1
Umi woke up –well more like jolted—out of her sleep. She held her head in her hands as she took a moment to try and regain her ragged breathing.
'That was Gramps voice for sure. I would know that voice anywhere' she thought to herself as she slowly lifted her head out of her hand and glanced over her clock. Her eyes immediately turned wide as she saw the time on the clock.
'Shoot, I'm gonna be late for my shift' She thought and jumped out of bed and rushed to get herself together. After brushing her teeth, barely doing her hair neatly, and throwing on her clothes, Umi rushed out of her house with her shoes close to falling off her feet.
On the trip to work, her thoughts flooded back to the dream she had the night before. Her grandfather was calling out to her but before she could even begin to question why, she had already woken up. Why now of all times, was one of the main things she thought. It had been almost 20 years since he died and of course she missed him dearly but it she also wanted to know the reasons behind the dream.
'Maybe it was nothing…' Umi thought as she clocked in for her shift at the museum. Today, there was going to be a new exhibit on display which had everyone on their toes and the reason why she could absolutely not be late. She made it in time with five minutes to spare which she was proud of.
"Let's work hard today, Umi" Umi turned to see her co-worker clocking in next to her and she gave him a polite smile.
"Will do" She said and went off to her place. The exhibit was definitely off to a great start. Throughout the day she answered many questions and was even a tour guide to a couple of groups and she was more than delighted to help everyone.
At the end of the day, it was near time for closing and her manager had asked her to lock up which she had kindly agreed to even though she wanted nothing more than to call her best friend Ranko, and go for drinks after an exciting day of work.
She did just that, in fact. When she got the okay from Ranko she internally squealed. Her happiness didn't last long as she heard the loud blaring of the museum's security alarm.
'Eh?! Why is the alarm going off? I thought security was at max for the new exhibit' She thought and started to mildly panic but her mild panic turned frantic when she sees two men dressed entirely in black carrying a painting.
Before Umi had even realized it, she had already found herself calling out to the men.
"H-Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" She exclaimed and the men stopped in their tracks as they heard her voice. Umi tried not to falter as their eyes landed on her. She was scared beyond belief but she knew that she couldn't just let these guys get away with the painting.
"Oh, there seems to be someone still working" One of them said and Umi squinted enough to make out the black hair of the man.
"Let's get outta here" the other said and Umi ran towards them.
"Stop!" She exclaimed but before she could get any further, she bumped straight into one of the statues.
'Of course my clumsiness would kick in now of all times!' she whined and didn't even seem to realize that the statue was now falling towards her.
"Watch out!" The black haired one cried out and Umi was surprised to see that he had jumped in front of her and shielded her from the statue.
"O-Oh god, are you alright?!" She exclaimed seeing the way the thief's face was contorted in pain as he struggled to keep the weight of the statue from crushing him.
"Damn this thing is heavy" he muttered before pushing it back into it's place. Umi had immediately felt a sense of guilt that this man had nearly been killed because of her clumsiness but that feeling was pushed to the back of her mind as she remembered the entire reason why she was in this position.
"Thank you for saving me but please give back that painting!" Umi said firmly. The other thief laughed and ruffled her hair, which surprised her to no end.
"Sorry, can't do that" He said with a wolfish grin on his face.
"Hey" Suddenly, Umi found her wrist being grabbed in the black-haired thief's hand.
"W-Wha…?!" Umi cried out.
"Why do you have this ring?" He asked and before Umi could even process his question, the sound of police sirens caught all of their attention.
"It's the Black Foxes!"
'Black Foxes?' Umi thought to herself.
"Hm, nice ring" he said before dropping her wrist and picking up the painting with the other thief.
"See ya later" and with those words the thieves were gone.
~8~
"What?! The Black Foxes?!" Umi winced as Ranko had practically screeched in her ear.
"Yes…the Black Foxes or whoever they are were in the museum stealing a painting. I didn't get to stop them though" Umi trailed off with a pout. She felt that if she had done something more other than being clumsy, those thieves wouldn't have gotten away with the painting.
"Who exactly are they anyway? This is the first I've heard of them" Umi said sourly. Ranko looked at Umi like she had grown a third head.
"Honey, do you not watch the news?" She asked and Umi just gave her the 'you know I don't' look. Ranko sighed before explaining.
"The Black Foxes are a ring of thieves who supposedly steal for the greater good. They're all over the TV and the internet as of late" Ranko said slowly. Umi raised an eyebrow.
'Greater good? Yeah, the greater good of their wallets' she thought.
"Umi, did you see their faces?" Ranko asked leaning in with bated breath. Umi knew that Ranko would have the story of the century if she had seen their faces, but sadly Umi didn't really get a good look at their faces and that's exactly what she told Ranko.
"Aw, man" Ranko whined sitting back in her seat and Umi just shrugged her shoulders while swirling her pork noodles on her fork. She had begun to think back to the last words of the thief.
'See ya later, huh…' She thought. There was no way that their paths would ever cross again considering no one would be idiotic enough to rob the same place twice, so his words were very confusing to her.
Umi was brought out of her thoughts when she heard someone complaining about pork noodles. A blonde man was at the counter and his face was clearly written with annoyance and Umi had put two and two together.
'Seems like I have the last bowl…' She thought. All of a sudden, as if he had sensed her staring, the blonde turned to her with a glare and she froze.
"What the hell are you staring at?" He asked angrily and Umi blushed before looking away. Laughter caught through the awkward air.
"Sorry, he isn't good with people" Umi saw a red head accompanying the blonde and she heard a muffled squeal from Ranko. She was smitten.
"Hey, two guys and two girls. Mind if we join you?" Umi felt a little uneasy at the new presences but didn't want to be rude so she just let Ranko do the talking.
"What's your name?" Ranko asked.
"Me? I'm Hiro and this is Takkun" Hiro said. "Takkun" glared at Hiro before sitting and muttering incoherent curses under his breath.
"What were you guys talking about just now? I heard 'Black Foxes'" He said. Ranko filled Hiro and "Takkun" in and Umi just blatantly tuned them out. She wasn't too interested in the chat of the Black Foxes since she was still a little sour from her previous meeting with them.
She looked around Le Renard Noir, the restaurant that they were in, and saw that it was nice and small. Although it was dimly lit, it gave off the comfortable feeling of friendliness. It wasn't really too occupied aside from them and a girl who was in the corner with a bunch of papers scattered all over her table and she was typing away on her laptop.
"It'd be pretty cool if they were real, right?" Hiro's words brought Umi back to their conversation and she frowned.
"Not really…if these people are really real then they're no better than regular thieves" Umi said uninterestedly.
"Are you dumb?" Umi jumped at Takuto's sharp words and she would be lying if she said that she wasn't at least a little bit intimidated by the man's state.
"I heard the museum got the painting that was stolen today from the mafia in a black market deal" Takuto said. Umi was surprised at his words. A black market deal? This was the first she's heard of it. Then again, there was a lot of things she was behind on.
"You know, you're pretty stupid for someone who works at a museum" Takuto said grinning evilly at Umi who in turn narrowed her eyes at him just a bit.
'I never told him that I worked in a museum…' Hiro seemed to notice Umi's suspicion and had grasped her hands in his.
"This is a beautiful ring" He said.
Her ring had once again brought the attention of another strange man. Deciding that she wasn't in the mood to be out anymore, Umi paid for her share and said goodbye to everyone. Ranko decided that she should leave as well and paid for her drink before following Umi out of the door.
~8~
Umi yawned as she had finally made it home. Grabbing the mail, she absentmindedly sifted through the various letters before pausing when saw an out of the ordinary card lying at the bottom of the mail pile.
'We're coming to get you tonight' – The Black Foxes.
Umi sighed. At times like these, she really wished that she didn't live alone. Deciding that the letter was nothing more than a prank, she threw the letter in the garbage and began her nightly routine.
Curling up with her favorite book, Umi read for a little and while reading she soon found herself succumbing to sleep.
A few rustles and whispers had woken Umi up out of her sleep and she wasn't given long to wonder about what it was because a hand had been placed over her mouth, making her senses go into overdrive.
"Shh, we're not gonna hurt you" Umi had immediately recognized the voice as that of one of the thieves who had robbed the museum. If there was anything Umi was good at, it was remembering voices.
Umi jabbed her elbow as hard as she could into the man's stomach and when his grip loosened, she broke out and grabbed her book. She held the book above her head, and said a quick apology before swinging down as hard as she could but the man dodged and knocked the book out of her hands.
"Woah, you're really violent. Were you really gonna hit Kenny with that?" Umi turned and saw the guy from the bar and she paled. She was surrounded and anyone would surrender when they were obviously outnumbered.
"W-What do you want?!" She exclaimed and although she wished she had kept her cool, she just couldn't. Not in a dangerous situation such as the one she was in. She was scared but she also didn't want to show them that, though from her stutter it was already too late for that.
"This" Hiro swipes the ring off of Umi's finger and she yells in protest.
"Give that back" She said firmly and Hiro merely just smiled. A sensation of heat rolled through her and she knew that it was anger. How dare these people steal a painting from her museum, break into her home and have the nerve to take her grandfather's ring all in one day? Umi was beyond annoyed with these people.
"I propose a trade" Riki said and Umi looked at him warily. A deal with the devil was not something she wanted to make but if she wanted her ring back, she had to listen.
"If you want your ring back, you have to come with us. Quietly" Riki said. Umi gritted her teeth and tried to think of a million of other options, but there were none. She was at the complete mercy of these men.
Umi nodded slowly and sure enough they had led her to a van that was parked out in front of her house. The drive there was quiet and tense and Umi kept her eyes closed the entire time, not wanting to believe that she was really being kidnapped and she found it insane that it was her of all people.
She wasn't rich, she worked at a museum, and she possessed nothing of real value so what exactly was it that they wanted from her?
When they arrived at their destination, Umi's jaw nearly dropped when she saw that it was the restaurant that she and Ranko were dining at not too long ago. Now she was really, really confused.
"Welcome Umi Arisugawa, granddaughter of the Japanese Leonardo Da Vinci" Umi recognized the man as the owner and she frowned when he was all smiles.
"Who are you? What do you want from me?" Umi shot quickly and seriously. She was tired of being confused and she swore that if another person she had encountered that day popped out, she was going to lose it.
"Your ring. You got it from your great grandfather, right?" Umi nodded.
Atsumu had begin to explain their reasons for kidnapping her and had answered any other questions she had asked, although she only asked around one or two questions. Umi took a seat on the stool and heaved a heavy sigh while taking a look around her.
She thought back to the dream she had.
Maybe it wasn't just a random dream? There was a reason her grandfather was calling out to her. Was it for help? Or was he trying to tell her something? Umi took a moment to think some more before coming to a conclusion.
"I will help you…" she said and all of their faces had brightened. She was quick to end it though.
"However, I have terms of my own" She said.
"Oh? That's cute, she thinks she gets to negotiate" Riki said smirking. Umi raised an unimpressed eyebrow before continuing.
"I'm not asking for much. I just want to know that I can trust you since I am helping you with something that was dear to my grandfather. This is just to get the artifacts back and restore them to their rightful places, right?" She asked and all of them nodded seriously giving her the confirmation she needed.
"Then you have me on board" She said politely. Atsumu clapped his hands and smiled as well.
"That's great! Now that, that's out of the way. You're going to need a babysitter" Umi froze and looked at Atsumu as if he had grown three heads.
"What? Why?" She asked quickly.
"Do you honestly think that we're the only ones out there searching for your grandfather's artifacts? The best way to keep you safe is to have you in our sight at all times, therefore you need a babysitter. Don't worry, you get to choose" Atsumu said.
'That doesn't make the situation any better' Umi deadpanned. She really didn't expect to have been given such a short-noticed demand.
"So, who's it gonna be?"