The Right Reasons
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Hey all, I've been having a hard time writing lately, been fighting writer's block. So I decided to try something new, since I think it's important to just pick something that you're feeling at that particular moment when you're struggling to write and just run with it. So here's a new idea I've had that might be fun.
This is a longfic crime/romance story. AU on a fictionalized version of Earth, TaKari, no Digimon. Rated T for general adult themes and situations, some language, and some sexuality. I always appreciate reviews and feedback, feel free to leave it.
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Summary: He's one of the most wanted men in the world. But the truth is more complicated. She's a young adult struggling to make ends meet. And she wishes the truth was more complicated. Longfic, TaKari, AU, no Digimon, T for adult themes, language, sexuality.
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Prologue: Meet Cute
"Sweetie, trust me, the reason why you like working with kids is because you've never had to work with thirty of them at the same time."
Hikari Yagami tugged at the right strap of her tanktop, nose wrinkling slightly. She could feel the slight prickle as the fabric pulled off of her skin. She adjusted it a couple centimeters, feeling it immediately re-adhere to her shoulder, sweat acting as glue. She could never quite get used to it, and it wasn't getting any better. Getting worse, actually. Each passing year seemed to bring a couple extra fractions of a degree when early May rolled around, a barely noticeable change that was snowballing into an intolerable daily punishment for everyone who spent time outdoors. Hikari could vaguely recall a time in her youth, when late springs and summers weren't a humid, oppressive torture session. People in the know claimed that the process was man-made, a product of pollution and assorted gas emissions by humankind, and was on track to continue getting worse. One day, so these people said, the entire year would be like this, an unending, unyielding slog of suffering from which there was no escape, unless the human race acted quickly.
She wasn't sure if these claims were accurate. But she was willing to try anything to get things back to the way they were when she was little.
"I...I don't think that's fair," Hikari protested. "Maybe I haven't been with thirty, but...I've been with them a lot. I enjoy being with them. It...it sounds like fun. I think I'd be good at it. And all you have to do is pass a test to get a certification for it." She took a sip from her cup of bubble tea on the small table in front of her. "Hikari Yagami, Pre-academy Instructor. Charged with shaping the formative years of kids, age five and six. I like the sound of that."
Lily gave her head a small shake, long pink hair waving around by the sides of her face. "Come on, darling, you know that's a dying profession anyway."
"There are always going to be kids, Lily," Hikari said, glancing down the sidewalk to her left, crossing her left leg over her right knee. "And pre-academy's required by law."
"There are fewer childbirths every year," Lily pointed out. "Fewer kids, fewer enrollments to pre-academy, fewer instructors required."
"So be it," Hikari argued. "Still enough for me to teach, I might just have to get better at it to get in."
"Just...make sure you actually enjoy being around dozens of five-year-olds before you commit your career to it. You don't get multiple chances at a career path." She raised her cup of bubble tea in the air towards her. "At least, people like us don't."
Hikari lifted her cup up and clinked it against Lily's before taking another drag from it. "Well, I'm only fifteen. Plenty of time for me to think about things, but...I'm telling you. Being around kids? Sign me up for that." She gave a small smile. "Have a few of my own, too."
Lily gave a small snort. "A few?!" She grimaced. "Hikari, dear, uh...I don't want to come across as mean, having this conversation, I...I can imagine how it sounds, but...we're teenagers now, we should start honing in on realistic goals."
"What's so wrong with having a few kids?" Hikari asked, trepidation in her voice as she suspected the answer.
"Having kids is for rich people," Lily said, somewhat bitterly. "You know that, Hikari. So many...hundreds of thousands of units, all the time, all the effort...even one, it's just...that's another thing. Do you really want to spend your entire life around a bunch of trust fund babies? That's all you'll be teaching."
Hikari shrugged. "How does that matter? They're little kids."
"That's what you say now, but just wait until you're in that room every day, and every kid is wearing an outfit that cost four times yours. Gonna get old quick." Lily nodded her head. "You sure you don't want to run with the photography stuff? You're good at that!"
Hikari chuckled. "It's...it's a fun hobby, don't get me wrong. But...is it really more stable than teaching? The, the birthrate thing, it's just a temporary thing, right? Things will...correct, eventually. They have to."
Lily grimaced. "I don't see how it's going to. Not like it's going to get cheaper, and...everyone keeps encouraging people to not have kids."
Hikari sighed. "Yeah, I...I don't know. It's tough for me to believe that...if people decide they really want to have a kid, they can't just...do it." She stared down at what was left of her drink. "Kind of depressing when you really think about it."
"Sure it is. But it's reality."
OOO
"Wrong day for these outfits," Takeru complained quietly, itching his right shoulder with his left hand, glancing down at the brown jumpsuit he had on through the holes in his ski mask. "Holy hell, imagine when we start running around."
Yamato, clad in a roughly identical jumpsuit and mask combination, leaned up against the side of the concrete wall on the left side of the alleyway. "You get used to it." He leaned his large black shotgun up against the side of the wall next to him. "Not today. But eventually."
"Well, that'll be a tremendous help for today," Takeru said dryly. "I understand the mask, but I don't understand why robbers can't be wearing tanktops and shorts. Everyone else is wearing them, why should we stand out?"
"Hey, if you want a bunch of witnesses getting a look at your arm definition and skin tone, good on you," Ken pointed out from Takeru's other side. "But some of us would prefer to not make it easy on the police after this is over."
"See, your friend has the right idea," Yamato scolded his younger brother. "And, I would like to add, seems a good bit more appreciative of me doing this with you kids today."
"Us kids?" Takeru said. "Come on, buddy, this score is legit. Koushiro is your friend too, he's your age, and you know as well as I do that he rarely gets things wrong. We're not holding up a Quik N Easy for a box of quarters here, this is real stuff."
"Yeah, yeah," Yamato acknowledged. "How's it feel, being sixteen years old and minutes away from being one of the most wanted people on the planet? Amazing that anyone is trying something like this these days, much less a bunch of teenagers."
"Yeah," Ken agreed. "We pull this off, we're sure as hell going to make it a lot harder for everyone else in the future to do it."
"That's why we gotta do it now," Yamato replied. "Alright, I want to stress this one more time, because I know the temptation. If our intel is bad, and we get in there and there's only cash, don't touch it. You burn it and run. We can't do anything with it, and don't think you'll be able to find a way. That's how people get busted."
"Don't worry, I know the drill. Bearer bonds or bust," Takeru answered, looking down at the black shotgun in his gloved hands, moving his fingers around awkwardly as he felt the sweat pooling inside of them.
Yamato nodded, looking over to his right, towards a dump truck parked across the alleyway that crossed with the one the three were standing in. "Still feels like it might be a little too good to be true. So many things just perfectly lining up like this. I'm steeling myself to open up the back of the truck and finding bundles of cash. Or nothing."
"I'm more thinking about afterwards," Ken added. "I can buy all the stuff before and during, but...are we really going to be able to disappear after?" He shook his head. "I'm not convinced we're getting more than ten blocks away."
"The powers-that-be have gotten lazy. Nobody tries things like this anymore. They're not ready for something like this." Yamato cleared his throat. "Just keep telling yourself that until this is over."
"Nobody tries things like this anymore," Takeru repeated. "Nobody. And now, four teenagers are gonna try it. When you put it like that, I don't know if that makes me feel all that great."
"Ahem," Yamato said. "First of all, three teenagers. I've left the club, give me full marks, please and thank you." He pointed at the metal door in the wall of the building right next to him. "Second of all, positions." He quickly slapped a small square device on the wall by the door.
Takeru stepped forward, twisting the knob on the metal door and pushing the heavy slab of metal inward. The three quickly stepped into a dark storage room, rickety metal shelves lined up against the walls.
"Gentlemen, count your blessings today. Having a chance to do something like this is a privilege," Yamato added, holding his shotgun up in his right hand, his left hand pulling a rectangular screen from his left back pocket.
The three crowded around Yamato's hand, looking. The alleyway right outside the door was projected on the device, from the point-of-view of the device Yamato had placed on the wall. Pointing off to the right, towards the alleyway that crossed the one they were in. A white van came into view, coming down that alley, slowing down as it approached the cross of the two alleys.
"You think these guys think they're really clever, shaving two minutes off their route by going back here?" Ken wondered out loud as the large van came to a stop right in the X of the crossing, it's route hindered by the garbage truck that was parked in such a way that took up the entire alley.
"Annnddddd…" Yamato said quietly. "Here we go."
In the top right corner of the video feed, they could just barely see a fast-moving vehicle coming right towards the cross of the alleyways from the opposite side. Aimed directly at the side of the van, it was quite clear that it had no plans of stopping short of the van. A second later, the vehicle, a large black truck, plowed right into the side of the van, a loud crunch of metal rang through the midday air. The force of the impact pushed the van right down the alley the three had just been standing in a moment ago, tumbling onto it's side, loudly scraping against the concrete of the alleyway floor. The van coasted past the view cone of the camera, the three quite clearly hearing it violently scrape down the alley.
"We're on!" Ken declared, grabbing the doorknob and yanking the door open.
OOO
The entire block of people froze as the unmistakable sound of metal crashing into metal interrupted everything. Conversations paused, strolls halted, and the ambivalent mood of the day was immediately called into question.
Hikari nearly choked on the last dregs of her tea, head violently jerking to the right, detecting the noises coming from somewhere behind the buildings there. Maybe a block behind the cafe building. Her ears perked up, the cacophonic sounds continuing, as something very heavy was seemingly being tossed around.
"T-that's...are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Lily stammered, standing up from her seat just as the initial chaotic sounds faded.
"Car wreck?" Hikari wondered aloud, also getting to her feet. "Big car wreck?"
OOO
The van was on it's back now, helpless and immobile as an upside-down tortoise, wheels spinning futilely. The three quickly approached, all three of them brandishing black shotguns, trained on the cab area.
"Alright, how's this gonna go?!" Yamato called out loudly, the van's driver visibly stirring in his seat, seatbelt just barely keeping him from falling to the top of the cab. Takeru and Ken went up to the cab, Takeru standing by the near-side window and Ken going to the far-side window. Yamato, meanwhile, went to the back of the truck.
Takeru pointed his shotgun up towards the sky, pumping it and pulling back on the trigger. The violent recoil pushed back against his arms as the weapon erupted into the air, firing a burst of metal ballistics up high, a booming rip sounding from the gun. Quickly, he pointed it back down towards the passenger-side window. "How many of these do you think it would take to get through this window?" Ken also pointed his shotgun up into the air, letting a shell of his own loose.
OOO
The initial burst of gunfire made Hikari's stomach clench. The second snapped her back into reality. She glanced around just as the crowd of people all began sprinting in the opposite direction of the noise, her feet finally obeying her initial instinct of following suit. Lily grabbed her shoulder and yanked her towards the street, Hikari just barely able to grab her purse before turning to run alongside her friend.
"Now I'm thinking something else!" Lily yelped as she broke into a sprint across the five lane road, quickly jumping onto the sidewalk, Hikari right alongside her. "Holy crap!"
With not much mind for anything besides increasing the distance between them and whatever scene was happening a block to the south, the two ran into an alley between two buildings, an apartment complex and a convenience store, in a dead sprint, terrified of whatever violent scene was happening behind them.
OOO
The passenger side door to the cab of the van swung open, Takeru pointing the barrel of his shotgun right at the passenger who hung there, upside down, gravity pulling him towards the roof of the cab.
"Your cooperation is appreciated," Takeru said. "Now, unbuckle slowly and come out." Takeru heard the door on the opposite side open as well, as Ken made similar progress towards taking control of the armed protectors of the van.
Slowly, the man, wearing a dark green uniform re-enforced with a large bulletproof vest and a large black helmet with a glass visor, held on by a strap across his chin, reached over and unbuckled. He quickly fell the half-meter or so to the cab's roof, groaning a bit as he made impact.
"Oh, God…" the uniformed man groaned as he wormed his way out onto the ground right outside the van, Takeru keeping his gun trained on him as he did so. "Oh, hell."
"This'll all be over in a minute, unless you do something you shouldn't," Takeru told him as his entire body wiggled out of the cab.
"That mask ain't gonna help you," he grunted, giving his head a couple shakes, still disoriented. "I hope you boys know that."
"Go sit up against that wall," Takeru instructed, glancing over towards the left wall of the alley.
"I ain't fooling," he continued, nevertheless getting upright enough to crawl over towards the wall Takeru indicated. Takeru took the briefest of glances over towards the back of the van. Yamato, now joined by Daisuke, were backing away from the van a few steps. "You guys don't understand. There ain't a box of nickels back there, I'll tell you that."
"Just shut up," the other uniformed guard spat, having similarly been told to get up against the wall by Ken, getting up alongside his work partner against the wall. "They'll find out the hard way, stop talking."
An explosion ripped through the air as a violent, yet focused blast of energy ignited from the latch on the back of the van. The steel doors flapped open wide, slapping either side of the back of the van, as each door had a small piece blown off.
OOO
Hikari instinctively ducked her head down as the sounds of a sharp explosion sounded off from behind her. Continuing to sprint down the alley, about to emerge out onto the sidewalk on the other side, it occurred to her that if this was the worst-case scenario, no amount of foot speed was going to help her.
"I'd like a couple more blocks between us and that, thank you very much!" Lily panted out loudly as the pair stepped onto the sidewalk, immediately seeing people similarly fleeing to the north all over the street.
"Couple dozen more!" Hikari suggested.
OOO
"Okay, okay!" Yamato yelled out, pointing his shotgun into the back of the truck. "Yeah, one more back here, come on out!"
"Do you guys have any idea what you're stealing?" The passenger-side guard asked, looking over at Takeru.
"Course we do," Takeru muttered in reply.
"You won't be able to hide after this," he continued.
"Dude, just shut up!" the driver demanded.
"I agree," Ken commented as a dazed and disoriented uniformed guard crawled out of the back of the van, Yamato and Daisuke ready to test the durability of the bulletproof vest at any second. Ken pulled a velcro strap on his waist up, yanking a small can from a pocket on his belt. From this can, a thick stream of orange liquid lanced out towards the driver's chin, just beneath his glass visor. The liquid splashed up against his face, the man recoiling and instinctively raising his hands up to try to block the stream. Quickly, however, the man began to go limp, sliding down against the wall, collapsing to the ground.
"Don't worry," Takeru said quickly to the passenger-side guard as Ken took his finger off the top of the can and tossed it over to Takeru. "Just a simple knockout. Half an hour, you'll be good as new."
Before the guard could protest, Takeru aimed the can's nozzle towards his face and shot a roughly identical orange stream at his neck. As was only natural, his hands flew up, trying to protect himself, but the fumes from the liquid were quite strong. Within seconds, he too was unconscious, falling to the ground in a heap.
Takeru turned back towards the van, where Daisuke was still keeping a shotgun-enforced watch on the lone awake security guard. Takeru swept past him, handing off the small can as he kneeled down slightly to peer into the back of the van, hearing the snap of the can as Daisuke utilized it.
"We happy?" Takeru asked, thrilled to see Yamato loading stacks of square pieces of paper into a grey gym bag.
"Very," Yamato replied. The stacks of paper were wrapped in cellophane, holding them together in neat little piles. "Extremely." After loading the last bundle into the bag, Yamato zipped it shut and stood up. "Alright, we just passed the one minute mark since someone probably realized something was wrong, so I give us thirty seconds before we're trapped in here."
Takeru looked up over the upturned van. About ten meters further down the alley, Ken and Daisuke were jumping on a pair of motorcycles parked there. They quickly rode the loud pair of vehicles back over towards the van.
"I think we get A pluses for execution so far," Takeru called out loudly as he jumped onto the back of Ken's bicycle, taking up his spot on the second seat right behind Ken. Yamato took up residence right behind Daisuke. "Daisuke, if it comes to it, remember who's actually carrying the goods!"
The two gunned it down the alley, back towards the direction they had come from, all of them afraid to even look behind them to see if the first set of squad cars had arrived yet.
OOO
Panting heavily, sweat beginning to bead on her forehead, Hikari slowed to a jog, then braked to a halt, cautiously looking behind her as she did so. Lily also stopped alongside her, similarly suspicious of whatever was happening behind. At the least, there were no more out-of-place sounds of violence since the explosion.
The two just gasped for breath for a few moments, caught between feeling they had gotten far enough away and wanting to dash to the other side of the city. It would be quite silly for them to continue to run away from a threat that was such a great distance away that it couldn't possibly reach them, but possibly deadly for them to underestimate the danger.
"Are you...are we good?" Lily asked finally, looking around. They had stopped right in the crossing between two alleys between buildings, four different paths back out to the main streets presenting themselves to the two girls. A red, four-door sedan was parked by the wall near the eastern path.
"I don't know," Hikari admitted, ready to turn and start running yet again if anything suggested it would be prudent. She pointed over towards her left, down one of the paths to the street. "But...my bus gets here in about five minutes right over there."
"O-oh...right," Lily muttered, looking over towards where Hikari was pointing. "Yeah."
An extended silence as the two girls contemplated their options.
"Not worth dying over a bus ride," Lily pointed out.
"I know, but...we're okay now. Right?" Hikari glanced around.
"I guess," Lily said. "Wow, what a...what was that? That wasn't just a car wreck, right?"
Hikari blinked a few times, shaking her head. "Maybe...maybe a car wreck with a heavily-armed, very angry driver."
"Alright, sweetie," Lily said, coming over and embracing Hikari in a hug. "Well, I...I should get home anyway, I guess."
Hikari returned the hug. "Intense experiences that are shared with friends are supposed to make the friendship closer, right?"
"Something like that," Lily replied. "Alright, you catch your bus, and if anything feels unsafe, you start running until you get to Oakford, got it?"
Hikari grinned. "I'm more of a short-distance runner, you know. Not in shape for a marathon."
Lily turned towards the west exit. "See you tomorrow."
Hikari nodded, still feeling a bit worn by the unexpected stress of the situation. As Lily walked off, leaving her alone, she wandered over towards the brick wall by the eastern path. Putting her back up against the cool surface, she inhaled deeply, trying to bring her heart rate back down.
She glanced down the alley, towards the street, relieved by the sight of people calmly strolling around. It was as if she was on another planet, where there had been no such chaotic event. People just went about their business, reminding her that she could now get back to hers. She allowed herself the chance to realize that there was a large green dumpster right next to her, and her deep inhalation had absorbed an unpleasant amount of the foul odor. Even as her face wrinkled in realization, she was happy that she was able to care about something as mundane as this.
Glancing over, she saw Lily had disappeared from her view. She was about to turn to leave the alley herself, when her senses perked up at the sound of a loud roar coming towards her. Already prepared to jump at the slightest provocation, Hikari turned to see a pair of motorcycles cruising right towards her, engines growling.
Waves of realization came quickly as she stared towards the oncoming, double-seated motorcycles. They were coming from the south. The men were all wearing black masks. They had jumpsuits that matched, making the four of them look identical from a distance. The puzzle completed in her mind, but by the time she realized she should be running, the two cycles were already mere meters away. She spun to take off, but her strappy white sandals slipped on a wet spot and she fell face-first onto the concrete.
Of course. Years of effort spent on staying healthy and in shape, years of gymnastics, yoga training...and when her life actually depended on it, of course she would faceplant like a drunk man playing hopscotch. She would have been more furious at the irony if she wasn't busy being terrified. She gave a quick, sharp scream as she rolled over onto her back, watching as the motorcycles were quickly dismounted by the four mysterious individuals, the vehicles crashing into the side of the building.
"Damn, wrong place wrong time," one of them muttered, clearly looking right at her. The four approached her rapidly. She saw that each of them had a large gun strapped to their backs. She couldn't remember ever being quite so terrified in her life.
She did the only thing she could think of. Quickly dropping her purse from her right shoulder, down into her hand, she tossed the beige bag onto the ground in front of her and then put her hands up next to her head, palms out towards the four.
"Take it! Please, all yours, take it!" she managed to whimper out, hoping beyond hope that the thirty-three units and three generation old cell phone might be enough to save her life. The four took no notice of the purse, and Hikari simply squeezed her eyes shut, sure that this was it.
And then, nothing happened. Dying of curiosity, she reopened her eyes. The four had seemingly walked right past her. She turned, watching as the last of the four simply passed right by.
"Don't worry, we're not here for your money," he said casually towards her. She glanced over, realizing the four were getting into the red sedan. "Just maybe don't say too much to the police. They won't be able to do anything with it anyway."
With that, he pulled open the back left door of the car and jumped in. The other masked men jumped into the other doors, and the car hummed to life. With Hikari still frozen in shock, the car rolled forward, speeding down the alley. She watched it get out to the road, turn left, and disappear from sight.
Hikari blinked rapidly a few times, adrenaline keeping her hyper-alert of everything happening around her. Her stomach hurt. She felt ready to hyperventilate. She glanced down towards her purse, undisturbed on the ground where she had put it. With great effort, she swallowed down hard on the lump in her throat. Seconds ticked by, as she dared to hope it was over and things were normal again.
She felt the urge to vomit, so she focused on some calming breathing exercises. She tried to take in the fact that, despite everything, she was alive and unharmed, and whatever had just happened clearly had nothing to do with her.
And then, both abandoned motorcycles erupted into flame, a roaring fire kicking up and engulfing both of them. She screamed and rolled over onto her stomach, abandoning her attempts to suppress it and simply vomited onto the ground.
After letting it pass, she was completely exhausted, rolling back over onto her back and collapsing in a sweaty heap, closing her eyes. She didn't care that she was laying down in a dirty, grimy back alley right next to her own vomit, she didn't care that there was at least a tiny chance that there were more threats than just those four coming and that she should be running, she didn't care that someone could walk by right now and take her purse and she wouldn't even notice. Exhaustion enveloped her. She sincerely hoped that she might go to sleep and wake up in her bed, at six in the morning, with a chance to start a new day that might just be more like the day she had had hundreds and hundreds of times in her life previously. A reset. That's what she needed. A big reset.
She wasn't sure how much time passed, but she was startled out of her rest by the squeal of tires. She jolted up. A police squad car was braking in the alley a few meters from her, a uniformed officer of the law quickly dismounting from the driver's seat. She pushed herself up into a sitting position as the officer approached.
"What are you doing here?" he quickly demanded, looking down each of the four alleys. "Why are you laying there?"
"U...uh…" Hikari suddenly realized how dry her mouth was. She swallowed down again. "I…"
"Come on!" the officer yelled. "Time sensitive matter, girl!" He looked over at the burning motorcycles.
"Oh, I...I heard the...the stuff." She pointed down south, from where she had run. "I ran here."
"The stuff?" the officer repeated.
"The...the crash and the gunshots," she spilled out quickly, feeling her panic return at the demanding nature of the policeman. "I ran here with my friend, she left, I...I was about to go. Then...they drove through here." She pointed at the burning cycles.
"They?" He reached up towards his neck, grabbing a walkie-talkie mounted on his shoulder. "This is Riggs, I'm in an alley by 41st and Onyx, I think I found the motorcycles."
"Four men in...they were wearing masks," Hikari panted out.
Riggs snapped his neck over to look at her. "You were here when they passed through?"
"Y-yeah…" Hikari nodded. "They...they got in a car."
He went over to her, bending down over her. "What'd they look like? Quickly!"
"Uh...they all had the same masks. Ski masks, black," Hikari said. "They all wore the same jumpsuits. Gloves, I'm pretty sure."
"Colors?" he quizzed.
"Uh...brown!" Hikari managed. "Yeah, the jumpsuits, they were brown."
He reached back up to his walkie-talkie. "Alright, I've got a witness. We've got four individuals, black ski masks, brown jumpsuits, we'll confirm that with the security guards when they're awake." He looked back down at her. "Car? What about the car?"
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to visualize everything. "It was red. Sedan. Definitely had four doors."
"Make? Model?! Plate?!" he demanded, motioning with his hands for her to hurry up.
"I don't know, I don't know cars," Hikari replied, shaking her head.
"Psh!" the officer said, giving an annoyed grunt. "Of course!" Nevertheless, he turned away and grabbed the device by his shoulder again. "They switched to a red four-door sedan, probably about…"
Hikari glanced down towards her watch, thinking, trying to piece together the timeline of the last ten minutes.
"Three minutes ago?" Hikari said loudly, trying to offer something useful.
"Are you asking me, or are you telling me?" the officer asked, turning back towards her.
"Three minutes ago," Hikari said, nodding.
"About three minutes ago," he continued. "Get a fire truck over here, they set the motorcycles on fire, we're gonna want to put it out as soon as possible." He pointed over towards Hikari as he went over to where the tire skid marks from the car were. "Stay there. You're gonna have to go down to the station to talk about this."
Hikari wanted to reply, but quickly thought better of it. She glanced over towards the street to her right, then sighed and fell back heavily against the ground, realizing that she wasn't going to be catching her bus today.
OOO
"Would I get punched in the face right now if I suggested that I think we've pulled it off?" Ken asked, turning his head around to look in the back seat, at Yamato and Takeru. "Because I'm starting to feel pretty good about this."
Takeru sighed, reaching up to itch at his nose underneath his mask. "I'm not gonna feel good about anything until I get out of this shit."
"We'll change as soon as we get to the second car," Yamato reminded him. "Just hold on."
Daisuke smoothly pulled the car into the rightmost lane, glancing around at the road in front of him. "Please tell me what we got back there was worth it."
Yamato put the gym bag in the seat between him and Takeru. "Why don't you tell em?"
Takeru eagerly reached over, grabbing the zipper and yanking it down. The prize inside was a collection of eight bundles of paper, each one maybe three centimeters thick. Takeru grabbed one, holding it up in front of him. The first sheet of paper in the stack was shaded green, bordered by an intricate pattern of weaving lines. In each corner, the number '10000' was printed in large lettering. The actual document contained a giant wall of text. Takeru chose to focus on the top section.
"This document entitles the bearer to the sum of ten thousand units," Takeru read off, voice rising with every word.
"Holy SHIT, it's the big ones!" Ken yelped, turning around to look at the prize in Takeru's hands. "Ten grand a bond!"
"The signature of Ellis McQuarters in the corner," Takeru continued. "And...the best part." He looked up at Ken. "Not a serial number in sight!"
"So we're just assuming that the entire stack is those?" Daisuke asked, glancing up into his rearview mirror as he pulled into an alley. "It's gonna suck if the rest of those are just printer paper."
"Well, we're not opening the wrappers now," Yamato said. "But let's go ahead and assume the best. One hundred bonds per bundle, one million units per bundle, and we, gentlemen, just scored eight million units in a heist that took barely over one minute!"
"I resent that," Ken countered. "That discounts the months we spent putting this together, as well as the time we're spending now getting away."
"But, more importantly, holy shit, eight million units," Takeru pointed out.
"Yes, also that," Ken agreed.
"You grabbed your camera, right?" Takeru asked, watching as Daisuke turned back into the road, following the carefully planned route down back roads and sparsely populated areas.
"Of course," Yamato replied. "You didn't know that girl, did you? By the car?"
Takeru shook his head. "No, never seen her before. I just wanted to be polite."
"If you did know her, that'd be a big problem," Yamato said cautiously. "Huge. Just saying."
"Don't worry," Takeru assured him. "She didn't get anything on us that those security guards don't have. Nothing to it."
"Not true," Daisuke pointed out. "She may have not made us, but she definitely made this car. I'm sure this ride's about to be part of an all points bulletin any minute now."
"Luckily, in eight minutes this car's going to be going up in flames," Yamato said.
Takeru replaced the pack of bonds in the bag and zipped it back shut. "Eight million units, how...how was this not harder? How was this not being escorted by a dozen armored vans? How were there not a hundred guards?"
"Hey, sometimes the establishment gets fat and lazy," Yamato said. "Been too long since someone did something like this, they think there's nothing to worry about." He looked over at his younger brother. "Can you imagine how giddy dad would've been about this?"
"Dad dreamed about something like this every day, I just know it," Takeru replied. "Emphasis on dreamed. Never thought it could be done."
"Alright, everyone, so far, so perfect," Yamato said, leaning back in his seat. "If we're right, that's more than a million and a half per man, but this is going to be a long process. Finding buyers is going to take a while, but there are always buyers for bearer bonds. Could be months, just be patient."
"Koushiro's got this," Ken said. "He's got patience down to a science."
"Furthermore, we should commemorate this moment," Yamato continued. "Before today, we were passive objectors. We sat and we seethed, not even registering. But now, after this...now we're really playing ball. And that, that means more than any amount of money."
"Good shit," Daisuke said, changing lanes as the sedan rumbled down the street.
OOO
"I...I really hope something I said was useful," Hikari said, leaning forward over the desk, staring right at a plainclothesman opposite her, who was seated in front of a laptop computer. "I...I should have looked at the license plate, but I panicked."
"Don't worry," the man replied. "Most people don't think about things like that when facing a crisis. And sorry about Riggs, I'm sure he was less than polite. He has a very particular way of talking with people, we all have to deal with it."
Hikari nodded. "I wish I could say more, but...I think that's all I have," she said. "Whatever it was these people did, I'm sure it was really bad. I'd like to help stop them."
Brooks sighed. "You'll know as soon as you get home, every news station will have it leading, so...doesn't really matter." He cleared his throat, giving her a bit of a sardonic look. "Those four robbed an armored truck and made off with bearer bonds. Eight million units in bearer bonds."
Hikari gasped, eyes going wide. "You're...you can't be serious!"
He nodded. "I know. Eight million units. Nothing close to this has happened in over a decade, and now...this kind of thing should be impossible." He shook his head. "Unreal. Best I can say is that the corporations who were exchanging them can both afford it, but...who skimps on security when you're moving that kind of coin?"
Hikari nodded. "I...I think I could live to five hundred and never make that much money, so…"
"Hey, me too, we got something in common," Brooks replied. "Well, I'll go ahead and clear you to leave, I think we've got…" his eyes dropped down to his computer screen. "Oh. Well, looks like they found your red sedan."
Her face brightened, leaning forward again. "O-oh, they got them?!"
"Uh...not quite," he said, grimacing. "They found it torched. About...seven miles from where you were, further uptown. They switched vehicles again." He shrugged. "That's not gonna be good for the trail."
Hikari's face fell a bit. "O-oh…"
"Don't worry about it, you...you gave us more than we had," Brooks assured her. "They...that's too much money to get away with, we'll nail them."
She stood up, brushing off her front. "Uh...sir, do you think...I have anything to be afraid of? From these guys? They definitely saw me there, so…"
"Oh, I don't think so," Brooks said. "These guys clearly just wanted money, you were just in the wrong place." He shook his head. "And I don't think you've said anything that'll have any long-term ramifications in the case, so...you should be fine.
Hikari nodded. "Thank you, sir, I...I'll get out of your way now. Good luck."