The Unceasing Path
Ch 26 - 無間道
The Unceasing Path - wherein the story comes around full circle as it must
[Storage Room, Club BamBam]
Makoto gasped for breath. The tears in her eyes had nothing to do with pain. She felt like she'd been punched in the gut. Well, alright, she had, but it hurt deeper than that. Ami might as well have reached into her chest and ripped her heart out.
That was closer to the truth than merely being "punched in the gut".
Ami had no right, no right! to make this call for her. No right at all.
And now Makoto had to follow through. Ami had left her no choice. Duty was all she had left, and it was duty that spoke. Against every instinct, against the very beat of her soul, Makoto ran out of the storage room and gave the order to the still reeling gangsters she found in the hall.
"AFTER HER!"
Without a building layout, or any clue where she was, she was running blind. This was a fool's gambit, but it was all she had. Ami supposed it was only a matter of time before her luck ran out. One locked door was all it'd take and...fuck.
There it was. She was now cornered like a rat. There was no way forward or back.
Ami cursed. The clink of metal on metal gave away her position as she loaded a salvaged clip into her salvaged gun. Several hopeful potshots shattered the bottles on the bar above her head in response. Ami rolled to the left, putting some distance between herself and her last known position, but the bar shew as hiding behind was only so long. She debated laying down some covering fire but decided against it. Ammunition was low. Mako's SIG had long since been spent, but in the process, she had managed to pick up a pair of shiny new pistols. The Yakuza soldier she'd looted them from had never seen her coming. For a brief moment, she missed her own guns. The balance of the Chinese-Soviet knockoffs she was wielding now seemed off and the black star embossed on the grips felt like a bad omen.
Then again, maybe it was fitting. A gangster's gun for a gangster. One step closer to living her truth.
Ami smiled at her own ridiculousness. This was no time for sentimentality. There were other reasons to smile besides.
The remains of a now-broken decorative mirror already revealed just how hopeless the situation was. Alone with a gang of Yakuza blocking the only exit, there was no point in hiding anymore.
Years of lies and deceit would all come to an end today. At least she got to see Makoto one last time.
On the other side of the once-opulent nightclub, Makoto also cursed. She didn't want to do this. Even so, she moved on autopilot, sweeping the room with a sawed off shotgun. One of her boys had gone and found a damn shotgun for her. How sweet was that? Somewhere deep inside, the constable in her was concerned with just how well armed these Yakuza gangsters were. After this was over, they should probably investigate how these highly illegal weapons were getting into Hong Kong.
Now, however, was not the time to care. Caring would get her killed. Right now, she was a triad leader. 5 members of Boss Diana's Yakzua crew stood waiting for her orders. The others had fled at the first sign of trouble, spiriting their Boss away to parts unknown - the ones that were lucky enough to flee that was. The unlucky ones were either standing with her, or lying where Ami had left them.
Clean up was going to be a nightmare, but that was a problem for later. First, she had to survive.
Makoto buried her police instincts and just reacted. It no longer required conscious thought to command the respect of her underlings and form them up for missions.
The mission was simple: hunt down the snitch that their boss wanted dead.
Her partner, her lover, and her best friend.
Mizuno Ami of the Yuet To Tong, or Mizuno Ami of the HKPD. It didn't matter. Ami was dead either way. Outnumbered 5 to 1, there was no way Ami could get out of this alive. Makoto tried desperately to think of another path, but came up with nothing. She had already called for the cavalry. There was no way of knowing if Katarina got her message though, or if she could send help even if she did. Beyond that, Makoto had already stalled as long as she could. If she didn't order her men into action soon, they would likely break ranks and charge into action on their own. There was nothing that Makoto could do to stop that that wouldn't render Ami's sacrifice meaningless.
After all the times they had saved each other's lives over the years, was one more miracle too much to ask for?
Curse the day they met. Curse the day Chief Chiba, that dirty bastard, called them into his office and offered them this assignment. Makoto's resolve hardened. Tonight would have been so much easier without knowing Ami as personally as she did. It was too late for regrets now. She didn't believe in regrets anyhow, especially not about love. Come hell or high water, she could never truly regret the day she met Mizuno Ami.
Makoto smiled. Speak of the devil. A flash of blue caught her attention among the debris - Ami's reflection in the glass. She had a gun in one hand, and a bottle of booze in the other. Those were important details yes, but it was Ami's expression that Makoto knew she would remember forever - her smile.
Even amidst all this violence, Ami was happy to see her.
A bottle of tequila flew over the bar. It hung in midair, a final agonizing moment before destruction.
One moment, it existed, glass and liquid. The next, it transformed into an unstoppable orange fireball consuming everything in its path.
In the space between, Ami vaulted over over the bar-top guns blazing. Her first shot exploded through the tequila bottle, her second through some Yakuza goon's heart.
One down, four to go.
This was not the time for half measures.
Left, right, left, right, recoil, fire. The pattern was more familiar to her now than the beating of her own heart.
Enemies scattered before the hail of gunfire she rained down upon them. She hit the ground hard. Ami had the breath knocked out of her, but she still rolled up to her feet and kept firing. It wasn't her mission, or love, or justice that kept her going. It was simply momentum.
No. That was a lie, there was one thing driving her actions now: Makoto. Everything relied on her testimony. Makoto had to live. She had to escape, even if Ami had to kill every last person in the building to make that happen.
Well, so far, so good.
Ami gasped. Damn fool that she was, she stopped to think during a gunfight. Some unseen giant struck her in the stomach and again in the back as she reeled under the force of the first shot.
No matter. She still had the strength to whip her gun up and return fire. Ami turned her flailing spin into a twirl that put her assailant directly in her gunsights. There was a certain sense of satisfaction seeing the light dim from her enemy's eyes as the bullets struck home.
Two.
Ami gave in to the feeling. She indulged. Reveled in it. She used the darkness to steady her hand. To move just a little faster. Make her shots a little bit sharper. There was no point in suppressing her monster any longer.
Lesson learned however. She was too exposed here. Ami spotted a broken pillar that offered some promise of safety. She dove towards it, firing her pistols as she sailed sideways through the air. Time slowed. Hours passed between one muzzle flash and the next. Her target jerked about, a marionette dancing for an insane puppetmaster.
Three.
She landed some meters short of cover. Ami ran towards home, dropping into a desperate slide to cover the last few steps. Fortunately, the tiles were slick with blood and plaster dust. She careened across the floor, firing between the debris. Another pair of criminals fell in her wake.
Four.
Five.
There. that was it. She was done. Silence settled over the ash and dust. Ami fell forward, leaning her forehead against the against the pillar in a vain attempt to catch her breath. It didn't help.
It was getting cold.
So cold.
The crunch of boots indicated that someone was approaching. Was it Makoto? It had to be. Who else was left? Ami forced herself to stand. A trickle of sweat ran down her cheek and fell off the side of her jaw. It might have been a tear. She didn't know. There was only a certain sense of peace knowing that she might be dead before it hit the ground.
Makoto opened her mouth and ordered her people to action.
"DUCK!"
Not that anyone needed that specific instruction in light of the fireball blowing straight at them. It was chaos all around. She too was running and firing. She had to. Play the part - live another day.
Her crew fell all around her. Makoto knew they were bad people, but still she couldn't suppress a surge of sympathy. They might be bad people, but they were people. Then she thought of what they were here in Hong Kong for: drugs, human trafficking, corruption.
Fuck them. They deserved this.
Makoto got over her sympathies. She knew how much danger the city was in from organized crime and she alone could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the man who was supposed to protect the city, Chief Superintendent Chiba, was as dirty as they came.
That meant that survival was the order of the day. Her survival. Not Ami's.
Ami would understand. Hell, this whole crazy mess was the result of Ami's decisions in the first place. Sure, it was going completely pear-shaped, but she couldn't let her partner down. Not now, not after everything they'd been through. She had to survive.
Makoto braced herself. Her shotgun roared with each pump. The shot sprayed harmlessly high. Furniture and drywall turned into shrapnel under the sheer destructive force of her weapon. Maybe a little sick to say, but Makoto had never felt so alive. Bullets flew all around. One brushed by close enough to leave a searing kiss on her cheek. Despite all that, Makoto felt strangely safe. She knew sure as stone that none of those bullets had her name on them.
Where the hell was Ami anyways? Makoto squinted through the smoke.
There she was. Poetry in motion.
Makoto watched Ami slide between debris and reach the relative safety of a broken pillar. She smiled with grim pride as the final 2 gangsters fell to the ground around her.
Doing the impossible. That's her girl.
Well, damn.
They might just get out of this alive afterall.
White smoke wafted through the room. Bits of broken glass and drywall fell amid the destruction. For the first time, Ami considered the possibility of tomorrow.
No, it was too soon for that.
She looked down at the bloodstain growing on her shirt and knew it was only a matter of time. Ami pushed off the pillar, lurching forward like a drunken sailor. Each step broke fresh waves of pain through her body, but each step brought her closer to Makoto, so walk she must. All the words she'd been too afraid to say before coursed through her veins. Repetitions of "I'm sorry" and "I love you" replaced the flickering beat of her heart. Feelings that had been locked away and buried were now a ghost possessing her corpse – moving one foot in front of the other until her legs gave out and she fell at Makoto's feet.
Once again, Makoto caught her before she hit the ground. How did she keep doing that? Mako was always there for her. It was nice. She felt safe. Loved. Ami closed her eyes for a moment to simply enjoy the feeling. Through the buzz, she could hear Makoto, telling her to hold on. Ami looked up and saw that Makoto crying.
Oh Mako...no. Please don't.
Ami reached out, thinking to wipe the tears off Makoto's face. They didn't belong there.
"Mako..."
"Hey. It's ok. I'm here. Don't push yourself. An ambulance is on it's way. Katarina sent me a text a few minutes ago. She says the warrant finally came through. The judge panicked and ordered an immediate arrest when he heard I wasn't in protective custody anymore. Did you hear that Ami? They just arrested Chiba. He's confessed to everything - even to the murder of Artemis Katze. It's over. We got him. We did it."
It was getting harder and harder to think. Ami knew that Chiba was relevant, but how or why eluded her. There were more important things besides. She lay there, her head on Makoto's lap, trying to remember what it was she'd been so desperate to say just a few seconds ago.
"S-sorry Mako. Sorry I punched you back there."
Makoto gave a little laugh.
"Nevermind that! I owed you one anyways. Remember the day we met? I punched you right in the stomach. Fair is fair."
"No..."
"Really? You don't remember? Liar. You remember everything."
"Not...not the day we met. We met before. Long ago... years. Before. In another life. The alley...you saved me. I never said thank you."
"Oh..." Makoto whispered. "That was you."
Ami's heart fluttered. Suddenly she was deeply afraid. "I tried. I'm sorry. I really tried." She fished about blindly, terrified of being alone. "Makoto? Are you there? I swear, I tried! I don't want to leave you...I don't want to go..." Ami sobbed. She couldn't see Makoto, or anything anymore.
Makoto caught her flailing hand and gave it a soft squeeze.
"Come on. Don't talk this. You're going to be fine."
With Makoto holding her hand, Ami found the strength to speak. "You showed me the way. You made me believe. Tell me. Did I do right? Was I strong? Please, I need to know..."
Ami felt the gentle murmur of lips moving against her forehead.
"You are strong Ami. You're the strongest person I know."
Warmth radiated from Makoto's kiss, bringing with it a lightness she hadn't felt since she was a child. Ami smiled, content at last. "I'm not, but thank you for saying it. I've always wanted to hear you say that." Mako would figure it out one day. "Makoto, you are a better partner, a better person, than I could ever describe. Even if we had a lifetime - a thousand years - that wouldn't be enough time with you. It's been an honour. Thank you. I'm sorry... " Ami trailed off. So much she wanted to say, but this was all she had. "I love you Makoto."
[End]
[Epilogue : Hong Kong Police College – 3 years later]
"Awww...come on Inspector Kino! You were involved in one of the biggest triad busts in Hong Kong history! You took down the Hung Fa Boys, the Yuet To Tong AND the Yakuza. There's got to be something you can tell us about what triads are really like. You must have some stories!"
Makoto shook her head. A nostalgic smile quirked at her lips at the eagerness of these recruits. They were officer candidates - the best and brightest of last year's police college graduating class - but in Makoto's eyes, they were still just kids.
"Don't forget, I also arrested my own Chief for corruption. That's just as big a deal as all the rest of it."
A contemplative murmur rippled around the classroom at that. Makoto looked around at all her students. They would all go on to lead their own units in time. What could she tell them to help them on their way?
"Triads, in my experience, are nothing special. They're just people. Good people, bad people, and everything in between- just like the rest of society."
She could see them all in her mind's eye. All the people she had met during her years undercover.
Diana and her Yakuza had fled the city after the Club BamBam shootout, never to return. Tokyo PD was still constantly calling her for consultations but it seemed that her powerbase was more or less broken. Organized crime was trending down, both in Tokyo and in Hong Kong. Makoto wasn't sure how much of that could be attributed to her work, but she was glad of the end results either way.
Motoki and Umino were both arrested soon after the shootout, but they both managed to get pretty sweet plea bargains in exchange for their co-operation. Last she heard, they were both out of jail and were preparing to open a cafe together. Some kind of hipster fried shrimp video game arcade thing or something. She'd received an invitation to their grand opening set for next month and was looking forward to attending.
Of Haruka however, Makoto had no news. Haruka had vanished without trace. Makoto wasn't too worried about her however. Based on surveillance footage, the last known sighting of Tenoh Haruka had her in the company of one Kaioh Michiru. Given the way that both their apartments had been packed up when Makoto investigated, it was a pretty good bet that her old friend was somewhere out there living life on the run with Michiru by her side. If there had to be the one who got away, Makoto was glad that Haruka was the one.
"As police officers," she continued, "it's not who they are that matters. The question is who we are. We're not out there to judge. Don't get caught in the trap of thinking it's 'us vs them'. It's not. That path leads to some very dark places that trust me, you don't want to go to. There is no enemy out there. There are only people to serve and to protect. It's literally in our motto: "To Serve with Pride and Care"... so you know, go out there and serve with pride and care. Take care of yourself, take care in what you do, and do things that you can be proud of. Your experiences however, will be your own. Everyone's got to walk their own path, and as someone once said to me, you can't do that with someone else's voice bouncing around in your head. If there was anything one thing I learned from my time with the triads that I want to pass on, is this: Do what's right, even if it's hard. Oh! And if you're ever going to do anything that would betray your partner's trust..."
The students all knew how to finish that sentence. They did so in unison:
"DON'T DO IT!"
"Damn straight. Good stuff everyone." A knock at the door drew Makoto's attention. She looked over to see Katarina leaning against the doorframe. "Well, it's your lucky day. You all get to go home early today. Looks like I have some company. We'll be going over some case studies next lecture, specifically the Lau Kin Ming investigation and issues regarding Article 23 of Basic Law. Be sure you finish your assigned readings by Thursday. Understood?"
"YES MADAM!"
"Wonderful. Alright then. Ateeennn-SHUN!"
The recruits snapped to attention with the scuffle of chairs and a stamp of boots. Makoto flushed with pride, as she often did, seeing how well her class worked as a team.
"Squad diiiissss-MISSED!"
The students snapped a crisp salute. At their instructor's nod, they broke formation and began gathering their things to leave the classroom.
Katarina sauntered over to the desk where Makoto was gathering up her things as well.
"Well, Makoto. Looks like you run a tight ship around here."
Makoto looked at her retreating students fondly.
"Ahhh, you know. A little discipline never hurt anyone. They're going to do good things out there. I just know it."
"I'm sure they will, otherwise, I'll be seeing them."
Makoto laughed. "Not if I get to them first!".
Kataraina chuckled as well. "So, since we're on the topic, I just came by to tell you: the parole board met this morning. Chiba's application was denied. He's going to be in prison for the rest of his sentence." Makoto nodded, grimly satisfied at the news. Justice was harsh, but it was justice. "We ought to celebrate!" Katarina continued. "A bunch of us are doing steaks at Sammy's Kitchen tonight. Maybe hit LKF after. You want to come? It's your win as much as anyone's, if not more so."
"Nah, you ICAC folk put alot into this. You guys deserve to celebrate without having me around third wheeling."
"What are you talking about? The boys all love you. It's been ages. Even Kwok is over it. All he ever says about you is that you've got a hella good left hook."
Makoto smirked. "If he thought that was good, he ought to see my right. Thanks for the invite though. I would, but I've actually already got plans tonight."
"Oh really!?" Katarina waggled her eyebrows. "Did you finally ask that cute nurse from Queen Elizabeth out?"
"Funny story. Turns out she's a surgeon, and uh...she asked me. She's got a thing for tall, beautiful, buff women." Makoto shrugged at Katarina's shocked face. "What? Her words! Not mine."
"Eh, be careful dating a surgeon. They're known for being type A workaholics."
"Yeah probably, but - " Makoto countered. "they're also known for being good with their hands."
"Hah! You're incorrigible you know that?" Katarina gave her a clap on the back. "Hey! You should bring her with tonight! Nothing like a bunch of cops touting your heroism all night to really seal the deal if-you-know-what-I-mean. Plus, the crepes at Sammy's are to diiiiiie for.""
"I'm good. Maybe next time. She's kind of shy. I don't want you lot scaring her off on our first date."
"Suit yourself. I got to head back to the office before going out tonight. You need a ride back to HQ?"
"No thank you. I want to hit the gym before sprucing up for the big date. I uh, really like this girl. She seems really sweet, so I hope it goes well.
"Awwwwwwwww. So cute. I'm sure it will. Go get 'em tiger. You got this."
Katarina left the room leaving Makoto alone to finish gathering her things. When she was done, she took one last look around the empty classroom. All was well.
She turned out the lights.
A.N.
Wow. After 80 thousand odd words, it looks like Ami's story has come to an end. I hope you've all enjoyed the ride! This has been about a year and a half in the making, and yeah, it's been fun. I've definitely made myself nostalgic for Hong Kong so maybe a vacation is in order, or at least a marathon session of HK cinema.
Thanks again to my dear Balambfish for the prompt that took us all down this seemingly unceasing path.
Brycelozier and TheKissingHand. Reviews and fanart? You guys are spoiling me as an author, and I thank you.
My friends on discord, thanks for beta reading, and nudging me through this thing gently when I was mad writer's blocking. I promise, I will finish those Mako/Ami lemons eventually.
A shout out to my wife, for putting up with the sheer amount of talking I've done about this fic. Love you!
and of course, to all of you:
THANK YOU FOR READING! Hope you've had as much fun as I have.
I'll see y'all again real soon ok? IN the mean time, feel free to drop me a note or a review. I do so enjoy correspondence.
Peace and love,
-Drift.