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Tecchou was surprised when Fukuchi asked to speak to him alone. It made sense when it was Teruko, their vice-captain, or Jouno, the most ruthless, who often needed reminders to calm down. Hell, even Tachihara has to report his solo missions to Fukuchi every once in a while, but Tecchou rarely was called in to see their captain when there wasn't a report or mission to discuss. That's why when he sat down, he was prepared to have a solo mission handed to him.
Tecchou's surprise grew when Fukuchi asked him, with his usual grin, "Have you noticed anything odd as of late, Tecchou?"
He didn't know where the question came from. "What do you mean odd?"
Sitting across from him, Fukuchi waved a hand in front of himself. "Oh, you know! Anything different than usual with the hunting dogs that you might have seen."
He grasped his chin in thought, thinking back through the past few weeks. "Tachihara tripped over a chair leg a few days ago. I'd never seen him trip before."
Fukuchi raised an eyebrow and waited for Tecchou to continue speaking. When he didn't, the captain cleared his throat and stood from his chair. "Right. Thank you for that information. However, I was actually referring to Jouno specifically."
"Oh. Sorry, Captain, but I haven't noticed anything about him. I feel like I've seen him less as of late."
"Yes, that's good you realized that. I think I may know the reason for his lack of appearances." Fukuchi took a beige folder out from a desk drawer and handed it to Tecchou. When he opened it, it was filled with photographs, the common theme of them all being Jouno. Looking closer at them, he saw some familiar faces with Jouno. He picked up one of Jouno, wearing civilian clothes, talking to a ginger in an alleyway.
"Isn't this Chuuya Nakahara, the Port Mafia executive?" He pulled out another photograph and held it out to the captain. "And this one is Dazai Osamu, from the Armed Detective Agency. Is Jouno investigating these people?"
The captain shook his head solemnly. "I'm afraid not. I'll admit that I'm not quite sure what Jouno is doing with these types of people, but these pictures, along with his slight decrease in appearances, are making me worry." He looked down at the pictures spread across his desk and then back at Tecchou. "Has Jouno told you much of his past before he came to the Hunting Dogs?"
Tecchou shook his head. "I doubt he would tell if I ever asked him, but he respects me enough to not ask, so I give the same courtesy to him."
"That's very kind of you, Tecchou. I'm not surprised you feel that way, so I'll only tell you what's necessary. Six years ago, before I found him, Jouno was a high-ranking executive in a criminal organization. If you think he's overtly sadistic now, back then you would have considered him Satan."
"I see." Tecchou nodded but couldn't help but feel disgusted on Jouno's behalf for finding out such personal information. "So are you worried that he's going back into the crime circuit?"
"Spot on." Fukuchi ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I do want to trust Jouno, I really do. But with these photographs we can't be too sure what he's getting up to. You've seen how much he enjoys threatening people during interrogation or even seeing perpetrators getting hurt."
The photographs were a bit incriminating; Tecchou would have to admit that being seen with such sketchy characters would be hard to explain. But he knows that Jouno wouldn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it, a belief he felt firm in even after learning about where Jouno came from. "What do you need me to do?"
"I need to know what he's doing with these people, and even though we can get these pictures, no one would be able to get close enough to Jouno to find out what they're discussing. Not only are the soldiers all scared of him, but any nearby and unsteady pulse would tip him off right away. But you and Jouno partner together more than anyone else, and if anybody has a chance of getting close enough, it's you."
"I understand." That didn't mean he liked it, but what his captain said must be done. "I'll get close enough to Jouno to find out why he's sneaking around."
Fukuchi clasped his hands together and nodded. "I knew you would understand, Tecchou; you've always done the right thing. According to our scouts, he leaves to meet up with these people on Wednesdays and Fridays." It was Monday today. "Are you sure you can handle this?" He put his hands on the desk and leaned down to look at Tecchou. "I know you two must be close, even with all the fighting you do. I chose you because I thought you would be best suited to maneuver him, but I can have someone else try."
Tecchou stood up from the chair. "No, he would probably notice someone else too quickly and become suspicious. Thank you, Captain. I'll let you know what's going on as soon as possible."
Fukuchi grinned and clasped a heavy hand on Tecchou's shoulder. "Thank you, Tecchou. I knew I could count on you to understand what this is all for. You're dismissed."
Staring straight ahead at the ceiling that night, Tecchou told himself that Jouno couldn't be doing anything nefarious. He was going to prove that it was all a misunderstanding and find proof that Jouno was innocent.
The next afternoon, Jouno appeared again. Tecchou really didn’t notice it well before the captain pointed it out, but the past few weeks, Jouno wasn’t showing face as often as he had before. But his sneaking around didn’t stop him from coming into the workout area and pressing a boot against Tecchou’s bare back.
“It’s lunchtime.”
Tecchou ignored him, used to this routine of theirs, and continued his push-ups. “I’ll be done in a few minutes; you guys can start without me.”
Jouno scoffed and fully stepped on Tecchou, knowing that by this point it only encouraged the man. “You’re not idiotic enough to have forgotten the rules, right?” He pushed his foot into the lower part of Tecchou’s neck. “No muscle training during meal times. However you want to waste your time afterwards is your business, but now it’s time to stop.”
Finishing his last push-up, Tecchou rolled over to face the ceiling, and Jouno hopped off of him. He looked down with an eyebrow raised, arms folded impatiently. “Well, what are you waiting for?”
He didn’t look like someone who would betray the Hunting Dogs, at least not to Tecchou. To Tecchou, he looked like his same old partner, the one who might even be more loyal to the cause than him.
“Sorry.” Tecchou sat up and grabbed his shirt from its folded position beside him. “Can I ask you a question?”
“No. Now hurry up; you’re making everyone wait.”
“What do you do when you’re not with the Hunting Dogs?” Tecchou began to button up his shirt.
Jouno scowled and started to tap his foot against the floor. “Why do you want to know?”
“You don’t seem to have any hobbies or friends.” Tecchou answered honestly. “I don’t know what you could be doing when you’re not working or training, but you haven’t been around much lately. I was curious as to what you’re doing.”
That last part made the room swell with tension, but Tecchou had to ask, just to see if tailing Jouno would be necessary. Jouno didn’t look angry at him anymore, just calmly displeased. “How I spend time not on the clock isn’t important to you. We're not friends, Tecchou, so just stay out of my business.” Tecchou was expecting Jouno to attack him for prying, at the very least a kick in the face. Instead, Jouno just turned around and walked away.
“Hurry and put your jacket on; whatever disgusting food combination you’ll prepare for today won’t make itself.”
He was changing the subject, and Tecchou knew he was going to find something out the next night, something he probably didn’t want to know.
“Cold soba with chocolate sauce.” He pulled on his jacket, following after Jouno through the doorway.
“God, you’re so disgusting!”
It was Wednesday. Tecchou was hoping Jouno would just stay in, but when the sun began to set, Tecchou saw the man slip out of their base, out of his uniform and all. Tecchou tossed off his own uniform, replacing it with a t-shirt, hoodie, and pair of jeans.
He made sure to follow from a farther away distance than most people would be able to follow, but due to his advanced body and eyesight, Tecchou was able to just barely be out of range of Jouno’s hearing.
Considering Jouno was taking alleyways and turns that he didn’t need to, there was no doubt that he knew someone had been following him in his past endeavors. Tecchou wasn’t completely sure that Jouno didn’t know about his own presence that night.
When Jouno entered a nightclub, Tecchou was split in between what to think. On one hand, that was a good spot for crime organizations to meet up and get shady business done, and the slight decay of the building told Tecchou the place probably wasn’t dependent on its entertainment. But on the other hand, Jouno was an adult, and maybe he had found interests like these. What he said earlier was right, no matter how much it left a bad taste in Tecchou’s mouth, but he could very well have a social life that the Hunting Dogs were all completely unaware of.
But Tecchou wasn’t tasked to think. He was tasked to follow, so follow is what he did.
The inside of the building was slightly nicer than the outside, he had to admit. The flashing lights were rather annoying, but there was not much damage to anything inside, although that last part was a bit difficult to tell, considering how packed it was.
The number of people inside was surprisingly large for a Wednesday night; Tecchou would have assumed it only got this busy on a Friday or Saturday.
He didn’t know why Jouno would go to a place like this for any reason; if the noise was enough to make Tecchou’s head pinch, it must have been killing Jouno.
“I can handle crowds just fine.” Jouno had told him, wiping the blood off his sword. They had a group of robbers who decided that a grand opening of a mall would be the best time and place to make their appearance. Their leader refused to go down until Jouno slashed the back of his kneecaps. “It’s just an annoyance, the same as a fly that buzzes right in your ear, or how you have a horrible habit of breathing too loudly. Have you considered holding your breath more?”
It was going to be more difficult to track Jouno in here, especially while remaining unfound. Although the large crowd could offer nice cover, with so many pulses in one area, Jouno wouldn’t be able to pick him out too easily.
Tecchou sat down at the bar, surveying the crowd to try and spot white hair or perhaps hear angry yelling.
“What can I get for you?” The bartender came up to him.
“Hm. Do you have soy sauce?”
The bartender tilted her head but nodded.
“I’ll have a whiskey with soy sauce, thank you.”
She blinked at him before turning away wordlessly. Tecchou went back to scanning the crowd when he saw someone.
It wasn’t Jouno, but Port Mafia member Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Normally Tecchou might have ignored him, because all Akutagawa was doing was entering a back entrance somewhere, and even though he was a crime organization member, wasn’t doing anything violent enough to make Tecchou consider him a priority.
Even though he didn’t look through every photograph of Jouno taken, he swears there was one where Jouno was speaking to a man with black hair with white ends.
Tecchou stood up before his drink came out, going through the crowd and making sure no one else was going through the door. He pulled his hood over his head and followed Akutagawa.
The back area was as desolate as Tecchou assumed it might be; rather, it was a long hallway, each side having six doors each, and another door at the other end of the hallway.
Tecchou put his ear up to the door closest to him, because Jouno must have been in one of the rooms, and even if his hearing was as good as Jouno's, it was by no means stopped by a door.
The first door he tried was quiet for a moment, and Tecchou wasn’t sure if the rooms were really soundproof until he heard a low moan. He took a step back and realized what the intended purpose of these private rooms was.
His eyes widened, and wondered yet again what Jouno was actually doing here. The thought passed him that he would prefer Jouno to be planning criminal activities back here than having sex, but he shook the thought out of his head. His task wasn’t to think about Jouno but to find and report back about him.
It wasn’t until the fourth door on the left that he heard something that made him stop.
“So you suspect that he might be aware of your betrayal?”
“I don’t suspect; I know that he’s having me trailed by low-level soldiers, no less.” Tecchou’s heart stopped when he heard Jouno. “I doubt he knows what’s going on, but the captain is having me stalked for a reason.”
The voice from before swore. “If he finds out what you’re doing, we’re screwed. This entire plan depends on the element of surprise, and if he gets word of what we know, there’s no chance to defeat Decay of the Angel.”
Tecchou had heard that name before. Although not well known, Decay of the Angel was a murder organization, one with little to no other information about them available, even to the Hunting Dogs.
So if Jouno was attempting to defeat this group, then what he was doing was from the criminal acts Fukuchi feared. Tecchou could have turned around and reported it to the captain that moment, but something stopped him.
Why would Jouno not tell the other Hunting Dogs this information? Why sneak around and try to solve it with the assistance of criminals and non-government organizations?
“Then we need to jump on them first before they have the opportunity to take us out.” Jouno growled, and Tecchou could imagine his expression, annoyed, teeth bared. “At the very least we need to find out where their page is and use it to strip them of that extra power.”
“We would; however, we’re only aware of two of their members, and realistically, it’s going to be in hiding with Dostoevsky rather than in your boss’s pocket.”
Jouno must have slammed his hands on a table. “For someone known as the Hellhound of his organization, you’re awful at sniffing out clues!”
“We’re trying the best we can with the information we’re getting.” A third voice finally spoke. “This isn’t just something that would affect you, but something that could destroy our world in a minute! It’s already resulted in too many innocent deaths, and rushing into a fight will result in more.”
Tecchou felt his heart speed up but forced himself to slow it down. What was Jouno getting caught up in, and how was Fukuchi involved? He placed his ear back against the door, but it was quiet inside.
He backed away from the door, realizing that Jouno must have caught his stuttering pulse. Tecchou couldn’t run; otherwise, Jouno would be able to track and corner him. He eyed the door that was second on the right, remembering that he didn’t hear anything from inside.
Not quite running but definitely with haste, Tecchou went to that door and tried the knob. It was unlocked, so Tecchou made his way inside, keeping the lights off.
Despite the darkness, his eyes adjusted quickly, and he could make out a large chair, a queen-sized bed in the corner, and a pole in the middle of the room. Tecchou crouched behind the chair and focused on keeping his pulse unassuming. If Jouno passed this room, he could just assume it was just someone using the room like everyone else.
There was a minute of silence, but Tecchou was right to assume he wasn’t in the clear. Footsteps got closer to the room he was in until they altogether stopped. If anyone else was coming after him, Tecchou would grab the gun in his pocket and not hesitate before pointing it at the door. But Jouno always seemed to be his exception.
He was unarmed when he heard the door open and shut and didn’t bother to even reach for the gun when the light turned on, not even when Jouno kicked the chair against the wall and tackled Tecchou, putting a dagger to his throat.
“You were the absolute worst option to follow me. Why did the captain choose you?” He didn’t look mad yet, just curious.
“Because I work with you the most and would have the best chance of hearing something incriminating from you. Everyone else he sent to follow you before we’re scared of you.”
“Yes, I could hear that with every step closer to me they got. Funny, your pulse is the fastest right now that it’s been all night.”
Jouno was straddling him, his ass firmly against Tecchou’s crotch. The shirt Jouno was wearing had the top two buttons undone, and Tecchou could see a bit of Jouno’s bare chest from this angle. “You have a knife to my throat, and I’ve failed my task, so some fear isn’t uncommon.”
“It is for you.” Jouno pressed the tip of the blade against Tecchou’s jugular, and the man didn’t even flinch.
Tecchou decided to look at the ceiling rather than Jouno’s smirk. “So you’ve been able to hear me all night?”
“Obviously, you weren’t doing a good job of trying to hide yourself from me. You’re so useless, honestly; you should have figured out that I heard you as soon as you left to follow me.”
“Oh. I tried to follow at a distance and keep my heart rate level. I thought that the crowd here would help hide it.”
The knife eased off enough that Tecchou wouldn’t get his neck sliced if he turned his head. “I can always recognize your heartbeat. If I couldn’t by this point in our partnership, I would be a failure.”
Tecchou looked back at Jouno. He looked calculated, waiting to see what next move Tecchou would make next.
“If you knew I was following you, why didn’t you stop me before I listened in at the door?”
Jouno grabbed downward, and Tecchou’s face went red until he realized Jouno was grabbing at the gun in his pocket. “Why isn’t this gun loaded? You found out I was fraternizing with the enemy, yet you didn’t prepare any bullets. What if you needed a weapon to take me down?”
“Because I know you. Everything you do, you do for the sake of a better world, even if you don’t like hearing it. I trust you, Jouno, so I knew that a gun would only be good for appearances.”
Jouno froze for a moment, the grip on the dagger going still enough that Tecchou could push it away. “God, that way of thinking is idiotic!” He got off of his lap and pressed his foot down onto Tecchou’s face. “You’re lucky I wasn’t planning on killing you or letting the mafioso or tiger maul you to death for spying!”
Under Jouno's shoe, Tecchou grinned. He rolled out from under Jouno and stood up. “The captain has photographs of you interacting with Port Mafia and Armed Detective Agency members. He told me he’s worried you’re getting back into a life of organized crime.”
“I noticed.” Jouno sighed, finally putting the dagger away. “But confronting the photographers would only have made him more skeptical. What are you going to tell him?”
Tecchou shrugged. “I’m not sure what I can tell him that will erase all suspicion of you. The photographs don’t paint a good story in your favor.”
Jouno raised an eyebrow at him and sat down on the bed. “Are you not going to ask me?”
“Ask you what?” Tecchou stood in front of him, looking down with his head tilted to the side.
“What I’m doing with these people, or what anything you overheard means.”
“Would you tell me if I asked?”
“No.” Jouno shook his head. “But that’s for the better. The more people who are aware of this, the less likely we’ll succeed, as even my knowledge of this was a large risk. And as you overheard, failing this will have the blood of millions, likely more, spill. But I’ll tell you one thing,” Both of his hands fisted Tecchou’s hoodie and pulled him down to face level. “You can’t trust Fukuchi Ochi. Do you understand me?”
Tecchou nodded, but Jouno didn’t let go of his hoodie.
“You trust me too much, Tecchou. It’s stupid and might even cause your demise. Do you really want to die such a meaningless death for me one day?”
“I don’t see that death as one without meaning.” Tecchou, the man who’s usually considered meaningless without his saber, could die happily if his death was for a cause that Jouno supported.
Jouno sighed and pressed their lips together. Tecchou climbed on top of him, the two of them kissing in the bed.
Even below him, Jouno was demanding, tangling a hand in Tecchou’s hair to have him move correctly, and the other hand squeezing Tecchou’s ass.
Eventually Jouno pulled his hair and detached Tecchou from him. “You need to go now. I’ll return an hour after you so he doesn’t suspect anything.”
The captain might suspect something considering Jouno’s lips were red and glistening, so Tecchou’s must not have been too different.
“You want to take down and reform the mafia?” Tecchou suggested, thankful that his hoodie was able to hide the hickeys on his lower throat.
“It’s unbelievable; he would have to be stupid to buy that excuse.” Jouno was combing through his hair with his fingers. “But that’s also the only one that has a chance of making sense, given the evidence that he’s collected. Give him as little detail as possible.”
“Alright.” He wiped away the saliva on his mouth. “Will I find out what you’re doing?”
“Yes, that’s inevitable. Whether we fail or succeed with this plan, everyone will know what the captain is doing.”
“Alright.” Tecchou placed his forehead against Jouno's and set a hand on the back of his neck. “And when that time comes, my blade will be fighting for justice, for you.”