Chapter 13. The Unstoppable Lady Bo

Chapter 13. The Unstoppable Lady Boss

Part 1. Choices

4.14 PM, around 10 hours before Akihito met Emi

"Arata, wait!"

Kou tried his best to catch up with Arata, but his friend didn't slow down at all. "Hey! I said, wait for me!" He finally managed to grab Arata's arm and bring the angry man into a stop. Arata turned around in irritation and Kou couldn't help but to flinch at the fury he saw in his friend's eyes.

"What, Kou?" Arata snapped.

They were both standing outside an abandoned manufacturing complex, around an hour drive outside the city. The complex was huge but it was totally empty. No one would hear his voice even if Kou screamed at the top of his lungs. Their phones didn't get any coverage here. It wasn't possible to call anyone if anything went wrong. Kou didn't think that it was wise for the two of them to walk into one of the building just because a text message that Arata received less than two hours ago.

Kou leaned towards his friend to catch his breath. He could understand his friend's need to get here as fast as possible. He truly did. But he still believed that they should go back to the city to get more friends before they entered the building. It would be better if they could ask the police to come. But Arata refused to involve the police, afraid that Mariko's kidnaper would somehow know that they didn't follow his order and hurt Mariko.

"Let's...," Kou tried to breath more air into his lungs as fast as possible. "Let's get back and get more people with us before we go there. No one would notice if something happened to us here. At least, someone else can stand here and report to the police if -"

"My sister needed me, Kou! I don't have time to waste! If you are too afraid to go there, just go home!"

Kou took another deep breath before he tried to argue one more time, "Listen to me, Arata! I just want us to be careful, okay? You are in panic. You don't think. Now, you need to calm down. Let's get a few more people-"

"Who?"

The flat question stopped Kou's reasoning. "Who what?"

'Great, I am so nervous, I can't even form a more comprehensible sentence. What a great preparation we had before we jumped into danger!' Kou thought bitterly.

"Who will come? The only friends I had were those people from the office. And they didn't want to have anything to do with me anymore after I was fired. I doubt they would come here even if I asked them to. Takato was on vacation with his family. And the text message clearly told us not to bring the police."

Well, this was the difficult part.

"Umm, I know someone, " Kou explained carefully. "He could help us. But I really, really, need to call him first. Let's drive to a place where we can get signal so I can make a phone call."

"Who is this guy? I couldn't trust just anyone. What if he called the police and jeopardizes everything? Mariko's life is in danger here."

Kou started fidgeting. How could he explain to Arata that the person he wanted to call was Akihito? Akihito would know what to do. His best friend was made to survive danger. Kou? He didn't even know how to escape when someone robbed his wallet and beat him into a pulp on his way home a few years ago.

"I can't tell you, Arata, but you have to trust me," he tried to calm his friend down. "My friend knows some people who can help us."

"Who. Is. He?" Arata let out each word through his gritted teeth.

Arata looked at Kou suspiciously and Kou couldn't blame him. Arata just received a short text message with Mariko's photo attached. The message was a typical threat that Kou often heard in any action movie. Basically it told Arata to come here if he wanted to get his sister back otherwise this person wouldn't guarantee what would happen to his sister. Kou wouldn't believe that message if not for the photo that was attached with the message. The photo was horrible and Kou vomited right after he took a look at that photo. He couldn't imagine what Arata felt and he understood why his friend couldn't trust anyone by now. Not even Kou.

Shit. This is the worst case ever.

"It is Akihito," Kou answered as calm as he could. He didn't want to anger Arata more than he already had. "Let me call Akihito. He will know what to do. Please, Arata. You have to trust me."

His answer rendered Arata speechless. Obviously, his friend didn't expect that name.

"Akihito was gone, Kou. You said that you couldn't contact him for months. No one could contact him."

"He was. But he contacted me two days ago. He was on a photography project in South East Asia or something. You know how he is," Kou tried to lighten the mood. This was not the time to explain about Akihito's lover and all. "Jobs come and he will fly there immediately. Akihito will know what to do, Arata. He was... You know that he worked as a crime photographer before, right? He knows these kinds of thing, how to handle it, the right people to contact and so on. It is in his blood. We? We know nothing."

"He's back and he doesn't call me." Arata looked lost and Kou didn't have the heart to break his friend's heart into more pieces.

"He is worried about you," Kou replied diplomatically while petting his friend's arm. "He asked me about you and he wanted to offer his help to find Mariko. Let's call him, Arata. He can help us."

For a short moment, Kou thought that he managed to persuade Arata to postpone his crazy plan to go into that building without preparation. His friend opened his mouth as if he wanted to agree. But then Arata's face turned harder and his friend shook his head bitterly.

"No. I wouldn't ask for his help," Arata replied in a sour tone.

Good god, have mercy on me. Why does Arata have to be stubborn about this now of all the time?

"Come on, man! Don't be ridiculous. We can't handle this alone," Kou argued.

"He wanted to be out of my life! He made his choice, Kou! I made mine! I am not going to ask for his help!" Arata shouted in anger. "Now, you made yours. Are you coming or not?"

What else could he say? He couldn't let Arata walking into danger alone. Kou let out a long sigh as he replied, "Of course I am coming with you."

5.44 PM, around 8 hours before Akihito met Emi

Kirishima sipped his coffee slowly as he watched the boy moving around the kitchen. Takaba-sama looked tired. He was sure the boy must be very angry at Asami-sama until he couldn't sleep. But Suoh was right. At least, Takaba-sama didn't run away like he usually did. Kirishima could only hope that he somehow managed to soften the boy's heart to forgive his boss. If the boy couldn't learn anything from Kirishima's experience with his sister, there would be nothing more he could do to change the boy's mind.