Eternal Melody

"But you admit your group distributed it? You admit that you didn\'t do anything to stop it despite finding out." Sumire trailed off. "That is equally just as bad."

It happened very quickly. There was a subordinate near Rick who had been standing close. Yuhi simply thought he was the personal bodyguard, so he didn\'t think much of it. That was until he realized that the man was staring at Sumire with a dark gaze.

When Sumire first told him about coming here, he canceled his prior plans. Normally she would have lectured him for canceling his work because of him. But she didn\'t this time; she agreed right away.

Yuhi thought there would be something special about today\'s deal. But there was no such thing.

The reason she invited him along was for this purpose, to watch her back. He pulled out a gun and looked towards the violent man.

Yuhi didn\'t hesitate to shoot the man who attacked Sumire.

The weight of a gun is heavy, even a small one like the one in his hands. The weight of the materials and the weight of the price one pays every time they use it.

It doesn\'t take long for an amateur to end a person\'s life. A person doesn\'t have to have the experience to use a gun.

Yuhi\'s gaze fell on the man on the ground and sighed deeply. He already knew without checking that the person was dead. Yuhi turned to the head guy.

"If you can\'t control your people, don\'t expect us to do the same."

It was a bluff, of course. He and Sumire came here themselves; they didn\'t bring anybody else with them.

"It seems you are modest. You don\'t have to call your people in." The man was wiping his face with a handkerchief.

It took him a moment to realize why he was behaving this way. Yuhi thought it was because Rick was frightened that he killed his subordinate, but it wasn\'t. Sumire stood directly behind Rick with a blade at his neck.

A dagger made out of blood, anybody who looked at it would get scared. Yorick probably thinks Sumire has peculiar hobbies. It is normal to think that way in this situation, but Sumire isn\'t using her victim\'s blood but her own.

\'I wonder if there is a way she can summon those weapons without her blood.\' Yuhi sighed in defeat. If only they both didn\'t end up with such unusual abilities.

"I see, but," her gaze darkened. "It was your men who attacked us. Don\'t you think we should get something more out of this?"

"S--something more?"

A devilish smile appeared on Sumire\'s face. "Move your business elsewhere, away from Tokyo and Star Town."

Rick looked frightened at those words. "Y--you know about--"

"Of course I do. Do you think I won\'t hear what is happening over there just because I am in Tokyo? Please, do you think my position is just a lacy decoration?"

Each word of hers contained venom, and he felt the temperature in the room drop.

Yuhi turned to the frightened Rick. "Do you really have time to ponder on other options? Answer her now; it\'s either yes or no." Yuhi pointed the gun towards him. "Choose."

He didn\'t say much, but it was enough for the poor man to break down at last.

After Sumire forced him to sign a contract with his own blood as a signature, they left the building.

How did she do that?

Yuhi recalled the needle she pulled out of her bag several minutes ago. \'She can be very scary when she wants to be. While I acknowledge her scary side, it is a bit impressive considering how she normally is.\'

The dangerous aura had yet to leave her, so Yuhi leaned down and kissed her lips.

Sumire blushed and pushed him away with her hands. "Stop."

"I can\'t; you\'re too pretty."

"Are you really saying that now, idiot?"

Yuhi knew that whenever she showed her frightening side, she would put up a wall between them.

"If I am?" Yuhi cupped her cheeks. "You don\'t have to look away; you know I accept everything about you."

"But sometimes that is suffocating."

"I am aware, but it is better than to leave you be. If I do, you will have crazy thoughts again."

"Yuhi, you know I--"

Yuhi shook his head. "There is no need to explain, I understand. Besides, both of us have seen enough blood to last a few decades. You\'re not the only one who has done terrible things, Sumire."

She pulled his hands away from her face and walked a few steps ahead.

"Do you ever ask yourself why we both got involved in the underworld? Even if we got dragged into it, we could have walked away during the early stages. It\'s not like we both had good positions earlier on. We were both hunting dogs, both tools. If we wanted to leave, nobody would have missed us."

Indeed, it is exactly like what she says. They could have left much sooner. But the reason he didn\'t walk away from it all, huh?

"Working by your side, I realized I was worth so much more. I wasn\'t a hunting dog but an actual detective."

Working alongside her in an underground organization, strangely enough he felt like a professional detective rather than a delinquent.

Sumire paused for a moment before she mumbled. "So you went back?"

"I wanted to work with you again, lime that. Sure the line of work we engage in is dodgy and may ruin our careers if people find out. But somebody has to do the dirty work to maintain peace. Others look down on this line of work but I find it a meaningful way to contribute to society."

Sumire sighed. "Only you would think of it that way, Yuhi-san."

"So, what is your reason?"

"I wanted to stop feeling so powerless and carve proof of my existence. Even if I had to resort to turning to the ugly side of society." Sumire whispered.

\'It\'s not like I didn\'t know that. I worked as her partner for a while; it didn\'t take long before he understood her way of thinking.\'

This is the first time she has admitted it, though.

"Although my family and I didn\'t get along well, they still shielded me from the darkest parts of society. Because of that, I believed they did care, even if they communicated wrongly."

"Do you miss them?"

It was a stupid question. During the times Sumire spoke about her family, she would get this look on her face.