How did this mission go wrong so fast?

It was supposed to be a simple recon mission, just search the perimeter so that there wouldn't be any last surprises before they brought the place down. The unspoken side quest was to bust a rumor. There's been word that Kaneshiro also had a secret underground slave trade somewhere in his club, selling his employees who weren't able to pay back his dirty money.

Makoto couldn't come. The risk was too big. They thought they had her under her thumb and had seen her face. Ryuji volunteered to stay behind with her, shocking everyone including Makoto; but she didn't protest. That left Akira, Ann, Morgana, and Yusuke to infiltrate the building.

Since Yusuke was still new, Mona paired with Yusuke to coach him through the process and make sure he wouldn't mess up. That left Akira with Ann, which shocked and thrilled him. Shocked because Mona would've jumped at the chance to partner up with his Lady Ann. He guesses it shows how serious he was taking the mission. Thrilled because that puts him in close proximity to the girl he's been crushing on since he first met her underneath that awning that rainy day in April. The pig-tailed blonde has only grown closer as a comrade, friend, partner and he could only dream that they could become closer.

Yusuke and Mona stayed down stairs with the rest of the partiers while Ann and Akira snuck onto the less crowded upstairs levels. The club was Kaneshiro's stomping grounds. If he had anything to hide, he'd most definitely hide it here.

And as they stealthily ransacked the upper floor, they found the motherload.

The room was lined wall to wall with safes stacked on safes, and each one had a picture of one of his victims on it. The pictures ranged from high school students, to middle class workers to elderly men and women. Each of the locks had an eight digit combination lock.

They tried the code Makoto told them.

And the safe opened. As did another one. And another one. And another one.

"This guy is an idiot. Who uses the same password for different safes?"

"Maybe he thought that no one besides his workers would find them," Ann said. "But yeah, still stupid."

Inside the safes were everything he had on the people: their social security numbers, credit cards, bank cards, addresses, phone numbers, and even more personal information. It was just the evidence and the final push they needed to bring him down.

"I think we saw what we needed to see. Ready to go, Ann?" He turned around to see her further inside the room, standing up from her previous crouched position in front of the random safe.

"Ann?"

"Y-Yeah. Ready to go."


They'd finished exploring the second floor and were halfway finished exploring the last one. Panther was walking ahead of him when he noticed something strange about the blonde, or rather her suit.

The leather was very skin tight on her form, leaving very little of her left to the imagination but also having the disadvantage of being able to hide very little. And there was a very apparent bulge in one of her many pockets.

"Did you take something?"

"Uh.."

This was an infiltration mission; it was an in and out just to survey and account for the inner workings and evidence within the hideout. They weren't supposed to take anything! They weren't even supposed to leave evidence that they were here!

"Panther-"

"I know. I know, but I couldn't just leave it there." Her face morphed into a scowl. Ann has always been one to wear her feelings on her sleeve, a trait that many considered a weakness that she turned into her strength, so for her to be this upset it must've been very important. It also wasn't like her to jeopardize a mission like this.

Pow

Panther's fell to her knees.

"One's down!" Two of Kaneshiro's men somehow snuck up behind them. Both of their guns were raised and now trained on him. "Get the other one!"

Akira pulled his own gun from his holster. He fired off two shots and scooped Panther up in quick succession. Their screams of pain was background noise as he sprinted down the hall, trying not to jostle Panther too much in his hold.

She was bleeding profusely from the wound in her side. He couldn't slow down. He had to find a safe place to treat her.

"They went this way!"

If only he could lose these stragglers.

Ann groaned in his arms. Her face was scrunched up in pain. She was tucking furthering into the comfort of his chest, trying to curl up into a fetal position against him.

"Shh. It's going to be okay, Ann. Just hold on for a bit longer." Or at least he hopes it's just for a little longer.


The office space was large. It must've belonged to someone high up. The room reeked of old money. He had to admit it was nice, but the heinous acts that no doubt also happened in this room blemished that thought immediately.

There were two cushioned arm chairs set in front of the swanky looking desk. Akira placed Ann gently in the seat, trying to position her in a position that wasn't causing extra pressure on the injury. He didn't care about the blood that might spill on the upholstery. It was paid for from blood money anyway, why not make it look like it.

He left her slanted on the seat to search round the office space. They didn't make it a habit of carrying medical supplies on them. As ninjas they had to be light and as quick as possible. Any extra baggage or supplies could fatally slow them down. So they were trained to use material they could find on hand.

"There has to be something useful here," Akira thought as walked behind the desk. He took little= care in opening the drawers, yanking them out just shy of breaking them. Luckily the hinges were oiled well so there wasn't any loud scraping.

Cologne. Couldn't use that.

Tissues.

Condoms.

Ew. Okay. He made a mental reminder to take a thorough bath tonight. In the bottom cabinet there was a large bottle of Akashi Super Dry. Also useful. He was extra careful pulling out a few tissues.

"A-Akira? W-where are we?"

"Still in Kaneshiro's club. We're on the top floor." He answered as he kneeled down in front of her with the tissues and alcohol in hand. She was still breathing readily, but it had slowed more from when they were running in the hallways. She needed treatment soon.

"I'm going to move your hand now, okay?"

"You don't have to coach me through it, Akira." She turned her head a little, trying to catch his eyes without moving too much. "I-I'm fine. Just…do what you need…to do. I'm a big girl." She smiled, a small, pained one. She was so strong, especially after all that she'd gone through. He admired her so much for that, but if only she knew she didn't have to be around him. He wasn't looking for anything from her. He wants to tell her that she didn't have to hold herself together so tightly around him, or would she get upset if he told her this?

For now, he could only do what he could to prove it to her.

He set the tissues and the bottle of alcohol down for a moment. He brought his gloved hands up to his mouth. With his teeth, he pulled off the gloves finger by finger. There was a strangled moan above him. He looked up to see Ann biting the corner of her lip, basically looking everywhere but down at him.

"Is the pain getting worse?"

"No! Just a l-little, uh, hot right now."

Huh? Don't you usually get colder as you lose blood?

His brow had furrowed when he noticed the quick glances at him, specifically where his gloved hand was merely a few centimeters away from his mouth, before she would turn away. He smirked. There was a sly remark on the tip of his tongue, but he bit it back. Now wasn't the time.

Akira pulled the other glove off of his other hand, with his hand of course. He loved teasing the blonde, but there were better times to do so. Like when she wasn't in danger of bleeding out in front of him. He brought the gloves together and doubled folded them, passing them to Ann when he decided they were thick enough.

"Bite down on these. Your manager would kill me if something happened to those pretty lips." She had a bad habit of biting her lips when she's anxious. It'd be so bad they'd nearly be bleeding when she was done. She told him it was way better than when she used to bite her nails.

Akira waited until the gloves were firmly between her teeth to grab the bottle from beside his leg.

"Are you ready?"

"1."

"2."

"3." He started pouring the Akashi Dry on the wound. The gloves managed to muffle the screams but a few squeals may have gotten through the material.

He quickly wiped away the access. He quickly brought the end of his shirt to his mouth and bit down, tearing a long strip of the fabric off. Ann jolted up at the stripping sound.

"What are you doing?"

"Shh. Gotta apply pressure to the wound." He folded the strip of the shirt over and pressed it against her wound. She hissed as the contact, but replaced his hand holding it down with hers.

"Your stomach's going to be exposed."

"It's fine. We're about to get out of here anyway." They've been compromised. Nothing good will come out of them staying any longer. They were on the highest floor of the club. There are guards on the roof so they can't go there. This would have to be high enough. He reached into his hidden pocket and pulled out a flat, rectangular object: a flashlight. Ann started to sit up at the sight of it.

"Are you about to signal the others?"

"Yeah. It's time to go."


"I can't believe you'd do something so reckless!"

Right now, Makoto was letting Ann have it. And though he hates to say he told her so, he agreed with Makoto.

"I'm sorry." They had gotten Ann back to the base safely, but had to split up from Yusuke and Morgana to get her back here as quickly as possible. Her wounds were treated and properly bandaged and thankfully she didn't lose too much blood to need a blood transfusion. She was sitting on one of the medical bay cots cradling her treated side and clutching side of the cot. Her head was hanging low and she was slowly kicking her legs back and forth, definitely feeling guilty. Maybe too much judging by the way Makoto's stern demeanor was cracking.

"Give her some slack, Mako-chan," Ryuji said. The false blonde was squatting on the floor beside the cot on the opposite side to where Akira was standing, drumming his fingers on the floor before deciding Ann had been chewed out enough. "It ain't like she makes a habit of doing this."

"But-"

"Ryuji's right, Makoto." Akira interrupted her. "She wouldn't have made the risk if it wasn't important, Makoto. Hear her out."

"Fine. What did you take Ann-chan?" Makoto asked as softly as she could muster.

Ann reached in her pocket with her free hand for what she had taken from the club. It was a hard drive. With a closer look, they could see Makoto's name scribbled on the side of it.

"While we were searching the room with the safes, I found the info he had on you. I couldn't just leave it for that bastard to use," Ann said. There was an edge in her voice where he had no doubt she was thinking of the heinous act he would blackmail Makoto into doing with this information. She held the drive out to said brunette, who looked like she was choking back tears. "Here."

"Oh, Ann." The brunette stared at the hard drive astonished as Ann laid it in her open palm. Everyone could tell that Kaneshiro having her personal information was affecting her more than she was letting on. Makoto wrapped her in a hug, mindful of her friend's injuries.

"Thank you, but never put yourself in that kind of danger again."


Makoto left to go properly dispose of the flash drive and Ryuji followed her out, groaning out something about him finding something to eat. This left the other two alone in the quiet medical room.

"So… do you really think my lips are pretty."

Akira huffed out a startled laugh. Just like a skittish kitten. "I think every bit of you is pretty, even prettier when you're not injured."

"Now lay back and heal. I'll come back to check on you later." He raised her hand to his lips and gently kissed the back of her hand, finding delight in the blush that flared to her cheeks.