Chapter 2: And after all, we're only ordinary men“Li Chun?” Jun looked up disinterestedly at the suited man that had called her name, “Please come with me.”
“What about my trial tomorrow?” she asked softly, gesturing around the holding cell where her cell mates were still cowering away from her.
“The charges have been dropped.” Jun gaped in surprise at his reply.
“Dropped? Murder charges were just dropped?” The man nodded and opened her cell, but Jun didn’t stand, “Who are you?”
“I’m just a simple government worker m’am.” Still suspicious, Jun refused to budge. Even though he was wearing sunglasses, inside even, Jun swore she saw him roll his eyes.
“What’s the catch? You wouldn’t just give me my freedom for no reason.” Clearly annoyed, the man crossed his arms.
“We simply need you to work for us for a while. Then you can return to your previous employer.” Jun’s eyes widened at his implications. Even after knowing who her boss was, they still wanted to let her out? She wondered if the man knew just how valuable she was.
“Okay, but can I at least let my boss and his daughter know I’m alright?” Jun allowed the barest hint of pleading to enter her voice. Those two were her only family, she needed them to know about this change.
“Your lawyer has been told of the charges being dropped, he will pass on the message.” Satisfied, Jun finally stood, causing the man to stiffen in surprise, apparently not prepared for her height advantage over him. It wasn’t like she was freakishly tall, just that she had looked so much smaller hunched over on that bench.
“Okay.” Jun nodded amicably, “Where are we going?” She allowed herself to be lead out of the cell and down the hallway.
Sighing, the man replied with a long suffering tone, “You’ll see when we get there.”
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Getting off her plane in high spirits, Lin Lin took a deep breath of Japanese air. It wasn’t the first time she’d been in this country, but it had been a while, so she was glad to be back in her adopted hometown. Stepping out into the terminal, Lin took a moment to gather her bearings before starting a leisurely walk towards the exit.
Lin couldn’t help the smile that was growing steadily wider on her face the closer she got to the outside. The elation of making her escape was really starting to sink in and the amount of money that was waiting for her at the secret bank account she’d opened kept flashing in her mind.
Once again, she allowed herself to marvel at how well her plan had worked out. Normally, she didn’t like to brag, but not many people can pull off the amazing hacking job she’d just done. And the best part was, she’d gotten away with it.
“I’m so awesome.” She mumbled to herself in Chinese.
Shifting her bag more securely around her body, Lin became aware of a tingling sensation on the back of her neck. It was the same feeling that she’d had before she’d gotten on the plane. It was the feeling of being watched.
Having that feeling appear so suddenly and interrupting her celebration made Lin falter in her steps, but she quickly regained her footing, trying to seem as if she wasn’t aware at all. Discreetly, she glanced around the airport, spying at dark suited man passing through the security checkpoint that lay in between the terminals and the main airport that she’d just come through.
Another man was waiting by some payphones on her left and further along to her right, yet another suited man was leaning against the wall next to a café. And there were probably more men that she couldn’t see right away that were blocking the way she came from.
The further along she walked, the more men she saw dotting along the alternate paths she could take to leave the airport, so that she was forced to leave through a certain door. When she passed out into the open air, pausing when a blast of August heat hit her face, two tall, black suited males in sunglasses came to flank her sides.
In front of her was parked a black sedan with the back door open and a woman in a fetchingly tailored suit gestured her into the cab. Hesitantly, Lin glanced behind her to see that there were the men who had herded her outside crowding the exit to make sure she didn’t try to make a break for it. Resigned, Lin got into the car.
“Well,” she started nervously to the woman once they were all settled inside comfortably, Lin in between the two men and the woman seated in front of her in a seat that seemed oddly placed in the cramped car, “Not very subtle of you, now was it.”
“Who needs subtlety when you’ve got manpower?” The woman shrugged, surprising Lin with her light tone. She took a moment to study this stranger, taking in her luxurious, shoulder length, wavy, brown hair and her prominent chin. She really was beautiful and Lin felt herself relaxing at the woman’s disarming smile.
“So, am I going to jail?” Lin asked, wanting to get right to the point. Her directness made the woman laugh lightly.
“No, quite the opposite actually.” She cleared her throat, putting on a serious face, “Qian Lin, in exchange for your services, the Japanese government is willing to offer you asylum from China. You need only work for us for an indeterminate amount of time on a single large case and once the case is closed, you will have your freedom.”
Lin thought about it, it seemed like a good offer, but she might being obligated to do things that wouldn’t sit well with her morally. “Will I have to kill anyone?”
“No.” was the immediate answer, “We only need your computer skills; gathering information, perhaps changing a few things here and there. Nothing physical at all.”
“And if I refuse?” Lin was still hesitant about this too good to be true offer.
“We’ll ship you off on the next plane back to China and ensure that you never step foot in Japan again.” Shivering at the steel that lay underneath the woman’s words, Lin quickly made up her mind.
“Well, you’ve got yourself a hacker then.” The woman nodded with a pleased smile and turned to the driver, telling him to start driving.
“Yes, Ishikawa-san.” He answered back professionally.
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Aika squinted into the bright lights of the helicopter, barely making out the shapes of four body armor clad men repelling down onto the rooftop she currently occupied. She used one hand in an attempt to shade her eyes from the harsh glare of the light and could better make out the men pointing some lethal looking assault rifles at her.
Belatedly, Aika realized that they were yelling at her, but in her dazed state of mind, she couldn’t tell what they were saying. The four men swarmed around her, yelling and pointing their weapons in a threatening manner. Aika felt faint, the world seemed to come in and out of focus and she started swaying.
A booted foot into the back of her leg brought her to her knees and snapped her back into full consciousness. Her arms were being yanked painfully behind her back and were cuffed harshly together. Her captors didn’t even bother trying to get her back on her feet, they just dragged her painfully on her knees across the concrete of the rooftop.
She cried out as the concrete ripped through her black workout pants and tore up her knees. “Stop!” she heard a male voice command and she was dropped unceremoniously to the ground, busting her chin hard against the concrete, biting her tongue in the process.
Dazed, she looked up through tear blurred eyes, struggling to rise to her feet without the use of her hands. A gentle grip took hold of her upper arms and she was pulled to her feet, looking up she saw a young man in a black suit and slicked back hair, presumably the source of the command.
“Well, Mitsui Aika-chan, you sure have caused us a lot of trouble.” His amused voice rumbled through her chest, the deep tenor surprising her. “And incurred a lot of debt. Luckily, I’m here to give you a choice.” He paused as if waiting for her response.
Maybe because of his kindness, she felt less inclined to oblige him, so Aika kept her mouth shut. He rolled his eyes and said in a falsetto, “What choice is that?”
“Well,” He replied cheerfully, his theatrics causing Aika to struggle against a smile, “I’m glad you asked. You see, the government has seen fit to extend an invitation to you to work off your debt in a way other than jail time. Work for us, and you go free. What do you say?”
“What kind of work?” she asked cautiously, shifting slightly to fiddle with her cuffs. The armed men around her noticed the movement and snapped their weapons up to her face. She stopped moving.
“Well, you can’t find that out until you agree to the job.” the man said with a charming smile.
Aika took a moment to ponder this over. Her curiosity was well and truly peaked, but on the other hand, she could be doing something really distasteful. But jail was pretty distasteful too.
She realized that her curiosity had already decided for her, “Alright.” She brought her hands out from behind her and gave her cuffs to the man, “Let’s go, then.” She smirked at his surprised look.
The man shook off his astonishment and signaled to the helicopter to land. It did quickly and he lead her over to board the small metal bird, indicating to the pilot of her agreement with a thumbs up. The pilot nodded, and the heli lifted off.
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Sayumi smiled and nodded at the other inmates that she passed. Having only been incarcerated here for less than two months, she already made friends with the entire population of her cell block and most of the guard. All it had taken was a bit of creative and loud story telling at lunchtime to catch everyone’s attention and then she just worked her charm on a massive scale.
Just like high school, she smirked at the thought. Actually, for big bad criminals, the inmates here were easier than a whore on Sunday. Even in school she’d had some enemies.
She made it back to her cell, calling out a cheerful, “I’m back!” to her celli, who sat on her bunk reading a magazine. Though, how she could read anything with how hard she was shaking was a mystery. Sayu made a sympathetic noise, “Oh, still going through withdrawal?”
“Yeah.” the smaller girl said shakily, “It gets real bad after I eat for some reason. I thought that food was supposed to help or something.”
“Well, I don’t know much about that.” Sayu said with a shrug, “But maybe it’ll make you feel better if I do your hair.” She grabbed a hairbrush and some hair ties that the guards had ‘let’ her have.
Immediately, the girl hopped to her feet and came to stand in front of Sayu. “Alright, sit between my legs here.” Sayu sat on her bed and the girl kneeled where she could be reached. As soon as Sayumi’s hands made contact with her head, the skinny girl relaxed.
Sayu had guessed, that more than anything, this girl just needed a little human contact. The warmth of another person’s touch could work wonders for those who weren’t used to simple pleasures like that. Since she had made a vow to become friends with her cellmates, Sayu had been prepared to do things like listen to problems she didn’t really care about or touch nasty, greasy hair.
She was surprised when the girl’s hair turned out to be well kempt and clean, “Your hair’s so soft.” she commented a little awed. The prison certainly wasn’t providing hair care products to the inmates and Sayumi’s own hair was starting to suffer. She pulled the brush through the girl’s hair gently.
“Oh, thanks.” The junkie’s smile could be heard in her voice, “I’m a little crazy about my hair, so I managed to ‘convince’ the guards to let my friend bring me some actual shampoo and conditioner. It’s the cheapo 2-in-1 kind, but it’s better than just soap.” She practically purred at Sayumi’s treatment of her locks, “I’ll let you use it next shower time.”
“Thanks.” Sayu muttered, concentrating on separating out some hair so that she could start braiding it, “So, tell me about yourself. I don’t really know you too well.” And for once, Sayu found herself actually interested in the answers.
The two talked amicably as Sayumi slowly worked on putting a bunch of tiny little braids in the girl’s hair. This seemed to go on for hours, until there was a pounding at the cell door which startled them both. They scrambled to hide their contraband items under their pillows and mattresses and both stood when two guards entered the room.
“Michishige.” Sayu stepped forward in surprise, “There’s someone here to see you.” The guard motioned for Sayumi to accompany them.
“But it’s past visiting hours.” Though she protested lightly, Sayu still followed eagerly; after all, visitors were few and far between.
They lead her through the usual leaving the cell block procedures and took her to one of the open visiting rooms. Inside the room was a table and two chairs, and in one of the chairs sat a woman, dressed sharply in a tailored suit. Sayu sucked in a breath at her appearance; she could almost be mistaken for a very pretty man, with her cropped blonde hair and her androgynous features.
“Michishige Sayumi-chan?” She questioned smoothly, innocently raising an eyebrow when Sayu swooned, “I have a proposition for you.”
She paused and Sayu snapped out of her haze long enough to acknowledge her, “I’m listening.”
“My bosses are very interested in your particular skills, they would like to employ your services.” That got the younger girl’s attention and she laughed.
“I’d love to, but in case you haven’t noticed I’m a little confined at the moment. You get me out of here and I’ll be glad to, but until then, forget it.” Sayu blinked when a small stack of papers landed in front of her. “What’s this?”
“Your release papers.” The younger girl felt her breath leave her for a painful moment, “If you look them over, you’ll find everything’s in order. All you have to do is agree to work for us and once you’re finished, you’re free.”
Sayu flipped through the papers for a minute, skimming through the lawyerese and reading the important parts. When she reached the end, she found that everything was signed in the right places and everything seemed legit. “This is for real?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yes. So what do you say?” Sayu hesitated, unable to shake the feeling of selling her soul, the woman picked up on her hesitation and reached for the papers, “Well, I’ll give you some time to think about it.”
“NO!” Sayu clutched at her hand, surprising the boyish woman, “I mean, no, I’ll do it.”
Satisfied, the woman grinned, “Good, someone will be for you tomorrow morning, be prepared.” Then she was gone and Sayu was left to contemplate her decision.
‘Did I make the right choice?’()()()()()()()()()()()()
“Have a nice day!” Risa called after the customer as he exited the store with his package. When the door closed behind him, she sighed miserably, running a hand through her blonde locks. She almost laughed at herself, she’d never played with her hair like this before she met
that person who was always ruffling her bangs, especially the first time she cut her hair short.
Thinking about that girl, she brought out her wallet to look at the picture next to her driver’s license. It was a picture of two young girls, they had been sixteen and nineteen at the time; Risa remembered that their mutual friend had been trying out her new camera and had suggested the two get a picture together. That girl had refused but Risa had jumped on her later that day, wrapping both arms around her waist to prevent her from escaping. Instead of struggling, she had simply laughed and given into Risa’s demands, pressing their faces together and smiling beatifically for the camera.
A week later, Risa had turned her back and left that person behind, but had never forgotten her. This was the only picture taken of the two together. Every time Risa saw it, she forgot her anger and heartbreak and wondered if she’d done the right thing. She traced their smiling faces, lost in her memories.
The ringing of the bell over the door snapped her out of her reverie and she shoved her wallet out of sight behind the counter, “Welcome~!” she called out cheerfully, suddenly feeling a little apprehensive at seeing the two unfamiliar men walk through the door. It wasn’t often this particular store got new customers as most had been shopping here since before she was born.
These two men were very different than her usual clientele, neither looked to be over forty and the younger man didn’t look any older than herself! Both were dressed in impeccable black suits, and both took off thin framed sunglasses as they entered the store. They marched up to the counter and Risa subtly reached behind the counter to run her hand over the pistol mounted there, “How can I help you gentlemen?”
The two men gave her a once over, seeming surprised at the shock of strawberry blonde hair, but then they gathered themselves and stood up straighter, “Niigaki Risa?”
Risa couldn’t stop her eyes from widening slightly, “No, I’m Sara Smith.” she pulled out her wallet and flipped it open, “See?”
The older man took her wallet and seemed to examine her ID, then he glanced next to it and Risa knew from the way his eyebrows twitched that he’d seen her picture. She mentally smacked herself, sure she’d changed her hair color and such and that picture was pretty old, but it was still obviously her.
“Cute picture.” The older man grinned showing off his scraggly teeth, he handed the wallet over to his younger companion and the boy had the same reaction.
“That’s my little cousin.” Risa defended automatically and both men chuckled, the younger man discreetly tucked her wallet into his pocket.
“Funny how she just happens to look just like you except with darker hair. She also happens to look just like Niigaki Risa.” It was the younger mans turn to grin and Risa noticed when his face stretched into a smile it revealed a paper thin scar that ran down the right side of his face from his forehead to his chin.
“Weird huh? People are always saying stuff like that.” Risa laughed nervously, thinking fleetingly about shooting her way out of this, but ultimately deciding against it.
“So here’s the deal, ah Smith-san, was it? Niigaki-san is wanted for weapons smuggling in a lot of foreign countries. Now we can protect her and in exchange all she has to do is work for us on one major case and then all those warrants will disappear.”
“Well, if Niigaki-san were here, I’m sure she would be grateful. As it is, I’m not wanted for anything.” Risa hoped her bluff wouldn’t be called. Unfortunately, she realized as the older man pulled out a pair of handcuffs, it was.
“Well, I’m afraid you’re under arrest.” The man started around the counter while his partner pulled his sidearm and trained it on her.
“What? On what grounds?” Risa started backing away cautiously, angling herself so she could dart out the back door.
“Fraud, obstruction of justice, and all those other warrants I mentioned. Don’t try to run, I guarantee my partner won’t miss, so one way or another, you’re coming with us.” Risa sighed and gave up, she didn’t fancy another bullet wound. It wasn’t fun.
“Okay, so what’s this case?” Both men nodded at each other and started to escort her out.
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Ai fell off the couch, crashing into the coffee table in front of her and dropping the empty whiskey bottle that had been dangling precariously from her fingers. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was, still lost in her unconscious recollections of the past. Slowly, she realized that she was in her living room and judging from the way the sun shone through her windows, it was well past noon.
Cursing lightly, Ai figured she must have fallen asleep on the couch again, as most of last night was a blur anyway. The last thing she remembered was finishing off the whiskey and watching some variety show on TV. An insistent knocking on the door broke her out of her reverie about the sad state of her life; Ai realized that this must be why she’d awoken so suddenly.
Very hung over, Ai stumbled to the door, tripping over everything in the unusually messy room, and opened it without even checking to see who was there. A young man stood, hand poised to knock again and dressed in a black suit, outside her apartment door. His eyebrows lifted in shock at her disheveled appearance and he unconsciously leaned back, his lips grimacing and showing a paper thin scar that ran down the right side of his face from his forehead to his chin.
Ai thought belatedly that she must reek of alcohol, but couldn’t find it in herself to care, “Yes?”
“Uh, Takahashi Ai?” the young man questioned gently once he’d got his bearings back. Ai simply nodded once, her face blank, “I work for a government agency, and we’re interested in your skills for a job.”
“What kind of job?” Ai asked flatly, not letting him know that she really was a little intrigued.
“Honestly m’am, I’m not sure, I’m just the messenger.” He gave a sheepish smile that was actually rather charming, but did nothing to convince Ai that this was a good idea.
“If you can’t tell me then why should I come?” the younger man immediately began to search through his pockets.
“Well, I was told that if you wanted incentive, I should give you this.” He handed her a nondescript wallet.
Ai looked at him like he was crazy, but he just gestured for her to open it. Inside the wallet there was nothing but a driver’s license of some blonde girl and a picture. Ai froze; this was her picture, the one she’d taken with Risa when they were teenagers. There were only two copies of this photo in existence, and since she knew where hers was, this one had to be, “Risa.” she breathed out in astonishment.
“Yes, that’s right. Niigaki-san has already agreed to work for us, if you come-” Ai cut him off by grabbing the lapels on his jacket and shaking him.
“Where is she!? I want to see her!” the girl she’d been searching for for four years was so close, she couldn’t help herself.
“If you come with us,” the man started pointedly, ignoring her shaking him, “you can see her.”
“I’m in.” Ai slammed the door in his face and went back inside to get ready.
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Yep, the whole thing this time. I've been writing frantically since I started posting and this is no where near as boring as I originally though it would be. I just keep adding and adding backstory and it's just keeps connecting and connecting! Oh god! It's alive! Alive! Muwahahahaha!
Topic: Black and Blue (Ch 34 6/4 The End!) (Read 152978 times)