug grin; completely unfazed by Shihiro's attempt to intimidate him. He found it quite annoying to hear the nonsensical rambles of a man that is practically useless in the meeting room.

Ryuchi and Saiga did not have much problem with helping Kwan clean this mess as much as they had a problem with Shihiro's constant shouting.

Nevertheless, Kwan went on, "Seriously, the idea of letting one guy do all the work really is the finest if you're really keen on losing more than just a finger, and it looks like that one remaining brain cell of yours that's struggling to comprehend what I'm trying to say confirms that you really want to lose some fingers."

"Are you deaf?!" Shihiro snarled, throwing his cigarette at him. "Did you hear a single word I said to you?!"

The cigarette flew in Kwan's direction but missed the Korean man entirely, landing on the ground behind him and scattering ashes around it. Kwan remained unamused.

"Look, if I were you, I'd rather pipe down and be cooperative instead of being more of a problem than anything else here. I can cancel this project altogether if I want to," Kwan threatened, "and I'm fairly certain we all know why all four of us are in this together. Of course, the person that would be least affected by the cancellation is me."

"You really think that acting all cool will make me forgive and forget?" Shihiro confidently called Kwan's bluff. "I've known enough Korean bastards like you… and Korean bastards like you are all bark but no bite!"

Contrary to Shihiro's belief, Kwan was not bluffing. He was completely serious about it. Kwan's grin disappeared, wanting to end this argument already.

"Let me set this as a reminder that your pinky finger isn't the only thing on a knife's edge, but the thing that connects your head and torso, too," Kwan stated coldly. "So unless we start working together on solving this problem, the three of you will be fucked when they find out you were the ones that stole the three billion yen from the Keio Alliance's funds."

"You—"

Shihiro tried to open his mouth, only for Kwan to cut him off. "Also factoring in your reputation within the Keio Alliance, then I really wouldn't be surprised if news got out about a headless fat guy's body being found at the harbor of Osaka in the future.

"Or we can do it differently and clean your name entirely from this project. You can walk away from this and cut ties with us, be free from the risks of an arrest, banishment from the Keio Alliance, and death. That's under the condition that your cut of the deal will be terminated as well."

That was when Shihiro realized that no matter what choice he made, he was still at a disadvantage. If he were to cooperate, the chances of the project failing entirely were not neglectable, and both his life and career would be at risk. If he were to walk away from it, he would lose the sole reason he was in on the project.

"So, what will it be? Will you help me stop Kachito and keep our cuts of the deal together, or will you just walk away and let go of it?"

Shihiro stood there, contemplating for a moment before sitting back down and grumbling, "All right, you damned bastard… You want me to do your dirty work, then I'll do your dirty work, but you better remember that I won't forget this."

While he knew giving up the latter and walking away was more beneficial for his future and well-being, he wasn't planning to let go of it. In his eyes, the former was what he wanted and begrudgingly chose to step down.

It was quite a feat for Kwan to manage to shut down Shihiro without even needing to raise his voice or turn to violence. Ryuchi was impressed by this, to say the least. Personally, he would've gone through with a more physical approach of shutting someone up.

It is true that a punch strong enough to knock the lights out of someone is often a much more efficient and less time-consuming method than fighting with words in an argument.

Kwan proceeded as if Shihiro had never begun his rant. "Pretty obvious that we aren't in the most ideal position, but the main thing we've got to focus on is discussing our next moves before they dig up anything more serious. For now, our names are clean, and we currently have a plan that's gonna go in motion tomorrow at one of Kachito's upcoming projects…"

"Tomorrow?" Saiga wondered.

***

Kachito stood by a railing, overseeing the unfinished interior of the large mall. It was nearly dead silent; the most audible noises were some pairs of footsteps that came from his employees, and the continuous drumming of the rain on the skylight up seven floors above, in the center of the entire building.

There, a more heightened security was present than usual, patrolling the empty hallways and corridors of the whole place. It was a given considering the unusual activities that have been occurring there for the past few days now.

"Sir, do you have a moment?" a young man's voice called from behind, prompting Kachito to turn around. Upon doing so, he was met with Tamura, absolutely drenched. Drops of water trickled down on the floor from the pieces of clothing on him, his brown hair glistening in the light.

"Forgot to take something with you?" Kachito smirked at the sight of him.

"No, sir. Just took a look at the new camera on the roof after the guys in the surveillance room said that it went down. Somebody busted it up real bad; the feed didn't even pick up who did it, either."

"That so?" The pink-haired man looked up at the skylight as a shape suddenly passed his line of sight. "Well, at least that warning from Chikara didn't fall on deaf ears."

"I'm gonna be on the lookout on the roof for anything suspicious. I'll let you know if something happens," Tamura volunteered, moving towards the nearby staircase.

But as he made his first step, Kachito suddenly grabbed Tamura by his shoulder and told him, "Go home already, your shift's done. I'll handle this myself."

"Sir?"

Kachito began moving up the flight of stairs. "It ain't worth getting sick just because you decided to stand in the rain for a little too long in the middle of December. You'll perform better if you conserve your energy for tomorrow instead of wasting all of it today. Besides, I hired you to be my assistant, not a security guard like the other guys here.

"And don't forget your umbrella. If you were to actually get sick, I'd have a workload so bad that it would rival a shitty nine to five job with a manager whose ego you're able to see as far away as the edge of the damn solar system in terms of how agonizing every minute would be."

Tamura worriedly watched as his superior ascended those stairs; his gut feeling was internally screaming at him that something was going to go wrong the entire time.

After making his way up the many floors of the mall across the spiral stairs, Kachito, at last, reached the top floor. When he opened the door and stepped outside to the wide-open roof. The thick fog and relentless rain hindered visibility past twenty meters.

He began progressing towards the direction of the skylight, sliding his gloved hands into the pockets of his overcoat.

Between each step he took, a faint sound that resembled the tapping on a window seemingly came from all around him, dampened by the heavy rain.

Kachito, however, did not pay attention to it at all. He simply carried on, not even bothering to turn around.

As he continued forward, a large bundle of rope next to the skylight came into his view, the end of it attached to a nearby pole.

That's when Kachito came to a halt, straining his ears and listening to his surroundings. At the same moment, the faint noise stopped as well.

As seconds ticked away and Kachito's clothing got wetter and wetter, his suspicion rose further and further. Then, a small splash echoed through the air, alerting him of a presence.

"Y'know, you should work on your whole 'sneaking up on people from behind' thing." Kachito swiftly sidestepped, and a sharp object flew right where he once stood. "'Cause I'm pretty damn sure it needs more polishing."

After turning to face the perpetrator, a feminine figure stood before him, head covered by their helmet and sporting a sleek motorcycle suit.

Not wasting another second, the woman charged at him, drawing a knife from her belt in the process. When closing the distance between each other, she recklessly slashed the air left and right.

In response, Kachito quickly dropped to the ground and swept her legs, forcing her to fall over. Aware of her vulnerable position, she quickly rolled away from Kachito before he could follow up with another attack.

The two rose from the ground, and not long after, started to circle each other, observing the other's every little movement from a safe distance.

Kachito felt that something was off about her movement from earlier.

Felt like she was only pretending.

Felt like she was trying to make him think that she's an easy target.

Felt like she was only testing the waters.

Kachito was wary of such a possibility, his movement became more cautious along with his fighting stance and attitude towards her. He wasn't going to risk it.

When Kachito set foot near the skylight and bundle of rope again, the woman immediately began to rush him. Again, she slashed her knife in his direction, missing as he kept evading. Her movement became near unpredictable for Kachito while simultaneously, was more methodical, more calculated than before.

At this point, Kachito could no longer read nor predict what her next move would be; only anticipate the inevitability of what would come.

Jumping back from another one of her attacks, he landed on the glass pane, barely holding his weight. At that moment, she ran and thrust her sharp blade at him, narrowly cutting right through his right leather glove and grazing his soft skin underneath.

Kachito took the opportunity of this proximity, stepping to the side and kicking the weapon away to the sidelines.

But as it flew away to the other side, he noticed that the rope from before was right above his head, tied to a noose, about to go around his neck.

Only now, he realized that his move to disarm her was what she wanted all along. Kachito attempted to get away, but the woman grabbed him by his foot, still in the air, preventing him from doing so.

The rope went around Kachito's neck and tightened, as if a python jumped out of nowhere to strangle him. Promptly, she swept his remaining standing leg, making him slam onto the window he stood on.

His impact against the glass shattered it into hundreds of small shards and pieces, plunging him back inside the mall to certainly meet his doom.

The world slowed down for Kachito while he tried to think of a way to get out of this desperately hopeless situation, having only mere seconds to spare.

If he were to try to loosen and take it off, he'd most likely run out of rope and his neck would get snapped. If he somehow did succeed to get it off, the woman would most likely just cut it loose, and he would plummet to his death from at least eight stories up.

With time running against the clock, he thought of doing one of the very last things that decided to come up in his mind…

At a rapid pace, Kachito grasped the rope and pulled it down to himself, pulling down about enough for the knot to be pointing well below his neck. He desperately held onto it before he felt a sudden jerk all over his entire body.

Then, his descent completely ceased.

Kachito dangled on the rope, swaying from side to side, with shards of glass and raindrops falling many floors below him.

Had it been slightly shorter or had Kachito been half a second late, there was no doubt he would've been dead already.

Not long after, several of Kachito's security guards came out to see what caused the commotion, becoming confused when they saw and recognized the man hanging from the skylight as their own boss.

However, Kachito still wasn't in much of a celebratory mood, considering that he still had to get himself—rather his neck—loosened from the noose and get himself to safe ground. Holding his hand out, conveniently, a shard landed on it; from the looks of it, sharp enough to cut the rope.

Not waiting for another moment to pass, Kachito swung himself back and forth, aiming specifically at the seventh floor, which was very much close by. When he made his final swing forward, he cut the rope loose and flew across, and upon making his landing, slid across the floor.

At last, Kachito breathed a huge sigh of relief after scraping the verge between life and death. He groggily stood back up and stared up at the skylight, with the woman nowhere to be seen.

Perhaps she assumed that he didn't survive.

Perhaps she knows that he is alive.

Nevertheless, Kachito pulled out his cell phone and began calling a number.

'Guess it's over, for now…' he thought. 'Been a while since I fought someone who could actually kill me for once. Seems like I'm pretty rusty. Good thing Tamura didn't go up there; he wouldn't have gotten out of this kind of situation the way I did.'

Finally, the number he was calling picked up.

"Yes?" a woman's voice answered.

"Chikara, bring some of your cop friends with you to my mall, the person you talked about already tried to take me out."