Chapter 9

The truck gently drifted through the downtown area. If it wasn't for the fact that three people were sitting in the front of the truck, it would have been a perfectly normal delivery run.

That, and the fact that there were both police sirens and some other cars chasing after it.

By all means of logic, the bulky truck should have been caught up to a long time ago. However, somehow, the truck was piloted with more skill than the smaller, more mobile vehicles. Each turn was made with the barest inches of room between street lamps and the cumbersome cargo container, the metal reflecting the slowly growing light of the lamps and the flashing red and blue of the police chasing it.

All the while, the driver looked like the epitome of calm, even listening to Mistralian songs on the radio and driving with a smile on his face.

Surprisingly, the other two passengers in the cramped compartment looked bored. Even if they had been scared whenever Kojiro had tried to make some tight turns, now, they were at least not questioning Kojiro's unexplained delivery truck driver skill.

The small map that was displayed on some sort of HUD on top of the radio showed that they were nearing another big block on the various sections on Vale's map.

"We're almost at the Industrial sector." Mizu said, raising an eyebrow. "Man, boss, I don't know where you learned to drive, but you sure are good at it."

Neo preened at the praise that the other gangster gave to her brother/companion/strange older mentor figure, before looking forward and seeing two cars breaking the traffic regulations by speeding right by red lights.

"Oh shit they're trying to surround us! It's those Monarch fuckers!" Mizu shouted.

Kojiro slowly spun his steering wheel, maneuvering the unwieldy vehicle to the only unblocked rode. On the vehicles that just sped past red lights, people with guns turned and fired at the trio's vehicle. Bullets pinged off of the metal side of the cargo container, and one punctured a wheel. Kojiro felt the vehicle shake, but regain balance almost immediately after swaying from side to side.

For a moment, the passengers all leaned back to look at the condition of the truck. Thankfully, other than a slightly wobbling cargo container, nothing was amiss.

"Wait, why don't we just detach the big box trailing behind us?" Mizu said. "It's really heavy, and it must make driving really hard."

Neo stared at Mizu in disbelief.

"What?"

Neo pointed at the container.

"I don't know what to call that thingy!" Mizu wailed. "I'm a gangster! I don't need to language like you people."

Two blank stares met his statement. Mizu looked at Neo's unamused expression.

"Alright, I get your point. Uhh… eyes on the road!"

The three drove in silence for a while, Neo still giving Mizu the death glare.

More sirens were then heard, jolting Mizu and Neo out of their hostility. Police cars stopped on either side of the alleyway, preparing guns and hastily trying to set up a series of metal spikes before the truck arrived in that streetway.

"Is this a good time to tell you all that I don't know how to detatch the cargo from the truck body?" Kojiro said quietly.

"Well, shit." Mizu said, looking at the spikes ahead. "Guess this is it for us."

Kojiro looked from side to side, before grinning uncharacteristically. "Not yet it isn't!"

Neo looked at Kojiro with a complex expression, one saying Who is this imposter and what did they do with the real Kojiro?

A line of spikeswere hastily set at a crossroads that was on the peak of a small hill about half a block ahead of them. With cars still pursuing them with guns, stopping was not an option. Thus, the only option was to go above them.

Kojiro swerved for the sidewalk. The sparce pedestrians screamed and ran for covers in shops. An old man that owned a dollar store was shocked to see so many people in his store at once, while barbers suddenly found a whole bunch of new "customers" at their front doors.

The truck began to skid on the sidewalk. The heavy cargo made the wheels bounce on the curb and the aphsalt of the road. At last, after the truck crested a hill, it was launched into the air. The mass of the trailer didn't allow the truck to go that far, but the resulting bounces was enough to save most of their wheels from the poppage. The vehicle shuddered from side to side after landing, the balancing now off because of the many dysfunctional tires.

"Oh fuck. We're dead." Mizu said as the truck leaned dangerously to the left.

Kojiro gripped the steering wheel dangerously tight, delicately managing the slowly careening truck.

Neo was already looking to jump out of the window.

…

The cars behind them weren't so lucky. The police cars had stopped and prepared to battle the cornered "Dangerous criminals". However, the gang members driving their armored cars had their tires popped. Many cars careened out of control, rolling down the hills sideways or skidding forward as the spike traps got caught in their wheels.

Two cars were left following them.

From the wreckage of one of the cars that had gone downhill, a man cradling a oddly bent arm fumbled around for his radio.

…

"What do you mean you need more cars? We only have four more in the area!" Rufous said, looking at the red flags with little c's on them spread across the map."

"B-boss! The driver can drift with a truck!"

"Who the fuck is in the truck? A race car driver?"

"It's a midget, a random gangster, and the target."

Rufous sighed, before giving instructions to one of the message deliverers in the room and returning to pacing around the windows.

He had never thought capturing one person would be so hard after exterminating so many other gangs.

…

The truck had only crashed once, thankfully. The only evidence of the damage was a rather large dent at the back. Kojiro had finally regained control of the vehicle, and the only sounds that remained in the cramped space was the occasional rustling of clothing and the ever present blare of Mistralian music.

"Dame da ne~ Dame yo~"

Kojiro sang the elegant lyrics in his slightly raspy voice, making Mizu look at him like he was insane. Neo had never known that Kojiro was suddenly so interested in music, and was listening to the tunes herself now that most of the cars that were chasing them were gone.

Mizu interrupted a chorsus with the rumbling of his stomach. Without any sign of embarrassment, he began to try to open the glove compartment. Neo's legs also happened to be there, and a parasol tip was pointed at his throat in response.

"I'm hungry!" Mizu whined, not at all sounding like a hardened gangster and instead more like a child.

Neo glared at him. Kojiro was still singing along.

"What, I haven't eaten since two today."

Neo pointed at the digital clock situated above the radio. It was seven.

"You can't expect a guy to skip a meal and not complain about it, right?"

He was then collectively ignored for the next thirty minutes. Kojiro drove the truck casually, without the typical haste of a getaway driver. This nonchalance, while frustrating for Mizu, allowed them to avoid a lot of unwanted attention. The cars chasing them got stuck in traffic, and probably garnered a lot of odd looks with the metal plates that were welded or soldered to their sides.

Just as Kojiro was about to turn onto the last street before he could get onto the highway to the docks, two cars suddenly appeared in the intersection before them, the creased steel plates on the sides of their cars making it rather obvious that they were more of the cars sent ot stop them.

"How many cars do they have?" Mizu muttered, slowly beginning to panic.

Kojiro aborted the turn and drove the truck onto another lane, going forward instead of right.

Two other cars blocked that path as well. The existing traffic slowed to a halt, the cars behind honking their horns, confused as to what was going on.

They had to get out of that intersection. Now.

The lane turning away from the highway was empty, and Kojiro stepped on the gas pedal, swerving the truck in that direction.

The cars blockading the roads moved on, and many angry drivers shook their fists or sent angry looks at the people driving the armored cars.

"That was close." Mizu sighed, slumping backwards into his seat. Neo, still not acknowledging Mizu's presence, began to fiddle with the glove compartment herself.

Kojiro's slow jazz music was suddenly interrupted by a public announcement.

"Drivers. Please be cautious. There have been several traffic disturbances today linked to armored cars and a singular cargo truck. If you see any of these types of vehicles, get off the road for your own safety. Thank you. The police are being sent in Bullheads to apprehend these potentially dangerous people."

The music turned back on, though it was a lot less comforting now that the police getting involved with aircraft.

As they drove onto the next road and prepared to turn back to the intersection, the six armored cars chasing them finally caught up. They occupied all three lanes of traffic behind the bulky truck, and Kojiro could see the black sticks that were guns in the hands of the people in the back.

"What the fuck should we do?" Mizu said. Neo stopped ignoring the rather annoying gangster and looked at Kojiro imploringly.

"Get onto the roof of the truck and throw whatever's in the truck at them." Kojiro said.

He just had to get onto the highway.

"I-isn't that just suicide?" Mizu said, looking in horror as Neo opened a side door and began clambering onto the top of the truck.

"You all have aura, and you'll be fine." Kojiro said. "Just don't fall off."

That ominous statement made Mizu gulp, but he threw the gun he had stolen a couple of hours ago in the alleyway to the roof and began clumsily climbing up onto the truck's roof as well.

…

Neo looked at their pursuers. The pursuers looked at the living small scoop of neopolitan ice cream.

Her mismatched eyes stared into their confused ones, before she channeled aura into her parasol and stabbed the tip into the metal. The parasol broke, making Neo's smile a little less cheerful, but the contents of the truck made her begin to laugh in earnest.

The truck contained … crates upon crates of traffic safety keychains.

Mizu had finally climbed onto the truck. He was just about to stand up when a sudden jolt made him stumble. His foot hit the weapon he had just put on the roof moments before.

The gun fell off the truck and onto the street.

Neo facepalmed, before giving him a handful of the keychains.

Mizu stared at the keychains. This time, however, the keychains (bits of metal with a colorful piece of fabric inscribed with the words "traffic safety" in some sort of eastern character) did not stare back.

"We're throwing these things?" Mizu said incredulously.

Neo reached for a handful, leaned back, and threw the plastic wrapped keychains into the air. The approaching cars found their windshield peppered with the decoration.

She shrugged, before motioning to the hole and looking at Mizu expectantly.

Just as Mizu turned to question her, a bullet whizzed past his head.

The gangsters had returned fire.

Mizu frantically ripped at the metal with aura enhanced strength, the flimsy, thin metal slowly stretching before opening up a hole big enough for two people to hide in. Neo threw a couple more boxes of the keychains out randomly, before they both clambered into the hole.

…

"They're throwing things at us!"

"Keep your head down." Another driver advised, already ducking behind the windshield.

"Why did we have to get convertibles?"

The short girl on top of the truck finally dug out something from the truck and scattered it to the wind.

"Brace!" Somebody yelled.

What they heard wasn't the loud, rasping sound of rocks on metal. It wasn't the clunk of wood hitting metal or shattering glass either.

Instead, the annoying crinkling of plastic wrappers met their ears. The objects hit their windshields, stayed there for a couple of seconds, and got blown away by the wind that was caused by them driving.

"That was pathetic!" One driver laughed, stepping on the gas pedal. His partner bodly stood up and began to aim his rifle at the girl and a gangster that had just climbed onto the truck.

"Think about what you're doing, Cypress! You're shooting a little girl!"

"She's one of them. She's with those filthy gangs. Those people didn't show my family any mercy when they came and-"

"Oh, come on Cypress! Stop being such a fucking edgelord! Those gangsters just slapped your dad because he made their cars explode instead of fixing their engine problems!"

It was too late. The shot was fired. The six civilian-turned-revolutionaries looked as the gangster tilted his head and accidentally dodged the bullet.

"Damn it, I-"

Cypress was interrupted again with a cardboard box to the face. His head hit the back rim of the car, and he slumped down into the seat he was kneeling on.

"Oh shit, they're throwing boxes! Swerve! Swerve!"

After the barrage had ended, the two people that were on the roof of the truck were gone.

…

The gunfire had stopped after a single shot.

"…Did we do it? Were the boxes we threw enough?" Mizu said hopefully, slowly peeking over the jagged edge of the hole.

One car had already crashed into a lamp post, For two other cars, the bad quality "armor" was hanging on by literal threads, apparently tied onto the cars with rope.

"I think what we were doing actually works!" Mizu shouted, before grabbing another box and throwing it randomly into the street.

Gunshots met the box, destroying the cardboard and spilling the keychains all over the street. The cars then ran over the destroyed box and the collection of charms, causing some of them to skid and turn unexpectedly.

"Keep throwing! They can't shoot all of these!" Mizu said to Neo, handing her a box.

"We should be in the clear now, boss!"

"We… really aren't." Kojiro said, looking forwards at the police blockade.

"This is the police!" a voice in a megaphone said. "Stop the truck and get out of the vehicle with your hands in the air!"

"Why the hell are they trying to stop us! We're the victims here!" Mizu wailed, frantically throwing box after box at their pursuers.

"Don't worry about this, bro. I can get us out of this." Kojiro said in a low voice.

"Yeah, bro!" Mizu said, latching ont Kojiro's term of familiarity like a leech onto blood vessels.

Neo just shook her head slowly. She knew Kojiro wasn't talking to Mizu.

But if he wasn't, then who was he talking to?

…

Kojiro was, in fact, not talking to Mizu.

"Hey bro, I'm sorry about this." Kojiro said as he suddenly wrenched the steering wheel left. The truck seemingly creaked in complaint, before the head of the truck turned and the vehicle lay parallel to the police blockade, suddenly blocking the road entirely.

The truck, however, with many of its wheels already popped, did not have enough friction to stop itself even after it started drifting. Neo and Mizu were thrown into a tower of boxes. The police began running away from their own barricade of police cars.

The truck began to tilt and fall, only being stopped by the police cars. The cargo truck balanced on one side precariously, almost threatening to fall onto the police cars, before slowly falling back onto the road. Kojiro smiled.

"Yeah! I knew you could do it! Now, let's get out of here."

"He's talking to the truck, isn't he?" Mizu said, a hint of jealousy in his voice.

The truck seemingly sighed in relief in the sounds of a cacophony of straining metal.

For some reason, Kojiro still hadn't turned off the music.

…

"Damn it!" How did they get past the barricade!" one of the pursuers had.

"Are we stuck?"

"Wait, if a truck can get past that little gap there, we can too!" The driver pointed at the gap between the currently unarmed barricade and the lamp post.

The chase was on… again.

…

"Target has escaped the barricade!" A police officer said, hiding in an alleyway. "S-send in the bullheads! They're heading for the highway!"

The officer sighed. He had definitely lost his job.

…

They were finally on the highway. The roads were peaceful for once. The two sitting in a pile of keychains had almost fallen asleep with how tired they were, Mizu occasionally complaining about hunger and getting his face pelted with keychains.

Then, a bullhead appeared over the horizon.

"Stop right there, damaged white delivery truck and those chasing it." A monotone voice said over a speaker. "You all have-"

A gunshot interrupted that statement. Kojiro looked in the undamaged rear view mirror and saw five of the cars that were chasing them driving down the road, breaking many traffic laws in the process.

"Listen here, you gangster fucker." A particularly loud voice shouted. "I don't know how you've got this far, but this is it. No more fancy tricks. No more multi-track drifting or something. If the person called Kojiro Sasaki steps out of the car and comes to the boss with us, the other two can live."

There was a general silence, except for the sound of oddly muffled music playing somewhere on the stalled highway.

"Wait, they were after Kojiro this whole time? I just thought they wanted to kill us all." Mizu said. Neo shrugged, before grabbing Mizu's hand and flaring her aura.

Glass like textures shot up Mizu's arms, spreading slowly and making the two invisible.

The words "Let's grab Kojiro and get out of here" appeared in thin air. Mizu's still-visible head nodded. After they were fully cloaked, the two stepped on some of the boxes (Neo swiping a couple of keychains on the way) and walked towards the drivers seat.

In front of Kojiro, who had his foot on the gas petal, the words "Open the window and stay completely still" appeared in faint, cartoonish lettering. He smiled, grabbed his katana, and did as he was told.

As he climbed out of the window, cloaked by Neo's semblance, a glass replica of him appeared in the driver's seat, the same calm expression over his face.

"Goodbye, my brother." Kojiro said, patting the truck gently on the rearview mirror. Mizu and Neo gave equally concerned looks that went unnoticed, since, well, they were invisible.

The song on the radio ended, and another more mournful tone began to play.

After Kojiro paid his respects to the truck, the three walked through the stalled traffic, found a van, broke the lock on it with a quick application of Kojiro's katana, and got into the back of the van.

Then, they waited silently.

…

The police sniper trained his gun on Kojiro's still face. Through the slightly dirty windshield, the sniper's scope locked onto Kojiro's unmoving face.

After a couple of minutes, the Sniper spoke into his earpiece.

"Command, the target isn't moving."

The speaker crackled.

"What do you mean he isn't moving?"

"He's completely still. He hasn't blinked for three minutes."

"I have the target in my scopes. Permission to fire?"

There was a brief pause on the other side, before the police captain spoke.

"It could be a trap. If the target moves, shoot to kill. We can't let this dangerous criminal continue to wreck havok."

Swallowing his doubt, the sniper steeled their nerves and prepared to squeeze the trigger.

Still, a question lingered in the back of his throat. What was being done about the ones chasing the truck?

...

"Man, fuck this traffic!" The policemen deployed to stop the pursuers said, peeking out of their car windows.

"I'm just going to run over there."

"Get back here! You won't be able to subdue them without support!"

A pizza delivery driver sighed behind the wheel, slowly munching on a slice. The police were just so coordinated. This explained how they couldn't even stop one truck.

...

The standoff continued for another five minutes.

After waiting impatiently, the car chasers began approaching the van. With weapons in hand and trained at Kojiro's immobile face in the window, they slowly approached the truck.

In one of the cars, Cypress slowly stirred. After sitting up and rubbing his eyes for a bit, his blurry vision slowly focused on the side of Kojiro's head.

"What are you guys waiting for? Shoot!" he shouted, fumbling around for his gun.

As the other Monarch members began to run back to the car to stop him, Cypress had already loaded his gun and aimed.

"Wait! The boss said to bring him back alive!"

The gun was fired. Cypress grinned, the satisfying recoil of the rifle impacting his shoulder. Looking up from the smoking barrel of his gun, he saw that Kojiro had completely disappeared from his view.

"God damn it, Cypress!"

"Cypress, you fucking idiot!"

"What do you mean? It wasn't my fault!" Cypress shouted in anger, running up to the car. "We signed up to get rid of this gangster scum, and now-"

He opened the car door.

"Justice has been… served? What the fuck?"

Instead of a corpse strewn over the seats, all that they could see was fragments of glass.