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As the evening light was starting to dissipate through the trees, a black car drove down the empty street. The road was gritty and led to the slums of a city near Japan’s east coast, no normal person would want to drive to such a place.
Within the car, the two occupants lived far from normal lives. They didn’t even own the car, they often just stole cars from various places and tacked on a fake license plate to avoid discovery. That way, nobody would recognize the arrival of the mysterious ‘Broker H’ and his white-haired assistant.
Hashimoto Shoubai was at the steering wheel, temporarily entrusting sorting his deals to Sora while he drove the car. “Hey, white hair. What’s the next stop after this job?” he asked behind him.
In the backseat, Sora checked papers from a folder beside her and her phone. “Apparently, we’re supposed to go to the Middle East next to smuggle spices,” she replied, looking at a list of deals that Hashimoto had made. “I think we should stop outside Towa City first though.”
“Huh? Why do you say that?”
“One of your suppliers sells air purifiers outside of Towa City, and one of your clients in India is offering ₹100,000 for one. That supplier sells them for much cheaper than Towa Group, about ¥78,000.”
Hashimoto was silent for a few moments, doing the currency conversion math in his head. “Alright, the location of our next deal depends on whether we can haggle with the supplier for a lower price on that air purifier. Either way, we’ll be going south after this job to meet with him.”
Sora nodded and turned off the phone, and she began leaning against the window as they kept driving. She hadn’t been working as Hashimoto’s assistant for long, but she didn’t have many other options. Her memory still hadn’t returned yet, and the theory that Yomiuri Nikei gave her was still fresh in her mind:
“If you hear about all kinds of experiences, maybe there’s a chance your memories can come back to you.”
Since she wanted her memories back, she resolved herself to follow those words. She had many options to choose from, but all of them had their downsides. She could stay with Yomiuri himself, but he does several things that could get him accused of yellow journalism. She could stay with Kabuya Yoruko, but she’d either be dealing with drunk people or hearing sad stories with no way to help comfort them.
In the end, she decided to stay with Hashimoto Shoubai, who she had grown close to over time. When she finally accepted his offer to become his assistant, he was delighted and became a little more tolerant of her - well, only a little bit. Even if she wasn’t fond of getting involved with the darker world and was in constant danger, she couldn’t deny that she was treated well.
It felt like forever before Hashimoto drove into the city slums, and the eerie sight of the empty streets in the light of dusk made Sora feel unnerved. “Is this the place?” she asked, watching as Hashimoto parked the car backwards in a hidden place.
He turned the car off, and he grabbed some files from the seat next to him. “Yeah, this is the place. Come on, help me get stuff from the trunk,” he told her.
Sora got out of the car as well, and the two of them got to the trunk. Hashimoto handed her duffle bags to carry, all full of guns he was paid to smuggle. But as she thought he was done, she noticed him get a small box of ammunition out and put it in one of the bags.
“Wait, I thought the deal was just for guns. Why are we giving them bullets as well?” Sora asked, and he picked up the last bags from the trunk.
“They’ve got access to the best imports on the coast, so they said they’d give us cigarettes, coffee grounds, and some toiletries in exchange. These bullets are the cheap kind anyway. Like hell I’d give them the good ones for that kind of trade.”
Sora nodded as she readjusted the bags on her arm. “We were running out of coffee grounds and toothpaste anyway. Let’s just get this over with.”
Today, Hashimoto had been hired to smuggle firearms to a yakuza family, and Sora was needed to help carry some of the bags. He told her in advance that she would not be doing any of the negotiations, which was fine by her. She wasn’t very good at dealing with money or deals anyway, but she was learning while shadowing Hashimoto.
She followed Hashimoto a street over and into an alleyway, where he knocked on a door and waited. After a moment, the door opened slightly and a person exchanged quiet words with Hashimoto. A minute later, the door opened and they were allowed in.
“Stay close to me and keep looking straight ahead,” Hashimoto muttered to her. “One wrong look could get you killed.”
Sora stayed silent, not wanting to risk getting them into trouble within a yakuza family’s building. She kept her eye on Hashimoto’s back until they reached a certain door, which was opened for them. The room they entered looked like a warehouse filled with boxes, and a man in a black suit stood by a box large enough to fit a couch.
“Ah, ‘Broker H.’ We’ve been expecting you,” the man greeted, shaking hands with Hashimoto. “Who’s the girl with you?”
“New assistant. She’s good at what she does,” he answered, then turned to Sora. “This is Furukawa Ren, the heir to this family. He’s done business with me a few times. Pays well.”
“Don’t doubt me when it comes to payment,” Furukawa replied, and picked up a briefcase from behind him.
He handed it to Hashimoto, who opened up the case and inspected the money. “That’s the payment we agreed on,” he concluded, closing the case yet again.
“If that’s the case, where do you want me to put these bags?” Sora asked.
“Just beside this box is fine,” the heir answered, motioning to the giant box beside him.
As she complied with the request and placed the bags down, she pointed to one of the bags in the front. “This one has the bullets you asked for too.”
“Wonderful! Samejima, go get the bag of supplies for Broker H and his assistant,” Furukawa ordered one of his underlings, who left and quickly came back with a bag of supplies. After Sora put the duffle bags that Hashimoto held beside the other ones, she took the bag of supplies from the underling.
Hashimoto nodded to the heir as Sora returned to standing behind him. “Pleasure doing business with you. Let’s go, white hair,” he told Sora, and the two of them turned around and left the room.
As they walked through the corridor they came from, Hashimoto suddenly halted in his tracks. Sora was confused as she stopped behind him, but she noticed a gathering of bright lights at the door they were about to exit.
“Shit, take cover!” Hashimoto hissed, grabbing Sora and running to the side of the room. All of a sudden, the door was kicked open and a barrage of police began flooding into the room. The yakuza members inside panicked, and the room became filled with the sounds of shouting and gunfire.
Hashimoto and Sora stayed pressed to the wall and tried running to find another door, but the exits were blocked. Suddenly, all of a sudden, Sora spotted a grenade above them, and she quickly tackled Hashimoto to the ground. Before he could yell at her, the grenade exploded and caused rubble to fall around them.
Hashimoto looked around from their position on the floor, and he spotted an air duct that had been left open. “Stick to the ground, behind the rubble. Follow me,” he instructed, and they began crawling on the ground to get to the air duct while chaos reigned around them.
Hashimoto went into the duct first, and Sora followed him until they managed to find an opening that led outside. Hashimoto scrambled out of the duct and pulled Sora out, and the two of them made sure they still had their briefcase of money and bag of supplies. Once their payment was accounted for, they began running back to the alleyway where their car was parked.
Hashimoto gave the briefcase to Sora and unlocked the car, and he got into the front seat while she threw herself and their items into the backseat. Once the car doors were closed, he turned on the car and sped off as night began to fall.
After a few minutes of driving and making sure they weren’t being followed, Hashimoto pulled the car over to the side of the road and stopped driving. “Shit… I didn’t expect a police raid today,” he sighed. “At least we got paid in the end.”
“Right, sorry for tackling you. I saw the grenade and panicked,” Sora responded, still holding the briefcase and bag close to her.
“Eh? Why would I be mad about that? Grenades kill people, dumbass,” Hashimoto replied. “I didn’t notice it until it was close, you noticed it before I did. Damn, I should have given you my business card sooner with your set of skills.”
“Why would you do that? I still had no interest in the criminal underworld back then, what makes you think anything would have changed if you had given me your business card earlier?”
“Whatever, let’s stop and grab some food from the next place we get to.”
Hashimoto kept driving south until they reached a small town, and he eventually found a bar that served food. He and Sora went inside and ordered some dinner and two shots for the road. While Sora was eating her share of food, Hashimoto was checking his phone.
“Looks like the news says a lot of the yakuza got arrested or killed in the raid, but some high-ranking individuals escaped, including our client. At least nobody knows us well enough to rat us out. In the meantime, we need to figure out how to manage our supplies.”
“I’ve been keeping track of that. Thanks to the bag we’ve got, we have more coffee, soap, toothpaste, and your cigarettes. But our medical supplies are starting to get low, and we’ll need to take our clothes to the laundromat,” Sora answered. “By the way, are you going to eat that?”
“Don’t touch my damn food, white hair. Let me figure out how we’re going to split the payment first.”
That evening, the two of them finished their meal and agreed on how to divide the payment, with Hashimoto getting the larger portion. After dinner was over, they left the bar and stayed in a motel for the night, getting ready for their next job in the morning.