75 Cleanup and Teamup

Jason

May 4, 7:10 pm, Tokyo, Japan

An hour and a half. That was how long it took to finally calm everything back down.

Jason sat at his desk, trying to type up an incident report. His office wasn't too large, but it was very comfortable. He decorated the walls with gold-framed portraits of historical figures he admired, his desk was solid oak, and he had a really nice blue sofa alongside a wall. One of the women in the building had told him that it was "tacky" and "messy," but what did they know about a man's sense of style?

Not that he could lose himself in the manliness of his room right not. Jason drummed his fingers on his desk, displeased. The day had started so well...how had things ended up like this?

He sighed as he looked over the report, and picked up a pen. He had a habit of twirling pens between his fingers when he thought.

Jason had laid out his plans so carefully. He knew that the b***** Sakura was still after the company, so she would probably try to investigate them more. He knew that she would probably go through the detective, since he was the one who had brought her to Jason's attention. It wasn't like she had any other leads; there wasn't anything else that they found on her laptop when they raided her apartment.

So when he had caught the b**** this morning, he had been feeling pretty good about himself. Then…

It all started to go wrong when Miss Kang showed up.

Surprise inspection, she had said. She said that she needed to speak with the Doc and Jason about some "security breach" that had happened. Something about a bear-man.

Jason had never heard of this bear-man before. Granted, he didn't know much about the going-ons of the lab; that was all nerd stuff. But apparently, a bear-man they had created had somehow gotten out into the wild.

When Miss Kang asked about this, Jason had told her straight up that he had never been informed about this breach. She had pressed him a little more, questioning how he could be head of security if he didn't know what was happening in his own lab.

But then she had said something that had stuck with him.

"I understand your job is a lot more difficult than the others here," she had said. "But I hired you because I believe you to be more capable than the rest."

Jason had always seen Miss Kang as kind of a cold-faced b****. He had thought she was probably some lesbian, quota hire. But it seemed like he was wrong. She was actually pretty smart, and could see his value.

Which made what happened next even worse.

That f****** journalist t***** b**** escaped. From right under his nose.

She even somehow managed to take that f***** along with her.

And they had done it by breaking back into the storage room and releasing a bunch of chimeras. Chimeras that had been kept out of sight from most of the lab, save for a core few who were needed in order to actually run the experiments.

The result, of course, had been chaos. It had taken all day for Jason to calm everyone and every thing down.

This entire ordeal made Jason shake with fury. He was still reeling from that first escape; he had no idea how the hell she had been able to do it. The more he remembered that situation, and the more he questioned his men, the less sense it made.

All he knew was that she had tricked him somehow. Twice.

Twice, he had had her in his clutches, and both times she had escaped. It was almost like she had some kind of supernatural ability to inconvenience him in the most annoying way possible.

CRACK!

He stared at his hand, wet in running down his fingers. He hadn't realized how tightly he had been holding his pen. With a sigh, he got up to get a tissue from the box near the sofa.

At that moment, someone knocked on his door.

Jason frowned. Usually, his secretary would turn people away. If someone was at the door, that would usually mean…

"Come in!" he said, wary.

The door opened, and Jason felt his stomach drop.

"M-Miss Kang!" he said, quickly hiding his ink-stained hand. "Please, take a seat."

"Forgive the intrusion," she apologized, bowing slightly. Jason liked that he treated her as an equal, despite the fact that she was technically higher up on the company ladder.

She took a seat, and asked him to forgive his secretary for not announcing her.

"I just wanted a casual chat, nothing formal," she said.

Jason laughed off her request, assuring her that he would not punish his secretary for following her orders. Discreetly, he wiped his hand clean.

Miss Kang sat on the sofa, while Jason spoke from the comfort of his office chair, behind his desk. They chatted a little about minor things, before Miss Kang brought up what it was she wanted to speak about.

"I remember you telling me that you had not been notified about the release of the bear-man chimera," she said. Instantly, Jason was on guard. Though she may have said it casually, he could hear the underlying seriousness of the sentence.

"I hadn't heard about it," said Jason. "But I realize that I should have paid more attention to the going ons of the lab. I've been lax in my job, and I thank you for pointing this out to me."

Jason gave a small bow, which Miss Kang seemed surprised by.

"No need for formalities between us," she said graciously. "The reason why I bring it up now, is because I thought I would give you an opportunity."

"An opportunity?"

"To prove yourself," said Miss Kang. "Today has been quite the day for you, hasn't it?"

Jason nodded, wondering what Miss Kang was talking about. From the sounds of it, she didn't seem disappointed by his performance today at all, despite everything that had happened. Not only that, she was also giving him an opportunity?

Why was she being so nice to him? What did this all mean?

"Have you had time to take a look at the monsters that escaped?" she suddenly asked.

"We're still tracking one down, the last time I checked," Jason answered immediately.

Miss Kang smiled, and told him the news. It was all Jason could do from letting his mouth open in shock.

His heart pounded furiously against his ribcage. This...this couldn't be true. If this was happening, then it would be catastrophe. He would be fired.

But...it didn't look like Miss Kang was going to fire him. Instead, she simply smiled.

That smile sent a cold chill down Jason's spine.

"It's a good opportunity, isn't it?" she said lightly. "It's only been about an hour or so."

Jason understood. This wasn't just an opportunity; it was a chance. A chance for him not to be fired.

"Of course, if you manage to take care of this, you will be suitably rewarded," said Miss Kang. "Solving a problem of this scale shows you're more than qualified for higher responsibilities."

At those words, Jason calmed himself. For a moment, he had thought that Miss Kang had been threatening him. But again, she proved him wrong.

She was on his side.

Basically, if was able to deal with this, he wouldn't just keep his job. It was also possible he would be promoted.

"But this problem needs to be dealt with," said Miss Kang, standing up. "Which is why I am hoping I can leave it to you, Mr. Tachikawa."

"Don't worry, Miss Kang," said Jason, taking out his phone. He grinned as he looked up at Miss Kang.

"I already have a plan."

***

Sakura

May 4, 7:31 pm, Tokyo, Japan

Sakura was tired. So, so tired.

As soon as she and Michi got back to the Internet Cafe, she sunk into her seat and dived into a clickhole of cat videos. She would've drunk herself into a stupor if she had the money, or if the Cafe allowed it.

How much money had they lost on this expedition? On equipment, phones, etc? She even lost her handbag. And for what? A name? Sure, it belonged to someone higher up the ladder than Jason, but there was no way she could track someone down with a name more common than 'Takahashi.'

Even narrowing it down to Neurix employees would cut down the number that much; Neurix pharmaceuticals may only have a single lab in Tokyo, but they were a worldwide pharmaceutical brand. How many people named Kang would they have? How many women?

Suddenly, Michi began calling Sakura over Discord.

For a brief moment, she considered not picking up. She really didn't want to deal with...well, anything right now.

But she couldn't do that to Michi. Not after everything she dragged him through.

With a sigh, she picked up the call.

"Jason called the detective again," he said. "With a message for you."

Any other day, those words would have made Sakura jump up with anxiety. But at this point…

"What does he want?" she asked laconically.

"He says that there is monster on the loose," said Michi. "And he wants to team up to catch it."