Chapter 25: What the hell are we going to do with all these coconuts?
Risa sat behind a desk in the manor, the smell of smoke still lingering even after three weeks and the sound of construction loud around the house. She was waiting for a very important piece of information to come her way, so had gone through the trouble of heading off by herself while Ai helped Reina with some paperwork. She looked up from her absent study of her fingernails when she heard the door open, but the people who entered only made her expectant face fall into annoyance.
“Oh, you don’t look happy to see us, Gaki-san.” Rika said, moving to the windowsill to place down a vase of pretty purple flowers.
“Yeah,” Yossui followed up cheerfully, “We just dropped by to see how you were doing.”
“You mean you dropped by to check up on me.” Risa grumbled, looking down at her injured arms. Her left arm was in a sling, forearm and shoulder bandaged tightly, while her right bicep was similarly made up.
“Well, of course,” Rika picked up, coming up behind her to begin to pet her hair, “there hasn’t been much activity lately and you seem to be concentrated on actually fixing things instead of taking them apart. And then with Koharu approaching you and all…”
“I need to get us all situated within the gangs before we can destroy them.” The gunner defended, shaking her head.
“Have you given more thought on the younger Kusumi’s proposal?” Yoshizawa asked seriously.
“I have.” At their raised eyebrows, Risa sighed and went on, “I’ve decided to help her. If we allow this in fighting, it will make them weaker.” She didn’t feel the need to elaborate any more than that, though she was already lying about her reasons for helping.
The two agents shared a glance, speaking to each other without words, “Well, then.” Ishikawa finally began, “When will you put these plans into motion?”
“I’ve asked her to postpone them for a while.” The gunner replied, “Reina still doesn’t have the full support of her men, so we need time there, but also,” she lifted her arm up, “I’m still practically useless in a fight. I don’t plan on missing out anymore.”
“It sounds as though you really do have everything under control, Gaki-san!” Rika clapped her hands, face stretching into an innocent smile, “I guess we should leave you to your healing then.”
“Feel better, Gaki-san.” Yossui waved to her and then closed the door behind her.
Shaking her head, Risa let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, those two made her nervous. Before she even had a chance to relax, though, the door swung open again, this time admitting the person she was waiting for.
“Boss?” Saki asked, poking her head in, “Were those the government people you were telling me about?”
“Yes, they just felt the need to remind me of their presence. Come in.” The younger girl did as she was told, under the warm smile of the gunner, “How are you feeling? I’m glad to see you up and about.”
“Better, you know Maimi’s been babying me ever since. It was a struggle just to get out of the house today!” Saki said, but she laughed, obviously enjoying the attention.
The air turned serious, “Did you do as I asked?” Risa inquired as the captain moved closer, handing over a manila file.
“Yes, the only person that’s seen inside there is my contact and he doesn’t care what you do with the information.” Saki replied, but the gunner noticed that she certainly cared about the contents of the folder.
“Forget.” Risa commanded, “Never speak of this to anyone, not even Maimi.”
For a moment, Saki looked like she wanted to say something, but held herself back. She gave a stiff bow and then left. Once the door had shut again, Risa sighed and looked down at the name on the folder: Kamei Eri.
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Ai knocked lightly on the door frame to catch Risa’s attention as she sat in the newly rebuilt study, watching something burn in the fireplace. The gunner turned in her chair with her eyebrows raised, her expectant expression turned pleased when she recognized her lover, “Ai-chan.” she greeted warmly, “I thought you were the foreman, come to argue with me about the construction again.” Here, her look turned quizzical, “I also thought you were out with Lin Lin today?”
“I was earlier, but I decided to come and check up on you. You’ve been hold up here for a few days, so I haven’t seen much of you around.” the older girl blushed, “I’ve missed you.”
Grinning from ear to ear, Risa stood and moved to embrace the demo expert with her mostly good arm, “I’ve missed you, too.” they took in each other’s warmth for a moment, before Risa stepped back some, “I’ve just been doing boring paperwork and trying to keep the construction crew in line. There’s just so much stuff that needs to be fixed and upgraded and I’ve been trying to keep a lot of the old fashioned look to the manor, while the foreman seems hell bent on making this place a modern masterpiece.” she rolled her eyes, “I just figured you wouldn’t be interested in all these technicalities, considering how much you had to deal with when I was out before.”
Also she had wanted to be alone with the information she had received, so she had bribed Aika, Jun and Lin to take turns keeping Ai busy for as long as possible. She had just finished with the file when Ai had walked in. She felt bad for lying to Ai, but she had a very delicate situation on her hands now and she wasn’t sure what to do about it.
“Well, yeah, it’s boring, but you and I are in this thing together.” Ai countered, “Next time, don’t try to leave me out of the tediousness.” she gently pushed Risa backwards until she bumped her hip against the edge of the desk, “Okay?” Ai propped her right arm on top of Risa’s shoulder, her fingers playing in the short strands of hair at the nape of her lover’s neck. Her left hand slipped behind the gunner to rest against the desk top as the younger girl leaned against the surface.
With her left arm tucked securely between them in her sling, Risa felt that she was at a distinct disadvantage to her lover’s attack. Not that she really minded, but she was afraid of what she might agree to if the demo expert asked her, “Okay, we’ll be bored together from now on.” Her right hand instinctively wrapped around Ai’s slim waist as the older girl closed the gap between them and kissed her.
Both moaned at the contact, it really had been a while since they had kissed so leisurely and deeply. With all the craziness in the reconstruction the hadn’t even found the time to make love again since the night on the dance floor, which had been anything but slow and passionate. Ai shifted a bit more forward, straddling one of Risa’s legs while pushing one of her own up against the apex of the gunner’s thighs, eliciting another moan. They probably would have gone quite a bit farther had Saki not chosen that moment to burst into the room frantically.
“Boss!” she took in the sight of the couple making out practically on top of the desk and cringed, “Um, I’m really sorry to interrupt, but that crazy foreman is trying to replace all the walls with some weird tin foil or something.”
Risa let out a frustrated sigh, “Did I say bored?” she grumbled as she disentangled herself from her lover, rushing downstairs to deal with the next home improvement crisis.
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Reina was slowly settling in to her new role with much and surprising support from Sayumi. There was still a lot she didn’t understand, though, and basic accounting was one of those things; she’d been trying to figure out the payroll of her legitimate business, but it was like staring at Russian to her. “I hate numbers!” she finally cried, leaning back in her chair and frantically ruffling her own hair.
From the chair next to her where she’d been reading a magazine, Sayumi looked up with a smirk, “What are you having trouble understanding?”
“Everything!” The yankii cried, “I don’t know if I’m just not adding things up right or we’re really missing this much money.”
“Here, let me see.” Sayu gestured for her lover to hand over the papers and when she did, the con examined them carefully. Reina was astonished to see the wheels turning so fast in her head, her lips moving silently as she worked out the math in her head. “Looks like someone
was embezzling money from the company.” She concluded, “There’s money missing regularly.”
“Who would have done it, though?” Reina asked, “The gang was making more than enough on the weapons shipping, which is why the regular shipping company was the perfect front. Why risk discovery?”
“Probably it wasn’t someone who was reaping the benefits of the weapons smuggling, so it would have to have been one of the regular workers. Doesn’t look like the books were doctored very well, so probably not the accountant, but still someone with access to the money.” Sayumi hummed for a moment, “We’re going to need personnel files if we’re going to figure this out.”
Reina stared at her in amazement, “You’re incredible.” she murmured, “I would have never thought of that. Maybe you should be handling the money, since I’ve got no sense for it.”
Blinking in surprise, the con replied, “Well, I mean, I could. If you really think you want me to.”
“Yeah! Yeah.” The cop nodded frantically, “I mean, I don’t want to just foist this stuff onto you, but you can take care of the money portion and I’ll take care of anything not involving numbers.”
Laughing a bit ironically at the new found partnership, Sayu agreed, “Okay, whatever you want.”
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Saki crept quietly into the dark room, intent on her goal. It was quite late, the occupant of the large bed sleeping, her body bathed in moonlight. It was a welcome sight to the weary little captain and she began to tug off her clothes, stripping to just her under garments in the heat of the spring night.
As she began to slip under the blankets, though, her companion stirred and threw an arm around her, “You’re getting in awful late.”
“I know, sorry, it was just too amusing watching Gaki-san explode on the construction foreman all day. Then she roped me into helping keep everyone in line, this whole renovation is becoming a mess.” Saki explained, “I should have escaped while I had the chance.” She settled into Maimi’s side with a sigh.
“Sounds like you had a more interesting day than I did. Everything’s on hold until Reina-chan finishes going over all the ‘paperwork’ we have.” Maimi groaned.
“Paperwork?” Saki questioned.
“Yeah, I don’t know, she sure is determined, though.” The Tanaka girl shrugged, “I was thinking, though, maybe we should take this opportunity to take a vacation.”
“Yeah?” the smaller girl asked in surprise, “Did you have a place in mind?”
“The beach? Somewhere far away. We could just hop a train going south.”
Saki gave this idea a moment of thought, on a beach with her sexy girlfriend? “You have to bring that blue bikini I like.” She demanded huskily, thoughts already drifting away.
“Deal!” Maimi giggled, snuggling closer.
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Eri stared at her phone quietly, contemplating the conversation she’d just had with her father. Everything was coming out exactly like he had predicted, the girls were not disbanding the gangs like they had been ordered to. Instead they were fixing them, making them stronger, getting rid of the bent nails, so to speak, so that they could make the greatest profit possible.
She didn’t know for sure, but Eri suspected that Risa was already putting drugs out on the street again. And she did know that Sayu had been at the docks just the other day, overseeing a shipment of weapons. The lawless girls were already reaping the benefits of their hard work.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t what they were contracted for and her father had reminded Eri of that in no uncertain terms. She had her mission, she was to keep them in line, one way or another. The only thing her father didn’t take into account when he put this plan into motion was Eri’s own feelings.
She really loved these girls. In only six months, they’d bonded and become close; Eri wasn’t used to having a lot of close friends, so knowing what she would eventually have to do made her feel physically ill. She wanted to cry, she wanted to hide. She really wanted to throw up.
How could she hurt these girls? How could she continue to do her job after she’d come to know their dreams and fears, after she’d seen them at their best and worst? On the other hand, how could she go against her father’s orders, after everything she owed him? He could have left her in the orphanage or on the streets to rot, but instead, he gave her a warm home and familial love.
She felt faint and before she realized it, Eri was lying on the floor. She wasn’t sure how long she lay there, fading in and out of consciousness, but eventually, she heard her name being called by a familiar voice. The voice came closer, tone turning worried, and she was picked up off the ground by strong arms.
“You’re burning up, Kame!” Risa cried, hand touching her forehead and cheeks. “Let’s get you into bed.”
“Risa.” Eri whimpered as the other girl took care of her, tucking her into bed and placing a damp cloth on her head. Tears sprang unbidden to her eyes when a kiss glanced her nose and a hand stroked her hair, the gunner sitting with her until she fell asleep. How could she choose sides? How could she hurt the ones she loved?
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Risa shuffled through some documents, propped up in bed against some pillows. Across the room, Ai stretched, preparing to do her morning dance routine. It was quite early, but Risa was eager to make this a normal routine, watching her sexy lover workout was high on her list of things that made her happy. When Ai popped her earbuds in her ear, somehow making even that slight action seem a tad self conscious, Risa put her papers aside and settled in to watch the show.
Ai gave her a quick nervous look out of the corner of her eye, just a small shift, before she let out a breath and focused on the mirror in front of her. Risa had asked her once where she came up with the choreography for the songs she listened to and Ai had shyly revealed that she had copied from the actual footage of the groups she listened to.
Risa thought it was pretty amazing that she would go through all that trouble just to have a workout routine, whereas Ai seemed to think it was a bad trait. “I’m too OCD.” the older woman had said dismissively, “I’m not even interested in being an idol, but I still force myself to perfect the dances.”
“I think it’s important to show attention to detail.” Risa had countered, before Ai had ended the argument with a kiss.
The gunner focused intently on her red faced lover as she began to sway slowly, starting off with a slow song to ease into the routine. Risa could see Ai begin to shut out her surroundings, her face returned to it’s normal color and her moves became more fluid and certain. The slow song transitioned into a faster one and Ai didn’t miss a beat, changing her style to fit the song. She began to mouth the lyrics, then sing under her breath.
For the demo expert it was as close to meditation as she could get, her rebellious thoughts were quelled with the focus on her body and her worries melted away. The only other feeling she’d found to rival this was the one she got when twined together with Risa the couple times they’d made love. Thinking about that made a familiar heat fill her and she nearly faltered, but then she allowed the memories to wash over her pleasantly. By the time the song faded out, Ai was filled with the urge to hold the gunner.
She clicked off her music and turned around with determined eyes, meeting Risa’s own dark gaze as she stalked closer. In no time, they were wrapped around each other, lips sealed together, hands wandering. Risa couldn’t keep her hands off Ai’s abs, loving the feeling of the sinewy muscles contracting under her fingertips at every touch, and the demo expert returned the favor by slowly massaging the gunner’s behind.
As Ai began reaching for the hem of her shirt, something small and round suddenly crashed through their window and slipped under the bed. Risa, driven by her well honed instincts, wasted no time in grabbing Ai and hauling her bodily out of the bed. They stumbled through the bathroom door and dove into the deep bathtub just as the grenade exploded.
All over the house, similar explosions sounded, followed by screams and cries of terror and pain. The barrage lasted for maybe thirty seconds, but to the huddled girls, it felt like a lifetime. Eventually, they realized that all they could hear was a faint ringing and muffled yelling and they slowly sat up and began to take stock of their body parts. Finding herself fine except for a pain in her stressed wounds, Risa turned to her lover, who was saying something to quietly to be heard over the aftermath of the explosion on her ears.
For now she ignored the older girl and began to check her over. They had been so close to the blast, they were lucky to have escaped intact, their hearing would return fairly shortly. Ai had a bruise forming on her jaw, probably from when they were scrambling into the tub, but other than that, she appeared fine. Untangling themselves from each other, they cautiously began to check out the bedroom, slowly opening the thick bathroom door to peek into the room.
The first thing Risa noticed were the nails imbedded in the bottom of the door. She blinked in surprise, eyes drifting around and seeing a similar trend around the bottom portion of the room. Other than that, there appeared to be no other damage.
“What the hell?” she murmured to herself, stepping fully into the room. Her eyes fell on the steel framed bed, the center of the blast radius. The frame was a monstrosity, a custom built testament to paranoia, and Risa had been planning on getting rid of it. Now she examined the four post bed with new eyes. What the mattress sat on was a little over six centimeter thick steel plate, apparently designed to resist explosions. The posts had slots in them that seemed to allow more plates to be installed around and above the bed for added protection, probably while asleep. She’d asked about the strange design and Saki had told her it was still a work in progress.
It did it’s job, though, protecting the bed from the grenade, which Risa also correctly assumed was wrapped with nails. It also had the unintentional side effect of keeping the blast contained to no higher than the bed was off the floor. Shaking her head slowly, she turned to gauge Ai’s reaction, seeing a similar look of disbelief.
Before they could do anything else, the bedroom door burst open and a dripping, towel clad Eri ran in, waving one arm frantically, while the other clutched her towel. “Are you guys alright?!” she screamed.
“We’re okay!” Risa yelled back, still having trouble hearing clearly. It seemed that Eri was as well, since she cried something about trying to reach the others. “Where are they?!” Risa asked loudly, worry suddenly swelling inside her.
“It’s just us here, the others left early this morning!” Eri replied and the gunner breathed out in relief. How lucky was that?
Deciding to check out the rest of the damage, she started to head out of the room. There would be time to worry about who was behind this after she assessed the manor and her gang. “Get dressed and contact Tanakacchi!” she ordered Eri, watching her nod and run off. Exchanging a look with Ai, Risa sighed, then buckled down and headed for the nearest cries.
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Much much later that night, the lawless girls all gathered in the war room at the hotel. The Tanaka manor had been hit at the same time, with quite a few casualties, so Reina was understandably pissed as well. Luckily, she and Sayumi, as well as Maimi and Saki, who were out of town, escaped any harm. The Captain and her girl had been contacted and were on their way home.
“I was content to let things brew for a while between us and the elder Kusumi, but he apparently wants this fight to start earlier than later.” Risa began her speech, standing in front of the solemn gang. Good men had lost their lives today and they were prepared to take revenge. “I give him props for launching a preemptive attack, but the cowardly way with which it commenced is unforgivable. Let’s show him what it means to go to war.”
The others nodded in agreement before their special guest spoke up, “He’s holding a small celebration in two days time.” Koharu spoke, “I’ve managed to get my men on the guard detail outside his compound, but once inside, you’ll probably meet heavy resistance.”
“What is this celebration for?” Sayu asked curiously. The younger girl looked at her from her spot in the corner, Jun posted against the wall by her side. It appeared that old habits died hard and the hitter could not forget her previous roll as this girl’s guardian.
“He holds one every time he gets a new shipment.” Koharu explained, “It’s a good way to get everyone together to examine the goods.” The few people in the room familiar with the gang felt their faces darken.
“What kind of goods?” Lin asked innocently. Sayu was the one who answered her, exercising her surprising knowledge.
“The goods are young women he’s recently acquired.” She explained, fury simmering in her voice, “Young women that he kidnaps or have been sold to him.” Watching her, Risa suddenly remembered something the girl had said to them quite a while ago.
“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.” Eyes widening in sudden realization, the gunner appraised Sayu with new eyes. She began to wonder if the con coming along on this attack was such a good idea. The girl was no exactly known for being able to hold her temper. Then again, maybe her insanity would be an asset. “So we need to find a way to be closer to the action.” she spoke up, “Maybe we need to be the goods, huh?” she glanced at the con, who seemed to be considering this idea seriously. That was a good sign. Or maybe a bad one.
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I'm baaaack~! It only took me a year to finish this chapter!
I hope it doesn't disappoint.
Topic: Black and Blue (Ch 34 6/4 The End!) (Read 153093 times)