"Hmm," Angela said, disapproval dripping scorchingly, "you seem to have lost your touch, Kaito."
"Oh, I beg to differ," he said, smiling, and extended his hand. "You will soon come to find that my touch is as good as it ever was."
She smirked. "We'll see."
She took his hand and followed him to the car.
"But really, a rental?" Her fingers brushed disdainfully across the dusty dashboard. "You would think you would have more taste than that."
"It's a Mercedes!" he said, slightly affronted, when Angela laughed and he relaxed. But only a little. One could never let one's guard down around this woman, not even him.
"How far do we have to go?" she asked.
"Only about ten miles. Not very far," Kaito said, and out of the corner of his eye watched her slump ever-so-slightly in her seat. He wondered why until -
"Traffic," he grumbled, and his hands clenched painfully around the steering wheel. The line of cars seemed to stretch on infinitely, and the sound of car horns reverberated in his ears.
It was going to be one of those days.
She glanced out of the rearview mirror. "Someone's tailing us."
He pursed his lips doubtfully. "We've been stuck in traffic for the past twenty minutes. Of course the same car has been behind us."
"Why don't you see for yourself?"
He sighed, rolling his eyes, and looked.
The man in the car behind them (an old, cheap, beige car, with dents on the hood and paint scratches littered liberally everywhere - license plate was from Georgia) was glaring at them intensely, a wild, manic look in his eye. His brows furrowed when he saw that Kaito was watching him, and his lip curled. His fingers drummed ominously against the steering wheel as he stared right back at Kaito - challenging him, daring him to make a move.
"Well," he said, turning back in his seat, "I suppose we are being tailed."
"And what do you suggest we do about this?" She flipped a compact mirror open and straightened her hair. She was being much too calm.
"I'll try to lose him, once traffic starts again," he said, and she nodded, satisfied for the time being.
For the time being being the operative phrase here.
It was becoming a little difficult to keep up a cool exterior with that madman's face still glowering at him from ten feet away. Some part of him wanted to just jump out of the car, kill him, and be done with it, but there were far too many witnesses.
Besides, killing people wasn't what he did. Not anymore.
"You can turn at the next intersection," Angela said. "We'll lose him on the back-streets. Or, we should."
He nodded.
"Have you ever seen him before?" she asked as Kaito turned smoothly onto the next street. The man following them was still stuck in traffic.
"I don't think so," he said, trying to remember.
Angela turned her head slightly. "Keep driving. We should lose him in a few minutes."
"As you wish." He smiled at her, and was greeted with a cool stare. He cleared his throat and kept driving.
"Tell me, Kaito," she said, shifting in her seat, "why today, of all days?"
He shrugged. "I believe the correct question is, 'Why not today?'"
She half-smiled at him, and finally, he thought, he might be doing something right.
That was when the tire exploded.
"How wonderful," she said icily as he searched for the spare tire that he knew wasn't there. "I suppose this'll be the last time you use a rental for an impromptu rendezvous, Kaito."
"It's a Mercedes," he mumbled, but knew it was pointless to argue. He took a deep breath and closed the trunk. "There's no tire."
"So, we're stranded."
"I guess so," he said curtly.
A tense silence.
"Well, at least it's not rai- "
"Don't say it."
She sniffed. "Just as superstitious as you've always been."
"Can you imagine me any other way?"
"Now's not the time for your feeble attempts at being suave." She tossed him her cell phone. "Call for some help."
He scowled, and tossed the phone right back. "We do not need to call for help."
"Are you suggesting that we walk?" She sounded scandalized.
"Yes, I am. It's not much further, only a couple more miles."
"A couple more miles."
"Don't tell me you're not feeling up to it, Angela. Where has that fiery spark in you gone?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Fine."
She turned abruptly on her heel and briskly walked down the road, heels clomping heavily against the pavement, nose held in the air. Kaito chuckled to himself and followed.
Their steps fell in synch, after a while, and Kaito rubbed his hand reassuringly on her shoulder.
"Almost there," he said. "Only a few blocks."
She turned to him, face pinched and tight. "If I have to walk five more feet in these heels, Nakamura, I swear to God I'll - "
She suddenly stopped speaking, her eyes widened slightly. Confused, Kaito turned to see what she was looking at.
It was the man that had been following them earlier. He was leaning casually against a street pole, smoking on a cigarette. He, thankfully, didn't seem to have spotted them.
"Quick," Kaito whispered in Angela's ear, "take off your coat."
"Excuse - "
"You're too easily noticeable with it on. Take it off."
She did, reluctantly, and threw it at a homeless man lying on the sidewalk. It draped over his face comically, and Kaito could feel her tense up.
"Blend in with the large crowd over there," he hissed, and they did, being careful to keep their gaze away from the madman.
Once they were safely out of the man's line of sight, Kaito gently shoved her inside a pawn shop. They were both breathing rather heavily.
"This isn't exactly the outing I was hoping for," Angela said.
He frowned. "Perhaps I should bring you back home."
"Let me finish." A slow smile spread across her face. "I don't think I've had so much excitement in years."
He couldn't help but smile back. "Let's go."
They stopped in a small café, Angela sipping her latte daintily as Kaito read the newspaper.
"Hmm," he grumbled.
"What is it?"
"Stock prices are going down. I don't think this will bode well…"
"You worry too much." She slapped his hand, but it was playfully.
He raised an eyebrow, peering at her over the page. "Angela Petrelli, are you actually enjoying yourself?"
She was about to answer when the windows shattered.
"Angela! Are you all right!" Kaito shouted over the din of customers screaming and running out of the café.
"I'm fine!" she shouted back at him, but he couldn't tell where she had gone off to.
"Where are you?"
"I'm - "
"Kaito Nakamura," said an all-too-pleased voice behind him. "We meet again."
A hand enclosed around his throat, but not tight enough to really restrict his breathing. "Who are you?" he asked, voice raspy.
"I'm an old friend," he said, and Kaito felt a sharp pain in his side before everything went black.
He woke up in a dark room, hands tied behind his back, legs tied to a chair, duct tape over his mouth. A dark figure sat opposite him - he couldn't make out the exact features, but he saw the eyes, the same eyes that had glared at him so menacingly before.
"Hello, Kaito," the man said softly. "Remember me?"
He shook his head.
A soft chortle. "How typical." The man flipped a switch; the room was bathed in a sudden light that made Kaito's eyes sting and spots dance in front of him. "Of course you wouldn't remember me. Me, from pencil-pushing middle management. Just another one of your trainees, another one of your goons. Of course you wouldn't remember."
Kaito squinted, trying to adjust to the light, trying to make out this man's face…
"Well, I do," the man snarled, and suddenly leapt right in front of Kaito's face, nose almost touching his. His eyes were even wilder close-up - red blood vessels contrasted brightly with the whiteness of his eyes, pupils dilated, lit up with insanity, recklessness…
"I remember everything, everything you did to me, everything you made me do. I lost my wife because of all of this, I lost my family, I lost everything I ever cared about… I lost my soul, Kaito. And what did I get in return? What did I get, for all of my suffering, for all of my years spent at the service of the Company?" He spat the word "Company" like it was a disgusting, horrible swear. "A bullet through the gut. And not only that, but you don't even recognize me.
"It's time for penance on your part, Kaito," the man whispered. "Do you remember what I can do? What I'm capable of? I can manipulate probability. Imagine the sort of things I could do… the things I've done already. The traffic. Your tire exploding. The windows shattering. Imagine Angela Petrelli, dead, from a freak accident… or your son, Hiro…"
Kaito struggled in his seat, his steady string of profanities muffled by the duct tape.
The man laughed. "There's no need for that, Kaito. All you need to do is - "
The man suddenly screamed in pain and fell to the floor; Angela stood behind him, taser in hand.
She lowered her arm and smirked. "How do I always wind up saving your ass?"
"Who was he?" Kaito asked, watching as several other members of the Company took the man away to holding.
"Edward Murphy," Angela said tersely. "He was caught trying to break Adam Monroe out of prison after his wife and children left him."
Kaito sighed heavily. "Angela… I cannot possibly think of how many other people's lives we have ruined because of our sins. All of the nameless faces… I couldn't even remember who that man was."
"You mustn't think that way, Kaito," she said, not facing him. "That way lies madness. This won't happen again."
There was a brief pause, then he said, "I'm going back to Japan tonight."
She didn't even look at him. "Give my regards to Hiro."
Then she left, heels clacking against the floor.
He chewed on his lip, and felt himself sag slightly.
Well. This had been a complete waste of his time.
But then, all of a sudden, she was back, and kissing him softly on the cheek.
"You owe me a coat, by the way," she whispered in his ear, and strode out of the room as quickly as she had come back in.
Kaito brushed his fingers against the spot where she had kissed him, and chuckled.
Not a complete loss after all, then.