Dark Reign: Security Chief vs the World.

This wasn’t where Kuro saw herself at this point in the day. Originally, the plan was to give the older security chief a quick bribe to get him to look the other way from the goings on inside the federation. Basically, pay him to do what he was already doing to ensure success. But Sae had shaken things up, to the point where Kuro was working on instinct rather than any pre established plan. The faker was desperate to learn what she could about the Chief that sat across the table from her, and the more she learned the harder it was to sit in that chair with a straight face. It felt as though she was fighting on multiple fronts. She was trying to keep Sae from learning the truth, learn about the Chief and her possible weaknesses, push her employer’s agenda, and still maintain her own story to try and avoid suspicion. Every second she sat in that seat meant the chance of being found out was growing. The Chief was smarter then she was letting on, noticing things like the unlocked door within an instant. It was hard to tell if Kuro had actually talked her way into the office, or if she had wandered into a web of Sae’s making.

Using her early deductions, Kuro could only think of two ways to get through Sae and get the results her employers wanted. She could continue on with deception, playing things off as the newbie security guard and hope she could stay close enough to the chief to subtly guide her away from the back room deals and incriminating situations while learning more about her. It wasn’t an impossible task, but one that would take time and patience to work and even then it may not be enough. It would be strange to alway hover around Sae in an environment that seems to despise her. Eventually “Kuroki” would have to work elsewhere to throw off suspicion. The chief would catch something eventually, and by then it would either be too late to stop what was coming, or she would need to be stopped one way or another.

The other option was much easier, took less time, and it might prove to be a much more effective deterrent for someone like Sae. She didn’t look like an easy woman to intimidate, but the people Kuro worked for at the moment had a vast amount of resources. Both financially and in personnel. The Faker wholeheartedly believed that they could make Sae’s life much harder than it already was. Even if it needed to be done indirectly. The Chief didn’t seem like she would take a bribe, so this was the only direct option in Kuro’s arsenal. The only problem was that this was a type of last resort sort of situation. If she did it wrong, then more could be revealed about her employer's plan then was wanted.

Both of these options were in the back of Kuro’s mind, debating which way to go if her attempt to simply control the complaints didn’t work. She had no idea how this place was actually supposed to work, but if it was anything like what she had seen in the movies, certain people were assigned to certain types of problems. If she could get a monopoly on anything that could be related to her employers activities then she could stay under Sae’s radar naturally and without consequence! That would be the best she could ask for, leaning on the lack of talent in the security workforce and the appearance of a willing newbie to take on a share of the load.

But the Security Chief must have been a lone wolf, because rather than assign others a specific type of complaint, they all went through her and she likely picked who would do what. It was frustrating. Kuro couldn’t help but internally curse Sae for blocking the easiest route to get what she wanted in such a dismissive fashion. She didn’t consider that Sae might actually need to do it that way due to her unreliable staff.

“Kuroki” held her blank face, but she also took the time to gently gather the complaints and clip them back onto her board. She had to think this through, come up with something else and get some actual progress going to give back to her employers. She had to make a decision whether to-



For a split second, Kuro froze in her seat. Her eyes stuck peering at the top of her clipboard as she listened to Sae, running her words through her mind over and over again. A trend? Is that what she heard? How could Sae have picked up on that so quickly? What was her reasoning for thinking…? What was Kuro even supposed to say?

“But if I can confirm some of my suspicions, I'll begin investigating.”

Kuro’s eyes flicked towards the woman across the desk. A questioning look that had a flash of the real Kuro as she began to question how much Sae was actually holding back. The security chief offered the newbie a chance to help her directly if her theory turned out to be true, but “Kuroki” remained silent for just a little too long. The newbie arms were crossed, with one of her gloved hands cupping her chin as she seemed to be in thought. But rather than looking at the paperwork on the desk in front of her, those ugly eyes remained on Sae’s violet orbs. A million questions were rolling in her mind, none of them ones she could genuinely ask.

Finally, Kuro cleared her throat, her tone as simple as it was before, if slightly guarded.

”I would be happy to assist you any way I can Ma’am. I’d like to ask what sort of trend you have been seeing in these complaints. I’m curious to hear what is considered Disturbing for a PSB Officer in a place like...well, a place like this.”

Kuro needed to know what Sae knew, or at least gather an idea as to where she was in putting the puzzle together. Sae said it might take weeks, but at this point Kuro didn’t trust that projection. If she was sniffing around already, she would probably find something else. What that might be, Kuro couldn’t say, but she wasn’t the only agent hiding in plain sight. And not all of them were as careful, or willing, as she was.

If it came down to it...Intimidation might not be enough. Things could turn out violent in the worst case scenario.

Caught you.

Sae didn't have to open her mouth to say that, not so long as she had two eyes to look in Kuroki’s direction. It was the faintest flash, only a sudden stiffness that could be seen across the woman’s raven brow, but that was more than enough for the chief sat right across the desk. For a moment, it felt as though she were back across the interrogation table, seeking out the slightest twitch of the face and every fold of the lip as her razor eyes cross-examined the convict quiet and capable across from her. She wanted a reaction and that was finally what she got.

Whether that was a good or bad thing remained to be seen. All she wanted was to gather the size of this seemingly eager rookie and it seemed as though she would be walking away with a little bit more than that.

No issue in digging deeper then. Sae folded her arms as she listened.

“I’ve left behind a long and eventful career in the PSB. The devil is always in the details.” Sae reached down and pulled open a drawer closest to her left knee. From out of it she pulled a small notebook, one that could easily fit into an officer’s pocket or anywhere else convenient. It appeared bent at the corners and beaten all over with patches of dirt and unnatural slashes. It’s clearly been a very trustworthy friend.

"Random acts of aggression, an increased count of sexual harassment claims against female staff, competitors reporting feeling anxious and malnourished, and the reports only seem to be coming from the Friction and Tension leagues." She looked up from the paper and straight back at Kuro.

"These are telltale signs of doping and given the targets it. Individually, they wouldn't appear that out of the ordinary, but curiously all of the complaints thus far are regarding members of the rosters. No janitors, no stage crew, not even the trainers. Furthermore, for the past two weeks, I've been noticing an influx of these specific complaints and diagnoses. The same symptoms popping up all over as if a sickness is spreading. I’ve seen it happen before. At best its contained to one venue, at worst entire neighborhoods are afflicted, but the growth always starts the same way.” She shut the notebook with a clap and set it down off to the side.

“Someone is starting to push product into the arenas. Much worse than anything it's seen so far, if I’m right. Organized. Virulent. And with the potential to spill into the general public if we don't get a lid on it soon.” Sae hadn’t been around long enough to gather a decent look at the company records, but her time as a special agent hadn’t clued her into any major scandals within AFW, even under the magnifying glass the bureau had been keeping it under for the past ten years. Despite its lawless nature, the federation seemed to have done an admirable job at keeping organized crime off of its storefront. Sae wouldn’t be the one to destroy that standard.

“...Or you could just call me a paranoid old gumshoe with too much time on my hands." Sae reached for her cup and took a sip of her chai, setting the cup beside her notebook.

"Whatever you decide, Kuroki-san, you’ll find that a ‘place like this’ always seems to attract some of the most...ambitious minds you’ll ever meet.” The crimson hue of her eyes carried alongside the gray luminescence of the window behind her, gazing right at Kuroki still sitting in that chair. “Is there something on your mind?”

Kuro did indeed see the police chief’s success flash into her eyes as the rookie across the table broke character for a split second. But Kuro didn’t bother beating herself up for it. Not when there were much more pressing matters sitting right in front of her. Sae seemed confident she was on the trail of something big, and worse than that, she seemed capable of finding out the truth with the proper tools and personnel. Even now, the rookie wasn’t sure exactly who was bleeding information from who, as the two of them stared into each other's eyes.

If Sae had thought there was something wrong with Kuroki, then she was doing an excellent job of hiding it. She was all too willing to indulge the rookie’s request as she dug into her drawer and pulled a small, pocket sized notepad from her desk. It was worn down, clearly in use for several months by the looks of it. Bent corners, stains of various origins across the front. It looked as though it should have been thrown away ages ago. The chief of security must not have thought so, because rather than toss it in the wastebasket, she began to thumb through it, quickly finding the page she wanted before Kuro even had time to observe what might have been inside of the notebooks pages.

Sae then read out an interesting list of conflicts that had been popping up around the AFW competitors. Truthfully, it sounded like nothing out of the ordinary for the most part. Had it just been one or two cases, it likely would have never been caught under anyone's radar. But it was the sheer concentration of cases in the Friction and Tension rosters that managed to catch the Chief of Security’s eyes. Being experienced in past police work helped her pick out the tell tale signs of drugging, as well as its methodical spread throughout the competitors. She had seen this situation before, and summarized that this was an organized distribution method. One that had some influence backing it up, and the potential to spill out into the general public should not be contained here and now.

Of course, none of this was new information. In fact, little did Sae know that this drug was birthed outside of the AFW, and already tested on some of the local dregs of society. Of course, that incident was swept under the rug, along with an experiment where two drugged up goons attacked one of AFW more solitary fighters, Raul Tejada. The drug was spreading throughout the federation like a disease, but it had already taken hold of a few in the general population. The world was the testing phase, but the federation was the true target. Thankfully, that truth still seemed to elude Sae, sharp as she was.

Of course, Kuro had to act like this was all a stunning revelation. The woman leaned back in her chair, her face just as blank as it was when she walked into the office. Only on key points did she change her expression into one of dull surprise, as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Letting Sae talk was easy, as Kuro was very interested in listening to what she had learned. When the Chief of security set the notepad to the side, Kuro’s gaze naturally followed it. Her dead eyes lingered on the notepad for just a moment before returning to Sae, unable to decipher if the notepad was a trap or not. A part of Kuro thought that Sae was too careful to write anything case sensitive in a notebook, and the item was just distinct enough to notice if it went missing.

But before Kuro could think too much about that, Sae was looking over at her newest recruit once again. The shadows of the grey sky came crawling in from behind Sae, making her eyes appear intense and powerful. All Kuro could feel were those eyes on her, as though Sae was peering through the suit, the eyes, everything. Like she was trying to see what was at the bottom of the woman sitting across from her. All before asking an innocent question, that took on a double meaning. Kuro’s blank expression hung on her face for a moment more before her smile returned, the woman gently clapping her gloved hands together.


“Excuse me Ma’am. I’m simply in awe at your incredible ability to deduce a situation. I have nothing but respect for you and your previous professions, but to see it in action was an exceptional treat.”

The golf clap ceased as quickly as it began, but that smile of hers stuck around. It was a smile that could fool anyone not familiar with a liar’s grin. Even the way Kuro’s eyes moved was almost practiced, looking at Sae with a false sense of awe.

“And to add to that, I consider myself to be smart enough never to doubt a more experienced officer’s senses. Especially when I have only just walked through the door. To say you were paranoid in my position would be extremely ignorant of me, y’know?”

The small bit of silence hung in the air as “Kuroki” attempted a joke at her superior. The way she conducted herself, it was as if she was ignorant to Sae’s suspicions. That piercing stare of Sae’s seemed to go right over her head as she laughed it off with a gentle chuckle, waving off her own unfunny joke.

“But if I may, you raised a point earlier I’m not sure I fully understood. You mentioned that these symptoms have only been appearing in the AFW competitors, and not any of the Staff members. Do you suspect that members of the staff are sneaking this drug in and distributing it amongst the fighters? Something like that would cause an awful scandal for the company if it turned out to be true. Of course, that would be far more preferable to the only other alternative I think you are suggesting.”

The air on “Kuroki’s” side of the room seemed to get chilled as the woman’s familiar thin smile spread it’s way across her face. The rookie’s eyes peered coldly into the Chief’s fierce and determined look, her relaxed posture completely opposite from Sae’s authoritative stance. The dull lighting made the room feel darker as the clouds rolled in once again, rain beginning to hit the window behind Sae as the rookie tapped her clipboard.


“Because the only other alternative that would fit in your theory would be if an outside force was producing and distributing their drugs here. And if what you say is true, then they must have some serious influence to push their way in here. As I said, I’m new, but I would think it’s no easy task to actually get to one of the AFW combatants without some insider access. With the entire staff uninfected, looking for the distributors would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack! And that's assuming the ones looking for said Needle aren’t playing for the other side. I respect and believe in you, Ma’am...but I’m concerned how Maximilian would take it.”

The rookie didn’t sound too much like a rookie anymore. Kuroki’s eyes were far sharper than they were before, the smile too real. It was as if she had already thought of all this beforehand, and yet played it off as if it was a genuine concern. The girl had only heard rumors of Maximilian when she walked in, but now she seemed to know more than what she first said. And yet the woman’s eyes didn’t seem to budge or look away, as if she were knowingly being inconsistent. Or perhaps, it was something else…

“So I suppose the question on my mind is which do you think is more likely, Mrs. Yamamoto? Where do you think your efforts will be spent?”

For some reason, Sae felt her mind wandering to that backstreet in Shinjuku. She was the farthest thing from a 'chief' of anything then. Even at the lowest rungs of the FSB, it was possible to make it out into the field. Weeks of canvassing had led them to that drop site. They’d studied the layout inside and out, counted every familiar face that had popped in and out. She was confident and cocksure that dreary morning despite how hard the rain seemed committed to ruining her night.

It was only one second. One second with her finger off the trigger, with her shoulders relaxed, with the honest belief that a dishonest man could suddenly become sincere on the opposite end of the barrel. She still remembered how quickly his face changed; faster than the glint that came from his back pocket and the speed he came at the kid. The way her partner was looking at her and not the man gunning straight for him. Everything after just came to her in flashes now. Faint impressions. The damp brickwork stuck to her back, the droplets falling off the tips of her hair, the strobing lights of red and blue as she saw him for the last time. It was the last time she wore that jacket too. She’d never been so tired in her entire life.

That second of hesitation gave her everything she would ever need to know about the front lines of criminal justice. One slight twitch of a muscle in the wrong place and that was all she would ever see. Sae would never let that second just pass her by again. She’d grasp on to each and everyone, chain them together within the chronostasis of her headspace, and find the truth lingering behind each one. Even now, in the thin light of this empty office, the former agent read the room with careful eyes. Kuroki was a puzzling maze of hanging seconds and truths dead and buried. She wanted something. There was more to her than the half-decent suit and cheap clipboard she seemed content to hide behind.

And then the woman in black clapped.

Sae raised a brow, unsure of exactly how to proceed. That was fine. Kuroki was going to be taking over. A cavalcade of expressions from one to the next flowed over the mysterious woman’s face in ripples, and there Sae sat with her back to the chair taking it all in. Watching her shapeshift with an uncompromising stare, listening to the series of deductions being offered her way by an exceptionally keen new hire that was sitting stiff as a board two minutes ago.

The purpose of this meeting was the one thing that stayed Sae’s hand through this entire exchange. She couldn’t be certain about anything, she couldn’t tie the threads together. Not until Kuroki politely offered each strand to her and dared the Chief of Security to sew them in a tightly knit knot. The rain kicked at Sae’s back, thunder clapped, and yet she couldn’t manage to draw the narrowest inch of attention away from Kuroki. All of a sudden, everything just made so much sense. The needles, the footprints, the shadows she caught watching her from every other corner. It was a shame, Sae honestly thought. It would figure that the only person in this office with any real passion for what they were doing had to be this one.

Silence dominated the confined space of the office. Sae closed her eyes and breathed deep. She released a long, tired sigh into the stale air and opened her eyes.

“What is ‘preferable’, Kuroki-san, in the affairs of any given society is seldom the reality. So long as men and women have weaknesses, there will always be men and women to exploit them for personal gain. It's why the law exists.” Sae slowly stood up and stepped away from her desk, turning to face out of the nearest window. It was the end of the school day. Mothers were hurrying their children home under the comfort of their umbrellas. An ever-shifting tide of endlessly moving umbrellas in a vast ocean of mundane gray. At the center of the rushing tides of the populace stood a traffic coordinator waving his arms in the mist, soaked head from the toe.

“AFW may be lawless by design but that does not mean order simply goes away. Laws and rules might be fixed, but justice is a malleable entity. It exists everywhere for everyone. A kind person’s strength of will and their careful attention towards the future are all it takes to create something wonderful in a world filled with sadness and terrible things.” Sae turned away from the window and looked back at her recruit with both arms crossed. “That’s what my parents believed, at least.”

With slow steps she rounded the side of her desk, approaching the seated interview from her left-hand side. Her eyes never left the woman. “But I would certainly be a fool to deny that the points you’ve made are worthy ones. AFW has far from what one would call a ‘pristine’ reputation. Nothing short of disemboweling ourselves on the steps of the Saikō-Saibansho would suffice. And surely, without a doubt, most of the blame will fall upon my shoulders. That is...if my predictions really do turn out to be entirely wrong and I’ve spent the past week steering my investigations and company resources right into a dead end. Hypothetically speaking.” Her tone had become soft and cool the closer she drew to Kuroki. As if the atmosphere around Kuroki’s side of the desk had thinned the air between them.

“Regardless of where my efforts are placed, the results will be the same, I can assure you. I was tasked with the defense of this nation as an agent of the Public Security Bureau. I can flush out a few wolves, preying on the weak and hiding like cowards.” She sat against the desk, looking down at the woman in her seat. Her head cocked an inch into the darkness of the shade cast by the window. “I mean, I did it with you.”

The shadow at the corner of her lip seemed to feint upwards with an odd twitch at her cheek. It was the closest she’d come to a smile in weeks. “Hypothetically speaking.”

Sae was an interesting one. Nazaki Kuro watched the Security Chief take in her thesis with the exact same stoic face she had on when she walked in. The woman was almost an unreadable wall, with only subtle changes in posture and expression slipping through as Kuro continued to play her false character. The Chief was suspicious, cautious, and all too clever. She had already found a few bread crumbs Nazaki’s employers unintentionally left behind, and she did so in such a relatively short manner. Honestly, Nazaki had been wondering if Sae was clinging onto something a bit more concrete. A lynch pin that held her theories together like a smoking gun. But, that wasn’t her purpose here today. As alarming as it was, Kuro just had to lay things out for the security chief, sway her. Or at least, get her under control. The job that once seemed so menial and dull seemed so far away now, the excitement of working without much of a script and the keen mind of her opposition making Kuro want to toy with her...in more ways than one.

With the subtle implication of Kuro’s out in the air, the newbie guard sat back and waited. Silence filled the room, with the Security Chief closing her eyes as if to block out the rest of the world and focus on what she needed to know at that time. She was given that time, With Kuro’s dead eyes peering at her all the while. Dirty thoughts danced through Kuro’s head as Sae seemed to take a break, her long tongue slipping out of her maw as if to reach for Sae’s peaceful expression...only for it to retract as quickly as it came. The Chief soon sighed and opened her eyes...finding the rookie still there in her seat, holding that clipboard of hers like no time had passed at all.

But Kuro did listen. And if she liked or disliked what she heard Sae say, then she hid it rather well. Her constantly shifting face held a curious smile, but little else. The woman raised an eyebrow as the Security Chief turned her back on the rookie, making Kuro wonder if she had been deemed a non-threat. A bit disheartening, she’d admit. But unnecessary for her goals.

At least for the moment.

It wasn’t long before the Chief was out of her chair, slowly looking out the window as she spoke, then moving around the desk to face the rookie head on. While it was a subtle action, the meaning behind it was bold. The two seemed to be walking on a thin wire with each other, with  their secrets keeping them from falling off into the others' clutches. Sae shared her opinion on the matter. Her determination to uphold order and justice even in a heartless organization that didn’t want it. As she spoke, “Kuroki” finally placed her clipboard off to the side of Sae’s desk. Of course, those eyes never left Sae’s ruby gaze. When Sae finally said her piece, and sat down on the desk looking down at the suited woman in front of her, she would return to that practiced smile and knowing gaze from the woman who talked her way into the Chief’s office.

“Perhaps you should have gone into public speaking Ma’am. You have such a way with words. The fact that you managed to pick words that sound make it sound as if you lean one way but could be interpreted as another. It’s clever! If you had any supporters they could twist your speech into so many meanings that hit close to home for them. Of course, you would have to have supporters. May I?”

Kuro didn’t exactly wait for Sae’s permission before standing up out of the chair. She had been seated in the dreary office for some time and she felt her legs were starting to go numb. Though the carpeting was sticky and the walls punched in, the supposed rookie figured moving around would get some of her blood flowing. The looming threat of a confrontation was still present between them, and stiff muscles wouldn’t help Kuro any.

To keep Sae from getting the idea the rookie was avoiding her gaze, she would lean uncomfortably close. The thin smile on her lips paired with the dark circles under her eyes was a riveting clash for the stoic expression and beautiful red eyes she stared into. It was like the difference between a blowtorch and a flamethrower. Both needed gas, flames, and a subject to work upon. But where the Flamethrower was a wild inferno that swallowed everything in its path, the Blowtorch could focus it’s flames and use it to help create, rebuild, or disassemble carefully. Sae was trying to create and maintain peace in her workplace. And the rookie in front of her was the flamethrower.

Finally, Kuro straightened up, turning off towards a nearby filing cabinet and plucking a book off the top. “I won’t argue that people in general have a habit of helping themselves in situations where the opportunity arrives. Of course, it happens on both sides. Lawmakers and politicians who spew out the words justice, peace, prosperity while fighting amongst themselves like starving rats in a cardboard box could be considered more damaging then the drug dealer down the street or the pickpocket in the park. Nobody is entirely good, but neither is anyone truly evil. I think you and I may agree on that.”

Finding the book was actually a photo binder of the previous Security Chiefs, the rookie flipped through a few pages before turning back to Sae, the methodical look from before back on her face. The rookie really did seem to wear quite a few masks.

“You described Justice as Malleable, and I couldn’t agree more. However, I don’t believe it exists for everyone. It’s something people make up. Shape and shift to suit their needs. We all think Justice as a nice, clean word. A shield to help us sleep better and think the world is a bit more ordered then it really is. Your parents must have been very interesting people to believe good will in man would do anything more than get taken advantage of. You of all people would know.” Kuro said with a glint in her eye, “After all, you’ve seen the other side, haven't you? You know exactly what people are capable of, and how useful a mindset like that will be out in the field. Where is your Justice, Ma’am? An agent of PCB, protecting the state from enemies and threats, risking your life, losing comrades...all to wind up here, in a dark office with sticky carpeting. A fine example of justice in the real world.”

The twisted smirk of the woman seemed to have a habit of returning to her face. Perhaps she found Sae’s situation humorous in a way. An agent who was once at the height of her career and skills dragged down to guard a company who’s loose morals were something she obviously despised. Kuro had seen that small corner of Sae’s lip curl upwards in the shadows, and she paid it back with interest by rubbing dirt into the wound.

“But, if we were to continue your theory of what's been happening around the locker rooms of the weak willed, the hateful, and the immoral inhabitants...and, speaking strictly hypothetically of course. Were there such a boogeyman, do you really think you could handle such a threat with the meager resources at your disposal? After all, you are just one woman Ma’am~ You think Cho and Barter could handle something like this? What about that cute little kid, Ren? Or Ryo? Ah! Forgive me, he was let go on his birthday. Maybe he’s involved? He had already stolen company property! But then, maybe he didn’t. Maybe he knew someone who was involved? The point I’m trying to make Ma’am is that you have an idea, but nowhere to take it. And as you go searching for these wolves of yours, they might just pick up your scent. If they are half as coordinated as we think they are, you might experience another personal incident. Hypothetically~”

Somehow, the woman with the long black hair had managed to draw closer in what felt like the blink of an eye. She was only marginally taller than the security chief, and yet she used that height to look down on Sae for the first time since they met. With the air between the two growing thick with tension, it was hard to tell if this was still a conversation, or a warm up to an actual fight!


“So if this hypothetical were true, wouldn’t it be better if I helped you? We can watch out for one another, and keep an eye on things. Make sure nothing goes wrong and no accidents occur? Business like or otherwise. If things go sour, then it’s all Kuroki Tomoko’s fault! So why don’t you and me become friends? Or at the very least, stick close to one another~”

Sae watched from her desk as this human shadow drifted around her office, prognosticating ideals and thinly-veiled ambitions that manifested from whatever chaotic disorder she originated from.

The worst part of it all was that Sae couldn’t entirely disagree with those sentiments. Every name she listed was another reminder of just how woefully exposed the brand’s infrastructure truly was. Keeping their ever-expanding roster in line across three separate cities was stretching their resources razor-thin as it stood. All it took was one public piece, one written statement to start a wildfire. The rug was being pulled out from under her...again. It made her hairs stand up on end and tightness to her stomach. Her brows seemed to furrow as she clutched her jacket tighter against her arm, trying to keep a level head.

Only half of her could honestly believe what she was hearing. Two-bit gangsters and drug dealers would have better sense than to knowingly involve themselves with law enforcement, or at least the closest thing to it in Sae’s situation. There was no benefit in having the additional heat thrown their way in an already high-risk operation that would only bring significant profit margins in the long-term. They needed to stay covert, they needed discretion and the utmost caution. But those two things didn’t appear to concern Kuroki in the slightest - if that was even her name.

No, she’d done her research. She knew where Sae would be. She knew how to enter into the security office without raising so much as a hair of attention her way. She knew how to blend in, how to play her role, and how to talk her way right into the Chief of Security’s office.

She even knew about Takeo.

And yet they didn’t use that wealth of intel to simply remove her from the equation altogether. Sae was getting that itch again, that irritating sensation on the back of her neck and the tight grip of her heart that was the closest thing she could describe to a “sixth sense”. Kuroki had managed to suppress herself, but as she drew near Sae caught glimpses of the terrible pitch-black fiend just beneath. It pulsed out with every step, maleficent darkness shooting out involuntary undulations like spears at the tips of the woman’s long, black hair.

Whoever Sae was dealing with, they were nonstandard by every definition of the word. Not even Yakuza would operate with this much confidence; not inside of an organization with as much attention and resources as AFW. Kuroki didn’t strike Sae as the leader of this faceless band either way. Her intuition told her as much. Beneath the act, there was a genuine impulse that Kuroki seemed to be acting on. She was loving every second of this, surely.

Their bodies were separated by a simple inch. She looked up at Kuroki, gathering the full size of the woman for the first time. She was tall. And strong. The agent’s red gaze seemed to shift as she clenched her fist.

“Yamamoto-san!” Her door swung open and Ren stepped into the room. “Sorry, I forgot to give the password for that flash-”

Ren stopped dead partway through that introduction. “You...usually close your door for meetings…”

Sae couldn’t look away. She didn't know what would happen. “Thank you, Ren.”

“...I’ll just...text.” The door slowly closed to a firm shut behind them, leaving the two of them in an empty pocket of silence. Sae leaned forward into Kuroki's crooked smile, casting forth a renewed ire.

“Lay a finger on any of my staff, and I will kill you.” There was an eerie lack of hesitation in that tone of hers. It was spoken with the confidence of a woman who knew how to keep her promises. She stood up and roughly shoved her shoulder into Kuroki’s chest to force her away. She couldn’t stand another second of this.

“Explain that to whoever sent you as well. If they want to negotiate nonsense, they can at least have the courtesy to do it in person. Because unfortunately for you, Kuroki-san, I have the intelligence to choose my friends wisely, and I see how you operate now. You’re snakes and you’re arrogant; you think you’re too big to fail and that anyone here can be bought. You’re nothing different from the countless others I’ve put away long enough for the world to forget their names. I pursue my sense of justice, and I will protect everyone in this arena - in this city - no matter what the cost.”

Sae reached up and adjusted the jacket around her shoulders. The droplets panging against the window frame were fewer and weaker now as the skies began to settle. “It’s how I make my salary. Now, are we done here?”

The rain outside the window had begun to grow louder, more frequent. As if responding to the tension in the room, the wind began to blow against the glass as rain hit the clear glass just behind AFW’s newest security chief. The steady impacts were the only sound in the room for a few seconds, the clock on the wall constant ticking the only companion to the bad weather’s dull song. Before Sae stood a threat, but an unknown one at that. Was Kuroki a messenger, or an executioner? A simple suit working for bad people, or one of their dogs unleashed? The truth was slowly being peeled away as the woman spoke, her true nature peeking through the cracks like the beginnings of a nightmare. What was normal began to become tainted, until Sae found herself only an inch away from the once strange, but now threatening woman. A liar, a con artist, but possibly something worse, all wrapped in one smiling package. As Sae’s mind raced through the possibilities of this woman’s origin, “Kuroki” looked down upon her, laying down an offer with an unappealing conclusion.

Things were going from bad to worse! There were too many uncertain factors!  Kuroki smiled with confidence, but those eyes gave away her feelings all too well. It was as though she could see what was going through Sae’s mind! The uncertainty, the questions, and the pressure to act. Sae’s expression was as hard as stone, but the woman in black seemed to be picking through her head nonetheless. Whether the living shadow was brave, confident, or stupid to take so little caution against someone like Sae was up for debate. But the danger she posed was very real, and that was something that it seemed Saw would have to deal with as the coming storm seemed ready to erupt between them. “Kuroki” seemed ready for a fight, and Sae seemed about ready to oblige her.

That was until the door swung open! Like the opening to a thunderstorm, the young man’s voice tore through the silence like an electrical shock! And with his stunned silence, the room became even quieter than before. The sight of the Security Chief and the new recruit with only an inch between them must have been shocking. Even more so was the concerned glare on the chief's face clashing with the woman’s ugly smile!

For a split second, the new woman’s eyes flicked over towards the man named Ren. The look was enough to send a visible shiver through his body as he quickly realized he stepped into something he shouldn’t have. The smile didn’t go away as Kuroki chuckled and took a step back, giving Sae some room in her office while playing things off.

“Whoops! Guess we forgot to lock the door! My bad~”

The look on Kuroki’s face was different then the one Ren had seen as he walked through the door. It wasn’t...whatever it was he had seen. It was a normal face, one that had tired eyes but a normal enough smile. Was it just a trick of the eyes? No, it couldn’t have been, because the Chief still watched the new guard in a way Ren hadn’t seen before. It was best to leave as soon as he could.

As the door closed, the silence intensified! The weather had begun to calm down, the storm passing by overhead as the two women were again left alone with each other. Kuro, the real one, watched the door silently click shut before looking back at Sae with her dead eyes. The long, grotesque tongue of hers finally unfurled from her maw as the serpent smile peeled her lips upwards.

“Well, he was kinda cute. I think he likes you Ma’am.”

The moist muscle seemed to reach for Sae like it had a mind of its own before returning to Kuro’s maw. Her dead eyes narrowed as Sae once again closed the distance between them to issue her own warning towards the stranger in the suit. The threat would only be allowed to linger in the air for a moment more before the security chief bluntly shouldered Kuro in the chest, pushing the taller woman out of her way. Kuro actually played along, acting as though she was about to fall over, only to catch herself at the very end next to Sae’s desk. The lack of hesitation in the security chief's voice was palpable. It was like she had become someone else. Less Security Chief and more PSB Officer. It was almost like the two women were meeting for the first time again...their real personalities laid bare.

Kuro would reach over towards the desk and snag her clipboard, sweeping it under her arm before glancing at the contents with a glance. Once she was sure she got what she needed, her attention returned to Sae Yamamoto. The rain had begun to drift away, with what little droplets remaining barely hitting the window with enough force to even be audible. Much like the storm, this meeting was wrapping up and while it seemed Kuro wouldn’t be getting Sae on board, that hardly meant that this was a waste of time. Quite the contrary, in fact. Some valuable information had been gleamed.

“Well...not everyone, Ma’am.”

Not everyone could be bought, not everyone could be saved. Thankfully the former was a much easier problem then the latter. One that had already been solved, thanks in part to the needles that started the Security Chief’s suspicions. Kuro’s double meaning would probably come off as a smugly veiled threat, but for once it was just the woman making an observation.

“But saying that, you should remember the position you’re really in. Overreaching will be fairly easy with what few resources you have, made even easier by the untrained staff you seem so keen on. If anyone here is arrogant or even thinks they are too big to fail, it’s you.”

Kuro would walk past Sae Yamamoto, one eye on the Chief the entire time as the woman made her approach for the office door.

“I’m sad we couldn’t work together. At least, not in an official manner~ But I won’t cry, because I doubt this is the last time I’ll be sent to speak with you. Hopefully it will be in someplace a bit less stuffy and...sticky.”

Kuro peeled her shoe off the carpet as if to make a point, finally clutching the doorknob before seeming to remember one last thing on her mind.

“Oh, and...this isn’t any good advice so take it how you want. But I think if that guy asks you out, you should totally say yes~ I bet it would make his day, and you never know! That just might be his last one on earth...or yours.”She smiled, before finally disappearing around the door.

“Just a thought, Ma’am~”

--

“So?! Did you get the Chief on board or what?!?”

“Mmm. Nope. She saw through your story pretty quick, and she already had an idea about the needles left in the locker rooms and hallways.”

“WHAT?!?! What do you mean?! She knows what we’ve been doing?”

“Well, not the whole thing. If I had to guess, then I’d say she has an understanding that this isn’t going to just go away with time.”

Kuro continued to walk down the freshly rained streets, using the puddles to try and wipe some of the sticky residue off her shoes to little avail.

“And you just let her go?! This is unacceptable! She needs to be wiped out before she can bring any of this to her superiors! Our employers don’t want anything to ruin their plans! Things may have been going smoothly before, but you really-”

“Aw, relax will ya? We’ll take care of things before she can get anywhere close to the truth. Besides, I went through all the trouble of snagging you a souvenir and now you’re yelling at me!”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“The Chief had a notepad...a beaten up old thing. She was flipping through it when and listing her suspicions when she thought I was her newest wind up toy soldier. I managed to snag it on the way out. Figured it would give us a good idea of where her mindset is. Plus it might make her a bit nervous to see it's missing.”

“Then bring it back here immediately! The sooner we know what she knows, then the sooner we can move in covering our tracks before our boss finds out about this mess!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be there soon. Just let me get changed first. Her office screwed really fucked up my shoes.”

“What?!? NO! Get back here right thi-*beep*”

With the sudden end of the call, Kuro Nazaki looked over her shoulder one last time at the AFW building. Her eyes traced the numerous windows along the buildings walls, counting them silently in her head before she stopped at a larger sized sheet of glass near the top. Right there was the Security Chief’s office she’d been in just moments prior. Was Sae watching her at that very moment? Looking down at her in contempt or disgust? Kuro had no way of knowing. She could only pat the breast pocket of her suit, knowing that the stolen notepad would be noticed by its previous owner. And that said owner would know exactly who had taken it!

For now, Kuro Nazaki would settle for that. At least, until the next time they met!

To be continued.