The bell in Leblanc rang gently as Daigo Dojima walked calmly in, Tojo clan button hidden in his front pocket as he sat down at the bar, indistinguishable from any other high class businessman in his black suit and red shirt, sighing deeply as he took a glance at his phone. This out of the way cafe was where Alibaba had told him to visit if he wanted the information from one of the Phantom Thief brats but so far, nothing. "Can I get you anything?" The bearded barista asked.
"Just a small cappuccino, please." Daigo requested, reaching in for his wallet as he scanned the cafe in the humdrum of a mid-week afternoon. A mixture of exhausted salarymen who'd dodged the obligatory after-work drinks, students trying to get some extra studying done outside of school, one of which could only be seen by their bright orange hair in amongst the fort of books and computer equipment, the exam season seemed to get rougher and longer every year by the sound of furious typing and frustrated snarls coming from.
"Do you have a preferred blend of coffee?" The older man asked.
"Just something mild." The Chairman responded, going for the safe option instead of openly admitting he didn't really know the difference between blends of coffee while he took a seat. He knew there was differences with booze like what it was stored in, maybe it was the same with coffee? Either way, the barista seemed satisfied enough with the answer while his phone buzzed into life.
"Hello." He answered flatly, an unknown number but a familiarly distorted voice coming through.
"You weren't followed?" Came the digitally manipulated reply of Alibaba.
"No. No-one besides you at any rate." Daigo answered, he wasn't a novice on the streets, but whoever Alibaba was must have seen him come in.
"Good. Enjoy the coffee here. Maybe get some food while you're at it."
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Dojima scowled, wondering what the hacker brat was playing at. A quick twist with the excuse of trying to see what all the miscellaneous wall fillers that appear in cafes and restaurants the same way mold does in damp cellars were about didn't reveal much. Those that were talking were engaged in a deep conversation, the barista was busy with his order and the student in fort knowledge was furiously typing out an assignment by the sounds of things "But we should focus our efforts on the joint project."
"Affirmative," came the reply after a brief pause, not even a sigh from Alibaba "This should be the end of our deals. You stay out of us, we stay out of you."
Daigo's eyebrows raised in confusion. Alibaba seemed to be speaking a lot more disjointedly than before, and what he or she was saying was a little less coherent than when he'd been first contacted by the hacker "Is this a bad line?" He asked. Another pause as the general noise in the cafe seemed to jump up, from the TV in the corner to the general music being played louder. The barista sighed in annoyance but continued on regardless, it didn't seem to be the first time this sort of thing had happened from his reaction as he finished pouring out the hot drink.
"Don't act clever, Dojima," Alibaba chided, seeming to revert to a normal speech pattern "I don't want any more Yakuza hanging around than there already is."
"Agreed." Daigo replied with an annoyed sigh of his own. This whole thing was just turning into a rabbit hole, even if it came with good coffee.
"So, our mutual eavesdropper is a piece of shit called Sugimura, kicker of cats, abuser of girlfriends and overall rich asshole. Although it's his goon squad doing the heavy lifting here, but they're pretty much working directly with the jerkface." Alibaba explained.
"I see," the Tojo chairman said. Well, at least they had a name to tie in with all of this but that level of venom... "Do you have prior experiences with him?"
"Yeah, he's a dick."
"Beyond that." Daigo sighed, nodding as the barista passed over his order while he reached over for the sugar packets.
"Beyond that, he's got a father who was in the Diet hoping to ride high on the Shido train, until that got derailed." Alibaba elaborated in an accusing tone, even through the distortion.
"I... see," it all came back to the terms of their early release then. The concealed hostility rather than the expected fear. From what he'd gathered from Majima the Phantom Thieves were already well acquainted with the former Prime Minister's crimes, of which Daigo and the rest of the Tojo clan leadership were part of "I'd like to assure you that our relationship with him was barely a professional one. We're as thankful for your actions as anyone," he said smoothly "But back to our mutual difficulty."
"Right, right," now it was Alibaba's time to sigh "Apart from who he is, no-one is sure what he's doing stalking our mutual friends. Other than he's got his heavies doing it and we'd rather he'd not."
"So, do you have any plans for this situation? Or are we supposed to handle it ourselves?" Daigo asked in between drinks of coffee.
"What? No!" Came the sharp reply, even with the voice masker there was a definite high pitched squeak in there, something even the barista seemed to notice with how he stiffened up "The last thing either of us need is the attention we'd get if a rich boy with an unhealthy obsession ends up buried in the woods."
As snappy as Alibaba was being, Daigo had to admit that whoever the hacker was, they had a point. This Sugimura was a problem, but one that required a more subtle approach than a simple removal and those required specifics that couldn't be mentioned in public. Still, blatant stalking like this wasn't something that could be easily ignored. "One moment," he said. Folding the phone away and turning to the barista "Excuse me, but do you have any facilities here?" He asked, calmly leaving his seat when pointed in the right direction. The men's restroom wasn't much more than two sinks, a hand dryer and a few toilet cubicles, but at least in here the Tojo clan chairman could check for hidden cameras and bugs before locking himself in the cubicle and waiting for the call.
It took a surprising amount of time for Daigo's phone to start ringing again, letting the Yakuza boss smirk a little, Alibaba must have bugged and set cameras on the main floor of the cafe but he or she hadn't been dedicated enough to do the same for the restrooms, his shoulders slacked as he answered the phone "I haven't escaped out the back if that's what you're wondering."
"I know." came the manipulated voice on the other end, different number, same semi-anonymous hacker.
"It's easier to talk about these matters with a degree of privacy," the Chairman shrugged off "And this matter isn't easily dismissed. Even if this Sugimura is as competent as he is subtle, it's still stalking and that isn't something that should be ignored. Not to mention, if he has a father in the Diet, then he'd be connected enough to make any on campus security or even the police ineffectual."
"His dad used to be in the Diet." Alibaba corrected.
"Another fallout from Shido?" Daigo asked.
"No, he just lost his seat on election night to Toranosuke Yoshida."
"No good Tora!? He lost a seat to 'No good Tora'?" Daigo laughed. The guy who'd publicly called all voters idiots while he was supposed to be apologising for embezzling public funds had not only worked his way back to the Diet but at the expense of this rich brat Sugimura's father? Karma did work in strange ways it seemed.
"Knock it off!" Alibaba scolded.
"Sorry, sorry," Daigo apologized as he attempted to regain composure. Here he was: Chairman of one of the most powerful Yakuza clans in all of Japan, locked in a bathroom while a teenager scolded him over the phone, not his proudest moment "So what are you planning to do about him? Even without the direct connection and miss Okumura's own wealth, it'll be hard to deal with him on your own."
"For now, we're gonna wait until we figure out more of why he's decided that now's the time to restart his creep career, and then if he does something stupid..."
"Define 'stupid'." Daigo retorted.
"90% of what Majima has done in the past month." Alibaba sighed.
"...Fair," Daigo conceded with a smirk on his face, only for it to drop when the line suddenly died in a hellish electronic screech "The hell?"
Makoto knew that she'd been pushing her luck with her surveillance efforts. Between the punishing grind of college, her own fitness routine and trying to keep a watchful eye on the hired goons, something was going to go wrong, and so far her graded assignments hadn't dipped a single point.
Something must have tipped off whoever Sugimura was hiring to do this, as she tried to inconspicuously move away from the two men in dark suits, equipped with black sunglasses and earpieces as they approached her on the campus, everyone else trying their best to avoid the situation as much as possible. "Excuse us miss, but can we have a moment of your time?" One said as they managed to somehow flank the student.
"I'm very busy right now," Makoto replied in a level voice, looking up at the security camera overlooking the area, trying to make sure she was in direct view "So if you could just let me pass-"
"I'm afraid it's an urgent matter Niijima-san, it's about your friend and..." the hired thug paused to see if anyone was listening in, a wandering student scurrying along extra fast from the concealed glare and menacing expression "As much as this may be difficult to explain, your friend, Miss Okomura has been associating with some dangerous individuals and we're wondering if you could help us make sure she's all right. We're with the company."
"Why are you talking to me and not her?" Makoto asked as a giant shadow suddenly started to loom from the corner.
"Because it may be easier for to understand the danger, both physically and economically if the advice comes from a friend. So if you'd just come with us and we can explain more on the way to the head-quarters." The other goon began, slowly reaching out as the shadow was suddenly over all of them, a little bit of darkness before the goon who'd tried to reach out suddenly found himself forced face-first into the pavement.
"W-what the!?" His partner yelped as he turned to see what just happened. The massive frame of Taiga Saejima had blocked out the sun and with one movement of his arm he hadn't just grabbed the back of the hired help's head, but drove him down as well, the earpiece popping out as his glasses shattered.
"Why don't you take me there?" The big man asked, crushing the ear piece under his boot "So I can say hello to your boss in person."
"S-stand back!" The remaining conscious goon yelped, stepping back as he reached into his pocket, Makoto only saw the yellow lightning bolt logo on the side of the plastic rectangle before she sprang into action, reaching out to grab him by the wrist "What-the?" The suited goon let out as he realised that the student wasn't a passive observer, but another fighter with a painful grip on his wrist "Argh!" He cried out, a stun gun tumbling out of his grasp as Makoto twisted her grasp, giving Saejima enough time to deliver the same treatment he gave the first one. Grabbing a fist full of hair before yanking down with enough force to send him on a one-way trip to the curb.
Surveying the carnage he'd laid out, Saejima gave an appreciative nod to the panting Makoto "Good job." He said simply.
"Thanks," the Queen of the phantom thieves nodded back as she looked down on the two goons "Should have known they'd try something. That stun gun was probably for me if I didn't co-operate."
"Probably," the Tojo captain agreed as he started to haul the unconscious goons away "Hopefully this'll be a learning experience for them."
"What are you gonna do?"
"Send 'em packing to their boss with a little message, since they were armed it makes covering things a lot easier. Can't go to the cops if the first question they're gonna ask is 'so what were you doing?' Weapons on a campus ain't gonna go down well even with the most corrupt of assholes." Saejima explained as he threw one onto his shoulder, carrying the second like a suitcase.
"Good," Makoto said, still feeling the adrenaline as she scanned to see if there were any witnesses, thankfully the goons had already done most of the work in scaring people away, leaving only... the security camera "Not good!" she squeaked as she dived for her phone
"Huh?" Saejima let out, before he realised what she was looking at "...Crap."
"I've got it under control!" Makoto assured him as she hit up the best person to ask. "Oracle, do you read me?"
"I'm in the middle of something here." Futaba snapped through the voice changer.
"I need you to access Tokyo campus security and wipe the footage of the last five minutes." Makoto demanded
"What? Why?"
"Because two thugs just tried to jump me, Saejima saved me and the whole thing was caught on camera."
"Argg! Five minutes!" Futaba groaned before hanging up.
"Situation is under control." She announced, slipping her phone away with a thumbs up as Saejima carried the goons away.
Daigo was already walking out of the cafe in a state of confusion, the student behind the wall of books getting increasingly angry with something as he passed, still looking at his phone before it buzzed as he was on the doorstep. "Moshi-moshi?"
"Change of plans. They did something stupid. Call the big guy to find out more."
A/N: Finally got this out. Apparently this got onto the recomended fics page of TvTropes so... no pressure I guess?
