Chapter Text
A blur of blue and green shoots down an empty street. The lights don’t draw attention, as the neon signs and lights of the city compliment them quite well.
A hooded figure, wearing glowing green tech scales a fence in an attempt to shake his pursuer. It seems to work for a moment, before he spots the other still behind him, giving chase. He begins to search for an escape, knowing this street leads to a dead end.
Then he sees it. He draws a gun, about the size of a pistol, and aims upward, toward a support beam being suspended with rope. He fires, and the beam falls. This figure vaults over it, using the extra height to grab onto the railing of a balcony from above. He climbed up, glancing behind once again to see that the man behind him has stopped.
“What’s wrong? Can’t reach?” He taunts. “Come on officer, are you just gonna give-”
Before he can finish speaking, A laser wizzes past his head, barely missing him. This struck the man as odd.
Normally, he stops at nothing to catch me. He wouldn’t take petty shots like that.
Suddenly, the door into the residence the balcony belongs to opens, and behind the man stands another officer. A short boy with blonde to pink ombre hair and an annoyingly cocky grin catches the boy by surprise.
Of fucking course.
“Good afternoon, Shinonome.” The boy laughs, pointing his own gun at him.
“Akito Shinonome, you are under arrest.” The previous officer spoke up from the ground below.
“Am I now?” Akito scoffs, every word buying him a second to find a way out of the predicament.
Well. usually impulse wins. So here goes nothing.
Without a second thought, Akito drops his weapon, and swings, landing a punch directly in the closest officer’s face.
This catches both men off guard. The shorter one reels back, dropping his own weapon. The other officer just seems shocked at such an impulsive move.
Akito takes this moment to snag the officer’s gun. He struggles for a second with the complex settings. These are much more advanced than his simple laser pistol. “Who the hell designed these things,” He mutters, finding the setting he needed. He silently prays it works before aiming at a nearby rooftop and firing.
It feels almost like a lightning strike. Akito stood on the balcony one moment, and the next, he’s on the rooftop he had aimed at.
“Why the hell don’t they use this more often?” Akito thinks to himself as he takes off, easily making his way out of the conflict.
He arrives at a small cafe tucked away in a less dense part of the city. As he enters, a smaller girl greets him as he removes his hood.
“Welcome to- oh. It’s you.”
“Can it An, tonight’s been enough of a pain before now.”
An laughs. “Your hair is singed. You didn’t try those prototypes dad told you about did you?”
“Stole one from an officer. Why?” Akito questioned, holding up the gun he had used to escape.
“They have side effects. And could explode. Dad said a reliable source told him that.”
“How does your dad get half the information he has?”
“No clue.”
“Cool.”
Akito takes a seat at the bar, setting down a file on the counter.
“Oi Ken. You wanted this?” He keeps his voice low so he wouldn’t draw attention.
The man behind the counter smiles and slides the file towards him, replacing it with a plate of pancakes.
“What’s this, bribery?” Akito mumbles, beginning to dig in regardless.
“A token of appreciation.” Ken corrects. “Sneaking into Crase is a risky job. And for no pay no less.”
“Well, I need more information about that officer if he’s gonna keep chasing me.” Akito retorts. “He’s stubborn, I’ll give him that much.”
“His name is Toya Aoyagi. He’s the most trusted of Crase’s Artillery Officers. His father runs that branch, and it looks like his brothers all have their own roles within the agency.” Ken explained as he read the file. He wasn’t too worried since it was late and the cafe had few patrons.
“Aoyagi, huh..”
“You didn’t know his name?! He’s been chasing you for like. A year now.” An chimed in.
“Shut up. What do you want me to do? ‘Hey I know you’re trying to turn me in but what’s your name’, no, An, I didn’t know his name.” Akito snapped, causing the other to laugh.
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Woo chapter 1(?) done! Toya time :D! - Bee
Living for Akito not knowing Toya's name - Bandage
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“I can’t believe he punched me!” Tsukasa, Toya’s superior officer, complained. “Stole my gun too…”
Toya listened in silence, as he’s one to do. When the two recounted the events of the night, he allowed Tsukasa to do the talking.
“I do wish I got to see Tsukasa get punched, actually.” One of the new recruits, Nene, Chimed in with a small laugh.
“You dare to laugh at my pain?!”
“In a world with advanced tech and guns, you’re worried about someone’s fist, of course I will laugh at it.”
“Tsukasa, you do have a mark on your cheek from it.” Toya pointed out, cracking a faint smile at Nene’s previous comment.
“I DO?!” Tsukasa frantically got out his phone, using the camera to look. When he confirmed the mark’s existence, he groaned. “I hope that the teleporter burned him.”
As if on cue, the door swung open, as a tall man, wearing an oil-stained apron over the Crase agency’s uniform entered the room.
“Tsukasa? You lost your weapon right? I made you a new one! This one does have a few more experimental features though, so please give me any and all feedback!”
“Rui, stop giving me experimental things! They explode more often than not!” Tsukasa scolded in response.
“Someone needs to test them out for me~!”
“Yeah. and it should be you!”
Toya continued to listen, all while digging back through criminal files.
Vivids- petty street criminals. Not worth chasing after, The Alchemist- Often overlooked due to the tacky name, but a dangerous criminal nonetheless. Named by the public because of their theatrics and seemingly supernatural evasive tactics. Unfortunately there isn’t much information about them. Akito Shinonome- A mercenary, and thief. Not a very interesting case, though it’s curious how he continues to evade me so easy.
“Toya? … Earth to Toya!”
Toya snapped out of his thoughts to realize that Tsukasa had been talking to him. He turned to face his superior, who had his omnipresent cocky smile on his face.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Toya questioned.
“I said you got ahead of us all again.” Tsukasa began. “I wanted to actually talk about the Alchemist case. There was a new report recently about them.``He shoved the other files aside and opened the one about the alchemist.
Toya began to skim over the documents, searching for the new information. That’s when he found it. A page detailing a run in with a Crase official during a break in. The two fought, and while the Alchemist often uses evasion and avoids combat, they were injured in the fight with a shot to the leg.
“So whoever this alchemist guy is-”
“Don’t assume, asshole.” Nene interrupted
“Whoever they are, that injury was recent, so keeping an eye on things like if a suspect is limping. Or if they have an injury on the leg, that should give us a lead right?” Tsukasa concluded.
“What, all people with leg injuries are now high level criminals Tsukasa?” Rui chimed in with a chuckle.
“Almost sounds like you’re defending them.” Tsukasa snapped back with a laugh.
“It’s called a joke.”
Nene rolled her eyes. “Okay, stop messing around, I would like to actually get closer to cracking this stupid case. I’m tired of hearing fireworks at 3 am because this guy decided to show off.”
“Who’s assuming now?”
Toya continued to scan over the documents. “Rui’s right. A simple injury isn’t enough to go off of. We need more information.”
“What kinds of things does he usually do?” Rui asked.
“Usually, they steal important documents, though it isn’t unheard of for them to steal artifacts.”
“Papers… and old stuff. Tacky.” Rui shook his head. “And willing to take a bullet for things like that?”
“Apparently.”
“Huh.”
“We are still unaware of their motive, and what they do with the information they steal. It’s curious. If it was for money, there would be more artifacts and expensive items, right?” Tsukasa pondered. “But documents?”
“Identity theft?” Rui suggested.
“Why would they need to steal an identity if we don’t even know theirs?”
“Fair point. I’m not the officer here, I’m just the tech guy.”
Before the group could theorize much longer, A knock at the door could be heard, followed by someone entering. A tall man with dark red hair stood in the doorway, arms crossed.
“Aoyagi. Your father has a new target for you. Tsukasa will be accompanying you.” Shousuke, the secretary, announced.
“Oooo~ you’re in trouble~” Rui chimed in once again.
Toya took a breath and nodded, cleaning up his mess of papers before turning to Tsukasa, who gave a concerned, but affirming nod. The two then followed Shousuke to receive their next orders.