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The call comes at a bad timing, but for someone in his line of work, calls always come at a bad timing. The cafe he is in charge of just opened and customers have only started coming. The owner isn’t going to like this, but he has to apologise and close up for now.
Their part-timer asked for a day off yesterday and he grudgingly allowed it. It’s summer, the beach nearby is packed with people and the crowd is sure to spill over to local cafes such as theirs. But now he is glad, because putting on his shoulder holster and securing his gun there would be awkward with people around. The suit and gloves come next. Dress codes aside, it just won’t do to have fingerprints all over the scene.
———
Oga arrives to a person being flung right at him, that is, were he not able to step aside in time. This part of the riverbank is usually quiet, which is probably why this group chose to ambush Shien here. There were five of them, a couple of whom are familiar faces that Oga saw during the group executive meetings he went to with the boss just days ago. He recalls that they were in disagreement regarding territory borders, but they lost to the majority vote. But to openly attack the boss of another group in broad daylight, the new Wakagashira must have been a reckless man.
From another side, a burly man in a gaudy shirt rushes towards Shien with a steel baton. Oga pivots on one foot just enough to launch a kick at the back of his knee. Greeting the intruder with a string of curses, the man switches target and engages Oga with a swing of his baton. He thinks he has deflected it but another punch comes at him from behind. He staggers a little, taking a step to the side to get a better view of his assailants. So he was hit by another one with knuckledusters, no wonder that stings.
It’s not that he can’t handle two versus one in a fight, it’s just that it will be much easier if he can use the entirety of his demonic power. Unfortunately, something about this world impedes the flow of his powers, allowing him to only use a small percentage of it. Fortunately, Oga hasn’t been that great at magic after all, he prefers hand to hand combat, and he’s showing it through his measured kicks and precise punches. It may take longer to incapacitate the two men, but that just means more time to play with them.
He doesn’t get to have that much fun before he hears two gunshots. Smoke is coming out of the Wakagashira’s gun and a few metres away, Shien is crouching on the ground.
“Oi Shien!” Oga rushed to check on him. He knows that Shien’s beastman instinct should have kicked in for him to avoid it in time, but his body moves out of habit.
“Oh, it’s just you, Oga. Good timing, I’m thinking we should wrap this up soon because now that I finally get to get out of my boss attire, I don’t want to waste time doing these things.”
Oga looks at the direction of the Wakagashira and finds him holding on to his bleeding shoulder, gun hanging loosely from his hand. He’s shouting a mix of curses and orders at the subordinates who are scattered across the riverbank in various states of incapacity. He reacts to the fact that nobody is responding by raising the volume of his shouts.
Shien clicks his tongue, gets up from his position, and walks right past his shooter to pick up his knife. The man tries to take aim at him, but with a bleeding shoulder and multiple bruises from the earlier fight, he can barely hold the gun. He falls backwards as soon as Shien takes a step towards him. When he notices that Shien has his knife towards the fallen man, Oga rushes to stop him from doing things that might put him in a position Oga would hate to enforce.
“Shie—”
The Wakagashira has a look of defeat on his face, knowing that in their line of work, assaulting and losing might as well mean one’s demise. But Shien just crouches down and wipes his dirty knife on the man’s shirt a few times until he’s satisfied and puts it back into the holster at the back of his belt. Next, he grips the handle of his other knife that’s lodged on the man’s shoulder and grins.
“Now, my ears are sensitive so I’d appreciate it if you don’t scream too loud.”
He pulls the knife, the man screams, and Oga rethinks his decision to accept the mission of surveilling this man.
———
“Ah ah, I can’t believe I had to do this during summer holiday. Compared to those men, even beasts honor pacts and territories better,” Shien walks along the riverbank, away from the pile of barely conscious men who were out to get him just moments ago.
“That’s my line. I came here to get away from the military routine and look what you made me do,” Oga wipes the blood from his nose. Something might have broken, nothing that won’t heal soon enough with what’s left of his demonic powers. The bruises and cuts too, but the stain on his white shirt is going to be a pain to clean.
Shien drops to the ground and groans. Ah, so he was running on adrenaline. Oga is familiar with that too. He wonders if it works any differently for beastmen. If it’s easier to go into a rampage and harder to come back to their senses.
“But I didn’t, did I?” Shien watched him out of the corner of his eyes. “I didn’t tell my subordinates where I went. The fact that you found me here means that you have other sources. Tell me, Oga, who told you where I was?”
The boss is leaning back and smiling, but his eyes are sparkling a dangerous glint. This is a man who managed to take down a gang of mobsters in a guerilla territory fight with just instinct and two knives, no matter how ridiculous his Hawaiian shirt and colourful sunglasses are. Oga didn’t come to rescue him, really. He came to stop things from being too brutal to explain to the people who called him earlier today.
“Hahah! Too bad, that story will need to wait for another day. Let’s just say it’s people the both of us don’t want to be acquainted with during summer break.”
“Shame. It’s good timing to apprehend me now that I’m wounded and tired.”
“Yeah right. The blood on you is definitely not yours, but doesn’t that sound fun to try?”
“Gahaha! I like that. But for now,” Shien gets up and leans into Oga’s space. From his peripheral vision, Oga saw the canine peeking through his grin. “I’m taking this as a souvenir, mister military agent. Come get it from me next time.” With that he snatches the dog tag off Oga’s exposed neck.
Between the fight and whatever they are having right now, Oga doesn’t realise that he has lost a couple of buttons from his shirt, leaving his identification tag out in the open. He doesn’t even want to think of how to explain to his higher ups that he lost his tag, but then again, he doesn’t have to do it for now. That thing does go rather well with Shien’s outfit anyway.
“Now that we’ve set that aside, Oga, I want kakigoori. Can I shave it off that horn of yours?”
“I let you get away with a lot of things but that’s pushing it. There’s a machine back at the cafe, let’s just go there.”
“Eeh, that’s quite far— Oh wait, how did you get here?”
“…you think you can wear a normal bicycle helmet with your ears?”