The rest of the night passes by with little disturbance, or at least nothing close to the same level of tactless revelry exhibited by the young mogul at the beginning of the shift. Midnight eventually strikes, and Atreus takes his leave from his post and returns to the locker room to change out of his uniform and redress himself into his day-to-day Sanada-gumi attire – pin included. When outside of the club, he orders a taxi and makes his way southeast to clan headquarters. The ride there is occasionally stalled due to the dense, unpredictable Friday night traffic, causing his arrival to be delayed by nearly ten minutes – something he felt he should've accounted for, but thankfully Okada is lenient regarding a slight lack of punctuality.

After his silver cab pulls up to the front gate, Atreus greets another guard who was expecting his arrival, standing watch inside the nearby booth. He opens the gate for the augmented man who then proceeds through the parking lot and into the lobby, where the android Justin is still stiffly standing behind the reception desk and various members of the Okada family are either standing guard or casually chatting throughout the room.

“Is Mr. Okada in now?” Atreus asks the expressionless machine.

“Good evening, Atreus,” Justin answers first with a greeting accompanied by a bow. “Yes, Mr. Okada came in forty-two minutes ago and is currently residing in his office. He is expecting you.”

It's extremely common for office androids such as Justin to not only keep track of every visitor or employee who enters and leaves, but also be connected directly to security camera feeds in order to know where all individuals inside the building are currently located and answer queries of their whereabouts, unless instructed otherwise. It's a convenience feature that allows for people to find one another easily in large corporate structures, which can sometimes be maze-like, but it's also considered a detriment to employee privacy. So, predictably, any company that incorporates the feature is slammed for spying on their workers.

Atreus proceeds to call down an elevator and take it to up to the top floor, where he once again navigates through the slate-colored walls and black marble tile-lined blue carpet, lit under bright lights hanging from high ceilings to reach Okada's office. As usual, a tall, barrel-chested guard stands alert at the front door, but quickly acknowledges the visitor and knocks on the office threshold, which is promptly opened by the stoic android, Rachel.

“Good evening, Atreus,” the synthetic human gives a rigid greeting in an almost eerily calm but feminine voice. “We've been expecting you. Please, come in,” she moves to the side and beckons him to walk in. He obliges.

“Watanabe-kun,” Okada stands from his leather chair to greet his subordinate. “Here, take a seat. Tell me what it is you wish to discuss.”

Atreus complies and sits in the adjacent sofa, “Sorry to call you on such a short notice earlier. I didn't know you'd be busy. But I guess you're always busy.”

“It's not a problem. I was only accompanying the chairman on some errands – nothing important. Would you like something to drink? Liquor? Tea?”

“Actually, tea would be nice.”

“Rachel,” Okada calls out to his android servant, who is standing in wait for a command next to the door. “Prepare Atreus a cup of tea, will you?”

“Green or chamomile?” Rachel asks with her small, default smile.

“Green,” Atreus answers.

Rachel immediately follows orders and approaches the small sink and counter in the corner of the large office with a two-burner electric stove top. An old fashioned metal kettle is already sitting on one of the burners, and the mechanical woman begins to fill it with water from the tap and heat it.

“So, I assume you've made progress in your investigation?” Okada begins the discussion proper.

Atreus nods, “Yes, I was able to find out some information that might be crucial in finding out who committed the murder.”

“Do tell.”

“I was able to get my hands on a copy of the autopsy report that was to be sent to the police. It goes into detail about the condition of Will Camlin's body and how he was killed, including what type of cartridge he was shot by, but it was somewhat vague. So I visited the Oyamada family's warehouse at the port and talked to Daisuke Young. He was able to give a very educated guess at what specific caliber of ammunition was used – a German variant of the 9mm Parabellum called the VF+.”

“I see,” Okada furrows his brow and narrows his eyes attentively. “I assume it was something that they don't sell themselves, considering they only have standardized cartridges?”

“Right. But he did know who is likely to sell it.”

“Who?”

“The Blue Star.”

Okada responds with a small sigh. He casts his gaze down at the surface of the coffee table before shutting his eyes momentarily to process the information. It was a name he didn't want to hear, especially not in relation to Camlin's murder. Atreus empathizes, as he felt the same way when Daisuke brought them up earlier in the day.

“How sure was Daisuke when he said this?” Okada asks, understandably wanting clarification before he commits to anything.

“He was quite confident. He mentioned that some of their vendors specialize in obscure ammunition like the VF+. The problem is I don't know any names, and if I go into Jeonju asking every random person about it, not only will I waste time, but I'll probably draw Blue Star's suspicion – possibly even their anger. They'll think I'm up to something.”

“Do you think Blue Star had Camlin killed?”

“Personally, I don't see why they'd poke the bear, especially so soon after the incident. But whether they did or didn't, it's the only way to continue this trail.”

Okada inhales deeply and lets out a soft groan of uncertainty, “I'm sure you already know, but I'm a bit hesitant about talking to Blue Star about this. I do know some higher rank people who supported the truce, but they might still feel like I'm accusing them of something if I demand to know about their dealers' past transactions. Do you not have any other leads?”

“I'm in possession of a phone belonging to a member of the Hoshino family, Edward Takiyama, who was last seen only about an hour before the murder took place and hasn't been seen since. I have someone cracking it open right now because of the amount of security measures installed on it, but honestly, it's not even a sure thing that it'll lead us anywhere. Worst case, his disappearance is just a poorly-timed coincidence, and we broke into an unrelated man's apartment and took his phone.”

“Well, I guess you can't work miracles,” Okada heaves another sigh and leans back in his chair. “I'm on good terms with Lee Hak-sun, an officer who works near the top of the pyramid. He's one of the men who fought tooth and nail for the Blue Star to agree to the truce, so if anyone's likely to be sympathetic towards our mission, it's him. However, I can't guarantee I can get him to set something up soon.”

“Your tea is ready, Atreus,” Rachel suddenly approaches with a cup of hot green tea in hand, placing it on a coaster on the coffee table, directly in front of Atreus.

“Thank you,” the gangster instinctively gives his gratitude and grabs the cup, taking a meager sip of the steamy drink.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“You're welcome,” Rachel gives a stiff bow. “Please let me know if you'd like anything else.” With her task complete, the synthetic woman walks to the desk at the opposite end of the room, standing in one place – out of the field of view of either men – to await further instruction.

“Do you think it'll be possible for him to keep this a secret if you ask him?” Atreus asks, returning to the discussion at hand.

Okada shakes his head, “I don't know. A lack of transparency from a man at his level would raise some big questions from his colleagues if they were to find out he had been cooperating with us on something they weren't told about. They've begun to run a much, much tighter ship since the attack, at least at the higher level. He might not be able to be too secretive.”

“Ideally, I'd just like to avoid walking into their territory.”

“Honestly, I can't even promise that much,” the advisor responds with the bluntness of an iron hammer. No matter how they approach this issue, it's likely Atreus will be wandering into Blue Star turf if he wishes to follow the bullet trail. “I recommend you just count your blessings and hope he can obtain the information we need at all. Getting receipts from Blue Star's black market sales and giving them to us is not an idea that would fly with his peers, especially if it ends up being true that they're responsible for the murder to begin with.”

“I know,” Atreus admits with a sullen nod. “But it's the best we can do without abandoning this lead entirely or wasting time going door to door. I'm sorry to ask this much of you so soon after the investigation started.”

“It's fine. A task of this much importance would never be so easy to begin with. I'll give Lee a call in the morning and see what I can work out.”

“Thank you, oyaji,” Atreus bows with gratitude.

“Now, let's rewind a bit,” Okada shifts his seat slightly into a less rigid position now that the more serious matters have been discussed. “You mentioned this phone you acquired from a Hoshino family member. Can you go into more detail about that?”

“Well, after our first meeting about the investigation, I decided to visit the Hoshino family office since the murder happened just down the street. They were the ones who notified you about the murder in the first place, right?”

Okada nods, “Yes. Apparently a couple of their men stumbled upon the body, then notified Bessho, who notified Hoshino, who then notified me.”

“When I got to the building, there were multiple police drones already surveying it. Inside, Bessho was rounding up his boys to make them all accounted for so the police would leave them alone sooner. But one – Takiyama – was apparently not answering phone calls, and one of the other boys said he was last seen about an hour or so before the murder. According to him, Takiyama was leaving the office to go somewhere, but didn't say where. So, I figured it might be related to the murder and volunteered to go to his apartment.”

“And that's where you found his phone, I imagine?”

“Yes. It was left there. It turns out it has a custom operating system installed that makes it very difficult to crack open, but I have an acquaintance working on that.”

“Hmm,” Okada rubs his cheek pensively for a short moment. “I can see why you'd think it might be related to the murder; it'd be a hell of a coincidence if it isn't. But at the same time, there's no guarantee, just as you said. I take it he still hasn't been found yet?”

“I told Bessho to send a few of his men to Takiyama's apartment building to keep an eye on who enters and who leaves, just in case he comes by again. But I haven't heard from him after that, so I imagine he hasn't been.”

“Do you have anything in particular you expect to find on that phone?”

“Well, if Takiyama is connected to the murder in any way – either through Camlin or the perpetrator – then there must be some sort of evidence on the phone to suggest that. Maybe call history, contacts, text messages, apps, whatever. Unless he's just the paranoid type, why else would he go out of his way to jailbreak his phone and put such extensive security measures on it?” Atreus punctuates his explanation with a generously long sip of his tea.

“Is there any reason to think that the police might be looking for Takiyama, as well?”

“Unless Bessho brought him up during their visit to the Hoshino building, I wouldn't think so,” Atreus narrows his eyes for a moment, feeling a sudden recollection hitting him. “But I remember one detail of Camlin's autopsy that kind of surprised me; he apparently didn't have his own phone on him.”

“Is that a significant detail?”

“It could be. It means two things: either he didn't have his phone on him at at all while he was killed, or he did have it on him but it was picked from his body afterward. But if it was picked off him, then it likely wasn't for money, because his wallet was left untouched.”

“And that would suggest this was premeditated in some way – that he, specifically, was a target for a reason,” Okada completes his subordinate's train of thought with a nod. “You've come pretty far in only two days of work.”

“Only with the cooperation of others,” Atreus remarks with a quiet appreciation for the guidance he received from Ryuji, as well as help from Devin and crucial information provided by Daisuke, Bessho, and even Dr. Hess.

“Either way, I'm glad I picked you for this job. I think you've reached the point where you've saved my ass so many times, I don't think I'll ever be able to pay you back for it,” Okada kindly heaps praise onto the reluctant detective.

“Thank you, oyaji,” Atreus smiles and accepts the compliments with a polite bow. “Unfortunately, I can't really tell you if I'm ahead of the police or not, so I don't think we should count our chickens before they hatch.”

“True enough. At the moment, however, I think you're approaching from a decent amount of substantiated angles to not worry too much about falling behind. Keep up the pace.”

Atreus nods, “I will, oyaji.”

With their plans more or less set in stone, the two men engage in mild-mannered small talk until Atreus finishes his now room temperature tea and decides to call it a night. When he finally exits the Sanada-gumi headquarters, it's already 1:35 AM. He summons a self-driving taxi to pick him up and return him to his apartment. During the slow and silent ride, the familiar chime and vibration and his phone is once again noticed from his pocket. He retrieves it and discovers a text from Max.

[Hey, how'd your secret gangster stuff go?] she asks, getting straight to the point in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

[My secret gangster stuff went great,] Atreus plays along, actually quite amused at her willingness to not take his concealment too seriously. [Aren't you still on shift? Is it okay for you to be texting me right now?]

[My customer just left, and it's too late to accept anyone else, so I'm pretty much done for the night. I'm chilling in the break room for a bit, then I'm gonna go right as it hits 2.]

[Must be nice, getting a free half-hour break like that,] Atreus expresses envy, implicitly lamenting his own lack of breaks, despite the fact he left work early anyway. [If I'm lucky, I can just sit in an empty booth for about ten minutes so I can get off my feet. The boss is against giving us stools to sit on because he thinks it looks tacky.]

[Just cut off your legs and get cybernetic ones,] Max gives a comically simple, yet obviously far-fetched solution.

[Gee, I wonder why I never thought of that before,] Atreus gives an equally sarcastic reply in turn. [I think I have a hacksaw in my closet somewhere that I never really use.]

[Wanna do something after I'm off?] taking advantage of the light tone of the conversation, Max asks for another chance to do something together outside of work.

Atreus silently notes her increased straightforwardness. He isn't sure if it means her interest in him is rising or her patience is dwindling. However, he realizes that tonight finally grants him a small window of time to finally meet up somewhere.

[I think I can spare an extra hour or so after you leave Crown before I start to get tired. Unfortunately, all the places I usually go – like my favorite bar and Takahashi's – are either closed already or will be when we get there. Do you have anywhere you want to go?] he laments a lack of choices on his part, but gives her the chance to name a meeting place of her own.

[True, a lot of good places are gonna be closed at the end of the hour. I'd invite you to my place, but it's honestly a pig sty right now and I'd be humiliated if you saw it in its current state. I'd need at least an hour just to make it look presentable.]

Before Atreus even begins writing his reply, he momentarily ponders the idea of inviting her to his place, but decides against it with equal quickness, feeling unsure of such a pace and how she might perceive it. However, a potentially ideal solution emerges in his head.

[You said you live at Surling Apartments, right? I'm at Yazawa Commons, which is only a ways down the street. We can meet up at the small park that's about halfway between our buildings. That way neither of us are too out of the way. I'll even pick up a six pack of beer on the way over.]

In less than thirty seconds, her eager reply to the proposal appears, [You had me at beer. You're talking about Hamada Park, right? I can meet up there, for sure.]

[Awesome. I'm about to reach my apartment. I'm gonna take a quick shower then head out.]

[Okay. I'll head straight there from Crown when my shift is officially done.]