by T L Brevis
“What do you mean,” she asked, more curiously than sternly this time, keeping fierce and arrogant eye contact with Hiroshi, he presumed to display her confidence and superiority to the younger boy. Little did she know, she was only digging a deeper pitfall for herself, one which would soon engulf her entire universe.
“W-Well, our dads work here, and we asked them for jobs because we need more money for the new games that came out last summer. They didn’t let us, s-so we thought we would come back and look for their boss, or someone else to see if t-they would accept us,” Hiroshi said, maintaining eye contact all the while. Four, five, he finished internally counting as his sentence concluded.
Ichigo Senokami froze, and a blank expression dawned on her face for just a moment, before she composed herself and focused her gaze at the three once more.
“Alright, but it’s getting late. You three should just run along back home and come back in a few days, early in the morning before your dads come in for work. I think that would be the best time to find their boss, since I think he went home already,” she said in a cheerful and helpful tone, but everyone there, including her own employees could tell she was only masking her annoyance at the children she obviously viewed as being so many levels beneath her. Hiroshi felt that he had encapsulated her quite well.
“O-Ok. Thank you for your help,” said Hakku before the trio walked past Ichigo Senokami and her two bodyguards and through the right corner, then sped up to a brisk-walk.
The trio then made a detour through more narrow openings between crates and began to climb up on them by giving each other boosts, which was quick easy for Hakku, but required both Hiroshi and Makoto to pull him up once he had boosted them up first each time. When they were finally finished, they arrived at the top of an abnormally large crate suspended quite high above the rest of the dock. The crate held the three of them quite well, and had room for about four to five more people on it had it been necessary.
They were lying flat on their stomachs, heads peering from their newfound vantage point of the rectangular clearing at the front of the dock they had just laid eyes on minutes before, but this time it was not empty, standing right in the middle was Ichigo Senokami and her two bodyguards, Ichigo Senokami in a casual position with her left hand in the left pocket of her jeans, and her right hand holding her phone up to her ear and speaking into it, the dialogue inaudible to the trio, which she then put back in her pocket moments after the trio had settled into their hiding place.
The three of them watched as the lone boat they had seen closing in on the dock drew closer and closer over the next few minutes, until it finally docked directly in front of the open area where Ichigo Senokami and her bodyguards stood. Upon closer inspection, the bottom ¾ of the boat was black in color and the remaining ¼ was a light grey. In terms of size, it was about half the size of most of the monstrous cargo ships surrounding the dock, but quite even in size with most of the others in the dock.
One man emerged at the front of the boat from its cabin and called out to Ichigo Senokami, which the three watching from above could barely hear due to the decent amount of distance between them and the man, compared to Ichigo Senokami and the man.
“Did you come with only these two as promised, Demon Child?” the man asked.
“Actually, there was a change of plans,” Ichigo Senokami replied in a similar volume to the man, and seconds later, ten more men, all with similar appearances to the first two emerged from the same right corner Hiroshi and the rest were all too familiar with, and in seconds, they hurried over to their boss’s side.
“You knew our agreement and yet you still did this,” the man said, sounding indescribably insulted.
“Well, I have no use for partnerships with those who feel the need to test my loyalty. You know my reputation, and yet you would go this far to question it. That is unforgivable,” Ichigo Senokami replied coldly, even more barely audible to the three from their current position.
Ichigo Senokami’s newly arrived bodyguards, along with the other two pulled handguns from their pockets and aimed at the man on the ship. He responded with a cold stare into Ichigo Senokami’s eyes and a swift snap of his fingers. About a dozen of his own crew members emerged to the front of the ship, carrying an assortment of guns, mainly including handguns and assault rifles, then they took aim as well.
“Fire!” both Ichigo Senokami and the man exclaimed in unison, followed by a flurry of bullets cutting through the air and piercing their targets at various points. People on both sides collapsed, fear etching onto their faces as they realized their true situation, crimson liquid being sprayed across the boat and dock’s surface like water out of a hose. Groans and cries of pain were echoed through the facility, with each side holding their ground despite how many of their comrades fell beside them.
Then, a single cry much higher in pitch than the rest shook even the monstrous crates that surrounded all of them. Ichigo Senokami followed after her fallen bodyguards, and toppled to the ground, lying on her back and her face giving off a shocked and melancholic expression. A bullet was fired cleanly into her stomach, and she was bleeding profusely from her wound.
Her remaining bodyguards noticed quickly, and took that as their cue to escape. Hiroshi was disgusted. Apparently those loyalty tests were all for naught, and meant nothing in the end when their lives were at stake, and they would not suffer the consequences from their employer. They had been waiting for her to get fatally wounded so that they would not have a reason to stay and fight any longer.
Well, Hiroshi had that covered. These criminals would not get off as easily as they would hope. This would be the final time they would endanger the lives of others, even criminals like their adversaries moments ago.
The trio stood up from their lying positions on their vantage point and Makoto as well as Hakku began making their descent to the dock’s floor. Hiroshi looked back for just a moment, eyes fading from crimson back to an extremely dark brown, and he uttered a single soft chuckle from his lips as a smile of satisfaction sprawled across his face. With that, his work was done and he went after the other two and disappeared silently into the night.
Sirens could be heard in the distance only seconds later and the four men that remained standing on the boat after the frenzy that ensued froze and immediately knew the gravity of their newfound situation. The sirens drew closer.
The four men began shouting contradictory orders desperately, all with the common goal of escape, some suggesting to go back out to sea, some suggesting to leave their boat behind and mimic the men who had ran out into the docks and many other proposals. The men were all indecisive, and could not reach a common consensus quick enough. The sirens drew even closer.
The men began to feel their anxiety pour down on them. They were in a much worse situation than the bodyguards. They were carrying what was meant to be delivered to Ichigo Senokami on that boat with them. They would face heavy punishments if they were discovered with those substances. The siren’s sounds became piercingly loud. All they could do was stand and wait for their impending doom with wide eyes and rapid heartbeats.
Not even a minute later, shouting could be heard far into the dock, moments after the sirens had finally ceased after reaching their peak in volume. Rapid footsteps followed, growing louder and louder with each passing second, like the sirens before them, and those on the boat could only stay as still as possible and observe in horror as a flood of police officers poured into the open area from that same corridor and any other little opening they could find until about half of the rectangular area was filled with them.
The police officers all had mortified expressions on their faces as they began laying their eyes on the absolute massacre that had taken place, but they did not falter on their commitment to carrying out their duties. They swiftly and almost mechanically whipped out their handguns and aimed them at vital points on each man on the boat, every officer being in sync with one another as to who they
picked, no matter what position they stood at.
The men had already put their hands up. They knew their fates were sealed the moment they heard the rapid footsteps approaching, and now all they could do was hang their heads low and wait for the worst to come.
∞
“Tell me exactly what happened,” a man in a smartly pressed black suit, with nicely combed dark hair and rectangular spectacles that appeared to be very costly said sternly to two tall, bald, muscular men with grim expressions on their faces sitting across from him, the only thing separating them was a small black table, in the middle of a medium-sized room painted a similar black, along with a door, still the same color, the only thing not matching the color scheme of the rest was a large tinted glass window facing the man’s back.
“Well, it all began a few hours ago. Our boss called us up and asked us to come as backup for the two bodyguards she already had with her. We were already on standby for it a few blocks from the port, so it wasn’t surprising. Of course, we obeyed her. We got there and waited in a corridor she gave us directions to. As she said she would, she gave a signal a few minutes later after she talked to her supplier for a while.
“We pulled out our guns and they did too, then we fought. The boss and a lot of our men died in that fight, but we were able to escape, then as you know, you guys caught us near the entrance of the dock,” one of the bodyguards explained, to which the other confirmed his story with a sharp nod.
“I see. Alright, as promised, because you agreed to give a full confession so quickly, the judge will be informed to be more lenient in your sentencing. Your story also matches up well with what the surviving suppliers said too. You will be held in our custody until your trial,” the man said, keeping up his stern tone, although there was a hint of relief in there as well.
The two had more hopeful expressions now, and were gladly escorted into their cells to await their trials, not a care in the world that their employer had passed away just hours before.
∞
“That went well. I would be surprised if the police suspected our involvement,” said Hiroshi.
“Yup, another mission well done guys,” Makoto congratulated them.
“It was a hassle to pull all of those all-nighters, but it was worth it. For the second time in my life, I feel like I'm doing something with a real purpose behind it after all, it really wasn’t just a fluke the first time,” said Hakku.
They all fell silent and took a sip of their drinks simultaneously, standing around the kitchen table. This had become a habit. They did not want to miss a cue in their conversations.
“At least we get to take a break now. Makoto, you can as well sometimes you know?” Hiroshi said.
“No thanks. It’s imperative that I keep up the same pace so that the police won’t guess that our kills are related. It was your idea to be cautious in the first place,” Makoto responded.
“Well, I'm quite sure they would only get information on high-profile deaths, and not on the serial killers and murderers you go after, so I doubt any of your kills are on their radar,” said Hiroshi.
“Well, I guess. Anyway, go ahead and take your break, you two have earned it. Your missions are much more important than mine, and plus, I have a full team behind me, you two only have each other. Also, it's not like you even just mess around on your breaks, you both do relevant research and work that can help in future missions, so I have to continue doing my part in these times too,” Makoto said reassuringly
“No. Don’t you dare say that. Your missions are at the very least as important as ours! You keep dozens of people from being killed by these murderers, you’re cleaning up Japan much more than we are right now!” exclaimed Hakku barely letting Makoto get his last words out.
“That’s not true! Your missions are much more complex, and each of your targets do much more damage than killing a few people. You guys do a much better job!” Makoto argued.
“Enough you two. All of our jobs are important. That is the beauty of our team. We complement each other very well and help the largest portion of society by covering different areas,” said Hiroshi calmly.
“I guess you’re right,” Makoto said, sounding like he could speak his mind for hours more, but let it go instead.
“Yea, I guess,” said Hakku in a similar tone.
“Look at you two. Just a few months ago, you were at each other’s throats, and now you’re defending each other’s work. Well, when you see someone working as hard as you two do for a similar cause, I guess some respect is bound to be gained,” Hiroshi said quite provocatively.
From their facial expressions alone, Hiroshi could tell that they knew he was correct in his assessment.
“A-Anyway, I wasn’t really listening when you explained the plan before. I’ll take one of those breaks you want me to for a few minutes if you explain it in detail again,” said Makoto hurriedly.
“Alright, I suppose,” Hiroshi said, still smiling. Makoto let out a small smile back to Hiroshi as gratitude, then Hiroshi began.
“First of all, I of course used my Noromi to find any information I could on her, however, that coupled with the information Kaito had provided in terms of her crimes were not nearly enough to build a good game plan off of. This was when we turned to you. We figured that this girl, who seemed to be just an innocent, wealthy orphan on the outside, while being a manipulative, despicable criminal on the inside, would undoubtedly not just settle for a small drug business, but would be notorious.
“As you know, we asked you to bring the question of this girl’s fame up to your group of private detectives, and one responded with a number of things, but the most useful was that she valued loyalty above everything else.
“Next, Hakku found pieces of information that were crucial to this mission’s success. He was able to hack into Ichigo Senokami’s website and found various chat rooms. Most were useless, but one stood out. It described a meeting on a dock between Ichigo Senokami, two of her bodyguards and one of her suppliers.
“The supplier felt that she did not take their relationship seriously, due to a number of misjudgments and mistakes on her side, so he felt it necessary that she put her loyalty towards him to the test by coming to collect her next supply personally, only with two bodyguards accompanying her.
“They would handle loading the substances into her moving trucks, and everything else she would normally need extra people with her to handle, all they asked in return was for her presence, something apparently very rare, so rare that most in the underworld did not even know her hair and eye colors, and as we found from another chat, this was because when she did meet with people on rare occasions, her and her men would always carry devices to electromagnetically disrupt anything capable of capturing images or videos, and she would even wear a mask as a precaution.
“The devices she made use of were very expensive, Hakku and I found, but it just goes to show the lengths she went to in order to protect her identity as an innocent, wealthy orphan.
“With everything we had gathered, we decided to start drafting a final plan of action. We would visit the dock on the pretense of wanting to acquire work in the same field as our fathers in order to earn extra money. All of that was believable. Our fathers would have undoubtedly at least went over the basics of their job in front of us, so that would have given us a sense of familiarity.
“Secondly, the goal of purchasing a video game would perfectly match our childish alter-egos. Everything fit perfectly in that regard. We would ‘happen’ to run into Ichigo Senokami and two of her bodyguards. She would of course ask for our reason for being there to ensure we were not involved with her supplier, and also because someone like her would definitely be the type to want to know of everything happening around her.
“I would speak up nervously, and she would look me dead in the eyes. My childish appearance and nervous tone would definitely make me more than a safe bet to underestimate and talk down to. Again, she seemed l
ike the type to do so. No doubt feeling invincible with her empire and ‘achievement’ of killing her parents without so much of a speck of suspicion coming her way for it, compared to a 12 year old with a stutter.
“I was able to achieve my five seconds of eye contact, and thus the plan went into full-throttle. I made her give some expected advice to us about running along home, and returning another day, then dismiss us. After which, I made her call one of her bodyguards and alert him to bring the rest to the dock as backup as soon as possible, and to hide directly behind the right turn before the corridor’s entrance.
“Her motive, not being pleased with her famous trust and loyalty being tested by, in her eyes, one of her puny little suppliers who would never even dream of standing up to her might. She would be ‘wrong’ in her prediction and would die at the port with many of her men.
“On top of that, I did leave out something I did days prior. I looked at a picture I had acquired of her supplier through one of his personal social media pages and discovered his address. I went alone, but again went with the normal routine of delivering flyers. I did not wish to take any chances, however. A door to door salesman, also happening to be a child would have possibly angered him, so instead of doing it normally, I gave ¥500 worth of coupons for this company I was supposedly working for to his entire street.
