End of The Line
June 26th, 2022. 10:30pm in Kyoto.
A man in purple stands in the middle of a hotel room shadowboxing. A spear is leaned against the wall, while a young woman sits on a bed next to him with a laptop in front of her.
"You got a message from the Head earlier, right?" The man asks her.
The young woman nods before explaining.
"Two hours ago. She gave us a deadline. Two weeks"
The man stops for a moment and looks at her with a concerned expression.
"You serious, Sofia?"
Sofia nods again and explains.
"She says we've been gone too long. Several months have been spent away from the Mediterranean Branch after that mission in Singapore, and she doubts whether or not this investigation's worth it, given all the conflict that's started here."
"Can't say I don't feel the same." The man states. "To think we went from getting rid of Kei's body to trying to find who killed him, only to get caught up in a civil war."
"That's exactly why she wants us back, Amur. Plus this year's Succession Trials have already started. That's why we only have two weeks. If we don't come back or at least start going back...then either we'll be transferred to this Branch, or she'll fly over to drag us back herself."
Amur sighs as he goes back to shadowboxing.
"That sounds like exactly the kind of thing she'd do. Crazy but well intentioned. The sooner we finish this investigation the better."
"Yeah. I've been keeping an eye on multiple people so far, and only one hasn't been either killed or imprisoned yet. So at least we're close to finishing this."
Sofia states as she focuses on her laptop.
"Though there's one thing that's been bothering me."
"What would that be?" Amur asks.
"The entire time we've spent here, I haven't found out who offered us this job. It's normal to stay anonymous, even in the Corp's message system, but...this person's practically a ghost. All I know is that they're in the Assault Group."
Amur takes a deep breath as he stops to rest.
"As concerning as that is, we can worry about them after the job's done."
"You're right..."
Sofia yawns and turns off her laptop before putting it aside. As she leans back onto a small stack of pillows, she thinks to herself.
'An anonymous client, a slippery target, and a civil war... Almost everything about this feels off...' She sighs as she starts falling asleep, meanwhile Amur walks into another room to watch TV without disturbing her.
