ENG - My best friend's sister ᵐᶦᵏᵉʸ ˣ ᵒᶜ

94

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Mikey POV

We've been desperately searching for her for days. I'm mobilizing all of Toman to find her and gather information. We beat up every hostile gang, even go out of Tokyo to find her, but she's nowhere to be found. Even Emma and Hina have finally filed a missing persons report with the police, who are now also involved in the search.
In the last few days, this guy who kidnapped Mei keeps sending cruel pictures and videos of him torturing her. I swear to God, if I catch that bastard, I'll kill him myself.

Right now, Kenchin and I are trying to get information from another gang, but to no avail. Frustrated and angry at the same time, I kick the unconscious guy in front of me and take my rage out on him.
I've hardly slept for days as I've been searching for my girlfriend non-stop. It's only when my cell phone rings that I let go of the guy below me. To be honest, I don't want to open the chat anymore when Mei's name comes up, because these wankers still send me messages using her name and no matter what I write, they don't reply, ever.

Kenchin notices that I'm holding my cell phone in my hand and staring at it. When I see my girlfriend's name on the display, my heart tightens. When I see that a video has been sent, I don't really want to watch it, it hurts so much.
Kenchin comes over to me and looks at me worriedly. "Another message?" he asks. I nod silently and play the video. It shows her head being hammered against the wall, her being exposed and then raped. The grip on my cell phone tightens before I throw it against the floor at the end of the video, destroying my display. It's a miracle it's lasted this long, the number of times I've hurled it against something in the past few days.

My heart shatters into a million pieces and countless tears stream from my eyes. I am incredibly desperate and if my body wasn't pumped full of adrenaline, I would collapse on the spot. The pleading screams from the video keep echoing in my head and I can't do anything about it.
My strength leaves me and I lean against the nearest wall as I cry silently to myself. Maybe I really should have let her go. Maybe it would have been better if I had never approached her.
I knew it was dangerous for her to stay with me, that I have many enemies just waiting to do me harm and Mei is my weak spot that they are exploiting.

The darkness seems to tighten around me and the thought of Mei having to endure all this torment chokes my breath.
I think about how I swore to protect her. But now I feel like a failure, unable to keep my promise. The worst failure on the planet.
The thought that she is out there somewhere suffering breaks my heart all over again. The darkness envelops me for good as I stand leaning against the wall, my thoughts caught up in a whirlwind of self-reproach and grief. The images from the video burn into my soul and make it impossible to forget them. Mei is in danger because she is with me. I dragged her into this hell by my own hand.

It's my fault that this is happening to her.

Mine alone.


Draken POV

I pick up Mikey's cell phone just to watch the video again. Not because I want to see my little sister being abused in the most brutal way, but because something has caught my eye. A striking tattoo on the man's groin area - when this tattoo becomes visible, I pause and take a closer look. It looks familiar, but for the life of me I can't think of it.
A heavy sigh escapes my throat and my gaze wanders to Mikey. He is leaning against the wall and the tears are flowing freely down his face. The last time I saw him like this was after Shinichiro's death and after that, his downfall began.
The fact that he had a relationship with my sister became secondary, unimportant. I see how much he's willing to give to find her and that proves to me that he's not playing with her. His current state, completely devastated, proves it too.

Hours pass as we continue to search desperately for clues. Finally, we take a break to gather ourselves and gather information. Mikey has been unresponsive since watching the video and seems to have become a lifeless shell. But even the others from Toman haven't received any information from other gangs. We are all getting desperate by now, some more, some less.
At that moment, my own cell phone starts to vibrate and when I see my sister's name on the screen, I open the chat and press the video. It shows my sister, again. My heart breaks when I see her so helpless and unbelievable anger boils up inside me. But this time the video is different. She just sits there and talks, but what she says takes my breath away. She's given us a clue as to where she's trapped.

Hello Kenny.
I assume you've already noticed that I've disappeared? I imagine Mikey has already told you.
It's just a goodbye message they let me leave after I begged for it. It's hard to find the right words, but I kind of wanted to say goodbye to you.
You know what would have been really great? If our father had taught me more about fishing, even though he wasn't very good at it himself.
Or how he really wanted to go up the Tokyo Tower with us, but never did because he ran away first? I would love to see Tokyo from above, at least once. And I want to take so many photos from up there. I won't even dream of letting go of my dream of going up the tower one day. I bet you we can see the location of our home from up there.
If we see each other again, we'll climb the tower together, I hope so. And do you remember that terribly bad music I listen to that always drove you up the wall? Or how I always take too long in the bathroom and leave you with no hot water left to shower with?
Anyway, now I'm telling you something instead of saying goodbye because these memories at least bring me a little smile.

I'm sorry.

I love you, Kenny.

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