"Okay, perfect! Hold it."

Hijiribe Ruri was sitting elegantly on the middle of a couch like the main heroine from a story. On her right side, Hanejima Yuuhei was sitting with an expression befitting of the main hero of a story on his usually expressionless face. On her left side, Kise Ryouta was smirking sharply like he was the evil mastermind of the story.

The camera flashed.

"And that's wrap it up for today! Thank you so much everyone!"

A chorus of thank you from everyone around echoed the first one.

Kise held out his hand to Heiwajima Kasuka with a smile on his face.

"It is nice to meet with you in person, Hanejima-kun."

"The pleasure is all mine." Kasuka said with his usual off-camera expression.

They shook hands politely before Kise turned to Hijiribe Ruri with a grin, hands opened widely for a hug.

"Hijiribe-san! I am looking forward to work with you again!"

"Me too." She said while accepting the hug politely.

"What is your true intention coming to this place, Copycat?" She whispered directly on his ear.

A dangerous smirk of a predator standing at the top of food-chain graced his handsome feature.

"Wouldn't you like to know, Hollywood?" Kise answered mysteriously.

"Celty, meet Shintarou. Shintarou, meet Celty."

Shinra clapped his hands once.

"Now you both know each other."

Celty typed on her PDA for a moment before showing it to Midorima.

'Nice to meet you.'

Midorima pushed his glasses up.

"Likewise."

Awkward silence.

Celty typed on her PDA again before showing it to Shinra.

'Who is this guy really? Why is he suddenly here?'

"Shintarou is my childhood friend. As for why he is here... Why are you here again, Shintarou?"

"... None of your business."

Silence.

Absolute silence.

No one was moving.

It was like they were frozen in time or something similar to that.

The silence was finally broken with a sigh.

"You, bartender guy, are you going to keep gaping like an idiot or are you going to apologize to her?"

Shizuo snapped his hanging mouth shut.

"And you, knife guy, what's with that expression on your face? I am not returning this until you apologize to her." Aomine said casually with a bored expression on his face.

Like he didn't just easily stop a flying vending machine and a thrown knife from hitting his friend.

Like he didn't just display a strength and an agility befitting of a monster.

Like he didn't just stop the Monster of Ikebukuro and the information broker in their track.

"It is okay, Dai-chan! I am not even hurt!" Momoi said with a smile on her face.

"But..."

"It is okay! We have to hurry up or we are going to be late." Momoi said while grabbing the knife from Aomine's slack hand and returning it to the original owner.

"Please be careful next time, Orihara Izaya-kun." Momoi said with her smile. She took Izaya's hand and carefully put the knife on his hand when he made no move to grab it, still motionless from the effect of the shock.

"You too, Heiwajima Shizuo-kun!" Momoi said while waving her hand in a goodbye.

"What? Satsuki, you know them?"

Momoi giggled.

"Don't worry about them, Dai-chan. They are just boys."

"Hah? They look older than us."

Momoi giggled again.

Aomine gave up trying to understand her. Girl was just so hard to understand sometimes.

Murasakibara looked seriously on the menu before coming to a decision.

"Hey, Mister. Give me one on everything on the menu here."

"Sushi is good! Coming right up!" Simon said joyously.

"My deepest apologize that the boss himself couldn't make it here to greet you." Shiki said in the politest form of speech that his subordinates ever heard while bowing his head to the person sitting in front of him.

"I don't mind. Please raise your head. It is unbecoming for an executive of the Awakusu-kai to bow his head to a normal high school kid like me."

"You are far too kind, Akashi-dono."

"Let's cut to the chase. Shiki Haruya, you are one of the smartest people in the Awakusu-kai. I trust you have an idea of my reason to come to this place."

"Whatever your reason for coming to Ikebukuro, Akashi-dono, you have my word that the Awakusu-kai won't interfere in your business."

"I am glad we have an understanding. Then, I no longer have any reasons to prolong my stay here."

The young executive of the Yakuza group immediately shot to his feet. "I will show you on your way out, sir."

"No need. Why would someone of your position give such a special treatment to a normal high school kid like me? I will show myself out." Akashi said with a mocking smirk on his face that got Shiki's subordinates to bristle immediately, only instinct and the dangerous glint in his mismatched eyes made them stayed in their place instead of recklessly attacking him.

When Akashi left the room and shut the door behind him, Shiki finally released a sigh of relief. He took a cigarette and lit it up immediately. His hand was trembling a bit. He released a smoke before wiping the sweats from his face even though the room was cool enough from air conditioner.

Seeing his superior in such a state for the first time, one of the subordinates bravely stepped forward and asked the question.

"Shiki-san, just who is that red-haired kid?"

"Excuse me."

Kida made a shocked noise and jumped backwards.

"Where did you come from?!" Kida asked while pointing his finger rudely on the guy that just appeared out of nowhere. There was no way a ghost could appear in broad daylight, right?

"I have been standing here trying to get your attention for the last ten minutes." The bland guy said monotonously.

"Eh?!" Kida cried out in disbelief.

"Anyway, I am new in this town and I think I am lost. Could you help me out? I am trying to get to this place." Kuroko said while pointing somewhere in the map.