Lonely Thieves

Epilogue

Ingrid Hayasaka took a sip of coffee as she sat in her brand new office. It was way too big for her, and far too gaudy and tacky for her taste, but there was nothing she could do about it, at least for now. As she pondered the price of the natural mahogany desk she was sitting at, her secretary Amanda Luong entered the office at a brisk pace.

"More problems?" Ingrid grumbled as she turned to face her secretary.

"It can't be helped," Amanda replied as she dropped a pile of reports on the desk. "Dissolving the Hayasaka Zaibatsu is a big deal after all."

"I never knew until I became head of the Hayasaka family that paper documents were still being used so often," Ingrid sighed as she began looking through the reports.

"Physical documents are still important, even in this data-heavy world we live in," Amanda remarked. "Can't hack paper."

Ingrid smirked wryly. "I guess so. Well, how's everything going? I bet everyone's gone into a panic after the announcement of dissolution I made the other day."

"Absolutely. Never mind the hundreds of CEOs worried about their businesses, there are also a number of your relatives clamoring to give you a piece of their mind, claiming you're just giving ground to the Neumanns and the Innocenti."

"Well, they can shove it. They had all the time to stop my grandfather from doing what he did, but they didn't. They can suffer the consequences; it's nothing like what he's going through."

Amanda nodded solemnly. Tom Hayasaka had turned himself in only two weeks after the truth of the Matsuoka family hit the mass media. It was believed that he would put up more of a resistance, but with the disappearance of Howard and the Hayasaka Security keeping out of the matter, he didn't have many options left.

"If he goes to jail, it's unlikely he'll ever leave within his lifetime," Amanda observed. "I doubt he'll be put with the common criminals, but it'll still be quite the change in lifestyle."

Ingrid could only nod quietly. She couldn't help that she still felt bad about the whole thing. After all, Tom Hayasaka was her beloved grandfather; she was still grateful for everything he'd done for her, but she couldn't forgive what he had done to the Matsuoka family.

She sighed and put her grandfather out of her head. She couldn't dwell on that when there was still work to be done and turned her attention to the reports.

"All right, enough sitting around! Get in contact with every business owner affiliated with the Hayasaka family and set up a meeting. I'll explain my reasoning for disbanding the group.

"And your relatives?"

"Ignore them. I have better things to do," Ingrid smirked as she leaned forward in her chair. "Most importantly, we need to get a more manageable office."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Norah strolled down the streets of the Morning Star district. It was a place she hadn't been to in a while, but the way there was still fresh in her mind as if it was just yesterday. She turned down the alley way and searched for the lone door sitting in the dark. She knocked on it, and a familiar face answered the door.

"Haven't seen you in a while. Got business?"

"Just here to meet with someone," Norah smiled politely as the bouncer let her in. She walked over to a free table and sat down. She was only left waiting for a second before a waitress came by to take her order.

"You know, you could just say hi. You don't have to go to all this trouble putting on an act."

"I'm a private eye, you know," Norah replied with a smirk. "I can't be seen getting too friendly with shady folk."