Tokyo Demons Book 3: Chapter 3, Part 1

Jo was hurt worse than he realized. Maybe it was the concussion, but he didn’t remember getting to the hospital or the first battery of tests; when he finally woke up, it was the middle of the night. He was in a hospital bed, covered in bandages, Emi asleep in a chair by his side.

“The fuck?” he breathed, then winced and touched his chest.

He’d bruised ribs, lost bits of hair and scalp, torn through stitches. An overnight observation stretched into days after he fell from a twisted ankle, and the doctors confined him to a bed to let his body heal.

There was nowhere better for him to go, anyway. He wouldn’t mend on a karaoke couch or on the floor in the bowels of Blue Light. So he stayed at T. Hospital, snuck out for forbidden smoke breaks, and tried to keep track of which Byakko members were in the other rooms.

“Most of my girls have been discharged by now,” Mitsuko told him one day, deftly carving an apple with a switchblade. “Miki’s still got a few boys recuperating from major surgery, though. And there are the comatose guys.”

Jo sighed and leaned back in his chair. “The doctors think Nick’s gonna wake up, at least.”

“Mm. Wish I could say the same for Ban.” She excised a slice of apple and held it out to Jo. “Open up.”

He grimaced. “I’m not hungry.”

“You have to eat. We can’t fool around until we get our strength up.” She leaned closer, tilting so far off her chair that her breasts brushed his arm. “Aaah.”

Jo slowly opened his mouth. She slipped the apple slice inside.

“Have you heard from the Church today?”

Crunching the fruit in his mouth, Jo lurched from his chair and gingerly walked to his hospital bed, careful on his sore ankle. He fished his phone from his discarded robe.

Still no messages. He sighed and clapped his phone shut.

“No. I hope that means they’re busy.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Touya’s been missing for over a week. Ayase must be losing her shit.”

“When was the last time you talked to her?”

“A few days ago. I mostly just get updates through Kiyoshi–he’s been stuck on computer duty with her.” He dropped back into his chair. “I can’t believe we’re still scrambling for a lead after Nakajima’s batshit stunt at the prison. She seriously hasn’t gotten anything from those Core ops by now?”

Mitsuko shrugged and carved another slice from her apple. “Or she did, and she’s just not telling us.”

“Great.”

Mitsuko chuckled. “I know you’re worried about Kiyoshi, babe. But he’s in the safest place we’ve got. He’ll be fine.”

“I’m not worried about him,” Jo retorted, and he mostly meant it. Kiyoshi was quarantined in a Kiri safehouse with Ayase and Zayd. Even if Core did track him down there, they’d have a hell of a time doing anything.

And Kiyoshi was…handling it. Better than Jo had expected. Kiyoshi sounded so stable on the other end of the phone–a little distracted, maybe, but definitely not scared. The memory of him crying his eyes out the night Core kidnapped him felt so strange to Jo now.

Mitsuko popped the next slice in her mouth. “I don’t think Core’s shit list means much these days,” she murmured as she crunched. “We’ve hit them so hard lately that I doubt they have time to nurse grudges or even go on the offensive much. I think we’ve driven them up against the wall.”

“Feeling cornered might make them more dangerous now,” Jo pointed out.

“So what? We can handle it.” She beamed and held out another slice. “They ambushed a funeral and we still ended up on top.”

Jo stopped at that. A smile tugged his mouth.

Mitsuko pulled back the apple and instead leaned in to kiss him.

ka-chak

Jo looked up just as Miki pushed open the door.

A flood of awkwardness drove Jo back into his seat, adding space between his body and Mitsuko’s.

Miki sneered. “I’ll come back later,” he said darkly as he retreated.

“Get over here, Miki.” Mitsuko slid apple into her mouth and went back to carving. “Do you need to talk to Jo?”

“I need to talk to you. And I figured you’d be here–you practically live in this room now.”

She gestured with her head. “C’mere,” she called, holding out a slice of apple.

Miki hesitated in the doorway for a second, but Jo could tell he was less pissed off than usual. The guy seemed…deflated, almost. Depressed. After a few seconds, he clomped into the room.

“Did you ever apologize to Jo, by the way?”

Miki furrowed his brow. “Apologize for what?”

“For sucker-punching him back at the karaoke parlor.”

Miki scowled. “Who the fuck told you that?”

“Takeshi.”

Miki cursed under his breath.

“Apologize, Miki.”

“Fuck no.”

“Do it,” Mitsuko ordered, her voice suddenly sharp. “You were being an asshole.”

“I was defending you, Mitsuko! And I was defending the gangs from those…Churchie motherfuckers!”

“Jo saved your life back in Kiseki,” Mitsuko snapped. “And if you have a problem with the Churchies, that’s too fucking bad–we’re in bed with them. Deal with it.”

Jo’s stomach sank. He wanted to say something, but the thick tension in the air clogged his throat.

“I figured you’d be happy I decked someone for you,” Miki replied with a sneer. “Since I know how much you get off on people fighting over you like you’re their queen.”

Mitsuko angrily tossed the end of her apple into the wastebasket. “Don’t accuse me of being the one who gets off on friendly fire, you little shit.” She snapped her switchblade shut. “I never, ever, want two people I love getting violent with each other. Especially not over something so goddamn stupid.”

Miki’s single eye darkened. “Deciding whether or not to abandon you to die is not fucking stupid.”

Mitsuko didn’t reply–she just glared at him. Miki glared back. For a long, terrible moment, they smoldered in silence.

“L-look,” Jo interjected at last. “I don’t…need an apology. Miki had a right to be pissed.” He hesitated. “Not that I think you’re wrong, Mitsuko. I just…”

Mitsuko angrily brushed him off. “You proved yourself at the funeral, Jo. Even for someone as thickheaded as Miki. Now he’s gonna admit he was wrong about you and we can move on with our lives.”

Jo tried not to wince. Miki was staring at him, some loaded, wild emotion burning in his single eye.

The eye finally flicked away. Miki snorted, but some of the anger had diffused out of it.

“I wasn’t wrong about you,” he said thinly. “Because I wasn’t waiting for you to prove yourself to me. As far as I’m concerned, you did that a long time ago, Jo.” He crossed his arms. “I know you’d die for her. Or Byakko.”

Jo’s eyes widened. Miki irritably shook hair from his face.

“I was pissed. But not at you. You didn’t…deserve a fist to the jaw.”

Miki tightened his mouth into a line and said nothing more. After another moment of silence, Mitsuko sighed.

“You still didn’t say ‘sorry,’ you little ass.”

“He doesn’t need to,” Jo said quickly. “This is…fine. That’s fine.”

Miki muttered something and walked over to the bed. “But your Church friends,” he said, dropping himself to sit on the mattress, “can suck my sloppy dick.”

Mitsuko rolled her eyes. “Don’t you ever take out your personal shit on Jo again. He’s my boyfriend, so he’s under my protection.”

Miki dug a cigarette box from his pocket and shook out a stick. “You’re calling him your boyfriend now?” he asked as he lit up. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

Mitsuko glanced back at Jo with a smile. “We decided to try dating. We’re exclusive and everything.”

Miki grimaced around the cigarette. “Exclusive?”

“Yeah. And I mean it this time.”

Jo sat up. “You said you…came here to talk about something,” he said, desperate to change the topic. “With Mitsuko.”

Miki grunted. He ran his hands through his hair.

“My dad came looking for me.”

Mitsuko blinked. “Where? Here?”

“He must’ve called your parents or something and found out you were in the hospital. And figured I’d follow you.” Miki took a long drag. “Takeshi’s dad saw him on this floor. Said it was sometime yesterday.”

Mitsuko got to her feet. “Is everything okay?”

“Hell if I know–I didn’t see him. And the phone line at our place got cut months ago, so it’s not like I can call him.” He grumbled. “I left him plenty of rent money before I took off. I don’t know what more that dickless deadbeat wants from me.”

Mitsuko slowly walked to the bed and sat down beside him. He offered her the cigarette, and she took a puff off it.

Jo shifted awkwardly in his seat. He felt a compulsion to leave the room, but wondered if that would be worse. His stomach tightened slightly as Miki’s lips closed over the cigarette again.

“My dad was in a suit,” he muttered.

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Kobayashi said he’d cleaned himself up. Barely recognized him.”

Mitsuko mulled over that. “Maybe he was on his way to court. Finally got busted for all the gambling.”

“Maybe.” Miki took another drag. “Or maybe he was coming back from a funeral.” His eye rolled to the ceiling as smoke tumbled over his lips. “Maybe he finally found Mom and she was a corpse.”

Mitsuko stared at him. Miki wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Yikes.

Jo’s phone buzzed.

He jumped from his chair. He excused himself with a relieved murmur and limped out of the room, opening the phone on its fourth ring.

“Yeah?”

“Jo Oda!” Takeshi cooed, his voice still piercing over the fuzzy line. “You seen Mitsuko or Miki?”

Jo frowned. “Yeah. But they…need a minute.”

“Then pass on the good news for me, will ya? That old bitch finally got something out of those juiced-up Core cocks. She thinks she found Zero.”

Jo blinked. “What?”

“She thinks he’s holed up in some fancy, old-school house on the outskirts of the city. The place is probably a hundred years old, but it’s got crazy updated security and guards prowling around at all hours.” Takeshi laughed. “The dude’s just living in a house. Probably got a washing machine and a cat and shit.”

Jo’s palms started to sweat. “Does she think…Touya’s there?”

“Who knows? We’re just gonna raid the place. And the hag said she wants it off the books, so she’s letting us go in dirty.” Takeshi hummed his pleasure at that. “She’s got a day off in two days. We’re gonna do it then.”

Jo scowled. “Nakajima had better not be coming.”

“She’s good with a gun, man.”

“She might use it on us,” Jo snapped. “With the way she’s been throwing us under the bus lately.”

“Nah. Too much paperwork. Cops hate shooting people.”

Jo let out a frustrated breath. “Why do I have to keep telling everyone to stop trusting her?!” he exclaimed. “Shit, this is Touya all over again. It’s not worth it!”

Takeshi released a shrieking, high-pitched laugh that burst in Jo’s ear. Jo pulled the phone away from his face.

“Sometimes you’ve gotta stick to the devil you know, kitty cat.” Takeshi clicked his tongue. “Anyway, tell Miki and Mitsuko. And get your shit sorted, yeah? This might be the big one.”

Jo stared at the phone. He slowly brought it back to his ear.

“Two days?”

“Yup,” Takeshi drawled. “We’re gonna fuck up Core’s boss man.”

Proceed to Chapter 3, Part 1, page 3–>