Chapter 3: The Heist

Chapter 3: The Heist

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The next morning, Heiwa awoke with a start. She sat straight up in her bed and looked around her, as if she was frightened. The sun was shining brightly through her bedroom window, and when she looked at the clock sitting next to her bed she started. "Ten o'clock!?" She exclaimed to herself. "How'd it get so late!?" She started to get out of bed, but then she remembered: There was no school today. She laid her head back onto her pillow and wiped the beads of sweat that had gathered on her forehead. Just then, the sound of her door opening was heard.

"Good morning Heiwa!" Her mom said cheerfully.

"Morning mom!" Heiwa greeted, sitting up and smiling.

"Breakfast is on the table waiting for you." Her mom said kindly. "I made pancakes today." There was a twinkle in her eye as she spoke, as she knew that one of Heiwa's favorite foods was pancakes. "So when you're ready, come on down and eat." After saying that, she smiled and walked out of the doorway, closing the bedroom door behind her.

Heiwa sat in her bed for a couple minutes before she got dressed for the day. As she got dressed she examined her right arm. It was doing much better than yesterday. The pain was almost gone. After she got dressed, she went downstairs and sat down at the table. "So…where's dad?" She asked, looking around for her father, but not seeing him anywhere.

"Oh, Sean was called in to a business meeting today." Her mom told her as she put a plate in front of her. "He left earlier this morning."

Heiwa nodded, and didn't say another word as she ate the pancakes in front of her. After she had finished, she pushed the now-empty plate away from her. "Thank you for breakfast mom!" She said gratefully as she stood up. "I'm going to go visit Mrs. Foster."

Her mom nodded. "All right, but be careful." She said with a concerned tone. She was horrified when she received a phone call by Dr. Li telling her that Heiwa had been injured by the demon. However, Li had assured her that Heiwa would recover.

Heiwa nodded affirmatively. "Yes ma'am." She said as she opened the front door. "Love you!" She smiled brightly as she walked out of the house, but as she walked down the street her bright smile vanished. She shook her head as she yawned. No matter how hard she had tried, she couldn't get the images of the night before out of her head. She had had nightmares the night before of the men burning to death; and their screams had haunted her dreams. And in the midst of it all, she recalled Rickter's cold stare as he mercilessly killed them. Even though Rickter had saved her from the demon, she still was horrified of him.

"Who is he?" She asked no one in particular, as she remembered his cold stare. "How could he do something like that?"

"Do what, Heiwa?" A voice asked from behind her. Heiwa turned around and saw Rose standing behind her with a big smile on her face.

"Oh, hi Rose." She greeted her best friend. Rose gave her a strange look as she was greeted.

"Uh-oh," she said. "I know that face. Something's up. What's wrong?"

"W-What do you mean? Nothing's wrong." Heiwa lied. She didn't want to tell Rose what had happened the night before, but at the same time, she felt like she had the weight of the entire world sitting on her chest.

"Uh-huh." Rose said slyly, looking strangely at Heiwa. "Keep on telling yourself that." After saying that, she gave Heiwa a big smile, and an even bigger hug. "Well, whatever's up is your business. But if you ever need to talk, just tell me."

"Rose…thank you." Heiwa said as tears slowly came to her eyes. She hugged her best friend tightly. She felt relief that even through all of the horrors that she had seen and experienced, she knew that she had a friend who would always be there for her.

"By the way, Heiwa," Rose asked after they had finished hugging. "Did you hear that there is a Demon Slayer in town?"

"No, I didn't." Heiwa said as the two began walking towards the hospital.

"I don't know how you didn't, since tons of people are talking about it." Rose pulled out her cell phone and pulled up a video. "Here, check this out." She said as Heiwa looked at the small screen. "This was in the news report earlier this morning. Where have you been?"

Heiwa ignored her friend's question as she curiously watched the news report on the phone. "It should come as no surprise for you all to hear that the city of Tokyo was attacked by a demon yesterday at roughly 2:30 in the afternoon." Yuri Sakagawa, one of Japan's most well-loved reporters, said in the video. "However, the city was spared from any serious damage thanks to the efforts of a brave young man named Uso Krauss, who is a member of the legendary group of warriors known as the Demon Slayers." Heiwa watched as the video turned to footage showing a large demon getting killed in a city block by a young man with strange water abilities.

So there was more than one of them…She thought to herself.

"Mr. Krauss," the reporter continued, as the video showed the two in the same room. "Has promised the citizens of Tokyo that the days of fear over demons are now over."

"Indeed." The man known as Uso Krauss agreed. He was roughly average height with spiky-blue hair that stuck straight up. His eyes were a light-blue, and his facial features were quite fine. He looked to be about twenty-two years of age. His voice was quite smooth, and was pleasant to hear. "I have been a member of the Demon Slayers for many years." He said. "However, I believe that the time has come that I stay and defend the city in which I was raised. My dear friends and family of Tokyo, I promise you that no demons will ever set foot in this city again. Not under my watch!"

Rose switched off the phone as the video finished. "Well?" She asked.

Heiwa was too dumbfounded to speak. Not because there was a Demon Slayer who was now staying in Tokyo, although that was part of the reason; but because there was no mention of the demon that Rickter had killed. Although at this point she despised the young man, she felt bad that no one knew that he had killed one of the demons that had attacked the city, and had saved her life.

"Helloooo?" Rose interrupted her train of thought. "Anybody in there?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry!" Heiwa quickly apologized, making Rose laugh.

"That's fine. I was a bit surprised when I saw it, too." She said. "Come on!" She grabbed Heiwa's hand and continued walking down the street, heading towards the hospital. As they neared the corner of the street they saw a rather large commotion that caught their attention. "Huh, wonder what's going on?" The two walked towards it, and as they got closer to the scene they saw several police cars with flashing lights parked outside of a large bank. Multiple police officers were keeping back the crowds of curious and worried people.

"Um, excuse me officer." Rose asked as her and Heiwa walked up to the closest one. "What's going on?"

The officer, a tall, rather stout man, looked at the two. "Robbery." He said curtly. "A gang on motorcycles entered the bank roughly half an hour ago."

"Was it the 'Jehu Gang'?" Heiwa asked curiously. The Jehu Gang was a notorious gang of robbers that had already robbed a great number of banks across Japan. They were extremely clever, so no matter how hard the police and military tried, they couldn't catch them. The police officer nodded in affirmation.

"Why don't you just go in?" Rose asked.

"They have hostages." The officer said sharply. "But don't worry, the situation is under control. Now, I will have to ask you two girls to get back."

Having no choice but to obey, the two girls walked back towards the rear of the rapidly growing crowd. "That's horrible!" Heiwa exclaimed sadly. "We need to do something."

"Like what?" Rose asked. "It's not like we could just walk into the bank demanding 'Let the hostages go!'. We'd both be killed in an instant."

"But we have to do something!" Heiwa argued. She didn't know what to do, but she couldn't help but feel worried for those who were trapped inside of the bank.

"They've struck again." A quiet voice said from behind Heiwa, making her jump as she recognized it.

"Rickter!" Her voice was barely audible. Sweat quickly formed on her forehead as she turned around and saw him standing behind her.

"Hey Rickter!" Rose greeted him; apparently not noticing Heiwa's change. "How's it going?"

"Hello Miss Rose, Miss Heiwa." Rickter said, smiling as he bowed slightly. "I am doing well. I just heard that there was a commotion at the bank, so I came to check it out, and to see if I could lend some assistance."

"Aww, how sweet of you." Rose smiled. "Perhaps you could do something about the hostage situation inside." Although it was obvious that she was only teasing him, Heiwa noticed a strange smile appear on Rickter's face.

"No!" She quickly said, surprising Rose. "He will not be doing anything about the hostage situation!"

"But Heiwa…" Rose said, a bit confused. "Weren't you the one who wanted to do something to help them? Besides, I was only joking!"

"Yes," she nodded. "I do want to help them, but not like this! He cannot go in!"

Rose looked at Heiwa, and then at Rickter, and then back at Heiwa. "Okay, I get it." She said. "You're afraid that he'll get hurt. Heiwa, it was only a joke. Rickter wouldn't do anything that stupid!"

Heiwa looked at Rickter, who was simply smiling at her, which only made her even more nervous. Vivid memories of the night before came flashing into her mind: Him mercilessly killing those men inside of that house. She shook her head violently as she recalled it. "He will not go inside that bank!"

"What's got into you Heiwa?" Rose asked, getting rather afraid of Heiwa's stern tone.

"That's all right." Rickter said cheerfully, surprising Heiwa. "I wasn't planning on storming through the front door to help them. That would only get me killed." He smiled brightly, but instead of calming Heiwa down, him smiling only made her even more nervous.

"See?" Rose teased. "Even Rickter and that small brain of his won't go into the bank like that!" She laughed a bit at her own joke, and Rickter chuckled a bit as well.

"Oi! Small brain?" He chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed his head. "Well, I am sometimes forgetful."

He can't go into that bank. Heiwa thought to herself. If he does, he'll only go in there to kill people. She looked at Rickter laughing with Rose. I can't let him do that! She shook her head determinatively.

"Well, well," Rickter said, breaking her train of thought. She looked at him and realized that his smile had vanished completely. "It looks like the situation has gotten even more serious." As he spoke, the sound of sirens wailed loudly as over a dozen police and military vehicles drove up to the bank. Police and Army soldiers were running all over the place, securing different locations. Heiwa watched them, and for some reason she got a sickly feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"I hope you have a nice day Miss Rose, Miss Heiwa." Rickter nodded politely to the two girls, and then walked off towards the rear of the crowd. Heiwa watched him walk off, but when Rose grabbed her shoulders she turned back to her.

"What in the world was that for, Heiwa!?" Rose asked in a tone that quite honestly surprised Heiwa.

"What was what for?"

"Your attitude to Rickter!" Rose said. "I've never seen you so worked up about something before! I know love can change someone, but you're not changing in a good way!"

"W-We're not a couple!" Heiwa protested.

"What's with you?" Rose asked, ignoring Heiwa's protest. "You seemed like a completely different person, but it wasn't in a good way."

"Oh…I'm sorry." Heiwa apologized, only now realizing that her actions had possibly hurt Rose's feelings. She looked around for Rickter, but by that time he had vanished. D****t! She thought to herself. I lost him! What if he decides to do something horrible!? She began to worry that he had done something terrible, and a few seconds later her fear became a reality as an explosion was heard from the inside of the bank.

Her and Rose quickly turned around as the sounds of gunfire mixed with screaming inside the bank was heard. People outside panicked and screamed as the police and military quickly moved towards the bank, but then backed up even more quickly when they saw a strange sight greet them in the front window: An eerie blue flame had burst out of the window, spreading shattered pieces of glass everywhere! Heiwa silently cursed herself for not following Rickter. She knew immediately from the flames what happened; that he had gone into the bank, and had taken matters into his own blood-stained hands.

A couple minutes later, the police and military were able to enter the bank, and not long afterwards they exited with a strange look written on all of their faces. All of the hostages had been freed, but there was no sign on the whereabouts of the robbers: only charred ashes spread throughout the building.

Heiwa shook her head sadly as she heard the news, and swore that she would stop Rickter's killing spree. No matter what the cost… She swore. Rickter…I will stop you from killing anyone else.

Later that night, in the city of Hatso, something else was brewing. Now, if you remember, Hatso was located two hours, or roughly a hundred miles, north of Tokyo. It was a smaller city, but it still had more than its fair share of crime.

It was ten at night, and the moon was partially shining out from behind the clouds. The people who were still out and about were all minding their own business, but most people in Hatso were in their houses, safe and comfortable; well…with the exception of one particular house, which was in the middle of being robbed. The house was in a run-down part of Hatso, so there was barely anyone living there.

"Please! Leave her alone!" A young girl screamed as two men roughly grabbed her and her older sister. She looked to be about twelve years of age, with beautiful dark-brown hair that was done up in a ponytail. Her eyes were a soft-brown color, and her young face was one that could melt a heart of iron. However, unfortunately for her, these men's hearts were made out of steel.

"Take everything valuable!" One man said with a gruff voice.

Now, the room that they were in was already scantily furnished, and was very dimly lighted, but at that order it quickly became almost empty. In the now-nearly empty room were twenty rough-looking men, who were either tearing up the place looking for anything valuable, or were holding the two girls captive.

"Hurry it up!" The man with the gruff voice, who was apparently the boss, ordered again. "We don't have all night!"

Just then the older girl, who was around fifteen years of age, screamed as one of the men twisted her arm sharply. "Heh," he chuckled as she winced with pain. "Hey guys, after we're don here, why don't we take these girls back with us? I could sure go with a bit of fun after this job." As he spoke, he twisted her arm even sharper, making her scream even louder in pain.

The younger girl, watching in horror, somehow wretched herself free of her captor and grabbed the man's arm as he tortured her sister. "Please, let her go!"

The man angrily slapped her across the face, which made her squeal in pain as she fell to the ground. "Shut up!" He said sternly. The young girl didn't listen, but stood right back up and grabbed his arm; and continued to plead with him to stop torturing her sister. However, her actions only caused the man to become even angrier. "Didn't you hear what I said, wretch!?" He snapped after the fifth time she asked. He raised his arm angrily to strike her again. "I told you to shut-ahhhh!" He was cut short by a bolt of lightning that struck across the room, electrifying him. He screamed in pain as the older girl wretched herself free of his grip and hugged her younger sister, and the two girls watched as he fell to the ground, dead.

The other men watched in terror as he fell dead, and then quickly looked around them to see just who did that. "Who's there!?" One of them asked.

"Well, well," a voice chuckled. "I guess you could say that that was just a bit too shocking for him."

The men turned towards the back window, where the voice came from, and there they saw the silhouette of a man with spiky-hair sitting in the window sill. "Hello!" He greeted.

"What the-!? Who the hell are you!?" One of the men asked.

"Who am I?" The man repeated, his voice dripping with confidence and arrogance. "My name doesn't matter to you in the slightest." As he stood up the men trembled slightly. "You guys are the R-Squad, the group of assassins responsible for over thirty-five deaths, and fifty robberies. Do I assume correctly?"

"Yeah." The man answered. "And we're damn proud of it!"

"Well then," the mysterious man continued. "I thought it'd be best for you all to know that my face will be the last that any of you will see in this life." He spoke threateningly, but his voice proved that he had power behind those words.

"Screw that!" The man shouted angrily, pulling out his pistol. "I say you're a dead man!" He fired his gun, which made the young girl scream in horror as she hugged her sister even tighter. The spiky-haired man smiled as the bullet charged at him; but before it could hit him, a red blur whizzed between the two men, grabbing the bullet.

"What the-!?" The man fired his gun again and again, but each time the red blur would whiz in between and grab the bullet. After the fifth shot, the man stopped to reload his gun, but before he could the red blur hit him with so much force that he was sent flying through the wall into the adjoining room.

The men started and looked at the mysterious man who had just knocked out one of their comrades. He was slightly shorter than average, roughly 5'5" in height, with long red hair that covered the right side of his face. His eyes were a soft brown, and his complexion was fair. He wore a brown jacket and matching pants.

"You know what?" The spiky-haired man by the window said, apparently not bothered in the slightest by the appearance of the other man. "I'm gonna give you guys a choice: Either you could get zapped by over nine-thousand volts of energy until you combust into atoms, or you can have the decibel level raised so high that your brains explode. Either way, you are all dead men."

The men visibly cowered in fear as the spiky-haired man slowly walked towards them.

"You…you're a demon!" One of them shouted, scaring not only the other men, but the two young girls, who hugged each other even tighter.

The spiky-haired man smirked. "A demon, huh? That's a new one." He pointed his hand towards the group of men, and a spark began to form in hand, scaring them. "Die." Suddenly, without any other warning, multiple bolts of electricity shot out of his hand, hitting the men. The girls screamed as a few bolts shot over their heads, and hit the wall behind them. The unlucky men screamed in agony as the electricity ran through their bodies, and then a couple of seconds later they all fell to the ground, dead. "Oh, and by the way," the man said as he looked at their dead bodies. "You really shouldn't call somebody you just met a demon. That is kind of insulting."

The two young girls watched the slaughter in horror, and after the men fell dead they all looked at the man, terror in their eyes, fearing that at any given moment he would kill them as well.

"You overdid it again, Yuki." A smooth voice said. The voice came from the red-haired man, who was motioning towards the many holes in the walls that had been caused by the stray bolts.

"Oops." The spiky-haired man said, chuckling sheepishly. "My bad!"

The younger girl watched as the two men talked, and then without warning ran to the spiky-haired man and hugged his leg tightly.

"No, Asa! Don't!" Her sister shrieked, fearing that she would get killed.

The spiky-haired man known as Yuki looked at the young girl hugging his leg, and knelt down to her level and looked into her eyes. "It's all right." He said in a kind tone. The girl tried to hold back tears but couldn't, and she hugged him even tighter as the tears streamed down her face. Yuki put his hand around the young girl, hugging her tightly. "It'll be all right." The young girl cried as she hugged him, both from horror at the scene she had just seen, and from gratitude that somebody had saved her and her sister.

"We should get going." The red-head said in a matter-of-factly tone. Yuki stood up and patted the young girl on her pretty head.

"All right."

The two men walked towards the door without another word, although Yuki did stop and wave at the young girl, who, with a big smile written on her face, waved back. It was only until the men halted outside under a street lamp did either of them say anything.

"By the way," the spiky-haired man said as he walked up to the street lamp, the light of it revealing the color of his sandy-blonde hair. "Why were you even there, Jakob? You know, except for the fact that you were showing off. I could've handled it."

"You're welcome for catching those bullets for you." The man named Jakob said in a quiet tone, extending his right hand to reveal the six bullets that he had caught earlier, all of them lined up neatly in his palm.

"You know very well that I could've easily dodged those." Yuki grumbled, resulting in Jakob merely shrugging. "Anyway," he said, stretching and yawning. He was a little bit above average height, roughly 5'10". His eyes were a jade-green color, and were slightly slanted. His hair was medium length, and his sideburns curled up towards his well-defined face; and the back of his hair stuck out in every direction. He wore a loose white T-shirt and jeans. "Why were you there anyway?"

Jakob leaned up against the lamp post and said in a low tone. "I came to tell you that we found him, Yuki."

Now, any smile that Yuki had on his face before immediately vanished as Jakob spoke. A look of grim determination took over in its place. "Are you sure that it was him?" He asked in a stern tone.

Jakob nodded. "Yes." He said. "It's hard to miss him when the media is going crazy about it. He says that he will be in Tokyo for a time." He looked at his comrade with a strange expression on his face. "Rivka asked me to tell you to prepare to move out.

Yuki listened intently to what his comrade said, and when he had finished he burst out laughing. "Well, well!" He said in between laughs. Jakob didn't say anything, but instead simply watched him laugh. "I never expected that he'd be so stupid that he would tell us where he's at!" Yuki stopped laughing, and clenching his fist, he said in a determined. "It's about time I finally teach Rickter a lesson or two that he won't forget!" He chuckled quietly to himself as the two men continued their walk down the street. "This'll be fun."
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To be continued...