When Yukimura came to the apartment Niou shared with his best friend Yagyuu, the last thing the silver-haired man expected was for his old friend to catch hold his hands and stare fiercely into his eyes, saying, "Teach me how to swindle."
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"A hundred yen, that's all. What you'll get is ten times the amount you pay me."
How many times had he spoken those words? But it worked. A hundred yen wasn't very much. At the most, the person he spoke to would pass over the small silver coin in exchange for the token – lavender flowers, pressed and preserved to perfection onto a laminated card – that the seller would give them as proof.
Every time, they would get the promised amount within a week. Its source varied widely. Sometimes a friend suddenly remembered to pay a long-forgotten debt. Sometimes they received an unexpected bonus from their company. Sometimes their stocks rose for no apparent reason. Whatever the method, they received the amount.
Later, the seller would return. To take back his token, he would say. Every time, the buyer would want to keep it. Some out of curiosity; some out of greed; some, out of desperation or pressure from their families… Whatever it was, they would keep it. Naturally, they would pay a larger amount to test whether what had happened was coincidence or really a result of listening to this door-to-door salesperson.
This second time, they would once again receive the promised amount. This proved to them that the salesperson was for real. They gave the return, just as they'd said they would. Logically, the amounts of money handed over grew.
Buyers would soon start treating the seller as a friend or a business partner. The amount of money involved in each transaction would grow bigger and bigger. Then, all of a sudden, the seller would no longer visit; when the buyer tried to locate him, no trace of him could be found, as though he had never existed at all. Almost simultaneously, the buyer's stocks will fall, their companies would demote them, and debts would appear from nowhere – all sorts of monetary misfortune. Much more would be lost than what they had gained through their interaction with the salesperson. And a card, the same type as the one they'd bought, would arrive in their mail. On the flip side would be written, "Thank you very much, as always", signed with three words – 黒詐偽 (Kurosagi).
Buyers always thought that the all-black outfit was individual dress sense. They never knew they'd been swindled by an underworld organization.
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Introduction:Shindai is the capital of Japan, after Tokyo was leveled by a nuclear accident in the Third World War.
Farsighted leaders of that time had prepared for just such an accident, secretly isolating the country's most talented youths and gifted children on the reclaimed island, Tengi (天喜), at the limits of Japanese waters in the Pacific. They escaped the disaster, unscathed, and went on to build a city of their own. This city was named Shindai (神代), City of the Gods.
Centuries after its formation, Shindai flourished, a city of past and present, with groundbreaking technology built into Edo-period architecture. The young talents who had founded it had made sure to preserve their roots while growing and adapting with the present times.
City planning, social hierarchy and even governance were modeled on traditional Edo- and Meiji-era examples. The emperor was still a religious figurehead; the old shogun, however, was replaced by a 'king' – usually the most influential or successful businessman, instead of the most influential or successful warrior as it had been a millennium ago.
In Shindai, law was bendable as long as one could argue his point. If the criminal claimed that there was a loophole in the law and managed to persuade the jury of this, he would be freed and the lawmaker would be punished for making a flawed law. Thus the line between lawful and unlawful, right and wrong, was blurred to the extent that people could have one foot on either side and feel no difference.
It is in this strange, self-contradictory city, this large-scale manifestation of a paradox where lawmakers and lawbreakers can be one and the same, that we meet our favorite characters.
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I – Kimi Omou Yoru (Nights I Think of You)
Yukimura collapsed into an armchair, pulling off his black wig. He'd been masquerading as a female again.
"Were today's customers difficult to persuade?" inquired Yanagi from where he sat at a desk typing into a computer.
The blunette let out a sigh. "Tougher than usual. We might have to move on to a different region of Tokyo. They seem to be on edge because their neighbor just got swindled." His eyes glinted. "Coincidentally, I believe it was Niou who took care of them."
"I see." Yanagi finished what he was working on and turned to look at his best friend. "Niou's still out in the field?"
"When he has time," nodded Yukimura. "He likes to practice, even though his network is in top form."
"As is ours," the brunette reminded him. "Why do you insist on doing field work yourself?"
Yukimura let out a short bark of laughter. "Because unless I do, it'd feel like I'm doing nothing but sit back and watch the money roll in."
"That is the ideal." Niou strolled in leisurely, taking in the darkened room with the many computer screens as its only source of light apart from the dim streetlights outside the window. "That's what should be done by the criminal masterminds, but… I personally like it." He grinned.
Yanagi didn't even twitch at the sudden appearance of the silver-haired trickster. "Yes, but you're only swindling because you think it is fun. Yukimura –"
"Quiet, Renji," interrupted the beautiful blunette. The added Niou doesn't need to know didn't need to be spoken. Yanagi understood easily.
Niou yawned widely. "Ah, I know already. You needn't be so uptight. You're doing this to slap ol' Sanada in the face, aren't you?"
The other two occupants of the room were quiet. Niou took the opportunity to continue. "I hear he's the most likely candidate to take the place of the old Police First Deputy Commissioner." He snorted. "After all this time, he still believes in justice. Both of you got swindled by the same guy, if I remember correctly. What was his name… ah, Echizen, that's it, Echizen Ryoma. Swindled you clean. Ten billion bucks in total. The guy's a genius."
"Niou, I think –" began Yanagi, with a cautious glance at his companion.
"No, it's fine. Go on. I want to see how much you know," said Yukimura, smiling.
It wasn't a very friendly smile, what with the flash of teeth and all, but Niou ignored it. "You couldn't get any evidence on him, though. Neither could Sanada. So the police kicked you out. I mean, they aren't going to produce a warrant of arrest for the king's boyfriend with nothing more than the word of a couple of commoners."
"However…" Niou looked at the blunette, his eyes showing his confusion. "You came to me and asked me to teach you how to swindle. Of all things, you became a swindler. Why?"
"Saa… you just told a whole long story, and you still don't know?" Yukimura sounded almost teasing.
"Nope. The only reason I can come up with is that you need funds, but you don't – I know your account books like my own," replied Niou. "You can't be going for revenge, because you aren't targeting Echizen. In any case, your tactic can't be used on him. He's got all the money he'd ever need or want, being the king's boyfriend."
"Atobe-sama spoils him," commented Yanagi. "But that's to be expected."
Yukimura stood up. "Figure it out yourself. You're the Petenshi here." Walking towards the door, he added, "Don't wake me up tomorrow, Renji. I wish to sleep in."
He was gone in a swish of black silk.
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"So, now that he's gone, do you mind telling me exactly what's wrong with him?" inquired Niou, taking Yukimura's place in the armchair.
Yanagi raised an eyebrow. "You do realize that a significant amount of the content of your speech was wrong."
Niou shrugged, nonchalant. "I don't care. Tell me."
"Yukimura's broken," stated the brunette matter-of-factly. "If a normal person's metaphorical heart is represented by a piece of cloth, Yukimura's would be torn and tattered to the point of irreparability. He lost what little sanity remained to him after his bout with leukemia when Sanada abandoned him."
"Ah… I knew Sanada had a finger in this pretty little mud pie," commented Niou. "But he's married already. Does Yukimura want him back or something?"
Yanagi thought about it for a moment. "No. But allow me to finish." He turned back to one of the computers. "I have done extensive research into Yukimura's motives behind the creation of Kurosagi, and concluded that his swindling by Echizen Ryoma actually only played a small role. In truth, the whole ten billion was swindled from Sanada."
Surprised, Niou sat up. "But –"
"Officially, it was announced that a total of ten billion was swindled from Sanada and Yukimura," interrupted Yanagi. "However, I went through Yukimura's accounts extremely meticulously – and found that five billion, supposedly from Yukimura, actually came from a bank account Yukimura had originally shared with Sanada. A bank account from which Yukimura had withdrawn all his money a mere fortnight before when he and Sanada broke up."
Niou whistled. "Smart guy. He planned it, didn't he?"
Nodding, Yanagi said, "That is the conclusion I came to. By the time Echizen came to carry out his job, Sanada was engaged to be married – with the fiancée his parents had arranged for him when they were barely three months old. Yukimura shredded the invitation to the ceremony."
"That's to be expected. Sanada's a real rock-head for thinking that Yukimura would let it go just like that," muttered the silver-haired man. "Hell, they were together for five years straight. Since we turned eighteen."
"Yes, I thought Sanada insensitive too," agreed Yanagi. "In any case, Echizen swindled Sanada just before going on to Yukimura. He knew about what happened to Sanada, and he knew Echizen was the culprit. But instead of hauling him off to the police, Yukimura asked Echizen to teach him to swindle. He wanted to be able to cause the kind of pain Echizen had given Sanada."
"He wanted to swindle Sanada?" asked Niou, curious.
The brunette shook his head. "No. I think that what Yukimura wanted was to spread pain to the rest of humankind. His belief is that if he suffered, others should as well."
"That," began Niou, sounding rather incredulous, "is one seriously warped way of thinking."
"I told you he lost his mind." Yanagi shrugged. "He was obsessed about this. After you taught him – not that I blame you – he came to me, and I decided to help him out with the technical area of things. Both you and I were keys to his becoming Kurosagi."
Niou nodded thoughtfully. "'Black Swindler', eh. Did he ever mention why 'black'?"
"Well, you're called Shirosagi (White Swindler) in the underworld," Yanagi reminded him. "As we both know, Aosagi (Blue Swindler) is a general term for male or business swindlers while Akasagi (Red Swindler) is a general term for female or emotion swindlers. Kurosagi seems to be one of the few colors left. Also, 'black' does fit his supposed image of an angel of death."
"… I see." Wandering over to the computers, Niou raised his eyebrows, impressed, at the spectacle. Screen after screen of complicated information stood on the table ledge that wrapped three-quarters of the room. Stocks. Bank deficits. Trade relations. Everything that Yukimura's swindling scheme did or might require. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"
Yanagi smiled slightly. "Sadaharu works for the police. It would be an unfair advantage for Sanada if I didn't help Yukimura out."
"Ah, so you're just doing this to upstage Inui," smirked Niou. "I should've known."
The brunette ignored the comment, turning to a computer screen that had a flashing red arrow erratically tracing a graph of something Niou didn't bother asking about. "Do you have so much time to spare, Niou? I believe Yagyuu's waiting for you."
Niou looked up immediately. "Damn. I forgot," he muttered. "Well, see you around then."
The data master was once again alone in the dark room with his computers and their statistics, graphs, and information.
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Yukimura stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. "He still hasn't taken up the challenge," he murmured softly to himself.
He'd thought Sanada would be determinedly and noisily trying to track down the mastermind of this widespread swindling case. Clues abounded – the way files of information on Kurosagi vanished within days from every single computer or any similar technological storage device reeked of the presence of an accomplished data master; the cruel, final blow of the 'thank-you card' received by the victims was something only a precious few were sadistic enough to carry out.
Sanada had to know that his one-time lover was behind this. If he didn't, he was a lot more useless than he had been before. If he didn't, this entire set-up was a waste of time, money and effort.
Turning over in his bed, Yukimura thought, He's denying my existence. But I will force him to acknowledge me – by whatever means necessary.
He reached out to his bedside table, groping for his cell phone. Having located it, he quickly pressed 3 then speed dial.
The ringing went on for quite a while. Normal people would be asleep at this time, reasoned Yukimura. It was well past midnight already.
Just when he was about to give up, the call was picked up. "Mmmph… whaddahell d'ya wan', callin' at such 'n unholy hour?" mumbled the other person.
Yukimura felt himself smile, just a little. "Akaya, it's me."
"Y-Yukimura-san!" The voice immediately changed in tone. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to be rude or anything; I really –"
"Akaya," interrupted Yukimura. "It's fine."
"Oh." Akaya's frantic rush of speech screeched to a halt. "Okay. So… erm… why did you call?"
"I have a favor to ask of you, Akaya," began the pretty blunette.
"Anything for you, Yukimura-san," was the eager reply. Akaya's devoted adoration of Yukimura was no secret to anyone but himself.
The small smile on Yukimura's lips stretched slightly. "Get Sanada put in charge of the Kurosagi case. Do whatever needs to be done."
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Across the city, Sanada was only just sliding under his sheets. It had been a long day of work, and he wanted nothing more than to be able to enjoy deep, dreamless and immediate sleep.
Yet, strangely, sleep did not come. Tossing and turning was not an option, since that would wake up his wife. Suppressing a sigh of frustration, he lay on his side and stared straight ahead, out of the window.
A picture on the window ledge caught his eye, though he could barely remember the last time he'd looked at it. It was a candid shot of himself and Yukimura, the latter smiling happily at the camera while the former kept his usual stoic façade.
Unbidden, his mind compared the Yukimura in the old photograph with his last, already fading memory of his ex-boyfriend – the laughing eyes become red and swollen from furious tears, the soft, sweet voice turned hoarse and cracked from screams, the serenity he had once seemed to embody buried beneath the desperate insanity that had taken over him, evident in his reckless hurling of any object that was within his reach.
Sanada knew well that he had caused Yukimura to lose his mind. He did sometimes feel a pang of regret that he had destroyed a fellow human being's ability to feel, to trust, to believe. But that Yukimura would turn into a swindler was something he had never thought would happen.
It had to be Yukimura behind this troublesome Kurosagi case. Inui had immediately recognized his old friend Renji's hand in the proceedings upon initiation into the case soon after his promotion. The strange consideration of aesthetics reminded him strongly of Yukimura. Plus, he knew Yanagi and Yukimura had always got along well.
It was his fault the city suffered from the Kurosagi, because it was he who had turned Yukimura into Kurosagi. He would have to take responsibility for this.
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A/N: I have returned to the PoT fandom! And just in time too, I hope… I wanted to keep this ficcy in reserve for a while longer, then realized that fandoms do eventually die off when the anime stops airing (the PoT Next Story random eps do not count .). So here it is, my first AU fic ever, involving what feels like the largest cast of characters ever in a universe that obeys no one but me, the great Ore-sama XD
This is really just to test the waters. I'll be back in a few weeks time with the next installment (exams, exams, exams) so I hope you liked this enough to wait for me :-X I personally don't particularly like my beginning, but this was the best I could get it to be :-S
By the way, this is a average-length multichap by my standards, so you have been warned ;-D The chapter titles (and actually the fic title too) are all songs by J-pop boy band NEWS under JE, one of my favorites. I chose the titles for their names rather than the songs they represent, so there's no need to know the song to understand the ficcy (though listening to them is always good ^^).
Please Review! I'd really like to know what you think ^^ any kind of constructive feedback is welcome!