(Fitting Music: nf- trauma // lyrics)
We roll up a short way off Judge Ito's compound and make the rest of the way on foot to avoid suspicion.
Stone walls and thick hedges encircled a tall, imposing mansion. Four great pillars held up a balcony overlooking the porch, detailed metal fences fencing the second floor while still allowing it an on-look of the garden. Two chimneys puffed smoke into the cool night air, whiffs dancing around and stinging my eyes as I crept closer to the complex. Dark shadows leer under the balcony, advancing into the courtyard as the night grows longer.
Takeru's hand flashes, two fingers pointing one way and then the other. I nod, moving off to take point on the right, Cobra, Noboru, and Masaki falling in behind. Tetsu, Yamato, Dan, taking Takeru's lead as he circles the left of the towering walls.
The brush tickling my cheek as I duck and weave my way around the outer hedge, mapping out the perimeter in my head and scrutinising the mansion for weakness and entrances. Years on the streets have my senses are driven into overload, and my feet pad in a comfortable rhythm as a small smile surfaces on my features. Adrenaline thumps through my veins, my whole body twitching with awareness, every small detail magnified. My eyes light up, and I could not deny the fact I was enjoying this. It made me feel alive, the excitement and anticipation, it was invigorating.
A deep musky voice accompanied by the clap of booted feet has me freeze, holding up my hand for the rest of my team to do likewise.
My heart leaps in my chest, as it grows louder and increasingly closer. I can place two sets of feet. Two guards, I muse, quietening my breathing and keeping impossibly still. A sharp cone of light piercing the deepening gloom and pushing back the darkness as the guard moves a torch across the clearing.
"Keep an eye out. Boss, is expecting company tonight."
My eyes bulge as they stop just on the other side of the hedge. Just one well-placed look would have us spotted. I held my breath, licking my lips as my mouth is suddenly dry.
"Something to do with that body they brought in, I'd think."
A grating laugh resonates through the silence. A scuffle has my eyes darting up, and my jaw drops when I catch Takeru and his group crouching a few feet ahead of me. This must-have circled around the rest of the building, I realise, but what stops me cold was Takeru. His eyes seething, jaw clenched, and hands balled white at his sides. He looked like he was going to tear through the hedge and throttle the two men at the other side.
"What was that?"
Alarm leeks into the guard's voice, leaves crunching and branches snapping as he swings around wildly. Light scurries over the garden, focusing on each obscure and possible hideout. Suddenly, it breaks through the hedge, casting a speckled glare on the road right between Takeru and me.
It flicks over the distance, stopping mere inches from Takeru's crouched form, but he does not move, does not even blink. Time seems to slow in the next few moments, and all I can hear is my heart pulsing violently as I struggle to calm myself down.
"Probably just a fox, Max."
"There are no foxes here," the voice gruffly retorts.
The other man sighs. "A bird then. Come on, it's cold out here!"
The light stays for a minute longer before moving back into the compound.
"Fine."
Footsteps move away, but it is only once silence completely returns that I let out a heavy breath, my legs giving out beneath me and leaving me sitting on the pavement. My head drops into my hands, as Takeru and his group creep over. That was close, too close. The reality of the situation hits me as heavy as a sledgehammer. Hiroto's life was in the balance. The guard's words playback over in my head. '...The body they brought in,' my heart suddenly stops. Body . . .
My eyes find Takeru's, placing the unbridled anger for what it really was, but also catching the moisture lurking just beneath the surface of those dark orbs. He thought Hiroto was dead. My mouth hangs agape as another reality sunk in. It was me who gave Hiroto's name away. It was my fault the guards trailed a body into Judge Ito's home . . . it was my fault Hiroto might be dead.
The rage in Takeru's gaze burned straight through whatever feeble defences I had managed to erect in that short amount of time. He blamed me that murderous glint in his dark orbs was directed at me as much as it was at the dark mansion and their occupants.
"I'm going in," the man reveals quietly, his voice tense and showing that it was not up for debate.
"We all are," I whisper, still trying to order my thoughts, and pull myself to my feet. Guilt pulling me down, weighing heavily on my shoulders. Each step felt like ten thousand as I shuffle over to Takeru. My face plastered in regret and I know I looked just as bad as I feel, but the bruises did nothing to stem the emotions twisting around inside me. It is like I was being eaten alive by them, completely consumed, and I want nothing more than fly back in time and suffer from Erai in silence. Better yet, never to have teamed up with Takeru, never to have known him, never to have known any of this. Then Hiroto would still be here with his brothers in ignorant bliss.
Takeru shakes his head. "They're expecting us," he reasons slowly, darkly, "They're expecting me."
"And me," I add quietly, earning a glare from the man.
"There are guards everywhere, and there is no way to tell where they are when their torches are off. We need a distraction," his voice trails off, letting our minds fill in the gaps.
"No," Cobra's voice cuts through the night air, demanding attention and obedience, "We aren't going to lose anyone else."
"There is no other way. If you have a better plan, share it," challenges Takeru walking over to stare the blonde down.
The air was so thick you could have cut it with a knife as the two men stared each other down. Cobra was the first one to break eye contact, turning away, and offering a small reluctant nod.
"Kira's right," Takeru says suddenly, "They're expecting her too."
Takeru turns his gaze on me, with a look I was coming not to like, and I knew what he was going to say before the words even left his lips.
"You're with me."
Now it was my turn to nod reluctantly.
"I'm coming too," Masaki says, stepping up to his brother, "Hiroto and I are never apart if you're there to get him back and I'm not, it will raise suspicion."
"Fine." Takeru turns to look over the mansion, his eyes cold and calculating. "The rest of you sneak in, find Hiroto and get him out of there."
"And what about you?" Cobra reasons.
Takeru smirks his gaze dancing murderously. "We'll find our own way out."
However, I find no amusement in the twinkle of his eye or white, mischievous grin. I brought them all into this, and now we are walking into a trap, knowing that it is a trap, with barely a plan other than one to get us through the front door.
My mind whirls at the possibilities, as I search desperately for something I can do, something I can bring to the table, something that would make all this my problem again. This burden is mine, I could not take any deaths on my conscience. I could not put them in danger.
"Kira."
I look up, my eyes finding Takeru's cold glare and steely voice, a sadness welling inside me.
"Give me the necklace."
Tears blur my vision and I try and blink them away. "This will be the death of you," I try, my voice barely audible, but he hears it all the same.
Takeru's hand shoots out, palm up, his expression tight and his other hand quivering at his side. "Give it to me."
I sigh, reluctantly, puffing out a shaky breath and crouching down, my fingers brushing against the end of my worn jeans and sliding easily into my boot, and pulling out a heart-shaped necklace. A small smile plays on my lips, but a glimmering necklace slips out from my top and jingles cheerily as it dangles in the moonlight. Quickly, I jam it back underneath the folds of my clothes and praying no one had seen it as I jump back up to my feet.
With one hand over my collar, comforting in the familiar, metallic shape, I pass Takeru a necklace, identical to the one hanging from my neck.
"It was my father's work," I warn, "He died to keep it safe. Be careful with it-"
Takeru is already gone marching straight for the huge double doors, Masaki speed-walking beside him. I growl jogging to catch up.
"Stop!" a man's voice booms over a set of speakers.
I welp when waves of lights are suddenly glaring down at us. I raise my hand against the blinding light, but I still cannot make anything. Squinting, I barely make out four silhouettes steadily advancing towards us, guns raised and trained in on us.
"Keep your hands in the air, and get on the ground! Move an inch and we will shoot you."
