April 17, 11:17 am, Tokyo, j.a.pan

A man in black was making tea for them. Outside, it was still raining, but a lot less than before. Still, it was the perfect weather for a hot drink. The lightbulb above flickered slightly as the people underneath sat in silence.

There were three men in black in the room, and also Jason Tachikawa. Sakura noticed as she sat down at the table that there were no women. Of course, it was possible that they had been stationed somewhere outside, or in one of the three cars on the road. But Sakura had a feeling that Jason didn't really want there to be women in his elite team.

Across from her, Jason lounged on his cus.h.i.+on, arm resting on his knee, just casually holding his gun.

"Where were you?" Jason suddenly asked.

Sakura gave him a look, disguising her fear as annoyance.

"I had some personal issues to take care of," she said. "Woman things."

That got a snort out of Jason, as she knew it would. As expected, he was a cla.s.sic transphobe. She could use that.

"I doubt there's much that's womanly about you," said Jason. "Except maybe your tendency to lie to your man."

He turned to look at Michi, bound and gagged.

"Hear that, cuckboy?" he poked him with his gun. "Your woman's going around seeing other men."

Michi simply looked confused. Jason seemed to take that as some other sort of emotion, and laughed.

Sakura took this time to place her phone under the table, face down. At that same moment, the man in black came and served them tea. Sakura took the cup with both hands, taking a small sip before placing it on the table. She held the cup on the table, to keep her hands warm.

She smiled at Jason. Everything was ready.

"Shall we begin?"

***

Jason

April 17, 11:20 am, Tokyo, j.a.pan

She really did act like a woman.

Not just any kind of woman either. She was s.e.xy. Even the way she drank tea was alluringly feminine. If he didn't know any better…

Urgh. No time to think about that. Focus on the job.

Jason took a swing of his tea, and slammed his half-empty cup on the table. He smirked as Sakura flinched.

"Alright," he said. "So tell me, what exactly do you know?"

Sakura gave a smile that Jason couldn't read. That annoyed him.

"Do you have all day to speak, or do you have other people's houses to break into today?" she asked lightly, as if asking about the weather.

Jason snorted. Even her insults were feminine.

"Why should I believe that you even know anything?" he said. "For all I know, you're just making up something and hoping to catch us off-guard."

Sakura seemed genuinely amused by that line of questioning.

"So you all decided not to shoot me just because of a line I made up?" she said, taking a sip. "How lucky for me."

Jason chewed the inside of his cheek. That smile was incredibly irritating. His eyes flicked down to her chest, then back up again.

"I mean, I guess I could mention the fact that you have a storage room full of animal Frankensteins," said Sakura lightly. "Or the fact that you seem to be working towards making human-animal hybrids."

She looked at him as she said this, while the cup was raised to her lips. This girly action made Jason angry.

How dare she act like this while being interrogated? Was she mocking him?

Jason did have to hand it to her; she really knew how women made fun of men.

"Is that all?" Jason snorted. He needed to look weak in front of her. Show her what a real man was supposed to be. Like she fai-

"So there's more?" Sakura cut in. "Aside from illegal human experimentation, you're telling me that there is more?"

For the first time, Jason let his irritation show on his face.

d.a.m.nit. Stupid mistake. It was all this b****'s fault, for looking so s.e.xy and alluring. This is why he hated women and their mind games. Be straightforward like a man, why don't you?

d.a.m.n b****. She acted just like the girls back in high school. They had always looked at him with disgust. He sneered as he gripped the handle on his gun.

She thought she was better than him, did she?

"Of course," he said, smoothing his face out again to a confident smirk. "Do you really think that's the big secret we're hiding?"

Before she could have a chance to answer, Jason raised his gun.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three shots.

Into the table. Smoke rose from the three holes made into the weak wood.

Through one of them, Jason could see a bullet embedded into a shattered screen.

"Just how dumb do you think I am?" he said, shaking his head. "I know you were trying to record this conversation."

He raised his gun again, this time pointing it at Sakura. He grinned as he watched her gulp in fear.

"Now, from what you've been telling me, all I hear are more reasons to eliminate you from the equation," he said. "What's stopping me from doing that, exactly?"

Sakura closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Jason enjoyed how this made her chest heave.

"I have a friend who has all this information ready to be released to the press, and all social media everywhere, whenever I say so," said Sakura. "In fact, if I don't call him soon, he'll be releasing it all in about..."

Sakura checked the clock behind Jason. He looked back to see the time: 11:26 am.

"...ten minutes," she finished. She raised an eyebrow at Jason.

He gritted his teeth, glaring at her. This f***ing b****.

"What do you want?" he spat.

"Two things," said Sakura. "One: you let him go."

She nodded in the direction of Michi.

"Two: I want to see your boss."

Jason snorted.

"For what?" he said derisively. "An interview?"

"You could say that," she said, picking up her cup in two hands again. She leaned forward, her a.s.sets squeezed between her arms.

"I just have a lot of questions I want answered," she stated plainly.

Jason nodded. Blackmail, was it? So she was trying to extort Neurix. Understandable.

He thought about it for a moment. In cases like these, usually it was best to eliminate all enemies. That was the easiest way to deal with leaks. But taking care of things too carelessly could lead to more problems.

Plus, Jason recalled as he rubbed his chin, this lady seemed to have more information than normal. It seemed like she had seen a lot more than what they had initially suspected.

Not to mention, there was this mysterious third party that would release all this information. Was it just a program with a timer? Or was there an actual third party that knew about all this as well?

"Tick tock, Mr. Tachikawa," said Sakura, grinning.

d.a.m.nit. He needed more time. And the best way to do that was…

"Alright," he said nodding. "Call off the attack."

"You destroyed my phone," said Sakura dryly.

Jason nodded at one of the men in black, who took out his phone and placed it in front of Sakura. She stared at it for a moment, and sighed.

"I don't know their number, and their LINE ID is private," she grumbled. "I need to use my laptop."

Jason made a show of sighing, but allowed her to get the laptop. Inside he was grinning.

So there was another party involved. That meant that taking her in for "questioning" would be the best option. After all, they needed to find out who this third party was.

He nodded to one of the men in black, who fetched the laptop and placed it in front of Sakura. She opened it, then bit her lip. She looked up at Jason, then at his hostage, then at the clock.

"Let him go first," said Sakura, sitting back and folding her arms.

Jason curled his lip in annoyance. Really? Making demands at a time like this? She really knew how to get under his skin.

Just as he was about to make a demand in response, he remembered the time limit. He looked at the clock: 11:30. G.o.d freaking d.a.m.nit.

He tutted loudly, then nodded at one of his men. He kept his eyes on Sakura while the captive was untied and ungagged. As soon as he was free, he rushed to Sakura's side, whispering something in her ear.

Urgh.

"Scram, boy," he said dangerously, pointing his gun at him.

The boy gave him one last glare, then left. Jason kept his eyes on Sakura, who started working on the computer; she may be a pervert, but at least she was more fun to watch than that guy.

As she worked on the computer, he gave a nod to the man in black behind Sakura. The man in black put away his gun, and took out his phone, recording Sakura's screen.

That should help with finding out who this other person was.

They sat in silence for a moment, save for the tap-tapping of Sakura typing on the computer. The rain was lessening, but it was still coming down pretty hard. Jason started to tap the barrel of his gun on the table, impatient.

"Alright, I'm done," said Sakura, closing the laptop. She looked back at Jason cooly.

"Ready to go?"

A few minutes later, Jason lead Sakura out to the cars on the street outside. The rain was still going, but they didn't let her leave with an umbrella. They couldn't let her have a potential weapon in her hands, could they?

There were three cars parked out on the street, with drivers already in the drivers seats. It looked like they had moved the cars a bit since they went inside; there was not proper parking spot for them, so they would have to move every now and then. Luckily, they had already alerted the neighbors, so they didn't get any weird calls to the police.

Jason smiled as he watched Sakura slowly get drenched as they took her to her car; the black sedan in the middle. That way, they could tail her from behind and cut her off from the front. Not that they would need to; they had their own drivers already.

He made sure Sakura was in her car safely, door closing behind her, before entering his own car. His was the one in front. There was no way for her to escape now.

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!"

One of his men screamed, loud enough for everyone to hear. Jason jumped out of his car, looking back at the man who screamed. He was lying on the floor, clawing at his face as the car with Sakura in it drove away.

Except it wasn't a black sedan anymore. It was a green Toyota. Jason watched in confusion as the car drove away, Sakura inside it.

What the h.e.l.l just happened here?

***

Sakura

April 17, 11:33 am, Tokyo, j.a.pan

Michi left after giving her the pa.s.sword and glaring at Jason. Once he was gone, Sakura got to work.

So far everything had gone according to plan. Michi was released, now all she needed to do was to pretend to stop the clock on the release, and they should be good.

Sakura went on the desktop LINE app. Michi was already logged in, so she was able to immediately get in contact with Bunta.

After confirming with him that Michi was safe and ready to go, she got up and got ready to leave. They didn't let her take her umbrella.

"Can't let you have a weapon now, can we?" said Jason, with a big stupid grin on his face.

What a p.r.i.c.k.

Sakura let herself be escorted out to the cars. She saw them leading her towards the car at the back.

"Wouldn't the middle car make more sense?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Meanwhile, her heart was pounding like a taiko drum. If this didn't work...

Two men in black looked at each other, then at Jason. He shrugged and nodded, heading towards the car in front.

The men escorting her moved her to the middle car, and pushed her inside, following her. One of them opened the pa.s.senger seat in front.

"Nope!" said a familiar voice from inside the car.

Sakura immediately turned around and took off the man in black's gla.s.ses. The next second:

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Bunta, who was already in the backseat, sprayed the man in black with pepper spray. Sakura quickly unlocked the door, and pushed the man in black out.

"DRIVE!" she yelled at the driver.

"No need to yell!" yelled Michi, who immediately accelerated, causing the guy entering the pa.s.senger seat to fall out.

"Door, door!" he yelled, and Sakura reached over to the front pa.s.senger seat to close the open door. She sat down in the front pa.s.senger seat, exhausted.

She looked in the rearview mirror, just in time to see Jason looking up at her, face twisted in confusion and hatred. She couldn't help but grin.

"Looks like it worked, Bunta," she said. "Good plan."

Before entering the apartment, Sakura and Bunta agreed that the major goal of this plan was to get Michi out of there. For that reason, Sakura needed to meet with Jason within the time limit. Otherwise, who knows what they would have done with Michi.

However, they also figured that they were planning to kill Sakura. Why? She knew too much. And if she didn't, it never hurt to be safe.

"If I were a heartless, multi-billion dollar corporation, that's what I'd do," Bunta had muttered.

So in order for them not to kill her, they needed a reason to keep Sakura alive. That's where they hatched the backstory for the negotiations.

The plan was to negotiate for Michi, and get him sent out. Meanwhile Bunta would use his cameras to check out the situation on the outside. The cars outside couldn't park, so they were all moving every now and then.

It was easy for Sakura to disguise Michi's Toyota to be a black sedan. It would only last for about half an hour, but that should be enough time.

The real tricky part was getting rid of the third car. Luckily, Sakura arrived half an hour before the deadline, and was able to use her illusions to trick the driver to leave his car for a moment. After which they simply knocked him out and tied him up with his own clothes in an alleyway.

They had tried to use the black sedan instead of Michi's Toyota, but it seemed like it could only be turned on with the fingerprint of the driver. d.a.m.n futuristic cars.

Then again, these cars probably had trackers on them. Better to use the car that probably wasn't being tracked.

Once the cars were set up, Sakura went in, got Michi out, then contacted Bunta via LINE to get him to tell her which car to go to. There had been a bit of a hiccup when Sakura got greedy, trying to record the conversation on her phone. Luckily, she managed to find a way around it, and found a way to talk to Bunta via Michi's laptop.

Then, Sakura almost had a heart attack when they tried to put her in the last car. Thankfully, Jason and his men didn't take her seriously enough to care which car they put her in. That last bit was seriously lucky for them.

And the rest was history.

Sakura looked at Michi as he was driving. She could see his hands still shaking slightly as he floored it to get as far away from this place as possible.

"You okay, Michi?" she asked.

He let out a deep breath. She noticed that his eyes were a little red and puffy.

"I am now," he said, glancing at her and smiling. "Thank you."

She smiled back, and he turned his attention back on the road.

"We have to ditch this car," said Bunta from the back. "They probably have the number plate by now."

Neither Sakura nor Michi said anything. They knew he was right.

"You know, this is the part where you tell me I'm paranoid," said Bunta, a hint of desperation creeping into his voice.

Sakura looked back at him, smiling sadly.

"I don't think you're being paranoid anymore," she said. "I think you're right."

Bunta said nothing for a while. Then he muttered:

"I liked it better when I was paranoid."

Sakura looked back at the rearview mirror. She wasn't sure if the car behind her was one of the black sedans from Jason's team.

"Me too," she said, trying to keep an eye on all the cars behind them.