Stray Cat Strut
part one
by Go-Go Spiders
Rating : PG-13
Pairing: Light Lupin III/Zenigata
It was supposed to be an easy job. The Eye of Bastet gemstone was being displayed in a small museum about a hundred miles north of New York City with laughable security, even after Lupin had delivered his calling card. The card, as expected, had brought Zenigata from Tokyo, but the decoy getaway helicoptor Fujiko was flying above the museum was drawing his attention elsewhere at the moment, leaving the museum wide open for Lupin, Jigen and Goemon.
But apparently someone else had noticed the museum's security was a joke as well.
When Lupin, Jigen and Goemon broke in to grab the gem, it was already gone. The glass case had been cut open, and a large grey rock sat on the pedestal where there should have been a polished emerald the size of a softball.
"What the-" said Lupin. He reached into the case and prodded at the rock. "Hey! Where's the Eye of Bastet?"
"Someone grabbed the Eye before we could?" said Jigen. "Well, that's not very nice."
"It was here when the museum closed," said Goemon.
Lupin prodded at the edges of the hole cut into the display case. ""Looks like it was cut with a torch. Still hot. Whoever took it might still be in the museum."
"If the gem's not here, we should probably skedaddle. Unless you want to try and find 'em, Lupin?" said Jigen.
Lupin nodded.
They had split up, each taking a wing of the museum to look through. Lupin had found the thief in the museum's enclosed statue garden. Oddly, he wasn't attempting to hide, instead standing by the large window, looking out at the full moon with the Eye of Bastet in his hand.
There were more elegant, showy ways to separate the other thief from the gemstone, but Lupin decided to just tackle him. The man groaned as his body hit the floor with Lupin on top of him, still clutching the jewel in one hand.
The other thief was much older and frailer than Lupin, looking to be in his mid-sixties, with white hair and a scraggly beard. He wore a black hooded coat. "Stop! This is mine! I've been planning it for so long!"
"Sorry grandpa, but I called dibs on this!" said Lupin, trying to pry the jewel out of the other man's hands.
The old man frowned and drove his knee into Lupin's stomach.
Taken by surprise, Lupin wheezed in pain, momentarily loosening his grip on the Eye.
Shouting something a language Lupin didn't understand, the other man thrust the Eye of Bastet into Lupin's face, touching the gem to his forehead.
"Wha-"
A flash of green light exploded in front of Lupin's eyes, and then darkness.
"Didn't find the Eye either, huh?" said Jigen as he met up with Goemon back in front of the Eye's empty case several minutes later.
Goemon shook his head. "We should depart. Fujiko won't be able to distract Zenigata forever."
Jigen nodded. "Yeah, let's go collect the boss and then get the hell out of here."
Together, the two ran down into the statue garden, where Lupin had gone. Lupin himself was nowhere in sight, but his clothes were lying in a pile in front of a large window, even his shoes.
"How strange," said Goemon, kneeling down on the floor. He lifted Lupin's jacket off the floor with his sheathed sword. "Why would Lupin leave his clothing here?"
"Lupin?" called Jigen, his voice echoing in the empty statue garden. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
Silence.
"This isn't funny, Lupin! We need to go!"
The pile of Lupin's clothes rustled slightly, meowing at them.
Jigen and Goemon looked at each other. Jigen knelt down and picked up the discarded dress shirt, revealing a lanky dark brown cat curled up in Lupin's striped boxers. It meowed again when it saw Jigen.
"What's a cat doing there?" said Jigen in surprise.
"Lupin!" called Inspector Zenigata from the museum entrance. The running footsteps of the other officers with Zenigata began to grow louder. "Give it up, I know you're in here! Surrender!"
"Goemon, I think we've overstayed our welcome," said Jigen, standing up.
"But-"
"Lupin's a grown man, he can take care of himself, wherever he is," said Jigen. "But it's time for us to haul ass out of here."
"Understood." Goemon stood up, unsheathing Zantetsuken. He leapt at the garden's window, landing multiple slashes.
The window crumbled apart, chunks of glass and masonry landing in the parking lot three stories below.
Jigen jumped out the window, holding his hat down. Goemon followed a moment later, just as Zenigata and several officers burst into the statue garden. "Lupin!"
The dark brown cat trilled at the sight of Zenigata, working its way free from the pile of Lupin's clothing. Attempting to run to the window, it appeared to get tangled up in its own four legs and flopped over onto its belly, sliding down the polished marble floor.
Zenigata dashed to the broken window, ignoring the cat. He was just in time to watch Lupin's yellow Fiat disappear from sight down the road.
"Crap, crap, crap!" he shouted before turning on his heel to the officers behind him. "Secure the museum, make sure there's no one else here!"
"Inspector?" said one of the officers. "What do you make of this?"
Zenigata turned around, noticing the cat and the pile of Lupin's clothing for the first time. "Oh."
The cat made another desperate dash for the window, but Zenigata bent down and gently picked it up before it could try to jump out. "Hey, I know cats have nine lives but you'd use all of 'em up if you fell three stories," he admonished it.
The cat meowed again, squirming in Zenigata's hands. It suddenly froze, looked down at itself, and then began thrashing around in blind panic, its tail puffing out as it let out a loud yowl.
Zenigata blinked at the cat.
"Sir? Perhaps you should put the cat down," said one of the officers. "It might be feral, or diseased."
The cat gave the officer a look that could only be described as 'offended', but stopped flailing.
"No," said Zenigata after a moment. He stared suspiciously at the cat. "I don't think he's a stray. Looks to me like he's lived in the lap of luxury all his life."
"If you think that's someone's lost pet, I can call someone from Animal Control to come pick it up," the officer offered.
Zenigata shook his head. "I'll handle it. You three comb through what Lupin left behind. Just be careful with whatever you find, he's extremely tricky."
"Yes, sir!"