Tokyo Demons: Book 3, Chapter 5, Part 2

It was dark outside when Jo finally stepped out of the foggy bathroom and into his unlit suite. The giant window that stretched across his hotel room was like a shot in a movie–a perfect frame of blinking lights, glowing windows, and celebrity-plastered billboards amidst the dark glass of high-rises. He stared out at the glittering city, tallying in his head how much of the room’s cost was paying for that view.

He snapped on a lamp, then jumped back in surprise. “The hell!” he hissed as he clutched at the robe on his chest.

Sachi sat at the desk in the corner, his head buried in his arms. He stirred and tilted his head up.

“Huh…?”

Jo tried to calm his pounding heart. “Sachi, you scared the shit out of me.” He snapped on another lamp, throwing more light across the pristine, geometric furniture set in angles across the lush room. “Are you okay? It was pitch black in here.”

Sachi grunted and rubbed his eyes. “Sorry,” he murmured, the desk chair creaking as he leaned back. “I was just…thinking.”

And sleeping. Jo wondered where Kiyoshi was.

“We’ve got six beds and probably a dozen couches and love seats between these rooms,” Jo said, popping open the mini-fridge in the corner. “Literally anywhere is more comfortable than that desk.” He grabbed one of the several squeeze bottles he’d crammed in there earlier, walked over to Sachi, and held it out. “Here.”

Sachi stared at the brightly colored bottle.

“I promised Aisha-san I’d keep you hydrated. It’s one of those nutritional things Ayase’s pounding back.”

“Oh. Um…thanks.” Sachi slowly accepted it and turned the cap, cracking the plastic seal. After a squeezed-out sip, he made a face. “It’s…thick.”

Jo lowered himself into the opposite chair. “We’ve got some food, if you’re hungry.”

Sachi shook his head and squeezed the bottle in his mouth again.

The silence was a little awkward, so Jo dug through the pockets of his robe for his lighter and a loose cigarette. As he lit up, he suddenly noticed some paperwork on the desk, half-hidden under Sachi’s arms.

He blinked. A manila folder, and…

“Oh. Y-yeah.” Sachi slowly pulled back from the desk, revealing the sprawl of Hatsumi’s photos.

“Where did you get those?!”

“I think you took my bag by mistake, because this was with my stuff.”

A guilty pang shot off in Jo’s stomach. “Shit,” he hissed around the cigarette. “Look, Sachi. I wasn’t gonna drop those on everyone when–”

“I-it’s okay. I want to help.” Sachi lifted one of the photos of the grisly office murder. “Where is this?”

Jo cursed and took a long drag. “Hatsumi-san gave them to me,” he muttered, leaning back in his chair. “It’s a Core office that got hit today, and we don’t know who did it.”

“Really? We have no idea?”

I have an idea, Jo thought bitterly, but I can’t talk to you about it. He’d been planning to call Zayd after the bath, although he was dreading the conversation.

Sachi chewed on his lower lip, his eyes locked on one particular photo. It was a close-up of a blood smear on the wall.

“This one’s been bothering me,” Sachi murmured. “Since I saw it. It feels…familiar.”

“Huh?”

“It’s like a pattern. I mean, there’s a little splash around it, but look at this part.” Sachi pointed to two small, parallel smears on the wall–like rough cylinders, each a few centimeters thick. They were slightly stronger on the left end, and traced along the wall for about the width of a hand.

Jo furrowed his brow. “The edges aren’t that straight, so it’s probably not the imprint of a weapon.”

“That’s not what I mean. I can’t put my finger on it…” The moment he said the words, Sachi’s eyes widened. “Wait.” He grabbed his drink bottle and squeezed a liquidy dollop onto his middle and index fingers.

Then he pressed the two fingers together and smeared them across the desk.

The twin lines were sloppy, but they definitely resembled the streaks on the wall. Sachi paled.

“Touya,” he breathed. “This was Touya.”

Jo jerked his head up in shock. “What?”

“He does this…thing with his fingers when he’s thinking. Dragging them left to right.” Sachi swallowed. “You’ve never seen him do that? He did it obsessively in the penthouse. So if he was distracted while thinking about something, and he had blood on his hands…”

Jo ground his cigarette out in the ashtray and grabbed the photo. “Hatsumi said this was this morning. Then…”

Touya is alive.

Jo gripped his mouth as his stomach lurched. “Fuck. Fuck, Sachi, I’m sorry–”

“I-if he broke into a Core office and killed someone,” Sachi interrupted, “then he’s not Zero’s successor. Right? And he got blood on all these drawers–he was looking for something, right?!”

“There’s only one thing Touya could be looking for now.” Jo shoved his chair back and stood, his mind racing. He pulled his Church mobile from his pocket and flipped it open.

He scrolled down to Zayd’s name, opened a message, and added Nakajima. As he started frantically typing on his buttons, Zayd’s words echoed in his ears.

“Kadoyuki wants to follow Touya.”

Not kill, not capture…

Follow.

“Nobody knows who the successor is,” Jo repeated aloud as he punched into his phone. “But the successor has the Pitch. And now Touya needs the Pitch. No one on earth has a better chance of untangling Core’s secrets than the traitor who’s been trying to destroy them from the beginning.”

Sachi took a deep breath. “If we can’t find the Pitch…then maybe Touya can?”

“For once in our lives, we can use him.” Jo quickly scrolled up the screen to re-read his message.

It was Touya in the bloody Core office. He’s after the Pitch. If you can stay one step ahead of him, he’ll lead us right to it.

Jo’s mouth twitched.

He pressed send.

To be continued in Chapter 6, Part 1.