It was half past three in the afternoon, almost exactly a full day since Chisato’s big speech about the wonders of the theater. There were two hours left until their movie.
That day, the café was completely empty. Kurumi was lying on the tatami floor with her laptop, Mika was using the free time to clean the kitchen, Mizuki was sitting at the counter browsing a bridal magazine, and Takina… Well, Takina was enduring another one of Chisato’s lectures.
Chisato was explaining how movies fell into two groups: ones you should watch the trailer for and ones you shouldn’t. Some Japanese movie studios released trailers riddled with spoilers just to sell more tickets, and that sucked. Some would go as far as to release a trailer featuring the very last scene…and so on.
Then she went on about how it was actually not stupid to pick which movies to see based on the actors since, especially outside of Japan, famous actors would often decide whether to play in a movie or not based on how good the script was and the director’s talent. You could treat them as a marker of quality…and so on.
Takina was wiping the tables without a word while Chisato followed her like a shadow, blathering nonstop. It had been like that since morning, and after hours of this, Takina was getting very fed up. For her, it was like being haunted by a very persistent cinephile ghost.
“And then you have the people who believe dubs are superior and the people who think watching in the original language with subtitles is better, and people from both sides are constantly going at it, neither willing to back down. It’s a brutal—”
“I feel much better educated about movies now. Thank you. Can you please do some work for a change?”
“What work? We have no customers. There’s nothing to do!”
They had nobody to serve, but Takina thought Chisato could follow her example and do some cleaning or finally learn how to brew coffee properly. She would certainly find something to do if she’d only bother to look.
“By the way, do you want to come with us to the movies, Mizuki?”
Takina almost forcefully redirected the conversation to Mizuki just to get Chisato off her back…but Mizuki didn’t even raise her eyes from her magazine.
“What? A movie? In a theater? You’re supposed to go to those with a guy.”
“That’s not true!” Chisato snapped, her attention shifting to Mizuki.
Takina, mildly relieved to be free of Chisato’s attention, looked over at Kurumi, who was still sprawled on the floor. Takina’s eyes asked Kurumi to come with.
“I’m not the outdoorsy type,” Kurumi replied.
There probably weren’t many people in the world who considered seeing a movie an outdoor activity… In any case, that was decidedly a no.
The landline started ringing. Mika came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands.
“Boss, would you like to see the movie with us…?”
“Thank you for the invitation, but I have to look after the café,” he said with a kind smile, picking up the receiver.
A few seconds later, his expression darkened.
“I see. Hold on a minute. Chisato, we have a new assignment. Get ready to head out.”
“Huh? Is it from the boss man? He needs more of the good stuff?”
“Sorry, but… It’s from the DA.”
Mika held out the receiver for Chisato to take. Her face hardened.
“Hello, I’m currently unable to come to the phone. Please leave a message after the beep…,” she said in a robotic voice.
“Just hear them out.”
“But we’re going out soon… I don’t wanna…”
Chisato took the receiver from Mika and put it to her ear. Takina came over to listen in, too.
“Is this Chisato?” Kusunoki’s voice came out of the earpiece.
“Erm, I’m sorry, but we’re about to go to the movies…”
“I have a job for you. Nothing too big, so don’t worry.”
“Ms. Kusunoki, didn’t you hear what I just said? I’m going out—”
“I just sent you the data. Take a look. Your target is…”
Takina thought it was impressive how Kusunoki completely sidestepped Chisato’s whining. It pleased her that finally somebody was firm with Chisato, unlike all the other people who let her do whatever she wanted.
The job was a bit unusual. The target had been shot twice at close range by a Third Lycoris but escaped with his life. He was an industrial spy from another country in Asia. He was on the run, armed with a gun he carried for self-defense, and was in possession of important documentation which was in the nation’s interest to retrieve.
“He may do us a favor and commit suicide at this point, but we can’t afford to be lazy and hope our enemies will do what’s right. I want to make sure he’s taken care of.”
“Why don’t you have the girl who botched the job go after him?”
“He’s ex-special forces. He may be wounded, but it’s possible he’ll fight like a cornered rat. Sending a Third Lycoris after him would be too risky.”
Lycoris agents primarily took advantage of the fact that nobody suspected a young girl of being an assassin. Open combat wasn’t their specialty. They did, of course, undergo combat training just in case things didn’t go according to plan—or to be able to fight as a last resort. However, a Lycoris would be seriously disadvantaged in a fight against former military types who were trained specifically for combat, had more experience in the field and better combat gear, and were also stronger physically. That was asking too much of a Third Lycoris.
“I’m well aware you’ll probably let him get away and use the cleaners to cover up the mess, but I’ll tolerate it. You can even bill us for the cleaners’ fees on the condition that you retrieve the data the target stole as well as any weapons he’s carrying.”
“A compromise? How new and scary for you.”
“I’ve got an armed, dangerous, desperate man on the loose in the city. This is not the time to be picky.”
Assassination was the DA’s bread and butter, but that wasn’t their goal, only a means to an end. The DA’s mission was ostensibly to keep the peace, or to convince the people of Japan at least that their country was safe and sound. That meant keeping the most serious and violent incidents out of the public eye. What mattered most was preventing this from blowing up, so Kusunoki was willing to compromise.
“Right… Okay, I get the picture, buuut I’m going to see a movie with Takina—”
“He slipped away from our agent eight minutes ago in Yokogawa, Sumida.”
Chisato’s eyes widened. The guy might as well be right outside their door. A dangerous individual was on one of the streets their customers took to get to the café, where heaps of kids would be walking home from school. All those people, just living their ordinary, peaceful lives…
“Chisato.”
“Argh, okay! Fine! We’ll take care of it!”
Chisato’s agreement sent everyone inside the café into motion. Mizuki went to flip the sign on the door from OPEN to CLOSED. Kurumi got up from the floor, sat with her laptop at one of the low tables, and began typing furiously. She checked the data from Kusunoki and put her AIs to work scanning the footage from CCTV cameras around the city to locate the target.
Mika got out his smartphone to contact someone—presumably the locals who knew about Café LycoReco’s secret dealings—both to warn them and to gather information.
After putting the receiver down, Chisato and Takina rushed off to quickly get changed out of their café getups and into Lycoris uniforms. They slung on their “school” satchel bags, containing guns, ammo, and various other equipment.
Takina undid her twin ponytails, letting her long black hair down. She took out her trusty gun to inspect it. She loaded the magazine and pulled the slider back to load the first round into the chamber. Then she pulled the slide back ever so slightly to check that the first bullet was loaded properly in the chamber. Once she was satisfied, the gun went back in her bag. Chisato did the same.
“We’ve only an hour to finish this, Takina.”
“Of course, before the evening rush. It would be difficult to locate and capture the target once the streets get crowded…”
“Not that! The movie!”
“Oh…right.”
They came out of the staff room and headed to the front. Kurumi had dimmed the lights to display their mission briefing on the wall with a small projector. She showed them a map with the location where the Third Lycoris engaged the target and the route the target took to flee. Next to the map were photos showing the target’s face and clothing…then the projection changed to display other info.
They began talking about tactics. Since a Third Lycoris had been on this job, the DA already had a drone in the air, which had been tracking the target until he entered a building about two minutes earlier. A special ops veteran, he’d been trained to be wary of drones and satellite surveillance. Given how much time had passed, it was highly likely he’d already slipped away from that building.
“This will be tricky,” Takina said grimly. “We’ll be lucky if it’s over in just an hour.”
“We’re gonna wrap this up in an hour, nonnegotiable! The movie’s leaving theaters today!”
“Ah, there it is,” Kurumi muttered, looking at her screen. “You can relax, Chisato.”
“Whatcha got?”
“Someone’s uploaded a pirated version of Forty-Nine Golden Days to a site on the dark web. I’ll download it for you…”
“Oh no you don’t! Get that site shut down and the uploader arrested, pronto! Downloading content you know has been uploaded illegally is also illegal! You are not downloading that!”
“Er… Okay.”
“Argh, I’m so upset! Kurumi, is that everything you got on the target? Then we’re off, Takina! Time’s a-tickin’! Roll out!”
Not waiting for an answer, Chisato ran out the door. Takina followed after her, wishing Chisato could be this motivated when it came to their ordinary work, too.