Chapter 8: Black and Blue
Risa awoke to knocking on her door a little while later, looking at the clock determined she had only been asleep for an hour. Groggily, she rubbed her face, calling out to whoever was at the door to hold on. As her knuckles passed over her jaw, she noticed an odd fruity flavor at the corner of her mouth.
Rising to her feet, Risa paused at the mirror to check herself over, leaning in close to glimpse a perfect print of a pair of lips in lip gloss just touching the corner of her mouth, as if someone had deliberately kissed the spot as she slept. She belatedly realized that Eri had not been there when she woke and Ai was obviously unconscious, so it had to have been the same aged girl.
Risa examined the mark for a second longer, before rubbing away the traces and answering the door. Outside stood an excited Lin, holding a few printouts in her hands, “I found it!”
Smiling, Risa patted the girl on the head, “Good work, let’s tell the others, are they back yet?”
“Yes, I figured you might want to plan something, so I had them gather at my room.” Lin gestured
Nodding, Risa followed her back to said room and found the others waiting in various stages of boredom. “Okay Lin.” Risa started as she took her seat at the computer, “Show us what you have.”
“Okay, it was pretty easy to find information on the distributors, they’re all small time thugs with records in possession and intent to sell. I’ve got everything on them from their birthdays to their mother’s birthdays to their children’s birthdays as well as multiple possible alternative residences. What’s surprising is that they all have one building in common.”
Here, Lin brought up a map of the city and closest outlying regions on one of her screens, “These dots,” she indicated the dots in each corner of the map, “Are the addresses you gave me. They’re listed as their homes on each of their files and are residential houses, but the addresses are actually where they do their dealing from. Where these four really live, is right here.” A few quick taps on the keyboard and a large, flashing dot appeared dead center of the city.
“It’s a huge apartment building, owned by none other than Takashi-san.” Another tap and the group was greeted to a zoomed in satellite shot of the building, “I did some digging and found out that every resident in the building has some sort of mob connections, suspected and confirmed. This looks like some kind of safe house.”
“How many apartments and residents total?” Jun asked quietly, making a thoughtful face.
“Seventy-two apartments and one hundred and eight residents.” Someone let out a whistle.
“I’m good, but I’m not that good.” Risa shook her head, “I guess we’ll have to wait for Ai to get better for that one. Anyway, continue.”
“The suppliers are two brothers. One owns a large farm up north, the other own a warehouse by the wharf. There’s lots of activity all day and night, so it’s a good bet that’s where they make/grow/sell the drugs.” Lin brought up aerial views of both places using what looked like a live camera feed. “The police are watching those places, but for some reason or another, haven’t brought down the long arm of the law.”
“Wait, did you hack into the official feed?” Reina asked incredulously, earning wary looks from the other girls in the room except for Eri.
“Uh, yeah. It was too easy.” Lin answered as if talking to a small child. It seemed that the even tempered girl had enough of Reina’s suspicious nature.
“Oh.” Self preservation kicked in just in time for the cop to realize that maybe, just this once, she shouldn’t say anything.
“Hmm, two different places, still with lots of men. The shops have to close down sometime, though, right?” Risa asked Lin curiously.
“I can keep checking. Until then, there’s almost no way to get in or out with our lives intact.” All eyes were on Risa as her own orbs glazed over in thought. The whole room could see the wheels turning and were anticipating her next orders.
It seemed, that even though they had voted Ai to be leader(and she did a good job of controlling the younger bean), Risa was the true mastermind, so much so, that even the wary Tanaka knew to listen to her. “Alright.” Everyone leaned forward in anticipation, “Find out more about the brothers, if they’re religious or take any family holidays. Find out if there is a scheduled day that the drug factories take a break. Anything where they operate on a skeleton crew or close down completely. Review the police surveillance videos back to the beginning if you have to.”
“That could take weeks!” Lin exclaimed in surprise.
“Then you better get started.” Risa said unsympathetically, raising an eyebrow. Lin rolled her eyes and turned back to her computers.
“As for the rest of us, we need to check out that apartment building.” Here, Risa eyed Sayumi thoughtfully, “Hmm, we could use your expertise probably.”
“What do you have in mind?” the mischievous bunny asked eagerly.
“I think that maybe, you and your gangster boyfriend are in need of a place to live.” Turning to Jun, Risa gave her a pointed look.
“Eh?” Jun suddenly found herself at the center of attention. “ME?!”
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They had decided to head to one of Sayu’s safehouses on the outskirts of town. Lin and Eri stayed behind for Lin to work and someone to keep an eye on both her and Ai. Surprisingly, Aika had wanted to come along, citing that she had nothing better to do. Risa thought she just wanted to talk to the interesting Reina some more, since the two seemed to have hit it off over the ice cream earlier.
“Where did you get this van?” Reina questioned suspiciously, looking around the spacious interior. The girls all immediately choked off their laughter.
“Uh, it’s a friend of mine’s.” Risa replied from the driver’s seat. Since she was one of the only ones with a valid driver’s license, she had rock, paper, scissors Reina for the job of getting them there safely.
Unconvinced, Reina just nodded, “Uh huh, right.” The rest of the trip was made smoothly, Risa was a pretty cautious driver and followed all the rules of the road. Reina wouldn’t admit that she was slightly impressed by the older woman’s skills.
Risa pulled down a gravel driveway and the van stopped in front of a cozy cottage nestled snuggly between two huge hills. It gave the place a sense of isolation and safety that made the girls feel simultaneously at ease and on edge. Eagerly, Sayu jumped out of the vehicle and ran to the front door, throwing her arms outward as if to give the house a hug.
Laughing at her antics, the others followed her into the house. The decorations were very modern and chic, not exactly what they expected of the unique Sayumi and the surroundings. The living room and dinning room were open spaced with only a small half wall separating the dinning room from the kitchen. Everything was colored in a silver, white and gray theme and the lawless girls looked around in slight awe.
“This is a pretty nice place, Sayumin.” Risa commented as she looked around curiously. Through the thick sliding glass doors in the back she could see a magnificent view of the lake and a slightly worn dock.
“Thanks, it was my father’s get away. When I was little, he used to take my mother, my sister and I here for vacation.” The girl gave a nostalgic smile.
“What happened to him?” Aika asked curiously.
“Well, when my family lost their fortune, my father couldn’t deal with the ridicule.” Sayu shrugged nonchalantly, but the others knew it was a hard subject to talk about. “He sold my sister off and killed my mother and himself in a blaze of glory. You guys might have heard about it, it was all over the news about six years ago.”
“I do remember that.” Risa said. The explosion could be felt all the way in Yokohama and the news channels broadcast the story for weeks.
“Yeah, that kind of sucked. I came here to hide out for a while and it sorta became my main hide away.” Sayu shrugged as though she wasn’t affected by the memory. “Anyway, my closet is back here.”
They followed her into the back of the house and into a small bed room. It was decorated very simply, a princess bed in dark colors with matching walls and other furniture. The main focus of the room seemed to be a non descript closet and a single full length mirror. With a flourish, Sayumi opened the unassuming closet door to reveal the rest of the cottage had been converted into closet space.
To say that the walk in clothing storage was big would have been an understatement. To say that it took up half of the house, would not. The room, for it could not truly be called a closet, was filled to the brim with clothes of all shapes and sizes and accessories and shoes. It was very neatly organized, almost to an OCD state with casual clothes and party clothes taking up the most space in the front. Behind the normal clothes were costumes of all shapes and sizes.
It was a veritable Halloween store for anyone who wanted to blend in or stand out. There were uniform from various water, electric and construction companies. Law enforcement and emergency service clothes. Pretty much, if you needed it, you could find it here.
“Wow.” Was all Aika could say, while the other girls were speechless. Sayumi just smiled smugly.
“Now, let’s get to work on you.” She circled Jun like a hawk around her prey, eyeing her up and down critically.
Getting excited at the prospect of playing dress up, even Aika and Reina began to search through the clothes. Jun was quickly and mercilessly stripped to her skivvies, standing self consciously trying to cover herself. Risa felt bad for her and draped her thin jacket around the bigger girl’s shoulders.
“Why do you have this?” Reina asked as she held out a body suit made of latex.
“If I have to tell you, you probably don’t want to know.” Sayu chuckled as she thrust a pair of ragged jeans at her victim, who gladly put them on. The girls haphazardly threw out various t-shirts and jackets, narrowly missing the two watching from the sidelines.
“Well, I don’t think this is what I had in mind when I suggested you pose as a boy.” Risa stood back as Sayumi forced Jun into a fashion show for them. There was only three pair of jeans that would fit the Chinese girl’s long frame, but there was a multitude of shirts, jackets and hats.
Beginning to enjoy the attention, Jun paraded up and down the small bedroom in various outfits, sometimes walking normally, sometimes exaggerating her stride and sometimes pulling off some fancy footwork to get a laugh. Sitting on the bed and observing the scene with a soft smile, Risa felt like she was watching over her younger siblings. She wondered if her brother felt this warmth for her when he had been alive.
‘What would you think of me now?’ the gunner thought, picturing his smiling visage in her head, ‘Is this the path you thought I would take or were you just as naïve as I was?’
“What do you think of this one Niigaki-san?” Jun’s voice snapped her back to the present and she looked up to see the girl in a ragged pair of jeans with a hole in the knee sporting a plane white undershirt and a thin leather jacket. Her hair had been tied up in a messy bun and stuck underneath a blue cap.
Risa examined her critically as Jun stood with her hands shoved into her jacket pockets and slouching in an unaffected manner. While she looked really cool, her round face and full lips made her seem undeniably feminine, “I like the outfit, but you definitely don’t look like a boy.”
“That’s what this is for.” Sayu chimed in, carefully placing fake sideburns on the Chinese girl’s face. She scrutinized her work and then added a small goatee on her chin.
“Okay, now she looks like a boy.” It was amazing what a little facial hair could do to a face. Jun still looked a feminine, but not so much that someone was going to be suspicious. “Just let Sayu do most of the talking and I think you all will be fine.”
“We’ll add some finishing touches later, but I guess this is what you’ll look like for the plan.” Sayu tilted her head, suddenly realizing something, “Um, just what is the plan?”
Risa felt all eyes turn to her and shrugged, “Well, we have a few options. Option A is that you guys get us a foot hold into the building and we plant cameras either one in every hallway, or one in every room and watch them until we find the right moment to strike. We can disable them or do something that would keep them out of the way until we can take care of Takashi-dono.”
“That sounds boring.” Aika chimed in, “And lengthy, we would be watching them for weeks!”
“Well, there’s Option B where we set up a base in the apartment and then when everyone’s asleep we systematically search every room and disable the people we come across. With seventy-two rooms, let’s say about ten minutes each that would take us about twelve hours to finish.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad, but what do you mean by disable?” Reina asked, leaning against the bed.
“We break all the bones in their bodies or just their legs or arms. Or we could cut the time in half by me just killing everyone with a silenced weapon.” Risa raised her eyebrows and gave the others a pointed look, “There are obvious protests to that part, but it’s the easiest and most efficient route. Unfortunately it also has the problem of going in blind. I would have no idea who’s in each apartment or even if they’re asleep.”
“You? Just you?” Jun asked, finally catching that part.
“Of course just me. I can’t, in good conscience, ask anyone to kill, most especially you. You’ve already taken a life, I can’t let anymore stains be on your soul.” The group was a little surprised by her sincerity, Reina more so than the rest.
“I have no problem with it.” Jun stated easily.
“Liar.” Risa accused gently, “I refuse to believe that.”
“Well, what about doing what we did at the precinct?” Aika piped up again, “You can do it again, can’t you?”
“Well, that was Option C and that’s the most dangerous for you.” Risa took a breath, “To be able to do that again, I would need the blue prints for the building, to make sure of the ventilation. I would also need to access multiple containers of gas that would cause some kind of incapacitation or coma or something like that.”
“Also, to even get the blueprints you would have to search the building’s office and there’s no guarantee that it will even be in there. Not only that, but we have no way of knowing if there are other people inside or what kind of security he has.” Here Risa gave an embarrassed look, “And besides all that, I don’t like to give repeat performances.”
“Is there a gas that can do that?” Sayu asked naively.
“Of course and I know just the one to use. Totally non lethal and it lasts for several hours, if we decided to go with that plan, though, we would need to be ready to take out the big boss right then. So let’s take a vote.” Risa mediated, looking at Reina.
“I vote plan C.” Sayu nodded, echoing her.
“Option C.” Jun agreed.
“Well, it’s ultimately up to you, since you face the most danger.” All eyes turned to Aika now as she contemplated her choices.
It really was easy for her though, “Option C, of course.”
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.”
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“But Jun~!” The landlord looked up from the front desk as two figures entered the apartment’s door, “Are you listening to me?”
The tall guy wearing a leather jacket looked positively exasperated as a very pretty girl clung to his left arm. They looked like a normal couple, the landlord noticed her barely concealed black-eye and mini skirt and that he was obviously packing a small pistol on his hip, so he felt himself relax. They looked like everyone else that lived in the building. “What can I do for you guys?”
Jun went to open ‘his’ mouth to answer and was cut off almost immediately, “We heard you had a few open apartments.” Sayu answered perkily, seeming to not notice her ‘boyfriend’s’ angry look, “We were wondering if you could show them to us.”
“Well, I don’t usually give tours.” the landlord said, reluctant to get up out of his comfy chair.
Jun slapped a high bill on the counter, “We’ll make it worth your while.” ‘he’ said lowly.
“Well, if that’s the case, I guess I can spare a few minutes.” Aika watched from inside the van parked outside on the street as the man the Jun and Sayu into the elevator down the hall.
“Alright, clear.” She looked to Risa for the go ahead to enter the building and received it with a grave nod. Quickly, Aika scampered into the building and headed behind the desk to the door that seemed to lead into the back office. She made quick work of the door lock and slowly opened it, sticking her head inside.
Empty, the little thief breathed a sigh of relief and entered, securing the door behind her. It was dark, so she flipped on the lights and was dismayed to find at least fifteen filing cabinets large enough to hold blueprints. “Uh guys?” Aika spoke into the mini com system that Risa had borrowed from her friend at the sketchy store, “This might take a while.”
As the landlord opened up the empty apartment on the fifth floor, Jun and Sayu heard in their headsets, “Keep him busy for as long as possible, Tanakacchi and I are going to need to help Aika out.” The ‘couple’ shared a look, stalling they could definitely do.
“Wow~! Look at this Jun!” Sayumi entered with a twirl, trying to take in the whole big living room space, “I think your couch would go perfectly against this wall!” She skipped around the room eagerly, to Jun’s infinite embarrassment.
The landlord gave ‘him’ a long examining look, “Why do you keep her around? It seems like she doesn’t listen much.”
“I may have to tell her things more than once,” Jun held up her arm with a clenched fist to let the landlord get her point, “but she has more uses to me. I mean, look at that body.”
The landlord looked as she jumped up and down in the kitchen, just able to peek at her panties underneath the short skirt, “Oh.”
“Don’t look too long, now.” Jun warned, semi dangerously. Sayumi ran into the bathroom to examine it and the ‘men’ followed slowly.
“The bathroom’s a little cramped, are they all the same size?” Sayu asked innocently.
“Yes.” The landlord said flatly and Sayu pouted.
“Just check out the bedroom.” Jun commanded, and Sayumi scampered off. The two others soon heard a cry of dismay.
“It’s not high enough!” Entering the last room, they saw the girl looking out the window, hands clasped together in despair, “My plants will never get enough light with that building in the way.”
Jun shook her head, “Are you serious?” she asked flatly, but inside was marveling at the girl’s genius. If they could find something wrong with all but the last room, they’d be there forever.
“This apartment won’t do, we’ll have to see the other ones.” Sayu declared, Jun and the landlord shared a look before the Chinese girl handed over another bill.
“Alright.” The landlord pocketed the money, “It’s up two more floors.”
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Reina searched frantically through the drawer, looking for anything of interest. She had no idea what a blueprint looked like, so she could only hope to not miss it. So far they hadn’t found anything of use.
“Oooo.” Aika sounded from somewhere to her left. Reina looked over to see the girl shoving stacks of money into her pockets.
“Aika, put that back, now is not the time.” Reina threw a pen at her and it bounced off her shoulder.
“Hey, anytime is the perfect time for a thief.” The younger girl said haughtily, causing the cop to roll her eyes.
“Enough you two, we don’t have time for this.” Risa reminded them and they went back to searching. From the sounds coming from their ear speakers, Jun and Sayu had already gone through three apartments and were heading to the fourth.
Suddenly, the gunner paused in her searching, pulling a file from the cabinet she was rifling through. Curiously, she opened it fully noticing a list of names and addresses, almost all the she recognized as the sub bosses of the Takashi gang. “Are you kidding me?” What the hell would this be doing here?
The reason hit her like a ton of bricks, this wasn’t just the office of a safe house, this was the main office of every safe house. That was the reasoning behind Takashi-dono actually owning the building, no one would ever suspect he would have such important documents in such an unassuming place. It was brilliant, almost no security to trick people into thinking that there wasn’t anything to steal and then putting incriminating or sensitive material here.
“Did you find it?” Reina asked, watching her curiously.
“No, better. Never mind for now, keep looking.” Risa set aside that file to take with her.
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For a second, Jun though the landlord might get violent and she’d have to kill him. As Sayu complained about some else that wasn’t right with the last apartment on the list, Jun began to tense in preparation. They had stalled for as long as possible, but she could hear in her ear piece that the others were still looking.
More out of Sayumi’s protection than actual acting, Jun began to drag her off into the secluded bed room, “Hold on just on second and I’ll straighten her out.” She promised the nearly homicidal man, who nodded that he would stay put.
“What?” The grifter asked curiously as Jun pretended to violently slam her against the wall, banging with her free hand for effect.
“This isn’t going to last much longer, we have to think of something else.” The Chinese girl placed her hand against Sayu’s throat and leaned in as if to choke her, just in case the landlord were to look in the room at them.
“Well, I could always distract him the old fashioned way, but if you have a better plan, I’m all ears.” The con artist fiddled with her skirt a little nervously.
“Old fashioned..? Wait, that gives me an idea, but you’re going to have to trust me.”
“Trust you? Okay.” At Sayu’s answer, Jun suddenly pulled away and clapped her hands together to make a slapping sound. Truly startled, the younger girl squealed.
“How many times do I have to remind you!” The Chinese girl bellowed, seeing the landlord come to investigate curiously from the corner of her eye. At that moment, she lunged forward and kissed her companion full on the lips.
“Jun~!” Sayumi whined in character, also noticing the man now hiding behind the door frame. She gave her ‘boyfriend’ a questioning look that only ‘he’ could see at their angle, but Jun just gave her an encouraging expression.
They kissed again, this time with Sayumi as the initiator and they pressed against the wall. “Gotta make it a convincing show.” The Chinese girl mumbled, reaching up to squeeze the con’s breasts.
“Jun!” She let out a very not-in-character screech, but Jun only silenced her with her lips. From the door, the landlord shifted on his feet to a more comfortable position, a creepy smile spreading across his lips.
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Down in the office, the three girls paused simultaneously at the strange sounds that were issuing forth from their comms. They exchanged embarrassed looks and turned back to their searching with renewed vigor.
As the sounds grew more and more obvious and their blushes redder and darker, finally Aika elicited a triumphant cry, “Found it! Let’s book!”
“Sayu, Jun, take the room and get down here, pronto. When you leave the building, turn left and we’ll pick you up at the far corner.” Risa ordered, but the sounds didn’t stop. She felt herself flush even deeper, “Uh guys. You don’t need to stall anymore.”
“Sorry.” Jun’s voice whispered over the ear piece, “If I stopped now it would just be cruel.”
“Uhh…” Risa winced at a particularly high pitched squeal from Sayumi echoed in her head.
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About twenty minutes later, a grossly satisfied landlord exited the main elevator counting a wad of bills, followed by a smugly smirking Jun and a bright red, but quiet Sayumi. “Pleasure doing business with you.” The landlord said as he tossed a set of keys to the Chinese girl.
“Believe me, the pleasure was mine.” Jun smirked at her companion, who just looked away pointedly. The exited the building and headed towards the rendezvous point, walking in complete silence.
When the reached the van, Jun held the door open and gestured chivalrously for Sayumi to go first. The other three watched the scene awkwardly and the silence that descended was stifling. Risa began to drive away and the group just looked around aimlessly.
“Well that was fun.” the still smug Jun said with a grin.
Immediately, Sayumi slapped her arm, only eliciting laughter, “You’re such a pervert!”
“Well, you can’t say you didn’t like it.” The Chinese girl playfully licked at the tips of her fingers and the con blushed deeply. With a swift movement, she viciously ripped off Jun’s fake sideburns. “Ow!”
And just like that, the tension broke and everyone was laughing. “I’ve never worked with a partner before.” Sayu admitted after it became quiet again, “It was pretty interesting.”
“Obviously.” Reina grinned at her cheekily and earned herself a punch on the arm.
Suddenly, a familiar musical tone filled the air and Risa looked down at her ringing cell phone. “What the..?” Whatever she saw on the caller id made her answer it while driving, “Hello?”
“That’s not safe.” Reina reprimanded her, but was ignored.
“Isn’t that the new Morning Musume song?” Aika wondered aloud about the ringtone.
“How did you get my number? Better yet, how did you program your number into my phone?” Risa listened to the other side before bursting out, “What do you mean you programmed everyone’s phones? That’s not what I asked!”
Suddenly her eyes widened and Reina prepared herself to grab the wheel, “Ai’s awake?” The others held their breath, wanting to hear more, “H-How is she?” Risa tried to sound nonchalant, but it was obvious that she was eager. “Good, that’s good. Wait, annoyed?”
A few chuckles spread throughout the van, “Well, if she’s annoyed, I guess that means she’s fine.” Sayumi remarked, unable to admit that she had been worried about their makeshift leader.
Though no one except for Risa really knew her, there was just something about the older woman that sucked you in. Everyone was relieved she had survived the shooting.
“Alright, tell her we’ll be back soon, jeez.” Risa hung up the phone with a snap. “First, though, who’s hungry?”
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Well, it's been seven days and since I'm trying to churn out an update every week or so, here's another. Hope this soothes ya'll's nerves about Ai, heh heh.
Lovely. Ai waking up with this...
If she wakes up...
*waits for the next chapter* <insert finger ticking emoticon here> 
I just couldn't resist.
Also, just a heads up, there will be no Jun/Sayu as a serious couple. Although they did become a little closer due to this....
Topic: Black and Blue (Ch 34 6/4 The End!) (Read 153159 times)