Archive of Our Own ^beta

Yata sighed, staring out the window at the Tokyo landscape under him. Lupin’s latest heist had resulted in one of his biggest scores in a long time. As a result, a despondent Zenigata was on a week-long sojourn to his family’s temple, and had left the job of babysitting his apartment to his protégé. Yata had happily accepted, not wanting to move into a hotel for a week. He couldn’t be more grateful, especially after today. Zenigata’s apartment was within walking distance to the station, while the nearest hotel he could afford was a good 30 minutes by train at best. Yata happily opened the door to the apartment, ready to lay down and relax after a long shift…

Only for strong hands to yank him inside.

Yata felt a gag get stuffed into his mouth and his arms wrenched behind his back. He tried to fight back, but even in the dark it was obvious that he was hopelessly outnumbered. 

“Crap! I thought the guy was barely here!” Somebody hissed.

“I mean, that’s what his neighbor told me!” A panicked voice interjected. “She was sweet and elderly, I didn’t think she’d have a reason to lie!”

“Do you think he’s a cat burglar?” A third voice theorized.

“Well, we have no choice but to ask him.” The first voice decided. 

Yata grimaced as he was dragged into the kitchen and unceremoniously thrown onto a chair. One of the intruders turned on the light on his cell phone and shined it directly into his face. Yata felt the gag get pulled from his mouth. 

“Who are you?” One of the men demanded, slapping Yata’s cheek. 

“Uh-I’m the housesitter!” Yata blurted out. It was mostly the truth. “My name is Y-Goro. Goro the housesitter.”

One of the thieves frisked him for his wallet. Thankfully, they only pulled out the cash, not bothering to check the identification inside that would have revealed him as a police officer. 

“What’s your purpose here, Goro the housesitter?” The man demanded. 

“Housesitting?” Yata frowned. “What else would I-mph!” 

“Damnit!” The man swore, gagging Yata once again. “Now we’ve got a citizen involved in this! We can’t just kill him!”

“I’d rather not kill him either, but if he gets wind of our plans…”

“No worries.” Yata felt a pillowcase being shoved over his head. “Now he can’t see a thing.”

“He still has ears, dumb ass.” 

“Oh yeah.”

“Shove him in the trunk for now.” The man ordered, knotting the pillowcase around Yata’s head to secure it. “We’ll deal with him later. 

The trunk? Yata thought to himself. The world swung around and Yata felt hands push him down. The lid of the trunk closed with a click, trapping Yata inside. 

Okay, in, out, in, out. Yata reassured himself. Sure, things were a bit chaotic for now, but he was sure that someone would realize something was wrong soon. He had a two day vacation, but he’d have work eventually. Although, nobody knew that he was house sitting for Zenigata other than Zenigata…

Next time, tell someone else. Yata made a mental note. He’d avoided doing so as he was worried that he’d get teased for accepting housing from his superior, but now he was regretting it. The last place the ICPO would think to look would be Zenigata’s house.

He was in real trouble now.

As the hours dragged on, the terror dissipated into boredom. In all of the ICPO procedural notebooks, not a single one of them mentioned what to do in case of boredom, only how to escape and negotiate with your pursuers. In retrospect, Yata found it kind of funny. Had the authors of the ICPO training manual actually been captured before? The longer Yata spent trapped in the trunk, the more he doubted it. To make matters worse, Yata was incredibly conscious of the feeling of fullness in his lower body.

He tried to work the gag off, but to no avail. He decided to risk kicking the roof of the trunk several times. 

“Quiet you, or I’m shooting this trunk up!!” Someone whacked the lid of the trunk with a heavy object, making Yata’s ears rattle.

Alright. Yata grimaced. So that’s how it’s going to be.

A few hours later, and Yata couldn’t hold it anymore. He felt his cheeks burn in shame as the wetness spread across his pants. It was at that moment that it dawned on him how much danger he was in. If those crooks weren’t going to open the trunk for anything, then that meant no food, no water, no chances to move his limbs…

He tried the ropes for the millionth time, ignoring how his wrists stung, but they were simply tied too tightly. 

Zenigata…

His only hope was that the inspector would make a social call, notice how Yata didn’t answer the phone, and get worried. But Yata was never really one for answering his phone on the first try anyway as he always had his phone on silent. 

Yata felt the beginning of a panic attack creep over him. Breathe. He reminded himself. In through your nose, out through your mouth…that’s the way….

1X2=2

2X2=4

2X3=6

2x4=8…..

Yata had reached the point where he was regurgitating his schooling. Time tables, the English alphabet, you name it, he had tried to recite it. The routine of it all seemed to calm him down.

By his best estimation, he had been in the trunk for about a day, maybe a day and a half, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it was longer. It was hard to get a sense of time when there was no light to go by. 

He’d gingerly felt around Zenigata’s trunk for anything of use, but it mostly seemed to be paperwork. Nothing Yata could make use of.

“Shit! We need to go!”

Hearing another voice startled Yata, sending adrenaline shooting through his long-dormant muscles. 

“Do we do anything with him?” 

“I don’t know, maybe we should—”

“This is Inspector Zenigata of the ICPO. Come out there with your hands up!”

Zenigata! Yata felt his spirits soar. 

“He’s our hostage.” One of the voices decided.

Suddenly, the trunk opened, and Yata felt himself being forcefully drug out by his shoulders. He struggled to get his legs under him, but they were simply too numb from being stuck in the trunk. The hood was still over his head.

“I’d back off if I were you, or the housekeeper gets it!” Even through the cloth, Yata felt the unmistakable sensation of a gun being pressed against his temple. The light from the outside was almost too much for him, even when filtered through the dark cloth, and he felt his eyes sting. 

“Housekeep-Yata!” Zenigata exclaimed. 

“Yata, as in Goro Yatagarasu?” One of the thieves asked. “He didn’t tell us he was a policeman. Naughty, naughty, naughty.” The thief jabbed the gun into a different part of Yata’s face with every ‘naughty’.

“Make this easier on yourselves and surrender now.” Zenigata advised. “There’s some pretty serious charges associated with holding an Interpol officer captive.”

“Just about as serious as a murder charge, right?” Yata heard the click of the trigger. “We don’t have anything to lose here. You’re playing with the deck stacked against you.”

“Murdering a hostage will get you the death penalty.” Zenigata warned.

“I can probably negotiate that down to life in prison. Whereas keeping him hostage was always guaranteed to get me life. Your move, sir.”

This is going nowhere. Yata realized. Zenigata’s hands were tied. Yata could feel the sensation crawling back in his legs. He could try something, right here and right now. After all, like the thieves, he had nothing else to lose. 

Yata slowly tipped his head to the side. To his surprise, part of the cloth seemed to stay there. If he could tangle the cloth with the gun…

Yata slowly bent one of his legs, subtly lowering himself. Then when he deemed it right, he pushed himself forward with the other leg. 

Two guns went off. The hood flew off of Yata’s head. 

“Yata!” Zenigata screamed. Yata felt a twinge of guilt. He’d never meant to scare the inspector that badly. He felt hands grab him, and the hood pulled off of his face. Yata could taste blood in his mouth. It seemed as if he had broken his nose upon landing. When combined with the gag, it started to choke him. 

“Oh thank god it’s just your nose.” Zenigata sighed in relief. “Let me get the gag off of you…”

“Thank you senpai.” Yata spat out a mouthful of blood.

“What happened to you Yata?” Zenigata asked, slowly loosening the bonds on his wrists.

“I-ah!” Yata hissed as his shoulders slid back into position. “Got locked into a trunk.”

“For how long?”

“Since Wednesday, I think?” Yata rasped. He tried to open his eyes, but the light was still too bright. “What day is it now?”

“Saturday.” Zenigata clutched the younger officer tightly as if he was afraid that he would disappear. “Did they let you out at all?”

Yata shook his head. 

“Bastards.” Zenigata muttered.

Yata opened his eyes a little. Zenigata’s face was contracted in anger, as if he was five seconds away from committing murder. Yata watched as the inspector took off his detective’s coat and wrapped it around him.

“Let’s get you cleaned up, shall we?” Zenigata suggested, easily scooping up Yata. “Then we can take you to a hospital.”

“Alright.” Yata agreed, yawning. Now that Zenigata was here, he knew that he was safe.

“Come on Yata, just a bit more?” His mother picked up some more ramen with her chopsticks.

“Mom, Zenigata’s going to be here soon.” Yata protested. “He can’t see me being hand fed…”

“Well your wrists are bandaged and you can’t really use your hands.” His mother reminded him. “It was either me doing this or the nurse. If he can’t see that, then I’ll throw him out to the curb.”

“Mom…”

There was a knock at the door. “May I come in?” Zenigata asked.

“Sure.” Yata’s mother answered before Yata could say anything. 

“Oh, is this a bad time? I can leave and come back later.” Zenigata offered.

“No, it’s fine. Yata’s just about to finish his lunch.” Yata’s mother masterfully picked up the last of the ramen with her chopsticks and held it out to Yata. 

With a sigh, Yata opened his mouth and ate the last bit of food. 

“I assume you’ve got police business to discuss?” Yata’s mother asked.

“That’s correct.” Zenigata confirmed. “I hate to ask, but could you leave for a bit?”

“Sure thing.” Yata’s mother easily agreed. “When you’re done, I’ll be in the guest cafeteria.” She left the room and closed the door.

“Debriefing?” Yata guessed.

“In a sense.” Zenigata sat down in the chair Yata’s mother had just vacated. “The minute I walked in the room, those men spilled everything. Apparently they wanted a hideout to use for their bank heist, and you just happened to be in their way.”

“I’m sorry about your house senpai.” Yata apologized.

“Don’t worry about it.” Zenigata reassured him. “This scenario is exactly what home insurance is for.”

“You came back early.” Yata observed. “May I ask why?”

“You wouldn’t answer your phone.” Zenigata said simply. “Once the ICPO confirmed they couldn’t get a hold of you either, I came running. Honestly I expected that Lupin had done something, I wasn’t expecting some random thieves to do a home invasion of all things…”

“We got them.” Yata reminded Zenigata. 

“I know.” Zenigata sighed. “I just wish that I could’ve gotten here sooner.”

“It’s not your fault.” Yata said. “If I’d been more attentive…”

“Nobody expects to be attacked in a safe place.” Zenigata interrupted him. “Keeping your guard up 24/7 drives you looney after awhile. Trust me.”

“I suppose that’s true.” Yata conceded.

“If anything, it’s all my fault.” Zenigata sighed. “If I hadn’t run off to my family’s temple with my tail between my legs like that…”

“Sometimes you just need a break.” Yata reminded him. “Besides, you had to use that vacation eventually.” 

“But—”

“You can’t keep on the Lupin case 24/7 365.” Yata said. “You’d go crazy if you did.”

“Who says I’m not already crazy?” Zenigata remarked dryly. 

“Well if you’re crazy, then I’m crazy too.” Yata shot back.

Both men burst into laughter. 

“I should get going.” Zenigata decided. “I don’t want to intrude on your time with your mother.”

“Oh she’s been dying to talk to you.” Yata told him. “You saved my life after all. And you are an Interpol hero.”

“Oh I wouldn’t go that far…”

“Let me text her.” 

“Yata, you don’t have to—”

“And done.” Yata said.

And so Yata’s mother came back into the room, and the trio spent the rest of the afternoon talking. All was right in the world.