Chapter Text
CHAPTER 2.2- CRYING WOLF
The answer to the question that Ichika asked was ‘eight o’ clock sharp’. After all, ten minutes was all it took to bring Ichika up to speed on one of Riley’s favourite techniques that would be performed at the edge of sundown.
Riley loved giving names to things. The Sanctuary of the Faceless, different strategies and techniques, even the Canopy Base that was being set up under the canopy of the forest near Tanaka Hospital, but nothing came close to his favourite dirty tactic in the book- Protocol Crying Wolf.
The plan was simple- Ichika was going to run distraction at the front of the station, while Riley and a small team of five entered in the back. Ichika would not be wearing her mask- she’d be dealing with the attention up front, while Riley and his boys were going in through a back office. Of course, Riley already knew the layout of the station- he’d been there so many times before.
He’d been there yesterday, actually. It had a new hole in the top part, but it was still the same.
“You know the plan?” Riley said as he stood outside the station.
“Of course.” She huffed. “I’m not stupid.”
“Boss, can I ask?” One of the Faceless asked swiftly. “Why don’t we just kill Kabutos? We can get rid of the hardest part of the tumour that way.”
“We’re not killing Kabutos!” Riley shot back. “He’s still got sins to repent for.”
The Faceless shut up, looking away.
“Alright.” Riley and the five were hidden in the blind spot of the security camera, avoiding the metal gaze. “Soon as you’ve gathered enough officers, we’ll make our way in the back. Don’t be afraid to improvise for extra attention.”
Ichika took that opportunity immediately, instead tearing her dress’ cleavage open wider. Riley instantly felt the five male participants turn away as she also unclipped her bra.
“You’re buying me a new dress after this.”
Then, Ichika took two steps back, barely avoiding the camera, messed up her hair and punched herself in the jaw, causing her lip to split, before bursting through the station’s door with a mighty yell. “HELP ME! HELP ME!”
Riley had a good vantage point to check the damage, and he saw as immediately the female officer running reception was already getting up. “Oh my God! Ma’am, are you okay?!”
“P-Please…” Ichika’s voice dropped to despair as she collapsed to her knees, hugging into the woman’s legs. “D-Don’t let him hurt me anymore… N-No more… N-No…”
Riley motioned for the others to slide the wall, still making sure that Ichika was putting on a show. Other officers had gathered, too, one wrapping a blanket around her as she wept like she’d actually suffered through what she was proclaiming happened to her. Riley could still tell that it was just an act, though.
It sickened him, slightly. But he’d seen enough at this point.
Rounding to the others, one of them had already lockpicked the window, and was gently pushing it up. Nobody was in the office the group slipped into, and after a quick re-arrangement of the furniture they created an easy escape. Riley quickly matched the corridor to the building, figuring that they were two rooms down from the armory.
“Armory’s got a code,” Riley explained to his team. “We either find it or we break in. Your choice.”
The reason why the Faceless wore their mask was to make them indiscernible from each other. Hiding their hair below hoods, wearing the exact same clothing when possible, they were practically five other Rileys- save the grey instead of the red in the mask department. The team split off, taking their own routes around, ignoring and avoiding anywhere that had an officer inside.
Riley, on the other hand, had his own idea. Quickly scaling the staircase like a panther, he rushed to the top floor, moving silently through the hall to the end, where the office of Kabutos and Morrison were.
In this station, officers got their offices depending on their rank in the force. As Morrison and Kabutos were the only police Sergeants, they got a room dedicated to them.
More than likely, that’s where that code for the armory was going to be.
Riley opened the door and moved in through the crack. He knew it wouldn’t be locked- after all, Morrison was in there, just typing away at the computer. Riley already knew Morrison knew he was there, so he just cleared his throat and chuckled.
Morrison sighed. “You’re ballsy, you know that?”
“Better than being a no-nonsense Enforcer,” Riley snided. “What are you doing here? I thought YOU of all people would be taking a day off on a tuesday.”
“I’m not stupid,” Morrison repeated to Riley. “I know a clear attempt at diversion when I see one.”
Of course, Riley tested that theory. “Then you know why I’m here.”
Morrison sighed, turning to him for the first time, seeing he was going through the drawers of Kabutos’ desk. “Riley, your obsession with murdering Akari is going too far. I get that, morally, she’s a bad person, but she’s opening this hospital to help others.”
Riley laughed coldly. “And arming the doctors with a handgun is a good idea, is it?”
Morrison flinched. “We’re not doing that--”
“Yeah, actually, you are.” Riley straightened up, his smile glinting in the light. “You’re going to be giving every single staff member in the hospital a gun that they may use on their own merit. Have you even seen Akari’s way of thinking? She thinks 9mm is the second type of shot you should be giving someone.”
Morrison drummed the table. “You’re lying. I can hear it in your voice. You expect me to believe Akari would do such a thing?”
“But what does this MEAN, Morrison?” Riley spoke with all the edge of a double-edged sword; yelling would get him caught if he wasn’t careful, but it was oh-so-satisfying to see the fear on Morrison’s face. “You put yourself in the pecking order of a madwoman. After all, she did this to me!”
He yanked away his mask, reminding him of the trauma he’d gone through.
“Tell me, Morrison!” Riley slammed both hands on his desk, making little trinkets on it jump in surprise. “You’re the head of this department, aren’t you?! What’s the plan, huh? What’s the plan that Akari would have you believe?!”
Suddenly, this wasn’t a conversation. This wasn’t even an argument.
This was an interrogation.
“Akari has specifically said that the guns we’ve gotten aren’t for the hospital,” Morrison spoke naturally, yet fimickingly as he realised he had no idea what he was talking about. “She left a message saying the guns were to be dropped off at a specific location so the High Court’s Department of Security could take them to the Air Force.”
Riley leant in nice and close, seething Morrison with his words.
“And why does an Air Force need handguns?”
Morrison replied coolly. “For protection.”
“Against what?” Riley licked over his teeth. “The planes?”
… In that moment, Morrison seemed to be frozen in time as he tried to figure out in his head what exactly had just been asked of him. It was a simple question, and yet somehow, in his mind, he couldn’t come up with a logical answer.
Riley was right. What would an Air Force- a trained battalion of pilots manning technological marvels of aircraft- need with handguns that were not only a complete waste of money for the Air Force to have, but be only necessary in close range when anything in the air would be dead before it even hit the ground?
Morrison stopped and started, his mind failing him.
Sure enough… Riley had found the loophole he’d never thought to question.
“And you call yourself an investigator,” Riley insulted. “Don’t you see? Akari has been playing you for a fool. Your loyalty to her has proven nothing because she’s been dishonest with you from the start.”
Morrison put his head in his hands, putting his elbows on the desk. “N-No… I…”
“You what?” Riley crossed his arms. “You thought a woman who wore a mask would never tell lies?”
Riley leant in again, this time to just whisper in his ear.
“It’s harder to tell when someone is lying when you can’t see their full face, huh?”
Morrison stood, violently pushing his chair backwards. Riley took a step back, his grin still wide. “I-I… I have to make a call.”
“No, you don’t.” Riley took his phone off the receiver before he could grab it, and then snagged his mask too. “What you need to make is a choice. If you let Akari have that delivery of weapons, you’ll be putting not only lives but the entirety of Yokohama in danger.”
Morrison looked at him. It wasn’t hard to be taller than Riley, but Morrison made it look easy, being 6’ 2’’. He puffed out his hair as he scratched at it, unable to figure out why Riley would even be telling him this.
Riley just smiled back. “You can feel it, can’t you? The feeling of having your life curb stomped under the bars of a prison cell.”
“If I do as I’m told, I’ll be held responsible for the deaths of thousands.” Morrison looked at him, adjusting his glasses sweatily. “If I don’t, I’ll be fired and dragged through the Earth.”
“As a solemn reminder,” Riley quipped, “The Faceless don’t use guns. Never have, never will. Too Loud. Too Violent.”
Morrison nodded, gulping. “You’ll take them just to destroy them.”
“Melt them, actually! We’ll make shields.” Riley made the motion of a shield bash. “We’re creative like that. Guns are made to be bullet resistant.”
Against all of this, Morrison still had questions. “And when you take the guns… I’ll be blamed for it. I’ll probably be killed by Akari just for talking to you now.”
“... So fight it.” Riley extended his hand suddenly. “Fight the tyranny and the weights that shackle you. We’re not evil, Morrison; we’re tired. Tired of the lies that plague everything. That plague you.”
Morrison looked at his hand. “I-I c-can’t… I…”
“Morrison.” Riley suddenly lost his traction as he gave him an almost pleading look. “Don’t let bloodshed be what defines your life.”
Morrison’s hand shook as he lifted it. He paused, almost expecting Riley to shake for him, but after a bit more consideration he was the one who put their hands together in a strangely cold handshake.
Morrison bit his lip. “T-The code is 9224329. It’s on this paper.” He handed it to Riley, giving him a hopeful look.
Riley took it. “Wonderful. Trust me, this is going to make a world of difference.”
“Riley… after all of this is done, what are you going to do?” Morrison adjusted his glasses again. “Are you going to stop? Or is this just what your life has become?”
Riley shrugged. That’s not something he wanted to answer, especially because of his next move. “Real odd question; do the security cameras record audio?”
“What? No... Why do you--”
He pointed to the security camera in the room, instantly reminding Morrison of the biggest mistake he’d ever make.
Riley had tricked Morrison into looking like a Faceless sympathiser.
Morrison just looked gobsmacked as Riley walked backwards for the door. “Y-You… You tricked me.”
Riley laughed, already one foot out the door. “But what does that mean, for you?”
Morrison couldn’t reply. Good thing, too, because Riley was already running the corridor and down the stairs, into the armory where he found one of the team working on the code. He slid into their place, typing the code with excitement.
“Where have you been, Riley?”
“Ruining a career,” Riley responded swiftly. “Where’s everyone else?”
“They’re outside. An officer got too curious--”
“Good job!” Riley patted his shoulder as the shutter opened, revealing literal crates of handguns behind it. “Just like we planned.”
The other Faceless looked at the crates with terror. “S-Sir… we can’t move all of these with just six people! The window in this room isn’t big enough!”
Riley, ever the quick thinker, noticed something that made his heart drop. He grabbed a belt of grenades off the wall, his smirk looking more like a backwards snarl. “How far did you want to go with this…?”
“S-Sir?”
“Get the team out. Regroup with Ichika.” Riley pulled all the grenades off the belt. “Guns are bulletproof, but not blast resistant. This’ll ruin them all.”
Six grenades, six crates. Riley pulled the ring off one of the grenades, burying it deep into the box before yanking the lid over it just in time. The crate held quite well, actually; the explosion was clearly enough to raise alarms, so Riley had to work far quicker. Unfortunately- or rather, fortunately- the Faceless had disobeyed the order, pushing the heaviest object in front of the door and tying a chair to the door handle.
The second crate scattered wood chippings everywhere, but the melted plastic of the guns was all Riley needed to see to know his plan was working. An officer finally made it to the door, trying almost desperately to open the door, while the Faceless grabbed a grenade from Riley and did the same thing he did.
Crates three and four destroyed. Riley bumped arms with his cohort as they got ready for five and six, but Riley heard the glass on the door’s window smash as yelling began echoing in the hall behind them. After stuffing his grenade into the box, the Faceless rushed the hand trying to pull the chair free, drop-kicking it with a sickening SNAP that alerted Riley that the hand had been broken.
Riley got his crate blown up a moment after. He laughed as the shutter tried to close in emergency lockdown, simply ducking under it and into the armory once again. The Faceless was holding the door closed at this point, as swarms of hands came through to try and pull the door open. He was grabbed by many of them, who held him in place, forcing Riley to intervene with a combat knife he found.
The screams of anger turned into screams of pain as Riley dragged his team member away from the door, seeing the smashed window was barely holding now, and soon would give the officers a good entrance. Riley threw the Faceless towards the window, of which he slipped out with major effort.
Riley only took one look back when he heard the window cave in, finally. He wasn’t looking at the officers- he was looking at Morrison, who just stared from behind the crowd with a mixture of fear and resentment. Riley did a two finger wave, clambering up into the window, kicking off an officer’s face as he did, sliding out and into the parking lot.
The team he’d brought had already begun helping each other over the fence of the Police Station, the entrance too close to the mouth of the beast to even hope of doing it the easy way. The man who’d assisted him was already crouching, hands cupped, which Riley used as a springboard to get up to the top of the fence before sliding over and holding a hand out for him.
The Faceless jumped to try and grab the hand, which he did with bare victory. Using a sort of dolley system, Riley pulled himself over the fence still holding the hand of that man, leveraging him upwards and over.
When they were all outside of the fence, and the officers had finally burst out the front door, Riley and his group were already booking it down the street. Ichika wouldn’t need to run; she hadn’t been caught out as a Faceless, something that Riley had specifically avoided doing. It was up to the collective intelligence of the station to figure that out for themselves.
Running side by side with the rest of the team, Riley yelled commands. “Split up, hide for a day! Don’t let them catch you!”
“YES, SIR!”
The team took completely different paths to each other, all dividing down different alleyways as they were commanded, apart from one. They ducked behind a dumpster, waiting there for the sound of footsteps running.
Riley looked at the man who’d helped him through it. “You need to go.”
“Sir, are you sure you’ll be okay?” He asked.
“I’ll be fine,” Riley responded. “Since when did you worry so much about me, anyhow?”
“It’s not worry,” he replied. “It’s something much greater.”
“Come on, now.” Riley smirked back. “You’ve surely not been here long enough to know that.”
Almost like clockwork, The Faceless removed his mask and revealed his face. Riley’s smile fell low as he saw who exactly he’d been running with.
And like he’d realised it too late, he was dodging a fist from Yonaka who tried smashing him in the face with his fist. Riley slid back a little, seeing Yonaka’s crazed eyes as he threw his hair outwards.
“You tried to kill me? Seriously?” Yonaka ripped down his sleeve, revealing the symbol of a traitor- a red armband, signifying he was part of the very force opposing him. “You told them to break my f*cking LEGS! All because I’m teaching the pissant Tomi a bit of f*cking morality!”
Riley felt his eye twitch. “Who the hell let you onto the team?”
“The man I snapped the neck of in the station, that’s who.” Yonaka stamped his mask below his foot. “I made a promise to you that I’d keep everything secret! I made a promise that I’d stay silent! Well SURPRISE! THAT PROMISE STOPPED WHEN YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!”
“To be fair, I didn’t tell them to kill you.”
“Well guess what, asshole?!” He pulled out a gun. “Now I’m killing YOU!”
Riley put his hands up in defence when the barrel pointed his direction. “H-Hey--”
“Say your final words!” Yonaka’s hand was firm. Unwavering. He was serious about what he was about to do. “Say them so that everyone can hear you!”
Riley felt his smile begin to rise slightly. “... Sure.”
He cleared his throat. As he did, the dumpster’s lid opened, the sound of the plastic topping alerting Yonaka that he’d made a huge mistake.
“NOW!”
Out of the Dumpster sprung two more Faceless, the sound of them flying out confusing Yonaka as he was slammed into the ground by them. They held him there, struggling and snarling, as Riley walked over, kicking the gun that had fallen to the wayside further down the alleyway.
Riley crouched down to meet him halfway. “I honestly question if you think I’m that stupid.”
Yonaka roared back. “What the f*ck?!”
“Do you really think I don’t make back up plans?” Riley continued. “I knew that something was going to go wrong. Granted, I didn’t know it’d be YOU, but I knew that it’d be something like you. That’s why I planned my route out in advance- put two teams of Faceless on it to take care of anything I found suspicious.”
The Faceless in question nodded to each other as Yonaka looked at Riley standing. To his surprise, Riley walked over to the gun, picking up the device from the floor and walking back over to where he was forced onto the ground.
“It’s a little unorthodox, but it’s a righteous cause.” He looked to the pair holding him in place. “Either of you two want to do the honours?”
Yonaka caught on instantly. “W-Wait! Wait! I--”
“Nope.” Riley spun the gun to point down at him. “You said it yourself- you’re not staying silent anymore. And that makes you a detriment to our plan.”
“I-I’ve not said anything!” He argued.
“Then this is a precaution.”
“Riley, don’t you even f*cking think about it,” Yonaka squirmed, barely even moving against the strength of his captors. “What will the news say, huh? When they find the body of one of your precious Faceless dead, what are they going to report?!”
Riley looked at the shards of the broken mask on the floor, instantly guessing the headline. “Local Bully Shot Dead by Possible Assassin.”
“Y-You won’t kill me!” The shakiness of Yonaka’s voice was audible. “You won’t! You don’t kill people! You don’t want me on your guilty conscience, do you?!”
Riley thought about it for all of two seconds. “You’re correct. I don’t kill people.”
Yonaka sighed with relief, but only for a second, when the gun was pointed back at his head one more time.
“It’s only murder when it’s human.” Riley’s grin went chaotic. “And quite frankly? I’m putting down a sick dog.”
Yonaka surged with a last ditch effort. “NO--”
“This is humane.”
The gunshot rang out with all but the sound of running footsteps.
…
Riley arrived back at his apartment some time later. The moon was high in the sky- it was midnight, and he was exhausted from running. The police knew of this apartment, that much was true. Riley wasn’t going to be able to stay in it for long.
Not that he wanted to. All he was planning to do was sleep and get out.
He lay in his bed, wondering about what was going to happen tomorrow. He needed to collect a delivery from a man he was on bad terms with, followed by meeting with a man he knew next to nothing about. Then, following that, he’d meet with Toshio, hang out, and then… What?
Onto the next day?
The raid was on Saturday. It was going to be a hard swerve that was going to finally define what he has been planning for this entire time.
Of course… he had to get tomorrow first.
