The warm light of dawn showers the Katsushika's estate with a gentle glow. Rembrandt was first to wake up, opening his eyes to the wooden beams above his futon. Next to him, the Gutai boys were still fast asleep. Rembrandt grabs his white shirt and black pants; he slides open the screen door and goes off to the shower.

After showering, he settles down and opens his travel bag. Pulling out some speculaas cookies which he made when he was still in the Netherlands. He then moved to the terrace, watching the sunrise wash over the small town of Gaki. Gaki is a small town nearby downtown Osaka. Gaki is a small town with a population of around 4000, established around the Heian period. The city feels somewhat rustic. Many of its buildings still using the traditional style of Japanese buildings. Despite never being born in Japan, Rembrandt feels like returning to Gaki feels like home to him.

"Up early, detective," Hokusai spoke while making some tea. "You could put it that way, Uncle Hokusai." Rembrandt replied, taking a bite out of another speculaas cookie. Hokusai placed his tea set nearby Rembrandt who was still snacking down on his cookies. Rembrandt turned his head to look at his mentor sitting down next to him, sipping a cup of tea. "I invited an old friend to help out with our case." Hokusai continued to sip his tea, "they're coming a bit later today."

Rembrandt raised his eyebrows, "Who could it be?"

"After seeing him yesterday, he's probably in a better spot now." Hokusai continues to talk, "I'm asking the Mangaka Guild to help us out."

"You mean Tezuka?" Rembrandt asks.

"No, I do mean some of the people in their team." Hokusai took another sip of his tea. Rembrandt seemed rather excited at the prospect. He's known Tezuka for quite a while but, rarely did he ever meet his friends. "Well, that sounds great!" He exclaims, catching Hokusai a bit off guard with his excitement.

Saburo came to the room still wearing a white t-shirt and some blue shorts, yawning loudly and laying himself down on the table. "Good morning" he lazily called out to Hokusai and Rembrandt. Not long after Ōi came out of her room, immediately heading towards the kitchen.

"Saburo, you want some tea?" Ōi asked while taking out a carton of chocolate milk from the refrigerator, Saburo raised his head and replied with a thumbs up. Jiro and Yuko appeared a little later and Kazuo not too long after that, Rembrandt greeted the two. "The two of you want some pancakes?" Rembrandt the pair, "just the way Vincent likes it."

The four of them nodded in agreement. Rembrandt started making the pancake for the three of them. Ōi quickly jumped into the kitchen and assisted Rembrandt in making some drinks. Rembrandt seems to be at peace for once, despite feeling tired; he's happy whenever he sees the members of Gutai talking to one another. In the middle of cooking, Rembrandt's phone started ringing. He glanced at the number realising that it's Tezuka.

"Yo, RemRem. A few other Mangaka Guild members and I are coming." Tezuka exclaimed. "Oh yeah, I heard. If your bunch is coming around soon, I can make breakfast for them too." Rembrandt replied, one hand still making pancakes. "That won't be necessary." Shotaro barged into the call from Tezuka's phone, "we're having breakfast right now, don't worry too much Mr. van Rijn." Rembrandt was surprised aback by Shotaro's straightforwardness. The phone call then returned to the hands of Tezuka, "Yeah he's right. We're going to have breakfast before we come," Tezuka chuckled "I'll see you in a bit, RemRem." Rembrandt exhaled and giggled a little, "Yeah, see you soon, bud." The phone clicked off, and Rembrandt continued to cook for the kids.

A few hours pass before a knock at the door comes, the group could hear a rabble from the outside chatting amongst themselves. "Mr Hokusai!" Tezuka's voice called out, "we're here!" Upon hearing, Ōi rushed to the front door, unlocking it quickly. Tezuka and his friends greeted Ōi, who directed them to sit in the living room. The rest of the Gutai group were there along with Rembrandt while Hokusai was still sitting facing the terrace, sipping on his tea slowly. Ōi quickly returned to the room just in time for Hokusai to turn around. "Mangaka Guild, right?" He states, taking another sip, "I have been expecting you."

Tezuka let out a slight laugh, "Always ready to help, old man." His group and himself sat down, "so, we should introduce ourselves before anything." Shotaro stood up, "The name is Shotaro; it’s nice to meet you, Mr Hokusai." Shotaro then sat down, a well-dressed man with neatly combed dark brown hair stood up, "Go Nagai, a pleasure meeting all of you." Nagai sat down. The person next to him wore a similar outfit to him, his unkempt silver hair covered his right eye, wearing a pair of round-rimmed glasses reflecting the screen of his phone, "Shirō, thank you." he softly spoke out, Nagai slapped his friend's back a little, "Come on man, just tell a bit about yourself." Shirō sighed and turned off his phone's screen, "Masamune Shirō, Mangaka Guild's tech expert, nice meeting you all." As quickly as Shirō retreated to looking at his phone, the next person jumped up. She grinned brightly at the rest of the group, "Hi hi! My name is Naoko, nice to meet all of 'cha!" The guild members, minus Shirō, shook the hands of the rest of the people present.

"So, Uncle Hokusai, what's the sitch?" Tezuka asks.

"As many of you may know, someone got murdered at Gutai's headquarters a few days ago." Hokusai started explaining, "The police investigation said that the man killed there was named Daisuke Izuka. But my sources seem to tell something else was happening."

Kazuo asks, "And that would be?"

"The man wasn't a person in debt to Kyōsai or Yoshitoshi's organisation, I recently found out." Hokusai continued, "Daisuke Izuka was a cover name, the murder victim's real name was Yoshiiku Utagawa, an executive for the House of Wolves."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Nagai raised his arm, "The House of Wolves?"

"Yes, The House of Wolves" Hokusai replied. "The same story with the man named Kyōsai Rembrandt and the kids encountered a few days back, his cover name was Kanameishi Natsuyama, or at least that’s the ID the police found.."

"Heh" Tezuka smirked, "that doesn't sound natural like, makes sense for an alias I suppose but that just straight up sounds like a fake name." Hokusai placed around the room, "The reason why I called the Mangaka Guild here, Tezuka. I need your team to help us out; the problem might be bigger than expected."

"Yeah, House of Wolves is a pretty terrifying group of people." Nagai added, “though, what motive could they have to kill Yoshiiku at the Gutai warehouse?”

“We hadn’t done anything either,” Jiro remarked, “this is the first time we’ve heard about them.” Rembrandt walked around the room trying to develop a theory that may help explain the current situation, “Maybe because Gaki is less populated than Osaka?” he wonders, “murder is less noticeable in a quieter place, but I suppose things backfired.”

Some tea broke free from the lid of the teapot set down by Hokusai near the terrace; the clear brown liquid swirled and placed itself gently to a cup held by the older man, refilling his glass catching the member of Gutai and the Mangaka Guild in an awed state. "They wouldn't do such a thing, Rembrandt." he stated, "they wouldn't murder one of their members out of nowhere."

Shirō typed away on his phone, "What was the victim's name?" he questioned the two of them, eyes still fixated on his phone.

Saburo cleared his throat, "If I remember, Officer Toshizō said that his name was Daisuke Izuka."

"Let's see if we can find a reason why his so-called comrades might have killed him." Shirō continued, opening dozens of tabs seeking for any possible reason for the murder. A few minutes passed by then suddenly. The lights in the Katsushika estate flashed, Tezuka's car alarm activated, and the TV turned on by itself which sent the group into a shock. Shirō looked up from his phone, frustrated by the situation, "Tch, nothing." Immediately after that, all the electronics turned off once more.

Nagai quickly apologised to everyone, "Sorry, Shirō sometimes activates his Talent by accident when he gets frustrated." Shirō exhaled and put his phone down, "Sorry to disappoint."

"Well, maybe if we can track down a few other members we can get to the bottom of this?" Naoko suggested to the group. Rembrandt rubbed his chin, "You're right, we do have a fair few leads. That needle Talent user and Yoshitoshi. I'm pretty sure we can pursue either of them"

After a long silence, Kazuo raised his hand, "Maybe we should find the needle Talent user first since they were around the area with Kyōsai." Shotaro looked at Shirō, "Hey, Shirō. Can you search through your database?"

Shirō sighed, "You guys got a cassette player? I need to play my thinking music."

Tezuka pulled his Walkman out of his coat, Shirō took it from Tezuka and immediately put his cassette in. A slow piano tune starts playing slowly followed by an electric guitar. Rembrandt immediately recognized the tune, "Wait, that's Intermission by Blur right?" Shirō raised his head and hushed Rembrandt as the music increased its intensity with another guitar and the drums started getting into the mix. As the notes came faster and became more intense so did Shirō's concentration, quickly navigating through his phone looking for any clues on the identity of the needle Talent user. As the music hits the climax, Shirō raises his phone and flips the screen to show the rest of the group. "Her name is Chigusa Kitani."

“Sorry what?” Rembrandt shouted, in shock at Shirō’s speed.

“Chigusa Kitani, Alias Tetsumi Kusaka” Shirō flashed his phone to the rest of the group. Rembrandt was surprised at Shirō's speed, "Let me ask Vincent if he can double verify that." Rembrandt quickly opened his phone and called Vincent who immediately replied. "Hey, I was just heading to our office with Netscher, what's up Rembrandt?"

"Long story short we're looking for a Talent user who uses needles. Hokusai's got a few other people around to help us with this case.” He told his boss, biting the nail of his thumb.

“Needle Talent User from Japan, give me a minute.” Vincent cheerily replied. Rembrandt wandered around nervously, waiting for a reply. A few moments later Vincent returned to the call, "Sorry, just got to the office. Maybe just let me text you?"

"Sure." Rembrandt agreed then turned off the call, "we have to wait for confirmation." A few minutes passed and Rembrandt got the text, its an image showing the biodata of several other Talent users but one stood out to him, Tetsumi Kusaka from Osaka. "Shirō is right, looks like the lead is this Tetsumi Kusaka person, or Chigusa Kitani I suppose." Rembrandt showed the picture to the rest of the group. Shirō smiled, "told you so."

"What's your plan, Tezuka?" Hokusai asked his former disciple. Tezuka rubbed his chin, "well we gotta find where she works, Shirō get on it!" Shirō soon directed his head to his phone like before, Tezuka then switched his target and looked at Shotaro, "Oi, Shotaro. Wanna meet Kitani? Your Talent is pretty much the only one that can handle this type of job.” Shotaro took a moment to think, “Only if I’m accompanied,” he states, “besides, we don’t even know where her location is right now.” Shirō searched up her name on the internet, coming across K-ARA Salon, he tapped Naoko's shoulder, "You know this place? I found Tetsumi's name here." Naoko stared at Shirō's phone for a while, looking at the photos. "K-ARA? I think I went there once." Nagai barged in the conversation, "How did you even find this?"

"Kitani listed K-ARA Salon as her current workplace on her social media accounts," Shirō sighed, "some people just put their info out there."

Naoko raised her arm excitedly to grab the others' attention, "We found her workplace!"

"Where?" Shotaro turned his head.

"K-ARA Salon, Shinsaibashi district." Nagai replied.

"I'm gonna book a reservation for tomorrow, just text me the number." Shotaro told the rest, "now who's up to help?" Kazuo lifted his hand, "I want to try and help out, Mr Ishinomori." Yuko stood up and placed her hand on Kazuo's back, "me too."

"Are you sure? we're handling a criminal here

" Shotaro asks. "I don't want any of you to get hurt." Yuko cleared her throat, "My Talent can redirect things, I killed one of Kyōsai's lions a few days back if that's not helpful enough then I don't know what." Kazuo added, "I can control paint, I can try blinding her I suppose?"

"Fair enough, anyone can drive?" Shotaro continued. "I'll join you three." Tezuka told them, "better safe than sorry, I don't think the kids can drive anyway."

"First thing tomorrow morning, we're going to Shinsaibashi," Tezuka told the rest, "but now let's eat!" Tezuka's declaration gave the group a hearty laugh and Rembrandt a light chuckle.