lol yes I was a bit confused for a bit
I guess I was fooled
Anyway as promised here is Chap.Two ... it's quite a bit longer than the other 2 chapters, so sorry for those who prefer briefer chapters. I tried to make it all connect up with the prologue, hopefully I didn't make any glaringly obvious continuity errors
Enjoy!:
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Chapter TwoTHE CHASE
02.11.08
The clouded Yokohama night sky was illuminated by towering skyscrapers and rippled reflections of neon lights. Intrusive music from elevated speakers drained out the voices of the people below, their conversations becoming muffled as they fought to counter the noises of the city. Above them, traffic stood still over the Yokohama Harbour, horns blaring as impatient commuters yelled from their vehicles. Interweaving between the many cars were three motorcycles. Roaring against the wind, their occupants made their way towards the city center.
Veering off at the first exit, past broken glass scattered amongst the asphalt and a stationary police car, the motorcycles drove side by side as rain began to fall. Turning onto a side street the group passed posters plastered against the wall, the young vibrant faces of youth, promotion of the new C-ute concert tour.
Holding her arm up, Eri wiped the rain off her watch face. She squinted her eyes as she tried to make out the time whilst firmly clutching at Risa’s waist.
“It’s five past nine,” she yelled in her friend’s ear, “We’re too late!”
“We can still make it!” Risa yelled back.
Leading the pack ahead of them was Ai, whilst behind was Reina and Sayumi, whose eyes were clenched closed as she held onto her partner tightly.
Their motorcycles skidded along the wet road as they came to a halt out front of the Yokohama Arena. The faint sound of music echoed around them as they removed their helmets.
“I can hear them!” Sayu jumped up, “We made it!”
“We have to hurry,” Ai quickly retorted. “We’re not out of danger yet.”
The group scurried across the plaza towards the large glass panel entrance, as police sirens echoed in the distance. Ai pointed to her side as she directed Risa and Eri around the back. The two girls quickly diverted towards a side alleyway, their figures casting large shadows against the buildings and they ran through the rain.
Ai thrust open the doors of the Arena and the three burst into the front foyer.
“Get security!” Ai ordered a uniformed worker standing at the entrance to the main arena, “This site is a potential dan-“
The explosion ricocheted through the front foyer, blowing the arena doors off, as the three girls were propelled off their feet. Catapulting through the front entrance, they landed in the middle of the plaza, rain pelting on them amongst a sea of shattered glass.
Eri swung around at the sound of the explosion.
“Screams…” she stammered, “Sayu?”
Risa grabbed her arm as she pulled her into the shadows. Ahead of them a white van roared its engine as a number of men exited from a fire exit and stumbled into the vehicle.
The girls could see large sacks being thrown into the van, but against the rain and wind they were unable to make out any of the conversation.
“That’s them.” Risa whispered. “In those bags…”
“We have to save them!” Eri stepped forward onto the road, Risa quickly pulling her back as the van sped past them down the alleyway.
Ai sat up quickly, brushing the glass from her clothes before helping up Sayumi and Reina who had both suffered minor abrasions.
They turned at the sound of a loud screech, the white van turning from the side street.
Risa and Eri appeared from the side of the arena.
“Ai!” Risa called out, struggling for breath. “In the van, go!”
Ai, Reina and Sayumi ran to their motorcycles, quickly jumping on.
“Check for survivors!” Ai yelled back over the sound of the roaring engines, before the two bikes sped away in pursuit.
Risa watched as Ai, Reina and Sayumi drive off into the darkness, still trying to catch her breath. Next to her, Eri was resting against the stone brick wall, tears welling in her eyes.
“No time to cry now,” Risa grabbed Eri’s hand, “we have to help.”
The pair ran towards the, now damaged, entrance, cautiously stepping over the broken shards of glass that was dispersed over almost the entire front plaza. Stepping into the foyer, the duo was met with black smoke which billowed from the main arena.
“How will we be able to see?” Eri whispered, “…how can we help them?”
Risa shook her head in disbelief. “Who would do something like this…?”
“We should get help, we can’t do this alone.”
“Agreed.”
The pair rushed back out into the rain, scanning the vicinity for help.
Running to the road, Risa looked down into the darkness concernedly. “Where are the others?!”
Pulling out her phone, she started dialling Junjun’s number.
“Sir?!”
Spinning around, Risa saw Eri calling out to a thin man who had appeared from the alleyway they had been in only moments earlier.
“Sir, there’s been a bomb and many people are injured. Please help us!”
The man’s eyes widened as they darted from Eri to Risa and then to the smoke which was now ascending towards the already darkened skies. As quickly as he appeared the man ducked back into the darkness of the alleyway, his footsteps echoing along its walls.
“Risa!”
“I’m already with you!” Risa jumped onto her motor cycle and started down towards the alleyway, slowing as she reached Eri. “Get on!”
Eri jumped onto the side of the bike and Risa continued up the alleyway.
The alleyway was damp and dimly lit, with pockets of shadows every few meters.
The girls quickly reached the end of the alleyway, two paths leading in the opposite directions.
“Which way do I go?” Risa’s voice was horse as she called out over the sound of the motor cycle.
Eri’s eyes squinted as she peered down each path, though neither was lit well enough for her to see. Her eyebrows arched as she frantically began tapping on Risa’s shoulder. “Turn the engine off!”
Risa quickly obeyed her friend and, as the engine slowly quietened, the girls heard faint footsteps.
“Bingo!”
*~~*
“Why is this traffic not moving!?”
Junjun blasted her hand against the car horn for the eighth time, pressing down for what seemed like an eternity.
“AHHHHH!” Koharu slapped Junjun on the head from behind, “Too loud!”
Junjun rested her cheek against the windscreen as she looked out onto the Yokohama harbor from the highway above. She had been sitting there for the past 10 minutes, barely moving an inch, and her patience was being tested. She had absolute faith in the other girls, that they would be able to help C-ute, though that left her the worst job of all:
babysitter.
“Excuse me? Attention all people!” Aika had stuck half her body out the car window, her right hand was curved at her mouth, the other grasping the roof of the car. “We have an emergency! If you could all just move … please?”
“Get down from there!” Junjun tugged at Aika’s sweater, lowering her back into the car, “It’s not safe.”
“I see police up ahead” Linlin had crawled in between Aika and Junjun in the front of the car and was now pointing to the flashing lights of police cars a few hundred meters up the road. “We should ask them for help.”
The girls all got out of the car into a blistering chill.
“Stay right behind me,” Junjun cautioned the others before darting towards the flashing lights ahead.
Koharu and Aika joined hands as they ran together.
“Wa~hhhh this is so exciting!”
“We’re totally like secret agents!” Aika nodded in agreement.
“Hurry up!” Linlin called from ahead as she tugged her coat tighter against her body.
Shortly Junjun reached the officers who were busy dealing with a car accident, seemingly the cause of the traffic.
“Excuse me, sir?” Junjun rushed over to what looked to be the officer in charge.
“Sorry girlie, I ain’t got no time for chit chat. Can’t you see I got two blocked lanes in peak hour to deal with.” The officer’s voice was gruff and cold. “You’ll be on your way to the mall, or the cinemas, or wherever it is you and your friends are off too shortly.”
“No that’s not it!” Linlin chirped in, “There is a concert at the Yokohama Arena tonight, it’s starting about now and we thi…”
“A concert, did ya say?!” The officer mocked, “Well why didn’t ya say so? Boys, let’s get these girls a police escort quickly so they can make their concert in time!”An officer a few meters away laughed. “Look just beat it kids, we’ll be finished soon.”
The girls stood in a circle, bathed in the red and blue lights of the police car, pondering their options.
“He won’t even listen!” Aika stomped her foot on the ground.
“We have to make him! I’ll give him a piece of my mind!” Koharu rolled her sleeves up, “Officer wo PU~N!!” She punched the air a few times.
Linlin rolled her eyes, laughing, “Violence is never the answer. In fact in 94% of cases, disputes can easily be resolved with civilised discussion."
Koharu poked her tongue out at her friend as Junjun suddenly spoke up.
“I think I have an idea.”
*~~*
“Did you know that in 40% of car accidents, the negligible driver is either under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs?” Linlin tugged at the police officer’s coat as she followed him around the road, “Is that the case here?”
“I don’t know,” The officer mumbled as he brushed away Linlin. “Could you stop following me kid? Go play with your friends.”
Linlin continued following the officer who swiftly moved further from her after every step until they were both a fair distance from where they had begun. She turned around peering towards the officer’s car to see Junjun, Koharu and Aika ducking behind. Smiling, she held up her hand in an ‘A-OK’ symbol and nodded to which Junjun did the same.
“I see this glass is spread out in an evenly dispersed manner outward from the vehicle. Does that indicate a forward trajectory upon impact?”
“Yeah I guess, anything else?!” The officer’s face was red with frustration.
Linlin glanced back to see the girls crawling into the car, before turning back to the office. “No thank you, Sir. You’ve been quite helpful.”
At that moment the police car’s sirens began to blare as the engine revved loudly.
Linlin dashed towards the car as it spun around, stopping briefly as Linlin jumped in, then blaring down the off-ramp leaving many stunned faces behind.
“Good job,” Junjun smiled in the rear-view mirror back at Linlin.
“All in a day’s work!” Linlin grinned as Koharu shoved her, laughing.
“Let’s go save C-ute!” Aika raised her fist in the air, “Secret agents UNITE!”
Junjun looked over to her, one eyebrow raised. “Secret agents…?”
“Red light, straight through! We’re Police, wa~hh!”
The police siren roared as they neared the Yokohama Arena. They had reached the road adjacent to the Arena when a white van came speeding past, cutting them off at the intersection, followed by two motorcycles.
“Ai!” Aika jumped up and down in her seat, “that was Ai-chan!”
“…and Reina and Sayumi, I think.” Linlin continued, “We have to help them.”
Junjun nodded as she steered the car away from the Yokohama Arena, in the direction of the chase.
*~~*
Risa’s motor cycle came to a screeching halt as they reached a large brick building at the end of the alleyway, a dead end.
“Where did he go?” Eri looked around.
“Look!” Risa pointed at a small laneway between buildings a few meters behind them, running up to investigate. “It looks too small for the bike, we’ll have to go on foot.”
Together the pair ran down the dark lane way which was filled with dank, stinky water.
“You realize when we finally catch this guy, I’m going to make him wish he never met me,” Risa huffed as she trudged along, “These boots are new! Now they’re ruined.”
“I can’t believe you are thinking of footwear at a time like this!”
“It’s my defence mechanism!”
The girls finally ran out onto a ledge overlooking the Plaza Shopping Complex. A rustic spiral staircase led down to large crowds of shoppers loitering around one of the many entrances.
“Where did he go?”
“There!” Eri pointed to the thin black man, weaselling his way through the people below. Leading the way, she headed down the staircase into the crowd, as she tried to keep her eyes on the man ahead. “Do you see him?”
“That’s him!” Risa pointed towards the entrance of the mall and they both darted towards it, pushing people aside as they tried to navigate through the crowd.
Upon reaching the entrance, they stumbled past the automatic doors and scoured the current vicinity for the man. In the middle of the current floor, the girls saw large palm trees which peaked out from below. Rushing towards the balcony, they saw a large fountain on the lowest most level, with the palm trees surrounding it and views of the levels both above and below.
Risa turned her head as she searched the balconies of the levels above, while Eri leaned over to get a better look below. “I can’t see him.”
“Neither,” Eri replied, “let’s keep looking.”
*~~*
Junjun pressed down hard on the accelerator as she fondled with the gear shift, “Damn sticks!”
“You’re doing well,” Linlin encouraged, “We’re gaining on them, just concentrate.”
Linlin was indeed correct as the chase ahead of them seemed to be getting gradually closer as they manoeuvred through the back streets of Yokohama. In the distance, the white van was their target, easier to see than the two black motorcycles following it. All four girls had their sights on the van as it turned a corner ahead of them.
“LEFT!” Aika screamed, pointing to her right.
“It went right!” Koharu snapped from the backseat, “Left is that-a-way.”
“Oh yeah…”
“I’m not blind, I can figure it out myself.” Junjun called out, keeping her eyes fixed on the road as they approached the corner ahead. Aika’s head lowered slightly, Junjun noticing in the corner of her eye, “… but thank you.”
Aika’s head rose, smiling as she looked up towards Junjun.
They turned the corner ahead and came to a halt as they entered a dark, deserted city street.
Koharu jumped up, grabbing the seat in front of her, “Where did they go?!”
Linlin tapped Junjun on the shoulder, “Keep driving, maybe they turned up one of these side streets.”
Junjun nodded in agreement, “Keep your eyes peeled, girls. Now I’ll need your help.”
Aika reached around her seat towards Koharu as they both smiled before retreating to their windows, peering out into the darkness.
Junjun continued up the street cautiously, the headlights of the car revealing discarded trash being washed away down the gutters.
“Is that them?” Aika asked, her eyes scrunching up as she pressed her hands against her window.
Linlin climbed over next to Koharu to get a closer look. “It is! Good work, Mittsi.”
Aika beamed as Junjun examined the narrow street, a worried look on her face. “I don’t know if we will fit through there?”
“The van fit, we should too right?” Koharu nodded, anxious to continue their chase.
“This cop car is huge though,” Junjun replied, “it’s definitely wider than the van.”
“Perhaps we should look for an alternate route? The road veers off to the right up ahead,” Linlin pointed towards the end of the street, “we should head down there.”
The girls all nodded in unison and Junjun sped up the car as they headed down the street.
*~~*
Sayumi’s long black hair flustered behind her as she raced along the Yokohama backstreets, clinging tightly to Reina who was driving the motor cycle. Behind her she could hear the faint sounds of sirens and turning back saw police in the distance. “Good” she thought, “With the police on our side, we’re sure to rescue C-ute.”
Ahead of them, Ai was expertly dodging the terrain, gaining on the white van up ahead and widening the gap between Reina and Sayumi as she did.
“I can’t let Ai down,” Reina thought to herself, speeding up as she pushed the motor cycle to its limits, “I gotta catch up!”
She saw the white van turn down an alleyway, barely squeezing in, with Ai following right behind. Reina turned the bike to follow them, entering darkness as she did. She could only see a few meters in front of her, with the help of the motorcycle’s headlights. She could just make out the lights of Ai and the van a fair bit up the alleyway. The police sirens, which had been getting louder, began to soften.
Sayumi screamed as the motor cycle swayed, running over a discarded wooden plank, her hands grasping tighter around Reina’s waist and burying her head in Reina’s shoulder. The bike swayed as Reina wriggled from Sayumi’s grip, “Ah! Let go of me!”
Turning back around Reina could now not see the lights of Ai or the van ahead of her, just the dim reflection of the moonlight in puddles on the ground. Speeding up, once again, she vowed to get back into the chase.
Upon reaching the end of the alleyway, she saw lights not far off to her left; she had gained some ground.
This new street was well lit and easy to navigate. Large office blocks stood tall to their right while a sturdy brick wall was on their left. The police sirens began to grow louder as Reina gained on Ai and the white van.
Reina was now driving with confidence when, without warning, the police car came crashing through from a street ahead of them, colliding into the brick wall. Reina hit the front breaks, the motorcycle screeching as it swerved and toppled over, skidding into the police car.
Black smoke rose from the smashed front of the police car as Junjun, Linlin, Koharu and Aika crawled out.
“Is anyone hurt?” Junjun called to the other girls.
“My knee…” Linlin looked down to a small scrape on her knee, “that’s all.”
“Geez, learn to drive!” Koharu snapped from the other side of the car.
“I told you I can’t drive sticks!”
“Sayu!” Aika spotted Sayumi and ran to her friend who was stumbling to her feet, a few meters down the road, “Sayu, are you ok?”
Sayumi nodded slowly. “Reina...” She beckoned to her left where Reina was lying against the wall.
Koharu ran up to Reina who held up her hand as she approached, “I can get up by myself.”
Quickly lifting herself and brushing off, she sternly walked towards where Junjun was standing. Looking back she called to the others, “Stay there! It isn’t safe.”
She ran up next to Junjun, who was close to tears.
“Don’t you dare cry!” Reina whispered, “Not near the kids, we have to be strong.”
“I tried my best,” Junjun wiped the tears from her eyes, “I really did.”
“I know. I’m not angry at you. I shouldn’t have let them get so far in front. At least no one is hurt.”
Reina continued towards the car, jumping on the trunk before climbing onto the roof. She stared down the street where the van and Ai had headed. In the distance she could see the lights of the harbor.
“It’s up to you now, Ai-chan.”
*~~*
Ai screeched to a halt behind a large stack of crate boxes. Ahead of her, the van had come to a stop near a large warehouse at the docks of Yokohama Harbor. She turned around, searching for her friends. “Reina, c’mon!” she whispered anxiously to herself.
A large, brutish man exited the van walking around to open the back, after which a number of men carrying sacks began bumbling out.
Ai began forward but, eying large guns on the belts of each man, quickly stepped back behind the crates.
Peeking out again, she saw a medium sized vessel, stationary in the water at the other end of the dock.
She looked behind her down the road one last time but could not make sight of Reina or any of the others.
Waiting for the right moment, she rushed out from behind the crates, making sure to stay in the shadows, and swiftly ran down the side of the dock in the direction of the vessel.
Looking behind her she saw the men heading for the boat. They walked slowly, carrying the motionless sacks on their backs.
As she reached the boat, she jumped on deck.
The boat was medium in size. Its hull was rustic and old, paint peeling from its sides, while the deck reeked of a strange fishy smell.
Ai raised her head over the edge to see the men continuing their approach. She looked back towards the deck, her eyes darting around before they rested on a pipe which ran up along the main cabin.
Pulling a small circular device out of her back pocket, she scurried towards the pipe. Pressing a button, her device was activated, a small red light blinking on its face. Reaching behind, she placed the device against pipe, out of view, before rushing back to the front of the boat and jumping back across to the dock.
As Ai hid at the side of the old warehouse, she watched as the sacks were thrown aboard before the ship slowly set out to sea. She pulled another object out from her pocket, with a large viewing screen, holding down a button on its side.
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SEARCHING FOR SIGNAL…
SIGNAL RETRIEVED
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A map of her current location appeared on the screen, the Yokohama Harbor. In the center was a small blinking dot. She watched as it slowly drifted away from where she stood.
*~~*
Risa and Eri walked slowly out of the shopping complex, their heads hanging down in disappointment.
“We need to get back to the Arena,”
“I’m so tired,” Eri breathed heavily as she pulled out some money from her pocket, “Let’s get a taxi, we’ll get there qui-“ Not paying attention Eri walked straight into a tall man who had cut in front of them, dropping her money as she collided with him. “Sorry!” Eri bowed at the man who kept walking quickly with his head down, before she bent down to pick up her money.
“A phone…” Risa picked up the small cell phone which lay in between Eri’s coins and notes. “Sir?!” she called to the man who was now quite a distance away. “Wait here, I’ll just give him back his phone.”
Risa jogged through the crowd, calling out to the man who seemed oblivious. Upon reaching him, she tapped him on the shoulder, “Sir, you dropped your phone.”
Turning around he grabbed the phone before turning back, but not before Risa had gotten a look at his face.
“You!” Her eyes were filled with rage as she jumped on the man knocking him to his feet. “You ruined my bloody boots!”
Topic: Mission: °C-ute (MM+C-ute fanfic) - Final Part of Chap 3 is up! (Read 11832 times)