"Quid pro quo. I'll give you one, in exchange for your assistance."

"Hah! I knew I wasn't here just to have a leisure time with you." Haruka guffawed.

​​

"I doubt you didn't see this coming. You know me so well."

"Let me see, you treat me with a lovely meal then proposed to give me a companion in exchange for my service? Isn't your side a bit light compared to what I can offer?" Haruka mused, tapping her fingernail on her glass of cocktail.

"Wasn't I generous enough?" Lillie leaned towards her seat, crossing her arms and legs. A domineering aura radiates from her as red flickered into her cerulean eyes before disappearing as quickly as it appeared.

Haruka roared in laughter once again. "Indeed you are." Composing herself, she propped her elbows on the table and pushed herself closer. Her chin resting on the back of her hands.

"So, how can I be of service to you, Shirozaku-sama [1]?" She smirked mischievously.

Fujikawa Haruka, the 5th leader of the infamous crime family in Japan, the Fujikawa-gumi [2] are White Bird's allies ever since she took the reins over the clan. Lillie befriended Haruka even before she was made the kumicho [3].

"I want you to search for a man."

Haruka took the folder from Lillie's extended arm. Curiously opening it, the folder revealed a single piece of paper with a detailed drawing of a man.

Seeing the glint of emotion in her friend's eyes, Lillie asked, "Do you recognize him?"

"Ermm..." Hesitance was written across her face.

"You do," Lillie concluded judging her reaction. "But you're hesitating whether to divulge or not."

"Uhm, it's not that I'm unwilling...it's just that...that," Haruka vehemently ruffled her head in frustration. "Arghh! How can I put it into words?!"

Lillie gave her time and waited patiently for her to collect her wits.

Staring back at the drawing, Haruka was feeling conflicted. "Amai Mochi is a sore topic in Japan's Underworld Society." She began.

"Merely uttering his name is like a taboo, that's why you don't hear much about him. Only the highest and most influential of the yakuza families know his identity and the weight of his name." Haruka closed her eyes and sighed. She relaxed on the chair as she took a trip down her memory lane.

"Before I became the kumicho, my father, the fourth, taught me everything I need to know in preparation for me to take over the clan; that includes the names of our allies."

The Amai clan had been Fujiwaka's closest friends for many generations, starting from the first.

Unfortunately, something terrible happened that caused the complete annihilation of their allied clan.

No one was spared, not even the children. They were completely wiped out by a single person; their current and eventually the last kumicho, Amai Mochi.

"I don't know the complete story. No one knows the truth. Some said that it was because the family disagreed with his choice of lover. Hence, ordered for her death. Others claimed that he was a demon looking for a way to sate his bloodthirst—which sounds dumb—or that he simply went batshit crazy."

"The Amai clan's allies—along with my family—were angered by his action. They joined forces and decreed for his death. But the Reapers Association intervened. Instead of an execution, he was banished from the country."

"Banished, huh," Lillie muttered to herself. "A powerful clan, destroyed by their own leader. Looking at it closely, everything just seems weird. It's hard to believe that either one of those speculations you've mentioned would warrant such a thing. Also, how did he even managed to destroy a large clan by himself?"

"No one survived his danse macabre, so no eyewitnesses. Whether he did it all by himself or he had help, it's a mystery." Haruka stared off in the distance. Blinking, she turned her attention back to her friend. "That reminds me, what prompted this sudden interest in this mass murderer? How did you even know him?"

"I ran over him."

Haruka spluttered as she choked on the air. Accidentally pushing herself deeper onto the backrest and nearly plunging her body on the wooden surface when her chair's balance was disrupted.

"You—you 'ran' over him?!" She wheezed out. "How did that happened?!"

Lillie shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know. I just did. Although, it seems like his attention was too preoccupied with his pursuers that time and didn't notice my car approaching."

"Preoccupied with pursuers?" Haruka intake a sharp breath. "Probably the Amai clan's allies. My father had also issued a unit to hunt him down. But after a few months of trying to get in touch with them, we later discovered that they were wiped out along with the other clan's unit of assassins. Father didn't want to see any more of his men dying, so he stopped while it's early."

"With that strength, it makes me wonder what kind of people his pursuers were, for him to sustain injuries that weakened him to the extent of losing focus on his surroundings."

"Eh? Weakened?"

Lillie fiddled on her phone before wordlessly handing it over to her.

"Hm? What's this? Runaway patient...sister and her husband...main suspects for tampering with the hospital's security system." She read the tabloid out loud before double-taking when her eyes skimmed on the suspects' names.

"He was hospitalized? What's that idiot thinking, using his real name? Is he really asking for death? Did he finally regret killing his clan so he's asking someone else to end his life? Also, really? Anmitsu?"

Haruka narrowed her eyes on the facial composites of the 'suspects'. "His features aren't that accurate in here, and who the heck are these couple? I don't recognize them."

"That's me and Ethan," Lillie said, "I brought Mochi to the hospital while pretending to be his sister, Amai Anmitsu."

"I see, I see. I understand why you're there, but why danna-sama [4] too?"

"He thought something happened to me when I didn't come home and wasn't answering his calls. So he started looking."

"Wow, what a man." Haruka whistled in awe and respect. "But wait, Lillie-chan, that still doesn't explain the sudden interest in him."

"Let's just say my husband has bones to pick with him. However, now that I learned all those things about him, it made me want to find him and know more."

Ethan's teacher is a dangerous man, that's a given. But if he was that kind of monster his enemies painted him to be, why would he accept a nameless brat as his pupil?

There's clearly something more to Amai Mochi's character than what meets the eye.

Apparently, he was banished from Japan. It'll be pointless for Haruka to look for him there.

He's somewhere in this country, probably already resides here for years. But he may also be going in and out of the country to shake off his pursuers.

Haruka's clan might recognize him at first glance, but if she lets them take care of this search, Mochi might recognize his fallen clan's ally, the Fujikawa-gumi, and assumed they're after his head; thus, kill them at first sight.

They'll just have to think of a way to approach him without eliciting a violent reaction.

Concluding the discussion about Mochi, Lillie changed the topic to the other person she asked Haruka to search for.

"What's the status of your search for Vermillion Dragon's Commander, Little Freak?"

"We found him, but he thought we were after his head. He ran away before we could explain anything." Haruka sighed tiredly, running a hand over her face. "The elusive bastard injured my men too."

"Let me guess, you raided his house wearing the Fujikawa-gumi's symbol."

Her silence speaks for itself.

"I don't even know what I'm thinking, assigning you with that kind of task."

"Hm, hm. Blame yourself, not me—ack!"