บท 5: A Robbery Gone Wrong
"We're about to be late, boss!"
Asakura Dan just grunted in response to his compatriot's admonishment, before stomping on the gas and sending their car hurtling down the highway.
It was hardly the most discreet way to carry out the final step of what had been a highly delicate job, but the discretion that had gotten them this far had finally served its purpose. They spent a month gathering all the information they could about the target, and then secured the connections necessary for them to get the work done. They acquired the package from a heavily-guarded compound in the dead of night, after all. And on top of all that, they managed to make a clean getaway. Everything had gone off without a hitch.
"Relax, boys, we're right on schedule," he reassured them, making eye contact with them by way of the mirror. "And it's all thanks to your good work back there."
At this point, the only thing left was actually getting the package to the client. He was waiting, after all, and their pride as professionals and as independent contractors – 'not to mention the half-million dollars we were promised,' Dan thought with a smirk – demanded that they deliver what was expected of them in smooth and timely fashion. Besides, the client had promised to consider hiring them again if they performed well enough, and they weren't about to let that kind of opportunity pass, now were they?
'Hell,' he thought. 'By the time they figure things out, we'll be halfway across the country.'
At this point, Dan honestly couldn't see how things could possibly go wrong. Even if they'd been found out, their head start would make it all but impossible for any would-be pursuers to catch up. Not only had he picked an optimal route that minimized their chances of encountering any traffic lights, enforcers or other roadblocks, their client had also taken it upon himself to make arrangements to make their trip even faster. Thus far, everything had gone off without a hitch.
Moments later, however…
"Boss!"
Dan only just managed to hit the brakes as they saw a figure standing in their way – right smack in the middle of the road – causing them to skid to a screeching halt just before they would've collided.
------
Shugo stood stock still as the SUV came to a dead stop a few meters from him.
And as its occupants came out, he eyed each one and sized them up carefully.
'Oh, here we go,' Shugo sighed inwardly, grimacing in anticipation of the literal shots that would inevitably be fired his way within the next several minutes. 'This is gonna suck...'
"What d'you think you're doing, kid!?" spat the driver, a hardened, well-built male clad in a business suit and a matching pair of rose-colored glasses, as he stepped out and slammed the car door shut. "Got a death wish or something?"
Shugo bit back his intended retort in favor of carefully considering the situation before him first. Apart from the sharp-dressed driver who had sauntered up to him, he also took note of the other three who were dressed as cleaners and whose hands were inches from their right pockets. It was obvious what they were about to do, and while Shugo knew they weren't much more likely to kill him that way than the last guy who shot him, that wouldn't actually do anything about the pain – or the mess, for that matter.
"Well?" the driver demanded, clearly irked at the youth's continued silence and perceived rudeness. "Were you TRYING to get run over?"
"…Huh?" Shugo finally replied, pretending as though he'd only just noticed the four increasingly agitated and hostile men in front of him. "Oh, sorry, sir. I was just wondering why the five of you need to drive so fast at this time of night."
"Five of us?" one of the others repeated. "What are you playing at, kid? There's only four of us here."
Shugo raised his eyebrows at that. Even if the man's puzzled tone had actually been convincing, he could already sense the presence of a fifth person with them. And by the looks of things, whoever it was didn't seem to be conscious at the moment.
'Passed out drunk, maybe?'
'At least he doesn't seem to be dead.'
"There's five of you, no doubt about it," Shugo asserted before taking a breath, his muscles already tensing in anticipation of what he knew was about to happen. "A little bird told me you've got someone all tied up and sleeping in the trunk. Now why don't you let that poor sap out of the trunk and wake him up so he can say hello, too?"
"Who the fuck are you?" he older man demanded, gritting his teeth in a way that made it clear that Shugo had struck a nerve, and that he'd just said something he really, really shouldn't have. "Really, just who do you think you are, interfering in our business? You're way too young to be a cop, so which gang are you with?"
"I don't know, sir, you tell me," Shugo shrugged as he responded in a tone of mock innocence, before punctuating those words with a derisive snort. "Which gang am I with? Is that supposed to be some kind of joke? Honestly, do I look like a gang member to you?
"Just a well-meaning but unlucky bystander in over his head, then, are you?" another one of them piped up. The gangster then put his hand in the inner pocket of his overalls to draw his gun, which he then pointed directly between the eyes of the meddlesome teen before him. "Now would be a good time to turn away and start running, kid."
"We'll give you ten seconds," the leader added with a smile of feigned friendliness that nevertheless promised dire consequences if the youth persisted in needling and antagonizing him. "If you value your life, you'll get out of here now. And if you care at all what happens to those you care about, you'll forget you ever saw us."
"How generous of you," replied Shugo, his eyes narrowing as he folded his arms across his chest, his face taking on a look of apparent contemplation as he pretended to consider the offer. "Sure, why not? Give me that poor guy you've got sedated and tied up in the trunk, and we'll both be long gone before you know it."
"You…!"
It happened just as he predicted.
Not that his prediction did anything to make it hurt less.
Shugo gasped in mingled shock and pain as all but one of them drew their silenced pistols and opened fire on him, putting a bullet between his eyes, one in his left eye, and at least a dozen more all over his chest and abdomen in the process, before he fell backwards to the asphalt and all went black.
------
'I hope it was worth it, kid.'
While the rest of his companions turned back to get in the car, twenty-year old Akizuki Ayato spared one last glance at the youth they'd just gunned down, before letting the moment passed and he followed suit.
And as he did so, it was all he could do to briefly lament how pointless it was.
If he was being honest, it would've been much simpler and easier had they just swerved past and went on their merry way. There was absolutely no point to them stopping the car and getting down to what amounted to a minor distraction, and it made even less sense for them to shoot and kill a man on top the tracks they'd already left behind as it was. Instead, they had to take time off their tight schedule to confront some random guy – a nobody as far as they were concerned – and then needlessly kill him. Even when Ayato put aside the questionable and pointless proposition of killing someone for no discernible reason, the act itself could also be traced back to them.
'So much for being professionals, huh?'
Then again, thought Ayato, there was no denying that the kid bore some measure of responsibility for what happened to him. While he was mistaken about them having kidnapped someone as opposed to merely having acquired something valuable and important - if admittedly in ways that were both morally and legally questionable - it was difficult to argue that the absolute worst thing he could've done was to directly confront them and antagonize them over it. More importantly, the kid clearly knew just who it was he was dealing with, as well as what they were capable of. Needless to say, he really should've known better than to get in the way.
'Seriously, what a waste.'
Either way, Ayato knew there was little point in him grumbling like this. As much as he disagreed with how his companions handled things, there was no undoing what they'd just done. Right now, all they could do was get as far away from the scene as quickly as they could, and pray that the police would treat this as a robbery gone wrong.
"The hell did you shoot me for, assholes!? That fucking hurt!"
All four of them spun around when they heard the voice.
Ayato stood rooted to the spot as the guy his companions had just killed inexplicably got to his feet. Blood was still streaking down his face from the bullet wounds in his forehead and left eye where the bullets that had found their mark were still firmly lodged, the effect of which was also enhanced by the bloodstains all over his clothes. With the hannya-themed facemask he wore, one would be forgiven for mistaking the not-quite-dead youth for a demon from hell.
"And now you're just standing there?" the youth called in a darkly amused voice before looking round at his would-be killers and then taking a step forward. "You're not even gonna try shooting me again?"
"Why not try your luck? It'd be a lot more interesting, not to mention a lot less rude, than just gawking at me like I'm some kind of freak."
And so Ayato watched his companions do exactly that. The youth's body was all but turned into Swiss cheese as Dan and the others each fired off a clip's worth of ammo at him. But while each shot staggered him and caused him to grunt in pain, nothing they did seemed to keep him from advancing on them. And by the time he reached Dan ten seconds later, the older man was utterly petrified with fear after having put two or three more bullets in the youth's face, only for those to fall out and for the wounds to heal in an instant.
"Last chance," the youth's mocking tone matched his laughing eyes as he reached forward for the gun Dan gripped in his shaking hands, before bringing it up so that the muzzle was pressed against his forehead. "There's no way you can miss when I'm this close."
Dan fired one more time, and sure enough, that last shot ventilated the youth's brainpan while the bullet exited through the back of his head. But it was for naught as the wound just regenerated in moments, and judging from the clicking sounds that came from the gun after that, he had no ammo left.
"Just what the hell are you!?" he yelled in a mixture of anger and terror. "Monster!"
Ayato watched Dan make one last desperate effort to kill their erstwhile victim by swinging his now-empty gun at the youth's head in an attempt to crack it open. Unfortunately for him, however, this attack was stopped in its tracks when the youth met it with a rising block.
"OF COURSE I'M A MONSTER."
"WHAT ELSE WOULD I BE?"
Dan swiftly went down in a boneless heap when the youth struck him in the head with his own spent sidearm.
And all Ayato could do was watch.
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