During the lift ride down, Eli was looking up at the ceiling while Esther was staring down at the floor. None of them knew what to say to each other to ease the awkwardness. To make matters worse, the lift was travelling at a fairly slow speed.

Esther figured he needed to break the icy atmosphere by initiating a talk. That way, they wouldn't feel uncomfortable and uneasy. He thought of what to say to her before clearing his throat and turning to her.

"So...this is your first time fighting crime, right?" He questioned, "Jeff told me about your intentions, and I thought it was really good. I commend and admire you. How has it been for you so far?"

"I'm enjoying it so far." She replied, "It might have been difficult getting all the way to where we are now, but I'd say it's worth the effort. We've taken down a part of the crime syndicate, prevented more crimes from happening, and most importantly, saved lives. That is a part of my wish." Esther nodded his head, impressed by her answer.

"However, we still have a lot more to do." She continued, "The crime syndicate still stands strong. We have a cunning, ruthless man, a sneaky yet stealthy assistant, and an army of men serving them. Every second they are alive, Tokyo would never be safe."

"I agree. I..." The sound of a bell ringing interrupted Esther as the lift reached the basement. The doors opened, and in front of the two outlaws was a lighted, slightly long hallway.

"The hell is with these hallways?" He grumbled while rolling his eyes, "Does Regis really like to torutre himself by going such a distance just to get from a point to another?"

The two of them proceeded to walk through the basement hallway. At the end of it, there was an open door leading to a dark room. Esther and Eli took out their pistols and aimed it at their front as they slowly crept their way in. As soon as both of them stepped into the room, the door slammed close behind them, making the whole room pitch black. Eli let out a terrified scream as she jumped up in fear.

"What happened, Eli?" Esther asked, "Are you okay? Did anything happen to you?"

"I'm f...f...fine." She stuttered with a shaky voice, "I...it's n...nothing..."

"Did that door slam scare you?"

"N...no..."

"Then what's with that high-pitched shriek?" He questioned.

"I...it's just that I...I'm afraid of the dark..."

"Ahh, I see." He sighed, "Must be horrible for a person like you to be in this kind of situation. I certainly do feel bad for you. However, we shouldn't let our guard down, especially not at this point of time. The door slamming could signify that someone from the crime syndicate knows we're here to find Anthony." He then took out a torchlight from his pocket and passed it to Eli.

"Here, take this." He told her, "You use this, I'll use my phone's torchlight." Once they were ready, he moved forward slowly and quietly, with Eli behind him. He darted his eyes all over the room to see if there were any men lurking around, hiding and waiting to ambush them.

"There seems to be no one here." Esther whispered, "Strange. That door slam can't be purely coincidental. Also, where the hell is that bastard's office? It's goddamn hard to see with this small ass light of mine."

Eli stopped in her tracks and started breathing in and out to compose herself. She had fought other comrades before in dimly-lit places like a tunnel, warehouses, and the parade square in the night during her army training in Russia. She was pretty scared during those times, but her sergeant taught her to inhale and exhale gradually to keep her cool and calm herself down.

Esther soon reached a door, and he shone light on it to get a clearer view. There was a sign on it that stated 'Anthony Garcia's office'. He suspected that this might not be Anthony's room, but nonetheless, he had an idea up his sleeve.

He switched the light from his phone off, quickly opened the door, and hid behind the wall. A few seconds later, he saw the shape of three men wearing what seemed to be night vision googles coming out of the room, with pistols in their hands. He carefully took out a baton from his bag and crept silently towards them. Once he was sure he was a short distance away from them, he lifted his baton up high and swung it down at one of their heads, knocking that man out.

The other two men turned around and saw him, but before they could react, Esther whacked the second man on the cheeks and kicked him away. The third man aimed the gun at Esther and tried shooting the caped outlaw, but the latter pushed the gun upwards, making the crime syndicate man shoot up at the ceiling instead. Eli, who was in the middle of soothing herself, was frightened by the gunshot, rendering her method useless.

Esther snatched the second man's gun and shot him in the head to ensure he could not fight back. The third man head-butted Esther in the stomach, causing Esther to fall down. The man attempted to shoot him down again, but Esther was fast enough to shoot him thrice in the head, killing him instantly.

The three gunshots were enough to make Eli dash to the nearest thing she felt could be a shield and took cover. For the first time in a long time, she felt so terrified. The last time she felt like this was when she nearly drowned in the sea during her army training.

Esther grabbed the night goggles from the second man and wore them. Right away, he could see what was around him without the use of his phone light. He nodded his head satisfyingly as he was pleased with how it worked.

"Eli, why the hell are you hiding behind a table?" He asked.

"You should be asking yourself why." A panic-stricken Eli retorted, "I can't even see my own surroundings in this pitch black room. Of course I'm scared shitless. I don't know who or what is attacking me, or if anything is headed my way. Do you not expect me to fear for my life?"

"So you're really scared of the dark, no joke?" He remarked, "And it's a serious one. Anyways, catch." He took the pair of night goggles that the third man was wearing and tossed it to Eli.

"Wear that." He said, "That allows you to see in the dark." Eli proceeded to put on the glasses, and she felt relieved after she could see what was around her. She was about to move when she heard guns reloading. She turned around, only to see more men crowding around them.

"The hell did they come from?" She groaned.

"They probably hid behind the stuff here, like you did earlier." Esther replied, "Anyways, I can handle these guys by myself. You go and find Anthony's office right now."

"Are you sure you're okay on your own?"

"It's not about whether I'm okay or not. We're running out of time. If there are crime syndicate men placed here, it means that Venus might already be here for a very long time, pushing us back so that she could get to Anthony before us. We HAVE to find him pronto and bring him out of here as fast as we can."

Eli nodded her head and ran off. Upon hearing some footsteps behind her, she knew that some men were following her. She ran to the nearest room and shut the door behind her. The men reached the room a few seconds later.

After they opened the door, they slowly walked in and pointed their guns forward while they searched for the blonde-haired woman. What they didn't know is that Eli was hiding behind the door, waiting for a chance to strike.

She swiftly went behind one of the men and strangled him by the neck. The other two men aimed their pistols at her and tried shooting her, but she hid behind the first man to defend herself, resulting in the bullets hitting him and killing him instantly. She took his gun and kept it in her pocket for her to use it later.

As they continued attempting to shoot at her, she charged towards them with the dead man's body as her shield before ramming both of them onto the ground with the lifeless body. As they were about to get up, she took out the gun and shot one of them on the shinbone. He whined in pain as he held onto his leg tightly, blood oozing out from the fresh wound.

The second man whipped his pistol out and tried to gun her head down, but she managed to dodge the bullet and threw the gun she was holding at his head. While he was dazed after getting hit, she ran to him and chopped his wrist with one hand, pushing the barrel of the pistol away from her with the other. He screamed in agony as his finger was twisted in the process, which allowed her to snatch his weapon away from him. She then shot him in the stomach and kicked him away.

She slowly crept out of the room and looked at her left and right to see if there were any more men, waiting to ambush her. Once the coast was clear, she proceeded into the room on the left. She saw bookshelves, a sofa, a small round table in front of it, and an office desk. She took out her goggles and realized it was Anthony's office. She didn't think she would be able to find it this easily. She also noticed that the armchair was facing the other way, towards the wall. She figured Anthony must be sitting on that chair, taking cover.

"Anthony Garcia." She called out, "Esther sent me here to get you out of this place. Regis somehow knew you're exposing the crime syndicate, so he sent his men to hunt you down. But it's alright. We're gonna get you somewhere safe."

There was no response. All she heard was silence.

"You might think I am from the crime syndicate and I'm lying to you just to lure you out, but I'm really here to help you." She continued, "Your confession would greatly help us in taking the crime syndicate down, so I'll definitely do my utmost best to keep you from harm. I promise I won't hurt you. Just trust me."

Still no response.

"Anthony, are you listening to me?" She asked, only to get no answer in return. Annoyed, she turned the chair around, and was shocked to see Anthony dead, his neck slit with his blood dried up. It hit her that she walked right into a trap. Before she could react, Venus popped out from under the table and booted her on the stomach. She flew back and hit her back on the wall. She groaned in pain as Venus jumped over the table.

"Nice try, Ayase." Venus clapped her hands, "You really thought you could bring us down because you have that cunning old man on your team. I gotta give it to you. You and your friends are pretty smart."

"You're pretty smart too." Eli said in a sarcastic tone while glaring at the assassin, "You knew Anthony was going to put the crime syndicate in jeopardy if he were to reveal all the crimes you guys have done. You got here before us, but you made the place looked like it was untouched to make us think that we're early. You deployed your men in here to delay us from getting to him so you can find him and kill him."

"Of course I had to do that." Venus replied, "Anthony Garcia was a threat to our existence. I can't just leave him wandering around, can I? It would be stupid of me to do so. You know what else is a threat? You, your group of bitches, and that grey-haired son of a bitch."

"I'm honored I could make you shiver in fear." Eli remarked, "I thought the crime syndicate was an invincible and unstoppable force. To think that mere humans like me and my friends could scare you is hilarious to me."

"You never learn to keep that filthy mouth of yours in check, do you? Just like that old man." Venus then charged forward to attack Eli. Eli tried to punch Venus in the head, but Venus countered it by ducking and pulling Eli's legs towards her, making Eli fall down to the ground.

Venus grabbed Eli up by the strap of the dress and whacked her on the face. Eli stumbled back, but quickly regained her stance. She ran forward and jump-kicked Venus on the stomach, which caused Venus to hit her back on the office desk.

Venus got up and picked up the lamp on the table before throwing it at Eli. Eli barely managed to escape it as the lamp hit the wall and broke.

Eli went to the bookshelves, took the books from it, and hurled them at Venus. Venus was able to dodge the first few, but she got hit by the others. Seeing as Venus was open and vulnerable, Eli clenched her fists and rushed forward to attack her.

However, Venus was able to dodge Eli's fists due to her fast reflexes. Venus proceeded to wrap her hands around Eli's neck and pulled her forward before kneeing her chest thrice, with the last blow having the hardest force. Eli immediately felt a sharp twinge in her chest and found it difficult to catch her breath. Venus then twisted her right hand, did a roundhouse kick on her face, and lifted her up before turning herself around slamming her on the floor.

As Eli was about to take the pistol out of her left pocket, Venus stamped onto her left arm. Eli yelled in anguish and tried to use her other hand to retaliate, but she didn't have enough energy to do so due to the immense soreness in her body.

"You do know there's only one way this is gonna end, right?" Venus smirked as she unsheathed her katana and swung it around, "It's me killing you, so don't bother trying to resist while I end your life. It won't take long." As she was about to stab Eli in the head, Esther barged into the room and rammed into her, sending them rolling to the other end of the room.

"You annoying pest." Venus scowled, "You really want to protect her, do you? Did that regret sink in after twenty years, you dumb fuck?"

"It is my duty to." Esther pummeled Venus to the ground, giving her no time to respond. She reached for her katana and used its butt to push Esther away from her. Just when he was about to strike her with his fists again, Venus slashed his legs with her katana, causing him to stagger backwards. She subsequently swept his legs to the left, resulting in him falling onto the ground.

Eli slowly got up and stretched her arms. The internal pain in her chest was gradually subsiding, and she was feeling somewhat better now, although her back was still hurting a bit from that flip that was done on her earlier. Suddenly, she heard a loud thud coming from her right. She turned towards that direction, only to see Venus pulling Esther's head up by his cloak. She placed her katana against his throat.

"Let go of him. Now." Eli took out her pistol and aimed it at Venus.

"Aw, are you saving this poor old soul?" Venus sniggered, "That's so nice of you. Shoot me though, and I'll slice his throat, just like what I did to Anthony. Aren't you curious about who's really under this cape, and why he is willing to help you so much though?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Eli asked, "Of course he wants to help us. He's a friend of Jeff. We all have a common goal. It is to burn the crime syndicate down to the ground."

"Don't you dare, Venus." Esther snarled, "Don't do this to her. You let her go, and I'll let you deal with me." His words were met with Venus's shushing.

"This man has been hiding in his goddamn disguise for so long." Venus remarked, "It's time to reveal his true self. You're lucky you have an opportunity like this today, so I can show it to you once and for all." At that moment, she removed the cloak off his head. At once, Eli recognized the man. The man looked down, ashamed to face her.

"Meet the man in the cloak whose codename is Esther." Venus introduced, "Ethan Ayase, your long-lost father who abandoned you and your family twenty years ago."