𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬

file 036 | intentionally causing problems

"Sounds silly," Ai sighed, turning to leave. "I'm going to bed."

They both waited until she shut the door behind her.

"So, what now?" Agasa whispered.

"I'll grab Hiro and we'll head up to the villa," Suzume decided, crossing her arms.

~ — — — ~

"I'm surprised you're still talking to me after what happened this morning," Hiro chuckled awkwardly as they walked up to the villa.

Hiro had borrowed Shuichi's truck for the drive as Suzume was adamant on having her motorcycle with them as well in case they decided to split up for whatever reason. He saw no reason to argue and the motorcycle was now on the bed of the truck.

She gave him a dirty look. "It's only on the assumption it'll never happen again," she deadpanned. "If it does, you can find somewhere else to live."

"Okay, okay. Message heard and received," he said. "So the last line of the diary said, 'We can be both God and the Devil. Since we are trying to raise the dead against the stream of time'?"

She nodded, hands tucked into her pockets. "Yeah. It makes me worried about the drug they were having Ai make," she admitted. They walked to the door and Suzume pulled out the key she found under the stairs and unlocked the door.

Hiro sighed, rubbing his forehead. "You're kidding me," he muttered, exasperated.

"It was written in the diary," she explained with a shrug as she pushed the door open.

Hiro walked inside first, hand near his hidden gun, and Suzume followed him, shutting the door once inside. "This is dangerous, even for you," he murmured as they walked over to the computer in the bedroom.

She opened the drawer of the desk, pulling out the disk with the software and the envelope with the check. "Which is why he left it here. They wouldn't think that the software that they wanted would be left in a place like this so carelessly. And with the e-mail that they are about to send, if no one receives their mail here, they'll come here looking for Itakura-san, and find the software and check, so he gets to sever all ties with them without meeting them face-to-face."

She turned on the computer and took a seat in the desk chair with Hiro leaning forward to look at the screen. He glanced at his watch.

"Almost midnight," he announced to her, giving her a glance.

"Okay," she murmured. "Let's see what happens, shall we?" It wasn't even a minute later when the e-mail arrived and appeared on screen. She clicked to open it and a timer asking for a password appeared, counting down from ten. "Password?!"

"It's counting down awfully quick," Hiro remarked unhelpfully.

Since neither of them knew the password, the mail was lost.

"Damn it. It was set so that if it wasn't opened immediately, it would disappear," Suzume grumbled. "God, I really hate how well thought out these procedures of theirs are."

Hiro gave her a look. "I don't think now is the time to be giving these guys some praise." He paused. "They would know it wasn't opened."

"Maybe they even found out that the mail failed to be opened on this computer," she added, wanting to slam her head onto the keyboard.

"They might think something happened to Itakura and come here," Hiro muttered.

Suddenly, the phone started to ring and they both whipped their heads around to look at it in shock. They let it go to voicemail to see who was calling.