In the early morning hours of the fourth day Fujiko found herself back in Jigen's prison tent doing the most degrading thing she could think of.
She was begging Daisuke Jigen to help her.
"You don't understand, Jigen!" she pleaded to the bound gunman. "If they go through with this then we're both dead!"
"Yeah, karma's a bitch, ain't it?" Fujiko was sure that he was taking some sadistic pleasure in her predicament.
In hindsight, she admitted that she should have seen this roadblock coming. About twenty minutes earlier she had overheard LeCroix telling some of his men his real plan for getting to Lupin. She didn't hear much, but she heard enough to know that both she and Jigen needed to get away as soon as possible.
If only she could get Jigen to see things her way.
"Look, I fucked up, I'll admit that," Fujiko furiously whispered. Outside her sharp ears picked up the faint sounds of the camp coming to life for the day. "You can chew me out for this whole situation later. Right now, we have to get going."
"What about your precious treasure?" Jigen taunted. He was significantly less careful with the volume of his voice, making Fujiko cringe in panic.
"We can deal with that once we're back with Lupin," she said. "And we can't do that if we're dead!"
"And I supposed you have some brilliant plan to get us out of here, right?"
"Yes, it involves leaving this place before everyone in the damn camp wakes up!"
"And what good will that do us?" Jigen calmly said. "We still have no freakin' clue where we are in relation to anything. So if we leave now we'll just be wandering around blind again."
"I still have the transmitter," Fujiko shot back. "And did you not hear me when I said that they're planning to kill us?"
"And you seriously didn't see that coming?" Jigen said with a glare. "Really Fujiko, you may be a bitch but you're not stupid. I can't believe that you didn't consider that they would be planning to kill you too. Or maybe you just didn't take into account that, while killing Lupin's best friend may get him into a frothing rage, killing his girlfriend as well would be what puts him on a mission of revenge. It doesn't take a genius to think up that trap, especially considering just how much a sadistic bastard like LeCroix likes manipulating people into traps like that. Forgive me if I don't feel like helping you fuck yourself over any further, Fujiko."
In the tense silence that followed Fujiko kept her glaring eyes locked with Jigen's own, but internally she was a wreck. She hated Jigen for being so spiteful, so childish, and for just being so damn difficult to reason with.
Most of all, she hated him for hitting the target bang on during his little rant. She knew that she was blinded by the promise of riches and that she had been overly confident. She also knew damn well that she's paying for her moment of weakness now.
But she'll be damned if she told Jigen any of that.
Through the cracks in between the ground and the tent Fujiko could see the morning sunlight start to get brighter. Her time with Jigen was almost up, and all she had to show for it was a headache and a bubble of frustration and fear aching to burst in the pit of her stomach.
Well, she thought, time to pull out the big guns.
Fujiko sighed in defeat. "There's just no reasoning with you, is there?" When Jigen didn't respond she kept going. "In that case I'll leave you this to think about, Jigen. We both know damn well that you could have broken out of here anytime you wanted. I know for a fact that they didn't find that little blade up your right sleeve."
Fujiko saw Jigen's cheek twitch.
"You may act all tough, but deep down you know that you wouldn't leave without me. You may not like me, but you don't hate me enough to leave me to my death. Even if that's not the case, you know damn well that Lupin would never forgive you if I was left behind."
A heavy silence followed after that statement. Off in the distance Fujiko could hear the camp leaders yelling for people to get up and start packing. Taking that as her cue to leave, she started to go for the back of the tent where she had lifted a loose corner to get inside earlier.
"It's true for you too, you know."
Fujiko stopped at Jigen's words. They were spoken softly, but hearing them made her feel like she had just walked into a brick wall.
Jigen kept going. "You can sneak off at anytime, but yet here you are. I know you, Fujiko. This isn't just about the treasure now. You could be off and do that all yourself. Guess I should feel flattered by that."
Fujiko recovered from her initial shock to give Jigen one last half-hearted glare before leaving the tent.
For four hours after her conversation with Jigen Fujiko had been internally formulating plan after plan for escaping the gang as soon as possible. She knew that she would have to make her move before nightfall. She also knew that, no matter how much she wanted to, she wasn't going to leave Jigen behind to fend for himself. Just as Lupin would never forgive Jigen for leaving her to her death, she was sure that Lupin would never find it in his heart to forgive her for leaving his best friend behind.
Never mind the voice in the back of her mind saying that Jigen was also a dear friend to her too. A frustrating and downright spiteful one, but a friend nonetheless.
Fujiko knew that she wasn't the best of people. Hell, just her profession made her a member of bad society. She knew that she had a tendency to place business over any friendships or relationships. That's how you survive in the criminal world, after all. She had seen too many prominent thieves, mobsters, and scam artists brought down by the small group of people that they would never dream of cheating or betraying. After so many years of seeing the same pattern play out so many times, she had developed the habit of always having a secret back up plan, never revealing too much to your supposed partners, and never allowing anyone get too close. For many years this had worked out well for her. She lived for herself and looked out for number one at all times.
Then Lupin came along and suddenly the very foundations of her personal philosophy had been shaken. As much as she had tried to deny it at first, all of the members of Lupin's strange gang grew on her over the years until a soft spot had been pounded into her formerly closed-off heart. Lupin, the man that she loved but wouldn't allow herself to indulge in said love just yet. Quiet Goemon, whom she personally considered her closest friend out of all of them. Jigen, for all of the times they disagreed with each other, still was like a big brotherly presence to her. Even Zenigata was decent company when he wasn't running around screaming Lupin's name at the top of his lungs.
In all of them she had found the sort of messed-up relationship that only people like them could maintain. As much as they looked out for each other, there was still an unspoken agreement that it would still be every man for himself at times. They trust each other to not get the rest into any trouble that's too dangerous for any of them to handle, even though Fujiko walked that thin line a lot.
These thoughts nagged at Fujiko while she watched the lush rainforest scenery pass by the window of the jeep she was riding in. The clock was ticking down fast, and she still couldn't think of a plan that could potentially get both her and Jigen to safety by the end of the day.
If it wouldn't have called attention to herself, Fujiko would have been banging her head on the dashboard in frustration. The large and intimidating LeCroix and his right hand man sat behind her in tense silence.
Eight more hours, Fujiko thought. I have to get to Jigen. I have to think of some brilliant plan and get us out of here.
From the corner of her eye she saw one of the trucks filled with the paid grunts pass the jeep. The vehicle was practically bursting at the seams with burly men with very deadly guns and knives.
Good luck with that, honey.
Seven hours later Fujiko had her brilliant plan all ready to go.
Unfortunately for her, Jigen played out his plan first.
"YOU'RE INSANE!" Fujiko screamed at him over the sound of gunfire.
"Damn straight," Jigen calmly said. He popped up from behind the truck for a split second to fire a couple of shots at their opposition.
Fujiko rolled her eyes, but followed Jigen's lead and took aim at a couple of the thugs as well.
She had it all perfectly planned out. A few well placed flirts and pistol whips to some thugs, she and Jigen would have been free. It was elegant in its simplicity, and with any luck it would have been a good hour or so before anyone realized that they were gone. All she had to do was wait until they were transporting Jigen to his new prison tent and hope that Jigen would go along with it.
Of course, what she didn't put into consideration was that Jigen often has his own way of dealing with things.
"You're just doing this to piss me off, aren't you?" Fujiko asked as she ducked back behind the truck.
"No, but it's a good side effect," Jigen said. Fujiko could have sworn that she saw a flash of a grin. "But worry about that later, let's just get our asses out of here."
Fujiko couldn't help but agree with that. In the brief silence of the thugs reloading their guns Jigen and Fujiko made a mad dash for the tree line and freedom.
Fujiko tried her best to keep Jigen in her line of sight, but the branches and the rough terrain made it tough. A bullet flew past her head, causing her to up her pace. Ahead of her Jigen was rapidly falling out of sight.
Her foot suddenly banged into a raise tree root. Fujiko cried out to Jigen as she fell to the ground, unable to stop herself. With a hard thud her head banged against the rainforest floor and left her dazed for a moment. She was barely aware of the bullets flying over her in the moment where she couldn't tell which way was up. She blinked furiously and tried to force her eyes and mind to focus.
"Fujiko!"
A hand suddenly gripped a chunk of her hair and began to pull her roughly back up. Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone again. Fujiko stumbled forward, but managed to stay on her feet. She looked behind her and saw Jigen wrestling with one of LeCroix's thugs.
"Go!" Jigen yelled at her. "I'll catch up!"
She didn't need to be told twice. Fujiko dashed off into the forest, but kept an ear out for Jigen's approach.
"Come on, Jigen," she whispered after another minutes of hearing nothing.
Another couple of minutes and she was still running. Behind her, there was still an eerie silence. A cold feeling washed over her when she realized that Jigen definitely wasn't following her.
Fujiko flirted with the idea of leaving Jigen behind and saving herself. The business side of her screamed to just keep running and that it just meant more loot for her.
However, the other side of her whispered that Jigen deserved better than that. Besides, she knew damn well that she wouldn't be able to live with herself if something happened to Jigen now. Not after he had saved her life.
Damn him, she thought bitterly, but stopped running all the same. In a flash she dropped to the ground and listened carefully.
Off in the distance she heard the sounds of a struggle. Just don't do anything stupid, Jigen, she thought as she carefully and silently made her way back towards the camp.
On her way she saw a few of LeCroix's men walking through the forest, obviously looking for her. Fujiko stayed to the shadows and made no sudden movements. Outwardly she was the very picture of focused and calm, inwardly her heart was beating so loudly and frantically she was almost worried that they could hear it.
She finally made it back to the edge of the tree line. Through the branches of her hiding place she could clearly see Jigen being held by a couple of LeCroix's thugs. Standing in front of him was LeCoix himself. The large man seemed to be interrogating Jigen, though Fujiko couldn't make out any of the words that were said.
She looked around frantically. All Jigen needed was for them to be distracted for a split second, but how the hell was she going to give him that without giving away her position?
Meanwhile LeCroix started to choke Jigen by pulling on his tie. Fujiko cringed when she heard Jigen's strangled cry. She almost started to panic when she finally saw the answer.
I knew his sadism would come in handy, Fujiko smiled as she took careful aim at the hand LeCroix was using to pull on Jigen's tie, and pulled the trigger.
In the resulting confusion Fujiko acted on pure instinct. While LeCroix screamed in pain and cradled his bleeding hand, Fujiko quickly shot the two men that were holding Jigen. As Jigen wretched off his tie and ran for it, Fujiko provided cover fire to him.
From the corner of her eye she saw LeCroix pointing towards her hiding spot with his good hand. She took aim at him and pulled the trigger, but found that her clip was completely empty.
Shit! She thought. She hit the ground and heard a canopy of bullets fly over her. Splinters of wood and falling branches hit her back as she prayed that none of the bullets would find its way to her body.
A sudden explosion stopped the onslaught of bullets. She didn't see it, but she felt the ground shake from the force. Through all of the shouting and rumbling, she felt a hand roughly pull her up from the muddy ground. Her fist flew out at the mystery man, but he had her wrist in his firm grip in a flash.
"Come on," Jigen said. Fujiko immediately stopped any further attempts to escape him. "They won't be distracted by those trucks I set fire to for long."
"No argument here," she said before they ran off into the dark rainforest, leaving the burning camp behind them.