Good news: I have written the end of this tangent.
Bad news: this is not the end.
Good news: there's aren't that many chapters involved.
Bad news: this isn't even the beginning of the end.
Good news: there aren't that many chapters before Tanis' return.
Bad news: she's not going to be around for very long before I fire her.
Good news: here's the latest chapter.
Bad news: I don't own Dragon Ball Z, or any of the rest of the franchise.
Admittedly, the cake was good. The only difficulty was her drink. Pan glared into her black coffee. She was still insisting that she was old enough to drink it, but the bitterness still caused her to pull faces with every mouthful. Trunks was having a hard time keeping himself from laughing whenever he saw it from the corner of his eye. He and Karen were deep in conversation with Mr Koizumi Akihiko about a partnership.
Pan wasn't much interested in the details of this but was more interested in studying the nervous businessman. Mr Koizumi Akihiko was rocking on his chair and kept glancing out of the window, as if he expected someone to be standing outside. Pan decided to see if she could spot what he was looking at. Turning her attention beyond the glass, Pan watched the street, which appeared to be the same as any other street in West City. People with shopping, children and parents, business people and tourists traipsed past the window, very few looked inside. Cars would occasionally go by. In short, nothing extraordinary.
Pan was about to turn away when there was suddenly a gap in the crowd and Pan's eyes suddenly saw a man in a black trench coat leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the street, his black wide brimmed hat pulled down low over eyes covered with sunglasses. Although she couldn't see where he was looking, Pan had a strong feeling that it was right back at her. She glanced away hurriedly; so they were being watched.
The conversation beside her was becoming heated now. "I won't agree to anything until I understand everything," Trunks was saying, "let me see it."
"I don't have it now, it's in my room."
"Then let's go and get it."
"I can't! You have to understand that this is not a safe enough place for me to show you it here..."
"Then let's get it and take it back to Capsule Corp, which I assure you has sufficiently tight security."
"I... I...," Mr Koizumi Akihiko had been backed into a corner, "I refuse to go up there alone."
"Don't worry," Trunks said, standing up, "I've already decided I'm not letting you out of my sight as long as you stay in West City. Let's go."
"Ah... yes..." Koizumi Akihiko said weakly, trailing after Trunks. Pan abandoned her black coffee and followed. Karen was returning to the limo to await them there.
In the elevator, Pan told Trunks, quietly so as to not disturb their companion, about the man in black who had been watching them. "If he does take action, I'll leave him to you," Trunks told her in return, "my top priority is getting Mr Koizumi Akihiko back to Capsule Corp."
"What's this deal about?" Pan queried.
"It's an agreement to revolutionise the computer industry by combining the computer processing of the latest Picotech technology and Capsule Corp downscaling hardware to create a new portable computer. Apparently, Picotech have already attempted it but it isn't coming along well. That's why they're turning to us."
"What do you get out of it?"
"Money and a new corner in world industry. Computer technology is a rising business and it's about time Capsule Corp found a way into it. I've been thinking about something like this for some time..."
"But what about this assassination attempt? That sounds like its more than about simply computers."
Trunks nodded in agreement and was about to say more when Mr Koizumi Akihiko turned round and glared suspiciously at the two, "What are you two whispering about?"
"I want to know what's going on," Pan said simply.
Koizumi Akihiko narrowed his eyes. "P-please stop, it's making me nervous."
"Very well, we apologise for making you worry," Trunks bowed, then trod roughly on Pan's foot as a signal that she should do the same.
The doors opened at the eighth floor. Koizumi Akihiko lead the way to room number 803 and opened onto a shabby, stuffy single room with peeling wallpaper and overshadowed by the building next to it. Koizumi Akihiko glanced behind him, reassured himself that Trunks and Pan were the only two who had followed him and then reached behind the old wooden wardrobe.
"People say that the Six Wings Hotel has poor accommodation," he said aloud, "but no modern hotel business with their built in wardrobes, carpeted floors and clean walls would have such hiding places as this hotel. It has survived for being slightly shady." As he said this, his fingers caught a knothole in the back of the wardrobe and pulled free a square panel. Pan and Trunks, observing the other side of the wardrobe with the aid of a torch, raised their eyebrows, suitably impressed.
But Koizumi Akihiko wasn't finished. For the panel wasn't that big, certainly not big enough to hide anything of vital importance. Instead, he pulled out a capsule and a key. Trunks recognised the capsule number but said nothing as Koizumi Akihiko crossed to the far corner of the room by the tiny window. He opened the capsule and placed the ladder that appeared beside the wall.
"Please hold the bottom," he told Trunks, who complied. At the top of the ladder, in the top corner of the room, Koizumi Akihiko slotted the bulky golden key into a hole that had been designed to look like a crack in the wall, and turned. A panel in the ceiling opened up, allowing Mr Koizumi Akihiko to retrieve what was within.
Trunks stared at the object in Koizumi Akihiko's hands. "All that for a briefcase," he said, slightly disappointed, "What's inside must be of incredible importance."
"What's inside the inside," Koizumi Akihiko said very quietly and set the briefcase down in order to open it up.
"Hey come look at this," Pan interrupted. She was glazing up and out of the tiny window.
"Is it really important now, Pan?" Trunks asked wearily. He just wanted to conclude this affair now, so he could write up the contract and get Mr Koizumi Akihiko out of West City as soon as possible.
"But there's a man standing on the building up there," Pan said, "And he's dressed really weirdly."
Koizumi Akihiko froze his thumbs on the clasps. "Does he have a cloak of red feathers?" he whispered in a petrified voice.
"Yeah, how did you guess?" Pan asked, turning to gaze at the terrified businessman.
"That's him!" Koizumi Akihiko hissed in hoarse tones, "that's the assassin that's been after me."
Trunks raced to the window to catch a glimpse of the assailant, "where, Pan?"
Pan looked back out and gasped, "He's gone!"
"Where was he?"
"He was up on the top of that spire on the roof of the building down there, balanced on the very top with his cloak wrapped around him."
"He might be coming here then," Trunks turned away, "so Mr Koizumi Akihiko... Mr Koizumi Akihiko!"
Koizumi Akihiko had already undone the locks on the hotel room door and burst through them into the corridor beyond. "I have to get out of here!" he gasped, "He's here to kill me!"
"Mr Koizumi Akihiko, calm down!" Trunks yelled, racing across the room to his new business partner's side. "He was still a way away; we can get you to the limousine with plenty of time. What exactly can he do here?"
"You don't understand," Koizumi Akihiko panicked, "attacks from above are his speciality. I watched him kill two of my best bodyguards from the air with flaming spikes..."
The window at the far end of the corridor smashed and something flew down the length of the corridor. Trunks hit the floor, pulling Koizumi Akihiko down with him in time to watch the flaming spike fly overhead, until it finally embedded itself in the wall at the far end where it stuck, still flickering with fire.
"What the heck?" Pan murmured, as she emerged from the hotel room and stared at the spike that had nearly killed the two business presidents, "It looks like a giant flaming needle!"
"See what I mean!" Koizumi Akihiko squeaked from beneath Trunks, "There's no place you can hide where he can't hit you. He's even managed to send one of those through the windows of my flying limousine, midflight. Killed my vice president, who shoved me down just in time." The president was blubbering in fear now.
Trunks gazed down at the little man cowering in fear beneath him and then at Pan. "I need to get Koizumi Akihiko to Capsule Corp," he said, "if we are attacked, do you think you can beat this assassin in red?"
"Oh please," Pan scoffed, "after what we've faced this will be a walk in a park."
Trunks grinned in relief. "Right," he hauled Koizumi Akihiko to his feet with one hand, steering him round with the other, "let's go then. That's right; keep that briefcase pressed against your chest like that. If the worst comes to pass, I'm sure it will make a decent bullet shield."
"He doesn't use bullets," Koizumi Akihiko whispered, "he doesn't need to."
Pan and Trunks exchanged looks and shoved the whimpering businessman into the elevator.
Karen was waiting outside with the limousine and a worried expression. As Trunks, Mr Koizumi Akihiko and Pan emerged from the shelter of the Six Wings Hotel lobby, she opened the door and gestured for them to get in. "I've told Larry to leave anyone behind if he has to," she whispered to Trunks, "His top priority is getting Mr Koizumi to Capsule Corp. We both know you can handle yourself."
"Thanks, Karen," Trunks hissed back.
Pan was about to follow him in when the colour black caught her attention and she turned to see the man in the black coat approaching them from out of the crowd. "Go ahead without me!" she called to Karen, who was climbing into the front seats and dived at the approaching stranger. He gave a shout and swiped at her, but Pan ducked and leapt to kick the man in the chin. He staggered back and Pan went in with a second kick to the chest then a swipe at his legs to make him hit the floor. Pan landed on his chest and grabbed his coat collar. As the limousine pulled away, the man reached out for it but Pan shook him so pull his attention back to her.
"What do you want with Koizumi Akihiko?" she shouted, pulling him close to her.
Pan's initial kick had knocked away the man's sunglasses and he now stared at her with big brown eyes. Pan's inner child giggled; this guy's chibi eyes were a stupid addition for an assassin. Her inner fighter made her fist pause as she bunched it by her ear in an obvious threat if he didn't answer; these eyes didn't look like the eyes of a killer, ignoring the chibi appearance.
"I'm a bodyguard!" the man squealed.
"A likely story!" Pan cried.
"It's true!" the apparent bodyguard exclaimed, "many of us have already been killed by the assassin after Mr Koizumi, so he told me to keep my distance from him to avoid any more casualties and keep an eye out for the assassin inconspicuously because he likes to appear on rooftops and attack from above."
Parts of what he was saying matched with the little information Koizumi Akihiko had blabbed about earlier. Pan released her fist and paused in thought. It explained why he had been outside rather than inside the restaurant; if the assassin attacked from above, he would have been keeping an eye on the local rooftops, which was more subtly done outside the building than from within.
"Really," Pan said, finally admitting her mistake and getting off the bodyguard, "you call this attire inconspicuous?" The bodyguard remained frozen on the ground, staring up in horror. "What now?"
The bodyguard pointed up and moaned slowly, "the assassin was on that roof just now. He must be chasing after the limousine."
Pan looked up, worried. "Go to Capsule Corp," she instructed the bodyguard, "That's where we're taking your boss."
"Where are you going?" the bodyguard called, reaching for Pan as she ran off.
"Where do you think?" Pan demanded and with a giant leap she flew up to the roof where the assassin had last been seen.
Pan landed and looked around for the mysterious figure with the red cloak. There was a flash of scarlet to her right and she turned to see the tips of red feathers disappearing. She cursed quietly and flew in that direction. She glanced down and spotted a familiar limousine on the road below. "Oh no, you don't," Pan muttered and hurried after the strangely dressed assassin.
Next chapter actually has action in it! And some girl power ;)
Who is this mysterious assassin? What is in the briefcase? Find out next time... sort of...