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."
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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."
"You've got the nerve to say that, Night Hunter," Maize grumbled. "Keep that up, and I won't give you information anymore."
"I'm only joking," Norah giggled. "Did you tell Kolya that I'm here?"
"Yes. He'll be down in a bit."
Norah ordered a drink and leaned back in her chair as Maize walked off. The place hadn't changed much in the months since she'd last been here in person, despite everything that had happened during that affair with the Florencia building. Guess business for the sweepers was doing as poorly as ever.
The TV hanging from the ceiling suddenly began talking about the Hayasaka trial, which grabbed Norah's attention. The broadcast talked for a bit about the current state of the trial, then switched over to talking about the Florenica building. It looked like after everything that had happened, a decision had been made to tear it down. It made sense; after all, it had been mostly destroyed after being raided simultaneously by the Innocenti and the Overman Foundation, and no one seemed interested in keeping the building around once the FBI decided it no longer needed it themselves. Oh well. Buildings and skyscrapers rose up and fell down all the time in Twilight. In all honesty, it was weirder for the Florencia building to have stayed standing for this long.
As Maize came by and dropped off the beer Norah had ordered, Kolya emerged from upstairs. He hailed Norah with a casual wave and sat down at her table.
"How's work been?" Koyla asked as he whipped out a cigarette and lit it. "You getting on alright?"
"Not too bad," Norah replied. "I started getting some more jobs once I actually cleaned the place. Who knew clients didn't like a cluttered office?"
Kolya scoffed. "You need to be a bit more responsible. No one wants a private eye that can't even take care of themselves."
"What about you? I thought you'd quit being a Night Hunter, but you're still going at it, huh? You've even roped the sweepers in on your jobs."
"Only on the non-classified ones. I've got to make money after all." Kolya took a puff of his cigarette. "Besides, this is the best way to go looking for him."
Norah simply nodded solemnly. By "him," Kolya of course meant Raven, who had suddenly disappeared that night without a trace. Now, no one knew if he was alive or dead, and Norah didn't know how to even start looking for him.
"What a hassle," Kolya sighed. "If Megumi's mother hadn't hired me to do this for her, I would have given up weeks ago."
"Don't lie," Norah smiled slyly. "You're worried about him too, aren't you?"
Kolya frowned, but he didn't refute her words. Instead, he changed the subject. "How is Megumi doing, by the way? I haven't seen her in a while."
"How should I know? It's not like she kept in contact after she left Twilight."
"I see. I thought she would have at least left a message after everything that happened, but I suppose she wants to focus on her new life with her mother."
"Lucky her," Norah sighed. "I guess with all that government assistance, being a thief seems meaningless, doesn't it?"
"If you say it like that, you'll sound bitter and jealous."
"I am jealous. You know how much I managed to earn last month?" Norah downed her beer in one gulp. "Not even 20,000 redals. And rent's going up every year."
"Don't be like that. Listen, I called you here for a reason. I've got an job lined up, and I need someone to do some groundwork for me. You interested?"
Norah smirked. "Wouldn't have come if I wasn't."
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To Daryl, the normal life he was living now was almost like a dream.
Whether it was Chisato's meddling or the business with the released will keeping him busy, the Innocenti had suddenly decided to forget about Daryl's debt, and he was able to take the collar off for good. He'd worried that the Innocenti would try and take revenge for what he'd done, but apparently, the EMP he used on Matteo wiped his and Megumi's faces from his memory. In other words, he was completely free of obligation to the Innocentis.
From there, it was like a lifetime's worth of luck hit him at once. Hayasaka Security dropped their warrant for his arrest, as did the Overman Foundation, something Daryl assumed was the work of Ingrid Hayasaka, though he couldn't say for sure, since he never met her. His apartment manager, miraculously, hadn't put his apartment up for sale, and while he had to come up with a fair amount of excuses for where he'd been and what all those agents had been looking for, he managed to keep his apartment.
After that, he found out that Chisato had done one more favor for him and reversed the crack on his ID, allowing him to apply for normal jobs without worrying about being exposed as a Night Hunter. He immediately got hired at the first place he applied for, and though he wasn't being paid half of what he used to earn, he was just happy to be working a normal job with normal co-workers.
Despite this, Daryl would occasionally find himself thinking about his time as a Night Hunter, whether he was drinking with his friends or going on a dinner with a cute girl he met while grocery shopping. It was a harrowing experience that surely could have killed him, but now that it was all over, he could only look back on it fondly. He hadn't seen Megumi, Kolya, or Norah for months now, but somehow that didn't make him feel lonely. He knew that no matter where they were, they were struggling through life just like he was.
That alone was more than enough solace.