Yami climbed out of the car, and Mokuba tugged on Seto's arm. "What? Why's he suddenly doing it? We're going home! …I-…I need to pee!"
"Then pee inside the chocolate store," Yami said seriously, pointing at the shattered building. "With an escort of 8 police. Still need to pee?" He watched Mokuba's face turn pale, and he smiled thinly. "Didn't think so. You can hold it, Mokuba. We'll be done soon."
And he turned to follow Anzu down the street towards the hoard of police cars, hearing Anzu mutter to him, "you're harsh. Way to make an imprint."
"We don't want him turning out like Seto," Yami said blithely, thinking Seto also had this sentiment.
"Let's not fuck Mokuba up," had been a long and arduous conversation topic in their relationship. He wasn't allowed to keep a motorcycle because Seto knew Mokuba would want to copy him.
They ducked under the police tape, and several suspicious stares were aimed his way as Anzu led him to a white police van, and Yami glanced pointedly at the shuttered windows.
A man who had a phone to his ear reached for Yami's arm and pulled him closer to the front of the van, asking loudly into the receiver, "how about this one? We got him as he was walking by on the street we closed down!"
Inside the store, the two thugs eyed the slender, spiky-haired man in the plain black tank top standing by the police van looking tired and angry, and they replied into their phone, "sure—"
"Wait, is that… Hang on, is that Honda's friend?" A third thug came up behind them to peek out through the shutters, thinking he recognized the spiky hair. "That guy paid for Rina's exhaust. Not him. He might be one of Honda's friends doing it for parole points. Get them to send a girl."
And Yami could hear the men's voices in the officer's cellphone. He rolled his eyes.
Yeah, he didn't think so.
"But he's one of us!" The thugs by the window insisted, and the negotiator let out a long sigh, muting the cell and eyeing Yami with a tired frown, asking, "are you yakuza?"
"No," Yami replied honestly, and Anzu supplemented for him.
"He's friends with some. So he's practically in with the crowd."
"I am not," Yami protested, and the negotiator turned back to listen to the men arguing on the other end.
"We'll take 'one of us' over some girl who will scream and cry! This guy can help us out. If we outrank him," the second thug insisted. "Get his name from Honda?"
"Fine, let him in and find out what his deal is, but don't tell him anything about us!" The third thug snapped, and Isono, who was sitting in the cashier's chair with his hands zip tied together in his lap, rolled his eyes.
The man walked away to dial Honda while Yami was given the pass to go inside, so he was handed a giant stack of bentos that were extremely heavy…with stacks of cash inside.
"You're gonna be okay unarmed?" Anzu asked worriedly as she walked him to the door of the grocery store, and Yami was about to nod when the sliding doors were pried apart and the barrel of a gun poked out through the crack as a thug shouted at them, "back away, lady! Let him in! No guns!"
Anzu held her hands up defensively and walked backwards back to the police van, watching Yami get dragged into the grocery store and the doors slid shut with a click!
Yami set the pile of bentos down on a fruit table that had been cleared and surveyed the store, instantly seeing Isono sitting bound by the cashier's belt, and groups of women on one side of the store while the men were huddled on the other side, separated by a row of check-out belts.
"What's up?" Yami shrugged and waved at the thug standing beside Isono, who he thought he recognized from the ramen bar Honda enjoyed eating at so often. "What are you guys doing?"
"Nothing. Shut up and go sit with the men," the man behind Isono grunted, jerking his elbow at the men huddled against the wall.
"Can I sit with you? ...Hey, can I smoke?" Yami asked brashly, grabbing a bag of chips from the rack by the check-out belt and tearing it open to start eating. "Oh nice, can I get some meat? You think I can carry it back—ow ow, watch your step, hey my shoes are new…!"
He was grabbed by the elbow, yanked forward so fast, he almost spilled the chips, but he kept chewing it loudly while a fourth thug that had been standing guard by the men dragged him over to sit him down by the shopping carts.
"Stay."
"Hey, Seiji…right? Or Shinjiro?" Yami asked with a wide smile, nodding at the yakuza's large, silver gun. "Think I know your twin brother—hey did you see a car chase earlier? Wait. Can I take…whatever I want right now?"
He tossed the bag of chips into an empty shopping cart and grabbed it out of the rails. "Let's pile this up full of expensive meat and wheel it out the back so I can get it later!"
The yakuza rubbed his brow in annoyance while the two other guys by the window talked quietly on another phone, and the man standing behind Isono shuffled his gun from one hand to another, bored.
"Just don't make any girls scream, and hurry up," the man said gruffly, crossing his arms and sitting back on the cashier belt, crossing his thick legs. "Get a ham for my brother, won't you? Don't think the police will let us out of this one easy. I might do time for this."
"I'll mail you a ham if you're in for more than four months," Yami said with a shrug. "But you guys aren't stealing or killing, so I doubt they'll pin you for anything other than public disturbance."
"STOP TALKING. Get your fucking ham and go out the back!" The man from behind Isono yelled. "I know you. You're Honda's casino friend. Get out."
Yami stared at the man standing behind Isono and blinked, wondering if he could draw this man away from the manservant. Casino. Was this…Honda's supervisor?
Wheeling the shopping cart around the checkout counter, Yami stood on the edge of the cart and grinned at the man, looking him full in the face while pointedly ignoring Isono.
"Manager-sannnn? Is that you?" He said loudly, wondering if there were any more thugs, because Joey's initial count of 16 guys was off. As he suspected.
There was one guarding the women.
Two by the window with the phone.
One guarding the men.
And one, holding Isono 'hostage'.
Were there any more in the store?
They all acted bored like they were on orders to stand-by.
"You survived the pachinko parlor gassing? …That was scary," Yami lamented, and he wheeled the shopping cart away while he rode it like a skateboard, singing at the top of his lungs, "…there's no problemmmmm…when I'mmmm the problemmm…!" He loudly loaded big bottles of sake into the cart while still singing, "She saaaaaaid….. I like bad booooys…"
He whizzed the cart past the alcohol aisle and tossed a few ramen packs on top of the bottles, "….They make gooooood toys—"
"SHUT THE FUCK! …UP! AND STOP STEALING BOOZE!" The Yakuza manager from the front roared, and the other men could be heard grumbling at him.
"Leave him alone, he's probably let out of house arrest."
"Let him have fun… He's only taking meat."
"I hear him taking alcohol! That little fucking liar! We're not trying to get busted for petty stealing!"
He's going to have to leave Isono to make me stop, Yami grinned as he wheeled the cart around behind a freezer of frozen meat and pulled out his phone to text Seto.
"I still have my phones, they didn't search me and they haven't touched the bento money. 6 guys, all armed. Everyone is OK. Get officers to the store's back entrance."
And he put his phone into the freezer right beside a packet of meat, hearing footsteps coming up the aisle, so he grabbed a huge stack of packaged meat and paused when he saw the manager come stalking over to him without his gun, glaring furiously.
"You think this is a fun time, huh?" The manager hissed, grabbing Yami by the arm and shaking him, almost making him drop all the meat. "Put that shit down. Put the alcohol back. You're leaving now."
"These wagyu cuts are never on saaale!" Yami raised his voice into a whine. "It's so expensiveee…. I'll leave the booze. I'll sing a different song, I promiiise. I'm only taking a few packs that I can eat today!"
"You're a dumb shithead, aren't you?" The manager hissed, giving his collar a rough shake. "We're here on business. Don't fuck around. I know you work with the police. Don't get us into further trouble by stealing more than 10,000 yen worth of shit!"
Yami was released, and he took a step back, dropping all of the meat on the ground in a loud clatter, and he let out a groan, "Uuhghhh….."
He glanced up through his bangs to see the manager striding back through the aisle, aiming for the front again, so before the man could reach the middle, Yami ran forward to tackle the man down to the ground with an oof! and quickly wrapped his arm around the man's neck, steadily choking him while he kept his knee down on the middle of the man's spine while the man flailed helplessly against the ground, so to hide the sounds of scuffling, Yami raised his head to keep singing to the soup cans around them, "….She saiiiid I only date bad boyyyyys! …..I like newwwwwwww toys…!"
The man went limp underneath him, and Yami dragged him around the aisle, still singing, "…Don't give innnnnnn…!" He propped the unconscious man up against the meat freezer and felt someone step up beside him on the other side of the aisle.
Shit.
"Don't look in her eyeesss and say…." Yami sprung upwards with his fist raised and punched the larger man in the jaw, following through with his other hand, slapping it down onto the man's face to silence him, seeing a packet of frozen meat on the ground when the man came crashing down, and he used that to smother the man's face to muffle his screaming, almost yelling the song at the top of his lungs, "oops, I hit a wall—BAAAYYYBE, YOU'RE SO PREEEEEEEEETTY…"
He stopped yelling and hummed while dragging the other burly man towards the meat freezer, hearing his phone buzz inside, so he dipped his hand into the coldness and fished it out, seeing several texts.
SETO: this is Anzu. Got 7 men around the back entrance. Are you coming out that way with hostages?
SETO: …any reason you can't text her on THAT phone? I hate other ppl touching my phone
SETO: you know that.
SETO: mokuba wants an ice cream. don't know why it went from 'I need to pee' to 'ice cream'
SETO: reply 'Y' if you're ok even tho I know you're always ok but reply for real. It's been 12 mins
SETO: now 15 min. ANZU IS THREATENING TO TAKE MY PHONE FOR 'POLICE REASONS'
Yami texted back 'Y' and added, "two officers can sneak in, I'll unlock the door from the back. I have unconscious yakuza here."
He set the phone back atop another packet of meat in the freezer and kept humming, grabbing the cart and wheeling it aside, calling out, "heading out back! Coming back for another cart!" And dashed through the narrow hallway to slowly push the employee door open. He was instantly met with shields, guns, and agents in full riot gear. Sheesh.
He pressed a finger to his lips and tilted his head back, taking two officers with him and showing them the unconscious men.
They carefully set their shields down and worked together to carry them away.
Yami took the shopping cart and wheeled it playfully down another aisle, setting tins of tuna and soup into the front basket and arriving at the check out counter where Isono was sitting with his eyes closed, taking a stress-nap.
"Hey, old man, ring me up," Yami thumped a can of soup onto the belt and saw Isono open his eyes with a jerk and sharpen instantly.
One thug was still by the window, clutching his phone and staring out the shuttered window. The other two were guarding the hostages with tired yawns.
"Oh, I forgot to bring an ice cream. I have a kid who wants one," Yami announced, thunking another can of soup onto the belt, aware that none of the other yakuza were paying him any attention. He could take Isono out the back safely this way.
"Come here, old man. You look like you know what flavor kids like," he circled the counter and grabbed Isono by the arm, reaching down under to cut his zip-tie restraints with the scissors that was sitting blatantly in the cashier's pen cup.
Isono tensed and rubbed his wrists gratefully, standing slowly and hearing the yakuza from the women's side speak up, "hey! He's our money ransom guy. Don't fuck with him. Leave him alone."
"I just brought you a fuck ton of money, what are you talking about?" Yami jeered, pointing at the bento sack. "No one fucking opened that to check? I could've just taken one stack for myself then. What's this old fart worth? You're all fucking crazy. He's someone's dad."
He pulled Isono out from behind the cashier counter and walked him down the aisle, heading for ice cream and still humming loudly, keeping himself in sight of the yakuza who guarded the women. He knew that man was getting suspicious.
"HEY! Where's Takkun and Rio?" The man called to him while Yami bent over the popsicle boxes and handed an assorted fruit one to Isono.
"Taking a piss! They had to piss together like little babies!" Yami yelled back, and he saw the man let out a huff and roll his eyes.
Isono clutched the box of popsicles to his chest while Yami led him around the back of the aisle, where they were met with a group of police, and a smear of blood on the ground.
"VIP, I take him out back myself," Yami growled, not wanting to let go of Isono for one second. He knew this man was like a father to Seto and Mokuba. "Move."
No one stopped him.
The sun blasted him across the neck when they walked down the sidewalk, past the police tape, and Anzu came running up to him breathlessly. Yami briefed her while leading Isono across the closed street back to the limo, feeling the man shaking with relief beside him as he talked.
"Women are on one side, men are on the other, and two men are hovering by the windows," Yami said confidently. "You can storm in and overpower them. They won't retaliate. They're all bored."
Anzu nodded and dashed away, relaying this in her earpiece.
Yami approached the back of the limo and led Isono to the open door, where Mokuba let out an excited cheer when he saw them together, arm-in-arm.
Seto noticed how pale his manservant looked, but Mokuba paid it no attention.
"Oh! You brought me ice cream! That was fast! Thanks Isono!" Mokuba scrambled to the front to snatch the box of popsicles from Isono's shaking hands, and Seto helped his manservant down into a sitting position beside him, briefly resting his hand on his shoulder, giving him a knowing nod, and turning back to grab the box away from Mokuba.
"Ever say 'thank you' properly, you little brat?" Seto snapped, and Mokuba climbed over his legs to reach the box.
"I said 'thanks, Isono'! Didn't you hear me?! Gimme it!"
Yami rested his hand on the door handle of the limo, about to shut it when he realized he left his phone in the meat freezer.
"Oh crap. I left my phone inside," he said with a shrug. "I'll go get it—"
"Stay here! You can leave it!" Seto snapped, his anxiety on high. "Let's go."
"I can get it. I'm not leaving my phone in the hands of…police," Yami replied with his eyebrows raised, and Seto shook his head in defeat. Fucking fine.
Yami waved cheerfully and walked back across the street, ducking casually underneath the police tape, past the hostages that were being led out the back door, and through the narrow hallway where it took him straight into the freezer aisle, and he found his phone right where he'd left it, inside the packaged meats box.
He reached in to pull it out, hearing Anzu call out to him, "no stealing!"
Yami's eyelid twitched and he raised his phone up to show her, "left it here. Let me get the one that belongs to Kaiba's manservant."
Anzu sighed in defeat and waved him away, so Yami walked past her and saw the police dumping out everyone's phones onto the cashier belt. He spied the white case that was Isono's and reached forward to pluck it out of the stack, earning a few shocked looks, so he threw up a 'hang loose' sign and walked right out the front doors.
"Let him go!" Anzu's command could be heard echoing behind him, and Yami smirked to himself, seeing the limo pull up behind the piles of police cars.
He dashed forward to throw himself into the passenger seat and enjoyed the way the driver maneuvered them between all the stopped cars with ease and precision.
The police were removing the roadblocks, and they were waved through without incident.
Yami turned around in the seat to see all three Kaiba's enjoying their popsicles and he handed the phone back to Isono.
The manservant got up to accept it with both hands and walked back to sit down solemnly beside Mokuba, who was watching a video loudly on his phone.
"Someone pass me a good flavor," Yami called over his shoulder, and a half-melted yuzu flavored one was handed to him.
Oh. How disappointing.
"You sure you want to eat that?" Seto asked dryly, inching forward to lean against the back of the passenger seat, offering up his dark orange popsicle that was more than half-eaten. "See anything interesting in there?"
"All wagyu was 30% off today," Yami commented, taking the stick from Seto and biting off the rest, his tongue tingling nicely, and Isono spoke up quietly.
"The perfect day to buy it."
Seto cracked a smile and replied, "yeah we're not shopping there anymore."
Yami returned the box with a smile and kept the popsicle in his lap, suddenly feeling extremely tired.
He had to wonder how Anzu did this every day. As a real job.
Back inside the store, Anzu, Joey, the store owner, and a couple other officers were reviewing the security feeds.
They watched in fearful silence as Yami rode around the aisles like a kid on a shopping cart skateboard, singing at the top of his lungs while he methodically took out two men and left them unconscious by the meat freezer.
Joey clenched and unclenched his fists from around the butt of his gun, finally understanding why Anzu thought Yami was really dangerous. The earlier footage he'd been shown of this man 'murdering', was grainy, missing some parts, and had been ripped from deleted footage belonging to a foreign corporation. And Yami had used a combo of long ranged guns and poison. That footage only showed Yami going in and out of the building, scowling at a camera and then guys dying behind him without being touched.
This here was crisp, clear footage of Yami riding around the store, acting carefree while committing tactical take downs.
It was chilling.
Even their best officers couldn't do this.
"Your…Yakuza contact is gonna need to pay his friends back for that," an officer finally spoke up, and Joey stared unblinkingly at Yami picking his phone up from the meat freezer to check it, replying automatically, "He ain't no gangster. You ever see a gangster do this kinda stuff?"
"Wouldn't know," the store owner replied with a pale face. "But he's fighting his own group there, isn't he? Are we going to see some street violence?"
Anzu grimaced and shook her head, "download it all and put it on my desk. It'll go into his existing file, and no. The yakuza are terrified of him… Let's go, Jou."
Joey nodded and followed Anzu out onto the sidewalk, daring to ask, "so…are we still doin' pizza Saturdays with him or nah?"
"Yeah, we are," Anzu said with a nod. "He's our best unlisted guy, don't you think?"
"But ya don't hate him or nothin'?" Joey prodded carefully, hooking his thumbs into his belt, thinking he quite liked Yami, especially since he'd saved them from a spray of bullets on the street earlier. That had been cool.
But he did kill a guy on the back of the head with three police bullets.
And then another guy in the car with two bullets in the back of the head.
That was gonna be his report to write.
Last time, it had been Anzu.
Now it was his turn.
"No, I actually…kinda like him," Anzu replied with a small smile. "I think we're friends. I don't hate him at all. He's nice in his own way."
"Ya know who I hate more than him?" Joey answered with a nod. "Dat Kaiba guy. Man, you should see the way he looks at me sometimes, ya'd think I'm dog doo on his shoe."
Anzu laughed and privately agreed. If anything, Yami's association with the CEO told her more about the other side of his personality more clearly than any file could.
Author's note:
yami is such a shit stirrer (more to come! now they have yami on camera wuh oh) he better be careful or someone might be building a case against him lmfao