Reckoning - Chapter 4

The sun was slowly setting over Shinjuku, the streetlights leisurely flickering to life, as Ryo made his solitary pilgrimage home. Hands rammed deep into his pockets, his features set into a grim scowl, he contemplated Saeko’s information.

Hideyuki’s adopted little sister had died of a drug overdose in the last grade of junior high school. The proof was irrefutable. The file the mystery informant left on Saeko’s desk contained everything. The information on the primary of the case—with whom Saeko had confirmed the veracity of the information before coming to him—the minutiae of the investigation, the autopsy report, the toxicology results...Photos of the scene, photos of the body on the slab in the morgue...

The body of the girl who had looked nothing like his Kaori. The dead girl had been much shorter, her face rounder, her nose bigger and wider, half her head shaved, the other half, with hair reaching past her shoulders, dyed bright orange with dark green stripes.

In the last photo, despite the Y-shaped welt of the autopsy incision angrily red against her ashen skin, the girl had looked like she was resting. Finally at peace, free of the addiction that had plagued her for the last few months of her short life.

She had barely been fifteen years old.

He hadn’t met her when she had been sixteen. She hadn’t been his Sugar Boy.

Ryo had no idea who the other was. He had no idea who the woman they’ve all known as Makimura Kaori really was.

She’d lied. She’d lied to all of them. She’d lied to him.

His best friend had lied to him. Hideyuki had told him she was his baby sister. Hideyuki had made him promise not to touch her. Hideyuki had made him promise to protect her.

Hideyuki had lied to him.

She had lied to him.

Saeko suspected she was a cop and the undercover assignment was sanctioned by the highest brass in the force, since undercover work was illegal in Japan. She’s tried to find her in the police databases, but without luck. Which, according to Saeko, was only more proof it was all sanctioned.

It didn’t take a police detective to figure it out, though Saeko hadn’t, because she didn’t know. Only Umibozu knew and, judging by the look the man had given him, had come to the same conclusion.

It was all connected. It was all connected to him.

Makimura Kaori had overdosed on phencyclidine. PCP. Angel Dust.

And the only known connection to Angel Dust and the Union Teope syndicate in Japan was Saeba Ryo.

He knew it. Umibozu knew it.

Hideyuki had obviously known it and had lied to him.

She had known it.

And she had lied to him.

She’d made him believe she loved him. She had pretended to be someone she wasn’t and made him believe she trusted him. Made him believe he could deserve her, deserve happiness, deserve a life, deserve to love and be loved.

She made him believe she was incompetent, defenseless, naive, innocent...

She made him believe she loved him.

He smirked. One hell of an actress.

And he was one hell of a fool.

Because he’d never suspected. He’d trusted her, believed her, protected her...he had loved her.

He loved her.

And she had lied to him.

X Y Z

Agent Makimura Kaori leaned her forearms on the terrace railing of her rented penthouse and stared across the city toward the illuminated skyline of Shinjuku.

He must know by now.

Was he glad? Angry? Was he feeling betrayed? Did he hate Hideyuki? Did he hate her?

Probably.

Or did he understand? Even just a little? Did he understand why she’d done it? Did he understand why she and Hideyuki had done it?

He read the file Saeko had received. He must understand.

Probably.

Maybe he understood, accepted even, Hideyuki’s involvement. He couldn't understand hers. Because he didn’t know who she was. They’d made damn sure of that. Her file was still buried.

Saeko had tried to find her. First through Hideyuki, but certain parts of his file were well hidden. Then with image recognition software. She’d been unsuccessful in finding out who she was. She didn’t know. No one knew, besides Hideyuki and Ito.

Kaori had been like a sister to her, too. She’d named her, she’d chosen to share her birthday with her.

When Uncle Nobuyuki had placed the tiny bundle, her new cousin, in her arms on her tenth birthday, the little girl had smelled like a sunny spring morning after a night of rain. A unique, memorable scent, immediately woven into her heart.

So the little girl’s name became scent—Kaori. And her birthday, the day she entered their lives, March 31.

She and Hideyuki, being close in age, he barely three years her senior, had never considered each other cousins but siblings, and baby Kaori had become a little sister to both of them—their Kaori-ko.

She’d been their baby sister, then their best friend...but before they’d realized it, they’d grown apart. The age difference had much to do with it. Coupled with Kaori and Hideyuki’s steady pursuit of their dream job. It had been that job, their new way of life, their new way of perceiving things that had pulled them away from their Kaori-ko.

As Kaori and Hideyuki had grown ever closer, connected through their careers, they’d slowly left Kaori-ko behind. They had less and less time for their little sister until, in the end, they’d pretty much taken her for granted. And because they’d been so preoccupied with their jobs, they’d failed to notice the slow changes.

The changes in attitude and appearance, the more and more frequent mood swings, sudden violent episodes, and paranoia, the slow disappearance of old friends, unsavory new acquaintances...Until it had been too late.

Her death had broken something inside Kaori and Hideyuki. And the quest for revenge remade them, forged them, bonded and connected them even more...

They’d lost their baby sister, but they’d gained purpose. Revenge. A mutual vow.

The vow to never give up, no matter what. To find the bastards who’d killed their Kaori-ko. She might have died by her own hand, taking too much of what she’d thought she needed, but the ones who’d brought her into the world of drugs, the ones who’d supplied them, those had been her killers. And they’d pay.

And some of them already had. Those that brought her into the dark world of drugs, those who’d supplied her, had already paid.

Kaori had posed as Kaori-ko the last two years of high school, attributing the changes in her physical appearance to a change in diet and a sudden growth spurt. And she had slowly, methodically, and thoroughly dismantled the drug ring supplying not only Kaori-ko’s school but also all high schools in Tokyo.

Yet Kaori-ko remained unavenged.

To do that, they had to bring down the source of the drugs. They had to bring down Union Teope. They had to cut the snake’s head.

Kaibara Shin had to die.

And the only connection to the Union and Kaibara in Japan was the one person who got away. The one who had survived hell.

Patient Zero.

Saeba Ryo.

A few months after Kaori-ko’s death, Hideyuki, embedded in the police force as a low-rank detective in the Shinjuku police station at the time, had faked getting seriously shot in order to leave the force and try to approach Saeba. Against all odds, the two men had struck a quick friendship, and Hideyuki, earning the man’s trust, joined Saeba in his City Hunter endeavors.

Kaori had been adamantly against it, especially after learning Hideyuki hadn’t been faking his end of their friendship. Saeba was a criminal, a murderer, one of the scum of society, and, despite her cousin’s reassurance that he had nothing to do with Kaibara and Union Teope anymore, remained a suspect. She’d gone even so far as to approach him during her undercover stint in Kaori-ko’s high school.

It had taken her less than a day to see what Hideyuki had. There were hidden depths to Saeba Ryo. He might be a criminal and a murderer, but he had an innate sense of justice, held onto a strict code of honor. And under the hard exterior and the perverted mask beat a heart of gold.

She had known Hideyuki had had qualms about using Saeba, lying to him, but they had come too far to back down. He’d hoped eventually Saeba would understand and forgive.

And then, two years in, a golden opportunity had presented itself. Ito’s contacts in the DEA needed a body on the ground in Central America. Hideyuki had been champing at the bit to get closer, and Ito had granted his wish.

But they’d still needed someone close to Saeba. They had known Kaibara would not leave that particular loose end untied for much longer, so, after cleaning house in the Tokyo teenage drug ring, Kaori had taken Hideyuki’s place.

The day of the switch had been tough. Pretending nothing out of the ordinary was happening, Hideyuki had invited Saeba to dinner for her birthday; she’d pretended to hate the idea, having only met the man five days prior...Neither acknowledging the fact they’d met before.

He’d remembered, though. She’d seen the flash of recognition in his eyes when they’d met again.

If the day had been tough, the night had been brutal. She’d shadowed Hideyuki to Saeba’s building in the pouring rain, and despite knowing it was all fake, her heart had squeezed at his shuffling walk, the enormous blood stain on his shirt...He had had to sell it. Not only for Saeba, but also for everybody else that might’ve been watching.

When he’d finally collapsed into Saeba’s arms, the switch had been set in motion. They’d all known Saeba would keep a promise made. Especially a promise made to his dying best friend.

And, as Hideyuki had slowly climbed up the ranks of Union Teope on his end of the globe, in Japan Kaori had become Saeba Ryo’s partner. The other half of City Hunter.

As Hideyuki got closer and closer to the upper echelons of the Union, closer and closer to Kaibara, Kaori had grown closer to Saeba, until she’d come to see him as a friend, just like Hideyuki had.

They’d worked together for four years, and though it hadn’t been all sunshine and roses, for Kaori those had seemed the best four years of her life. She hadn’t had to pretend to be a perfect cop, to be cold and aloof; she hadn’t had to hide. She could let the real Makimura Kaori come out to play. She could be carefree, warm, and friendly since she had nothing to prove to anyone. She could be goofy, childish, and emotional; she could tease and be teased...She could be herself, the person she’d been before Kaori-ko’s death, the person only Hideyuki, Kaori-ko, and Ito knew. She could forget about revenge for a little while. She could let herself feel.

No matter what, Saeba never judged her. And though she abhorred being a damsel in distress, he always saved her and protected her. Kept his promise.

They’d kept each other safe, counted on each other, and relied on each other, no matter what. They had become friends, partners, confidants...

Trusting him had become ingrained, living with him natural and easy. She’d gotten used to that life.

She shouldn’t have. She should’ve known better.

Because that life was a lie, a mirage. And her false sense of peace and serenity had been broken two nights ago with Ito’s phone call.

Informing her that Hideyuki was dead.

As he’d suspected, his cover had been blown, and Kaibara’s punishment had been swift and brutal. And Kaori realized she’d been living on borrowed time, the four years undercover just stolen moments in the vast tapestry of time.

Reality had come knocking, and Kaori answered and left. Disappeared as swiftly as she’d appeared. There one moment, gone the next. As if nothing had happened, as if she hadn’t existed. As if she didn’t—

As she stared at the Shinjuku skyline in the distance, her eyes stung, and the vista before her started shimmering and blurring. She felt something tickling her cheek, and she brushed at it with her hand...Her fingers came back wet.

She didn’t cry two nights ago, when she learned that her last remaining relative, the man she thought of as a brother, was dead. She hadn’t cried six years ago, when her little cousin had died. But a person can only keep their feelings bottled up for so long.

A sob rattling her throat, her legs gave, and she dropped onto her knees on the terrace, crossing her arms over her stomach in a poor semblance of a tight embrace.

As sobs shook her body, safely hidden in the darkness, Makimura Kaori finally let her tears flow freely.

She cried for her Kaori-ko. She cried for Hideyuki.

And she cried for herself.

For the missed opportunities. For the fickleness of Fate. For the hopelessness of it all...For her irrevocably broken heart.

For she’d committed the ultimate sin, broken the cardinal rule of undercover work.

Makimura Kaori had fallen in love.