Author Notes: I wrote this years ago back way before I even had an account here. It was kinda always just something I would read once and a while for the fun of it. then I woke up one morning and decided 'what the hell'. The story is a retelling of the main story of Kenshi's route, but with a MC who is hiding just as much from the foxes as they do with everyone else.
Remember, it's fan fiction so I don't own anything and make no money from this. Please enjoy.
I stood in the pitch black of the mansion's room staring at the painting that I had been looking for. It had taken me nearly a year of bribes and scheming, shady witnesses to find, but I had finally done it. Fugimoto was a higher up in the Japanese government, but had a reputation in unseemly underbelly of the country of being a ruthless criminal with ties to the mafia.
I smiled at the simple painting that lay before me. It had been stolen from a major museum in Kyoto nearly a decade ago when I had only been 13. It had taken a while to find, but I had done it. I slipped my hand into a hidden pocket of my boot and pulled out a thin, top of the line, pay as you go phone with a high-resolution camera. I lifted my mask, and snapped a picture, the flash nearly blinding me in the dark room.
With a few taps of the touch screen I had mailed my entire research file to Tatsuro, a dectective and my best friend's older brother. Tatsuro would know exactly what to do with it. In the file, was all my work; Overseas bank accounts, dates, times, all proving that Fugimoto was the one who orchestrated the theft of the painting nearly a decade ago. All the cops would have to do was to verify the information by their own means, likely finding more than a few somethings that I had missed, and then make the arrest. With just a few more taps had wiped the phone entirely.
I took another second to admire the painting. I'd only ever seen pictures of it before when I was in art school, and the power of the picture was overwhelming. "The love and care that the artist poured into this is clear," I whispered to myself. "This is amazing". I rubbed my arms to stave off the goose bumps that had risen as a result of the painting.
I heard the creak of a floor board behind me and darted into a corner, pulling my mask down, obscuring my face. It happened almost every mission. A house I was not used to would creak or groan or thud, and I would hide in a corner to make sure it was really nothing before moving onwards. I was not prepared, and watched with bated breath, as three figures in black walked into the room.
"It's right there Leader," the tallest figure whispered, his voice barely audible.
"Is this it Hiro?" the one I assumed was 'Leader' turned to a thin figure. There was a short pause before the one named Hiro answered,
"Yep, this is it." The tallest one reached out, and with very little effort, lifted the large painting off the wall.
"We're lucky," the tall one said. "No sensors." Leader froze and even in the near pitch black I could see that he paled, and they all looked around, peering into the dark. I knew that they were all looking for me. I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding, and began to make my way to the window, as quietly as possible. The vent system had been my entry point, and I had planned on escaping the same way, but the men were between me and my three by three window to freedom. The windows weren't far. I could scale down the drain pipe and down into the yard for my get away. It wasn't optimal, the window would be alarmed, but these guys were stealing the painting had hijacked the security system.
Hadn't they?
There was no time to debate. Leader's eyes narrowed as he focused on my hiding spot.
My gloved hand reached out and unlocked the window, and the blaring alarm stunned me and I froze where I stood. I whipped my head around to the thieves and stared, but couldn't make out anything in the dark room, though I imagine they all stood there slack jawed. I mean really, what was the likelihood that I would be here at the same time as a bunch of thieves, going after the exact same painting nonetheless.
"What kind of thieves leave the security system running?" I yelled over the droning alarm, as I threw the window open. A hand grabbed me roughly and pulled me back covering my mouth with a hand the other hand firmly gripping my breast. The tall one gasped, but he never let go. My minimal self-defense training kicked in and I bit down on the hand while smashing the heel of my boot on to his toes. The man winced and let go but never cried out. His hold slackened barely, but it was enough for me to wrench myself from his grasp.
"Damn it" the tall one snapped. He reached out and I could feel his fingers graze my arm, narrowly missing his chance to pull me back. I threw myself out the open window, and grabbed the drainpipe and slid down, much faster than I normally would have.
My feet slammed into the ground after the longest five seconds of my life and I spared one glance up, and saw three faces barely illuminated in the low light. They were not going to follow me, thank god. I had never seen any of them before and would likely never see them again, but I would remember the way they all looked-shocked and impressed-and as if they knew they were screwed all at once. I smirked and waved, before I darted across the lawn to safety.
My alarm clock went off way too early the next morning. After a mission, I was usually high strung, but this time, I was in front of the computer refreshing Fugimoto's name in the internet search to see if they'd been caught. I'd left the thieves peering out a window, while I ran away. What if they'd been caught? What if they had told the police about me?
I would be so screwed.
There was a small blurb that popped up about how robbers had hit Fugimoto's house the night before. I noted with pride that Ranko, my best friend had the by line.
It was almost five in the morning before I finally threw myself into bed, and only an hour and a half later that my alarm went off. I sluggishly went around taking a shower and making my coffee, trying to get ready for the morning. I was mid-yawn when my phone rang and I could tell from the ring tone that it was Ranko. " Kana," Ranko screech in way of greeting, "You are never going to guess what happened?!" she squealed into the phone, nearly shattering my ear drum in the process.
"What happened?" I asked trying to sound excited, as I groped for my coffee cup. "Did Kuni finally ask you out?" Questions about her love life usually threw Ranko in to a completely different direction.
"No," Ranko voice grew irritated for an instant. "I wish. But no, my brother got another email from the Black Cat last night!"
"You're kidding?" I stifled another yawn.
"Would I kid about the Black Cat?" Ranko shouted excitedly. "But it gets crazier. And this is totally off the record by the way." I rolled my eyes. I was the 'Black Cat', I wasn't about to go around telling anyone what I was up to whether it was from a secondary source or not.
"As you know the Black Cat has been tracking pieces of art that were stolen and emailing the info to Tatsuro," Ranko continued her monologue. She'd developed this annoying habit of repeating information that she knew I was already aware of. She blamed it on the way she had to write her pieces for the newspaper.
Personally, I think she just likes the sound of her own voice.
"Tatsuro even came back from his training in the US to work the Black Cat case," She continued, They've recovered a ton of stuff because of him, but are still searching for his identity since the breaking and entering he does is still way illegal." I smiled, At least they're still looking for a man, I thought. "Anyhow, seconds after he got the new email, an alarm went off and the police responded. It turns out that the Black Foxes stole the very painting that the Black Cat had gone out of his way to track down.
"The Black Foxes?" I asked barely containing the irritation in my voice. "They stole the painting?"
"Yep," Ranko said excitedly. "The noble thieves! The modern Robin Hoods!" I could tell from the years I had known her that Ranko was off in lala-land imagining hot, well-toned men, robbing the rich and giving to the poor. "Can you believe it?" she asked snapping me back to reality. "I guess you won the bet."
"What bet?" I asked. I couldn't have cared less about a won bet even if I did remember what she was talking about. All I could see was a red haze of rage. All that time, all of the work, all the money I had put into the case had been for nothing.
"Don't you remember?" Ranko laughed. "I said that the Black Cat and the Black Foxes were working together, and you bet me lunch that they weren't. There is no way would the Black Cat go through all the effort of sending that file to my brother, if he knew the Black Foxes were going to steal it."
"That's true. I want burgers by the way," I said with a laugh even as I clenched my teeth. I knew that Fugimoto was going to walk. All of the evidence I had wouldn't be enough for a conviction, the police had to find the painting at his house. I wanted to scream.
"Damn," I exclaimed suddenly slamming my fist down on the counter in front of me. Ranko went silent on the other end of the phone, surprised by my sudden vehemence. "Sorry, I have to go," I said quickly trying to find an excuse for my outburst. "I'm going to miss my train." I covered quickly.
"OK, call me later," Ranko said as she hung up. I sunk into a chair in dismay and glanced at the clock, wondering if I should just call in sick. I shook my head and grabbed my coffee before running to the train station. I knew my next step and it was to take down the Black Foxes.
It had been almost a month since the debacle at Fugimoto's house, and I was getting nowhere…very, very slowly.
I never stole anything as the Black Cat. I gathered intel and sent it off to the police so that they could make the arrest. I knew what I did was still illegal, but I slept better at night knowing that I wasn't stealing anything. Kind of like Batman-well without all the fighting, and the awesome gadgets, and all the money. But that thought helped me do what I felt in my heart had to be done. I helped the police, I didn't steal stolen art in a bizarre attempt to prove that stealing was wrong. It just all seemed so backwards to me.
But that was of no use to me now. No matter who I contacted, no matter who I bribed, no matter what shady part of town I went to, no one knew anything about the Black Foxes.
It was more than a little frustrating.
How could they leave no trail for me to follow? I knew they were good, but until now, I had no idea just how outclassed I was.
When not desperately seeking any information on the Foxes, I threw myself in to my work at the museum. It was my love of art that had brought me to my rather unconventional extracurricular activities. I had always loved art, something I had inherited from my great-grandfather Seio Nakumura. He was hailed as the 'Japenese Leonardo Davinci' a brilliant artist and inventor. In college I had gotten a degree in art, with an emphasis in preservation. Just before graduation, one of Gramps paintings had been stolen from a museum that my family had lent it to. The police had no leads, and I knew who had actually done it. An art collector had been trying to buy it from us for years. Even being told this, the police couldn't do anything. Gramps had taught me how to pick a lock when I was little, and I just kind of taught myself from there. It definitely helped having a friend on the force to suss out the best way to not get caught.
I had been lucky enough to get a job at the museum right out of school, and I love every second of it. We had just gotten a new exhibit, a golden tiara, in at the museum, and I had thrown myself into setting up the exhibit. Pulling other pieces from the princess in question, gathering historical facts and setting it up. I had been working so hard that many of my co-workers began to suspect that I had broken up with someone. I was not about to correct them. Better they think that then I was living a double life, desperately looking for any clue that could lead me to the most notorious thieves that Japan had seen in decades.
Finally, it was opening day, and I hadn't laid eyes on my work at all. My bosses had me conducting press interviews about the new exhibit, which were more exhausting than anything think that I had done to prepare the exhibit. I made my way down the long exhibition hall after closing, saying good night to my colleagues as the left for the night. The security guard tipped his hat to me as he walked by in the opposite direction. It was not at all unusual that I was the last person to leave at night-especially lately.
I stood in the middle of the exhibition that I had so painstakingly pulled together and sighed happily. "At least this part of my life is going right," I muttered as I stared at the tiara, the inspiration of the whole thing.
I loved my job.
There was nothing I would rather be doing than this, preserving art, protecting it. I may have inherited my love of art from my Gramps, but I had done this. Created an exhibition, preserved this small piece of art, this small piece of history and I knew that Gramps would have been proud of me.
Absentmindedly, I twisted the ring he had given me around on my finger as I walked to the large case holding tiara. I meandered around the hall staring adoringly at pieces and lost track of time entirely, taking in every little detail I could.
Muffled voices in the main hall of the museum caught my attention. I scowled, glancing down at my watch, I should have been the only person in the museum at the moment, and the guards weren't scheduled to patrol for another 15 minutes. Without thinking, I walked turned and made my way back down the exhibition hall and to the main hall. As I drew closer I could make out two figures at the end of the hall, and I could just barely make out the familiar uniforms of the security company that we had hired. I cleared my throat, "You guys are on rounds early tonight," I called out walking closer.
Both men seemed to freeze, and turned slowly to look at me. I felt all the color drain from my face as I recognized both their faces, despite the low light or more likely because of it. "Black Foxes," I whispered and turned to run. In that moment I couldn't tell if it was just to get away from them, or because I was panicked that one of them would recognize me in return. I had barely taken two steps when I was jerked back into a hard chest. I turned my angry eyes on the tall one who had grabbed me the last time, strong arms leaving no room to escape, and found the tall one, whose name I never got staring oddly at me. He reached out and grabbed my hand seemingly transfixed by it as I struggled to get free. I tried to pull away, but his grip was way too strong, making realize how lucky had been to get away from him the first time.
"Leader look," he said as he wrapped an arm around my waist holding me close so I couldn't get away, and held out my hand to Leader. Leader's eyes danced in delight.
"It's her," Leader whispered something akin to reverence in his voice. I heard another voice call out. And Leader smiled. "Hiro get the painting. Bring her Kenny." So he did have a name. 'Kenny' released me long enough to hoist me over his shoulder before he began to run after Leader and Hiro.
"No," I screamed and I grabbed a handful of his hair, and yanked as hard as I could. He cried out in pain and his tight grip slacked just enough for me to get out. I landed on my hands just behind him and flung my body into a handspring doing it a second time to make sure I had some distance, and honestly to show off a bit.
Years of gymnastics, had prepared me for that, but not for what came next.
I turned to look and them and saw the barrel of two guns, one held by Leader and the other by Kenny. Hiro was already climbing out with the painting in tow. I glared at them, and watched them waver ever so slightly. I hate guns, my Gramps had always said that your mind was your greatest weapon. I cast my eyes about and they landed on the fire alarm. In the blink of an eye I pulled the leaver and the fire alarm blared around us. I looked at the Black Foxes with an angry scowl.
"She's good," Kenny laughed, a genuine smile on his face. And he grabbed a rope disappearing out an open skylight and from view.
"We'll see you soon," Leader smiled rakishly and winked and he too disappeared. I had to suppress the urge to call after them with some sort of parting shot.
It was terrible, but I was sort of admiring their very dramatic, if not flamboyant exit.
But even that didn't stop my outrage that they had dared hit my museum.
It was on.