Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens Volume 4 Chapter 7

Top of the Seventh Inning

After waiting at a coin parking lot in Tenjin, Yamato appeared. He seemed to have sneaked away from work as his hair was styled.

"I pickpocketed it as you asked." Yamato handed over a wallet.

"You did good, Yamato-kun."

Banba thanked him, but Yamato made a dubious look. "What's the meaning behind this anyway?"

After being called up suddenly and be asked to pretend to be a stranger and steal Enokida's wallet, naturally he was bewildered.

"Well, a lot happened, you see." Banba spoke evasively. He had no time to fully explain everything.

Yamato, steal base, national highway, eleven – at eleven, have Yamato steal the wallet in front of the designated restaurant at the national highway. That was Enokida's instruction. Banba had Yamato head over to the specified place right away. And sure enough, Enokida came by there.

Yamato was splendid. He had first walked down the street nonchalantly and casually approached Enokida from the opposite direction. He then made it look like he accidentally b.u.mped into Enokida and pickpocketed his wallet. Yamato already had put the wallet in his pocket by the time he said "ah, I'm sorry," in apology.

They immediately checked the contents inside the wallet. There were no bills inside. "Looks like he's seen better days." Yamato laughed, but Enokida most likely had taken his money out of it.

There was a piece of paper inside instead. A ma.s.s of text was written on the white folded sheet of paper. The beginning of the pa.s.sage was labeled as 'the script.'

"What does he mean by script?" Lin tilted his head in confusion. "Does the mushroom plan on holding a play or something?"

Lin had no idea what Enokida was planning. However, it was Enokida. He should have a thorough plan made.

At any rate, they had no other option than to do as they were instructed.

Enokida chose places packed with people and made sure to not isolate himself at even given moment. It was better to be out in the open where others could see him than to try and avoid the public's notice This way it would be hard for his enemies to take action. After Enokida wasted an hour visiting cafes, rental shops, and convenient stores, he then entered a family restaurant in Hirao. He only took drinks from the self-service drinking area.

He had handed over his instructions to his friends through Yamato. Banba and Lin should be doing as he told them to by now. Now he just had to wait until they came. Enokida opened the paperback book he just purchased to kill some time.

Time pa.s.sed moment by moment. Customers would come in and then leave. Enokida was on his third coffee by now. Before he knew it, more than thirty minutes had gone by since he came into the restaurant.

Enokida took a seat where he could watch the entrance to see who would come in. The door opened, bringing in new customers. Enokida looked up and glanced in that direction. They were two young women who looked like university students. It was unlikely they were a.s.sa.s.sins.

The next customer to come in was a short man. He was wearing a hood, so Enokida could not see his face. He was not an enemy either. Enokida turned back to the book in his hands.

Time slowly pa.s.sed by. The area was quiet and tranquil. He did not sense anyone who would attack him here. There were many customers in the restaurant and the shop attendees wandered by regularly. Naturally under these circ.u.mstances, he could not be attacked.

Enokida turned on his smartphone. The current time was displayed on the screen. The date had changed some time ago. He should be getting a phone call from Banba soon. All he would have to do then was wait for his arrival and meet up with him.

Everything would go according to plan. Enokida smirked.

Bottom of the Seventh Inning

The last place blackleg went to was a twenty-four hour family restaurant. There were plenty of customers and the place was well-lit even in the dead of night.

Blackleg must intend to stay there for a long period of time. He seemed to have chosen to retreat to safe areas where he was kept under public eye instead of going into hiding.

"Is he trying to waste time here until his departure time arrives?" Siva suggested.

"Probably."

"This may be a tough battle. We'd better make sure we don't make the wrong move and exhaust our resources."

Chegar looked at the screen. On it was the footage from the surveillance cameras set up in the family restaurant. Blackleg was reading a book near the entrance at a window.

"He's using his smartphone."

Blackleg had taken out his cellular device, which he had turned off earlier and was protected by an interceptive case.

"He may be waiting for someone to call him."

After they monitored it for a while, there was activity.

"He got an incoming call."

As they expected, someone had called blackleg. Naturally they would listen in on the conversation.

'Hi,' blackleg answered the call.

'h.e.l.lo,' they heard a man's voice in reply. He must have been a friend. 'It's me.'

'Yeah.'

'I got everythin' set up. A courier I know is gonna take you out on a freighter from Hakata airport.'

'Thanks, you're a big help.'

'We're gonna get you in an hour.'

'Alright. I'll be waiting.'

And the call ended there.

After blackleg dropped the call, he stood up from his seat and walked over to the restroom.

"So that's his escape plan?"

He did not intend to escape via a s.h.i.+kansen or an airplane. He planned to escape by boat.

But there was one thing that bothered Chegar.

"……Isn't it strange?" Chegar c.o.c.ked his head. "How did he make contact with his friend?"

They did not see any suspicious actions made by blackleg up until now. They did not see him contact anyone he would have known or called anyone. So when did he devise an escape plan?

……Could it have been those messages after all?

Then was there a secret message encrypted in one of those messages that only his comrades could understand?

Chegar clicked his tongue. They should have been more vigilant.

Even as he realized this, there was no time for him to regret it.

"Should we look out for him at Hakata airport, then?"

"No," Chegar shook his head at Siva's suggestion. He thought over what they should do again.

Blackleg had purchased a ticket for an airplane and a s.h.i.+nkansen. And now there was the option of smuggling himself out of the country.

Which one was the real plan? Which route would he take to get out of f.u.kuoka?

Blackleg should be aware that he was being spied on. That would be why he had sent those messages in a roundabout way to convey their meaning. Then the airplane or the s.h.i.+nkansen was a decoy. But if he was aware they were listening in on their conversation, then the freighter they mentioned may also be a trap. There was also the possibility of all of these options being dummies that Chegar could not cross off either.

Any one of them could be a decisive blow. They could not move recklessly. And yet, blackleg's greatest intention could be to cause them confusion and distract them.

They had a time limit of one hour until his comrade arrived to get him. During that time they had to do something between now and then.

Siva spoke up then.

"He has an hour until help arrives. Blackleg probably intends to just spend his time waiting in this restaurant while carelessly reading a book, right?"

"He hasn't shown-" Chegar looked back to the screen. Blackleg was shown in the footage. He had apparently come back from the restroom. He was drinking a new refill of his carbonated drink, holding the straw in his mouth. It did not look like he planned on leaving from there. "I guess so."

"Then shouldn't we just infiltrate the family restaurant now?"

Chegar frowned at Siva's suggestion. "Are you saying we should capture blackleg while he's in the restaurant?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. We should get to him before his friends arrive."

"And try to kidnap him in a place full of people?"

If they did that, someone would see them for certain. All the shop attendants and customers could serve as witnesses. It would leave a trail of their crimes there. "There's too much of a risk doing it."

"We just have to s.n.a.t.c.h him from the restaurant without anyone seeing it happen."

"That's impossible."

"It is possible."

Chegar frowned deeply at Siva's declaration.

"There is one good method to accomplish it." Siva began typing on his keyboard again. "We can get back at blackleg and use the same method as he did."

"The same method?"

Siva gave him a slight smile when he asked. "We can make a power outage happen in the restaurant."

Blackleg had successfully slipped out of Nakasu. Everything became dark abruptly, and before Irasawa knew it blackleg had vanished. He had been reckless. He never expected there to be a power outage.

But this time they were going to make their comeback.

Irasawa did as Chegar instructed him to and parked at the parking lot for the family restaurant and waited there.

'Are you ready, Irasawa?' He heard Chegar's voice through the earphone in his right ear. The connection was good.

"Yeah," Irasawa confirmed as he put on night vision goggles. "I'm ready to go at any time."

He was prepared for infiltration. Apparently blackleg was in this family restaurant according to Chegar and Siva. Irasawa's role was to seize the man.

'Alright,' Chegar ordered. 'Siva, do it.'

'Okay,' Siva voiced next to Chegar. Siva must have started hacking as Irasawa heard the sound of typing.

A few seconds later, the lights in the restaurant instantaneously disappeared. In the same moment it happened, Irasawa rushed into the facility.

The interior was in abuzz. The customers were muttering among themselves, shocked from the sudden power outage. No one seemed to have noticed Irasawa's presence.

Irasawa moved forward with the plan. He looked around the area, able to see his surroundings well thanks to his night vision equipment.

A man with mushroom-like hair was seated at a table near the entrance.

I found him. No mistake.

Irasawa sneakily drew close to the man. When he pinioned his target from behind, the man's slim body immediately jolted. Irasawa promptly covered his mouth with a cloth. The man lashed out in resistance, but it was futile. There was too much of a difference in strength between them. A weak hacker like him could not break away from Irasawa's hold.

Blackleg started to become docile after a few seconds. His limbs had gone limp and he lost consciousness from the inhaling the drug.

Irasawa picked up his listless body, carried the young male out of the restaurant and put him in the trunk of the car.

All this happened in just a minute or two. Irasawa's heart was racing. He wanted to have a match. He wanted to hurry up and kill the man in the trunk. He was getting impatient. Unable to suppress his excitement, he started breathing heavily through his nostrils.

The call was still connected. Irasawa addressed the men on the other end. "I got him."

Chegar held his breath as he watched the security camera footage of the restaurant's parking area. Siva was beside him, watching the screen too.

A few minutes after the blackout, Irasawa appeared on there, holding blackleg.

'I got him.' They heard Irasawa say. He sounded very excited.

"No one saw you, right?"

'No one.' Irasawa told him. 'It went without a hitch.'

The restaurant was still out of power. Irasawa got into the car and left the parking s.p.a.ce.

The place was a success. All that was left for them to do was erase the footage with Irasawa in it. Siva was already working on it, so they were almost done.

"Alright, good work."

Chegar said, content.

"I don't care what you do with him later, but don't leave his body behind."

'I know.'

As soon as Irasawa said that, the call was dropped.

Once blackleg was killed and his body taken care of by the usual specialist, then this job would finally come to an end.

"……We did it." Chegar muttered and clenched his fists.

"We did." Siva stopped typing and turned to him with a smile. "I have finished my end too."

"Good. You did well."

They outwitted blackleg. Chegar was in unusual high spirits at that fact.