It had to happen quickly. With so many routes of human trafficking brought to their knees from the efforts of the twins, Lilou, Kohaku, Setsuka, and Elroe, it was only a matter of time before the dirty officers figured out their cash cow was figured out. Kaito and Takao had to work silently, in a long-distance tandem, so that they could take on their opponents. Numbers weren't on their side, since they could only count on each other and they couldn't take anyone who'd done a mission up to this point in case there were sensors who'd recognize their traces.
Kaito had taken to the botanical route, sealing away stray herbs and dispatching the dealers quickly. Their usage of the herbs to coerce confessions out of illegally detained citizens was coming to an end thanks to the work of the Hyuga twins and Lilou. It would take months to untangle which were tainted confessions and which were real because of how many officers were involved. Meanwhile, Takao followed the distribution route of the onis' Honey, tearing down several different clubhouses along the Lands of Lightning and Fire to manage it. The very oni that had traded on the belief that shinobi were the sweetest commodity were now choking down the bitter taste of defeat as their empire fell overnight.
The very next night, Takao followed the kemono shinzo assassins from Octavia's crew to the location Octavia gave Eirene. It took hours, but he managed to counter the trio's korabo and intense teamwork with the prowess he owed Chomei. He was rough in handling their capture, but his broken nose made it feel pretty justified.
That left Kaito at the Leylines to capture the Captain before he left. He was at the top of the food chain in terms of the human trafficking and internal corruption of the APD, so he surely would have heard about all of the slowdowns and then captures of his human trafficking chain. Kaito expected him to be fleeing in a hurry, but Captain Hiroshi Miyamoto leisurely travelled to his air ship. There, Kaito cornered him on the aircraft with scrolls abound. He released several Rashomon gates to keep him from leaving, but Hiroshi was a master of burning bridges to protect himself at all costs. Kaito even resorted to using his Kiba blades to outrace Hiroshi, but he had, in preparation, sealed up all of his highest commanding officers and unleashed them with from his scrolls. His corrupted Miyamoto techniques allowed him to control them, perverting the clan's kekkai genkai for his personal gain as he led man after man to slaughter. Kaito did his best to take on about a dozen of his own peers, but he fell to his knees from a piercing chidori to the throat and did not get back up. Hiroshi cursed Kaito for making him waste so many of his good men this early in his escape, but Kaito couldn't spare the time to bask in that small victory.
His body flinched into itself as he curled up, hand wrapped around his oozing neck. His blood felt hot, but everything else was ice cold. He used to hate freezing, before Avalanche. It comforted him, reminded him that he'd taken on all the difficult work to combat the internal corruption of the APD because his vigilante roommate - more than that, weren't they? - had dreamed a world more fair than theirs was. He had done it for them more than anything else. It was a relief, then, that he could be blessed with the icy embrace of death, one that allowed his fading mind to approach the abyss with only the thought of them on it.
-
When Kaito hadn't arrived at their agreed-upon rendezvous, Takao was immediately suspicious. After all, his mission had taken him hours, and Kaito was only in charge of stopping Hiroshi himself, who they strongly suspected would travel alone given his selfish nature. He waited for less than five minutes at their spot before he went straight to the Leylines, buzzing with worn adrenaline and the ache of his recently-broken nose he'd barely fixed with iryojutsu.
The sight of the Leylines was haunting. The partially-torn, partially-burned Rashomon gates stood still testament to the battle that had raged an hour prior, but Takao cared not about the structural risks they posed to the location. His gaze fell on the limp Kaito, crumpled to the ground and stained red like a scarlet ibis. His blood had pooled and spilled outwards in one direction because of the slightly uneven lean of the Leylines construction, leaving the blood in an oblong shape extending past his icy hands in a vague wing-like shape. There were destroyed scrolls scattered around him, and a few bodies of dead men in officer uniforms.
Not as alone as they'd thought, then. It was a moot point, but their ignorance left Takao's face burning as tears gathered in his eyes. It was stupid of him to assume Hiroshi wouldn't be more prepared, stupid to believe that he wouldn't have more lambs to bring to the slaughter to save his own sorry skin. And still. Takao's anger burned like a cinder in his stomach but he kneeled beside Kaito and touched his face with soft hands. The curls of the freckled kid made him look so painfully young. His lips were turned into a near smile, and it hurt to look at him. His hands bore electrical burns. Takao's gaze barely traveled before he saw the Kiba blades, thrown from Kaito as he met the ground for the final time.
Well. Second to final time.
Takao would have to be there when the buried him. It'd be unacceptable not to. He grabbed the Kiba blades and sealed them on his person, then created another seal on the ground to send a fuuin message to Lady Arashikage, one that would transcribe itself across her desk until she dismissed it. He felt it immediately when she read the fuuin message and dispersed it. He waited only as long as it took for her ANBU team to arrive. She was nowhere in sight, and that was probably for the best.
With the ANBU there to see to Kaito's body, Takao was resolved to his purpose. He achieved his six tailed jinchuuriki sage cloak and flew into the air fast enough to break the sound barrier, emitting Chomei's sensory techniques as he did because he was on the hunt now.
-
In the end, Takao was the one committing a war crime during an investigation instead of Kiku, like he'd thought when they took on a mission that began this unraveling of internal corruption. Though, he supposed it wasn't much of an interrogation. He had shot Hiroshi's airship out of the sky the second he sensed it. It reminded him of an airship he'd also get a lot of pleasure out of destroying, but this wasn't the time for fantasy.
In his bijuu cloak, it'd been easy to fly fast enough to catch the fiery Hiroshi as he descended from the wreckage of his ship. Takao had thought about letting the man hit the earth first, but he then realized how much better it'd be to send him there himself. He summoned a beast ball above Hiroshi, who was hardly conscious, and shot it at the man, increasing his velocity to the ground tenfold. He was quick to body flicker to the ground so he could immediately see Hiroshi's broken body, but then he was using his medical knowledge to cure the man of everything but a touch of trauma. He picked up the healed Hiroshi by the collar, looked the man in the eyes and saw no one of importance.
What a coward.
Chomei chittered in his ears as Takao beat Hiroshi to a pulp only to revive him again. He stopped his heart with lightning, stuffed his lungs with dirt, burned his skin off, all just to fix him moments afterwards. Hiroshi's begging, pleading, screaming, threatening, and prayers didn't move Takao, didn't make him do anything other than snarl and hit harder. It was hours of tittering between death and life before Hiroshi's mind seemed to be next to melting out of his ears. The ex-Captain was broken beyond belief, and still, Chomei was lecturing Takao about ethics or something else he couldn't care about.
It was only when Takao's cloak began to flicker that he tuned back in. 'Takao has used almost all of Takao's chakra and Chomei's chakra. Takao needs to leave for home now or Takao will not make it.' Holding the limp Hiroshi, he paused for a long minute to consider his options. But Chomei was right. Hiroshi needed to face the people for what he'd done. Hiroshi had taken his lumps and now it was time for him to sit in a cell block for the rest of his life. Even if the finality of his death would help Takao say the words he needed to say to Kaito's mother when he delivered the news.
He flew back home with his captive.