Late March, 2022

Fukoaka, Japan

7:30 PM

Two individuals are walking the crowded streets of Fukoaka and observing some of the food stalls that were open. One is a well dressed business man and the other is a well dressed woman with a face mask covering the bottom half of her face. The latter had a slight frustrated expression on her face as she kept glancing around the area.

"Why must we always come down here Yahata-san? You know they deliver fruit to billionaires." The woman asks, feeling anxious about being out in public like this.

"So you'd have me hand-fed like a snake then?" Yahata responds to her as he turns his head towards her. "Is that how you see me, Kana?"

"No sir, I don't. It's just that there are a lot of people around here. It makes me nervous that something might happen." Kana expresses her concern.

"I trust your judgment Kana, but try to have more faith in the world. Otherwise you would be missing out on many things the world can offer you…such as fruit for example!" He says as the two stop at a fruit stall. He takes an orange from the stand and observes its luster. "Just this one please."

As he was making a transaction, Kana was glancing around the area as she spotted a few men staring at both her and Yahata. She watches as one places his hand in a box and pulls out an item. After a second, she realized that it was a gun as her eyes widened. Instinctively, she rushes to push down her boss to protect him from the shot.

"Get down!" She shouts as the man takes a shot and explodes the orange that Yahata was holding. Kana manages to pull Yahata behind the stall as the stall was being pelted by repeated gunshots. "Stay here. I'll take care of them."

Before he could say anything, Kana ducks into the shadows as the men continue their shooting on the stall. Inside another stall, she grabs onto the stall and swings into action, kicking one of the men in the face and landing a punch on another. She then grabbed the one she punched and then aggressively slammed his face into the ground face first. Another tried taking a shot at her as the bullet whizzed past her head, barely missing its mark. In response, Kana kicks one of the support beams causing the roof of the stall to come collapsing down on her assailant's head.

She quickly grabs a cleaver that was cutting up a fish and goes on the offensive. She slid by one and sliced him in the chest, leaving a very nasty scar as he fell to the ground in pain and blood came seeping out of his chest. Quickly grabbing the knife he dropped, she was locked in a knife duel against another assailant. He goes in for an attack as she slides to the right, dodging the attack and disorienting him with a punch. She then did a backflip onto his head as she threw the knife at another assailant's head which instantly killed him and forced the one she was currently fighting to the ground. She then gripped his arm and twisted it so hard that the bone was dislocated. He let out a sharp cry of pain before she stomped on his head to silence him.

Exhausted from the constant fighting, she stopped to catch her breath when she heard Yahata calling out for her. It was faint and weak as she then rushed to the stall that she left him at to see him on the ground in a small pool of blood with his left hand holding onto his chest. He lets out a painful breath as he sees her kneeling down.

"Kana…" He manages to breathe out before he lays there motionless.

"Yahata-san!? No! You can't be serious!" She says desperately hoping that this was nothing more than a dream or illusion. "You can't die!"

He gave no response as a few stray tears trickled down her face. She cries out in anguish over the death of her boss as she quietly curses to herself for letting this happen. She grabs his lifeless hand and clutches it in hers.

"I might've failed to protect you…but I'll find who caused this and avenge you. I swear on my tainted honor." She says with determination as she observes the scene. "I might want to call in some help."

*Timeskip*

A small group from the SAT was dispatched to Kana's location as they had met up with her. The group consisted of two men and one woman who were all dressed in navy blue uniforms with ballistic helmets. Kana was leaning against the stand when one called out to her.

"Fujiwara-san! We came as fast as we could!" One of the men shouts out to her.

"Well, it's good that you're finally here Maeda-san. Also, just call me Azami." She responds as he gives her a puzzled look.

"Uh…why?"

"I don't deserve to be called that name…not after what happened. I need to reclaim my lost honor." She explains sternly.

"O-kay then. If you say so."

"It'll be fine Kenji. So then Azami, could you please explain to us what happened?" The woman turns to her.

"Right, so it all started when both me and Yahata-san came down here to purchase some fruit. I was paranoid about him being out here in the open, only for me to be correct. While he was in the process of purchasing an orange, I saw a passerby pull out a gun from a bag and immediately tackled Yahata-san to the ground. Bringing him behind the fruit stall, I told him to stay put as I went to handle the group of assailants. Once I finished however, I found him behind the stall clutching his chest. He died seconds later." She explained to the group.

"Okay, so that explains the large amount of dead bodies laying around the area." The woman responds. "Let's find Yahata's body for now."

Azami nods as she leads the three to Yahata's body. Yahata was lying on the ground just as Azami had found him and the second male SAT operative approached the body. Kneeling down next to it, he moved the hand covering his chest and noticed a small gun wound near Yahata's heart. He glances at the wound and then down at the pool of blood as he was deep in thought. It's obvious what killed Yahata…but how did he end up with a bullet wound.

"Is something up Ejiro?" The woman operative asks him.

"He obviously died from loss of blood from the gun wound…but wasn't he behind this stall the whole time?" He asks Azami as she nods. "Then my question is how did he end up getting shot? Under the assumption that you kept all of the assailants occupied, my two theories can be deduced to be that a stray bullet ended up reaching him or there was another shooter that snuck onto the scene and shot him."

"But wouldn't I have heard the sound of him getting shot?" Azami points out.

"Not exactly. Chances are that our culprit used a silencer and used the commotion with you and those men as a cover to commit the murder." Ejiro explains to her. "Natsume, do you have camera access?"

"I'm checking that right now" She is swiping her finger on a tablet. "Yes I do. I'm pulling up the latest recording."

All four gather around as the recording starts with Azami pushing Yahata down and pulling him to cover. The ongoing fight continues as Azami was fighting to protect Yahata from these individuals when Natsume pauses the recording.

"Do you three see that silhouette?" She asks, pointing towards a glimpse of a dark silhouette in the recording. It was off to the right and difficult to spot without a closer inspection. "That might be our culprit."

"That might be true…but that could've been anyone for all we know. A silhouette isn't gonna give us any kind of direct details that could lead to a direct suspect." Kenji sighs.

"That is true Kenji, but a silhouette is a much better lead than nothing at all. Keep searching the scene, the culprit always leaves something behind."

The four continue to search every inch of the stall for more evidence when Azami spots something down on the ground. She picked it up and examined it, realizing that it was the casing for a bullet. She noticed three distinct letters on the casing as the others came over.

"Q…C…R? What could that mean?" Azami questions.

"It might be the manufacturer of the casing. I've never heard of this QCR company though." Ejiro comments as Azami was deep in thought. "We might want to check the computer when we head back."

"Time to give Ms Imagawa a call." She pulls out a cellphone and begins to type out her number.

"You're planning on getting Rainbow involved in this?" Natsume questions her.

"Of course. It wouldn't surprise me if Rainbow has intel on this." She then dials up Yumiko.

Elis, Greece

1:15 PM

Yumiko Imagawa was sitting outside of a cafe drinking a glass of tea with Keiko Uesugi, a close friend and fellow operative. The two were making some small talk when Yumiko's cell began to ring loudly.

"Excuse me Keiko, give me a moment." She says before answering the call. "Hello?"

"It's been…some time, Yumiko." She hears on the other end to her surprise.

"Kana!? Why are you calling me!?"

"Long story short, I need your help. Yahata-san was assassinated and I'm on the hunt for his killer."

"You mean you want revenge on whoever killed him?" She sighs a little.

"To put it bluntly, yes. I'll explain more when you get here."

"Fine…I'll be there as soon as I can and I'll bring a small team with me." She then hangs up the call.

"What's up Yumiko?" Keiko asks curiously.

"Masayuki Yahata was assassinated recently and an old acquaintance, who served as his personal bodyguard, wants to find the killer." Yumiko explained to her.

"So they want to get revenge like you said?"

"Seems so. But for now, let's head back and gather up a team. This might be worth investigating." She explained as Keiko smiled and the two stood up from their seats. I hope you aren't getting in way over your head, Kana.