Disclaimer: I do not own Oregairu.
Previously on Match Point: Hikigaya makes the decision to eliminate the boys who tried to rob Hiratsuka and tie up the loose end once and for all. Yukino is faced with new information regarding the death of her uncle Haru Kaito (one of Hikigayas old targets) ,and in our timeline from 3 months earlier Ryuzaki gets closer to finding the missing assassins who were betrayed and left for dead by the Americans.
Tuesday Night
'Before attempting to rob my target, the boys spent a significant amount of time in two places. An empty warehouse and a park near to it. According to some information I found online, that warehouse specifically, doesn't get any imports this time of year, making it pretty much locked down. The boys entered through a big hole in the buildings wall that was being covered with some plywood. According to my target, after she called the police about the incident, she was told that the suspects were unable to be apprehended as they weren't at their homes. I already checked the park, and they weren't there, which leaves the warehouse.'
Hikigaya exhales as he watches the three boys sitting in a circle around a small fire. They are in the middle of the large empty building visibly shivering.
"We need to get food."
"Shut up, you know we can't."
"I want to go home."
There is no energy in their words, and they are speaking as if they'd had this discussion a thousand times. Hachiman is too far away to hear their weak chatter, although he wouldn't be concerned with their well-being even if he did.
3 Months Earlier
Hikigayas eyes start to flutter open, but in his dazed state everything feels numb.
'Footsteps everywhere.'
The sound of a gunshot rings loudly in his ears, but it is soon replaced with the sound of coughing.
The coughing gets louder and more frequent, causing the assassin to wake up even more. He sits up quickly and attempts to grab his karambit.
'Where is it… WHERE IS IT!'
He panics as he can't find the weapon and begins to move frantically. The young assassin turns his body over to get up but instead rolls over to the side and falls off a bed and onto the floor.
He starts coughing again, and feels a sharp pain in his right shoulder. He cringes and looks around.
'Americans, shot me, kicked me off a helicopter, footsteps. What is going on? Have I been captured?'
The room he is in, is small and looks like it has been ransacked. Cupboards and shelves have been knocked over and the wallpaper has started peeling off in large chunks.
Hikigaya stands up and walks out the door, which leads into a larger room. At the end of a room, the assassins partner Black Tiger is sitting at a table with her head in her hands.
"Where are we?"
The question is straight the point.
"Apartment building, not too far from extraction."
The answer is equally blunt. Neither of them are fond of small talk.
"We need to get out of here and find a vehicle, my handler Ryuzaki, is waiting for us where the plane was supposed to take off."
Black Tiger sighs.
"That's not possible. After you were shot, a bunch of hostiles were closing in on our position, so I carried you here. They've now surrounded the building and are probably camped in the hallways. The only reason they haven't attempted to breach this room, is because they don't know that my guns have no bullets left."
Present Day
Yukinoshita sits by herself, alone in her living room. Her television is on, however she fails to hear anything coming from the speakers, as she is deep in thought, completely cut off from everything around her.
'Yesterday Haruno came here and gave me great news, my uncles killer, may be found. Even so, I don't feel happy or positive or even better. I feel worse than ever. Why am I feeling this way?'
She closes her eyes tightly and unintentionally thinks back to Yuigahama helping her after the hot tea incident.
'Why did she help me, I just don't understand!'
The young girl lies down on the couch and looks at the television. The news is on along with the time.
'Ten past eight.'
Soon her mind drifts onto one of her teachers, Hiratsuka-sensei.
'I wonder if she's awake.'
It was just under a year ago when Yukinoshita poured her heart out to her teacher and explained everything going on in her life and everything she was feeling. It was the first time she'd ever genuinely opened up to someone, and it helped her a lot, however she did feel great shame after it and made sure to never do such a thing again.
'Maybe I should go see he-'
Her voice cuts off her thoughts.
"No. That's not an option."
Despite her firm words, the painful emptiness in Yukinos stomach makes her question the decision she made way back when and whether or not speaking to Hiratsuka about it would be the worst thing.
'With all the new information about my uncle that's come to light, it would be good if she knew, since I told her about his death and how I felt, it wouldn't be right if I didn't follow up on that information.'
In an instant she is standing up and heading to her bedroom to get dressed. In truth, all Yukino needed was a flimsy excuse to justify her desperate urge to tell someone about what happened.
Not long after she is standing in the elevator extremely nervous, on her way to see her teacher.
3 Months Earlier
Ryuzaki, now with a vehicle, makes his way towards Hachimans last known location. The possibility of the two assassins being dead is quite high when you factor in the location, local military and also the Americans.
This information would send a lot of people into a panic, but Ryuzaki is calm as ever. Even so, there is a lot to consider, for instance: If the assassins are still alive but are injured, will he be able to perform adequate medical care? Furthermore, if they aren't there, then the American soldier who orchestrated this mission, was lying to Ryuzaki and gave him a false location, or Hachiman and his partner have been captured by locals.
'If they've been captured, and moved, they could be anywhere. Alternatively, they themselves could have changed locations.'
With tons of possibilities, the older man has to consider them all and formulate plans and contingency plans accordingly.
After a few more minutes of driving, he arrives near the location he was given.
Since he is on a road and the first extraction point is in the middle of a forest, Ryuzaki ditches the vehicle. After a trek through the icy trees, he arrives in an open area that would be perfect for a helicopter take off.
'No sign of the assassins.'
He looks around, seeing a few bodies lying still. Most of them have been shot in the head, although a few have chest wounds.
In the middle of the open area there is a pool of blood, and right next to the blood, is an item of great interest to the older man.
'Hachimans karambit.'
He picks it up and examines the scene further.
'Seeing as there is only one pool of blood in this area, it appears one of the assassins was hit, probably badly. Then their partner would have had to carry them away.'
Looking to the side Ryuzaki finds a trail of blood, starting near Hachimans karambit and leading into the forest.
'If one of them was injured and bleeding, they probably didn't have time to cover up the tracks they left behind.'
Without hesitations he begins to follow the trail, deducing it would lead directly to the assassins.
Present Day
Yukino soon finds herself in front of her teacher's apartment building. She inhales and exhales, stalling for time as she reconsiders her decision.
'Maybe doing this isn't the best option. I could hire a therapist to listen.'
The young girl turns around and faces the street. Then turns around again and faces the building.
'No, I want to tell Hiratsuka-sensei about the new developments in my life. I would be going against my own wishes to not tell her.'
The battle of her brain versus her heart is seemingly endless, and Yukino feels every second of it.
Hesitantly, she begins walking towards the entrance. Soon she is standing right in front of Hiratsukas door. For some reason, the door looks different than the last time she was here.
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
'Three knocks is appropriate. She may be asleep, so if there is no answer, I will have no choice but to lea-'
Before Yukinoshita can finish making excuses in her head, the door opens.
"That was fast." She says to her teacher in place of a formal greeting.
"Yukino? What are you doing here." Hiratsuka asks, tilting her head slightly. The older woman is wearing the same clothes as she was during the school day.
The student inhales.
"I came to speak to you about something."
Hiratsuka notices how stiff and straight forward she's being. Even more than usual.
"Would you like to come in?"
The teacher opens the door and moves to the side, indicating the young girl is welcome to enter.
"Yes, thank you."
Yukinoshita walks in, and stands in the middle of the living room.
'Something seems out of place.' She thinks to herself.
"You can sit down Yukino, make yourself comfortable."
She does as her teacher says and sits down on one of the sofas, across from Hiratsuka.
The faint sound of shonen anime can be heard coming from the bedroom, making it pretty clear what the older of the two was doing before Yukino arrived.
"So tells me, what's up?"
After a silence. The school girl finally speaks.
"Do you remember last year, when I told you my uncle died."
"Yes of course."
"Well, as you know the case was never properly solved, but recently Haruno came to speak to me and it looks like that might change."
The teacher's curiosity is peaked, and she leans back, offering a warm look to her student.
3 Months Earlier
Hikigaya searches the apartment for anything him and his partner can use to get out of this building. While he does this, Black Tiger continues to sit quietly.
'Draws are empty, shelves are empty, bedrooms are empty. When this building was wrecked and looted, everything even slightly useful was taken.'
As Hachiman assess' the situation, and his stress level grows, the agonizing pain of a bullet wound in his shoulder eats away at him.
'If I can just find a knife, or even a fork. Anything would be good. If men are camped in every hallway, then we'll need to fight our way-out hand to hand and pick up rifles along the way, but the risk of getting shot as we leave this apartment is too high.'
He walks over to a window, and peers through the broken glass. The building they're in isn't massive, but you can see quite a bit of the destroyed town. Debris and rusted metal litter the broken roads and vegetation has started to grow in various places.
After looking outside for a few minutes, Hikigaya sighs deeply, the grabs a piece of broken wood from the floor and smashes it into the window, causing some large shards of glass to fall at his feet.
Hearing the noise, Black Tiger gets up and walks over to the room her partner is in. It doesn't take her long to figure out what he's doing.
Not long after both assassins stand readily at the door to the hallway, both armed with a sharp piece of glass, and holding it with some ripped off materials from their outfits. Before taking any action, they both resign themselves to whatever fate their actions may lead to.
"1, 2… 3!"
They kick the door open from the inside causing it to fly out into the hallway. Within seconds it is ripped apart by gunfire. Loud chanting begins and the men charge to the apartment.
As the first man enters, Hikigaya whistles at him from one side of the door way. When he turns and aims his gun, Black Tiger drives the shard of glass into his neck. She then uses him as a human shield firing his gun from under his arm into the hallway of man also charging towards them.
The ones fast enough to get to cover, silently formulate a plan to pretend like they are retreating and then catch the two assassins off guard.
Hikigaya and his partner grab guns and ammo off the bodies, and prepare to rush the hallway, however before they can act, shots start ringing through out the lower floors of the building.
The shots get progressively louder and infrequent.
'Someone's coming through the building.'
The men who originally planned to ambush the two assassins have there attention diverted to the staircase as an old man turns the corner.
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
The building goes silent, and both Hachiman and Black Tiger ready there weapons for what's about turn the corner.
'Could be the Americans back to finish the job.' Black Tiger thinks to herself as her eyes stay glued to the sights on her new rifle.
A few seconds pass, before the man turns into the hallway the assassins are standing in. When he sees they both have their guns raised at him, he raises both arms.
"I surrender."
The sarcasm in his voice is more than obvious.
"Ryuzaki." Hachiman says out loud as he lets out a sigh of relief.
Present Day - Back at The Warehouse
"No, this is all a waste of time. What are we doing here? We're gonna starve to death, or die of the cold, or something. We have to go home at some point." The exhausted student puts his head in his hands.
"I don't think you understand that there is no going home, we're going to jail! Prison! Who knows for how long. Is that what you want." The boy looks at his two friends, who are both shivering from the cold.
"I don't care anymore. Going to jail is better than staying here with an idiot like you, who ruined my life. I'm calling my mom, and I'm going home."
The boy takes out his phone, while his friends watch. Despite the attitude the leader of the trio is showing, he too wants to go home.
"Hey I thought I turned my phone off…"
All three of them look at the phone confused. They made sure it was turned off, in case it could be tracked.
RING
RING
RING
Out of nowhere, a blocked number calls the device. They answer.
"H…Hello? Is this the police?"
"No it isn't. The police are the least of your problems right now."
"Wait... what?"
"A highly trained assassin is about three seconds from walking up behind you, shooting you and both your friends in the head and then making it so your bodies are never seen again."
A look of horror clouds the boys face.
"What are they saying, is it the police?" The other asks.
"If you would like to not die today, I'd suggest putting this phone on speaker, and when the assassin announces himself, you tell him the call is for him. If you're quick enough, perhaps he won't shoot you."
"Ass-assassin? What are-"
"Stand up."
All three boys turn their heads away from the phone and towards the person standing about two meters away, aiming a pistol with a silencer towards them.
"I said stand up."
Hikigayas voice is chilling.
The look of horror becomes shared among all three of them as their lives flash before their eyes.
"I'd suggest putting the phone on speaker right about now." The unknown caller advices.
The terrified boy, puts his finger over the speaker button, allowing the voice behind the phone to be heard by all four people in the warehouse.
Hikigaya looks at the device.
'Looks like I'll have to eliminate a witness as well.'
He moves his crosshairs over one of the boys heads.
CLICK
Before he can do anything the person behind the phone speaks again.
"I'd put the safety on that gun back on right now if I were you. We have a lot to discuss."
Hachiman raises an eyebrow, although no one can see it, as a ski mask is covering his face.
"Maybe we should start with the fact that there is a hit squad, about 75 seconds away from the warehouse you are currently standing in. They're all fully armed and ready to kill, however we can avoid that, if you just take this phone, and have a nice conversation with me. You're a hard man to find, and I'd rather not have to find you again."
He looks at the phone.
'75 seconds, huh?'
In an instant he rolls to the side and ducks behind cover as two bullets penetrate the ground he was just standing on.
The three boys see this and start sprinting away. With no regard for anything but their lives, they abandon all there items, and the phone drops to the ground, causing the screen to shatter.
Two men run into the warehouse, wearing suits, armed with pistols in their hands and rifles on their back.
Hikigaya readies his weapon as they close in on his cover.
Authors Note: Boom badda bing, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, was lazy for a while. Maybe I'll write a few more chaps this year :D be sure to review!