𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬

file 036 | intentionally causing problems

A gun clicked and Vodka fell silent.

"Just what are you up to?" Gin asked, making Suzume blink.

"A-Aniki."

"The deal's supposed to be midnight tomorrow."

"He complained that tomorrow wasn't good for him, so the time was changed," Vodka rushed to explain.

"Oh? So, you exchanged emails with him and he used you to his advantage."

"N-No, I'm the one who set the time. He received the email at his villa and said that there was a blackout so I talked to him directly on the phone." He picked up the disk. "I couldn't get rid of him but got a hold of what we were after. And besides, he's got a pretty bad heart. He'll croak over soon either way..."

He already has, Suzume thought blithely.

"Why do you think this was stuck on with tape?" Gin asked and Vodka gasped. "To get your fingerprints. You can't take the tape off with gloves on, you see. And...if the one you're waiting for doesn't show up, you get irritated and light cigarettes. If the saliva on this is checked, they'd even be able to find out your blood type."

"A-Aniki."

"He's even trying to track down the location of the base of our operations. Look. There's a tracker on the inside of the CD case. He sure is some sly fox."

"That Itakura," Vodka snarled.

"No." Gin dropped the tracker onto the floor and squashed it under his shoe. "It's not Itakura. In a place where there is a drastic difference in temperature, the sympathetic nerves are stimulated and a great load is placed on the heart. I don't think a guy with heart problems will go out of his way to a villa in the mountains in a blizzard."

"Then...then who was the guy that I talked to on the phone?"

"Probably some wiz that he hired or something. But he made one mistake. This case. The fingerprints seem to have been wiped off, but it's still warm."

"Which means..."

"Yes. He should still be hiding somewhere nearby."

Suzume pursed her lips together, using her Flame sensing to see where Gin and Vodka are and lifted up her gun towards their positions, ready to shoot if absolutely necessary. She didn't want to give herself away prematurely, after all.

She watched them search through the room, even looking inside some of the lockers. Did they really think a grown person could fit in those tiny things?

"Aniki. There's nobody here," Vodka said after their search. "So, what now?"

"We'll change our appearance and get out of here," Gin announced. "He may have called the police."

"What? You mean the guy who Itakura hired?"

"Yes. Be careful, there's no next chance. It seems that some rat is snooping around us. A fox detective."

At that, Suzume let a feral grin appear on her face.

~ — — — ~

It was a few hours later when she heard footsteps coming into the coin locker room. She tensed until she heard her say, "Suzume?"

She chuckled, removing the panel, and hopping onto the top of the coin locker. She put the panel back and jumped down onto the floor. She gave the shrunken scientist a grin. "Hey, Ai."

"What are you doing in a place like this?" Ai asked, confused.

"Nothing you need to worry your little head about," Suzume said, waving a hand at some workers they walked past. They stepped out onto the busy sidewalk. "How'd you find me anyway?"

"I went over to your house and Hikaru said you hadn't returned, so I used the professor's spare set of tracking glasses to find your phone," Ai explained as they walked.

Suzume hummed.

"Now for the next news. Yesterday at about 5 PM, the body of a man was found at Hotel New Baker. The body was identified as that of a computer graphic designer, Itakura Suguru-san, age 45."

The rest of the news broadcast went unnoticed as Shuichi looked over his shoulder at Suzume and Ai. Don't tell me...

Ai turned around with a frightened gasp.

"What's wrong?" Suzume asked, frowning. Did one of them hang around?

"It's nothing," Ai insisted.

"If you say so..."

Fun Facts —
— I've been wanting to do a first scene like that for a while now, just for a giggle.
— Yes, I skipped over the Itakura episode. I didn't feel like writing it.
— The next couple of chapters will be covering Movie 7, so expect more Heiji and Kazuha and Suzume and Ran content. hehe.