Kidnapping

“What?” Sekai’s mother turned around, finally noticing the van which had parked in front of their home ominously, it was soon joined by several others.

Without them even noticing, Ruiko was beside them, and her face was pale with fear. “They’re here.” She stated, taking both of them by the hand, Ruiko briefly let go of Sekai’s hand, and with one wave, all of the lights shut off in the house, and the blinds suddenly closed.

“What did you…?” Sekai began in surprise, and Ruiko shushed him.

“No time to explain. Do you have somewhere we can hide?” Ruiko said,

The elder Kaeru was about to complain about the whole situation, but seeing the sheer fear on Ruiko’s face stopped her.

“...We have a closet."

⸻

The Serpentine members stepped out of the vans.

“The lights are off.” The Captain noted.

“Our surveillance in residential areas is severely curtailed, privacy laws and all that.” The operator spoke in his earpiece, “But this should be where the kid lives, Sekai Kaeru, single child with two parents.”

“Whatever, we still need to search the house. It says she is here.” The Captain stated, leaning into a chest-mounted radio, he began to issue orders.

“Teams Alpha & Beta will need to surround the house. Delta will search it. Nothing gets in or out without us knowing.”

The man loaded an assault rifle, and screwed on a silencer before saying his next words:

“Worst comes to worst, we silence any witnesses.”

⸻

In the matter of approximately two hours, Sekai had gone from a normal high school student, to being hunted by men in black.

Needless to say, the situation Sekai found himself in was…very uncomfortable, both mentally and physically.

He, his mother, and Ruiko were packed in a tight closet, practically spooning each other.

‘I can barely breathe…’ Sekai had never felt so self-conscious, but his thoughts didn’t have the opportunity to wander to dirtier things as a loud banging could be heard from the front door.

⸻

“Captain Hoshida, No answer, do we break in?” One of the armed men asked, fingering his assault rifle.

Hoshida nodded, “We want it quiet, bring up a snap gun.”

Upon his orders, one of the body armored men placed a small gun-like object to the lock, before pulling back on a trigger, after a few seconds, a distinctive click was heard and they went in.

The men moved quickly and silently, Hoshida motioned for several of them to split off and look in the other rooms as he checked the handheld monitor he’d been given, and looked up a flight of stairs.

‘Up here…?’ Hoshida thought to himself, shouldering his firearm, he steadily began to make his way up the stairs, inching ever closer towards a small door at the end of the hall.

‘There you are…’ Hoshida began approaching the door, “Ruiko! Sekai! I know you’re in there! Come out and we can resolve this peacefully!”

No movement.

‘So they intend to keep up the charade until the end…well, I’ll just have to drag them out.’ Hoshida continued approaching the door, and rattled the handle.

‘Locked. Of course.’

Sighing, Hoshida aimed his rifle and prepared to shoot out the lock, when - without warning, the door opened violently, slamming the rifle out of his grip as Sekai barreled into him, shoulder first.

“Mom, Ruiko, run!!!” Sekai shouted, immediately, Sekai heard the sound of more men rushing upstairs.

Hoshida, noticing the boy getting distracted, proceeded to throw Sekai off him with a shout, not giving him the opportunity to grab his gun.

“Apprehend them.” Hoshida motioned to his men, “And get a medic for Ruiko.”

“Sir!” The soldiers saluted, proceeding to zip tie Mrs. Kaeru and Sekai, before installing metal handcuffs and a…choker? Of some kind on Ruiko.

“God damn it…I don’t get paid enough.” Hoshida dusted himself off as the trio was taken away.

⸻

Ruiko looked down in a mix of guilt and sadness, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have come…” Ruiko tried to apologize,

“No, as foolish as my son is…he did the right thing. You needed help, these people are clearly not any sort of law enforcement.” Mrs. Kaeru intentionally raised her voice at the armed men, but if they bothered to hear her, they certainly didn’t care enough to respond.

As the trio walked out, a man motioned for them to enter a van with his gun, and that’s when Sekai had an idea.

‘If these guys aren’t law enforcement then…!’ Sekai suddenly began to shout, “HEY! WE’RE BEING KIDNAPPED! HELP!”

The men quickly moved to cover his mouth, but Sekai wouldn’t be silenced, screaming himself hoarse, and soon, even Mrs. Kaeru got in on the theatrics.

“For the love of god! Shut them up!” Hoshida yelled from the doorway, but Sekai’s plan was starting to work, curious and anxious neighbors came out, only to take one look at the situation and begin frantically calling the police.

“God damn it…” Hoshida groaned, “Get them in! Hurry!”

Despite his harsher tone, Hoshida was clearly nervous, he didn’t want to enter a firefight with the police, not to mention, he was sure pictures had already been taken. The vans was unmarked and they were wearing ski-masks, but pictures were never good.

“HEY! What are you doing?!” A young girl’s voice shouted, and Sekai looked up, and finally stopped writhing around.

Standing in the open street was Antei, phone out and flash on.

⸻

Antei didn’t believe for a second that Sekai was sick in any way, shape, or form.

First, he took a suspiciously long time behind the dumpster, only to return more active and alert, and suddenly saying he had to go.

Originally, she believed her childhood friend was planning to skip school, but ultimately decided against that theory. Sekai never skipped class, something strange was afoot.

So she immediately ran to his home, and saw the black vans and her heart froze. Black vans were never a good sign, almost like running into a black cat and going the other way.

Then she heard the shouts, both Sekai and his mom were screaming like banshees, with a small crowd of onlookers beginning to form, they weren’t actively intervening, but it was clear the men were feeling pressured as they continued shouting and drawing attention.

Antei felt ice grip her heart, and then stepped forward and shouted:

“HEY! What are you doing?!”

The entire group of armed men focused on her, and Antei almost felt like running away, but forced herself to stay still. Two of them were holding down Sekai and Mrs. Kaeru while two more were holding onto another girl she didn’t know.

“I don’t think police travel around with enough firepower to fight a small army and unmarked vans.” Antei said, forcing confidence into her voice.

‘They won’t shoot me. They won’t shoot me.’ Antei forced herself to repeat that phrase, after all, they wouldn’t kill a teenage girl in broad daylight.

Right?

“Antei, no.” Mrs. Kaeru shook her head,

“Mrs. Kaeru…I don’t know what trouble your son has gotten into…but he’s my friend, I won’t leave him.” Antei steeled herself,

“Let them go.” She challenged,

“Can’t do that lady.” One of them replied offhandedly, “All of you are better off forgetting anything happened!” The man shouted,

The crowd stepped back, but Antei wasn’t backing down. “Threatening civilians? Pretty sure that is a crime.” She shot at them,

“Alright! Alright! Enough!” Hoshida barked at his men, standing between them and the crowd, “Let’s just leave. Let them go!”

“Sir?” One of the men asked in confusion, but Hoshida was already cutting their bindings loose.

“I don’t want to deal with the Prefectural police,” Hoshida stated,

“Even Ruiko? We could just-”

“Would take too long, let’s go.” The men reluctantly put away their firearms, and when sirens began rapidly approaching, Hosida made it clear they needed to pack up and leave quickly.

‘Shit…I’ll never hear the end of this one…’

⸻

Within minutes, the vans had disappeared and the police were swarming.

“So they were looking for the girl? Do you know why?” An officer questioned and Sekai shook his head.

“I see…” The officer nodded, “You know what is going on either?” He asked, turning to his mother

“No, my son brought her home and then this happened.” Mrs. Kaeru stated,

“Well, alright. We will get the girl treated, but we need to take you down to the station for further questioning.” The officer cast a glance to Ruiko, who was currently being loaded by EMTs, Sekai waved, and Ruiko mouthed two words:

‘Thank you…’

⸻

As the van convoy pulled away, Hoshida was annoyedly but quietly listening to the contact on the other end speak.

“Wow. Just wow.” A teenage voice chuckled in mocking laughter, “You really fucked this one up. Raiding a residential area in black vans, body armor, and ski masks. I never took you for this much of an idiot. What’s the next big plan General?”

“Okay…so what is your genius idea?” Hoshida pinched the bridge of his nose frustratedly,

“I don’t know, I leave the ground situation to you brainlets.” Hoshida could almost hear the dismissive shrug accompanying the insult.

“Whatever, anyway, you should be getting a call. Straight from the higher ups this time.”

“I don’t think I can stand another one of you scientist-types…” Hoshida groaned,

“Well - you’re going to have to, ‘cause it’s the boss himself that’s calling.” At those words, Hoshida felt his heart go cold.

‘Fuck…’