A/n: Thanks for everyone reading my fanfiction! I hope you keep on supporting me! ❤❤❤

Arima Kousei POV:

After the tiring beauty competition where I just stared onto many pretty ladies that were too much to like, I was finally done. It's not the beauty competition which I was looking forward to after all. I was both afraid and excited to meet James Egorth in Las Vegas Blue Hotel, a hotel he owns. August escorted me alongside the other guards of Big Dipper Syndicate inside the Blue Hotel as we walk inside it.

"Welcome, Mr. Ashworth," spoke a female receptionist. "Mr. Egorth is looking forward to seeing you in our meeting room."

"Does he know that my uncle won't be meeting him?" I asked her. "Does he know that it is his heir who would act on this deal?"

She looked confused. "I'm sorry, Young Master. I don't know."

I closed my eyes. "How can I be sure that he knows that I am the one to meet him?"

"Don't worry, Kousei Ashworth," spoke a man with a very heavy but calming voice. "I know that it will be you. Jupiter has called that he won't be coming but he sent a representative."

I opened my eyes. "Are you James Egorth?"

"Yes, I am," he replied. "If I'm not wrong, you're actually Kousei Arima, aren't you?"

My eyes widened. "I can't believe you know who I really am. Thank you for meeting us here and inviting me to go here in your hotel."

"You have my package, am I correct?" He sat on one of his solo couches. As I am very much familiar on that smell, I knew immediately that he's smoking cocaine.

"Yes, we have your packages," August said as she sit on the couch in front of his chair. "You must remember that I came here to protect a young boy here. I can't let a cop destroy his life immediately. You shouldn't have attracted any spy in here."

"You know what we do with spies, August," he told her. "Everyone who works in my hotel are members of my syndicate."

He handed her the gray attaché case which was filled with hundreds of dollars and at the same time, one of the guards who had stood behind us gave him a brown brief case.

As I remember, it was filled with his cocaine packages. They both checked the bags.

Moments later, the drug deal had ended between two representatives of the two different crime organization.

"We're here to ask for your assistance, too," she told him. "Arima Ashworth's just here to watch me work and talk to you. He's being trained by his uncle."

"Yes," he spoke up. "The boy's still unaware of many things."

"Jupiter Ashworth allowed me to tell you what he is. He is what we call 'The Eye'. Your uncle is a powerful being in the underworld," he answered me. "He sent you so I can tell you something about him since he believes you're ready to know what kind of position which you will inherit if something happens to him. He also had told me on a call that you're here since you hate Phoebe Yang."

His words attracted me. My uncle and James had truly talked to each other about me.

"I'm interested to know you," he said to me. "We had been close to each other for so long. Your uncle is my savior. He saved my life. He prevented me from killing myself."

"I believe he saved me, too," I told him. "My beginning with them wasn't the best as August here tortured me when I was very young. I'm twenty-one years old, now."

"Not old enough to get on truly dangerous missions, then," he said to me. "You'll get on one when you're ready."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I believe I'm ready to do dangerous things."

Would Jupiter be able to trust me to get on difficult and dangerous missions wherein I would have no choice but to go against the law?

"Big Dipper Syndicate and the Egorth Enterprise were actually his most precious groups which he protects," he told me. "Without him, the Egorth Enterprises could have gone downhill. I accepted his deal. Jupiter gets his livelihood through his corporation. Ashworth Corporation creates weapons while the Egorth Enterprise is their partner in creating auctions. I'm sure you're aware of it. He has too many casinos which he runs here in Las Vegas, too."

I closed my eyes and clenched my fists. His house and the whole Las Vegas was a huge prison to me.

Jupiter has allies inside FBI and the Las Vegas Police, too.

I still remember that when I was sixteen, I tried to get on a bus going to Arizona to escape him but a police officer immediately stopped me and brought me back to the Ashworth Mansion and ever since that day, I knew I can't leave Ashworth Group. Jupiter has too many eyes and a lot of people obeys him.

"To think that I am a member of the Ashworth Group after years of struggling still baffles me. I gave up on trying to escape and instead, I chose to obey him," I told them. "I accepted the persona he desired for me and I believe, I was slowly becoming what he wants me to be."

"It's a good decision to give up," he said to me. "He won't control you. In my experience, he will only keep you grounded on his power while it's clear that you can't leave him, yet. He allowed me to create my own group when I was ready to leave his wings."

"He allowed you to leave?" I was flabbergasted. "My uncle's actually a good person, isn't he? I don't even know why he had to kidnap me when I was very young."

August chuckled. "It was his way to get you, Kousei, and now, you're with us."

I stood up from my seat and grinned more widely while I look at the very lit city of Las Vegas, Nevada at his transparent glass window. "He won't be able to get me if he didn't make me suffer first. My old life was like a dream ever since he forced me to stay here."

She stood up as well and placed her right hand on my shoulder. "My life changed too when you finally gave up and accepted to be one of us. Jupiter gave me a great gift. He gave me a new brother to protect. Cassiopeia will be very happy that you're a part of our organization."

The feelings of distraught and rebellion against Jupiter had long disappeared. If I am to be honest with myself, I knew that I had already adapted to this dangerous life. "Thank you, August."

"Can I ask?" James suddenly interrupted us. "Where are my newly bought armoury?"

"The weapons you bought in the Bullet Red Store will arrive this night at your mansion," I told him.

"I understand," he answered me. "Before you leave, one of my guards will pass you the luggage bag filled with my money."

"Where will you use the weapons?" I asked him. "I don't care how you use it anymore."

"I wonder if you don't really care how I'll use it," he stared at my eyes so closely and folded his hands together. "You will be eaten up alive if you stay in this world if you don't have a strong stomach."

"I live in the underworld like you. I don't know why you would doubt me," I replied back at him. "How will you use the weapons we will give you?"

"You're too young," he answered me. "Of course, you're still very innocent. The weapons I bought are my extra supplies for my private army, Kousei Arima. I use it against the police and when I smuggle drugs in South America."

"Do you know something about Phoebe Yang?" August asked him. "Can you share this information with us?"

James Egorth handed her a USB Drive. "It's still funny she was able to marry a decent man like Takahiko Arima. She doesn't know I can actually drive her secret life to surface. She can't always hide in the shadows while pretending to be a pure woman."

"Thanks for this USB Drive, James," August told him. "Now, it will be easy for us to bring her down."

James had a kind smile on his face while August guide me out of his room. "Good luck."

...

A/n: I hope you liked this fanfiction! 💕💕