Kari wasn’t expecting the bag to be this weighed down this much. She had not had a chance to count the load, but she had already guessed the amount by the number of pickups she had done in the past. The bag was already filled to the brim with stacks of hundred-dollar bills. She was guessing at least half a million—which was massive in comparison to the usual stops.

The party in the Castle was starting to gear up as most of the guests had made their way into the bathroom to sneak in lines of cocaine. The bar had a line that had wrapped its way around the dance floor while the floor had erupted into a full dance. The constant strobing lights had only made her crave a cigarette with every moment spent in the building. It had been weeks since her last and she had spent a lot of time considering picking up the habit again.

I’ve gone this far without shooting, I can go without a smoke, she would tell herself. After stepping outside, she clenched the bag tighter while the foot traffic had started to die down in the night. She scanned the outside once more for any signs of Joutoro or anything suspicious. Outside the front, she had taken notice of a few men offering valet parking and shook her head.

“Should’ve gotten that one.” she muttered under her breath. With this amount of cash, she was expecting there to be an extra person as an escort. Isamu had started to exhaust his resources and by this point, she could see his organization was starting to be stretched thin.

The weight of all the money had started to cause her back to ache as the bag continued to dig into her shoulder. She tried to shift it around to her other side but had settled on just trying to make it back to the car. A fourteen-hour shift had really called back to the old days. It was time to rough it out so she could hurry back and finish the deposit.

While she started to walk up towards the parking garage, she noticed that the guard on post had left the railing up. The booth had appeared to be vacant as she continued past it and up towards the first elevator. She pressed her finger into the call button, causing the plastic surface to glow orange.

Before long, the elevator door in front of her had crawled open. She stepped inside and calmly pushed the top floor button. In the short time she had stood inside, she started thinking of Joutoro and her suspicions of being tailed.

This is a death trap, she thought to herself. If there was anybody waiting for her, she would be a sitting duck once the elevator doors had opened. Paranoia had turned to panic. She snapped through and stuck her foot out, stopping the doors from shutting behind her. Just as they began to open back up, she frantically rushed back out into the open and decided on taking the stairs up.

It had taken her a few minutes to get to the top level and near her car. A few levels down, she could hear tires squealing, and starting to grow louder. Once she got near her car, she had started to take notice to a pair of footsteps making their approach. The sound of a weapon being cocked had suddenly rang in her ear.

She started to make a dash for the vehicle just before a loud bang had exploded from behind her as a weapon had been discharged. One after another, the gunshots rang out. Her car had been struck multiple times while the bullets had miraculously whizzed past her. Behind her, Joutoro had emptied an entire clip in her direction while trying to close in on her. She had dived towards the front of the car before trying to squeeze as low to the ground as possible to avoid the attacks.

“Kari, I knew you were doing security,” Joutoro called out to her as the gunfire settled. He had used his thumb to eject the magazine from his pistol and his free hand to slap another in its place. “I didn’t think you would just come out of hiding after what you did. You’ve already broken a promise to yourself, what’s next? Your oath?”

“You’re making a big mistake.” Kari said to him from behind the bumper.

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“Do you have no honor,” he pulled the trigger to send another round down rage—this time striking one of the rear tires. “An oath by blood isn’t something you want to break.”

“I don’t want to do that,” Kari began to reach for her pistol while trying to think of a way out. “I haven’t broken my oath. I’m telling you this is a mistake.”

“You screwed us over when you messed up that job. We were going to take the city over, and now you think you can come here and try to make moves without us?”

“Don’t make me have to kill you.”

“Yes, break it for me—give me something else to celebrate.”

Joutoro fired a few more shots into the back of the car to ensure that she would not be able to escape with it. Behind him, the blue car that had been trailing Kari from earlier started to speed towards them.

Joutoro stepped out from the path and continued to speak, “We’re going to finish what you started. Shame that you couldn’t follow through. You could have prevented this.”

Kari took a glimpse back towards them to see a pair of headlights coming into view. The only thing between the front of her car and a fifty-foot drop were some metal rails. Right as the car was about to smash into her, she had sprung to her feet and dived over the edge. The blue car had rear-ended hers, causing it to plow forwards through the metal railing. The impact had caused Kari’s vehicle to go over the edge while she had barely managed to get out of it’s path.

At the last moment, she had managed to grab hold of the railing in an attempt to scale the side of the ledge. Down below, her car had smashed into one of the lower levels, causing a load roar as it erupted into a ball of fire. Smoke had started to pillow upwards while the blue car started to circle around. Kari seized the moment to try and climb her way down to the next floor. At the same time, Joutoro had already started to descend from the stairwell.

“I didn’t think that was going to work,” he shouted over to her. She had started to climb over another set of rails as he continued, “Turns out you’re the one who’s doing the leg work for Hinobu, eh?”

Kari had already dismounted and taken another drop. After landing on the concrete slab below, she could feel her joints starting to pop. A sharp pain shot through her body which had nearly caused her to fall back over the ledge. She pulled herself away from the gap and started to climb over. At this point, she was running out of options—the gun only continued to call out to her.

“I saw that bag,” Joutoro shouted from the stairwell. Kari had rushed behind a van to try and keep hidden as her pursuer continued to speak. “I didn’t think you would be the hired gun and the courier. I guess I’m getting to kill two birds with one stone. Please, drew your weapon so I can make it three.”

Kari’s mind continued to bounce around. She had started to reach for her pistol but had only been greeted with a wrenching pain in her shoulder. Meanwhile, Joutoro had already noticed her shadow protruding from behind the van and signaled over towards the driver of the blue car to cut her off.

“I hope the pay was worth it,” he called out once more. “We could have had everything if you hadn’t bailed on us.”

“Please forgive me.” Kari whispered to herself upon pulling her pistol from it’s holster.

“When you get to hell, tell the devil—”

There was a loud crash from down the ramp that had cut him off. The two turned to the source to see a familiar green Bronto smash into the pursuer’s vehicle before heading towards them. Joutoro tried to take a shot but had barely managed to expel one round before being forced to dive out of the way. The vehicle had then performed a quick 180 spin before backing up to Kari.

“Get in!” Andrew shouted to her after pushing the passenger door open. Kari leapt from behind the van and ran as fast as she could towards him. Once she got inside, Andrew slammed his foot down on the gas and started to hightail it back down towards the blue car again.

The driver inside had been unable to react after his face had been slammed into the steering wheel. Andrew and Kari sped past him while Joutoro started to sprint over. After getting into the passenger seat, they had taken off down to finish the pursuit.