Chapitre 117: CH_4.17 (117)
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The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
Kano wasn't happy with Takuma taking work from someone other than her, and it took some convincing and a promise not to let it affect his ongoing and future cases. However, Takuma wasn't worried— he considered time management to be one of his strong points. He did more things on a daily basis than most people to know how to distribute his time to get things done.
Getting the anonymous submission accepted by a chunin was the hardest part, but with that out of the way, Takuma could start with the plan he had plotted.
The Maiko Triad was still a dim room for Takuma. What he knew came from the existing reports in the archives, which did give an in-depth look into the organization, but he lacked the ground-level awareness that one would have if one were actively involved in investigating the Maiko Triad. Unlike Yoshiaki and Miwa's teams, he didn't have any contacts with informants and snitches who he could go for up-to-date information— but that didn't mean he didn't have any leads.
His point of contact with the Maiko Triad was through Ryuu's crew. The people involved on the day of delivery were well known to Takuma through his run-in with them when he visited Ryuu's place to restock his supplies. He knew their names, the company they kept, and what circles they frequented.
All he needed to do was tail and observe them until they made contact with someone in the Maiko Triad. Takuma was aiming to build a relationship chain, gather evidence, connect the Maiko Triad to the state pharmacy, and discover the reason behind the medical supply purchase.
But his plan wasn't without problems. Takuma was only one man without access to the broader Organized Crime's departmental resources. He was given the permission and responsibility to follow up on an anonymous lead— it wasn't considered a "full" case. Until he had something substantial, he was on his own.
He couldn't spend all of his time on the job doing stakeouts.
Takuma was forced to come up with a solution.
"Shen! Wassup, my man," smiled Takuma as he dapped up the man in an alley near the redlight district. He was under the guise of the Transformation Jutsu as one of the dealer personas he used to interact with his clients.
"H-Hey, Jin," said Shen, looking uncomfortable, his eyes darting around.
Takuma smiled. His usual policy was to meet clients at a place considered a middle-ground for both parties— somewhere clients would feel safe and comfortable and a location where Takuma could get quickly without wasting too much time.
Unfortunately, Shen was no longer a client, and Takuma wanted to set a vibe to keep Shen on his toes. The young man used to be one of his regulars, but it seemed that Shen had run into financial troubles by getting fired from his job. Since then, he could no longer afford luxuries like weed. Takuma cut him clean off and told Shen to only contact him when he had money, which Shen could only do a few times— nowhere close to when he was a regular.
"So, what do you got for me?" asked Takuma.
"I did what you said and listened to them," Jin said in a hushed voice. "They were talking about a delivery… and how they're looking into buying more…."
It all started when Takuma reviewed the information Sango had given him. According to her, the samples he had given to her could've come from a few state pharmacies that were known for producing the type of samples Takuma had given her. While Sango had reduced potential origin by quite a bit, the number of pharmacies she had shortlisted were still a few too many.
Takuma had to cut it further. As such, he began looking into Ryuu's crew, and there it was. Ryuu's crew was a mix of active and retired shinobi, leaning heavily towards the latter. Takuma discovered that among the few active shinobi, one of them worked in a state pharmacy as a guard. It was a permanent assignment. He didn't even need to think for a second. He knew which pharmacy was supplying the medical supplies to Ryuu, who was selling them to the Maiko Triad.
Takuma targeted the guard and began following him. He mapped out what a day looked like for the guard and found that he frequented a bar— as did many of Ryuu's men. It didn't take long before Takuma saw Ryuu's men meet with someone who he recognized to be part of the Maiko Triad.
He had found their meeting place.
Alas, Takuma couldn't do anything from that point onward. The bar was a small establishment, the type that had a few but die-hard regulars who frequented it enough for it to make enough money to stay alive. Takuma could enter one day and go unsuspected, but if he did it during a day when Ryuu's crew was meeting, he ran the risk of scaring them off— or he might have been denied at the door altogether.
That's when fortune favored Takuma in all its glory. The old barman had hired a helper to work with him to serve his customers— and that helper turned out to be Shen.
His old client, Shen, whose new job didn't pay enough to buy weed…
It was easy from there on. Takuma called up Shen, told him that he wanted some eyes and ears inside the bar, and in return, he would supply the weed. Shen was initially hesitant, but when Takuma gave him a sample of a strain of a quality much higher than Shen had ever experienced, he agreed almost too quickly.
Just like that, he had ears on any conversation Ryuu's crew and Maiko Triad might have in the bar. There was a real chance that they didn't talk about anything of importance in the bar— but they did.
Takuma grinned. "That's what I'm talking about, Shen! I knew you could do it!" he enacted the most frat boy he could. "Spill it all, my man. What else did they talk about?"
"A-About the thing you promised," Shen looked at Takuma hesitantly.
It was Shen's awkwardness that made him seem so harmless, which he was for the most part— but there wasn't a single person who walked the earth who was completely harmless— people only needed the right motivation to do harm. Takuma had provided Shen with the motivation to do harm to people who didn't know they were being harmed.
"Of course, brother, I have it right here," Takuma took out a plastic bag from his person filled with some of his higher quality products. Shen reached for it, but Takuma pulled it back and placed his palm on his chest. "We have known each other for a while now, haven't we? You know how this works— payment always comes first."
Shen stared down at the palm on his chest and nodded as he stepped back. The awkwardness came back, and he once again looked nervous, all while his eyes darted to the bag.
"Now, let's talk at length," said Takuma.
———
.
Takuma ducked into the Police Force headquarters to finally escape the pouring rain that had left him soaking wet from head to toe. He groaned to himself; when the rain started to pour, he wanted to go straight home but had documents he needed to file before he could mark his work day as over— thankfully, his pouch was water-proof.
He stood in the front reception area to allow the excess water to drip down before he headed inside. Unlike half the precincts around the village, the main headquarters closed down at night. Many people headed home, and a lot of them had umbrellas and raincoats ready as they headed out.
'Should've read the weather report,' thought Takuma.
He looked at the road outside, watching the raindrops hitting the ground. He liked the rain. Even the most roaring rain slowed the city down, bringing it to a halt— a nice change of pace. Takuma liked the feeling of walking the empty roads while the rain weighed him down. But it was only nice when he could afford to slow down along with the town— something he didn't have often these days.
"Takuma, if I remember correctly…"
As Takuma watched the rain absentmindedly, he heard someone call out to him. He turned back, and all thoughts of rain slowing things down shattered as a high-speed train crashed through as he looked at Uchiha Itachi standing behind him.
"Ah… Itachi," Takuma replied. Even though he was taken by surprise, unlike the last time, he was much more composed. He had grown up a little since their first meeting. "It's really pouring down today, isn't it."
"It is," said Itachi.
"The potholes in front of my place are going to puddle," Takuma sighed. The roads were bad where he lived; fortunately, he could travel by rooftops. "But it's good— rain's good. Replenish the underground reserves— good for the atmosphere, good for the plants, and good for us— great for everyone."
He turned to the taller person standing beside Itachi. "My name's Takuma," he said, extending his hand for a handshake.
The man had short, unkempt, dark-colored hair, black eyes and a relatively broad nose, and well-defined eyelashes that were turned upwards at each end— obviously, an Uchiha.
"Uchiha Shisui," said the man as he shook Takuma's hand.
He might have grown, but there were only so many surprises Takuma could take at a time. It took some effort not to let his hand stiffen mid-shake.
"Oh my, Shisui of the Body Flicker. I've heard much about you, sir," Takuma didn't forget that he was talking to a jonin. He called Itachi by his name due to how they were introduced, but he couldn't do that with Shisui.
"I do not deserve that moniker," said Shisui. "There are plenty of people who are much better than me at the jutsu."
'So humble,' thought Takuma.
Itachi then introduced them to each other. "Takuma is from Izumi's batch. He won the Genin Corp's basic training tournament," his eyes went to Takuma's arm where the Police Force insignia was stitched, "and from the looks of it, he has joined the Police Force."
"That I have," said Takuma with a smile. "Junior Office Takuma, Department of Organized Crime, at your service."
"Izumi's batchmate, you say… which means you're the same age as Itachi, and you're already in Organized Crime? Now that's impressive," Shisui commented.
"Please, you flatter me, sir. I haven't accomplished anything compared to our friend here," Takuma pointed to Itachi.
Shisui shook his head. "Everyone has their own journey. Comparing those who are on a different path than yours does more harm than good. Be confident in what you've achieved, Takuma."
"Being in Organized Crime when you're not an Uchiha is indeed impressive," Itachi nodded. "More impressive when you consider he isn't from an allied clan."
An understanding seemed to dawn over Shisui. He asked, "So, you are part of the new initiative? If you don't mind, I have some questions regarding your experience here."
Takuma was surprised, but he didn't have any reason to refuse, so he agreed. There was no reason for either party to harm the other— and Takuma guessed it would be good to make a connection, no matter how slight it was.
It was a pity though, Takuma thought. It was a first impression, but he liked Shisui enough.
It was a true pity that he was going to die so soon.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
Chapitre 118: CH_4.18 (118)
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @
[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
Shen's eavesdropping was a substantial breakthrough for Takuma. Through the conversations Shen had picked up, he was able to gather the date of the next delivery; unfortunately, those conversations didn't include the location of pickup and drop-off— from what Shen had told Takuma, the people seemed to have a predetermined location which didn't warrant stating the exact address during conversations.
Having done the delivery once, Takuma knew of the locations, but those could very well be 'a' set of locations, with the different choices available for safety purposes. Even if he was to assume there was only one set of locations, that information was unusable, for he couldn't justify them— and even before that, assuming something like that was unwise when he had no previous experience with planning such operations.
Given the circumstances, Takuma had to pivot his strategy.
"What're you doing?" Arisu asked Takuma, who was going through a tower of folders on his desk.
"Looking into records of theft at state facilities," Takuma muttered as he went through the past several months of records to see if there were reports of missing inventory at state pharmacies.
Arisu frowned, "This is about the follow-up you were doing… you're still doing that?"
"Uh-huh… still doing that," Takuma's voice trailed down before he sighed. There was nothing of suspicion that he could be linked back to either Ryuu's crew or Maiko Triad.
In his opinion, the sheer amount of product he had delivered wasn't something one could swipe away without it being reported. And if they were doing multiple deliveries, then there was no way anyone could hide it even if every member in the pharmacy were corrupt and under someone's payroll. There had to be at least a report of it somewhere— but the fact there wasn't, meant they were doing something different.
"You're wasting your time," said Arisu. "If the tip hasn't given you anything yet, it's bogus— drop it already."
"I don't have much time on hand; definitely not enough to waste," he muttered.
"Do you really think this is going to turn into something?"
Takuma swiveled his chair to face Arisu. "Think about it this way. If it does turn into something big, I'd be on the record of a big case, putting me up 2-0 on you."
"2-0?" Arisu frowned. "When did it go up 1-0?"
"The Higurashi Pharmaceutical case," he grinned. It was the first C-rank mission he was ever assigned; it was his first mission with Iruka. "And that was before I even joined the Police Force." He wriggled his brows at her.
"Oh, fuck off," she spat. "You got that job because we were short-handed. What your team did, I could've done alone."
"And they didn't let you do it. What does that tell you?"
"Fuck you," Arisu kicked his chair, almost making him fall, before walking away.
Takuma laughed before turning back to the tower of folders. The sight of it made him sigh. A dead-end. He needed more groundwork before he could move to the next step of the process— understand the entire operation and get an insight into how they pulled the con.
He stood up to gather the folders so that he could return them to the archives, but as he gathered the folders, a thought struck him from the banter he had with Arisu.
The Higurashi Pharmaceutical Case.
The mission that he worked with Iruka was part of a larger mission run by the Police Force. A group of thieves were stealing the raw materials meant for the privately-owned pharmaceutical business. They would hijack the shipments mid-delivery and then fence them off to people who couldn't buy the materials in bulk due to regulations.
Takuma stared at the files as thoughts began to form in his mind.
"They aren't stealing from the state pharmacies… they're using it as the kitchen," he muttered. Takuma immediately picked up the files and ran to the archives.
Previously he had thought they were stealing from the product produced by the state pharmacies, that the guard was stealing from the inventory, and Ryuu was selling it to the Maiko Triad. But with the lack of police reports as back as Takuma had looked and the new thought in his mind, he had a different thought.
Takuma rushed into the archives and began looking into any and all reports for robberies of raw medical-grade chemicals and other raw materials from producers that worked in the Hidden Leaf. And as he expected, within half an hour, he had found multiple reports all filed within the one year— each from a different part of the village, all from different businesses. Some cases were solved, some were ongoing, while others had gone cold due to a lack of leads.
He took out his notepad and flipped to the page with the information Sango had given him about the ingredients used in the samples he had shared with her.
"Knew it," he flicked the notepad.
He found a third of the ingredients used in the samples among the products reported as stolen. All of them were restricted materials that needed proper permits to make, sell, buy, and use.
'There's an iryo-nin cooking for Ryuu,' thought Takuma. He had thought that guard was the sole party in the pharmacy, but it seemed he was only a contact, and Ryuu was in contact with an iryo-nin who was cooking for them using the materials they stole.
"Alright," Takuma smiled, "let's see what we can do with this."
———
.
Takuma stood outside Yoshiaki's office with a file in hand that he needed signatures on. He knew very well that behind the closed door was Yoshiaki and his entire team engaged in some heated discussion about one of their cases which had apparently gone wrong. Yoshiaki had been given a talk down by Yoshio, and he was now giving it to his team.
Takuma knocked on the office door and opened it without waiting for a response.
All eyes inside the room went to Takuma as he half-stepped inside.
He started, "Sir—"
"Out!" Yoshiaki immediately yelled. "GET OUT!"
Takuma did not attempt to try again or argue and immediately closed the door behind him. Naturally, he knew it was a bad time to approach Yoshiaki for a signature, and it was especially worse for him because the man hated him. It was clear before Takuma stepped inside the office that he was getting rejected.
And that's precisely what Takuma wanted. This way, Yoshiaki wouldn't be able to complain later by saying he wasn't asked first.
He ignored the eyes of people who had caught the scene and walked straight to Kano's office, knocked on the door, and waited on the threshold of the open office until she looked up and told him to step inside.
"Ma'am, Chunin Yoshiaki is busy with his team," Takuma presented the papers to her. "Can you sign these for me? I don't think it's wise for me to disturb him right now with what he's got on his plate."
"Oh yeah, he got thrashed by Yoshio, didn't he," Kano chuckled as she read the papers. "Hmm? You need an assignment of more people for a case. Which case— wait, is this regarding the tip you were following?" She looked up at him, "That reached this far?"
Takuma nodded, "We think there might be something there worth looking for," he stressed the 'we' to make it seem that Yoshiaki agreed with him, even if Takuma had given the man close to no updates about the situation. Takuma was sure that Yoshiaki didn't even remember that Takuma was working on something.
"Look at that, didn't expect it. Alright, here you go," Kano signed the papers. "Good job on sticking to it, Takuma."
"Thank you, ma'am," Takuma smiled.
———
.
The shinobi recruited into the Police Force were categorized into two categories— regular and special. They entered at the same time but were given different trainings, and were assigned to different departments with varying levels of responsibilities. Because of that, even though all of them were genin, technically speaking, Takuma was at a higher rank than them. He couldn't randomly order one of the new recruits to do a job for him, but he could very easily get the permission to assign them under him temporarily— which was what he did by getting Kano to sign the order.
Inside one of the precincts across the Hidden Leaf, Takuma stood in front of a group of four shinobi. Beside him was a whiteboard with four photographs and some textual information to go along with them.
"These are the men possibly related to a string of robberies which we suspect are related to each other, performed by the same group of people," said Takuma. "We are looking to build a case against them and learn more about their operation. For that to happen, we need information. Unfortunately, we don't have much of that— which is why you're enlisted to bridge that gap."
Takuma was only one man and dearly wished he possessed the Shadow Clone Jutsu. But he knew it wasn't his stars. He understood that he couldn't keep all cards close to his chest and still expect to win. There wasn't enough time for him to do all the things on his own, and he couldn't be at eight different places at the same time.
The only option for him was delegation.
His heart was conflicted, begging him not to do it. Relenting control felt terrible. But his mind was clear that if he didn't push some responsibility off him, the entire tower would go down with only him inside. He needed help.
"Each of you will be assigned a target who you will stalk as if they were the most beautiful girl in the world," said Takuma, eliciting a few chuckles. "Find all you can find about them, what they do every week of the day, where they go, who they talk to. Watch them— but do not make contact with them. We are looking for a bigger score; let's not waste it away on some petty change. If they do something that warrants an arrest, dock it down, and we will use it later."
———
.
It was quick. Quicker than Takuma has expected. Too quick.
The officers returned with some really good info on the people they were tasked to follow. Perhaps Ryuu's crew and Maiko Triad had gotten complacent after pulling jobs without a hint of resistance. It wasn't strange. That's how people got caught; they got careless.
Or, actually using a team of shinobi who knew what they were doing made tasks so much easier. He could see why people hired shinobi.
It turned out Maiko Triad and Ryuu's crew were using the same gambit as they did with Takuma and outsourced the delivery process. Just this time, unlike Takuma, the delivery person was a gambling addict in desperate need of money, who was nowhere as careful as Takuma and babbled about the plan to a loan shark, who cornered him, to get some additional time on repayment. One of the officers who was tailing the guy caught the entire conversation as clear as a crystal.
'I guess, this is it,' Takuma hammered down his excitement. It wasn't time to get excited, everything depended on what came next.
He pushed his chair, and the wheels beneath it carried him to Arisu's desk, who was reading a woman's magazine.
"Hey."
Arisu jumped and immediately hid the magazine. She turned and fixed him with a glare, clearly displeased.
Takuma ignored that and posed the question he knew would interest her.
"How would you like to be the secondary lead on a potentially massive case?"
He needed some manpower, and Arisu was going to be the gateway to it.
.
———
Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.
The link is in the synopsis!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
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