“What are we looking at?” the family head continues to ask.

“Look at this,” the augmented man leans over his superior's shoulder as he opens one of the clips on a media player to show it on the much larger twenty-seven-inch monitor. “You see this? This is footage of the guy walking into the apartment building. We're watching from the point of view of the camera over the entrance. You can see him walking towards the elevator.”

“Yes, and?”

“Look, his back,” Atreus presses the tip of his finger against the middle of the screen, directly on top of the lower back of the unknown man, emphasizing the shape underneath his shirt. “It's his gun. You can just barely make out the grip of it under his shirt.”

“Yeah, I see it,” Ryuji gives an acknowledging nod, but is still clearly uncertain of where this is going. “I assume it's what he intended on possibly killing Takiyama with, right?”

“I thought that at first too, but now look at this next video,” Atreus switches over to a different security recording. “This one is him fifteen minutes later; now he's emerging from the elevator and leaving the building again. This is from the point of view of the camera over the elevators. Now look at him.” He places his finger on the man's back again. “The shape is gone. He doesn't have his gun anymore.”

For an abbreviated moment, Ryuji and Devin process the meaning behind it, soon coming to the same revelation that struck Atreus, who notices their realization.

“I need to head back to Takiyama's apartment,” the would-be detective pushes himself away from Ryuji's desk, unplugging his phone and taking it with him as he walks to the door.

“Hold on a second, man!” Devin stops him. “Are you sure you wanna head over there? What if it's some sort of trap to lure you out or just frame you?”

“That gun is probably the murder weapon, Dev,” Atreus answers quickly and firmly. “Not just for Camlin, but maybe Choi, too. If it's a trap, then I guess I'll fall for it, but if it's not, and the police get to it before I do, then that'll be all the evidence they need to 'know' that the Sanada-gumi are behind both killings. We'll lose any sort of advantage we have.”

“I don't know if it's a trap, per se,” the family head interjects with a deeply pensive glare pointed at nothing in particular. “If it was part of his plan to lure you back to the apartment and probably drop the police right on top of you while you're in an incriminating position, I feel like he wouldn't have tried to hide it so well. But then again, that might also be by design.”

“So what do we do?” Devin asks.

“If Atreus is caught in that situation and is accused of being the killer, he could pretty easily get out of it, due to having an alibi that can be confirmed by multiple people. You were with him at Crown while the murder was happening, right?”

“Well, yeah, we were there almost until it closed.”

“Then he'd be on camera, right?” the patriarch asks, looking directly at the man in question, who's been working there for a month now.

“Yeah, I would,” Atreus confirms with a nod. “We keep security recordings for two months before deleting them, too; so we'd still have footage of that night.”

“So, if it were a trap to frame him, there would be irrefutable evidence to prove him innocent. Plus, he could say he was there to check on Takiyama at the request of Bessho, who hadn't seen him in days. It'd be so cut and dry, he wouldn't even see the inside of a station cell over it. If anything, Atreus is probably the best person to go in there and retrieve the gun, if it's there.”

“I... guess so,” Devin concedes while still making a pained expression. “...Fuck it, I'll go with you.” He suddenly walks to the door to join his friend. “It'll be faster if two people search the place.”

The augmented man gives a smirk. “Well, alright then. We'll be back soon, aniki.”

“I sure as hell hope so,” Ryuji responds, revealing a bit of his own hesitance as his two most trusted subordinates finally depart.

On the fifth floor hallway, before the two men even reach the elevator, Atreus uses his phone to summon an Automa to ensure a ride is ready by the time they hit the sidewalk.

“What do we do if we actually find that gun?” Devin asks.

“Well, it might be the murder weapon, so we need to be careful with it,” Atreus answers, looking up from his phone after ordering a taxi.

“You don't want to just take it to the police? It may clear any suspicions that the Sanada-gumi did anything if we cooperate.”

“I doubt it. The fact that it was in Takiyama's apartment might only cement their suspicions further. Hell, they might even see it as 'too convenient' if a couple guys like us just so happen to stumble upon the gun, and while trespassing at that; they may even think we're the ones trying to frame him. Plus, if I'm going to meet up with our supposed witness, he may be able to confirm it as the murder weapon directly. We shouldn't go the police until we have proof that the killer is not part the Sanada-gumi.”

“Assuming he truly isn't.”

“Yeah. Assuming,” Atreus softly concedes.

The elevator arrives with a blaring ding, and the two Asano lieutenants board it to make their way down to the lobby, where they walk briskly to the exit and then to the vacant silver vehicle waiting for their business.

The ride to the western side of Kyoba, where Takiyama's apartment building is, is an anxious and worrisome one, exacerbated by the slow pace of Monday traffic. Atreus and Devin wait for their arrival with heavy anticipation, as the events of the morning have given them a lot to consider about the investigation at hand, including another dead body and a possible murder weapon waiting to be found, presumably in a trap of some sort, but to ignore it would be even more disastrous.

After about fifteen minutes of their ride practically inching its way through the roads, they finally reach Wakiya Heights. They enter the lobby, where nothing but the odd stain on the vinyl floor tiles greet them. This is likely a good sign, as it means nothing is out or ordinary just yet.

“You remember what his room number was?” Devin inquires, looking at the mailboxes in the wall.

“308,” Atreus keenly answers without looking at them.

They summon the elevator down, and it arrives promptly, carrying no one inside it. They take it to the third floor, where they once again walk down the thin red carpet and between the off-white walls they hadn't expected to see again so soon. They pass several solid oak doors that bare their respective room number in unpolished brass before finally reaching the door displaying '308' on it.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Bessho said the guy busted the doorknob,” Atreus comments, looking at the knob itself, which doesn't look broken on the outside. “I don't think he had his boys fix it again.” He reaches forward to clasp it, and can immediately tell that despite its intact exterior, it is indeed broken. The knob feels extremely light to turn, as if none of the interior mechanisms are attached to each other. He pushes the door open and they walk inside, with Devin closing the door again behind them.

Before they begin their search proper, they take a moment to scan everything that they can see from the entry. The coffee table in the living still has the same mess of electronics, empty glasses, and leftover food – now even more stale than last time, but the handful of flies hovering around it don't seem to mind. The kitchen is still somewhat empty and unused, but the same crumbs and residue stain the countertops and the same dirty dishes still fill the sink.

“Looks like no one's been in here at all since the last time we came,” Devin voices what they're both thinking. “Hopefully that makes the search easy. Where do you want to start?”

“Last time, you searched the bedroom and bathroom while I searched the living room and kitchen,” Atreus recalls. “Let's do that again. It'll be easier for us to notice things that weren't there before that way.”

“Got it.”

Devin splits away to head towards the bedroom and bathroom again. Atreus begins his search in the kitchen, essentially retracing his steps the last time he was here. He first looks through the cupboards and drawers, finding mostly plates, bowls, glasses, pans, pots, spices, utensils, and the occasional cupboard or drawer that remains completely empty. For those, he checks for false bottoms or hidden compartments, but none come up. For the sake the thoroughness, he even checks the refrigerator and freezer, but still finds the same collection of leftover foods and condiments as before.

Content with his search, he moves to the living room, where he first gets down to all fours to look underneath the tiny, two inch-high gap between the sofa and floor, using the light from his phone to illuminate the tiny crevice. However, nothing is found. He stands and pulls the sofa up and away from the wall to see if anything is behind it, but is again unsuccessful at discovering any weapon – only dust and more carpet.

He looks over the entertainment center on the opposite wall, where the television sits on a three-tier shelf the also hosts a collection of video game consoles and disc players. It has no cabinets or drawers, so it's obvious that no firearm is present here, either. To make extra sure, Atreus even peeks behind the entire center only to be greeted by more dust and a tangled mess of wires varying in length and thickness.

Finally, he looks down at the coffee table, its surface covered in a disorderly collection of odds and ends. The exact spot where he found Takiyama's phone is still the only blank section in the middle of all the clutter. Only a glance is needed to see that this mess hadn't been tampered with since their last visit.

Meanwhile, Devin recreates his own search in Takiyama's bedroom, first heading to the five-tier dresser, pulling out each drawer and reexamining the same clothes and towels he rummaged through a few days ago. He even checks the polished wooden clamshell box containing a rather impressive collection of cannabis, and sees that even the many strains he saw before seem to be accounted for. Other than that, nothing stands out to him.

He decides to ignore the closet for now, opting to check the bed. He first pulls the blankets up, revealing the bare sheets underneath – nothing concealed. He lifts the two pillows, again finding nothing under them. He lifts the mattress itself from the box-spring; again, it reveals nothing. Finally, he gets down on his hands and knees to look under the bed, and before he can even angle his body down enough to become perpendicular to the floor, he notices a subtle glare of a smooth, metallic surface faintly reflecting the light in the room, which he certainly had not noticed the last time he was here.

Devin needs only a second to realize the form of what he's looking at, but to confirm his suspicions, he brings his head lower to peer further beneath the bed. Gradually, the long, hard L-shape of a handgun comes into vision. His eyes widen in surprise; he knew this was the reason they came, but he didn't think it was here for certain, let alone he'd be able to find it so easily.

“Atreus!” he calls out while still staring at the gun with fascination, as if it were a living creature. “Atreus, it's here!”

In a near instant, Atreus comes in from the living room, his eyes immediately caught by Devin's position at the bottom of the bed. He approaches and bends forward slightly to get a better look; lo and behold, a gun is there, plain as day.

“Did you touch it?” Atreus asks.

Devin shakes his head. “No, I didn't.”

“Good. Only one of us has fingerprints, and it sure as hell isn't me.” Atreus reaches under the bed, grabbing the gun by the grip and pulling it out. It's a 9mm semi-automatic pistol with a blackened steel finish, somewhat similar to Song's, but it's clearly seen more usage. The most noteworthy thing, however, is the the suppressor still attached to the end of the barrel.

“So, is this it? The murder weapon?”

“It may be. You didn't see this the last time we were here, right?”

“Fuck no. I checked under the bed that time and didn't see shit. This is definitely new.” Devin glances at the gun again, overcome by some sort of inexplicable sense of dread. He's been in the presence of guns before many times, some of them have also been used to kill. For some reason, however, this weapon in particular makes him feel far more uncomfortable. “...Is it still loaded?” he asks timidly.

Atreus, also curious, ejects the magazine; there's indeed at least one round in it. He narrows his eyes slightly to examine the top-most cartridge, and is promptly struck by a sense of familiarity. It sports a blackened brass casing and dark blue projectile with tiny ridges – a detail he has seen very recently.

“Holy shit,” the augmented man utters, staring at the magazine. “This is a VF+ round.”

“How do you know?”

“Song showed me one when I met with him last night. The black casing, blue bullet, it's all the exact same.” Atreus turns the magazine, closely studying every centimeter of it. “The mag even holds twelve rounds. Both Camlin and Choi had three bullets put into them, so...” He counts the visible rounds seen through a tiny slit in the magazine – five in total. Finally, he racks the slide, ejecting a sixth from the chamber.

“This guy thought ahead, didn't he?” Devin asks, shaking his head at the dreadful implication of the amount of ammunition inside the weapon.

“He's definitely trying to frame Takiyama,” Atreus comments, carefully placing the rounds back into the magazine, which he does not slide back into the gun. “But now the question is: what does Takiyama have to do with all of this, anyway? Bessho had no idea about any sort of link between him and Camlin.”

“I think we should discuss that after get out of here. What do we do with the gun?”

“We'll bring it back to the office.”

“The office?” Devin reels back slightly. “You wanted to drive suspicion away from the Sanada-gumi, and you decide to do that by bringing a hot gun directly to our family's headquarters?”

“What, do you want me to store it at my fucking apartment?” Atreus fires back, slightly annoyed. “Or are you volunteering to take it to yours?”

Devin sighs and slumps his shoulders. “Alright, alright. I don't think Ryuji would be so eager to keep that around, though.”

“It'll be fine,” the augmented man reassures while removing the suppressor. “You heard Detective Colter the other day; we're nowhere near the police's top priority. The Asano family is too 'small' and 'benign',” he quotes the detective's words with a tinge of mockery in his voice.

The two men stand back up, with Atreus placing the magazine and suppressor in his pant pockets, and stuffing the gun itself within the waist of his pants, at his back, untucking his dress shirt in order to conceal it. With the shirt itself and his vest over the weapon, it's not as easy to spot the shape as it was, comparatively, underneath the unknown killer's shirt from the perspective of the lobby security camera. However, it's still noticeable if you look hard enough.

“Thankfully we're just heading back to the office,” Devin comments, looking at the contour of the weapon against the small of his friend's back. “This isn't very low key.”

“Well, I don't think we have time to head to Daisuke to pick up a concealed carry holster. Anyways, let's get out of here before any neighbors become curious.” Atreus, after patting the gun one last time to confirm its position, leads the way back out of the bedroom.