World's Apart- Akashi Takeomi

The Warehouse

The rest of the week was a blur. That night left you so emotionally drained that you were just going through the motions to get by. Today is finally Friday, meaning that you're meeting up with ONTBEN at their new warehouse. You had to quickly pull yourself together in order to put your best foot forward in front of the client. The better you present yourself today means more opportunities coming your way later on.

You're currently driving towards the address that was sent to you by secretary. The warehouse was on the very outskirts of Tokyo, so it was taking quite a bit of time to get there considering you had to fight your way through morning traffic. Once you exit off of the highway, you take a few more turns before you pull in to a long gravel driveway leading to the warehouse. Parked outside was a variety of different luxury vehicles. You felt yourself grow nervous. You were already skeptical of this "pharmaceutical" business and you were here alone, your boss bailing on the meeting due to scheduling conflicts.

You step out of the car and you were immediately greeted by the familiar face of Kakucho. You flashed him a big smile and greet him with a good morning.

"Please follow me, I will be showing you around and then we'll meet with some of the others towards the end." He says, getting straight to the point of your visit. 

After spending about 40 minutes touring the desolate warehouse, jotting down notes about the layout for that will need to be relayed to the contractors, you two were approaching the end of the tour. Kakucho was strictly business during the entire tour, only talking about things that pertained to the project, never once smiling or straying away from the topic at hand. Although this was nice from a business perspective, it would be nice if he were a little more personable so you two could build a better connection.

"These are the offices, this is where we'll meet with the head of the organization and a few other guys."

You nod. "Head of the organization?" You wonder to yourself, still not able to shake the feeling that something is off here. You two walk through a pair of double doors that lead into the office. You see the familiar face of Kokonoi staring out one of the dirty warehouse windows. Also in this room you saw a man with two distinctive scars running down each side of this mouth sitting near a desk with another man with slicked back hair and a goatee. These two men were introduced as Sanzu and Mochi. Mochi seemed to be quite bored sitting here while Sanzu has a bone chilling smile plastered across his face with a familiar set of eyes.

"Oh, it's you," says a man sitting in the head chair behind the large, mahogany desk.

"Mikey?" It's been such a long time."

You had met Mikey back when he was still in elementary school. He always seemed like such a happy kid back then, but the look in his eyes now sent a chill down your spine. The dead look in his eyes is paired with deep, dark bags underneath, but after the things he had been through, you weren't necessarily surprised, but there was one thing you knew for certain now; you aren't working with some pharmaceutical start up company. This is a criminal organization. 

"You know her boss?" Questions Sanzu.

"She was dating Shinichiro before he was killed."

You felt a wave of grief wash over you as your mind wandered back to the time you had spent with Shinichiro. You had met him not too long after things with Takeomi had ended. You were still struggling from the difficult breakup, but Shinichiro's kindness and positive world outlook was so refreshing, you began to forget you were sad in the first place. You didn't know too much about his personal life, although you had met Mikey on a few occasions when you would visit Shinichiro at his house or when you would bring him lunch as he worked on bikes in his shop. You two had only been dating for a few months when the incident happened. The next few years after the incident were a blur for you. You threw yourself into your school work trying to keep yourself distracted. You would refuse to leave the house unless it was for class. You felt like you didn't deserve to be happy. Why else would these things happen to you? You were so wrapped up in your own sadness and self pity, you had forgotten about the young kid that was the closest to Shin-chan, Mikey.

The doors behind you burst open, startling you out of you thoughts. Turning around, you are met with the cold eyes of Akashi Takeomi. 

Author's Note:

I made it halfway through the next part before I realized I was I was writing "Mickey" and not "Mikey."  🙃