FULL SUMMARY:
How long can someone run before their legs give out? How far can someone go when they're going it alone?
Yokohama seems like the perfect place to hide. It's a city with a reputation for curiosities and violence, and no one would look twice at yet another person trying to stay out of the light and keep their head down. Someone like Lenore.
Then a bomb goes off and launches her into the arms of the Armed Detective Agency, literally, and everything she's been fleeing comes to a head. Her ruined reputation no longer matters. The lives lost to a single mistake become paltry. All that matters is keeping the end of Yokohama from coming to fruition, and stopping the annihilation of her new friends.
Without a doubt, Lenore had grown used to the finer things in life.
Ten years ago she wouldn't have batted an eye at a tear in her jeans, but now she was seriously considering throwing them out when she got back home. They were ripped and blood stained, and she had enough cash these days to just buy another pair instead of scrubbing the blood out desperately and patching them.
It was a weird thing to think about.
Especially considering the fact that the building beside her was still on fire.
Lenore looked up from the stain of her blood growing on the hard cement and up at the building to her left. Smoke poured out of the windows and flames licked towards the sky. Her ears rang from the force of the explosion that had sent her skidding halfway across the street. Car alarms screamed around her and people ran.
She alone stayed still, watching the flames grow higher and higher.
There were no shouts from inside. No one came running out or crowded at the windows. Had the building been empty? Were there still people trapped inside?
Slowly, she got to her feet. A piece of shrapnel poked out of her leg, where it had cut through once it was done with her pants.
Alarm bells sounded and lights flashed down the street. They must have been close to a fire station.
Why blow out a building if the fire station was so close? And an empty one at that rate.
Len took a few steps away. Each move and blood spurted from her leg.
Where was her bag?
She needed-
"Miss!"
Someone was running at her. Two someone's. A pair of men ran her full speed, heedless of the smoke that was starting to obscure their view of everything. Ambulances and fire trucks came flying around the corner.
An empty warehouse. Nearby first responders.
Something was very wrong here. Lenore smelled sulfur.
"Run."
Lenore scrambled towards them. She saw the exact minute one of the men realized what she had.
"Oh shit-"
The explosion rocked the ground itself. Two buildings over, the firetrucks and the ambulances were sent slamming into the buildings across the street.
Len was launched into the men and the three of them went flying. The metal in her leg sunk deeper when she skidded into the cement and she screamed. Fire on her back, blood in her leg, and her cheek cut open on the harsh sidewalk.
Her body was a veritable shield over the body beneath her.
"Ow…"
Lenore lifted herself up enough she could make eye contact. "You know," she said, "This is not how I expected this day to go."
More sirens screamed in from the opposite street.
"I don't imagine it would be," he blinked up at her. Wide brown eyes under messy brown hair, they danced with fire light.
Slowly, she sat back. Blood pooled beneath her, staining the man's tan coat. She wrapped her hand around the metal sticking out of her leg. The sharp edges bit into her thick leather gloves. She didn't pull it out though. She would absolutely bleed to death if she did. Where was her bag?
"I think I might be in shock."
She saw her bag laying nearby. There was a tear in the side, and metal gleamed through it. Her left hand shook when she reached for it. Her leg bubbled red when she put weight on it.
A third explosion rocked the street. The sound of sirens cut off suddenly and something hit her head, hard.
She fell limp.
Definitely not how she expected her day to go.