Darker Than Love

LIE TO ME WITH A KISS

At this point, it becomes very obvious that she is finally speaking with all honesty to him.

Kenji is now sure of this because he can read her face. She no longer puts a fake smile over her evident animosity against him and not even a snotty comeback had left her mouth after he asked her for the truth. In fact, what he actually got this time is her unexpectedly crumbling apart into a heap of total desolation in his arms. Whatever that has been pushing her to say that she wants to kill him herself must be something that she really feels so crucial and she has to strongly hold on to. At least, this is how Kenji sees it all as he watches and tries to comfort her without saying anything.

But what is the reason?

Why does she want to kill him so badly?

Kenji already knew that she has never been affiliated with anyone inside the Yakuza circle (though he still doubts she isn't). And she never even had any bad record written about her that they could see as something suspicious. The only probable cause that Kenji could really think of for her to want him dead is because someone who is still hiding in the dark (and who might also be his biggest enemy) was trying to make her do all of this.

Perhaps, that fucker has been blackmailing her all this time that she can not even refuse so she was left with no other choice but to try and kill Yanagi. But does not it sound quite cowardly and ridiculous? For her to agree, she must be really threatened.

And man is this so kind of not his cup of tea at all. All this heavy drama shit... Kenji can't really take it seriously. On top of that, he has to bear the situation with a woman. It feels like a total cliche plot in some melodrama show.

While the whole Dojima Clan is slowly reaching the brink of disrupting and falling apart, here is Kenji still trying to waste his effort just to comfort a murderous emotional woman in his arms. What the hell is happening here? He had only brought Cherry back to his place because he wanted her to be interrogated. He just wanted to see if she has anything to do with someone who might have been causing all the ruckus he was dealing with in the past few months. But what Kenji had never actually expected is to witness her go through this mess and even be affected by her teary show.

Is she probably just trying to manipulate him with her crying face? Because she certainly could weak any man with her sobs. Or maybe this is actually the real her. But then, she could still be just putting up an act so she could divert his attention away from asking more about who might have been ordering her to kill him.

Kenji Yanagi has always been an arrogant and domineering. He never got swayed by anything. But for some reason, (and this is so crazy) he could not force himself to brush off this woman's emotional show. He can not really explain why he feels this way, but he just can not really bring himself to leave her alone like this. And it really irritates him. He had acted cold towards many women in the past, yet it is so strangely frustrating that he could not do it to Aoi Chiba.

Maybe, it is something with the way she desperately clings onto his arms and buries her face on his chest now. Or because he also finds it quite satisfying to see a strong stubborn woman like her showing him this vulnerable side of her personality for a change. But is this all enough for him to make an exception after all? He could just be fooling himself again. So why is he so affected?

"Why don't you kill me now."

Aoi Chiba suddenly speaks up in a breathy voice, cutting off Kenji's inner thoughts, the instant she has loosened up from the sudden good cry she had let out for a couple of minutes long. As she comes back to her senses, she does not even feel any more embarrassed when she pulls away from Kenji and tries to stare up at his face. Kenji also looks down and meets her eyes, squinting back at her.

They try to hold each other's gaze for a long moment after she just gave him a question that had sounded more like a request than an inquisition. It's like she was finally giving him the burden to end this whole thing she has started. Yet for Kenji, it all just feels like a daring statement where she actually expects him to do just as she asks him to.

And he could actually do it. If he wants to, it can only take him a couple of seconds. He has been hiding a gun in one of his drawers in the kitchen hall and he could just walk away to get it so he can finish her off. Then she can finally have the death she really wants just as she said. But something still feels wrong with all of this.

For the very first time, Kenji is so loss in his thoughts that he could not even have a clear apprehension of what he must do with her.

"I don't have anything else to do with you," Aoi Chiba speaks again through the dead silence when Kenji did not try to respond back. "I just want to kill you, and nobody had asked me to do it. So, I don't get why you have to keep me alive now. Just kill me."

She is right. At this point, she no longer has any use for him. Kenji already knew this fact but he still keeps trying to avoid admitting that part. He had scanned all the needed information he could get about her. She could still be hiding something but he does not really expect her to tell him the truth anyway. If he ever really forces her to confess everything, she might just kill herself instead.

And that... Thinking about that, just changes so much inside Kenji. He can't really understand himself now but imagining that brutal part of the possible truth instantly makes him feel so disgusted and angry. For some unknown reason, he just could not bear her dying.

But what the hell, right? What is wrong with him? He had never felt this way with a woman in the past four years. The last time he did, it had never ended so well and it had left him so badly bruised and scarred until today. Is this a punishment then? For the times he has been so mercilessly killed so many people because he thinks it is a better way to get justice from the cruel side of this damned society?

"I... can't." Even for admitting his sins, this is the only thing Kenji could say in front of the distressed woman before him.

"Why?" he then hears her asking him back in a whimper. Her tone raises as she clutches the front of his shirt with her hands and demands again, "Why not kill me? Why still keep me here?"

"I just can't," It's the truth. And Kenji can not really think of any reason in his mind for saying that because this is all just making him feel even more conflicted. "I can only give you your freedom... but not just that."

"I don't need freedom! I came here to kill you, don't you get that?!" She tries to shake him with her weak arms, though she only ends up creasing the collar of his shirt. "I will just kill you if you keep me here for long! So just kill me now! KILL ME!"

She pleads so harshly, left with no reservations anymore. Her shouted cry echoes into the walls of the bedroom hall and she starts sobbing again. Slowly, her hands fall down as they let go of his shirt and she returns it on her lap. She bows her head afterwards and closes her eyes. This is so stupid... But she no longer cares if this is now the end for her.

"I'm sorry."

She scowls and bites her lip as soon as she hears him apologizing back to her. He does not really have to say that. Just like what Jin had told her, Kenji will never really kill a woman. And if he couldn't do it, then there is really no point in forcing him to. With that thought, Aoi Chiba suddenly moves and pushes her body up from where she has been sitting on the floor. Then she blindingly turns around, before starting to walk away from Kenji.

"Miss Chiba?"

Kenji anxiously calls out to her but she just ignores him as she crosses the living hall and heads straight into the kitchen area. She sees the sparkling steel knife block from a few steps away and consciously stops just by the counter where it is placed. She hears footsteps behind her. Kenji has quietly followed her with a worried face, unsure of what she is planning to do now.

"I have already decided that there's no reason for me to live anymore... If I could not kill you," Aoi says this after a moment, her eyes still focused on the knives before her.

"It does not ha-"

"I want to kill you," She interrupts him just as she hurriedly reaches towards the steel block and snatches one of the blades in it, turning around in a flash to face Kenji. The knife gleams under the flourescent light. Kenji quickly steps back in a protective stance as he tries to think of how to calm her down.

"I have to kill you, Kenji Yanagi," she tells him this again yet there is now a sad look on her face. She slowly points the tip of the knife towards him but fails to threaten Kenji as he only stares at her with a placid face.

"Put it down, Aoi. Don't do this..." he asks her, his right hand raising up with his palm facing her way, motioning her to let go of the weapon. He does not even realized that he had already addressed her with her first name. And all of a sudden, tears fall down Aoi Chiba's eyes and she lets out a loud mewling cry of pain.

"I have to kill you," she still dumbly repeats as she tries to wipe her cheeks. Yet unexpectedly, she also adds, "But I can't."

"Miss Chiba..."

"I couldn't," She shakes her head at him with a miserable face, her eyes slowly looking away and putting her hand along with the knife down beside her. "I'm sorry."

Kenji has thought for a second that she is finally letting the knife go. But in a split moment, Aoi Chiba suddenly puts her hand up again only to struck the blade towards herself. And like a slow motion playing infront of his very eyes, Kenji immediately runs up to catch the body of Aoi as she falls down. Her blood rapidly seeps out of her stomach, staining her blouse from the area where the knife has been buried in.

Aoi Chiba quickly blacks out as soon as Kenji hurriedly reaches for his phone in his pocket. Shaking in complete shock, he desperately calls out for her name several times. The shouts has been left unheard. Aoi Chiba still bleeds as her body slowly goes cold. Kenji's fear instantly reappears in his mind and he forcefully tries not to remind himself again of that one haunted moment in his life from four years ago.

He does not want to see it anymore. He can never let this woman die now in his very arms.

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What a long day.

Jin Sasai had been so worn out from all the tracing he did around the town since this morning that when he finally got to the end of it all, he just loudly let out a long deep sigh of huge relief and instinctively begun looking forward to a very nice hot dip in his bathtub back at Yanagi's building to rub all the exhaustion off of his body. But in the midst of his calm driving on the way back to the main headquarters, a call suddenly interrupted him with a disturbing purpose.

It was just a little past ten in the evening at the time, and Jin was initially surprised when he suddenly received a phone call tracing directly back from the main headquarters itself. And when he had answered on the second ring, one of Yanagi's men quickly informed him about an incident that just had happened between Kenji Yanagi and Cherry inside the Boss's place. Not much had been actually explained about what really took place there but right after he was told that the two had been already brought to a much safer location as per Kenji's orders and request, Jin did not waste any more time shifting opposite from where he was heading at that moment. He just swerved the wheel right to another direction at the nearest intersection ahead of the road and sped up again all the way straight to where the Boss was exactly right then.

Along with all the information he has been withholding until now from an all-day tenacious investigation he had purposefully conducted from a really long tour around the city, Jin rashly drives his car down to a private hospital located just at the south of Shinjuku. It has only taken him not more than fifteen minutes to even get there. And pulling over as he takes a quick turn onto the driveway, Jin maneuvers his car swiftly to a turn and heads down right away to an entrance road beside the hospital leading him into the parking lot building behind it. As soon as he reaches the back corner of the area inside, he immediately recognizes the small group of Yanagi's men waiting for him right there.

They have been all huddling together near a couple of black SUVs parked side by side to each other in a corner. And Jin pulls up on an empty space in front of them before he steps on the brake and finally turns off the engine. As he gets out of his black Maserati, the black-suited men quickly approach his side and bow their heads at him as their immediate courtesy. Jin just nods back to their greeting and immediately does not waste any more of his time before finally raising an urgent question, obviously not wanting to keep his anxiety any longer than he already has.

"What's the situation here?"

His short clipped demanding inquiry instantly summons one among the group who is seemingly the highest-ranked man out of all of them, and he briefly gives Jin a clear rundown of the important details that have happened until this point.

"We had arrived here around eight this evening upon Boss's persistent orders. It appears that Miss Cherry had stabbed herself on the stomach with a knife and she was immediately sent to the operating room by the Boss's personal doctor. She just got out of surgery roughly half an hour ago and is currently sleeping now inside the VIP suite that was also requested by the Boss himself. Boss Yanagi insisted at first not to tell you anything until everything has been settled. And that is why we took our time before we had contacted the main headquarters to reach you."

"I understand," Jin just responds in a monotone voice. Throughout the years he has worked around and alongside Yanagi, he already expects him to do things this way. "And what about the Boss?"

"He's in the VIP room with her. We have already sent out information after Boss Yanagi ordered us to give the updates to the central office of the Oyabun not long ago (*the head of the Yakuza Clan*). We've also secured the floor on where they are staying at and Boss has assigned several guards to keep watch by the door outside of the suite."

"Sakamoto and his men?"

Jin does not also let this one slip him by as he directly inquires about the old guy and his men as well. It is even more crucial now to keep a close eye on the current situation in Shibuya given that the Boss has been suddenly occupied with other circumstances... And what a way to really shackle things up like this. Not more than a few days ago, he was almost killed by a strange woman then got one of their headquarters terrorized by an explosion. And now, this?

"We have already received an update from the Shibuya's main office this afternoon. They said that the recuperation of the five injured men is already getting better than expected. However, Boss Sakamoto is still unconscious."

"I see," Jin then shortly comments. And as expected, he still keeps a neutral feeling about it. Just not until he finally gets to set things straight with Yanagi once and for all. Jin feels disturbed to even think about what could possibly happen from here on.

If Sakamoto still remains unconscious until the promotion date, things might really get harder for them to figure out who is really to blame for all of these incidents that have been going on inside the clan. If it keeps up, it would actually be even better if Sakamoto just stays inside the medical premises for now. Anytime soon, Jin could predict a big war coming that would really break apart Tokyo. And if it does happen, it would certainly tear up the big families who are taking over these districts involved. And it even seems like the killing attempts have not only been just happening to Yanagi alone.

Jin has also got some intel from just a few days ago about an ongoing personal clash between two other prominent families under the Dojima clan. In addition to that, more gang fights are also going rampant the past few months... And this obviously just indicates another upcoming strife ahead if these things still go on without any move to resolve them from the higher-ups.

Though, it's still not too clear if it has been all just something personal or not... But even then, it still sounds suspicious. Especially if it is something that could actually affect the whole clan. The Oyabun will get into big trouble as well. And if ever, what Jin has been guessing about the feuds between families appears to be really true after all, it would only meant doom. In all sense of the word.

"Good," Jin shortly comments this, finally after a long evident pause as he gets occupied with his inner thoughts.

And as he saunters his way to enter the hospital from the back entrance by the parking lot, he then turns his head to face the men behind him, ordering them to send another update back to the main headquarters about his arrival at the hospital. The men eventually follow his instruction as they disperse back and leaves him. Jin then also hurries his steps as he heads towards the elevators in the hospital's lobby. Shortly after the doors finally open for him, another one of Yanagi's men suddenly comes up to his side to silently escort him to the VIP room on the seventh floor.

The elevator quickly opens when they reach the destination and Jin just gives a firm to the four men guarding the doors outside the VIP suite at the end of the hall. They casually open the door for him, to which he just enters in silence. Jin immediately spots Kenji's presence inside who has been sitting on a chair beside the hospital bed where Cherry is still lying unconscious.

"Boss," Jin instinctively utters the word to Kenji right after he steps into the room and closes the door behind him. He bows his head to the young boss who turns on his seat to look at him.

"Did you find anything?" Kenji responds this back right away as soon as he receives Jin's initial greeting.

"Yes, I did," Jin then briefly answers, looking up to face forward and he meets Kenji's stare in a levelheaded gaze. And after a short pause, Jin continues to add more to his response with a serious face while he keeps his eyes locked with Yanagi's the whole moment, "I finally got something to lead us to where the enemy is, Boss. And Miss Cherry seems to be one of the clues."

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