Coordinated Operation.

"So, what are we waiting for?" He asked, gesturing impatiently in the passenger seat.

"The right time," she answered firmly, looking intently at their objective.

It had already been several hours since they had been on a stakeout in front of the Lumine bar's emergency exit, and barely half an hour since one of their targets had shown up to enter.

Sitting in an unmarked car in the dark, Ogata Kaede and Kentaro Jun, two police detectives working in homicide, were conducting a joint operation with the drug enforcement service.

They must have been about twenty police officers, from both services, watching all the entrances of the nightclub located in one of the city's very agitated districts at night. There were many passers-by on the main roads, and even in the adjacent alleys, which could make it quite difficult to observe the targets. Fortunately, this same nighttime activity also allowed them to go unnoticed, parked nearby in a plain car.

"They've been inside for a while already, though," Jun complained.

"Since we don't have eyes indoors, we have to wait for them to come out, to make sure the exchange has taken place," Kaede explained.

Jun and her were almost the same age - she was 27, two years older than him - but the young man was still temperamental and immature.

"It would have been so much easier to send an agent of our own in there," he sighed with frustration.

"And risk finding them dumped in the river or under a bridge?" Kaede retorted. "These guys aren't kidding around. This isn't a lone killer or a gang of thieves, here. We're dealing with a criminal organization's branch..."

"Yakuza, huh?" Said Jun thoughtfully.

"They're much more than that," Kaede elaborated. "The Yakuza are out of fashion, and that's just the tip of the iceberg, anyway."

"True..." Says he. "Even the Yakuza are reluctant to mess with the police these days. They prefer to wisely pay their fines."

The young woman was already no longer listening, leaving him to mumble to himself. Her focused gaze stared expectantly at the black door with no outside doorknob.

If these guys had come in this way, they would surely come out the same way, to avoid arousing suspicion.

She had said they were dealing with a 'branch' of the organization, but she suspected that the people tending this 'orchard of evil' were always quickly made aware of the appearance of rotten apples in their field. Even a 'branch' was closely watched, and no doubt tonight's operation, if successful, would quickly have repercussions on the parent company of these criminals.

At least that's what Kaede was hoping for. These guys didn't even flinch when the police searched their premises. But if they were to intercept the object of tonight's transaction, the story might be different.

The amount of money involved could cause this organization to fail, and even though they couldn't intercept the money that was constantly flowing through anonymous bank accounts, they could confiscate the drugs that were physically present on the premises. Well, the narcotics department would seize it. As for their own department, they were just there to catch the henchmen and try to make them spill the beans on their superiors, even if it was a waste of time.

"Ah, there they are," Jun said, bringing Kaede out of her thoughts.

Focusing again on the emergency exit, she saw two men coming out, empty-handed. Proof that they had left behind the two bags they had brought in earlier.

At the same time, the radio on the dashboard crackled.

"All units, intervention now!" ordered a voice.

Kaede and Jun glanced at each other.

"It's time to get these guys!" Jun said mischievously.

Immediately, the two youths in civilian clothes got out of the unmarked car, and quickly approached the two men in suits who had just come out into the alley, police badge in hand brandished in the faces of the two suspects.

"Sirs, you are under arrest," declared Kaede.

"For what reason?" Asked one of the men.

Jun gave Kaede a discreet look. These guys were probably not going to let things go smoothly.

"You are suspected of drug trafficking," Kaede announced calmly.

"Narcotics? That's ridiculous!" Exclaimed one of the two men.

Jun then took a step forward, pulling out his handcuffs.

"Ridiculous or not, you must follow us to the police station," said the young man as he approached them.

The two suspects looked at him defiantly, and Kaede was the first to react.

One of them had just pulled a knife from one of his jacket pockets, pointing the blade straight at Jun.

The young woman had just enough time to jump back, while the young policeman narrowly dodged the blade aimed at his stomach.

The suspect then tried to point the blade at the young woman, while his accomplice started to run away.

"Jun! Get him!" She ordered while not taking her eyes off the armed suspect.

"Leave it to me!" He shouted as he launched himself after the second man.

The man in front of her seemed full of confidence, convinced that he had the upper hand with a knife, and facing a woman.

So he threw himself on Kaede, trying to stab her in the chest.

The blade spun straight, in line with the man's outstretched arm, which appeared to be an excellent opportunity to the young woman.

Shifting suddenly to the left, she gave a punch of her left hand in the wrist of her aggressor to move the arm of the man away from her, then hit him with her right fist in the middle of the inner joint of his elbow before bringing down this same fist towards the face of the suspect. The latter then stumbled back, losing his balance because of the blow he'd just received in the head.

Taking advantage of the sudden loss of strength in the suspect's arm and his daze, she then tightened her left hand on his wrist before suddenly twisting it by making it turn outwards.

Her opponent then tried to free himself from this immobilizing posture, and gave a punch to Kaede's face; his ring sliding on the skin of the young woman and drawing a red scar on her left cheek. He had caught her by surprise well enough that she forgot to raise her right arm and get into a high guard position.

It would probably take some ointment, and several days before it disappeared, but for now, that was the least of her worries.

She had to finish disarming her opponent, and subdue him before he struck another blow.

In the interval when her adversary took again his posture, she swept - from the left to the right - her right fist to come to strike the right cheek of the man, before suddenly bringing back her hand towards the scalp of the suspect, forcing his head to incline downwards.

And a few seconds later, the armed individual was now lying flat on his belly, held in an armlock by his right arm bent behind his back, and the knife he'd dropped now thrown on the ground a few meters farther.

The young woman then brought back the other arm of the man and hurried to handcuff him, before raising her head, and seeing that about twenty meters away, Jun had also arrested the other suspect, the man being handcuffed and lying on the ground.

The young man had seemingly been a member of the track and field team in high school, and had always had very good marks in the running tests. The young woman knew perfectly well that he was the one who ought to chase non-motorized suspects.

As for her, she excelled in hand-to-hand combat. Of course, all policemen had to learn martial arts, but when it came to confronting an armed individual, that was where Kaede shone.

'Never underestimate a policeman just because he's not pointing a gun at you,' she thought proudly.