Antiques and Clandestine Meetings (A Manjiro Sano story) Tokyo Revengers Fanfic

Chapter 38: Collection

       Takemichi had returned to the future. Everything was like a dream until everything turned into an ugly nightmare.

      Hina's death.

     Akkun's suicide.

      The incident was three weeks ago. Hina's funeral was the hardest thing for him to attend but he found his resolve. With a broken heart, he clenched his fist and braved through it, because his resolve didn't break. Instead, it was inflamed. Like fanning fire into flames.

          To be Toman's top.

      That was Takemichi's goal. If he wanted to stop the horrible future from realising itself again, he knew he had to deal with the root of evil and pull it out.

       Now, with the time he had he was investigating thoroughly with Naoto. With documents and newspapers scattered on the floor, Takemichi sat in the middle of the fray.

       There was a knock on the door. Naoto entered, his sullen and grief stricken expression still present even after his sister's funeral.

      He then walked inside, a laptop in hand and a bag of take out. His cheeks were sunken and his eyes were a little rimmed with red.

      "I think I found a lead on Sano Manjiro."

      This statement alone had Takemichi standing up, papers falling and scattering everywhere. It was still one of their goals to approach Mikey. He spent every single day in the future looking for clues and everything.

      "Tell me."

     Naoto nodded, setting the laptop and food down on the table as he sat down on the chair infront of it. He closed his eyes for a bit to relieve the head ache.

      "A colleague of mine confirmed that he's collecting something."

       "What?"

      The police officer turned around and opened the laptop, there he showed Takemichi some pictures. At the sight of them, Takemichi's eyes widened and he staggered back.

       'It can't be.'

      "Do you recognize them?" Asked Naoto when he saw Takemichi's reaction. Takemichi nodded, he grabbed another chair and sat beside Naoto, his eyes trained on the screen.

       Then he reached out and browsed the pictures. 'There's no mistake.'

      Naoto continued what he learned, speaking a little monotonously. "Apparently, he's been actively collecting certain paintings of a certain collection for ten years now." He gave Takemichi a pointed look. Then, he pulled out a picture of a man in his late twenties, with deep blue eyes, a crooked nose and curly brown hair.

        "Paintings made by Araki Fadenn." Naoto continued, subtly pointing at the man's picture. "Twenty two years ago, he was killed in a murder robbery crime, among his stolen possessions is a set of paintings he had made, worth about a million dollars back then, for an uprising local painter who won a National Award.

      Now, it is estimated that each piece is at least worth a million and the estimated cost of the entire collection is roughly 20 to 50 million dollars."

       "Oh my god... How did it.. skyrocket like that?"

       'So Karrie-san's father was a National Awardee? Man...'

      Naoto paused, he stood up to drink some water, handing printed documents to Takemichi. He continued to explain,  "Accordingly, it's not the painter himself whose appraising the value in it's entirety, it's the story behind it.