"Well, this is unpleasant."

I don't if it was I or Frei who said that, as it clearly expressed both of our feelings of the moment.

We were at the entrance of the beauty of Kyoto, the tower of To-ji. Some tourist were trying to get closer, but none dared pass through the make-shift barrier blocking the real metallic one further down the road.

We did though, and inside the little house next to the main entrance, where a guard should have been posted, only a splatter of blood on the window welcomed us.

"Let's get moving." I said.

"Shouldn't we..." Frei began, even though she knew the answer perfectly well.

I just passed the metallic gate without answering.

She followed me closely, making herself as unthreathening as possible.

"This sucks."

Around the tower, there was only a big open space.

As we circled around, we found a podium, one you would sometimes see in the street for small bands or idol meets. Six men waited around it, two placed at it's base and four on top, clearly protecting the young man standing in the middle of the scene. He had his back to the tower, his sides were hidden by the concert structure, and nothing but thick trees were in front of him. That and a what seemed like a 40 cm glass wall. He wasn't underestimating us as much as I would have hoped.

That and I immediately recognised 5 of his goons from the documents my father sent me. Which wasn't good.

They were also armed with military grade equipment, 3 M4A1 and 3 SCAR-L.

What the hell Japan. Do your job.

No point in our bulletproof clothing now.

Frei tensed up behind me. She had come to the same conclusion. Whatever we expected, this Shikami guy was either more intelligent or more cowardly than I first thought.

And looking at the guy in the middle I would say a bit of both. I knew him, didn't remember his name, but I sure as hell wouldn't forget the guy who most likely slipped the fateful drug in my glass.

Immediately being spotted as we arrived in front of them, the five guards I recognised aimed towards us, their weapons security off.

No finger on the trigger though.

Yet.

The guy I couldn't remember the name got up of his... throne?... with what looked like a champagne glass in hand.

Well, scratch my previous thought, this guy was definitely stupid. What's with the throne. Did the guy think we were in Game of Thrones?

How much did he pay to get a fucking throne illegaly into a heavily guarded area?

What's more, now that I looked at him again, his face was similar to someone else.

"Welcome Sias-chan!" He began in Japanese. And after a dry snort. "I'm happy you came, tasuketa-yo!" I blocked off the rest of his evil speech to concentrate on what was bothering me. I couldn't understand most of what he was saying anyway.

Two individuals, same nationality, gigantic networks, both similar objectives, one who should have been caught by the cops ages ago and another who will probably never even get bothered by them, what's more even their facial features were similar.

"...finally proving him he's..."

"You're Takehiro's grandson." I cut him off.

That seemed to have a slight effect. He immediately shut up and stared at me, scared for a second.

A coward then.

"His son." The selfproclamed Shikami told me, switching to english.

"I trust you know what you're doing Sias, but please be careful." Frei whispered behind me.

"I promised I would try my best." I whispered back, before addressing myself to Shikami again.

"My bad, his son. Do you think he'll finally respect you when you get our heads?"

I had pulled him out of his little grandiose theater play, and he went back to what I remembered him to be, a creepy young adult, struggling to be responsible, rather using his parent's money to forget the problems troubling him.

"I...I...yes, it's the first time he failed to get what he wanted, if I succeed where he failed, I'll be sure to..."

"You're mistaken Shikami."

"I'm whAT?" He snorted again.

"He didn't fail, he was just too late, the object he wanted to obtain has been used already. But I guess he didn't tell you so he could test you."

"What are you talking about?"

"He's not happy about you is he? You're a pain in his ass, always having to clean up your messes. Me for example, you couldn't even get me in Japan like he told you, so he had to come himself to France. A rather large waste of money. He even had to destroy a clinic to hide your failures."

"You don't understand anything." He seemed more and more like a child with a tantrum.

"Of course not, still as I am not going to help you in any way, could you let us go?"

"And why would I do that?"

"I believe this is the test he created for you. Would you respect his wishes, and spare me like he did, or will you dissapoint him once again?"

The young man snorted one more time. Whether that was a normal habit or one due to an abusive consumption of cocaine, I couldn't tell. But if he was consuming hard drugs, this was gonna get messy. His brain would be too damaged to take the right decision.

"Well I think I'm big enough to take my own decisions, he'll respect that...right?"

He turned to face his sixth bodyguard, the one closest to him, and the only one not aiming at us. I couldn't recognise him due to his paintball mask, but his demeanor, they way he shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know." He answered in a perfect british accent.

"You're useless, I'm just going to..."

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Hi Dan." I told the bodyguard.

The guard turned to face me, cutting into his boss's speech without a care in the world.

"Sias, rather displeased meeting you again in those conditions. Still, you look more lovely than I remember. If you were like this before, I would have been extra careful in protecting you."

I could see the grin under the mask.

"Daniel, what are you doing?" Asked Shikami.

"It's an old friend, can't have a chat before gunning him down?"

Of course Shikami wouldn't let that...

"Sure, do as you please..." Said the young man before sitting back on his throne.

Oh. OH. Jackpot.

"So Daniel, how's Takehiro's paycheck?"

"It's Kakeshi-san to you Sias."

"Sorry, having a hard time respecting a man who want's to kill me."

"Understandable."

Frei held my hand, feeling something had changed. I had, imperceptably, taken control of the situation, courtesy of Jean-Paul Jourdin and his gigantic web of relationships.

"So, you didn't get the memo?" I simply asked.

You could see the tension suddenly gripping the old killer's body.

"The memo?"

Shikami seemed to wake up, not able to accept anything could happen without him for two minutes.

"What's he talking about Daniel."

But Daniel Vortenga didn't answer him.

"I went dark five years ago, and after Kakeshi-san, I didn't have the option to get in touch with my old contacts."

"A shame." I stated.

"Sias..."

"I'm rather unpleased Daniel." I cut him off.

He shut up.

"I don't remember giving you the right to stop calling me Master Sias."

"You cheeky..." He laughed.

"How's your daughter."

He stopped laughing.

"DANIEL, I order you to tell me what he...she's talking about!"

Now even the other guards had lost their composure, even though the assassins were all experienced, the boss here was for sure Daniel. None had his skills after all.

And Shikami wasn't his employer.

Which meant the real person I should talk to wasn't the snotty brat, but the man payed to protect that snotty brat.

"You don't know anything Master Sias, you're bluffing." Daniel answered.

"The fact you just called me Master again seems to me you don't really think that."

One of the other goons pulled down his gun and addressed the old hitman directly.

"Vortenga what the fuck are you doing this kid is just..."

Before getting shut up by two bullets in his chest and one in his skull.

In a swift movement, Daniel had drawn a semi-automatic pistol and shot the guard.

The assassins turned around, not knowing what to do anymore.

Frei and I winced at the dead body.

If they didn't heed my warning, they would die. I was feeling sorry for them, but that was how it was going to be. They wouldn't get as many options to leave as the Osaka killer, but I would damn well make sure they had one more.

I addressed every single one by their name before saying to all of them.

"You can leave now and you'll live. I give you my word as the Jourdin's true heir."

Daniel removed his mask. Letting me see his burnt lower lip and the deep scar on his right cheek.

"Shit. I should just shoot you here and now."

"DANIEL. WHAT ARE YOU DOING." The shocked Shikami seemed to finally understand what had happened, and drew out a phone from his pocket, before talking the fastest japanese I have ever heard.

Daniel let him do all that without arching an eyebrow. Much to my regret. They were going to have reinforcments.

The old hitman was only concentrating on myself.

"How many?" He asked.

"Probably 20. It's me we're talking about after all." A slight bluff.

He snorted, ignoring my bluff. He was concentrating on something else "Shit. The grass. I knew something was off."

I had no idea how the grass seemed off, but well, he was more experienced than me on those matters.

Daniel was pensive.

"Is my daughter...?"

"Of course, you're a friend Daniel, I only guessed after you told me you went dark."

"Yeah, of course, well played..."

"Fuck this, I'm out." Suddenly said one of the other assassins. Shikami opened his mouth like a enormous whale.

The remaining three began talking to him in different languages.

"Mais de quoi tu parles?" Asked one of them. (What are you talking about).

"The fucking grass...look."

"SheiBe" Another, younger sounding assassin said. "Ich zulle him Shiesse, schweinen..."

The german guy drew his gun towards me, clearly intending to shoot.

Except Daniel and I, everyone flinched when his gun shot the ground.

The last spasm of a dead man.

One moment he was alive, and now he was dead.

I looked at the dead body. One more that could have been avoided.

The other assassins silently took their equipment and left. Not trying to understand any of what had happened.

Daniel stayed. He climbed down of the podium, leaving a terrified and now mute (thank god) Shikami.

The last remaining assassin checked the german guy.

"A fucking blowdart." He noted. "Blow is there?"

Silence answered him. It seemed to be enough.

"My employer won't be happy." Was Daniel's final words before leaving.

Shikami looked at me like I was the devil itself.

"Well, you told me we wouldn't have to lift a finger." Noted Frei behind me, notably calmer.

"Yeah, well, to be honest I didn't think it would go that well. Still not good as it could have been."

"What are you talking about Master Sias, shit went great."

Seven camouflaged men got out of the ground like nothing special was happening.

"Fuck me, I hate those stake-outs, my back hurts like hell."

"Tu pourrais faire comme moi et prendre un coussin."

"You're crazy, it almost made Daniel spot us."

"I'm surprised he didn't." Said an african giant, making their sudden appearance even more unbelievable. "He's getting rusty."

"He just triple-jacked a pro in a heartbeat. How is that rusty?"

I was really only watching one of them. The Leader. "Blow".

Many made a joke about a blowjob with the south-american, 1m60 man's name.

Once.

He rarely spoke.

He rarely moved.

He tilted his head slightly, looking back at me.

I did the same.

"So, seems like the tables have turned." I said to Shikami.

It was over.

He had a nervous laugh.

"I'll be fine I called Tou-tou..."

And now he was getting delusional.

"Sias." Frei intervened, clearly shocked about everything that had just happened "This is crazy. I think I walked on one of them. Still, kid here is right, we should expect company."

At her words the elite mercenaries just laughed, except Blow who seemed on edge.

I sighed.

Blow tensed up.

The air changed.

This atmosphere was eerie. It told me I was mistaken.

It was not the end, just the beginning.

With a speed similar to the one of my mother's Blow grabbed his blowdart...

But it was too late.

"Do not call me so in public Aho." Said a voice I could never forget.

Just like the Jourdin's deathsquad had appeared out of nowhere.

Kakeshi Takehiro, without as much as a whisper, had come into existence behind me and Frei. Behind all of the soldiers who had revealed their position.

None of them moved. Blow was stuck in the forever still motion of him pulling his signature weapon out of it's holster.

"Get out son. I don't want to see your face. Do you know how much this Kami costs?"

Kakeshi Takehiro told his son.

"Tou...Otou-sama, gomenasai, demo..."

"Miss Jourdin here even had the courtesy of giving you multiple outs! You disappoint me once again, and now, as usual I will clean up the mess.

The dumb kid ran away, no one moving a finger to stop him.

As much as the Jourdin's team seemed stuck in time, Frei and I were free of our movements, we didn't try to stop him because it would have been futile.

"Things didn't go as planned."

"Really Frei? I hadn't noticed."