RIVALS INCARNATE

Chapter Nineteen: Dirty Games

PRESENT, 2020 (TOKYO)

"I believe in Kurosaki."

Yuko Amazawa selfishly took the chance to finally speak up for herself, responding back to what Ami Komatsu just confidently remarked as she looked up and stared at the woman across the table. In such respect, she had already felt the certainty in those words. And as she placed a smirk on her lips, Yuko briefly chuckled as she went on.

"There's no doubt he'll make it to the cut. The only thing we have to handle is the competition."

"Then, I assume all of you already know what the dirty games are about," Ami bluntly exposed, her innocent face suddenly showing a partial look of an unpleasant side that she was trying to hide inside her. Osamu's eyes sparkled, liking how she had chosen to be brusque in approach. At this point, he already had both of his ears perking, getting more interested as the conversation got way more serious. There was no sense in trying to circle around the unspoken truth. Everybody in the economic and political scene knew what were the dirty games for. 

"I don't think we have to really go that far, Komatsu-san," Kyouhei who had suddenly turned white and was now evidently looking uncomfortable of the topic immediately interfered, voicing out his opinion. "It's not the only thing that could help us win, right? Surely, we got more things to focus on. The deliberation is not yet confirmed."

Smirking, Osamu chose to keep his suggestions as he waited for someone else to speak up.

"What's with the hesitance, Kurosaki-kun?" Ami chose to refute back, merely smiling at Kyouhei with a raised brow, "You know how this society works already. You can't possibly just easily win the entire game if you are that too scared to go way nasty down the business."

She was really blunt and too brazen with that. And hearing her words, Kyouhei felt extremely queasy and dismayed inside. He knew about the dark and dirty world of politics. He had seen it all, tried to evade it as much as possible. And even when it was what could definitely help him the most in this career, he never really liked the idea of using that dirty way just to help himself win in this campaign. Kyouhei could gamble his chance all the way through it but he would never dare to cheat... Or get ahead of someone unjustifiably. Being the kind of person that he was who only had good intentions in running for the higher office, Kurosaki could never really bear to do such ill ways just to make his dreams come true.

"I have confidence in what I could do and what I could show as someone competent enough to run for Prime Minister position," Kyouhei strongly implied, refusing to back down, "And I am very sure, that I could win in my own clean way. I don't need any kind of unnecessary special treatment."

And with that statement, Kyouhei stood from his seat, not even halfway through the sixth course of their meal, and abruptly excused himself from the group. He just could no longer endure the entire situation, driven by his own pride.

"Excuse me," he told the three who gawked at him as Kyouhei removed the table napkin from his lap and dropped it on the table, "But I think this is all for me now in regards to this meeting. Forgive my rudeness, but thank you, Komatsu-san for this meal. Have a nice one."

Yuko watched as Kyouhei walked out of the VIP room and left them in eerie silence. She did not actually expect him to have enough courage to really stand up for himself, though he has always had that kind of attitude. When things don't clash with his belief and morals, Kyouhei would always speak up. However, Yuko had thought he would have been much nicer since they were talking with Ami Komatsu. 

Ami Komatsu was still a very important factor in their lives now. And as soon as the thought of the woman came into her mind, Yuko turned to give Ami a glance from where she sat and saw her looking shellshocked as well. She probably did not see that coming too.

"What was that?" Ami scoffing after a moment of silence, and looked up to meet Yuko's gaze, "Did he just really walked out on us right now?"

The sudden exit must have really turned her off, as Ami could no longer conceal her utter disappointment and chagrin shown on her beautiful face. That had been really way offensive on her part, and Yuko could only empathize. Thinking of a way to fix this entire mess, Yuko thought of another thing instead. She carefully moved over her seat and stood up.

"I sincerely apologize on behalf of Kurosaki, Komatsu-san," Yuko humbly expressed, looking sincerely regretful as she spoke, "Let me just talk things over with him for now. As for me, I agree with your plans, and I think we really need your help this time. Though I hope you could still give me time to explain everything first with Kurosaki, then we will surely get back to you right away."

Yuko waited for a response before she could even leave, but as she stood there looking at Ami, the latter just stared at her with an unreadable expression. She could even feel every inch of her body being keenly scanned by Ami's deep gaze and Yuko resisted flinching while she kept her silence.  And after quite an unbearably long few minutes, Ami finally dropped the gaze and took one more sip from her glass of wine.

"Alright," Ami eventually let go, sighing softly, "I'll give you all the time you need, Amazawa-san. I want Kyouhei and no one else. So I trust you to bring him back to me soon."

It was not just a request, it was a clear order. And even though Yuko hated being dominated in such an arrogant way, she held back a reply. It was surreal, to actually see Aoi's soul in that body with that voice and words coming out of her mouth, Ami was so much far different from Shin's past lover.

"Thank you. I'll be leaving now then," was all that Yuko had managed to say after a moment, and giving both Osamu and Ami a bow of her head, she finally walked away.

It was not until she had eventually stepped out of the entire place and was now standing by the front driveway that Yuko let out a long controlled sigh. She suddenly craved for a cigarette, the inner Shin inside her overtook her thoughts. She was beyond livid. That was pretty bad. She hated the outcome of the meeting but she can no longer back down from it. 

Who would have thought that such a delicate woman would have turned out to be a she-devil disguised in sheep's clothing after being reborn? 

Yuko was just about to go and call Mr. Sugine to pick her up when a masculine hand suddenly held her back and gently spun her around. She was too startled to react right away as she was greeted by the sight of Kyouhei standing before her, too close for her liking. Why does he keep doing that? Yet she was too slow to avoid it, unfortunately.

"You don't have to call your driver," Kyouhei quickly told her, holding her phone.

"You're still here?" Yuko frowned back, looking at him. She was still too stunned to even realize that he already took her phone away and she was now plastered all over him, her hands placed on top of his arms.

"I knew you'd follow me out here," Kyouhei replied without missing a beat, sounding quite just certain of that assumption as well. He was aware that his hands were settled around Yuko's waist but did nothing to remove them with his face slowly turning apologetic as he stared down at her. "I know that what I did back there was out of hand, I'm really sorry."

He looked very genuine. And Yuko was almost swayed by his unusual gentleness. He never strayed his eyes off of her, locking their eyes in a long gaze. It took a few more seconds for Yuko to finally gather her wits. And when she finally realized their position, she abruptly stepped away and shook her head aggressively. She gave Kyouhei a silent accusatory look, feeling entirely confused and deceived by him. She could not even explain why she had just suddenly gone into a short trance and made herself oblivious of his actions.

"Whatever." she just sternly told him, blinking her eyes a few times while she glared, "What's done is done. But we need to talk about it now."

"Okay," Kyouhei simply shrugged, sighing. Though he looked not even the slightest guilty of what he did, he went on, "Let's wait for my car then. I'll drive you back to your place."

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"That now leaves the two of us, huh?"

Ami Komatsu stared blankly with a bitter smile on her face at the vacant spot beside her, feeling a little regretful about the abrupt end of their lunch. She really still could not believe that Kyouhei would walk out like that. Maybe she had been too forward this time, she should have been more careful.

"You totally should appreciate the food here, Komatsu-san," a voice across the table quickly had Ami looking up to stare at the nonchalant appearance of Osamu Sato who was still actually chewing food in his mouth as he spoke at her with a sly smirk, "It's the only reason why I'm still here, to be honest. Really good texture of the meat. Compliments to the chef."

Chuckling at his comical remark, Ami Komatsu slowly leaned back on her chair and stared attentively at the only company she had left with. What a twist.

"I'm glad you liked it," she vainly responded back after a short pause, rolling her eyes, "Though you don't really have to do this anymore. You could just leave, you know?"

"Oh, no," Osamu vehemently shook his head, frowning at her, faking interest as he went on, "No way. We still haven't gotten to the dessert yet, Komatsu-san. And I think you just dropped the formalities with me. Is that a good thing?"

Ami just laughed. And taking that as his cue, Osamu quickly added on.

"About that dirty game though..." he began, slowly slicing through his steak as he watched the play of emotions on the woman's face across him, "Why don't you tell me more of that plan of yours, Komatsu-san? After all, you paid for this lunch, right? It would be too bad to waste it all away for nothing."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------next chapter: Chapter Twenty