Chapter 1
It was the middle of autumn and it was time for the autumn exhibits. Work lately had been very busy.
"Faye." Mitsuru beamed.
Mitsuru was one of my colleagues, he had short wispy brown hair and wore glasses and a light grey suit with a white shirt and a blue tie.
"Today's the delivery of antiques and paintings the other museums are lending us, right?"
"Yes, the exhibit will have a lot of attention on it. So we need to make it a success." I said.
As I went to check the tags for the special exhibition, a co-worker called us over.
"Faye, Mitsuru, can you come and help out in the storage room?"
"Sure." I said.
The delivery must be here; I was so excited! All three of us went down to the storage room.
"Wow, look at this." Mitsuru said.
"Mitsuru, put on your gloves." I said.
We both wore white coats and gloves as we checked the pieces that arrived. Each piece was packed carefully in crates, they were all so amazing.
"Look at this sword." Mitsuru said and held up a sword in the air.
"This jewel is a gift from the monarchy of Gonzola." I said.
I picked up the large jewel and examined it in the light. It looked almost too beautiful to be real. I couldn't stop smiling, everything was so amazing. I took my time as I examined every item, making sure I took in every detail.
"All right, that should be enough for today." My co-worker said.
"Huh? What time is it?" I said and looked at my watch.
I had been so absorbed in my work, nearly 3 hours had passed.
"Ok, we'll lock up and be right there." Mitsuru said.
The rest of the museum workers were finishing in the other room, me and Mitsuru focused on putting the new items in a room with extra security.
The next morning, as I came in through the main entrance I was greeted by Mitsuru. He looked troubled.
"Hey, what's going on?" I asked.
"Something terrible has happened. Some of the art pieces that came yesterday, disappeared." He said.
"What do you mean disappeared?" I asked.
"When I came to work this morning, the secure room was open. And some of the art pieces were missing."
"What?! No!"
"What are we going to do? If word gets out no one will trust our museum anymore and we might even get shut down." He said.
He looked at the floor and tears started to form in his eye.
"This is no time to cry! Go tell the museum director right now." I ordered.
After all the employees were gathered, we were informed there was a chance that the art was stolen, and we discussed how we were going to deal with it. Then we gave our statements to the police.
"Since it could be damaging to us if work got out the police won't release any information about the investigation to the public for a while. But if they don't find anything, we'll have to take responsibility for it and close the museum." Mitsuru said.
"No, it won't come to that. Don't worry, we'll find out who did this and we'll get everything back." I said firmly.
"How can you be so confident?" he asked.
"Just trust me." I said.
I then walked off and got out my mobile. There was only one person I needed to ring, Boss.
"Hey it's Faye. I have a favour to ask."
A few hours later, I walked into the Le Renard Noir bar.
"Hey!" Hiro beamed as he came in after me. "Oh, everyone's already here?"
"Welcome, yep everyone's here." Boss said.
It was well after closing and the bar was empty except for us.
"Hey, Beardy. What'd you screw up now?" Takuto asked.
"No, I wasn't the one who called everyone here. Faye has a favour to ask." Boss said.
Everyone turned and looked at me.
"Faye? That's unusual. I'll help you with anything you need!" Hiro said.
"Stop joking around. Can't you see how serious Faye looks?" Kenny said.
"Sorry, sorry." Hiro said.
"So what's the favour you want to ask us?" Riki asked.
I started to explain what happened at the museum.
"I see. And this upcoming exhibit was highly publicized, too. It probably drew the attention of some bad guys." Boss said.
"The police are working on it but.." I said.
"If the culprits are professionals, you won't have much luck getting the art back." Kenny said.
"It'll be sold on the black market and that'll be the end of it." Riki said.
"I can't let that happened. Please, you guys are the only ones I can ask for help." I said and bowed my head deeply.
"Faye.." Boss said with a tender smile.
"Well, how are we supposed to say no to that?" Kenny said.
"C'mon Faye, stop bowing your head." Hiro said.
"All right, we'll help." Takuto said.
My mouth burst into a grin "You guys are the best!"
"We are the Black Foxes, after all. We always help those in need." Boss said.
"I agree!" Hiro said.
"Let me see the list of art pieces that were stolen." Riki said.
"Here." I said and handed over a piece of paper.
Everyone gathered around him to read the list.
"What, more than one thing got stolen?" Kenny asked.
"We counted five missing pieces. We did tighten security but…"
"Apparently not enough since so many things got stolen." Takuto said.
"Now now, Takkun. It's not Faye's fault." Boss said.
"If we don't find them soon, they might be sold overseas. We should split up and look for them. Hiro you take the painting just in case we run into a counterfeit." Riki said.
"Roger. Leave it to me." Hiro said.
"Ok, I'll check the black market for the missing jewel." Boss said.
"I'll look for the sword since it'll be easier for me to carry it out." Kenny said.
"A puppet? That's still considered a work of art in this scientific age?" Takuto asked.
"Fine, you can look for the puppet Takuto." Riki said.
"Wha-!" Takuto gasped.
"Since you seem so interested in it, it'll be a piece of cake. Right?"
"Fine." Takuto agreed but muttered something under his breath so I didn't hear what he said.
"Me and Faye will take the missing the scroll." Riki said.
"Hey, not fair. How come you always hog Faye?" Hiro asked.
"It's not up for discussion." Riki said firmly before he turned and looked at me. "Is that alright with you Faye?"
"Yeah that's fine. Thank you so much for your help." I said.
"It's ok. You know you can always count on us." Riki said with his normal smug smile. "Just make sure not to get in the way, all right?"
"I'll try my best."
"Good, we'll leave first thing tomorrow so you can stay over tonight. You can have my room." He said.
He patted my head lightly and smiled kindly at me. As usual, he gave me his room without protest.
The next morning, I woke up and saw Riki getting ready to leave.
"You're leaving already? Hang on, I'll go get ready. I won't be long." I said.
I jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom.
"Yeah, I've heard that one before. You know that friend of yours, Ranko?"
I had a toothbrush in my mouth and was scrubbing my teeth.
"Yeah, what about her?" I asked.
"I'd like to ask her a few questions. Can you call her and see if she can meet with us?"
"Sure." I agreed.
After I had gotten changed, I rang Ranko and arranged to meet her at a coffee shop. We sat at a table and ate breakfast as we waited for her to come.
I should probably tell him more about the scroll that was stolen. I took out documents from my bag related to the scroll.
"We don't have too much time, so I'll just give you the basics." I said.
"It's a scroll from the Warring States Era. A letter written by a famous military commander." He said.
"That's right, how did you know?"
"I already researched it when I was making our plan. Who do you think I am, anyway?"
I stared at him in surprise "When did you even have time to do that?"
"After you fell asleep." He said.
"Oh."
"You'd better not apologise." He said.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because once you start, you never stop."
I pulled a face at him in response.
"But still, I should have told you all this yesterday." I said as I put the documents back into my bag.
"No, I wanted to do research on my own without any preconceived notions. It's nothing for you to worry about." He said.
"Fair enough, as long as we get it back." I said.
"Oh, we'll definitely get it back. As if I would ever make a mistake." He said and flashed his normal arrogant grin at me.
He was so cocky but a great thief. It was always amazing to work with him, he never ceased to amaze me. Not that I'd ever tell him that, his ego was big enough as it is.
"So, what are you going to give me once we get the scroll back?" he asked.
"Huh?"
"What's with that tone of voice? You're not gonna make me work for free, right?"
I wasn't expecting him to say that so I wasn't sure what to say.
"All right, I'll need to collect the down payment first." He said.
He then took hold of my chin and tilted my head upwards, his face started to come closer.
"What are you doing?" I said and pushed him away.
He burst out laughing "You're no fun."
"Shut up, this is not supposed to be fun."
He just smiled before he took a small sip of his tea.
Geeze, what a jerk. Could he at least try and take this seriously?