It had been around three minutes since Shindo had called Yata out on his shit, and he was still a no show. In the amount of time he had scoped out the general landscape and possible perch points for scanning with his visor, there hasn’t been a hint on the cat’s whereabouts. Not even a comm call.

Yet, that truly wasn’t the reason Shindo was pissed. It was something Yata had said previously that made him seethe:

"You hide behind your taunts and obscure gadgetry while only revealing what’s convenient or necessary for you. How can I trust your words, when I don’t even know if half the things you said earlier this morning are either incomplete or straight-up lies?"

He gritted his teeth as the wind rustled his hair. Bastard! Who the hell did he think he was? Was he really that untrusting of Shindo, or was he letting his own feelings dictate his thoughts? No matter. Even if that idiot was going to act like this, his anger was secondary. But that won’t stop Shindo from taking his own little bit of revenge: he will do exactly as Yata thought. Speaking whenever he felt like it.

"Green, come in." Shindo clicked his tongue at the cat hero’s timing. That god-awful nickname was getting old real quick.

"Finally cooled down, cat? Or should I buy a few cold bottles of water before we start?" Shindo sarcastically asked, still looking for a decent vantage point to perch onto.

"I'm not in the mood for a discussion." Yata answered with a huff.

"Oh, really?" Shindo remarked, his sarcasm peaking with an angry chuckle.

"Let's get on with this,” Yata sighed, trying to compromise with Shindo, “The faster we do this, the less we have to see each other."

Something about those nonchalant responses further added to Shindo’s frustration, yet he swallowed his anger down, accepting the compromise.

"Fine," Shindo said while shooting his grapnel gun, "I’m trying to find a good entrance into the HQ. Let me get to a safe vantage point so I can start my scans."

"Good, I'll see if I can find a place where we can go through. Yata out." The comms went silent as Shindo safely landed on a good railing with a view towards the targeted building.

Compared to the map Yata showed on the PDP, the StreetSender's HQ Building larger than expected. Trucks, motorcycles, and cars came in and out of the building. Most of the windows had the curtains down, but the few that didn't were on the second-floor, showcasing a lot of people moving about their day. On the roof there was a billboard with a stupidly bad catchphrase promoting safe gadget usage along with promoting StreetSenders services.

feeling a bit exposed from his position, Shindo zipped from point to point as to not make it obvious that he was staking out the StreetSender's HQ, until he found a good spot to start scanning with his visor for possible entrance points.

"Cat. Cat, come in!" Shindo opened the comm channel again.

"What?" A tired yet frustrated voice rang through the comms

"Have you found a good entrance point?" Shindo asked, continuing his scan of the building.

"I may have found something," Yata answered, surprising Shindo a bit. He half-expected his “companion” to continue arguing, but Yata started explaining his findings:

"I found a vent that goes to the second floor, and if the maps are accurate, it directly leads to a nearby stairway. We can probably fit inside it, although I'm not sure if you can fit inside, as you are a bit taller than me."

Shindo snorted. Guess Yata wasn't called the recon unit of the team for nothing. However, something from what he saw before rubbed Shindo the wrong way. He pressed a button on his visor and confirmed what he feared. “My initial scans on the building picked up a lot of people on the second and third floor, to the point that we would be easily spotted."

"Hm, well if that's the case, it's better to scrap that option." Yata thought out loud. The comm line stayed silent for a bit until Yata gave out a long sigh. "I have another option, but I dread using it. Can you check the fourth and fifth floor?"

Shindo breathed heavily while he prepped his visor for a second scan. This time he focused on the fourth and fifth floor.

"There's not a lot of people on the fifth floor and even less on the fourth." Shindo reported back, "Shouldn't those two floors be more guarded?"

"How many guards are there?" Yata asked, intrigued.

"I count seven duo patrols on floor five and a single guard.One of the patrols is stationed on the outdoor emergency stairway. Then, there are four active patrols of trios on the fourth floor, but I don’t see more after that." Shindo stated.

"So we have less of a chance of being spotted if we go through the emergency stairway,” Yata commented, “Have you singled out Hellent?"

"Negative. None of the possible main offices in floor five seemed to be occupied with people. At least not any that my biometric scan can pick up.” Shindo replied, turning off his scan and prepping his grapnel gun.

“Well then, let’s meet up at the stairway, Yata out.” Shindo turned off the comms and made his way to the emergency stairway of the building. According to what he remembered from the map in Yata's PDP, the stairway should be on the back of the building.

As he approached, he gave one last scan towards the supposed direction of the stairs, and saw a familiar figure, plus a guard patrol near the window that gave access to the emergency stairway. Shindo landed silently beside Yata, who only gave Shindo a blank stare towards Shindo. It seemed like he was waiting for a good time to strike. Because of this, Shindo took this chance to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"--u heard? The Crows won over the Aces in yesterday's game." The right guard enthusiastically declared, his hands on his waist.

"'Bout time!" The left guard replied back with that same enthusiasm, "Those goddamn Aces wrecked us hard on last year's major league!"

The two men laughed heartily at that last comment. Shindo edged closer to the two guards, taking out his baton. He looked at Yata, who had his knife in a hammer grip.

"Good things just keep on piling up! First the Crows finally win, then we get full on paid vacations, and the cherry on top is that the boss hasn't complained all week!" The left guard boomed happily.

"Oh, he's in a good mood?" The right guard asked, turning his head to look at the left guard

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Pretty much! While debriefing me, Trev and Miles, Mr. Hellent told us that if we keep working effectively, all of us guards are going to gain double the salary this weekend!”

"So that’s why Trev was in a good mood! You think this bonus is because the boss’s deal with the Third Seat is finally bearing fruit?"

"Dunno, I-." This is when Yata took the opportunity to attack the guard on the right, cutting off the conversation. The cat hero struck the guard in the back neck, and both sides, which led to the guard crumpling to the floor. However, the cat hero went out of his way to not let the guard fall.

"In--!" The second guard didn't have time to complete his words as Shindo bashed his head with his baton, letting him fall to the floor. He couldn't care less for the guard, after all this was just another job for Shindo.

Yata scowled at Shindo's actions, but at that moment, Shindo didn't pay him mind. He was more focused on getting the fallen guard out of sight and his way. Yata did the same, but his lips openly showed his disgust towards the green-clad newbie.

After they put them on the emergency stairway, Yata addressed Shindo while checking his knife for blood. "Remember, we are just here for the intel."

Shindo ignored Yata’s words, to which Yata sent another disgusted look at him, before proceeding forward. As they walked, the atmosphere between them got denser. The place they were in was a hallway with minimalistic paintings and two sets of doors on each side. At the end of the hallway there was a split path with one side going left, and the other going right. Yata took out his PDP and checked the map for floor five. After a few minutes he put it back in his pocket and hardened his grip on his wooden knife.

"The right path's a dead end, we have to take the left." He said.

"Roger, roger." Shindo said with mock-seriousness. Yata gritted his teeth as the two slowly made their way into the left hallway, and into the complex. Yata had taken the lead while Shindo was right behind him, scanning for any sudden movements or any other patrols. Soon enough, the scans picked up another patrol, this time with two big silhouettes quickly approaching them.

"Two more incoming!" Shindo said in a hushed scream.

Yata prepped his knife, while Shindo brought out a few darts and gripped his baton. As soon as they came into view, Shindo threw the darts at their feet.

"Argh! What the hell is this!" One of them screamed.

"First Barry disappeared in the morning, then Leda and Miles came back tattered and exhausted, and now we get stabbed on the feet?" The other asked.

The two heroes didn't give them time to continue as they both knocked the two guards out. The two big guards were then carried by the hero duo to a nearby locker room they found on Yata's PDP, however, they also found another patrol getting ready there.

“You, what have you done to Lucas and Matthew?” One of them said, standing up. Shindo didn’t give him time to act, throwing one of the bodies onto the guard, knocking him out. Yata also spared the other guard no time, also knocking the other guard in a similar manner to Shindo’s.

"Argh, what luck. Three patrols in quick succession, and most of them seemed alarmed before we even attacked." Shindo breathed out in exasperation.

"Weird indeed," Yata responded while he stuffed the last guard on one of the lockers. However, he noticed that Yata was becoming a bit restless ever since they entered the building, as if he wanted to ask Shindo something.

"What do you want now, Yata?" Shindo asked. The cat hero flinched at Shindo's direct word.

"I-." Yata started saying while avoiding the green-clad hero's gaze.

"Go on. I’m listening." Shindo said, dead serious.

Yata shook his head slightly and shrugged. "You know what? Forget it. I don't want to get into another argument with you."

"If you're going to speak something, then speak, Cat!" Was what Shindo wanted to say, but again, he bottled up his anger, breathed in, and refocused on the mission.

This left a bitter silence between the two that persisted through their exploration of floor five. They sneaked around the building, finding and non-lethally taking down another patrol before they reached the stairway. This time, Shindo decided to take down these two guards by himself as a way to relieve his anger, but as he finished fighting them Yata seemed to grow even more displeased, further frustrating Shindo.

What the hell did he want him to do? Shindo knew very well by now that something was on Yata’s mind. Yet, he was just doing his job! There's no need to care for the guards' wellbeing, right? They were the enemy! Yet, the more Shindo looked at the cat hero's eyes, the more he had the urge to grab his shirt, and ask him what the hell did he want with him.

"Stop." Yata's sudden words broke Shindo out of his frustration. "There's someone on the stairway. One person."

Shindo and Yata took a glance towards their supposed enemy. It was a female guard with light brown hair. She was sitting in the stairway with her back towards them, and had one arm clutching her side. She seemed to be sound asleep, but something felt odd about how she was leaning so still towards the wall.

"I'll take a look at her." The cat hero whispered, slowly inching towards the woman. When he was close enough, he felt her neck with his fingers. His eyes bulged in surprise and sorrow, while his gritted teeth told the whole story. The woman was dead.

The world seemed to slow down as Yata inspected the woman's body. She was stabbed on her side, and it seemed she had bled out. Her face told of failure, and her bloody lips, open eyes and tensed muscles showed she died in pain.

With a heavy sigh, Yata closed her eyes, and shivered. Shindo could only stand there, not moving one bit. How long has it been since he had last seen a dead body? Two years? Four? He couldn't remember anything but the pity he had felt for the dead as Herttz.

On the other hand, the cat hero grieved for the stranger. This didn't look like the first time the hero experienced death, as he lowered his head and breathed heavily. He slowly put his hand on the pocket where he hid the necklace he had in hand before the start of the mission, and whispered his condolences.An action of empathy Shindo felt slightly envious of.

"I need a report. Now." A new voice entered Shindo's ears, but the first to react was Yata who raised his head in alertness. He dashed towards Shindo, and frantically took him by the hand, hiding the both of them inside the first door they found: an empty office.

With the door partly opened, they saw three figures climbing up the stairs.

"NO! Leda!" The voice from earlier expressed his chagrin, "Not you too!”

Grieving silence filled the room, as Shindo snapped out his daze and identified three figures.

“After we find that bastard and make him pay for what he has done, we are sending financial aid to the families of the good men and women who have fallen today.” The voice stated, determined. Yata turned with bulged eyes to Shindo and mouthed three words: 'That's Mardav Hellent.'

"Yes, Mr. Hellent, I'll arrange it so that the families of those seventeen guards receive the aid… and the bad news." A more serious female voice replied, seemingly holding back a whimper.

"It's saddening,” Hellent said in a remorseful tone, “they worked so much for the safety of my company, and I was even going to give them a permanent raise this weekend. For such good men and women to die in this way can only be the act of a coward."

Silence befell the conversation, yet the implications of this death shook Shindo and Yata to the core. This obviously was the act of another intruder. While they were easy to knock out, those guards had lives outside of this place. They had families, friends, enemies. It was both saddening and a shame. Yet that person had killed seventeen of the guards…

Nevertheless, Shindo had no right to feel like that. Hadn't he screwed up the lives of countless people during his career as Herttz? Hell, he had also screwed up the lives of the Unwin employees by leaving!

"Boss, should we contact the police or HOC?" A male voice with feminine accents broke the silence with his subdued anger.

"I agree with Gianmarco, although HOC and us are in a rough spot right now.” Hellent said, “Yet... I know just the hero to call for this type of situations. Thank lord I met that man two years back. As for the police we should contact them, but we need to find out who did this first. Will you help me?"

""Yes, Mr. Hellent!"" both guards replied.

"Good. Now, I'll retire myself to my office,: Hellent said, before adopting a commanding tone, “Here are your orders: You both are to search any remaining guard units, and bolster your awareness. If any of you stumble on the killer or any other intruder, run away and report to me. Do not engage. I'm sick of seeing good people die. You are to relay this to the others."

Mardav sighed, causing a short pause, before the three figures went away. When their footsteps could no longer be heard, the two heroes came out of their hiding spot, still shaken from the news.

Shindo stared at the cat hero, who glanced back with a worried look. They both stood on the same ground: They had to deal with a new threat and Mardav was on the alert. Their whole mission just got a lot harder than what either of them could expect.