The next morning, the gang left the shop to carry out the parts to prepare for the bank heist. John Aoi went to the upper city by car; they arrived at a warehouse where the vans for the natural gas company stores the majority of their vehicles.

John pulled up a good distance away from the warehouse. He told Aoi to wait in the car while he went to check how intense the security was. John walked a little ways towards the building and saw a few security guards and a tall man wearing a green outfit that resembled biker gear, and a large sword on his back. “You gotta be kidding me.” he whispered.

“What are you looking at?” Aoi asked, spooking John.

“I thought I told you to wait in the car.” he said, holding his shaken chest.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t just gonna wait around for you, so I got bored. So, what are we looking at?”

“Well, the security is fairly light but, they have a protector with them.”

“Protector? You’ve been to the upper city more than I have, what is that?”

“They’re a new organization that sprang up a few years ago, I really don’t know what they’re for. They look kinda like hired guns to me.”

“So what do you wanna do?”

“I think we should wait for this guy to leave. We’ll come back here later, let’s head back to the car and drive around the upper city for a while. Maybe grab something to eat while we wait.”

The two made it back to the car and drove around the city. They eventually stopped at a small restaurant called “A Taste of Sorim”.

“Alright, I’m gonna go order. What do you want?” John asked, taking off his jacket and putting on a clean, unwrinkled, blue coat with some gold trimming on the sleeves, the material of the loose fitting coat made John’s skin itch, “I hate wearing this!”.

“Give me the spiciest thing on the menu! I’ve heard this place has the best spicy food in Oreana.” she answered with anticipation.

John got out of the vehicle and walked up to the establishment. He ordered at the desk and waited for his order to finish. He looked around, his gaze passing by an anti demi-human sign, to some people sitting at the desk, and finally reaching a table where a family was seated. The family were what John saw a typical happy family. See them, John felt a sudden sadness wash over him, a flashing glimpse of his family filled his mind and a language slipped from his lips, a language he had not spoken in years. Japanese. “Mom…. Dad…. Sis” he said, his trembling hands covering his mouth, his breath getting heavier with every inhale. His heart felt heavy and beat rapidly, causing John to grasp his chest.

“Ah, familia. The thought of it can be a heavy thing on the heart. Especially when death is near.” a male voice next to John said, the voice was deep and shadowy.

“John looked over to where the voice came from and saw a man wearing all black, eating a bowel of noodles. His clothes looked like common leather-made garments, but at a closer look, they appeared to look burned and tattered, his hood looked as if melted plastic was poured on top of it. The faint smell of ash and burnt rubber assaulted John’s nostrils.

“Who are you?” John asked.

The man stopped eating and turned to John, “I’m just a humble hunter. You can call me La Sombra.”

John noticed the man’s hands. His skin was dry, pale, and covered in scars, scabs, and a light coat of ash. John saw the man’s face and saw the area around his blood red eyes were pitch black, and his lips were blistered and purple in color, the faint stains of blood littered the man’s face.

“I wanna buy you a drink.” the man said.

“No thanks, I don’t need any drink.”

“No, it’s my treat. Here” said the man, passing a small glass of clear liquid. “Try it, it the best drink in existence.”

John hesitantly took the glass and took a sip. It was water, “Honestly, I was expecting this to be alcohol.” John nervously chuckled. “It’s not spiked, is it?”

“Spiked!” the man laughed. “Why would I defile God’s sweet nectar—his gift of life?”

“It’s nothing personal, I just don’t usually receive things from strangers.”

“That’s quite alright. Distrust is a natural thing people share.”

“Well, it keeps you alive.”

The man chuckled under his breath, “You appreciate the life you were given, don’t you?”

“A lot of people do.”

“No, I was asking about you personally. Do you enjoy your life?”

“It has it’s ups and downs, but I’d like to say I do.”

The man looked at John and then looked back at the water he was drinking, “No, no you don’t. I can see it in your eyes: You hate your life.”

John scoffed, “You don’t know anything about me. I love my life, I would never trade it for anything.”

Just then, a server got John’s attention and told him his food was ready.

“Well, that’s my order. I better get going.” John took the food the server handed him and started heading back to the car.

“That’s a beautiful necklace. I especially like the stone.” the man said, causing John to stop and turn around.

“It’s just a necklace; you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.”

“Oh no, that one is special, trust me.”

“How is it special?”

“It belonged to me.”

John almost laughed, but for the sake of politeness, he let out a scoff, “did it really?” he said amused by the man’s words.

“That it did, amigo. That it did.”

“Prove it.” John demanded.

The man got up and walked towards John, his eyes locked onto the necklace. “To make a long story short, my mother passed that necklace down to me when she died, I took it with me into another world, and now…. I’m passing it down to you.”

John was confused to put it mildly, “Ok, I’m just gonna go now, I just got a few hours before a job I gotta do.”

“And what a job it will be. I can almost taste him stepping into my domain.” the man said with anticipation, his face contorting into a wide, twisted grin.

John turned around and walked away, “What a weirdo.” he thought.

“Till we meet again, amigo.” the man called to him.

John took a quick glance back at the man only to find he had vanished.

“What the hell?”

John got back to the car, he sat down and gave Aoi her food.

“What took you so long?” she asked.

“I was just talking to someone.”

“You were? I didn’t see you talking to anyone.”

“Well, it wasn’t important so let’s eat.”

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Aoi excitedly opened her food box to see a bowl of rice with steaming chicken on top, the rice and chicken were covered in a magma red sauce with bright red peppers and black flakes of pepper. The spice entered Aoi’s nostrils as she took a fork and put the food up to her lips and ate. “So good!” she moaned.

“You really like spicy food?” John asked.

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me. I know more about this food than you do. Did you know this rice is made form a special plant only found in Mossa?”

“I didn’t know that.” John opened up his box and began eating a bowel of noodles. There wasn’t anything of note about his food, it was as plain and simple as food could get.

Aoi noticed John’s food, “You’re taste in food is boring.”

“I know.”

“You really need to try different foods. We came to a high end restaurant and you get the plainest thing on the menu? You’re very odd.”

“How did you hear about this place anyways?”

“Dice told me.”

“I see.”

The two ate in silence for a moment.

“Why did you disappear for so long?”

“What?”

“I didn’t see you for months. You just up and left.”

“Oh, that. I don’t know, I was just getting some things off my chest. Needed some time to think.”

“Oh, wanna talk about it?”

“There’s not much to talk about.”

“John, I know you. You always have something to talk about.”

“This time I don’t.”

Aoi giggled, “Liar.”

As the sun began to set John drove back to the warehouse and parked in a secluded location.

“Alright, looks like the building is closed and the security has died down. That protector isn't anywhere either. We just need to find a way to take out the cameras.”

“On it.” Aoi said, dashing out of the car and running to the side of the building where the cameras had a blind spot.

“Aoi, wait!” John said. “She never waits.”

John got out of the car and approached Aoi, who was activating a small devise, “What do you got there?” he asked.

“I’m scrambling the camera’s signals.”

“You didn’t even answer my que-”

“There, got it. We can now move freely to the back.”

“I forgot how she is on heists.” John said with a sigh as he watched Aoi move to the back of the building.

At the back of the building, the two got to a metal door near a large garage door. John pulled out a lockpick and attempted to pick the lock, “Alright, just need to twist here and-” Boom! Aoi kicked the door open, leaving John frozen, wide-eyed, and briefly confused. “What did you do that for, dummy!?” John said.

“Ow! That hurt my foot.” Aoi said with a wince.

“Then why did you do that?”

“It was faster, besides, we need to hurry before anyone sees us.”

John stood up, “This is fine. We grew up together, I should get used to this.” he mumbled.

The two found a van. John grabbed a key from an office and opened the van. Aoi opened the garage, “Alright, let’s go.” John said as he started the van and turned on the headlights, revealing the protector standing in front of the van, staring John in the eyes.

“Aoi. Get in the van, now!” John shouted as he reversed the van.

Aoi jumped onto the back of the van and held onto the bars on one of the doors. The protector then pulled up his left sleeve and pressed a small, black, pentagon-shaped devise on his arm, just under the palmaris longus, and a small, blue-colored, rectangular screen emerged from the middle of the devise like a hologram. The protector pressed a few buttons on the screen and a pistol materialized from the devise, which he then used to shoot at John, nearly missing his head.

John drove the van out on the main road and drove as fast as he could away from the building. The protector, who had almost been hit by the van but managed to jump out of the way, took a small, metal, spherical-shaped device and dropped it on the ground, causing it to turn into a motorcycle. The protector hopped on it and perused after the van. In the van, John was laughing in excitement, “I think we got away successfully. Now we just need to head back.”

“Um, John?” Aoi said, still hanging onto the back of the van.

“What?”

“He’s back.”

Catching up to the van, the protector unsheathed his sword and threw it into the door of the van, almost hitting Aoi.

“What are you still doing back there?” John shouted.

“You didn’t unlock the door.”

“How do I unlock it?”

“It’s manually locked from the inside!”

“What? What idiot designed that? Just hang on, Aoi.”

John turned from one street lane to the other, avoiding cars on each lane with the protector inching his way closer. The protector grabbed a small, lever-action rifle from the gadget on his arm and fired away at the back of the van. Aoi, thinking fast, took out caltrops from a small bag on her belt and threw them at the bike, popping one of its tires. “Knew these would come in handy one day!” she celebrated.

Unable to ride his bike anymore, the protector jumped from his bike and landed on the top of the van, “He’s on top of us!” Aoi said. John tried to shake the protector off, but he had spiked boots to keep him from slipping. The protector walked towards Aoi and pointed his gun at her face, ready to pull the trigger. John saw a part of the road that was under a low hanging bridge, he then tuned the van towards the road.

The protector seeing this, dropped and rolled to the side of the van. He then made his way to the passenger side of the van and broke the window, John pulled out his pistol and tried to shot the protector. The protector avoided the bullet, opening the van door and entering the passenger seat. John and protector engaged in hand to hand combat with John fighting while keeping one hand on the wheel and the protector using his fists and legs to fight.

While fighting, John took the opportunity to shoot the manual lock on the back door with his pistol, causing the doors to open. Aoi nearly fell off, but she hung on and attempted to get inside the van. The protector pulled a knife from his boot and tried to stab John, John stopped each blow and tried to knock the knife from the protector’s hand. The protector then stabbed next to John’s neck and John grabbed the protector’s wrist; the protector then started moving the blade towards John, causing John to use one hand to resist and the other to steer.

The knife blade got closer and closer to John’s neck to the point where John felt the cold sting of the blade making contact with the side of his neck. John struggled until he heard a gunshot from behind, he then felt the pressure of the knife being lessened as the protector slumped to the side with a bullet wound in his back just above the heart. John turned around and saw Aoi holding a small handgun, smoke emerging from its barrel.

“Took you long enough.” John said as he turned to face the road.

“You’re welcome.” Aoi replied, pushing the protector’s body out of the van. “You alright?”

“Yeah, thanks for saving me back there.”

“Don’t mention it.”

As they continued driving and it started to rain, John asked Aoi what she wanted to do after the heist.

“Well, I might want to leave the city and travel around the world a bit and see if my mother is still alive, maybe visit our old home and see what’s left. Then I’ll probably settle down somewhere.”

“Ah, I see. That’s a good plan, it suits you. Some adventuring and then a simple life, I like it.”

“What about you, John? What are your plans?”

“I’m not sure, I’ll just take it one step at a time. Hey, before you go, I should take you out dancing. I know the perfect place.”

“Dancing?”

“Yeah, what, you don’t know how to dance?”

“No.”

“Tell you what, after this score is done, I’ll teach you how to dance. How does that sound?”

“Sure, I wouldn’t mind learning. But you do owe me.”

“For what?”

“For almost killing me when you shot the door open.”

“Oh yeah, sorry about that.”

Aoi punched him on the shoulder, “There, now we’re even.” she said with a chuckle.

“Ow, not so hard! That’s where that guy cut me.”

“Sorry, you should’ve blocked me then. Or at least hit me back, I can take it, you know.”

“I’m not really the type to hurt girls.”

Aoi was so humored by John's words that she began to laugh till her sides were hurting. After calming her laughter, she said, “That’s a load of crap. Saying that doesn't give you any kind of moral high ground. It just makes you sound like a dork.”

“Oh, knock it off.” John said.

After a few minutes pass, John pulled up to the shop and exited the vehicle to be greeted by Big G, Dice, and Otto.

“What happened to the van?” Big G asked.

“Ran into a protector, almost killed me in the process.”

“I could get it repaired as quick as I can, but it’ll take a while.” Otto said.

“How long is that?” asked Big G.

“A day, it’s mostly the body of the van that needs repairs.”

“I need it done by noon tomorrow.”

“I’ll do my best, but no promises. I’m good, but not that good.”

John walked to the stairs of the shop and Dice followed beside him, putting his arm on John’s shoulder.

“So, I hear you and your girlfriend almost got diced by a protector.” he said.

“Aoi is not my girlfriend, she’s like a sister to me.”

“Eh, could’ve fooled me.”

“Aren’t you two always together?”

Dice burst out in a hysterical laugh and said, “John, she’s my girl buddy. We like blowing stuff up, just because we live in a body shop doesn’t mean we do something unholy when people aren’t around. Besides, she’s not my type. But I know who you’d love to go out with.”

“who?”

“My friend, Kitra. You should meet her, she runs a club I used to work at a few blocks from here.”

“You’re trying to hook me up now? Thanks, but I’ll pass. Besides, I’m tired and I gotta take care of an injury. So goodnight, you psycho.”

John entered his room and Took care of the cut on his neck. As he was caring for his wound, John heard a knock on his door, “Come in.” he said. Aoi entered the room and gave him some food before sitting next to him.

“Here, you should eat something.” she said.

“Thanks.” he said, taking a bite out of the food.

“You excited for the job tomorrow?”

“You bet.” John said. He then took off his necklace and handed it to Aoi. “Here, I want you to hang onto this for good luck.”

“Oh, John. I really shouldn’t, I never see you without this, you keep it.”

“No, no, you hang onto it. Think of it as a gift for when you leave the city.”

“Thanks.” she said, putting the necklace on. “How does it look?”

“It looks good on you.”

Aoi then put her head on John’s shoulder and asked, “John, after this job is over, do you want go out somewhere.”

“What?”

“You know, just the two of us, just hanging out like we did when we were kids.”

“Is this like a date or something?”

“John, you know what I meant. Do you want to or not?”

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

Aoi stood up and said, “Well, I gotta go to bed, see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Aoi.” Aoi walked out, leaving John alone in his room. “I should get some rest. I just hope all goes well tomorrow.” John said as he lied down on his bed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.