Chapter Text
Five minutes. That’s how long she has to complete her robbery.
Mafuyu positions herself near the museum’s back entrance, spending her last minute reviewing the plan she spent the last week going over once again. It was simple enough; find the amulet, break the glass, take it and get out. She could likely recite it ten times backwards if prompted.
This mission was different from the others, however, because everything was riding on it.
By day, Mafuyu studies to be a doctor, as instructed by her parents. Her efforts are paying off in their eyes; her grades are excellent, classmates and professors loved her. She’s what people called true success. She was who everyone wanted to be. The ideal student. The ideal daughter. The ideal person for whoever she was interacting with in that moment.
Once the sun sets, however, she takes on the job of a thief. It started out as kleptomania, born from her lack of passion for, quite literally, anything else. Why not? She asked herself. She didn’t care about the consequences, nor felt guilty about it. The more she got away with it, the larger-scale items she stole, and therefore her innocent habit escalated into more grandiose heists. She was a natural at it, thanks to her agile abilities and quick thinking (something she was continuously praised for in high school into now). She’s even known to the locals as “Yuki,” which originates from the snowflake-shaped symbol she leaves after each job’s completion. She doesn’t particularly enjoy this field; well, she doesn’t particularly enjoy anything. But, she doesn’t feel the need to stop either. Perhaps it’s her rebelling against her parents’ high expectations of her, as some would say. Of her to be the “good girl” the girl everyone likes. In reality, the sliver of hope left in her heart tells her that maybe she’ll feel something this time around with each completed heist.
The way she discovered this new target of hers was by visiting this museum with some classmates at university. Normally, she declines offers to go to recreational places–prioritizing studying is ingrained into Mafuyu’s brain thanks to her mother, but she was going to challenge herself this time, so she had to scope this place out. The building was huge, and she took note of the technology she'd never seen before. However, the amulet was the only thing that caught her eye, so it was possible to pull it off if she solely aimed for that. This would be her biggest heist yet, both physically and emotionally. If she can’t feel something this time, then…
The museum officially closes at 11:00 PM, and surveillance is 24/7. However, according to Mafuyu’s research, all systems shut down to conduct routine maintenance at a certain time for 5 minutes. No cameras, no alarms, nothing. Even so, constant surveillance outside helps to avoid burglars like herself. However, ‘Yuki’ is not a typical burglar.
Mafuyu quietly inhales. Her eyes follow the hand on her watch as it hits the marker; it’s 1:00 AM. Go time. She jolts up and bursts inside.
Time left: 4:30. She turns the corner to reach the room with her objective. The space is filled with dozens of valuables, but her eyes fixate on the target in the middle of the room–the amulet, in the same place she saw it the last time she was here. Red with a golden trim, camouflaged by the darkness but made visible with Mafuyu’s flashlight. Probably worth a million–not like she cares, though. Now all she has to do is smash the glass, grab it and leave.
Yet, she stops dead in her tracks, encountering her first problem of that night. A figure, dressed in similar attire, stands on the other side of the glass a few feet away. The only noticeable difference, besides them having a slightly shorter stature, is that they wear a baseball bat along their torso down to where their thigh ends. Mafuyu thinks they noticed her first since their eyes, the only part of their body not covered, are already widened when they make eye contact. The fear present within quickly turns into anger.
“Are you serious?! In what world does this even happen?” The figure puts her head in her hands, clenching her fists in the process. “Shit!”
Mafuyu doesn’t react. Instead, she’s plotting how she’s going to successfully complete the rest of this expedition with this other person here. How did she not consider this to be a factor? If this person standing in front of her wants the same thing she does, she’ll be in trouble.
Meanwhile, the other thief continues to talks to themselves, saying remarks such as “stupid, I should’ve done this another day,” “I had to do this today, though,” and some cuss words here and there. The words fly over Mafuyu’s head.
Time left: 3:00. Mafuyu doesn’t realize her eyes are still concentrated on the person in front of her, who is still panicking, until she yells, “so you’re just going to stand there and stare at me? At least say something, dammit!”
So she says the first thing that comes to mind.
“I’m not sure what to do.”
“Well, that’s helpful.” The person sarcastically replies, and she begins pacing in place for a few seconds. Mafuyu can tell that she's frantically trying to come up with a compromise for something, just like Mafuyu is (but she’s better at hiding it). The lightbulb goes off after a few seconds.
“A challenge.”
Mafuyu stays silent, but attentive.
“Two minutes. We take as much as we can in that time, and the winner is whoever has the most things. Then we part ways and hopefully never see each other ever again.”
Actually, this is a perfect idea. While this mysterious person is focused on grabbing other items throughout the building, Mafuyu will shatter the glass containing the amulet, take it and run. She’ll do anything, really, if it’s to be able to head out as soon as possible.
“Okay.”
Time left: 2:00. Mafuyu’s competitor counts down, and she really just hopes that they don’t bolt for the amulet. “Alright, well… three, two, one, go!”
They both bolt for the amulet. Once again, the two stop dead in their tracks. This time, both bodies practically touch the display with how close they are to it.
“God, can this get any worse!” The person cries out. Mafuyu just stares, again, still not unsure of what to do as the minute before.
“You’ll let me have it, won’t you? You can have any other item in the room.” The voice that came out was bittersweet. A forced kind of nice. Convincing, but a kind that Mafuyu was all too familiar with.
“No.”
“You’re in a museum. You don’t want anything else.”
“Correct.”
“Why?” She asks.
“I only want this one.”
“That’s not a good enough reason!” She yells, the persona flawlessly fading away. Smart, Mafuyu thinks to herself, but perhaps she’s being somewhat biased. She wonders how many times that girl has used that same tone to appease others.
Time left: 1:00. She doesn’t know why, but Mafuyu feels the need to question her motives as well. “Why don’t you do the same thing?”
“Because I need it, so let me have it.”
“Why?”
“I shouldn’t have to tell you why.” Her voice fades. Touchy subject, apparently. “It’s not some random person’s business. Besides, do you know how much this is worth?”
“No.”
“Guess.”
“I don’t want to know.”
The girl says something else, but Mafuyu tunes it out. She has no time to debate with this person. For her own sake, she needs to continue the rest of her mission. Just take the amulet, and make a swift escape. That’s all there is to it , she says to herself. She lets her backpack fall to the ground, takes out a rather large stamp, presses it into the purple ink, and stamps the pillar. She stares at the newly-appeared snowflake symbol for a second to make sure most of the ink is transferred. Then, she pulls out a hammer and holds it up in the air in preparation to break the glass.
Her arm freezes.
She can't move. Her body tenses up, a sensation similar to sleep paralysis. Why can't I move? She asks herself. Is it because...?
Emotionally, she doesn’t feel anything. She can hear the other girl saying words still, but none of them have meaning. The sound of her voice was muffled against the suffocation of the thoughts in her mind, the brain fog clouding her head. Why …? Even though there’s another person here, even though things weren’t going to plan, a normal person should have a reaction right? Yet, she’s numb… why…
Without thievery, she’s no one. And even then, people only refer to her as Yuki. “Mafuyu Asahina” is a fraud–a product of the people–and therefore doesn’t count. Yet she still had that hope that things would start to look up. Hell, she’s had that for years, Yet, no progress has been made at all, and in fact, she’s arguably regressed after this encounter. Maybe her body is reacting to that realization.
Time left: 0:00. The security alarm blares in her ears, and a white fluorescent light now illuminates the room. She is immersed back into reality and focuses on her surroundings. The cameras can identify Yuki to a figure, which was the last thing she wanted. Whatever she was just experiencing needs to be saved for later; her priority is leaving the property, and she needs to get out now. However, the glass is now scattered across the floor, the amulet is missing, and the girl is gone. How long was I zoned out for? She asks herself. But no time to worry about that now. The final part of her plan is to get out of there as soon as possible, so that’s what she attempts to do. Key word, attempts.
Of course, she can’t do that, either. A head of brown hair, who Mafuyu recognizes as the girl from just a few minutes ago by the baseball bat attached to her thigh, is spread across the floor, crawling as quickly as she can to the door. With a swollen ankle like hers, however, she wasn’t making it very far. A foot or two away lies the amulet, sparkling and shining in its own glory thanks to the lights on the ceiling. Mafuyu does not hesitate to step over her body and picks up the amulet. She stuffs it in her pocket, turning around to face the other person one last time
Mafuyu could now get a good glance at her face. Her bangs framed her glossy, brown eyes. Somehow, they stood out more than when she had the mask on. She was clearly on the verge of tears, her face full of desperation and passion, and it was arguably the most vulnerable Mafuyu’s seen her that whole night. The funny thing about this was out of everything else that happened, it was only now that Mafuyu was feeling something; she was unsure of what exactly it was, but there was an emotion that was leaving an increase in heartbeat. Perhaps she was having a heart attack, or perhaps she was going to regret what she was about to do, but she let all rationale leave her body and squatted down to throw the girl on her torso.
“Wh… are you insane?!” The brown-eyed girl asked as she was being lifted up.
“Maybe,” was all Mafuyu replied with, straightening her legs and running for the exit with this stranger in her arms. She could feel the stranger in question hold on more closely when she swings her legs around and buries her head in her shoulder. It's a bit warm, something Mafuyu hadn’t felt in so long. It's foreign, and a little uncomfortable, like she didn’t truly deserve it, but it was nice for however long it was going to last.
Now comes the most difficult yet unexpected challenge of the night; where the two were going to go.