Enemy of My Enemy

The police cruisers stopped in front of the abandoned warehouse, and multiple officers stepped out. We were already some distance away from them, far enough that they couldn’t hear our footsteps on the concrete sidewalk.

We took a breather behind some crates, searching our surroundings for anyone who might’ve been tailing us. I felt like someone was watching us in the dark, their gaze prickling my skin. Mana was afraid to use her flashlight as it might’ve revealed our location. Unable to confirm whether someone was actually stalking us, we kept running.

I wasn’t sure if the assassin had a partner or not. I guessed that they were working alone, but that was never properly confirmed. They hadn’t stepped in to help, but it’s possible that multiple killers were after us as a competition. If this stalker was able to see in the night, that meant they had the same equipment as the dead assassin. Regardless, it wouldn’t do us any well to stop.

We arrived at a different district, similar to the previous. Shop stores were packed together, some separated by dark alleyways. Most of the lights were off except for the streetlamps which dimly lit the night street. We saw the moon above again, but it was no longer the searchlight we were afraid of. Our footsteps broke the silence as we ran. It wouldn’t do us any good to dwell on the stalker that may or may not exist. We caught our breath in an alleyway, listening to the faded sirens and keeping an ear out for any footsteps that wasn’t ours. If there was a stalker, they would have to be watching us from across the street, and we didn’t see anyone there.

I put my head between my legs, realizing that I haven’t slept properly for 24 hours. Mana ran off to the nearest convenience store, buying us some supplies. I hanged my head and looked at the pavement, scraping my feet against the coarse ground. I hadn’t expected that this job would plunge me into the underworld once more. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t escape my fate. At least I was working on the side of good now, but how long would that last?

She returned, grocery bags in hand. There were plenty of medical supplies, and she had bought two anpans and canned coffees for the both of us. She wrapped a compression around my cheek, and I changed the bandage on my leg. The bleeding had stopped, and the blood had dried. We sat, devouring the anpan and nearly drowned ourselves with the coffee.

Mana’s plan was to get in contact with Matsumoto. She searched around for a payphone and found one near the alleyway. She inserted a few coins and dialed the number. A minute passed as she held the phone to her ears, not speaking. She hanged up and called again. Nothing. I watched as she put a hand on her forehead, turning and twisting in the payphone booth. Her eyes and mouth widened, and from her pocket, she took out her notebook. She dialed a number while reading. Her lips moved, and she wrote something down as she listened to the person on the other end. She hanged up and left the booth.

“Rika isn’t picking up,” said Mana, taking a seat next to me.

If what the assassin said was true, something had happened to the Gold Stars and Matsumoto. I remembered the assault on another one of Kamiko’s base that was supposed to be executed. Had something happened there? The only thing we could do to assure our safety now was to return to the Gold Stars headquarters.

“We’re going after Kamiko.”

I was wide-eyed, struggling to see her face.

“I’m done running away. It’s time we fight back.” She pumped her fist in the air. “But first, we need more information.”

A certain underworld information-dealing organization came to mind after being absent for several hours.

“I’ve already called the Rats. We’re meeting them at a park somewhere around here.”

“Guess we shouldn’t delay.”

I stood up, preparing to go, but she grabbed the hem of my shirt and yanked me back down.

“We still have time. Before that, I wanted to talk about a few things.”

I nodded, having no energy left for speech.

“I almost got you killed again. I’m sorry,” said Mana, looking down. Her head jerked up, and her eyes locked onto mine. “But it won’t happen again. I promise. I won’t let you down.”

That’s supposed to be my line, I thought, tongue tied. All I could do was nod and smile, though she probably couldn’t see it in the dark alleyway.

We walked through the night to the park, keeping an eye over our shoulders. The aroma of nature wafted about us as we neared the park. Streetlamps were casting light onto the pavement, acting as a guide to our destination. For us, sticking to the shadows was safer, and we hit in it whenever we stopped to look around. Not a single person was in sight, and we thanked for that fact as any soul out here would only arouse suspicion and nervousness from us.

Trees were scattered around the park, barely lit up from the streetlamps. Benches were placed throughout on the blocky pathway, bushes behind them.

“Did she mention which bench?” I said.

“No. I guess that means she doesn’t know this park well.”

If she was familiar with this park, then similar to how Tanaka met the Rats, we would’ve been instructed to be seated on a specific bench.

Mana approached a bench under a streetlamp and placed down her notebook. We stepped into the soft grass and hid behind a bush, keeping a lookout for anyone approaching. We waited, unmoving and unblinking. A breeze blew past, rustling the leaves and branches. I cursed it for a second as it might’ve disguised the footsteps of any oncoming visitors.

To our left, we heard clacking on the pathway. The sound grew closer, and I peered through the bush to catch a glimpse of the person. They avoided the lights, walking in the center of the path. The black silhouette was short, but there was something enlarging their upper body. The light licked the silhouette’s arm, but I only saw something black and baggy. They stopped in front of the bench, looking at the notebook.

The light fully casted on them. It was a short girl wearing an oversized black hoodie with a few pink accessories. She wore a mask, covering the bottom half of her face. Her skinny jeans stuck to her legs.

The girl stood there, silent. I scanned our surroundings, making sure she hadn’t brought anyone extra. When I had confirmed that there wasn’t anyone, I returned my attention to her.

“If we’re going to talk, it’s best to have everyone present, wouldn’t you agree?” said the girl, looking at the bushes we were hiding behind. Her voice was surprisingly deep, but it sounded forced. I froze, thinking she must’ve been bluffing. Mana glanced at me then nodded. We rose, brushing the grass and dirt off our clothes.

“My name is—” Mana’s words began but was cut short by the girl.

“Kanda Mana and Katayama Masaru. There isn’t a single person in the underworld right now that doesn’t know who you are by now.”

“And you are?”

“You can call me Aimi.”

“Aimi, we need to find Kamiko. Can you help?”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as they say.”

“So the Rats are fighting against Kamiko after all.”

“Yes, unfortunately. So we’ll help you find her.”

“Not for free, I’m guessing,” I said.

Aimi chuckled. “No, but we’ll talk about the price later.”

She walked off, beckoning us to follow her. Mana grabbed her notebook off the bench, and we left the park on the opposite side of where we came from. We ducked into alleyways and squeezed ourselves across, while all Aimi had to do was walk sideways.

“Where are we going exactly?” I said, suffocating between the walls and heat around me.

“A safehouse. We won’t be followed this way.”

I nearly tumbled out of the alley, but Mana caught me in time. We walked a bit further before Aimi entered a small building in a compact business district with short, flat buildings that were still closed in the dead of night.

She flicked up a light switch, revealing the windowless room with a table in the middle. On a wall was a tack board with papers pinned to them. She picked up a remote on the table and pressed a button, activating the ceiling fan above. She laid out a two cushions for us on one side of the table, and we sat, looking across at Aimi.

“Before we start, I need to know what happened to the Gold Stars,” said Mana.

Aimi raised her eye brows. “Whole city’s in an uproar with what happened.”

We stared, waiting for her to continue.

“The public thinks that a bunch of detectives were in the wrong place at the wrong time when a gas leak occurred, blowing up and killing a whole bunch of people.”

Mana widened her eyes and mouth, and she looked like her heart would stop at any second.

“What doesn’t the public know?” I said, speaking up for my partner.

“They don’t know that Kamiko set a trap, and the Gold Stars walked right into it.”

I looked down at my hand and remembered my promise with Matsumoto. The Gold Stars were the only ones keeping Kamiko at bay. The Rats were apparently going against her as well, but I didn’t know what their effort looked like.

“What have you guys been doing against Kamiko?” said Mana, trying not to let out a voice of hostility.

“We’ve been trying to find her whereabouts, that’s what.”

“So you plan on attacking her base? I heard that the Rats aren’t violent,” said Mana.

She laughed. “We’re not monks either.”

“Have you made any progress?”

Aimi fell silent. She rose and went over to the tack board where she unpinned two pieces of paper and placed it on the table. One was a map of the city’s airport, and the other one was a map of a travel agency building.

“Instead of trying to find out where she is, we’re trying to find out how she might’ve entered or even leave the city.”

“You mean she wasn’t here before?” said Mana.

She shook her head. “She’s an outsider here who arrived here less than a month ago. We think she came somewhere west of here.”

She resumed her attention towards the map which she pointed at. “We believe that Kamiko has been at the airport. If we looked at the cameras, we might figure out where she came from outside of the city.”

“So why haven’t you?”

Aimi pursed her lips and scratched her head.

“It looks like Kamiko has bribed the guards, so we can’t get footage. There’s also a much larger problem.”

We waited, fearing for the worst.

“We don’t know what she looks like.”

A silence held the room, and we sat still while Aimi continued her gaze at the two maps, her fingers pressing against her chin.

“We’ve seen her before,” said Mana.

Aimi jerked her head up, wide-eyed and mouth agape. She slammed her hands on the table and leaned forward, her face near ours.

“Tell me what she looks like!”

We described the woman who had come into the office that day. She had black, straight hair, pale skin, and red lips. Her eyes were sharp, and her words were crisp and cold when she spoke. Aimi took out a sketchbook and a pen from the closet. She drew something down as we remembered what Kamiko looked like.

When she was done, she dropped the pen and gazed at the notebook. She showed it to us. It was the face of the person we had just described, looking just like the one we saw that day.

“Thanks. This will help a lot.”

“Did you not know what she looked like before?” said Mana.

“Of course not! She’s practically invisible, and people who do encounter her either don’t know who she is or dies afterwards if they aren’t on her side.”

“This could just be one of her henchman.”

“Maybe so, but that’s a pretty high-ranking henchman if she trusts her that much to waltz into a detective’s office.”

She pointed at the map of the airport. Now that we knew what she looked like, all that had to be done was to get inside the security system and find footage of Kamiko or her subordinates. Depending on which gate they left, we might be able to track down where they came from.

“And the travel agency?” said Mana. She pulled the paper towards her, examining the map.

“It offers helicopter tours around the city and then some. It also acts as a helicopter garage and landing zone for Kamiko.”

“Ok, this seems simple enough.”

“It is. We even have an inside man.”

“Alright, so what’s the problem?”

“We want more than just the extra flight and information. We want the helicopters and landing zone for ourselves.”

We looked at Aimi, trying our best to not turn our stares into glares.

“You want us to break into a heavily secured airport CCTV and assist with a hostile takeover?” I said.

“Your wording is a bit off, but yeah.”

I straightened my back and crossed my arms. Mana placed an arm on the table and leaned forward.

“Fine. We’ll do it,” said Mana. I sighed internally, knowing this was going to happen.

I nodded, and a smile crossed Aimi’s face. She told us about our two options. The first was to enter the airport as normal tourists and head for the security office. Once inside, we would find the cameras and insert a flash drive into the system which Aimi will take care of. Once that’s done, we’ll take the drive, and escape.

The second option was to go to the travel agency and book a helicopter tour. It would be up to us to see if there was anything odd on the ground from above. Since the pilot was one of Kamiko’s men, they would instinctively take the tourists outside of the city for a bit. At first, this was just a silly mistake on their part, but since the passengers liked it so much, they kept doing it for more profit. Once we returned to the ground, we’d have to incapacitate the pilot and all others while a couple Rats members would enter and take over the agency.

“You can’t use some of your guys to take over the airport security cameras?” I said.

Aimi waved a hand at my question. “They’re decent at fighting but awful at things that require a bit more cloak and dagger. The guys who are good at it aren’t great fighters. You two are the perfect balance.”

“Kamiko’s man is riding that helicopter, right? Won’t he figure us out right away?”

“No. He’s just being paid a lot of money to ride her and her subordinates to other places. I doubt he actually get much info.”

I glanced at Mana. Her head was bobbing, and she strained her eyes trying to force it open. I felt a heavy pressure on my shoulders as well, and my eyelids fell.

“We’ll do it tomorrow. Sleep comes first,” I said.

“I understand, but you need to pick one first. The airport or the travel agency? If it’s the airport, you’ll need to wake up early tomorrow.”

“Then we’ll do the travel agency.”

“Ok. I’ll make a reservation for tomorrow afternoon.”

Aimi approached the closet and took out two futons, laying it on the floor. We slipped in without a second thought and fell into a deep sleep.