Reader's P.O.V.

The week went by with a lot dead-ends and frustration. Gakupo had to stay off of this and heal both mentally and physically. His ribs still weren't in the best condition and with having his sister taken? He was an absolute mess. When he had the strength, he'd help Len get into contact with some of our allies and Len would pass them onto us. Since neither of them were doing well, Momo stepped in to help as a nurse. All three were off field duty.

Ia, Piko, and Miki were working on securing a new location for us, so Len and Gakupo safely bounced from one motel to another until Miki could land a good place for a good price.

The rest of us paired up and went around town, asking vague questions to our closer allies on our territories. Rin and Teto were walking around, trying to find some new leads, Miku and Leon were trying to get some answers, and when I was with Meiko, if and when our allies got to asking too many questions, she would slip them money with a thinly veiled threat. When I was with Gumi, she was much more fierce and pulled her knife out on people telling them to keep it shut. Either way, almost nobody had any information...

We were searching for which gang was targeting us specifically. We had to single out the weaker ones... they weren't as calculating to attack and kidnap and would have come up to us first and foremost.

If push came to shove, there's no way they'd go down without their other gangs and allies backing them up. We had to find out who to see just how much they would overpower us. Something awfully bad felt like it was just about to pop up, but none of us were sure what it was. It was only a matter of time and we all waited with bated breath.

While Meiko and I were wandering around, we stopped by a draft house for lunch. She walked up to the counter and went over the lunch specials.

"You can have whatever you want for lunch. No beers, though." she nudged me with her shoulder and winked jokingly. I smiled and picked out what I wanted. We placed our order and were given our cups. She went onto the soda machine and picked a cherry flavored soda. I picked what I wanted and she told me to choose where to sit. I chose a booth by a window.

We plopped down opposite of one another, our feet aching from such a difficult week. She dropped the grass straw into her soda and began drinking mindlessly, looking over at the TV. The cheerleaders were cheering the team on, occasionally shaking the pompoms at the camera as they hopped around. I heard Meiko snicker and I raised an eyebrow at her.

"What's so funny?" I asked. She shook her head and pointed up at the ceiling. I didn't understand what was going on and looked up, admiring the wacky decor. Cute! But back to Meiko laughing!

"I don't get..."

I stopped midway as I heard the song playing on the intercom. "Born This Way" was playing and I couldn't help but glance around questioningly.

"Miss Sakane, are you laughing at the song?" I asked. She shook her head, but she was holding back her bubbling laughter. I frowned, a little confused, but she held up her hands and stopped laughing long enough to say, "I'm going to tell you a secret, okay kid?"

I nodded and held out my pinky. She wrapped her pinky around mine and shook it lightly.

"This might be a bombshell, might not, so heads up. I don't think it was ever really a secret, per se, but I never brought it up before. I never thought of myself being in the closet, but I also never thought I wasn't in the closet. It wasn't denial and it wasn't fear. I knew I really liked women, but it just never crossed my mind until college and I was walking to class one day when I realized "I like women." To make a long story short, I'd like to unofficially officially come out of that weird little cubby space and say that I'm gay."

My jaw dropped at the final sentence. She looked a little worried about my reaction, but I shook my head lightly and smiled, letting out a small squeal of excitement, "Oh whoa... Thank you for trusting me with your big news. Miss Sakane."

She rolled her eyes playfully, "It's Meiko, okay? But thanks for hearing me out, kid."

Our food was ready and she picked it up while I kept an eye on our cups. Although we were eating, I asked her to tell me more stories and between bites, she'd recalled her college years. Despite the fun side she often seemed to show, she was diligent and studious. Even in class, she wasn't really strict, but she had a schedule. I was grateful we got to talk and appreciated she entrusted me with her coming out.

During lunch, Len sent me a few messages.

hope ur good

I miss u

here r the coordinates miki sent me
[link]

when ur done, meet us here at 6pm

"Who ya textin'?" Meiko asked me. I took a sip of my drink and handed my phone to her. She let out a little "Oooh," and wiggled her eyebrows at me. I almost choked on my drink, but I didn't and held back a giggle.

"Do you think that's where they're at today?" I asked in a low voice. She was looking at the screen intently and shook her head slowly.

"No, this is our new hideout. Fuck yeah," she whispered more to herself than to me. I smiled, relieved to hear that, but then she started tapping on my phone.

"Oh no... Meiko, what are you doing?"

She let out a snicker and my heart dropped. She gave me back my phone with my calculator app to the number "80085".

"How old are you?" I asked as I cleared the calculator. She shrugged.

"Thirty-two? Thirty-three? Somewhere around there, I think."

"No, I think you're 5."

We both snickered and cleared our plates from the table. We took our drinks and went around town to finish shaking down some people for answers.

*****

We followed the coordinates to an older-looking warehouse across the river. Meiko's car had GPS that Piko installed so we wouldn't be tracked by satellites. He's a genius when it comes to technology. Gumi poked her head out of the warehouse and knocked on the drivers side window. Meiko rolled it down and she nodded her head.

"If you follow that path around the back it'll lead to you to a parking garage underground. The code to get in is different every time, but today's is "Meatball". I'll see you both inside."

Meiko did as told, drove around the back, and entered in the code. The garage door opened and led down a small slope. A few other cars were parked already and so Meiko took one of the closer spaces.

We got out and locked the car. The door going up was locked with another password and it was "Meatball" again. We made our way up the stairs which led into a spacious room with some furnishings.

"Y'all went all out, hmm?" Meiko asked as she took in the room. I glanced around and saw how luxurious this place was. How did we go from decent house to this place? I had questions about this, but that could be saved for later. We made our way to the center of the room which had a large black rug that spanned nearly the entire living room. The couches were all a light gray nylon, arranged to where they're in a circle with the edges open for us to walk through. In the center was a large coffee table with a map of the city and our territories.

Len was sitting next to Miku as they talked about something I didn't quite catch. When he saw me, he scooted to the left, bumping Miku over, and pat the spot he was just on, "It's warm."

I laughed and sat beside him. It was really warm... what the hell? Did these couches have butt warmers? No probably not, but damn was he emitting a lot of body heat. I waved over to Miku, apologizing. She giggled a small shook her head, "No biggie."

Gumi was checking her phone by the main entrance behind us, probably waiting for the others. So that's where the front door was. Meiko plopped down on the couch to our right and rested her arms on the top of the couch frame.

"Miki had this place in her sights since the old owner was moving out of the city almost a month ago," Len explained. Miki was busy snacking on a small cake, but she chimed in, albeit with food in her mouth,

"But I thought the other house would be better. Guess not..."

She frowned, but continued to snack. Gakupo was on the couch to the left. He tapped his fingers anxiously across his knee and waited for the meeting to commence. He hadn't always been the anxious mess he was now, but since Defoko was taken, he's been in shambles. Momo was sitting next to him and noticed his antics. She took his hand and squeezed it gently.

"We'll get through this," she whispered. He nodded and he tilted his head back to stop the tears from flowing. Ia and Piko were on their phones, but not playing like usual. They were talking to one another about coordinates and assigning code names to them. Not sure what that was about, but hopefully it was tracking Defoko. Leon had just come from another part of the warehouse with a soda in his hands.

"Teto and Rin are on their way over," Gumi said and opened the door, disappearing out. Neither of us really said much more, but waited in a dreadful silence.

"So why did you choose the old house?" I asked Miki, trying to lighten the mood. She smiled awkwardly and pursed her lips.

"I didn't want to say anything till we were all settled, truthfully, but then the shitstorm hit us. I was hoping that the house would have been our safe haven and it would have given me peace of mind to know my baby would grow up in a fun, dynamic house. Not a high-tech warehouse, though I will admit it's really secure here."

We all paused at her choice of words and leaned in curiously.

"Baby?" a few of us asked simultaneously.

"Hypothetical or...?" Ia inquired. Miki held up her jazz hands and awkwardly sunk into the couch.

"Surprise? I'm pregnant."

"Holy fuck," Meiko whispered and covered her mouth with her hand. She tried to bite back the words, but it was just as much of a shock to us. Miki bit her lip with unease and nodded her head slowly.

"Sorry about the bombshell. None of this was perfect timing, you guys. I didn't expect all this to happen, but it just did," she explained.

"No one is blaming you; none of us are mad, Miki." Len said. I nodded my head and looked around the room. Everyone within the room was just shocked, but I don't think any of them were mad. This wasn't an occasion to be mad - not to celebrate just yet either, but at least be supportive.

"We're all going to be here for you," Gakupo told her, "stressful circumstances have interjected themselves into our lives, but your unborn child will have their dynamic family alongside a nice little house in the city."

"Yeah, Miki! You can even choose where you want to live if you still want to live in town. We have multiple locations under our jurisdiction." Len said as he walked over to her side of the room, a slight limp to his step. He sat beside her and gave her a hug, "Congrats, Sis. I'm just sorry your baby is going have us wackos as family members."

Miki laughed and returned his hug, patting his back. Her tears flowed freely, unable to be contained. She was a bit of a mess too, but in the best way possible. At least a ray of light could come from the darkest of times.

Gumi had just walked into the mess of tears and emotion when I heard a quieted, "What the fuck did I miss?" We turned over to see her with her eyebrows raised in a peculiar fashion vaguely gesturing to everyone huddled around Miki.

"Miki's pregnant," Momo said in a soft voice. Gumi's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before she regained her composure, nodding once.

"Damn. That kid's gonna have one giant, fucked up family. I can't wait to meet the little one." a small smile cracking itself against her stony demeanor.

Rin ran up the steps, Teto following behind as Rin held up a thick packet. Gumi locked the door and deadbolted it, resetting the password before taking a seat. Gakupo left to go to the bathroom while Momo left to the kitchen to get drinks for the rest of us when Miku went to help.

"We made it!" Rin wheezed breathlessly, "And I got the mail you wanted me to pick up, yo."

Teto sat next to Meiko as Rin handed Len the packet. He eyed it suspiciously, feeling the obvious weight of the thick envelope.

"Wait, what the hell is this?" he asked. He opened the manila envelope to a smaller envelope which seemed to come from a photo development company. We were all silent, glancing at one another anxiously as he opened it. Miki looked through the manila folder to see if he missed anything and pulled out a note just as Len pulled out the photos.

"No," he whispered, shaking his head. Miki glanced over, clutching her chest as her eyes darted between the letter and the pictures. Before we could even ask, Len dumped out the photos on the table. There must have been dozens of photos burning through whole film rolls full of nothing but Defoko bloodied and bruised. Just glancing through these snuff photos, a pattern emerged and I gripped at my calf out of instinct.

"You guys, it's the Eros!" I called out. Everyone looked at me in shock, and I had to scramble to find the picture that caught my attention. I held it up and handed it to Len, "Look at her back. Even though there are so many whip marks, you can see they carved "XXX" into her back! Oh God... these sick bastards."

Miki turned the letter over to Len and lowered her head into her hands, pressing her palms into her eyes out of disgust. It wasn't long before she had to leave the room, heading for the kitchen. Len roughly handed the paper to Piko and Ia who grimaced and typed as quickly as possible.

"If these sick bastards think they can get away with this shit, they're so fucking wrong," Len said, angry tears falling down his cheeks. Piko gently set the paper face-down on the table. I internally argued with myself on whether I should read it or not, but for the sake of my sanity, I had to read what it said. I picked it over and both Meiko and Teto wanted to see what it said. We silently read it together, the cruel contents covered in black ink on the stark white paper made it apparent.

𝙸𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚘 𝚊𝚜 𝙸 𝚜𝚊𝚢. 𝙷𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜, 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚎, 𝚖𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚗𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸'𝚕𝚕 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚢, 𝙺𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚎. . . 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚠. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚗 𝚙𝚒𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚜. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚖𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚝 ..-. ..- -.-. -.- -.-- --- ..- .--.-. .. -. - . .-. -. . - . -- .- .. .-.. .-.-.- -.-. --- -- 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚛.

𝚆𝚎'𝚕𝚕 𝚜𝚎𝚝 𝚊 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 :)

I dropped the paper and scurried to scrounge up the pictures and the letter before Gakupo walked in. Although he was in the bathroom most likely still pulling himself together from his crying spells, I didn't want him to walk in and see what Defoko was going though. It was heartbreaking enough to watch him suffer like that, but adding Defoko's pain to his would be like shoving sea water down his lungs.

Piko handed Len his phone and nodded, the two whispering amongst one another as Piko typed.

"In no fucking way are we going down without a fight. We're going to the West District metro station on Thursday at 4:00. We have to prepare for this fucking war; so let's surprise them."

"So it was the Eros," Gumi whispered and balled her fists, "C'mon, you guys. We have to get ready to bring Defoko home."

I couldn't help but feel uncertain, but I met Len's gaze from across the room and he looked so determined, I couldn't help but firmly nod when we locked eyes. This was something we had to do. For Defoko!

A/N:
hi, I used a keyboard text font on the letter in the story and I'm not sure if the words will pop or not, so here's what it says:

If you want her back, you have to do as I say. Hand over your territories, make yourself scarce, maybe even nonexistent and I'll hand her back. But you better hurry Kagamine... This is a limited window. You have a week to give me your answer before we send her in pieces. You can message me at ..-. ..- -.-. -.- -.-- --- ..- .--.-. .. -. - . .-. -. . - . -- .- .. .-.. .-.-.- -.-. --- -- when you have your answer.

We'll set a date then :)