The fateful day had arrived. Takeru and Reginald had a good night’s rest after the grand meal from yesterday. Since they woke up quite late, they had no choice but to move after just a couple hours. Before they did anything, however, they went over their plan a few more times and checked all their equipment. Once everything felt in place, they took the east express train, arriving at their destination in just a couple of minutes.

The duo luckily did not need their pliers to cut open the sewer gate and swiftly descended the depths once more. Reginald thought it would be a good idea to stash a hidden gun nearby, in case anything happened. They proceeded with their plan and arrived at the curve, peeking around revealed a guard on standby.

“See! I knew he would be here!” – Takeru

“Ugh let’s just take him down and oh, strike hard, these guys are pretty tough” – Reginald

Takeru makes a quick whistle, alerting the guard.

“Hey, anybody there?” – East guard

Takeru whistles again, forcing the guard to approach the noise. The guard starts sweating, keeping his gun pointed in the direction he was walking towards. Since the whistle echoed throughout the tunnels it was hard for him to pinpoint an exact location, so he was basically walking blindly.

“Don’t fuck with me! Come out right now!’ – East guard

The guard keeps moving straight and when the time is right, Takeru, with a baseball bat in hand, bashes his head with fierce strength, almost knocking the man out. To finish him off, Reginald kicks him in the face a couple of times.

“Hey, grab his hands let’s move him around the corner” – Reginald

“Roger that” – Takeru

The two quickly dragged the man away and dropped him in the darkest part of the area. Reginald then turned towards Takeru.

“Okay now hop into his clothes and take his gun, don't hesitate to use it. I’ll stay here and monitor your position, if anything happens you know what to do” - Reginald, in a very serious tone

“Yeah” - Takeru

(Takeru to himself) “If anything happens, I’ll have to resort to detonating the smoke early and use the closest escape, blocking it off using the explosives”

Takeru starts walking with more composure and doing a typical guard stance. He was aware that he needed to explain his gear and his reason for leaving his post so prepared a cliche story in the back of his head.

“Hey, man you can hear me, right?” – Takeru

“Loud and clear” - Reginald

Once deeper into the lair, Takeru placed gas canisters in a concealed manner. At that point, he was quite confident in his success.

“I’ve started laying out the cans by the way” – Takeru

“Copy that” – Reginald

Once deeper into the lair, he realised not as many people were present as before including some guards. This meant if he had to go with plan B it may have had its success too. Out of the blue, he hears a couple of voices in the distance, Takeru dashes behind thrown away appliances and rests assured, while avoiding to peek to not repeat the same mistake as before.

“…Not many…” – guard

“…Busy….” – Other guard

(Takeru to himself) “Ugh... guess that’s I’m gonna get huh, what did I expect?”

Takeru jumped out of his hiding spot and kept moving, being more vigilant of the guards. At some point, he had arrived near the entrance of the second level of the sewer but a guard was stationed nearby.

(Takeru to himself) “Hmmmm I thought that was just an escape route but it seems the boss may be done there. No matter I just have to keep moving.”

He walks towards the man feeling very confident, even putting up a slight smile and lifting his shoulders slightly more upward than usual.

“Where are you going? Aren't you supposed to be guarding one of the entrances and what’s that bag you got there?” – Guard

“Yes that’s the thing, the boss told me to fetch some things and here I am” – Takeru

“…” – Guard

The guard scrutinised Takeru and then looked him directly in the eye. The boy tried his best to avoid eye contact and looked downwards.

“Y’know… first thing is, I’ve never heard our boss order anyone about anything today”

“Th- “– Takeru

“The SECOND thing is, everyone knows the boss doesn’t operate down there. Now, who the fuck is you?” – Guard

(Takeru to himself) “Shit! I thought guards were dumbasses but this guy… what should I do now”

The guard had his rifle pointed right at Takeru’s face, not the first time this happened. Takeru agitated but kept hold of his rifle and pointed it right back.

“I don’t really like it when someone points a gun at my face…” – Takeru

“That’s really none of my business. NOW, WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR!?” – guard

“Hey, Takeru is everything alright?’ – Reginald

“…” – Takeru

“TAKERU?!” – Reginald

(Reginald to himself) “What did he get himself into now”

Reginald was on the brink of activating the gas cans but is ultimately stopped by a single word from Takeru

“CEASE” - Takeru

“What is that supposed to mean?!” - Guard and Reginald

(takeru to himself) “It’s nice that only I can hear regi… but I’m still stuck here…”

(Reginald to himself) “He stopped right at the entrance of level 2, there definitely must be an enemy there”

After quickly thinking Reginald gave Takeru an idea, it was something typical but nothing else had come to his mind that instant.

“HEY! USE THE DISTRACTION METHOD” – Reginald

(Takeru to himself) “No that won’t work here. This guy’s got a brain… Wait… actually…”

“Huh?” – Takeru

Takeru looks behind the guard and acts surprised

“You told me the boss wasn’t down there. You’re such liar” – Takeru, shaking his head

“What? Impossible!” – Guard

The guard instinctively looks behind, giving Takeru an opportunity to strike. Seeing no other way to topple this great man, Takeru ultimately decides to take two shots, one on his arm to force him to release his gun and the other near his knee to make him lose his balance.

“ARGH GOD… DAMN… IT…” – Guard

The man, now on the ground, receives a couple kicks to the face, finishing him off.

“I hope that didn’t make too much noise” – Takeru