Soyo yawned as she pushed open the door of the Mimawarigumi precinct and headed inside. She was exhausted. The whole process of completing her job last night had hit several road bumps in the form of Nishikawa waking up and trying to jump out of the moving car. When his plans had been thwarted, he'd then resorted to violence again by trying to kick her head with his feet. In the end, she'd had to knock him out again and stuff him in the trunk so he would stop making a fuss. But her bounty's client considered him damaged goods when she delivered him and had cut her payment by a fifth which Soyo had tried to dispute to no avail. By the time she'd gotten home—pissed, fatigued, and ready to beat the snot out of a punching bag—with her money, the sun was already rising. Soyo had had to head to the bank to deposit her money to pay rent, but that meant skipping breakfast, and now her stomach was clawing at her insides, growling loudly.
Some of the officers stared at her in shock as she ambled by. A few were wincing, and Soyo frowned, confused why she was getting those looks. She usually tended to garner blushes or other flirtatious smiles. Not that she was being conceited, but hunting males for bounty went pretty easily for her for a reason. They tended to be distracted by her looks.
At a rickety desk in the corner of the room near the window was Nobume, nearly buried under a pile of paperwork. Her usually well-coiffed navy locks were sticking up at various odd angles, and she looked disgruntled like she hadn't gotten a good night's rest in a while, evidenced by the fact that her eyes had sinking bags underneath them. Soyo's friend looked fed up with life. She barely glanced up as Soyo plopped in the perp chair on the side of her desk.
"Stuck on desk duty?" Soyo asked sympathetically. Nobume didn't tend to look like that unless she'd gotten in some kind of trouble. As the best officer in this precinct, her friend was usually out in the field, so for her to be at her desk meant she must have really pissed off her captain.
"Yeah." She tapped the form she was currently reviewing with the butt end of her pen. "Isaburou relegated me to indefinite paperwork for kicking a perp in the nuts."
Sounded about right. "Was it worth it at least?"
"Always." The ghost of a smirk tainted Nobume's lips. "It doesn't matter anyway. He'll crack in about a day and let me go back out there. Why are you here anyway? I know you didn't come here to make small talk."
"Nishikawa was too easy a target, Nobu," Soyo said, semi smugly. "Got anything else remotely harder?"
Nobume sighed and rose a brow as she finally looked up at Soyo. Her expression quickly morphed into one of slight horror and incredulity though. Well, for Nobume anyway. Honestly, Soyo couldn't quite tell. While she liked to think she'd grown adept at understanding the subtle shifts in Nobume's moods and expressions, one could never really be too sure since the woman had perfected the art of the blank stare.
"Was it really that easy when your eye looks that disgusting and you have an arm in a sling?" Nobume drawled.
Oh right. That explained why the people on the street and in the precinct had been giving her weird looks. The pretty bad shiner from getting punched in the face and her arm was in a sling to support the dislocated elbow. Honestly, injuries like these were routine for Soyo at this point that she almost forgot she'd gotten them.
She shrugged, helping herself to one of the donuts in the box on Nobume's desk. "Perks of the job."
The murderous glare Nobume gave her could have been enough to put her six feet under. Soyo retracted her hand from the donuts immediately, instead redirecting it to the bowl of lollipops. She'd forgotten how territorial her friend got over her food obsession.
"You know, at this point, I wouldn't recognise you without some sort of injury on your body." Nobume continued as she relocated the box to the inside of one of her desk drawers. Soyo rolled her eyes. "You don't have to do the most to get these small fry. These guys aren't worth that much so it's not a huge loss if they end up getting away. But for some reason, you keep putting yourself through all this damn trouble."
Soyo unwrapped the sucker and stuck it in her mouth while she plopped her feet up on the corner of Nobume's desk. "You police officers need me. I'm the best freelance bounty hunter in this city. Without me, how would you be able to find the most heinous of criminals?"
Police were all bound by their duties within the law, but Soyo had free reign on however the hell she wanted to capture these people. And the best part was she was getting paid for her captures. So when bounties appeared in the network for criminals who were already on the Mimawarigumi's radar, Nobume always managed to secretly slip the news to Soyo so she could get them. It was a win-win. She was paid by clients to keep criminals off the street, and the Mimawarigumi could avoid wasting time and sticky legal procedures to stop sneaky individuals who tended to avoid the law like pros. In exchange, she would give Nobume leads on tough cases the police were working on or information about changes in the criminal underworld she'd heard. Granted, it wasn't a job without downsides—rising number of enemies, broken bones, the occasional bruise on her face, an inconsistent flow of money—but it was enough for Soyo to live on.
"Yes, but not if it means losing my best friend." Nobume looked around the precinct. "And hush. We don't need the whole world knowing about our arrangement."
"You won't lose me," she assured her.
Soyo had no plans of dying any time soon. She hadn't even put a dent on her goals yet, and until her objectives were fulfilled, she wouldn't be going anywhere.
Nobume set her pen down and leaned back in her plastic chair. Her arms were crossed and her lips pursed as she fixed Soyo with a serious look. "That's not my only problem about this, Soyo. Since last night, we've gotten several reports of a crazy woman who'd jumped off a balcony onto a man at a French restaurant downtown. She apparently beat up a waiter and knocked some guy unconscious and dragged him away. Short girl, long black hair, pale skin, hazel eyes, dancer's build. Sound familiar?"
"Relax, it won't be tied back to me. That could be one of several girls." Soyo picked at her fingernail indignantly. "And for the record, I didn't beat up any waiters."
"Soyo, you're going to make my life hell if we keep getting these public disturbance reports every time you capture one of the bounties. You're too reckless." Nobume sighed as she ran a hand through the dishevelled strands of blue hair. "You're lucky I was stuck doing paperwork and reading reports. I'm the only one who's seen them. I'm risking my job for you."
"Sorry, Nobu." She patted her hand apologetically. Soyo really was grateful for her friend's support in her endeavours. This kind of stuff could make her lose her job, so she was really doing Soyo a huge favour. "I'll strive to be more careful next time."
She rolled her eyes, but cracked a smile. "No you won't. Anyway, I do have something new for you. Someone is paying a small reward to catch that masked guy who's been going around delivering golden showers to unsuspecting tourists. He apparently has several apartments, but we can't get in any without a warrant and this case doesn't have enough evidence to get one. Client's name is Saigou Tokumori. Says his business is getting disturbed because of the fuckwit pervert."
"Another pervert? Can I get some variety here?" Soyo grumbled.
"There's a pretty decent price on this guy's head this time. It's about 50K yen." She ignored her quip. Nobume's brows furrowed as she rummaged through the largest stack of files. "I think it's this one…"
As she pulled out the file from the middle of the stack of documents, the entire pile tipped precariously backwards. Neither Soyo nor Nobume could stop it from falling and several manila folders fell off her desk and scattered once they hit the ground. For a moment, both Soyo and Nobume stared at the mess in disdain.
"I just stacked those…" Nobume groaned in aggravation and dropped her head on her desk, banging it a few times for good measure.
"I'll take care of the mess. Don't sweat it," Soyo said as she dropped to the ground to start gathering the files. Thankfully, the papers inside hadn't scattered too far out of or away from their encasements. "Least I could do."
"I'll still have to go through them and reorganise them later. Can you take care of that too, you know, since I was getting a file for you?" Nobume grumbled.
"Hey, don't get mad at me!" Soyo chuckled. "It's not my fault you…"
She tapered off when she moved another folder and her eyes caught sight of a file with a huge red 'classified' stamp plastered to the front cover. Curious, she picked it up, glancing briefly at Nobume to make sure her friend wasn't watching her snooping. Soyo flipped open the file, skimming the top, but when she got to the perp, her heart nearly stopped in her chest. She stared at it, a million thoughts racing in her mind as her grip tightened immeasurably on the file.
This was it.
This was exactly what she'd been seeking.
The name she'd been searching for for years—the only reason she'd become a bounty hunter in the first place—and it had finally popped up.
"Soyo, how long does it take you to clean up a stack of files?" Nobume said from above, leaning over to give her a wry look.
Holding the file in her trembling hand, she stood up slowly, all traces of her neutral mood officially gone. "Nobume… What the hell is this?"
She flapped the folder and when Nobume saw what she was holding, her eyes narrowed.
"Soyo, give me that file."
"Tell me why you have this," Soyo responded lowly and took a step back when Nobume stood up. Nobume knew what this meant to her. This file was dated for several months ago, yet when Soyo had asked if she knew anything, the answer had always been no. "Why didn't you tell me about this bounty?"
"Because this is not a bounty open for you since the police actually have a case open on this. I knew you'd get like this if you knew, so I didn't tell you." In one quick motion, Nobume reached over and snatched the file from Soyo's hands. She opened up her locked drawer, stashed it inside and then shut and locked the drawer again. Nobume pocketed the key and checked twice to make sure the drawer was locked in place. "This case is too personal for you, Soyo. I'm not giving you a bounty like this when you won't be in your right mind pursuing it."
"In my right mind?!" She took a deep breath and lowered her voice when some curious folks in the precinct turned to look at the brewing argument. "Nobume, this is literally all I have been looking for for three years. I'm focused only on that. You know damn well I won't be distracted on a case like this."
"And that is exactly it!" Nobume hissed, poking her roughly in the shoulder. "Open your eyes, Soyo. You're hellbent on revenge; your eyes are clouded by your desire for vengeance. Your decision making and common sense will suffer from it. And that's exactly how you wind up making some reckless error and getting hurt. Or worse: killed. I know how important this is for you, but this is not your battle to pursue. We've got this covered. Mimawarigumi and some of the Shinsengumi are actively pursuing this case. Stand down or I'll make you."
Soyo was seething, but she let out the shaky breath she'd been holding, chewing hard on the inside of her mouth. "Fine."
"I'm going to go make copies of Saigou's bounty so you can work on that one. Focus on what's in front of you right now."
"Yeah, sure," Soyo grit out, staring at the ground, her fists clenched tight.
After a brief, terse silence, Nobume finally sighed and set her hand on Soyo's shoulder, giving her a soft squeeze. "Soyo, trust me. That case has nothing to do with what you're actually looking for. Just take the bounty I gave you and stop worrying about it. If you do, in return, I promise I will give you updates when we make some headway."
"I said fine," Soyo repeated.
Nobume hesitated for a moment, staring at Soyo in concern, but Soyo kept her impassive expression firmly planted. With a sigh, Nobume left her desk and went around the corner to go to the copy machine further in.
Soyo stood in place, waiting until no one was paying attention to them anymore before she made her way to Nobume's desk chair. She sat down in it, sucking her lollipop as she pretended to be waiting in boredom. With her other hand, she pulled a pin out of her hair and stuck it into the drawer lock, expertly manoeuvring it. Locked drawers were a cinch to pry open, and Soyo had broken into countless cabinets and doors before, so she didn't even need to look to know she was using the right motions to get that sucker open. It proved quite easy since the desk drawer was an old model with an ancient lock that was all too willing to do Soyo's bidding.
Soyo got the drawer open and discreetly pulled the file out of it. She took out the contents, folding them up and stuffing them inside her leather jacket. Then she took some of the blank sheets of paper resting on the corner of Nobume's desk and shoved them back into the folder. The folder went back into its place, she shut the drawer, and then stood slowly to leave the precinct. No one paid her any mind as she slipped out the door, unhurried and her gaze nonchalant.
At some point, Nobume would definitely find out that the information had been stolen, but for the time being, leaving the folder and putting other papers in there would suffice as a distraction. By the rate Nobume had been working on paperwork for closed cases, she wouldn't be updating the files on current, active cases for another few days. Needless to say, Soyo definitely expected some expletive filled voicemails and texts once she realised what Soyo had done.
It was no matter. Soyo was fine risking angering her friend because this pursuit was definitely worth it. She'd made a pact to herself that she would stop at nothing to achieve her goals. And now that she had a solid lead, she wasn't going to miss an opportunity to get her revenge by standing down. Nobume was an idiot if she really thought threatening Soyo was enough to keep her from this now that she could finally start the bounty she'd been waiting for.
But she couldn't do this alone. And there was only one person who she knew had no qualms breaking a few rules here and there to catch some bad guys.
She pulled out her cellphone and dialled the number practically on speed dial by now.
"I'm on lunch." Was the immediate reply. "Call back in an hour."
"And I've got important news you need to hear about," Soyo said dismissively, all business. Normally, she was all for playful banter as long as it helped to mask the rage bubbling inside her from the people she knew, but she didn't feel like being that fake cheerful girl right now. Not after what she'd just found. "Where are you?"
There was a deeply annoyed and exasperated sigh from the other line. "Ramen stall by the park. Usual spot."
"Good. I'm coming over to you. Don't leave."
"Can't I go one day without—"
She hung up without another word and once she was about a block from the Mimawarigumi precinct, she picked up her pace, jaw clenched in determination to get to her destination. If Nobume thought she could stop Soyo, she had another think coming.
Revenge was within her grasp now. And she would have it.