A/N: Remember guys, Takane shows up a short time after the whole Jo jumping dimensions business. So I'm just keeping the timeline. Plus, it's a shameless excuse to use her in my story, because I love her annoying ass! Also another chapter will be right on the heels of this one, maybe two/three days, because this one was really short. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "I can't believe you guys won't open the door. C'mon, I need a place to stay, you buncha' cheapskates." Hanshin Squad Elite Division's Detective Sergeant Takane Katsu, Leader of the feared Kanbaku Gang, and general kicker of asses has now, for the past five minutes been banging on the front door of the Angel's home-base. "I came here to check out the sights of Tokyo." She rammed her booted foot into the door and even though it was fortified steel, it still seemed to shake at the power of one of Osaka's finest. "We really shouldn't have built that ramp for the trailer. Should have just stuck to the ladder. At least that kept nutjobs from kicking our doors." Amy, typing on her laptop and looking very bored with their current situation jumped up, despite herself when she heard a hammering noise. "Well, she's no longer kicking the door. That's for sure." Meg laughed as she munched on cookies and watched the door being unfairly brutalized by law enforcement. "Why aren't we letting her in again?" Kyouhei asked, frightened for his life as he heard a thud and then silence. Most likely she had gone for backup or a bigger...stick. "Um, do we even have to explain?" Meg shoved a cookie in her mouth. Kyouhei realized she had a point when he heard the revving of a motorcycle engine. "Man, she's going to go Evel Knievel on us. Oh, I wanna see this." Meg, abandoning her cookie in favor of running to the cockpit to check the outside cameras was rewarded with the sight of Takane maneuvering her Harley up the small ramp. "Wow, she's good." Kyouhei impressed said over Meg's shoulder. He, despite having not agreed to the majority vote--Amy and Meg--of locking the policewoman out--for the mere fact she was the police!—was now strangely excited to see what would happen when a 500 hundred pound Harley rammed into a steel reinforced door. The possibilities were limitless. "Ten bucks says she puts a dent in the door." Meg, reaching into her bra pulled out a ten-dollar bill. "Ten bucks...cyber money says she dies in a horribly, painful, fiery death." Amy put up her hand, but there was no dollar bill, only the promise of it. Kyouhei didn't know if it was good idea that they were now betting over the damage of property and...fiery deaths, but he couldn't say he didn't see it coming. "You're on!" Meg shouted, as she slammed the money down on the table. She then turned to Kyouhei, "Hey, aren't you placing down any bets?" "I bet we're going to get in a lot of trouble from Sei when she finds out what happened." Meg flipped her hair over one shoulder annoyed, "That's not a bet!" "No, it's a promise." Kyouhei said, resigned to the fact that he would be dragged into the business of explaining what happened when the older woman came home. "Look, look. It's starting. She's actually going to do this. Oh." Amy had an idea, or a scheme. "I should upload this onto the Internet and then ask for donations for the injuries the police ladies gonna get." "That's actually a good idea. You should make it out in the name of her family. Tell them to send everything to the relatives in Tokyo. We'd make a killin'." Meg said, getting back into money mode, even after years of rehabilitation handed out by Sei and Jo to cure her of her avarice with money. "Guys, I really think we should let her in." Kyouhei said, as he defaulted back to nervous mode. The rev of the engine was heard again. Meg and Amy's eyes glued to the screen in anticipation for monetary profit or blood—Either way it was bound to be entertaining. However, the ringing of Meg's cell phone interrupted the sound of the revving machine outside. "Oh, what is it now?" Meg, flipping open her phone answered with a "What d'you want?" She certainly didn't expect the voice on the other end to answer back, "I want you to open the door for Detective Takane before she dents my door." Click. "Oh shit. We've been found out." Meg and Amy, rushing out of the room were then reminded by a now calmer Kyouhei that they should open the door for Sei and Jo, because they'd want to get in too. Kyouhei, pointing to the screen that showed an impatient Jo, a still screaming Takane--who was making Jo less impatient because of her screaming and flailing--and a somewhat irritated looking Sei had the two girls running back into the room like they're heels were on fire. Meg flipped the switch for the speaker outside. "Hi Sei. We were just messin' around with Takane. She's got such a great sense of humor." Meg said, trying to smooth this over for the best, because the last time she checked anymore cuts on her allowance wouldn't get her that purse she'd been eyeing in the window of Fashion Flawless. When she received no answer and only the annoyed staring from the three women, Meg knew when to admit defeat. She opened the door. Amy, who had long ago retreated to her room--silently like a ninja, but cuter than one, she reminded--was erasing every and all evidence from the cameras that said she had been at the scene of the crime. Meg was on her own now. Kyouhei and Meg met the three at the doorway. Jo, who was clawing away from the obnoxious woman--who was now going on about her Harley-Davidson and its power and maneuvering capabilities to care that the door was open--rushed through the portal, meeting Meg with a not-too-happy face. It was enough that she had met Takane on her way back from a mission in front of her home, but it was past enough when she had to listen to her yell and threaten and blame all this somehow on her. Meg, smiling weakly at her offered up a pathetic, "We'd have let her in eventually." One of Jo's brows lifted skeptically, "Right." "Honest." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Cold, that's what y'all are." Takane said, and her words would have sounded hurt, if she hadn't at the same time banged down her fist angrily on the table. Sei held up her hands, "Now, now. We would love to welcome you to Tokyo; it's just not a good time. We've been very busy these past days." Sei added in a move to placate the irate policegirl. Takane considered Sei's response for a minute, her purple eyes scanning the woman before she sagged forward and waved a hand at her to forget about it. "Naw, I won't take offense. I've seen the mess Tokyo's in right now. And oh wee, do you guys have it rough. All those nutbags runnin' around, waving around guns and...their robot puddles and what not." Amy, who had come out of seclusion--finished destroying the evidence--and sitting next to Sei, said under her breath, "Yeah, nutbags. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" Takane's head lifted up suddenly, like a rottweiler alerted to the presence of danger. "What was that?" Sei nudged Amy in the arm. "Oh nothing. So, you say you're on vacation." Takane's intense purple gaze shifted its focus from Amy to Sei instantly, and the brunette couldn't help but breath out a sigh of relief at that. "Yeah, and no. Daddy says I need some down time after...well yuh know, and so I thought I might check out you folks over here, and see what all the fuss is about big, ole Tokyo. I gotta tell you right now, ain't so impressed." Takane, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms nodded her head in shameless agreement with her opinions. Sei at a lost for words said, "Well..that's...good." Then Takane bolted up from her chair, as if she had been administered a tiny electrical shock. "I also came to straighten this place out. You wouldn't believe the asshole cops I ran into on my way over here. And let me tell you, I gave them a piece of my mind. They think twice about harassing innocent motorcycle riders again." Sei still at a loss for words, now even more so since she had already used up her first response nodded her head. Takane to her relief had changed her focus to someone else. That someone else now sitting and helping herself to a cup of ramen, quietly slurping and enjoying the hot noodles. Jo, feeling those purple eyes on her and rolling her own deep colored irises, could do nothing but watch the girl as she came up in front of her and started pointed at her like she had the plague clinging to her face. "And you! I can't believe you can just sit there and let all this happen, Miss Indestructible?" Jo gave herself a moment to think back on what Takane had just said. "Miss Indestructible? Now hold o-" Takane cut her off. "You make me sick Tokyo. With yuh fancy-smacy guns and yuh big, dumb ole' bucket of bolts." Tokyo? Big, ole' bucket of bolts? "You can speak badly about me, but don't bring Django into this?" Takane continued on like she hadn't even heard her. "This place is fallin' apart, and before that happens, I say we clean this city up." Takane with no consideration for the pizza boxes jumped up on the coffee table. Meg, already fuming about the way Takane was talking to Jo had to watch as the last slice of pizza was squished under Takane's big boots, as the girl stomped her feet and pumped her hands up in the air. Like she was rallying her gang together. For all her knowledge, she probably was. "I hereby declare this the start of a new Tokyo. A better Tokyo, a Tokyo run the Osakan way!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- So here she was. On a Saturday morning, walking the streets of dirty Tokyo and spending time with someone she would rather shoot at than have a conversation with. "Jo, look alive." She didn't know how to break this to Takane, but this was how she always looked. And it didn't make sense to tell her to look alive when she was. She could have said no. She really could have. She could have been eating another cup of ramen right now, or Kyouhei's delicious leftovers. She could have been with Meg. She could have been watching TV, but instead she was here. "That guy just looks suspicious. Doesn't he, Jo?" Takane was pointing to a man with body tattoos, and Jo noticed when the girl's gaze had been caught by other "suspicious activities, that said suspicious man was now helping, what looked like an elderly woman cross the road, probably his grandmother. "I got a good eye for these things. Always have." Takane put her hands over her eyes, her fingers formed into rings so she could stare through them like binoculars. "Oh, is that drugs?" The girl said, her hands still over her eyes looking like she completely forgot her pretend binoculars weren't real. "I'll be right back. You stay right here and cover me." Jo watched helplessly as Takane ran over to the group of elderly men playing cards in the doorway of a rundown apartment. She didn't know why she let herself get dragged into this. It probably had something to do with Meg, she thought with uneasiness. This entire week she had avoided Meg like she was death on a stick. It didn't seem so obvious now, not with all the missions coming their way. Jo, having to accompany Sei on many big league Mafia cases for the Bailan clan and Meg, having her own missions, but admittedly less dangerous and more to do with petty crime. So she had thrown herself into their contracts with renewed zeal and come back with more blood on her than usual. Admittedly it was the only way for her to deal with her inner turmoil. Her method consisting of shooting people and...blowing things up. It was working so far to distract her from her issues with their relationship, but she knew it would eventually catch up with her. And when it did, she would need a permanent solution. She'd thought about sitting Meg down and talking to her, because they were adults--sort of. They could deal with this reasonably. But then panic ensued when she had seen Meg enter the living room at that moment and she had fled her battlefield. She noticed she was doing that a lot recently. It was stupid and cowardly of her. She liked Meg. She loved Meg. There was no question about that. She knew that much. It was a truth that had been reached through hours of questioning. She knew what it meant when you were willing to die for someone. When you were willing to hurt them selflessly and ruin the best damn thing in your life, all for their continued protection. And she had deliberated with herself this past week to do just that. Tell Meg that she was scared their relationship was changing her, making her weaker and distracted and pathetic. But truthfully, even if it was the noble thing, the right thing to do, it wasn't something she wanted to do. It was eating her alive. She couldn't face Meg like this. Couldn't face Meg when she was so weak, because Meg was used to seeing a strong Jo, a Jo that killed all the bad-guys, a Jo who protected her, who wiped away her tears, and who wasn't the cause of them. Hence her reasons for avoiding the redhead and coming out here with Takane. She'd like to think she was stronger than this. But her mind...it was like it was against her. Every word she said in her defense, seemed to come out like a selfish wish to separate herself from reality. Taunting her, making her see things that made her shiver and want to close her eyes against it, but couldn't, because it was thankfully not physically in front of her. Still didn't make her feel better when the possibilities of Meg's death, of different scenarios ran through her mind's eye. It was disturbing. It hurt her head and made her want to scream, because it really did feel like someone was penetrating her head with an ice pick. "Well that was a waste of time." Takane said, swaggering over, handcuffs swinging without any criminal limbs attached. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A/N: This last section will be important for the opening lines of the next chapter.
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