Chapter Nineteen

“They died wailing for their mothers. They died howling like little children. They died with their hearts screaming for one more look at their lover’s face. They died sobbing, and every single one of them died thinking the same thing: ‘I want to live. I want to live.’” - Johnny Got His Gun

* * * *

The trees flashed past as Tohya drove at full speed, going as fast as the car would go, stepping down onto the accelerator of the red sports convertible, with Yuri in the front passenger seat right next to him, looking through a map of the Kanagawa prefecture of Japan.

It was nightfall, and he had been driving for hours to get to the Kanagawa prefecture which is where Ren was supposed to have been.

Riou had filled both of them in on what he had known so far about Ren’s sudden disappearance. When he hadn’t returned from his mission after a week, Riou had sent out people to search for him. He had also discovered that Ren had turned off his watch so that they wouldn’t be able to locate him via the tracker device. His cellphone was also turned off.

It was almost like he had disappeared into thin air.

Yuri sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose to lessen her headache as she looked over the map she held in her hands for the hundredth time. “Where the hell is he?” she muttered irritably under her breath, trying to mask her worry and concern about the guy.

Tohya glanced at her out of the corner of his eye before turning his focus back onto the road. “Stop it, Yuri,” he said, and Yuri glanced at him. “We may not have been friends for very long, but I know how much you care about Ren. Who do you think you are trying to fool? Me or yourself? Just because you’re a Phantom doesn’t mean that relationships are entirely forbidden. I’m not blind. I can see that you like Ren, and he is more than a friend. Even though relationships are frowned upon among the Phantoms, it doesn’t mean that they can’t exist.”

Yuri sighed. So it had come to this, has it? “I’m nothing more than a friend to him,” she said curtly. “Nothing more and nothing less.” Hearing Tohya’s sigh, she let out a soft sigh as well. “Let’s just focus on our search for him for now. We can talk about this later.” She then turned her focus back to the map of the Kanagawa prefecture that had several red crosses marked here and there.

“I’ve spoken to several of the people at Control,” said Tohya, keeping his eyes on the road as he turned down a road that will take them to Ninomiya, yet worry could be detected in his voice. “They told me that the tracker device on his watch was last detected at Ninomiya, a town located in the Naka district of Kanagawa.”

Yuri was silent.

Ren’s original mission was to scout for information on Raven’s Gate, and to hopefully find any information regarding the whereabouts of their base. Hati has been searching for any information whatsoever on the whereabouts of the base of Raven’s Gate, and nothing had turned up so far.

But still, difficulty in the mission or not, Yuri couldn’t see why obtaining information on Raven’s Gate would take so long, especially for one such as Ren who specialises in information gathering in the first place.

Did something happen to him?

Yuri had also read the report from Riou regarding Ren’s sudden disappearance. The captain of the Phantoms had sent out several of their agents and scouts to search all of Kanagawa for him, but to no avail. It was as if he’d vanished without a trace. They have also found no signs of a fight anywhere. Riou had even gone as far as getting Control to survey the surveillance tapes of Kanagawa to see if they could find Ren that way, but nothing had turned up so far.

* * * *

Tohya waited in the car as he watched Yuri speak with the police officer at the station in the town of Ninomiya. They had arrived rather late at night, but thankfully for them, the police officer seemed willing to answer Yuri’s questions.

Tohya raised an eyebrow as Yuri bowed politely to the police officer when he shook his head, and the girl turned back towards Tohya, shaking her head. Tohya sighed as Yuri walked back to the car, getting into the front passenger seat. He knew that it wouldn’t be that simple to find Ren. If it had been that simple, they would have found him by now.

“No one has seen him,” said Yuri, worry creeping into her tone. “I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised as the captain did tell Ren to not let himself be seen. But still, this is worrying. Where could he be?”

Tohya gave a small frown, leaning slightly over towards Yuri to take a closer look at the map currently in her hands. He scanned his eyes over the entire map twice before he spotted a certain area on the map.

“Did anyone think to search Lake Ashi?” asked Tohya, glancing at Yuri, and she shook her head.

“No, I don’t think so,” she mused, one finger at her chin. “It is mostly a tourist attraction spot, I hear. One of our agents might have gone there, but I don’t think that he searched the place thoroughly.” Yuri exchanged looks with Tohya. “Well, it’s no harm giving it a try.”

Tohya smiled as he stepped down onto the accelerator, and the engine of the car roared into action.

* * * *

Yuri leaned against the side of the red sports convertible that Tohya had parked in the parking lot not too far away from Lake Ashi itself.

The lake is well-known for its views of Mount Fuji, as well as its numerous hot springs. Pleasure boats and ferries also often traverse the lake, providing scenic views for tourists and passengers.

Stolen novel; please report.

Both Tohya and Yuri have spent the night in the car, and when dawn had broken, Tohya and Yuri both decided to split up. Yuri will ask around the various resorts located at Lake Ashi, whilst Tohya will investigate the other areas.

It did not take Yuri long to finish with her own task, and when she had returned to the car, Tohya wasn’t back yet. She then decided to get some onigiri[1] and coffee from a nearby breakfast stall while waiting for Tohya, especially since she was starving.

‘Ren, I swear. You better have a damn good reason for disappearing like this, or I’ll set the captain on you. And this time, I will not help you out!’ Yuri thought irritably, finishing her breakfast.

As Yuri headed towards the nearby trashcan to discard her litter, she heard her name called continuously by someone. It was Tohya, which didn’t surprise Yuri in the least, and she thanked her stars that it was early morning, and few people were around. The last thing that she wanted was to attract attention.

“What is it, Tohya?” Yuri asked irritably as the sounds of footsteps reached her ears, but she didn’t bother turning around. The lack of sleep had affected her mood, and had rendered her irritable.

“I’ve found Ren!”

That had an instant effect. Yuri turned around so quickly that she nearly cricked her neck. And what greeted her eyes was possibly the most unusual sight that she had ever seen.

Tohya was dragging Ren towards her by his ear, which was strange in itself, because Ren was at least half a head taller than Tohya. Ren was protesting this form of abuse to him quite loudly, but Tohya wasn’t giving in at all.

And it was quite fortunate that there were currently no one around, as Yuri was fairly sure that it might have made quite an amusing scene to anyone watching.

Yuri sighed before marching up to the two boys who were standing next to the red sports convertible. Tohya had released his hold on Ren’s ear, and the teen was rubbing his severely abused ear. And now that Yuri actually looked at him, she could see that Ren looked pale, and there were also dark rings beneath his eyes – almost like he hadn’t slept for days.

Yuri eyed Ren, both hands planted onto her hips. “Where the hell were you, Ren?” she demanded. “You’ve had the captain almost turning all of Kanagawa upside down just to find your sorry ass!”

Ren winced. “Sorry,” he apologised, still rubbing his ear. “I was simply following an informant that I had accidentally come across in Ninomiya. I turned off my watch and cellphone as I wasn’t sure how long it would take me, and I sure didn’t want any Hati member stumbling onto me just when I’d found a good lead on Raven’s Gate at last.” He then smirked, and Yuri immediately recognised that glint in Ren’s eye. “And I’m glad that I followed him, especially since I’ve found out some important stuff.”

Yuri sighed, putting up one hand to stop his flow of words. “Stop,” she said tiredly. “What do you say if we first head back to headquarters? I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can process whatever you’re about to say until I have at least had some rest. Tohya and I spent the entire night searching for you!”

Tohya nodded tiredly, rubbing his eyes. “Yeah. We’ve pulled an all-nighter starting from yesterday afternoon,” he muttered. He then glanced at Ren. “Are you awake enough to drive?” Ren nodded. Tohya then fished the car keys out of his pocket before dropping them into Ren’s hand. “Then you drive. I will probably crash into a lamppost or something if I drive back.”

* * * *

Their two hour long journey back to Shinjuku had both Tohya and Yuri falling asleep the moment that they hit the road. And both teens didn’t wake up until Ren had woken them after he pulled up in front of the headquarters of Hati.

Ren gulped as he stared up at the headquarters of Hati. He had never noticed how ominous the building could actually look…

He then turned to look at his two best friends who were both trying to stifle a yawn as they got out of the car. Tohya had his forehead resting against the bonnet of the car whilst Yuri was leaning against the side, rubbing at her eyes.

“Do you think that the captain will kill me?” asked Ren nervously.

He knew that Riou will be pissed with him for disappearing like that, but he has no idea what Riou will actually do to him. And delaying his meeting with the captain of the Phantoms isn’t exactly a good idea.

Yuri rolled her eyes as she straightened up. “He will yell at you, sure, but I don’t think that he will do anything drastic,” she said. “We have few enough people on the case of Raven’s Gate as it is. He definitely can’t afford to cut any of us from the case.”

“Well, let’s just go in and face the music,” said Tohya, and Ren nodded.

Yuri sighed before she entered the headquarters, with Ren and Tohya following her in. They didn’t meet anyone on their way to the Phantoms’ meeting room, and soon, all three found themselves standing outside the double brass doors of the Phantoms’ meeting room.

Yuri, Ren and Tohya exchanged looks before Yuri shrugged, and she pushed opened one of the heavy doors which opened with a loud creak, and all three slipped into the dark room where Riou was waiting for them. Riou had his arms folded across his chest, and he tapped his foot repeatedly onto the ground.

And he didn’t look very happy.

Ren gulped. “R-Reporting back, captain,” he said weakly.

An eyebrow twitched.

“You’re two weeks late, Kamizuki,” said Riou, his voice not betraying anything at all. “I hope that you have a good explanation for it.”

Ren nodded. “I ran into an informant guy in the town of Ninomiya,” he explained, and Riou nodded. That had been the last place where they knew Ren was before he had vanished off their radar. “I thought that he seemed suspicious, that’s why I followed him. And I’m glad I did, as I found out some important stuff.”

Riou raised an eyebrow, silently asking him to elaborate.

“I turned off my watch and cellphone as I couldn’t afford any interruptions. Then when I tailed him all the way to Lake Ashi, he met up with some guy in a rather desolate area. I couldn’t get a clear look at either one of their faces, but I managed to hear their conversation quite clearly.” Ren paused. “They were talking about Kami and his Apostles, which I managed to piece together myself. The ‘Apostles’ probably meant the elites of the Raven’s Gate organisation. Rather like the Phantoms are to Hati.”

Riou was interested. “Did they happen to mention any of the names of their Apostles?” he asked.

Ren nodded. “I have no idea what that meeting was all about, but it seems that Raven’s Gate is preparing for a big fight of some sort,” he said. “And thus, they mentioned the names of their Apostles several times. There is some guy named ‘Hugin’ who is supposedly the leader of the Apostles, and the second-in-command of Raven’s Gate.”

“What is his real name?” asked Yuri, intrigued.

Ren shrugged. “No one knows,” he said. “There are five Apostles in all, but we killed one of them several months back.” He noted the looks sent his way. “Kanzaki is the Apostle that we killed.”

“Kanzaki?” Tohya nearly blanched. He then sighed. “Well, I guess we shouldn’t really be surprised. I mean, they did go to all that trouble to break him out of prison after all.”

Ren nodded. “I also got the names of the other Apostles – Samuel Ng, Jessica Kwok, and some girl named Felicia Chan.”

Riou stared. “Asian?” he muttered. “Are they Chinese or something? Their names definitely don’t sound Japanese.”

Tohya glanced nervously at Yuri when Ren had mentioned Jessica. Her eyes had darkened considerably, and she had clenched her hands into tight fists by her sides, with her nails almost biting into the flesh of her palms.

Ren shrugged. “Probably,” he said, “I’m not sure. But from what I’ve found out, those three became Apostles approximately three years ago. Maybe even longer. I’m not too sure myself. As to the reason why Kami chose them as his elites, I’m not too certain.” He sighed. “That’s all I’ve found out, sir. I followed that guy around for two weeks, but he did nothing but walk all around Lake Ashi for some reason.”

Riou sighed. “I see,” he said. “Well, good work, Kamizuki. I’ll let your absence slip by this one time. Just don’t do it again.” Ren nodded. “Dismissed!”

“Sir!”

The three Phantoms then saluted Riou before leaving the room, with Tohya closing the door behind him. “Well, we’re getting on,” he said grimly. “At least we knew who we’re actually dealing with now. Up till now, we’ve never gotten so much as a name or a face, except for that time when Yuri made her report about that…girl.” Tohya added, glancing at Yuri warily. “Anyway, I’m going back to the dorms before getting a warm bath, and some well-deserved rest.” He gave a light wave. “I’ll catch you both later.”

He then walked down the hallway.

Yuri was silent for several moments, rubbing her temples. “It all comes down to this, doesn’t it?” she muttered.

Ren was eyeing Yuri warily. Like Tohya, he knew of Yuri’s issues with that Jessica girl, especially after that episode in Shibuya. At least Yuri is level-headed enough to keep her cool and temper to not go running off after that girl.

“We’ll get them in the end,” he said, and Yuri glanced at him. He smiled. “Rest assured, we definitely will.”

Yuri sighed before smiling. “Yeah,” she said with a nod. She then moved down the hallway, but before she had taken more than three steps, she paused in her tracks and turned to look at Ren. “Oh, and Ren?” Ren raised an eyebrow. Yuri smiled at him. “Welcome back.”

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[1] A Japanese term for riceballs