"Well?" Akito asked quietly.

"Numerous lacerations, bruises, some burns and he’s pumped full of drugs and has been for a long time. I’ll need to get the lab back before I’ll know how bad it truly is. From the age of some of the scaring I would say he’s been abused since he was at least twelve, maybe younger," Gensai said, slumping down onto the tatami mat across from Akito.

"That isn’t possible… fifteen..." Akito murmured, his fist tightening.

"Yeah I know, but there have always been exceptions. You know that better than I do Akito, hell, you ran it for years," Gensai answered shortly.

"That’s just it, he looks at least seventeen and I’ve only been out of it six years. I’d have-"

"Six years is long enough, the boy can’t be much older than eighteen. Look Akito, it isn’t your fault. If you hadn’t gotten out you would’ve died young. It just isn’t in you..."

"Oh that’s where your wrong doctor. I did it. I sentence countless children to the brothels, I broken them and gave them to strangers with my own hands. I took away everything from them," Akito said bitterly, pouring out brandy into a crystal square glass.

"You had no choice."

"Everyone has a choice." Akito said, feeling the brandy burn down his throat.

"What fifteen year old boy would defy a father like Katashi Sakamoto? Forget it Akito, you did more than anyone thought possible. Black Heaven has forced the last bastion of human brothels out of business. Only a handful remain where there use to be over fifty, and that handful remains only to cater to the poorest-"

"-and cruellest, those that take joy in truly harming others. For whom an android’s pain isn’t real enough!" Akito cut in.

"Stop Akito!” Gensai almost yelled, his hand coming down hard on the table emphasis his words.

"I’m sorry," Akito said, pouring more brandy and knowing it was a bad idea with someone from the Sakamoto clan coming soon to pick up the boy. He needed his wits and control.

"What about the boy?" Gensai asked after a few minutes.

"I have no choice. I’ve already called Itsuki in the south district- the boy has to be from there. There has to be a tracer on the boy at least. I can’t hide him," Akito said, his mouth twisting in disgust.

"I could’ve taken it out," Gensai said quietly.

"They would have known. Only someone in the clan would know the tracer code. Even for a low level whore, it still would be encrypted so that you can’t just cut it out without killing the patient. Besides, I’m under no illusions Gensai. I will always be watched. After all I’m Katashi’s son, the second born twin of the powerful Sakomoto clan. They are bound by their honor not to interfere now…but I know they will always watch," Akito said, looking down at the amber colored liquid and remembering his father’s pain filled face the day he’d left.

"Akito?"

"I’m ok, just bitter. You would think in the modern age where everything is electronic, from money down to sex, that the yakuza power would have died. That it would disappear with the sands of time like the samurai did. Instead they are even more powerful, even more dangerous," Akito sighed.

"Your great-grandfather paved the way. He knew that the times were changing and forced your clan to change, to adapt. Now your family rules supreme," Gensai said.

"I wish someone had killed him sooner," Akito said softly.

"You get your intelligence from him, and now you’ve used it to change things if only in a small way," Gensai retorted gently.

"It isn’t enough."

"Akito-sama," Tsubame said through the door. "Ryousuke-sama is here."

"I’ll be right there. I suggest you make yourself scarce," Akito said, rising while hiding his reaction to the mention of the one name that he desperately didn’t want to hear.

"Perhaps you are right. Ryosuke is not some one I want to run into if I don’t have to," Gensai replied.

With a small nod Akito left the room to follow Tsubame. He hadn’t expected his brother to come himself and felt his stomach roll with uneasiness. He hadn’t seen his brother since he had left his family six years ago, and now he had to face Ryusuke. His kitten had brought far more than old memories with him. He hated what he was going to do. He was sentencing that pale young boy back to a life of torture, fear, and pain. But he wouldn’t be bound by his family again, never again.

Akito entered as Tusbame slide the door open to reveal his brother for the first time in six years. He had remained unchanged, his short raven hair trimmed to perfection at the neck with long bangs screening his sharp steel eyes. He still wore all black, as he had in his youth, although he had traded in his jeans and revealing shirts for an impeccably tailored suit. From his right ear still hung the ruby tear drop earring given to him by their mother just as the sapphire one still hung in Akito’s own ear. The only thing that had changed was now there was a long scar across his left check which had been a fresh wound the last time Akito had seen his twin. It was a scar that Ryusuke had received from Akito himself.

"Well, I was surprised when I got a call from Ituski. Who would have thought you would pick up our stray, or that you would actually tell us about it?" Ryusuke said, a hint of mocking humour in his voice.

"We both know that I wouldn’t have called you except that you would have come any way," Akito said in a unruffled tone even as his stomach gave a lurch. Ryosuke wanted to play, Akito could sense it, and there was anger in his mocking.

"True enough, although the odds of Kyoshi actually finding you, or you him… Of all the whores we have it is incredible, although Kyoshi is the only one anybody actually tried to take. After all, they’re just a hole to use except for him." Ryusuke said, lighting a cigarette.

"You still smoke?" Akito said with a sigh, ignoring his brother’s crass comments.

"Worried about me? How sweet," Ryusuke grinned.

"They’re expensive, illegal, and could kill you. What more reason do you have not to do it? Ryu..."

"I haven’t heard that name since you left, well… twice, but I killed the people that spoke it as soon as they used it. You’re still the same Akito. Always looking out for everyone, even the people you detest." Ryusuke said, standing up to walk over to Akito.

Akito closed his eyes as he felt a hand touch his check with the familiar warm scent that only his brother possessed.

"I don’t detest you," Akito whispered feeling the same twisting confusion of emotions take hold of him that he had felt when he had left Ryu six years ago.

"No, but you don’t love me either," Ryusuke said, a deep sadness in his voice.

"Ryu…" Akito whispered pleadingly.

"Come back," Ryu said in a deep passionate voice that made Akito tremble.

Ryu knew how to push him, yet Akito wasn’t the young man he used to be. He wasn’t blind to what his brother was. He knew Ryu was cold, cruel and merciless. Life meant nothing to his brother and he suspected death meant even less. All Ryu cared about was avoiding the boredom of life and the pain he could create in others. Yet Akito also knew that despite that Ryu did love him, and for that Akito could never hate him or go back to the family either.

"No, Ryu," Akito said, opening his eyes.

"Ah… I had to try," Ryusuke said, casually letting his hand drop as he turned away, his eye twitching slightly and giving away his pain. Anyone else would have thought Ryusuke didn’t care, but Akito knew him better than that. The tiny flicker was all he needed to know how much he had truly hurt the man.

"So have you sampled the boy?" Ryu asked curiously, dropping back down to the floor with graceful ease for such a large man.

"Don’t be absurd. He’s been beaten, drugged, and is far too young," Akito retorted severely.

"Always a prude. Even when you ran the brothels you never tasted the wares, only when you trained. Such a waste believe me, the boy is deliciously tight," Ryusuke smiled seductively.

"You said he had been stolen?" Akito asked knowing better to rise to his brother’s taunts.

"Fucking destroyed the place. Thirty two dead including some prime whores," Ryu said with disgust. "I left four protectors; apparently I needed to screen them better. Worthless pieces of shit."

"Four? For a brothel?" Akito said, raising a brow in surprise.

It was unusual to have anything other than regular bouncers in a brothel. Proctors were normally placed in upper level guard positions, usually on targeted family or deal negations. They were highly trained veterans, often times retired cleaners who didn’t want to be put in the field anymore. For a brothel to have one was unheard of, four seemed impossible.

"Well everyone wants some of Katashi’s son, although apparently this idiot thought he was in love. Even a twisted freak like me knows you don’t try to slice up the person you love with knives," Ryusuke snorted.

"Katashi’s son? What in the hell are you talking about? What does father have to do with it?" Akito asked coldly, his fist clenching.

"Kyoshi of course," Ryu said with a smile flicking ashes on the floor.

"Kyoshi?" Akito asked blankly.

"Yeah. He’s the old man’s bastard from one of his whores. One that betrayed him of course." Ryu grinned.

"That boy is our brother?" Akito asked in a dead voice as his stomached rolled.

"Well, half. The girl got knocked-up and ran. She scurried pretty good too, it took dad ten years to find the bitch. Happily married to some salary man. He played with her for a couple years…you know what I mean," Ryu said, putting out his cigarette in the flower vase on the table.

Akito gritted his teeth in anger knowing exactly what Ryu meant. Normally their father was a decent man, as decent as any syndicate leader could be. Yet there was one thing that literally drove his father crazy- and that was betrayal. It altered the man’s whole personality to the point that even Akito couldn’t recognize him. Akito suspected Ryu’s own wide streak of cruelty came from the insane part of their father.

The woman had been a fool to leave, especially when she carried Katashi’s child. Akito closed his eyes trying to control his thoughts without success. He knew his father’s capacity for revenge was vast and slow. His father would have taken everything from the woman, slowly making everyone around her suffer before he even thought of touching the woman herself.

"Well eventually father did tire of the game. Her husband at least got a quick death in the end, it rather surprised me. She on the other hand was not so lucky. She finally found a way to hang herself after she watched the old man gangbang her son with a bunch of his friends. She cried really sweetly while I fucked her in front of the monitors of her son’s room," Ryu said.

It was too much for Akito as he turned, running out of the room to retch over the railing. He felt Ryu walk up behind him gently pulling his loose hair away from his face, holding it as a hand rubbed his back gently.

"You’re still too kind hearted Akito. Maybe it is a good thing you’re no longer a part of the family. You’re too much like mother," Ryusuke’s voice drifted to him.

"He isn’t going back," Akito choked out still leaning over the wood railing trying to control his insides.

"And what will you give for the boy? If you come back the old man would agree. He would agree to anything to get you back," Ryu suggested softly.

"No," Akito said hoarsely, standing up straight.

"Kyoshi is good for business. It’s their way of giving it to the Sakomoto clan by fucking Katashi’s son raw, and the old man really cared about the bitch before she betrayed him I think. I doubt he’ll let Kyoshi go. He took your leaving pretty hard… asking for the boy..."

"Ryu help me," Akito said softly, looking into his brother’s face pleadingly.

"What will you give me for it? To help you face off against the old man?" Ryu asked curiously.

Akito stood up and walked back into the room, looking at his twin. The boy was his brother, his little brother. There were probably others but his father took care of them because, unlike Kyoshi’s mother, they hadn’t betrayed Katashi Sakamoto and unleashed the demon. Kyoshi being his brother changed everything, altering Akito’s very world. He couldn’t allow the boy to go back.

Without a word Akito’s hands went to his tie, undoing the grey silk with practiced ease. Ryu watched, eyes narrowing slightly as Akito’s fingers then flew to the buttons of his bright white shirt, undoing them one by one then slowly shrugging out of the crisp white material and letting it fall to the ground silently. When he shifted to his plain black belt Ryu moved swiftly, frowning as he captured Akito’s hands in his own and bringing them to his lips.

"No," Ryu said hoarsely. "No. I won’t let you be a whore, even to me."

"But you’ll let Kyoshi?" Akito retorted.

"Screw the boy. He’s only a half brother, we have many," Ryu said angrily, looking up.

"None that are beaten, humiliated, and fucked raw nightly," Akito said shivering.

"Alright Akito. I’ll try. But in the end you’re still going to have to talk to the old man," Ryu said, letting go of Akito’s hands to step back a pace and stare at Akito longingly.

"Ryu," Akito said softly.

"I really wish I could hate you, like I hate everybody else. You’re the only person I will ever love, and I hate myself for that," Ryu said in a steely voice filled with anger and pain as he walked swiftly out of the room.

Akito stood in the middle of the room half naked, light headed and nauseated. A deep ache rose up in him as the pain of the past began to fill his future once again, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

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