Tokyo Demons Book 3: Chapter 1

Jo hadn’t broken his jaw, at least. The ache grew unbearable by the time they reached the karaoke parlor, but Aisha gave him pain pills and a full examination. She assured him that Touya’s punch had only caused a nasty bruise.

“Lucky,” she said in English.

Jo grimaced and gripped his jaw, but couldn’t disagree. He tried not to remember Mitsuko sprawled on the concrete.

Debriefing took them into the wee hours of the night, since Daniel kept getting interrupted by urgent phone calls. After he disappeared for the millionth time, his voice cracking on the high notes as he blurted into his mobile phone, Jo fell back in his chair and ran his hands up his face.

“Shit,” he muttered. “Touya really fucked up everything.”

Kiyoshi frowned by his side, his leg twitching with nervous energy. He took a long breath.

“I can’t believe Detective Ochi is dead,” he murmured.

Jo grunted. He had the feeling Nakajima was going to take it badly.

“If he hadn’t helped us, Jo…do you think he’d still be alive?”

“I don’t know. But…Kado said Touya was targeting psychics, and he already knew what Ochi could do.”

Kiyoshi squinted. “What could Detective Ochi do? Like, what was his power?”

Jo thought on that for a second. “I don’t actually know.”

Kiyoshi had nothing to add, so they sat in the small private office in silence. The karaoke patrons had dwindled by that hour, but the ones who remained were especially drunk. Somebody warbled terrible, never-ending enka in the room closest to theirs.

But what concerned Jo was what he didn’t hear. Half of the karaoke rooms and the back living quarters were swarming with Byakko punks and Riot Girls, and they were always louder after midnight–but now all Jo heard was bad singing from the public patrons. The underlying quiet made him nervous.

As far as Jo knew, Touya hadn’t attacked anyone in the gangs…but Daniel kept leaving to take emergency phone calls. That was never a good sign.

“Oh, shoot. Jo?”

Jo looked up. “Yeah?”

“I forgot to tell you something. From when you went to the hospital to get Kado.” Kiyoshi nervously brushed the bangs from his eyes. “There’s a memorial service tomorrow. The Byakko guys wanted me to tell you about it.”

Jo’s stomach automatically sank. “Seiya Fujisawa’s wake?”

“They said it’s a mass service for him and a bunch of other guys from Fukuhashi. Our school’s running it. I guess…” His shoulders slumped. “A lot of the Byakko guys and Riot Girls who died so far are from our school.”

Jo furrowed his brow. “Fukuhashi is throwing a joint memorial service for the gangs?” he clarified.

“I think the cops told Byakko not to do private wakes–they’re worried Core might target funerals and try to get info out of people there. And a group service could have better security or something.”

Jo fished a cigarette out of his pocket. “That school is a deathtrap,” he muttered as he slid the stick between his lips. He searched for his lighter. “I dunno how the cops could consider it safe. Touya was a student advisor there, for fuck’s sake. He was recruiting underclassman for Core and sending Kado out as his goddamn spy.”

Kiyoshi leaned forward in his chair and draped his arms over his thighs. He sighed.

“But if Touya was Core’s connection there, I guess he’s not…working for them now.”

Jo scowled. He snapped his lighter to life and tipped the tiny flame to his cigarette.

“Who even fucking knows.”

A loud BANG bled in from outside; Jo went rigid the same instant Kiyoshi jumped to his feet. A trail of voices followed the sound in a loud, chaotic clamor.

They sounded happy. Even through the walls, Jo recognized the victory whoops and congratulatory curses of Byakko–and the screeching laughter that cut through all of it.

Takeshi. Kiyoshi got to the door before Jo; Jo ran after him into the private hallway that braced the karaoke halls like a backbone.

A few dozen gangbangers flooded the opposite end, emitting a delayed, foul odor of sweat and blood and alcohol. Jo caught a whiff of something strange, then noticed that someone in the back held a few pizzas aloft.

“Hey!” Takeshi grinned over the heads of the teenagers who split off into rooms. He pointed a full-sized, detached car steering wheel in Jo’s direction. “Jo Oda! Where’s Quackers?”

Jo was very confused.

“Shouri-san?” Kiyoshi blurted.

Jo followed Kiyoshi’s gaze to Shouri, who stumbled in from the back. She was pale and had dirt smeared across her face, her arm around Miki’s shoulder for support.

Jo’s jaw clenched over his cigarette. While Kiyoshi ran to help them, Jo made for Takeshi.

“What the hell happened?” Jo demanded. “Did you take Shouri out?! We’re supposed to be hiding her!”

“Don’t tie your scrote in a knot.” Takeshi plucked the cigarette from Jo’s mouth and ground it out on the floor. “We put a hat on her. She wanted to come. And we cleared it with Ducky-Duck.”

“Who?”

“The priest. Donald.” Takeshi’s gaze lifted over Jo’s head. “He around? Wanted to give him the good news.”

As if in response, Daniel appeared in a nearby doorway, his blue eyes wide. He held his mobile phone against his shoulder.

“Takeshi-san?”

Takeshi snapped a finger at him. “Hey! We finished the SUN mission. Got in a little scrape, but didn’t lose anyone–and we kicked some decent ass. Just dumped the two Core cars in the Ikebukuro police station parking lot.”

Jo blinked. The SUN mission…

“Your last tip from Touya,” Miki clarified, handing Shouri off to Kiyoshi. He flexed the unbroken fingers sticking out of his cast. “He said Core was hiding evidence in cars at the SUN building. That’s in this district, so we hit it.”

Takeshi took one look at Jo’s face and laughed. “Mad that we left you out, pumpkin?”

“Of course not,” Jo snapped, almost too quickly. “I just didn’t…”

“What evidence was in the cars?” Daniel asked. “Did you bring it?”

“Hell no–Core was using the cars as a weapons stash. Those trunks were loaded with guns and explosives and fuck knows what else. If we brought that shit here, we’d probably blow this place sky-high.”

Miki sneered. “Core’s gonna have a hell of a time keeping up this fight without their toys.”

Jo stared at the floor, his mind racing. They’d been steadily disarming Core through the raids and subsequent police clean-ups. But actually stealing a stash…

“You said you left the cars at the police station?” Daniel clarified. “With the weapons still in the trunks? Did Detective Nakajima tell you to do that?”

“That old hag wasn’t answering my calls. Don’t worry–we left a note.”

Daniel paled. He quickly murmured a good-bye into his phone and started frantically pushing buttons, ducking into his room again.

Takeshi tossed the detached steering wheel into a nearby wastebasket. “We gotta burn that one–I bled all over it and left a shit-ton of fingerprints.” He smiled as Kiyoshi gently helped Shouri limp past him. “Take care of her, Red. She cracked the electronic security in half the time it takes me to scratch my nuts. She’s a catch.”

Shouri’s mouth slanted in a smile, although her forehead was creased in pain. “I was sick of rotting in bed.”

Takeshi held out a hand. “You’re one useful bitch.”

Shouri slapped it. “So are you.”

Miki, who was checking his phone, suddenly looked up at Jo. “Where’s Mitsuko?” he asked.

Jo’s stomach dropped to his feet.

His mind exploded with a million ways to avoid answering the question. He hesitated, every instinct in him screaming to lie, as Miki’s single eye burned into him like a laser beam.

“Miki’s my best friend and I love him more than anything.”

Jo let out a breath. He squared his shoulders, trying to shift the grueling weight of responsibility stacked on guilt.

“I had to leave her at the hospital,” he said as evenly as he could. “Touya attacked her and she needed a doctor.”

Miki went dead still.

Takeshi furrowed his pierced eyebrows. “Is she okay?”

“She’s at T. Hospital–where the Church contacts are watching Ban. Core won’t get to her there.” Jo rubbed his forehead. “I’ve been calling them all night. She was knocked out, but they think she’s okay. They’re keeping her overnight to observe her.”

“Why the fuck did Touya attack her?” Miki demanded.

Jo grimaced. “No one told you yet? Touya…turned on us. He killed one of the cops, stole most of the Church’s drugs, and kidnapped Kado and Sachi in his escape from Core.”

Takeshi, strangely silent for a moment, stared at the floor. Then he sucked his teeth and flashed the tip of his forked tongue.

“Well, shit. So much for our Core leak.”

Miki slowly closed his unbroken hand into a fist. “She went with you guys to T. Hospital,” he said through his teeth. “To get someone out of there.”

Jo looked away. “Yeah. That’s where Touya found us.”

“And you left her there…?”

Jo could hear the rage building up behind Miki’s voice, twisting his words into a growl. Jo threw up his hands in frustration.

“I didn’t want to leave her there! But she needed a doctor, so I didn’t have a–”

Miki threw his fist so suddenly that Jo barely saw it; it rammed into Jo’s injured jaw, sending an explosion of blinding white pain through his skull. Jo fell to the floor, choking on his own breath.

“No!” Miki shouted, his voice warped in Jo’s ringing ears. “I’m fucking sick of this!”

Jo tried to move his mouth, but his jaw sagged in shock, sending fire to lace through his brain. He blinked his blurring eyes.

Takeshi muttered something Jo couldn’t hear, his boots shifting in Jo’s vision. Miki’s sneakers scuffed toward him as he cursed.

“Don’t touch me, Takeshi!”

Jo stumbled to his feet, gripping his throbbing jaw. “I’m…sorry,” he gasped, the movement of his mouth pulling a thousand tiny, screaming muscles. “I c-couldn’t help her.”

Miki’s one eye smoldered in fury; he shoved against Takeshi’s restraining arm. “You and those cross-sucking fucks don’t get to do this!” he snarled. “You’re not gonna chew Mitsuko up and spit her out like you do with everyone else. My boys and her girls are already dying for you. Now you ditched her on a mission where she was helping you?!”

Jo’s guilt twisted with frustration, knotting up into a defensive anger in the pit of his stomach. “I left her because I care about her,” he snapped shakily. “I wanted nothing more than to screw everything else and carry her back here. But that would’ve been soothing my ego and fucking her over. She needed the hospital.”

Miki cursed a rapid string of swears that sounded like the death cry of a strangled bird.

“I know you love her!” Jo shouted. “Shit, I get it, Miki! But use your head and listen to me!”

Miki stood there for a long moment, his teeth grinding loud enough for Jo to hear. His one eye blazed. That one, furious eye.

A grim reminder of what he’d already lost to Core.

Jo’s anger sifted away. He could hear gang members laughing and cursing in the rooms around them, celebrating their victory and partying away their losses. It reminded him of Motoi. Of the rally in Blue Light. Of Takeshi in Ban’s hospital room, giggling while his eyes flicked periodically to the boy in the bed.

The gangs were taking the brunt of this fight, and they were the only ones staying positive. Jo envied their fearlessness, and it only deepened his guilt.

He was the one bridging the Church and the gangs. He was toeing the party line, enjoying the benefits of Byakko but hiding behind his alliance with the Church. The Church had been safer for a while, and the minute it wasn’t, they had run to Byakko. And Takeshi had taken them in, cooing something about teamwork and the “power of the masses.”

Miki was right. Regardless of their intentions, the Church was using the gang like their own personal grunts. And Jo, at least, owed Byakko a lot fucking better.

The door to the front of the business suddenly opened, cutting through the tension with a loud chak.

Jo looked up. Adam walked in, raising a hand to reduce alarm. He looked unusually tired; he dragged his headless broom under his arm, the tip scraping across the floor.

A woman in an oversized jacket walked in behind him. It took Jo a second to recognize her as the woman living with Nick, taking care of Wipe in her crappy apartment above a strip club.

Hatsumi.

She murmured something to Adam in English. “Where’s Daniel-kun?” she asked, turning her eyes to Jo. Her glasses were gone, replaced with what looked like light-colored contacts.

She’d been hit by Touya before they had. She looked uninjured, but she was…pale. Something dark hovered around her like a low-hanging storm cloud.

Jo gestured to the room Daniel had disappeared into; Takeshi knocked on it without looking, his eyes locked in curiosity on the woman.

“You had the kung fu bodyguard,” Miki snapped in realization. “Where the hell are you coming from? We could’ve used him in the SUN raid.”

“T. Hospital,” she sighed, sarcasm twitching at the corner of her mouth. “Our hot new hangout. I checked on the leader of the girl gang, by the way–they just found some internal bleeding in her ultrasound. They’re prepping her for surgery.”

Jo went cold.

Miki cursed. “Surgery?!”

“It’s not major–she’ll be fine. Healthy kids your age can heal from anything.” She murmured something and rubbed her sinuses. “Can’t say the same for Nick.”

Dread welled up in Jo’s stomach. “T-Touya said he let him go,” he offered lamely.

“He did. But not until he shot Nick twice.” She closed her eyes and kept rubbing her sinuses. “I don’t know why Nick wouldn’t just give him the damn medicine and our notes. We can replicate it. But no, he had to face off with a junkie with a gun. Some…psychotic, soothsaying teenager who had just put a bullet in Wipe.”

“Is Nick dead?” Takeshi asked bluntly.

Hatsumi shook her head. “Not yet,” she murmured. “Nick’s in a coma.”

Proceed to Chapter 1, page 3–>