Several men snuck into the yard of the decently sized home, none of the windows had lights on, and no vehicles were in the driveway. One checked inside the window of the garage door, but didn't see any others inside. He turned to the group's leader and whispered. "No cars, and there's no door into the house from in here either. It's pretty empty in there too."
"Alright, you and the new guy go check around the back. Me and the others will try the front door. Meet back here if you find a way inside." He whispered back, separating with the assigned group to the front door. "Pickin' time." He muttered to himself as he crouched at the front lock with his trusty little set of picks.
It took him a little bit of time, but when his two scouts returned unsuccessful from the back, he had managed to succeed just as they announced the failure.
"We're good, alright, everyone inside, and keep it quiet." The leader kissed his pick set like he always did after opening a lock and slowly opened the door, which didn't creak or make any noises.
Once the gang was inside, they checked the nearby closet for discarded footwear, but there wasn't anything on the floor. The neatly arranged rows of a few male and numerous female footwear were flawless, but at least four pairs seemed to be missing.
"Split into pairs, check the first floor. You and me will check the basement." The leader pointed two fingers at the pairings, then tapped an index finger to his lips. "Hand signs now."
With nods, then six men split up and went about in clearing the main floor while he and his partner located the basement stairs and went down. It was darker than the main floor, but it had some windows to provide a bit of moonlight, so they didn't need flashlights. After confirming the basement was empty, the leader gave the practiced hand signs to tell his partner to return upstairs with him.
Floor clear, confirm?
The waiting man's hand signs when they returned to the first floor were quick and practiced, like a deaf person using sign language.
Confirmed. Regroup at entry.
He snuck off to pass the message to the other three men, and they returned to the foyer and continued their - now silent - conversation as a collective.
Upstairs, I'll check solo, wait for all clear signal before looting. Stay here.
The leader was the most skilled at staying stealthy, plus he was the the best at lock-picking, so the five men gave the 'agreed' sign as he turned to the main staircase and expertly ascended to the top floor.
Several rooms had the doors left partially open, and none showed any signs of life. Only two had the doors closed, one was a small closet for the nearby bathroom, and the other... was clearly a female teenager's bedroom.
Scanning the slightly messy room, he spotted a few noteworthy loot items, but as his gaze swept the room, he noticed an item that at first glance felt natural, but when he took a proper moment to look at it, he realized it was out of place.
It was a box of pistol bullets, partially opened and likely half full too. It was pushed to the side of the girl's desk, but had the air that it was what she'd been doing before leaving for the weekend with her family.
With the knowledge of firearms, he checked the room again, but didn't disturb anything as he checked for a likely place the gun would be stored.
He didn't see one, so he left the girl's room and entered the last room, the master bedroom, and his eyes widened with glee...
A large safe was in the corner, easily five feet tall and about three feet wide.
But, like the rest of the house, it was empty in here too. So he returned to the top of the staircase and spoke aloud.
"Clear, we're alone. Alright, we got nothing in the basement, you two check the main floor, the rest of you, up here. Got some good stuff in the bedrooms."
The team of thieves set about to their tasks of combing the house. Unlike street thugs, they respected the household and didn't trash everything.
Upstairs, the leader directed one guy to the teen's room. "Looks like daddy gave his girl a gun, see if you can find it. Check for a purse or a box or something. You help him. I've got a safe in the master bedroom to crack open."
The pair went inside and began to - still respectfully - comb the room for loot. The leader and the remaining rookie of the group went to the master bedroom and set to work on the safe.
"Team check!" After five minutes the leader gave the systematic call out, and received two 'confirm' replies from the other two pairs. He was still busy with the tumblers of the safe, which was giving him a surprising amount of defiance.
Every five minutes, the same Marco Polo-like process continued until on the latest check, he only got one return call.
"Go check on them, might not have heard me." He didn't even turn to the rookie, who turned and left. "First one's definitely 39..." He commented to himself as he got the first part of the combination. "C'mon, c'mon... yes! 39-42... what's the magic number baby? C'mon, tell Hector your secret, baby..."
As he listened to the tumblers through the steel, he realized it was time for another check. "Team check!" He called out, and only got the one reply from the pair in the girl's room. "The hell are those three doing down there?" He frowned, but figured the rookie hadn't found them yet, so they were likely in the basement.
Ticking through the numbers with excruciating slowness, he reached the sixties before calling again, and got another solo callout. "Fuckin' idiots went outside, should've known." He hadn't figured that they'd just take the loot to their van down the street, so he shrugged slightly and crept the dial into the seventies.
Running out of digits, he was just into the nineties when he called another team check... but got no reply as the tumbler clicked the lock open on 95.
Opening the safe, he was preparing the angry speech for their mistakes, but inside wasn't what he'd been expecting.
"Shit!" He read the note taped to the inside of the door and turned to run out of the room, making it to the top of the stairs before he slid to a stop in terror.
"Good, you got my message. Nice team synergy by the way. The last thieves that tried to do this were total amateurs." Yuuki smirked from behind the Mosin's scope, which was aimed the man's chest.
"W-w-what the f-fuck are you?!" The leader wasn't able to move, no matter how much he tried.
"I'm the Spider Queen... You ever heard of the show Darkwood?" Yuuki asked, and the man's confused expression denoted that he had not. "Well, I'm Yuuki Darkwood, I'd welcome you into my home, but you already seem to be pretty familiar with the place."
The thief leader didn't know what was scaring him more, the suppressed sniper rifle in her hands... or the rest of her body that was dangling from the ceiling above the foyer like a fucked up spider chandelier.
"I'm sure you haven't seen the show, so I'll just explain what I am..." Yuuki giggled slightly as she pointedly glanced above his head, which drew his attention above him.
All five of his gang were tightly woven in her webs right above his head in cocoons stuck to the ceiling. None of them were moving, so he feared the worst.
"I'm a T-Ghoul." Yuuki finished her sentence as the man returned his gaze to her dangling arachnid form. "And you've impressed me, so unlike your men... I'm going to shoot you with this lovely Mosin Nagant my dad left for me just in case something like this happened. So, where should I aim... heart or head?"
He had no escape, so he accepted his fate. "Fuckin' hell, just shoot me in the head. You're no rookie at hiding yourself, kid. I have a small request, if that's alright."
"Let's hear it." Yuuki politely took her finger off the trigger and pressed it along the side of the trigger guard.
"I got this lockpick set, really good quality. I've always used it for, y'know." Hector shrugged slightly. "Anyway, so I want you to have it. I figure you could put my baby to good use since you outsmarted me like this. It's in here, my left pocket, can I..." He pointed one of his raised hands at his hip, so she nodded and let him withdraw the little tool. "I'll just put it here. Go ahead and shoot me, you win."
He put it on the nearby flat corner post of the banister and gave a respectful salute as she aimed the rifle again.
"Thank you, I will take good care of them." Yuuki curled her finger back around the trigger. "I wish you safe passage, honourable thief. Godspeed to you."
She fired, and the round - as she knew it would - slammed into the bulletproof body armour plate that Jake had been holding behind the man's head to prevent over-penetration like she'd expected.
Jake was knocked back by the impact with a ding of metal reverberating, but he didn't fall over. The leader dropped backwards and thudded loudly as Yuuki calmly worked the rifle's bolt and snatched the ejected round in mid air with blindingly fast reflexes.
"You good darling?" Yuuki slowly descended to the floor below, her Kakuja disintegrating just as her bare feet lightly patted the hardwood floor.
"I'm good, so what'll we do? Cops or CCG?" Jake asked, unsure about whether Yuuki would report the attempted break in or pass it off as defending herself and eating them.
"Let's hide the five goons and report him as a break in. I'll deal with the goons to make it look like they came after the police left."
"You're the boss." Jake grabbed the lockpick set and tossed it to her. "I'll get rid of the note we left in the safe while you make the call."
Yuuki already had her Kagune out as she walked up the stairs to get rid of the webs from her Kakuja.
"Nice looking rifle, is it yours or Tobias'?" The detective asked as Hector's body was carried out in a body bag behind them.
"It's my dad's, but he left it for me for an emergency." Yuuki had the rifle slung over her shoulder, her pajama tank top's strap hanging off her shoulder while Jake was shirtless, wearing his own pajama pants. "We heard him open the gun safe, so I grabbed it and shot that guy as soon as I saw him."
"Good job, Yuuki. We've been after this guy for a while now. His name's Hector Moralez, him and his gang usually hit places together, but seems he was running solo tonight." The detective held out his hand for a handshake, which she took in a firm grasp. "His mistake." He chuckled. "Anyway, the guys will be out of your hair after they're done cleaning the floor for you."
"Detective, the coroner just checked his head, the bullet went right through." A CSI came jogging over to them, and Jake spoke up about that.
"I had her dad's body armour in my hands for that. Didn't want to get in trouble for breaking something behind the guy, so I made sure it stopped the bullet." Jake explained, and the detective gave an impressed nod.
"Smart move, I'd hate to piss Tobias off... or your mother either."
"I know the feeling." Yuuki smiled, fixing her tank top's shoulder strap with her other hand. "Thanks for everything, detective."
"By the way, there's a cash reward for the guy. Come see me in the morning down at the station, alright? I'm sure your parents will like the twenty five thousand he's worth."
"Well, it's technically my moment of glory, so I think the money's mine." Yuuki smiled. "I'll be sure to stop by."
"Excellent, now, we'll be off. See you at the station." He gave her one last handshake, and Jake as well, then left in his car with the CSI crew that was just filing out of the house with some cleaning supplies in hand, each nodding respectfully at Yuuki before everything and everyone went back to the normal 3:30am silence of Saturday nights.
"Midnight snacktime?" Jake asked as they went back inside and closed the door behind them.
"Yeah, I'm feeling a bit peckish. You make the call, the CCG takes 25 minutes to get here." Yuuki handed over the Mosin as she went to the basement where she'd hidden the cocoons of the four men. "Looks like Hector Moralez's gang were a bit late to the party..."
"Now that is just plain unfortunate..." In an amusing coincidence, the same police group from earlier received the assistance call from the CCG, who had arrived to find Yuuki's face and most of her chest and hands covered with blood. This time Jake had the Mosin in his hands. "Looks like their streak of luck finally ran out as a group, not just Hector."
"Confirming details here, but this Hector you speak of..." The lead CCG Investigator had a folding notepad and a pen in hand, having taken notes while the armed CCG soldiers bagged the corpses of the four men that Yuuki tore apart in the foyer. The CSI team was waiting nearby with their cleaning supplies, all smirking at the night's events.
"The gang's leader. Yuuki caught him about an hour ago and shot him with that rifle. These five guys are his men. They clearly came looking for him in that abandoned black van up the road, I've had my guys tow it down to the station for prints." The detective explained. "Y'know this adds another ten grand to your reward, right Yuuki?"
"I didn't actually." Yuuki was genuinely shocked by the additional news. "I should convince my dad to just give me the Mosin when he gets back from DC... Damn thing's making me a very lucky lady."
"From what we've gathered, the gang as a whole didn't seem aware you were the one living here, nor that you were home and armed." The CCG guy closed his notepad after finishing his notes. "All five were killed without the rifle, I presume?"
"She's god damn scary up close, I couldn't get a shot off by the time she killed them all." Jake slung the rifle onto his shoulder. "Besides, there's still four rounds in the gun, you can check if you want."
"I trust your claim. Miss Darkwood, since this is an obvious case of self-defense, we will not add this incident to your file. Despite your usage of Kagune and partial consumption of the corpses, this is a police matter, not the Commission's." The Investigator tucked his notes inside his suit and clicked his pen loudly. "We're relinquishing control of the scene back to the LAPD and shall remove the corpses for safe and proper disposal, as per our contract with your family."
"Alright, it's almost five in the morning, I don't think any of us can get back to sleep at this point." Yuuki joked to the detective as the CCG Investigator picked up his Quinque case from the ground and walked back to his car.
"You keep that rifle handy from now on, y'hear?" The detective laughed. "She's definitely your Lucky Lady."
"I think we finally figured out the name for the gun." Jake whispered in Russian as the detective walked away to his own car.
"Hopefully my dad agrees with the idea... Once we tell him the whole story." Yuuki replied in kind. "It's his gun after all."