“What... What the fuck...” Devin finally utters. “What just happened?” His thousand yard stare switches back and forth between the two bodies in the middle of the apartment, and the deeply somber Atreus. “How... How the fuck did he find us? Were we followed? Did he know about us? How did he know we were coming here?”

“I... don't know,” Atreus confesses his ignorance in a meek answer. As far as he knows, there were no hints given that could've possibly suggested that the assassin was aware of his investigation, or at least aware of it enough to just fall on top of him like this.

Atreus's blank stare works its way up to the small table that the murder weapon used on Camlin rests. An instantaneous stab of suspicion strikes him once he sees it; his shocked gaze turns into an intently curious stare. He pushes himself back up onto his own two feet and approaches the table, stepping over the limp limbs of the two dead men in the middle of the small studio apartment. He picks up the murder weapon and begins to inspect it heavily, more so than he did when it was first found in Takiyama's apartment.

The gangster racks the slide back to peek into the chamber, looks into the magazine well, and tries to rigidly slide his fingers over the entire surface of the gun to try and find any sort of loose parts, but nothing seems odd. Devin watches in confusion, but doesn't ask any questions.

Atreus, finished with his examination of the gun itself, picks up the half-full magazine and inspects it as-is before doing anything. Again, he doesn't notice anything strange. He starts to eject the rounds one by one, bringing each one up to his eyes for a closer look. The first one seems legitimate, as does the second, then the third, then the fourth, and fifth. However, when he reaches the sixth cartridge, he finally notices something odd: the projectile is slightly displaced and loosened in the casing, as though it has been removed and re-inserted. Atreus pinches the end of the bullet with his thumb and index finger, and pulls it out with ease. He turns the casing over into his palm, and a tiny – though elongated in shape – device slides out, an extremely small control board of some sort with a tiny red LED light and short antenna.

Atreus stares at it for a moment, but it doesn't take long to realize what the device is: a tracker. He closes his eyes and heaves a long, drawn out sigh of subdued rage, clenching his fist around the tiny machine, crushing it with his hand. He grits his teeth and slams his fist down on the small table, but with reserved strength. He takes a deep breath in one more attempt to calm himself down, and opens his eyes again.

“He tracked us,” Atreus timidly states, opening his hand and letting the crushed remnants of the tracker fall on to the table. “The piece of shit tracked us with the gun he planted in Edward's place. The motherfucker was one step ahead; he would either successfully frame Ed or possibly be led to him.”

“But... he didn't know that Ed actually had the USB drive, right? Do you think he did?” Devin continues to ask questions, desperate to hear something that can take the edge off of the current situation, as difficult as that may be.

“I don't know, but...” Atreus answers while looking back down at Ed's lifeless face. The dead Sanada-gumi member is still facing upward with his eyes open, blood still dripping from the entry wound in his temple and pooling on the wooden floor.

If the killer truly didn't know that Ed had the USB drive and came only to silence him, then his death only becomes more unnecessary, as Atreus would still be in possession of the documents, whether Ed were still alive or not. A stab of guilt hits Atreus's chest; he realizes that the only reason the bullet housing the tracking device is in this apartment to begin with is because he brought it here. He knew it was a silly idea to give the gun to the person who was almost framed with it, but he was desperate to take it out of the Asano family office.

“What are we going to do now?” Devin asks, looking back at the carnage in the center of the room. “We can't just leave them like this. Do we call the Hoshino family to clean up or something?”

“No,” Atreus answers definitively. “I think we can use this to our advantage.”

“What are you talking about? How?”

“We have the killer, here, dead at our feet,” Atreus points to the body lying next to Ed's. “He's out of the picture now. We don't need to worry about some psycho assassin breathing down our neck while we decrypt the USB drive, and... And we can use this to convince the police that the Sanada-gumi truly had nothing to do with the murders.”

Devin's expression slowly contorts into a combination of disbelief and suspicion. “Hold the fucking phone,” he says as he finally stands up. “Are you saying you plan on calling the fucking cops about this? Are you out of your goddamn mind? You think they're gonna assume we're the innocent party in this?”

“I'm not talking about calling just any cops. I'm talking about Detective Colter.”

“Are you sure he'd take our side on this?”

“I already told him that I met with Edward and that I was going to meet him a second time. He's aware that someone was trying to frame Edward, too. Look.” Atreus points to the two bodies. “The killer is here, dead. This is closure for the police. As far as they'd be concerned, this is the end of their investigation. You seriously think those lazy fucks care about anything beyond this? We have the USB drive, too. We're close to having all the loose ends tied up.”

“I don't fuckin' know, man, you're not even obligated to cooperate with him on this. You found the guy who killed Camlin, and now he's out of the picture.”

“If I just start hiding shit from Colter and go radio silent on him, he'll start to assume things. He already knows I'm doing my own investigation, anyway. If we tell him about all of this, he'll be more willing to come to bat for us when it counts. Besides, do you really want to just call it quits now? Just because the murderer blew his own brains out in front of us? Ed fucking died. For this.” Atreus pulls the USB drive out of his pocket to show to Devin. “We need to crack this open and find out what the fuck is on here. Whatever it is, it led to four deaths – five if you want to include this asshole,” he points to the nameless assassin.

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“Shit, man,” Devin sighs in exasperation, but doesn't necessarily argue back. “You keep playing the hero, and you're gonna end up losing your legs this time, just watch.” He slumps his shoulders and shakes his head, quietly conceding to his friend's demands. “So what do you want to do?” he asks with little enthusiasm.

“Well, before we call Colter over here, let's see what this piece of shit has on him,” Atreus replies while squatting down and beginning to pat down the assassin's body for any possessions he might have on his person. Eventually, he feels a long, flat item in his left pant pocket. With an assumption of what it likely is, he pulls it out and discovers it's a phone – almost certainly a burner.

“Is there anything on that?”

Atreus turns it on and the screen displays a prompt asking for a fingerprint scan. The gangster lifts the killer's limp right hand and places the tip of the thumb in the designated reader that rests beneath the glass of the display. The phone accepts it and opens. Like Takiyama's burner, it's mostly empty, void of any non-standard applications or utilities. First, he opens up the text messaging app, but it's empty.

“No texts to or from anyone,” Atreus states aloud. He proceeds to view call history, where he sees something substantial. “Shit, there's a lengthy call history here, though.” He scrolls through the list, surprised to see so much activity.

“To who?”

“Doesn't say; they're just numbers. But there are both incoming and outgoing calls made to the same two numbers over the last several days – over a dozen of them.”

“Two numbers?” Devin repeats to himself, bewildered. “Who the hell could he be talking to? The person who hired him? But who'd be the second person?”

Atreus shrugs. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Are you gonna give a call yourself?”

“I don't think that'd be a good idea. We might have one chance to do that, and we don't really have any way of tracing it if it goes through.” Atreus places the killer's phone on the table, and resumes his pat down of the body. He goes to the opposite pant pocket, and feels the presence of a tiny object that he only barely senses. He reaches in and pulls it out, displaying it on his palm for him and Devin to see.

“Is that... a pin?” Devin asks, narrowing his eyes. The object is a golden pin, similar to the ones Sanada-gumi members have, but one major detail is contrasting.

“It seems so, but the emblem is different.” Atreus holds it closer to his face between his thumb and index finger. Indeed, the emblem on the face of the pin is not the Sanada-gumi's, bearing nowhere close to a resemblance. This pin has what seems to be a bridge over a diamond that has small circles on each corner.

“Is it like a counterfeit or something? Was he trying to pose as a Sanada-gumi member?”

“No, it's way too different to even pass as a rip off. I think it's legit, but maybe it belongs to some family that operates outside of the Sanada-gumi?”

“I don't know, man,” Devin rubs his cheek pensively. “The Sanada-gumi's been the only yakuza clan in charge of Kyoba for a long time and the only Japanese gang in Los Angeles. I don't think there's any way some unaffiliated group would be waltzing around without us knowing.”

“True,” Atreus, ignorant about – but still intrigued by – the pin, places it on the table as well, next to the phone. He continues patting down the killer's corpse until every inch has been searched. Content, he stands up. “The phone and the pin are all he had on him,” he says, looking back down at the items. “I think we should take a picture of this pin, though. Maybe Okada will know what it is or where it came from.”

“We're not gonna take it with us?”

“No, we'll leave everything to Colter once he arrives here. It'll probably ease him to the idea of letting us go with the USB drive,” Atreus says as he takes his phone out, and picks the mysterious golden pin back up. He holds its face towards the camera, close enough to take up almost the entire frame, and snaps a picture. He doesn't send it just yet, instead opting to open his contacts list and highlight Terrence's name. “I'm gonna call Colter now,” he announces as he presses the 'call' button.

As the call goes through and Atreus waits anxiously for it be answered, his eyes wander back down to Edward's body, his face still pointed to the ceiling, and his lifeless eyes still wide open. Again, the would-be detective feels a sharp prick of guilt, furrowing his brow and curling his mouth downward into a subtle, melancholic frown. With his phone still to his ear, he squats down once more and gently places his free hand over Ed's eyes, manually shutting them.

“Hello?” Colter's thunderous voice is finally heard after several rings.

“Are you alone?” Atreus asks, skipping any formalities, including any courteous 'hello.'

“Yeah, I'm alone. What's up? You got something new for me?”

“I do. And it's big, but... It's also a bit of an emergency.”

“What do you mean?” the detective's voice trails up, indicating suspicion. “Are you in some sort of trouble? You mentioned meeting with Takiyama before; does it have something to do with him? Are you with him right now?”

“I... Yes, I'm with him, but...” Atreus punctuates every few words with a nervous pause, deeply reluctant to admit what happened. “He's dead. We were found by the guy who killed Camlin. He... He barged in on us while we were talking. He followed us.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Atreus,” Terrence utters in deep vexation. Though he can't be seen, it's easy to picture him rubbing rubbing his forehead in bewilderment. “I fucking told you to let me in on this, and this is exactly why. God dammit. Where are you now? Tell me where you are.”

“Reese-Cole Apartments, apartment 705.”

“Alright, I'm heading there right now. I'll be there in a few minutes.” Colter's speech becomes hastened and somewhat ragged, as though he's rushing to his car. “What happened to the killer? Did he escape? Were you at least able to get a good look at him?”

“He's dead too,” Atreus bluntly responds. “Killed himself before I could start asking him questions.”

“Good fucking God. Alright, just... Just stay there. Don't mess with the bodies. I'll be there soon. Stay. Put.” Terrence repeats for emphasis as he quickly ends the call to begin his journey to the apartment complex.

“He's coming,” Atreus lethargically announces to Devin as he puts his phone away.

“Are we going to make up any kind of story to tell him?” Devin asks. “Is there any detail we should change or just not mention at all?”

“I don't think there's any point in hiding anything from him now. The killer's dead, we have the USB drive. This whole thing is as good as done.” The augmented man sighs as he sits on the floor, exhausted both physically and mentally from the violent ordeal that lasted mere seconds, and its aftermath.

The two Sanada-gumi members proceed to wait for their police contact in morose, contemplative silence as they share the room with two unmoving corpses.