Fallen Angel 3

Because Yoko's previous injury was too grievous, Kogoro told her to stay in the hospital for a few days. Then, if she wanted to, she could ask for an early release. Before that, though, she needed to pretend that her injury was still there.

The solution Kogoro gave her was to act like she was afraid of the males in her hospital room when they realized she was awake. Miwako would be the buffer between her and other people. They succeeded, and all the officers and agents left her alone after that.

Before he left, Kogoro also discreetly handed Miwako the Stat-Stat Fruit and told her to eat it when she was alone.

Assured of Yoko's safety, the private eye took a cab back to his office. In the car, his gaze became darker the further he was from the hospital.

'You shouldn't do that, Vermouth... Now I'm going for your ass, and there's nothing in this world that would stop me!'

***

The sound of someone hitting a bag was bouncing off the walls of the Curry Gym, south of Shinjuku.

It was a small gym, down in the basement of a pharmacy. The machines were quite varied and in fairly good condition. There were only one set each, though, which threw him off at first. When he came in, Kogoro thought that he had mistakenly entered a personal gym.

And it was; the owner of the gym, Mr. Sakamoto, said that he had just been laid off from his day job and needed the money to maintain the place. One of his friends told him to monetize his personal gym, and he did so with doubt. After all, not a lot of people loved working out in the area.

His worry was not unfounded, because there's no one here except for Kogoro and Mr. Sakamoto, even though it's the middle of the day.

"Straighten your punch a bit more, Mouri-san!" Mr. Sakamoto gave Kogoro directions as he hit the sandbag. While any male would think that they could fight, Kogoro knew that a trained fighter and someone who relied on their instincts were different. His coach's instructions were valuable because of that.

Following Mr. Sakamoto's advice, he loosened his tight elbow and threw a straight right to the bag. He followed it by corking a left hook low to the body of the imaginary opponent he was facing.

"That's good, Mouri-san. Keep it up!" Mr. Sakamoto gave him a thumbs up, satisfied by his student's aptitude. Of all the people he knew, Kogoro was the fastest in terms of adjusting his movements. Not only that, the stamina of this beginner was off the charts!

Kogoro had been going for about fifteen minutes. Before that, he had already done his cardio by running on the treadmills. He also did some exercises with kettlebells. Yet Mr. Sakamoto could see that he was barely out of breath.

After he noticed that, the older man told Kogoro to work on his technique instead of improving his already impressive physical condition. After he showed Kogoro some boxing, Mr. Sakamoto told him to practice by hitting the bag.

Looking at the clock, the gym owner told Kogoro to stop and start stretching. Five minutes later, they were done with today's workout.

"Okay, that's enough for today!" Mr. Sakamoto handed Kogoro a towel and said, "Good job, Mouri-san. If you do this every day, then you will immediately notice the improvement!"

Kogoro thanked the owner of the gym and went to clean himself before he went home.

***

His work table was full of scattered photos. They were sent by Miwako just an hour after he departed from the hospital, but because he went to the gym, it remained unchecked until now. Kogoro had told her about his plan, and she agreed to help him because of the severity of the situation.

After he came back from the gym, Kogoro felt refreshed, and he felt like he could think more clearly.

He started plotting how he was going to deal with the nuisance that was the Black Organization.

The photographs on the table were from the CCTV all across the area of the murder attempt against Yoko. Some of it showed Vermouth disguising herself as Yoko, while dragging a suitcase with the real person she impersonated inside.

There's nothing on when Vermouth left Yoko and set her up to fall, but there's a lot with her own appearance around the block where Yoko was found.

Of course, Kogoro could not use the same tactic as he did against the Katou brothers. What he wanted from these photographs was the body shape of Vermouth. Now that he knew, there's no way she could disguise herself in a tight clothing and in the form of a woman different in height.

'Now, what should I present as bait?'

***

Vermouth was doing her best not to yawn. Her job was actually quite boring these last few days. Kogoro Mouri had proven to be a disappointment.

While Kogoro had some good qualities, his motivation was somewhat lacking. Vermouth just dropped his client off of a building, and what did he do? Just having tea on his balcony each evening. He did something on his computer, but other than that, he was not doing anything. She was expecting something more from someone who was taking care of the Silver Bullet, Shinichi Kudou.

Having said that, Vermouth was not someone who looked down on her prey. But she was not someone who overestimated her opponent too; not with how laid back Kogoro was right now. Today was the last day she was here, so she wanted to make sure that she got everything out of this useless detective. She muttered, "Not that he got anything left, anyway…"

"That's not true!" A familiar voice said from behind her.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she swung her right arm as she spun around, hoping to catch the man behind her with the back of her hand.

It was for naught; but instead of dodging and making her arm hit the air, the man caught her outstretched hand, and pulled her into a hug.

A very tight hug!

It was almost like the person wanted to break her ribs. Her arms were also trapped by his crushing embrace. Vermouth cursed herself for putting her hidden weapon on her boots, instead of her thigh where she could reach it.

She tried to bite her assailant, but his muscles were as hard as a rock. Then, something hit her solar plexus from the bottom, and further inhibited her ability to breathe. Her vision slowly turned dark, and a few minutes later, Vermouth was hanging limp on the arms of her enemy.

The man smirked as he put the unconscious blonde on his shoulder.

"Caught you, bitch!"

~To Be Continued~

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A/N: My phone's screen was not working right. I could not see anything without standing under the lamp or blasting the screen with a flashlight. If you guys have any idea how to fix it, I'll be interested to know!

Thank you for my patrons, Dragon_knight240, phil, XOL, and anime addict, also to all the loyal readers of KMPE.

Keep nuttin'! (Unless you are doing NNN)

segalengko69