Camus tucked his weapon away and hurriedly left the balcony.
"We're done here, agents."
He decided to wait a moment before leaving, hanging back at a different table. From what he could see, none of the other agents were in the ballroom, and he hadn't seen them since the night had begun. Camus had rarely heard from anyone besides the most recent message signaling the end of the mission from Toki. A chill ran down his spine at the notion. Where could they all be? Coming to the conclusion he should find at least one of them, he left the ballroom and headed to where Toki originally stationed himself. Upon walking into the bathroom, the count noticed an empty canister towards the far back wall, which brought about the tiniest bit of suspicion. What alarmed him the most was the small stain of blood at his feet.
"What the hell?"
The count pressed the button for his microphone to turn on. "Perfect Diamond, where are you?"
No response. That can't be good.
Camus exited and began to walk down the hallway. A faint noise resembling the sound of a gun going off could be heard. Knowing that nothing good came from that, he quickly made his way to where he thought the sound originated from, which led him up a flight of stairs. He stood at the doorway to the stairs on the second floor and strained his ear to listen for anything. A conversation between two people could just barely be heard. Camus peered around the corner to see a tall blond mall walking towards another male with navy hair. When the blunet turned around, he identified him as Toki. That must be Sino then.
A glint of light shone from the metal object in Sino's hand. That must be what I heard.
Majestic Spade pulled out his own gun and aimed it at the blond, waiting for his chance. Sino, who heard Camus coming up the stairs and the click of a gun, figured he was already in the other's sight as a target. He smirked at Toki once they were a foot apart, changed his footing, and moved a fraction of a step away as Majestic Spade pulled the trigger. "Pleasure meeting you, Perfect Diamond." Said male's face contorted with confusion, then rage, and finally pain all in one moment as the bullet hit him square in the chest. Camus sent another few shots in Sino's direction before he turned the corner, escaping him.
"Damn it!"
Toki crumpled to the ground, eyes shut tightly and panting. The count ran over to him in anger, mostly directed at himself.
"I'll... be fine..."
"Don't talk. That will only make it worse. Shit. I have to get you back to the car."
Camus tried to lift the blunet, who in turn gasped in pain.
"Don't... bother... Leave while... you can..."
"I am not abandoning you, fool."
Perfect Diamond smiled achingly back at him before going limp on the ground. Camus grit his teeth and spoke in a low voice over the microphone. "Agent down... I repeat. Agent down..."
.
. . .
.
"Your sister is quite the dancer. I would love to dance with her again sometime." a smirk was present on Ren's face as he taunted Reiji. The brunet struggled against his grip as he growled at him.
"You won't be alive for that to ever happen!"
Ren was going to say something in turn, when Camus spoke through his earpiece.
"Agent down...
His smug expression turned grim as the weight of the words spoken sank in. Agent down. One of them was dead, and it was either Ran or Toki. Neither option good. With malicious intent, he slammed Lazy into the wall before answering the count.
"Who...?"
Ren's dangerously low voice asked as Reiji coughed from the pain.
"Perfect Diamond."
Tricky Heart reached for his earpiece and broke it in his hand, as if that could get rid of the words he heard.
"Which one of you did it?"
The anger he felt presented itself in the tone of his voice.
"Oh? Could that mean one of you is dead?" Now Reiji was the one smirking.
"I asked... Which one of you did it?" Ren's hands moved from his jacket to his throat, applying pressure to the front of it. "I want an answer, and I want it now."
Lazy's hands flew up to grip at Ren's, struggling to breathe. "As if... I'd say anything... to you."
"Fine. Then don't."
His hold on him tightened, and the brunet's arms fell to his side as his eyes fluttered shut. Ren let go and watched as Lazy fell against the wall on the floor lifelessly before walking away.
"I'll find out myself."
.
. . .
.
Ran was almost out of the building when he got the news.
"Agent down..."
Rage flared through him at the news. He listened intensely to Camus and Ren's exchange of words. Ren responding to the message was confirmation that Perfect Diamond was the one down... unless Camus was giving the message for himself. As much as he wished that, he knew it wasn't likely. Disappointing. He continued to run with the document tucked inside his jacket and slowed down to a wlak as he entered the ballroom. Without bothering to look around for anyone in his team, he made his way outside and to his car.
"Damn it!" He pounded on the steering wheel.
After taking a breather, Ran spoke into the microphone. "I'm back at the car with the file. I'll give you five minutes to get back here before I leave your ass."
Not even bothering to hear the response, Ran pulled the file out and traced his fingers over the front. He died to secure this file. They weren't told what the file contained, just that it was important, and they need to keep it away from Masquerade Mirage.
"This better be worth it."
The silveret threw the file down on the passenger seat and turned the car on. It was past five minutes, and he needed to leave before they found him.
"Majestic Spade, find Tricky Heart, and get out of there. I'm heading out."
Ran pulled away from the mansion and drove back towards Shining Agency.
.
. . .
.
Camus had already called through the mic multiple times for Ren, just to receive silence in return.
"Where did that ignorant fool go?"
He couldn't dwell on Toki's death, the burden of what he did was ever present. Getting out of the mansion was now the tricky part. He had heard Ran's message that he left with the file, so he just needed to find Ren and get out. A flash of orange turned around the corner at the opposite end of the hallway he just turned into.
"Jinguji!"
Camus sped down the hallway toward the other.
"Jinguji, stop!"
Ren completely ignored the count and continued to storm away. Majestic Spade caught up to him and roughly pulled him back by his shoulder.
"Jinguji, we need to leave."
Ren shook his hand off and stared back at him coldly.
"I'm not leaving until they're dead. For Ichii"s sake, I'm not done until the mission is complete."
Camus stood before him dumbfounded by his stupidity.
"Are you out of your mind? Sino alone takes two or more people to deal with, and Einsatz has proven himself to be a formidable opponent. I don't know how Lazy is, but I can only imagine that he is somewhat decent."
The orange-haired agent began to chuckle darkly.
"He wasn't that great. He was almost too easy to deal with."
The blond count pulled on Ren's arm, dragging him in the direction of the entrance to the mansion.
"Then there's more of a reason to leave. Spiky Club already has the file we wanted and is on his way back."
His grip tightened on the other's arm, preventing him from escaping. Ren began to struggle against the icy agent.
"I'm not done here yet! The other two are still alive! I will make sure he didn't die in vain!"
While still dragging the other, Camus turned around his gaze freezing Ren in place.
"I'm not letting another agent die tonight. We're done here."
With that said, Majestic Spade let go of Tricky Heart and walked away with Ren following him without question.
.
. . .
.
The two had been able to leave without being seen by the other two members of Masquerade Mirage. Camus had insisted on driving whilst Ren sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window.
"Don't tell me. Show me."
The image of the blunet speaking to him the day before the meeting, before he... left... haunted his mind. A sigh left the flirt as he watched the rain outside pitter patter against the window. His thoughts playing back the moment he asked Toki to save him a dance and the face he made when the words registered in the other's mind.
"We're on our way back now."
Camus's voice was hard as he spoke into the mic he was still wearing. The count had explained what had happened with Sino to Ren and Ran, who probably already spoke to Shining about the incident. Meanwhile, Ren was sulking about it in the car with the count.
"Did you try to save him?" Ren refused to look him in the eye as he spoke. Camus ignored the other, letting the question hang in the air as he kept his eyes on the road ahead.
"Whatever. Don't answer."
Majestic Spade's face turned grim.
"It is not your place to speak."
Ren grimaced at the window.
"Do you even feel remorse?"
Camus's grip on the steering wheel tightened, turning his knuckles white. Tension and silence hung in the air for the rest of the ride back to the tower with yet another one of Ren's questions left unanswered.
.
. . .
.
A few moments later, the pair reached Shining Agency and made their way to their usual conference room at the top of the large building. Ran, who was laying down on one of the black couches lining the wall, opened one eye upon the arrival of Camus and Ren.
"Took you long enough."
He sat up and hunched forward, supporting his arms on his knees. Both Camus and Ren were silent as the count sat down and poured himself a cup of tea, and the flirt began a new game of darts. Not too long after, Shining walked into the room with the file Ran had gotten tucked under his arm.
"You did well."
No one looked up at him but Ran.
"Although you managed to kill one of them, you lost someone as well. You lost someone because of misfire from someone a part of your team."
Ren glared at Camus, who ignored the look.
"Even though your mission was... somewhat... successful, you failed to return with your team intact. You lack teamwork. That's why, effective as of now, Joker Trap is officially disbanded."
The dart Ren threw missed the board and hit the wall next to it.
"What?"
Ren wasn't entirely sure he heard that correctly. They had cleared the mission, so why were they being disbanded?
"You heard me. An asset was lost because of carelessness. I don't like, nor do I need, carelessness. As of today, Joker Trap is terminated. Either move somewhere far away or defy me and end up dead."
Shining left the three of them to think it over.
"What the hell was that about?!"
Ran, who was quiet up until now, finally voiced his opinion.
"Disband, my ass! He doesn't know what we went through! Besides, they never even told us what was in the file!"
Camus was just as pissed off about their current situation as Ran was.
"Kind of suspicious, isn't it?"
Tricky Heart seemed to be lost in thought.
"It doesn't matter to use anymore."
Camus stood and walked to the door.
"If you plan on getting involved, don't tell me. I don't want to get involved."
The count shut the door behind him. Ren sighed in frustration and turned towards Ran.
"I'm in. I want to know what's really going on. I never wanted to be on a team with him, anyway."
Tricky Heart smirked at the silveret.
"It's a pleasure to work with you then, Spiky Club."
And that concludes Chapter 4 of Dead or Alive! Writing this was torture. Usually I don't mind it, but this time sooo many things went wrong with it. It was kind of exhausting to do lol People who were talking with me as I typed this understand completely. Shoutout to her making me laugh uncontrollably through the torture xD ANYWAYS, a lot happened in this chapter. I've also discovered how I want to format all my chapters. If it wasn't completely obvious, I've been playing around with formatting ideas and styles. I like this one the best though. As I was writing the scene Tokiya died in, my playlist decided to torture me by playing Nanairo No Compass. I'm not even kidding. Then Mellowx2 Chu started playing once I began to write Ren's scene after with Reiji. At the end, Bright Road came on once Ranmaru spoke up. This happens all the time with my playlists xD Shoutout to ceisya for leaving a review :) I hoped Tokiya would be okay... then my hand slipped. It decided he had to meet his end... or did he? Mwahaha! I love having the power of a writer.