Hisashi and Arika widened their eyes. Ten million wyrettes? That would be enough for both of us to pay off our debts. The duo looked at each other. Then at the mayor, expecting him to smile like he usually did. But he didn’t, meaning the situation was far more serious and dangerous than the usual ones.

“I’m counting on both of you. Take as much time as you need to, but bring them to me. Don’t tell anyone about the mission, or who had issued it. The Akai Ryu seem to have ears all over the city, they know everything.” The mayor looked them in the eye, and the duo nodded.

“Dismissed.”

Arika and Hisashi walked out of the building, still bewildered by the amount of money the mission paid. After a while, Hisashi said, “We need to investigate them more. They even managed to get past Raiden and Yamato, meaning they’re skilled fighters.”

“Why us, then? If they were unable to fight them off, how does he expect us to capture them?”

Hisashi smirked. “Because we’re always the ones getting the job done efficiently. Look at the bright side, Arika,” he added, seeing how the teenage girl puffed her cheeks. “We capture them; we get paid; we clear the debts and leave the organization. And we go and live together in a beautiful house near the sea, somewhere where the mayor will never find us.”

“House with lots of green around it?”, asked Arika.

Hisashi nodded. “Anything you’ll want. A private chef, for starters.”

Hearted laughter broke out of Arika. “Sounds like a plan to me. But first, the Akai Ryu. What was the name of their chief again?”

Hisashi recalled the picture. “Azuma Yoru.”

“The information we’ve been given isn’t enough to find them; there was nothing about their possible whereabouts. Where do we even start?”

Musing, Hisashi frowned. “There must be something about them. Look here, in the documents. It’s recorded by the police that some graffiti would appear across the town, badmouthing the mayor. One even threatened to blow up their office if he didn’t resign. That was reported to the police, but they couldn’t find anything that would lead them to the culprit.”

“What are their locations?”

Hisashi languidly swept a hand up and down his chin. “Outskirts of Kuroyuki. Mainly important buildings, like a bank or government buildings. Nothing beside that, actually. Some rumors here and there, but nothing dramatic enough to catch the mayor’s attention. Let’s ask around, and see if we can find out. Maybe libraries or book stalls have something about them. Excuse me,” he approached an elderly man standing near the bookstand. The man looked at him, scowling his face. “Do you happen to know anything about—”

“No. Get lost, kid.”

“I didn’t even finish the question.”

The man bared his teeth. “I don’t take orders from the mayor’s Dogs, certainly not from a nobody like you. Now get lost.”

Arika butted in. “Azuma Yoru. Where is he?”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about, much less where he is. Now be gone.” The bookseller threw a book nearest to him at Hisashi, hitting him in the head.

Arika gritted her teeth. “You mother—”

“That’s enough, Arika, the gentleman helped us in a way he could.” Said Hisashi as he bowed down, pressing down on Arika’s shoulder. “Now let’s go.”

The duo was walking down the street when Arika started fussing, “What was that about? Why did you even thank him in the first place, for throwing that book at you?” That’s when she noticed the book the man threw in Hisashi’s hands. “Hisashi, did you steal that book?”

He simply raised an eyebrow. “The old man didn’t complain even when he saw me take it, so I take it that was his attempt to help us. Even if he was annoyingly rude.” Only then did Arika notice the title of the book: “The History of the mayors and political forces in Kuroyuki”.

He flipped through a few pages. Then he stopped. “Look here, Arika. This sentence.” Hisashi pointed to an article about Akai Ryu.

Sighing, Arika said, “Hisashi, this article is from 20 years ago. Do you really think they could still be there?”

“It’s better than nothing. Even if they’re not, perhaps we find something that could lead us to them.”

 Hisashi recalled the mayor’s instructions: “Don’t kill the targets, just capture them, conscious or not. Bind them tightly.”, while he typed the address into his phone.

Going from place to place, the duo looked for the Akai Ryu, but nothing could be found.

In one place a leaflet about the mayor’s parade, in another some old dump yard. Crossing out yet another place from their list, Hisashi and Arika were both annoyed they failed to find them again.

“Do you think they move places? That’s the only explanation I can think of.”, Arika mused.

“They might be. But then there’s no chance of us finding them alone. We would need their help, but they’re my last resort if I can phrase it that way. I’d rather the two of us give our best to find them.”

Arika nodded.

She pointed to the map. “Then, we should check this one, as well. It doesn’t make sense to me that we couldn’t find them here anywhere.”

“They hid too well, knowing the mayor would probably be after them. But we’re going to find them, and bring them to him.” Hisashi said, stuffing the map into his bag, and typing the address into his phone.

“Let’s get into the car. The ride will be longer than usual.”

Arika fell asleep in the car, Hisashi softly laughing when he heard her snore. Seeing he was nearing the location, the possible whereabouts of the Akai Ryu, he slowed down the car, not wanting to possibly alert them. He softly tapped Arika’s cheek, waking her up. “Let’s go. This will be the last one to check for today. I see we’re both tired from the ride, and I don’t want to risk our deaths because of it.”

Arika jumped from her seat. “Who said I was tired?! I’m ready to kick Yoru’s ass to leave this organization.”

Hisashi laughed seeing her so enthusiastic. “Remember the plan. We must be careful.”

“Right!” said Arika, taking her gun out.

The two of them crept through the building, it looked like a warehouse of a sort. Taking the flashlight out, Arika nudged Hisashi to follow her. With a gun pointed out in front of her, Arika snuck inside, quietly moving forward. Hiding behind a pile of furniture, she noted Hisashi to go in front, as she would watch his back. But Hisashi lowered down his gun. “Not here, either.”

“Are you sure, they just might not be home.”

Hisashi took a look around. Turning a mirror over, a loud “clank” was heard as the mirror burst into a million pieces. He waited to hear anything else. Nothing could be heard, except for a few startled squeals that came from the nearby rats running away.

“I doubt they would live among the rats. No person would.” He shuddered as he said that, looking around the room.

“Let’s go rest. We’ll continue in the morning.”

Driving back to the Shuryo Inu mansion, Arika asked Hisashi to switch places so he could rest.

Looking out the window, Hisashi stared at the endless dark sky, the hues of blue and red mixing, making the sky look dark purplish. Stars painting the sky, light shining on the streets of the town. He dozed off, Arika waking him up half an hour later. “Hisashi, we’ve arrived.”

Entering the mansion, Hisashi let out an exhausted sigh, taking his jacket off.

“Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up.”

Hisashi and Arika looked up to see Yamato and Daisuke sitting at the table, eating a deliciously smelling stew. “Finished for the day already?”, Yamato sneered.

Hisashi closed his eyes. Don’t give in to the taunting. “Yeah, I will continue tomorrow.”

“Huh, even though you failed to find them? You’ve wasted another day accomplishing nothing.”

“Is that any of your concern, Daisuke?” Hisashi turned to the smaller, blond man. “What do you care, about what I do during the day? Not like you did anything.”

“Fujiwara, you son of a bitch! How dare you taunt me!”

Hisashi leaned over the table with emotionless eyes. “Why don’t you suck it up, sweet cheeks? The world doesn’t revolve around you. If you want to do my job, feel free to join me.”

Daisuke gritted his teeth when Raiden, the leader of Shuryo Inu, told Hisashi, “Watch your mouth, Fujiwara. You still owe the mayor debt; you’re not in the position to answer arrogantly.”

“Or what? Are you afraid I’ll disappear and there won’t be a person to do your job? If he’s going to be a bastard to me, I will be a bastard to him. I am just giving back what I received.”

With that, Hisashi strolled past Daisuke, meaning to grab some dinner, but Daisuke stopped him. “You can’t sit with us, after all, you’re poor.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I won’t.”

With that, he went up with a bit of stew and bread into his room, Arika joining him.

“How are we going to find him? The rumors are false, and there are no records about their whereabouts.”

Hisashi took a spoonful of the stew, then winced at the disgusting taste.

 Putting down the bowl, he heard the phone ringing. “Hisashi here.” “Ah, Hisashi, are you in a hurry? I wanted to ask you how the mission is going? Did you manage to find anything?”

Hisashi gulped hearing the mayor’s voice behind the line.

“No, sir, I’m afraid we haven’t yet.” He chose his words carefully. “The information we’ve gathered about them is false, it led us to nowhere. But we’ll continue investigating, we’ll find Yoru.”

“Oh, that is alright, I didn’t expect you to find them right away anyway.” Hisashi’s eye twitched.  “Anyway, you’re not in a hurry to capture them. Do as you always do, and you’ll finish the mission in no time. Okay?”

Hisashi sighed. “Okay, got it. Thank you, sir. We’ll notify you as soon as we find something out.”

Hanging up, he gritted his phone, Arika seizing his hand. “Yeah, like he is going to stay put if we find nothing. The last time we came back empty handed…” Hisashi hugged himself.

“I know. We’ll make sure we find something. Even a little thing.” Arika assured him.

“But where do we start? Everything we heard and read was false. The Akai Ryu are well-hidden.”

“If I recall correctly, there’s still a place we haven’t checked yet.” Taking out the city map, Arika pointed to a building across from the Acrux River. A place further away from the city center, near the second largest harbor.

“This is our last hope. While you were with the mayor and the teammates, I researched this place. There might be something there. It’s worth a try.”

Hisashi ran a hand through his hair, before nodding to Arika. “Yeah, let’s go there.”

The blue car was on the road once again as the duo heard the mayor speaking on the radio: “This terrorist group thought they could attack me without any consequence. I’ll let them think once again. Right now–” Hisashi switched to the music as Arika giggled.

“If I don’t have to listen to the mayor when I’m out of that house, I won’t.”

“Ah, I know, I know.” Hisashi made a turn to the left. And sighed.

“This is the last place. If we find nothing again, we’re going back to the house.”

“Agreed.” Said Arika as she exited the car, taking her gun out. The pair neared the house.

Coming closer and closer to the house, the voices coming from it were getting louder and louder. But Hisashi was confused. The voices seemed to be coming from fairly older people, wasn’t the Akai Ryu supposed to be a group of youngsters?

Lowering down his gun, Hisashi exited from around the corner to see an elderly couple in their rocking chairs laughing at each other’s knitting skills. The man looked up at Arika and Hisashi approaching, and he simply smiled at his wife. “Oh, look darling. These children seem to be lost.”

The woman turned her head to them. “Oh dear, what are you two doing here on such a nice evening? Shouldn’t you be going dancing and having fun, you seem young.”

Hisashi laughed at the statement. “Oh, I am sorry to bother you instead, ma’am and sir. My friend and I are looking for somebody, but it seems like we missed the address.”

“Oh, are you here because of that noise?”

Arika was thrown off. “What noise?”

The man looked at her. “Oh, it didn’t reach the ear of the mayor yet? I reported to the police that a weird sound was coming from here somewhere in the deep night. Somewhere around three a.m. is when I hear it. It’s horrific, but not too loud so we hadn’t been able to locate it on our own.”

Hisashi looked at Arika.

“Thank you for telling us, sir. We’ll investigate it. Do you perhaps know where exactly this sound comes from?”, Arika attempted to comfort the man.

“Uhh…” “Here, use this.” Hisashi spread out the map.

“Here. I’m sure it’s from this direction, the outskirts of the city. But that area is abandoned. The factory had been closed for decades.”

Hisashi turned to Arika, his silver eyes meeting Arika’s chestnut ones. “Three A.M.?” Hisashi wanted to confirm.

“That’s right.”

Hisashi nodded. “Thank you very much sir, I appreciate your help. My partner and I will look into this, and we’ll try to resolve it.”

The woman put her hands pun her husband’s. “Thank you, young man. May I know your names?”

Hisashi and Arika swiftly exchanged glances. “I’m Arika, and he is Hisashi.” She said pointing to Hisashi with her thumb.

The woman smiled. “Thank you, children.”