1 Take the Bait.

The past couple of months have been rocky, but the night of operation "Matchbox" was for sure one of the worst nights for Detective Shota Hayate's career as a police officer in the city of Asher California. The city was becoming increasingly more dangerous with the rising issues from the Mafia that was empowering the small gangs that were easily controlled before. The gangs were being given higher end drugs and weapons for doing the dirty work for the Mafia, which has called themselves The Shanks, after their notorious leader, Vernon "Black eyed" Shanks.

By complete chance, Shota had found out the location of a warehouse the Shanks themselves had been distributing and manufacturing weapons. He had scouts stake out the place for weeks. Multiple undercover officers who even confirmed the warehouse's purpose and who owned it. He was sure he had everything secured, and planned out meticulously.

That was until one of their undercover officers was found out just before operation "Matchbox" took place. It was almost too perfectly timed. Maybe they weren't as quiet with their investigating as they had hoped. Or, there were leaks within his division. Either way, the operation failing was his fault. Not only did numerous officers get hurt, some even critically, 5 officers were killed by a sniper. One of them was right beside Shota, taking a shot which he believed was actually meant for him.

It's been a few weeks since "Matchbox" failed. Not only did the warehouse practically burn down, anything left after the devastating fight was either fried, or completely wiped clean. The events that took place weighed heavily on Shota. He went out to give condolences to the families of those who were lost, and even talked with the families of the injured. During the funerals for the officers lost, Shota completely broke down. He tried his best to send them off respectfully before crumbling onto the floor in a sobbing mess. The guilt had almost completely broken him.

After the Funeral, Shota was given Bereavement leave for 8 days. When he came back he wasn't exactly the same. Having to start back at square one, especially for tracking down where the Shanks were making all these weapons and dangerous drugs that they were finding. And more importantly, why were they doing this?

—--------------------------------------

Shota spent every night looking over security footage recovered from nearby facilities where the warehouse was. He was determined to find out anything that could help him put faces to the Shanks' members or affiliates. The sniper bullets came from 3 different rifles. Either the sniper used different rifles when they moved, or there was more than one. The only issue was, the surrounding cameras glitched out when "Matchbox" began, and it wasn't the police who did that, as even their own body cams stopped working.

He had been looking over hours of footage from days prior to the operation, while also dealing with other cases at work. Not being able to find anything useful was starting to really wear him down. His exhaustion was pretty evident when he woke up today. He still had some pain from his wounds he got from the whole ordeal, a strained groan that came from him made it very clear as he got out of bed.

Shota had a pretty basic routine he kept to each morning, and he didn't feel right if he didn't do it. It helped him keep some sense of sanity and normalcy in such rough times.

Right after getting up from bed he would stretch thoroughly, something his grandma was always so persistent about when growing up. He'd then relieve himself in the bathroom and bathe. He kept his face clean shaven, and always slicked back his short charcoal black hair with some gel. It gave his silky hair some more texture and style.

Shota is a very handsome man, he takes great care of his skin and body even if he is looking a bit more out of it than normal. His face is squarish, his cheek bones aren't very high and it gives his face a softer look in contrast to his strong jaw. Shota's eyes are a dark brown shade, almost appearing as black in most lighting but if you looked closely you'd see the lovely mahogany tone in his irises. His eyes are round, with a bit of an upward slant with thick eyebrows that tapered in an interesting way over his brow bone, giving him an intense look. His mouth is slightly bowlike, with lips that are fuller in the middle and a long nose with a slight bump and downturned tip. His skin is a warm peach tone.

He just turned 30 a few months back, but he hasn't changed much in appearance since his 20s. Shota is Japanese, his grandparents immigrated to California and had his father. Whereas his mother was born in Japan and got her citizenship for America after Shota was born. His only sibling is his younger sister, and she was the reason he became a police officer. But more on that later.

His coffee pot had an automatic timer on it, by the time he was done getting dressed his coffee was ready, the pot sang a cute song when it was done brewing. He dressed in a white button up long sleeve shirt, a silky black tie with a silver colored tie clip to keep it in place. He tucked his shirt into his black slacks and black leather belt which he matched with his shiney black dress shoes.

Shota got a cup from his cupboard, he used the same coffee cup every day. Not because he didn't have other ones, but because he loved this cup. The cup his sister got him when he first moved into his own place. The cup was ceramic, and white with black bold letters on it that read "Don't talk to me unless I've had my morning coffee."She always called him a grumpy jackass if he didn't have coffee, thinking of his sister always cheered him up.

He poured himself a cup, put a small dash of sugar and cream inside it before he sat down at his small table. He liked drinking it while he looked over some news and checked social media on his phone. He hated feeling rushed to go to work, so he always made sure to wake up early so he could enjoy a quiet cup of coffee.

His apartment wasn't huge or fancy, but it was clean and organized, and did the job. He lived just down the street from the police station, if he really wanted to he could walk there and still be on time. While he was scrolling on his phone, a notification popped up on the top from his security doorbell camera, telling him that there was a person walking in front of his door. Opening the app he checked to see who it was.

"Just a delivery person…" He softly muttered to himself as he watched them place some small package at his door. All delivery workers had to wear masks and gloves for the past few years due to a pandemic, so seeing their facial details was a bit of a pain. He could only tell the man was tan with thick eyebrows, his hat covered his black hair that peaked out the bottom of it.

When the person stepped back he noticed a small patch on their jacket as they took a photo of the package. The patch was of a knife with a ring hole in its handle, or better known as a shank. It made him jump out of his chair and rush to the door. He took his gun out of its holster, holding it ready as he watched through the peephole. He quietly unlocked the door and ripped it open, hoping to catch the Shank member when he did.

The delivery person was gone, but he heard them running down the stairs.

"Freeze! APD!" Shota yelled as he chased behind them, practically jumping down the stairs and sprinting along the uneven sidewalk. The person he was chasing was fast, already running through the parking lot a good deal ahead of Shota.

Figuring it was pretty much pointless he stopped his pursuit. Watching them hop into a delivery van and speeding away as he caught his breath. He caught a glimpse of the license plate, repeating it as he memorized it. "H1OFCER…." What the plate meant didn't quite click with him just yet.

He jogged back upstairs and looked at the package left at his door. With an annoyed sigh he walked into his apartment and got his things ready to head for work, quickly brushing his teeth and rinsing his coffee cup and grabbed his laptop bag and his jacket. Also grabbing a small bag and gloves.

After locking his apartment up he put the gloves on and carefully picked the package up. He inspected it. It was quite an ordinary envelope, it looked like a package he had gotten many times from craft vendors online, but he didn't order anything, so this raised his suspicion. It felt like a cellphone. Or a small notebook. Usually when someone sends him things, they tell him, such as his mother who is always sending him random gifts.

The shipping label had no address of origin, just the address for delivery. On the address sticker, there was a small note typed in a box. It read, *"This is for your eyes only, Shota. Trust no one."* He figured depending on what was inside, determined whether or not he would mention this to his colleagues, but he also questioned, who could he really trust? The last operation really messed up his perception of his colleagues.

Shota went down the steps and felt a chill up his spine as his downstairs neighbor called for him the moment his foot hit the pavement. He turned around and gave her his best professional smile. Even if he was a police officer, he didn't want to be on the bad side of any of his neighbors.

"Ah, yes Miss Jones, good morning to you-"

"Don't 'good morning' me Mr. Hayate! What the hell are you yelling and running 'round for at the asscrack of dawn? People be sleeping at this time sir!"

He nervously laughed at the asschewing he was getting. He just did what his father used to do when his mother was pissed, bow respectfully and apologize.

"I am so sorry Miss Jones, I got a delivery and I mistook the person for someone else and uh… it won't happen again. Promise."

She clicked her tongue at him and pursed her lips. Holding onto her door frame she flicked her wrist at him in a sassy way.

"You are lucky you are so damn cute. Aye, if you ever have the time off, I'm having a Barbecue soon. You should join, you can bring some of your cop friends. Just give me a heads up so I can hide my pot."

Shota nodded and laughed with her. Waving her off as he turned and fumbled with his keys in his jacket pocket. "Pot is legal now, but I'll keep it in mind. Have a good day, Miss Jones."

Once she went back inside her apartment he got into his car. A roomy sedan type vehicle, the paint was a metallic dark red. It was a few years old now, but still smelled and looked brand new. The interior was black and comfortable. He put his phone into the phone mount that suctioned onto his windshield.

Placing his things in the passenger seat his phone softly chimed with a new message but he ignored it for now. Letting his phone's bluetooth hook up to his car radio. His favorite music played on his short drive to work, a playlist of oldies R&B and some rock.

Leaving his apartment complex he turned onto Riverbank Ave, one of the longest and busiest streets in the area. The first left turn he needed to take to get to work was often a pain due to the apartment's location being so close to the traffic light. Most of the time he had to wait for a chance to slip out, or turn the other way and make a Uturn just to get to the light. Thankfully, the cars that usually hauled ass to the light let him scoot out of the complex's driveway, he gave them a friendly wave as he passed them.

Once on Archway ave it was a straight shot to the Precinct. There were a variety of stores right within walking distance, and it was right next to a few different neighborhoods. Not only was this area popular, the entire city was almost always busy all hours of the night.

He had to pass a Taco-Schnitzel to get into the parking lot of the police station. Asher police station is conveniently located right in front of one of the city's sewage treatment facilities. Luckily for the police, it always smells like shit outside. Nevertheless, it smells just fine inside the building, that is if you enjoy the strong smell of cleaners.

Shota parked his car in his usual spot, far to the right of the parking lot, it was very spaced out between the fast food joints in the same lot. Most of the precinct parking was separated with gates. He still had some time before he needed to clock in, grabbing some sanitary gloves and a mask from his door compartment, he decided to open the package he got.

"If It's a bomb, It's better to have it explode outside… I guess…" He tried to convince himself, but it didn't work. He didn't want to keep things like this hidden from the police he worked beside, but alarms were going off in his head that whoever sent this knew things about his colleagues he didn't. And possibly things about the Shanks.

He carefully ripped open one side of the package, and dumped the contents out inside the plastic bag on his lap. He curiously looked at what seemed to be just a cellphone, exactly what he assumed from picking it up. It was a similar model to the phone he currently had, possibly a newer version. Smooth and black smartphone, 3 cameras on the back. It was brand new. Holding his breath he steeled his nerves and held the side button of the phone to see if it'll turn on.

The phone's screen popped on with a purple light and white letters of the phone model dancing across the screen. Basic start up for a phone. While it turned on he looked inside the package, checking for anything hidden. There was a small paper stuck inside. He pulled it out, the corner ripping as it was stuck to some tape that held the package together.

*"It's not a bomb."* Was all the paper said. Shota had a bad feeling about this from the start, but now his stomach was in knots. He felt like someone was playing a joke on him and reading his mind. The note was printed, so there was no way to analyze the hand writing.

"I feel like I should bring this in for evidence… But I also feel like I shouldn't…" He jumped at the phone beeping, with trembling hands he picked it up. The lock screen was a picture of a teapot, it was most likely just a preset photo for the phone. His brows furrowed, hoping it wasn't some kind of coded image, but nothing really stood out about it.

Shota swiped the screen to unlock it. The background was the same as the lock screen. Pulling down the drop menu he checked the notifications. A text message from a contact named Raith which said "Hello Officer Hayate."

He read the contact name again. He recognized it, the name was often used to pin some of the unexplainable deaths or strange activities linked to the Shanks onto one of the known Hitmen that work for the mafia directly beside their leaders. Quite a few of the gang members they interrogated have mentioned Raith in some way, usually out of fear. Worst part was, every story about them described them as a different person, or they had no idea what they looked like under concealing clothing. Perhaps this was a way to make Shota afraid, or to get his attention with this name of someone he wasn't even sure actually existed. As far as he knew, Raith was a group of Hitmen.

Before even responding to the message he looked through the rest of the phone. Which was empty aside from 5 locked folders with only numbers. He wasn't sure if there was a code to unlock them, but it didn't give him an option to even try to unlock them.. And then there was the only contact name under Raith.

He looked at the time and cursed at himself, tapping his palm to his forehead with an eye roll. "I've never been late- Shit."

Shota put everything in his laptop bag and rushed inside. Looking at his phone he saw he had a text from his superior.

*"There was an anonymous tip, they said to give it to you specifically. See me when you get here.-Lemmons."*

There was something telling Shota that this anonymous person has something to do with this phone he got. Or perhaps he was being paranoid. But that was rarely the case, Shota was usually pretty damn good at listening to his intuition. But lately, he has been questioning himself.

He got himself clocked in. The interior of the station was pretty basic. It was big, clean, and honestly boring in his opinion. He had to pass through the front walk-up windows to get into the back where his department was. Long boring hallways and the smell of floor cleaner that burned his nose with the crisp morning air.

He was lost in his thoughts as he briskly walked through the building. Giving polite nods to officers he walked by. He turned the corner and bumped into someone, making them drop a handful of files.

"Shiii-oot my bad." Shota made a poor attempt at not cussing as he backed up and helped pick up the papers and folders from the floor, glancing up at the officer's face.

"It's alright Hayate, I was reading while walking, I didn't even see you." The charming rusty voice of Detective Morris Kett rumbled in the empty hallway.

They both laughed as they gathered the papers. Shota handed him the ones he picked up. "Hopefully they aren't badly mixed up."

Morris somewhat shrugged, straightening the files. "Eh, if they are, I'll come find you. I know where you work, you bastard." With a light hearted laugh and a crooked smile he gave Shota a playful hit on the arm. "Also, fair warning, just saw Lemmons and he was a bit fired up. Is he still draggin' you for that whole… thing?"

Shota let out a dragged out groan. "Yes and no. It was my fault. But he's been too busy cleaning things up and finding replacements to smack me around. Plus, we got some kind of tip. So he's probably excited to just be out of this damn place for something more exciting than mountains of paperwork."

Morris nodded with a sound understanding. "Hmm sounds like things should be rolling back in your favor again hopefully." He gave him a pat on the shoulder with a warm smile. "Hit me up sometime and we can get drinks, that Burger place that just opened up a few weeks ago looks really good, we can bullshit and have a good time."

Shota returned the shoulder pat and nodded. "I could use some time to bullshit and get drunk. Catch you later Kett."

"Later Hayate!" With that Morris rushed to his department, Homicide special section (HSS).

Shota got to the door where his department offices were located and stepped inside. Multiple desks were spread around for different ranking officers. His little office was on the other side of the room behind a door with his name on it. He immediately made eye contact with Detective Lemons who was standing right beside Shota's office door.

The man gave him a wave, signaling him to follow him. He was not a patient kind of guy. "Come Hayate. You'll want to see this before we do anything."

Shota simply nodded, quickly going into his office and putting his things at his desk and hanging his jacket on a hook beside the door. The phone in his laptop bag beeped again, making him freeze momentarily as he was stepping out. He was about to check it before Lemmons called for him again. He rushed out of his office and went to Lemmons' office next door.

Sebastian Lemmons sat at his desk, he moved his chair a bit to the right and motioned Shota to his side. "Come on, we have shit to do stop dragging your feet. Pull that chair up and look this over."

Shota grabbed the chair in front of the other side of the desk and planted it beside Lemmons. As he sat down he looked at the screen, it was a paused video showing just blackness at the moment. Shota furrowed his brows and folded his hands before him, preparing for the worst as usual. Lemmons wasn't someone to warn you if something was gruesome, something he had to learn the hard way.

Lemmons started the video without saying anything else. The beginning had a lot of distortion, as if the camera was inside of a coat while a person was moving. Then the camera cleared up and they could only see old wooden rafters. Whoever was wearing this camera, which Shota assumed was a body cam, was climbing around in the attic of some dusty poorly kept building. It was a dark shot, in the bottom corner he could see the timestamp was labeled for 3 days ago.

The person's movements were surprisingly quiet, the camera's microphone was picking up the friction of the fabric on the person's body more than anything. Shota tilted his head a bit, trying to get an understanding of where they were and what they were trying to show them. The person lifted themselves onto a large wooden support beam above them, and from what he could tell they laid down onto it and let the camera look down from the high vantage point as the camera looked between the gap of wooden beams.

The camera slowly tuned in and out of focus as it was zooming in. There were parts of a drug lab that someone was setting up. They could hear a bluetooth radio playing music while they cleaned and set up along with the very soft and steady breathing of the camera person. There were about 4 people who came into view. The video stayed just watching them move things around for about 3 minutes until what sounded like a car driving up on a dirt road followed by a loud wooden door was forced open, much like a barn door. With the door now open the room lit up more, it looked like car headlights shined in.

The camera person slightly shifted, getting whoever walked in from outside on the camera, with the light coming from behind the man it was hard to see much about him aside from his silhouette. After the door closed and the camera adjusted to see the features better, There was no doubt to Shota that the man he was looking at was Vernon Shanks himself. His eyes were completely black, he had his scleras tattooed to give him that look. As well as a gnarly scar that ran from the left side of his bottom lip down to his collarbone.

They couldn't understand what Shanks was saying as he mostly spoke Russian, but he was waving his arms around and commanding the people inside. The video then cuts out. And before Shota could say anything Lemmons hushes him by holding his finger up and pointing at the video.

The camera turns back on and shows a very quick picture of the barn from a distant view, then it shows an aerial view, a screenshot from GPS navigation with a red circle on the barn. Then the screen goes black once more and there are words that type out over it.

"Take the bait before it's gone."