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It had been weeks since Lupin had been planning out his newest heist. He had caught his sights on a golden piano being held at the local museum.
Lupin and Jigen had been hoping to steal it and pawn it off for money. A day before the heist while Jigen had been filling the helicopter with gas, Fujiko had dropped by unexpectedly.
Lupin was busy going over his plans when he heard a knock on the door. Quickly he placed his papers into his desk in case it was Fujiko. He recalled what Jigen had said days ago.
"You better not change the plan if you tell Fujiko anything and if she betrays us..."
Lupin smirked.
"That won't happen. She's backstabbed me one too many times," he said.
The knocking continued.
"Come in," Lupin said.
"Lupin?"
"Fujiko? What are you doing here?"
Lupin didn't recall telling her about his upcoming heist.
She walked behind Lupin massaging his shoulders. This was her way of milking him for information she wanted. She knew it would cause him to warm up to her.
"Lupin, it's been a while since I've seen you."
Fujiko crept closer her chest crushed against the back of Lupin's chair. The chair might has well have been invisible to Lupin. He could imagine her breasts and how they might feel against his back and before he knew it he found himself enraptured by what ifs.
What if he could curry favor with Fujiko? Maybe she'd open up to him maybe she might let him do all kinds of nasty deeds while they were together.
"What have you been up to hmm?"
She nuzzled his neck.
What he had said to Jigen crossed his mind. She had betrayed them before she'd do it again.
Lupin huffed.
"I'm not telling. I gave Jigen my word."
"Ah come on, I thought you knew me better than that," Fujiko said. "I'd never betray you. After we get the treasure. We could split off the profits."
"How about we split the money 20/80?" Lupin said.
"You get the 20 then?"
"What about Jigen?"
"You both have stolen treasures plenty of times before, what's the difference of 10 percent other than a penny or two when I could give you so much more?" Fujiko asked, kissing Lupin on the cheek.
Lupin chuckled, looking sheepish, eyes lovestruck.
"Alright, I'll tell you the plan."
ALFM
The next day, Lupin under the sweet persuasion of Fujiko kept her involvement secret from Jigen as they scoured the museum that they were planning to steal from.
Usually the museum housed works of art, but since it was Christmas Eve someone had decided to bring in an expensive piano for a pianist to play Christmas music throughout the building while people looked at the art pieces.
Lupin decided to take out his pocket notebook from his red suit and jot down little notes and tweaks he had to make to his routes for his heist. Luckily there wasn't many.
After he was finished Lupin searched for Jigen who was staring at a piece of art that made of been a mixture between a picasso painting and a nudist's wet fantasy.
As he walked closer, someone ran into him.
"Excuse me," they said leaving before Lupin could get a word.
Lupin saw the person was wearing a green robe with a mended patch on the end of it.
'I guess he was really trying to look at all the sites.'
He put that in the corner of his mind as he focused back on Jigen.
Lupin could tell he was very anxious with the way his hat was downturned on his face. Usually he could see Jigen's nose and mouth but it was so low on his face that Lupin could only see his mouth. It gave the impression he wanted to disappear.
Lupin smirked. Hoping to get a rise out of Jigen he changed his voice so it sounded like one of the museum's employees.
"Hey."
Jigen didn't turn around.
"The sign outside says no smoking. Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Lupin made sure to creep close to his neck as he said it just to make him feel more uncomfortable.
Jigen turned, irritated.
"Listen buddy---"
"Jigen don't look so stressed it's only me."
He saw the cocky smirk on Lupin's face.
"That's not funny," Jigen said.
"Relax Jigen, you look like you were in a trial that just gave you the death penalty."
"You would be too if you had to deal with a one track monkey who only has his sights on two things."
Did he already suspect Fujiko's involvement? He didn't think he was that transparent.
"Two things? I know what the first thing is," Lupin said.
Jigen snapped.
"You know damn well what the second thing is. You have a shitty track record with anything that involves Fujiko."
"It's not that bad."
"It wouldn't be as bad if Goemon was here. Then I'd have some support after you run rampant to a woman who won't even give you a kiss on the lips."
Lupin didn't have a retort because even if he wanted to believe in Fujiko he had never received a kiss from her that wasn't on the cheek.
ALJD
Later in the evening, the museum director met up with Inspector Zenigata who had shown up promptly at his call.
"Inspector we received a letter from Lupin the third. I heard you were the expert in these matters."
"Let me see the letter."
The director handed it over to Zenigata.
"What do you have in terms of security?" Zenigata asked looking up from the letter.
"There's lasers set up in the room where we carry the piano."
"Are there any codes to override the lasers or switches that turn off the lasers?"
"No," the director said. "The lasers can't be turned off manually and there's only buttons that can set up the time that they're on. They automatically stay on until the inputted time is expired. Once the time is set it can't be altered."
Zenigata let out a grunt of satisfaction.
"Still we can't be too sure that Lupin won't have anticipated this." He turned towards his men. "Jackson? You guard the piano room. I'm going to scout the top of the building."
Jackson headed into the piano room. The director and the rest of Zenigata's men dispersed through the halls.
Once they were gone, Jackson threw a smoke bomb. The smoke obscured the cameras.
Jackson carefully treaded through the lasers careful to evade their vicinity finally standing beside the piano.
He took off the buckle on his belt. It was quite bulky, too much for it to be it's true purpose.
Jackson placed it on the piano and it grew chains out of the sides. He attached the chains together around the piano to secure it.
He took out his walkie talkie.
"Lupin, I have the piano."
"Got it."
Above Jackson was a tiny figure who appeared to be drilling a hole into the ceiling. They removed a round piece of the ceiling and a wire rope with a hook was coming down.
Jackson attached the hook to the chains and slowly the piano was being hoisted upward.
Around the same time this was happening, Lupin had boarded the helicopter with Fujiko in the pilot seat.
She slowly cranked the wire rope so it eased up into her helicopter.
Lupin had got out loosening the piano from the hook.
"Fujiko I'm going to bring it back down," he said sending the rope back down.
Fujiko had sent the rope back down and it seemed to be within Jackson's reach albeit a little high.
Then Fujiko moved the helicopter and the rope quickly was easing up.
Jackson jumped up to reach it and stumbled.
"F-ck!" he stammered.
Jackson fell forward into the vicinity of the lasers.
Lupin hadn't noticed Fujiko had the piano attached to the magnet on the bottom of the helicopter. Someone came out of the helicopter and cut the wire rope sending it down below before jumping to the ground.
Lupin saw the rope fall down below and an irritation rose up from inside. He turned to Fujiko.
"Fujiko, this wasn't part of the plan."
"Sorry. I'll take good care of your piano. Bye bye Lupin," she said smugly.
ALJD
After she had gone, Lupin turned and saw a figure behind him wearing a green hooded robe. It appeared to have that same patch on the corner of it that Lupin had seen earlier when he had scouted the building.
"Haha you're quite smug for someone who just lost their fortune to their estranged lover."
Lupin frowned.
"Who are you?"
The figure removed the hood revealing a man that Lupin couldn't recognize but he felt he had met them before.
The man looked at him with a smug grin.
"You look confused. I don't blame you. The last time we seen each other must have been a long time ago. I believe you know me as Mamo Kyosuke."
"Why're you here?"
"I wanted to see your look of regret when you realize you ditched your best friend for a woman who don't even know your name."
The words didn't change the furrowed eyes brows and the notable frown on Lupin's face. Kyosuke was smug in thinking he might have caused him to rage at his partner's death if not for the lack of brash retaliation that would have happened when Lupin was younger and more reckless. He knew being smug in his assumptions would give Lupin an opening to get the upper hand if he banked on himself having the upper hand.
Lupin for a better word looked at him like he was an irritating and inconvenient annoyance not a person who was directly responsible for killing his best friend.
"You didn't even suspect she knew nothing about you. Oh what one trip of time travel can do to an entire timeline. After that it was easy. All I needed to do was entice her with the promise of that money, tell her everything I knew about you, how she was to seduce you and make you putty in her hands and you believed everything she said."
Even as he told Lupin about his time travel escapade how he had changed the past and caused Fujiko to forget everything about him, manipulated her with the promise of riches at the hands of this gullible thief, Lupin's expression didn't change.
Perhaps it would have been eerie if Kyosuke wasn't used to it. In fact he was eagerly anticipating his retaliation. What could the great Lupin do?
There was no way for Lupin to anticipate that Kyosuke had put his timeline on the line by making a one way trip here. He had staged these whole events by sending his time machine into the far future with a letter to himself to alter the timeline in the past. This of course had the added reprecussions of leaving him stranded in this timeline but Lupin would have no way of getting his time machine.
"And to think you put your friend's life on the line for a woman who can't even remember you. What kind of friend are you?"
What kind of friend was he? He hadn't left him to certain death. He was certain the laser was non-fatal. Of course because it always was wasn't it? Zenigata would have put a stop to those lasers if they could cause casualties right?
LPJD
It was vexing. Kyosuke was an annoyance. Lupin didn't need to know his plans because they were every bit ridiculous the more he thought about it.
Who cares if Fujiko didn't remember him? She couldn't be blamed for wanting to pawn off a very valuable piano for some riches. She still was every bit attractive even as he remembered the way she tried to seduce him.
Lupin would find a way to reverse everything. He would get Jigen and Fujiko back even if he had to steal Kyosuke's time machine.
Why? Why wouldn't the great Lupin the third be able to pull off such a feat? He was famous for these kind of things wasn't he?
He'd just find his time machine. What could he do to make Kyosuke reveal it to him?
"Very impressive. i'll admit it. You managed to beat me. You must tell me how you accomplished such a feat." Lupin said, a lax smile on his face.
Kyosuke's eyes widened. The smug smirk vanished for a moment revealing a cautious frown.
What would Lupin be able to accomplish if he told him what happened? Surely he would be able to put a stop to his plans but Kyosuke couldn't see how.
There was no way unless somehow Lupin was somehow able to get a hold of a time machine to go in the past, or somehow knowing when Kyosuke went to the past to alter it but then how would this timeline have occurred? Did Lupin fabricate it? Was he playing Kyosuke like a fiddle?
No, there was no way Lupin could accomplish that.
"My fu---" Kyosuke cut himself off. If he told him the truth, there was no one stopping Lupin from killing him. If he did, his future self wouldn't be able to go to the past and alter it. "It don't matter. Have fun while you can."
He laughed as he turned and headed down the building.
Lupin frowned.
Strange, Kyosuke hadn't headed back to a time machine. It was almost as if one wasn't there.
Jigen was fine. He'd make it out of there alive.
It wasn't as if he had tripped and was hit by a fatal laser.
It wasn't fatal.
He was sure he checked that much.
Even if he hadn't he'd just find that time traveler's time machine.
He had just hid it somewhere hadn't he?
Even as Lupin searched the entire top of the building nothing was there.
He put on a face mask and treaded down the stairs certain he'd fine the time machine to reverse this.
Nothing was there.
He looked in the piano room.
Jigen's body laid still in the middle of the room. He didn't move.
"Jigen!" Lupin called out.
He'd wake up. Surely he'd wake up. He wasn't dead. He wasn't.
"Jigen."
The body didn't stir.
Who was he fooling? Jigen was dead.
He was dead and it was all his fault.
How could he have been so careless?
It was a stupid mistake. He should have checked to see what kind of lasers they were.
If he had known then he would have told Jigen and he'd be safe like he always was dodging all those lasers while he pinned for a woman he couldn't have but loved all the same.
Yet he felt a void in his chest, a sinking feeling of the kind of despair that one can't foresee the end of.
He felt anxious and he hated every bit of it. His hands shook, his legs trembled.
Lupin wanted a cigarette. He needed it with every fiber of his being.
Everything was going to be fine.
Lupin walked to his car and drove off to his nearest hideout.
Jigen would have been better off without him. Lupin was too much of an idealist. He was a fool for believing in love, the whole idea that lusting after a woman his age might fit this ideal of love that his mind had orchestrated.
What if Goemon wasn't safe either?
Lupin parked outside of his hideout and walked inside.
He saw the contraption Jigen had attached to the microwave to make sure the wires attached to it had been stable after they had a short in it.
Lupin saw the afghan quilt slung over the couch that Jigen had bought to decorate it.
He recalled Jigen always cooking up some ramen for them to share when Lupin had been absorbed in his plans for a new heist.
"Do you realise it now?"
Lupin turned and saw Kyosuke.
"How better off he is without you."
"Yes." Lupin said. It sounded small and almost despondent thoroughly broken.
"Do you want me to take him out of your life for good?"
Lupin nodded.
If he was out of my life at least he'd be safe.
JDAL
As Lupin tried to ponder what he would do with himself. He heard a knock on the door. It was loud and insistent.
Lupin took a deep breath and put on a face mask, one he had stowed away in case he happened to have anyone drop by. It must have been one of the neighbors.
He opened it only to see Inspector Zenigata at the door.
"I have you now, Lupin," he said before laughing with a mixture of laughter and spite.
Lupin opened his mouth to respond.
How had Zenigata known?
He stopped himself closing his mouth promptly.
What was the point now? He had lost a dear friend. There was nothing that would get him back.
Zenigata placed the handcuffs over Lupin's wrists. Lupin however made no move to free himself. What was the point? Jigen was dead.
He was so wrapped up in his regrets that he hadn't noticed when Zenigata had delivered him into police custody and they had secured him in a high security prison in the middle of nowhere.
A couple of days went by and Lupin was secure in knowing no one would visit him. Good, he didn't want anyone seeing like this. He must have looked so pathetic.
This soon became short-lived however when he heard a knock on his cell door.
"Who is it?" he asked, voice cold.
"I believe we've known each other for a long time to not play these headgames," a familiar voice called from the other side.
It sounded like Zenigata.
"So it's you. Why are you here?"
"I thought you might want to use this time to call one of your friends. I thought you might have wanted to talk with Goemon."
"That isn't necessary."
"Are you afraid he'll also disappear?"
"No, Goemon could handle himself," Lupin said. For once he sounded uncertain.
"Just like Jigen then I suppose. How do you suppose he felt seeing his best friend abandon him?"
"He'd probably be p-ssed."
"He should be p-ssed. I know I'd be angry too if my best friend left me to die at the hands of some lasers," Zenigata said, chiding him as if he were a father scolding his son.
"Alright already," Lupin snapped feeling the guilt eat at him. " I'm sorry alright but I can't take it back now. What's done is done?"
"What would you do if you could make it up to him?"
Lupin frowned, irritated. Typical pops making him feel guilty for how he had treated Jigen.
"No point in asking that if he's not around."
"You're just going to stay here and sulk?"
"You're not my father. You can't tell me what to do."
Zenigata grumbled irritably.
"Well if you want to stay in prison so be it," he snapped.
Was Zenigata trying to convince him to call Goemon to break him out of prison? Why?
"Why would you want me out?"
Zenigata scoffed.
"Who says I want you to escape," he retorted. "You can stay there for eternity for all I care."
The next day Lupin had received another knock on his cell.
"Zenigata? Give it up alright. I'm staying here."
"I'm not Zenigata."
Anger welled up from within Lupin.
"Why are you here? Here to taunt a broken man?"
Kyosuke chuckled.
"Not necessary when you're already doing that to yourself."
"I'm shocked you haven't left yet. I guess you really are stranded here huh?"
"Yes, but that won't be the case for very long let me assure you."
"I happen to agree," a familiar voice replied.
A chill crept down Lupin's spine. If Kyosuke caught wind of Zenigata's significance to him maybe he'd kill him too.
"I believe this is supposed to be a two way conversation between me and the prisoner," Kyosuke said, sternly. "So just leave us or I may have to---"
Zenigata pulled a gun on him.
Kyosuke tossed some powder in his direction causing the halls of the prison to fog up.
"Sorry but I can't have you killing me."
Zenigata fired wildly in the direction of his footsteps.
Kyosuke continued to run until he had ran into something hard and solid. He looked up and saw it was his white time machine.
"What?"
The time machine opened up and Jigen was inside, his gun pointed directly at Kyosuke.
"Stop or I'll shoot."
Kyosuke stumbled backwards before steadying himself on his feet.
Jigen stepped out and led him over to where Zenigata was.
Kyosuke glanced at Jigen and smirked before he turned to Zenigata.
"Officer, this man right here is a criminal. He works for Lupin the third---"
"I know."
Zenigata pulled out the keys from his belt and tossed them over to Jigen.
"Hey Zenigata what's going on out there?" Lupin asked, feeling his heart racing. He was stunned, paralyzed when he heard the sounds of gunfire.
He needed to help and tried to scramble through his thoughts trying to figure out how to escape his predicament quickly before anymore casualties fell at his own hands.
Lupin heard the locks snap open outside his cell.
"Zenigata? I thought I told you I wanted to stay h---"
He turned and saw a familiar looking figure who had the same downturned hat which obscured his face.
Lupin's mouth dropped. "Jigen?"
Jigen reached over and snapped his mouth shut as he stared into Lupin's eyes.
"I thought you were dead."
Jigen sighed.
"I was dead," he said, voice calm yet somehow stern.
"Then how---"
Jigen fished a note from his pocket and placed it in Lupin's hands.
Lupin unfolded it and whispered it's contents to himself.
'On December 22, 1975, Lupin will work with Fujiko and you will die at the hands of the lasers.'
The note seemed to be a message from Jigen in the present time but he died, that much Lupin was certain of.
"How?" Lupin asked.
"You recall at one point in my life I was a pickpocket right? I stole the note from that time traveler."
"When he was going to erase you from my life," Lupin muttered to himself. "That means you knew I was working with Fujiko that entire time."
Jigen nodded.
"It fits too perfectly how exactly did you know where to put that note?"
"I'm afraid that's a question for dead Jigen and I'm not dead," Jigen said.
"Then how did you get Zenigata involved?" Lupin asked.
"He isn't."
"What do you mean he isn't?"
"You'll see. I have places I got to be. I'll see you around Lupin."
He headed back outside.
"You're just going to leave me here handcuffed?" Lupin mumbled to himself.
ALJD
Once Jigen had left Lupin's cell, he headed towards the time machine.
"You know where to leave him don't you?" Zenigata asked.
"I know exactly where to leave him."
"You know Lupin's not going to forgive you if you don't restore Fujiko's memories."
Jigen rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, can't forget about her," he said, groaning.
Zenigata tossed Kyosuke over to Jigen who ushered him into the time machine and the two headed out.
Lupin headed out of his cell just as Jigen left.
"Zenigata, what's going on? No offense but why are you working with Jigen?"
Zenigata glanced at him for a moment before he chuckled at the look of confusion on Lupin's face.
"You still haven't figured it out yet."
"Figured what out yet---wait Jigen?" Lupin said pointing at Zenigata in shock.
"Took you long enough."
Zenigata peeled off his face mask.
"Wait, if you're Jigen that means...you were there when I spoke to...You seen me at my lowest."
"Did you mean it when you said you were sorry?"
Lupin avoided his eyes.
"That was just a moment of weakness."
"Oh I thought you turned over a new leaf. Guess that was my mistake."
Jigen turned to leave his cell.
"Jigen wait."
He didn't turn around and began to redo the locks on his cell.
"Fine, I'm sorry alright. I'm sorry."
"Do you mean it?" Jigen asked.
"Yes, yes I'm sorry alright."
He didn't notice Jigen's smile.
"I just didn't want you to see me while I was at my lowest."
Jigen undid the locks again and stepped inside his cell.
"What are you talking about Lupin? You're always at your lowest. Do you think performing illegal heists makes you look cool? All it makes us appear to be are a bunch of local idiots."
Jigen smirked.
Lupin smirked in return.
"Well when you put it that way."
After patching things up with Jigen everything had gone back to normal.
Jigen had returned at the hideout. Fujiko had popped up one day.
"Lupin, can we talk?" she asked.
"We can talk in front of Jigen," Lupin said sternly. He knew Fujiko wasn't in her right mind when she had snubbed him but that didn't mean he was going to accept her apology either. If she had rescued Jigen none of this would have even happened.
"Relax Lupin, I won't get offended if you want to talk with your girlfriend," Jigen said.
Lupin sighed.
"Alright we can talk."
He guided Fujiko into his bedroom.
"What is it, Fujiko?" he asked after sitting down on the corner of his bed.
Fujiko joined him at his side.
"I've been thinking alot about us."
Typically Lupin would have welcomed this conversation but now he felt cold almost as if her words were a knife about to stab him. The pain however from the knife didn't feel like a surprise attack like a heart break might feel. This pain was more dull and he felt distant from it like it was damage he was expecting yet he was numb to it almost as if he embraced it.
He found the more he lingered on the feeling the more he didn't want to embrace it.
"I want to give us a chance," she said before giving him a peck on the cheek.
Again another peck on the cheek never a kiss on the lips.
"Do you really want to give us a chance or are you already prepared to receive something in return?"
She glanced at him in disbelief.
"You know how this works. I'd never mean to hurt you."
"I know." He knew he always know nothing they did was healthy. He never expected anything from her then so why would he now?
"Is Jigen alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, he's fine all things considered."
"You know he's always getting mad acting like a jealous lover whenever we're together. He really ought to get those feelings under control. He doesn't cope well with heartbreak."
It was about time Lupin addressed this as well. He kept trying to ignore JIgen's feelings and put them on the back burner.
Perhaps at one point he hadn't been ready to accept those feelings but now after losing Jigen he couldn't afford to keep his own feelings to himself. Maybe Jigen still felt something for him.
"Listen Lupin, we'll talk later when you're in a better mood. It's clear our conversation will go nowhere if this keeps up," Fujiko said before she kissed him on the cheek and left his room.
ALJD
Lupin spotted Jigen acting his typical self fussing over the microwave as he placed his ramen inside.
"How long have you felt that way?"
Jigen's face turned red.
"Lupin what are you talking about?"
Jigen's hat was downturned obscuring his face.
"You love me."
"Don't flatter yourself. All that love has gone to die."
"You love me." Lupin said more certain.
"Well it don't matter now. You have Fujiko."
"It was always superficial wasn't it? What we had was always impersonal."
He had been afraid to get close. Fujiko scratched that itch.
Keeping Jigen as his friend had been his way of having his cake and eating it too. Subconsciously he had known it might be wrong but the selfish part of him had wanted to be desired.
"You stuck by my side even through thick and thin. I just threw you away even when you meant so much to me."
"Don't get so sappy."
"It's true. I always loved you even when we were just friends. I thought I liked you then but after everything I think I love you even more."
Lupin chuckled and Jigen joined him.
"You only say that now?"
Jigen was stunned even as Lupin wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him close stealing a smooch.
Jigen's face heated up.
"You thief."
Lupin chuckled.
"You know you love me."