Chapter 1

The water puddle rippled as a heavy boot briskly stepped right onto its center. The footwear was quickly lifted, leaving the ripple to reverberate only due to the raindrops falling heavily on the dark city.

The owner of the boot swiftly and gracefully walked along the street, not bothering to pay attention to the people trying to take shelter under the canopies of the shops. He himself was drenched from head to toe; his shoulder-length blond hair was so wet the fringe stuck to his forehead and hindered his sight. His coat, now having the extra weight of absorbed water and clinging to his tall, well-built frame, did not help matters.

He cursed inwardly at himself for disregarding his mother's wise advice to bring an umbrella earlier before he had left his family's home. And that had occurred twelve hours ago.

His emerald green eyes caught sight of the shady bar he was heading to, and his footsteps quickened. He threw the doors open with an unneeded force, startling the other patrons who had made themselves comfortable in the warm establishment.

"Hizri!" He heard a familiar voice calling him. His head snapped up, causing raindrops to scatter around from his hair, and he immediately saw a bespectacled man waving at him from one of the tables around the corner of the room. This man was wearing a crisply tidy light brown suit, matching the color of his neatly styled hair.

The drenched man strode towards the table. "Good day to you too, Yashiro," he sarcastically greeted the other man when he noticed the mocking grin on his face. "It's nice of you to tell me to go here in such weather."

"No need to thank me, Kuon," Yukihito Yashiro replied smugly, straightening his glasses back up to perch on the bridge of his nose. "If there's anything to blame, just blame the weather forecast for not predicting this storm yesterday, and your stupidity for not bringing an umbrella before you set out to work even though the dark clouds have been there since this morning."

"Shut it," Kuon grumbled moodily. "Whatever I decide to have, it'll be on you."

The brunet just sighed. "Alright," he said. "It's on the office's tab, anyway. The Chief's the one paying."

A waiter approached them, gaining their attention. "Scotch on the rocks for me," Kuon ordered before turning back to his companion. "So, what is it that you want to talk about that can't be discussed in the office?"

"Jack Daniel's, thank you," Yashiro told the waiter. He then frowned at the blonde man before him. "Couldn't you wait until there's no one in our vicinity?"

"If you want complete privacy, you picked the completely wrong place, Yuki," Kuon told him in all honesty. "So?"

Yashiro pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses frame. "The operation failed, Kuon."

The green-eyed man was stunned. "What?"

"I said," the brunette repeated slowly, stressing each word he was saying, "The operation failed. Miserably. When the squad broke into the room, the goods were already transported to other places God knows where, and the goons opened fire only seconds after that—"

"Hold on," Kuon halted his chattering. "Which operation are you talking about? The drug transaction or the—"

"The slave auction," Yashiro cut him off, a bit displeased.

"They opened fire?" the taller man asked in disbelief. "That's nuts."

The bespectacled man grumbled under his breath, "That's what I told them. Worse thing I have to tell you, though: Koo-san got shot. Not endangering his life!" He quickly added when Kuon almost shot up from his seat in shock and bolt out of the bar. "Only on the shoulder blade, but reality is, he won't be up to work again for how long it'll take him to fully recuperate again, or else your mother will kill him and the Chief. So, to make things short, Chief wants you to take over."

Kuon's mouth gaped open in surprise. "He wants me to eliminate this human trafficking ring?"

"With all of your capabilities and as fast as your team can," Yashiro continued. "The ring's been here for too long, and it's become so large the area is no longer safe anymore. The Chief is especially worried about his granddaughter."

"Sweet little Maria," Kuon murmured. "I can sympathize with the old man now. I certainly don't want my mom to be in such a dangerous place as here. I wonder why Dad hasn't been successful in convincing her to relocate."

"With such stubbornness as your mother's, I don't think convincing her will be possible," Yashiro commented with soft, good-hearted chuckles. "You did say she loved this town, after all."

The blond let out a long sigh and leaned onto the back of his chair. "And why the secrecy?"

"The Chief believes the operation has been compromised, or so he told me himself. No one's aside from the police force should have known about it, and yet those people looked more than ready to intercept us. He thought that there might be a rat in our side."

Kuon sighed again remorsefully. "Why are the cases I've got never easy?"

It was the year 2XXX.

Almost a century in the past, a global-scale war had raged between countries, shifting the focus of global economy income and expenditure. Humanity was forced to live a hellish nightmare, where lands once lavished by the beauty of Mother Nature had turned into barren battlefields, and fresh foods and clean water had been difficult to get due to scarcity.

While so many had died in battles as brave soldiers, by the end of the war, the world had found itself populated with more people possible. Although usually this occurrence was seen as a glorious miracle, for a world that had still been recovering from the harshness of war, this had been only seen as a hindrance.

Not seeing any other alternative to get out of the monetary crisis, almost all countries had come with the same solution: making people from lower classes salable commodities.

Thus, the era of slavery and human trafficking had begun.

The practice had been going on for more than five decades — in which the slaves had been declared no longer a part of humanity, and the riches had gained the sense of superiority — until the appearance of some humane people that had voiced out the importance of human rights they once had adopted in the past.

The movement had been so large-scaled and united, that the newly-reorganized United Nations Organization — now named Global Union Organization, or GUO for short, had finally seen some sense and declared slavery and human trafficking as illegal in every state in every country in the world — regardless of whether there had been countries that had not been members of GUO.

But once the forbidden fruit was tasted, there was no more winning against temptation.

The riches, having experienced the comfort and luxury of having slaves, still placed a very high demand on slaves, and human trafficker saw this as the perfect opportunity to get more money.

As a result, there had been a lot of unsolved kidnappings, most of the kidnappeds being children and teenagers. The number of crimes was unbelievably high it was almost impossible, especially in Neopolis…

… The city first established by GUO in order to bring all people from every nations together to live in peace with each other.

It was not that Kuon did not like Neopolis; in fact, he loved the city brimming with happy memories of his childhood.

He just loathed how dangerous it had become, with people having high chances of being kidnapped anytime, anywhere.

Now, with the task of bringing down the human trafficking ring, he hoped he could help making the city he loved safer, even if only just a bit.

But then of course, life was not that idealistic.

"Good news is," Yashiro said with a grin, pulling Kuon harshly back to reality from his wandering thoughts, "I've been assigned into your team!"

The blond man groaned. "Great; just what I need."

"Oh come on!" his companion faked a childish pout. "Can't you look more excited?"

"Yay," Kuon said monotonously. "Who else is in?"

From out of nowhere, Yashiro produced a folder and let it slide across the vacant surface of the table. Kuon easily caught and opened it. "Well, whoever they are, they should be competent and trustworthy enough that they got to be handpicked by the Chief," the brunet said.

Reading the files, Kuon groaned again. "Kijima? Murasame? No offence, but you yourself know that they're not—"

"Serious about their work?" the other man snorted. "Yeah, I know as much. But they do have the necessary ability. And you can always recruit your own preferred personnel to add into the number, you know? Remember: with all of your capabilities."

Kuon smirked. "I might as well just do that."

Ricardo Ferrera, or Rick for short, was always known for his passionate love towards Neopolis — may be more than the Hizri father-son pair.

Born and raised in what used to be called New York, America, he had been living as a homeless thug before he had decided to try his luck for a better living in Neopolis.

And he surely didn't regret his decision.

Not long after his arrival at the city, he had been struggling for a short while until Koo Hizri had taken him under his wings as his own, and he had been living with the Hizris ever since. The older man had then kindly offered him the chance for a further education — he had been only a teenage boy of 12 that time — at the same school as Kuon's, and after that the two boys had been inseparable — of course except the time when Rick had had to go to primary high and Kuon had still been stuck in the forth grade of elementary school.

The school had also been where he had met the love of his life, Tina — and he, for a while, had had to endure Kuon's incessant teasings both at school and at home.

After he had graduated, he had decided to go to the police academy and pursue the same career as his father figure.

And now he was a well-known and respected detective in the force.

How he was so grateful of what the Hizris had done for him could not be described by words. So he swore himself that he would do anything he could when they were in need of help.

Rick, of course, had been enraged when he had heard of his benefactor being injured in a raid against the human traffickers, and he had expected to see a very enraged Kuon wanting a blood bath.

But instead, he had to stifle his laughter the whole time his blond foster little brother complained with definite passion about his new team.

Kuon would always be the same Kuon in front of him, after all, even after they had become adults.

"What's so funny?" Kuon asked, frowning at the older man.

Rick finally could not hold his laughter in any longer. The room they were in was instantly filled with the merry sound of him laughing. "You should've looked at your face, y'know?"

"Yeah, right, sure," the green-eyed man deadpanned. "So glad that I haven't lost my touch in amusing you."

After calming himself down, the man with hair a color of dark chocolate asked, "So, what do you need of me?"

"I want you to join my team and save me from frustrating myself to death."

"Oh, c'mon," Rick laughed. "Kijima and Murasame aren't really bad choices of team members. And Chief Takarada absolutely trusts them."

Kuon frowned. "Yes, but in a situation such as this, I need to have someone I can trust in my team. And I know you're more than competent enough."

"Well, what are you taking me for?" Rick rhetorically asked, feigning the feeling of being offended.

"Are you in?" Kuon asked, not bothering to answer the dark-haired man's question.

Rick shrugged casually. "Sure thing. I can always have the challenge."

"Now that you're finished with your very important private conversation," a new feminine voice spoke up, "Can you please bring your coffee and asses out of my office? I need to do my work here."

The two guys turned to see a tall blonde woman clad in a lab coat standing before them with a displeased face. One of her flats-covered feet was tapping impatiently against the floor.

Rick snickered. "Heya, Shimona."

The woman huffed in annoyance. "Seriously, guys, I need you two out, now. Just because we're family, it doesn't mean that you can use my office whenever you please."

"Calm down, Shimona, cousin," Kuon said nonchalantly. "I might be finished with Rick, but I still have something to do here."

Realization hit Shimona, and her frown deepened, narrowing her moss green eyes. "You're recruiting me, aren't you?"

"That's exactly my intention," her blond cousin replied with a grin. "You're in?"

"As much as I want to say yes," she sighed softly — her genuine regret clear in her voice, "I'll have to decline. I'm a member of the forensic department, and thus I can't restrict myself with one case—"

"Who said that you have to handle only this case?"

Shimona was taken aback. "What?"

"What I wanted to say is, I just need you to give anything related to this case your first priority. You can still stick to your other duties in Forensic Department," Kuon explained. "So, are you in?"

She sighed. "Bear in mind that Marina isn't like your Chief Takarada."

Her cousin gave her a cheeky grin she found annoying yet promising something good. "Oh don't worry, she's given us her utmost blessing and wished us good luck," he told her. "So?"

An excited glint danced in her green eyes. "Count me in."

A few days later, a tip reached the police that another slave auction would be held at an old warehouse in the harbor area.

Of course, Kuon and Rick had been skeptical at first, but as the others in the team — Yashiro, Kijima, and Murasame — had been confident that this was a real deal instead of a mere hoax, the two detectives decided to go along and form a plan—

— Which was pretty simple. Kijima and Murasame, along with Rick — just to give Kuon a peace of mind — would do the stake out around the area, and once the auction was about to begin, Kuon and Yashiro would go in as potential buyers.

So here Kuon was, safely disguised in an elaborately expensive suit, dark brown wig, and brown contact lenses — thanks to the police department's special make-up artist, Jelly Woods — with Yashiro acting as his attendant.

They confidently, but warily, walked towards the warehouse, only to be stopped by two burly bouncers.

"ID, please," one of them said gruffly.

While Yashiro was shaking inwardly, Kuon calmly produced a wallet — deliberately showing the many credit cards and cash in it — and gave them a fake ID card. The brunette swore that if Kuon had not chosen to be a police detective, he could have made a living as a successful actor.

The giant of a bouncer examined the ID, narrowing his eyes at it. He glanced repetitively between the card and Kuon, comparing the face with the one in the picture. "Name?"

"Ren Tsuruga," Kuon said with a stoic face, not letting anything to show on his face.

"And this guy here?" the bouncer snapped his head towards Yashiro.

"My assistant." I'm not actually lying, am I? The disguised blonde thought, cringing inwardly as he felt the displeased glare Yashiro was sending him.

The bouncers looked at each other, and they moved from their place against the walls towards the two police undercover, groping their torsos and limbs as well as checking their pocket. At that moment, Kuon was impressed by the security of the auction, and he felt it very ironic.

"What's this?" the bouncer asked, pointing at the earpiece in Kuon's left ear.

"Hearing aid," the currently dark-haired man answered. "I had an accident with fireworks when I was little." And this is not exactly a lie either; I did have an accident with fireworks, thanks to Rick and his stupid prank.

The burly man nodded in understanding. He then turned to his companion and said, "He's clear. How about yours?"

"Clear."

"Please come in," the bouncer told Kuon and Yashiro. "Welcome, Mr. Tsuruga and his assistant."

Yashiro sneered inwardly, completely annoyed by the way the bouncer called him. Am I not important?

"How long is it until the auction begins?" Kuon asked enquiringly.

"Ten minutes, give or take."

"Can I use the restroom?" he asked, giving the bouncers a gentlemanly smile.

"Uh," the burly man stammered. "Sure. Go straight on, then turn at the first left."

After giving them his thanks, Kuon and Yashiro walked into the spacious interior of the warehouse, heading towards the directions of the restroom. Once they made sure they were completely alone, the blonde murmured into the small microphone on his collar button, "Rick, we're inside."

"Okay," the reply came with some statics. "Proceed, and give us the go whenever you're ready."

Behind the still closed stage, a girl with short, unkempt hair was thrown to the floor harshly. Blood started to trickle down from her forehead, and she whimpered in pain.

Before her, a very large man stood menacingly, a whip in his hand. Two girls with black hair huddled together near them, trembling in fright.

"You dared speaking of freedom, huh?" he growled, whipping the short-haired girl with thunderous snaps. "You piece of garbage! Worthless!"

He shouted a lot more things, but the girl could no longer hear him, as her ears rang with pain. Apparently, the whip hit the side of her head, right on the ear.

"You know what?" he said. "You want your freedom so bad; then die for it."

With that, the whip was swung once again with unforgiving, killing intent.

"Ladies and gentlemen," a man that served as the master of ceremony began. "Welcome to the biggest slave auction this year! Tonight, we have a wide range of selection to choose from — strong labor slaves, beautiful sex slaves, mature child-bearing slaves…"

"It's no hoax," Kuon whispered into the tiny microphone. "Get the squad in from the window I opened on the west side of the warehouse. Keep as discreet as possible; we still have the element of surprise—"

"Hold on!" Yashiro hissed. "It's the mayor's son!"

The disguised blonde turned to the direction his companion was pointing at with a scowl plastered on his face. "What?!"

Sure enough, he quickly spotted Shotaro Fuwa, the only son of Neopolis' mayor of ten years. With his polished appearance, his suit haughty as ever, and his proud smirk on his face, he eyed everyone in the room, challenging them to overpower his bid.

In the end, no one did, and shortly after, an almost naked, very voluptuous, long black-haired trembling girl was brought before him.

"Shit," Yashiro cursed under his breath. "If we charge now, this can raise up a scandal."

"Who cares about scandal?" Kuon growled lowly under his breath. "That idiot brat's just too stupid for his own good. Oh, by the way, did I miss something?"

Yashiro frowned at him for not paying attention to the auction. "Including the girl bought by Fuwa-san, two girls are sold already."

"Hizri, we're ready at the door," a voice Kuon recognized as Murasame's told him.

"Ready to raid the backstage here, Kuon," Rick soon followed after. "As I said; just give us the go."

"Then go!"

The doors flung open and the police flooded into the room, shocking the guests. "FREEZE!"

"Wow," Shimona commented almost monotonously, her green orbs eyeing the lot of slaves strutting towards the many ambulances present. "This sure is a great catch."

"We'll take that as a compliment," Rick commented casually from his seat on the railing of the pier. He nudged the other blond present with them with a satisfied grin. "Right, Kuon?"

The said man snapped out of his wandering thoughts. "Uh," he mumbled unsurely. "Yeah, right."

Shimona raised an eyebrow in confusion at her cousin, before turning her focus back to the secured slaves. "I'd better attend to them now. At the moment, I'm not even sure whether I'm a mere medical examiner working for the police or a general practitioner for a hospital."

"You can do both," Rick supplied cheerfully, only to receive a glare from the medical examiner.

After Shimona had strode away from them to bark orders to her subordinates, the dark-skinned man turned to his adopted brother. "You don't look fine, buddy," he commented.

Kuon sighed. "I don't know, Rick," he said. "I just have the feeling that this hasn't ended here."

"Of course it hasn't ended!" Rick replied. "The leader escaped, and we only got the little goons in our net. We still have a lot of work to do, man." He stood up and dusted the dirt on the back of his jeans. "Now get your ass up and do the report for the Chief about today!"

And Rick walked away, leaving Kuon with his uncomfortable feelings.

Moments later, a nervous young girl with medium-length, dirty black hair scurried over to the blond man, gaining his attention. From her appearance, it was clear to him that this girl was among the slaves secured from the auction.

"You-you are with the police, r-right?" she asked, stuttering due to her fright.

Taking pity to the girl, Kuon graced her with a gentle smile. "I am. Is something wrong?"

Tears brimmed on the corner of her eyes. "T-there is someone else," she said, almost crying. "She was beaten up and thrown outside before the auction. She's my friend, please save her!"

Kuon's response was immediate. With a frown, he stood up quickly and jogged towards the back entrance of the warehouse, only to find nothing on the deserted alley except for a few police.

"Did you see anyone here?" he asked them.

The officers looked at each other in confusion before answering the green-eyed detective. "No, Sir."

Frowning deeper, Kuon scanned the area and spotted a ridiculously large dumpster. His emerald eyes widened when he saw trails of not-so-fresh blood near the base of the bin. He ran towards the big, heavy metal dumpster, and opened the lid.

What he saw made him cursing himself for not raiding the place earlier than his plan.

In the bin, piled with filthy trash, was a bloodied body of a girl. Crimson flowed from various injuries on her body, and she was so beaten up that Kuon could not make her face out. She was so dirty and bloody that if not for the bright chestnut hair of hers, he was sure he would not have recognized her among the trash.

Remembering the words of the black-haired girl, Kuon knew that there might still be the possibility of this bloodied girl to still be alive. Carefully so that he would not topple over into the trash crate, he reached for her wrist.

Although it was very faint, there was a pulse, and he could feel her shallow, painful breathing.

This unknown girl was already dying.

"SHIMONA!" he yelled urgently, startling the other officers around him. "I NEED YOU OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Yes... A new story... And no, I'm not leaving 'The Next Episode' hanging. This is the new story that will replace 'The Next Episode' as my main story once it ends, and I want to know if this story is worth continuing. Consider this a pilot chapter.

Disclaimer:
-I do not own Skip-Beat! and its characters. All rights go to Nakamura Yoshiki-sensei.
-I am aware that UNO exists in reality, but please bear in mind that this story is only fictional and any similarity in this story to existing person, place, or organization is not intended on purpose.

Please review :) Thank you!

A/N: I am looking for a beta-reader for this story (of course, if I decide to continue this, depending on the reviews). Anyone interested, please PM me :)